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Since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) took effect, how are workers with disabilities faring in the workplace? While some workers with disabilities are doing better than they would have without the ADA, many advocates are deeply disappointed by government and industry's failure to progress on numerous fronts.
Disability is surprisingly common among Americans; 19 percent of noninstitutionalized 15-to-64-year-olds are affected by physical, cognitive or other impairments, according to a 1998 study prepared for the US Department of Education. Only 32 percent of disabled people 18 to 64 work full or part-time, but more than two-thirds of unemployed people with disabilities say they would like to. By contrast, among the nondisabled population, 81 percent are employed, says the 2000 National Organization on Disability/Harris Survey.
Additionally, the Harris Survey offers some cause for hope. Between 1994 and 2000, among those who can work despite their disabilities, the proportion of people actually working rose from 47 percent to 56 percent. This increase is probably due to both decreasing overall levels of unemployment through the study period and improvements in assistive technologies for workers with disabilities.
The Employment Gap
Why are so many Americans with disabilities unable to find work? “One out of three people with disabilities say they've encountered job discrimination,” says Jim Ward, director of public policy for the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS) in Washington, DC. Applicants with disabilities are often refused job interviews, turned down for jobs they qualify for, given lesser responsibilities than their peers, passed over for promotions or denied health insurance.
"Employers fear expense and low attendance," says Frieda Zames, who wrote The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation with Doris Zames Fleischer.
“When I got my job, the complaint was, ‘She'll be absent a lot,'” relates Zames, an emeritus associate professor of mathematics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who has a mobility disability. “That first year, I wasn't absent once.”
What the Government Is Doing
Many advocates think the federal government needs to do more to bring greater numbers of qualified people with disabilities into the workplace. “The ADA has done a very good job of protecting people who have jobs and become disabled,” says Curt Decker, executive director of NAPAS. “But it's very easy for employers to mask why they really didn't hire someone” with a preexisting disability.
Some experts say that gains brought by the ADA are now threatened. “We have a president who says he supports the ADA, but he nominates judges who may weaken or strip protections from the disabled,” says Ward. Fleischer believes “the ADA is in jeopardy” due to recent and pending court decisions, such as the US Supreme Court's February 2001 decision that state employees cannot sue their employers for monetary damages under Title I of the ADA.
The government has taken action to remedy one shameful statistic. According to a US Census Bureau report, 2.3 million workers with disabilities had no health insurance in 1997. The Work Incentives Improvement Act, which took effect in 2001, allows many Americans with disabilities to avoid choosing between employment and health coverage.
What Employers Are Doing
Against this complex backdrop of government action, some companies work harder than others to bring in workers with disabilities. Accommodating workers with disabilities “isn't rocket science,” says Francine Tishman, executive director of the National Business and Disability Council in Albertson, New York. “We help companies understand that more than 50 percent of accommodations cost less than $100.”
Microsoft Corp. is an acknowledged leader in accommodating workers with disabilities. “We look at three different avenues” for recruiting people with disabilities, says Mylene Padolina, a diversity consultant for the company in Redmond, Washington.
“When individuals are asked to come in for on-site interviews, we ask if they need any accommodations,” Padolina says. If a person with a disability is hired, Microsoft follows up by assessing and fulfilling the worker's need for assistive technology and services. Common disabilities in Microsoft's workforce include blindness, deafness, mobility impairment and learning disabilities.
Prudential Insurance Company of America has bolstered its workforce with people with disabilities by providing training classes and promotions to qualified workers, according to a Department of Labor report. MBNA America Bank has hired more than 200 individuals with developmental disabilities.
Obviously, the public and private sectors have not done enough to harness the skills of millions of Americans with disabilities. Whether the situation of workers with disabilities will improve or deteriorate depends upon politics, employment levels and the ability of all parties to recognize the business opportunity represented by this untapped talent pool.
