Question: What do you call a person with a disability?
Answer: A person (!!)
Many of my clients are people with disabilities. They have confided their worries about not being given fair consideration when competing for employment. They've shared their frustrations of struggling to be seen as capable, intelligent, productive people, but losing out to a non-disabled applicant when the final job selection is made.
These worries and experiences are, unfortunately, the norm. According to a recent Harris Poll Survey published July 1998, funded by the National Organization on Disabilities, the statistics regarding the disabled and work are dismal:
- Only 29% of people with disabilities of working age (18-64) are employed either full or part-time, compared with 79% of their non-disabled counterparts.
- Of those non-working disabled, 72% say they'd prefer to be employed.
- Two out of three adults with disabilities say their disability has prevented or made it more difficult for them to get the kind of job they would like to have.
At this time in history, the labor supply is dwindling. Successful businesses must be willing to tap into the large pool of well-qualified workers with disabilities, and also find ways to maintain the newly-disabled employee.
How? The key is often job accommodation. The majority of employers have little or no experience modifying jobs to accommodate injured or disabled workers, and many fear such accommodations will be cumbersome and costly. Not so, according to the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) and JAN Canada. JAN is a toll-free consulting service which handles requests for job accomodation assistance. Thus far, they have delivered information on over 100,000 job accommodations.
For example, accommodating individuals with hearing impairments may be no more complicated than turning a receptionist's desk to face the door. And accommodating a person using a wheelchair could be as simple as raising an ordinary desk or worktable on blocks.
Of course, some structural or high-tech accommodations can involve more cost, and there are Tax incentives, tax deductions, and other sources of financing to help pay for higher cost equipment. But it is surprising how little most accommodations cost, and how much money is actually saved by the business. According to JAN, the average accommodation costs under $500, and most employers report benefits in excess of $5,000.
JAN emphasizes that job accommodation ideas should start with input from the person with the disability. Persons with the same condition or symptoms may experience different limitations, and be affected to varying degrees.
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