Workplace Accommodations: Low Cost, High Impact
New Research Findings Address the Costs and Benefits of Job Accommodation for People with Disabilities

All employees need the right tools and work environment to effectively perform their jobs. Similarly, individuals with disabilities may need workplace adjustments–or accommodations–to maximize the value they can add to their employer. Employers accommodate workers everyday–with and without disabilities–to build a loyal, dedicated and productive workforce.

A few examples include:

• flexible work schedules to accommodate family responsibilities,
• software to allow efficient manipulation of data, 
• ergonomic chairs to alleviate back pain, 
• wrist supports to reduce the effects of repetitive stress disorders and 
• telecommuting to reduce stress or other issues associated with commuting to work.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers must provide employees with disabilities the “reasonable accommodations” they need to perform the essential functions of their jobs. In the 15 years since the ADA became law, many employers have expressed concerns about the potential costs of accommodations. This concern often is accompanied by a reluctance to hire individuals with disabilities who may need accommodations. In fact, based on individual stories and media reports from businesses that actually have hired and retained employees with disabilities, these fears seem to have little foundation.

In an effort to separate fact from fiction, the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a service of the US Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, is going beyond the anecdotal information and is more rigorously assessing the costs and benefits to employers of providing accommodations.

What does it really cost to provide accommodations for job applicants and employees with disabilities? This is one of the questions that the University of Iowa’s Law, Health Policy and Disability Center (LHPDC) is asking as part of a follow-up with employers that use JAN.  The answer? Study results show that more than half of the accommodations needed by employees and job applicants with disabilities cost absolutely nothing.  Of those accommodations that do cost, the typical expenditure by employers is around $600.  

As of May 2005, the LHPDC had interviewed 778 employers that contacted JAN between January 2004 and April 2005. The employers represented a range of industry sectors and sizes. The study is ongoing through September 2007.  Preliminary findings illustrate some interesting and useful trends. 

Finding #1: Employers want to provide accommodations so they can retain valued and qualified employees.  
Of the employers who called JAN for accommodation information and solutions, most were doing so to retain (84%) or promote (2%) a current employee.  On average, these employees had been with the company about seven years, with an average wage of $13 for those paid by the hour, or an average annual salary of about $48,000.  In addition, the employees these companies wanted to retain tended to be fairly well-educated, with 43% having a college degree or higher. 

Finding #2: Most employers report no cost or low cost for accommodating employees with disabilities.  
Of the employers that gave cost information related to accommodations they had provided, a little more than half (50.5%) reported an accommodation had been made at no cost. Many employers gave changing a work schedule as an example of a “no-cost” accommodation. An additional 42% said the accommodation they had made resulted in a one-time cost with a median cost of $600. 

The final 7.5% reported experiencing either an annual accommodation cost or both a one-time and an annual cost; however, too few of these employers provided cost data to report with accuracy.  When asked how much they paid for an accommodation beyond what they would have paid for an employee without a disability who was in the same position, employers typically answered around $500.

Finding #3: Employers report accommodations are effective.
LHPDC asked employers that had implemented accommodations at the point they were interviewed to rank the effectiveness of the accommodations on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being extremely effective.  Of those that responded, 76% reported that the accommodations were either very effective or extremely effective. 

Finding #4: Employers experience multiple direct and indirect benefits after making accommodations.
Employers who had made accommodations for employees with disabilities reported multiple benefits as a result. The most frequently mentioned direct benefits were:
1.  the accommodation allowed the company to retain a qualified employee,
2.  the accommodation eliminated the costs of training a new employee and
3.  the accommodation increased the worker’s productivity.

The most widely mentioned indirect benefits employers received were:
1.  the accommodation increased overall company productivity,
2.  the accommodation increased over all company morale, and
3.  providing the accommodation ultimately improved interactions with co-workers and customers. 

In addition, a significant number of employers said that the accommodation helped improve workplace safety.  The following table gives the percentage of employers who reported experiencing direct and indirect benefits as a result of having made an accommodation.

For a more detailed report on the survey results, please see “Cost and Effectiveness of Accommodations in the Workplace: Preliminary Results of a Nationwide Study” by D.J. Hendricks, Linda C. Batiste, Anne Hirsh, Helen A. Schartz, and Peter Blanck in Disability Studies Quarterly (2005). Disability Studies Quarterly is an online journal of the Society for Disability Studies and is available online at: http://www.dsq-sds.org/index.html.
This document was developed by the Job Accommodation Network, funded by a contract agreement from the US Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (Number J-9-M-2-0022). The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the US Department of Labor. Nor does mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations imply the endorsement by the US Department of Labor. For more information: Job Accommodation Network, PO Box 6080 Morgantown, WV 26506-6080; 800-526-7234 (V/TTY); jan@jan.wvu.edu; http://www.jan.wvu.edu