Global Accessibility Awareness Day is coming before us. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come in hiring people with disabilities in the workplace.
We’ve seen a lot of progress from simply building a ramp to get in the building and making office spaces accessible, including washrooms. We’re even getting better at inclusive hiring and getting better at workplace accommodations.
This has been great at adding cognitive diversity to the organization at entry and individual contributor levels, but we need to go further. We need organizations to grow their talents with people with disabilities to allow them to grow their careers within their organizations.
I’ve been fortunate to progress in my career. However, I’ve had to be poached by different companies at a higher level to move my career. Nobody has ever grabbed me to sponsor me to bring me up except for one place.
Growing people with a disability allows a path to amplify cognitive diversity and critical thinking at all levels.
Here’s my call to action for organizations:
Choose an employee with a disability that you can mentor or sponsor to bring to the next level.
Have active talks and conversations to plan that person’s career within your organization. And lastly, nothing gets done without being measured.
Measure the progression of talents with disabilities in your org and representation at all levels.
When we do this, that’s the next evolution. Thank you.
