How Does the Federal Contractor’s Online Application Selection System — OFCCP Directive #281 — Impact Your Organization?

By Tyler T. Matney, New Editions Consulting, Inc.
& Julia Mendez Fuentes, PHR, CELS,
Workforce Compliance and Diversity Solutions, Peopleclick Research Institute

Imagine that a friend tells you about the perfect job opportunity. You have the right skill set, a solid amount of experience — and the location is only 10 minutes away from home. You decide to visit the company’s career site and apply for the job. However, when you get to the site, you find that you can’t navigate the site and are unable to apply. That’s what many of the almost 50 million Americans with disabilities experience when trying to apply for jobs on inaccessible career sites. For employers, that means not being able to tap into the largest talent pool in the world and potentially having to deal with the cost and time associated with complaints or lawsuits.

Sites can be inaccessible for a variety of reasons. Some sites do not have tags — akin to a computer label — on images and forms. These are necessary to enable those who are blind to listen to the text of the site through their screen reading software. Other sites do not give visual cues to assist candidates who are deaf in understanding whether their information has been accepted or if they have entered information incorrectly in a form. Still others make no accommodation for candidates who are unable to use keyboards to tab through the site and apply. Some sites have all of these issues and more.

Ensuring that your site is accessible doesn’t only allow you to tap into the large talent pool of candidates with disabilities, but it also ensures that you are complying with various laws and directives that are geared towards protecting individuals with disabilities. Perhaps the most notable of these laws is the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) which indicates, as interpreted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), that an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified applicant with a disability that will enable the individual to have an equal opportunity to participate in the application process and to be considered for a job. Another significant directive, specifically for government contractors, is the Office of Federal Contractor Compliance Program (OFCCP) Directive 281: Federal Contractor's Online Application Selection System.

Directive 281 aims to increase the number of employees with disabilities among federal contractors. Specifically it calls for contractors to:

Create systems that are accessible by people with disabilities following the Access Board’s guidelines and standards.
Ensure that qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans have an equal opportunity to apply and compete for jobs — including the provision of needed reasonable accommodations, unless doing so would cause undue hardship (significant difficulty or expense).
Prominently display a notice of how to obtain reasonable accommodations, including contact and process information.
Incorporate “interoperable” technology into the online application system.
Allow people who cannot use the online system because of a disability to apply for a job in an alternate way.

The OFCCP is keeping with its commitment to ensure that federal contractors are compliant with Directive 281. This is evidenced by the items requested in recent compliance reviews contained within SCRR Addendum — Federal Contractor’s Online Application Selection System Evaluation OFCCP — Directive #281 (see Appendix A). In fact, during the OFCCP’s December 8, 2009 live Q&A session with the new head of the OFCCP, Patricia Shiu, a participant asked Ms. Shiu what the fines would be if online systems were not accessible. The following was the answer to the question:
“The sanctions for violations of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act are contract sanctions, meaning violations could lead contractors to lose their ability to contract with the government. In addition, contractors who violate Section 503 are responsible for providing make whole relief, including back pay, to victims of discrimination. We encourage you to review the OFCCP website (http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/) for additional information regarding sanctions available under Section 503.”

There are also additional resources to assist contractors in understanding and complying with the directive, including OFCCP’s Disability Issues Related to Online Application Systems Frequently Asked Questions — For Employer.

Julia Mendez Fuentes is Director of Workforce Compliance and Diversity Solutions for Peopleclick Research Institute. For almost 15 years, Ms. Fuentes has assisted companies in the areas of compliance equal opportunity and affirmative action laws and regulations as well as assisting with diversity efforts. She leads the Metairie (New Orleans), LA team as well as the Diversity Council for the organization. She has assisted numerous clients in successfully preparing for an OFCCP compliance review. Ms. Fuentes also speaks on various topics related to EEO, affirmative action and diversity and has spoken on numerous occasions at events including local, regional and national conferences, seminars and webinars.

Tyler T. Matney possesses over 10 years of marketing, advertising, and research experience with commercial and government clients. Mr. Matney is currently employed as Project Manager for the Employer Assistance and Resource Network (EARN) project administered on behalf of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). He also assists various other clients with marketing and online accessibility projects.

In his role, he conducts employer outreach, develops employer champions, and builds key business partnerships to advance the employment of people with disabilities. Additionally, he assists clients in understanding the benefits of, and in improving, the accessibility of their online systems. Prior to working with New Editions, Mr. Matney worked for Monster Worldwide. His combined experience at both Monster and New Editions has given him great insight into the needs and demands of employers, as well as the ever-changing labor market.

Peopleclick Authoria’s service partners, New Editions Consulting, Inc. and SilverStar Consulting, Inc., can also assist you in identifying and remediating accessibility issues with your website. Our service partner, GettingHired, can help you in finding candidates with disabilities to meet OFCCP’s affirmative action requirements for effective outreach efforts in attracting qualified persons with disabilities. For more information regarding these partner services call 800-782-1818 (option 3).