Despite some serious character flaws (not the least of them being anti-Semitic and an admirer of Hitler), Henry Ford was not a total scum-sucking pig. He affirmatively pursued hiring the disabled at a time when it was not usual to do so and did a rigorous analysis of the various positions within his company to ascertain which jobs could be done by those who were partially disabled or, according to his autobiography*, were "even women!" He also affirmatively hired African-American workers at a time when many other corporations would not.
None of the positions awarded to the disabled were charitable; he expected the employee to do the same amount and quality of work as a completely whole individual. In many cases, he found that the disabled worker actually outperformed non-disabled persons in the same position. If a worker was sincerely trying to do his job but simply could not hack it, he would be given opportunities to transfer to different positions until he was able to succeed.
Ford provided special facilities and equipment when needed to assist his disabled workers to perform, including constructing a separate building for those employees who had contagious tuberculosis.
World War I provided Ford with a large pool of disabled job applicants. By 1919, over 20% of his employees were disabled.
Ford also paid his workers $5 a day in 1914, which was double what they could have received anywhere else. Critics will assert, however, that Ford used the carrot-and-stick approach to keep his employees from unionizing or leaving to work in union shops with the high wages being the carrot and, in later decades, organized thug violence the stick.
*a particularly appropriate term for the story of a car manufacturer
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