In the broadest possible terms, making businesses more accessible is about ensuring that everyone who has a desire to engage with a company can do so. Often this is considered through the lens of disability rights, but it also includes the imperative for companies to make certain that employees and customers that are neurodivergent, or from more varied socioeconomic backgrounds, can contribute meaningfully, too.
We’re going to take a look at a few of the primary areas in which businesses are still falling short when it comes to accessibility. Why is it important that companies address these elements, and what actions can they take to improve?
Environmental Considerations
The physical business environment often presents some of the first and most difficult hurdles for workers and customers to engage with companies. From a business perspective, failing to create a space where a diverse range of talented workers can contribute can seriously impact the ability of the company to thrive and innovate. Not to mention that they are potentially losing sections of their customer demographic.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, companies have a legal responsibility to make reasonable accommodations to ensure visitors and workers can access their property and safely engage with the company. However, the requirements here are quite limited, and to build the best relationships — particularly with their employees — business leaders should commit to going further than mere compliance. Offering disabled workers or those with family duties the opportunity to work from home or on a hybrid schedule can be valuable here. Indeed, putting additional effort into reshaping practices that ensure a more diverse workforce is able to contribute to strategic planning can be a generally positive step. When companies adopt tools like online whiteboards for remote planning sessions, it means that those workers who are distant or on different schedules are both able to provide valuable perspectives and ideas that the company would otherwise have missed out on.
When it comes to environmental considerations, it’s important to also understand that this isn’t limited to the office or store space. Indeed, websites are increasingly the primary way with which consumers interact with services — indeed, there’s a push to make online voting available for disabled citizens. As such, there is an emphasis on making websites more accessible. By engaging with specialist consultants, and even using accessibility add-ons in web design tools, companies can minimize the potential for marginalized consumers to be shut out of this vital form of commerce and communication.
Beyond the Physical
Business leaders need to understand that physical forms of disability are not the only challenges that their customers or employees will face. Indeed, this is often an area in which the ADA falls short. Mental health conditions can vary widely and can impact people at different times and in multiple ways. If businesses continue to fail supporting consumers and contributors living with such conditions simply because they’re not covered under legislation, there are serious ethical and commercial consequences.
There are definitely broad actions that businesses can adopt to make their spaces more accessible in this regard. Train staff about what microaggressions against people facing mental or neurological challenges — whether customers or colleagues — look like. It can be helpful to bring in external educators or organizations that can provide insights into what employee behavior and working practices can be problematic here. Creating spaces where workers and consumers, whether or not they experience neurodivergent traits, can decompress when stimulus and situations become overwhelming, can solidify a positive reputation for the company, too.
Perhaps most importantly from an employment perspective, businesses need to make the effort to keep an open dialogue. Mental conditions and neurodivergence are often deeply subjective experiences, and business leaders will find a more positive culture will result from cultivating a safe and supportive space for discussions about them. This can be bolstered if companies make it clear that they can help provide resources for workers’ mental health if they feel it’s impacting their personal lives or professional productivity. This should include paid time off, access to wellness applications, and perhaps even subsidized or free clinics and counseling services.
Thinking Socioeconomically
The fundamental point of accessibility is that everyone has equal opportunities to engage. Some of the main ways in which workers in particular can struggle to engage results from socioeconomic issues. Businesses need to make sure they don’t overlook how their protocols and activities can be more challenging to workers from more varying backgrounds.
Among the most common ways companies shut out socioeconomically diverse workers is through their hiring practices. When businesses limit their candidate search to university graduates or even people from specific schools, they are limiting their talent pool, minimizing access to those from traditionally marginalized backgrounds. People who may not have been able to afford — or were culturally discouraged from — attending university still have perspectives, experiences, and resilience that make them valuable contributors. Companies must adjust their practices to reflect this to gain a more dynamic workforce and even do their small part to help address poverty in their community.
This should also extend to business leaders being more cognizant of how traditional payment schedules can negatively impact workers who may be living paycheck to paycheck. The standards of paying biweekly or even monthly can be an additional source of stress to workers and their families. One solution is earned wage access. This is an approach in which workers can immediately draw on any pay that they’ve earned, rather than having to wait for weeks after performing their labor to financially benefit from it. It’s a more flexible way of handling payroll that helps employees feel more empowered. It also means that if there is a financial emergency at home workers don’t have to resort to short-term, high-interest loans that can perpetuate a cycle of debt.
Conclusion
Accessibility is an essential component to continued business success and maintaining ethical standards. Leaders should be taking the time to consider how their business practices prevent engagement from physical, mental, neurological, and socioeconomic standpoints. By addressing any issues, providing accommodations, and keeping an open dialogue with staff, companies can ensure they have a positive impact on the community.