October was National Disability Employment Awareness Month. It’s a time each year when disability organizations, elected officials, business experts, and journalists discuss the status of disabled people in the job market and workplace.
We generally start by taking stock of the size and shape of the disability employment gap. It’s big. According to a February 2019 disability employment report from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities actively in the job market is 8%, compared to 3.7% for people without disabilities. In a time of historically high employment, disabled Americans experience recession-level unemployment. This rate typically becomes catastrophic whenever the economy plunges.
Meanwhile, we struggle to pinpoint the most common barriers to employment for people with disabilities. Specifics vary widely from person to person and workplace to workplace. But there is almost always some combination of inadequate education and work skills training, longstanding disincentives built into disability benefits and American healthcare systems, and both formal and informal discrimination by employers.
In response, disability advocates recap a familiar round of arguments for why employers should give disabled job seekers a chance. Disabled people are more capable and talented than you probably think. Hiring people with disabilities is a good deed … and good publicity for your company. Disability is an important component of healthy diversity. Disabled workers are actually more dedicated and less likely to turn over than non-disabled workers. Hiring more disbaled workers is good for the economy, because it increases productivity and reduces spending on disability-related government benefits. And most workplace accommodations are simple and inexpensive.
Unfortunately, being aware of these things doesn’t necessarily mean that either employers or their disabled employees know how to make a workplace truly welcoming for disabled people on a day to day basis. The motivation to do better may be there, but ableism, (disability prejudice), is more than just a collection of myths and misconceptions to unlearn. It’s also a set of deeply ingrained, usually unexamined habits. Beyond good intentions and the administrative competence to be “ADA compliant,” there are informal ways employers can help make workplaces more inviting and productive for current and future employees with disabilities. Here are ten of them:
