Employment Checklist For Hiring Persons With Disabilities Practical Suggestions*
DO!
- Do learn where to find and recruit people with disabilities
- Do learn how to communicate with people who have disabilities
- Do ensure that your applications and other company forms do not ask disability-related questions and that they are in formats that are accessible to all persons with disabilities.
- Do consider having written job descriptions that identify the essential functions of the job.
- Do ensure that requirements for medical examinations comply with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- Do relax and make the applicant feel comfortable.
- Do provide reasonable accommodations that the qualified applicant will need to compete for the job.
- Do treat an individual with a disability the same way you would treat any applicant or employee Ð with dignity and respect.
- Do know that among those protected by the ADA are qualified individuals who have AIDS, cancer, who are mentally retarded, traumatically brain injured, deaf, blind, and learning disabled.
- Do understand that access includes not only environmental access, but also making forms accessible to people with visual or cognitive disabilities and making alarms/signals accessible to people with hearing disabilities.
- Do develop procedures for maintaining and protecting confidential medical records.
- Do train supervisors on making reasonable accommodations.
DON’T!
- Don’t assume that persons with disabilities are unemployable
- Don’t assume that persons with disabilities lack the necessary education and training for employment.
- Don’t assume that persons with disabilities do not want to work.
- Don’t assume that alcoholism and drug abuse are not real disabilities, or that recovering drug abusers are not covered by the ADA.
- Don’t ask if a person has a disability during an employment interview.
- Don’t assume that certain jobs are more suited to persons with disabilities.
- Don’t hire a person with a disability if that person is a significant risk of substantial harm to the health or safety of the public and there is no reasonable accommodations to reduce that risk or the harm.
- Don’t hire a person with a disability who is not qualified to perform the essential functions of the job even with a reasonable accommodation.
- Don’t assume that you have to retain an unqualified employee with a disability.
- Don’t assume that your current management will need special training to learn how to work with people with disabilities.
- Don’t assume that the cost of accident insurance will increase as a result of hiring a person with a disability.
- Don’t assume that the work environment will be unsafe if an employee has a disability.
- Don’t assume that reasonable accommodations are expensive.
- Don’t speculate or try to imagine how you would perform a specific job if you had the applicant’s disability.
- Don’t assume that you don’t have any jobs that a person with a disability can do.
- Don’t make medical judgments.
- Don’t assume that a person with a disability can’t do a job due to apparent and non-apparent disabilities.
- Don’t assume that your workplace is accessible.
*Source: Office of Disability Employment Policy
