Employing Diversity

Disability employment, a fairly new research topic, is often overlooked in organizations' diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how companies can improve the hiring process for people with a range of disabilities: physical, intellectual, and psychiatric. First, pervasive problems within the current hiring practices for people with disabilities are identified. Then, the current legal requirements are defined; barriers, benefits, and challenges to hiring people with disabilities are explained; and the best practices are cited to suggest solutions in changing the hiring process to support the selection and retention of individuals with disabilities. Based on information from scholarly journals, interviews with HR professionals, and conversations with disabled individuals, it is clear that improvement in hiring disabled applicants can be beneficial for all organizational stakeholders. This thesis concludes with a discussion of how the findings differ from my personal thoughts and experiences of disability employment discrimination.