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Disclosing Disability to an Employer: Why To – When To – How To

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The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), enacted on July 26, 1990, is legislation purposed to improve the lives of people with disabilities by protecting their rights to have access to employment, public entities, transportation, public accommodations and commercial facilities, telecommunications, and more. It helps people with disabilities compete equally for employment and receive the accommodations and protection they need to work.

Are you in need of accommodations in the workplace due to a disability? Do you know what steps to take in order to get the process started? Disclosure is the first and sometimes the most difficult step. Just thinking about this can often cause anxiety and stress. So what exactly is disclosure?

Disclosure is divulging or giving out personal information about a disability. It is important for the employee to provide information about the nature of the disability, the limitations involved, and how the disability affects the ability to learn and /or perform the job effectively. The employer has a right to know if a disability is involved when an employee asks for accommodations. Deciding if, when, and how to share disability-related information with a prospective or current employer can be overwhelming. There is no single right or wrong approach to disclosing a disability. The disability disclosure decision-making process requires answering a number of personal questions that may be different with each employment experience. Some of those questions may include the following: “Do I have an obligation to disclose?” “When is the right time?” “How much medical information will I be required to provide?” and “How will disclosing the information affect my employment?”

Let’s look at three reasons why someone may choose to disclose a disability to their employer:

1. To ask for job accommodations

Tina is an activities director at an assisted living facility, required to log notes into a binder for all of the activities and residents who participate. Because of a brain injury, Tina struggles to hand write notes. She requests speech-to-text software that enables her to dictate her notes. She is then able to print them out and place them in the binder.

2. To receive benefits or privileges of employment

The ADA requires employers to provide accommodations so that employees with disabilities can enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment equal to those enjoyed by similarly-situated employees without disabilities. Benefits and privileges of employment include employer-sponsored training, access to cafeterias, lounges, gymnasiums, auditoriums, transportation, and parties or other social functions.

Sean is an employee with Down syndrome who signed up for a nutrition class, but had trouble understanding the information that was presented. His employer asked the instructor to provide pictures of the types of food she was recommending employees eat. Sean was able to use these pictures when making food choices.

3. To explain an unusual circumstance

Della has temperature sensitivities due to multiple sclerosis, but so far has been able to manage them on her own without the need to disclose her condition to her employer. However, when the air conditioner breaks down and is reportedly going to take a week to replace, Della realizes that she will need to work from home as an accommodation, will need to disclose to her employer, and explain her condition and the need for the accommodation.

Disclosure can be quite simple. You can tell your employer that you need to talk about an adjustment or change that is essential for a reason related to a medical condition. You may use plain English to request an accommodation. You do not have to mention the ADA nor use the phrase “reasonable accommodation.” It can be as easy as what Tina may have said to her supervisor, “I need to talk to you about the difficulty I encounter when I try to handwrite notes due to a medical condition.”

The general rule under the ADA is that a person does not have to disclose a disability until an accommodation is needed. Ideally, employees will disclose a disability and request accommodations before performance problems arise, or at least before they become too serious. That can be during the application or interview process, the first day on the job, or years down the road. For someone who needs testing accommodations, disclosure in the application process may be necessary. For another applicant who has great difficulty communicating and thinking on her feet, a request for interview questions ahead of time may be needed. Some employees who have successfully worked for years without accommodations may find it necessary to disclose and ask for accommodations due to changes in their job, or changes in their disability.

Questions about disclosure? Contact JAN for free information, or to discuss an accommodation situation privately with a consultant. Click here for more resources from JAN.

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Strategies for Job Hunting with a Disability

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Landing a professional position in an uncertain economy can be challenging for any job seeker, whether you have a disability or not. Yet it can and is done, every day! Here are some tips to help you move from applicant to employee.
Consider Your Options

Before you even start your search, decide what you want in a job. Are you looking for an institute of higher learning that values diversity and has an expressed commitment to disability inclusion? What are your non-negotiables? Are you looking for a long-term position, or will something temporary or part-time be suitable? Starting your search with clearly defined personal criteria will help you decide quickly where to target your applications.
Know Your Rights

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits employers from discriminating against applicants based on disabilities. It also requires employers to provide accommodations for qualified applicants and employees with disabilities. Even so, job seekers with “invisible” disabilities sometimes choose to keep them hidden, not self-identifying when invited to do so on paperwork or disclosing in order to request needed accommodations to interview most effectively or perform to their fullest once on board. For example, Brandy Greenfield (not her real name), a Project Management Professional in higher education with a nonvisible disability, chose not to disclose. “I was treated poorly by employers in the past,” she said. “I’ve never checked the ‘disabled’ box on an application because I’ve always been afraid of discrimination.” However, it is important to know that if you choose not to self-identify as a person with a disability or disclose in order to request an accommodation, employers are under no obligation to provide one. Furthermore, because many institutions of higher education are federal contractors, they are covered under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires them to take proactive steps to hire qualified people with disabilities. Thus, all other things being equal, in some circumstances, being open about your disability can provide a competitive edge. However, the decision to disclose is a personal one, and not doing so during the application and interview process doesn’t preclude you from doing so later.
Be Confident in What You Can Do

If you ask for accommodations, be sure to do so in a way that highlights your abilities. For example, you might say, “I can’t wait to come to X University to teach a sample class for communication majors. As a graduate assistant, I won several teaching awards, and I look forward to connecting with the students. Please make sure ahead of time that I will be able to get my wheelchair into the auditorium where the lecture will be held.” In other words, talk more about what you can do and focus less on what you can’t do, while still providing your potential employer the information they need.
Explain and Educate

It’s easy to get upset if an interviewer underestimates your abilities or suitability for a job based on a disability, but if you feel this happens, stay calm. Your goal is to educate the interviewer so that he or she understands you are the right person for the job. As part of this, be prepared to explain gaps in your job history due to illness. For example, Juan Perez, an educational product developer, experienced clinical depression during a long-term layoff. “It was hard to formulate an answer when asked about the time I was too sick to work, but I did it,” he says. “I remained composed and focused on my skills and abilities developed since my illness. Guess what? I got the job!”

Entering the job market can create anxiety for even the most seasoned applicant. Adding a disability to the mix can make the process even more stressful, but only if you let it. Projecting a positive attitude can do wonders for your prospects of career success, and employers are bound to be impressed by the skills and assets, some of which your disability may have even helped you hone, such as creativity, loyalty and problem-solving skills. As always, the most important thing is to remain focused on your goals and not let your disability limit your expectations, career or otherwise.

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Curriculum Vitae or Resume: What are the Differences?

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If you are applying for a job with a college or university, you might be hearing a lot about the curriculum vitae (CV). Most faculty positions at these institutions require a CV. If you are applying for staff positions, you will likely be asked to submit a resume. However, some staff positions also require a CV.

If a staff position is in your future, create a full CV (a compendium of all your experiences and accomplishments) to use as your “master resume.” Then, when applying for specific jobs, you will have everything you need in one document. Previous articles offer tips for writing your resume, while other articles focus on the CV. The major differences, however, are in academic orientation and page length.
Academic Orientation and Page Length

If you plan to work in in a faculty position in higher education, you will need a CV. Curriculum vitae is Latin for “course of life,” and that is an apt description of what is included. A CV emphasizes educational and academic accomplishments and grows over the course of an academic’s life. There is no real page limit, although it is expected that a junior faculty member will have a shorter CV than a well-published professor emeritus. In some fields, it is not uncommon to see a CV upwards of 20 pages long.

Very few other occupations use CVs even within higher education. For example, most staff positions in higher education and many community colleges use a resume, which is shorter than a CV yet long enough to show a community college instructor’s teaching experience. A resume will usually not contain an exhaustive list of a person’s working life. Resume is French for summary, and it is just that—a summary of qualifications and skills geared toward a specific occupation. Even with years of experience, your resume should be no longer than two pages.

Which One Should I Submit?

Of course, there are many similarities between a CV and a resume. Both provide a review of qualifications and both summarize education. Both also should be created with attention to detail, as they serve as the calling card you will need to achieve the career of your dreams.

Most job descriptions will specifically ask for either a resume or a CV. If you are applying for a position at a large research university and the posting does not specify which to send, it is perfectly acceptable to ask. If you are applying at any other type of institution within the U.S., it is likely that you will be sending a resume, but again, ask if you are unsure.

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5 Tips for Resume Writing

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A resume is one of the most important documents you will write when beginning or advancing in your career. After all, this document serves as your key to working in the world of higher education. Your successful resume will also be one of the most persuasive works you craft.

As a calling card to beginning or advancing your career, your resume should reflect your personality and qualifications while fulfilling your potential employer’s expectations. Here are a few tips to move your materials from a pile in the HR department to the desk of the hiring manager.

1. Keep a Master File

Create a compendium of your experiences, accomplishments, and publications that can be edited to fit any job posting to use as your “master resume.” When applying for specific jobs, you will have everything you need in one document.
2. Focus Your Resume

A resume’s entire purpose is to demonstrate your qualifications and credentials. In higher education, a teaching-focused resume is used when applying for academic positions in community colleges. Instead of trying to create a “one size fits all” document to send out to anyone with a job opening, be focused. Tweak each resume you send. Hiring managers search for keywords matching the announcement, so the more your resume language matches the announcement, the more likely you will receive a callback.
3. Easy on the Eyes

Your resume should be easy to read and scan. Use a standard font such as Times New Roman or Verdana at 9-12 points. While you might want to call out your name and the names of schools you’ve attended or worked for by using a slightly larger font, go easy on excessive boldface type, underlining, and italics. Use a simple Word format that can be easily viewed across platforms. The person looking at your resume should have no trouble opening or viewing your document.
4. Quantifiable Accomplishments, Not Responsibilities

When detailing your work history, focus on achievements. It is common to see a resume where a candidate has listed his or her responsibilities at each job; in fact, that is how many people were taught to write a resume. Instead, go beyond job expectations and show improvements made under your watch. Call out your successes. While you are listing those accomplishments, include quantifiable statistics and percentages pertinent to your success. Did you create a system that improved efficiency? Tell about that with before-and-after statistics. Were you chosen for a leadership role? Explain why. Detail how you have accomplished your goals in a concrete way.
5. Professional Summaries, In; Objectives, Out

Employers care about their own objectives, not yours. Take this section out of most higher education resumes. Instead, replace it with a summary of your accomplishments that will make you stand out to potential employers. Get rid of any fluffy language as well. Everyone applying for the job you are is “student-centered with excellent communication skills.” Phrases such as these are rarely read and will not get you closer to an interview.

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Managing Time for the Caring of Others and Ourselves

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Finding time to balance the needs of self-care, family and work is the most challenging demand of the modern workplace, particularly in higher education. Faculty, administrators and staff are involved in highly engaging work that can span 24/7, especially during the academic school year.

The demands on time and energy are both physical and emotional. At home, caring for young children or frail elders can add to your stress, so that the mere thought of meeting all demands can be overwhelming, if not downright frightening. Yet, continuous work and caregiving without proper rest and renewal can be counterproductive to your overall health and success.

Highly engaged people want to be successful in all realms of their lives, but how do you make it all work?

Finding Time for Dependent Care and Your Work-Life Balance

Imagine that you are the scheduling manager of a small unit of work and family and then list out all of your obligations and care needs for the week. Write everything on a master calendar (e.g. duration of activity, location) and then consider who might you recruit to oversee some of these tasks. For example, might your spouse/partner cook the evening meal and watch the kids while you go for a quick run? Might your elderly mother spend the day at an adult day center so that you can focus without worry on work? Planning and recruiting assistance in an organized, thoughtful way will alleviate the emotional and physical burden that you carry when you assume you have to do everything. It also allows you to schedule time for self-care without guilt and creates opportunities for meaningful relationships and community by involving others in your daily life.

Including Your Family and Friends

People want to help but need direction! Schedule needs and assign helpers on shared calendars (Google, Outlook) or utilize specialized care calendar websites such as Lots of Helping Hands to give instruction. As multi-dimensional beings, we need work, family, friends and community to feel whole. Thoughtful planning will ensure that we successfully meet our care obligations while kindly caring for ourselves in the process.

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Robynn M. Pease, Ph.D. has over 20 years of related experience in the field of work-life and is the former director of the Greater Oregon Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (GO HERC). Prior to her current position as Faculty Ombudsman at Oregon State University (OSU), Robynn served as the Coordinator of Work-Life at OSU and the Director of Work-Life at the University of Kentucky. She holds a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Kentucky, with an emphasis in gerontology.

“Job Talks” as Part of an Interview Process

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Job Talks No Longer Just for Academics

Faculty recruits are often tasked with making presentations on their specialized fields – what’s known as a “job talk” when coming before search committees. This process gives recruits an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and style as a teacher, scholar, and colleague.

There is now an increase in similar requests being made to those interviewing for administrative roles. When serving on search committees I had observed these job talks when senior administrative candidates reached the near-final stage. Now, however, even middle level administrative candidates are often being asked to present to a committee of peers and stakeholders when they reach a final round.

While I don’t necessarily advocate for this exercise as part of the process, I can understand why a hiring unit might see the value. How a candidate prepares content, presents to an audience, and fields questions does say a great deal about how they would perform on the job—especially if the position would require them to do just that. At the same time, it can be somewhat unnerving for a candidate who has made it successfully through one-on-one interviews and then receives word that a job talk is the next step.

Preparing for a Job Talk

So what can you do to ease your anxiety? First, as with any interview, try to learn in advance who will be in the audience. Knowing as much as you can about the individuals sitting across the table from you will ease your anxiety. Remember you would not have gotten this far if the people you have met to date did not have strong interest in you.

So now you have to use this presentation to demonstrate your understanding of the functions of the role. Hopefully you will receive some guidelines on what they want to hear from you. But if the subject is open, then use everything you have learned in the interviews so far, to come up with a topic. Most likely, however, they will give you extensive details on what topic they want covered. I have even heard of role-plays being incorporated.

Like any successful performance, job talks require practice. If you are not strong on PowerPoint, then get help from a trusted friend! The stakes are high and you do not want inferior technology to impede your chances of landing the position. If you are selected, accept the position, and learn that these presentations happen frequently you can always ask your new boss about training to improve your skills.

Nerve wracking as job talks can be, try to see them as an opportunity for you to envision what it would be like working daily with this office.

For more interviewing tips, visit our archived webinars page.

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How Being Ready to Interview on Short Notice Works to Your Advantage

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Despite my ongoing emphasis on extensive preparation for an interview, there could be an instance where a prospective employer might call you on very short notice. The reason could be anything from a cancellation having occurred and their wanting to utilize the time or your being a later applicant in a search that is either far along in the process or being quickly prioritized.

How you respond to a such a request for an interview says a lot about you. Of course you may simply not be available due to a work conflict or being out of town. If that is the case then apologize and exhibit extreme flexibility about scheduling at the next earliest convenience of the recruiter. If the request is for a phone interview and you are available then schedule accordingly and try to do some quick research on the employer in advance if possible. There could even be a request for an in person interview later on the same day. I admit to having suggested that to a candidate more than once due to a cancellation. Of course this could work only if you are local and could get to the proposed site without much difficulty. I always tell the candidate there would be no expectation that they would be dressed in interview mode.

How you react to the request at first and then actually rally for the interview tells the employer a great deal about you and how you would function on the job if/when meetings are scheduled unexpectedly. I can think of a perfect example of someone who actually took my call at 9:00 am, interviewed with me in person at 4:00, and after two more later rounds of interviews landed the position. She is now doing spectacularly well.

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Tips for Using Skype to YOUR Advantage

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Higher education employers are increasingly holding off on in-person interviews until a final stage, opting for phone screens and often Skype. This is especially common for out of town candidates since Skype is typically the most accessible option for the employer and for you.

Here are five tips for succeeding on Skype:
1. Be Prepared for Technology Fails

Even if you are sure that the technology is in place on your end, do understand that there is always the probability that the technology might NOT work on their end. I have had that happen here for unexplained reasons. So you need to remain undaunted (which will reflect positively on you) and be flexible if phone ends up being the alternative at the last minute.

2. Professional User Names

Just like the general best practice of having a professional email address for job search communications, make sure you are using a professional Skype name for your interview.

3. Staging Your Space

Make sure to prepare your interview space so that it is clean and well lit. You do not want your interviewer to be able to read too much into your personal space. Also, make sure that your space is quiet and free from interruptions and distractions.

4. Demonstrate Confidence

Posture is particularly important in a Skype interview. Pick a chair with a straight back so you do not accidentally start slouching during the call. You want to sit up straight and communicate confidence.

5. Be Prepared

Most of all, you need to prepare for a Skype interview just as diligently as you would if you were meeting the interviewer in person. That translates into studying the job description thoroughly and making the case that you match up perfectly with every aspect of the role. Keep reminding yourself that you would not have been chosen to interview had they not seen enough in the resume to lead them to believe you might have what they are seeking in the role.

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Cover Letters are NOT Dead

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I just read an online article claiming cover letters are dead and that employers normally do not bother to read them. Perhaps that is true in some sectors but certainly not in higher education. You will see certain jobs posted on websites for colleges and universities that actually will say “applicants who do not submit a cover letter will not be considered.”

Even in the cases where that mandate is not so overt, schools and departments do see the absence of a cover letter as an indication that the applicant was too lazy to bother to write one. I have on occasion stepped in to say that perhaps the person was so excited to see the posting that they wanted to apply right away (a lame excuse, I know). Even if that happened to be the case, many Applicant Tracking Systems do not allow you to go back in and attach or edit. The rationale for hiring units to want a cover letter is more than an indication of level of interest but actually a way to judge how well someone can write. Of course they want to absorb the content and match up what the candidate says as related to the job specifications. But they also want to see how well someone writes. Almost every position in higher education necessitates good writing skills. So no matter how rushed you are it could put you at a disadvantage to not include a cover letter.

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Who Inspired you to be a Faculty Member?

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To honor and celebrate our nations’ educators, HERC Trustee Partner, PeopleAdmin, a leader in talent management software for K-12 and higher education, recently launched the Inspired2Educate recognition program. Inspired2Educate encourages current education professionals at all K-20 schools and grades — from kindergarten to doctoral programs — to nominate via video or in writing a teacher, administrator or staff member who inspired them to start their careers in education. Each month, PeopleAdmin will review entries and award one person with a $1,000 scholarship for their own professional development, as well as $1,000 for their educational institution to use however it sees fit. Please share your Inspired2Educate story at https://www.peopleadmin.com/inspired2educate.

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