as small as a world and as large as alone

4:32am October 14, 2013

andreashettle:

sloppyninja:

Anti-Ableism is the thought that a paraplegic can lift as much as an olympic athlete. Hell yes I’m going to discriminate against people when picking a job that needs being done. I’m not gonna pick the guy in the wheelchair to stock the top-shelves at a store. I’m not going to pick the autistic person to be a customer service representative. I’m not gonna pick the person who can barely do math to be my accountant. what, does this make me a bad person? If it does then go ahead and sign me up to be seen as Hitler.

No one is asking you to hire a wheelchair user to stock the top shelves. Or the autistic person to interact with the public (assuming they really can’t … I’ve known some who have done this and done okay with it), or the person who can’t do math to be an accountant.

What they ARE asking is that the tall, dedicated, hard working autistic person with a strong sense of work ethics be given a chance to stock the top shelves. 

That the brilliant maths person who is deaf be given a chance to show how great they are at accounting.

That the very charismatic wheelchair rider with great people skills be given a chance to show that they will be the very best customer service representative you have ever had.

99% of the time that people discriminate against people with disabilities, they aren’t discriminating for rational reasons.  99% of the time, what’s really happening is that people are leaping to assumptions, or they just don’t feel comfortable around people with disabilities.  So they reject candidates out of hand without even looking at their c.v. to see if they have the qualifications that the employer is looking for.  

Nobody is asking anyone to hire people who aren’t qualified.  If you are in the US, then, um, no the Americans with Disabilities Act isn’t asking you to do this.  In fact it only asks that you not discriminate against QUALIFIED applicants or employees with disabilities. They have to be QUALIFIED for the position before the law protects them from discrimination.

What people ARE asking is that you actually take the time to read the resumes and applications from people with disabilities — on the SAME BASIS as you read resumes/applicants from everyone else, and compare their qualifications against the qualifications needed for the job — the SAME AS YOU DO FOR EVERYONE ELSE, before deciding in knee-jerk fashion what they “can” or “can’t” do.  

And if you still aren’t sure how a person with certain disabilities can do certain tasks … ASK them.  Tell them what the requirements of the job are (“the person we hire will need to do the following tasks…”) and then ask them how they will carry out these functions.  (If you are in the US, then YES, this IS a legal question under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Many employers seem to have the legalities under the ADA exactly backwards.  Here are the facts: no you CANNOT ask exactly what a person’s disability or medical diagnosis is.  You CAN ask, “How will you carry out these functions of this job?”)

And, try being a little flexible when it is reasonable to be so.  If the major point of a particular job post is for the person to spend 90% of their time answering phones, then probably you don’t want a deaf person for that, except possibly in unusual circumstances.  But if answering phones would ordinarily take up only 5% of their time, then you could trade off those responsibilities to a hearing person in the office, and then the deaf person would take on other tasks that the hearing person would normally do.  So everyone is still doing the same amount of work, just better suited to their skills and capabilities.

If you honestly believe that “not discriminating against people with disabilities” is somehow supposed to mean “hiring people who aren’t qualified for the job” then you really HAVE NOT GRASPED THE CONCEPT AT ALL.

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