Taylor's Practice

When I tell people that I work in employment support, I sometimes hear comments like, “That must be difficult- people just don’t want to work,” or suggestions that the solution is simply to teach people to make the “right” amount of eye contact, dress differently, or speak in ways that are 'socially acceptable'.

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These responses reveal something important about how we tend to think about employment: we place the burden almost entirely on individuals to change themselves in order to fit systems that were never built with many of us in mind. The modern workplace has been shaped by histories upon histories of exclusion. These systems that have long marginalized racialized people, disabled people, people with marginalized genders and sexual orientations, poor and working-class people, and many others who live at the intersections of oppression.

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My approach to employment support is grounded in disability justice and intersectionality. Disability justice teaches us that people are more than their productivity, and that our worth cannot be measured by how efficiently we generate profit. Workplaces often expect certain bodies, communication styles, and ways of thinking, while labeling anything outside those norms as a problem to be fixed. Rather than asking only individuals to adapt, I believe we must also ask systems to change and make space for different bodies, different brains, and different ways of being/living/existing.

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At the same time, I recognize that we are all navigating systems that hold enormous power over our lives. In a society where access to housing, food, healthcare, and safety is tied to employment and income, people are often forced to make difficult choices in order to survive. Many people must find ways to move through these systems, even when those systems are unjust.

My role in this work is not to “fix” people or push them to conform unquestioningly to workplace norms. Instead, I work alongside people to help them understand those norms, decide which ones feel necessary or strategic for them to navigate, and build pathways that support their autonomy, dignity, and wellbeing. At the same time, it's important that I do work to advocate for workplaces to rethink their expectations and practices so that they can become more accessible, equitable, and humane.

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In my view, this work is about more than employment. It is about supporting people in navigating systems of power while holding onto the belief that those systems can (and must!) change.

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