Anna Zocher

My name is Anna Zocher. I'm a 25 year old, freelance web developer living with a chronic arthritic condition (most closely associated to psoriatic arthritis). At 22, I had just finished my first job, on a national election, and was sprinting towards a career in software development. Then, one day, I could no longer turn door knobs. I had lost all power in my hands, and the ability to turn my wrists. Soon others parts of my body began to weaken, including my feet and my arms. Doctor #1 told me I was just texting too much. Doctor #2 said it had to be stress. Doctor #3 put me on a medication cocktail before even looking at blood tests. With each hospital visit it became clearer to me an answer wasn't coming anytime soon.

Almost three years later, I live in a magical, in-between land more and more women (and minorities, and anyone who has trouble getting access to healthcare) is finding themselves - I can't work full time, I can't advance my career, but I don't qualify for disability. I am constantly playing catchup against myself to regain my career, my health, and my financial support system.

80%-90% of people with disabilities are out of the work force. A working person is 5 times as likely to become disabled then die. Importantly, there are easy, actionable steps people can take to prepare in case of emergency. My talk would address two simple procedures for building your own life raft, in case of such an event, and in general highlight that we all at some point encounter an outside obstacle that will keep us from working as hard as we want to, even if that obstacle looks dramatically different then we imagined.

The principal points are:

1. Disability insurance: Many companies offer it, few people know how, why, or when to use it. In many cases, checking the right box can get keep you at the same income level as the job you currently have if you do have an accident.

2. Routine blood tests and what to look for: At risk of sounding like someone wearing a tin foil hat, modern medicine is a system set up to look for very specific diseases and treat those with a specific protocol. In many cases, these will not include disabilities you can see coming, like rheumatoid arthritis or MS. Knowing what to ask your doctor for, and how to approach payment/insurance coverage is all about knowing what to ask for.

I know I was dramatically underprepared to handle what is in reality a common occurrence to working professionals. My goal is to be an anecdote, not a statistic for women trying to work in tech, or any industry.