The Canadian Association of Professionals with Disabilities

The Ugly Duckling

I wanted to get a new start in life and increase my employability, so I entered a co-op based graduate program to get that fresh start. Up until then, I had a history of short-term positions and long-term unemployment. I also wanted to get beyond only working in the disability non-pro
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Insensitive

Teamwork was a big part of my masters degree program. Learners were expected to find a team that would accept them as members. As a result, people were included based upon similarities and excluded for differences. This may explain why the handful of people with disabilities that ente
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A Calling

An employer was simply bubbling over in enthusiasm by how many persons who used wheelchairs wanted to work in her call centre office. She told me that she felt it was something THEY ALL had a predilection and career desire for and she was going to start a hiring campaign to get more p
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The Song That Never Ends

People can say and do the most insulting things to professionals with disabilities. The following is only a taste of what I have personally experienced. In an employment interview I was asked by a manager, “Will you die?” Once an employment equity officer told me over the
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The Halo Effect

Most of my employment interviewers lately have told me that they were related to people or had friends who had disabilities when they found out earlier that I was disabled (or took a very good guess that I was by reading in between the lines of my application beforehand). They also to
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