People with disabilities

Name the fear Steady

The fear is being reduced: to a diagnosis, to a cost, to the complicated candidate. The frame the law actually uses is the one that serves you: can you perform the essential functions of the job, with or without a reasonable accommodation. Your answer is yes, or you would not be applying. Everything else, the diagnosis, the history, the chart, is medical information the interview is not entitled to and does not need.

Function, never diagnosis. The need, never the chart.
An accommodation is a work tool, the same category as a chair that fits.
How they handle your ask is data about them. You are also interviewing.

Build your answer Your ask, in your control

Whether, when, and how to disclose: a decision tree you control at every branch
The logistics frame for interview accommodations: telling organizers what the meeting needs
The one-sentence accommodation ask: the tool, what it does for your work, no diagnosis in it
After the offer is your strongest moment: the written request that starts the interactive process

Work these out loud or on paper. Nothing you write here goes anywhere: this site stores no practice content, by design.

Run the room Practice scenarios

Before the interview Do I say anything? Telling them is a tool, not a duty. Here is how to decide when it works for you. After the offer Making the ask You got the offer. Now set yourself up to keep the job on your terms. Job fair Ninety seconds at the table A job fair conversation is not a small interview. It is its own thing, and it is winnable. Final interview The money question Gratitude is not a wage rate. Know your number before they ask. After the interview After the no A no is data with bad manners. Here is how to collect it and keep moving.

Handle the day The room

Confirm accessibility logistics when you confirm the time, in the same breath, as logistics.
If the interview format itself blocks your best performance, ask for the adjusted format. That request is protected.
Scripts survive nerves. Your disclosure sentence and your ask sentence, written and practiced, travel with you.
Disability employment services can coach, place, and sometimes fund accommodations. They work for you, use them.

Land it well The offer, and after

Offer in hand, request in writing, specific and practical. Withdrawing an offer over an accommodation request is unlawful.
Most accommodations cost employers little or nothing, and knowing that number steadies your ask.
The interactive process has a name so that it happens. You start it by asking, in writing, without apology.
Know your number. Your work is worth market rate, full stop.

Find the humans Your people

This tool points to people, never replaces them. These are yours, free:

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