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employee
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Table of contents:
1. Who are handicap people as employees?
2. The Americans with Disabilities Act
3. Socio-moral and legal factors of employing handicapped
employees.
4. Conclusion
1. Who are handicap people as employees?
Contemporary society has faced a lot of issues one of which
is the peculiarity of employing handicapped people. It goes
without saying that handicapped people nowadays are no longer
a target of employment discrimination. This is primarily due
to the fact that they have a constitutional right to live
and to work as any other citizen of the country. According
to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a handicapped person is
an individual who “has a physical or mental impairment
which substantially limits one or more of the person’s
major life activities”. Also, in order to be to be considered
officially handicap an individual must have a record of impairment.
In order to carry out a corresponding life handicap people
need to have an income source. At the same time employers
always need work force and some jobs do not seem quiet appealing
for people with adequate abilities. This is what makes handicapped
people a stable employment resource.
It goes without saying that handicapped employees have both
strength and limitations. There are three large groups of
handicapped people based on the nature of the impairment:
physically handicap, mentally retarded and mentally restored
people. The focus-group of the employers is physically handicapped
people as they are the most available handicapped employees.
As a work force source handicap people do have some strength
which may seem appealing to the employer. First of all the
quality of performance of handicap people is sufficiently
qualified due to the high motivation of handicap workers.
They really appreciate the opportunity to work and to earn
therefore they also demonstrate accurate attendance and persistence.
Nevertheless, it is very important to remember that each disability
has specific limitations and vocational implications. For
instance, the vocational implications for mentally restored
people include the absence of pressure and tension. Mentally
retarded individuals cannot fulfill complicated instructions
or demonstrate impressive speed of work. As for physical impairments,
it is necessary to say that the vocational implications depend
of the type of the person’s disability. Handicap employees
tend to try harder than non-handicap ones. This is primarily
due to the fact that they have a rather hard time finding
a job and especially a job that corresponds to their unique
abilities. The examples of non-handicap employees only stimulate
the handicap ones to perform better both in quantity and in
quality as they want to prove that they are none the worse.
2. The Americans with Disabilities Act
The process of employment of handicap people and their position
within any firm is restricted by the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990. Its major aim is to protect handicap individuals
from discrimination from the side of labor unions and employment
agencies. The Act controls the accuracy of job application
procedures for disabled people and makes sure the employer
provides a disabled worker with the non-handicap employment
privileges. The employer cannot refuse to hire a qualified
handicap applicant without reasonable legal explanation. Also,
the employers must provide disabled employees with all necessary
and easily accessible accommodations. Along with non-disabled
people handicap people must have the opportunity to attend
training programs and have a professional interpreter for
better communication with the governing body. Nevertheless,
the disabled employee must be able to follow the quality standards
of the company. The employer will not indulge the handicap-
employee but will provide all necessary accommodations for
the adequate performance of the disabled person.
The Act gives the employer the possibility to ask about the
individual’s disability and to investigate it only if
it refers to some functions performed at work. Nevertheless,
the employer cannot demand a medical examination of a handicap
applicant it medical examination is not a compulsory term
for all the company applicants. The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission regulates the fulfillment of the Americans
with Disabilities Act. Although, the Act has brought a lot
of positive shifts in the issues of handicap employment, there
is an issue that it has not covered. This issue has to deal
with handicap people suing companies and employers for minor
violations of the Act in order to obtain financial reward.
Basically, some people simply use their disability to realize
a profit. These legal risks are the subject of a lot of arguments
and the reason some employer simply avoid having handicap
employees. The Act summarizes all the accommodations required
for the well-being and effective work of handicap people even
including proper transportation. Title I of the Americans
with Disabilities Act maintains the non-discriminating character
of any relations among an employer and a handicap employee.
It provides employment opportunities for those disabled people
who actually qualify for a given job.
3. Socio-moral and legal factors of employing handicapped
employees.
Employing a handicap employee does not necessarily imply severe
complication for the employer. Absence of any attitudinal
barriers is the best condition under which the interrelation
of the employer and the employee can actually take place in
an adequate way. For instance, the fact that the employee
is deaf does not mean that his intellectual level is low.
The main criteria of good “habitat” for disabled
people is the fairness of opportunities for both handicap
and non-handicap individuals. The fact that a handicap person
can bring the company the same or even a bigger profit than
a non-disabled employee should be taken as a norm and should
eliminate all the stereotypes.
The fact that handicapped people have the opportunity to find
a job is their constitutional and human right. As a part of
the community, handicapped people can make their contribution
to its development and advancement. At the same time the community
can benefit from having handicapped workers as they tend to
show better performance as compared to the non-disabled workers
of the same company. The fact that a company hires a disabled
person shows the level of moral development of the society
in general and the community itself in particular. Equal employment
opportunities for both disabled and non-disabled individuals
are guarantees of high level social community satisfaction.
This is the pre-condition of proper treatment for handicapped
people applying for a job. The only criteria of evaluation
of the handicap person should be based solely on his ability
to perform the job. Otherwise the socio-moral principles of
equal rights will become invalid. The basic legal regulator
of all the rights and responsibilities of the handicapped
people as it has been mentioned above is the Americans with
Disabilities Act. It prevents the employers from discriminating
the handicapped applicant. It goes without saying that the
employer has to make some adjustment in order to make the
process of work of a disabled person as effective as it is
possible.
4. Conclusion
The appropriate employment of the handicap part of the population
is extremely important for many reasons. First of all, handicapped
people are often excellent employees as they do really appreciate
the opportunity to work and therefore have high motivation
as compared to the non-disabled ones. The suicide rate of
the disabled people decreases with the increase of their employment.
They feel important at their work place and they feel important
for their community therefore it raises the psychological
health of the population. If the disabled individual qualifies
for the job the society benefits from this employee. Very
often the positions they apply for are not so appealing for
a non-handicap people therefore this converts the handicap
employees into a very strong unit of the whole employment
system. Hiring handicap employees is not an obligation but
it can bring a lot of benefits the employer might have never
thought of.
Bibliography:
1. Switzer, Jacqueline V. “Disabled Rights: American
Disability Policy and the Fight for Equality.” Washington,
DC: Georgetown University Press, 2003.
2. Acemoglu, Daron & Angrist, Joshua D. “Consequences
of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities
Act”. Journal of Political Economy. volume 109 (2001),
pages 915–957.
3. Schapire, Julie A; Berger, Florence. “Responsibilities
and Benefits in Hiring the Handicapped”. Cornell University
Press. 24.4(1984) 59-67.
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