Perceived Reasonableness of Employment Testing Accommodations for Persons with Disabilities

Abstract

Laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as well as subsequent legal sanctions, appear to have had limited success in substantially increasing the number of persons with disabilities within the employment context. Therefore, it is critical that a better understanding be developed of both the physical and attitudinal barriers persons with disabilities face with regard to gaining such employment. The present study was conducted to examine how the origin of an applicant's disability, the status of the job being applied for, and the level of test accommodation to be provided influenced perceptions of what was a reasonable pre-employment testing accommodation. Human resources testing professionals from both the public and private sectors rated how reasonable they perceived a variety of testing accommodations to be. The results reveal that origin of disability, job status, and level of accommodation all affected how reasonable a given testing accommodation was perceived to be and that there was significant interaction effects for all three factors. The results of this study also support Stone and Colella's model of the complex nature of workers' reactions to individuals with disabilities in organizations. The implications of the study, as well as needs for future research, are also discussed.