I've started noticing

physical requirements on job descriptions that include cognitive and hearing abilities. Are we becoming more accommodating or more limiting to those with disabilities? For example:

Must be able to distinguish normal sounds with some background noise, as in answering the phone, interacting with residents and staff, etc.

Sometimes this is hard for me.

OR

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate with times of being very noisy.

I wonder what is meant by reasonable accomodation and who decides what is reasonable. I think that reasonable in this case refers to the legal definition which is: Just, rational, appropriate, ordinary or usual in the circumstances.

How do you accommodate disability inside of something that is ordinary or usual? Isn't that an oxymoron? Isn't disability that which is unusual, that which is non-ordinary?

Sometimes I think we talk ourselves into circles. Ultimately what can be said is that the world isn't accommodating to people with disabilities. We just write clauses in our job descriptions to make ourselves feel better.

George Bernard Shaw: “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.” Although, that still doesn't buy me cable television or pay my apartment bills. As I've already said.