Getting Started

You can integrate people with disabilities into your workforce through a six-step process:

1. COMMITMENT

Let everyone in the company know of your organization's commitment to employing, advancing, and retaining people with disabilities. If the boss wants it to happen, everyone else will too. Remember, workforce diversity includes people with disabilities.

2. RECRUITMENT

Let it be known that you are aggressively seeking job candidates with disabilities. Send your vacancy announcements to disability-related organizations and agencies. Indicate your interest in receiving applications from people with disabilities.

3. INTERVIEWING

Train your interviewers to screen qualified applicants with disabilities. Look at essential functions, qualifications of the individual, and ways to make reasonable accommodations. Don't let the disability 12 distract you as you evaluate qualifications. Be sure any tests or medical exams are performed in accordance with Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

4. ACCOMMODATION

Be sure to test accommodations and adaptations once the person is on the job. If the adaptations are no adequately accommodating the employee, make adjustments or try new ideas. Include the employee with a disability in the process of finding and implementing reasonable accommodations and, if necessary, call the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) on 800-526-7234.

5. TRAINING

Every employee's success hinges on proper orientation and training. Be sure all such programs are accessible to your employees with disabilities. Also, make sure programs that lead to upward mobility and career advancement are available and accessible.

6. AWARENESS/SENSITIVITY

Explain to all workers the principle of reasonable accommodations and why accommodations or adaptations are made. Knowledge is the key to understanding. Also, have someone knowledgeable speak to co-workers about disability myths and misconceptions. Your local Independent Living Center or disability organizations may provide training and orientation to your workforce (see resources at the back of this book). An educated workforce will be better able to ensure the success of your new worker with a disability.

Tomark Industries Inc. of Spartanburg, South Carolina, makers of rubber and thermo-plastic hose assemblies for barbecue grills, fish cookers, and soft drink dispensers, hired a few people with visual disabilities to assemble intricate pump systems. With help from the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, Tomark Industries installed lighted magnifiers at the assembly stations, which let the employees with visual disabilities see their work as clearly as-if not better than-their assembly line fellows. Soon the company installed the magnifiers on every station to improve product quality throughout the assembly line and reduce eye strain for those people without visual disabilities.

[ Previous Page ]                  [ Back to Index Page ]                  [ Next Page ]