Why You Should Hire People With Disabilities
July is Disability Pride Month. What better way to celebrate than sharing some reasons to hire people with disabilities!
For those with disabilities, the unemployment rate is higher than those who are able-bodied. For the blind and visually impaired alone, it is over 70%! But I am here to share a few reasons why hiring people with disabilities can be a huge advantage for employers.
Innate Creativity
As someone with a lifelong disability, I have had to get creative in every aspect of my life. Whether it was figuring out the best way to pursue photography in college to managing around a car-centric city without an ability to drive, my disability has made me creative in ways I oftentimes forget. And I know I am not the only one. People with disabilities have to navigate a world not built for us. We have to be creative if we want to thrive! And we can bring that info the workforce through new ideas or looking at ideas through a unique perspective.
Opens the candidate pool
As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, the unemployment rate for the disabled community is BIG. This can be for a lot of reasons from lack of self-confidence of the job seeker to preconceived notions from employers. Believe it or not but I had an employer ask me in an interview if I can use a computer!
But if employers look beyond that judgement (even if it is unintentional), they can open the candidate pool and find the perfect fit for the role they are seeking.
Higher Retention
Due to the high unemployment rate, disabled individuals can stay at jobs for longer than those who are abled-bodied. This not only helps the employer but also the morale of the company to see employees sticking around.
Strong Work Ethic
Just like our creativity, disability can bring a strong work ethic to the workplace. As a blind person, I know I have felt I needed to ‘prove myself’ to an employer that they made the right choice, even if I needed accommodations. This pressure, whether made up or not, can give employees a perseverance that is unique to those with disabilities. We know the grim statistics of unemployment for our community. We want to stay employed!
Let me know if you have any other reasons an employer is lucky to hire someone with a disability! Besides the fact that we’re great :)
-Lee
