Why Create a Business Inclusive of People With Disabilities

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While there has always been value in diversity, it has only been in the last few decades that businesses have sought to embrace it. Whether due to conscious discrimination or unconscious bias resulting from a deeply rooted culture of ableism, company leaders were in no hurry to make meaningful and lasting change.

In many cases, it wasn’t until the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 that a lot of businesses followed regulations to ensure consumers and staff with disabilities had equal access. 

Today, we are seeing more company leaders striving to go even further than the ADA, putting in place inclusive policies that fill the gaps where the legislation falls short. But leadership has also gradually become aware that measures to be more inclusive are a part of a positive customer journey that yields conversions and loyalty.  

We’re going to take a closer look at why you should be making efforts toward meaningful and lasting inclusion.

The Ethical and Social Imperative

The social and ethical imperative for companies to adjust their business practices is not to act in such a way that you treat your customers and staff as being fragile — this is both patronizing and unnecessary. Rather, your goal should be implementing activities that ensure your consumers and staff with disabilities are empowered to engage with the business in meaningful ways.

As such, your business, just like all others, has a social responsibility to strengthen the local and global community by being a positive influence in its progressive development. This is best achieved not by unilaterally making decisions on behalf of your customers and staff with disabilities, but by making them an integral part of change.

Reach out to your customers to invite them to discuss the challenges they’ve faced in the past in interacting with your company and what improvements they feel would be meaningful. While it is a valuable step in demonstrating customer care and encouraging a closer relationship with your consumers, this should not go so far as to place an undue burden on them in educating you or your staff.

That said, it can be easy to just limit your relationships with your direct customers. You need to play an active role in the development of diversity in the business community. It can be especially difficult to be an entrepreneur while also living with a disability — though this is a path that some choose because they are unable to find jobs with adequate accommodations elsewhere.

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There are certainly some resources that are helpful in these circumstances. While Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is income-assessed, it is often still available for a period of time to help entrepreneurs through the transition. Reach out to local disability organizations and find out how your company can best support disabled entrepreneurs.

The Business Case

While your ethical responsibilities are important, you shouldn’t ignore the fact there are compelling commercial reasons to engage here as well. You are likely to be putting a lot of focus into ensuring that your user experience (UX) is effective, perhaps integrating tools like Voice of the Customer (VoC) technology.

Operating in a diverse society, you will have a greater ability to make a positive, loyalty-inspiring impact on a wider range of consumers when you ensure your approach to business also addresses the challenges customers face on their journey.

Hiring and supporting a diverse staff is essential to this process. Even when your employees don’t exactly share the same disability experiences as your consumers, their own knowledge of the challenges they face can translate to a more considerate and aware approach to customer services — advocating for changes, sharing ideas and innovations that make the whole company stronger.

This also helps with representation. Particularly in the comics industry, we’ve seen a shift in attitudes and how this media can be helpful to kids with disabilities, not just as an educational tool but as a medium for representation.

Though it’s not exactly perfect yet, a growing tendency to accurately portray what it’s like to live with a disability both raises awareness and provides a more positive perspective of people they recognize to be facing similar challenges in both fiction and society.

Including representative staff members has a similar effect. Your business benefits from showing you’re seeking to be a more positive cultural influence and encourages engagement.

How to Incorporate Inclusivity

As inclusivity is becoming a more prevalent part of our culture, the means to make improvements is also becoming more accessible. As such, some key areas to achieve a more disability-conscious business include the following:

#1Regular Auditing

While there is an urgent need for businesses to be more inclusive, this isn’t something you should necessarily rush into. Mistakes get made when you act on assumptions and don’t take the time to plan effectively. This is where a commitment to auditing comes into play.

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Go through every element of your business to identify aspects that could be problematic — even better, build a panel of diverse staff from each department to undertake this. Work together to understand what needs to be changed and build a step-by-step plan to implement and assess those changes.

Remember this isn’t a one-and-done issue — this audit needs to be a regular part of your operations.

#2. Web Accessibility

Most businesses today will have an online presence as well as their physical environment. Indeed, this may be the primary way in which consumers with disabilities interact with the business.

As such, it is an important part of building a positive consumer experience to make certain your site conforms to accessibility guidelines. Many of the popular content management systems (CMS) used to build and maintain websites are compatible with accessibility checker plugins.

These scan your website and highlight areas that may be challenging for people living with disabilities and usually offer suggestions for fixes. However, these aren’t foolproof, so it’s worth educating yourself or your information technology (IT) team on the fundamentals of web accessibility.

Conclusion

Keeping your business customer-focused means you need to also be cognizant of the various challenges your consumers face. It is both an ethical duty of a socially responsible business in the community, and in the best interest of consumer loyalty that you focus on inclusivity. This includes hiring a diverse staff and mentoring other entrepreneurs. Plan effectively for your changes, and commit to long-term positive maintenance. 

 

Dan Matthews
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