Navigating the workplace:“You’re the first person we’ve ever hired with a disability!”
Joining the workforce as someone who’s physically disabled is never an easy or straightforward task. Twenty years ago, it felt almost impossible. But in the early years of DEI hirings, I managed to become one of the first disabled persons hired by a major Canadian bank, an achievement the higher ups never shied away from reminding me of.
“You’re the first person we’ve ever hired with a disability!” they would declare excitedly to me, leaving me wondering how I, said person with a disability, was supposed to respond to a comment like that.
“Thank you?”
The role was in the call center of the bank where my days would be spent talking to people and taking notes on my assigned computer. I got the job through a hiring agency, who assessed my skill level through a series of tests before recommending me for the role. My father also had a connection to the bank which made the whole process easier.
Before taking this job, I’d only ever worked for either family-owned companies or in the disabilities sector who knew everything about any accommodations I’d need. Suddenly I was a fish out of water who faced a whole slew of assumptions made about me before I had the chance to open my mouth.
Despite their excitement to have someone like me on board, the team didn’t seem particularly keen on making accommodations to suit my needs. I talked about needing a large computer screen so I could increase the size of the text given my visual impairments. My first days on the job, however, I was sat in front of a regular sized computer screen, and I quickly realized I’d need to go out of my way to install the program I needed to enlarge the text. So for the first number of months I worked there, I strained to keep up with the phone calls and note taking that required a level of eye sight and natural dexterity that I lacked. It wasn’t until new management came in that I was finally asked directly, by my new team lead, about what I needed to make my job easier. It was a blessing when my needs were finally met, and it showed in my job performance. I was already doing well in my role despite the limitations, but now I could do it without having to work twice as hard as my colleagues. It was a vital lesson in self advocacy that ended up marking the beginning of a successful career in the financial sector where I moved quickly into senior positions, letting my skills and personality speak for themselves. That’s not to say the rest of my career in the sector was without its challenges. Moves to new companies and positions meant having new conversations about accommodations and battling assumptions about my capabilities. In other instances, instead of falling short on self advocacy, I ended up oversharing and would therefore become vulnerable to being used as the token hire. My rise to seniority was therefore questioned by colleagues, wondering if I was hired just for being disabled, despite my years of experience in the industry. These assumptions might’ve been made anyways but the approach of my higher ups didn’t help.
Although things have and are changing in the hiring world, with more workplaces walking the DEI talk, the process of disclosing your needs and accommodations can still be a delicate balance. It takes a certain level of confidence and self assurance to know what and how to disclose without oversharing or leaving out important information to make sure you can perform at your best. This level of confidence can often be eroded by our experiences in the very places that are meant to accommodate us. Of course this conversation can get more complicated when looking at visible versus invisible disabilities as well, putting you in the position of being either pre-judged based on your appearance or second guessed.
The bottom line is, it’s rarely an easy conversation to have, and it’s often only the start of what can feel like a long and winding road of self advocacy. So how can we manage what can feel like a stressful line to walk? Armed with tools and confidence, we can learn how to tow the line, making the accommodations we need just one small part of the bigger picture of our skills and personalities at work and other spaces.
One of those tools can be having someone in your corner who knows the road you’re walking well. To help you identify what to say and how and continue supporting you on your academic and professional journey. If you or someone you know is curious about working with me…
