«Representation is powerful – but inclusion is action».
– Stella Young
Scroll through social media for no more than five minutes, and you’ll see it: brands posting proud photos of employees with disabilities, campaigns celebrating «accessible workplaces» – or even #Inclusion trending in stories and feeds.
It feels hopeful… Like a promise.
But sometimes promises fall flat.
Just take a look at the job adverts you’ve applied for. Or the interviews you’ve attended. And the rejections you’ve gotten from it.
I do, and cant help but sit and wonder how many of those inclusion posts were just that – posts?
The Trend of Inclusion
From 2024 and onward,majour industries and high-profile companies have continued to declare that they are embracing disability inclusion.
The data however, tells a different story.
According to the OECD report Disability, Work and Inclusion (2022), people with disabilities in many countries remain about 40% less likely to be employed than those without (OECD).
Furthermore, in the Nordic Region, a deep-dive intoo the matter found the disability employment gap (DEG) shrank only a fifth between 2014 and 2023 – and that, despite having higher education, people with disabilities still faced majour barriers while looking for employment (pub.norden.org).
So yes – inclusion is being talked about. But accessibility; real adaption, actual hiring of disabled people? That’s still lagging behind.
The Gap Between Trend and Reality
Let’s pull apart why brand-inclusion and actual employment diverge so much:
- Regardless of fields, regardless og companies – and regardless of whether its (tecnically) legal or not, hiring is still heavily biased. Studies in Norway found that even qualified candidates with disclosed disabilities recieve fewer callbacks than non-disabled peers.(pub.norden.org).
- Many organizations treat accomodation as cost, not as an investment for further progress – as symbolic inclusions is easier than structural change. (sjdr.se)
- Inclusion campaigns often focus on public images (representation) – rather than action (accessibility). A ramp might be built, but the role remains inaccesible for anyone needing to use it.
- A 2017 statistics article from Norway found the employment rate among disabled people aged 15 – 66, was only 43% – compared to 73% for the whole population (SSB).
Then a recent 2023 update from Statistisk Sentralbyrå shows the employment rate of people with disabilities to be 52%, – while it is about 81% for the rest of the population (Statistikmyndigheten SCB). - Lastly, a study on employer attitudes in Norway, containing 951 Norwegian employers, and 8404 job seeker profiles, found that there’s a significatn hiring gap for candidates with disabilities – and that this gap varies substantially by industry. (sjdr.se).
All in all, the problem is pretty simple: when inclusion is a trend – we, as in disabled people, risk being celebrated tokens; visible for the photo, but invisible for the payroll.
My Story: When Accessibility Fails the Trend
While I have already mentioned this many times before, I wanted to reiterate it for the purpose of this post.
For two years I sent in over 400 job applications with no luck.
Despite a resume filled with various experience, despite my education and despite my ambition, I’ve repeatedly hit walls with no explanaition.
Jobs that said «flexible work-time» that actually meant «always be on». Interviews that praised my qualifications – with words like «With that resumé we have to get you intoo work!» – only to shut down right in my face.
Or several offers of volunteer work, but no paid employment…
Because I can’t pretend I don’t have epilepsy. I mean, spend more than an hour minutes with me, and you’ll come to find out one way or another…
And, legal or not – many workplaces still operate as if disability is a «nice to have» extra, not central to how work is organized.
And this infuritates me deeply. Not because of my story alone – but because I know people with several disabilities who are practically the heart and soul of their workplace. Who – when sick or on vacation, leaves the whole space in an uproar. And yet they’re supposedly ‘unessesary?» – Give me a break!
However, during this time of mindless searching and applying, I realised something…
While the trend might shine lights on inclusion, the system itself doesn’t always move. Because, it’s foundations aren’t built for people like me.
So, Instead of feeling sad or angry about it, I decided to shift instead,
Instead of waiting for the system to change, I began building my own. I created my first book – a productivity planner designed for me – and for all others with disabled-rhytms. I launched this blog, which is a nice way for me to feel a sense of purpose in my daily-life, even if no one ends up reading it.
Because, when the world won’t hire you, sometimes you have no choice but to build your own path, and just hope it leads somewhere…
Reframing the Narrative
So, here’s the good news, from me to you; you don’t have to wait for the trend to meet you.
You can define your own form of inclusion.
Instead of measuring yourself by the world’s blueprint of «full-time work»,
you measure your own blueprint of what you can do, what you value, and how you want to live. Sure, you may not be able to change your disabilities. If that’s a fact, the better way is to find a way to live with it, to the best of your ability. You buid tools for yourself – (like I build my planner) – through forms of creative work (or something else) – that fits you.
And you do this on your own time!
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A Task for You
Choose one action this week:
- Send one message to a company asking how they include disabled team members (not just if they do) – ask real questiuons.
- OR, launch one project for yourself – a blog post, a creative piece, a micro service – and label it: «I made this for me, because I won’t wait for someone else to do it».
Record how it feels. What changes? What stays the same?
Let it be your measure of inclusion.
– Silje