
Fake Cover Letters Expose Discrimination Against Disabled - hvo
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/upshot/fake-cover-letters-expose-discrimination-against-disabled.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0
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intopieces
I'm concerned with how many people believe it's "unprofessional" to disclose a
disability on a cover letter. Having a disability is something that will
require the company to accommodate and giving them the most lead time to do so
seems like a professional courtesy. Should the wheelchair user wait until the
day of the interview to tell the employer they'll need an elevator? It also
smacks of the old style "You're just like us!" attitude instead of
acknowledging that yes, people with disabilities have different needs.

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brudgers
In the US, I can't speak about elsewhere, removal of barriers to accessibility
in the workplace has been Federal Civil Rights Law for nearly 25 years. There
is no "grandfathering" as is appropriate when it comes to civil rights:

[http://www.ada.gov/reachingout/factor.html](http://www.ada.gov/reachingout/factor.html)

Creating or renting a workplace that is inaccessible is what constitutes a
lack of professionalism.

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bigethan
s/Against Disabled//

This study has been done with people using names that are, black, foreign,
feminine, etc. If you're different, some people are gonna think differently.
When there's a "pipeline" little biases add up: Your teacher treats you
differently, the college admission treats you differently, your professors
treat you differently, recruiters treat you differently, your boss treats you
differently. That might not happen in every step along the way, but the
potential is there and there are many opportunities.

A white male Stanford grad from a well off family is flipping a coin once to
see if they get a real chance to be successful in life. Someone who is
discriminated against has to roll a D20 every step of the way to see if they
make it.

If you want to make a difference, recognize these biases exist. Review CVs
with all identifying information removed or generalized. Hopefully, eventually
the bias will fade, but you can't ignore that it exists and that you can turn
it off like a switch.

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malandrew
This is what I most want to see happen. I really want all such processes to
reduce candidates to a hash or number until it is unavoidable to know the
identity of the candidate (phone interview or in-person interview). Issues
that might require accommodation prior to an offer letter like wheelchair
accessibility should only be disclosed to the recruiting department and only
to people who will not be involved in the hire/no-hire decision.

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Menge
The first thing I find odd is that so many employers actually read cover
letters carefully enough to discriminate based on them. The lower
discrimination level with inexperienced candidates may be better explained by
the lower investment in analyzing applications before scheduling interviews
rather than less intention to discriminate.

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ryan-c
I wonder how this would have gone if they disclosed something besides a
disability in the "control" coverletter that wasn't relevant to the job. I
suspect they'd still find discrimination, but perhaps a bit less.

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roflchoppa
So much diversity, and potential from individuals with disabilities. It's a
shame its difficult for them to find jobs.

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kizz246
I think the bias for the more experienced workers has a lot of flaws they
can't cover in a study like this.

For one, why are they bringing up a disability if it won't affect their job?
It's not related to the application nor is it appropriate. I don't talk about
being pregnant in interviews but once I'm in the interview I can bring it up
in person. Things have worked out well for me with this approach.

Secondly, if I were looking at a resume for a very qualified person the first
thing I would do is google them to see if they made up their credentials.
After finding nothing because this person was made up for the study I would
not pursue them.

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DanBC
> For one, why are they bringing up a disability if it won't affect their job?
> It's not related to the application nor is it appropriate.

US disability discrimination laws only provide protection if you disclose. (As
I understand it, maybe I'm wrong?) Since it's not legal for the company to
discriminate against you there shouldn't be any problem with disclosing. If
anything, an employer should want someone to disclose because that person is
honest. A candidate who doesn't state they have a disability either doesn't
have one, or does have one but is hiding it.

Someone using a wheelchair might want to disclose early so the interviewer can
say hold interviews in a place that isn't up a flight of stairs.

> if I were looking at a resume for a very qualified person the first thing I
> would do is google them to see if they made up their credentials. After
> finding nothing because this person was made up for the study I would not
> pursue them.

So you'd not pursue the non-disabled candidates, as well as not pursuing the
disabled candidates. That would mean similar levels of rejection. How would
you explain the disparity in amounts of rejection between fake candidates with
no declared disability and fake candidates with a declared disability? All the
candidates are equally fake.

~~~
extra88
How is a spinal cord injury relevant to an accountant job? It's weird and
premature to bring it up in a cover letter, it could be taken as a sign of
poor judgement or "why are they bringing this up? I don't care, are they an
activist type? I don't need that kind of attitude." A younger person new to
the world of work might be more easily forgiven the choice than an experienced
person. If you get contacted for an interview, that's the time to bring up
accommodations like wheelchair access.

I could imagine a cover letter describing Asperger's syndrome as an asset for
accountancy work, claiming it's a source of their focus and numeracy. It would
still be weird but that would meet the reader's expectations, right?

Still, I'm not trying to explain away their results, the quantity of data and
comparable results for both disabilities suggests a common bias irrespective
of the nature of the disability.

~~~
DanBC
A spinal cord injury has some relevance - is the location of the interview
going to be accessible? Is the location of the job going to be accessible?
Here the candidate is going out of their way to give potentially useful
information to the employer. It's weird (and illegal) to use that against
them.

Also, some places have recognised that they have bias, and they've put in
place some system to reduce it. See, for example, the "two ticks" scheme in
the UK.

[https://www.civvystreet.org/employers/en-
gb/civvystreetemplo...](https://www.civvystreet.org/employers/en-
gb/civvystreetemployers/resources/jobcentreplusdisabilitytwoticksscheme.aspx)

[https://www.gov.uk/recruitment-disabled-
people/encouraging-a...](https://www.gov.uk/recruitment-disabled-
people/encouraging-applications)

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programmernews3
The sword cuts both ways.

Here is a story about a white poet that used an "ethnically sounding" name, as
he would not get published as easily using his birth name.

[http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/09/10/439247027/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/09/10/439247027/why-
a-white-poet-posed-as-asian-to-get-published-and-whats-wrong-with-that)

I might start submitting a few submissions for conferences using a
pseudonym....

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janesvilleseo
This reminds me of a thought I had in one of my college courses. It was in
regards to college admittance. If we want to avoid bias, then why to we track
it. That is if we shouldn't care if the person is black/white, male/female,
dis/abled, etc then why do we ask for that as part of the sign up/interview
process?

I know with names its is hard to exclude some identifiable info as assumptions
can be made, but leaving this out would probably do more to close these gaps.

