The Algorithm by Hilke Schellmann

Author:Hilke Schellmann [Schellmann, Hilke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

RELUCTANT ACCOMMODATIONS

Patti Sanchez is pretty familiar with these digital tests her clients encounter all the time: she does “market research” by randomly applying for jobs to understand how the process works so she can better assist her clients. Some of the assessments, she said, are obscure and hard to understand, even for her—and she has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree and speaks English.

For Sanchez, having her clients meet with hiring managers in person used to make all the difference because many hiring managers understood that people with disabilities were human beings, often hungry to work, and could do the job. She laments that human interaction is essentially gone in the age of AI hiring, especially for the blue-collar and hourly jobs, which most of her clients apply for. “That’s going to be one big challenge I’m going to have to face in the twenty-first century,” she said.

Both Patti Sanchez’s and Sophie Powell’s frustration was palpable. “It almost made me want to figure out if I need to go back to school to study law or something, because this is ridiculous. I wanted to do something about it,” Powell said.

But she had only limited time with her clients: “I couldn’t focus on that because I just have to keep going on to the next one because I’m trying to help them get employed, so I couldn’t put too much time into that frustration and trying to resolve that.”

Like Sanchez, Sophie Powell just wanted her clients to meet with a real person and convince that person of their abilities, not a computer, which wouldn’t understand them.

Another part of Powell’s responsibilities was following up with hiring managers to see whether they had any questions about her clients’ applications. She remembers one call specifically in which she talked to an HR manager and inquired if they had received her client’s application materials: “They saw their education history, that they went to a Deaf school, and immediately over the phone this HR person tells me, ‘Well, they have to hear. And if they don’t, then we can’t hire them.’”

Powell was shocked. She replied: “‘Okay, I’m aware of that, but are you aware of the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act]? And perhaps there is an accommodation available? How about we just schedule the interview first and then we can go from there?’ Nope. Click.”

Before they hung up, the HR manager told Powell why she needed someone who could hear: “It was a loading dock kind of position and it was because of danger, so if they don’t hear trucks coming or something like that.… I’m like, ‘If it’s in a warehouse, you can install a light,’” she recalled.

If a blinking light could be a reasonable accommodation, then a company in all likelihood would have had to install that under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But disability discrimination claims are hard to prove for folks who often already struggle with day-to-day activities such as securing transportation and childcare.

All these frustrations with companies not following what is

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