Employees with Disabilities An Inclusive Workplace

DISABILITY RIGHT MOVEMENT

Disability Right Movement

There are various strategies that employers and managers could embrace at the workplace to better accommodate workers presenting with various disabilities. To begin with, there is need to initiate organization-wide discourse about the need to embrace diversity. This would help bust myths that some employees and managers could be harboring about the capabilities of disabled people. This is especially useful given that as Bratton and Gold (2017) indicate, some supervisors and managers who have not had the opportunity to work alongside someone with a disability in the past “could feel daunted by the idea of managing someone for the first time who has a disability” (213). For instance, as Bratton and Gold (2017) further observe, one myth about persons with disabilities is that their absentee rate happens to be rather high. Surveys conducted in the past do not, however, support this assertion. Quelling such myths makes the entire workplace a friendlier environment for employees with disabilities.

Next, there may also be need to undertake various adaptations/modifications at the workplace so as to ensure that depending on the disability an employee presents with, he or she is able to function optimally. For instance, to ensure that employees using wheelchairs are able to access various organizational facilities, there may be need to install a wheelchair ramp alongside stairs. Similarly, there may be need to adapt the lighting of the room in which an employee presenting with dyslexia works. This is more so the case given that bright lights could in some instances affect some of those presenting with the said condition.

Third, and perhaps rather obviously, there is need to ensure that employees presenting with disabilities have access to all the benefits and perks their able-bodied peers have access to. This is inclusive of equal pay. In so doing, an organization is likely to benefit from positive reputation as an equal opportunity employer. According to Tyson (2012), this is likely to “attract talent and create a much more collaborative and engaged workforce.” (172).