I get via email the IncludeNYC newsletters about disability advocacy topics. One article that I read a woman with a disability wrote about disclosure. Specifically about telling a hiring manager in a job interview that you have a disability.

The writer thought that a person should disclose to the HR or other person interviewing them. The woman’s contention was that nothing in society will change if we can’t be and aren’t upfront about our medical condition.

In Working Assets the target market readers were peers with mental illnesses. I gave careful measured consideration to disclosure on the job in the Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation chapter.

I still think it’s dicey to tell an interviewer that you have bipolar or schizophrenia. Stereotypes exist of individuals like us. It’s game over if you respond to the hiring manager’s questions using neologisms or talking in a word salad.

The third week in October is Invisible Disabilities Week. Some people living with schizophrenia appear off. Other you can’t detect we have a broken brain.

My story is an open secret with coworkers who are friends. It would likely be a different story if I were muttering to the voices in my head in the stacks of books at the library.

Disclosure is supposed to be a win-win for individuals with disabilities. Only the fact is apart from mental illnesses a significant number of bosses and coworkers question the work ethic and abilities of a person who has any kind of disability (per a different IncludeNYC article).

Read again in this blog my entry on the 2018 Accenture study. It proved with statistics that companies that employed people with disabilities saw their sales and net income skyrocket.

I don’t live in hiding. It’s your choice if you disclose and it’s your choice who you disclose to and when and how and what you say.

I’ll end here by quoting a woman interviewed in the book True Style is What’s Underneath:
The Self-Acceptance Revolution. In reviewing this guide I urge you to buy the book. Just the beautiful rainbow of individuals in the photos should prove the point that whoever you are and however you look and whatever your orientation to life there should be a job out there for you.

Per Cathy Cooper Artist and Maker of Stuff in Los Angeles:

“I feel the most beautiful when I can see the truth–the essence of what I am–in the art that I’ve made.”

Making art and expressing ourselves–even if we’re not Artists–is likely scary. Risking becoming vulnerable by being open and honest is not easy.

Our illnesses do not define us. They are not our identity. Yet they will always be a part of the package we give to others. It should be liberating to tell the truth. My belief–and it showed up decades ago with AIDS patient Advocates–is that secrecy breeds shame.

Breaking free of the internalized stigma about having a mental illness is when our recovery can take off. That’s when the diagnosis no longer has power over us.

There’s something to be said about being loud and proud about having a disability.

Only when it comes to disclosure of bipolar or schizophrenia on a job interview I say: Not so fast.

The choice is yours. I’d like to hear from followers your experience doing this.