| Career Track |
Navigating the job market is hard enough. But trying to make your way through the system from resume to interview to job offer can be even more difficult if you have a disability. You have the skills and experience needed for the job, but how do you know a company will be sensitive to the fact that you are, for example, hearing-impaired? How can you make an organization understand that being wheelchair-bound doesn't keep you from being a star employee?
With the 10th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act this summer, and the country's incredibly low unemployment rate, chances are good that companies will be more sensitive about disabilities in the workplace--and more likely to seek out employees with disabilities.
Mary Power, school-to-work coordinator at the Indiana School for the Deaf in Indianapolis, said she sees companies that not only know more about employees with disabilities but also want to hire them to provide a more diverse workplace.
"Companies look at it as just another language," she said of signing. "There are still some barriers, but with technology and e-mail . . . it's not a [as much of a] barrier anymore."
Educating Potential Employers
Sharrell McCaskill, employment and internship adviser at Gallaudet University, spends her days with students, doing what most career counselors do: tweaking resumes, searching out internship opportunities and job openings, and taking part in mock interviews.
One other thing McCaskill deems necessary is something many career counselors don't need to deal with--teaching her students how to educate potential employers about working with a hearing-impaired colleague.
"We teach students to take the lead" in interviews, she said. When a hearing-impaired student goes to an interview, they often take an interpreter. McCaskill advises those who do to immediately introduce the interpreter and explain how the interview should be conducted. Although the interviewer is verbalizing with the interpreter, ask him or her to look at the interviewee, not the interpreter.
McCaskill also tells students that they might be made uncomfortable by some people's lack of experience with disabilities, and may be asked personal questions such as how long they've been deaf. "We teach them not to blow up, but to expect these questions," she said. "People do inappropriate things because they don't know."
People with disabilities must also persuade interviewers they can do the job. "A company is looking for qualifications, and a person with a disability has to emphasize those qualifications just as anyone else would," said Francine Tishman, executive director of the National Business & Disability Council. "Focus on your ability, not your disability."
How Much to Disclose
How much should you, as a disabled but able worker, disclose before heading for an interview?
Essentially, it's up to you. That tip comes straight from Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman. "There is no legal requirement for the potential employee to disclose anything about their disability," she said via e-mail. "And a potential employer is not legally able to ask whether the person even has a disability."
But "sometimes disclosure takes the mystery out of how the job functions will be performed," Herman said. "It also demonstrates to potential employers mutual trust and an openness to working with the company."
Tishman said she knows people who like to be upfront before the interview. But you don't have to disclose anything when you apply for a job, she said. In fact, many people feel they would invite discrimination if they disclosed their disability at that point.
At the interview, however, it's usually only fair to discuss the disability to some extent, especially if it's an obvious disability that could require workers and supervisors to make some accommodation. But that can be discussed in terms of how you will do the job.
"If they have a visible disability, it's something they have to discuss through the course of the interview," Tishman said. "Don't go in with a whole laundry list of things you need. Go in as someone who's been very creative in navigating, and this is the skill you bring to the job."
McCaskill agrees. Job seekers must decide whether to disclose their disability even though disclosure may increase the risk of rejection, she said. "Sometimes doors are closed," she admitted.
If the company would have to provide special but reasonable accommodations for the interview, you must let them know beforehand. For on-campus interviews, students and potential employers are often provided with interpreters from the school. But when students "go outside" after they graduate, an interpreter should be provided by the company, she said. And obviously, the company can't do that unless they know of the disability.
Value of Experience
Job seekers with disabilities should check out special resources before heading out on their own.
"What we've been finding a lot in our explorations as a task force is a lot of individuals with disabilities . . . don't participate in internships," said Becky Ogle, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities. "Take advantage of school-to-work programs and any program that allows you to do mentorships, internships, so you can put that on your resume."
The organization just launched a Web site (www.disability.gov) that includes a large listing of information technology job opportunities.
Tishman also underscored the importance of experience. The Web site for the National Business & Disability Council (www.business-disability.com), includes a resume database where people can post their resumes at no charge. "That can put them a little more at ease, because companies looking at these resumes know they have disabilities," Tishman said.
The council is a nonprofit membership organization that provides information about disabilities and employment to Fortune 1000 companies. "We enlighten them to the fact that there's nothing big to hiring someone with a disability."
.
|
|
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer/Monday, October 9, 2000 |
|
