Henry Ford Hired Disabled Workers

Beginning in 1914, American industrialist Henry Ford directed his factories not to reject or dismiss workers because of physical disabilities, except in cases of contagious disease. His workforce included blind and deaf employees, amputees, and people with epilepsy, while Ford argued that subdivided factory work could also employ people with limited intellectual abilities. Ford divided production into simple, monotonous, repetitive tasks and classified 7,882 factory jobs according to their physical demands. He concluded that 4,034 jobs did not require full physical capacity and paid disabled employees the regular wage when they produced the expected output.

Previous Fact Next Fact