ADA and Affirmative Action

¶ … ADA and Affirmative Action

Discuss the problem that might be associated with a male counselor providing services to a female client. Are these valid concerns? Explain and provide options.

Affirmative Action is designed to introduce individuals of different races, ethnic groups, religious affiliations, and genders into occupations and work places where they historically have not been present, have been underrepresented, or have not been represented in leadership capacities. However, the selection process can occasionally hurt members of those populations the policy was designed to help. This is not simply because it causes individuals to question the 'real' credentials of underrepresented groups who would be qualified, otherwise, without such a program. Affirmative Action negates the fact that there may be other reasons than racism for the dominance of certain groups in certain professions.

Consider the presence of male counselors in a rape crisis center that is attempting to achieve a more balanced gender mix -- a raped woman might not feel as comfortable talking to a male counselor. However sensitive and qualified the male counselor may actually be as a human being and a professional, the woman who has just undergone a major trauma and assault to her dignity might not be able to immediately perceive this. She may merely see a male face. Even women in less extreme emotional states, in counseling or social services situations on a one-to-one level, might be more apt to misinterpret and react in a hostile fashion to the male counselor's questions or comments about her sexual behavior, decisions to have children or not to have children, and problems with husbands and boyfriends. Recent immigrants from cultures with strong male/female social divisions and highly prohibitive structures upon social and professional interactions between the genders might encounter even more difficulties 'opening up' about personal, female matters as well.

Discuss the issues of an agency offering accessibility to all (ADA) what would be the impact of the costs in retrofitting offices and buildings?

Introducing wheelchairs ramps are only one cost that may be incurred by the ADA. Businesses and agencies designed to serve the public modify all structures that could physically discriminate against people with disabilities, remove barriers from preexisting structures and also provide auxiliary aids when needed to ensure effective communication with people who have hearing, vision, or speech impairments. (ADA Businesses Contact Page, 2004) This is compliant with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12181), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by public accommodations and requires places of public accommodation and commercial facilities to be designed, constructed, and altered in compliance with the accessibility standards established by this part. (Department of Justice, 2004)

However, businesses do not have to suffer prohibitive costs in all instances. Tax breaks, credits, and incentive programs exist for businesses, agencies, and schools that must incur high costs to become compliant with ADA standards, as well as, in some cases, institutions that make special efforts to include such individuals within their workforce and designated customer base. Lastly, some private businesses, most notably Wal-Mart, have made efforts to be inclusive of those with physical or mental disabilities into effective marketing strategies, another way to reduce potential costs. (Tax pack, 2004) For businesses too small to be able to fully absorb the cost, the business must make sure that their business is required to be fully ADA compliant before making the costly and prohibitive changes.

What is your own personal understanding and stance? Explain pros and cons of that position.

It is important to remember that all of us might become disabled at some point in our lives, to the point of requiring special assistance -- even through as something as simple and temporary an accident, such as a ski accident that renders us immediately confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg or even a sprain that renders us dependant upon crutches, to mobility-limiting illness, and simply because of aging. Few of us live without some assistance for our correctible disabilities. The employer who curses the prohibitive costs of compliance with ADA guidelines may do so as he gazes at a balance sheet through bifocals, on an extra-large screen designed to rest his tired eyes. Yet by making use of such special aids and becoming more able as a result, disabled people ultimately become less of a drain on the community and the American taxpayer, by becoming self-sufficient. Their requisite, resulting pride is a nice 'side benefit' or bonus.