Organizational Blindness: Why People with Disabilities Do Not ‘Fit’

This chapter explores the construction of organizational culture and the impact of relevant variables on the experiences of people with disabilities in terms of the degrees of organizational visibility or invisibility they encounter. Consideration is given to the contextualization of the sociocultural and psychological factors that surround gender and disability, as well as the employment context and experiences for disabled women and men during recruitment, maintaining employment, promotions, leaving and changes to career, and alternative types of employment. It looks at the impact of a number of factors on how visible or invisible women with disabilities are in the workplace, including disablism, disclosure, and embodiment.