People with disabilities are often overlooked for a variety of reasons. Those reasons can include making assumptions about what a person can or cannot do on the job or how the person with a disability will fit in, believing that hiring someone with a disability requires making expensive alterations to the worksite, and concerns that Human Rights legislation will make it hard to fire someone with a disability whose performance does not measure up.
Other set backs for employers may include that conventional recruiting methods do not always reach people with disabilities, job ads ask for inflated qualifications rather than the basic knowledge or skill needed to perform the job, and people with disabilities assume they wont be considered for a job so do not apply.
Here’s the reality: people with disabilities are represented in every sector or industry in our economy. They are simply people looking for real jobs. People with disabilities do not always look for jobs in the conventional way of searching newspapers due to having been rejected too often. Job ads often inadvertently exclude people with disabilities. Employers could consider that the skills many people with disabilities have perfected- such as perseverance or the ability to overcome obstacles- are not usually job requirements, although they may be necessary in getting the work done.
The same standards of job performance should apply to all employees. However, a person with a disability my need specific accommodations in order to perform all job-related tasks to the required standard. These needs must be taken into account at hiring and as chances over time, wither in the disability or the job requirements. Most workplace accommodations can be introduced for $500 or less.
If you need more information or help in hiring people with disabilities, please contact us at (780) 423-4106.
