Page 260 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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Workplace Discrimination Toward

Persons with Disabilities: A Call for

Some New Research Directions

Adrienne Colella
Texas A M University

Dianna L. Stone
University of Central Florida

The issue of workplace discrimination resulting from disability has not
received nearly as much attention in the psychological literature as other
forms of discrimination. There are many reasons for this lack of attention
ranging from the recency of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)
compared to other civil rights legislation, to problems with defining what
actually constitutes a disability in both the legal and behavioral sense.
However, it is particularly imperative that we work to better understand
disability discrimination in the workplace given what little change there
has been in the employment status of persons with disabilities since the
advent of the ADA (Wells, 2001). In this chapter we examine what work
has been done and what major issues still remain to be addressed in future
research. Behavioral research on disability discrimination has grown since
the passage of the ADA, has become more systematic, and is more relevant
to employment issues. Yet, our review underscores the point that there is
still a long way to go until we can gain a workable understanding of the

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