When you apply for special accommodations, they can’t wait to reject your application for special accommodations

The reason is because they hate veterans. OK, maybe that’s too strong. Although I don’t want to use the word ‘strong’ here, because this is about weakness. It’s not my weakness, being disabled, but their weakness as not caring about the disabled. The irony is that the company works with the disabled, so this is a company that gets $$$ $$$$$$$$ by working with the disabled, hired me not knowing I’m disabled, find out I’m disabled, and then disapprove my request for special accommodations. The request is to move a chair. The reason why this is a problem is because the company does not want my chair moved. They tell me that the chair was placed there by operations and operations does not want the chair moved. I ask who operations is. They don’t know. I imagine ‘operations.’ The internet says that the grossest type of operation is removal of infected tissue or infected organs, like a craniectomy, a removal of the skull, or part of the skull. I imagine the removal of brain. They don’t have a brain. They insist that the chair is not move. Insist. I go to rehabilitative services, who assist the disabled. They say they’ll help. Months go by. They don’t help. I’m told the company could care less about ‘rehabilitative services,’ that they’re not going to give me special accommodations, because I’m not really an employee. Not really? How can I not really be an employee if I’m an employee? They say I’m a ‘contractor.’ That I have a contract. And because I have a contract, they don’t have to help the disabled. They tell me not to move the chair. Others in other offices move their chairs. I tell them this. They tell me not to move my chair. But I tell them that other offices have chairs that have been moved. They tell me not to move my chair. I try to tell them again that they have others in other offices that have moved other chairs. They Other me. They offer me nothing. They give me less hours. They punish me for wanting to move the chair. The hatred of the disabled is the hatred of the disabled. They hate the disabled. Or they hate to hate the disabled, but they feel they have to hate the disabled. I ask an employee there why. They say the worry is if they have to help one disabled person, then they’ll have to help all the disabled people. I say, yes, exactly. She’s not an employee there, they tell me. She is a contractor. None of us are employees. She doesn’t have a chair. She works remote. She can move her chair as much as she wants, because she’s remote. If they give you an office, you are not allowed to move your chair. Or I’m not. It doesn’t matter if you’re disabled, because it doesn’t matter if you’re disabled. I’m disabled. I’m not able to move the chair. I could, but I’m not able to. Goddamn chairs. I cut myself. It helps to deal with the harsh stupidity of corporate hungry ghosts. I go to a grocery store. I ask the clerk if he’s allowed to sit. He’s standing. No chair. He tells me that, no, he’s not allowed to sit. It’s a rule, he says.

 

Ron Riekki has been awarded a Michigan Notable Book, The Best Small Fictions, Shenandoah Fiction Prize, IPPY Award, Red Rock Film Fest Award, Best of the Net finalist, Très Court International Film Festival Audience Award and Grand Prix, Dracula Film Festival Vladutz Trophy, Rhysling Anthology inclusion, and 2022 Pushcart Prize. Riekki co-edited The Many Lives of The Purge, which is a nominee for The Eiffel Award: The Year’s Best Books on Film. Right now, Riekki’s listening to “Endnotes | David Foster Wallace | BBC Documentary.”