How Disabled People Can Help Employers Build More Accessible Hiring Processes
Who keeps finding the barriers?
If disabled candidates are the people repeatedly finding accessibility barriers in your application process, they should have a role in helping you build and test it.
That's the idea I keep coming back to. Think about who usually discovers that a job application doesn't work with a screen reader. It's rarely the vendor, and it's rarely the hiring team. It's the blind candidate who gets stuck halfway through, or someone like me who finds it during an audit.
The people who run into these problems first are the people with the least power to fix them. This post is about changing that.
What I do when I find a barrier
Part of my work is auditing websites and talking with employers about accessibility. I'm blind, and I test with a screen reader, so I experience these barriers the same way a blind candidate would.
When I find a barrier in a job application, I don't just point it out. I document what’s broken, where it happens, and who it affects. I record a video walkthrough so the recruiting team, accessibility team, vendor, or developers can experience what a screen reader user encounters.
The goal is to give employers something actionable: a documented problem, a clear understanding of the candidate impact, and a path toward fixing and retesting it.
How employers respond
Employers react in a few different ways:
Some are surprised that nobody told them before.
Some assume their vendor handles accessibility.
Some want to fix it but don't know where to start.
And some don't see it as a priority.
I can work with all of those. Surprise turns into action once people hear the problem for themselves. A vendor can be asked hard questions. Not knowing where to start is exactly what my analysis and walkthrough are for. Even a team that doesn't see it as a priority is at least having the conversation.
Most often, though, the response is quieter. A generic “we'll get back to you” email. No reply at all. Or a report sent to a contact-us inbox and filed as a feature request.
A broken application isn't a feature request
That last response is worth pausing on.
A feature request is something nice to have. It goes into a list, gets weighed against other ideas, and might get built someday. Nobody is harmed while it waits.
A bug is different. A bug means something that's supposed to work doesn't. Bugs get an owner, a priority, and a fix.
An accessibility barrier that prevents a candidate from completing an application is a but. A core part of the hiring process isn't working.
While the report sits in a backlog, the application continues screening out qualified candidates before anyone looks at their experience. You won't see those candidates in your applicant tracking system. They never made it that far.
Five Ways Employers Can Build a More Accessible Hiring Process
None of these require a big budget. They require deciding that accessibility reports matter.
Treat accessibility barriers as defects that require action. If a candidate can't complete your application, something is broken. Log it, prioritize it, and fix it the way you would if the Submit button stopped working for everyone.
Assign clear ownership for accessibility issues in your hiring process. Someone specific should receive these reports and know what to do with them. A contact-us inbox is where good reports go to disappear.
Close the loop with candidates who report barriers. A short reply tells the candidate that the report landed and that someone cares. Silence tells them the opposite.
Build accessibility into your hiring technology procurement process. Ask software vendors for their Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), which is often built on a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT). Better yet, ask them to show you the application working with a screen reader and only a keyboard. If they can't, you'll inherit their barriers.
Compensate disabled people for accessibility testing and expertise. Accessibility testing is skilled work. When disabled people do it for free, it becomes one more part of the disability tax.
Build Accessibility into Hiring from the Start
Responding quickly when a barrier is reported matters. A stronger approach is finding barriers before candidates encounter them.
That requires disabled people to have a meaningful role in how hiring experiences are designed, selected, tested, and improved.
That may mean hiring disabled professionals into recruiting, HR technology, procurement, UX and accessibility roles, or bringing in disabled accessibility specialists during vendor selection and testing.
When disabled people are part of the process from the start, barriers get caught before launch instead of after a candidate gets stuck. The next candidate doesn't have the door closed on them before they ever get an interview.
Who owns accessibility in your hiring process?
If someone reported an accessibility barrier in your application tomorrow, who would receive it?
Who would determine its severity?
Who would work with your ATS or careers site vendor?
Who would make sure the fix was tested by a disabled user?
If the answer to any of those questions is unclear, there's an opportunity to strengthen your hiring process.
Disability Solutions can help you see your hiring experience from the candidate's perspective. We can review your application process using a screen reader, identify barriers, provide a grade, and give your team practical actions to improve accessibility.
