Beyond barriers: How hiring individuals with IDD strengthens your workforce and workplace culture

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) contribute significantly to the workforce and provide a unique perspective in the workplace. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2023, 22.5 percent of those with a disability were employed. An intellectual and developmental disability is one or a variety of conditions that impact a person’s cognitive abilities or physical development. This can include thinking, learning, speaking, memory challenges, trouble making informed decisions and judgments, and physical challenges such as walking, running and hand/eye coordination.

Developmental disabilities are usually lifelong and may include intellectual disabilities often associated with a type of physical developmental challenge. For example, individuals with cerebral palsy may experience both cognitive challenges as well as have a form of physical challenge making it difficult to accomplish daily tasks.

Benefits of Hiring Someone with a Disability

The Americans with Disabilities Act, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities all share several protections for individuals with IDD regarding employment. Those with IDD cannot be discriminated against for having a disability if they are qualified for the job, and hiring someone with a disability has several advantages, including:

• Tax benefits for employers IRS Tax Benefits
• Improved organizational culture
• Strong work ethic
• Diverse work environment
• Longevity of employment
• Improved morale of employees

How to Accommodate an Employee with a Disability

Individuals with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, hearing loss, visual impairment, or other forms of disability can be employed in a variety of work settings and job types. A person’s strengths, areas of improvement, and cognitive and physical abilities are significant factors to the job that would be best for them.

As someone with mild cerebral palsy and periventricular leukomalacia (a type of brain injury), I have experienced challenges finding employment. I’ve worked various jobs compatible with my strengths, such as courtesy clerk, grocery bagger and night clerk. When I started college, I began working on enhancing my strengths and addressing my areas for improvement, which has provided me with opportunities for advancement in my career. In addition to my challenges, I’ve worked with individuals with disabilities, and I’ve had many rewarding experiences because they want to work and be an asset to their organization.

Hiring someone with a disability may require reasonable accommodations for a job where they are a strong candidate. Using real-life people with disabilities I know, here are some jobs where they’ve excelled:

• An individual with dyslexia is an animal care provider at multiple animal shelters. They use speech-to-text software that records their voice and transcribes it into work documents. The software repeats back the text to ensure accuracy. Many medical professionals use this type of technology to expedite paperwork.
• An individual with autism works at a music shop fixing and tuning instruments. They may not have excellent social skills, but can play four instruments and fix anything relating to them. They work in the back of the shop with the instruments and have limited interactions with customers, which they say works out perfectly for them!
• An individual with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) works in the produce department at a grocery store and knows more about nutrition than I will ever know. They love preparing short demonstrations of food nutrition for shoppers but have trouble using a knife to prepare food. Instead, they work with the produce manager to prepare food for the demonstrations.
• An individual with Down syndrome is a mentor and success coach at an organization that helps troubled youth. They overcame many challenges in their life and used their lived/practical experience and professional trainings to help others. During trainings, they had someone read the material to them since they have trouble with reading comprehension but excel when they hear it.

All of these individuals required an accommodation to perform their duties. Accommodations may cost money or not cost anything! Accommodations enhance the work environment as they may not just help an individual with an IDD, but may help everyone in the workplace!

How to make the work environment more inclusive

The work environment your employees are exposed to can drastically impact their work behaviors and morale. There are many different options available to employers to create a more inclusive work environment.

• Focus on strengths: Studies have found employees have more confidence, are more productive and become self-aware of their capabilities when employers focus on their strengths. The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, self-assessment tools, observing employee behaviors and performance, and employee support groups are a few tools that can help discover employee strengths. This LinkedIn resource provides more insight on how to identify strengths within teams.
• Use surveys: An effective method to identify strengths and other areas of improvement includes developing an anonymous companywide survey. Surveys are a critical tool used by organizations to identify problem areas that need to be addressed, and employees may be more honest and open to expressing their opinions if the survey is kept anonymous. Surveys can also identify needed accommodations such as visual supports to people, ways to support communication, the work environment and structure. The work environment employees are exposed to can drastically impact work behaviors.
• Encourage professional development: Encouraging professional and personal development creates a continuous learning environment that can help boost performance and enhance your organization’s culture. It also helps decrease counterproductive work behaviors in employees which do not align with the organization’s mission, vision and values. Access to resources, trainings and knowledge sharing helps promote learning and growth.
• Lead by example: Leaders, managers and supervisors have a responsibility to their employees, as the behavior of someone in an authoritative position greatly impact the behaviors of those they oversee. Leading by example, taking accountability for actions, being honest and showing appreciation are ways to be a good role model. Another way to understand role modeling to employees comes from the Social Learning Theory (SLT). Dr. Albert Bandura developed the SLT by suggesting that when people observe a certain behavior, they model that behavior, thereby learning from a social context — something that can be applied to any work environment.

Individuals with IDD bring unique perspectives and significant contributions to the workplace. By focusing on their strengths, providing reasonable accommodations, and fostering an inclusive work environment, employers can benefit from improved organizational culture, strong work ethic, and increased employee morale.

Encouraging professional development and leading by example are also key to creating a supportive and productive workspace for all employees, including those with IDD.

Here is the full list of resources provided in this post:

• 32 Examples of Workplace Accommodations
• About Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs)
• American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Counterproductive Work Behavior and Organizational Citizenship Behavior
• How Social Learning Theory Works
• Leader‐Follower Dynamics: Developing a Learning Environment
• Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics Summary
• Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in the Workplace and the ADA (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
• The Responsibility of True Leader is to be a Role Model
• Strategies for Developing a Continuous Learning Environment
• Strengths Development and Coaching
• Survey Savvy: 12 Tips on How to Conduct an Anonymous Employee Survey
• Tax Benefits for Businesses who have Employees with Disabilities (IRS)
• What are the Best Ways to Identify your Team’s Strengths and Weaknesses?