Employers can tap into an underserved labor market by adapting the workplace for people with disabilities. Adaptation includes addressing physical and digital accessibility and utilizing various technology tools and resources. - BY Lisa Trumbull

The principle of accessibility in the workplace began with a primary concentration on physical accessibility. Making buildings and workspaces fully accessible opened up new opportunities for hiring people with disabilities. However, the limited focus on physical space left two enormous gaps in achieving full accessibility. One is that focusing only on physical space ignored the needs of people who have a non-physical disability, like hearing impairment or neurological challenges. Second, once an employee is in the workplace, the person must be able to access workplace tools and resources equitably to achieve full productivity. Today, a disability-inclusive workplace considers physical and digital accessibility because inclusiveness is only achievable when people can access physical space and digital tools that accommodate special needs, like assistive technology devices.

The Business Case for Full Accessibility

There is a business case for embracing physical and digital accessibility as core values. For example, organizations gain access to an expanded labor market with qualified and talented people. The European Disability Forum reports that the European average disability employment gap is 24.4 percentage points. Why such a big gap? The Forum names three main reasons, which are a lack of reasonable accommodation, structural discrimination and bias, and a lack of access to inclusive education. The three are interrelated. A person with a disability may not have had access to the same education as the non-disabled but is more than qualified to take advantage of employer-directed skills training. However, the training may require physical and digital accessibility, so the employer justifies discrimination by claiming that enabling accessibility is too expensive. It often becomes a vicious circle, which leads to people with disabilities not getting hired.

Physical Access is One Barrier

Developing physical access for people with disabilities includes obvious infrastructure elements like elevators, wheelchair ramps, stairlifts, designated parking spots, and ergonomic workstations that meet the employees’ needs. Though each accessibility element is critical, employers should take a broader view of physical accessibility. There are less obvious physical accessibility issues that should be addressed. Physical accessibility does not only mean getting a person into the workplace and situated at a workstation. Employees need access to accessible supplies, clear aisles for reaching coworkers for collaboration and attending workplace meetings, and the ability to attend meetings offsite because the location was chosen with disability access in mind. Can employees in wheelchairs reach in-house meetings? Does the meeting room have the technology to support the visual or hearing impaired? The answers to these kinds of questions determine the level of inclusion and belonging an employee experiences.

The workspace needs enough room for the person to move around in a wheelchair or on crutches. A cramped workspace with inadequate equipment does not work for people needing physical assistive devices or even for people with joint or muscle issues. For example, a person with muscular dystrophy may need anti-fatigue mats, low-task chairs, portable ramps, textured stair treads, automatic door openers, or workspace room for a support animal. Neurodiverse employees could use a “quiet room” when they need to reduce stress from mental overstimulation. Each person’s physical needs are different, but most physical accommodations are easy to implement and are not expensive.

Digital Access as Important as Physical Access

Digital access enables people with disabilities to participate in work activities and, like physical access, supports equitable inclusion. Digital equity means promoting fairness by treating people with special needs differently. A person with a disability may need special software that accommodates a vision impairment, or a person with motor limitations may need a speech recognition program. There are two critical points to keep in mind about digital access. One is ensuring the software programs are smoothly integrated with the existing work technologies programs all staff access. The second point is giving disabled employees the necessary assistive technology training.

Achieving digital accessibility ensures everyone can equally understand and interact with digital technologies. There is digital accessibility through design and construction, like website pages and software program elements, and digital accessibility through technologies like screen readers that read content out loud. Employers can provide screen magnification software, speech input software, and alternative input devices. There are items like hands-free mouse tracking (head movements control the cursor), writing and reading assistants, puff-and-sip technology for paralyzed people (a joystick controlled with breathing actions that move the cursor), and more. The digital access technologies are combined with the physical technologies, like alternative keyboards and recording devices.

Four Concepts of an Equitable Computer Screen

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) explores the strategies and supporting resources to make a website accessible. The four fundamental concepts apply to any digital website, screen, tools, and various information technologies, meaning internal webpages and IT technologies can follow the guidelines. The four elements are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.2 The four principles also apply to any digital technologies that remote employees with disabilities use.

Perceivable refers to features like text size, scalable content, captioned videos, avoidance of visual characteristics like “click on the box,” contrasting text and background colors. Operability may address appropriately labeled buttons and links, adjustable time limits, avoidance of flickers and flashes, and all screen items accessible by the keyboard if the user cannot operate the keyboard. Understandable webpages include consistent navigation and avoiding automatic triggering of a change in context. Robustness includes ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications). ARIA is the markup that can be added to HTML to communicate the properties of user interface elements to assistive technologies.

Tapping into Talent

There is a move to expand DEI to DEIA: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. Physical and digital technologies can accommodate most types of disabilities that exist today. Despite people continuing to believe the opposite, in many cases ensuring accessibility is inexpensive and uncomplicated. The truth is many people with disabilities are unable to get hired because some people are still uncomfortable around the disabled. That is changing as the world gets more educated on the facts. Employable people with disabilities want the same things as everyone else, namely, meaningful work that uses their skills, inclusion at work, and the chance for a sense of belonging. Physical and digital technologies make it all possible.