February 10, 2026
CREATE periodically hosts discussion panels for Ph.D. students on navigating the job market while disabled. We share our panelists’ strategies, tips, best-case scenarios, and stories.
Panelists are Ph.D. graduates with disabilities who have successfully found employment in academic, non-profit, and industry job markets. Together, participants and panelists have a variety of visible and invisible disabilities – people who are blind/low vision, are deaf/hard of hearing, and who have chronic illnesses and various forms of neurodiversity. Some have chosen to disclose their disabilities; some have not.
The reality is that navigating the job market with a disability requires forethought, strategy, preparation, and communication. When entering the stressful environments of interviews, on-site visits, and negotiation, candidates should consider what they need to be successful at each stage.
Disclosing disabilities | Interview accommodations | Networking and information interviews
On-site visits | Negotiating offers and work accommodations
Have a tip to share for navigating the job market with disabilities? Email us at create-contact@uw.edu.
Deciding when and if to disclose your disability
Acknowledging that people with visible disabilities and those who will request accommodations may not have the choice to disclose or not, we asked panelists about when and how they chose to discuss their disabilities.
“I have a visible disability that I only disclose if it is an advantage, such as in terms of lived experience. My work has always been disability-related and usually that lived experience is an asset, in which case I would write about it in my cover letters.
“And while I don’t typically include things like that I have a JAWS screenreader or that I’m a native braille user on my CV, if you are an assistive technology instructor, absolutely emphasize fluency in different screen readers.
On the other hand, I might not disclose that I’m blind if it isn’t relevant to the work, just like I wouldn’t disclose that I’m Jewish unless it’s relevant to the organization.”
“My preference is to let my work speak for my abilities. In cases where I did not disclose a disability until after an offer was made, people were very understanding of that decision.
“I am hard of hearing and use real-time captioning – a stenographer sitting right next to me – to interact with people. So my disability is obvious and I have needed to disclose my disability to get the necessary accommodations for interviews and meetings.”
“I am hard of hearing and use real-time captioning – a stenographer sitting right next to me – to interact with people. So my disability is obvious and I have needed to disclose my disability to get the necessary accommodations for interviews and meetings.”
“Being blind, I have always been clear about what I need to participate and succeed in the interview. I think of it as “managing up” the interview process. I provide a bulleted list to the interview coordinator with what I need. Early disclosure gives them time to follow up with questions and accommodations.”
Much of my work, accolades, and publications state my lived experiences outright and make my disability fairly obvious. I list them accurately and completely on my CV. For shorter resumes (for industry), I list the most prestigious, though I might use acronyms in place of longer, more explicit text.
But accuracy is key. As a person who now reviews other people’s resumes, I can tell you vague or false representation is a really good way to not get your materials looked at.
“I chose not to disclose my (invisible) disability at a university where I was concerned that my being disabled might adversely affect the tenure review process, whether due to implicit bias or other factors. I waited six years, until after I received tenure, to disclose my chronic illness.”
“Being blind, I have always been clear about what I need to participate and succeed in the interview. I think of it as “managing up” the interview process. I provide a bulleted list to the interview coordinator with what I need. Early disclosure gives them time to follow up with questions and accommodations.”
Requesting accommodations for an interview
The interview process can be opaque. You might be unsure of what the situation or the environment looks like and what your access needs will be in the moment. Be prepared to address access breakdowns during the job interview process.
If you feel comfortable that it’s a safe place where you’re not going to experience ableism, go ahead and state directly what you need to perform your best. And do read those long, informational emails that recruiters send. They might include a link for requesting accommodations!
Before virtual meetings:
- The platform used for virtual meetings so I can study the keyboard shortcuts
- Assurance that visuals are compatible with my screen reader
For on-site meetings:
- An escort when there are multiple meetings and location changes
- A yoga mat and a place to rest between meetings
- Extra time to decompress after travel or between meetings
Despite careful planning, access breakdowns can happen during an interview. Take a breath and remember that asking for what you need is better than answering the wrong question.
“Real-time captioning, if multiple people are talking at once, can really fail badly. Captions can appear out of order and the conversation thread may not make sense. I have had to ask members of a group conversation to speak one at a time and to speak slowly so that the captions were useful. At least once I have found myself thinking, “what kind of automation would allow me to participate in the moment?” rather than thinking about the conversation.”
Networking and information interviews
From research conducted at the American Federation of the Blind we do know that, from the perspective of the applicant, discrimination is still alive and well. Sometimes it’s illegal questions being asked in interviews or unnecessary concerns about how the person will use the bathroom, how much accommodations will cost, etc. But research also shows that networking significantly changes the character of the jobs that you’re able to apply for, and the jobs that you’re able to get.
“Supplement networking with informational interviews. People really don’t mind taking a half hour to talk to you, particularly if you specify questions related to their work or their situation. For example, if someone makes a vague request to ‘chat about your research,’ I may or may not be able to accept the meeting, depending on my schedule. But if someone tells me, ‘I have an interview for this role and I have questions about accommodations,’ I’d be more determined to make the time.
“Largely, all the jobs that I’ve gotten came from knowing somebody who worked at the organization, or knowing somebody who knew somebody who worked at the organization. Of course, in those cases, people already knew I was blind. Having references vouch for your capabilities is a really important antidote to being discriminated against.”
“One thing I learned through the process is that people are really willing to help. Old mentors, like my undergrad advisor who I thought would never respond to a quick question, were very keen on responding. And even if you don’t have a close contact or relationship with a lot of people, you’ll be surprised at how many people are willing to step in and help you. Don’t be afraid to ask.”
“Some forms of networking are not accessible to everybody, and certainly I’m not the best networker myself, so I would emphasize that there are different ways to network: there in-person networking, and then there’s also a lot of opportunities for virtual networking. So network in the way that is most accessible for you, and that allows you to put your best self forward.”
The campus visit: Your review of the culture, suitability
When you are interviewing for your next career move, it’s important to remember – and your advisors, everybody will remind you – that at the on-site visit, you are really assessing if the job, the campus, the institution are a good fit. Is this something you want to uproot your whole life for? The accessibility accommodations and disability culture are important parts of your life, and it is a good idea to thoroughly assess that part of the institution as well.
Consider the importance of evaluating a potential workplace for its culture as well as all the obvious things like title and salary.
| When you are first navigating the job market, you’re thinking about what is the least amount of accommodation that I would need to be successful in the interview process. But for my second job search, I thought more about how to set myself up for success for the next five years. The conversation about disability was very different when it came to advocating for real-time caption support, more time for teaching my classes. |
| For the most part, I think people are pretty comfortable adjusting to the request because just the job interview is actually a two-target thing: they’re evaluating you, and you are evaluating them. |
| One of my first jobs was in a harsh, competitive, unfriendly academic environment. I made sure my next move was to a campus and department that shared my values of support and community. The improvement to my morale and my performance was enormous. |
Negotiating offers and accommodations
Lean on your network of mentors and advisors as you enter the new territory of receiving job offers and negotiating terms, startup packages, and accommodations. It’s a complicated process.
| I absolutely believe that your advisor and supervisors are totally responsible for helping you get a job. I had several mentors advising me on what we called my “negotiation thread.” If I posted a question, somebody could usually respond within a few hours. |
| When you know you need to accommodate a disability or a family situation, consider using the leverage of multiple interested parties. Apply to many different jobs and roles, even if you are fairly certain a job, a location, or a culture wouldn’t work for you. Try to keep the disability accommodation requests completely relevant to the interviews only. Don’t mention your concerns about accessibility or livability and ignore the guilt about ‘playing the field.’ When you start to get interviews, and then you get more interviews, and better yet, you have multiple offers, you have so much power. Use the multiple offers as leverage when it’s time to disclose your disability and negotiate accommodations. |
| Another consideration is something I never tested out: writing accessibility accommodations into your offer letter, including holding the organization accountable to step in if the centralized accommodation processes fail. Weigh that against the knowledge that the person negotiating the offer may also be submitting your tenure or promotion case. |
Acknowledgements
Dhruv (DJ) Jain, Ph.D. 2022 UW Computer Science and Engineering. Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, exploring how hearing can become an editable, programmable interface and designing human-centered AI systems that empower people to shape how they perceive and interact with sound.
Cynthia Bennett, Ph.D. 2020 UW Human Centered Design & Engineering. Google Staff Research Scientist conducting qualitative and critical research focused on responsible AI, human-computer interaction, disability, and accessibility.
Arielle Silverman, Ph.D. 2014 Social Psychology, University of Colorado in Boulder; 2016 postdoctoral fellowship, UW School of Medicine. Director of Research at American Foundation for the Blind, focused on disability identity, employment issues, impacts of emerging technologies on people with disabilities, methods of ableism reduction, and neurodiversity.
Olivia P. Banner, Ph.D. 2010, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of English. CREATE Director of Strategy and Operations and author of Crip Screens: Countering Psychiatric Media Technologies (Duke University Press) that draws on unknown cultural texts from the 1960s and 1970s to illustrate how women and communities of color challenged psychiatry and psychiatry’s use of media and technologies.
Jonathan Lazar, Ph.D. Information Systems, University of Maryland Graduate School Baltimore; Master of Laws, University of Pennsylvania Law School. Professor in the College of Information at the University of Maryland, focused on ICT accessibility for people with disabilities, user-centered design methods, assistive technologies, and law and public policy related to accessibility and HCI.
Heather Evans, Ph.D. 2016, UW Sociology. Assistant Professor in UW Rehabilitation Medicine; Director of the Disability Studies Program; Director of Research at the Northwest ADA Center.
Shannon Tyman, Ph.D. 2023, UW College of Built Environments. Lecturer in UW Department of Urban Design & Planning; fellow in the UW Bothell Program for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy. Her research examines questions of social justice in urban food systems, and she has contributed food system research to universities and government institutions.
Venkatesh Potluri, Ph.D. 2024, UW Computer Science & Engineering. Assistant Professor at the School of Information, University of Michigan, focused on accessibility barriers experienced by blind or visually impaired (BVI) developers working in user interface design, data science, and physical computing.