WORKING WORLD: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell!

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

To tell or not to tell: that is the question facing many workers with hidden disabilities. There is no reason to tell your current or perspective employer about your disability unless you are asking for an accommodation. You cannot expect an accommodation unless you disclose that you have a disability and, therefore, require an accommodation to carry out the essential functions of the job.

And the employer cannot ask if you have a disability, or what the nature of your disability is, if it is obvious that you are using a wheelchair. The employer can only ask if you are capable of doing the job. If there is some doubt as to your capabilities, the employer could ask how you would complete a certain task. But no more information regarding your disability is relevant.

I faced that situation in applying for a position as a job coach with an agency that helps people with disabilities. A job coach accompanies workers with severe disabilities on job interviews and helps them perform the tasks of their jobs once they are hired until they are able to do them on their own, or indefinitely.

The availability of a position as job coach was announced at a professional conference for rehabilitation counselors that I was attending. When I approached the individual who was looking to hire one, she told me I couldn’t do the job. A typical day for a job coach involves visiting several different work places to check on the progress of program participants in learning and performing their jobs to the satisfaction of their employers. After one look at my wheelchair, she told me I don’t qualify because I couldn’t drive the agency’s van. My response was that I drive my own van, so I could drive the agency’s van, with the accommodation of hand controls, which cost under $200. But she never responded to my subsequent phone calls or to my letter and résumé. Weeks later, when I finally did get hold of her, she told me she never got funding for the job. Right!

My point is that this employer concluded that because I use a wheelchair I was unable to perform the essential functions of the job. Her conclusion was incorrect and, in so doing, she discriminated against me on the basis of my disability. I could have sued the agency under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but it wouldn’t have served any purpose, since the mission of that agency is to help people with disabilities. How ironic!

But you, my readers, should know that her behavior was unacceptable. Employers also cannot ask you to take a physical examination before offering you a job. Many work places do require drug screening and fingerprint checks of all prospective employees, which is fine, as long as you are treated the same as everyone else.

Any information about your medical condition that arises during a physical exam is confidential. The physician cannot reveal it to the employer under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the federal health information privacy act. So it’s really up to you, if your disability is hidden, to decide if you want to tell your employer. A couple of examples may make this clearer.

Adrienne lost her last job because of overwhelming fatigue resulting from multiple sclerosis, so she is afraid that if a potential employer knows she has this disability, she will not be hired. That is probably a realistic fear, even though it is against the law to discriminate against someone because of a disability.

Anthony, who uses a wheelchair, feels more comfortable telling a potential employer right away that he uses a wheelchair, during that first phone contact, even before asking for an interview. He fears rejection and would rather not go through the interview process if the employer isn’t open to hiring someone with a disability.

I’ve tried it both ways—asking if the office is wheelchair accessible when making the appointment for an interview, or just showing up and watching their mouths drop open when I wheel in. I don’t know which is preferable. You’ll have to decide for yourself.

We all know that someone with a disability makes a more devoted employee and works twice as hard just to get to the work site in the first place. We get up earlier in the morning. Some of us need aides to get showered and dressed, to be ready a half- hour before paratransit comes to get us, or to drive a modified van to work. Just remember that having a disability should not exclude you from the work place.

Tamar Asedo Sherman works as an employment specialist at UCP-Suffolk in Hauppauge, New York. She can be reached at action@unitedspinal.org.