#reasonable accommodation

Okay. Have you taken time to consider how many disabled people you have already worked with in that field that you didn’t realize are disabled?

I know able-bodied people like to think that disability is obvious and visible all the time, but it’s not. The fact is, you don’t know what someone else is capable of in their own body, even if you know everything there is to know (not possible) about their disability/s.

I’ve helped with medical emergencies with my own equipment, I’ve had to administer medication or do extra checks at work, I’ve had to explain that I’m not being rude when I’m eating fruit snacks during a meeting, I’m just trying not to die, and every time someone (not everyone, but always someone) finds it incredibly difficult to comprehend that I am disabled.

I’m young. I’m skinny. I’m active. I do a very physically demanding job. They can’t understand how I’m disabled and all of those other things, nor how they didn’t know about it until that moment.

I had this discussion very recently with a coworker at a new job. She said disabled people shouldn’t be in archaeology; it’s too physically demanding and when they inevitably can’t live up to the standards, the people around them have to “pick up their slack”.

I explained my view as above and she said “I’ve been doing this longer than you, I don’t think you understand.” I said “I understand perfectly; you think I can’t or shouldn’t be doing this job.”

She stared at me. Dumbfounded.

People never stop to consider who they are having that conversation with. When able-bodied people think “disability” they think they are the all-knowing authority on who that applies to, but most have a very limited grasp on the sheer coverage of that word.

I'm putting some of the whys under the cut for anyone who wants to better understand the benefits of this cause it can be a headache. I work in this area so I'm open to answering questions folks have.

But we CERTAINLY don't talk enough about how they brought her back to play the empty and gave her the reasonable accommodation of a chair - or that she was every bit as threatening and menacing - or that she played the empty better than some others on the show did.

Rachel Miner became Executive Director of Random Acts

Many disabled people go stealth as well.

Whenever I apply for a job, and I have to fill out the forms that ask if you have a disability, I have to lie and say no. If I don't, they'll find a reason to not hire me. Or they'll find a reason to fire me. I also don't ask for accommodations because I know that's just asking to be fired. I can't show how tired I am or else I might be fired. I live in terror and exhaustion because of this.

I am so exhausted.  Of course, Auditory Processing Disorder isn’t a “simple” disability to understand.  Being entirely Deaf is “simple”.  You can’t hear. Anything, at all, ever. Okay, they understand that.

But APD?  When I can hear, but only sometimes and under certain conditions, and not under other conditions?  Suddenly, everyone’s too stupid to understand.  Nobody “believes” me, even though I have FUCKING MEDICAL DOCUMENTATION.  Even though I have GOVERNMENT APPROVED REASONALBE ACCOMODATIONS for it.  Even though I’ve gone to the UNION over it, gotten some extremely high-up people involved to tell my manager “you have to do these accommodations for this employee”.

Even then, when she’s told she MUST do my accomodations, she still doesn’t care to learn what those accommodations ARE.  Or when I might need them.  Or why I need them.

And frankly, she doesn’t really have to?  Just treat me the same as a Deaf person, then!  Then just ALWAYS communicate with me in non-auditory ways!  You don’t HAVE to understand the nuances of APD- just be like “Snazzy can’t hear” in your head, and act accordingly!  That would be FINE!

But instead, they schecule Skype voice meetings, no matter how many times I’ve explained that sound over a computer is SHIT and I can’t hear over Skype meetings, PERIOD.  “But you can hear over the phone”. YES! That’s a DIFFERENT LEVEL OF SOUND QUALITY!  Phones are very good at carrying sound, so yes, I can hear over the phone, but not over the Skype, that is NOT THAT HARD TO COMPREHEND.

It also doesn’t MATTER, because I can get captions over the phone, but NOT over Skype, because the captioners don’t have access to our internal Skype so they can’t log in.  So I can’t get captions, so you can’t do Skype meetings when I need to attend! Period!  

I’VE BEEN SCREAMING THIS FOR TWO YEARS.

I’m exhausted.  I’m crying.  All I want is to be able to attend the meeting about the PROGRAM THAT I WROTE.  You can’t have the meeting without me, because I’m the person with all the information on this particular subject!  It’s useless to you to have a meeting where I can’t participate!