Implicit biases can influence your opinions and decision making without your conscious knowledge.

People with disabilities face implicit biases during the hiring process and throughout their careers.

Workplace accommodations and inclusivity boost financial gain and employee engagement.

Coauthored by Emma Hills and Kathleen Bogart, Ph.D.

Despite having a desire to find work, many people with disabilities face challenges finding employment in the workforce. As of January 2026, the unemployment rate for persons with disabilities was almost double that of non-disabled individuals. Especially in light of recent attempts by the current federal administration to roll back and de-incentivize programs that encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce, it is more important than ever to address the systemic barriers preventing people with disabilities from joining and thriving within the workplace, especially those that occur without our conscious knowledge.

What are Implicit Biases?

While it's only one part of the puzzle, implicit biases against people with disabilities are a widespread and often overlooked component of discrimination in the workplace. Implicit biases are unconscious negative attitudes that one may hold against specific social groups, such as people with disabilities.

We use biases in our everyday lives as shortcuts to help us interpret and navigate the world around us. They can be helpful, quick, and low-energy ways to make decisions. But if left unchecked, even unintentional biases can undermine inclusion and perpetuate discrimination.

Frequently, implicit negative attitudes present as affinity bias. This kind of bias describes our tendency to give preferential treatment to and gravitate towards individuals with whom we share experiences, interests, or demographics.

Affinity bias can be based on any trait, from superficial characteristics like being a dog person to more consequential characteristics like gender identity and disability status. While affinity bias helps bring us closer to people with common interests, it also means we tend to exclude people who don't look, think, or act like us. Even if they are highly qualified and capable, we may overlook those who are different from us solely because they are different.

Implicit Biases at Play in the Workplace

Implicit bias often first rears its head in early interview and hiring processes. Similar to other minoritized groups, people with disabilities are less likely to receive callbacks from employers than non-disabled individuals.

In fact, a recent field experiment in Sweden found that non-disabled job applicants received 33 percent more callbacks than wheelchair users with similar qualifications, even though their disability would not impact their ability to perform the job. Another similar study found that applicants who disclosed a disability in their cover letter received 26 percent fewer expressions of employer interest than those who did not disclose.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that people with disabilities are facing workplace discrimination before they're even employed. This research strongly indicates that hiring managers are making baseless and often unconscious assumptions about the capability and productivity of people with disabilities despite their resumes proving their qualifications.  

Even once inside the workplace, implicit biases persist. In addition to hiring discrimination, people with disabilities are less likely to receive promotions than their non-disabled peers.

A 2022 study by Samsung UK found that nearly 45 percent of people with disabilities concealed their identity because they feared it would make them less likely to land a promotion. Of those who did disclose, 40 percent reported feeling their colleagues valued them less because of their disability.

In another survey, 3/4ths of participants reported unconscious biases against people with disabilities as a barrier to job progression that they had personally experienced. Even if unintentional, employees with disabilities receive fewer opportunities for professional development than their non-disabled counterparts, to the point where nondisclosure seems necessary to avoid unfair treatment.

The Benefits of Inclusivity in the Workplace

Despite widely held biases, people with disabilities consistently prove to be assets in the workforce. Employers who hire people with disabilities tend to experience financial benefits, including improved employee retention, increased profits, and greater cost-effectiveness. They also gain competitive advantages over other employers, including greater productivity, more innovation, and higher customer loyalty and satisfaction.

A 2020 study also found that companies led by executives who focus on disability engagement grow profits 4.1 times faster than their peers. In addition to financial benefits, workplaces that promote diversity experience gains in employee engagement.

Given that most workplace accommodations cost little to implement, it's clear that creating an inclusive workplace should be a logical priority for all employers. It's also the right thing to do.

How Can We Combat Implicit Biases?

Self-monitor your gut reactions to identify personal biases. The first step to dismantling our implicit biases is recognizing and identifying them through self-monitoring.

Challenge personal biases that aren’t based in truth. Pay attention to your gut reactions when interacting with others and consider how your personal biases may be at play. Consider where these feelings come from, and if they aren't based in truth, challenge them.

Interact with media from underrepresented groups.

Build genuine connections with people who hold different identities than your own.

At the end of the day, the onus for creating an inclusive workplace should fall on the workplace, not individual employees. Here’s how to start:

Standardize the hiring process, with a focus on diverse interview panels and anonymized resumes.

Provide training on unconscious biases, especially for roles involved in hiring and promotions.

Make workplace accommodations available to ALL employees, including those without disabilities. Workplace accommodations can benefit employees with and without disabilities, and making them available to everyone helps break the stigma around their use. It also takes the pressure off disabled people to disclose in order to receive access.

Emma Hills is an undergraduate psychology student and research assistant at Oregon State University. She is an alum of Dr. Bogart’s Psychology of Disability class.

© Psychology Today