Prevailing theories about stigma suggest that negative attitudes are more prevalent toward persons with behavioral disabilities. However, this study provides clear evidence that one behavioral manifestation of negative attitudes, Hiring discrimination, is more often directed at persons with physical or sensory impairments. More outreach regarding ADA rights appears indicated for individuals who share the aforementioned characteristics.

Patterns in discrimination allegations and resolutions in discharge ( n = 130,816) and constructive discharge ( n = 9,765) were examined in data provided by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Spanning the years from 1992 to 2008, these data indicated that the most prevalent disabling conditions in discharge and constructive discharge allegations were back injuries, nonparalytic/orthopedic conditions, depression, and diabetes. Characteristics of employees and employers distinguished between the two allegation types; for example, there were differences in the gender and racial/ethnic status of employees and in the location and industry of the employers. The rate of merit decisions, namely, EEOC decisions that discrimination actually occurred, was 20% for discharge and constructive discharge, indicating that employers, for the most part, rendered legitimate decisions. Findings indicate that people with more highly stigmatized disabilities were more likely to allege discrimination regarding constructive discharge, suggesting that adverse treatment may have caused them to exit employment. Implications for human resource development and management are discussed.

Pre-service rehabilitation education programmes in the United States still prepare future professionals in cultural competency primarily through one required course in multicultural counselling, though there is an expectation that such content will be woven into all graduate rehabilitation coursework. These authors believe that there is still a need in these dawning years of the 21st century to offer more guidance to rehabilitation educators on how to integrate cultural competency into each course at the graduate level. This discussion reviews the literature to date on cultural competency within rehabilitation education in the United States, then concludes by proposing a four-strategy framework for use by rehabilitation educators that is simple, comprehensive, multi-dimensional (i.e., it addresses faculty awareness, student coursework, the student clinical experience and lifelong learning for the student after exiting the pre-service educational programme), and that offers clear guiding parameters without being overly prescriptive.

More outreach regarding ADA responsibilities appears indicated for those employers who share the aforementioned characteristics.

Nonparametric tests of proportion were performed comparing discharge resolutions (the most prevalent discrimination issue filed with the EEOC between 1992 and 2008) with resolutions of a composite group of the next most prevalent discrimination issues (reasonable accommodation, terms and condition of employment, harassment and intimidation, and hiring). Results indicated that when an employee files an allegation of discharge discrimination, the resolution status of that allegation is more likely to be without Merit. Two exhaustive chi-square automatic interaction detector (CHAID) analyses were performed, with the first including 44 impairment types (e.g., back, traumatic brain injury, learning disability) and the second including those 44 impairment types combined into six categories (e.g., physical, neurological, sensory, and behavioral impairments). Results of the first exhaustive CHAID proved quite unwieldy but indicated that behavioral disabilities have relatively low merit resolution rates when it comes to discharge allegations (i.e., there is less actual discharge discrimination occurring for persons with behavioral disabilities). One additional finding was that filing discharge discrimination under one of the alternate prongs of the ADA's definition of disability (i.e., "regarded as a person with a disability," "record of a disability," or "association with a person with a disability") was the main driver of merit resolution activity. Results from a second exhaustive CHAID indicated that in the case of discharge merit resolution activity, employer industry drives the alternate prongs, employee race drives physical impairments, and employer industry drives behavioral impairments. Implications for human resources management and development research and practice are addressed.