Despite a number of laws intended to accommodate people with disabilities in the workplace, many disabled employees report major obstacles on the job, a new study finds.
A survey conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that nearly a third of those with disabilities say they believe their job is “bad for their disability” and 35 percent say their job negatively impacts their overall health.
Furthermore, a majority of workers with disabilities rate their workplace as only “fair” or “poor” when asked whether it provides a healthy work environment. In contrast, only 21 percent of those without disabilities assign their workplace the same lackluster rating.
Essentially, every negative effect that work can have on an employee appears to be more pronounced among the disabled population. Among other things, disabled employees are far more likely to report their job creates stress and negatively impacts sleep and eating habits.
Cheryl Bates-Harris of the National Disability Rights Network explained to NPR that much of the stress is likely attributed to the anxiety that requesting accommodation can create for employees, many of whom are trying to prove that they are not a burden to the employer.
"If you're worried about whether your performance is going to be acceptable, whether they're going to keep you beyond your probationary period, whether there's going to be opportunity for advancement, God forbid that you could request some kind of reasonable accommodation, I imagine that could be pretty stressful for people," she says.
And for many disabled workers, the stress of the workplace has as much to do with getting there as it does with working there.
The same study also found disparities based on race. African Americans and Hispanics were more likely to rate the health environment of their workplace poorly. For instance, more than a quarter of Hispanics and more than a fifth of African Americans work in an environment where smoking is allowed, compared to only 9 percent of whites.
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