What Inclusion in the Corporate World Should Look Like

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Inclusion in the corporate world refers to creating a work environment that values and respects the diversity of employees, embraces their unique backgrounds, perspectives, and abilities, and ensures that everyone feels welcome, supported, and empowered to contribute their best. It involves creating a culture that actively promotes and practices equal opportunities for all individuals, regardless of their race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion, or any other characteristic.
 
Many companies claim to be inclusive yet most still fail to acknowledge the disabled population when drafting their D&I (Diversity and Inclusion) strategies, practicing what I call selective inclusion. Granted, it is easier (and less costly) to tackle gender, sexual orientation, religion, and race and some may claim this is enough for a company to claim a diverse corporate culture. However, people with disabilities are not optional, additional targets within inclusion strategies, and should definitely not be boxes that can be left unchecked in the “diversity” list. If anything, people with disabilities, because of their different experiences, can bring new and unique ideas to the table, and lead the way to innovation and breakthroughs, if only they are given a seat and a chance to contribute. 
 
But a D&I strategy goes beyond simply having a diverse workforce; it focuses on fostering an environment where everyone feels included, respected, and able to fully participate in all aspects of work. This includes ensuring equitable access to opportunities, resources, and career advancement, as well as providing fair treatment and protection against discrimination or bias. For people with disabilities, this still seems unattainable today. Even after Covid 19 has shifted the workplace from the physical sphere to the online one, finally giving people with disabilities a golden opportunity to have better chances of participating and contributing to places they couldn’t get their foot in before, those with disabilities continue to be overlooked and under-represented in the workforce, because companies are reluctant to go the extra mile to cater to their needs.
 
As Harvard Business School professor Robin J. Ely and Morehouse College president David A. Thomas said: ” Being genuinely valued and respected involves more than just feeling included. It involves having the power to help set the agenda, influence what — and how — work is done, have one’s needs and interests considered, and have one’s contributions recognized and rewarded with further opportunities to contribute and advance.”
 
 
Although the situation today is less than ideal, the path to inclusion is not as difficult as one might imagine. 

From selective inclusion to inclusion

Embarking on a D&I journey is a commitment that takes time, requires flexibility and a willingness to adapt aspects of the workplace to accommodate people from all walks of life. At the core of this journey is the willingness to truly be inclusive. Disability inclusion is not an overnight achievement through a heartwarming message posted on social media channels and advertising campaigns. It is a reevaluation of an organization’s recruitment policies, communication practices, environmental office design and a requestioning of its internal behaviors and attitudes towards people with disabilities. 

Accommodating people with disabilities starts with understanding their needs and concerns, and building empathy among employees to create safe spaces to enable everyone to participate and thrive. 
Romy Wakil, DEI Consultant & Anti-Oppressive Therapist, mentions a few ingredients for companies to help them become inclusive.

• Psychoeducation: Psychoeducation can empower all employees and leaders with the understanding needed to be mindful of those in their surroundings, enabling them to offer more effective support and encouragement to individuals seeking assistance for their mental and physical well-being.
• Anti discrimination policy: These policies will help support people that might be feeling oppressed and protect them if they are being marginalized within the workplace environment.
• Training: Building awareness at all levels of the organization by supporting causes and projects that contribute to the inclusion of people with disabilities in society and the workplace.
• Diversity and Inclusion committee: Appoint a community of people who meet every month to work on organization shift.
• Reflective groups: These groups are run by anti-oppressive therapists and help employees actively challenge their discriminatory ways of thinking which will help lead to a cultural shift. These weekly groups are based on respect and non judgment with the objective to understand the biases of the participants and their roots.

Romy believes that organizations should move from a mindset of tolerance to one of celebration. The difference is that tolerance is giving a person with a disability accessibility (for example: a parking space) and celebration is going beyond accessibility and giving them a voice and truly including them by hearing their opinion.


Some of these changes require more time and financial investment but these shouldn't be the reasons why companies opt out of including people with disabilities. 
One potential challenge remains the redesign of the infrastructure of the workplace in order to better accommodate people with disabilities and create a space that offers a stronger sense of belonging.  Albeit an important step in becoming a truly inclusive company, infrastructure should not stand in the way of companies looking to start their inclusion journey. Companies that cannot change their infrastructure in the short term can still plan towards it within their long term goals, whilst catering to people with disabilities by offering them remote work when possible. 

Disability inclusion is not an overnight achievement but it is an attainable and rewarding commitment that organizations should make to truly do justice to their D&I strategies.
Check out Valuable 500 suggestions’ in tackling the disability data gap by reporting on key disability-related data to ensure inclusion is embedded within companies.
https://www.thevaluable500.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ESG-and-Disability-Data-white-paper.pdf