Edmond's Pelco Products Inc., Oklahoma City-based Dale Rogers' partnership is called good for business

It wasn't long before Pelco co-founder Phil Parduhn decided to dedicate a work space for Dale Rogers' clients to work on-site, alongside his other employees.

Pelco — North America's largest traffic signal hardware manufacturer — and Dale Rogers recently celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its partnership.

During the past decade, a team of about six disabled workers have assembled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every weekday, together providing more than 108,000 man-hours and helping put together 4.5 million hardware kits that have been shipped to some 730 customers in all 50 states and 14 countries.

It was an easy decision for Parduhn, whose late mother was physically disabled. She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and raised him and his sister from a wheelchair. “We'd take knitting and other things to her and she'd get things done,” he said. “There was no complaining.”

“We're kind of like a big ol' family,” Parduhn said. “They enjoy being here, and we enjoy having them here.”

Low error rates

Along with giving the disabled workers a sense of productivity and self-esteem, the arrangement is good for business, said Mark Nash, Pelco operations manager.

Pelco pays Dale Rogers' clients on a per piece, versus hourly, basis. And Dale Rogers buses employees to and from work, and provides their supervisor, as well as workers' compensation and liability insurance.