EDIT: Don’t bother reporting people criticizing others for not wearing a helmet. It’s not victim blaming, just like criticizing someone for not wearing a seatbelt isn’t victim blaming.
Wear your helmets people: Of course nobody deserves to get hit by a car but the reality is people are getting hit by cars.
No one knows everything, and we should all hope and aim to learn new things every day, and unlearn the harmful socialisation we’ve had enforced on us, both are constant works in progress.
Having said that… 😂
The issue isn’t that we’re online, not all disability is visible, and you really have no way of knowing if someone standing right in front of you is disabled. Your assumption that everyone is like you is because the world generally cater to and centres people like you, so those that aren’t kind of fall off at the periphery of your view (this is why representation is important), but the fact that you are able to recognise that puts you ahead of the curve.
Jake shouldn’t have to be there, not only for the reason I mentioned above (you may very well have other disabled co workers, whose disability you can’t see), but also because not having someone directly impacted hear it doesn’t mean the ableism doesn’t still have an impact, in normalising it.
Also - Jake is your equal not because he does the same job, but because he is Jake, and would be your equal even if he wasn’t able to work.
I’m going to do a little info dump here, I don’t expect that you’ll read this all at once (or even at all), but I think it’s good information that is worth sharing to help further understanding, so it’s there for anyone who wants to learn more:
https://everydayfeminism.com/2014/11/ableist-language-matters/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis - I think this idea frames a lot of peoples’ thinking about disability
https://www.yorku.ca/edu/unleading/ableism (their entire series on Systems of Oppression is worth a look)
https://disabledfeminists.com/category/ableist-word-profile/ - worth reading the entire series, the entries are a little lengthy, but the whole archive is only 2 pages
https://thestrand.ca/capitalism-ableism-and-the-glamorization-of-productivity/
https://dailyfreepress.com/2020/11/19/mind-your-business-ableism-is-rooted-in-capitalism/
https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/changing-the-framework-disability-justice/