10th October 2022
Guest Blog: Is Your Business Accessible for Employees?
Savvy business leaders understand all too well that employees are the lifeblood of any business. Not only do they make the company work, both literally and figuratively, but they also bring a wealth of skills, experience, and perspectives to the business. Employees enrich the organizational culture and enhance the customer experience.
For far too long, however, workers with disabilities have been marginalized or entirely excluded from the workplace due to accessibility challenges. This stark reality helps to explain the persistently disproportionate rates of unemployment among adults with disabilities.
The harms of these inequities extend far beyond the disability community, though. There is significant and mounting evidence that the inclusion of employees with disabilities in the workplace promotes diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DE&I) commitments. This is important if employers want to widely embrace DE&I efforts as is so crucial to success today.
In addition, companies that employ workers with disabilities have been found to be more innovative, resilient, profitable, and productive than less inclusive and diverse environments. Luckily, there are steps to ensure that your organization is as open and accessible as possible to employees of all abilities.
Ensuring Physical Access
When you think of workplace accessibility, physical access is probably one of the first issues that come to mind. To be sure, this is a fundamental concern for employees — as well as clients — with mobility issues.
At a minimum, it is imperative to provide wheelchair ramps and access to mobility devices, such as wheelchairs or scooters, for those who are nonambulatory, cannot navigate stairs, or are unable to walk long distances. It’s also important to ensure that you provide employees with access to disability insurance to help them fund the purchase of essential, durable medical equipment, such as portable ramps and lifts for wheelchair-accessible vans.
Assistive Technologies
In addition to ensuring physical access to your company’s campus, employees with disabilities are also likely to require other modifications to enable them to do their work effectively. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), for example, stipulates that employees are entitled to ask for reasonable workplace accommodations required to fulfill their job duties.
This is likely to include, for instance, the provision of braille signage, screen readers, and large-print work materials for employees with vision impairments. Likewise, employees with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, may also require screen readers or voice dictation software as opposed to text-based work products.
Be Flexible
Cultivating a truly accessible workplace environment for your employees with disabilities will probably require more than simply providing assistive technologies and mobility aids on campus. You will also need to be open to modifying your business model and work processes a bit, as employees who are managing chronic health conditions may require a bit more flexibility than those who are not.
Thus, offering alternative work arrangements for employees who need them can boost retention for those who can’t accommodate a traditional eight-hour workday five days per week. Instead of enforcing a rigid schedule, permitting flex time and remote work options will enable your workers to focus on their health and wellness without compromising their job performance.
Employees who can work remotely at least part of the time, for instance, will have the flexibility of attending medical appointments and practicing self-care, such as taking intermittent rest periods. The end result is a healthier, happier, and more loyal employee.
Supporting Employees’ Mental and Cognitive Wellness
Regardless of the exact nature of the disability, living and working with a chronic health condition is never easy. Your employees may be experiencing a significant amount of stress, uncertainty, and disruption in both their personal and professional lives, particularly if their diagnosis is relatively recent and they are still learning to manage their health condition.
For this reason, an important facet of accessibility is in the support and facilitation of your employee’s emotional and psychological health. For employees who are neurodivergent, for instance, providing access to quiet rooms will enable them to decompress and recover when workplace stressors become overwhelming. This will help support both their job performance and mental and emotional well-being.
It is also imperative to work with the entire team, providing training and resources to facilitate the effective inclusion of employees with disabilities. Such team training and support can be especially beneficial for the accommodation of employees with invisible disabilities, whose particular needs may not otherwise be recognized or understood by colleagues.
The Takeaway
Business owners and leaders are increasingly recognizing the vital importance of diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. For workers with disabilities, however, persistent accessibility challenges continue to lead to marginalization and exclusion. Nevertheless, it is possible for astute entrepreneurs to cultivate true accessibility in the workplace. The key is to prioritize physical access, procedural and operational flexibility, and the accommodation of the particular needs of employees with invisible disabilities, including the needs of workers who are neurodivergent or who have learning disabilities.