The problem of non-apparent (“invisible”) disabilities in the workplace

In my experience across half a century, one of the most bad-faith plagued aspects of work has been the issue of non-apparent disabilities in workplaces. 

Partly this was ignorance and the lack of legal protection at the start of that half century, followed by scepticism and inadequate legal protection, ending with a fight between genuine attempts to care vs. resentment-driven revenge by ultra-superficial-policing. 

That last one is the sort of problem that can manifest itself when people criticise people for using disabled parking spaces when they don’t look disabled ... which is the reason why I, despite intermittent physical mobility issues and the suggestion of my doctor, have not got a disability parking permit.

In workplaces, it can show up with such extreme things as wanting copies of daily blood sugar readings - which was pretty clearly an attempt to cover their legal backsides by having ammunition they can use against me, and had NOTHING to do with the blatant lie claiming they cared - caring would have been ensuring staff levels were adequate, and work conditions were flexible enough that I could do things like rest when I needed to. 

And caring would NOT have been patronising, paternalistic, and invasive - which that demand was ... 

Ensuring businesses do not resort to extremist measures like this is the job of our elected representatives (for those nations that have them) - MANAGE and COUNTER business push backs on progressive measures. 

And some governments do exactly that - my home state government has a good history of doing so, and their federal counterparts have done so in the last couple of yeaars. 

And, to be fair, some businesses and managers have also done that - in some cases, ahead of governments. 

In fact, there are a few managers I have known this century who are amongst the best human beings I have ever met.

But some of their compatriots remain obtusely amongst the worst ...

 

These links may be of interest/use:  

• “EDS & Why We Misunderstand Disability”   https://youtu.be/3tr1RvErGn8?si=-BIyBlut6GiiPU_Q   This video is brilliant in many ways. One that particularly resonated with me is that if you have always lived with a something that doctors consider a symptom, how on earth are you meant to know it is a symptom? Doctors need to life their game   

• “You don’t have to see someone’s struggle to believe them!”   https://youtube.com/shorts/ixUux3IcB9k?si=c79ZxAGvUj88RHIB   
  

• Millions of Australians have a chronic illness. So why aren’t employers accommodating them?”   https://theconversation.com/millions-of-australians-have-a-chronic-illness-so-why-arent-employers-accommodating-them-219612   “... the continued exposure to work stressors can lead to or exacerbate chronic health conditions ...   Our research found 73% of people believed their chronic illness was at least partially caused or worsened by their job. Almost one in five people believed work entirely caused or worsened their illness.   These findings accord with data from Safe Work Australia”   Good question - and I suspect the problem is worse for non-apparent illnesses such as diabetes   
  

• “Should Disabled People Be Forced To Work?”   https://youtu.be/hpb_1aYtGds?si=RvNBVz1qjDPpoVrP  (The video was in response to right wing [destroy-the-world-through-economic-growth] rubbish about “doing duty”, and the arguments include all people have a valid existence, expectations to do work that one cannot do are harmful reality-denying fantasies [my wording], the problem of scepticism of the uninformed [especially regarding non-apparent disabilities], the threats to cut off money are to life, unsuitable workplaces, and the damaging [including guilt-tripping] and abuse-inciting “fraud” narrative and false claims.)

• “How accessibility for disabled university students can benefit all students”   https://theconversation.com/how-accessibility-for-disabled-university-students-can-benefit-all-students-189180   “Access fatigue is exhaustion people with disabilities face from constantly having to explain their situation and ask for help. Students reported having to negotiate their access needs repeatedly and to disclose private information (sometimes even to classmates, especially when they were assigned group projects)”   

• “Post No. 2,641 - Disability “accommodations” are just being decent - diagnoses are NOT required!”   https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2023/11/post-no-2641-disability-accomodations.html  
  

• “Post No. 2,710 - What constitutes a disability in the afterlife? [Content Warning - discussion on disability, and also on character flaws]”   https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2024/02/post-no-2710-what-constitutes.html   
  

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/