Disability is not a diversity.

What types of D&I networks are there? – there are ones for black people, LGBTQ+ people, women, disabled (physically or neurologically impaired people etc.?I am a disabled person as you know, I was born without hand or feet.

In a job interview, an able bodied black person, LGBTQ+ person, a lady etc. would never get asked – do you need any adjustments made to do your job??How do you type??How do you hold a phone??However, a disabled person would get asked those questions and in my view quite rightly so, these questions should be asked – in fact when in my interview for my role of major incident manager at the 马莎百货 account for 高知特 Cognizant , one of the interviewers asked for a laptop to be brought in so I could demonstrate how I type – the room was in stunned silence and another member of the interview panel quickly said “no that’s not required, don’t worry”. I was ready to prove myself and win the day, but in the end it wasn't required. I was quite looking forward to shocking people with my 110 words per minute typing. :-)

Disabled is not a good thing to be, there are no positives to being disabled.?I know because even though i was born like this an don't know any different, I am impacted by disability every day. If I asked you; you can be black, gay, a woman or be disabled – trust me no one would choose disabled.?Why am I going on about this today in this article.?Well, because I have a bee in my bonnet about people with disabilities being placed in the same D&I bucket as black people, LGBTQ+ people, women etc.?Organisations need to be much more understanding and empathic to the fact that their drive to be seen as ethically moral towards disabled people by potential and existing customers needs to be much more in depth than just a show of segregating people into different networks and say “wahaaay look we have a network for disabled employees”.?We need to be discussing and appreciating the cold hard facts and impacts of being a disabled person.?

Discrimination against a black person, LGBTQ+ person, or due to someone’s gender is raw and wholly unwarranted in any circumstances.?However, with disabled people it’s a different matter.?A company cannot just say “we need to increase our intake of disabled people” – that’s a really silly statement.?

Organisations need to be able to ask the right questions to judge whether a disabled person is able to do the job and bring productivity and revenue to an organisation.?Personally, I would not hire a disabled person unless I am certain the person can do the job as well as anyone.?I would not let my daughter marry a disabled person until I got to know my potential son-in-law and I was sure that he would make my daughter happy and that she would not be placed under any unnecessary burden.?Why do I say this??Well because I am a husband to an able bodied, beautiful lady and I know how much she does for me, not because of necessity but because of her love for me.

Going back to organisations having networks for disabled people, I am writing this article for people to start understanding that people of disability are not people of diversity we are people with a medical condition that led to an impairment of physical or neurological function.?Is being black and impairment??No. A disability is an impairment which if a disabled person could have treated, they would do so in a flash – if there was a pill I could take to help me grow normal hands and feet, I would take it. CEO’s and HR directors need to understand that disabled people need special support, special leadership sponsorship and hand holding.?Disabled employees need moral support of leaders of organisations, like I say again, they shouldn’t be part of a diversity network – diversity is a positive.?Disabled people who have been picked as able to do the job should be showcased and sponsored and be part of the organisation and the leaders of that organisation should be running focus groups led by the leaders who are present at every meeting - just to show that they are proud to be part of this and this in turn will encourage other disabled people to speak up, ask for support and volunteer to support others.?Why do disability networks not progress as well as other networks??Its due to the lack of leadership sponsorship, the lack of genuine empathy – disability is vastly misunderstood and its high time organisations looked at different approaches.

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