Saturday, August 29, 2015

Hiring people with disabilities

I came across a strange section in a job posting recently. It appears to be a way to get around laws designed to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities.

This is listed in a job posting for a desk job, under "Qualifications":
PHYSICAL/MENTAL DEMANDS and WORK ENVIRONMENT
  • Climbing: Ascending or descending stairs using feet and legs
  • Crouching: Bending the body downward and forward by bending legs and spine
  • Kneeling: Bending legs at knee to come to a rest on knee or knees
  • Reaching: Extending hand(s) and arm(s) in any direction
  • Walking: Moving by using the feet and taking alternate steps
  • Pushing: To exert force on or against an object in order to move it away
  • Pulling: To draw towards oneself, in a particular direction, or into a particular position
  • Lifting: Raising objects from a lower to a higher position or moving object horizontally from position to position
  • Repetitive Motions: Making substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers
  • Talking: Expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word; those activities where detailed or important spoken instructions must be conveyed to other workers accurately, loudly, or quickly
  • Hearing: Perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction, and having the ability to receive information through oral communication
  • Visual Acuity (with or without corrective glasses): Close vision, distance vision and peripheral vision
  • Sitting: remaining in a seated, upright position for extended periods of time
The ad also says:
EOE/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disability
Please view the EEO is the Law Poster which serves to inform you of your equal employment opportunity protections as part of the application process.
The EEO poster has this to say:
DISABILITY
Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, protect qualified individuals from discrimination on the basis of disability in hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral, and other aspects of employment. Disability discrimination includes not making reasonable accommodation to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or employee, barring undue hardship.

This company appears to put the "PHYSICAL/MENTAL DEMANDS and WORK ENVIRONMENT" section in every job ad. Why would a QA analyst need to be able to crouch or put their hands over their head? Or walk, even?

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