The Value of Workplace Accessibility and Accommodations

In light of this year’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month, I would like to highlight the following two terms: “accessibility” and “accommodations.” Do you see “accessibility” and “accommodations” being used interchangeably in communication about disabilities? Both terms relate to making spaces, including workplaces, more welcoming for people with disabilities. The terms can be also connected to every aspect of employment, from recruiting to hiring to retaining to promoting. However, the two terms differ. While “accessibility” benefits all employees, accommodations help just certain workers.

Merriam-Webster defines “accessibility” as “the quality or state of being accessible,” and defines “accessible” as “easily used or accessed by people with disabilities: adapted for use by people with disabilities.”

Accessibility can relate to universal design. Section508.gov defines “universal design” as the “concept in which products and environments are designed to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaption or specialized design.”

Many people benefit from universal design daily. For example, they use curb cuts, which are slight ramps from sidewalks to streets. Aside from helping individuals with mobility difficulties, they are useful for people with suitcases, individuals with baby carriages, and people in other circumstances. Elevators benefit many of the same groups who benefit from curb cuts, make it easier to carry heavy and/or bulky objects, and help people who want to avoid using stairs.

Accessibility can relate to a place’s culture and require fundamental changes in how offices are run. In accessible workplaces, people with disabilities feel the spaces were designed to accommodate some or all of their needs and are not addressed on an ad-hoc basis. These employees can work without asking for accommodations that would benefit them. When a workplace is universally designed, people with disabilities may feel that they are less of a burden and that they truly belong.

Accessibility does not relate to just physical accessibility, such as wheelchair ramps, and technological accessibility (i.e., websites). It also is connected to how agency leaders, employees, interns, volunteers, and others think and feel about disabilities. Your colleagues with disabilities may experience inaccessible workplaces if coworkers think negatively about people with disabilities. Such attitudinal boundaries include thinking that people with disabilities are inferior and/or incapable. Colleagues may also believe that their coworkers with disabilities are receiving special treatment due to their disability, feel that invisible disabilities are not legitimate, are scared of behaving incorrectly with people with disabilities (and thus avoid them), for example.

An accessible workplace may train its staff about disabilities in order to prevent and/or eliminate these barriers. Rigbe Gebrehawaria, a Disability InclusionSuch advocate for the federal Department of State who has a physical disability, wrote “We need to give people the skills and the knowledge they need, we need to make sure that they work on their conscious/unconscious biases.” Employees with disabilities can help plan and lead the trainings, which all new employees, interns, volunteers and others should take on a regular basis.

Try to be as accessible as possible because accessibility:

• Fosters a more welcoming workplace, increasing productivity and decreasing costly turnover.
• Allows everyone to benefit and reduces the needs for accommodations. However, accommodations would still be needed.
• Helps employees, including people with disabilities, work to their full potential. Federal State Department employee India Ochs (who has a speech disability) wrote, “The more resources provided to employees with disabilities, the more they can tap into all of their talents when on the job and fully engage with colleagues.”

In contrast, reasonable accommodations are much more of a one-off. Merriam Webster defines “reasonable accommodation” as “something done to accommodate a disabled person that does not jeopardize safety or pose an undue hardship for the party (as an employer or landlord) doing it.”

Accommodations can be seen as changes that occur on an individual basis. In contrast to elements of universal design, not everyone can benefit from individual accommodations. In addition, employees may feel that their coworkers with disabilities are getting preferential treatment if they see them receiving reasonable accommodations.

However, accommodations may be necessary for employees with disabilities to work to their full potential and may be integral to keep valuable employees. The Job Accommodation Network cites both direct benefits (i.e., increased employee retention and eliminated costs associated with training a new employee) and indirect benefits (i.e., improved interactions with coworkers and increased overall company morale) of accommodations.

Be accessible and provide accommodations. All employees would gain.

Miriam Edelman, MPA, MSSW, is a Washington, D.C.,-based policy professional. Her experience includes policy work for Congress. Miriam’s undergraduate degree is from Barnard College, Columbia University, with majors in political science and urban studies. She has a master’s in public administration from Cornell University, where she was inducted into the national honorary society for public administration. She has a master’s of science in social work (focusing on policy) from Columbia University. She is a commissioner of the DC Commission on Persons with Disabilities. Miriam aims to continue her career in public service. She is especially interested in democracy, civic education, District of Columbia autonomy, diversity, health policy, women’s issues, and disabilities.

Photo Credit: Marcus Aurelius, Pexels