Hello, I am Tania and I’m a Technology Specialist at Microsoft.
I was asked to do a bit of a blurb about me, frankly I am a rather standard human, with a familiar theme: I was born, gained a permanent disability as an adult, needed to keep working to pay the bills because I haven’t won lotto yet, and that’s where I am right now.
My disability is lupus, which has resulted in an outward appearance of having a red face all the time, vision impairment, and narcolepsy (so I can’t have a driver’s license) and a walking stick for stability.
The disability community is the most accepting of all the groups on earth. It is a group who will accept anyone to join. You can be born into, join anytime throughout your life, leave, and rejoin without any discrimination.
It is also the most ‘assumed for’ group on Earth.
‘Don’t pre-define someone by their disability and don’t assume you can anticipate their needs – ask.’
For example, I love to travel for work. Why? Well, I used to be able to drive, but I can’t anymore – but travelling for work, be it interstate or overseas means I can feel as close to ‘before lupus’ and have a sense of normality as I’d be flying/catching taxis like anyone else. However, assuming I can’t travel due to a walking stick – well, you are denying me a genuinely joyful experience. Other people might not like to travel. But I do.
Generally, people don’t know I have a disability as I work from home (even before Covid), sometimes I look a bit red on video conferences, which people just attribute to bad lighting, camera.
On particularly bad lupus flare days when my face is very red, I max out the soft-focus feature with Teams, because soft focus me is fabulous on those days.
You never know when you might join the community, or not.
My only ask of you is, don’t pre-define someone by their disability and don’t assume you can anticipate their needs – ask.
For more information on ensuring your workplace is inclusive, check out the Accessibility and Inclusivity Toolkit. Within it, you can find the resources, tools, and training needed to help you meet accessibility guidelines and ensure that your products and services are accessible to everyone, regardless of abilities.