how to respond when a candidate discloses a disability in an interview

A reader writes:

A colleague and I were recently interviewing candidates for an entry-level position and, at the beginning of one of the interviews, the candidate asked if they could disclose something before we got started, then said that they were on the autism spectrum. My colleague jumped in and explained that while they appreciated the candidate’s desire for transparency, we shouldn’t know that up-front because legally we cannot deny employment to someone on the basis of any kind of medical diagnosis, and including that information during an interview makes everything much more complicated.

My colleague and I debriefed after the interview, and we ultimately decided not to move forward with this candidate because the role didn’t match up well with their career plans in the near future, and the type of work environment that they said they were interested in was at odds with the environment we offer (they wanted something fairly independent and structured, whereas our environment relies heavily on collaboration, and schedules/workflows can change pretty quickly).

I feel like we did our best to base our hiring decision solely on what the candidate was looking for and whether or not they’d be able to perform the required tasks, and not on their stated diagnosis, but I was uneasy. I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to handle this situation if it comes up again in the future.

I answer this question — and two others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

Other questions I’m answering there today include:

• How can I signal that I’m not the bottleneck?
• Who should initiate a LinkedIn connection, manager or employee?

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