1. Negative attitudes in society about the ability of persons with disabilities to work and be qualified and contributing employees;
2. Physical barriers to places of work: in other words, the workplaces themselves are not physically accessible;
3. Lack of accessible transportation to places of work;
4. Legislation, regulations, policies, or practices that prohibit persons with disabilities from working in particular jobs or that do not protect people experiencing disability-based discrimination in employment settings;
5. Lack of accessible information about available employment opportunities (for example a job opportunity is placed in a newspaper that is not accessible to persons who are blind);
6. Lack of accessible job application procedures (for example, an applicant who is deaf is not provided a sign language interpreter during the job application interview); and
7. Lack of accommodations to facilitate communication in employment settings by persons with disabilities, especially persons who are blind, deaf, or deafblind, persons with intellectual disabilities, and persons with learning disabilities.

However, policies alone are typically not enough to ensure awareness or guarantee that persons with disabilities fully enjoy their rights. It is not enough for an employer to have a policy, but rather steps also need to be taken to ensure that all affected by the policy are aware of its content and understand what they need to do to put the policy into action.

Training may be needed to help people understand their rights and responsibilities under the policy, and further supports may be needed to give effect to a policy.

In addition, mechanisms need to be in place to address violations of the policy effectively, and people wishing to challenge violations need to understand how to use those mechanisms and feel safe in doing so. If employees worry that they may lose their jobs or be punished in some way for drawing attention to a violation, then arguably even a well-written policy is ineffective.