Build an Inclusive and Accessible Workplace for Those With Disabilities… and Everyone Else, Too (Part II).
*You may want to first read Designing for Disability Is Good for Business (Part 1)
Building an inclusive and accessible workplace isn’t just about engaging your disabled employees, it’s also good universal design.
People tend to see employing, accommodating, and designing products/services for those with disabilities as “extra” and “expensive” and “difficult.” But really, designing for the disabled is merely good universal design. According to the National Disability Authority, Universal design “is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.” The greater the audience, the greater the bottom line.
Before we get tactical, let me tell you that I am disabled. And then let me ask you what flashed through your mind — a woman in a wheelchair? Someone who uses a cane? Is blind?
Below is a picture of me. I have no mobility aid or other visible marker of disability, but I am definitely disabled.* It highlights a problem that many people have: the normalized definition of disability is too narrow. Because the symbol for disability (a wheelchair) is…
