Disability-Job Fit Stereotypes and the Evaluation of Persons with Disabilities at Work

The present paper describes a laboratory experiment in which raters evaluated the videotaped performance of ratees who did or did not have a disability. This disability was stereotypically either a poor fit with the job in question or not. The results indicated that actual appraisals were not influenced by stereotypes about fit or by disabilities, but that expectations concerning future performance and a number of other decisions and recommendations were influenced by this perceived fit. These results suggest that people do hold clear stereotypes about what types of disabilities lead to poor performance on a given job, and that these stereotypes are relied upon for certain personnel decisions, even in light of performance evidence that suggests that these stereotypes are invalid. Employees' disabilities may not influence supervisors' evaluations of their past performance when supervisors have clear objective performance information available. However, bias still exists in expectations for future performance and training recommendations. This bias can have severe long-term consequences on one's career within an organization. The scenario is worse when one's disability is stereotypically believed to be unsuitable to the job in question.