There has been some debate recently on the TCS Facebook groups and it has got a little bit heated at times. The topic of debate is whether or not to let employers know that you have a condition, how it affects you etc. There are some people who have the opinion that they want the job on merit, that their condition has no impact on their ability to do the job and there is no reason to notify employers. Obviously it's hard not to wonder that the different attitudes may be down to people living in different countries, it's hard to know. It is something that I've had to think a fair bit about since I have been job hunting for quite a while now and have now attended five job interviews in the past few months.
Personally I have the belief that it is better to be upfront about things especially when I look noticeably different and people who don't know me find it difficult to understand me. That said it does depend on the person, some people make more of an effort to understand me than others. There are disability acts which are meant to prevent discrimination against disabled people and employers are expected to make reasonable adjustments for people who are disabled. I used to hate the term disabled with it making me think of people who were confined to wheelchairs or blind etc. that said I've come to realise that it is just a term used to describe people who are at a disadvantage. There is no shame in allowing for things to level the playing field.
I do not mention that I have TCS on my CV and I only mention it on job applications if it specifically asks about disabilities. I only make the employer aware of it if I am invited for interview. In some cases they ask you to fill out a monitor form which often has a question about any disabilities. Even in those cases I make sure to include a paragraph in my email accepting the invitation to interview about my TCS. I do not feel it is fair for me or for the interviewers for me to turn up and surprise them as it were. It is better for them to be prepared to accommodate me and not be distracted by the way I look/talk and not know why.
This is what I wrote for my recent job interview, it is slightly edited:
As I have noted in the completed Application for Employment Addendum I have Treacher Collins Syndrome as a result of which I am hearing impaired and have some difficulties with articulation when communicating orally. I would therefore request that this be taken into account during the interview in terms of time allowed. I have been advised by a employment adviser at Action on Hearing Loss that it might be helpful if I could be provided with a written copy of the interview questions on the day. I would be happy to respond to questions in writing, but only should there be any difficulty in the interviewers understanding of my speech.
Unfortunately this doesn't always work out. One interview I had a while back was very awkward as the HR person clearly misunderstood my email and I ended up having to write down all my answers to the questions despite saying I would be happy to answer them orally. When I went back to them by email after the interview to clarify this I was then invited to go all the way back to receive oral feedback, which I declined and thankfully got written feedback instead.
For my most recent interview I was given short notice with the interview only being a few days later. I sent the email accepting the invitation along with the paragraph above both in the employment form and in the email. Unfortunately the interview invitations was being handled by a placement student, who did not pass on the information. I went into the interview and it was clear that they were slightly taken aback and the person leading the panel had to interrupt me to let me know she was struggling to understand me and asked if that was why I had brought the notepad with me. The rest of the interview was a combination of me writing some of my answers down and answering others orally. The members of the interview panel were very friendly and overall I thought the interview went quite well. After the interview I asked my employment adviser to ring them to clarify that I had sent the information about my condition. It turns out that after the interview the person leading the panel actually went and checked if they had received any information and found out that the placement student had been off the day before the interview and hadn't passed the information on. It is unfortunate but they handled it well.
The best interview I have probably had which led to the paragraph I now send as shown above was actually for a job in a university. They gave me the questions they were going to ask me on a sheet of paper. I was allowed to answer the questions orally. I was then asked to write down the answers to the questions in a separate room. These were taken back into the interview panel for them to look at before I was brought back into the room to answer some more questions and to clarify some things.
Obviously everybody is different but I am happy with this method of dealing with interviews I have found that said I will be now asking them to confirm they have received my email before the interview. Unfortunately I know it is true that appearance is often everything that said by making them aware of it beforehand and making sure I can properly get across my skills/experience and more importantly personality then I think I might have a better chance of getting a job than turning up and expecting them to be able to understand me/not allowing me enough time etc.
In terms of my job hunt I'm now playing the waiting game. Waiting to hear back about an apitude test I completed last week, waiting to hear back about my most recent interview, waiting to hear back about other job applications I have sent in and I also have another interview in September. Wish me luck!
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