Women at Work

Navigating Your Career When You Have a Disability

Oct 23, 2023

Meredith Koch and Nicole Bettè, engineers who use wheelchairs, discuss navigating the workplace with a disability. They share experiences of support and lack thereof, giving lessons for managers. They emphasize the importance of accommodation requests and highlights the need for inclusive workplaces.

50:12

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Episode guests

Nicole Bettè

Meredith Koch

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Quick takeaways

Open conversations and collaboration are essential in creating inclusive work environments for individuals with disabilities.

Managers need to familiarize themselves with accommodation processes and be proactive in problem-solving with employees to effectively support individuals with disabilities.

Deep dives

Disclosure and Understanding

The podcast episode features a discussion on the importance of disclosure and understanding when it comes to disabilities in the workplace. The hosts emphasize the need for open conversations and collaboration to overcome the fear and lack of knowledge surrounding disabilities. They share personal experiences of disclosing disabilities and the varying responses received from colleagues and managers. Awareness and empathy are highlighted as crucial factors in creating inclusive work environments.

The Choice to Disclose Disabilities: Advocacy or Convenience?

01:10

The Importance of Documenting Feedback

00:57

Introduction

2min

Coping with Disabilities in the Workplace

21min

Disclosure of Disabilities in the Workplace

7min

Executive Presence and Neurodivergence

9min

Collaboration and Experimentation: Finding Solutions for Workplace Accommodations

5min

Managing Employee Accommodations

7min

Challenging Assumptions and Preview of Next Episode

2min

About one in 10 working women have a disability, whether it’s apparent or not. And how those women navigate the workplace is different from how the average neurotypical, fully able-bodied woman does, largely because of pervasive ableism. To learn more about that experience, we’re talking with Meredith Koch and Nicole Bettè. They’re engineers who both use wheelchairs and advocate for employees with disabilities.

In this episode, they reflect on their careers and times when they’ve felt supported—and when they haven’t, all with the hope that you’ll be able to better advocate for yourself and your colleagues. In their stories are also lessons for managers about how best to respond to team members’ requests for accommodations, and how to help accommodate employees who might not know what’s available or even what they need.

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