Before a job interview, antsy applicants may find it beneficial to take deep breaths, chew a piece of gum or listen to calming music.
However, the most recommended trick to alleviate stress is not a quick fix. It requires homework to feel as prepared as possible through research and practiced answers to anticipated questions.
But for some individuals with disabilities (IWDs), no amount of time can help them overcome the challenges they face with the traditional job application process. Christy Nittrouer has witnessed these struggles firsthand with her brother Michael, who has profound autism and an intellectual disability.
“My family has run into a lot of questions with his employment,” she said. “For example, how do people who are profoundly different obtain gainful employment when the interview is so influenced by self-presentation, fitting in and saying all the right things? These are the types of individuals who are most at risk of unemployment.”
Nittrouer, an assistant professor of management at Texas Tech University's Jerry S. Rawls College of Business, has predicated her career on conducting research concerning the workplace experience of people with disabilities, including those like her brother. Her experience growing up alongside Michael, who is three years younger, inspired her to earn her doctoral degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Rice University. Self-described as a stigma scholar, her research draws upon stigma theory to explore the impact of stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination in the workplace.
Her first-author paper, titled “Reducing Discrimination against Individuals with Mental Impairments: Influence of Section 503” was accepted in May of this year by the Journal of Business and Psychology – a preferred publishing destination not just for the Rawls College but widely across both disciplines of management and psychology. It was published June 13 after more than a decade of research into how Section 503 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act (reauthorized as of March 2014) would impact discrimination expressed toward hiring IWDs.