Why being disabled makes us great at admin roles

Disabled people do a lot of admin just to stay alive. By managing appointments and prescriptions, journey planning, dealing with the DWP, and coordinating multiple agencies that, by rights, should be talking to one another, disabled people are often secretaries to their diagnoses. They meticulously forecast and manage their health needs to allow them to participate in the daily business of existing in the world.

We're expert administrators not just because we've got an awful lot of experience but also because we're motivated to be. Few of us want to dedicate a significant amount of time to managing our conditions, so we constantly refine our approach for efficiency, experimenting when it's safe to do so and constantly on the lookout for hacks and tips from our disabled friends.  

Just as the input of a good administrator is often invisible to our clients, customers, and end users, the amount of work disabled people have to do to maintain their usual level of functionality is often invisible, so it's easy to miss. When you don't have additional requirements to get you out of the door and where you're meant to be, it is easy to assume no one else does, especially when their disabilities are hidden.

Nevertheless, when the world isn’t set up with you in mind, you develop highly transferable skills that make for an excellent administration professional. Here are four that stand out.

1. Planning (and contingency planning)

When you're living with a disability Plan B is called upon more often than it should be, so foresight and flexibility are a must. If you've ever needed passenger assistance on a local train you'll know it's a bit of a crapshoot. When I call to book, will I get through? When I arrive, will they be there? What will I do if they're not? 

This experience is not limited to rail travel; interacting with the world always requires a lot more brain energy when one has a disability. Whether navigating physical environments or mentally preparing for social situations, forward preparation is always necessary but often unreliable, as it depends on so many factors we can't control.

That makes us excellent at spotting potential sticking points in any procedure, anticipating how hitches might look and, crucially, how they might be worked around. We're solutions-focused, understanding several routes to any destination and working to find the one that best suits us. Adapting and reworking with one eye on the goal and another on the rules becomes instinctive.

Because the consequences of not taking care of ourselves can be dire, disabled people often have a lot of practice prioritising things when everyone else says theirs is the most important. We consider potential outcomes, consider the pros and cons, and separate the must-haves from the would-be-nices to reach our conclusion.

We're broad thinkers, unafraid to take a new approach when it's warranted,  simply because we've had a lot of practice doing just that, which leads nicely on to…

2. Lateral thinking 

Problem-solving is second nature to most disabled people in the workplace. We're often used to doing things differently, perhaps using assistive tech or adapting strategies and procedures to meet our needs, so we approach tasks from a results-based perspective and find creative, efficient solutions to complex issues. We're used to working around barriers in our daily lives, making us tenacious and resilient, and taking the fear out of failure. If this doesn't work, the next thing will. We may tire, but we rarely give up.

When you live with a limiting condition, thinking outside the box is necessary—when you have to find another way, you do. Dogged perseverance in the face of small and large obstacles is at the heart of every entry on this list, but here, it truly comes into its own.

The same thinking benefits our teams and us when we're at work. We simply assume there is another way, and that we will find it, inspiring the same confidence in our colleagues and sparking in them a creativity that can surprise even themselves.

3. Cooperation 

Healthcare is, or should be, a collaborative effort for everyone. We seek expert opinions, make decisions alongside professionals about our own treatment, and consult with our families about care.

Of course, like every entry on this list, collaborative approaches become second nature because we couldn't function without them. We adopt that attitude in our professional lives because we do so everywhere.

We know that working together means everyone can shine in their own way because they've each got something unique to give, and we know that teamwork exposes us to ideas we might not have come to by ourselves.  More importantly, we understand that the give-and-take nature of collaboration - sometimes more from you, sometimes more from me -  isn't a comment on our skills or our value to a team, so instead of fretting that we're not good enough when we're experiencing a quieter spell, we can enjoy the pause knowing our time will come around soon.

4. Emotional Intelligence 

Empathy is vital for the smooth running of teams, and it is among the most significant assets an administrator can have. However amazing your find-it-in-seconds filing system or flawless dynamic pivot tables, an ability to manage relationships, resolve conflicts and gauge the temperature of a group is indispensable when you need your team to be cohesive and cooperative and your clients to be happy.

Because we must be so attuned to our own needs, many disabled people are also adept at recognising clues to other people's emotional states. We can empathise deeply when a teammate is facing a barrier or difficulty. Our people skills feel instinctive, but they result from careful attention to what our bodies and brains tell us. 

Some neurodivergent people and those with certain mental health conditions are particularly astute at reading social situations because of our early experiences of feeling just a little off-kilter from everyone else, and we build up an impressive ability to read invisible social cues.

We're great cheerleaders because we can personalise our encouragement, and we're great diffusers for the same reason. Because we're attuned to the smallest red flags in our bodies or our brains, we can often anticipate potential issues and prevent them from becoming problems in our teams.