Transcriber: Nawal Sharabati Reviewer: David DeRuwe I have two graduate degrees - one in education and one in public health. I started a food justice nonprofit in New York City in 2016 that is still active and sustainable today. I launched a business, and within one year, I was successful enough to leave my full-time job.
I am an international traveler and public speaker, and I am a proud, disabled Latina woman. Are you thinking, “But you don’t look disabled? ” The easiest way to explain it is I’m hard of hearing and wear hearing aids.
I’m also blind. This might surprise you, so let me help everyone out here, make sure I look more like the world’s idea of blindness. Is that better?
(Applause) This is what blindness looks like, right? Well, blindness actually looks like me, too. I have about 5% of my vision remaining due to Usher syndrome.
I see the world through a little box like this. While I still have some usable vision, I also benefit from using a white cane. Seven years ago, I interviewed for a job in midtown New York City.
Come with me through this experience, so that you can understand what it was like. We leave our apartment early to make sure we have plenty of time to travel to the interview, because learning a new route is stressful. When we find the office building, we enter the lobby and scan the area for the elevators.
We look for people lining up because that’s how we find the elevators. When an elevator arrives, we let others enter first because we don’t want to bump into anybody by accident, because we don’t have peripheral vision and can’t see to the sides. When we arrive to the fifth floor, we find the office door.
It’s not open. We scan around the door for a button or doorbell. There it is.
We push the button and cautiously walk inside. To the right is a reception desk. We walk slowly towards the desk.
Whoosh! Somebody just walked right in front of us in the hallway. We didn’t see them.
Bumping into them would have really thrown us off. After signing in, we sit down in the waiting area. We start to scan the area around us and get a sense of the office layout.
We start to feel more comfortable . . .
that is until the interviewer comes over to greet us. We know we cannot miss their handshake, or else we would not make a good first impression. Because we can only see what we are looking at with our little box of vision, we lean back a bit and look down, anticipating a handshake.
Success! The interviewer asks us to follow them. We follow behind slowly to make sure we do not bump into anything.
When we arrive to a small office, we quickly scan the room for obstacles. We take a few steps towards the chair, place a hand on the seat of the chair to confirm it is where we think it is, and then sit down. We exhale a sigh of relief.
(Sigh) Now we are finally done with navigating all of the obstacles. We raise our chin up to face the interviewer confidently. Now our brain can focus solely on communicating why we are the best fit for this role - our dream job.
Like many disabled people, I hid my disability during the interview process. Thanks to the work of disability rights activists, the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. Because of this, I am protected by the ADA from discrimination due to disability in the workplace.
But, I was still scared. If the employer knew about my blindness, they might have thought: “She’ll be an expensive employee. She can’t do the fieldwork required for this role.
” The employer could have assumed what my capabilities were, what my limitations were, without asking me and without understanding my actual lived experience. I bet you’ve heard that honesty is the best policy, but is it really the best policy when it comes to disclosing a disability when that could be the reason you don’t get hired? While it is illegal, discrimination is still happening.
According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, disabled people were about two times more likely to be unemployed than non-disabled people.
Many disabled people have disabilities that are not possible to hide or conceal in the interview process. But some of us have a choice. Should we disclose our disabilities?
Some people think disabled people should always disclose in the interview process. Their response to discrimination and not getting hired: “You didn’t want to work there anyway. You didn’t want to work at a place that discriminates against disabled people.
” But the problem that many disabled people face is that discrimination is so common that they don’t feel they’ll get any job if they disclose. These disabled people say, “I need to work, I need a job to pay for my expenses, I can’t afford to lose these opportunities. ” I asked some disability employment lawyers what their recommendations were.
Both lawyers that I spoke to advise that disabled people should not disclose until after they are hired, if they’re able to do so. They wish they didn’t have to recommend this. but ableism and discrimination are still commonplace in our society.
Disclosing is such a personal decision. In a 2019 Harvard Business Review article, they cite a study that found that only 21% of disabled employees disclosed to HR. According to 2018 data from the CDC, one in four adults in the United States is disabled.
What does this mean for employers and leaders? This means that employers and leaders have a lot of disabled employees that they don’t know about. Employers might be thinking, “What a problem?
What can we do to get more disabled employees to disclose? ” Let’s ask this question instead: Instead of asking our disabled employees to disclose, how might we create a workplace culture that is accessible and inclusive for everyone? Currently, many disabled employees are overworking to adapt to inaccessible or non-inclusive work environments, on top of managing a full workload.
These employees are surviving, not thriving. We’re talented employees, and we have all different kinds of disabilities. Disabilities like ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, chronic illness, cerebral palsy, maffuucci syndrome, depression, anxiety, diabetes, chronic migraines.
You many not know what all of these are, but all of these are disabilities. Employers and leaders accept that disabled people are already in your workforce and that our work is valuable. You need us as part of your company.
Disabled people are innovative. We’re problem solvers because we live in a world that’s not designed for us. Disability inclusion - it’s not charity or compliance; it is a competitive advantage.
We need our workplaces to be inclusive and accessible for everyone. From the beginning, make accessibility built-in within your organization. This will make your workplace better for everyone.
Then disabled employees won’t have to ask for everything they need or adapt on their own, because you will have already adapted best practices for accessibility. There are many free and simple best practices for inclusion you can be building into your culture that will help everyone. One example is closed captions; many people benefit from captions.
I benefit from captions as a hard of hearing person. People with ADHD benefit from captions to help better understand information. People with auditory processing disorders.
English language learners, or anyone who’s a bit tired or distracted can benefit from having information presented in more than one way. Just sending out meeting agendas in advance is another inclusive best practice. Receiving a meeting invitation without an agenda can cause anxiety or panic.
Meeting agendas help the deaf and hard of hearing follow the conversation more easily. Meeting agendas help introverted employees prepare their thoughts ahead of time, and they help anyone who benefits from having more time to process information. Sending out meeting notes or a summary after a meeting has concluded is another inclusive best practice.
Meeting notes help ensure that the deaf and hard of hearing don’t miss any important action items or decisions. Meeting notes help those with memory issues or learning disabilities, and they help any busy person who can’t find their notes. In an inclusive and accessible work environment, disability disclosure becomes less necessary.
Knowing why someone needs a certain kind of support is not as important as actually providing that support. Let’s all recognize that disability is just a part of the natural diversity of humankind. It is common, it is normal, and as we age, it is a part of life.
Disabled people do not exist in some other part of society. We may not look like what you think disability looks like. We’re right next to you.
We’re in front of you. We’re on stage giving TEDx talks. (Cheers) (Applause) Disability inclusion must be prioritized in the successful workplace of the future.
When we’re all included, we create a better world for everyone. Thank you.
