Building a culture of belonging through workplace accessibility

Despite this, there's a significant gap in how businesses address accessibility. Alarmingly, Harvard Business Review reports that while 96% of companies worldwide have an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy, only 4% include accessibility as a key component.

I started on this journey because of personal experiences and a desire to drive systemic change. My experience of being fired after requesting a reasonable adjustment, which was later implemented company-wide, highlighted to me just how much of a problem this was. I’ve been disabled with an invisible energy and pain disability for nearly two decades, facing barriers to education, the workplace and society for most of my life. I built a career working from home in human resources and operations, and after being headhunted and then fired a few months later for asking for a reasonable adjustment, I founded SIC, a non-profit to support other disabled people and companies through the employment process.

In 2023, I stepped away from SIC to pursue consultancy work and focus on my Churchill Fellowship, which looked at best practices in inclusion and accessibility across the USA and Europe. During this journey, I engaged with academics, lawyers, politicians, and global leaders in accessibility, including Heads of Accessibility from major companies like Google, Walmart, and ING Bank. Their insights have been invaluable in shaping my understanding of inclusive practices that actually work for organisations beyond the token workshops or speakers on awareness days.

Disability affects a diverse group of people, including those with visible and invisible disabilities, neurodiversity, and temporary impairments. The lack of trust and stigma around disclosure complicates their situations, making it difficult for organisations to see that this is a problem, assign appropriate resources to solving it, and ultimately support their teams effectively. My work aims to bridge this gap by fostering environments where disabled employees feel safe to disclose their needs and receive appropriate support, and organisations see success through saving money through recruitment and retention, building productive and happy teams.

One of the critical reflections from my Fellowship is the overwhelming realisation that accessibility must be embedded into the core operational strategy, not treated as an afterthought. This was already something I had witnessed, but hearing and seeing the case studies first hand showed me how much this needs to happen.

Based on my Fellowship learnings, I recommend the following:

1. Embed Accessibility Early: Integrate accessibility into the early stages of project planning. This proactive approach ensures that accessibility is not an afterthought but a fundamental component, recognising it’s a vast topic and a single person won’t know the answers to everything.
2. Build a Culture of Trust: Create an environment where employees feel safe to disclose their disabilities without fear of discrimination or prejudice. This involves ongoing education and transparent communication.
3. Measure Success Beyond Numbers: Traditional metrics may not fully capture the success of accessibility initiatives. Consider qualitative measures such as employee feedback, retention rates, and tracking reasonable adjustments.

Innovation thrives in diverse environments. Many groundbreaking technologies we use today were initially developed for the disabled community. For example, voice recognition software and text-to-speech applications originated from the need to assist disabled users, and are now a core component in how every single smartphone is used today.

Moving forward, my research findings will culminate in a comprehensive report with actionable insights and strategies for policymakers and businesses. I aim to influence policy changes, enhance business practices, and empower disabled advocates to champion accessibility in the workplace using informed research.