When computer programmer Mike Herron was ready to look for a job last spring, he sent out about 100 resumes, had 12 interviews and landed a job at Allstate Insurance in Northbrook in May.
The unusual part is not his success rate–computer programmers are in demand at Chicago-area companies–but his mobility level. Herron, 30, has osteogenisis imperfecta, a genetic disease that makes his bones extremely brittle, necessitating the use of an electric wheelchair.
“I did not mention my disability on my resume,” Herron says. “If someone was going to hire me, I wanted them to look at my qualifications and hire me for my skills, not to fill a quota.
“Allstate called me in to take a standard programming test, and because I’d scored so high, they called me back for an interview.
“The interviewer asked me about my programming experience–I’d recently graduated from Southern Illinois University and had worked in the computer lab there. At the end of the interview he asked if I’d need some kind of accommodation to do the job. I said all I’d need was a raised desk and a telephone headset.”
“My disability hasn’t been an issue at all. I’m treated just like everyone else, not with preferential treatment, but as an equal. Working is just what I’d always hoped it would be.”
Across America, 49 million people with disabilities, or 19 percent of our total population, have the same hope. But according to the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, 67 percent of them were unemployed in 1995; and 82 percent of racial minorities with disabilities were not working.
The passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, which requires employers to give qualified people with disabilities equal access to jobs, has helped only slightly. Before the act went into effect four years ago, the percentage of unemployed was 69 percent.
Why are so many people with disabilities still not working?
“The real barriers to employing persons with disabilities aren’t physical,” says Larry Gorski, head of the Chicago Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD). “They’re attitudinal.”
The attitude problems, Gorski explains, cut both ways: employers still harbor myths that it’s too expensive or too difficult to hire people with disabilities, and some people with disabilities approach job hunting with an attitude of anger or defeat.
Lucy Newman, a rehabilitation counselor for the deaf and hearing impaired in the Rolling Meadows office of the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services, says the myths surrounding employment are so thick that “people with disabilities that you can see seem to be more accepted in today’s job market than those whose disabilities are invisible, like epilepsy or mental disorders, which scare employers.”
Gorski and most local and national employment experts agree that job seekers like Mike Herron should not mention their disability on resumes or in cover letters. “The resume speaks to your credentials, your work-related talents,” Gorski says. So the place to deal with attitude problems is in the job interview.
“Too many people with disabilities, especially those who have been out of work for a long time, or who have never worked, aren’t prepared to sell themselves to employers,” Gorski says.
MOPD, the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services and other agencies have moved beyond skills training and are now teaching interview strategies to people with disabilities.
Sandy Ballard (not her real name), age 37, of Morton Grove, is one of their recent successes. “I’m a hearing-impaired single mother who had been on public aid,” Ballard says. “The people at the Department of Rehabilitation helped me understand that one of my biggest problems was my self-esteem. When you’ve spent eight years looking for a job, you get frustrated and angry. It’s easy to project that when it’s not in your best interest, like in a job interview. I finally talked with a social worker about it.”
Ballard also improved her job skills and, because she wanted a position in a creative field, redesigned her resume so it looked like a newsletter. One day last summer, as she waited in line in the public aid office, her beeper went off.
“The call was from the owner of a small design firm who wanted me to come in for an interview. It sounded like a dream job, and this time all I projected in the interview was my enthusiasm. I did not mention my disability, but told them about it when they offered me a job, as art director. Then they asked if I needed anything, and I said no.”
Jeffrey G. Allen, author of “Successful Job Search Strategies for the Disabled,” (1994, John Wiley & Sons, New York–available in bookstores) says: “Employers generally look for three qualities in a job candidate: enthusiasm, integrity, and intelligence. For the job candidate with a disability, there is a fourth, but unspoken, criterion: self-sufficiency. You must convince the interviewer not only that you are the best person for the job, but that your disability will not impinge upon your performance.”
Ballard may have accomplished that on her own, but Gorski and Newman feel that the best preparation for an interview is practice. “We do a lot of role playing here,” Gorski says, “to help clients rehearse their answers to difficult questions and to show them that the positive attitude you bring to the process will do as much for you as a hefty resume.” You can do this on your own, Allen says, by enlisting a friend to play the interviewer and videotaping your reactions. Watch out for body movements and habits that draw attention to your disability, he says.
Even if you are severely impaired and need a driver or other support person, try to go into the interview alone.
When Marilyn Tamburrino, age 48, went to interview for her job as a fitting room checker in a Target store on Chicago’s North Side two years ago, a counselor from United Cerebral Palsy accompanied her, “But I did all the talking,” Tamburrino says. “The interviewer asked if I could do certain things, like fold clothes or put them on hangers, and I showed her I could.”
Before his interview at Allstate, Mike Herron called the company anonymously and asked about handicapped parking and ramp access.
Allen advises job seekers with visible disabilities to take control of the issue themselves, by bringing it up in the interview and offering to demonstrate how they’ll do the job, just as Tamburrino did. Melanie Witt, author of “Job Strategies for People With Disabilities” (1992, Peterson’s Guides), suggests that job seekers provide potential employers with the names and phone numbers of employed people with the same disability.
If you will need a special tool to do the job, like a TTY telephone system for the hearing impaired, you should know the approximate cost of the device and where it can be purchased.
If another change is needed, reassure the employer that the average cost of an accommodation under the ADA is $223. Some successful job seekers have offered interviewers IRS booklets, describing tax credits for employers who have to spend a large amount on accommodations such as ramps and elevators.
End the interview by asking, “Do you see any reason why I am not right for this job?” If the interviewer has reservations, Allen says, you can deal with them then, and in your follow-up letter.
If you are not offered the job, get as much feedback as possible, Gorski says. “Don’t ask, `Was it because of my disability?’, he says. Ask why you weren’t selected and find out if there’s something you can improve on for your next interview.
While people with visible disabilities should always deal directly with the subject during job interviews, those with invisible disabilities should often not deal with them at all.
Alexa Darby, 24, of Naperville, has a master’s degree in adults with learning disabilities from the University of Connecticut and works with adults with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders. “I’m dyslexic myself,” she says, “and since I work in the field I always disclose.
“But I recommend that someone with (learning disabilities) tell their employer only after being hired and then only if there is some accommodation they need to do their job.”
TIPS FOR EMPLOYERS ON A PROPER INTERVIEW
Employment counselors and people with disabilities offer the following tips to employers:
– If you know ahead of time that the person is disabled, make arrangements to accommodate him or her, by choosing an interview room with wheelchair access, alerting the receptionist that a visually impaired person may need help locating your office, providing a sign language interpreter, etc.
– If you were not expecting the disability, be tactful. It’s not only impolite to say, “How do you expect to do this job?”, under the ADA, it’s illegal as well. You may ask the person if he or she will need a special accommodation to do the job, if she can sit or stand for an extended period of time, if he can be at work on time and if she has a driver’s license. You may not ask how the person will get to work, get along socially with co-workers, or accomplish non-work related tasks.
– Keep the interview focused on the candidate’s qualifications and your requirements for the job. The candidate’s resume included the skills you are looking for or you wouldn’t be interviewing him now. If you have doubts about how he or she can complete certain tasks, ask for a demonstration.
– Don’t be patronizing or sympathetic. Give the candidate the same degree of familiarity and respect you offer every other person seeking the job.
– If you have questions about the cost and extent of accommodations needed to hire this person, call the Job Accommodations Network at 800-526-7234; the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, 312-746-5743; or the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services at 800-275-3677 for help with an assessment.
