Discrimination against people with disabilities seems still to be present in employment selection, but I was interested to read this week that not all disabilities are considered equal in the eyes of prospective employers. When compared to candidates without disabilities, candidates with physical disabilities tend to be rated most favourably in job interviews, with the highest employability ratings and the highest number of job offers. The next most highly rated group are candidates with sensory impairments, and the least likely to be given a job offer are those with psychological disorders. This, I guess, reflects the stigma still very much associated with mental ill health and the lack of understanding and awareness that is so widespread in society.
Disclosure – whether to and when to disclose a disability can be a tricky decision. Some with a hidden disability prefer not to disclose at all to prevent the negative attitudes and discrimination that they feel is inevitably associated. Others prefer to disclose upfront, not wanting to drag themselves through a stressful process only to be rejected when their disability finally emerges. You might feel that you stand more of a chance of getting the job if you don’t disclose until after the job offer is in the bag, but you then risk starting a working relationships with your new manager on the wrong foot, as they may feel resentment at being misled.
Clients often ask advice on this tricky issue, and I've always felt a bit lost as to how to best answer their questions, but I've now found a few bits of evidence in the academic literature that can help me.
Candidates with visible disabilities (most studies have been conducted with wheelchair users) tend to do better in interviews if they make some verbal reference to the disability during the interview, but interviewers are more comfortable if this reference is made towards the end of the interview. Candidates with a non-visible disability are rated more highly in terms of how qualified they are and how likable they are if they disclose their disability at the start of the interview rather than at the end.
It's interesting that there is such a clear distinction between what goes down well if your disability is visible, and what goes down well if it's not. It seems that an employer's primary consideration is that they do not want to feel that they've been misled, anything to do with how socially confomfortable they feel is secondary. A candidate in a wheelchair is hardly going to be accused of misleading an employer so the employer can then go to their second consideration, which is that they feel more comfortable discussing the disability after they have developed some kind of relationship with the candidate first. With an invisible disability, the employer is most concerned with whether or not they feel that they have been misled, and not mentioning the disability until the end of the discussion, is liable to make the employer feel that that have been duped in some way.
I don't think that I would give this information to a client in the form of advice (I seem to be pretty much against advice in most professional situations!) but I think the information could be really useful and empowering to clients as they reach their own conclusions.
