I've interviewed hard of hearing candidates over text instead of voice before. Have you tried asking for that accommodation when interviewing? I am not a lawyer, but I would expect it to be a legally obligatory accommodation for the company to make.
I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
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Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#12One additional thing to consider here is that (unfortunately) not only are interview processes not accommodating, but many work environments will be similarly unaccommodating. While many large corps have "Neurodiversity ERGs" and similar, they often just pay lip-service and don't truly have impact on the ways day-to-day colleague/cross-team interactions happen within those orgs.
Pay is important, and narrowing your requirements further doesn't seem helpful, but just something that is worth keeping in mind.
Thank you for writing this; it's an incredibly eloquently written piece, and these are the needs that need highlighting (over and over) if any of these challenges are to change. Have bookmarked for future sharing.
Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#13Is the author in the US? There are laws about this. Here's one resource: https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/job-applicants-and-ada I have no idea how that turns out in practice.
Canada! Thank you for responding and sharing this, though. :)
If you’re in Ontario the AODA would provide for reasonable accommodation like text during both interviewing and employment.
Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#14One additional thing to consider here is that (unfortunately) not only are interview processes not accommodating, but many work environments will be similarly unaccommodating. While many large corps have "Neurodiversity ERGs" and similar, they often just pay lip-service and don't truly have impact on the ways day-to-day colleague/cross-team interactions happen within those orgs. Pay is important, and narrowing your r…
Yep. I can not handle fluorescent lights. Work refused to make an accommodation for me. A dark corner was all I was asking for.
Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#15One additional thing to consider here is that (unfortunately) not only are interview processes not accommodating, but many work environments will be similarly unaccommodating. While many large corps have "Neurodiversity ERGs" and similar, they often just pay lip-service and don't truly have impact on the ways day-to-day colleague/cross-team interactions happen within those orgs. Pay is important, and narrowing your r…
Yep. I can not handle fluorescent lights. Work refused to make an accommodation for me. A dark corner was all I was asking for.
Are you able to work remote?
Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. I can not handle fluorescent lights. Work refused to make an accommodation for me. A dark corner was all I was asking for.
Are you able to work remote?
They refused to allow that. 4 months after being forced out Covid hit…
I only work remote now to avoid the issue
Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#17I only slightly dip into management, but this person seems like the ideal employee.
They won't waste time starting office drama, they'll be 100% focused on work.
If I was in a position to, I'd probably let them interview via text.
I was hoping remote work was here to stay, tons of people simply can not work in an office. Say you have children and can't arrange child care, etc.
Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#18Is the author in the US? There are laws about this. Here's one resource: https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/job-applicants-and-ada I have no idea how that turns out in practice.
It is legal to discriminate there is a valid reason to believe the disability prevents the person from doing the work. For example someone in a wheelchair isn't going to be able to work jobs which require standing. And it could certainly be argued that someone who freezes in communication situations could be unfit for many programming jobs where communication and confrontation is common.
Honestly the ideal situation here would probably be for OP to receive some kind of disability payment from the government and continue to work on open source projects.
Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#19Do you have a link to the repo?
I'm hesitant to ID myself in connection to this blog post. I try to lead a very quiet/private online life. Thank you for the response, though. :)
I understand this completely. If you have a good mode of communication like Mastodon or Telegram (creating a new one anonymously is perfectly fine) you could add that to your post.
If you want to reach out, feel free to ping me at [0]. I only know a few other maintainers but might be able to help out.
Re: I'm a skilled open-source maintainer, but I can't interview due to my disability
#20After reading your text, it’s hard for me to believe someone would not hire you for a programming job. My (laymen) suggestion would be: try a million different openings, even if you have to deal with many rejections and send this link to the hiring committee. Anyone who turns you down is anyway probably not a good place for you to work, and eventually you will find something reasonable, I’m sure!