The DuPont Corporation knows a lot about disabilities.

Scientists working for the international chemicals giant invented a high-tech polymer that can replace a broken hip socket, restoring precious mobility. They helped develop an angioplasty catheter to aid people with severe circulatory problems. And artificial feet made of DuPont's patented compounds allow wearers to run and jump normally.

But scientists are not the only people at DuPont working to help disabled people lead full and active lives. The company's Human Resources professionals do a pretty good job of it, too.

At DuPont -- and at many other companies, large and small, around the world -- workers one might normally think of as "disabled" demonstrate nothing but their abilities.

As Meg Quinlisk, a DuPont computer programmer, put it, "To survive, people with disabilities must be flexible, determined, patient, and accepting of diversity. Businesses need people with those characteristics." She ought to know. Ms. Quinlisk developed a crippling joint disease, rheumatoid arthritis, when she was 13. DuPont hired her in 1988, and when the pain in her hands worsened, the company outfitted her with a voice-activated computer.

Technology has opened up many new business opportunities for people with disabilities. Dr. Betsey Zaborowski, an official with the National Federation of the Blind, notes that "through technology and training, blindness can be reduced to a mere inconvenience." And Ryosuke Matsui, Director of the Vocational Rehabilitation Center for Japan's National Institute of Vocational Rehabilitation, wrote that "automation by micro-electronics has brought about positive advances for disabled people" both by reducing the number of heavy-labor jobs required and by fostering "the development of various machines and specialized devices for disabled people in their workplaces, enabling them to perform jobs in areas previously not possible for them."...