October is Disability Employment Awareness Month. You can read Ehlay’s article for its history, and Joni’s for some local examples of our employment initiative at work.
While people with disabilities have benefited from the post-pandemic positive labor market, they are still less likely to be employed than those without disabilities. Both unemployment and underemployment are twice that for those with disabilities as those without. There are many factors to consider as barriers to gainful employment for people with disabilities, such as transportation and return to office mandates. Still, employer reticence to hire disabled employees tends to be the most significant contributor.
So, employers, why is it you aren’t considering hiring someone with a disability? Be honest with yourself. You likely have employees with disabilities working with you right now. Perhaps they haven’t felt safe to disclose it to you yet. Applicants do not need to disclose, and employers are prohibited from asking about needed accommodations until after the job offer has been extended. To reject an applicant solely because of a disability is illegal. I wonder if it is fear of the unknown that is a barrier for making that job offer.
It may be hard for you to imagine the capabilities of people with certain disabilities due to your limited experience with them. I’ve written before about the one-handed chef who found ways to keep pace with his peers (and the food was great!). If your only understanding of autism is Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man, you are likely to not consider hiring an autistic employee. Perhaps you assume making required accommodations would be too costly for the company. On the contrary, according to the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), 80% of employer contributions to accommodations cost less than $500, many having no cost at all.
Toyota in Evansville provides enclave experiences for clients with their local Arc agency which has resulted in more than 40 new hires. They proudly promote this and include on their website that they are “committed to providing accommodations” and request that applicants advise them during the recruitment process if they require accommodations. Without experience, many employers may be hesitant to lead with that kind of statement. But wouldn’t it be great if hiring was a little like The Voice? How can we design a method to identify talent and abilities and screen out “seeing” what might bias a decision? Can more of us be coaches with the goal of nurturing those talents?
I would challenge each of you to “turn your chair” on an applicant. Don’t be too quick to judge. We have each made mistakes in our careers. Consider mentoring student interns with a disability to help YOU gain that needed experience.
Don’t let fear of the unknown lead us to losing the momentum of post-pandemic employment rates.