Removing barriers for workers with disabilities

A disability is a condition that may impair a person’s ability to perform certain activities or interact with the world around them. Disabilities can take many forms, some of which are hard to perceive or invisible altogether. They can affect abilities such as:

• Mental health
• Memory
• Communication
• Hearing
• Learning
• Vision
• Social relationships
• Movement

The disability community includes a wide range of abilities and needs. Often, the same disability affects people differently. Some people are born with disabilities, while other disabilities develop later in life due to circumstances like injury or underlying conditions.

Advantages of hiring people with disabilities

Hiring people with disabilities can provide many advantages to your business’s workplace, productivity and bottom line. These are just some of the benefits:

• Provide representation: People with disabilities make up a large portion of the population, so hiring disabled workers shows job seekers, clients, customers and business partners that you align with their values and needs.
• Discover potential: Many people with disabilities offer creative and innovative perspectives as well as competitive skills and experience.
• Improve company culture: By promoting inclusivity and accessibility in the workplace, you show your employees you welcome and value them. Improved morale can lead to better performance, reduced turnover and a positive company culture.
• Use tax and financial incentives: If your business employs people with disabilities, it may qualify for federal and state tax deductions and financial incentives.
• Meet regulatory requirements: Disability inclusion can help businesses meet regulations for performing contract work with the government.

Read more: What Is an Inclusive Workplace? How to Get Started

Hiring employees with disabilities

If you’re committed to recruiting disabled workers for your business, it’s important to review and improve your practices for hiring people with disabilities. That means looking at your hiring process from start to finish to optimize accessibility and equity for all job seekers.

Review job descriptions

A well-crafted job description can encourage a wider pool of job seekers to apply for the job and can serve as the first opportunity for candidates to engage with an inclusive and accessible workplace. However, some job descriptions contain unnecessary requirements or language that may exclude people with disabilities.

When writing a job description, include details about work environment, culture and flexibility to inform job seekers about what to expect. Consider which skills or abilities are essential for workers to succeed in the role, and emphasize the end goal of tasks rather than how they should be accomplished.

For example, requiring employees to stand for long periods of time can be exclusionary to movement-impaired workers, but requiring them to remain at a workstation for long periods doesn’t rely on their ability to stand. This kind of simple language change can open requirements to more job seekers.

Assess job application accessibility

If your business uses an online application portal, examine the process design to ensure that it accommodates people with physical or cognitive disabilities. For instance, text may not be compatible for job seekers with blindness who use screen readers, while other job seekers may benefit from customizable settings for text size and color contrast. Organizations such as the Web Accessibility Initiative provide a checklist to help you assess the accessibility of a web page.

Ensure interview and assessment accessibility

Examine your existing interview and assessment processes to identify and anticipate any accessibility issues. If possible, your interview process should preemptively accommodate disabilities rather than react to individual accommodation requests. For example, some job seekers may need additional time to complete assessments or may benefit from receiving interview questions ahead of time.

Interview spaces should be physically accessible for those with physical disabilities. Your hiring team and interview panel should include people with disabilities if possible, but all members should at least be well-versed in accommodations and ethics.

Related: How to Improve Each Step of Your Interview Process

Create recruiting initiatives

Some businesses attract workers by creating disability-friendly recruiting initiatives. For instance, Microsoft offers the Neurodiversity Hiring Program to strengthen its workforce with innovation and creativity and demonstrate its commitment to diversity and inclusion. Bloomberg likewise provides disability training to its hiring team and mentorship and accommodations for employees.

Connect with local organizations

Community organizations can help businesses recruit people with disabilities. Forming partnerships with community organizations can facilitate engagement opportunities with job seekers and ensure that hiring teams understand how to accommodate job seekers with disabilities. Consider also reaching out through universities or social media groups for people with disabilities to advertise inclusive job positions.

Supporting employees with disabilities

Promoting inclusivity in your business helps support employees with disabilities. Inclusivity practices include reviewing regulations and business policies, connecting with employees, supporting employee resource groups, raising awareness and prioritizing accessibility.

Review the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act provides employer regulations for application procedures, hiring, firing, promotion, compensation and other employment aspects for workers with disabilities. Review these regulations to ensure that your business practices are compliant.

Employee resource groups

ERGs are employee-led organizations that can help support workers with disabilities and foster inclusivity and accessibility in the workplace. These groups share a common identity and can advocate for concerns or issues that business leadership may not be aware of. For example, an ERG for employees with disabilities can identify accessibility or inclusion issues, such as inaccessible training materials, and work with the business to find a better solution.

Raise awareness and engagement

Raising awareness is an important way to build trust and engagement with employees. Your business can celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month with strategies such as reviewing policies to demonstrate commitment to inclusivity, educating employees about disability inclusion and providing content or information about disability resources. Businesses also raise awareness by creating disability-inclusive campaigns on social media, for example, Starbucks’ stories about its disabled employees and their experiences in life and work.

Prioritize accessibility

Your workplace should be designed with accessibility in mind, and you should continue to examine and enhance accessibility measures regularly to best support employees with disabilities.

Employees should be able to navigate the workplace with canes, wheelchairs or other types of physical assistance, while neurodivergent employees might benefit from remote work options or low-stimulation office space. Business websites and digital tools should also be designed inclusively, with alternatives such as video or audio transcripts, screen readers or alternative text for images.