#reasonable accommodation

[sprinkleofquirk]

“I don’t think people with disabilities should be in [insert occupational field]”

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.

And even if they understand, they should not be the authority over our lives.

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[glennnui]

@ my fellow disabled and working folks, if you got through COVID lockdowns working from home but have since been forced back to the office, I have a suggestion for you: request to work from home as an accommodation. Even if you are denied, just asking has the potential to make a huge positive impact for all of us.

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.

I work in leave and accommodations and businesses are struggling to claim that teleworking is not a "reasonable accommodation" or that it creates an "undue hardship" for the business, or even in some cases, claiming that being present in person is an "essential function" of the job (these are the common legalese terms that refer to language of the Americans with Disabilities Act/ADA). If you work in retail or do manual labor, this may be true, but businesses are trying to stretch this to an absurd degree.

I am asking this because with the large scale shift to remote work for many businesses early in COVID times, these companies PROVED that a) they are able to provide this adjustment and b) that people can be productive this way. This makes it increasingly hard for them to make these claims about the "necessity" of being present on site.

The ADA uses language that's heavily up to interpretation intentionally, with an understanding that disability is a diverse and complex challenge that requires individualized solutions. (Not to say it's a perfect law. It has MANY flaws but that's a rant for another day). This means that enforcement of the ADA is heavily impacted by case law, or the results of court rulings relating to the ADA.

There was a time that teleworking was overwhelmingly NOT considered a reasonable accommodation and not one employers had to provide. This has frequently been proven not to be the case though, and the huge increase in remote work options has caused a shift in overall perception of this to the courts. If you request remote work as an accommodation, there is a chance you may be denied, or offered an alternative accommodation the business considers "equally effective" (not gonna dig into that can of worms today either lol because alternative accommodations can also be shit).

However. The more people who ask, and the more people granted these accommodations, the stronger the case becomes for anyone else in the workplace - why did you deny Sally's accommodation when Benny's was approved and he works the same job? Why did you deny Hassen's request but approve Quinn's, when they work in very similar jobs in different departments? This creates a growing precedent of the positive impact of teleworking for disabled employees, and gives everyone else attempting the same thing more leverage should they have the resources to take this to court. And you don't even necessarily need to afford a lawyer--the EEOC will go to bat for you if there is reasonable suspicion of discrimination, and their process asks these exact questions of employers!

Every person who does this is benefiting every other person who has or ever will. Every person who does this shifts the scale towards normalizing remote work.

[deanwasalwaysbi]

We don't talk enough about how Rachel Miner wasn't on the show as much after her MS progressed

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

and we don't talk about that enough either

[bodgei]

July is Disability Awareness Month

I missed posting yesterday, this would be a great month for @wip to talk about accessibly, and maybe address why they said that although accessibility is important no one is interested on working on it, and that it isn’t as important as what they are working on.   

[princeofchronicpain]

In the transgender community, there is a term for acting in a way that reflects that you do not want people to know you're transgender: going/being "stealth".

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.

Ableds say, "They can't do that! It's illegal!" Yeah, if you know that, don't you think I know that?? But what am I supposed to do? If they don't wanna hire me, they just won't. If they fire me, they'll just write down any old reason they want. I'm not gonna sue them: I don't have the money or time. I'm sick and tired of people doing the disabled version of mansplaining. Ablesplaining.

[sickzombi]

does anyone know where to start w/ asking for reasonable accommodations???

i am going to need to start the process but its so hard ;-; hallpp

[adultingautistic]

Autistic adulting is when, after working at a job for TWO YEARS, and fighting for accommodations for TWO YEARS, you are...still fighting.

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!

*SCREAMS*