Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Sharon Alexander Of Unicorn Children’s Foundation On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have A Disability
An Interview With Eric Pines
Don’t sweat the small stuff and keep your eye on the prize! It is so easy to become distracted by daily minutiae but if you stay laser-focused on your goals and strategies you will be successful or you can auto-correct when thing veer off-course.
As we all know, over the past several years there has been a great deal of discussion about inclusion and diversity in the workplace. One aspect of inclusion that is not discussed enough, is how businesses can be inclusive of people with disabilities. We know that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. What exactly does this look like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about the “How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Are Disabled “.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sharon Alexander.
Sharon Alexander serves as the CEO of Unicorn Children’s Foundation in Boca Raton, Fla. It is a one-of-a-kind organization that changes the lives of people living with developmental differences who are disconnected, isolated, and need support. Alexander oversees its long-term and short-term strategies and goals, develops new programs, and devises financial plans in cooperation with the Board of Directors and staff. In 2015, she founded and continues to lead the Special Needs Advisory Coalition of Palm Beach County.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?
I am a child development specialist by training. Prior to joining Unicorn Children’s Foundation, I worked in a private practice helping children with developmental or behavioral challenges and their families. I was also an adjunct instructor at Florida International University, so I was able to train therapists and provide them with on-the-job supervision.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
1. Team Builder — Assemble your team with people who are smarter than you. No one person can execute solutions to complex problems. It is important to invest in and empower your team members. While not all team members will come to consensus, a true leader must rally the team around a common vision and remain focused on the mission at hand. While I am a function over form personality, we hired a young intern to build out our social media presence. She has now blossomed into an integral member of our team for the past 11 years, receiving national recognition, and allowing us to expand our geographic footprint. Having extensive experience in the disability field, I am not a numbers person, so our CFO is able to provide a return on investment”(ROI) perspective to our future planning to ensure that we are sustainable. Finally, as we put our toes into the service industry through our Special Percs Café and Uniquely Gifted Boutique, we brought on a young hire to add the customer service experience to our planning process.
2. Communication — Effective communication connects people at various levels. I work hard to ensure that diverse voices have a seat at the table and can participate in conversations around issues and solutions. Effective communication allows us to find common ground, get buy-in from the team, and inspire passion and action. It is easy to create products and services, but if they do not meet the needs of your consumers, you are destined to fail. In 2015, we created the Special Needs Advisory Coalition, a combination of consumers, service providers, and community agencies to provide input into not only our planning process, but other community-based organizations, to ensure that we are offering products and services that truly are of need and in demand.
3. Adaptability — Businesses needed to be ever-evolving to meet the needs of their consumers. There is no better example than the recent interruption of COVID-19 in all matters of our lifestyles. Our team took on the position of no such thing as failure. We tested and tweaked our programs, and the result was growth, multiplied by seven, in our program offerings and consumers.
Can you share a story about one of your greatest work-related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
As with many businesses, COVID-19 presented significant and unexpected challenges. On February 1, 2020, we moved to a new location to open the Unicorn Connection Center which would provide a one-stop shop for community engagement, vocational training, and employment opportunities for individuals with developmental differences. On March 11, 2020, we were forced to close our doors. This presented a unique challenge, but our team was flexible, innovative, and adaptable in re-imagining our service delivery strategy. We quickly pivoted to a virtual service delivery model while remaining strategically aligned with our longer-term goals. As such, we were able to establish a footprint in 22 states and Canada and have established partnerships across Europe. We are now able to provide services in-person, virtually, and as a hybrid model that has resulted in exponential growth for the company.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
After 2+ long years of COVID-19 impacting our ability to execute our plans for the Unicorn Connection Center, we are finally able to open the doors to the community. We are witnessing first-hand the social connections that are being made and our constituents developing skills. Many people’s skill levels regressed during the isolation associated with the pandemic. We are expanding our career and entrepreneurship programs to ensure that those individuals with developmental differences can acquire the skills necessary and earn industry-standard certifications to make them employable in competitive and integrated workforces. We are also developing a Family Navigation Program to identify the strengths and interests of our clients and help them develop short and long-term goals for their lives while connecting them to services, support, and resources in the community. We are finally realizing our vision of truly providing a cradle to career program.
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about inclusion. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us?
Unicorn Children’s Foundation offers entrepreneurial opportunities for teens and adults with developmental differences. The Unicorn Career & Entrepreneurial Institute engages collaborative partners to help young adults with developmental or learning disorders plan and launch business ideas. In an effort to address the issues of unemployment and underemployment, self-employment is a creative workforce solution designed to meet the support needs, passions, talents, and strengths of each individual. In addition, self-employment solutions can provide supplemental income, allow for a flexible work schedule, support the entrepreneur’s growth and development, and enhance a community network of support. Course topics include: Exploring Self-Employment, Business Concepts, Business Start-up, Business Marketing, Financial Planning, Customer Service, Product Development, Sales, and Technology.
Our Uniquely Gifted Boutique sells items such as candles, artwork, jewelry, knitted items, ornaments, and more, all made by people with developmental differences. Right now, it is an online store, but there are plans to open a brick-and-mortar store in Boca Raton, Fla. at our Unicorn Connection Center.
Unicorn Children’s Foundation offers in-person and virtual classes on a variety of topics to equip people with developmental differences with the skills needed to get jobs. Some classes include retail, photography, cooking, and barista training. We have Special Percs Café, a coffee shop in Boca Raton, and also a mobile coffee cart for our baristas to actually run a café, earn money, and serve customers.
The Creative Workforce Solutions Summit is an annual event that was first launched in December 2020 and gives entrepreneurs and social enterprises the tools needed to start or grow a business owned by or employing young adults with developmental differences or learning disorders. Topics include transition planning, benefits management, business planning, business management, and funding, as well as personal shared stories of challenges and successes by several existing entrepreneurial businesses.
The Unicorn Job Club© is a networking and employment strategy group for young adults with developmental differences that provides opportunities for participants to develop employment success strategies.
The pre-employment training program is a unique, business led, one-year school-to-work program that takes place entirely at the workplace with assistance from a supported employment specialist. To date, 100% of graduates from this model have been offered competitive, integrated employment upon completion of the program.
Here is a success story. There was mom of a 3-year-old daughter who had been diagnosed with autism and two beautiful twin babies. After establishing a routine that met all their needs, she had to face a devastating life decision to relocate to another state, thus losing her natural and therapeutic supports. Fortunately, she called Unicorn Children’s Foundation to help her find the resources she needed for her family in a new community.
While adjusting to her new normal, she feared that one of her twins was experiencing developmental delays. Unicorn Children’s Foundation was, once again, there to help her and her family navigate the complex system of accessing care for her newly diagnosed son. Fast forward 12 years, her daughter had overcome many of her challenges and was preparing to enroll in an Honor’s College, but the mom continued to have significant concerns about her son. He frequently ran away from his classroom at school and expressed his frustrations through frequent and physical assaults against teachers and staff. The team at Unicorn Children’s Foundation visited school after school to help find the best fit for him.
Upon the realization that there was no “perfect” fit, Unicorn Children’s Foundation set out on a fundraising campaign to open the Unicorn Village Academy, a specialized high school that would focus on academics relevant to daily living, life-skills, vocational training, and community integration.
Nationwide, only 19.3% of people with developmental differences will enroll in a post-secondary program or become employed. Since its launch in 2013, all graduates of Unicorn Village Academy have gone on to post-secondary programs or become employed. Her son needed an additional year of support through a pre-employment internship program following graduation, which Unicorn Children’s Foundation was able to establish with a community partner. He is now one of those graduates who was hired at a local store and has even received his first pay raise following a performance review. For the first time in the family’s life, the future is much brighter as they take comfort in knowing that their son has found meaning and purpose as an engaged member of the community and that he has built natural peer supports.
This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?
We have all experienced the impact of labor market shortages, whether as employers or consumers. Individuals with developmental differences can be a viable pipeline of qualified and prospective employees. By intentionally implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in our employment strategies that include individuals with disabilities, we can create a cultural shift that recognizes the benefits that these individuals can add to companies. n addition to communicating social responsibility from a bottom-line perspective, people with disabilities make up a majority of the consumer base and people like to do business with companies that hire people like them because it demonstrates that they are valued.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what this looks like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Can you please share a few examples?
Employment First is a national initiative that prioritizes employment in the general workforce as the first and preferred option for individuals with disabilities receiving assistance from publicly funded systems. In this effort, Unicorn Children’s Foundation works with businesses to develop industry-specific tools and accommodations that will help all employees be more successful in executing tasks, such as posting visual instructions, providing specialized equipment, or adjusting work responsibilities or schedules. We also work closely with leadership staff to educate them about potential and expectations and provide coaching and support to ensure the best chance of success for employees with neurodiversities.
Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? If you can, please share a few examples.
There are many accommodations that businesses can make that make the business feel more welcoming to people with disabilities that transcend this population and make the business feel welcoming to all. These are not simply special needs, these are human needs. Be accommodating to those with service animals. Expand your company communications to train employees to be more understanding and accepting of those with differences. Make sure that you use multiple formats in your marketing to ensure accessibility with those with vision, mobile, hearing, and cognitive impairment, and language differences. There are companies that can provide overlays to existing websites that can offer read-aloud, closed-captioning, language translation, and increased font-size that makes your marketing more accessible to a broader audience.
Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help promote disability inclusion? Can you share with us how the work culture was impacted as a result?
We intentionally created a sensory-friendly working environment that meets the needs for those with and without a disability. We offer multi-modal communication options that meet the needs of our employees to ensure that messages are delivered in a form that best meets their processing preferences.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
1. Acknowledge and confront your biases head-on! We all have them. It is human nature. But it is only when you acknowledge them, that you can begin to ask the hard questions and include others to come up with solutions. While we thought we were providing the gold-star of services, it was only after we included individuals with developmental differences that they were able to provide input that made our service delivery model. Our Junior Board has been instrumental in providing recommendations on what types of programs and content that they need to feel more included and meaningfully engaged in the community.
2. Invest in your marketing! Unicorn Children’s Foundation was established in 1994 and, while we were doing great work, we kept hearing that we were the “best kept secret.” While complimentary, this is never good news for a business. Once we invested in a PR firm, we experienced an explosion of interest in our programs and we are able to help more people with developmental differences and their families.
3. The power of networking cannot be underestimated! Build your “army” of ambassadors. Running a not-for-profit organization entails a wide variety of skill sets. Some will be ambassadors who can spread the word of your good work. Others are connectors who can introduce you to prospective donors. Still, others can volunteer their time and talent to help you accomplish your goals. Your organization cannot succeed in a vacuum.
4. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket! Make sure that you have a diversified funding strategy that includes multiple streams of revenue to ensure your sustainability and make you less impacted when unforeseen events occur such as pandemics or financial market crashes.
5. Don’t sweat the small stuff and keep your eye on the prize! It is so easy to become distracted by daily minutiae but if you stay laser-focused on your goals and strategies you will be successful or you can auto-correct when thing veer off-course.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead
One person can create a ripple, but it takes a village to create real, impactful change. Most people who start a not-for-profit do not do so for fame and glory. They do it because they want to make a difference in someone’s life or create a better world where marginalized people can flourish. As a child development specialist, I only had the capacity to impact 30–40 individuals per week. By building a team of therapists, we were able to help 150–200 individuals per week. By engaging in collaborative partnerships with like-minded organizations, the impact is infinite.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
We need to move beyond simply being aware of differences. We must acknowledge and accept that these differences exist and take intentional actions to shift the narrative, which will result in cultural change. So often the focus in the disability world is focused on deficits rather than strengths. It is important for society to gain a better understanding of developmental differences and raise expectations of what these uniquely-abled people can do. As we raise awareness and expectations, we need to open doors for opportunities. Too often, and because of established stigmas, many businesses or organizations fear that inclusion will be too difficult or a liability. People with developmental differences can contribute greatly to a company’s bottom line, create cultures of compassion, and bring out-of-the-box thinking to solving problems. There is not enough investment committed to supporting programs that are strength-based, community-focused, and inclusion-driven. We need to advocate for increased commitment and better allocation of funding streams to make an impact in the lives of these individuals who so desperately want to make a difference, be contributing members to society, create lives for themselves, no matter the challenges they face or the barriers that may have previously kept them segregated from mainstream society. An investment early on in providing support and training can reduce the need for more expensive and longer duration reliance on governmental and societal supports.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.unicornchildrensfoundation.org
https://www.facebook.com/unicornchildrensfoundation
https://www.instagram.com/ucfoundation/
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheUCFoundation
https://www.linkedin.com/company/unicorn-children%27s-foundation-inc-
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
