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This Is How Employers Weed Out Disabled People From Their Hiring Pools
A recent ad for a journalism job underscored the challenges that can face job candidates with disabilities.
By
Wendy Lu
Jun 17, 2019, 04:08 PM EDT|Updated Jun 18, 2019
Applying for jobs is a formidable task, but it’s even more challenging for people with disabilities — the largest and one of the most underemployed minority groups in the world. So when I came across an employment listing on Newsday’s careers website last Monday featuring job requirements related to mobility, strength, weight and size, I was shocked.
The job listing advertised a general assignment reporter role for the Long Island-based newspaper in New York. In addition to actual job-related functions like “ability to break news” and “meet tight deadlines,” the posting listed bullet points requiring the “ability to reach, bend, lift, push, pull and carry a minimum of 25 lbs” and the “ability to type a minimum of 40 wpm.” Another bullet point noted that the role was a sedentary desk job that would “require one’s ability to sit for an extended period of time up to full 8-hour shift.”
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This listing was particularly egregious to me because [...]