Why Are We Still Not Hiring Individuals with Disabilities?

Recently, I came across a comprehensive study addressing a question frequently asked in the business world, but often without a clear answer: “Why Do Employers Fail to Hire People with Disabilities?” (A Systematic Review, Springer, 2022)

The research examines dozens of scientific studies worldwide and reaches a critical conclusion: the barriers to hiring people with disabilities are not personal—they are systemic. These barriers fall into three main categories: Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation.

Today, I want to discuss these realities that the business world must now confront, through these three lenses.

1. Capability – Lack of Knowledge and Competence

According to the study, a significant portion of employers lack accurate knowledge and experience regarding people with disabilities. The most frequently cited barriers include:

• Lack of understanding of different types of disabilities

• Lack of managerial skills in job accommodation and adaptation

In other words, it’s not about “people with disabilities can’t do the job”; in many cases, the employer simply doesn’t know what is possible. Yet today, accessible work tools, reasonable accommodations, and task design solutions are readily available.

2. Opportunity – Environmental and Systemic Barriers

One of the most striking findings of the study is that the greatest barrier to hiring people with disabilities is physical and systemic. Many organizations still exclude candidates at the outset due to:

• Inaccessible buildings, entrances without ramps, floors without elevators

• Narrow doors, inaccessible restrooms

• Digital systems incompatible with screen readers

Sometimes employers step back, saying “we’re not ready,” but being unprepared is not an excuse—it’s a starting point for change. The issue is not the capability of the individual, but the environment’s ability to enable them.

3. Motivation – Beliefs, Attitudes, and Biases

Finally, the most striking finding: the strongest barrier to hiring people with disabilities is prejudice and misconceptions. Common concerns include:

• Doubts about the performance of employees with disabilities

• Expectation that hiring a person with a disability will be costly

• Lack of strong motivation beyond “doing a good deed”

Disability is still perceived as a matter of charity. Yet people with disabilities are talents. Hiring should therefore be seen as a matter of talent management, not just social responsibility.

What Can We Do?

For me, this is not an academic finding—it is real life. As someone who has lived in a wheelchair for 27 years, I know that disability is not an individual limitation; it is a system problem.

Therefore, the solution should come from the system, not individuals.

To transform the system, we should:

• Approach hiring people with disabilities through the lens of justice, not charity

• Replace fears and biases with knowledge and experience

• Move the hiring of people with disabilities from a “social responsibility project” to the center of HR strategy