“This mass exclusion [of people with disabilities] can not be left to governments and charities alone, it needs the most powerful force on the planet, business leadership,” Caroline Casey wrote in Forbes. Casey interviewed former Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and talked about the work needed to make employment accessible to all. As examples, Harkin cited the disproportionate unemployment rate of people with disabilities and the laws that allow employers to pay people with disabilities below the minimum wage. He attributes employers’ hesitancy to hire people with disabilities to fear and lack of understanding. “We have a lot of data to show that persons with disabilities, again given reasonable adjustments and support, are more productive than people without disabilities. Accenture did a long-term study over five years, and they took companies that employ persons with disabilities, and those that don’t. And guess what? The companies that employed persons with disabilities had better profits and better bottom line income than the ones that didn’t,” Harkin said.