Three Ways Workplaces Can Be More Accessible
"Imagine someone basically chopping off your legs when you arrive somewhere — that's the equivalent of what it feels like."
The accessibility advocate and chief executive, Maayan Ziv, flew Air Canada to Tel Aviv for a conference only to arrive and find her thirty-thousand-dollar wheelchair damaged beyond repair. Air Canada’s response to the damaging Ziv’s wheelchair— which is an extension of her body that, when taken away, strips her of her independence, mobility, health and comfort — was a negligible $300 e-coupon. Unfortunately, this situation is not unique — and as Maayan Ziv said herself, only highlights the need for “a better, more inclusive and equitable approach to treating people with disabilities."
This requires us to change the focus from managing disability to building accessibility. This simple reframe flips it from the person isn’t fitting the place due to their disability, to the place doesn’t fit the person due to its lack of accessibility. The onus has shifted.
This is a useful reframe not only in conversations around varying levels of ability, but also when it comes to other aspects of the diversity and inclusion conversations. It is not that this woman doesn’t thrive in this workplace because of her gender; it is that this workplace doesn’t enable that woman to contribute to her fullest ability. This is the thread underpinning inclusion or belonging.
This thought is what originally inspired me to choose Becoming Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist as Summer 2022’s B.O.O.K. Club read. Reflecting on past titles we’ve read through the seven preceding cohorts, race and gender were oft-repeating themes. They’re a major part of the discourse, but being hyper-focused on them can cause us to overlook other opportunities to expand as inclusive leaders.
Here’s what we learned through Judy Heumann’s memoir:
1. See Accessibility as a Human Right
Judy was generous enough to give us some of her time as the Summer wound down to discuss with B.O.O.K. Club members. In my pre-call with her I mentioned the above ‘accessibility lens,’ and she was quick to correct me that accessibility is often about the built environment and that that’s not enough.
What’s most important is seeing issues of discrimination and marginalization as human rights issues. If we believe in universal human rights, we should all be appalled when members of our community are not afforded them.
“Part of the problem is that we tend to think that equality is about treating everyone the same, when it’s not. It’s about fairness. It’s about equity of access. And equity of access, whether to housing, health, education, or employment, looks different for someone like me and the hundreds of thousands of us who cannot do things the same way, than it does for the majority of people who can. It involves ramps, wider doorways, bars, sign language interpreters, captioning, accessible technology, audio descriptions, documents in Braille, and personal assistance for those with physical disabilities, as well as those with intellectual disabilities.
When this is not understood, we get framed as “complaining” and “selfish,” even though we’re simply asking for the same rights as everyone else. This especially happens to women. We’re called “demanding,” and if we refuse to back down, we’re “relentless.” But labeling us “demanding” and “relentless” is just a different way of trying to make us “submit.”
People with disabilities might need to take time off of work for appointments or due to chronic issues and unpredictable doctors’ schedules, and potentially take more time to complete tasks. But needing different resources should not discount their effort — if anything, it should highlight the importance of accommodations or accessibility services for all.
When you consider accessibility a human right, it no longer ranks as something to implement-when-convenient but as an obligation that has serious repercussions when not met.
People with disabilities remain largely underemployed, underpaid, under-promoted and under-accommodated at work. Compared with able-bodied people they're 50% more likely to experience poverty. Not only is that obviously wrong, but it's a huge loss to organizations and communities.
2. Don’t Assume What People Need — or Don’t Need
You know that old joke ‘don’t assume or you’ll make an ass-out of-u-and-me’? Well, we very clearly make asses out of ourselves all the time.
Many of us don’t take action towards accessibility or inclusion because we don’t want to make assumptions or we make choices on behalf of others because we assume we know their limitations.
Fortunately for us, there is a simple solution. If you don’t know, ask them.
You might feel awkward asking— possibly thinking it will make you look ignorant or insensitive— but it helps you dispel stereotypes of people with disability and save you embarrassment down the line if and when you guess incorrectly.
Because stereotypes are what our assumptions are based on — that disabled people are weak, incapable, and dependent on others. Judith Heumann highlights this best in an anecdote about nominating representatives for an upcoming convening of youths around the world:
“Victor is a very smart, very outgoing guy. He speaks seven languages and by the way, he uses a motorized wheelchair and a ventilator,” someone wrote to us. We submitted Victor’s name for the convening, along with several others.
Not too long after, one of my staff got a call from the office that was handling the event. On Victor’s behalf, they were worried. They wanted to exclude him from the meeting, which was in France. What if there was a problem with his breathing machine in Paris? What would they do?
I told my staff I’d handle it. I called the person back.
“I am quite sure,” I said, “that if someone has a medical problem in Paris the medical system in Paris will be able to handle it. And by the way, there might be other people in Paris who have medical problems.”
I also sent an email, to be sure my response was documented.
Victor Pineda lives in Berkeley now, where he is a globally recognized scholar on development and urban design, as well as a filmmaker and the founder of Inclusive Cities Lab/World Enabled. He teaches at Berkeley. He has attended the Burning Man Festival and travels all over the world. He is the same very smart and very outgoing person I was first introduced to, but we would never have known what he could do if we had assumed that we knew his needs better than he knew them himself.”
Moral of the story: if you’re concerned about accessibility and potential accommodations (a step in the right direction!), save yourself the misstep by challenging your preconceived notions of disability and maybe ask before you assume!
3. Flip the Script on the Cost Conversation
A recurring thread that came up in our discussions was the idea of the cost being the biggest barrier to inclusion. We talked about the feasibility of an example mentioned in the book: making all buses accessible, particularly when this is the similar cost of installing a non-necessity like air conditioning.
One software developer mentioned that there is often resistance to implementing accessibility in a race to capture market share – despite it being much more time and cost-effective to build with accessibility in mind from the beginning than it is to go back and rewrite the code.
Research done by the Job Accommodation Network found that 56% of employers were able to provide accommodations at no cost, 39% experienced a one-time cost of $500 on average, and only 4% reported that providing accommodations required annual costs.
“In general, institutions don’t like change because change takes time and can entail costs. In particular, the institutions didn’t see the need for spending resources to adapt their buildings, programs, or classrooms for disabled people. It would be too costly, they argued, an unfair financial burden—and how many disabled people really went to university, or participated in x, y, or z specific activity, anyway?
Right there was our catch-22: Because the country was so inaccessible, disabled people had a hard time getting out and doing things—which made us invisible. So we were easy to discount and ignore. Until institutions were forced to accommodate us we would remain locked out and invisible—and as long as we were locked out and invisible, no one would see our true force and would dismiss us.”
But if we are truly attempting to make any sort of progress towards accessibility we need to flip the script on the age-old question ‘but what will it cost me?’
What has helped me see things in terms of investment rather than cost was learning about the curb-cut effect. Essentially, when we invest in accessibility, we all benefit from the implementation rather than a small subset. Take for example the humble curb cut. Despite disabled advocates pushing for access to basic infrastructure like sidewalks, there was resistance to curb cuts because not that many people would benefit from the investment.
However, something unexpected happened after the passing of the Disabilities Act, and curb cuts became the standard. Wheelchair users used them regularly — but so did parents pushing strollers, delivery people pulling dollies, luggage toters, skateboarders and cyclists — so much so we couldn’t imagine not having curb cuts.
Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
The World Health Organization has called people with disabilities “the world’s largest minority,” as an estimated 15 percent of the world’s population live with some type of disability.
With disabled people making up such a substantial part of our population there’s a high chance someone you work with has a disability… but you might not know that considering only about 10% of people with a disability reported it to their employer.
It’s time we create a culture where disclosing disability means opening opportunities for accommodations and not fearing rejection or dismissal.
“Change never happens at the pace we think it should. It happens over years of people joining together, strategizing, sharing, and pulling all the levers they possibly can. Gradually, excruciatingly slowly, things start to happen, and then suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, something will tip.”
To be a good leader — one that is engaged with their team, inclusive to everyone, and who people will respect — you need to open yourself up to opportunities to learn beyond your own worldview.
B.O.O.K. Club is that place for male leaders to explore new perspectives and ask questions.
B.O.O.K. Club—Beyond Our Own Knowledge—invites men and male-identifying folks to join an 11-week cohort of peers, dig into a curated book, connect with each other to unpack what we’ve read, and unlearn something new about our privilege and perspectives in the world.
Don’t miss out on our upcoming quarter starting October 4th!