The new movie Murderball says quadriplegics are capable of doing anything that an able-bodied person can do, including holding a job at your company.

If a person with disabilities is noticed at all, stereotypical thoughts and questions surface about the person's limitations, quality of life and how it affects his or her family and friends.

As a company leader, though, you need to know these people can not only hold down a full-times job in companies just like yours, but they are doing things that most of us are too chicken to do - such as playing extreme sports like quadriplegic rugby, aka Murderball.

A new documentary by the same name - Murderball - follows the U.S. Quadriplegic Rugby Team's quest for gold at the 2004 Paralympic Games. Along the way it crushes just about every stereotype you may have about people with disabilities.

I encourage everyone - especially business leaders - to go out of their way to see this film for a first-hand look at the active lives of quadriplegics.

Through therapy, prosthetic technology and steadfast determination, quadriplegics can do just about everything an able-bodied person can do, especially hold down a good job. According to player Andy Cohn, who survived a car accident 11 years ago, his biggest handicap after the accident was his own mind. Once he overcame that obstacle, he says, there was no limit to what he could accomplish.

The film's tattooed star, Mark Zupan, says, "I've actually done more in a chair than I've done able-bodied." Murderball illustrates what people with physical disabilities can do on and off the court - and in the office.

Player Bob Lujano - who lost his limbs due to a rare form of meningitis - holds down a full-time job as a youth coordinator at Lakeshore Center, a not-for-profit organization that promotes independence for persons with physically disabling conditions. Zupan works a 50-hours-a week job as a civil engineer.

Other players are customer operations representatives, designers and teachers, in addition to maintaining their demanding training schedules.

One company in particular - The Hartford - encourages the hiring and retention of people with disabilities. The nearly 200-year-old insurance firm is also a founding partner of the U.S. Paralympics.

Carol Harnett, a clinical physiologist at The Hartford and an expert on health and disability trends, says companies first need to be willing to hire people with disabilities and then announce this philosophy in job postings and advertisements.

Through the interview process, employers can get a better understanding of applicants' capabilities and whether they will need to make any accommodations for that person. She notes that the federal government offers tax deductions and credits to assist employers.

She also recommends that employers seek candidates through government offices and Web sites designed to assist people with disabilities, such as state directors of vocational rehabilitation. In addition, Harnett says employers should participate in Disability Mentoring Day on Oct. 19, 2005, a job-shadowing day for those with disabilities, which is organized by the American Association of People with Disabilities.

It's also important that employers understand that recruiting people with disabilities is not about charity, according to Dick Mucci, executive vice president and director of benefits for The Hartford. "[The film] encourages Americans to look past the chair and treat them the same as everyone else - with respect and dignity, not pity or sympathy," he says.