Applicant Accommodations

To ensure that all applicants can participate in our recruitment process and that no discriminatory practices occurs, the university has an accommodations process for applicants. This applies to applicants who need disability or religious accommodations. An applicant can request an accommodation at any point in the recruitment process.

Legal Protections

For People with Disabilities:

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities who are employees or applicants for employment, unless to do so would cause undue hardship.

In general, an accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way things are customarily done that enables an individual with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities. There are three categories of "reasonable accommodations."

Modifications or adjustments to a job application process that enable a qualified applicant with a disability to be considered for the position such qualified applicant desires; or
Modifications or adjustments to the work environment, or to the manner or circumstances under which the position held or desired is customarily performed, that enable a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of that position; or
Modifications or adjustments that enable a covered entity's employee with a disability to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment as are enjoyed by its other similarly situated employees without disabilities.

For Religious Accommodations:

The law requires an employer or other covered entity to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would cause more than a minimal burden on the operations of the employer's business. This means an employer may be required to make reasonable adjustments to the work environment that will allow an employee to practice his or her religion.

Examples of some common religious accommodations include flexible scheduling, voluntary shift substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, and modifications to workplace policies or practices.

Requesting Accommodations

Applicants needing assistance to complete an online application can contact the Office of Academic Recruitment Services at OARS@ucsd.edu or contact the hiring department directly.

For technical assistance, applicants can contact the IT Services Desk at:

servicedesk@ucsd.edu
(858) 246-4357

Examples of accommodations can include:

Providing written materials in accessible formats, such as large print, braille, or audiotape
Providing readers or sign language interpreters
Changing the location of the on-campus interviews to accessible locations
Virtual or phone interviews in-lieu of on-site campus interviews
Adding additional interview dates and times

Applicant Assistance

Applicants who are having trouble with their application or Portfolio account can troubleshoot using the help tab on Recruit.

The Higher Education Recruitment Consortium has created this Guidebook for Jobseekers with disabilities, click here to view.

For technical assistance, departments can assist applicants in a number of ways. For example, analysts can assist applicants by:

Providing options on which technology they may use with Recruit.
Uploading documents on behalf of the applicant.
Facilitating set up of applications and Portfolio.
Reading application instructions over the phone.
Adding applicants to recruitments and sending the activation.
Processing application materials by mail to the department.

Virtual Interviews

Virtual interviewing means moving interviews and presentations to video. For example, whereas before, you may have used an initial phone screen, then move into in-person interviews and candidate presentations; virtual interviewing would be the exact same process, using a computer or computer network. Virtual interactions take the place of in-person job interviews.

How to conduct a virtual interview.

There are several ways to perform virtual interviews:

1-way or asynchronous interviews: 1-way interviews where structured questions are provided and the interviewee can respond to the questions in writing, verbally or on video.
2-way or live interviews: 2-way interviews are live or “real time” interviews between an interviewee and interviewer(s). The interviewers may consist of an individual, panel, or group of people that are interacting in real time with the interviewee. The 2-way interaction can be conducted by conference call or video and these interactions can be unstructured with the ability to build on answers and even ask your own clarifying questions, if necessary.
Webinar: a “webinar” is a virtual seminar where an interviewee can provide a presentation to attendees and can communicate as if they were in the same room. Webinars replicate workshops or short presentations with limited participation.

Multiple interview types of virtual interviews can be used in your Selection Process.

Guidelines for virtual interviews.

Follow the same guidelines for all interviews:

Avoid questions that have no impact on job performance. A list of topics and areas to avoid are included in the Search Committee Recruitment Guidethat is sent out to every Search Committee member.
The selection criteria of the Search plan should be the established, written, and objective criteria applied to all qualified applicants equally.
When scheduling the interview, inform the applicant that they will be interviewed via video.
Include instructionsfor the applicant on how to participate in the virtual interview.
Each virtual interview needs to be consistent with length of time, questions, and order of questions.

Scheduling Interviews.

The same process of scheduling and meeting with individuals and groups during a campus visit can be replicated via virtual interviews. A series of virtual interviews can be scheduled and conducted between the interviewee and campus visit participants. For example: