Job Application & Disability Question – Declaring it or not?
The hardship faced by people with disabilities is unimaginable at least for people without disabilities. From social exclusion among peers and family to job applications that demand they answer disability questions and be censored for it.
This concern has discouraged the employment and earning rate among people with disabilities. This pale economic well-being makes life more difficult for them than the constraint of their disabilities.
Should I say I have a Disability on my Job Application?
The employment application disability question is not strange to most job seekers and is even less of a concern to them.
On the contrary, it is more of a concern for job seekers with disabilities faced with whether they should put I have a disability on the application or not.
Rather than the relevant skills needed for employment being considered, the disability question is considered. The disability question could be disability discrimination or a means to make the employment process more inclusive. The fact that it is both ways does not change the impropriety of the job application disability question.
Because a job applicant has no legal obligation to disclose their disability under AMA and OCR.
- No one can force someone: voluntary self-identification of disability is a choice and not a requirement.
- For people with disabilities, the disability questions on a job application could be thought to be a means to sieve them out of the employment process.
- Second thought, the disability question may not always be asked to discriminate, as thought by applicants, but to make suitable provision for special needs during the employment selection process.
Why you Could Choose to Answer
Choosing to answer the employment application disability question could be on whether one has a physical or invisible disability. Physical disability may affect the physical ability required for work while invisible disability may not.
Either, choosing to answer disability questions on a job application may be a good decision, for these reasons:
Confidence Boost
For a confidence boost, it’s best to answer the disability question on a job application, if your disability is visible and will be in discord with the physical ability required for work.
Your confidence is drawn from the belief that you won’t have to waste your time on them either if the employer won’t interview you because of your disability. You can also avoid discrimination that could lower your spirit in that manner.
Accommodation and Convenience
There could be a possibility that an employer has incentives from the government to hire people with disabilities. If your disability will require your future employer to provide you accommodation, you should answer the disability question.
Only by mentioning your disability, during employment application, is your employer responsible to adapt the interview/test and work environment to your status. This will also help you perform your work duties conveniently and to be reasonably assisted. For instance, some companies will be willing to be more flexible and offer part-time jobs for disabled people to prevent their employees to be physically or mentally overwhelmed
Disability-friendly employers
Some employers are more interested in applicants with disabilities and actually offer jobs for people with disabilities. Rather than applicant disability, such employers focus on relevant skills of the applicant like time management, creativity, problem-solving and attention to detail. These transferable skills could be more obtainable in people with disabilities because of their adaptive experience.
Easier application process
You could also indicate your disability to avail you easier application and interview process. This will also help you develop a proactive plan that will allow you a successful interview. In fact, there are many companies that are working hard on developing an accessible workplace.
Why you Could Choose not to Answer
Discrimination
Disclosing your disability could open you up for discrimination. This could make the employer be more concerned about your condition rather than focusing on the relevant skill you possess. It may not be fair, it may not be right but of truth, it happens.
Legal Constraint
You should know that you have no legal obligation to declare a disability on the job application. When filling job application, you can answer “no” and later message HR that you answer “no” because it is unlawful to answer “yes”. For this reason, it would be needless to ask should I put that “I have a disability” on the job application.
You have rights
You should also note that you are not obliged to disclose your disability on a job application for any of the aforementioned advantages. A job applicant with a disability can request accommodation during and after the employment process.
Social/Employment Exclusion of People with Disabilities
The social segregation of people with disabilities is a trend in most of the world. Neglecting and discriminating against people with disabilities has a long history in American society. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is meant to emancipate people with disabilities from this segregation. But unfortunately, ADA, in its over 3 decades of becoming a law, has done little to mitigate this concern.
The stratified society neglects the special needs and inclusion of people with disabilities. In the employment terrain, most employers believe that employing someone with a disability will be an unthought-a consequential decision. This makes employers censor and identify people of special needs with disability questions on job applications. Such employer attitude favors the social exclusion, rather than inclusion, of people with disabilities.
Many employers have failed to understand that physical or health unfitness rarely dispute mental fitness. Some people with disabilities are even more intelligent than people without disabilities. There is always an unimaginable ability in every disability. This fact was recently proven by Dr. Ifeoma Bibiana Okoli. She is the first visually impaired (Blind) woman to earn a doctorate from the University of Ibadan, which ranks 6th and 401-500 among the best in Africa and the world respectively.
ADA and the Labour Market
ADA is the Americans with Disabilities Act enacted into law in 1990. The Act Title II is the civil rights that protect individuals with disabilities against disability discrimination in all areas of social life. These include areas of employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, transportation, and telecommunications.
An event of disability discrimination is when an employer or other entities covered by ADA, as amended, or the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, disfavors a qualified individual with a disability who is an employee or applicant due to their disability.
The trend of employment application disability question violates the ADA Act and upheld events of disability discrimination.
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) under the US Department of Health and Human Services is charged with the enforcement responsibility of ADA Title II. According to OCR Specific Requirements, “public entities may not apply eligibility criteria for participation in programs, activities and services that screen out or tend to screen out individuals with disabilities unless they can establish that such criteria are necessary for the provision of services, programs or activities.”
In the light of the above, a victim of disability discrimination may file a complaint with OCR within 180 days of the event in question. If a good reason is stated for delay by the plaintiff, OCR may however extend the 180 days deadline.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) may harbor the best intention for the inclusion of people with disabilities, yet it is not without its shortcomings. These shortcomings are probably the reason many believe ADA is not doing so much in succoring the social sores of people with disabilities.
ADA did not specifically state how to address individual and labor market complexities, nor did it describe how to go about changing attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. These are some of the short could be responsible for the limited effectiveness of ADA.
FAQ
A disability job application does not necessarily require you to say I have a disability. Some employers only ask if you can perform in the role you applied for. This is not a question of whether you have a disability, but if you are capable of the role.
If medical diagnose has not confirmed your disability and its implication on your work life, say that you do not have a disability. You can also choose to answer – ” I wish not to answer”.
No, because you are not legally obliged to declare a disability on a job application. But, yes, for reasons that accrue you convenience and appropriate special provision. Whichever your answer would be of both depends on your discretion and comprehension of the job requirement.
A: Some job applications ask about disability for the applicant’s convenience. In this manner, the employer can understand how to respond to applicants. However, the consequential effect of the job ability question does not bring convenience but discrimination.
Having a disability doesn’t guarantee job opportunities. The ease of finding employment depends on multiple factors, including the type of disability, job requirements, employer attitudes, and available support systems. It is not accurate to assume that having a disability automatically makes it easier to secure a job.
Related Articles:
Disability and Employment Statistics
I’ve been diagnosed since my youth that I had “anxiety”. I was put on a medication for it & even though it contains a “benzo” which falls under the category of a illegal substance unless prescribed by a doctor. Anxiety is listed as a disabilty! It runs in my family history & work heavy dangerous construction around people that have it. Thing is that it’s not constant anxiety because I’m a supervisor it only starts up when trying to finish a dead line on a job, I’m having to juggle 4 different projects at one time, etc. I only take it as needed but where the medical field views it as a danger to take while I’m doing the work I do, it actually makes me safer because I’m not all jittery & my mind is racing around
Thank you for sharing your thought Todd. I am very glad to read that you have got to the point that you get to work on many projects at the same time, this shows us once again that disabled people can definitely perform well. Wishing you best of luck!
As someone who’s had all the help in the world to make an A+ out of my CV and CL marketing to get a job, I’ve gotten 0 interviews since May in putting that I’m disabled when applications ask for it with the disclosure they are an employer that aims to have at least 7% of their workforce be individuals with disabilities. I have four disabilities that affect my ability to function on a daily basis to variable degrees and in the past before developing my newest three disabilities I only had to deal with chronic anxiety disorder. Due to horrible contraindications and past trauma I do not use medications and take a holistic approach to managing my mental health, which is in and of itself a part-time job. That said I never reported my CAD when that was the only thing I had to worry about because I could hide it very well. I’d do those deep full bellied breathes and run to the women’s rest room to meditate. But now I have physical disabilities so it would be far too obvious that with physical disabilities, the addition of ptsd, and chronic anxiety disorder, to hide those. But point is, I do not think declaring you’re disabled helpls. I’ve submitted about 100 quality applications with crickets. No interviews in months. Prior to being this disabled I’d get interviews and get a new job in like 3 months tops and I’m in a very specialized career. So I think I’ll be lying on the application or just putting ‘I do not wish to answer’ from now on because I’ve seen no benefit to being honest.
Thank you V for sharing your experience and thoughts.
If you feel that recruiters have reacted differently when you declared your disabilities, you can try to declare it at the end of the recruitment process when you will actually sign the contract.