So, I've recently found myself needing seek additional employment. Job hunting always sucks, but it sucks extra hard when you're disabled.
In my case, I have epilepsy. Even though my condition is managed, I still have seizures a couple of times a year. Because of this, I do not drive. As public transit where I live is total crap, not driving severely limits the geographic area and hours that I can work.
Employers like to talk a lot of shit about how they're “equal opportunity” employers and they are accomodating to their employees with disabilities. Yet in my experience, nothing could be further from the truth.
If you work for a small business, your employer is exempt from providing accomodations. Even if the company is large enough to be beholden to the ADA, that's no guarantee that they will actually bother to accomodate you.
For example, once hired, I have been denied accomodations to work from home or to have my hours adjusted to better match the bus schedules. And that's if I can even get my foot in the door to get a job in the first place.
Often I see job postings that I KNOW I am qualified and able to do, but they either require a car or are not along a bus route. When I reach out directly to the employer and explain that I have the qualifications but not a car, I'm either ghosted by the company or straight-up told that I'm not a good fit for the job. As soon as I self-identify as someone with a disability, I'm out of the running.
Once I am employed, it seems like my requests for reasonable accomodation are weaponized against me. Not to mention the embarrassment of having to share my private medical records with HR departments and have corporate hacks rather than qualified professionals decide what “reasonable accomodation” is. Companies always seem to find a way to weasel out of providing accomodations, and if you know your rights and insist on them, you can be sure that they will use your need for accomodation against you when your annual review comes up or it's time to ask for a raise.
I am so frustrated, and my quickly-dwindling financial situation is only compounding the stress. I just feel exhausted and hopeless, and I haven't even started a job yet. I hate how many loopholes businesses find just to deny people with disabilities opportunities, and how little legal recourse we have when they do.