Accommodating Employees With and Without Disabilities

Efforts to recruit and retain employees with disabilities are often tempered by employers’ concerns over potential workplace accommodation costs. This study reports on accommodations requested and granted in intensive case studies of eight companies, based on more than 5,000 employee and manager surveys, and interviews and focus groups with 128 managers and employees with disabilities. Two unique contributions are that we analyze accommodations for employees without disabilities as well as for those with disabilities, and compare perspectives on accommodation costs and benefits among employees, their coworkers, and their managers. We find people with disabilities are more likely than those without disabilities to request accommodations, but the types of accommodations requested and the reported costs and benefits are similar for disability and non-disability accommodations. In particular, fears of high accommodation costs and negative reactions of coworkers are not realized; all groups tend to report generally positive coworker reactions. Multilevel models indicate granting accommodations has positive spillover effects on attitudes of coworkers, as well as a positive effect on attitudes of requesting employees, but only when coworkers are supportive. Consistent with recent theorizing and other studies, our results suggest the benefits from a corporate culture of flexibility and attention to the individualized needs of employees

The South Carolina Commission for the Blind and The State Board of Commissioners Comprehensive Statewide Needs Assessment

The South Carolina Commission for the Blind, the State Board of Commissioners and the Interwork Institute at San Diego State University jointly conducted an assessment of the vocational rehabilitation (VR) needs of persons with blindness and vision impairments residing in the state of South Carolina. The purpose of the assessment was to provide planners with VR information pertinent to the allocation of resources, to provide a rationale for the development of SCCB’s State Plan, and to comply with the needs assessment mandate in the Rehabilitation Act

Genetic information use in hiring decisions: Psycho -legal possibilities arising from the Human Genome Project

The wealth of general knowledge resulting from the Human Genome Project will provide the opportunity for individualized health information to be obtained through simple medical tests. The conclusiveness that might be associated with this new type of health information could have serious deleterious consequences if misused. Employers have used a range of techniques varying in intrusiveness to evaluate potential employees (e.g., personality tests, drug tests). Survey data, anecdotal evidence, and case law (e.g., Norman-Bloodsaw v. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1998) suggest that genetic discrimination has occurred under some circumstances. The legal debate over whether genetic discrimination is adequately remedied by existing legislation (Nance, Miller, & Rothstein, 2002) raises a fundamental question that is being examined for the first time by this dissertation: would employers use genetic test information to make differential hiring recommendations? Three studies examined whether health information affects hiring recommendations by manipulating genetic test and family history information for a mental and physical disorder. Generalizability of the findings was tested by using different samples (students v. community) and by adding variables (job-relatedness of disorder, work experience, severity of diagnosis). Findings consistently demonstrated that health information does affect hiring recommendations, as well as other employment-related decisions. A positive test or family history of a disorder (and a more severe diagnosis) predicted more negative decisions. Mental disorder presence consistently predicted more negative decisions. While effect sizes suggest that family history and genetic test information have equal impact, the effects for family history varied more. Students and community members made similar patterns of decisions; the only difference between them was the community sample\u27s tendency to give higher negative ratings to candidates with a positive test or family history for a disorder. The additionally manipulated variables of work experience or job relatedness of disorder had no significant effects. Future research should examine whether these findings generalize to disorders other than those used here. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that health-based information may be used when employment-related decisions are made

Employment of People with Disabilities: Twenty-Five Years Back and Ahead

Commemorative Symposium - Law and Inequality: The next 25 Year

Diversity And Inclusion In The American Legal Profession: First Phase Findings From A National Study Of Lawyers With Disabilities And Lawyers Who Identify As LGBTQ+

This article presents initial, descriptive findings from the first phase of a national study, with a planned longitudinal component, conducted in collaboration with the American Bar Association (“ABA”).1 With representation from all U.S. regions and states, as well as the District of Columbia, the study examined lawyers with diverse backgrounds, with a primary focus on lawyers who identify as having health conditions, impairments, and disabilities, and on lawyers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or as having other sexual orientations and gender identities (“LGBTQ+” as an overarching term). Importantly, the investigation also considered the intersectional nature of these identities