AbilityLinks Employer Resources

What Does It Mean to Be a B-Corporation?

This week’s blog post is on B Corporations (B Corp) which are leaders using business for good. They redefine success by being more inclusive and sustainable. This article includes an overview of what a B Corp is, its impact, and companies creating a global cultural shift. This is our fourth post for this month’s blog series on user accessibility and company compliance!

What is a B Corporation?

Certified B Corporations are businesses redefining the standards for social and environmental performance, legal accountability, and public transparency. The goal of B Corps is to have a positive impact on...

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Ways To Improve Website Accessibility

This week’s blog post is on ways to improve website accessibility. This article is full of tips on features to add and ways to make your website 100% user-friendly. This is our third post for this month’s blog series on user accessibility and company compliance!

Perceivable

When a website’s information and components are designed to fit all users it is perceivable. This can be done in many ways text alternatives, time-based media, adaptability, and distinguishability.

Text alternative:

Allowing all texts to be changed into large print, speech, symbols, easier...

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Suggestions to Minimize Your Legal Risk Surrounding Accessibility

Ok first a BIG legal DISCLAIMER – This Post is not legal advice. And I’m not an attorney.

All content is intended for general information only. This should not be construed as legal advice and may not be applicable to your particular situation. Before taking any action based on this website, you should consider your personal situation and seek professional advice. Oh yeah, no attorney-client relationship is created unless and until a binding written engagement letter is signed by both you and your attorney.

So now on to the wisdom learned from others who shared these lessons with me. The focus of this week’s blog post is on...

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Is Your Website Accessible for All Users?

Ability Links is excited to announce this month’s blog series on user accessibility and company compliance! Stay tuned for a 4-part blog series diving into minimizing legal risk, issues with the lack of accessibility, how to improve accessibility, and more!

What is Accessibility?

Simply put, accessibility is the action of making a website functional for all users. One’s ability plays a major role in their capability to use a website to its full extent. All users deserve an equal opportunity regardless of their condition. As an employer, when you make an extra effort towards...

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Assistive technology (AT) in the inclusive workplace

One of the most important components of being an inclusive employer is the concept of "reasonable accommodations." While the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) provides a more detailed explanation you can review, for purposes here, we'll stick with a simple definition:

Modifications or adjustments that enable a covered and qualified employee with a disability to perform the duties of their work, and enjoy the same benefits as similar employees without disabilities.

What can constitute a reasonable accommodation can be very broad. It could be altering the floorplan of the office or allowing an employee with a...

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Accessibility Checklist

How Do I Know If My Worksite Is Accessible?

The following questions will help you determine the accessibility of your work site. Sources of additional and more detailed information are provided at the end.

Are there designated parking spaces for persons with disabilities that are close to the entrance of the worksite? Is there a pathway without abrupt level changes or steps that leads from the parking area to the entrance? If ramps are used to provide access, are they appropriately graded and are handrails provided? Are the doors wide enough (36 inches) for people using wheelchairs? Are they easy to...

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Interviewing a person who has a disability

If you're a manager, recruiter, human resources (HR) specialist, or key company decision maker — chances are you'll be conducting interviews at some point! Prospective employees may come from all over the world and will have different values, beliefs, and backgrounds. Modern companies know how important it is to have a diverse, inclusive workforce: it's not only the right thing to do, but it holds some unique (and measurable!) business benefits, too.

Part of this diversity should be inclusive to persons with disabilities, of course! But we should acknowledge a reality, one that shouldn't cause shame but rather draw attention to an...

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Tax Incentives

There are three tax incentives available to employers that hire people with disabilities or make their places of business accessible for employees and customers with disabilities.

Work Opportunity Tax Credit The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) is a Federal tax credit available to employers for hiring individuals from certain target groups, including disabled persons, who have consistently faced significant barriers to employment. Refer to Form 8826, Disabled Access Credit, for information about eligible expenditures.

Disabled Access Credit According to the IRS, the...

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Myths and Facts

Employers and the ADA: Myths and Facts

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a landmark federal law that protects the rights of people with disabilities by eliminating barriers to their participation in many aspects of living and working in America. In particular, the ADA prohibits covered employers from discriminating against people with disabilities in the full range of employment-related activities, from recruitment to advancement, to pay and benefits.

The foundation for the ADA is America’s promise of equal access to opportunity for all citizens.

Being inclusive of people with disabilities—in...

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Disability Etiquette

Many of us grew up during a time when people with disabilities were relegated to special classrooms, and, as children, we were told not to stare at or ask questions of people in wheelchairs, people using sign language, or people who were mentally retarded. Since then, laws have been passed to ensure the rights of people with disabilities, and society overall has become more accommodating and accepting of those who are "different." Americans with disabilities are now in the mainstream — living independently, working, playing, going to school, voting, shopping, and otherwise participating in the same activities as everyone else.

As...

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Employer FAQs

1. I don’t want to get sued for firing someone with a disability. If I hire a person with a disability and they perform poorly, aren’t I “stuck” with them?

No. Your company’s policies and quality standards apply to employees with disabilities just as they apply to other employees. Once you have made the reasonable accommodations necessary to enable an employee to perform the essential functions of the job, the employee has to meet the job requirements.

2. I’m concerned about saying the wrong thing. What questions may I ask a job applicant with a disability?

Just as with any other...

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