Hi there, and welcome to disability disclosure
in the job search and workplace.
We would like to welcome you from Access Computing.
I'm Tami Tidwell.
I work with DO-IT.
I am a program coordinator working with high school
and college students with disabilities,
helping them transition from high school to college,
and college to careers.
I will let my co-presenters introduce themselves.
Hello, I'm Sean Marihugh.
I work on Microsoft's accessibility team,
mainly in the disability answer desk
which provides technical support for customers
with disabilities.
And I'm Michael Reese.
I work at Bellevue College in the RISE Learning Institute.
RISE stands for Research, Innovation, Service
and Experiential Learning.
We connect college students to opportunities beyond higher ed
and help them bridge from college to career.
So today, we hope that you as listeners are either in either
of these boats.
You're either looking for an internship or a student job,
or you're starting your career search.
If you are in-depth into your career, that's fine too.
If you're looking for tips on how to disclose,
we welcome you as well.
Today, we're going to cover a number of topics,
and what we're hoping that you'll take away from this
is three primary things.
We hope that you understand your options
of when you can disclose.
We're going to focus on what we call the if, the when, and the
how of disclosure, and a little bit on the who as well.
So those are some of the things we'll be thinking about.
We are going to hear some employer and employees
perspectives on disclosure-- how that varies
from employer to employer.
We'll strategize a little bit about how
you might build your network of mentors and peers
to help you through the process as you think about this more.
We want to recognize that we all have ability on a spectrum.
So we all have differences in our vision, our hearing,
how we walk, or how we roll.
How we read print, how we write with a pen or pencil,
how we communicate, and how we tune out distraction.
So basically, everything throughout of your daily life,
you have an ability on a continuum,
and we want to recognize all of those differences.
And know that nothing we say today
will work for every single person,
but this is an opportunity for you
to explore where you fall on this continuum,
and how you might want to use different accommodations,
or choose not to.
In a lot of the things that we cover today,
we'll kind of approach picking of candidates
as whether they're a qualified applicant for a role.
And so this is something that's used a lot
in the federal government.
So qualified applicant is just essentially referring
to can you fulfill the basic functions of the job
with or without reasonable accommodation.
So this is why it's really key to kind of know
what accommodations you may or may not need,
how to articulate those, and then how that kind of maps
to the functions of the job that you're interested in.
Accommodations and what are they.
They're tools for you to get your job done.
So they can be as simple as an environmental adaptation,
so if you are located on the first floor of a building as
opposed to the second floor.
They could be low tech aids, so that can be anything as simple
as a wrist rest, it could be a different keyboard.
That might fall between the low tech and high tech aids
these days.
High tech aids could be a different type of computer,
it--
Could be things like working remote.
Excellent.
And different services you can use-- you can use interpreters,
you can use captioners, you can use job coaching
in your office.
And we have a star by the last one.
The last one is called modification of job duties.
And we've put a star by this one because although it
is an accommodation and it is something
that you can negotiate, we do want
to recognize that most employers do not
want you to do significant modification of job duties.
So when you take or hire for a job,
the job description is their expectation of you.
However, oftentimes there are modifications to this.
So if filing in a top level cabinet
is not something you can do, you might
be able to negotiate that--
get them moved.
Or if there are multiple people doing the same job,
do modifications to that.
One of the best examples I have is
from working with interns years ago,
and they were not happy that one of the interns
couldn't do all of the filing that they could do.
And we were sitting around trying
to figure out a solution.
And one of the things that came up
was that she happened to be an early bird.
And amongst college students, that's not always
a popular thing to be.
So she said what if I came in at 7:00 AM every day,
and in an exchange--
that way if other people felt like her not pitching
in to do the filing was a problem,
she was pitching in in this other way.
So she modified her job duties in that way.
One of the other ways of thinking about that too is it's
not that the employee said this is a job duty that I can't do,
but this is how I can do this other job duty,
and make sure that the task is still getting done,
but they may be done in a different way,
or someone else might be doing it.
So that's just another kind of way of thinking about it too.
And here's some examples of some of the technologies,
both high and low tech, that can be
used to help in accommodations.
We do see them everywhere in workplaces these days.
Yeah.
So these kind of cover a lot of the more high tech
combinations.
Things like note taking software,
like OneNote, or an iPad to take notes on
or record meetings, a headset to take a conference call on
rather than holding up a physical phone.
So kind of-- here's a bunch of different options
for how technology can be used as an accommodation.
And Tami talked a little bit about modification
to job duties and how that might work.
And here's a little bit of more information on how some
of these things might work.
Some of these are becoming fairly standard operating
procedures in many places.
Meeting remotely, telecommuting, adjustable schedules
are sort of par for the course for many large tech firms
these days.
One thing that I want to stress here
on the question of modification to job duties
and accommodations is sometimes--
I work with a lot with college students,
and sometimes the accommodations that you get from a high school
or from a higher educational institution,
those translate really easily into the workplace,
and sometimes they don't.
And so that's something to keep in mind.
Some things like distraction free environments for testing.
That's relatively easy to translate to the workplace,
and you might have some accommodations
or an environmental adaptation of having
your office in a quieter spot.
But some, particularly like extended time for testing,
this is one that's going to be challenging to translate
into the workforce.
Probably extra time on projects isn't
going to be an acceptable accommodation
or modification of job duties.
That said, there are many different kinds
of accommodations that might help out with this.
That meeting notes be posted online,
that directions be given in writing instead of just
in hallway conversations.
I mean, any of these kinds of things
might accomplish some of the things
that you're looking for that extra time does
in a collegiate environment.
So just trying to think about this business of how
do you translate academic accommodations
in an academic environment into a workplace environment
requires a little bit of puzzling out sometimes.
And one of the most important pieces
of any modification of the job duty if you're proposing it
is that you understand what you're going to be using.
So if you're proposing doing meetings via Skype,
that you're familiar with the service, you know how to do it,
and you can guide your coworkers and kind of
be the leader in that.
And have conversations with your supervisor
to make sure that they're on-board,
and they can help a team attitude,
and make sure everybody's OK with it,
and has a positive outlook.
So if you're thinking about what kinds of accommodations I have,
what kind of workplace accommodations
might be appropriate, how do I translate this from academic
to a workplace stuff, here are some resources
that might be useful for you.
If you are in school, I do encourage
you to connect to the resources on your campus, whether those
be adaptive technology labs, or course centers which
will be able to help with some of this stuff.
If you're not in higher ed, department
of vocational rehabilitation in many
states able to help out with this stuff.
Two resources, though, that I want
to give a special shout out to--
the quality of their online resources--
the University of Washington's DO-IT program
really is sort of the gold standard
on a lot of this stuff.
Their site is well worth a look.
Also just for sheer user friendliness, the Job
Accommodation Network.
askjan.org-- you can look up accommodations
by accommodation type, by diagnosis,
by any number of different ways.
And the other thing too is if you
want help talking to someone, you can call their phone
number, you can send them an email and message them,
and they get back to people surprisingly quickly
these days.
So the quality of their online stuff is great.
But if you want to chat about it some more,
somebody will typically get back to you in 24 to 48 hours.
So big shout out for JAN as a resource center.
They're fantastic to work with.
So as the job seeker, you have some key responsibilities.
So knowing the essential functions of the job,
getting that job description as you apply for the job,
and having that ready when you're
going in for the job interview, or even as you're
starting the job.
Talking with someone in the particular position
that you are interviewing for taking or a similar position
to get their take on what a typical day is like.
Asking questions during the interview.
My absolute favorite question for people to ask
is what is a standard day, week, and month like on this job?
And depending on the job that you're going into,
it might even be a year.
Some positions are pretty cyclical in what
they'll be doing throughout an entire year.
Also it's key for you to have past experience.
So that is one of the reasons that the job--
or the career centers, DO-IT, Access Computing, we
all push the importance of internships,
job shadows, work-based learning of any kind,
informational interviews.
All of those things help you get past experience
to be able to understand essential job functions,
and how they will relate to your need
for accommodations or not needing accommodations.
Also if you are on this call, you
might be in Access Computing, and you might
be on our discussion list.
If you are not, let us know--
we'll get you signed up for that.
But it is a great place to ask questions.
So I am headed to Microsoft this summer to be an intern--
these are some of the things that are on my job description.
How have you handled them in the past?
That's a great resource to find someone
who can give you an example of what they've used
or what their experience has been like.
Understanding the impact of your disability
on the essential job functions.
So talking to other people with similar disabilities,
asking them what they used, asking them what they've done.
Applying similar situations or trying things out
in a school setting.
So if you are going to be held to deadlines like we talked
about, trying to see what that feels
like while you're in a school setting.
Michael, do you have other good examples of trying things out
in a school setting that might translate?
Sure.
I mean, I think it's trying to get connected to campus
or school clubs and resources.
Looking for classes that feature major projects, ideally
if that project might involve an external or a community client.
Service learning courses are a great way
to get a little bit of experience
and also get some academic credit.
Any of those kinds of things are--
and it fits right into your regular school schedule.
It's not an extra thing.
Going around volunteering is great,
but a service learning course that's
built into the structure of the thing.
So it's thinking about some of those ways of doing it.
Can I get some hands-on experience built into a class
there.
And then again, there's so many clubs and resources
available on campus, and they do some pretty meaningful
projects, and offer some pretty substantive opportunities
for leadership as well.
Great tips.
And then become an expert with your accommodation.
So using those accommodations in a school or work setting.
One example that I had a student give me recently
was that she uses captioners, and she
had always gone through disability services
to arrange her captioners.
And for the last month of school,
she asked if she could manage that just
to get the sense of what exactly went into that,
the communication that captioners would need so
that she could establish a routine that might be more
translatable to a work setting.
Also practice, experiment, and practice.
If something doesn't work, try something else.
If you're using technology, if one piece doesn't work for you,
try something else.
[LAUGHS] we were just talking about using fitness trackers
and finding one that works for you.
It's the same with accommodations.
Try things out.
If it doesn't work, try moving on to something different.
And so as you're thinking about how you may or may not
disclose to a potential employer or an existing employer even,
it's really key that you kind of internalize
some of the resources that we've talked about,
really dig in and understand what accommodations
you may or may not need.
But beyond that, how they can help you do well in that role.
Like think through each task in that job and understand,
like what an ideal accommodation is, how you use that,
and how that would make you successful
and a better candidate than others around you.
Well, we're entering the part of the presentation
where we're going to talk about the if, the when, and the
how of disability disclosure.
And I think it's important to keep
in mind that the job search process has
many steps along the way, and the if, and the when,
and the how is going to vary from time to time
and where you are in the phase here.
So there are lots of different opportunities
to disclose along the way in the process.
In the private sector, hiring moves pretty quickly.
This whole process might mean through
in something like a couple of weeks.
Where I work in higher education and in government,
this would typically be a process
that could well be six weeks to two months
and [INAUDIBLE] would be fairly typical.
But this process where you would have
multiple different interviews.
Often, the first one might be remote--
by phone, or by Skype, or something
like that-- and a second interview
often with more than one interviewer, with a team,
and then there's an offer on the table.
That's a pretty standard process.
It varies from location to location.
And then you might get some situations
where you have one or three interviews,
but this is a pretty standard process, I think.
I agree.
And starting from the job search,
from the moment that you're contacting people, looking
for jobs to the application, to the calls for the interview,
all of those are entry points all the way up
to the interviews that Michael talked about,
to the negotiation of a job offer and then job acceptance.
So we will talk now about the if, the when, the how,
and possibly to whom specifics of all of these different entry
points.
Disclosure if-- so you don't have to disclose.
It's not written anywhere that you
have to disclose if you have a hidden disability,
or at some point you're not face to face with people
and they don't know you have a disability.
You don't have to disclose at any point,
even after the hiring process.
The things to think about to make your decision if
are, will it impact your ability to perform the job functions
or the interview functions?
So if you need to meet in a first floor
room or an accessible room, that's
something that might not come up until you're
asked for an interview.
If you expect that they might call you
and you can't talk on the phone, that
might be something that you need to share
as early as your application or your resume,
where you might indicate text-only.
Do you require accommodations-- so if you're going into a job
interview, and you use interpreters,
then that is something that you would need to negotiate
before the interview itself.
If you have a visual disability and you
know testing is part of this review process,
you might need to negotiate those accommodations earlier
than the actual interview itself.
Will it be a distraction from your qualifications?
So do you feel like it would have
a negative impact on your perceived ability
to do this job?
So those are the three key components.
Anything to add on the if section?
I might say one.
I mean, it's an intensely personal thing.
I think the primary message of our talk
here today is there is definitely
no one size fits all approach here,
and everyone's got to puzzle it out.
That said, over the last couple of years,
I'm starting to see the beginnings of a sea change
among employers, and it's far from universal,
and it's far from everywhere.
But I think more and more employers are getting
used to disability disclosure.
They're open to it, it's becoming
more part of standard operating procedure.
And that varies, but I think I would
encourage folks to experiment with this and try it.
It is a valuable tool that you could put in your tool box,
and even if you decide that you're never going to use it,
having given it a shot and tried it, and said well,
I'm going to practice what it's like to disclose
during an interview or at these different steps in the process.
And then if you decide, nah, I'm never
going to do that, it's good to mess around with
and have it as a potential play in the playbook.
And that's a great point that we didn't
add to this particular presentation.
But it is a good point and something
we should add in the future--
next week, Microsoft is hosting the ability experience--
is that what it's called?
The Ability Summit.
And so part of that is a career fair on the Microsoft campus.
So if you are going to disclose at a career fair
that is specifically targeting people
with disabilities absolutely, or if you're looking at employers
that are having a disability hiring initiative,
or if you are looking for an internship
through one of the programs that--
disability services, or DO-IT, or Access Computing,
absolutely it's a benefit.
So really looking at that and whether or not people
are highlighting that as something
that they're looking for.
So if it becomes essentially a huge asset, definitely--
its key to disclose.
When-- disability disclosure, when do you do it?
And again, we showed that slide earlier with a continuum
of the process.
You can really disclose literally
at any stage in the process, beginning
with your initial application materials,
whether that be an online application, a paper based
application, or a traditional resume.
I had a student come talk to me a couple weeks ago who
had some experience working for disability services on campus,
and was involved in a couple of clubs, and put on their resume
that they were active in autism spectrum
navigators, a very successful program on my campus.
And they had a bunch of leadership
and paid job experience related to that.
And their question was, well, do I leave that off?
How do I get that?
I'm like, well, you could change it to a generic student
services kind of thing if you want
and choose not to disclose there,
but it does look a little bit generic.
I think since it's some of your strongest application
materials, like you've done some fantastic things for these
organizations-- you've provided customer service,
you've shown leadership--
I think putting this stuff on there is probably good.
But that is disclosure at the first paper
stage of the interview.
And again, the calculus of if somebody's
going to be turned off by that, do you necessarily
want to be working there?
This whole business of your interviewing employers
as much as they are interviewing you in this process
is something to keep in mind.
Other steps where one might consider disclosure.
Not necessarily in the paper material,
but in the process of--
there's a world of difference on phone interview
versus in-person interview.
Some people feel if you're going to request accommodations
at any step in that process, obviously that
looks a little bit different.
Setting up the interview might be the time
to think about disclosure then if you're requesting
accommodations specifically.
But then there are some people who feel like they really
want accommodations, or they want
to disclose in a telephone interview
because it's not their most natural strength.
They don't feel comfortable in that environment.
They might request an in-person as an [? alternative. ?]
Or the reverse, that they feel quite comfortable on the phone
or on Skype, but it's in-person, where disclosure might
be the strategy that they pick.
And I've seen all sorts of different variations on that.
And one thing to keep in mind too, another appropriate place
for disclosure is when terms of employment are being discussed.
That gets a little tricky with ADA
stuff in that employers can't necessarily
ask questions about ability during the interview process
at all in ADA rules.
But when there's an offer on the table
and the candidate brings it up, there's a little bit of--
the ADA requirements change a little bit.
So knowing the terrain of that is sort of important.
And so a lot of folks simply decide maybe
that's not the place to bring it up.
Maybe the place to bring it up is shortly after I get hired.
And this happens all the time, and you shouldn't feel like--
that's an appropriate and sensible place
to think about disclosure under sometimes.
There's not that any hiding or anything going, it's
just another piece there.
And of course, we've given this talk in other contexts before--
sometimes folks talk to supervisors many years
after coming on-board over something that's unfortunately
been going on for a long time, and that's also
appropriate time to think about that.
So it really runs the gamut individually
and when you might kind of think about some of these things.
And one big key is if it's something
that's going to affect your job on day one--
so if you are not going to be able to do
your job on day one--
so screen magnifiers, all sorts of different things
that could impact your day one--
it is important to negotiate that before day one
so that the employer can get things set up,
you're ready to go on day one.
And also to be sure that you know
what you're asking for so that they can fulfill that.
So if you just said something like, I need speech-to-text,
they may not know what that means.
But if you're clear on what you use currently,
and how that works, that is helpful.
And I hope I'm not stepping on the next slide,
but also remembering that sometimes, there's
a bit of a negotiation.
There may be a different type of the same thing
that they already use internally,
and how would that work for you, and there's some back and forth
that goes on.
And another example as well is, say
you're someone with a visible disability
and you're in an interview, it can
happen for the interviewer to kind of fixate
on that almost to try to ask questions
about how you, with your disability, would do the job.
And that's an opportunity to potentially disclose, but also
try to redirect the conversation on how you would successfully
do the job, and why you would be a good candidate for it.
Thanks.
And one last thing here.
I think when you're thinking about the if and the when
on these things, knowing the organization that you're
interviewing with and seeking a job is pretty important,
and to figure it out.
We talk about this a little bit longer under [INAUDIBLE]
disclose.
But company size and industry matters a lot in these areas.
And knowing the individual firm is sort of, I think,
the most important thing.
As a general rule, if you don't know though,
I do think things look really different in the mom and pop,
small business universe where folk's comfort with disability
in the workforce looks a little bit different.
Attitudes are a little bit slower to change
than at large firms, particularly
in tech, government, public sector.
Disability accommodations and disclosure
are just a matter of course in many, many organizations there.
So if you don't necessarily know the organization,
size can be a proxy for this, but there's
no substitute for really understanding
the culture of an organization that you're
thinking about going to.
As you think about how you might want to disclose,
it's really key, first off, to focus
on how you would still successfully complete
the functions of that job.
So how you might use an accommodation,
like an assistive technology, to make you
the most successful candidate.
And again, this kind of all comes back
to being the expert on what you need to succeed.
So really knowing in the end your accommodations
what you would use in specific scenarios,
and then being able to articulate that
to the employer.
The other piece is being confident and casual.
So you as a candidate don't need to apologize
for having a disability, but you can
explain how it might be an asset to your employer.
Some of the examples that we've talked
about for employers that have disability hiring initiatives.
They may already see disability as an asset,
so that's a great opportunity to kind of leverage that.
Kind of keep articulating how you, with a disability,
with your combinations, would be the ideal candidate
with that role.
And then as far as who you might disclose to,
so this is where we might talk about things like the company
culture.
So again, if there is an employer that
is very passionate about disability and accessibility,
they might be a really receptive employer to hear about that.
Are there employee resource groups at the company?
Again, this might be more of an option
that a larger organization.
But if there are employee resource groups
around disability--
like here at Microsoft, there's disability resource groups
for many disability groups--
and so that might be an opportunity
to get a sense of what the landscape is at that employer,
decide who might be the right person to disclose to.
And finally, there are--
most large companies especially do
have a formalized accommodation process,
and so you'd want to make sure that you do get connected
with the right group for that.
Like for the example, if you need a screen magnifier
on day one, you would need to kind of follow
the proper process of getting that requested.
And a lot of other accommodations
might just kind of come up in the course
of being on that job.
Maybe kind of an etiquette thing almost,
where people on your team, if you're hard of hearing,
would maybe get your attention with IM or something
like that instead of knocking on your door,
or kind of trying to get your attention from behind,
or things like that.
So there's a lot of people and allies
maybe within your organization that might be a good resource
as well for that.
Right.
At the University of Washington, for example,
I have a few disabilities--
various disabilities-- and one example is my hearing.
I use an FM system, and when I requested that,
I didn't go to my manager.
I went straight to the disability resources
group for staff, actually.
And they worked with me directly to find
the tool that worked for me to make sure
that it got purchased, to make sure that I have it
and it's in working order, to make sure I have things
like batteries, to make sure that if there's any tech
support, they're there for that.
And on a more informal situation,
I also have distractability issues,
and also the hearing aid plays into this.
So on my door, I have different signs that
indicate to my fellow staff members
in a very informal way what I need at that particular moment,
which it could be do not disturb,
it could be please email me if that's possible.
It could be a sign that says I have
the door closed because it's freezing in here, but go ahead
and come on in.
So it's all different types of less formal structure
that I disclosed directly to my fellow co-workers.
One of the more positive trends that we see these days
is the increase of targeted disability inclusion
initiatives across the spectrum of hiring.
And I think that when you're looking
at those kinds of initiatives, the calculus on if, when,
and how to disclose changes pretty dramatically.
These are organizations and initiatives
that are specifically looking to hire individuals
with disabilities.
So of course, being ready to disclose
to those kinds of initiatives just makes a little more sense.
A couple examples here, the federal government
has led in this area for a long time
through a series of programs known as Schedule A, which
is called noncompetitive hiring-- actually,
it does tend to be fairly competitive, which
means you might get hired by a federal agency
in a month instead of three months by the way.
And the largest federal internship and jobs program
for current students and recent graduates,
a workforce recruitment program, that's
a fantastic resource that folks should be looking out for.
But the private sector has rolled out
a number of initiatives in this regard in large companies.
And those are other places where trying to find those,
getting connected to those can be an extremely valuable asset.
We're seeing more and more of this
spreading to larger and larger number of firms.
And Sean, you got a concrete example for that,
but you were going add something to that?
Yeah, I just wanted to add something real quick too.
The Schedule A, the federal hiring program,
some of the language around it is just
for people with permanent disabilities,
so that's just something to keep in mind as well.
But that's one that's definitely an option for a lot of folks.
And yeah-- so to talk about some of the specific programs.
So here at Microsoft, we have what's
called the inclusive hiring program, which is a program
all about getting more people with disabilities
into a variety of roles across the company.
One of the main parts of this program
is the Autism Hiring Program.
And so that's a program that brings candidates with autism
to campus for about a week-- three or four days I think--
to work in small groups on projects
as a way of kind of demonstrating their ability
to work in a crew, their technical skills, and things
like that.
And so more and more companies are leveraging this type
of approach, where the candidates may
be able to demonstrate their skills
and work ability and things like that in a slightly
different way than a traditional interview that kind of helps
their skills and talents shine through.
So that's something that many, many companies now
are starting to add--
this focus on hiring quality candidates with autism.
And many are also opening up beyond just autism
to a wide variety of disabilities as well.
As somebody who works with a lot of college students
looking for internships, over the last couple of years,
it's been pretty cool to see the number of internship programs
for candidates with disabilities being rolled out
by different firms here.
There have been a number of players,
and this [? SAP ?] has been active in this for a while.
Ernst & Young-- I guess they're EY now--
has been doing this for a while.
But just over the last 18 months or so, I've seen new programs
launched at T-Mobile--
AT&T now has an exclusive internship program
that they're doing.
Tableau Software spinning up something similar that
will be launched fairly soon.
So there's a number of these types of things
are coming out these days.
And the first thing that comes to mind
when I think of employer groups and students with disabilities
is the US Business Leadership Network.
If, by any chance, you saw Microsoft's Global
Accessibility Awareness Day video
that just came out today--
it's a half hour long.
I know some people haven't gotten to fit it in yet.
But they highlight the Business Leadership Network as well as
Microsoft and some other organizations.
It is a network of employers who educate and support businesses
to hire, retain, and improve customer service to people
with disabilities.
They are very active working with students.
Their website is www.usbln.org.
Their student networking group is called the Career Link
Mentoring Program, and that's a partnership
between the US BLN and Cornell's Employment and Disability
Institute.
It allows a six month career mentoring opportunity
to 70 to 75 college students and recent grads each year.
I actually believe that number is higher this year,
and we haven't edited it.
If you're interested in that, you can check it out
at www.usbln.org/programs clmp.html.
If you're looking for something smaller,
if you're in Washington state, Washington state
has a Business Leadership Network.
If you're not in Washington state,
most other states have divisions of the US Business Leadership
Network that can be found on that original website.
If you are in Washington state, their website is wsbln.org.
And we did--
Michael and I hosted an employment fair
at Bellevue College about a year, year and a half
ago that was hosted with Washington State BLN,
and it was an incredible representation
of so many employers here in Washington state
that we had to put a cap on it.
There were too many people interested,
and it was a wonderful melding of employers
looking for employees, and students looking for work.
The turnout was incredible, and I
know that the career center at Bellevue College
hopes to do it again in the future.
So those are three great resources that are out there.
We would like-- do either of you have anything in summary,
or should we open it up to questions?
The one thing that we want to repeat
is that there is no direct answer.
There is no one way to disclose that works for everyone.
And if you have further questions,
our contact information is in this PowerPoint,
and you can reach us each if you are interested.
So we'll open it up to questions.
How do we view the questions?
I have two questions that have been sent to me outside,
and they are-- the first one is what if the company is
uneasy about my disability?
How do I handle that?
It's a fantastic question.
I will say as an employee with a disability myself--
and Sean might have his own perspective--
but my perspective is that it never
gets easy to disclose that you have a disability
and you need accommodations that aren't your strengths.
It's never easy to appear to have weaknesses
that your co-workers do not have, at least for me.
And if the company itself is uneasy about your disability,
I would say it's twofold.
One is I really think what Sean said earlier
about your outlook, and your personal strength,
and your confidence in the things
that you need as a person with a disability to be successful,
I think that is very important.
I will say realistically, that's not always easy.
I mean, sometimes it's very hard to say no, I need this.
Like, stop forgetting that I need this, or no, I need this
and here's why.
And to not take some of the questions, that are
very well-meaning, personally.
So there is no one perfect way to handle it,
but I would say with grace and ease
are two of the best things that you can do.
Finding community behind you that
says no, what you're asking for is reasonable.
Using resources like the Job Accommodations Network
and DO-IT to find out have other people used this
and how did it work, has anybody else worked for this employer
or run into this issue before.
I think all of those things are very helpful.
And the only other piece I'd add as well
is that may be a great opportunity
to educate people that you might be working with directly.
So say you feel like your manager may
be slightly uncomfortable with your disability.
That could be a great opportunity
to kind of educate them on what that means for you as a person,
and connect what--
just kind of teach them a little bit about your disability.
And so that can turn someone into an ally
as well within the organization.
Years ago, I used a curtain as a privacy screen for focus
and maintaining my own ability to concentrate.
And the joke around the office was, well,
I wish I could have a curtain.
And at first, I was hurt by it.
I was like, ugh, you don't want a curtain--
then you would have this distractability issue.
And then after talking to some people,
my response became, well, then get one.
Like, it's not a formal accommodation.
It's not something major.
Make one yourself.
So that helped me by teaming with some of my peers
and kind of gaining my own confidence in that area.
We have another question--
There's-- yeah, we have a question in the chat as well.
I'll just kind of read it out loud here.
I'm wondering if for job applications online,
they often ask to self-identify as having a disability.
Do we have to select Yes to that?
We probably need to add a slide on self-ID.
This is something that came out of an executive order
from late in the Obama administration
that folks with have contracts with the federal government
needed to start gathering data on the number of folks
with disabilities who are applying for their jobs
and getting accepted.
Now my understanding of self-ID--
and you guys correct me if I'm wrong
here-- that the data on the self-ID form
is completely disconnected from the rest of the application
process.
So checking that box, yes or no, does not
go to the folks who are deciding whether or not
you move forward for an interview or get
offered the position.
It's tracked by HR and then looked at afterwards.
So given that, checking that box one way or the other
probably isn't going to necessarily change
your odds of getting accepted.
But I kind of think it's important to have
accurate data on this stuff, and see how prevalent.
Even organizations that are friendly to hiring
folks with disability, there's a lot of barriers that remain.
And so I would encourage folks to think about checking yes
on the self-ID thing.
But it's just disconnected from the process,
and so a lot of people think like, oh, they're
doing this to be an inclusive kind of system and process.
And it is, but the way in which it's done
is so indirect that it's probably not
going to benefit you much one way or the other,
because it's disconnected.
I mean, it's a nice step in the right direction,
but it's a data gathering step.
Yeah.
And to Michael's point, when you check Yes
to that box, that's not at all tied to your employment
package, or your status, or whatever.
So from a company perspective, it
is a useful piece of data to have an accurate representation
of how many people with disabilities
they have at their company versus how many
applied for roles there.
And that's kind of aware that they can figure out
how to best serve the population of employees with disabilities
there.
So I think it is in yours and the company's benefit
to just get an accurate understanding of what
folks are there.
And I was at a presentation recently
where a very large company was talking about their initiatives
and their disability initiatives,
and how they thought they had this small percentage of people
with disabilities.
They started this initiative, and in like a year,
the people would come forward had doubled.
And after that, it, I believe, doubled on top of that.
So I think a lot of people don't--
even if you do check that box, that is not
tied to your application.
A lot of people don't then disclose
during any of the other processes, which
you don't have to.
So that becomes your option.
The other question I get a lot is,
on a lot of online job applications, it will say,
can you do this job with or without accommodation,
and the answer is always yes.
If you can't do the job with or without accommodation,
you shouldn't be applying for it.
But if you can do the job with or without accommodation,
yes is the answer that they're looking for.
So just in case either of those is what you're looking for.
Also what we said earlier, if the company has
a strong initiative to hire people with disabilities,
and there's another placement for it,
you need to consider that as a perk or a benefit
to your application.
I'm going to riff on this because I usually
have this thing I do during a presentation.
When you're looking at the essential functions of the job,
particularly but not only for technical roles,
you'll often see these list of, like there
are 17 essential duties of the job, or like seven.
There's a large number, and I see a lot of college students
who are like, well, I can only do five or six out
of the seven things that are listed here
as the core skills of the gig.
I'm like, that makes you an incredibly strong candidate
for this job.
I see a lot of folks who think that they
need to be able to do everything that's there,
even maybe if they're listed as desired rather than required.
If you've got an over-- if you've
got the majority of the skills there,
employers are willing to train you on the things
that you don't have.
And I see a lot of folks screen themselves out and say, well,
even with accommodations, I can't necessarily
do this one thing because I haven't learned Python yet,
or this type of program, or I'm not
familiar with this particular financial tool, or whatever.
If you've got the rest of the stuff,
you can come up to speed on whatever they've got.
So when it says the essential functions of the job,
most I think is key.
When in doubt, apply.
Yes!
Don't edit yourself out of the running.
The other question we had was do you
think that there is a difference in workplace
environment between a smaller company or a larger
corporation?
Is it harder to get accommodations
at a smaller company?
I don't think there's a flat answer to that,
because if you go to a smaller company that happens
to be owned by somebody with a disability,
or some smaller company that is disability savvy, or just
really open and welcoming, then the answer would be
they would be completely comparable
to a large organization.
And a lot of times, a larger organization--
exactly what Michael said, there's a lot of red tape.
So when you go to a smaller company,
they may be able to just get you what you need and off you go,
whereas some larger corporations might--
or federal government-- might take longer
to be able to do that.
On the question around accommodations
at large versus a small company as well,
one thing to bear in mind is that at some large companies,
they might have a fund or a global fund for accommodations,
so that doesn't come out of the team's budget, for example.
Not all large companies have that,
so that's another caveat there.
So that might not be an option at some smaller company,
but bear in mind as well that the vast majority
of the accommodations are either low or no cost.
There are some that can be expensive,
but again, many of the common accommodations
are free or low cost.
And I don't need to call out Microsoft, but a lot of people
would think, OK, they've got it down, they've got it perfect,
they're doing really great, which they are.
But Sean and I got into an elevator to come up here,
and the keys to the floors were very, very high
so even when you think, OK, a large employer
is just going to have this down, sometimes there
are little glitches in the system no matter where you
are that you might have to advocate for.
Which was easy because I was standing next to you.
That worked out.
Yeah, that said, I do think as a general rule.
oftentimes-- there's exceptions all over the place,
and each organization has its own really different culture.
Maybe if you were going to generalize on this stuff just
because of budget size, lack of knowledge, lack of formal HR
processes, sometimes--
I mean, when I look at where our students are
getting employment, [INAUDIBLE] employers less than 100.
There's a few there, but that's not the easiest spot
to crack into sometimes.
So there's still something to that.
By the way, I sense that that's changing.
And also where it's changing fastest
is mid-sized, which are becoming more and more
like large companies, particularly in this region
these days.
It's the expected order of business.
Not to say that they've got it figured out,
but culture changes is happening quickly at those organizations.
And one thing we didn't mention was documentation.
And the difference in getting accommodations
when you have a visible disability that someone
can see, and say OK, you're a wheelchair user--
you need access to an elevator.
On the flip side, you have a hidden disability--
you need a work from home situation every so often.
The onus and pressure almost to prove that versus the accepted
as a given can almost be--
it's definitely a part of this equation.
And as you think of employers, again, we
can't say that smaller employers are
better than bigger employers, or bigger employers are
better than smaller employers.
But think about how that might work out
in bigger situations versus smaller situations for you.
And having your documentation in order.
If you have your documentation that you used for college,
making sure you get a copy of that.
Take it with you so that you already
have it when you need it in the workplace.
Fantastic.
Well, it's been great to spend the last hour with you.
We hope that you will join us again.
I know we've got some upcoming webinars soon.
And if you have any questions that didn't get answered,
or if you are attending this webinar later
and you have questions that you would like answered,
please feel free to email us.
Thank you.
Have a good afternoon.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Bye.