People with Disabilities in the Hotel Industry Today

Christian Powers

TAH 409

Capstone Paper

5/2/209

 

1.     Introduction:

In the world of hospitality today the word disability is rarely spoken or seen except when it comes to the application where someone can say yes or no whether they have a disability or not.  

They can claim to have a disability but not actually go into depth as to what the disability is or to what extent that disability may or may not affect them as far as their proficiency when it comes to doing the job for which they are applying to.

Thus, we begin with part of the problem. Before we have even begun the process of hiring someone with a disability we are already starting off on the wrong foot and mislabeling someone with a disability from the start for no fault of their own.

For no fault of their own the disability community here in Maine and across this country has fought this battle along with the battle that they are not qualified to hold many of the jobs in the hospitality field today.

They have had to fight battles like simply because you have ADDD or are in a wheelchair or turrets syndrome that you can’t make a bed or check someone into a hotel or offer up good quality customer service each day.

This is a myth and a bias that has gone on far to long and now the disability community is making strides change this over time. As you will see change has had to come in many ways and the way we view this change as well how the disability community has had to evolve with the change as well has made idea that indeed the new face of the hospitality industry is indeed meant for everyone not just for those who are phycally and mentally able.

Today alone there are approximately 4.6 million people working with some form of disability and of that 21,000 are here in Maine along. (www.disabilitystatistics.org, 4/6/2019). What does tell you? That nearly have of the work force in hotels these days may or may not have autism or some form of it.

The question is what to do about and how we go about fixing the myth that people with autism and developmental and cognitive disabilities can’t do the jobs assigned to them or are qualified to do today.

 

2.     The Problem today of Hiring people with disabilities in hotels today.

First let’s look at some numbers if we could before dive into the problem at hand. Last year alone Maine estimated that approximately less than 57.2 % of people with developmental disabilities worked full-time last year and of those only 42.8 % worked year-round. This contrasts with the US rate of 49.3 % and 50.7 %. (www.maine.gov/labor, 4/12/19)

With that we also see just a mear earnings of $ 17, 611 per person in the state of Maine compared to that in the US, which is 21, 509 (www.maine.gov/labor, 4/12/19) and we can begin to see a problem.

Most people working who have a disability usually work with some form of SSDI as assistance and thus their hour earnings are controlled by the government and other agent ices who watch what they are doing on a constant basis.

Before you can even look at the employer you must first look at the challenges the worker with disabilities must face even before he or she begins looking for work today.

The common worker with developmental disabilities looking to get a job in a hotel or an inn must first decide whether they are going to go full-time or part-time. This can be tough. To go full-time means giving up support services, cost of medications and housing among the many things they have on their plate to give up.

This is the hardest decision for most people with developmental disabilities because so many depend and live on those very things. It can become a physical and mental dependency that few can understand unless you are in their shoes.

On one hand you want to go full-time and have a life that everyone else has, but on the other you acknowledge with rising drug cost and cost of living that it may be cheaper to just stay on SSDI or SSI in the end.

I often would go to work and tell employers that I go to work with one hand behind my back because of the fact I was limited to the number of hours and wages I could work. In this I felt helpless and was not a full member of the team. Thus, a feeling of being ashamed of myself would set in and wondering if I would or could ever get off SSDI someday.

It’s a tough decision and it is one that even before someone with a developmental disability even goes looking for a job, they must factor these things into play.

So, what problems do hotels have that along with their employee may have in hiring them to begin with?

One challenge that both faces can be transportation. In a rural state like Maine this can often be the greatest challenge facing the group. If they employee is not a part on a bus line or train line, then they must find other means to get to work and this can cause a rift in the relationship before it has even begun.

Very often this can be the difference between hiring someone and not hiring them because of their disability compared to someone who does not have a disability. Usually it comes down to either Voc Rehab or a parent or legal guardian or the home in which the person with the disability is living at to get the person to and from work on the days they are slated to work.

Here a problem can be because the employer will know that they only have employee for so long and are unable to keep them longer if needed. Here we can see attitudes toward people with disabilities go south very quickly thus causing a bad employee to employer relationship right from the start.

Another barer that has often been citied is work experience. Employers admit when looking at hiring someone without a disability and someone with that experience can be a huge factor. The fact that very often the worker with disabilities comes to them via Voc Rehab or a job coach and has no public or private work experience can be tough for an employer to take on. (Aredent)

Very often they are looking for someone with a least some previous experience in some area and are more easily trainable. Which brings to the next barrier which is what accommodations do managers need to make to train someone with a developmental disability?

First, they must find out what type of disability someone has then what area of the hotel they are looking to work. Once this has been established, they must figure out who will do the training and how this will affect the rest of the staff. Also, they must factor in time because time is money in all cases.  (Arednt, 172)

This can lead us to the next challenge for people with developmental disabilities in the hotel industry today and that is the attitudes of employers and fellow employees toward them.

3.     Attitudes

So, what are the attitudes of people working in the industry today toward people with developmental disabilities in hotels today?

For the employee with the disability they are sub-consincely aware of what people are thinking about them all the time. They can tell when they are not being accepted and if they are getting the cold shoulder.

Some employers can even go as far as basically go out of their way to show them the front door without saying it to them. It’s this type of anxiety that is already in the minds of someone with a disability when they go work in a new place, even an environment like a hotel where teamwork is a huge part of the job description.

In a recent survey at least 11 employers admitted that teamwork was a part of the attitude issues that they face and of those part of was related to training and the others were related to the special attention that was needed for the employee (Paez, 172)

Indeed, some employees don’t always have the best way of communicating with their employer because they may have Tourette Syndrome or have a high functioning form of ADD or Asperger’s thus making the job of the employer even more difficult.

Very often it becomes hard for the employer to understand the human behavior of someone with a disability that can cause them to make their attitudes the way they are. This has never fully been proven but its not to hard to think that even today we have a cultural bias toward people who are different that us without saying or acknowledging it.

Yes, this can be at the very heart of the problem. Today we expect people to be a certain shape and size and speak a certain way when we go into an establishment. So, when someone who is different comes in that is different, we tend to either give them the brush off or refuse to acknowledge them at all.

There is no way to get any statistal data for this because no one is willing to admit to it, but it is certainly there. As someone with over 17 years of experience in the industry I can most certainly tell you its true.  

I have on more than one occasion been the face of discrimination simply because of my disability by my employer without them coming out and saying it. It was in their body language that told me that I was not welcomed and given a lack of hours or not treated as the same as the other employees lead often to me feeling less than myself often.

I don’t totally blame the employer. It is in society’s attitude toward people with disabilities that has created this rift that transfers over to the work force.

Another bias is the size of the work force. In another recent study employer with a smaller work force were far more often challenged the most because of the fact they had to require more accommodations for their disability workers compared to the bigger properties and thus the ADA accommodations that come with hiring some with a disability went up. (Jasper, 577)

These attitudes can’t be dismissed. Training is an issue especially if the person with a disability does not have any formal training. Groups like Arc of Indiana are rare in these days an age as far higher educational opportunities for people with disabilities.

According to an article published by Science Direct magazine, tourism schools have yet to figure out just how to initiate any specialized training for people with developmental dishabilles thus leaving the challenging of training to the employer. (Bizjak, 1)

One bias never spoken but usually seen is the attitudes fellow employees will have toward the person with the disability. Here once again there is no statistical data to show this and why would there be. No one wants to admit they don’t like to work next to someone who is different than themselves.

They don’t want to admit publicly that the person with the disability gets to go home before them or may get special training which they believe to be special treatment as being a bias against that person. Most of all they also don’t want to admit any hazing or slander that may go on against that person behind managements back.

They are completely aware of the fact that the person with the disability is less likely to report this because they don’t want to lose their job and may not be sure how to report it or communicate the problem to begin with. Most of all they may be afraid of what the other employees will think of them and thus it goes unreported.

I want to say that this does not go on, but I can’t. It does and does go on even today against people with developmental disabilities even in the hotel industry its just simply a simply matter of seen and not seen heard and not heard.

So, what actions toward change are being done to fix this and what if any ideas are out there for change today in hiring people with developmental disabilities.

 

 

 

4.     Actions Toward change and ideas being used to affect themselves

So, what changes and actions are being done today to help people with disabilities in the hotel industry today?

Cornell University admitted that between 2004 and 2014 some nearly 5 million new jobs were created in the hotel industry alone and that the service occupation field such as restaurants and hotels employed 8.7 % within these industries. (Donnelly, 1)

One of those places helping this process along is the Arc of Indiana with the Erskine Training Institute whose main goal is to provide people with developmental disabilities a meaningful employment. (www.erskinegreeninstitute.org, 4/12/19)

This organization started out with a common goal. Show people that people with developmental disabilities can do the very jobs that are out there in the hospitality field today.

As part of their training program, each student is given the chance to study in either the front desk, housekeeping, heart of the house, houseman or laundry attendant. This program gives the worker a better feel of what its like to work in a hotel while working with their disability at the same time. (www.erskinegreeninstitute.org, 4/12/19)

Megan Stevenson, director of the program admits that has been her greatest jo)y in seeing this program grow leaps and bounds over the years and it is even better because as she so beautiful puts it “We have a hotel for which our graduates can go and train and work at when there done “ (4/12/19)

Indeed, the Arc @ work program is used in many different states to help people with disabilities get jobs in the industry as well as look at the possibility of self-employment and making sure that fair and reasonable wages are met at the same time. (www.thearc.org, 4/12/19)

What property is she talking about?

That would be the Courtyard Marriott in Munchie, Indiana. It can brag that it maybe the only hotel in the United States is employed this way and was started up with a simple idea in mind.

The one thing that can not be taken away from this hotel is the fact that is that it has an employment rate of 20 % with people with developmental disabilities today. (www.hotelnewsnow.com 4/12/19)

The hotel even came out with a format on how they were going to make things work by giving this slip as evidence of just what they were going to do.

 (www.ibj.com, 7/11/2015)

This simple model has made this hotel made this hotel a launching point for people with disabilities in the United States today.

It’s not alone. You can go across the pond to jolly old England and see the Foxes Hotel in Minehead, England. It’s the U.K. only school like it and has successful graduation rate of employment rate of 93 % which something to brag about. (www.itv.com, 04/13/2016)

This beautiful school and hotel trains and works people with disabilities to be professionals in a very demanding field in Europe’s completive industry. Today it stands as a marvel for the world to see and look at.

The attitudes are changing in the industry both here and abroad and as time goes on more and employers are acknowledging the fact that the hiring of people with developmental disabilities isn’t something that they used to shy away from but instead are more open to it.

Today we are looking toward the future and what does the future hold for people with developmental disabilities in the hotel industry going forward.

5.     Looking forward toward the future

So, what does the future hold for people with disabilities in the hospitality field? It should be one of great excitement followed by optimism as well.

Yes, there are more and more schools wiling to train people with disabilities in this industry today like my very own University of Southern Maine, and others but still we have a long way to go.

Companies like Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton are coming around and acknowledge that this is an untapped resource of workers that are being left on the side line far to often and need to be given a chance at employment.

I myself have even written up a three-year case study on what I feel the state of Maine could do to try to get hotels involved in hiring more people with disabilities today.

My plan is simple offer up a three-year time line and with the cooperation of the Maine Tourism Association, the Maine Developmental Disabilities Association and Maine Voc Rehab get the hotels and inns to offer up employment to people with developmental disabilities a chance at employment through various areas of employment areas.

They would be able to bee trained in all the fascists of the I and if hotel liked them be able to hire them. Employees would have the option of either seasonal or year-round employment with the employer having the option at any time of hiring the employee on at any time during the three-year case study.

At the end of the three-year case study the evidence gathered from this would be put together and presented to both the governor as well at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism showing that people with developmental disabilities can make the grade in Maine and deserve a better slice of the pie.

In the end my biggest hope would be that one property, either a hotel or inn, would step up to the challenge and match what the Courtyard of Munchie, Indiana is doing and hire a staff of people with developmental disabilities at least at the level of 12 % or more.

6.     Conclusion:

I stared out in this business in August of 2001 in a small town of Fenton, Missouri at a Fairfield by Marriott and today I am getting ready to finish up my first year with Hilton and graduate from a hospitality school.

I have been very fortunate, but I have also seen and faced many hurdles along the way as part of having Asperger’s Syndrome. I have seen the best and worst in this industry as well. Yet my passion for it has never wavered.

So why hasn’t the rest of the hospitality industry come on board some 26 years after the ADA Act was put into law. No one really knows. Progresses has been slow to come by and thus we only see one hotel in the entire United States that has taken on the challenge of truly hiring people with developmental disabilities.

Why is that? Why just one hotel in such a large country? Why only one in all the U.K.? Is it a cultural bias or some stereotype we have about people with disabilities that they can’t do the job as good as someone who is physically and mentally capable of doing?

No one is truly willing and honestly willing to admit that. Survey after survey will tell you yes, they are open to trying and are open to giving people with developmental disabilities a fair chance at employment, but the numbers simply don’t lie.

You can say one thing, but actions are louder than words and the numbers would suggest that people with developmental disabilities still have a long road ahead of them if they are ever to get a fair shake in this industry.

In the end change is coming and I have been fortunate to see it and I believe it is coming. It’s simply a matter of making a lot of noise and reminding the major hotel companies today that people with disabilities would rather be front desk clerks at a Hilton Garden in Freeport, ME than a Wal-Mart greeter in Falmouth, ME.

(www.thetowntalk.com, 4/12/19)

 

7.     Appendix

 

1.     Arendt, Susan & Paola Paez, “Managers’ Attitudes Towards People with Disabilities in the Hospitality Industry,” Hospitality Industry, International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, pp 172-190 (2014).

 

2.     Bizjak, Bosjan, “Attitude Change towards guest with disabilities: Reflections from Students, Annals of Tourism Research, pp 1-25, (7/2011)

 

3.     Donnelly, Kelly & Jeffrey Joseph, “Disability Employment in the Hospitality Industry: Human Resources Consideration, “Cornell University ILR School, pp 1-12, (3/12/12).

 

4.     Jasper, Cyntha, “Employer attitudes on hiring employees with disabilities in the leisure and hospitality industry: Practical and theoretical implications,” Emerald Group Publishing limited, pp. 577-594 (2013).

 

Online References:

1.      www.erskinegreeninstitute.org, 4/12/19

2.      www.disabilitystatistics.org, 4/6/2019

3.     www.ibj.com, 7/11/2015

4.     www.itv.com, 04/13/2016)

5.     www.maine.gov/labor, 4/12/19

6.     www.thearc.org, 4/12/19

7.     www.thetowntalk.com, 4/12/19