Am I Disabled?
This might be controversial but here goes...<p>On the other side of the coin I had an unforgettable interview experience for a role that really questioned my pro-viewpoint on disability in the workplace.  Prior to this interview I was a firm believer that anybody should do the job they want and overcome obstacles.  Afterwards, ths changed.<p>Prior to the interview, the recruiter phoned me and said &quot;Just a heads up, you might have a little difficulty in speaking with the CTO due to his disability, but I&#x27;m sure you&#x27;ll be OK&quot;.   A slightly odd conversation but I appreciated the information ahead of time.<p>Upon arriving at the conference room the lead engineer (Alice) said &quot;Bob [CTO] works remote and a word of warning - you might have a little difficulty in understanding what he says, but don&#x27;t worry I can help if you get stuck&quot;.  That&#x27;s now two people who have warned me.<p>Bob had a degenerative illness which made his speech stutter and slur heavily....  to the point I could not understand _anything_ he said.  Nothing.  It was like trying to understand someone who&#x27;s clearly drunk more than they should, to the point of nearly blacking out (I&#x27;m serious here).<p>When he joined the company 10 years prior he was perfectly fit and healthy, and within 5 years became CTO of the startup.  He was still healthy at this point.  All good.<p>Bob developed illness which impaired his speech so much _every question_ he asked me had to &quot;repeated&quot; by Alice sitting at the table beside me.  Every word that came out of Bob&#x27;s mouth had to be &quot;repeated&quot;.<p>It was impossible to verbally communicate with Bob wihtout Alice present to translate.  It took 2 very long minutes to ask &quot;how are you today?&quot; at the interview start.   120 seconds.   How was anybody going to effectively communicate with this person on a daily basis or have technical verbal discussions!?  If they said communication would be written text only with the CTO I doubt I would have accepted the interview.<p>To me engineering is all about communication.  You communicate ideas in varying degrees of technical depth to cater for your audience, who in turn communicate their ideas to other parties - be it board level, juniors, external parties or even the accounting department.  Communication was totally broken here.<p>What was most concerning was Bob didn&#x27;t seem feel his disability was serious enough to step down from such a role (or management didn&#x27;t want to suggest he step down... maybe through fear of law suit?).  His inability to verbally communicate anything would have a bit impact on their product development.<p>The company did ask me to return for a second&#x2F;final interview (they phoned the recruiter within minutes of me leaving the building..) but I politely declined.  It would have been impossible to work with Bob.