March 4, 2022 - 18:07
Hey all,
It's been a second since I've had a chance to post here and I wanted to briefly talk about my job application process and something I've noticed. Firstly, since our talk last week about ABA, I have been completely drowning in emails from indeed that have informed me that I "might be a good fit" for the 1000s of ABA positions that have made their way into my inbox. *gags* Anyways, I applied, in the last few weeks, for probably 20 jobs as I search for something to do this summer. Something that I thought was interesting is that on every single application, I came across something like this:
or this
I definitely appreciate the legislation that has been put in place to help ensure more equal opportunities in employment and to efforts to make sure that companies can accommodate and hire disabled workers based on their merit. Something just doesn't feel right about this question when it was listed on my applications for a medical assistant position. This is partly because I feel that if I were to indicate some sort of disability that it would make the hiring process more difficult. This brings up another entire issue about disability access with regards to employment in any aspect of the healthcare world. And, yes, some jobs in healthcare, like working as a CNA as I did last summer, do involve a lot of physical requirements like lifting, etc. I also can't help but think -- how many disabled medical providers have I seen in my life? Aside from the potential for invisible disability, I really haven't interacted with any physically disabled or openly invisibly disabled providers. I feel like jobs in healthcare are made so inaccessible with the ideas of the grind and physicality of the job for a reason-- to exclude those with disabilities. It makes me think of this whole stigma of disability representing some failure or undesirable and unhealthy form of the human body and that is kept as far away from a provider role in healthcare as possible. I apologize for the spiel. As I am pre-physician assistant, I found a PA student on Instagram (@thepetitepas) who has POTS and is a chronic illness and disability advocate. She has great videos about POTS and days in the life reels about her experience with it. She uses mobility devices when going around the hospital. She also describes in one video how people have told her she won't be able to make it as a PA with a chronic illness, specifically mentioning not being able to complete surgical rotations and more physical aspects of the job, etc. Her videos are really special and important and provide representation that there isn't enough of at this point. I'll link the video I'm talking about here:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CYm-58ZpKkU/?utm_medium=copy_link
Comments
Great insights!
Submitted by Caroline on March 11, 2022 - 14:52 Permalink
Jo, please don’t apologize for the spiel—you articulate several great points here! :) A couple of thoughts:
In class, we have spent some time thinking about disability in higher education, including the fact that many people choose not to disclose that they are disabled when applying for schools. I would be interested to discuss this same question of disclosure in the realm of employment. I will also be working on applying for summer jobs soon, and I have the instinct to avoid disclosing my disability before being hired (I have also heard advice to not disclose). There are many reasons for this rattling around in my head: avoiding ableism, avoiding being stereotyped, even the principle that my disability itself is not an employer’s business beyond accommodation needs and that those shouldn't be part of hiring.
Your points about the seeming absence of legibly/openly disabled medical professionals are also really thought-provoking: “I feel like jobs in healthcare are made so inaccessible with the ideas of the grind and physicality of the job for a reason—to exclude those with disabilities. It makes me think of this whole stigma of disability representing some failure or undesirable and unhealthy form of the human body and that is kept as far away from a provider role in healthcare as possible.” The call for more disabled doctors is probably familiar to many in this class, but you’re right—it’s everyone in the medical field, including professionals who aren’t associated with particularly strenuous work. The only “acceptable” role I can think of for a disabled medical professional is in a more intellectual or research capacity, likely a niche specialist, probably not interacting much with patients, and “compensating” by being exceptionally intelligent. Even this “stereotype,” if you can even call it that, comes from fiction, and even then I can only think of two examples. I had not thought of this particular manifestation of ableism as such an active instance of prejudicial gatekeeping as what you have framed, but I’m onboard now. Yes, being a medical professional requires a lot of dedication and work, but how much of the educational “grind,” the physical labor, the long hours, and the various other inaccessible aspects of the field are actually inherent? Now that I’m thinking about it, not much at all. Every “problem” that would prevent a disabled person from becoming or serving as a medical professional can be re-envisioned as located somewhere other than the disabled bodymind. Medical professions could be more accessible, even if accessibility would require a complete overhaul of the education process and conditions of medical employment. I agree that the reason for this is at least partly because our culture is not prepared to accept disability as normal/neutral or disabled people as filling a "provider" role in healthcare, and would be interested to discuss other potential reasons.