Disabled people face high levels of unemployment due to social, cultural, and economic barriers. Legislation like the ADA and IDEA aimed to promote equality, but discrimination persists due to the recency of the disability rights movement. Three systems contribute to unemployment - an inadequate social structure without longstanding protections; cultural assumptions that disabled people are unreliable, expensive, and litigious; and disincentives around healthcare costs. Changing these assumptions requires communication from both society and the disabled community that common beliefs are untrue and disabled people are capable employees. Companies could improve by adopting a model like IBM that views accessibility and inclusion as competitive advantages. Overall, greater understanding is needed regarding the capabilities of disabled people and barriers that still limit their equality and

1. Alex Agnew
HRDV 2303
Case Study#2
In the Eye of the Perfect Storm: Creating Accessibility
There are several groups of people that have been at a disadvantage through
the development of our country, especially in the workplace. For hundreds of years,
African Americans did not enjoy the same rights as the rest of the population.
Women have been viewed as if the only things they are capable of doing is berthing
children and caring for their husband. One group that people often leave out of this
category is disabled people. Disabled people are at a critical disadvantage. The
critical disadvantage is based on a number of elements: employment,
transportation, health insurance, concerns about the future, general life satisfaction,
and emergency planning. The element that I will focus on is the level of
unemployment of disabled people in today’s workforce.
“Americans with disabilities constitute an estimated 49 million people, or 20
percent of the population.” (Canas Pg.262) Thirty-five percent of people with
disabilities report being employed full or part time, compared with 78 percent of
those who do not have disabilities. Three systems of discrimination for people with
disabilities come together to create a perfect storm of unemployment. These three
systems include an inadequate social structure for people with disabilities, a set of
pervasive cultural assumptions about hiring people with disabilities, and a two-
sided disincentive for both employee and employer. First, I will discuss how an
inadequate social structure contributes to a high unemployment level among

2. disabled people. The reason for this inadequate social structure points to the lack of
historical roots pertaining to the employment rights of disabled people. Unlike
African Americans and women who’s disadvantages have been recognized for many
years, disabled people are just beginning to experience some workplace equality
since the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, and educational equality with the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. “Without
longstanding laws and experienced organization to protect the rights of people with
disabilities, the disability rights movement remains less influential than other civil
rights efforts, thus making the crusade for social justice a more difficult process.”
(Canas Pg. 263) Because the disability rights movement is so youthful, gaining a
legitimate voice and communicating a unified message will be difficult. The second
system of discrimination that contributes to unemployment for disabled people is a
set of cultural assumptions about hiring people with disabilities. “American culture
and attitudes make assumptions that lead managers not to hire people with
disabilities.” (Canas Pg. 264) These assumptions harm disabled people by creating
barriers to employment. Assumption one is that people with disabilities are
unreliable. People assume that disabled people are not capable of fully performing
their job or that they often miss work or take sick days. This simply isn’t true. People
with disabilities tend to have better than average attendance and turnover records,
furthermore, 50% of managers rate their employees with disabilities higher than
those who are not disabled on the following dimensions: willingness to work hard,
reliability, punctuality, and attendance. The second cultural assumption about hired
a disabled person is that accommodating people with disabilities in the workplace is

3. costly. In order for some disabled people to be able to work well they need
accommodations. Some managers choose not to hire disabled people because they
assume the accommodations are a heavy burden and too expensive, however there
is evidence that suggests that hiring people with disabilities not only cost relatively
little but can be a savvy business decision. According to the National Organization
on Disability, only 24% of companies employing people with disabilities reported
that any accommodations were needed. Furthermore, evidence reported by
National Public Radio science correspondent Joseph Shapiro concludes that of the
24% of disabled employees who require accommodations, 51% of all
accommodations cost nothing; and for the other 49%, the average cost of an
accommodation was $300. This goes to show that the assumption that
accommodating people with disabilities in the workplace is false. The last
assumption is that people with disabilities are likely to sue their employer.
Employers making this assumption come to the conclusion “why take the
unnecessary risk of being sued?” There have been a number of suits occur over this
issue. A total of $464.1 million has been paid through settlements and court ordered
fines through 491 ADA cases brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission from 193 through 2002. Employers tend not to hire disabled people as
a way to avoid these payouts. This can be explained through lots of ambiguities and
gaps in the ADA where the context is not clear. The last system of discrimination
that limits the hire of disabled people is disincentives. These disincentives include
the cost employers pay in health care and insurance systems as they relate to people
with disabilities. This situation creates a two sided disincentive: first, employers

4. may be more reluctant to hire people with high cost medical conditions; and second,
people with disabilities may not be as interested in entering the workforce if they
risk losing their benefits without an adequate substitute provided by their
employer. Deciding how to navigate this issue can become so complicated that there
are programs specifically for people who are receiving social security disability
benefits and would like information on how work may affect their benefits. These
three systems of discrimination provide a difficult framework for disabled people to
be treated equally in the workforce and working to solve these issues can be
difficult. To help aid in this problem, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services established in 2002 the Office of Disabilities. This agency plans and carries
out efforts to remove barriers faced by those with disabilities, and to increase the
visibility of those barriers. In addition, every state and the District of Columbia have
a department that provides services to people with disabilities, including
coordination of employment services. Many nonprofit organizations also are
dedicated to help with the rights of disabled people. The National Disability Right
Network provides free legal services to people with disabilities to fight violations of
their civil rights in terms of accessibility, employment, schooling, housing, and
similar issues. This is just one example of an organization aimed and dedicated to
the protection and advocacy of the rights of people with disabilities.
It’s clear that people with disabilities do not share the same equality as
everyone else. Because the movement to change this inequality is recent without
longstanding laws and experienced organizations to protect the rights of people
with disabilities, the disability rights movement remains less influential making the

5. push to equality difficult. Disabled people are just recently beginning to experience a
push towards social justice with the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) in 1990, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of
1997 (IDEA). The ADA was the first step towards equality for disabled people. The
ADA was molded after the Civil rights act of 1964 and is aimed towards allowing
people with disabilities “to enjoy employment opportunities, to purchase goods and
services, and to participate in State and local government programs and services.”
(ADA.gov) The IDEA is a form of litigation aimed at giving disabled people a fair
opportunity to have an education through early intervention services and special
education. “IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention,
special education and related services to more than 6.5 million eligible infants,
toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.” (IDEA.ed.gov) Despite the efforts of
the ADA and IDEA, the inequality of disabled people continues to be an issue.
In this section of the paper, I will answer the discussion questions pertaining
to the case study.
1. According to the NOD/Harris survey, people with disabilities are at a “critical
disadvantage” when compared with people without disabilities. Why is this so,
when legislation such as the ADA was passed in 1990 in an attempt to improve the
lives of people with disabilities.
People with disabilities continue to be at a critical disadvantage despite the passage
of the ADA because the litigation aimed to solve this disadvantage was so recent. It
takes time for a movement of equality such as this to take place. Legislation to give
equality to African Americans began with the civil rights act of 1964, though the act

6. was passed 51 years ago and the movement has made leaps and bounds, it is still
often talked about.
2. What are the various provisions of the three most significant pieces of legislation
for people with disabilities: the ADA, ADAAA, and the IDEA.
These three pieces of legislation are all aimed to protect the rights of disabled
people. The provisions of each of these are simply constructed to give equality to
people who are disabled.
3. What can society in general and people with disabilities in particular do to change
the cultural assumptions that cast people with disabilities as unreliable, expensive,
and likely to sue their employer.
To change the cultural assumptions of peoples with disabilities, society and people
with disabilities need to communicate and make known that these assumptions are
simply not true. People are ignorant and will believe something even though they
have no experience or incite to a particular issue. That is the care here. People are
ignorant and don’t understand that disabled people are not thoughtless bodies
walking about, but instead they are regular intelligent people capable doing many
things.
4. Why haven’t other companies followed the lead of organizations, like IBM, that
have effectively embraced disabilities as a significant component of diversity,
viewing the recruitment and the retention of people with disabilities as a
competitive advantage.
Companies haven’t followed the lead of these organizations because they do not
understand the value that disabled people bring to the table. Most are companies

7. who are still living under the assumptions aforementioned. I believe that companies
will soon realize the value and potential that disabled people offer and will begin to
adopt the lead of organizations such as IBM.
An initiative that organizations should put into place to avoid similar
situations in the future would be to adopt IBM’s model of accessibility. IBM is a top
rated company for people with disabilities because of its inclusive culture, its
workplace that accommodates people’s needs, and it’s marketing that values people
with disabilities as customers. IBM succeeds because its goes beyond product
compliance with regulations to include a better user experience and the vision to
ultimately improve a person’s total quality of life. This is where IMB’s competitive
advantage comes from. If other organizations adopted this tactic of ultimately
improving a person’s total quality of life, it would lead to equality for people with
disabilities.
As previously mentioned, people with disabilities are at a critical
disadvantage. They do not share the same advantage or equality as the rest of the
population, especially in the workplace. Society as a whole needs a better
understanding of the situation. They need to know that the assumptions that
prevent some employers from hiring a person with a disability are false. They need
to understand that disabled people are capable and even valuable.

8. References:
Opportunities and Challenges of Workplace Diversity, 3rd Edition, Kathryn Canas and
Harris Sondak. (2014) Prentice Hall.
http://www.ada.gov/ada_intro.htm
Idea.ed.gov