Last month, the Tech Accountability Coalition hosted quarterly meetings of our three working groups: Product Equity, Pathways Into Tech, and Inclusive Cultures.
As part of its yearlong focus on improving trust within the workplace at all levels, the Inclusive Cultures Working Group’s June convening focused specifically on building trust and inclusion in a hybrid work environment. Nicole Cuellar-Lopez, Director of DEI from Etsy and the Co-Chair of the Working Group, kicked off the discussion with key industry insights.
This was followed by an inspiring dialogue (listen below!) on the often unseen challenges facing employees with disabilities between Maria Town, President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), and Beth Wiesendanger, the Senior Manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility at Etsy.
Watch Session on Trust in a Hybrid Workplace
you are listening to our conversation ontrust and inclusion in a hybridenvironment a conversation on disabilityand shifting work policies my name is shhernandz and I am the tech equityresearch manager here at Aspen digital apolicy program of the Aspen Institutethe tech accountability Coalition hostedits Quarter Two working group meetingsin June covering topics such as productEquity Pathways in the tech andinclusive cultures the conversation oninclusive cultures focused on thisyear-long theme of trust from a personalto global scale at work Nicole quellerLopez the director of Dei at Etsy andthe co-chair for the coalition’s cultureworking group opened the conversationabout building trust and inclusion in ahyrid work environment this was followedby a conversation we have recorded foryou between Maria town the president andCEO of of the American Association ofpeople with disabilities or APD and Bethweisen danger the senior manager ofdiversity equity and inclusion andaccessibility at Etsy the rest of theconversation and chat have been omittedto ensure that the members ofaccountability Coalition are able tospeak freely under the chadam house ruleto learn more about the membership forthe tech accountability Coalition pleasevisit our website uh Linked In the shownot here’s the conversationDei breni I’m the senior director ofempowered communities here at Aspendigital I lead all of Aspen’s work atthe intersection of tech Equity Justicerepresentation for underservedcommunities and so the tech cilityCoalition is one of several projects inmy portfolio and it’s really great tohave these conversations and to findways uh to interconnect the work thatwe’re doing across the board we’re goingto have a conversation between twoamazing people one is Maria town who isthe president and CEO of uh the AmericanAssociation of people with disabilitiesMaria Town previously served as directorof the city of Houston mayor’s officefor people with disabilities advocatingfor Citizens with disabilities Mar wasalso the senior associate director inthe Obama White House Office of Publicengagement managing disability Communityengagement and coordinating Federalengagement Maria has expertise in areasof Youth Development leadership andpromoting College and Career readinessand I would be remiss if I didn’tmention that Maria and I actually wereboth in the Obama White House Office ofPublic engagement at the same time soreally glad to have Maria here in adifferent context to share herexperience and in conversation withMaria is Beth wise and danger who is asenior diversity Equity inclusion andaccessibility manager at Etsy just heardfrom Nicole Beth is on her team as welland Beth’s mission is to ensure more ofus are seeing heard and advocated for asa disabled woman she works to leverageof the resources she has access to andto create access for those who don’tBeth is a champion of creatingopportunities tearing down cultural andsystemic barriers and fosteringCommunity knowledge and success overBeth’s career she has overseen andexecuted hundreds of events around theglobe bringing awareness to topics likediversity and creativity women in Techaccessibility and disability the futureof work and more Beth will be leading usto the conversation with Maria and asthe conversation continues I encourageall of you to don’t be shy and and dropin questions comments reactions in thechat there’ll be some time for Q&A withboth Beth and Maria at the end of thisbut that also shouldn’t stop you fromweighing in as conversation progressesso without further Ado I’m going to kickit over to Beth uh and Maria to get itstarted so thanks very much and over toyou Beth and Maria yeah thank you somuch I’m incredibly honored to be hereand feel so privileged be able to chatwith you Maria about how we can buildand Foster trust and inclusion acrossteams especially through the lens ofdisability both a parent and Nota parentso I’m really excited to chat with youtoday I’d love for us to start if it’sokay with you with a little bit of levelsetting talking about some history hereand I’d love to ask you to describe alittle bit the shift in the way thatcompanies especially tech companies havereally shown up or have fallen short ofshowing up for people with disabilitiesin a world before and after thepandemic who are B2 and I Beth verygrateful to be in conversation with youand so grateful to zachi and his teamfor inviting me to speak with you alltoday I want to provide a visualdescription for anyone who might need itI’m a white woman with a longish brownhair I’m wearing a bright pink dress andlipstick andPearlsum and your question is a huge one andso I think one of one of the veryimportant things that we should juststart with is that disabled people havealways been kind of users and adaptersof technology and I’ll share I would notbe here today without technology and Imean that very literally I was born verypremature right and so the very firstinteractions that I had were with a lotof tech to keep me alive I am a part ofwhat’s known as the Ada generation theAmericans with Disabilities Act I’m thefirst generation of disabled people togrow up with the Civil Rightsprotections of both the individuals withdisabilities Education Act and theAmericans with Disabilities Act it wasvery obvious to everyone who was in thatdelivery room that I was going to bedisabled if I survived my parent parentswere told that I won’t be able to walkor talk but that they shouldn’t be soconcerned because they’ll be technologyand that was I really think somethingthat completelytransformed my whole family’s idea ofwhat was possible for me and I don’tusually actually start by tellingpersonal stories especially not thatstory but I think it’s a a reallyimportant example of how technology isfrequently used as an that the ideaswithin technology are usedas ideas that can help break downbarriers in a world that was absolutelynot designed for disabled people thereality is technology can break downbarriers but it can also exacerbateexisting barriers or create new ones andwe see that very commonly within techcompanies I have a background inemployment and one of the things that Ilike to say is that the employmentdisparities that we see for people withdisabilities are really a reflection ofthe systemic disparities and barriersthat we Face throughout every otheraspect of our life so when we look attech companies and disabilityhiring the statistics are usually prettybad if they exist at all and so I’mthrilled to see that Etsy actually doesinclude disability in kind ofdemographic surveys of employees that isnot the standard and part of the reasonthose numbers are often so low isbecause stem education whether at thecollege or graduate level or at thesecondary high school level remains veryinaccessible and I’ll shout out mycolleagues at organizations like thenational Federation of the blind whohave sued College after college to makemath education accessible and one of thethings that I would love to see fromtechnology companies who recognize thisGap is a willingness to work withinstitutions and with otherorganizations that are the standardsetting bodies for curricula to actuallymake this curricula accessible indifferent ways another area where we’veseen technology companies espouse valuesof inclusion and not really live up tothem is they’ll promote products as akind of accessibility Boon but disabledpeople are not actually included in theprocess of design and if we are we’renot included as designers ourselveswe’re included as testers and usertesting is extremely important thoroughuser testing diverse user testingextremely important but I really want tosee a world where disabled people arenot just testers on the kind of end of adesign process but are really engagingin design leadership within companiesfrom the very start aapd as anorganization a part of our Charteralmost 30 years ago was actuallyensuring that people with disabilitiescould take advantage of all of thebenefits that technology has to offer usso it’s a huge part of what we do doesthat begin to answer your question it’sa big question I’m glad I didn’t say in10 10 words or less because that’simpossible but what you said reallyresonates with me it’s this idea ofnothing for us without us that we hearquite often in the disability communityand as a Dei practitioner I think thethe a is missing from a lot of the deand I programs that I see in theindustry right the diversity equity andinclusion and access accessaccessibility is so important and weoften don’t see that and I agree as I amalso a first generation of the 0 andI’ve lived with that and I’m starting tosee things shift and starting to seethings change but you’re right I think alot of times in the industry thedisabled Community is brought in after aproduct is created to gut check butthey’re not there the start so I lovethat you said that love to hear yourthoughts because really pre pandemicthere were many workplaces that fellshort of accommodating people withdisabilities with remote work and thenof course the pandemic happened we hadto figure it out now hybrid and remotework are really a way of life I’m reallycurious to hear from you some concreteways that companies can build remote andhybrid work strategies that feel reallyinclusive foreveryone what a wonderful question andBeth you’re exactly right I there are somany jobs where people with disabilitieswould ask for remote work as anaccommodation only to be toldprepandemic that this job cannot be doneremotely and they would be denied umaccommodations and oftentimes eitherlose out on professional advancementopportunities or be fired or have tofind a new job and um it was bothamazing and pretty deeply frustratingwhen the co9 pandemic happened and Iwant to be clear it’s it’s stillhappening and as soon as non-disabledpeople needed remote work options we sawcompanies just make major pivots andinvestments into this remote andflexible work infrastructure that didn’texistpreviously and many companies are havemaintained this infrastructure andcontinued to iterate I’ll use zoom as anexample Zoom is a company and a platformwhere we have seen them continue to makechanges in how they operate to maketheir platform more accessible andinclusive over time on the topic of AIthe the automated captions that Zoom isprovides today are drastically improvedfrom what they started with a few yearsago and initially they didn’t reallyoffer integrated automated captioning soI think that’s that is one example of avery um tangible tool that companies nowhave access to whether it is across aplatform like Zoom or teams or go Googlemeets we should no longer be in a placewhere employees have to disclose adisability and ask for accommodations tobe or captions for something likecaptions to be turned on another I Iwant to parking back to the conversationthat happened previously in terms ofbuilding trust a a key part of buildingtrust istransparency and establishingtransparency within your remote workpractices so that employees are clear onwhen they should be reporting kind ofissues or difficulties when they shouldbe telling you about moments of joy andmoments where things worked and howthose kind of reports are beingtranslated into either new practices orpolicies across theorganization it is so important one ofthe things that is a reality of beingdisabled is an experience of poverty andwhile remote work is extremelybeneficial to people with disabilitieswe have seen improvements in disabilityemployment that have never happenedbefore and many attribute that to thegreater availability of remote workpeople with disabilities also experiencehuge digital divides and lack access tothings like a consistent internetconnection or to a device and so makingsure that your company’s remote workpolicies especially for employees whomay not qualify for full-time benefitsor who are newer employees or again havehave less access to benefits can gettheir internet connection funded as anemployee benefit or their device fundedand for their device including assisteddevices like screen readers or any kindof particular motor skill tools thingslike that all of that needs to bewrapped into a remote workpolicy yeah I love that and it’ssomething that I’m very appreciativethat Etsy takes a very strong approachto in the sense that we think about howdo we give funding for people to havethe setup that works best for them sothey can do their best work at homewhatever that might look like somethingyou said really resonated with me aboutthe tangible things that companies coulddo one of the things that we found inthis hybrid World speaking to the curbcut is that a lot of things that peoplein the disability and the neurodDivergence Community are asking for likereally clear written communication veryclear agendas follow-up action itemsuh making sure that we’re sendinginformation in as many ways as possiblewhether that’s written recorded or boththose are things that have beenimplemented in the workplace that havereally made a difference for everyone’sunderstanding you mentioned captions weare a global Workforce right manycompanies are many people English is nottheir first language so all of thesethings really help horse the disabledCommunity but really everybody be ableto access information more equitably andI love how you laid that outum you mentioned trust and I’m reallycurious to hear from you you talked abit about trust being abouttransparency I’m wondering if there aresome examples you can provide on howcompanies can really build authentictrust with historically underrepresentedemployee groups I noticed in the chatsomeone mentioned having disabilityawareness my programming and I thinkthat’s so important and I actually thinkkind of meeting people where they’re atin in terms of what language they’reusing to describe themselves is alsovery important now I am very proud to bedisabled it’s in the name of ourorganization that word shows up in myBio 5 million times in in my worlddisability is not a bad word I usepeople with disabilities and disabledpeople um both but some people umbecause disability has been so heavilystigmatized if you’re doing disabilityawareness month programming they willnot see themselves in that and that isokay so the question for all of us thenis what kind of programming what kind ofresource will people maybe they have achronic illness maybe they’re very newto a diagnosis and arestill terrified about what tomorrowlooks like what kinds of programmingwill they see themselves in and I thinkit is so important for information aboutaccessibility and inclusion to beincluded at almost every point ofEmployee Engagement and I I loved whenthe previous speaker described thesimple acronym that the first word isshared because employees should not onlyhear about accommodations andaccessibility during their onboarding orduring maybe a mid-year performancereviewaccessibility like so much in the techSpace is really iterative and theaccommodations process there’s somethingcalled the interactive conversation andI think this is incredibly important forpeople to understand many disabledpeople may not even be aware of whatoptions are out there for them in termsof accommodations and disability as anatural part of the human conditionchanges over time I have lived with mydisability cerebral policy my entirelife and literally every day I’m likefiguring out that it’s doing somethingnew and I’m just like what do I do nowand so folks need to be open to havingthose conversations and open toexploring different tools and workArrangements that might be better forpeople at different times building trustwith self-disclosure I hope that people don’t feellike they should have to use the worddisability in order to count right so ifthey’re disclosing that they have ERstanless syndrome or that they havediabetes that whoever they’re disclosingthat information to has enough of a akind of reference frame to recognizethat this is disability disclosurethat’s happening what do you think aboutthat be yeah I think that’s right whatI’m hearing you say is that it takeseducation on both ends right like ittakes a really educated team ofprofessionals on the employer side toreally have a human- centered approachand to understand that conversationsabout disability accommodations they’rereally they change over time what youneed today might not be what you needtomorrow and also you might not needanything today and maybe 3 months fromnow you do or maybe you don’t anymore sothere’s that education piece um and it’sinteresting because Nicole mentioned ourself ID campaign around disabilitysomething that I think you’re speakingto is also the education that disabilityis such a wide umbrella there is so muchthat goes under the umbrella ofdisability as it’s defined by the Adaand we found there were many people whodidn’t realize that they qualified orpeople who didn’t feel disabled enoughwhich is a whole other subject that Ican talk to as a disabled woman right amI disabled enough to say I’m disabled sothat education piece was really criticalfor us as well to really show peoplethat they they are in us they’re avalued member of the community andreally what do we mean when we saydisabled or neurodiverse it’s so manythings and Beth I just want to say foreveryone if you are asking yourself am Idisabled enough the answer is yes if youwere asking yourself that question theanswer is yes and I think that yourpoint is exactly right yeah wonderfulI’d love to talk to you you talk when wetalk about self ID we’re really talkingabout representation visibility andsomething I I heard you hint at earlieristhat there can be a concern that remotework if it’s only exclusively for peoplewith disabilities it can become thisform of separation and segregation rightand companies may see remote options andalternatives to creating accessiblein-person spaces and experiences so I’mcurious to hear from you how companiescan ensure really a shared and positiveexperience for both remote and in-personemployees uh who havedisabilities I’m so glad you broughtthis up back because it’s a concern thataapd has very deeply and it’s one of thereasons we have this concern is becausewe have seen this play out in theeducation space where as remoteeducation has become more of ad optionstudents with kind of the most complexaccess needs are forced into remote onlyschoolsand this works very well for some peopleand there are other people who reallywant to be in in shared space in sharedphysical space with colleagues in personand again what we don’t want to seehappen is all of the gains that disabledpeople have made because of things likeadvanced in visibility and advancementsin public policy and civil rights areactually we go backwards because thereis no longer we are no longer in sharedreal space together so I think one thingthat companies can do is continue toensure if you are doing a disability oraccessibility audit of your websites andof your remote platforms that you’reusing your project management systemsfor example are you also Contin to do anaudit of your physical space do youroffices continue to suit your employeesneeds whether or not they go there everyday or whether they appear are thereevery every quarter if you are hostingevents in person where your remoteworkers have an opportunity to attendare youincorporating opportunities for peopleto disclose their access needs in theinvitation I’m trying to think how tosay this and I think I’m just going tosay this I have cereal policy and when Ishow up in real space and you see melike walk around or move with myMobility device I am very disabled witha capital D and all of that sort ofvisibility goes away when you see me onZoom because you see me from here up andI’m sitting in one place and I don’tknow if you are still experiencing thisbut I feel like as people began toreturn to in-person interactions afterthe public health emergency ended didyou had folks being like oh wow Mariayou’re really short I didn’t realize howshort you were and those moments of ohwow like you talk about disability butyou are really disabled like you reallyneed support or help is everyoneprepared to welcome folks on their ownterms in this new kind of Engagement andI don’t have clearly I don’t have greatwords for this but it I want toemphasize that Main maining a culture ofinclusion in your physical workplaces ismore than just about addressingsomething like ADA compliance andphysical accessibility it is actuallymaking sure that when your blindemployees who have worked remotely fortwo years show up to your company picnicpeople actually know that they can talkto them and not feel awkward yeahabsolutely I think that there’sdefinitely still that happening wherepeople are coming in and meeting eachother for the first time and that ideaof what does inclusive Behavior looklike when we’re talking about disabilityand disability etiquette maybe right sothere’s the education and the awarenessand something that you hinted at justthen was ADA compliance I think thatoften times when organizations thinkabout disability inclusion or trustbuilding or belonging for so longhistorically I believe the approach hasreally been risk m ation right it’s beenthat compliance mindset and we’re juststarting to see a more human- centeredapproach to what disability inclusioncan really look like and so I’m curiousto hear from you do you have anyconcrete examples of how companies canreally go above and beyond that minimumrequirement of the Ada to really buildan inclusive work environment for peoplewithdisabilities yes so one thing that isimportant to say is compliance is stillimportant like compliance is still veryimportant and not just from a riskmanagement perspective but there arestill so many companies that actuallydon’t create accessible and inclusivespaces where from a kind of retailperspective people with disabilitiescan’t reach the card reader to actuallyspend money or they can’t get throughthe door still very real needs in thisspace andAmericans with Disabilities Act is thefloor and not the ceiling right and I Iwill say that over and over again so Ithink one one way that companies can gobeyond compliance in addition toensuring at a very basic level that youare compliant but creating a human-centered workplace as you’ve alreadymentioned B multiple times right theemployees should be able to show up asthey are and who they are at work and ifthat means means that they need adifferent desk Arrangement or chair doesthat need to be through anaccommodations process that requires adoctor’s note to sign off on this is youprobably did not expect me to bring thisup but many accommodations processesrequire the involvement of a medicalpractitioner and that is because of thehistoric idea that disability is somehowthe domain of medicine in the disabilityCommunity we talk a lot about somethingcalled the medical model whichidentifies that disability is aindividual problem within someone’s bodyor mind that needs to be cured ormitigated the disability rights movementreally pushed something called thesocial model which articulated thatpeople are not disabled as a result ofsomething that is inherently wrong withthem but disabled by society’s ideas ofwhat is normal and disabled by thingslike physical barriersand in reality there’s really a need forboth right if you’re someone who haschronic pain you’re going to needinvolvement from a competent healthccare professional and you’re going toneed a chair that doesn’t exacerbateyour pain both things are true but oftentimes doctors are not involved in ourday-to-day lives and yet the momentpeople need accomodations they’ve got togo make a doctor’s appointment get thisform filled out and give it to theiremployer when the physician has neverseen them engage in any otherenvironment besides an exam room andthat is again a pretty detailedexplanation of how not humans C arethese processes are so instead of anaccommodations process that is reallyagain centered on this medical model ofdisability what is a process foraccommodating all of your employees thatrecognizes different human needs in theworkplace and I know one thing that wewanted to talk about was how AI could beused to make the accommodations processeasier and I think that this is actuallyone of the places where AI could be veryuseful for employees to say here’s how Ilike to do my work what kind of setup isbest for me my mind works bestfrom this is not true for me 6:00 a.m.to 10:00 a.m. like how can I structuremy day to be the most effective I thinkthere are so many things companies cando beth what do you thinkyeah it’s interestingbecause I think thatcompanies historically have reallyrelied on um as you said the medicalmodel for so long and I think part ofthat again is because the way that theseprocesses have been built historicallyare they didn’t have people withdisabilities helping build the processesright so you have a process that’s veryrooted in how things have always beendone but it’s not necessarily how thingsneed to be done now and into the futureI always believe in prioritizing likelive Human conversation first andunderstanding that needs change overtime to your point growing up anytime Iwear Prosthetics anytime I neededProsthetics I would have myprosthetician basically write out whatthe doctor then needed to put on theprescription that then went to thehealth insurance for the healthinsurance to know like how to codeeverything in so I think it’s just arecognizing that process has beentraditionally very convoluted and whatcan we do to make it easier make iteasier not just on the person who’sneeding an accommodation but also on thepeople who are helping Empower folks toget the things that they need rightbecause at the end of the day the goalis the same the goal is for us to beable to show up and do uh as our bestselves and do our best work so I reallylove what you’re saying about how I dothink there’s this opportunity toleverage technology in the future I’dlove to ask you just one more questionwe talked a lot about technology we’vetalked a lot about how we can trulybuild an inclusive environment how wecan create a higher level of trust I’mcurious to hear from you just lookingahead what are some of your biggesthopes about how technology can create amore accessible and Equitable workenvironment and not even just for peoplewith disabilities but reallybroadly so I think we’ve actuallyalready touched on some of what mybiggest hopes will continue to be remotework was not just a boon for people withdisabilities it was also a boon forwomen and if we look at like the ways inwhich women’s participation in theworkforce began to change as moreemployers shifted back into in-personwork requirements many women left um theworkforce and I my my hope is that fordisabled people technology is everythingthat it says it can be without anincrease in things like surveillance orfurther exclusionand I Ialso want us to live in a world where werecognize the value of doing thingsanalog and also understand thattechnology is neverneutral so I when looking at somethinglike AI I see artificial intelligenceand automated decision tools being usedin ways that really support greaterIndependence and agency and control fordisabled people when I think about we’veum I recently read a piece that waswritten by a woman who used chat GPT tohelp her write a script to tell herparents she wanted to live in her ownapartment and this is someone who haswhat we would call like significantdisabilities and ultimately escaped herparents and was housing insecure for awhile but I think that these tools havea a great deal of promise but I alsothink that Tech tools that claimaccessibility as a benefit should reallyhave to prove theircase um before they’re allowed to justgo force and Conquer which is how itfeels a little bit and I’ll use umexamples we’re seeing companies begin touse these AI employment decision toolsfor Recruitment and hiring and thencontinued monitoring ofworkers and even one of my owncolleagues at aapd he before he came toaapd he applied for a job and had arobot camera monitoring his interview tosee if he made appropriate eye contactand this is someone who spasms and hastrimmers and he had no idea if the robotwas going to register his eye contact orif it was going to understand his speechaccurately we are beginning to seedisperate impacts happening for disabledpeople and people of color with thesekinds of tools and it’s frustratingbecause the job interview process isalready so biased and so inaccessible toso many people so the idea that thesetools doprovide a a moreneutral sort of under uh assessment of aparticular employee is a really excitingone but again because of the sort ofhistoric exclusion of disabled peoplefrom Tech spaces there’s often not evenroom to flag these things as potentialissues and when I think about again likehow would someone request anaccommodation if they knew that acompany was using AI to make anemploymentdecision is that a is that accommodationjust a standard interview is that usedagainst them in the future I thinkthere’s so much work that we need to doto build out the structures that canhelp people make informed decisionswhether that is an individual indeciding what they want in interviewprocess to look like or a companyfiguring out like how they will actuallyaccommodate job Seekers and employeeswith disabilities as they begin to usenew tools that we haven’t tested as muchbecause they’re so new but we want toexplore because we need theefficieny yeah I love that technology isa tool but it doesn’t exist outside ofthe system in which it was built thankyou so much I I’ve Loved chatting withyou and I’m excited to turn it back toAspen thanks everybody thanks Mariathanks Beth that was really an amazinginspiring conversation I reallyappreciated that and I know a lot offolks on the call did as as well Iwanted to see if anybody had anyquestions or thoughts after thisconversation we’re going to go to a moreGeneral discussion where everyone canweigh in with their thoughts but anybodyhave any specific thoughts or questionsor comments for Beth and Maria yeah Ihave a question I know I’m I’mprivileged here as an organizer but howdo you disaggregate between such aconglomerate community of people withdisabilities for ranging from I knowwhere you mentioned diabetes to ALS toneurod Divergence and and uh how do youmake sure that you are one collectingthe right level of granular data and twobuilding for everybody under that groupI think from an Etsy perspective what wewere really hoping to do is create aculture where we had a more accurateunderstanding of the breadth of ouremployee base who identified as having adisability or a neurod Divergence and sofor us what was important from a self-idperspective was to really again educateso when we we updated our self IDquestionnaire this year really puttingin a definition for us employees of theAda and all of the examples that existwith under the with underneath the Adaso really the question we were asking isyes I have a disability or a neurodDivergence or have had a history ofhaving one no I don’t or I don’t wish toidentify and for our purposes it’sreally helpful to get a betterunderstanding of a moreauthentic number of how many employeesare working at our company who havedisabilities from a community standpointwhen we talk about our employee ResourceGroup and the subcommunities that formit’s really important to make sure thatwe have groups that feel broad enough toform connection but also specific enoughto really differentiate and make surethat people feel like they themselvesare represented and their experiencesare represented so we have a formal ERGand accessibility ERG and with underthat ERG we have several subcommunitiesthat are more specific to what peopleare really experiencing and showing upwith and want to identify and connectwith other people over so the GrassrootsCommunity portion is is really led bywho’s here and who feels safe enough andwho wants to talk and engage and itfeels really specific and then from anID perspectiveagain we really try to educate aroundthe the wide umbrella that the Adaencompasses this is Maria I I think thatapproach is exactly right I also whenyou think about the idea of Designingfor all that does not mean that thereneeds to be onedesign and I think the idea of UniversalDesign for example is is extremelyappealing and it’s a great thing toAspire to but given the diversity of notjust the disability experience but TheHuman Experience itself there can be aneed for specific types of solutions toaccommodate specific groups of peopleand I actually think that there can bereally good examples of this where folksfeel validated and seen andappreciated when they are not forced toactually accommodate themselves to aparticular solution claims to beUniversal so I think in designing yourpolicies and programs and your productsobviously centering accessibility andinclusion and making things as inclusiveas possible but being willing toconsider when people might needsomething else and the process that Bethdescribed where they’re educating peopleon this big broad definition ofdisability while allowing folks to showup as they are and self- select intoother groups that really reflect ownpersonal experiences is an example ofhow you do that from the kind of peopleside thank you so much the question inthe chat that I would love to answer Ihave ttis in multiple occurrences ofBelle’s policy as far as I understandneither is officially registered as adisability understanding that is there away to still request accommodationswithout being seen as an annoyingemployee when there is no register ofdisabilities the Americans withdisabilties act defines disability asany physical or mental condition thatimpacts an activity of daily living anactivities of daily living areeverything from speaking understandinginformation eating getting dressedreading being in your community andBeyond again if you are experiencing adisability even if you don’t see acondition reflected in a list from anorganization or on a website that’s okaybecause there is no formal registry ofdisabilities and I think that yourconcern about being seen as an annoyingemployee when you request anaccommodation reflects an issue ofinclusive culture and so I I wouldalways say if you need an accommodationyou should request it but if your fearis that people will think of you asannoying that is actually a sign of Mmuch bigger problems within anorganization where disability is notseen again as a part of their kind ofemployee body it’s seen as this thingthat people just have to deal with and Iso I hope that helps[Music]
This illuminating conversation was followed by a robust, off-the-record discussion among Working Group members. To learn more about how to participate in future Inclusive Cultures Working Group meetings as well as the work of the broader Tech Accountability Coalition, please reach out to us at techaccountabilitycoalition@aspeninstitute.org.
GET TO KNOW THE EXPERTS
Nicole Cuellar-Lopez Director of Diversity Equity & Inclusion, Etsy, Inc.
Read about Nicole Cuellar-Lopez
Nicole Cuellar-Lopez (she/her/hers) is Director of Diversity Equity & Inclusion at Etsy, Inc. Born in the Bronx, raised in Florida, and educated at Howard University. She’s a parent to two young children. Nicole held similar roles at high growth startups such as Peloton and Uber. Prior to that, Nicole worked at an international education non-profit. She lived and taught in a Siberian university on a Fulbright fellowship. Nicole earned her BA in Spanish and Russian. She’s passionate inclusion in all aspects of work life from the corporate level to investing and entrepreneurship.
Maria Town President & CEO, American Association of People with Disabilities
Read about Maria Town
Maria Town is the President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. Town previously served as Director of the City of Houston Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, advocating for citizens with disabilities. Town was also the senior associate director of the Obama White House Office of Public Engagement, managing the disability community engagement and coordinating federal engagement.
Beth Wiesendanger, a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, is currently serving as the Senior Manager of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility at Etsy. As a double amputee and prosthetic user, Beth’s personal journey has shaped her commitment to ensuring that people with disabilities are seen, heard, and advocated for. With a successful career in corporate America, Beth is breaking barriers and leading the way for disabled individuals in the diversity and inclusion space. Her work emphasizes the importance of representation and the creation of inclusive spaces.
The rise of remote work has sparked a critical conversation about the future of employment and its impact on building trust and inclusion within a hybrid environment. This is particularly relevant for people with disabilities as they have often encountered obstacles to employment resulting from employers’ insufficient efforts to establish and nurture an inclusive work environment and as a result of widespread systemic inaccessibility of transit and housing which are often required to seek, get, and maintain employment. Many of the workplace policy advancements that were experienced during the pandemic incorporated accommodations that were originally designed and deployed for people with disabilities. These include remote work, regular use of captioning, and flexible workplace policies.
These accommodations were long requested and often denied to people with disabilities. However the widespread implementation of a variety of accommodations during the pandemic highlighted the curb-cut effects of so many tools and resources that are ubiquitous and essential to the ways of work today. This demonstrates the importance of building with people with disabilities to benefit all workers- especially given the rise in the number of people with disabilities since the pandemic.
In hasty return to office policies, some companies are reversing a lot of these policies to the detriment of those with disabilities and the trust employees had with their companies. This conversation examined the considerations that HR teams and strategic leadership could take when thinking about place of work policies to ensure that the innovation around accessibility made during the pandemic is not lost.
The conversation highlighted the importance of transparency when establishing or shifting place of work policies. When leadership openly shares goals, challenges, and successes with employees, it creates a sense of partnership, trust, and psychological safety. This trust is further bolstered by open communication channels that allow employees to provide feedback, raise concerns, and suggest improvements. However, fostering a genuinely inclusive hybrid work environment requires more than good intentions.
Keep reading for key takeaways on workplace accommodations, open communication, and human-centered approaches.
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Dive in
Read on to learn more about disability and shifting workplace policies.
Shreya Singh Hernández (she, her) is a data-driven social impact strategist with a transdisciplinary career in responsible technology and data justice. In her role as the Senior Manager of Empowered Communities and the Responsible Data Practices Lead at Aspen Digital, a policy program of the Aspen Institute, Shreya leads efforts on convening tech experts, collaborating with civil society leaders and academicians, and creating systems of accountability through innovative data programs in the field of tech equity, product inclusion, DEI, and AI Fairness.
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