You Can Count on Disability at Work
A podcast about learning to trust coworkers who think & talk & act differently than you
Last year, a friend of mine dove into the shallow end of a swimming pool and very nearly drowned. Today, he navigates his job in a wheelchair and relies on a coworker to chauffeur him from job site to job site.
That story invites reflection on the turns that life takes. But is that all the story invites?
Kevin Timpe doesn’t think so. This heavy-coffee-drinkin’ Calvin University philosophy professor makes disability central to his research and advocacy, and he believes disability is not so much an occasion for sporadic reflection as it is an integral element of the human condition.
Talking with Professor Timpe about able-ism in the workplace—that is, the belief that certain ways of being a body are normal and superior—pressed me to see realities that matter but that are hard to talk about.
Disability is a part of every workplace. You can count on its presence in your organization.
But you can count on disability in another way, too. You can rely on the gifts that different ways of being-a-body bring to your workplace.
Here’s my advice about this podcast’s deep dive into workplace disability: Don’t listen to rejuvenate your compassion. Don’t press “play” to pay out sympathy for the unfortunates on the edge of your life.
But do listen if you want to attend better to the latent capital that’s circulating right next to you, all around you, thanks to the differently abled people in your workplace.
-craig