Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Dr. Sarah Coppola Of The University of Washington On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have a Disability
An Interview With Eric Pines
There will always be more work to do, but you are a human first and need to prioritize work-life balance.
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 the “How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Are Disabled “.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Coppola.
Dr. Sarah Coppola is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington whose work focuses on how technology and systems design affects people’s performance and health.
Dr. Coppola’s research explores how people are included or excluded by design and how to design for a more inclusive world. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, a Master’s degree in Human Factors Engineering from Tufts University, and a Doctoral degree in Ergonomics/ Environmental and Occupational Health from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
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?
I did an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering where I had the opportunity to focus on design and design with disabled people, which sparked a passion in design for social good. A few years into my career, I got hurt at work, and I decided to go to graduate school to better understand how and why people become injured and/or disabled by the environment. My graduate work focused on better understanding why women have higher rates of computer-related injuries as compared to men. Through my dissertation and coursework, I started to think much more broadly about the designed world and the ways in which people are excluded by design because of sex/gender, disability, race, age, etc. Our products, technologies, and systems are designed and therefore can be changed to be more inclusive.
I love teaching and participating in early-stage exploratory research, so I pursued an academic career. Throughout school, I rarely met disabled faculty I could look up to. I wanted to be a role model for future generations and use my position to fight for access for my disabled students. I also realized that I could have the most impact by working with passionate students to help cultivate their commitments and training in inclusive design. It’s really rewarding to witness the impact my former students have in their careers.
*Note that while there is debate on a person’s first language (people with disabilities) and identity-first language (disabled people), there is a preference among many disability communities for identity first. I am using both forms interchangeably to respect the diversity of the disability community.
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?
I think the most important characteristics of leaders in my field are kindness, humility, and flexibility. Working in human-centered design means I must remember the human first, which also means seeing the humanity in the people around me. It also means respecting the diversity of human experience and staying curious and humble about how people experience the world around them. Without experiential humility, I can easily make incorrect assumptions which lead to bad design and potential harm. Flexibility is important in my work as an educator who works with a lot of people who have disabilities. We need to have open dialogue about accommodations and needs which can change over time.
Very often in the disability design space we end up with what Liz Jackson has called “disability dongles” which are well-intentioned solutions to problems disabled people do not have or solutions they did not ask for. I think a lot of this stems from a lack of humility and a lack of flexibility. It’s important for me to center people with the most lived experience in anything I do.
I’ll share a story about experiential humility. I had been working in accessibility for about a decade when one day I fell and very seriously injured my ankle which led to 9 months of various mobility devices. Because I had a lot of “knowledge” about disability, I thought it would be easy to navigate social support systems like paratransit and accessible parking. I also thought that every building would comply with the ADA and that my scooter would not prevent me from accessing things like work or voting. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Even with the barriers I experienced, there are so many more that long-term wheeled mobility device users experience and I need to cultivate experiential humility and honor the expertise of people who live with different identities.
Can you share a story about one of your greatest work related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
I mentioned earlier that I got hurt at work very early on in my career. I had to relearn how to interact with technology through different input methods and how to advocate for myself to make sure I do not exceed my own limits. I’ve been lucky to have had mentors and advisers who ensured I could fully participate in graduate school.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Inclusive and accessible higher education is important if we’re going to have a workforce that includes disabled people, so I have recently been working on creating new pedagogies for engineering and design education. We have been working on a variety of educational strategies from grading strategies to creating design methods for blind and low vision students. I just wrapped up a project where a team of students developed a screen-reader-accessible workflow for blind and low-vision people to create their own tactile graphics using 3D printers.
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?
I’m an academic, so my primary focus is on diversity and inclusion in educational spaces. We need both pathways for diverse and historically excluded students to access higher education and initiatives for inclusion that allow all students to thrive. I’m really interested in interrogating who our institutions are designed for and who is excluded implicitly or explicitly. The university, and in particular engineering design programs, are designed for young adults with no kids or caretaking responsibilities, who can go to school full time with no hours restrictions, who don’t have chronic health conditions, who had access to good math and science curriculum in high school, etc. Our learners are so much more diverse than that and we are missing out on a lot of untapped potential by not designing education in ways that include them. The pandemic and switch to remote and asynchronous learning made it possible for people to go to school while working or caretaking in addition to making learning a lot more accessible for disabled students. I’ve been experimenting with hybrid or hyflex pedagogies to change some of the paradigms we have for design education. So far, we’ve found that the learning outcomes are consistent across different modes and that the students who need the flexibility thrive. We’ve also found that traditional in-person students continue to have good learning experiences.
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?
There is so much untapped potential because people have been historically excluded from our workspaces. It sounds so trite, but diversity really is a strength, and as our society faces what is often referred to as “wicked” problems like climate change or global pandemics, we need the diversity of lived experiences for creative problem-solving. There’s research on how diverse teams are high performing, but it goes beyond just a tokenized version of diversity. When people are free to show up as their whole selves without spending energy hiding parts of their identity, they are free to be creative and do their best work. For example, maybe someone who is a parent or neurodivergent needs schedule flexibility because they can do their best-uninterrupted work late at night.
Inclusive work cultures are also important because around 80% of disabled people are unemployed, and many disabled people would like to work. More broadly, the underemployment of people with disabilities is a societal justice issue because work is one of the most important social determinants of health in the United States where health insurance and some forms of social security are tied to employment.
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?
The ADA is broad and can include anything from providing ramps and elevators in the built environment to providing ASL interpretation to providing flexible work schedules. The ADA describes an interactive process to best determine accommodations for each person where ideally the employer or business and the disabled person will discuss any barriers and potential accommodations that could help. People with chronic illnesses often need accommodation for schedule flexibility for medical appointments and symptom fluctuations. People who are blind or have low vision need written communication in braille or screen reader-accessible formats. People with allergies or sensory conditions need scent-free spaces. Businesses can also be proactive by offering a variety of workstation options and customizable spaces.
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.
Disabled experiences are diverse, and people have differing needs even with the same diagnosis, so it is important to remember that individual disabled people are the experts on their own experiences. However, there are some aspects of universal design that can go a long way in making a space feel more inclusive. First, following the ADA guidelines for the built environment with ramps, wheelchair-accessible pathways and tables, clear signage, elevators, and accessible bathrooms. For large events, it’s great to have live sign language interpretation and live captioning set up before D/deaf and hard-of-hearing people must ask. Written communication and websites should come in multiple formats that will work with screen magnification or screen readers. For people with allergies or sensory sensitivities, it’s helpful to have spaces that are low scents, low lighting, and low noise. Since many disabled people are at high risk for worse Covid-19 outcomes, it’s helpful to have respiratory virus mitigation strategies such as air purification and high-quality masks. Also, it’s very important to have this information readily available on your website so disabled people know ahead of time if they will be included in your space!
Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help promote disability inclusion? Can you share with us how the work culture was impacted as a result?
One big thing is remote/hybrid access. We learned that with the right technology, it’s very simple to provide a remote option that allows people to stay home but still participate. We’ve seen much higher attendance at our disability seminar, and in general, people are less stressed when something comes up that makes commuting difficult.
In the classroom, we use Universal Design for Learning principles in our course design such as not having timed tests, built-in extension days for assignments, and multiple modes of participation. This provides the accommodations many students need without them having to go through a formal accommodations process. This is an evolving and iterative process as we discover what works best for each course, and it’s something I’m committed to because of my own negative experiences asking for accommodations as a student.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
- There will always be more work to do, but you are a human first and need to prioritize work-life balance.
- At the end of the day, your behavior is the only thing you can control, so make sure your actions align with your values.
- It’s important to speak up if you see something harmful even if it’s not a popular thing to do.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
People can follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-coppola-3b707954/
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.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Dr Sarah Coppola Of The University of Washington On How Busi was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.