Organizations benefit when they not only meet accessibility standards but genuinely engage with and learn from their disabled employee’s lived experiences.
As we take a day to celebrate the lived experiences, as well as the communal and cultural benefits that we gain from people with differing abilities, it is important to recognize that while we have made tremendous gains in the area of rights and accommodations for people with disabilities in the work-place, there is still work to do before there is true equity for those of us who continue to be overlooked. It is important to highlight that when companies make a genuine effort to engage with and learn from their disabled employees by making room for their voices, organizations not only benefit but also thrive.
People with disabilities offer unique perspectives on a multitude of daily experiences that may be overlooked and may offer new insight on how to approach well covered material.
People living with disabilities often experience the world in a way that people with able bodies do not. This gives them individual and unique perspectives on issues like design, transportation, and workplace environment, as well as a wide variety of other daily interactions that people may not consider. Re-examining our foundational ways of existing in our society can shift how a business operates when making decisions about their work. People with disabilities may also be more capable of spotting efficiency gaps by recognizing different approaches to completing a task within their workplace.
People with disabilities have experienced a variety of challenges in life and hold valuable knowledge about resilience
Disability often comes with a learned sense of resilience, as well as a mindset that can be growth oriented. This tends to come from a need to adapt to circumstances. Often, people with different lived experiences will quickly adjust to a change of circumstance and offer creative solutions to problems.
Their resilience allows them to overcome workplace obstacles, drive innovation, and promote optimism within the office. This approach to challenges can foster an atmosphere where challenges are embraced, allowing failure to be part of the process, which can benefit an organization's long-term growth and success.
Celebrating, engaging with, and normalizing disability leads to a more grounded, diverse and accepting workplace, which improves workplace culture and community.
By approaching disability not as something awkward or uncomfortable but as something that makes an individual an asset, a workplace can build a culture of total acceptance. A workplace that focuses on accommodating employees to their needs and recognizes diversity as a normal part of the human experience often becomes more flexible and adaptive to circumstances. This allows for increased collaboration and efficiency and can even attract a broader range of talent to the business. Being known as a business that values diversity can incentivize workers who may have felt undervalued in a previous position or could incentivize team members to stay in position for longer. By normalizing individual differences, we can allow for an open dialogue where each employee can perform at their highest level while also strengthening connections with their colleagues.
Learning to not only accept disability but embrace the spectrum of differences within the human lived experience gives organizations the opportunity to create a rich and dynamic workplace environment. It gives employees an opportunity to thrive and share their individual contributions in a manner that creates equity within their workplace; it also allows the employer to open their business up to the advantages provided by people with disabilities, many of whom have been historically overlooked.
Let us be intentional in celebrating the ways in which people with disabilities contribute to the development of fairer and more inclusive workplaces by offering insight into facing challenges despite adversity.