Survey: Employers miss opportunities for disabled workers

CONCORD, N.H. – A national survey finds that most employers have effective programs for accommodating workers with disabilities, but they often overlook recruiting and training practices that could expand employment opportunities.

The survey being released Tuesday was conducted by the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability for the New Jersey-based Kessler Foundation. It questioned 3,085 supervisors about hiring, training and retention practices and their effectiveness for all employees and those with disabilities.

Two-thirds of the respondents said their organizations have policies to provide requested accommodations to workers with disabilities, and nearly all of them rated those procedures as effective. But when it came to specific practices, several that were rated as highly effective, such as job sharing or partnering with disabilities groups for recruitment, were underutilized.