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Hello Paul, I'm not American, but as I see its your best choice is to come up front and say as it is: I have Parkinson's disease. Then you have to judge from their reactions how to go on from there. In the worst case, you have to educate them about Parkinson's, but in my humble opinion it's better to tell them in the beginning. I actually discussed this with an employment agency, and they put it like this: we value your honesty very highly. In addition to that, I personally think that talking about it defuses a lot of the tension. If you can prove to them that your disease does not pose any threat to them, at least not bigger than the value your knowledge brings to the company, then they will hire you. (This of course depends on the demands of the position, but I'm talking about knowledge workers/white collar work.) I have a permanent position at a Swedish government agency since April (I was diagnosed some six years ago, progressing pretty rapidly, mind you) and they hired me since I'm ****** good at what I do. Shakey hands and agile as a brick, no big issue, speech recognition software types for me. The only thing that felt weird at first was my boss ordering me to tell people about my disease first thing I do when holding lectures; she rightly said that if I tell people immediately, then they can focus on what I say, not on why my hands are shaking or waving all over the place... It works just fine. :-) I have learnt quite a lot from my gay friends. (OK, I have a disease and that's different, but let's put that aside and look at the similarities) We meet the prejudice of ignorant idiots. We suffer from it. - Don't bend your head and accept that. Stand straight (no pun intended) and gently make them see that you're a human being; feeling, breathing and thinking. You are invaluable(?) - it is impossible to put a price high enough on you - as an individual, your knowledge counts. It might even be crucial to the survival of a company. Plus: you are a nice person, and your social skills will make your workplace a nicer place. :-) Know your rights, and do not accept others looking down on you because you don't fit into what is considered "normal"! Parkinson's means physical limitations, but as long as our cognitive abilities are intact we are very much a resource to companies. Good luck, Paul! /John - Angry at all igorant fools who think I'm drunk when I'm just having a bad day. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Ayers" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 12:25 AM Subject: "To tell or not to tell" > >From the experience of the list: > > When applying for a job do you tell you have PD upfront? > > How does one with PD fill out an application ? > > Thanks > > Paul > > > > --------------------------------- > Do You Yahoo!? > Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger > http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn