Why I won’t provide disability advice for free by Carly Findlay

Our labor has value! This is a blog post by Carly Findlay first published on November 10, 2014. Below are a few excerpts from that post.

I was asked to speak at an event to empower disabled students in getting employment. Ironically, there was no budget to pay me as a speaker. This event wasn’t run by a charity but an education institute. (No doubt they’d pay a consultant specialising in an area outside of disability. No doubt the person running the event gets paid. For me, it’d mean an afternoon away from my day job, plus several hours preparing the presentation.)

While this event clashed with another I have on that day, I politely declined and pointed them into my article on why I won’t provide disability advice for free.

This ‘no budget for disability education’ mentality is hardly giving disabled students hope for their own employment prospects. It’s certainly not empowering.

I’m tired of the lack of worth and respect placed on advice based on lived disability experience.

And I hope others asked to speak at such events will decline, on principle. Don’t settle. Sure, do charity work. But don’t settle for exposure or goodwill when a company should pay you for your skills, knowledge and lived experience.

Read the entire post: http://carlyfindlay.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-i-won-provide-disability-advice-for.html

Carly Findlay

From Carly’s About Me page:

I am a Melbourne based writer, tv presenter on No Limits, and speaker. I also work full time. I have a life long serious skin condition called Ichthyosis. I have used my blog (and other media outlets such as Mamamia, The Hoopla, ABC’s Ramp Up and DiVine) to raise awareness about issues of appearance diversity and chronic illness. I write and speak about what it’s like to look visibly different.

Twitter: @carlyfindlay

Blog: http://carlyfindlay.blogspot.com