Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Angela Young On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have a Disability
An Interview With Eric Pines
Your goal is to reach as much of an audience as you can. This would essentially mean that ideally, your product or service would reach the entire human population. You can only do this when your digital platform is inclusive and accessible to all users.
As we all know, over the past several years there has been a great deal of discussion about inclusion and diversity in the workplace. One aspect of inclusion that is not discussed enough, is how businesses can be inclusive of people with disabilities. We know that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. What exactly does this look like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about “How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Are Disabled “.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Angela Young.
Angela Young (She/They) is the Senior Field Enablement Specialist at Siteimprove, a people-centric SaaS company helping businesses achieve top digital potential by creating an accessible, purposeful, and performant web experience for all users. In this role, she manages sales, content, platform, and tools involving accessibility and inclusivity, as well as gathers feedback on enablement programs to elevate opportunities. Previously, she was social media coordinator for Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, although much of her career was spent in K-12 and higher education.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you ended up where you are?
Thank you for having me! As a leader in inclusion & accessibility, I have been building bridges between mainstream communities and underrepresented humans for more than 20 years. My work has led to initiatives that broaden the reach of accessible education and employment practices in the DC metro area and beyond.
I started my career in the education sector, where I worked for 18 years prior to joining Siteimprove. My career has always centered around teaching and coaching, but over time I cast a wider net on projects involving accessibility and inclusion. In my current role at Siteimprove, I’m charged with ensuring the Sales team feels fully supported within their role while armed with the tools necessary to efficiently champion for web accessibility.
What drew me to Siteimprove is that it’s an all-in-one platform; our solutions don’t exist in silos. Inclusion is part of our core, ensuring that an organization’s digital landscape is accessible to all humans regardless of ability, or disability for that matter. Too often, misconceptions about those who are different create harmful outcomes — not just for the person who is neurodivergent or disabled, but for everyone.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
My success can be attributed to determination, reframing, and resilience. I’ve gone through some challenges, as has everyone, and it’s really helped frame me into the leader and employee that I am. As a member of the invisible disability, Deaf, Neurodivergent, and LGBTQ+ communities, I’m passionate about leveraging my lived experiences to drive this mission forward, but it hasn’t always been easy. The determination to prove people wrong, to show up and to be there for myself has been pivotal in my journey. I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t had the drive to be the kind of role model my younger self needed.
I’ve overcome a lot of adversity in my journey and being able to reframe my thoughts into something positive and then transitioning those thoughts into actions has been instrumental — such as launching my LinkedIn series. It can be as simple as flipping the script in your head from, “why would anyone listen to me?” to “why wouldn’t anyone want to listen to me?” Putting yourself in the “public eye,” so to speak, is scary! But I know the universe is preparing me for everything coming my way.
Finally, resilience is a key characteristic that I think most leaders have. When I was born ten weeks early, weighing 2 lbs. 9 oz, my mother was told that I’d never finish high school, let alone take care of myself. A few decades and a Doctorate degree later, I can confidently say that they were wrong. I know that I can overcome whatever comes my way and take it on headfirst. Having the mindset that “I can, and I will” has been vital in my journey.
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about inclusion. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us?
Not too long ago I was at Bank of America. The teller had on two masks and a face shield. There was also a plastic partition, and I had a lot of trouble understanding what she was saying. I informed her that I’m Deaf, and in response she asked if I could read. Before waiting for a response, she began writing her questions down. At first, I was mortified, and then I became livid. I couldn’t believe this is the way someone would behave in any capacity, much less a professional setting.
Around that time, I had taken a leave of absence from education. After sharing my experience with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Facebook community of which I’m a part of, I had a lightning bolt moment. I realized that no one could speak for me better than me. I had to become an accessibility advocate. That’s when I started going on LinkedIn and creating regular content around diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. I started at 137 followers earlier this year, and now I have just shy of 5,000.
In the beginning, I had my doubts — do I really have something worth saying? Are people going to want to listen to me? But I reminded myself I do have something worth saying. I do have a valuable perspective. As I started becoming more vocal within the disability community and within accessibility and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), someone asked me, as a white woman with a doctorate, why would I even care about DEI? My instant reaction was, why wouldn’t I care about DEI? I have two young children that I don’t want growing up in a homogeneous world where everyone in their circle thinks the same, looks the same, and has the same lived experiences. Variety is the spice of life in all arenas, and DEI is no different. So, if you’re at a meeting within your organization and everyone sitting around the table looks like you, then your organization is missing out on vital perspectives. We can’t continue to make decisions that influence all humans without inviting all humans to the table. For the longest time, the mantra in the disability community has been, “Nothing about us without us.” However, I think it’s time that mantra evolved to “Nothing without us.” Period!
This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?
If history has taught us anything, it’s that you can’t be an island. We’re living in an age of rapid change and globalization; the pandemic only accelerated that with remote work, making it possible to reach new borders and communities. The business world is growing increasingly competitive — if an organization believes in remaining ‘exclusive,’ it’s less likely to be held up as a pinnacle of sophistication nowadays and more likely to fall behind. Brands need to respect all audiences, including those who on paper are less likely to buy from you if you continue to pretend that they don’t exist. Companies that focus on inclusivity create opportunities for previously underutilized communities to grow and thrive.
If not for the right (moral and ethical) reasons, an organization should do it for the selfish ones: bringing in a diverse workforce promotes fresh ideas, unique skills, and new ways of thinking, fostering greater creativity and innovation. Employees are more motivated to work when they feel they belong to the workplace, and that can’t happen when you’re the only member of a certain community in an otherwise homogeneous workplace. Communities that see themselves represented and excelling in such spaces will be more inclined to support the business, thereby increasing revenue and setting a business up to excel in the future.
Secondly, your goal is to reach as much of an audience as you can. This would essentially mean that ideally, your product or service would reach the entire human population. You can only do this when your digital platform is inclusive and accessible to all users.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what this looks like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Can you please share a few examples?
People both in and out of the accessibility and DEI spaces form opinions on what they think they see rather than what actually is. For example, people have told me that I look white, heteronormative, able-bodied and have even questioned why I’m in the accessibility space.
We as disability leaders can’t only focus our attention on the efforts inside of our community. We need to build bridges to communities outside of ours to increase understanding and awareness. As an accessibility expert, I experience the greatest amount of friction among people who don’t always understand why this is so necessary. The driving message behind everything we do is that accessibility solutions are essential for some audiences, but they really are helpful for everyone. Ensuring that your organization is accessible will help people that you might not even realize needed those accommodations.
The disability community should not need to provide a resume to prove our street credit as to why we need the accommodations we need, or how we’re disabled. If you minimize the disabilities that we experience, you minimize how your clients experience their own disabilities. By creating an accessible environment, the disability portion falls away. We’re all just people engaging with content.
Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? If you can, please share a few examples.
I don’t think you could ever pinpoint a specific practice and say there’s one area that deserves more focus over another. Organizations need to consider all sides of the employee experience. For example, you can’t just invite people to speak at a workshop or conference — what will you do prior to that person’s arrival that shows that you’ve thought about their needs? It’s not enough to have us come speak at an event. How will you make adjustments to ensure we feel valued and comfortable? Will you have live captioning and interpreters, for instance? Have you considered what access to the physical space looks like, or considerations for people with visual limitations? How are you making the disability community feel comfortable?
Companies must decide, and then demonstrate, whether their efforts are performative or authentic. We need to attend to everything we can, as fast as we can, because with the technology that we have available in 2022, it’s unacceptable to say, “Oh well, we haven’t planned for this.”
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
You know, there are a lot of haters in the world. There are a lot of naysayers, and the more you amplify your message, the more people are going to push back and tell you that you don’t belong. And to that I respond with my favorite life lesson, ‘Don’t let your inner voice be a naysayer or a hater.’
Before you can advocate for anyone else, you need to advocate for yourself first and foremost. It’s also important to ensure that you’re not self-sabotaging your message by feeding into imposter syndrome.
My inner mantra is, ‘every day I slay and then I wake up early and I do it again.’ I ask myself every morning: how am I going to slay today? What does the universe have in store for me and how will I rise to the occasion? You have to be your own hype person before you can do anything else.
When it comes to a story that is relevant to my life, I think of the cumulative health-related experiences that have had a fundamental impact on me. I’ve had 14 surgeries in my lifetime. The last four have been related to breast cancer and reconstruction. When you are faced with something that attacks your femininity, it causes you to question: how do I define myself? Those experiences — that story in my life has been definitive in becoming the good human I am now.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Thank you, I appreciate that. I would love to inspire multiple movements but overall, I’d have to say I would love to inspire a movement of acceptance. When we infuse all our actions with grace, kindness, and empathy, it not only impacts others, but impacts us too. You can’t see every disability; you can’t see everyone’s pain or know their story. I think there’s a lot of negativity and judgement in the world and unfortunately, that occurs within the disability community as well. Our goal is to become one common voice, where we get louder together. However, any kind of friction within a community weakens that community. How can we work together to build one another up, to empower one another to affect change both in and out of our community?
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can follow me on LinkedIn. I’m so thrilled with the space that the disability community has created for us on this platform. It’s where I post regularly about my insights and the webinars in which I’ve participated to discuss accessibility and inclusivity. I recently had a live chat with Jamie Shields, who has a big voice on accessibility in the UK, which went really well. We believe in making the invisible visible.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Angela Young On How Businesses Make Accommodations For… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.