Inclusion and Accessibility: Recognizing and Removing Barriers to Employment

Overcoming barriers to employment access means expanding your talent search where you haven’t actively looked before. An inclusive workplace is open to talented candidates who are frequently overlooked by recruiters. Barriers can include disability, access to education, and socioeconomic status, and breaking them down is a matter of accommodation and opportunity.

Common barriers to access

Disability affects accessibility in every aspect of life, including education, extracurricular and social activities, and perhaps especially, employment. Accommodations are meant to ease the challenges of living with a disability. They’re the reason for wheelchair ramps outside public buildings and special education programs in schools. But disability accommodations don’t always extend to the workplace, and when they do, they don’t always level the playing field.

Across every other demographic, people with disabilities are less likely to be employed, more likely to be underemployed or underpaid, and more likely to work in production, transportation, and material moving occupations. With an unemployment rate twice that of people without disabilities, this is a largely untapped pool full of talented candidates.

Limited access to education and low socioeconomic status may be less obvious barriers to employment, but they affect everything from disqualification via job description to affordable transportation.

Accommodation

The term “disability” covers a lot of territory, but recognizing and understanding disability, and the need for appropriate accommodations, is a skill for human resources professionals to cultivate. Accommodations differ depending on the individual and their disability. An employee with a visual impairment, for instance, may need additional technology, such as an audio reader, and other resources to complete their work. An employee with a mobility disability requires different accommodations, including ramps, wider doorways, and more space to maneuver in common areas. The list goes on, and includes less commonly addressed impairments, such as neurological, medical, and psychological disabilities, but it’s essential to assess talent and qualifications on an individual basis to determine whether a candidate’s skills match your company’s requirements for an open position.

Opportunity

For education requirements and socioeconomic challenges, accommodation creates opportunities. Give your company’s posted job descriptions a thorough review to make sure education and experience requirements really suit the open position. Is a college degree required, or preferred? Can experience stand in for formal education? Are there internships or other programs for on-the-job training with a chance to move into a full-time position? Adjusting job descriptions to match requirements, as opposed to preferences, opens a broader talent pool to more qualified applicants.

When candidates start from a lower socioeconomic position, finding a job has extra obstacles to overcome. Reliable transportation is one such obstacle, and it’s also a perfect illustration of the self-perpetuating nature of barriers to access. Candidates need transportation to find a job, but they can’t afford transportation without a steady income. For employers, overcoming socioeconomic barriers looks like offering transportation assistance, visiting job fairs in underprivileged communities, and coordinating work schedules with the availability of public transportation. Making an effort to reach out to potential talent is an effective strategy for breaking down barriers and creating opportunity.

Imagine the talent recruiters miss when they fail to recognize and remove employment barriers. Making the effort pays off. Companies that actively work toward inclusion report higher revenue, increased net income, and better profit margins. And those are just the bottom-line advantages. Other benefits include discovering and nurturing untapped potential, increasing retention, improving morale, enhancing company culture, and expanding your company’s consumer appeal.

Where to begin?

What does it mean to make your organization more inclusive? Employees with challenges to overcome need equal opportunities for achievement and career success. Employers can do more to ensure access to employment for frequently overlooked applicants. But breaking down barriers requires a shift in thinking. Consider these ideas to create more access for disabled candidates:

• Develop a more inclusive perspective. One key barrier to access for disabled applicants is a general lack of knowledge, support, and understanding in the working world. Increase awareness with education and inclusive recruiting and hiring practices.
• Prioritize accessibility. Make reasonable adjustments to the workplace to remove barriers for disabled employees. Conduct a thorough assessment of physical and environmental barriers to ensure everyone has a proper workspace in which to be productive.
• Implement assistive technology (AT). Outdated technology may limit work opportunities for candidates with disabilities. AT solutions are high-tech accommodations, such as speech-to-text applications, designed to provide additional support for disabled employees.

Creating a more inclusive company means looking and thinking beyond your customary talent resources and making necessary adjustments for a workplace that works for every employee.

Learn more about overcoming barriers to employment access for an inclusive employee experience at terrastaffinggroup.com.