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By KATHERINE BOUTON http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/business/quandary-of-hidden-disabilities-conceal-or-reveal.html?_r=0 A YOUNG woman with hearing loss wrote to me recently about being interviewed for a senior position in a major library system. She was well qualified for the job, and as her interviews progressed through the day, she sensed that she was about to be offered the job. Quandary of Hidden Disabilities: Conceal or Reveal? Then the top executives invited her to continue the discussion over drinks. The bar was noisy and she couldn’t keep up with the conversation. She didn’t get the job. The woman, who asked me not to use her name, is among those whom the Americans With Disabilities Act can have a hard time protecting: people with hidden disabilities. What should she have done? During the interview process she might have disclosed her hearing loss in a way that showed how effectively and creatively she compensated for it. When the drinks suggestion was made, she might have said: “I’d prefer we met in a quiet place so I could respond more easily. Would that be O.K.?” But the woman’s choice not to disclose her disability was understandable. In fact, Joyce Bender, who owns a search firm in Pittsburgh that helps place people with disabilities, says that revealing a disability in an interview should be avoided if possible. And it should not be mentioned on a résumé, she says, as doing so may mean never reaching the interview stage. Ms. Bender herself has epilepsy, a factor in her decision to focus the work of Bender Consulting Services on people with disabilities. “People with epilepsy have been viewed as mentally insane, degenerate, demonic or intellectually diminished,” she said. “Today the stigma for people with epilepsy is that you are strange, dangerous, weird and someone to avoid.” An employee is not required to disclose a disability after being hired, but may choose to do so. Someone with epilepsy may want to ensure that the employer will know how to deal with a seizure. A diabetic might need to be away from work for insulin shots. Someone with mental illness may need a flexible schedule to allow for psychiatrist visits. A recovering alcoholic or drug abuser might need time off to meet with a substance abuse support group. But it’s a hard decision to make: If you announce your condition, you risk being stigmatized; if you keep it a secret, you risk poor performance reviews or even being fired. AS someone who suffers from hearing loss, I understand this quandary all too well. When I was an editor at The New York Times, I was hesitant to discuss my condition. I told a few close colleagues about my disability, but I never explained how serious it was. Nor did I admit to myself how much it affected me professionally. Former colleagues have since told me that they sometimes thought I was aloof, or bored, or maybe burned out. The fault was mine, in not disclosing the disability and asking for accommodations. I could have asked for a captioned phone, for instance, which would have made my job much easier and reduced a lot of the stress. I could have used a hearing assistive device, a small FM receiver, to pick up voices at staff meetings. So why didn’t I say anything? I feared being perceived as old. For nearly three decades I tried to fake it, as my hearing loss worsened to the extent that I could barely manage in the workplace even with a hearing aid and a cochlear implant. My experience, and that of others, shows that invisible disabilities in the workplace may lead managers and colleagues to view employees as difficult, lazy or not team players. Most companies are in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and many seek out employees with disabilities. But there are subtler, gray areas of discrimination, usually unintentional. These can start with the application process. Some big retail companies use prescreening tests with job applications that can exclude certain employees, said Jan Johnston-Tyler, founder and chief executive officer of EvoLibri, a company in Santa Clara, Calif., whose services include job placement for people with disabilities. One of Ms. Johnston-Tyler’s clients, a 25-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome, applied for a position at Subway. While most of the online application was routine, the last step was a multiple choice questionnaire. One of the 60 questions was, “Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out how I am supposed to behave around others.” Most of us would check off the “disagree” option, but as Ms. Johnston-Tyler pointed out, many people with Asperger’s “are generally honest to a fault.” She contacted Subway’s corporate parent and was told that her client could fill out a different application without social suitability questions. The interview process can be another minefield, as the woman who wrote to me about the library position found. And once people with hidden disabilities start their jobs, they face more risks. Ms. Johnston-Tyler sees a lot of inadvertent discrimination. She told me about a client with Asperger’s who was working for a community college as an accountant and was having a very difficult time interacting with others because of his poor social skills and boundaries. He was lonely and wanted social time with others, and got in trouble for asking too many questions.