MYTH: Workers with disabilities under-perform their colleagues without disabilities, will require additional time off for medical appointments, and in general will require extra supervision.

REALITY:

In numerous studies of businesses that employ people with disabilities, employers reported being initially leery of hiring people with disabilities, only to see their concerns dissolve after the employees were on board.

Numerous studies,including this one, have shown that workers with disabilities can and do outperform their colleagues who do not have disabilities. One recent study conducted by DuPont showed that 90% of people with disabilities rated average or better on job performance. More recently, a study compared workers with and without disabilities in the hospitality, health care and retail sectors, and found that job performance and supervision were similar for both groups. That same study showed that the difference in the amount of supervision required was relatively minor among workers with and without disabilities.

In a recent study conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity , 75% of employers surveyed ranked their employees with disabilities as "good or very good" on work quality, motivation, engagement, integration with co-workers, dependability, and attendance.

One recent study showed that workers with disabilities had fewer scheduled absences than their colleagues without disabilities, and in some sectors even had less unscheduled absences than their counterparts without disabilities.

So, equal or better performance, fewer absences, equal supervision requirements, high engagement levels...and businesses aren't hiring people with disabilities because...?