We've been talking about diversity and inclusion in our industry for some time now and most of us have at least a general idea of the issues at stake. But we sometimes forget about one of the aspects of diversity : disability. Not disability at a whole though, I'd say there has been quite an interest about accessibility and how to make our products better for our disabled users. But we almost never talk about disability in our industry.
Many of us tech workers have disabilities and/or chronic illnesses that impact our daily lives. Yet, most of the tech industry can't seem to see us. It's always "on friday we go running" or "we play soccer as a team" or "our team building week will make us do many physical stuff !"… And disabled people get left behind. And it's even worst when our disabilities are invisible, as our coworkers and managers have even more issues to empathize with what we are living (the little bits we actually share about it).
So today I'd like to take some of your time to talk about the invisible elephant in the room : disability and how so many of our work culture makes the environment toxic for disabled workers.
