Date Presented 4/1/2017
Workplace success for persons with visual impairments requires specific demands and skills. Associations of discrimination charges filed before and after the Americans With Disabilities Act Amendments Act suggest interventions should target retention aspects of work, the largest growing category of discrimination.
Primary Author and Speaker: Callie Victor
Contributing Authors: Al Copolillo, Dianne Pawluk, Kelli Williams Gary, Leroy Thacker II
PURPOSE: Perceived discrimination occurs in all aspects of work for individuals with visual impairments as evidenced by charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Before this study, there had not been an examination of discrimination charges filed by individuals with visual impairments following the Americans With Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA). Therefore, the impact of the new legislation, intended to better protect against workplace discrimination, on this population was unknown. The purpose of this study was to identify specific aspects of work to focus education and resources regarding perceived discrimination from individuals with visual impairments. Grouping the EEOC’s recognized employment rights violations into four themes targets specific demands and skills needed for success in the workplace. These themes include work acquisition, satisfaction, retention, and other. The research question that guided this study was, Are there differences between discrimination charges filed with the EEOC before and after enactment of the ADAAA regarding a visual impairment?
DESIGN AND METHOD: The study conducted was a nonexperimental, cross-sectional, retrospective database analysis of 11,482 discrimination charges filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and ADAAA with the EEOC disability code BLINDVIS (vision impairment). Following a formal research proposal, deidentified raw data were obtained May 11, 2015, from the Integrated Mission System database, a component of the National EEOC ADA Research Project. Pearson chi-square analysis was used to determine associations between the categorical variables. Two time period groups represented the discrimination charges: The first represented the ADA (July 26, 1992–December 31, 2008) and the second the ADAAA (January 1, 2009–December 31, 2011).
RESULTS: The study results revealed an association between the categories of discrimination charges and whether the charges were filed before or after the ADAAA. Post hoc tests found significance among acquisition, retention, and satisfaction charges. Additionally, acquisition charges decreased by 8.6%, satisfaction charges increased by 3.6%, and retention charges increased by 5.0% after the ADAAA.
DISCUSSION: Attaining work is a culmination of skills, self-efficacy, and motivation to apply for and obtain a job when qualified. Individuals may have already been in their jobs when they developed a visual impairment; therefore, discrimination due to their vision was not an issue during acquisition. In addition, employers’ attitudes toward hiring this population may have positively shifted, resulting in fewer discriminatory instances during the acquisition phase. Work satisfaction encompasses personal feelings of fulfillment, mastery, and happiness. Accordingly, focus may be changing from work attainment to development with the advances in technology (Lynch, 2013) and the need for employers to offer accommodations (Dorrian, 2014), resulting in more individuals with visual impairments in the workplace (Strobel, Fossa, Arthanat, & Brace, 2006).
CONCLUSION: The ability to retain work requires compatibility between personal and employer characteristics and an accommodating workplace. Previous research indicated a lack of awareness of how to handle an employee’s needs and the costs of accommodations as reasons for discharge (Kaye, Jans, & Jones, 2011). This is concerning as retention was the largest growing category of discrimination charges, and it appears individuals are delaying retirement by continuing to work into older age (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). Therefore, retention charges may increase as the workforce population ages if this trend continues. Education and resources should be directed at aspects of work retention for individuals with visual impairments.
References
Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. 101–336, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101–12213 (2000).
ADA Amendments Act of 2008, Pub. L. 110–325, 122 Stat. 3553.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2013). Working beyond retirement age. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/people/laborforce/publications/Working-Beyond-Retirement-Age.pdf
Dorrian, P. (2014). ADAAA at five: Intent largely realized, but interpretation continuing to evolve. Daily Labor Report. Retrieved from http://www.bna.com/adaaa-five-intent-n17179891316
Kaye, H. S., Jans, L. H., & Jones, E. C. (2011). Why don’t employers hire and retain workers with disabilities? Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 21, 526–536. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-011-9302-8
Lynch, K. A. (2013). Survey reveals myths and misconceptions abundant among hiring managers about the capabilities of people who are visually impaired. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 107, 408–410.
Strobel, W., Fossa, J., Arthanat, S., & Brace, J. (2006). Technology for access to text and graphics for people with visual impairments and blindness in vocational settings. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 24(2), 87–95.
