Embracing disAbility

What makes each of us unique? For a long time, I thought that it was the unique skills and abilities that each of us possess. Off late, I have come to believe that, it is not just our abilities, but our #disabilities too that make each of us unique.

Roughly 1.3 billion people on this planet have been identified as people with disabilities and I am one among them. I am blind in my left eye and it is irreversible. Doctors diagnosed my condition as a solar burn. Until roughly 6 years ago, I was not even aware about my disability.

So why am I writing about this today? I am one amongst those who have been lucky to be supported by my organisation, Kyndryl , which offers an environment for me to thrive. Despite disability being a prominent topic discussed these days at the workplace, we continue to experience the lack of general awareness around disabilities and the challenges people with disabilities confront at the #workplace.

I have penned down my learnings from these 6 years. I hope this helps some of you who are facing challenges at your workplace.

Focusing more on abilities than disabilities

For those of us facing any form of disability, we often fall into the endless thought cycle of how our disabilities are affecting us. It pulls us back from venturing forward and exploring new opportunities. Instead pay attention to what you are good at and hone those skills to the extent that those #abilities thwart your disabilities.

Embracing disability

There is no shame in having a disability, whether it is intellectual, developmental, mental or physical. So, acknowledging and embracing it is the first step. It is only after we accept who we are, that we can drive clarity on what we can do and what we cannot. The next step is to be bold and vocal about disabilities. Rather than letting peers and co-workers assume, it is appropriate to speak-up about your disability.

Reaching out for help

We tend to feel less vulnerable by speaking-up about disabilities contrary to the popular belief. The mistake we often do is to keep it to ourselves while attempting to manage it all. By seeking help when we need, we can feel more confident about ourselves. A simple thing we can do, is to have an open and honest conversation about ones disability with our managers, customers, peers and anybody we work with regularly.

Taking advantage of support and technology

While it is not perfect and we are not there yet, know that we have come a long way to start seeing more accessible and disability-friendly workplaces and technology, today. Leading up from the previous point, when we reach out for help, people become more aware and can support us by offering a more accessible and inclusive environment. From screen readers, voice recognition, audio notes, magnifiers in the virtual world, to workplaces that offer an #inclusive, #accessible and a #disability-friendly environment, make yourself aware of the support available to you.

My intent is not to downplay the challenges people with disability face. Instead, I hope to enable some of you to take intentional steps in bringing positive changes around you, your organisation and within your respective network of people.