Waiting in the Wings: Opening Doors to Disabled Students Can Enhance Diversity Recruitment and Offset Labor Shortages
An Excerpt from the April 2004, HR Magazine
Employers often depend on college job fairs and employment services to bring new entry-level workers into the organization, but some organizations have difficulty effectively recruiting and hiring students with disabilities. Recruiters who are unaccustomed to interacting with the disabled may avoid them to prevent embarrassment, and awkward moments. Others may worry that disability means lack of ability, and still others fear that accommodating disabled workers will be expensive or disruptive.
Students with disabilities who are aware of such concerns may lack the confidence to participate in job fairs or to register with college placement offices.
Although attitudes toward the disabled are improving - in part because of legislation and awareness campaigns designed to encourage diversity and prevent discrimination - the unemployment rate for college graduates with severe disabilities is 40 percent.
Traditionally, far fewer adults with disabilities than those in the general public have graduated from college. However, the percentages of disabled vs. non-disabled 18-to 34-year-olds enrolled in institutions of higher learning are nearly the same. (See "Young People with Disabilities Prepare to Enter the Workforce," on page 90.) Employers who are striving to increase diversity in the workforce and who are facing potential labor shortages cannot ignore this pool of future workers.
While advocates in the private, public and educational sectors are training employers and students to break down barriers to employment, internships and mentoring programs are introducing students with disabilities to the corporate world so they'll be better prepared for job interviews and the workforce. Savvy HR professionals who expect to need educated entry-level workers as the economy improves can tap into such resources.
Abilities Inc. at the National Center for Disability Services, a 52-year old Organization in Albertson, NY. is another organization that can help employers cut through some of the clutter. For example, it evaluates, trains and serves more than 3,500 people annually and places approximately 1,150 people into competitive jobs each year.
The organization comprises two units: the Career and Employment Institute, which provides training and counseling for seeking jobs, doing interviews and maintaining employment, as well as placement services to individuals with disabilities at no cost; and the National Business and Disability Council (NBDC), a national corporate membership organization of about 150 Fortune 1,000 companies and federal government agencies that helps companies integrate people with disabilities into the workplace and consumer marketplace.
The goal is to match employers and qualified people with disabilities - in part by promoting paid intern programs for students with disabilities, says Francine M. Tishman, executive director and chief operating officer of Abilities Inc. Companies are dedicated to finding the right employees, but they need help finding them, she says.
The NBDC web site includes a resume database and a job posting section. Most importantly, though, the organization helps promote "the actual experience in becoming acquainted with a person with a disability, and seeing and focusing on" the person's abilities, Tishman says. If large companies expand their base of employees with disabilities and promote interaction with non-disabled employees, the trend will spread, she says.
"All minority groups face that double standard. There's always scrutiny of some person who has some special condition." Tishman says. "Once you have a little more exposure to people with disabilities … [you find] they're just people."