Battle in the Workplace

       In a 2009 study published in the “Journal of Applied Rehabilitative Counseling,” researchers found that managers and recruiters held a negative bias toward people with disabilities, believing them to be less productive, socially immature and lacking in relationship skills. To battle disability discrimination in the workplace, the American Association of People with Disabilities in partnership with the U.S. Business Leadership Network has created the Annual Disability Equality Index. This tool gauges a company’s policies of disability inclusion and provides a rating of between 0 and 100. According to the Association of People with Disabilities, Fortune magazine’s top 1,000 public companies have been asked to join this index, which can bolster a company’s reputation as a fair and equal employer.