October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month and many organizations around the country are stepping up their efforts to help disabled workers in the U.S. get hired. At least 54 million people in the U.S. are living with a disability. People with disabilities face a higher rate of unemployment than those without disabilities.
An informative column by human resource expert, Robin Paggi, appeared this week in The Bakersfield Californian. It isn’t news that some people with disabilities are not hired because of discrimination on the part of employers. Paggi writes that the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing received 6,844 complaints alleging disability discrimination against worker and job applicants in 2008.
Both California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employers from discriminating against workers or potential workers on the basis of disability.
If you have a disability and are qualified to do a job, employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to you so that you can perform the job despite your disability. Reasonable accommodations include interpreters, modified work schedules or modified training materials.
Source:
Robin Paggi: People with disabilities and employment (The Bakersfield Californian)