Workers with Disabilities and the Skilled Trades

Skilled trade jobs provide a wide range of stable career paths and opportunities to acquire practical skill sets. However, the industry has faced a growing labor shortage over the last decades. For instance, in February 2022, the unemployment rate in the skilled trades was at 6.7%, contributing to the industry’s depleting workforce, especially as older employees retire. To solve this problem, efforts to diversify the trades have been rolled out, starting with education programs encouraging women and minorities to enter the skilled trades workforce.

Several challenges can also get in the way of career advancement and opportunities in the industry, such as physical disabilities that might limit an employee’s capacity to do manual labor. This is why ensuring inclusivity in the trades is also essential to provide disabled skilled workers opportunities to thrive and contribute to the industry’s strength and human resources. But what avenues and tools are available to help people with physical disabilities work in the trades? 

Below, we’ll look at statistics and highlight initiatives that ensure disability inclusion in the skilled trade professions. 

Inclusivity in the skilled professions

The scope of skilled trade jobs covers many occupations essential in building and maintaining everyday infrastructure, such as farming, fishing, construction, maintenance, production, and transportation. According to a United States Census Bureau survey, about one-quarter of employed individuals with disabilities work in skilled trades. The same study found that the transportation sector has the largest proportion of employed disabled people in the trades, with 37%, followed by production (27%) and construction (19%).

Among the number of employed disabled people working in the skilled trades professions, more than one-quarter reported experiencing multiple disabilities such as hearing, vision, and ambulatory impairments. This highlights the need for tools and initiatives that foster an inclusive working environment for skilled trade workers. 

Making the trades more accessible 

According to the US Department of Labor (DOL), the most commonly reported disability of workers in the trades is hearing difficulty. A study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine found that 55.2% of older and retired construction trade workers experience hearing impairments.

The same research stated that boilermakers (65.8%) and carpenters (65.3%) were the trade jobs most associated with hearing impairment, while 95% of former construction trade workers aged 85 and above experience hearing difficulties.

These findings highlight the need and opportunities for workplaces in the skilled trades industry to invest in hearing aids to help employees with auditory impairments, as well as noise reduction tools to prevent the development of hearing disabilities among workers in general. Doing so can help the industry be more accessible and inclusive for trade workers with disabilities, as well as improve workplace safety.

A hearing disability can have severe consequences in the workplace. For instance, accidents can occur when skilled trade workers in the transportation sector cannot hear an approaching vehicle, or a construction worker fails to hear an emergency broadcast on a two-way radio.

Besides avoiding accidents, assistive tools are also necessary to help workers communicate better with both clients and each other. While hearing aids like cochlear implants can help, the hearing glasses developed by Nuance Audio are a novel option that can help hard-of-hearing workers address both auditory and vision correction needs. These hearing glasses pick up and amplify sounds through built-in microphones and speakers within the frame stems, helping trade professionals with hearing difficulties become more aware of their workplace environment. Hearing glasses can also come with prescription lenses to provide both hearing solutions and vision correction, helping skilled workers with auditory and visual impairments hit two birds with one stone.

Government Initiatives

Aside from assistive tools that help foster inclusivity for workers already in the industry, the US government has also set up initiatives to give people with disabilities a chance to enter the skilled trade workforce.

For instance, the US Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture administers the AgrAbility project, which provides people with disabilities with opportunities to work and participate in agricultural production. The program is executed through a partnership between the State Cooperative Extension System and a non-profit disability organization. The project includes direct assistance and education to help disabled trade agricultural workers continue their farm-related occupations by enhancing their professional competencies and providing rehabilitation and health care.

It also offers on-the-farm agricultural equipment for farmers with physical disabilities, such as automatic hitching equipment, a special dual tire changer, and a modified skid steer with a special attachment that can help trade workers continue their farm work despite physical limitations.

US DOL data shows that the employment rate for people with disabilities was 37.2% in 2023, the highest on record. Many of these disabled workers are employed in skilled trade occupations, including construction and manufacturing.

Today, the US government continues to support the recruitment, hiring, retention, and advancement of workers with disabilities in the construction and manufacturing industries through a DOL toolkit. This toolkit provides employers with the best strategies for supporting disabled workers and resources on rehabilitation programs that provide individual support to help trade workers with disabilities stay competitive in the labor market. Accommodations like these ensure that with the right help and support, people with disabilities can still participate in the skilled trade workforce and society in general.

With more workers with disabilities employed in the skilled trades, employers and the government must ensure inclusivity in the workplace. Existing tools and initiatives are a step in the right direction towards an accessible workplace in the trades, with opportunities to further hone and develop equipment and policies for a more inclusive working environment for people with disabilities.

Colleen Anderson is a freelance writer based in Florida. She writes primarily about technology and business and hopes to find a role covering one or both subjects for an online magazine or journal in the near future.