Emilia Medema
COMM301A
26 April 2012
Review Essay
The Breakdown of Clear, Efficient and Effective Communication Between Disabled and
Nondisabled Employees and Employers
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, the definition
of “disability” was, “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or
more life activities of such individual” (EEOC.gov). This definition of disability has
stayed the same over the years, but people wondered what constituted as major life
activities. Under the ADA, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) presented a lengthy list of activities, but then was revised to include activities
such as “caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, eating, sleeping, concentrating,
thinking, communicating, walking and working” (Bowman 4). As of January 1, 2009, the
Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment Act (ADAAA) went into effect. The
ADAAA changed how people viewed the ADA by improving the original focus of
whether or not an individual was considered disabled and changed it to whether or not the
individual can perform the required work obligations and if the employer is able to
provide reasonable accommodations (Bowman 3). The ADAAA expanded the restricted
list of who was considered disabled, but one thing it didn’t change was the obligations of
a business or institution towards nondiscrimination or reasonable accommodations. Even
though this was an official law, many employers and businesses still discriminated
against individuals with disabilities and did not make the required effort to make
accommodations. By not making the reasonable accommodations, a business continues to
discriminate against individuals with disabilities. This issue of discrimination and
refusing to make reasonable accommodations is communicational. It’s very important
that employers and nondisabled employees are in constant communication with disabled
employees. Discrimination can be avoided if clear, efficient and effective communication
is at the core of a relationship with a disabled individual. This paper will explore the
many types of discrimination and the refusal of making reasonable accommodations for
individuals with disabilities. It will also include a connection to a communication
tradition that can help to break down the wall of discrimination; this tradition is the
phenomenological tradition. To conclude this paper, there will be a personal explanation
of an argument on the behalf of one approach and a new approach will be presented.
Discrimination comes in many forms and varies from person to person. In order
to understand how an individual with a disability views discrimination, the
phenomenological tradition can be used to clarify. The phenomenological tradition calls
for us to view life through another person’s point of view. Jack Messamer in his article,
“A Normative Analysis of the Communication Between Disabled and Nondisabled
Persons,” states that, “both disabled and non disabled communicators misinterpret the
communication efforts of the other” (4). This is an example of how it would be highly
beneficial for each person to see things through the other person’s point of view. If the
nondisabled employee could see that when the disabled employee asks for help, it is in a
way of wanting to inform others of the disability itself, not as a way of saying that they
are solely dependent on others (as society views dependency as infantile and a violation
of proper manners (Messamer 3)). But there are times when disabled employees don’t
need help, but nondisabled employees think they do. In this instance, when the disabled
employee tries to assert his or her own independence, the nondisabled employee will
often times see it as a reflection of bitterness or embarrassment (Cohen 199). In order to
see someone’s life through his or her point of view, background information needs to be
learned and communicated beforehand. If the disabled employee could understand how
when a nondisabled employee asks them if they need help doing something, it’s not a
way of demeaning the individual’s abilities, it’s just a way of offering help in a polite
way. But as Jack Messamer states, “the nondisabled person’s goal seems to be one of
“looking good” rather than helping” (16). Sometimes nondisabled employees will ask if
disabled employees need help so that they look good to their employer or other
employees that they work with to gain social status or to show that they don’t
discriminate. If nondisabled employees have a problem with disabled employees
communicating when they need help, discrimination towards that person will occur when
they believe that the disabled employee is asking in an infantile way or as a way that
violates proper manners (Messamer 3, 4). This way of discrimination can result in the
nondisabled employee ignoring the disabled employee’s plea for help.
Misinterpreting someone’s communication efforts also includes nonverbal
communication. Disabled people have a different way of doing the same things that a
nondisabled person does. In the workplace, a disabled employee might demonstrate
unusual movements or body motions that help them to accomplish work tasks, but
nondisabled employees don’t know what to think about the unusual movements. These
unusual body movements can’t be prevented and the individual with the disability has no
control over the movements. If nondisabled employees would communicate this
confusion with the disabled employee, discrimination could be avoided later on in their
working relationship. As Dawn Braithwaite says, “Persons with disabilities are very
aware that many able bodied persons are uncomfortable and awkward around them,
which fosters defensiveness, strained communication and the feeling they are not
wanted” (288, 289). Getting to know an employee who has a disability and learning
about what their disability consists of can help nondisabled employees understand the
differences that disabled employees demonstrate and it can help heal the awkward and
uncomfortable environment. This way of discrimination can result in the nondisabled
employee refusing to give the disabled employee work tasks that require them to make
the unusual body movements, especially if they haven’t taken the appropriate time to get
to know the disabled individual. This is also another way of holding stereotypes about
disabled individuals. In James Sears’ article, “The Able Disabled,” he makes a profound
statement; “It is interesting that among the company’s handicapped employees, those
who were hired with physical impairments are more highly motivated toward good
safety, attendance, and job performance” (21). Individuals with disabilities fight to prove
that they are worth hiring, or just plain worth it as a human being. This motivation helps
individuals with disabilities stay determined to show their worth to their employer or coworkers every day. As Ann Anas states in her article, “Able-bodied individuals
commonly stereotype persons with disabilities as dependent, incompetent, unproductive,
sick, burdensome, unattractive, and hypersensitive and bitter” (119). These negative
stereotypes can cause the nondisabled individuals to create expectations of the individual
with a disability (Anas 121). As stated above, one of the negative stereotypes is
dependency, so when an able-bodied employee sees an employee with a disability, they
automatically think that they are fully dependent on others or their assistive devices to
help them. “Able-bodied individuals can become upset when the behavior of a person
with a disability does not fit with an all-or-none concept of impairment (e.g., a person
with hearing loss overhearing a personal comment, a blind person seeing something with
peripheral vision, or a person in a wheelchair standing up)” (Anas 122). This can lead to
discrimination in the workplace because behavior exhibited by the individual with the
disability that doesn’t fit the all-or-none connotation. This type of behavior can cause
able-bodied employees to lash out towards the disabled employee and even make them
exhibit more negative stereotypes, which ultimately will prevent them from interacting
with, sharing work with or including the disabled employee in workplace activities.
This negative stereotype of dependency is also placed upon the elderly. Ablebodied individuals make certain modifications to how they communicate with the elderly.
For example, they exhibit an increase of simplified vocabulary, an increase in vocal
volume, overly directive talk and sometimes even use baby talk (Anas 122, 123). These
modifications are often used when able-bodied employees or employers first address a
disabled possible employee. This is yet again an example of discrimination towards
individuals with disabilities.
Another way of misinterpreting someone’s nonverbal communication is when the
nondisabled employer refuses to make reasonable accommodations for disabled
employees. This nonverbal action speaks louder than anything that the employer could
say verbally. As previously stated, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was
formed in 1990 with the intent of giving disabled individuals the right to accessibility and
the opportunity to live a full and happy life. More people feared, misunderstood and
resisted the ADA more than any other new law (Braithwaite 287). The ADA as a whole
communicates a lot to businesses and institutions, but it especially focuses on protecting
individuals with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace. The ADA includes
three titles; Title I requires that employers do not discriminate against individuals with
disabilities, Title II ensures that organizations that receive federal assistance can not
discriminate against individuals with disabilities and Title III includes the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which allows students with disabilities to receive
special services until they graduate high school or until they turn twenty-one (Bowman
85, 86). The first thing that the ADA said was that, “access for persons with disabilities is
no longer an act of benevolence; access is a right’ (Braithwaite 288). Even though this
official Act from the government is saying that businesses need to make accommodations
and not discriminate against people with disabilities, it is not being done. Employers of
big businesses thought that if they ignored the ADA that it wouldn’t affect them. By not
giving individuals with disabilities the right to enter or work at a business because of its
inaccessibility, they are still discriminating against them. The reason that businesses
wanted to ignore the ADA was because of several myths going around about it.
Businesses were worried that their insurance rates would skyrocket, that they would have
to pay a fortune for certain accommodations, that their safety record would be
compromised if they hired someone with a disability and they feared that giving special
privileges to just one person would cause the other employees to react negatively (Sears).
Businesses just assumed that all these myths were true, which stopped them from hiring
individuals with disabilities. Making assumptions like this can cause lawsuits because an
individual with a disability can sue a business that refuses to accommodate or who
discriminates against them for a job. Clear, efficient and effective communication is
needed to avoid these assumptions and lawsuits. If businesses had communicated with
accessibility services, they would’ve figured out that it’s not that expensive to put in a
ramp, an automatic door or a handrail in the bathroom. Refusal to comply with the ADA
can cause many communication issues between the nondisabled employer or employee
and the disabled employee.
As stated above, the phenomenological tradition consists of looking at life through
another person’s point of view, which requires communication on an interpersonal level.
Interpersonal communication is usually between two or more people. When able-bodied
individuals work with disabled individuals it is important for them to get to know each
other so that they can easily understand each other in what they do, or say. During this
‘getting to know each other’ phase, it’s important to remember that when disabled
individuals share about their disability it is the same as when an able-bodied individual
shares about their health, personal habits, or sexuality. “Persons with disabilities who
disclose information about their disability are revealing information about their own
health and body that would ordinarily be considered private between persons who do not
know each other well” says Dawn Braithwaite in her article, ““How Much Did that
Wheelchair Cost?” Management of Privacy Boundaries By Persons with Disabilities.”
Dawn also talks about how openness can help able-bodied individuals feel more
comfortable around individuals with disabilities. The degree of openness that one decides
to demonstrate can be good or bad. It can be good because it can create a comfortable
environment without awkwardness. It can give the other person the sense that the
disabled individual is comfortable talking about his/her disability. It can also be bad
though because it leaves the disabled individual in a vulnerable place. If the disabled
individual doesn’t talk about their disability is a clear and careful way it can lead to
“embarrassment, unwanted sympathy, being misunderstood, or making the self or other
uncomfortable” (Braithwaite 256). Even though “disclosure does reduce tension and
uncertainty levels of the able-bodied person,” it does not “increase their acceptance of the
person with disabilities” (Braithwaite 256). Discrimination can be reduced in the long run
if they start off on the right foot, communicating clearly, efficiently, and effectively. By
no means, though, is discrimination ever going to stop.
James Sears says that, “The disabled person wants to be treated as a normal
employee—he does not want to be singled out by receiving special privileges” (21).
Accessibility for individuals with disabilities is a right, not a special form of treatment.
An example being, when one employee gets paid vacation time, but no one else in the
workplace receives the same opportunity. When it comes to my personal opinion, I
would have to say that I have a deeper connection to this communication issue than some
others would have. I have grown up in this type of discrimination and I will forever have
to fight against it to prove that it is worth it to have a future employer hire me. As I near
the end of my college degree, I am beginning to think about life after college. To be
perfectly honest, it scares me to death to think that I will probably have to endure all of
the same instances of discrimination as I have been reading about. I knew years ago that
it wouldn’t be easy for me to find a job after college, but I really had no idea that the
workplace for individuals with disabilities is this harsh.
As Dr. Ruma Chatterjee said it perfectly, “Disabled people are handicapped in
society because they ‘encounter cultural, physical or social barriers which prevent their
access to various systems that are available to other citizens’” (2). Bernard Leach also
recognizes “that most of the difficulties encountered by disabled people arise not from
the impairment, but from a society which isolates and discriminates against disabled
people” (Leach).
The word disability includes many types of disabilities and many groups of
people as well. There are “physical, mental, sensory, and emotional and learning”
disabilities that affect infants, children, teens, adults and the elderly (Chatterjee 2).
Disabilities are not gender specific. “Some groups use the term 'People with Disabilities'
(PWD) in preference to ‘Disabled People.’ The use of the term PWD is justified as
'putting the person first' in order to counter the stigma attached to the disability” (Leach).
“Others argue that distancing the disability from the person distracts from the unifying
idea that disabled people are an oppressed group regardless of the impairment. The
separation implied in PWD reinforces the notion of disability as something to be ashamed
of, an embarrassment of personal appearance” (Leach).
After twenty-one years of living with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita,
Amyoplasia Type, I would have to say that I’ve had my ups and downs on how I view
my disability. People with disabilities will always have times of feeling left out,
discriminated against or feelings of being ashamed or embarrassed. In my opinion that’s
what society makes us feel like, when in reality we should be glad that we have the
abilities that God gave us. God made us this way for a certain purpose and it’s up to us to
decide how we will react and deal with these situations. Even though the Americans with
Disabilities Act was put into law back in 1990, a lot of buildings to this day still do not
have accessibility for people in wheelchairs. I have encountered this type of
discrimination multiple times in my life and I am prepared to deal with it as the years
progress. Even though “legislation can address physical access and removal of
employment barriers, it not possible to legislate beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors towards
persons with disabilities” (Braithwaite 289).
“Given encouragement and hope, our disabled people can competitively earn a
useful place in our great land. They have the courage, the training and the ability—all
they need is a chance” (Sears 4). Our society holds a lot of negative stereotypes about
individuals with disabilities, but we are called to love each other, encourage one another
and help build each other up, not tear each other down. Clear, efficient and effective
communication is needed with individuals with disabilities. We all have different ways
that we communicate, but the concept of love is universal.
Works Cited/Bibliography
Ann P. Anas, et al. "Chapter 6: "I Just Want You To Know That 'Them' Is Me":
Intergroup Perspectives On Communication And Disability." Intergroup
Communication. 117-137. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2005. Communication &
Mass Media Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
Bowman, Lorenzo. "Americans With Disabilities Act As Amended: Principles And
Practice." New Directions For Adult & Continuing Education 132 (2011): 85-95.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.
Braithwaite, Dawn O. "Just How Much Did That Wheelchair Cost?” Management of
Privacy Boundaries By Persons With Disabilities." Western Journal Of Speech
Communication: WJSC 55.3 (1991): 254-274. Communication & Mass Media
Complete. Web. 5 Apr. 2012.
Braithwaite, Dawn O., and Denise Labrecque. "Responding To The Americans With
Disabilities Act: Contributions Of Interpersonal Communication Research And
Training." Journal Of Applied Communication Research 22.3 (1994): 287-294.
Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2012.
Chatterjee, Ruma. "Information And Communication For Persons With Disability."
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Cohen, Marsha, and Susan Avanzino. "We Are People First: Framing Organizational
Assimilation Experiences Of The Physically Disabled Using Co-Cultural
Theory." Communication Studies 61.3 (2010): 272-303. Communication & Mass
Media Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
EEOC.gov.
Leach, Bernard. "Disabled People And The Implementation Of Local Authorities' Equal
Opportunities Policies." Public Administration 67.1 (1989): 65-77.
Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2012.
Messamer, Jack, et al. "A Normative Analysis Of The Communication Between Disabled
And Nondisabled Persons." World Communication 16.2 (1987): 137.
Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2012.
N.p. “Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).” EEOC.gov.
26 July 1990. Web. 17 April 2012.
Sears, James H. "The Able Disabled." Journal Of Rehabilitation 41.2 (1975): Academic
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