How disabilities play out in the interview process

QUESTION: I have an interview next week. I also have a small disability that doesn’t affect my ability to work. (I’ve been with the same company for over five years and it has never been a problem.) But I’m worried it might be a strike against me when they see me.

Gillespie: There is no need to worry about your interview “next week.” You’ve already passed the first hurdle. Your résumé has obviously impressed the decision-makers.

How do I know? If it didn’t, they wouldn’t have contacted you.

As for your interview, when I have a client whose disability is obvious, even if, like you, they won’t need a special accommodation and it “doesn’t affect (their) ability” to do the “essential functions” of the job they are applying for, I always recommend being up front with the interviewer.

Why? No company can be forced to hire a candidate just because they have a disability. But all things being equal, if you have the qualifications they are looking for and the only reason they hired someone else is because he or she doesn’t have a disability, they would be in violation of federal law.

This brings me to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). It is “responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.”

(The law for folks with a disability is called the Americans with Disabilities Act, “ADA”). This law “makes it unlawful to discriminate in employment against a qualified individual with a disability.” It went into effect “when the final version of the bill… first introduced in the House and Senate in 1988 … was signed into law on July 26, 1990 by President George H. W. Bush.”)

That said, since you are sure to be competing with several other qualified candidates for the job, don’t automatically think discrimination if they hire someone else. It could be because he/she was a better match with, say, the corporate culture there.

You may submit job and career questions for Judy to judy@careeravenuesbyjudy.com