Show HN: Handicareers.com – A simple job board for disabled people

It's a weird one and I really do think a lot of the time it depends on who's saying it and in what context, I think when there is a large power imbalance than the use of the word disabled can be really horrible but between peers, not so much.

Personally I prefer being called Stuart, possibly "you know, you've met him before, he's the one in the wheelchair", that sort of thing. I don't think there is one right answer because you obviously can't please everyone all the time, but I do think that large institutions and those with power have to be very careful about how they phrase things because you will come off as dismissive if you're not careful. Even if you don't need to be.

Of course there is a spectrum, and at some point nearly everyone is unable to do common tasks we usually take for granted. I'm amazed how quickly I forget after recovering from an injury or finding a workaround to a physical limitation.

My company did some work for an organization that supported people with disabilities in the workforce. The client stressed the importance of the distinction between using "people with disabilities" as opposed to "disabled people," with the former being much preferred because - due to its structure - it puts the focus (i.e. the first word) on "people" rather than "disabled/disability".

That was really great of them to hire a blind developer, what makes me mildly furious is that disabled in the tech world means blind or deaf, there isn't any room for people with extreme motor skill difficulties. A few people have suggested tools in this thread and they have all been for blind people and that is what "accessibility" has come to mean the technology space at the moment. Blind people definitely need to be catered to don't get me wrong, but how do you use the Internet if you can't use your arms? It just doesn't come up in web development courses, most software products don't think about it at all, we really are the redheaded stepchildren the accessibility world.

It's only Apple in the past couple of years who came out with their suite of tools to allow quadriplegics and people with extreme motor difficulties to use iOS that have really thought about it, and they are really amazing. Full disclosure I helped beta test a couple of versions of iOS accessibility stuff, but there isn't another company in the world where you could take a laptop or phone out-of-the-box and within 5 minutes be up and running as a person with quadriplegia. And believe me I've looked!

So developers, spare a thought for those of us who had to cobble together some Frankenstein approach to using the Internet just because we cannot use our hands! :-)

You. Are. Broken.

Refer to all disabled people by their chosen name if you know it, otherwise ask them and then work around any logistical problems as they come up and as they are referred to you by the disabled person. Do not assume anything and do not push a wheelchair without asking and/or being asked. Even if a disabled person is lying on the ground, they will ask if they need help.

Rules to live by able-bodied people, rules to live by!

On the one hand, saying "disabled" instead of "with a disability" carries the implication that the disability makes you completely unable to do anything useful, like a disabled widget in a UI toolkit. In our language, the best way to avoid that implication, when talking about disabilities in general, is to say "with a disability" rather than "disabled".

But when talking about a specific disability, language like "people who are blind", instead of "blind people", is just too damn clunky, without accomplishing anything, at least in my mind. I know plenty of blind people, and none of us use people-first language to refer to ourselves or each other.

I really do like the craigslist idea of marking a checkbox if you're willing to employ disabled people, that means that I as a quadriplegic don't need to learn a new interface or go to new website, I can just go to the same place as everyone else and just search by that criteria. That's a great idea.

No problem. It's all about the variability of one's condition and disability, let's for instance take somebody who suffers from chronic pain, is quadriplegic, may or may not have one or 2 pressure sores on their body and may or may not be taking huge quantities of memory hindering and/or altering painkillers and other pharmaceuticals. Given all those variables, there is no way to say that I will on Monday morning not be in any pain, be able to get out of bed, and be able to focus sufficiently to do the job you've asked me to do.

Now if you tell me that I've got to accomplish 30 hours over the course of a week then that's much easier, because by Monday afternoon my head might have cleared and the pain levels have subsided somewhat so I can get on with 5 or 6 hours work.

That for me is the nub of the problem.

My partner and I have also just launched https://inventability.net/ which is a collection of all the hacks, tips and tricks that we've learnt over a decade of my being quadriplegic. Solutions that took years and thousands of pounds for us to come to, we are trying to pass along to other people with disabilities and anyone really who might find that sort of thing useful.

The public speaking is generally around the topics of accessibility, open design, open Apis and how to string together commercial solutions to solve disability problems without paying the premium the disability companies place upon disabled people. I've spoken at events like the Wired 2014 London conference, Google fire starters, a couple of UK foreign office events, great conference called Wuthering Bytes amongst others.

I got some great advice about 4 years ago just before I started all of this and it goes something like this: "say yes, show up and deliver". You're not competing against everybody in the world, you're competing against the people who said yes, showed up and actually produced something. That's basically what I've done and it's working pretty well so far!

At a certain point it matters how much you produce but as long as you produce a little as often as you can, and you have some good ideas you will probably be okay. :-)

Tangent: How true is that for people who become deaf at different stages of life besides birth?

The only time the fact that I'm quadriplegic to should become an issue is when it alters some plan, building, or some accommodation needs to be made to factored in to allow me to participate in the world. And in which case the questions should almost always be logistical, so for me the word disabled should really never come up.

For instance if we were going to a bar we would just make sure we went to one that had level access, problem solved and you haven't had to call me anything other than my name.

I have a small break in my neck, in all other respects I'm just like you and expected to be treated as such. Sorry these aren't more string together and coherent thoughts, I'm just thinking about it the first time properly!

Edited To Add: Stupid voice dictation software making me look crazy again, can somebody please make voice recognition software 100% accurate? Thanks!

"Ein Behinderter hat dort geparkt" -> "A disabled was parking there"

But this changed drastically in my lifetime. We often just say "he is disabled" and mostly to people who are mentally challenged. For physical disabilities we often use the specific word directly.

If someone can't see or walk, we simply say it, we don't say he is disabled, it's already implied by his condition.

http://autismmythbusters.com/general-public/autistic-vs-peop...