21 To Tell or Not to Tell? Co-Developing an Interactive Online Tool That Supports Employees with Invisible Disabilities to Make a High-Quality Disclosure Decision

Abstract

For employees with invisible disabilities, the decision of whether or not to disclose their condition to colleagues or supervisors is both far-reaching and hard to make. Support services for making these decisions are available but often insufficiently accessed due to lack of knowledge or hesitancy in approaching them. Therefore, we developed a science-based interactive online tool that provides easily accessible decision support complementing existing support structures for employees with disabilities and fostering the use of those structures. The online tool combines a self-test providing individualized feedback on the pros and contras of disclosure with information and additional resources on decision-making, (non-)disclosure, legal matters, further support options, and implementing the decision. We used an iterative participatory co-development process to develop the online tool, integrating theory and empirical findings with input from end-users and other relevant stakeholders. The interactivity of the self-test makes this online tool unique.