How To Make Work More Accessible for Employees with Disabilities

Flexibility, creativity, empathy and a commitment to employee diversity are the foundation of real accommodations

Given the enormous range of physical and mental disabilities, honoring National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October can seem like an impossible endeavor. After all, accommodations for employees with disabilities can range from the obvious, like wheelchair accessible bathroom stalls, to the ambiguous, like company policies for mental health days. Given the lifelong career effects of disability discrimination, however, the topic must be addressed by any company that hopes to recruit a diverse workforce.

Luckily, there is hope. While the solution for each individual employee might look different, the approach is the same: empathy, flexibility, creativity – and a true commitment to employee diversity.

Why does diversity matter?

According to the US Office of Disability Employment Policy, as of September 2022, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 8.3%, vs. 3.2% for people without disabilities. There is similar disparity in the EU, making this an issue across countries and industries.

Beyond the moral imperative of removing barriers to employment, recent events have proven the importance of a strong and dedicated workforce. Limiting your application pool through intentional or unconscious bias is a foolish proposition when employers are competing for increasingly choosy applicants.

Managing for a diverse team

It is often said that people don’t leave companies, they leave bad managers. Although a huge oversimplification, it is obvious that good managers make for happier employees, which in turn leads to employee loyalty.

“I think proper management training is critical,” said Eric Stitzlein, Senior Manager Enablement Services. “You can know how to offer support, how to be there for somebody, but also read each person and situation and not pry. You give people that space and that grace and you are there for the conversation on their terms when they want to discuss their emotional, physical, or time off needs you.”

Flexibility is often noted by employees with disabilities as a crucial factor in their job satisfaction. Flexibility can mean anything from the ability to alter one’s schedule for medical appointments to the ability to adapt workflows for physical or mental health constraints. The commonsense mindset is, if work can be adjusted while still getting done to the company’s standards, why not? However, a company must actively encourage flexibility while not penalizing employees for taking advantage of it.

Eric himself, after his diagnosis, felt secure that his management would have his back. His experience did, however, make him more cognizant of the potential anxieties of people in similar situations.

“Thinking back to the diagnosis of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, a disease with no cure, and an uncertain future, I am blessed to have worked with such a supportive team, and I feel for those out there in a less ideal situation. I was given the opportunity to provide value to the company and feel valued as an individual living with a rare disease that required adjustments to my schedule and work restrictions as the disease progressed.”

Danielle Chance, a study coordinator from the Ashland office, praised her own manager for making accommodations seem effortless.

“One of my OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) things is I'm a workaholic,” she said. “I'm obsessed with doing the best possible job ever. It's a very focused obsession I have, and my people leader knows this. I have vacation planned for next week, and she's been adamant that we're going to meet on Friday to tell her what is still on the plate that I couldn't get done.”

Danielle said her manager will also reinforce the expectation that vacation is time away, and that she needs to turn off her notifications and leave work behind. By giving her a chance to get organized and reassuring her that everything will be fine for her time away, Danielle’s boss is letting her get into the mental space to take a real break.

Eric and Danielle both mentioned the importance of training to get managers to a place where they feel comfortable offering support for their employees. If a company is committed to diversity, and this commitment is reflected in their policies, managers should feel empowered to accommodate employees who need adjustments without needing to know everything about every potential disability,

Creativity is another trait that managers can cultivate to support their employees. Once again, given a situation where her neurodiversity threatened to affect her work, Danielle felt supported by her manager in a way that meant she suffered no ill effects from a flare up.

“When Ashland dropped our mask mandate policy, my OCD skyrocketed,” Danielle said. “I was like ‘oh my gosh, I'm seeing people's faces and they are germs.’ And my boss just relocated my desk. She put me in a back corner. I have essentially four walls around me, and not being able to see everyone’s smiling faces just deescalated how much I was feeling. But that was also because I was able to tell her.”

Because she had cultivated a culture of trust and flexibility, Danielle’s potentially triggering event was painlessly diffused by her manager.

Commitment = Action, or The Revenge of Glassdoor

A company can attract employees with disabilities the same way it can attract any employee – though a stellar word-of-mouth reputation and following up publicly stated commitments with real action.

“A pledge for accessibility in future planning is a meaningful step that employers can take nowadays,” Danielle said. “I also think that a commitment to open communication can make a difference.”

Using the right language is the first step. By proclaiming policies supporting diversity in hiring – like flexibility – an employer can get the attention of savvy applicants. However, they must be prepared to back them up because people do talk. Due in part to her own good experiences, several of Danielle’s family members also now work at Charles River’s Ashland site.

“I think what sets CRL apart to me is working for a greater good,” said Eric. “We work as an inclusive community on any number of things that impact neurodiversity, disabilities, and rare diseases. I feel like that is a bigger message, and one CRL leverages. It really sets us apart from just another job.”