What are reasonable accommodations and what are some examples of it?

There could be many examples depending on the disability and the degree of the disability. For example: If you are a person with 100% Vision Impairment and need to work on computers:

• You need Screen Reader Software to be installed.

If you are a person with Low Vision and need to work on computers:

• You might need a magnifier. There are different types of magnifiers.

If you are a person with Speech and Hearing Impairment and need to attend virtual meetings:

• You might need a Sign Language Interpreter.
• You might need captions to be enabled.
• You might need people to speak slow if you do lip reading.
• You might need more infographics & visuals to understand few presentations.

If you are a wheel chair user and need to travel to office:

• You might need special cab
• You might need someone to pick you up from wheel chair, place in the cab, fold the wheel chair etc.

As a person with disability – Disabled, Do I need to pay for reasonable accommodations if I ask for it while in job?

• If you are getting into a company, you don’t have to pay for it unless it’s a paid service. Companies are moving towards diverse & inclusive culture and they should be providing such accommodations.
• Some of these could be special requests. For example: If some company does not provide cab facility, then they specially need to arrange for it.
• Some companies generally charge employees for cab services and in that case you will be charged as well.

Can I ask for some accommodations during interviews if needed?

• Yes, you can ask for it but you should give enough heads-up for the same when it is arranged.
• You must confirm from the coordinator if these are arranged before the interview day and must keep these communications in mail. It will be waste of time for interviewer and you if you both are not able to start/complete which might end your candidature.

Some examples of accommodations which might be needed for interviews:

• Person with Speech and Hearing Impairment might need Sign Language Interpreter.
• Person with Speech and Hearing Impairment might need to use video calling options which have captions like Google Meet. Now Zoom meetings also have captions enabled.
• Person with Vision Impairment for a Tech Round might need Screen Reader on the Computer if asked to do practical or coding.

You can suggest alternate ways of interviews. For example:

• If you are a person with locomotor disability and want to avoid travelling for in-person interview, suggest to have it on video call.

Should I mention that I need reasonable accommodations in my resume?

• Yes, you should mention the accommodations needed in the resume. This avoids surprises for the employer and is appreciated. Employer can think that you are thinking ahead and providing solutions for the employer.

Will I loose a job opportunity if I ask for accommodation?

• Most of the time employer hesitate to hire person with disability because they do not know how will you work, do they have right tools and products which you can use to work etc. Hence if you mention all the details before-hand, it actually can increase your chances of getting hired than reducing.

Can I provide suggestions on how some accommodations can be met?

• Yes, why not. This definitely will help the employer in yours as well as in future hiring. Employer will definitely appreciate your proactive skill of not only identifying a problem but providing a solution as well. This will definitely work in your favor.

I do not have any professional skills and I do not know which are the right skills for me to develop.

                                     OR

I do not know which industry is right for me as I don’t have any specific preference.

There are many professional skills to develop and if you don’t have any specific preference then focus to learn those skills which have options of job, self-employment as well as freelancing. This will open up opportunities even if you are struggling to find a job. I define some of these as evergreen roles.

Definition of Evergreen roles are:

• Which can be done from office or home or from anywhere else as well.
• Which have long term opportunities
• Which has wide variety and good deal of demand
• Which can be learnt easily
• Which has a lot of help available on internet
  Falls under a Industry which itself is evergreen and will always be in demand
• Which has few related areas to learn additional skills to later become SME in that industry/area/field

How should I prepare for interviews?

• First you should prepare a good resume. It should be mostly one page with your hands-on experience should be first. You can check on how to prepare a good resume. Click Here to Make a Winning Resume
• Second, you must understand interview stages and prepare for each interview stage. Click Here to Understand All Interview Stages in Detail.

How can I connect with employers and recruiters?

• You do not have to wait for employers and recruiters to reach out to you. You can reach out to him on LinkedIn. Click Here to Make LinkedIn Work for You.
• You can also create your profile on various job sites. Explore How to Leverage Job Sites
• You should ask your college to pitch to employers for campus hiring. It can be done easily with colleges writing emails to employers and even contacting on LinkedIn.

Is networking and online presence important, will it really help me?

Yes. It is really important. Please understand that without knowing about you and know that you exist, how companies can reach out to you.

If you are available on LinkedIn and your profile has good keywords related to your skills, you will appear in searches done by recruiters.

Also, if you are available on job sites with a good profile and keywords related to your skills, people will be able to search you there as well.

Is there difference between interview process for freshers and experienced?

Yes, it can be.

In some companies, freshers are hired via campus hiring. Process might include aptitude test, tech online test, tech round and HR rounds. There could be multiple tech rounds as well.

If there are many candidates applying, aptitude and other written test will be considered as filtered criteria hence you must perform good.

However, a PwD college can pitch for exception and directly go for interviews.

What are the minimum qualifications to apply for any position?

• Minimum qualification depends on the company and the role. Most of the time for an MNC it is graduate.
• At times companies look for engineering graduates because these are available in great number but non-engineering should not be showstopper.
• If you are fresher, you must request your college to pitch to the company. Most of the time, companies are very flexible to consider non-engineering streams like MCA, B.Sc., M.Sc., B.com. as well.
• Most important thing is for your college is to connect with companies.

• For experienced candidates, mostly experience is considered along with any graduation in most companies. There might not be a need for special considerations even.

How do employers find candidates for their companies?

• For freshers, a lot of MNC hire via campus. Hence it’s very important for your college to pitch to companies.
• Some companies might hire for entry level positions via job fair as well. You must participate in Job Fair via your college or individually. Few NGOs conduct job fair few times in a year.

Do organisations provide mentorship to prepare for interviews?

• Yes, some organisations offer mentorship for needy candidates. However, reaching out individually might be challenging and people might not consider.
• A lot of organisations run small to large scale volunteer programs.
• If your college and NGO approaches companies with few candidates who need mentoring and guidance, organisations can run this as volunteer engagement programs which would be preferred and can definitely happen.
• As candidate, you should take initiative to be regular in mentorship and be proactive to connect along with completing the assignments.

Do organisations help prepare for interviews?

• Yes, like mentorship many organizations also run short term volunteer engagement programs as well which can be used to take mock interviews. Again, it might not be feasible to conduct the same for one person.
• If your NGO or college is reaching out to organizations with few candidates for mock interviews which the organizations can run as volunteer engagement program, it can definitely be done.

Do organizations hire only certain disabilities?

• Most of the organizations do not restrict on hiring only certain disabilities, it is mainly based on skills. However, hiring certain disabilities could be faster because there is more awareness about it. For example: people with vision impairment, people with locomotor disabilities.
• However, there is need to raise awareness about less known type of disabilities, jobs which these people can perform well.
• NGOs should also come forward to train, promote and push the hiring for other disabilities as well.

Do organizations relax their hiring criteria for people with disabilities?

• It depends. Some organizations can relax their criteria for example: These might skip aptitude & other online tests. These might hire only based on technical interviews.
• Some organizations might do online tests but might not consider the results of it and still give chance for tech interviews.
• Organizations might do it as changing the policies will be very complex.
• However, tech interviews are must for hiring.
• Important point is to make sure that your college and organization reaches out to organizations, inform about candidate’s positions and close the negotiations.