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In-Abled

Why employers refuse to make accommodations for individuals with general medical conditions.

Despite legislative efforts, discrimination against disabled workers is everywhere. A recent report in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that a quarter of the disabled workers surveyed had experienced social and economic discrimination since 1990, and the worst hit were those suffering from psychological problems, such as depression or shyness.

Study author Benjamin Druss, Ph.D., a Yale University psychiatry professor, notes that mental disabilities "are more difficult to define, [so] employers may be less willing to make the accommodations they would make for individuals with general medical conditions."