Pause and pondr
WHY DID IT TAKE A PANDEMIC TO MAKE WORK ACCESSIBLE?
Zoom meetings, digital conferences, and work-from-home options have improved employment for people with disabilities during the pandemic. Why haven’t these options been around all along?
DID YOU KNOW?
61 million adults in the United States live with a disability; 26% (1 in 4) of adults in the United States have some type of disability.
Source: CDC
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
Understand the key principles of an inclusive workplace, such as making accommodations and flexible work options
Offer possible changes to accommodate all workers’ needs
What changed for disabled workers?
In 2020, as the coronavirus spread and offices around the country closed, employers had to develop flexible working arrangements. Companies shifted to remote working and provided other reasonable accommodations for their workers.
For people with disabilities, pandemic-imposed remote working provided a better work-life balance — accommodations that advocates say they have been requesting for decades. Everything from inflexible work hours to the Monday morning commute can pose a problem for workers with disabilities.
In the United States, 1 in 4 adults has some type of disability. Yet a recent report shows fewer than 5% of companies are aware of the experiences of their employees with disabilities.
Advocates hope lessons from the pandemic will inform the post-pandemic workplace. “Many people, both disabled and nondisabled … learned that much or all of their job can actually be done from home,” says Alaina Lavoie, communications manager at We Need Diverse Books and a disabled journalist and activist.
How can workplaces be more accessible?
Keeping accessibility in mind can be simple. And creating a more inclusive workplace doesn’t have to be costly.
“Employers need to make sure that they are promoting disability culture as part of their company’s values,” says Joe Bellil, vice president of public affairs and youth services at Easterseals Massachusetts, a service provider for people with disabilities. He suggests keeping all employees informed about in-office accommodations, health benefit packages, and how to provide input on major decisions before they become official policy.
A big priority should involve engaging employees in conversations. Managers should take the time to understand and communicate with their workers with disabilities about their needs, Bellil says. Creating opportunities for these conversations can also boost employee morale and workplace satisfaction.
Where does accessibility design begin and end?
Improving the culture around accessibility issues shouldn’t be limited to actions that leaders take. “Inclusion is not just an HR responsibility, it is everyone’s responsibility,” says Meg O’Connell, CEO and founder of Global Disability Inclusion, a consulting firm that offers disability inclusion strategies and solutions to Fortune 500 companies. She says all employees should “know how to get an accessible van or Uber, where to find a sign language interpreter … how to obtain an accommodation.” These are daily tasks where all employees can contribute and participate in workplace inclusivity and strategy.
Additionally, accessibility should start from the very beginning by making it easy for people with disabilities to apply for jobs and fostering employment opportunities. In 2019, 7.3% of people with disabilities were unemployed, a rate that is around twice as high for those without a disability, according to the Department of Labor. And around 1 million people with disabilities in the U.S. have lost work since the pandemic began, according to figures from the World Health Organization.
“Make sure that your job descriptions are accurate and don’t include (language that is offensive to people with disabilities),” Lavoie says. “Ensure your website is accessible.” An inaccessible hiring process may be discouraging top talent from applying — and you’ll never even know what you lost, she says.
Pondr This
What has your experience working remotely from home been like during the pandemic?
Have you ever needed specific accommodation to do anything?
What’s one step you can take this week/month to increase your knowledge about accessibility and improve accessibility for you or others around you?
FOR LEADERS
How has working virtually changed your view of what your teammates need?
How do you imagine work will change after the pandemic?
Are there ways your company or organization can be more accommodating of coworkers’ needs in the months and years to come?
Explore The Stories
Accessibility in the workplace: A toolkit
Adapting to life with autism during Covid
AI tech provides new set of eyes for visually impaired
Pandemic augmented services long-sought by the disabled
Topic in Review
We explored ways the pandemic inadvertently improved access for people with disabilities. We also spoke with disability advocates about simple steps companies, organizations and businesses can take to improve access at work in a post-pandemic world.
Continue Your Journey
In this Pause and Pondr, we spoke with the founder of Global Disability Inclusion, a management consulting firm. This year, the company along with the consulting firm Mercer wrapped up a 10-year partnership on “The State of Disability Employee Engagement Study” that examined 12 million survey responses from employers and employees around the world.
Some of the key findings were: employees with disabilities were less confident that their skills were being used effectively or that they were trusted by their colleagues to use their own judgement in their work. They reported not feeling like they have the same autonomy in decision-making and creative thinking at their workplace as their non-disabled counterparts. And workers with disabilities surveyed felt they did not have the same opportunities for growth or advancement within their company as compared to other groups.
The advocates we spoke to expressed their hope for accessibility to be a priority for organizations and companies and that fostering a culture of inclusivity should be an organization-wide responsibility. Advocating for, and participating in, disability accessibility causes often ends up being a win for everyone.
As Angela Glover Blackwell, founder of national research and advocacy institute PolicyLink wrote in a 2017 Stanford Social Innovation Review article, laws and programs that are initially designed with people with disabilities in mind often end up benefiting the rest of society. It’s known as the “curb-cut effect.”
In 1972, disabled activists in Berkeley, California, pressed the city to install its first curb ramp on an avenue, and it became the nation’s rallying around expanding them all over the country and world.
She says, “When the wall of exclusion came down, everybody benefited — not only people in wheelchairs. Parents pushing strollers headed straight for curb cuts. So did workers pushing heavy carts, business travelers wheeling luggage, even runners and skateboarders.” She also cites a study in Florida showing that 9 out of 10 pedestrians went out of their way to use the curb cut.
The list of benefits of embracing disability accessibility has also led to some of the most cherished technologies by everyone: the typewriter, email, and audio books. And now not surprisingly, it’s hard to imagine our lives without them.