Part 2: Accessibility and Accommodations
It is important for employers to understand the candidate experience for job seekers with disabilities. The first part of doing this is going back to basics to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.careercircle.com/blog/post/the-candidate-experience-blog-series-part-1-unde" rel="follow">fully understand Disability 101</a>. Secondly, truly understanding accessibility and accommodations are key to helping improve the hiring process for candidates with disabilities.
Inaccessible online job applications and misunderstandings about reasonable accommodations can be two barriers to employment for job seekers with disabilities. Accessibility is defined as &ldquo;the design of products, devices, services, and/or environments for people of varying abilities.&rdquo;
There are multiple federal laws that outline requirements and guidelines around access and employment. This includes Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which requires Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities; Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), which defines how to make Web content more accessible to people with disabilities; and Title 1 of the ADA, which prohibits employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities with equal access to employment opportunities and reasonable accommodations by employers with 15 employees or more.
&ldquo;Accessibility&rdquo; can be broken into four categories:
<ol>
<li>Universal Design&nbsp;- making something accessible to all people regardless of age, disability or other factor. An example is using voice access on a cell phone.</li>
<li>Physical Accessibility&nbsp;- access to the physical environment. Examples are parking lots, conference rooms, workspaces, hallways, interview locations, and emergency exits.</li>
<li>Digital Accessibility&nbsp;- ability of a website, mobile application, or electronic document to be easily navigated and understood by a wide range of users.</li>
<li>Assistive Technology&nbsp;- assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities.&nbsp;Examples are screen readers or speech-to-text applications.</li>
</ol>
Under the ADA, a reasonable accommodation is defined as &ldquo;a modification or adjustment to a job, the work environment, or the way things are usually done during the hiring process.&rdquo; If a job candidate requests a reasonable accommodation, the employer should provide or direct the candidate to the company&rsquo;s accommodation statement.
Other tips on providing accessibility and accommodations include:
<ul>
<li>Ensuring your social media posts are accessible! Job seekers often turn to social media for their job search and to research a company&rsquo;s employer brand prior to applying.&nbsp; One example of accessibility is having closed captioning in every video.</li>
<li>Ensuring all work-related, non-HTML content like PDFs, Excel, etc. are fully accessible. Acrobat Pro has a &ldquo;check accessibility&rdquo; tool to ensure your PDFs are accessible. Current employees who have not self-disclosed having a disability may greatly benefit from accessible documents.</li>
<li>The accommodation statement should be in an easy-to-find place. Best practice is to have it both at the bottom of all pages of the website in an easy-to-read size font, and at the bottom of all job descriptions.</li>
</ul>
While there is a common misconception that accommodations are expensive, most accommodations cost less than $500, and 59 percent cost nothing at all. In fact, remaining proactive about providing accommodations often benefits everyone in the workplace. Here are some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/Accommodations.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">examples of accommodations</a>.
Find an A-Z guide of disabilities and accommodations, as well as what actual candidates have to say about accommodations in our e-book&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="follow noopener" href="https://go.careercircle.com/candidate-experience-for-job-seekers-with-disabilities">&ldquo;Understanding the Candidate Experience for Job Seekers with Disabilities.&rdquo;</a>
For more resources and guidance on accessibility and accommodations, contact the CareerCircle team.&nbsp;
Contributions to this blog were made by Andra&eacute;a LaVant of Solutions Marketing Group.

Discover insightful articles on building inclusive work environments and fostering diverse talent communities.

The Candidate Experience Blog Series Part 2: Accessibility and Accommodations

Part 1: Understanding Disability
Many employers do not know where to begin when it comes to creating disability-inclusive workplaces. In order to implement the most inclusive hiring practices, the best place to start, is fully understanding what a disability is, what the landscape is like, and some facts that might not be known.
Disability 101: Back to Basics
What is a disability? According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),&nbsp;<a href="https://adata.org/faq/what-definition-disability-under-ada" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">an individual with a disability is</a>&nbsp;defined &ldquo;as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.&rdquo; The ADA qualifies disability as a legal term, not a medical one, helping secure equal opportunities and civil rights for persons with disabilities.
You may not even realize that certain disabilities, limitations, or illnesses &nbsp;are actually disabilities that may need employer accommodation.
To help further this understanding, we&rsquo;ve provided some examples below &ndash; (this is NOT a full list, however, a full list can be found on the Job Accommodation Network&nbsp;<a href="https://askjan.org/a-to-z.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a><a href="https://askjan.org/a-to-z.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">.</a>)
AIDS/HIV
Allergies
Alzheimer&rsquo;s Disease
Amputation
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)/Lou Gehrig&rsquo;s Disease
Anxiety Disorders
Arthritis
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Auditory Processing Disorder
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Bipolar Disorder
Bladder Impairments
Brain Injuries
Cancer
Cerebral Palsy
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic Pain
Cognitive Impairment (Intellectual)
Color Vision Deficiency (Color Blind)
Deafness or Hard of Hearing
Depression
Developmental Disabilities
Diabetes
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Epilepsy
Fibromyalgia
Gastrointestinal Disorders
Glaucoma
Heart Conditions
Hearing Loss
Hepatitis
Herpes Zoster (Shingles)
Huntington&rsquo;s Disease
Kidney Diseases
Learning Disabilities
Lyme Disease
Liver Disease
Lupus
Mental Health Impairments
Migraine Headaches
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Muscular Dystrophy
Parkinson&rsquo;s Disease
Personality Disorders
Physical Disabilities
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Pregnancy
Psychiatric Impairments
Quadriplegia
Sickle Cell Anemia
Skin Disorders
Sleep Disorders
Speech-Language Impairments
Spina Bifida
Spinal Cord Injuries
Stroke
Stuttering
Thyroid Disorders
Wheelchair Use
As you can see from the list we&rsquo;ve provided, along with most recent statistics,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p0816-disability.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1 in 4 Americans have a disability</a>. While many disabilities are visible, such as blindness or low vision, paralysis, or other physical disabilities,&nbsp;more than 70 percent of disabilities are non-apparent, such as cancer, autism, diabetes, PTSD, or depression.&nbsp;Additionally, more than 80 percent of disabilities are acquired throughout an individual&rsquo;s lifetime.&nbsp;Examples include long-term injuries due to an accident, diagnosis of an illness, decreased vision, hearing, or mobility.
Disability &amp; Employment
The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is almost twice that of individuals without disabilities, as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dol.gov/odep/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">7.7 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed</a>, compared to 3.7 percent of people without disabilities. This isn&rsquo;t only about education levels either &nbsp;&ndash; persons with disabilities who have attained at least a bachelor&rsquo;s degree are still three times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2018/labor-force-characteristics-of-people-with-a-disability/home.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">less likely to be employed</a>&nbsp;than those without a disability.
For an in-depth look at these topic areas,&nbsp;<a href="https://go.careercircle.com/candidate-experience-for-job-seekers-with-disabilities" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">download our eBook, &ldquo;Understanding the Candidate Experience for Job Seekers with Disabilities.&rdquo;</a>
For more resources and guidance on Understanding Disability, contact the CareerCircle team.
Contributions to this blog were made by Andra&eacute;a LaVant of Solutions Marketing Group.

The Candidate Experience Blog Series Part 1: Understanding Disability

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Diversity at Merck <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/companies/merck-co-inc-8568e34b-df56-40d7-a296-690d47fb3182" rel="follow">Merck</a> is a partner of CareerCircle, and they have made strides as being a premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world. They have been inventing medicines and vaccines for many places around the world that struggle with the most difficult disease. We wanted to highlight their story about what it means to be a Veteran and working at Merck. Here are some of their stories and how they have learned to work and live this new life outside of the military.&nbsp; Martha VanDriel
<div class="title">Director, IT risk management policy</div>
</div>
</div>
From jumping out of airplanes at Fort Bragg to helping launch the Army&rsquo;s first-ever cyberspace forces, retired U.S. Army Colonel Martha VanDriel has never shied away from risk.
Indeed, one of the greatest lessons she learned during her distinguished 26-year military career is the value of stretching beyond her comfort zone. It&rsquo;s one of the reasons she excelled in the cyber field even though she&rsquo;s &ldquo;not a techie.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Today, the skills Martha used to help defend our country against cyber-attacks are the same ones she puts to work managing IT risk policy at our company. &ldquo;As a planner and policy developer, you integrate disciplines that don&rsquo;t normally work together, like IT and intelligence organizations for cyber,&rdquo; says Martha, who retired from the Army in 2017 and joined Merck the same year. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not an expert in any of the areas, but you learn enough to be able to ask the right questions to help develop a solution.&rdquo;

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Danielle Campbell
Operations manager, manufacturing &amp; supply</div>
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&ldquo;Learning how to lead people is of paramount importance as a commissioned officer in the Air Force,&rdquo; says Danielle, who joined as an enlisted airman in 2009 and quickly advanced to the role of logistics officer.
After being a leader in the Air Force, she says, transitioning to Merck in a leadership role felt like a &ldquo;parallel career.&rdquo; &nbsp;
&ldquo;I get the opportunity to lead great people and challenging projects in both roles,&rdquo; says Danielle, who joined our company in 2019 and remains a captain in the Air Force Reserve. &ldquo;I am proud to work for a company where there&rsquo;s opportunity for growth, networking and mentoring.&rdquo;
Now part of a team that oversees vaccine production, Danielle says her experience managing multiple projects in the Air Force informs her work every day. &ldquo;Anytime I&rsquo;m approached with a task or project, I always zoom out and ask &mdash; &lsquo;what&rsquo;s the big picture, what&rsquo;s the goal we&rsquo;re trying to reach?&rsquo; &mdash; before I zoom back in,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;This helps me to stay focused and maintain balance.&rdquo;
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<div class="title">
Jessica Trenti
Vice president of human resources, manufacturing division</div>
</div>
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That was one of the first lessons Jessica learned in her training as an ROTC scholarship student, and after more than 25 years as a civilian, she&rsquo;s never forgotten it.
&ldquo;I learned more about leadership and accountability, more about myself, more about what I had the courage to lean into, in the military than I did before and probably have since,&rdquo; says Jessica, who was an officer in the Army Signal Corps.
Since joining Merck in 1997, Jessica has held about a dozen roles and supported nearly all of our company&rsquo;s divisions and functions in one capacity or another.
In her current role, Jessica works to help shape the talent landscape of the Merck Manufacturing Division.&nbsp; She is extremely proud of the division&rsquo;s track record in hiring and supporting veterans.
In addition, she loves seeing more women entering the workforce in fields like engineering and tech. &ldquo;Do we still have work to do? Definitely. But it feels like there&rsquo;s a significant change in terms of the kinds of roles women are progressing through and the tremendous leadership impact they are having.&rdquo;&nbsp;
<h2> Championing future leaders</h2>
Merck is proud to support veterans and women through a number of programs, from Hiring Our Heroes to the Women&rsquo;s Leadership Program.
In fact, job-seeking service members can use a military occupational specialty (MOS) code to search for opportunities, making it easier for them to match their skills with potential&nbsp;<a href="https://jobs.merck.com/veterans">careers</a>&nbsp;at our company.
Our employee business resource groups (EBRGs) offer additional support in the form of mentorship, development, networking, and camaraderie.
As executive sponsor of the Veterans EBRG, Dr. Kerry Blanchard works not only to help fellow veterans with the transition to corporate life, but also to be an ally for all employees.<picture><source data-srcset="https://i2.wp.com/www.merck.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/10/Dr-Kerry-Blanchard.jpg?fit=628%2C418&amp;ssl=1?resize=321,214" media="(max-width: 767px)" srcset="https://i2.wp.com/www.merck.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/10/Dr-Kerry-Blanchard.jpg?fit=628%2C418&amp;ssl=1?resize=321,214"></picture>
 &ldquo;Sometimes that means sitting back to listen and learn, or sharing feedback or opportunities that may not be transparent to others,&rdquo; says Kerry, vice president of global safety assessment and laboratory animal resources. &ldquo;Sometimes people just want someone to talk to.&nbsp; And, sometimes it means advocating on behalf of others.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We are making progress,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve still got work to do.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.merck.com/stories/from-the-military-to-merck-lessons-in-leadership/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Here is the link to check out more information!&nbsp;</a>

Diversity at Merck

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The Candidate Experience Blog Series Part 2: Accessibility and Accommodations

The Candidate Experience Blog Series Part 1: Understanding Disability

Diversity at Merck

The Candidate Experience Blog Series Part 2: Accessibility and Accommodations

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