Resource Post: Samples of Academic Jobs Excluding Disabled Candidates.

Posted on By David Perry

This is a small sample of the 60 or so higher education job ads I found that contain clauses at least potentially excluding disabled applicants.

Look for words like “occasionally,” “may,” or “frequently” as ways to avoid violating the ADA. However, disabled applicants, like all marginalized peoples, are less likely to apply for jobs when they don’t meet the requirements fully.

Note – at most of these universities, all jobs have the same requirements. They get replicated through HR forms, perhaps motivated by lawyers, perhaps just through lack of attention. The effect is the same. Here’s a tour:

University of Arkansas – Little Rock: No blind French professors.

  • https://ualr.peopleadmin.com/postings/4337

    • Sedentary Work – Exerting 10 pounds: Occasionally, Kneeling: Occasionally, Climbing (Stairs, Ladders, etc.): Occasionally, Lifting 10-25 lbs: Occasionally, Carrying 5-10 lbs: Occasionally, Pushing/pulling 5-10 lbs: Occasionally, Sitting for long periods of time: Occasionally, Standing for long periods of time: Occasionally, Speaking; Essential, Hearing: Essential, Vision: Ability to distinguish similar colors, depth perception, close vision: Essential, Walking – Short Distances: Frequently

Screenshots from 2/1/16 at the bottom of the post.
Assistant Professor of Biology at Colorado Christian – No wheelchair users or deaf professors.
  • http://jobs.ccu.edu/assistant-professor-of-biology/job/5114915
  • Nature of Work Environment

    • While performing the duties of this job, you may be required to walk; stand; sit; reach with hands and arms; balance; stoop; speak with clarity, have appropriate vision and hearing capabilities. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.

Then there’s just the “25 pounds” rule – Development Officer at Clarion University Foundation

Did you want to be the Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Eastern New Mexico University?

Here’s a professor of Accounting at Fisk
  • http://www.fisk.edu/assets/files/k1/assistant-professorofaccounting.pdf
  • PHYSICAL DEMANDS While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; talk and hear. The employee may regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
Advising Coordinator at South LA Community College
Sociology Instructor – Lehigh Carbon Community College (also their director of college relations)
  • http://www.lccc.edu/employment-openings/instructor-or-assistant-professor-%E2%80%93-sociology-special-term-internal-candidates-o?destination=node%2F5687
  • Physical Demands: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; talk and hear. The employee may regularly lift and/or move up to 5 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and distance vision.

Director of First Year Writing at University of Texas at Arlington 

Executive Director of Community Relations – PA Association of Colleges and Employers
  • http://www.pennace.info/index.php?option=com_ccboard&view=postlist&forum=9&topic=13&Itemid=
  • Physical Demands: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; talk and hear. The employee may regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
The Director of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion at Tarrant County College District, a job whose office list “ability” as the first category of diversity to serve, has this:
  • https://www.higheredjobs.com/search/details.cfm?JobCode=176203668&Title=Director%20of%20Institutional%20Diversity%20and%20Inclusion
  • Physical Demands:
  • The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; and taste or smell. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
While nearly every job at TCCD has some kind of “physical demands” list, the “taste and smell” component is not universal.

Thanks to Melinda Hall for finding this one in particular – 

Physical Demands.
Spends the majority of the day standing and sitting in the classroom. While standing the teacher will frequently hold light objects they are working and demonstrating, etc. These can be held from waist level to slightly above the teacher’s head. Teacher must be able to walk through the classroom and be able to maneuver in tight spaces between desks.

Dealing with students can entail kneeling or squatting, stooping and bending from 50-70 degrees at the waist on an occasional to frequent basis on a given day. The chalkboard or white board is occasionally to frequently used which can require grasping the chalk or marker or eraser, reaching at, below or above shoulder height with the dominant upper extremity and may require trunk or neck rotation to look back at class.

Teachers may be required to assist in physical education on a rotating basis and this would occasionally involve lifting, using both upper extremities while assisting the child. The teacher may be required to do playground/yard duty, which involves walking on even and uneven surfaces including pea gravel and negotiating a 6” curb.

The teacher may use computers, overhead projectors, TV, VCR, etc. which would require a 10 pound force to push or pull the TV/VCR stand. The overhead projector requires 5 pounds of force to move. When working with equipment it may also be necessary to forward bend, squat, and/or kneel.

The teacher often moves children’s desks and chairs to change the layout of the classroom to influence teaching situations. It is occasionally necessary to life and carry boxes weighing up to 25 pounds from the office to the classroom up to 200 feet away.
The teacher must sit on an occasional basis when developing lesson plans, grading, etc. This is done at the desk with forward bending from the waist, leaning on the forearms, and looking down which requires neck flexion. It is necessary to grasp and manipulate pens, markers, scissors, staplers, etc., either occasionally or frequently, depending on the day. May occasionally have to climb or balance on counters, step- ladders or chairs.

Screenshots of the TCCD job and the UALR job. Just for record keeping. Click on the links above for accessible versions. If they go offline, I will make accessible here at request.

TCCD Screenshot 1 – Overall requirements
TCCD Screenshot 2 – Disability Clause as pasted above
UALR Screenshot 1 – Overall requirements
UALR Screenshot 2 – Disability Clause as posted above

Leave a Reply