Disclosure and disability

- A stunning statistic that most people don't recognize is that 70% of disabilities are hidden, they're invisible. Put plain and simple, people with disabilities typically find ways to work around their disability. But the changing face of work, specifically the proliferation of video technology, is creating a need for professionals with disabilities to disclose. One major barrier is that people with disabilities worry about how their disability is perceived. Previous poor experiences in the workplace leads to questions such as, does it cost more to include me? Or, should I have to keep explaining my disability to people? These are commonplace and completely normal to feel. Clearly, there is a huge responsibility on employers to recognize how they can be more inclusive of those with disabilities, from recognizing the importance of culture to sponsoring regular discussion about disability, to giving time to share the available accessibility tools, the tools that optimize people's productivity in the workplace. All of these contribute to an individual's confidence to talk about the subject and ultimately will help provide the basis for folks to feel comfortable disclosing their disabilities. In 2018, Accenture did a study entitled "Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage" that shows that companies that deliberately invest in a program for disability awareness and inclusion outperform their peers. This shouldn't surprise us. Confident companies with employees routinely able to do their work in a culture that supports them and that recognizes the value they deliver will benefit from a learn it all inquisitive mindset. In my role as Accessibility Evangelist, I meet with the world's largest companies, spending time with them in webinars, exploring technology, helping them to build capabilities as employers, as creators, and as service providers. Often, audience members disclose their disabilities right there in the meeting as we discuss the tech. "I'm color blind and I hate our red and green scorecards." Or, "I've not told anyone I'm losing my hearing, "so I really appreciate you turning "the captions on in PowerPoint." Or, "I didn't even know I could ask "for a document to be made accessible." All that to say, simply spending time on the digital toolkit is a great way to build confidence to disclose. Universally, every organization, large and small, begins to understand its own representation. This is a critical first step on the journey. Companies that have good representation and talk about accessibility will begin to build systems, products, experiences that are more digitally inclusive. And when they do, they'll more effectively reach the one in six people on the planet with a disability.