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Am I Disabled?

aeon.co

151–160 of 245 posts

Re: Am I Disabled?

#151
> You appear to be asking a closed question, but ‘consider’ is a word I would use to open up a question. Forms are full of such questions, presenting themselves as straightforward logic gates, which on closer inspection turn out to be impossibly multivalent.

This is actually a huge problem, particularly in the age of computer systems. If the form is electronic and not designed properly, you can't even leave a note.

Software developers often love being smart and validating all inputs, with disastrous consequences. In my opinion, 99% of validations, at least for data that's not going to be directly processed by computers, email addresses for example, shouldn't be validated at all, and most validation errors should be replaced with warnings instead.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>getting a sitting space in a crowded bus, even if there are old people around Why? Giving up a seat to an older individual is a show of respect as well as a recognition that standing for seniors is a bigger burden than it is for a young 30-something. Why would ADHD change that?

Not the person you are replying to but... In my case was because if I tried to give space to older people, I would go nuts, having ADHD and possibly (I never tried to get diagnosed since there is no treatment) Asperger's, I just don't notice old people there... So I go, see a spot, sit, and after a while note the stares and so on. I had to learn to ignore the stares, because whenever I was worried about being a gentl…

The alternative coping mechanism would be not to sit at all if most of the sitting spaces are already taken. I sometimes did so as I expected to have to vacate my spot in only a few minutes.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#154
This might be controversial but here goes...

On the other side of the coin I had an unforgettable interview experience for a role that really questioned my pro-viewpoint on disability in the workplace. Prior to this interview I was a firm believer that anybody should do the job they want and overcome obstacles. Afterwards, ths changed.

Prior to the interview, the recruiter phoned me and said "Just a heads up, you might have a little difficulty in speaking with the CTO due to his disability, but I'm sure you'll be OK". A slightly odd conversation but I appreciated the information ahead of time.

Upon arriving at the conference room the lead engineer (Alice) said "Bob [CTO] works remote and a word of warning - you might have a little difficulty in understanding what he says, but don't worry I can help if you get stuck". That's now two people who have warned me.

Bob had a degenerative illness which made his speech stutter and slur heavily.... to the point I could not understand _anything_ he said. Nothing. It was like trying to understand someone who's clearly drunk more than they should, to the point of nearly blacking out (I'm serious here).

When he joined the company 10 years prior he was perfectly fit and healthy, and within 5 years became CTO of the startup. He was still healthy at this point. All good.

Bob developed illness which impaired his speech so much _every question_ he asked me had to "repeated" by Alice sitting at the table beside me. Every word that came out of Bob's mouth had to be "repeated".

It was impossible to verbally communicate with Bob wihtout Alice present to translate. It took 2 very long minutes to ask "how are you today?" at the interview start. 120 seconds. How was anybody going to effectively communicate with this person on a daily basis or have technical verbal discussions!? If they said communication would be written text only with the CTO I doubt I would have accepted the interview.

To me engineering is all about communication. You communicate ideas in varying degrees of technical depth to cater for your audience, who in turn communicate their ideas to other parties - be it board level, juniors, external parties or even the accounting department. Communication was totally broken here.

What was most concerning was Bob didn't seem feel his disability was serious enough to step down from such a role (or management didn't want to suggest he step down... maybe through fear of law suit?). His inability to verbally communicate anything would have a bit impact on their product development.

The company did ask me to return for a second/final interview (they phoned the recruiter within minutes of me leaving the building..) but I politely declined. It would have been impossible to work with Bob.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#155
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is such a bias towards regularity, I feel like an alien when trying to question why we should care. I had a coworker that might have been bipolar as well but didn’t really explicit it, and we felt we shouldn’t dig. In a week to week basis work was done. We were a team of 7 so someone being on or off at a given time had little impact, hell any member could be warped into another project for 3 days and come back…

> submitting sick days without notice Who the hell knows when they're going to be sick? I've never heard of such a thing.

Well, if you get a common cold, then sometimes you can feel whether it is manageable, or starts getting worse.

Then you'll have a whole working day, where you are functioning at like 50% capacity, and at least you can pass on your work which might block others to a colleague.

In my experience most of the time this is the case.

Reporting in sick in the morning all the time can be quite distruptive in some jobs.

If I were in this situation I would look for a job where there is more flexibility in this regard. Or keep an up-to-date document where I list all the ongoing tasks and their statuses and next steps (this would probably add a lot of overhead though)

Re: Am I Disabled?

#156

> Do you consider yourself to be a disabled person? > Yes: No: Prefer not to say: ughhhhh.... As a mixed-race ADHDer: Is this box becoming a thing too? I totally get that this is a hard thing to design a database schema for (see https://qntm.org/gay ). Just...oy. This is going to have a UX that reminds me of applying for colleges and trying to figure out if I'm Black or not. We live in a world of trade-offs.

Do you mean the "prefer not to say" box? I'd argue that it should exist for every non-mandatory selection for privacy's sake. If the question isn't necessary for some reason, it should probably be left off completely, IMO. But I'm assuming they're trying to get stats for something, and some people may be okay with that. But they should still make it obviously optional, which is what that option is for.

doesn't allowing "prefer not to say" mess up the data anyway, or is there a way to work around this?

Re: Am I Disabled?

#157
post #69
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a current epileptic (spinal injury, recovered partial paralysis) I still have to deal with the fact that I'm in fact, disabled. Working at a FAANG in silicon valley really highlights that. My commute is 4 hours a day because I have to take public transit, and working late hours is a bigger burden than unaffected people in similar life situations. I'm completely dependent on others to take me places, even for groce…

4 hours seems like a lot. Do you still have to commute, even amid the pandemic situation?

No, during the pandemic it's been completely work from home.

Which has been great. I've recovered so much of my time back. I can sleep longer etc... And my health is better.

The reason for the four hour commute (total.. Not each way), is that my wife works in the Bay as well but in the opposite direction. So we split the distance. Her commute is two hours (hour each way) since she can drive. But it's better to be closer to her place of work since if there's anything that requires us getting back home, she can respond faster (20-30 minutes in non rush hour).

Re: Am I Disabled?

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you know there are folks out here arguing for an even stronger version of this position? The 'social model of disability' is the name for the wider notion that includes the neurodiversity argument/paradigm to which you refer, and applies to all other disabilities. On this view, all the problems you mention are only problems because society doesn't give affected people enough support (ETA; to clarify (or rather, t…

On this view, all the problems you mention are only problems because society doesn't give affected people enough support Sure, it's possible to reductio ad absurdum the "social model", just like nearly anything else. "Being in a coma isn't a problem! It just makes you different. The problem is society's refusal to cater to the workplace needs of people in a vegetative coma state!" All the social model aims to do is t…

> All the social model aims to do is think about a separation of the impairment itself and the ways in which society may make it worse.

The aim is merely a change in thinking? I'm pretty sure one aim is to get more resources to support disabled (or impaired) people. And that's fine. We live in a society.

What's not fine is the rhetorical trickery (motivated redefinitions of words) deployed as part of the SM.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#159
In America, indicating you are disabled is like painting a target on your back. This is why this article exists in the first place - it highlights the fact that Americans (and other undeveloped nations) basically follow nature. If someone is unfit to survive in their environment, then they will eventually end up being absorbed back into nature. The fallacy that I can't live with, is that some people try to pretend that there is a safety net.

I've got a 2 year old who is deaf / blind and has serious cognitive issues. Since me and my wife both do well in the game of capitalism - we are entitled to none of whatever "safety net" exists.

If you can survive without showing your disability, that's what works best in America. There are horror stories of people losing entire careers and there way of life - because they told their superior about the burdens of raising disabled children. Its better to hide these truths, everyone will have a better chance of survival.

Re: Am I Disabled?

#160
post #61

Excellent question. As a person with ADHD (but on meds), and a possible CFS, I ask myself this sometimes. While I wouldn't use a disabled parking spot , there are some exceptions from social norms that I allow myself: - segregating trash (keeping an apartament clean and organised is crazy difficult by itself, and I still learn to put things into trash after using, at the age of 36) - getting a sitting space in a crow…

> The way I handle it now is by asking someone who leaves a car, who doesn't look disabled, if they need some help

I'm curious as to why you feel the need to say anything at all, considering you are not an authority figure. It seems like you're possibly inviting trouble by not minding your own business. At the very least, you're unnecessarily shaming people, which is not admirable.

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