[lit-ideas] Re: amazing employment application questions
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 22:19:13 EDT
It's the "would you be able to perform your job w/out reasonable
accommodations" (I'm leaving out the "w/ or w/out clause to make my point) that
was a
sticking point for me.
Julie Krueger
========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: amazing
employment application questions Date: 6/5/06 9:13:48 P.M. Central Daylight
Time
From: _john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx) To:
_lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on:
_JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxxx (mailto:JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx) wrote:
So, let's say I'm paralyzed from the waist down in a wheelchair, but my
clerical skills are outstanding (if I do say so myself). So they're asking me
if
I am able to perform the clerical duties if the building does not have
wheelchair access?
They're asking you if you can perform your duties in a wheelchair IF THEY
MAKE REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS, which means if they make the building
wheelchair-accessible. That's THEIR responsibility; they are REQUIRED to make
such
reasonable accommodations.
"Reasonable accommodations" seems, well, reasonable to me. When I served on
hiring committees for faculty, we were required to ask at the end something
like this: "This job requires standing or sitting before classes for several
hours; do you feel you are able to meet these job requirements with
reasonable accommodations?" Nobody ever said no, although several people were a
bit
taken aback by the question. (I must say that if two candidates were of equal
qualifications, maybe the one who at least knew about the idea of reasonable
accommodations might get a slight edge.)
I was once asked to make "reasonable accommodations" for a deaf student in
my class. She didn't want an interpreter that would translate my class on the
fly into sign language; all she wanted was for me to shave my mustache a bit
higher so she could see my upper lip to do lip reading. This seemed quite
reasonable to me, so for the rest of the semester I was a bit less shaggy in
my
mustache than I might have been.
--
-------------------------------------------------
"Never attribute to malice that which can be
explained by incompetence and ignorance."
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John Wager _john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxxx
(mailto:john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx)
Lisle, IL, USA
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