Kevin Happy New Week and Happy New Month, y’all! I can’t believe we’re almost done w/ this year, but since it’s a new month, that means it’s another month of holidays and observances. While there are other things highlighted this month, let’s start w/ National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2025. According to the Department of Labor, National Disability Employment Awareness Month came to be in 1945 as a way to celebrate the contributions of employees w/ physical disabilities, starting out as a week. This evolved into a month-long observance, and by the 1980s, this had expanded to include those w/ other types of disabilities, including those that aren’t seemingly obvious to others.
National Disability Employment Awareness deserves to be year-round, and a standard practice, just like many of these awareness month initiatives should be. This year, the theme is “Celebrating Value and Talent.” I don’t need to get into how those w/ disabilities have value and talent, just as those w/o disabilities do. In other news, water is wet, bears poop in the woods, and the Pope is Catholic.
In all seriousness, those w/ disabilities who are looking for their next real big break often go overlooked, so the companies who are on the hunt for employees like what these job seekers have to offer end up missing out on so much. This is mainly due to prejudices and biases from the Powers that Be at those companies. Some Powers that Be may say that they want inclusivity and want employees w/ disabilities, but it’s only in theory, and only to make someone their token hire.
I’m here to say, those w/ disabilities are nobody’s token anything. I’m nobody’s token anything, and if that’s what some company wants to typecast me as, then forget it. They got by w/o my contributions before, so they can continue to get by w/o my contributions going forward if that’s their attitude.
It’s a sad thing to have to get into, but those w/ disabilities on the hunt for their next opportunity (or first opportunity!) can also end up exploited and abused by predatory companies. Some of these companies know enough about the law to weasel their way through the loopholes so they can get away w/ their abusive behavior against someone who only wants to make their living, and help that company succeed. This is never ok. Ever.
Any company whose Powers that Be make the choice to abuse and mistreat their employees, and also their disabled employees deserves to fail. Anyone among a company’s Powers that Be who acts like this deserves whatever they get.
Readers, if this is something that hits close to home for any of y’all in terms of this happening to you, I’m here to tell you now, their behavior was always their choice, and it was never ok. I’m so sorry for what happened to you, and I wish I could take it all away from you. Idgaf what you said, didn’t say, didn’t do, did, or how you looked. Nothing justifies a manager or boss screaming in your face for hours on end, calling you out of your name, dragging you in on a whim, threatening you, or putting their fuckin hands on you. I don’t care what happened to that manager or boss once upon a time, and I don’t care what their station in life is. None of it gave them the right to act like this, and they’ll reap what they sow.
We may not get front-row tickets to the shitshow their choices have caused for them, but knowing it will happen in due time is enough. It has to be.
On the flip side, if you’re among the Powers that Be who has engaged in behavior like this, know that you don’t deserve a fuckin thing you got going for you. You make your living off of abusing candidates and employees who only wanna help you succeed, and this is the way you act in return? Fuck you, and fuck your business forever. The town you’re in may be more than happy to enable you and allow you to thrive, despite your garbage behavior, but it’s only in the here and now. That’ll change, and the sooner, the better.
Now that I think about it, companies whose leadership thinks it’s ok to target disabled employees for abuse are a symptom of a much bigger problem. I feel like that in order to “celebrate value and talent,” it needs to be the norm for companies whose Powers that Be find ways to count disabled job seekers in, instead of looking for reasons to gatekeep and write them off. Too many companies have leadership that like the idea of hiring disabled team members, but in practice, it’s clear they won’t ever do so.
Other times, there are company leadership teams who like to brag lyrical about how they hire disabled workers, but in reality, it turns out their leadership is bending the truth a bit. Case in point? I had a hard time w/ the doors at a chain restaurant during my job search, and the place wasn’t handicapped accessible anyways. I seemed like a regular customer, but the minute I talked w/ the manager about the application I put in, they gave me the same old song and dance about how they’ll be in touch.
I get home, and I see the rejection email in my inbox first thing. The timing’s a bit too suspect for my liking, even though I can’t prove discrimination either way. They never got my money before, and from that point onward, they never will.
This is where the vicious circle starts, and why it continues. So many disabled job seekers have a hard time finding their next legit opportunities, thanks to someone’s idiotic prejudices, biases, and gatekeeping, despite a candidate being otherwise wholly qualified. This is exactly the kind of horseshit that lands so many disabled ppl in harm’s way, and why so many get targeted by scammy MLM hunbots looking to pad their downlines.
On that note, MLM hunbots will target anyone w/ a pulse, but when predatory companies target our most vulnerable job seekers, it means we’ve failed as human beings, and we’ve also failed as a society.
It doesn’t have to be this way for disabled job seekers and disabled employees. It never had to be this way in the first place. I’m not in HR. I only wanted to work in HR, once upon a time, believing I had something of value to offer the industry. I can only go off of what I learned during my upskilling to try and get my foot in the door that ultimately shut me out.
So what can be done to help this? A good place to start would be to stop gatekeeping against job seekers just b/c someone doesn’t like the way a candidate looks, a candidate’s abilities or disabilities, someone’s jealousy of a candidate, or any other arbitrary reason. This is a huge part of why so many disabled job seekers end up exploited, why they end up living so far below the poverty line, and a huge part of why job searches go on for so long. Another way in is to stop w/ the talk about hiring disabled job seekers while ruling them out in practice, and instead practice what you preach.
This is the perfect way to celebrate value and talent. It needs to be authentic, and not a way to check the box to shut someone up. If a company’s hiring disabled job seekers just for the bragging rights and the brownie points, then they’re not celebrating value and talent. It’s as simple as that. On that note, National Disability Employment Awareness Month isn’t a one-and-done thing. It needs to be year-round, in order to make any lasting positive changes. This post by the Department of Labor outlines some great places to start.
Over to you, readers. How will you celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2025? Is this something that hits close to home for you, or for someone you know? Either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts and takeaways, so drop it all like it’s hawt, and let’s talk.
