Disability is a superpower!

December 3rd is the International Day of Persons with Disability, and I would like to change the narrative:

DISABILITY IS A SUPERPOWER – one that is very relevant to success in personal and professional life.

Dear employer, you aren’t doing anyone a favor by employing people with disability and removing the unnecessary barriers for them to succeed – not to anyone, but to yourself.

I have been around for a while – raised 4 kids, and have been leading teams at Google and other companies for 25 years now. The skills I needed throughout this period kept changing over time, and acquiring new skills became ever easier and faster.

In contrast, it was three other traits that proved to be most critical for success, and which required constant improvement as challenges and responsibilities grew:

resilience, ability to adapt, and self driven motivation.

People with disabilities are top pro athletes in developing and mastering these – resilience, ability to adapt, and motivation. We practice, live and breathe these 24/7 – every day, all day.

Moreover, in order to cope in a world where “normal” is confused with “better”, just because the world is designed and optimized for “normal” – we must develop and perfect many other skills as well, to go through the barriers you put in front of us, and be successful according to our true ability.

The first step in solving a problem is understanding it, admitting it, and making it a topic. That’s what worked~ for gender and race discrimination, and that’s what needs to happen for disabilities.

So please educate yourself, and spread the word:

Normal isn’t a synonym of better, just an artefact of discrimination, and the real truth is that DISABILITY IS A SUPERPOWER!!!