Imagine If There Were More Stories Like This Around Disability Employment
by Beth
It was such a joy to share Alicia Krage’s posts here about her finding a job she likes so much — a story we don’t hear nearly enough from people living with disabilities.
If you haven’t read it yet, start from the beginning: bit.ly/alijobsearch
The unemployment rate of people living with disabilities is still much higher than that of the rate attributed to those living without any disabilities. Why? All sorts of factors. A few here:
- Misinformation and misunderstanding of a prospective employee’s disability
- Concern that the employer will not be able to accommodate for the disability
- people with disabilities may not be aware of job openings or be able to apply for a job due to websites that are not built with accessibility in mind.
Let’s talk about accessible web sites for a second here.
Accessible websites are not only required, they make good business sense. One in five Americans has a disability, so making websites accessible allows a company or organization to reach an even greater segment of consumers.
And if Alicia Krage is any example, a greater list of valuable employees, too. My favorite part of the entire three-part series Ali wrote was about the job interview. She tells the interviewers that she takes public transportation everywhere and wasn’t sure she knows the campus well enough to be able to give campus tours (part of the job description for Northern Ambassadors). Ali asked if there was any chance she could primarily work on the phones in the call center, and guess what? They especially needed more people working call center shifts. It’s not always easy to find an employee who loves coming to work, but Northern Illinois University has exactly that in Ali Krage. They were smart to hire her. Congratulations to Ali, and, especially, to Northern Illinois University.