US Disability Guidelines
Information for Employers and Recruiters
As part of our commitment to improving diversity in the workplace, we provide organizations with tools and information to help them recruit, fairly select and retain talented people with disabilities.
This section of our website gives guidance to US-based employers who use assessments in recruitment, selection or employee development. All recommendations are best practice suggestions and need to be tailored to the individual candidate. If there is any uncertainty, you should always seek independent legal advice.
If you have been asked to take an assessment as part of a recruitment, selection or development process, please contact the organization concerned for more information.
It is every employer’s responsibility to consider whether a candidate with a disability is disadvantaged in a selection process and to provide reasonable accommodations. Candidates should also be given the opportunity to suggest accommodations they might need. The more information you have from the candidate, the better you will be able to use our guidance to choose the most appropriate accommodation(s).
Our tools and assessments can be adjusted to best meet your candidate’s need for a reasonable accommodation. However, it is your responsibility to identify through an interactive process whether the individual is covered by the ADA and to evaluate with the individual how to provide reasonable accommodation in the assessment process.
Top Tips
- Plan ahead – what are the accommodations likely to be for disabilities that affect the assessment process (such as vision impairment and emotional disabilities like OCD, ADD, etc.)?
- Communicate – express your commitment to equal access, a fair selection process and invite the candidate to discuss their disabilities and potential accommodations with you
- Educate – make sure you know how to translate the information into the appropriate accommodation using the required “interactive process.”
- Prepare – have a process ready to put the accommodations in place
- Support – know where to go for help