Technology Executive | Product Professional | Professional Speaker 🎙 | Inclusive Designer | Accessibility Champion
A professional with a #disability has two jobs: The one we get hired and paid for. The other is educating their organization the best way to accommodate, grow, and enable a professional with a disability. The second one we don’t get paid for, it is the tax we pay to do the first.
The third one is masking.
Yes. And don’t get me started on when we have to do this in the education context as tuition-paying students…
Agreed! I am an ASL teacher at a small private school. I know I’m the first Deaf person most of my colleagues have met as well as my students. So I try hard to educate in and outside the classroom. But it’s tiring! Especially in everyday conversations. Honestly some days I’m too tired to educate and resort to using the Deaf nod. I don’t have it in me every minute to repeat myself. I do feel blessed to have a full time job but it sometimes feels like I’m doing way too much work to educate those around me and nothing to show for it. I’ve come a long way as a professional but man, I’m tired!
We need to find or create a company where people ARE paid for the second job, more broadly teaching ANTI-prejudice; how DEI isn't just a buzzword, it needs to be an every day commitment, integrated into the foundational culture, & a 3rd party is necessary to take anonymous complaints from applicants & employees, use that to guide continuous training for all, especially management & HR. It need POWER, though, so that those accustomed to privilege & authority can't block change when their egos get bruised.
Thanks for sharing this post, it's very eye opening. I'm sorry that this is the case.
Such an important point! This is why we need to foster a 'new normal' where people with disabilities are paid for their 'beta testing' companies' processes, products and services. There seems to be some sort of remnant of 'you're lucky we're doing this for you' in the background, instead of 'we need to be compliant with the law and you are helping us', or 'we need to be able to get the best out of all the available talent and you're helping us develop systems and processes to do that'.
David Dame ♿️ this is so true! This shouldn't be a burden to the disabled professionals. Companies need to proactively invest both in knowledge and accommodations.
And sometimes you have to educate and advocate just to get the job.
Well said David Dame ♿️! I wonder which one is more exhausting and tiring? Is it the second because nobody seems to ask for it?