If every employer responded to an employee’s disability disclosure with complete and utter acceptance and a quick approval of accommodations, the decision to share a diagnosis would be a no-brainer. But, as many people with autism and other disabilities have discovered, employers don’t always respond in the most supportive manner. As such, disclosure, or the decision to share with an employer or prospective employer that one has a disability, is a sensitive process that varies from person to person.
Although sharing disability information may allow an employer to understand an individual and their behaviour better, it may also place that individual in a position of vulnerability and open them up to prejudice in the workplace or prevent them from being hired at all. As a career development professional, it is often difficult to gauge whether disclosure in a job interview or in a cover letter will serve a client with an invisible disability or stand in that individual’s way.
A good rule of thumb is to think about if the individual needs accommodation in an interview in order to get the job. Disclosure usually works best when it solves a problem.
Erin Migdol, Senior Editor of The Mighty (a digital health community created to empower and connect people facing health challenges and disabilities) says, “If you need accommodations in order to apply for the job, you should ask.” I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. And for most career professionals, this is embedded in our practice for supporting people with visible disabilities. However, the line becomes less clear when a client doesn’t require a technical or concrete accommodation in a job interview. Especially if their challenges in securing a job are related to behaviours or idiosyncrasies that will likely be noticed by an interviewer.
In my work as a Career Development Professional for autistic professionals, I am often faced with this situation. Many of the clients I serve are well educated, high academic performers and can easily perform the hard skills of a job; however, they may struggle with understanding the social nuances of a job interview and could possibly come across as “disinterested,” “tangential” or even “strange.” Compounding the problem is the fact that many people with autism or other invisible disabilities have experienced bullying, shame or other trauma around their diagnoses and therefore may be completely opposed to sharing this kind of information unless it is absolutely necessary.
Perhaps in your practice you have experienced something similar. A client who potentially would have a much better chance at a position if they would just tell the human resources team that they have an invisible disability or just let the interviewer know that they process information differently. But regardless of your sage advice, your client is just not comfortable sharing this information. Have you ever wondered what you can do?
One of my best techniques for supporting people in this situation is something I call “disclosing without disclosing” or partial disclosure. Partial disclosure in this context is when an individual discloses the disability impact without disclosing their disability. A useful way to do this is to create a script using relatable language to explain a behaviour that may be inherent to a diagnosis but violate a social norm. For example, many autistic people struggle with modulating eye contact appropriately. This does not require a formal disclosure, but if this subtle difference is not addressed, an interviewer may develop an unconscious bias.
Unconscious bias is the mortal enemy of the success of neurodivergent interviewees. Holly Corbett, a writer for Forbes, says this, “If you have a brain, you have bias. We all have unconscious bias; it doesn’t make us bad people. Our brain wants to make sense of the world and the people around us. Categorizing and labeling people and situations is your brain’s way of speeding up your decision-making process.” In fact, it’s historically tied to our survival.
“Partial disclosure in this context is when an individual discloses the disability impact without disclosing their disability.”
However, this type of unconscious bias is the reason that many autistic jobseekers get excluded from positions that they are qualified for. Socially nuanced behaviours like poorly modulated eye contact or a lack of facial affect can stand in the way of an autistic jobseeker being offered a position even if they have provided the right answers in a job interview. To compound the problem, many interviewers may not even realize that they have a belief that people who don’t make eye contact are untrustworthy; or that people who don’t show expression are arrogant; or that people who don’t smile are unfriendly.
For a client who struggles with eye contact, a script could be: “I’m the type of person who does my best thinking when I’m not making eye contact, so if there are times during this interview that I am not looking at you, please don’t think I’m ignoring you. I promise, I’m listening.” Coaching your client to provide this simple explanation during an interview could easily be the difference between being taken seriously or being written off right away.
For a client who lacks facial affect, their script might be: “I’m the type of person who doesn’t always wear her excitement on her face, but trust me, I am very excited about this position.” A similar script can be adapted to address any challenge that comes up for a social difference that has a visible impact on job interviews.
This technique may seem insignificant, but I have watched it help to shift autistic jobseekers from a frustrated place where they were being rejected from one position after another to an empowered place where they are in control of the narrative and the perception about their social difference. As author Kevin Michael says, “Small shifts in your thinking, and small changes in your energy, can lead to massive alterations of your end result.”
