Illuminating Visible and Invisible Disability in the Workplace

For Disability Awareness Month, Kim Tran, Ph.D spoke with longtime queer disability advocate Catherine Callahan about how employers can best engage with visible and invisible disability in the workplace.

Kim Tran, Ph.D (KT): For Disability Awareness Month, I thought we could have a conversation about what employers miss the most when it comes to thinking about disability in the workplace. You have a lot of experience, both training folks and in terms of your lived experience, so I’m excited to hear your thoughts. In a conversation is about neuro diversity and physical disability, what are your least favorite tendencies that employers have when it comes to the workplace? In other words, what’s your wishlist for employers?

Catherine Callahan (CC): One of the battles is even getting a job. That's often where disability comes into play. It’s not necessarily just a lack of understanding about disability. A lot of companies see disability as something that they will have to deal with, and then they start seeing extra costs and extra work. That's not a great approach obviously.

CC: People with disabilities live in the world where nothing is designed for them and that creates a workforce that is really, really good at being creative and problem solving. We’re great at navigating bureaucratic systems and all the while maintaining professionalism because we are faced with these obstacles all the time. At the end of the day, these are great assets to have in the workplace. But when someone with an obvious disability comes in through the door, I don’t think most employers feel that way.

KT: You’re talking a bit here about obvious disability, but I'm also curious about the relationship between what you see as visible disability and invisible disability.

CC: Of course they intersect. The expectation in the workplace can be that management isn’t aware that you have a disability and are expecting you to behave in the world and behave in the workplace in a certain way that you can't.

KT: In my experience, it can mean getting stuck in a place where you have to out yourself or sweat it out, neither of which is ideal. Being honest can be a liability and not being out means you’re not accommodated.

CC: Yeah, it really depends. If you have a disability that does not interfere or play into any aspect of your job whatsoever, you can keep it to yourself. And a lot of times people are battling not necessarily wanting to tell your employer all their private information versus getting the support and the accommodations that they need to be amazing at their job as they could and should be. And let’s be honest, ADA compliance is the bare minimum. And it doesn't have to be that way. There are certain things that you can do to set things up right from the beginning.

KT: What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen?

CC: I’ve seen employers make so many changes, but just for the customer. Everything is accessible for the customer.

KT: But not for the workers?

CC: Exactly. That tells me pretty much everything I need to know about whether or not they were truly thinking of being inclusive in representing diverse customers and employees. For the latter, they weren’t interested in even physically accommodating people.

KT: Follow up question: Have you ever had a workplace where you felt you didn't have to do a lot of the work around making it accessible to work there and if so, how did they get it right?

CC: For people with disabilities, accessibility features are important. For example, at the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley, there are automatic sensors all over the bathroom. There’s a huge ramp from the first to the second floor, so people in wheelchairs can go back and forth without going out of their way for the elevator. And if there’s an emergency, I have a safe way out of the building. There are all of those things that seem little, that actually really help you just exist in a space.

KT: So the less you have to consider it, the better. I remember you mentioned that at one of your previous workplaces, there were signs posted that said in the case of an emergency, people who use wheelchairs should just wait in the stairwell for emergency help. When I think about disability, I think of it as the creation of helplessness. In that situation, the emergency plan was to make certain people helpless. So here’s my last question. How do you think about overlapping forms of identities? For example, I think about my clients who are LGBTQ and neuro diverse. But because everyone fixates gender affirming surgery and hormones, lots of folks don’t get what they want and need which is affordable access to therapy. I find that this happens often.

CC: Yeah, a lot of people focus on physical disabilities, because mental disabilities aren't apparent. People understand I can't get to work if my wheelchair is broken. But how well does leadership understand things like depression? Because that will also make a person immobile and unable to work. But we're taught to be ashamed of mental illness; we’re taught to cover it up.

KT: Right so there’s no space to talk about, for instance, the reality of something like changing medications. People don't talk really about that unless you're in super progressive circles, where everyone is really open and out about neuro diversity and mental disability. In those spaces, people will be open about creating a cushion for someone for a few months while they change their medications.

CC: Right. Just working from home is huge. Sure, we do certain things that require in person presence, but if for the most part you can do your job from home, by all means make it possible to work remotely. A lot of these things are actually simple. There are absolutely ways to accommodate people that are really easy. It’s just a question of effort.