Logan's Journey

Logan Wong is a research assistant at McMaster University, working under Rebecca Gewurtz, the co-lead of IDEAs Incubator Hub on Employment Support Systems. He is also He is also a  training development project lead at McMaster University funded by CHILD-BRIGHT’s Training and Innovation Fund. In a recent interview, Logan shared several insights from his journey as a worker with a disability.

Early Career Experiences: Management and Coworker Attitudes

Logan has held various volunteer and paid positions within the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Anti-Racism (IDEAA) space. As someone with a background in social work who holds diverse identities—Logan identifies as a trans, bi-racial, Autistic wheelchair user—he has enjoyed the work offered by these roles.

In one of his past roles, Logan worked for a consultancy focused on providing equity-centered worklace culture audits. Reflecting on his time in that role, Logan spoke about how he thoroughly enjoyed the work he was doing and how his managers gave him the time and flexibility to work in the way he needed to, including supporting his requests for accommodations and working with him to develop a sustainable way to participate in his workplace. 

“The leadership team and my manager were really wonderful supporting my accommodations. And just giving me the time and flexibility I needed to work in the way that I needed to.” 

Despite this, many of Logan’s coworkers displayed harmful and discriminatory behaviour towards his workplace accommodations, suggesting that he got ‘special treatment’ from their superiors. This was his first time experiencing disability-related workplace discrimination from coworkers. Previously, his peers had been a supportive force, helping him advocate for himself and advocating on his behalf. Logan worked in this environment for a year and tried to change the mindset of his coworkers, but their ableist attitude created a toxic environment; it led Logan to prematurely resign from the position.

“It opened my eyes, to like, regardless of whether the person that is interviewing you for the position is like understanding and understands disability or disability workplace accommodations, it doesn't mean that everyone in the organization will. And I think that was my first time experiencing something negative in regard to coworkers, because usually it's the opposite. Usually, it's the leadership team and the manager that don't understand my accommodations or what I need.” 

To prevent discriminatory behaviours from co-workers, Logan called for a change to workplace cultures. He suggests that disability-related equity training should be provided to management and include the coworkers of persons with disabilities and other employees too. He also reflected about how, in his case, his managers could have advocated for him in front of his coworkers who were being discriminatory to show them that he was a valued member of the team. Logan would have liked to see clear accountability and action taken by management, including them stating their intolerance for discriminatory behaviours and attitudes in the workplace. 

What works for Logan? Success is in the details. 

Logan highlighted that inclusive practices need to be embedded in all aspects of the employment cycle. 

“I think starting from the interviewing process, I've always found success whenever—even if I don't get the job—someone is specifically asking, like, ‘do you have any accommodations?’ Like, what can I do to support you? Like, I know that that's on me to also ask for those things but I think it's inviting and it shows me as a candidate that they're thinking about being inclusive […]; it is just a way of like inviting me into the space.” 

Logan shared that it is easier to participate in the workplace if the hiring managers are thinking about inclusivity from the get-go and beyond. Volunteer and work experiences that supported Logan’s retention and provided promotional opportunities led to increased comfort and confidence in work. He credits his ability to ask for accommodations to long-term tenures, particularly because of the investments that hiring managers and employers made in him as a worker.

“I've been volunteering for this one hospital for a long time. And then, that did eventually turn into a summer job [when Logan was a student]. Unfortunately, it was only like a summer contract. Which, you know, in itself isn't sustainable, but anyway, because they have known me for so long and because I had that experience, I kind of went up in the ranks. I think that really supported my ability to be successful in the workplace. So I think just in terms of like retention and giving people promotional opportunities to continue working in the same environment, I think can be a way of being inclusive, in terms of giving them like a similar environment to work in. And something that they're familiar with, because I feel like that is what made me the most successful in that job—that I already kind of knew what I was doing. It's like I came in with confidence and I came in with an understanding of the organization from the beginning so there wasn't any of that awkward orientation. My time there, whether it was as a volunteer or as an employee, it was very conducive to building the confidence that I needed to move on to other jobs and being able to explain what I needed out of accommodations in the workplace.”

Importantly, Logan has credited the ability to work from home as a key accommodation for his success.

“Whenever I'm able to work from home. That's been really accessible for me. […] You know, a lot of these accommodations don't cost money and they're not complicated, so it should be easy.”

Logan views workplace culture and the systems in which workplaces exists as important aspects of inclusivity and accessibility. Certain types of workplaces, such as large organizations with established EDIA policies and practices may be better equipped to accommodate workers with disabilities. Logan recommends that employers be honest about the resources they have for accessibility and to be as prepared as they can be when hiring workers with disabilities. He urged employers to look at their own inherent biases and attitudes before taking a serious look at workplace culture and how everyone involved views accessibility. 

Logan concluded by expressing gratitude that he has advanced to a place in his employment journey where he feels long-term potential exists. 

“I would just say that I'm really enjoying my current position, actually. And I think it’s been a really good, really positive experience. And I think it’s the first time that [I’ve] had a truly, like, potentially long-term positive experience. And that's because of the previous job that I had before this and you know, you know, I'm just very thankful for that opportunity.”