Recruiters/ATS admins: Can protected veteran or disability self-ID answers actually affect an application behind the scenes?
I’m curious how this actually works behind the scenes in an ATS.
I’m a protected veteran, and I also have anxiety that could lead me to answer “Yes” to the voluntary disability self-identification question. Sometimes I select “Yes,” and other times I’ve considered selecting “I prefer not to answer.”
I understand these questions are supposed to be voluntary and separate from the hiring decision. What I’m trying to understand is what actually happens technically.
Can recruiters or hiring managers see whether an applicant selected:
• Protected veteran: Yes
• Disability: Yes
• Disability: Prefer not to answer
Can any of those fields be used in ATS filters, screening rules, reports, ranking, or automated knockout logic?
The reason I’m asking is that I’ve had several applications where I get through the initial recruiter/screener call, the recruiter tells me the next step will be an interview, and then I receive a rejection instead.
I’m not claiming discrimination. I’m trying to determine whether I’m looking in the wrong place for the cause.
For those who have actually worked in recruiting, HR, or configured systems like Workday, Greenhouse, iCIMS, Taleo, etc.:
What can the recruiter actually see?
What can the hiring manager see?
Are those self-ID fields technically isolated from candidate-selection data?
And does choosing “prefer not to answer” behave any differently behind the scenes than answering yes or no?
I’d especially like to hear from recruiters, HR professionals, or ATS administrators who know how these systems are configured rather than speculation from the applicant side.