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Originally Posted by SprinkL3
Ditto! Whenever I disclosed my disability status (even without the specifics of my disability), I've always been met with judgment and disdain for not contributing more to society. It's as if ableism is acceptable, even though discrimination isn't. Microaggressions are as diverse as people, and so a lot of those things are allowable and lawful/legal - even in workplace settings, sadly.
And when trying to get counseled in college, they even emphasize never to mention mental illness or mental disability in your applications or elsewhere. But it's okay if it's a physical disability, for some reason. Many people in college are aiming to work full-time and jump start their careers. They don't realize that there are also disabled people, including veterans, who hope to work part-time (not necessarily for programmatic restrictions, but rather, because that's all they could physically offer). It doesn't mean they shouldn't be hired; it just means that there's now more room to hire two disabled people instead of just one full-time person for "conventional" career-based jobs. And that would help the economy. Forcing part-timers to become full-timers just because that is the status quo negates the benefits of hiring two part-timers in place of one full-timer. Not everyone's employment needs fit within an able-body's circadian rhythm of 9-5 schedules, with overtime implied.
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This is so true and a part of my outline has a lot to do with part-time employment. Employers always act like they can only hire X amount of full-time workers but I think this is just another excuse to exclude certain individuals from working at these places. Especially considering in the U.S. it's cheaper to employee part-time workers because you don't need to provide benefits.
It's proven that people with mental disabilities benefit tremendously from being employed and taking part in society, but it's just not possible when the expectations are not realistic for this group of people. It's really sad because I know a lot of us who are in this position are reliable and motivated workers.
And the college admission is really infuriating for me because it's still fresh. This happened to me this year. But the admission's team actually asked me to provide a letter that stated I'm disabled and I can't work. This was to help explain why my income has declined. Their loss of income form for this did not include anything related to the circumstances of someone with mental disabliites.
My therapist told me absolutely do not give them that type of letter because they can too easily discriminate against me with something like that. When I informed the college I wouldn't provide such a letter they treated me very badly and demanded I obtain a letter from my previous employer stating I quit the job on my own volition. To which my therapist also told me again, I absolutely do not have to do something like that.
I wrote to the president of this college and told them I felt the loss of income form was discriminatory and they should have a section for people with mental disabilities because the admission team kept demanding paperwork that did not pertain to my situation and they asked me to do things that violated my civil rights and it was demeaning and stressful. The president responded this week and just said sorry you feel that way and good luck.