Why Disabled and Chronically Ill People Might Be Our Best Employees

From my keynote at DisAbility Confidence Day 2023 in Vienna, for MyAbility. Seven years in bed, and what I learned about work.

I gave this talk at DisAbility Confidence Day in Vienna in 2023, for MyAbility. This is the written version.

I started with a question. Do I look disabled?

Nobody said yes. By Israeli law I am 100% disabled. It doesn't look like that. It sure feels like that.

My body reacted so severely that I spent seven years in bed. I could not shower by myself. I could not go to the toilet by myself. I had no diagnosis, so I got the ugly side of healthcare and social services. No diagnosis means more gaslighting, and more being ignored. Doctors told my parents I would never walk or talk again.

One night my brother's book was next to my bed. It was Viktor Frankl, *Man's Search for Meaning*. When someone tells you there is no hope, you take it seriously. I read it, and in the morning I started to study medicine from my bed. Two years later I had a diagnosis, POTS. It took six more months to convince a doctor. Nobody in Israel knew how to treat me, so I built my own rehabilitation program. I taught myself to walk and talk again at 27.

That is the background. This is what I learned, and why I think people with disabilities and chronic illness may be your next best employees.

**We persevere, and we have endurance.** Sitting in front of the committees that decide whether you count as disabled teaches you a lot about yourself.

**We know bureaucracy.** Healthcare and social services are a huge ship. Now when something looks complicated to my colleagues, it is a piece of cake for me.

**We adapt.** You manage your energy and your resources differently from other people.

**We plan.** There is a theory called the spoon theory. Spoons are units of energy. Someone without a chronic illness has a hundred a day. I start with ten. A shower costs me four or five. Before a talk I plan how I get out of the chair and how I get on the stage, because that might cost a spoon I can't afford. That is project management. Time, resources, even actual budget.

**We have a clear vision.** Nothing is taken for granted in my life, so I always need a vision. People ask how I started startups and NGOs. For me it is just executing an idea.

**We are experts.** I learned everything about my illness. Now organisations pay me for my opinion on drug development and policy.

My illness is a dynamic disability. I can wake up tomorrow and not leave bed. This year I spent four months completely in bed. Some months I need a cane. There is no sign that tells other people. Employers ignore it because it is hard to quantify. A woman with endometriosis may need a few more days off every month, but there is no label for it, so how do we treat it? That has to change.

Here is what I would like organisations to try. Patients now take roles inside healthcare, like Patient in Residence. I would like to see expert residents in inclusion, coming for a few months to help an organisation understand the real needs.

I speak about ten times a month, and this was one of the only times I had an interpreter, and had to describe myself in a barrier-free way. We are far behind where we need to be. Organisations still look at disabled people as a burden instead of a treasure.

I looked at my body and my illness like a product. I was my own startup, and I wanted an exit. I am in my eighth project now, and I think I am more capable of doing any job that suits my needs than I was before I got ill.

Hire disabled people. Not because it is the right thing to do. Because they are better at the actual work.

See the keynote and how to book it.