No, it's not fair and it's not legal. It's discrimination. If it's happening to you can complain to the state department that handles employment discrimination but be warned.
Complaining doesn't always solve the problem and it can become a case of your word against the interviewer's word which rarely works out in the interviewee's favor. I've have had several job interviews where I've been told that on paper I have excellent credentials, I'm a perfect fit etc.. but the minute they see my wheelchair or my cane the job has suddenly been filled or even outsourced. I even had a doctor who was interviewing me tell me point blank that I was too crippled to do the job properly, it was an office position, and that if he'd known I was a gimp he wouldn't have bothered calling me in for an interview.
Then he told me if I complained it would be my word against his and I wouldn't win.
If someone disabled applied for a job at my business, I would check to see if they were up to the job itself. I'd do the same thing for the abled. If I'm going to hire someone, I'm doing so because I need something done often enough to hire someone, and I really don't want to waste time putting the same notice in the paper every few weeks because I picked the wrong person.
Seems fair to me.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.