The classic "12 Angry Men" (1957) is a wonderful example of holding onto an ethical principle even when completely in the minority. Please watch the movie in its entirety and think about the challen

““Disability Discrimination” occurs when an employer or entity covered by the Americans with disabilities Act, as amended or the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, treats a qualified individual with a disability who is an employee or applicant unfavorably because he or she has a disability.” (EEOC). A law came into existence in the year 1990, which is called as “Americans with Disabilities Act”. This law was signed by the President George H.W. Bush which when came into existence made illegal for all employers to discriminate against qualified job applicants and employees based on their physical disabilities and mental disabilities.

Definition of Disability:

The term disability is defined in three ways by the Titles I and V of the americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA):

1. 1. “A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual”; (Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990)

   2. “A record of such an impairment”; or (Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990)

   3. “Being regarded as having such an impairment” (Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990)

History:

Early Years: 1973, 1978, 1987

1973: Rehabilitation Act of 1973 came into existence came into existence in this year. This act is defined as “An act to replace the vocational rehabilitation act, to extend and revise the authorization of grants to states for vocational rehabilitation services, with special emphasis on services to those with the most severe handicaps, to expand special federal responsibilities and research and training programs with respect to handicapped individuals, to establish special responsibilities in the secretary of health, education, and welfare for coordination of all programs with respect to handicapped individuals within the department of health, education, and welfare, and for other purposes” (EEOC, 1973).

1978: Amendments act of 1973 came into existence in the year 1978. That means there were few amendments made to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

1987: Evan J. Kemp became the first commissioner with disability to serve for the EEOC in this year.

Milestones: 1990

This was the year when president George Bush signed the Law for disability Act. It is considered as the first civil rights law in the history of mankind. The whole world appreciated this law and it is the first law in the whole world given for the support of the persons with disability. It mainly focuses on the people with disabilities who gets discriminated by the people at work place/employment (Title I) , in public transportation services (Title II) , in public accommodations (Title III) and also in telecommunications Relay Services (Title IV).

Until 1992, the Title I of the act does not come into force. The Americans with Disabilities Act is considered as the Emancipation Proclamation for the disability community.

ADA Title I: Employment

Any company that has 15 or more employees should try to give equal opportunity to all those qualified individuals with disabilities. Those individuals should be given all employment related opportunities, that are offered for the normal individuals. They should not show any discrimination for the employees with disabilities either in recruitment, hiring, promotions, payscale etc.

If there are any kind of complaints observed, then those complaints should be immediately reported or filed with the US EEOC within 180 days of discrimination.

ADA Title II: Public Transportation Services

All the public transportation services should be very convenient to the people with disabilities. Public transit like rails, buses should offer user friendly services for disabled persons. There is one more facility called as paratransit system which is exclusively for the physical and mentally disabled persons. It provides pick up and drop off services for the mentally and physically disabled persons.

ADA Title III: Public Accommodations

It includes transportation shelters, zoos, privately owned offices, funeral homes, daycares etc. They all should meet the specific requirements set by the government for the disabled people.

ADA Title IV: Telecommunications Relay Services

This title IV is mainly for people with hearing and speech disabilities who could get access for telephone and television services. The aim of this title IV is to establish interstate and intrastate telecommunications relay services.

“ADA law passage has enabled many persons with disabilities to join the work environment than in the past.” (People with disabilities, 2015).

As per the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there is a list of all the Targeted Disabilities for hiring. They are as follows: “Hearing Impairment; Vision Impairments; Missing Extremities like a person having only one arm, one leg, missing both arms or hands; Partial Paralysis; Complete Paralysis; Other impairments like convulsive disorders, mental retardation, severe distortion of spine/ limbs” (List of Disabilities, 2002). “The law and common sense recognize that a blind person cannot be a bus drive, a person who has trouble with this spine like having severe cerebral palsy cannot be a surgeon, and a person who has mobility dysfunctions cannot be a police patrol officer”. (Robbins & Judge, 2015, Pg. 49). Targeting the disabled persons during hiring process is a bit tricky. Now-a-days companies are having a career section on their websites. Employee seeking job should go to that website and apply for a job by filling out the application form. “There are certain internet-based hiring processes which are included in the provision 1194.22 of section 50B of the Rehabilitation Act which contains internet information and applications.” (Accessibility in the Hiring Process, 2011). The employment website of a company should be accessible to individuals who are blind and for other visually impaired individuals. These career options on the company website should have following so that the visually impaired persons can also apply very easily i.e., “the images and graphic interfaces should have text equivalents” (Accessibility in the Hiring Process, 2011). A PDF format job application, should be in an interactive format so that it can be easily completed on the computer. The time limits for filling an application should also be extended. There are certain approaches which a hiring manager can follow to recruit a person with disability like being in contact with college and university centers, posting open positions at job services, attending and posting jobs at disability related job fairs, offering summer internships for people with disabilities. They can also follow some resources like recruitment and retention section of the Office of Disability Employment Policy website, Job Accommodation Network which is basically for the persons with disabilities. (Shrm, 2016).

Disability friendly workplace not only benefits the disability persons but also everyone in the company. As the company starts focusing on accessibility, anyone with a physical disability can have access to the work place. So, there would be a chance to search for more talent. People with different skills can make a good amount of increase in productivity at work, and also this kind of inclusive workplace culture would also be interesting for a customer to do business with it. (Doctor,T.R., 2018). I would follow the following steps to make the organization culture friendlier and more inclusive for people with disabilities like educating ourselves first, then educating the existing staff, forming a support group for disabled employees, hiring a professional for office designing, Get the right equipment, Revising your company’s policy.

Educating ourselves first: First we need to learn about the challenges commonly faced by the disability persons. For example, we should know that hiring a physically challenged person should have a free work space because most of the companies have cubicles for their employees and it becomes difficult for a disabled person to move freely. So there should be a good place allotted for him.

Such kind of challenges would be known if we educate ourselves.

Educating the existing staff: When a company decides to hire a person with disability, this should be conveyed to all the staff. The three most important things staff should focus on are sensitivity, awareness and empathy towards the disabled person. In order to inculcate about all these important things to the staff, a person from a third party who have abundant knowledge about disabled persons should come to this company and try to explain or educate the employees by organizing few seminars in the conference rooms.

Support group Formation: Support group should be formed in the workplace so that while organizing an inclusive work environment if at all any problems arise, they can be discussed with the support group.

Hiring a professional for Office Design: A professional who can design your workplace by making it user friendly for disabled persons should be hired. Sometimes there should be some changes to be made and sometimes there is no need to make so it is always a good idea to hire a professional before doing any changes.

Get the right Equipment: Disabled persons should have a right equipment that means for example a chair that could be accessible for the disabled persons, a parking space that could be used by the disabled person and like fitting a ramp besides the steps so that the disabled persons will have easy access through it.

Revising the company policy: The company policy should be revised related to workplace discrimination and also by including a statement about disability persons.

“Disability awareness programs” should be organized in the companies for hiring managers, staff, employers and managers. These kinds of programs will change the attitudes and behaviors of the company. These programs also help to develop the skills that would help staff to communicate effectively.

My analysis about all the points stated above could be the following way. According to my analysis, as stated in the article (Dailyround, 2018) about a paralyzed surgeon who still performs surgeries though he is paralyzed is the one to talk about. He beat all odds, and performing surgeries after a year of intense rehabilitation. He takes help of a unique stand up wheel chair which allows him to work without any hinderance. (Dailyround, 2018). Passion and strength are the two main terms which we can learn from his achievement. This story provides us with a concept of “employee engagement”. According to Robbins & Judge, “highly engaged employees have a passion for their work and feel a deep connection with their company” (Robbins & Judge, 2015, Pg. 77). As stated in the Dailyround article about the paralytic surgeon, who takes the help of a stand up wheel chair , I think these kind of medical devices would be a great help for the disabled persons to succeed.

As stated in Robbins & Judge, “Disabled individuals are rated as having superior personal qualities like “dependability and potency”” (Robbins & Judge, 2015, Pg. 50).

1. Rehabilitation Act of 1973. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/ada25th/rehab_act-1973.cfm

1. Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/ada.cfm

1. A Guide to Disability Rights Laws. (2009). Retrieved from https://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm

1. People with disabilities: A resource Guide For employers. (2015, February 3).

1. Accessibility in the Hiring Process. (2011, June 16). Retrieved from http://www.levelaccess.com/accessibility-in-the-hiring-process/

1. Shrm. (2016, June 20). Recruiting: Workers with Disabilities: Where can employers find qualified applicants with disabilities? Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-qa/pages/applicantswithdisabilities.aspx

1. Doctor, T. R. (2018, February 06). How to make a disability friendly workplace. Retrieved from https://www.theramppeople.co.uk/blog/how-to-make-a-disability-friendly-workplace/

2. How To Make Your Workplace Disability-Friendly ? (2017, February 03). Retrieved from https://engagedly.com/how-to-make-your-workplace-disability-friendly/