Dear Kate & Dale: I am very frustrated. I want to help the hospitality industries serve and market to travelers with disabilities. Their attitude is that the disability market isn’t important. What can I do to push their buttons? – Marlena

Kate: Allow me to be blunt: You want to help the people in the hospitality industry, but they don’t know they need help – which means there’s no button to push. It’s difficult for any business to convince prospective customers that they have a need, far more difficult than fulfilling a need they already know they have. So, instead of wearing yourself out creating awareness, you need to find some existing connection, perhaps via an organization already working with the disabled.

Dale: Which doesn’t mean giving up on doing something entrepreneurial. I attended a convention for retailers where one of the speakers talked about the difficulties the disabled face in going shopping. She then offered her consulting services.

Kate: Another option is to study the gay market as a marketing role model. There are gay-friendly hotels and restaurants that are part of gay-friendly travel packages. You could jump into business by finding a couple of small hotels that are disabled-friendly, and start a campaign to send customers their way.

Dale: I like it. Marlena could invent some sort of “Seal of Approval” for serving the disabled market, promote it via a Web site, perhaps partner with a travel agency. Doing so, she will have come upon the secret of marketing, which happens to also be the same as the secret of job-searching: Stop looking for help and start offering it.

¢ Dear Kate & Dale: I worked as a claims adjuster for nearly 20 years. Seven months ago I took a new job. I was terminated for failing to disclose that I had been fired from a previous job for unsatisfactory performance. I am trying to find another job in claims, but I also am trying for a job in the clerical field. I definitely intend to tell the truth when applying for a claims job, but should the same hold true for a clerical job? – Jane

Dale: Normally I’d suggest building a case around “I’ve learned my lesson, and now I’m going to be doubly diligent.” But, sadly, it appears that you haven’t learned your lesson, Jane, not if you’re considering the truth as merely one option when applying for clerical jobs.

Kate: Let me add an example that explains why the truth is the only option on application forms. A reader from Kansas wrote to us that she was on an appeals panel, hearing a case of an employee who was terminated for omitting a previous job on her application. The employee argued that the job was for only a few months, and had no relevance to her current position. And while the panel was sympathetic, they concluded that they had no choice – the application had specifically asked for every job in the previous five years – and the termination was upheld. There’s a twist, however: It was clear that the department head had been searching for a way to fire the employee, and found one small slip that enabled him to do so.

Dale: Is that a factor here? You’ll probably never know, Jane. But it’s certainly time to visit former co-workers and see if there are underlying problems to tackle.

Kate: When it comes to the application, never forget it’s a legal document. It’s better to have an offer rescinded for telling the truth than be fired for lying.

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