Hi,
Sorry you have had this experience. I think the best thing is to fill in the forms with accurate information. At the end of the day if discrimination is going to happen you want to find out as early as possible and don't waste your time with the interview that will crash and burn in the way you describe. In terms of driving license and consultant jobs I avoid this for the same reason, usually the driving license is stated on the requirement form or if not then it should be.
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: Samuel Barnes
Sent: 24 August 2019 19:26
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Affirmative action forms
When filling out job applications I often come across affirmative action or diversity forms that you must fill out in order to complete the application. These include sections relating to disability. The dropdown menus usually include an "I decline to answer" option, but you can't just leave it blank. I feel like this is forcing me to shoot myself in the foot in terms of my chances of getting an interview. Here's why:
If I explicitly indicate that I have a disability, they won't consider me.
Yeah yeah I know the standard response: "But discrimination is illegal, and they're incentivized to hire disabled people." There's zero chance of me proving I wasn't considered due to my disability vs any other reasons a candidate is filtered out. As for incentives. If they're going to hire a disabled person, they'll hire a book keeper in a wheelchair or something else where the disability has absolutely no effect on how the person does their job.
If I say that I don't have a disability than I've lied on the job application, and it'll be obvious when I walk into the interview with a dog.
If I say "I decline to answer" (this isn't the same as leaving the field blank, you usually can't continue until all fields are filled.) then I feel like not only will they know I have a disability, but I have one that I want to hide from potential employers. No able bodied person is going to decline to answer the question. There's no downside for them to say they don't have a disability.
I've had four interviews in the last two months. Two of them went very badly. One was for a night shift at an NOC where the guy flat out told me I couldn't do the job. The other one crashed and burned because they wanted someone with a drivers license. (that's a frustratingly common requirement for these MSP and K-12 school jobs). Another interview was super short.
They asked me a few boilerplate tech questions that anyone with an A+ could answer, and that was pretty much it. I don't think it was even 15 minutes.
Sorry this turned into kind of a rant, but I wanted your opinion on these affirmative action forms. Am I crazy for thinking this?
_______________________________________________
Blind-sysadmins mailing list -- blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
To unsubscribe send an email to blind-sysadmins-leave@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
