SIC’s Career Spotlights: Virginia Ossana
Virginia Ossana is an international communications and translations specialist, as well as a passionate advocate for disability rights.
A photo of Virginia Ossana. She is a woman with dark hair, who is smiling at the camera. She’s visible from the shoulder upwards, and is wearing red lipstick and a white shirt. She’s against a white background.
What motivated you to set up your company/enter your field of work?
I work as a Communications & Programs Advisor at an organization that advances human rights at the intersection of gender and disability worldwide. I originally trained as a translator and had been working at the United Nations for a while before starting this job. There, I came into close contact with the world of disability rights, and met disabled leaders doing amazing work at a global scale. That was when I started thinking that maybe I could do that too, maybe I could move beyond the realm of words and into action. And so I did.
How do you think being disabled/ chronically ill has changed your approach to how you do your job?
To be completely honest, I am still in the process of fighting internalized ableism in terms of how I do my job, how fast I do it and how much of it I do. I think it is particularly complicated to stop working when you work in something that not only you love and think of it as necessary work, but that also is part of who you are. But I think I’m learning, and I’m lucky I am in a context where we are all taking joint steps to guarantee our individual and collective sustainability.
What is your career advice for those who aspire to do a similar role?
My piece of advice would be “advocate for yourself as fiercely as you advocate for others.”
Did you experience any set-backs when you started working, due to your disability? How did you overcome them?
I did. Most of them were comments people made that reflected the myths and stereotypes surrounding disability at the workplace, assumptions of what I could or could not do or why I was hired. Back then, my insctint was to work and work and work so hard just so they could see what I could do. Later in life, I discovered therapy. If something like that were to happen again, I hope that by now I know that I have nothing to prove.
What practices do you have that you would like to be mirrored in other workplaces?
My workplace has instituted weeks of collective rest, where offices are closed and all employees have time off that does not come out of our annual leave, so you can still decide when you want to take time off apart from the weeks of collective rest.
We also have flexible schedules, and employees can work remotely and have access to office space if we want it. For instance, I work from the UK, while the main offices are in the US, and I have access to a coworking space, but I have the freedom to decide if I want to work from home, too.
What is a problem within your current industry?
I think in human rights there are so many burning issues that need solving and people are passionate about and want to contribute to, but we tend to forget that this work is being done by humans too, and there needs to be an approach to this work that takes sustainability into account.
Listen to Virginia talk about her experiences at our Disability Pride Month Panel Event. Click here to read more about the event and book tickets.