DO-IT - Careers

How can workplaces be more inclusive of colleagues who are deaf or hard of hearing?

lylac — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 17:36:14 +0000

Much can be done to make a workspace more accessible to and inclusive of colleagues who are deaf or hard of hearing. Universal design can provide a framework for doing so by underpinning practices that can be applied proactively to make a welcoming and environment and to ensure that appropriate accommodations are available specific individuals. Aspects of the work environment to consider are in-person, remote, and hybrid presentations and professional development; in-person and remote meetings and discussions; and conversations and networking.

The Mind Hears offers guidance to employers for making their workplaces more accessible to and inclusive of individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. For a comprehensive list of ideas consult What can you do to improve the academic workplace for your deaf and hard-of-hearing colleagues?

Are there employment resources specifically designed to serve neurodivergent job seekers?

ericwt — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 21:31:52 +0000

There are various resources for helping neurodivergent job seekers find jobs and careers. For example, the Neurodiversity Career Connector includes a collection of employers committed to hiring neurodivergent employees as well as providing additional training and support to foster success and career growth. The Neurodiversity in the Workplace combines job posting services with business consultancy services, to help businesses develop policies and services to support neurodiverse employees.

Some specific companies are eager to hire neurodivergent employees. For example, Microsoft offers a program called Simplify Neurodiversity Career Connector and SAS has a specialized Autism Spectrum Internship Program for current students. Other examples of specific company programs can be found in the knowledge base article Where can I find employment resources for students with disabilities?

For other employment resources, check out AccessComputing’s employment resources page and the knowledge base article What resources can help students with disabilities find and apply for jobs?

What is neuroethics and how does it relate to people with disabilities?

swb3 — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 17:17:47 +0000

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Brain Initiative website, neuroethics is “a field that studies the ethical, legal, and societal implications of neuroscience.” The strategic plan for the NIH BRAIN Initiative, BRAIN 2025: A Scientific Vision, emphasizes “Although brain research entails ethical issues that are common to other areas of biomedical science, it entails special ethical considerations as well. Because the brain gives rise to consciousness, our innermost thoughts, and our most basic human needs, mechanistic studies of the brain have already resulted in new social and ethical questions.”

The questions that neuroethicists explore have vast implications for people with disabilities, who may adopt technology and drug treatments created in the field of neuroscience.

The concept of “nothing about us without us” suggests that people with disabilities should be involved in the field of neuroethics, as well as neuroscience itself, to ensure that their voices are included in critical conversations and decisions that impact people with disabilities. Including people with disabilities in neuroethics and neuroscience will also help ensure that principles of universal design (UD) are adopted as new technology is designed and developed. Through the promotion and implementation of UD, they can help ensure that neuroscience products are accessible to people with varying characteristics and abilities. For examples, view the publication Equal Access: Universal Design of Neuroscience Education and Research.

To learn more about neuroethics and how it involves people with disabilities, visit the Brain Initiative’s website about the Neuroethics Working Group, or explore postsecondary institutions to see if they have programming, such as the ��ԭ��’s Neuroethics program. View the perspective of students with disabilities as they discuss emerging technology that can enhance the human body and mind in the video presentation Technology Advancements and Disability Identity.

What do “neurodiverse” and “neurodivergent” mean?

swb3 — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 16:50:29 +0000

Terms such as “neurodiverse” and “neurodivergent” were introduced in the 1990s by autistic sociologist Judy Singer as an alternative to deficit-based language, such as “disorder.” Singer highlighted notable strengths of many individuals in the autistic population that include abilities to focus, recognize patterns, and remember factual information. A “neurodivergent” person refers to a person on the autism spectrum or, more generally, to someone whose brain processes information in a way that is not typical of most individuals. These people may have learning disabilities, attention deficit and anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Tourette’s syndrome. Through a neurodiversity lens, such conditions reflect different ways of being that are all normal human experiences.

Although “neurodiversity” is usually used to describe a group of neurodivergent individuals, it also refers to all of humankind because everyone has a unique way of processing information.

For a project that works with neurodiverse students, consult the DO-IT website Neuroscience for Neurodiverse Learners.

For further information regarding neurodiversity, consult Harvard's What is Neurodiversity?, How do neurodiverse and neurotypical software engineers differ in the workplace?, and this article by the Neurodiversity Hub.

How can STEM academic departments be more accessible to and inclusive of faculty with disabilities?

lylac — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 18:13:24 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

As institutions seek to leverage the benefits of diversity, application pools for faculty positions have become increasingly diverse, inclusive of faculty with disabilities who bring unique and valuable perspectives and talents to the workplace. However, the inaccessible design of the employment application process, as well as many campus facilities, software tools, services, and online resources, continue to erect barriers to some applicants and employees with disabilities, including those who are also members of other marginalized groups. Keep in mind that many individuals with disabilities who are applicants or employees with disabilities do not disclose their disabilities to an institution.

Matters unique to faculty positions and academic workplaces call for approaches that incorporate disability perspectives. Examples include identifying the essential functions of faculty positions (which vary depending on the academic field and/or unit); developing equitable promotion, tenure, and evaluation policy and practices; and providing early career mentoring opportunities. Additionally, faculty members with disabilities face the same stereotypes and accessibility concerns that affect all people with disabilities; to make greater changes towards creating a more inclusive and accessible institution, campus-wide equity efforts need to include disability perspectives.

The AccessADVANCE project, led by the ��ԭ�� and North Dakota State University, is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote systemic changes that will increase the successful participation and advancement of women with disabilities in STEM faculty careers. Project staff, along with collaborators, created the checklist Equal Access: Making STEM Departments More Accessible to and Inclusive of Women with Disabilities to provide guidance to campus leaders. Below we feature the subheadings, descriptions, and a main example question featured in the checklist. For a more-indepth review and list of questions for each section, view the full checklist online or download a copy to print and address at your own pace.

Recruitment

Recruit to attract a diverse applicant pool, including people with disabilities, and employ accessible technology and recruitment practices.

Do you share how to request disability-related accommodations in correspondence about available positions, the application process, and scheduling job interviews?

Policies and Evaluation

Ensure that diversity, including disability, considerations are addressed in all policies and evaluations regarding your offerings.

Do policies and procedures require that accessibility be considered in design, development, and procurement processes (e.g., regarding facilities, IT, and services)?

Department/Campus Culture

Consider disability perspectives as you plan and evaluate your facilities and offerings.

Do campus or departmental diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives address matters relevant to faculty members with disabilities?

Physical Environments

Ensure physical access, comfort, and safety within an environment that is welcoming to visitors with a variety of abilities, racial and ethnic backgrounds, genders, and ages.

Are all levels of departmental facilities connected via wheelchair-accessible routes of travel? Are accessible routes of travel easy to find? Do all commonly used exterior and restroom doors have sensors or buttons for automatic opening? Are they regularly inspected to ensure functionality?

Support Services

Make sure support staff are prepared to work with all faculty, including those with disabilities.

Do staff members know how to respond to requests for disability-related accommodations such as sign language interpreters?

Information Resources and IT

Ensure that publications and websites welcome a diverse group and that information is accessible to everyone. Make sure accessible technology is available to faculty with disabilities.

Do departmental and campus web pages adhere to accessibility guidelines or standards adopted by your institution or your department? For information about designing accessible websites, consult W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Accommodations

Put systems in place to ensure reasonable accommodations are available to faculty.

Does a simple, transparent procedure to ensure a timely response to requests for disability-related accommodations exist and are faculty made aware of these services (e.g., in a faculty manual, in faculty and staff orientations, and other meetings?)

For the complete list of suggestions, consult Equal Access: Making STEM Departments More Accessible to and Inclusive of Women with Disabilities.

Additional tips for getting started can be found in the article 6 Ways to Dismantle Barriers for Disabled Faculty on Campus.

How can interns and employees with disabilities serve to enrich a company?

lylac — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 19:42:47 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

Companies benefit from having interns and employees with disabilities. These individuals enrich companies in ways that include the following.

Having an employee with a disability may make it more acceptable for other employees to open up to each other about strengths and weaknesses.
People with disabilities are often good problem solvers, thinking outside the box and creating solutions to problems that may not be apparent to others.
They can promote a culture of accessibility and diversity.
People with disabilities often create a safe place for sharing thoughts and ideas.
Opening the conversation up around disability encourages all work processes to be accessible and all products developed to be accessible.
Including employees and interns with disabilities makes a statement that your workplace is flexible and adaptable .

For more information you may also be interested in What strategies are companies using to recruit employees with autism spectrum disorder?, Why should a company hire a person with a disability?, and the video Recruiting and Retaining Employees with Disabilities.

What can companies do to support employees with disabilities?

lylac — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 19:39:45 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

There are a variety of strategies that companies can use to support employees with disabilities. Taking such actions may help to ensure that employees with disabilities have the same opportunities for advancement and professional development as all employees. Some of these strategies may be similar to strategies used to support other underrepresented groups, such as women and racial/ethnic minorities. To support employees with disabilities companies can:

Explicitly state that professional development opportunities are welcoming of all employees, including those with disabilities.
Have a central fund for accommodations in order to ensure that any expenses associated with hiring an individual with a disability do not come from departmental budgets. This means teams do not feel penalized when they hire an individual with a disability.
Ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to mentors. This could take the formal of a formal mentoring program or encouraging managers to develop strong relationships with employees with disabilities.
Make sure all internal products are made accessible so employees can access information about opportunities and resources.
Train employees and managers on unconscious bias and create a culture around supporting one other.

For more information you may also be interested in reading What strategies are companies using to recruit employees with autism spectrum disorder?, Why should a company hire a person with a disability? or viewing the video Recruiting and Retaining Employees with Disabilities.

How do neurodiverse and neurotypical software engineers differ in the workplace?

lylac — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:44:24 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

Research findings comparing the experiences of neurodiverse employees with neurotypical employees at a large company revealed differences between the two groups. In the study “neurodiverse employees” were defined as individuals with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and/or learning disabilities. “Neurotypical” employees were defined as individuals without one of these disabilities. Responses in interviews and to a large survey, suggest that neurodiverse employees’ experiences in the workplace were different than those of neurotypical employees.

Neurodiverse employees reported challenges with making an appropriate response when colleagues’ code did not strictly adhere to style guidelines, completing some mundane tasks, displaying appropriate emotions at work, and/or responding professionally to critique.
More neurodiverse than neurotypical employees felt that they had poor interpersonal communication skills, causing stress in interactions such as team meetings and job interviews as well as routine communication with colleagues. Some had difficulties with successfully meeting responsibilities in management roles.
More neurodiverse than neurotypical employees reported difficulties dealing with distractions in the work environment, time management, task prioritization, or organizational restructuring.
Many neurodiverse employees reported advantages in being neurodiverse, including noticing patterns, visualizing information, maintaining focus on a project, strictly adhering to style guidelines, and devising creative solutions.

It is important for employers to consider these differences in order to support employees with disabilities that make them “neurodiverse” or to recruit and retain such employees. The study found the following:

Most neurodiverse respondents had not requested accommodations. Accommodations that could potentionally benefit these individuals include strategies to minimize social interactions (not sharing a hotel room during business travel, a private office, or working from home) or assistance understanding work assignments (key information sent via email, detailed and clear instructions, regular meetings with their supervisor).
Many neurodiverse employees were not diagnosed until adulthood. Some of these individuals were self-diagnosed. For some, having a child or family member diagnosed with ASD or a bad performance review at work prompted their diagnosis. Having a diagnosis can be beneficial in that in leads to strategies for managing ASD.
Many neurodiverse employees choose not to disclose at work for fear of being judged or facing workplace discrimination. The majority of respondents had not experienced such discrimination.

Because neurodiverse employees may not disclose their disabilities or even have a diagnosis, employers may underestimate their prevalence and the importance of addressing their special needs.

For more information about this research study, consult Understanding the Challenges Faced by Neurodiverse Software Engineering Employees: Towards a More Inclusive and Productive Technical Workforce by Meredith Ringel Morris, Andrew Begel, and Ben Wiedermann from the Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility.

For assistance in locating resources about individuals with disabilities in specific career fields visit the Knowledge Base article Where can I find resources about individuals with disabilities in specific career fields?

What can companies do to raise awareness of the need for employees that understand accessibility?

lylac — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 20:33:29 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

When employees across a company – in engineering, design, and development roles – have an understanding of accessibility, rather than just a handful of employees in an accessibility department, it can lead to improved accessibility of products developed and services offered by the company. To achieve this goal, Teach Access is encouraging employers to include in job descriptions required or preferred skill, knowledge and/or experience about accessibility. This strategy raises awareness of job seekers of the importance of these skills.

Examples of statements that companies have used in job descriptions as required or desirable qualifications include that the applicant will have:

Familiarity with mobile accessibility best practices
Experience with Google Talkback Accessibility Services preferred
Experience with user research supporting accessibility highly desirable
An understanding of Technical UX concepts like: accessibility, performance, and responsive design implementation
Experience with web accessibility standards and requirements (e.g. WCAG 2.0 & Section 508 Standards)
An understanding of accessible design principles and the ability to build products that are accessible to users with disabilities
The ability to research, evaluate, and enforce web standards for usability and accessibility

For more information and further examples, consult the Teach Access Job Description Initiative.

What strategies are companies using to recruit employees with autism spectrum disorder?

lylac — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 20:30:05 +0000

Date Updated:

05/23/22

A large portion of individuals with ASD are unemployed although many of them are capable of working. Students with ASD often find it difficult to communicate in a traditional interview format. Some companies, both in the US and abroad, have enacted programs to specifically recruit employees with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Examples of these recruitment efforts and programs include:

Microsoft has launched a program to hire individuals with ASD. Through the program, candidates go through workshop and have access to job coaches.
SAP’s Autism at Work program recruits employees with ASD and works to ensure they have multiple sources of support.
Google has partnered with the Lime Connect network to recruit interns who identify as being on the Autism Spectrum and are interested in a technical internship in Software Engineering.
Autism @ Work Roundtable offers a simple way for candidates to see the type of roles and skill sets each position is hiring for and how to apply. The roles listed are all based in the US and at various locations per company.
Dell Technologies' Neurodiversity Program provides an interview process that is designed for Neurodivergent candidates for both internship and full-time employment.
In the UK, the analytics company SAS offers work experience with ASD. SAS supports interns and employees with ASD by training existing employees, adjusting the interview process, and providing written instructions to interns.
In Australia, Hewlett Packard’s Dandelion program includes an extended interview process, coaching on life skills, and training for hiring managers.

For more information on ASD consult the Knowledge Base articles, What is Asperger's Disorder? and What is Autism?