In this episode, Michelle discusses what it means to create an inclusive and accessible workplace for everyone—particularly focusing on supporting employees with disabilities. Michelle highlights how organizations often approach disability accommodation from a compliance standpoint, waiting for requests rather than proactively designing accessible environments. She emphasizes the positive impact of being proactive—not only does this prepare the workplace for a diverse talent pool, but it also signals to candidates and current employees that inclusion and belonging are priorities from day one.

Michelle shares practical strategies for establishing accessible spaces, such as configurable workstations, quiet rooms, and making accommodations for both visible and invisible disabilities. She underlines the importance of individualized support, inclusive language, and normalizing the conversation around accommodations.

To find out more about and connect with Michelle, visit: www.Equity-at-work.com

Key Topics Discussed:

• Proactive vs reactive approaches to disability accommodation
• The hesitation employees feel in requesting accommodations
• How proactive accessibility supports recruitment and retention
• Examples of workplace accommodations (quiet rooms, adjustable workstations, etc.)
• The wide range of visible and invisible disabilities
• Temporary vs. permanent disabilities
• The importance of individualized support and active listening
• Using inclusive language and avoiding outdated or harmful terms
• Key statistics on disability prevalence, accommodation costs, and retention rates
• The role of flexibility and normalization in supporting employees

Michelle I'm Michelle Bogan, founder and CEO of Equity at Work, and this is your DEI minute, your go to podcast for leaders looking to navigate the ever evolving landscape of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Whether you're just starting out with DEI or looking to sustain your long term successes, each episode will provide you with actions you can take to move DEI forward at your organization, all in 15 minutes or less. In this episode, we're going to do a little bit of a deeper dive into how to create an inclusive and accessible environment for everybody in your workplace. We find that a lot of times companies look at disability support as a compliance matter primarily, you know, following ADA guidelines and certainly offering a lot of additional support when asked for by an employee. But there's a tendency to wait to be asked rather than taking a more proactive stance in creating an environment where everybody feels as early as in the interview process that they will be supported for whatever accommodation needs they might have. And honestly, a lot of employees still feel very hesitant to ask for accommodations, especially in the early part of their tenure with a new organization, because they just don't know if that's going to be considered a ding against them, if they'll be viewed as problematic, if that's going to be something that may hold them back in their career advancement. There's just sort of a lot of unknowns there. So when employers can be more proactive, employees obviously feel welcomed from day one and can feel more confident asking for the things that they need to set themselves up for success, to be as productive and as engaged as possible in their workplace.

Another part of this that's really important is if you can do this proactively, it sends a great signal when you're recruiting. It shows that this is a priority, that it's, you know, certainly important to you, that you've thought through a lot of the different kinds of needs that people have and that you're providing some of those that are ready to be taken advantage of by the people that need them. And I don't mean taken advantage of by people using them who don't need them, or using them for personal gain, but really that they're accessible to everybody who has that kind of need. So examples of this can be, you know, in a warehouse or distribution center, having a work area that's set up for people of different heights, or for, you know, somebody who might be wheelchair bound and doing it before you go into hiring for that particular role so that it's ready to go and it could be configured as needed. That Sends an amazing signal that you're ready to accommodate based on, you know, the best candidates that you can get, regardless of what their accommodation might be. We've also seen a lot of offices start to implement quiet rooms or mother's rooms, prayer rooms, things like that. Like that. Which some of those are more for medical or religious needs.

But even having a quiet room is a great place, particularly for someone who may be more kind of ADD or ADHD oriented. Somebody might be on the spectrum or just someone who does better is like very sensory sensitive, who needs some time, kind of quiet space to sort of settle down and get refocused. And it's been great to see a lot of that pop up. But those things don't have to cost a lot of money. They don't need to necessarily take a lot of time to do. But, you know, having those in place sends an amazing signal as you're going through recruiting, recruiting, and then certainly tell the employees you've already got that you're there to set them up for success in whatever way possible. There are a lot of ways to create accessibility, inclusion. And really the thing to do is to make sure that anyone who has any kind of disability or support need has equal access to that opportunity to get the support that they can participate fully in all workplace activities, from sort of core job functions to social events and other kinds of activities and get togethers that are team bonding experiences, experiences or off sites or, you know, going to conferences.

And that they're obviously set up to succeed and advance as much as they want to and can in the workplace. A couple facts to share. One in four adults in the US have a disability. So it's very likely that you've already got people in your organization who have disabilities. 56% of workplace accommodations for people with disabilities cost nothing, which is pretty incredible. And after one year, the retention rate for employees with disabilities is 85%, which is really high. And I think it's actually higher than when they've been provided accommodations. And they're in a very inclusive and supported environment.

That is a higher retention rate than for employees without disabilities. And disabilities can include physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, neurodiversity and mental health conditions. Not all disabilities are permanent. So if you think of somebody who, you know, maybe has a broken leg, they've had some kind of an episode that damaged their hearing temporarily, an employee who might be pregnant or having just given birth to a child, those are more temporary disabilities. And then there are other ones that are longer term or permanent disabilities in terms of how to implement accessibility. Inclusion number one, don't generalize disabilities. Every person's situation and accommodation need is unique. So start from a place of curiosity.

Don't assume that you know what they're going to need. So many disabilities are invisible. You may have someone coming to ask you for support or an accommodation that you're not expecting. So really just being open to what the request might be and be curious and really practice good active listening. Set everyone up for success. Take a very personalized approach. Ask them what they need. Brainstorm together, provide options.

Don't limit it to just one thing that you've done in the past. There may be some new things out there. There's so much innovation in this space happening all the time that there are a lot of different ways that you can provide accommodations. Meet people where they are. So ensure each person has the space and feels comfortable to inform you what they need and how they're showing up now and how they would ideally like to show up in the workplace. Engage in that dialogue. Provide lots of different ways for someone to reach out to you to ask for that kind of support and don't tolerate pity. Don't create an environment where, you know, people feel sorry for someone who needs an accommodation.

So many of us would benefit from some kind of accommodation, whether it be short term or long term. It doesn't mean that we deserve to be pitied. Just looking for ways to set ourselves up for success. So really just focus on making sure they've got equal access to opportunity to succeed. And just to share a little bit more about some of the different kinds of disabilities which some are permanent, some are not, some are visible, some are not visible. Things can be Some that are visible will include someone who's wheelchair bound or has a prosthetic limb, someone who might be blind or vision impaired, someone who has low hearing or deafness. That's long term. Different effects of aging.

Things that are invisible can be different chronic medical conditions. So you might have somebody who has ibs, for example, or gout, or you know, something else that's kind of chronic long term, but is not obvious necessarily to everyone working around them. Someone with anxiety, somebody with ptsd, with diabetes, with ADD or adhd, ocd, processing disorders, colorblindness, autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, arthritis, depression, epilepsy. So you can see there's a whole host of different things that are invisible disabilities. And you know, some of those may be permanent, some of those may come and go. If you think about anxiety, depression being easily triggered due to ptsd those different things tend to come in waves, and it may depend on current events or things sort of outside of any one of our control that could be causing those to pop up, be more significant. So know that you may need to provide some flexibility for some of those as well. And then some of the more temporary ones are, you know, maybe there's an injury from a car accident or from sports.

Somebody may be going, undergoing medical treatment that requires infusions or something like that, or physical therapy. They may have had surgery. They may be pregnant. They might be having just given birth. Those are more temporary. Again, mostly visible. But some of those may be invisible, especially someone who's just given birth. They may appear to be, you know, fully, like, able to function and so forth at work, but, you know, actually have some support needs that they really could benefit from as part of their healing process.

And as you know, because not all maternity leaves are long enough to cover, like, the full physical recovery for a woman who's given birth, it is important to know that you're. You may need to provide some accommodations even if somebody has been on maternity leave. The other thing, you know, to remember is really focus on inclusive language here. So rather than talking about, for example, handicapped parking or handicapped restrooms, use accessible parking. Accessible restrooms. We don't want to talk about someone being mentally ill, disturbed and sane. Some of that language is obviously very inflaming. We really want to talk more about, you know, it's a person with a mental health condition.

And in terms of talking about a disabled person, somebody with a disability, it's really better to say this person has a different disability. Some people actually preferred having the term be that they are differently abled rather than disabled. It's that kind of thing. You know, you really want to ask that employee how, you know, which terminology applies to them, what makes them most comfortable. They may not want to use any of that terminology at all, and that's their choice, and we should respect that. So just being mindful that it's not just about the accommodation you provide, but also the language, the tone, having this all feel just very normal and natural for everybody, all of that is part of creating an inclusive environment. So I hope this has provided you some helpful things to think about to make sure that all of your employees feel fully included and supported at work. And that's a wrap.

I'm Michelle Bogan and that's your DEI minute for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please be sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts and don't forget to leave us a review. If you ever have questions, please visit our website or send us an email. You can also sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. Links to everything can be found in the episode Notes. This episode was produced and edited by PodGross with podcast art by our very own Jamie Applegate.