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[withinwheels]

In your experience or at your college / university, are people with disabilities included in the emphatic Affirmative Action hiring actions? I am familiar with a recent search at one university where the group of top candidates were all from the groups identified in the university's statement that "VWXYZ University does not discriminate on the basis of <fill in the blanks with the terms used at your college / university>." None was a person with (visible) disabilities, and the statement does not mention disability.

Is anyone looking for faculty with (visible) disabilities? Actively encouraging them to apply, as this search did? If not, why not. If so, how did it come about?

[infopri]

Our local uni includes people with disabilities in its non-discrimination statement.  On the other hand, while I'm not privy to the inner workings of each search, I know of only a few people with (visible) disabilities actually on the faculty or staff.  I do not know, however, if this paucity reflects a lack of effort on the uni's part or a lack of interest on the part of the applicant pool.  (It's not a top-tier uni by a long shot, and the geographic region isn't desirable to a lot of people--including severe winters, which might be a disincentive to people who use wheelchairs).  And, of course, there may be folks on campus who have disabilities (whether visible or not) of whom I'm unaware.

[draco]

At my large public university, physical disabilities are not discriminated against.  But in my department, the architecture of the building would make it very difficult for with mobility issues (in a wheelchair) to get access to all parts of the department.  Such an individual could probably access about half to two-thirds of the department, but that doesn't include the main office or one of the primary classrooms.  The building is ancient and to accommodate disabled people would require some serious redesign. 

To date I don't believe this has become a major issue.  Yet.

[tenured_feminist]

In doing hiring for a small interdisciplinary program for (the only available) non tenure stream teaching positions, we would have taken disability status into account positively.  In a related but not totally interlocked sense, we would have liked to find someone with expertise in disability studies, and as with other identity issues, more people with disabilities or with experience living with those who have disabilities tend to specialize in this area.

[lux__]

At my school, there's an older guy in a wheelchair who's teaching education courses on an adjunct basis. The building is wheelchair accessible and has elevators.

[red_queen]

Well. Okay then.