At 23, I was asked what career I wanted to pursue.
“Teacher,” I answered immediately.
I was working toward my associate degree and had begun receiving vocational rehabilitation services through the agency I knew as ACCESS/VESID. I had worked before, but finding a job out in the community felt like an exciting next step.
Teaching was something I could picture myself doing. As children, my cousin and I played school, and we took it seriously.
Then my counselor told me teaching would not be appropriate because of my disability.
He said working with younger children would require me to get out of my wheelchair. He said high school students would not respect me because I used one.
I remember feeling insulted. It was as though someone had placed a brick wall directly in my path.
An assumption became a conclusion
What stays with me is how quickly my wheelchair became the answer to a question about my future.
There were conversations we could have had about qualifications, classroom responsibilities, different teaching settings, training, and possible accommodations.
Instead, I remember being told why it would not work.
In 2019, during an internship, I provided talk therapy to younger children without needing to get out of my chair to engage with them. I also worked with teenagers. The disrespect my counselor predicted was not my experience. A lot of my clients at the time were more concerned about my com
Teaching and therapy are different roles. My internship did not establish whether I could perform every responsibility of a particular teaching position. It did challenge the assumptions that children could not engage with me or respect me because I used a wheelchair.
That distinction matters.
Start with the person’s goals
Career exploration should make room for a person to describe what interests them and why.
“What draws you to teaching?” could have opened a useful conversation. So could “Which age groups or subjects interest you?” or “What experience would help you explore this goal?”
Those questions create opportunities to understand the person before evaluating a pathway.
Realistic guidance can include challenges. It should also include a thoughtful exploration of possibilities.
Examine the actual work
A job title does not explain every task, environment, or way a responsibility can be performed.
Before deciding that disability prevents someone from doing a job, ask:
• What does this specific position require?
• Which responsibilities are essential to the role?
• What qualifications does the person have or need?
• What barriers arise from the environment or usual process?
• What tools, accommodations, or alternative methods could be explored?
The answers require individual consideration. A wheelchair alone cannot provide them.
Include the person in evaluating options
People with disabilities bring knowledge about how they move, communicate, solve problems, and complete tasks.
That knowledge belongs in the conversation.
A professional may understand a career pathway. The person pursuing it understands aspects of their own experience that the professional may never have considered.
Useful guidance brings those perspectives together. It explains concerns clearly, invites questions, and identifies what needs further investigation.
It also allows a person’s skills and goals to develop over time.
Review the assumptions behind your advice
For employers, educators, and vocational professionals, one practical step is to revisit a recommendation you have made.
Was it based on the person’s qualifications and the actual work? Was a barrier explored? Did the individual participate in the discussion? Or did an expectation about disability become a conclusion?
These questions can reveal opportunities to improve both the process and the guidance offered.
My wheelchair should have prompted a conversation about access. Instead, it became someone else’s reason to close a door.
Today, that experience informs my work as founder of N’Clusive Disability Consulting, LLC. Through accessibility consulting and disability inclusion training, I help organizations examine barriers and consider practical improvements.
Before deciding what someone cannot do, make sure you have asked enough questions to understand what may be possible.
Shatika Turner
Founder, N’Clusive Disability Consulting, LLC
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