4 ms·

Man, I'm quadriplegic and I had to set up my business as it was basically the only way I could get a job. People with severe disabilities don't tend to make th

Man, I'm quadriplegic and I had to set up my business as it was basically the only way I could get a job. People with severe disabilities don't tend to make the most reliable employees timekeeping wise because you just can't guarantee that you will be at a place at a given time, I cannot in any way guarantee that I will be fit for work at 9 AM on Monday morning, it's just the nature of the disability. And that's the same for most people with severe disabilities. That just won't fly with most employers. I'd be really interested where you've found a stock of sympathetic employers willing to deal with these issues, because I've not found many. Also, why separate out disabled people from "normal" people, I'm genuinely curious? I mean I appreciate the effort of you trying to find us work, but don't you see how you are coming at it from the wrong angle. If you are going to separate out disabled people from the rest of the job market, how about a board where disabled people post their skills, the hours they can guarantee per week to work and the wage they are willing to work for just like other niche job markets? What separates out this job market from the others in the space? Also, by disabled do you mean blind and deaf or do you mean anybody with any type of disability? The type of disability will have a huge impact on the type of job. You don't have any jobs listed so I can't get a handle on who exactly this is meant for you see. I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm really not and I'm sure this effort comes from a good place but if you haven't got a group of employers willing to employ disabled people then you are really going to struggle. I wish you luck. I have lots of questions, I may also have answers, hit me up if you want to chat.

extra88 10y ago
> Also, why separate out disabled people from "normal" people, I'm genuinely curious? Since, as you recognize, many employers are unprepared to even think about how a particular disability is not a barrier to a particular job or about accommodations that would enable someone to perform the job, there could be value to people with disabilities for a site where employers identify themselves as having thought about it. Many, if not most, jobs appear in more than one place so this can be another one. Still, I'm more inclined to prefer a job board for everyone that has options like Craigslist's "ok to highlight this job opening for persons with disabilities" checkbox [0]. [0] https://www.craigslist.org/about/disabilities https://www.craigslist.org/about/disabilities
- escapologybb 10y ago
  You're right, there could be value in a board like this. 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.
  - extra88 10y ago
    Unfortunately, they don't seem to expose it as a search checkbox for the end user. You can't even use the "OK to highlight" text in the search box because while the phrase does appear in the job posting, it's one of the "notices," like "do NOT contact us with unsolicited services or offers," that appears at the bottom and is not treated as part of the body of the posting for search purposes (if you search for "OK to highlight" you may find some matches from people who just copied and pasted the contents of a previous posting into a new one so the phrase is a part of the posting body). The highlighting is "for non-profit, community-based organizations in your area that help employers meet their needs for diversity and outreach by referring pre-screened, qualified candidates with disabilities for your job openings." Those organizations can add value by finding jobs that are a better match for people with particular disabilities, e.g. there are jobs that are vision-dependent that you could do well but would be difficult to impossible for someone who is blind. Still, I wish Craigslist would add a checkbox to their search that anyone can use.
  - employee8000 10y ago
    Not checking that checkbox and admitting you're not willing to hire disabled people would likely expose you to a ton of lawsuits.
    - extra88 10y ago
      No, leaving the checkbox unchecked does not mean you're opposed to hiring people with disabilities. The job posting is still equally available to people with and without disabilities.
mwcampbell 10y ago
I'm curious about why set working hours are a problem. Would you mind going into more detail about that?
- escapologybb 10y ago
  > I'm curious about why set working hours are a problem. Would you mind going into more detail about that? 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.
kyled 10y ago
That's really inspiring that you started your own business! I would love to hear more about what you do. I'm dealing with some personal stuff and feel like I'm in the same boat, having to start my own business to have the flexible hours that I need. Any advice you can pass along would be appreciated.
- escapologybb 10y ago
  I basically do accessibility consulting, public speaking, beta testing amongst other things. I founded a not-for-profit organisation called https://robotsandcake.org/blog/ https://robotsandcake.org/blog/ which has enabled me to fly a drone on stage at the Wired 2014 London conference from my house in the North of the UK, over the Internet using just my head and right index finger, that was cool. I've also worked with a number of universities and some very cool robotics projects, I'm open to anything that lets you play with new technology and can further the cause of bringing severely disabled people further into the world. My partner and I have also just launched https://inventability.net/ 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. :-)

extra88 10y ago

> Also, why separate out disabled people from "normal" people, I'm genuinely curious? Since, as you recognize, many employers are unprepared to even think about how a particular disability is not a barrier to a particular job or about accommodations that would enable someone to perform the job, there could be value to people with disabilities for a site where employers identify themselves as having thought about it. Many, if not most, jobs appear in more than one place so this can be another one. Still, I'm more inclined to prefer a job board for everyone that has options like Craigslist's "ok to highlight this job opening for persons with disabilities" checkbox [0]. [0] https://www.craigslist.org/about/disabilities https://www.craigslist.org/about/disabilities

escapologybb 10y ago
You're right, there could be value in a board like this. 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.
- extra88 10y ago
  Unfortunately, they don't seem to expose it as a search checkbox for the end user. You can't even use the "OK to highlight" text in the search box because while the phrase does appear in the job posting, it's one of the "notices," like "do NOT contact us with unsolicited services or offers," that appears at the bottom and is not treated as part of the body of the posting for search purposes (if you search for "OK to highlight" you may find some matches from people who just copied and pasted the contents of a previous posting into a new one so the phrase is a part of the posting body). The highlighting is "for non-profit, community-based organizations in your area that help employers meet their needs for diversity and outreach by referring pre-screened, qualified candidates with disabilities for your job openings." Those organizations can add value by finding jobs that are a better match for people with particular disabilities, e.g. there are jobs that are vision-dependent that you could do well but would be difficult to impossible for someone who is blind. Still, I wish Craigslist would add a checkbox to their search that anyone can use.
- employee8000 10y ago
  Not checking that checkbox and admitting you're not willing to hire disabled people would likely expose you to a ton of lawsuits.
  - extra88 10y ago
    No, leaving the checkbox unchecked does not mean you're opposed to hiring people with disabilities. The job posting is still equally available to people with and without disabilities.

mwcampbell 10y ago

I'm curious about why set working hours are a problem. Would you mind going into more detail about that?

escapologybb 10y ago
> I'm curious about why set working hours are a problem. Would you mind going into more detail about that? 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.

kyled 10y ago

That's really inspiring that you started your own business! I would love to hear more about what you do. I'm dealing with some personal stuff and feel like I'm in the same boat, having to start my own business to have the flexible hours that I need. Any advice you can pass along would be appreciated.

escapologybb 10y ago
I basically do accessibility consulting, public speaking, beta testing amongst other things. I founded a not-for-profit organisation called https://robotsandcake.org/blog/ https://robotsandcake.org/blog/ which has enabled me to fly a drone on stage at the Wired 2014 London conference from my house in the North of the UK, over the Internet using just my head and right index finger, that was cool. I've also worked with a number of universities and some very cool robotics projects, I'm open to anything that lets you play with new technology and can further the cause of bringing severely disabled people further into the world. My partner and I have also just launched https://inventability.net/ 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. :-)