Adherence and Accessibility in the Workplace: Directly Consulting with Disabled Workers and Prospective Workers

Abstract

Equitable access to and within one’s chosen field of work heavily impacts one’s level of productivity, satisfaction in the workplace, and longevity of one’s time employed in this location. In that critical era when new college graduates are building a career, examining how those who expect to request accommodations experience workplace accessibility can help workers, policy makers, and researchers gain insight concerning the process of requesting accommodations and how disabled* workers and prospective workers can best be served to allow them to achieve their fullest potential in their chosen field. When transitioning from being a student to working full-time, workplace accessibility begins before one is offered a position or formally enters the workplace. Even if changes made on one’s behalf don’t get too far within a place of work to make something more accessible; they often get more (read:any) acknowledgement than the presence of one who cannot get into the place of work to begin with and seeks out changes to be made to allow more equitable entry.1

The purpose of this study is to gain insight concerning patterns of the experiences and outcomes of the studied population to inform best practices, services, policy, and further studies when looking to improve the conditions that the studied population enter during the time frame the study examines.