I tried to count how many internships I have unsuccessfully applied to in the past 18 months, but I had to stop at 217 because the webpage holding my application history would not refresh any further back than that. When I learned my struggles in life were because I was neurodivergent – someone diagnosed with autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia or a related brain condition – I did not think anything of it.
I was already almost 30 years old, and I naively believed the neurodivergent label would not change how people interacted with me. Ever since I started checking “yes” on the question of whether I would like to disclose being a person with a disability on job applications, the rejections, admittedly a tiny fraction compared with those who do not respond at all, have piled up.
Most people, myself included before I joined this community, spend exactly zero seconds of their day thinking about the Americans with Disabilities Act . I knew what it was and assumed that because of the ADA, everything was better for people with disabilities.