Hiring Individuals with Disabilities
Employers that hire people with disabilities have a competitive advantage.
Supplementary Resources
Disability Inclusion
The SHRM Foundation and Workplace Initiative
Free training program focused on helping businesses drive disability inclusion.
DisabilityIN
Empower Business to Achieve Disability Inclusion
Tax and Other Financial Incentives
The Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction
Encouraging businesses of any size to remove architectural and transportation barriers to the mobility of persons with disabilities and the elderly. Businesses may claim a deduction of up to $15,000 a year for qualified expenses for items that normally must be capitalized. Businesses claim the deduction by listing it as a separate expense on their income tax return. Also, businesses may use the Disabled Tax Credit and the architectural/transportation tax deduction together in the same tax year, if the expenses meet the requirements of both sections. To use both, the deduction is equal to the difference between the total expenditures and the amount of the credit claimed.
The Disabled Access Credit
Provides a non-refundable credit for small businesses that incur expenditures for the purpose of providing access to persons with disabilities. An eligible small business is one that earned $1 million or less or had no more than 30 full time employees in the previous year; they may take the credit each and every year they incur access expenditures. Refer to Form 8826, Disabled Access Credit (PDF), for information about eligible expenditures.
Work Opportunity Tax Credit
The credit provides employers incentives to hire qualified individuals from these target groups. The maximum tax credit ranges from $1,200 to $9,600, depending on the employee hired and the length of employment. The credit is available to employers for hiring individuals from certain target groups who have consistently faced significant barriers to employment. This includes people with disabilities and veterans Connections to other employers.
US Office of Disability and Employment Policy
Reports and Research Results
Accenture Report
2019 Survey of Businesses that have Disability Inclusion Practices
Harvard Business Review
2017 Article on Hiring Benefits