The "do you have a disability?" application question

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I thought they legally weren't allowed to ask until you were hired.

I have seen this commonly as well, especially in online application systems. Where I currently work, they do ask about disabilities in the optional section where they also ask about your ethnicity, gender, etc. to get statistics on who they are hiring. However, this information is kept totally separate from the application that goes to the hiring department. So, as a manager hiring a new person, I will not get to see their answers to any of those questions. That data is anonymized and used by some data analysis department.

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the law is different in different areas.

in the united states, the American Disability Act mandates "reasonable accommodations". but what is "reasonable" is vague and subjective.

you have to fulfill all the Essential Functions of the job, as listed on the job description.

in the military or as a police officer or firefighter. they might not accommodate many disabilities.

but some jobs do plenty of accommodating.

precious lil "people" have had the nerve to tell me that i was "weird", "strange". behind my back and to my ugly fat stupid head. numerous times.

furthermore, autism also hinders my skills. on the other hand, not to say i had that many skills to hinder in the first place.

I had never once considered it a disability even during the year and a half of intensive research and soul searching i painfully condcucted leading up to me requesting an assessment. It was only in the aftermath and discussions with my specialist, gp and support worker where I realized it might actually be a disabling condition in some respects... still feel awkward about considering that it's a disability but then again I always had trouble accepting a therapist's opinion that mental stuff can be as invasive as physical scarring.

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yeah some precious lil "people" act like all disabilities are physical and visible.

not only that, but at the counseling clinic, i told a counselor that i was disabled. the lil knucklehead had the nerve to correct me "you think you're disabled." and then i told him that autism is a disability. if you do not believe me, look it up.

but in his defense he was a volunteer with 170 hours training.

and then i told someone that was 50 years old. a civil engineer. academically smart, socially adept, and et cetera that i was trans. this was in 2006. the homophobic lil twat had the nerve to tell me that my trans identity was "all in your head".

"all in your head"? what is the location of schizophrenia, bipolar, autism, parkinsons, huntingtons, alzheimers?

just b/c something is in someone's head does not make it less real.

besides, cisgender people have gender identities too. and those gender identities are all in their heads.

and where is homophobia, transphobia, cissexism, racism, sexism, classism, fatophobia? answer: that is not in my head. okay. and those are real. they are in precious lil "people's" heads. and just b/c they are in someone else's head don't make it any less real.