We've written about writing job descriptions that attract diverse candidates — the language and the framing of the posting itself. This piece starts exactly where that one ends: the moment a qualified candidate with a disability clicks “Apply” and enters the pipeline of systems between them and your interview room. That pipeline — the posting's delivery, the application form, the screening assessments, the scheduling tools — is where accessible hiring most often quietly fails, because nobody on your team ever experiences it the way applicants do. The good news: it's auditable, stage by stage, and most fixes are unglamorous and cheap.
This article discusses areas with genuine legal exposure, so this disclaimer is load-bearing: it's a plain-English overview to help you ask the right questions, not legal advice, and hiring-technology law is actively evolving. For decisions about your own process — especially anything involving automated screening tools — consult experienced employment counsel. Verify every program and citation directly before relying on it.
First, the Ground Rules That Haven't Moved
The regulatory weather around hiring technology has been changeable — notably, the EEOC's technical-assistance documents on AI and the ADA were removed from its site in early 2025. It's worth being precise about what that does and doesn't mean: agency guidance came down; the statute did not change. Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act imposes the same duties on covered employers it imposed before any of those documents existed, and an applicant screened out by an algorithm can still bring the same claim as one screened out by a person. Anchor your process on the durable statutory obligations, not on whichever guidance document is currently posted:
- Your application process must be accessible — or you must provide a reasonable accommodation (an alternative way to apply) to someone who can't use it because of a disability.
- Reasonable accommodation applies to hiring, not just employment — the duty starts at the application stage, long before anyone is on payroll.
- Tests and screens must measure the skill, not the impairment. A selection procedure that screens out a candidate because of a disability — rather than an inability to do the job's essential functions — is exactly what the ADA prohibits, whether the screen is a human, a timed quiz, or a model.
- No pre-offer disability inquiries. Before a conditional offer, you may not ask about the existence, nature, or severity of a disability — a rule that quietly implicates some “screening questions” and some data your tools collect.
New York employers should also remember the New York State Human Rights Law, which is generally broader than the ADA — among other things it reaches employers regardless of size (confirm current thresholds with counsel or the Division of Human Rights). And while no automated-hiring law specific to Western New York exists as of this writing, some jurisdictions now regulate automated hiring tools directly (New York City's local law on automated employment decision tools is the famous example) — a signal of where scrutiny is heading, not a rule that binds WNY today.
The Pipeline, Stage by Stage
Stage 1: Posting Delivery
Accessibility starts before your careers page — with where and how the posting travels. A PDF-only job posting is unreadable to many screen-reader users; a posting distributed only through channels that themselves have accessibility problems narrows your pool before you've seen a single résumé.
Self-audit: Is the posting available as real text (HTML), not just an image or PDF? Does your careers page work with keyboard navigation alone — no mouse? Is it usable at 200% zoom on a phone? Do you distribute through at least one channel that reaches candidates with disabilities (your local vocational agencies will happily be one)?
Stage 2: The Application Form
This is the classic failure point: the multi-page portal with unlabeled fields, a session that times out mid-application, a required dropdown a screen reader can't operate, drag-and-drop upload with no alternative. The technical yardstick here is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) — the standard your web team or vendor should be conforming to — but you don't need to read a spec to find your worst problems.
Self-audit: Have someone complete your entire application using only a keyboard, and again using a free screen reader — not a five-minute glance, the whole flow through final submission. Does every field have a visible label and a useful error message? Can the session be extended or resumed if it times out? Is there a file-upload alternative to drag-and-drop? Ask your applicant-tracking vendor directly for their current accessibility conformance report — and treat “we don't have one” as an answer.
Stage 3: Assessments and Automated Screens
This is the stage with the sharpest legal edge, because modern screening tools can encode exactly the thing the ADA forbids. A rigidly timed assessment with no extended-time option can screen out candidates whose disability affects speed but not skill. A gamified test can measure dexterity or reaction time for a job that requires neither. A video-interview tool that scores speech patterns, facial expression, or eye contact can systematically downgrade candidates with speech differences, facial paralysis, or autism — a screen-out based on disability, not ability. The question for every screen is brutal and simple: what does this actually measure, and is that thing an essential function of the job?
Self-audit: List every assessment and automated tool in your funnel (many employers genuinely don't know). For each: What trait does it measure? Is that trait essential to the job? Is there a documented alternative format — extended time, a non-video option, a practical work sample? Is the accommodation path visible before the assessment starts, rather than discoverable only after failing it? And if a vendor scores candidates for you, ask what the tool evaluates and what bias testing it has undergone — you, not the vendor, hold the legal duty to your applicants.
Stage 4: Scheduling, Communication, and the Accommodation Door
The last stretch before a human: automated scheduling links, email-only threads, phone-only confirmations. Each single-channel step excludes someone — phone-only excludes Deaf candidates, inaccessible calendar widgets exclude screen-reader users. And overarching it all is the single highest-value fix in this entire article: a visible, human way to request an accommodation at every step. A plain line on the posting and portal — “If you need an accommodation or an alternative way to apply, contact [name] at [email/phone]” — with a monitored inbox behind it, converts nearly every barrier above from a silent screen-out into a solvable logistics problem.
Self-audit: Is the accommodation contact on the posting, the portal, and the assessment invitation? Does a real person answer it within a business day? Can candidates reach you by more than one channel (email and phone)? Do your interview confirmations ask, as routine, whether the candidate needs anything for the interview itself — the practice we covered in conducting inclusive interviews?
You will not make every system perfect this quarter — but you can put a clearly-marked human door next to every machine today. A monitored accommodation contact, offered early and answered fast, is the difference between “our portal has issues we're fixing” and “qualified people silently gave up.” It's also the strongest good-faith signal you can send — to candidates and, frankly, to anyone later reviewing how your process treats them.
Where to Get Real Help
- askJAN (Job Accommodation Network) — free, expert, employer-friendly guidance on accommodations, including the application stage (askjan.org).
- PEAT — the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology — a U.S. Department of Labor (ODEP) initiative focused exactly on accessible hiring technology, including e-recruiting and inclusive-AI resources (peatworks.org).
- The ADA National Network — free regional technical assistance on ADA questions, including Title I hiring duties (adata.org).
- The EEOC — the statute and regulations themselves, including the pre-employment inquiry rules (eeoc.gov).
- Your local pipeline — agencies like ours, who work with candidates using these systems every day and can tell you where your funnel loses people.
That last one is where we come in. Innovative Placements of WNY has connected Western New York employers with qualified candidates with disabilities since 2001 — over 3,000 placements — and we see the application gauntlet from the candidate's side constantly (we've written that view up in navigating online applications — a worthwhile read for any employer, because it's your process seen from the other end). If you're building the foundations, start with our ADA basics for small employers — and if you want pre-screened, qualified candidates plus a partner who can flag where your process is losing people, that's literally what we do, at no cost to you as a hiring partner. Call (716) 566-0251 or email andreatodaro@ipswny.com.