Job application question---the section for disabilities

Factual Questions
1

Due to my lamentable state of unemployment, I’ve been filling out job applications for quite a while.

On some of these applications, there’s a section–usually under the heading of “Equal Opportunity Information” or something similar–where you have the option of identifying your gender and ethnicity. I’ve always filled these out without any reservation or objection.

But it’s the section on disabilities that have given me pause. I’m severely-to-profoundly deaf, and although I definitely have impaired hearing, I have never seen it as a “disability”.

Recently, I was counseled by my dad and stepmother to mark the section for disabilities in the affirmative, since in many places, the legal definition of disability could encompass my deafness. Since then, I have done so, but with some reservations.

Earlier today, I filled out an application for a job in Minneapolis. It would be a choice city to relocate to. In the “Equal Opportunity Information” section, there was the usual stuff, but the disability section here was the most detailed that I’ve seen. Next to the boxes for “No” and “Yes”, there was a list of various potential disabilities, among them “hearing impairment”, along with a blank space where I was asked to describe the disability if I marked the “Yes” box.

I marked the “Yes” box and gave a description. But then a thought occurred to me.

What exactly does the potential employer do with this information? Does it have any potential effect at all on a person’s chances of getting hired?

Obviously, since there are laws in most places prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, or disability, a potential employer can’t use one of those things as the sole reason for rejecting my application. But if they never tell me the “real” reason for passing over my application, I will never be the wiser, and the potential employer will never face a lawsuit.

If this information has no role in the hiring process, that just brings up another question: why bother asking about it at all?

Are there any dopers out there who have worked in the field of Human Resources or who have experience hiring employees that can tell me the answers to these questions? It troubles me that there is a possibility that this Minneapolis hospital could take one look at the section where I indicated that I have a hearing impairment, and decide that I probably wouldn’t be a good audiologist to hire.

2

It is kept separate from your application, and (theoretically) does not have any affect of whether or not you are hired. The reason these records are kept is to determine if equal opportunity was infrigned upon. For example, if a company has 75 employees, all of whom are white, they might be asked to reveal their records to help determine if there was a racial bias in hiring.

Now, whether your potential employer sees these attributes and hires you over a non-diabled person in order to seem in compliance with the law, and not because you were more qualified, is another matter, and probably not for GQ.

3

By the way, I didn’t mean to imply that this might be the case, or would be the case, or happens at all–I just meant that some people think that, and we shouldn’t discuss that side of the issue.

4

The information is gathered for statistical purposes. It’s supposed to assist employers in hiring and having a diverse pool of applicants, as well as employees. The larger an employer the greater the chance you will complete an EO form. Such forms are voluntary and you cannot be required to complete one.

Technically, any information you supply on the form cannot be used for any hiring/non-hiring decision. It may come out during the hiring process of your disability but that is a separate issue. Even so, it is my understanding that since the ADA law was passed, an employer has to make reasonable accommodation for your “disability,” especially when the job requirements have no non-merit impact on your ability to do the job.

While you may not consider your deafness a disability, under the law it is a disability. So don’t feel guilty about not accepting it as such (at least under the law). For example, I was taught anyone who wears corrective lenses for their eyes can also claim a disability.

Completing an EO form has the stigma of being a Catch-22. Do potential employers really use it for statistical purposes only, or is there any possibility the information you provide may be used against you? I cannot offer an answer.

FWIW, I never complete an EO form. Why? Well, in my federal EO counselor days I know that applications where I played a role, the EO form was separated from the application from the start and the hiring authority never saw it. Then again, I am also aware of instances where the form stayed with the application, ending up in the employee’s personnel folder along with and even attached to their original application, in direct violation of company policy and/or the law.

5

The Americans With Disabilities Act regulates employee discrimination regarding persons with disabilities. You have a disability if

Employers are not allowed to discriminate against a person with a disability if the person is qualified to do the job in question. (e.g. a wheelchair-bound individual would not be qualified to pull people out of burning buildings.)

Employers are allowed to ask about disabilities in order to determine if you are qualified.

More info here: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/workta.htm

6

often this form can be a benefit to an employee. An employer may have reasons to think that a hearing impaired person might not be able to be substantially accomodated(for instance a job that involves answering the phone. Regardless of the availability of tddy services or whatever there is definitly a possible impact on customer relations.) However if a position would not be affected by the disability an employer may find it to be beneficial for a handicapped person to be hired for a given position because of tax incentives or other benefits, thus giving the “handicapped” person an advantage.

I understand your reluctance at describing yourself as handicapped but, believe me, you are. You cannot argue that you do not have to make accomodations for your disability, and even though you may find those accomodaton entirely sufficient, they do cost energy and concentration that would otherwise be expended elsewhere. If I lost my hearing I would be at an extreme disadvantage to those with full hearing. I may eventually be able to compensate, but it would always cost me a little more in time and effort to do so.