Accommodations are critical to job success

If you’re unsure whether it’s worthwhile to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled staff members, consider a newly released report showing that 58% of U.S. workers who’ve been provided with a disability accommodation think that the accommodation has been critical to their success in the workplace.

The results of the survey of 9,000 U.S. job seekers and current employees conducted by Inclusively revealed that only 18% of those who’ve been provided with an accommodation didn’t think it had been critical to their workplace success, while 24% didn’t know or were unsure whether the accommodation had been critical to success.

Even though most respondents found value in accommodations, the survey also indicated that many workers think the process of seeking an accommodation can be cumbersome. For instance, 31% of those who revealed a disability said the disclosure process was difficult and 15% said the process was very difficult.

Action steps: Make sure everyone knows how to disclose a disability. You should also periodically remind staffers that you’ll work with them to identify accommodations. Reason: You don’t want to find out a staffer was reluctant to seek an accommodation only after the person has filed a disability bias lawsuit.

(From the November 22, 2024, issue of HR Manager’s Legal Alert for Supervisors. To start your no-obligation trial subscription to the publication right now, please click here.)