What to Do When a Candidate Discloses a Disability

Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and management issues—everything from how to deal with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor.

Here’s a roundup of answers to three questions from readers.

1. How to respond when a candidate discloses a disability in an interview

A colleague and I were recently interviewing candidates for an entry-level position and, at the beginning of one of the interviews, the candidate asked if they could disclose something before we got started, then said that they were on the autism spectrum. My colleague jumped in and explained that while they appreciated the candidate’s desire for transparency, we shouldn’t know that up front because legally we cannot deny employment to someone on the basis of any kind of medical diagnosis, and including that information during an interview makes everything much more complicated.

My colleague and I debriefed after the interview, and we ultimately decided not to move forward with this candidate because the role didn’t match up well with their career plans in the near future, and the type of work environment that they said they were interested in was at odds with the environment we offer (they wanted something fairly independent and structured, whereas our environment relies heavily on collaboration, and schedules/workflows can change pretty quickly).

I feel like we did our best to base our hiring decision solely on what the candidate was looking for and whether or not they’d be able to perform the required tasks, and not on their stated diagnosis, but I was uneasy. I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to handle this situation if it comes up again in the future.

Green responds:

Your colleague shouldn’t have responded to the candidate that way. It’s true that employers can’t legally consider that kind of information in hiring decisions as long as the person can perform the essential functions of the role, but there’s no rule against candidates voluntarily disclosing their own information, and sometimes it makes sense for candidates to do that if it could lead to a better, fairer, or more comfortable interview process for them. Think, for example, of a candidate noting she’ll need a place to pump or for the interview to be held in a wheelchair-accessible location. In this case, your candidate may have disclosed their autism because they wanted to ensure you wouldn’t read into, say, lack of eye contact, or as context to ask that your questions be clear and direct.