Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Jonathan Lucus Of NSITE On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have a Disability
An Interview With Eric Pines
Fail often and fail fast. When someone starts their career, they mostly focus on not failing at their job. This fear does not move you forward. To use a sports analogy, the greatest baseball players strikeout 70% of the time. The point is you cannot be afraid to swing the bat. Early in my career, I was a curator at children’s nature center supporting learning for low-income students. I was so worried about making folks happy with our currently academic offerings, I did not focus on expanding the opportunities these children to get ahead in school.
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 Jonathan Lucus.
Jonathan Lucus is the Executive Director of NSITE, a non-profit working to connect corporate leadership to exceptional, dedicated employees who are blind or low vision. Jonathan has nearly 20 years of workforce development experience supporting people with disabilities, immigrants, and other underserved populations.
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?
Absolutely. Like many of your readers, I’m sure, my career has not followed a perfectly straight line. I’ve had the great fortune to work in some major institutions, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the State Department, the European Union, and for numerous countries on a variety of workforce issues. But I’m also a lifelong learner. Currently I’m pursuing my doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership. I also have an executive Master’s degree in leadership and a Master’s in Public Affairs.
I pursued deeper education concurrent with work because my entire career has been focused on helping underserved populations find meaningful, well-paying work and I’m always looking for new ways to approach that problem. I have found marrying academics with actual practice on an ongoing basis has been a powerful way to effect change in the various roles I’ve held.
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?
Absolutely.
First, tenacity. In my current role as executive director of NSITE, we function like a startup. Even though we are fortunate enough to have great backing we have a unique value proposition that is very new to some of the clients we are working to reach. We are building our program and system from the ground up and that takes a lot of hard work and grit, every day.
Next, flexibility. This was always important for any leader, but the last few years have proved it’s critical. My organization is working to sell into companies and so much of that work is meeting face-to-face with prospects, networking, going to conferences — when that was stripped away, we had to really pivot. Even as we’ve returned to normalcy, I still find that we must bend a little bit every day for all the unique situations that require daily management both inside my own house, as well as the ones that we are working with or trying to reach.
Finally — creativity. One of the things I love about the NSITE mission is that we are trying to get major companies to think differently about DEI goals. Diversity isn’t just race, age, gender, or sexual orientation — but should also include individuals with varying abilities. Once those individuals are hired, they also must feel part of the whole and be given equal opportunity. This requires a different way of thinking than companies are used to, and further, no two companies are alike when it comes to DEI goals. So, our opportunity is also our challenge — how do we break through? How do we tailor our pitch without breaking the mold every time? How do we identify the exact stakeholder who is going to champion something like this inside the house, and support them in that work?
Part of my work is to think about how we accomplish these goals creatively but also within a strong template that we know works.
Can you share a story about one of your greatest work-related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
Accessibility starts with opportunity. A few years ago, I was tasked with developing a national recertification program for recently-arrived refugees from places like central Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, and eastern Europe. Many of these newcomers had strong educational backgrounds and were professionals — teachers, engineers, accountants, doctors, etc.. The U.S. government was facing increasing pressure to support these new Americans in recapturing their former careers. The U.S. had never put together a program like this before. I needed resources and access to decision-makers. Over the course of a year, I was able to secure federal funding, develop digitalized recertification guides in multiple disciplines and in multiple languages, and developed partnerships with leading universities and entities such as the American Medical Association (AMA). What seemed impossible at the beginning, ended with a nationally-recognized program. My work was named an international best practice by the United Nations. However, my proudest moment was when a former doctor from Sudan was able to secure a residency in Texas and now is once again a doctor performing medicine and saving lives.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
NSITE recently received a grant from Mitsubishi that allowed us to provide courses free of charge to several blind and low-vision individuals looking to get job training. We saw testimonials after that saying that not having to pay for the course out-of-pocket or incur loans created a real sense of relief and wellbeing, which always feels great to hear. Considering that the unemployment rate for disabled individuals hovers around 70 percent, it is important to me that on their journey to be gainfully employed, these workers are not going into debt.
Additionally, we continue to add courses on a regular basis and it’s incredibly exciting when these courses fill up within days. Having that demand helps me continue to work on supply, which is an excellent problem to have.
I am excited about NSITE’s recent launch of a fully accessible learning management system (LMS), called NSITE-U. We are now able to bring our 21st century skill-building and leadership courses to a larger audience — not just in the United States but around the world.
This learning platform has been developed to support virtual-based, synchronous and asynchronous classes along with the ability for students to network with one another no matter which course they are participating in. This includes our Cisco Academy, developed last year and which is the first-ever program in the U.S. that is accessible to the blind and low-vision community. This program has been so successful, that Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) provided two-years of financial support to ensure we can support as many people as possible who have aspirations to become IT professionals. I am also happy that we are adding additional courses in Information Assurance and Cyber Security to the program.
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?
Of course — this is my favorite topic! Our job at NSITE is to place blind and low-vision individuals in great jobs, and to work with corporations to make it easier to hire, onboard and retain these individuals. We offer training programs for workers who are seeking to get into (or back into) jobs in IT, finance, and HR just to name a few. The unemployment rate for blind and low-vision individuals is around 70 percent, and considering many had a career before losing sight, that’s unacceptable to me. So anytime we provide someone with an opportunity that leads to gainful employment — that is the best day, for me. Having a job provides a sense of self-worth and gives a path to independence. It is critically important to wellbeing. When we talk to corporations about diversity, I like seeing people spark to the idea that diversity also must expand to include the idea of diverse abilities. Inclusion is then ensuring that these individuals feel valued and know they are contributing to their team, and their larger enterprise.
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?
Wonderful question. First — diversity of thought is incredibly important. Different lived experiences, different perspectives, different ways of working — imagine the power in harnessing this for any number of work problems or challenges? When you think of the impact these individuals have on culture, recruiting, retention, production development, innovation…the list truly doesn’t end.
Second, it’s important because the world is diverse. Our communities are diverse. We need our workspaces to be more reflective of the actual world outside. Something I’ve really enjoyed watching the last couple of years has been the demand from employees that workplaces be more welcoming. I like the fact that employees are holding their companies more accountable to initiatives that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.
To this last point, the world is shifting this way and it’s better to be ahead of the curve. We are increasingly seeing the ESG investment community hold companies to their promises and the success of DEI initiatives is no exception. Pretty soon it’s not just going to be “good” business, it’s just going to be the way things are done.
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?
This is also a topic that is near and dear. For blind and low-vision individuals, the key for companies is simple — don’t overthink it. Most blind and low-vision individuals use habit to navigate their surroundings — so accessibility is also achieved by making sure that chairs, desks, trash cans and other deskside staples are placed in the same way, each day. For example, ensuring the nighttime clean-up crew puts a trash can back in the same area, every time. Nothing too taxing. After this, blind and low-vision employees can navigate in the way best suited to them. The guidance we give to our corporate clients is simple: just have a conversation with your hire about what they may need. They will be clear what they require.
As for hardware or software, if you’ve greenlit funds in the past few years for employees to buy monitors, cameras or other equipment that allows them to work more comfortably than home — you’re halfway there! Many blind and low-vision workers use this same equipment, as well as what is already baked into the everyday software that nearly all workers use day-to-day.
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.
What I have found in my work is that employees with disabilities want what all employees do — to feel valued, to feel respected and to see how their work contributes to the bottom line. By providing the same access to training, the same facetime with leadership, the same access to opportunity — this is what makes any business feel welcoming.
We also find that some businesses really overengineer what their disabled employees need. Once, we worked with a company who was hiring its first blind employee. It came from a good place, but to prepare for this employee to come into the office, they removed all the furniture from key areas. That was very overdone even though it was well-intended. Inclusivity means talking to an individual and simply asking, what do you need to be set up for success? Then making sure that you’re with them not just on day one of their employment, but regularly checking in. They will be honest with you and often, we find it’s no harder than the type of onboarding you’d do for any new employee.
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?
Absolutely. At NSITE, on our small staff about 10, we have three individuals who are blind or low-vision. This allows us to not only walk our talk, but they are invaluable advisors to us every day. Workwise, obviously, their guidance and knowledge is invaluable. Inside of our own team, I cannot possibly put into words what it means to have working relationships with such remarkable people. People who are thriving not despite their disability, but because of it. I can honestly say they have made me a better professional, but even more importantly, a better person.
Our office space is also very accessible, though we understand not all businesses can take all the same measures. Our elevators are state-of-the art and don’t require that a user push multiple buttons. Our offices are geo-fenced, which helps our blind and low-vision employees navigate once they are near. We all engage in practices, now just muscle memory, that help our colleagues move around the office better, such as ensuring conference room trash cans are always in the same area or ensuring all our presentations are accessible.
At NSITE, we are guided by a strong set of core values that define our culture, and in turn, this culture has become the driver of our success. Our core values encompass being (i) fearless in our pursuit of excellence, (ii) accountable to our mission, our clients, and each other, (iii) being leaders when it comes to entrepreneurial thinking and solving complex issues and (iv) having a commitment to being a learning organization where individual and team growth continually takes place. By championing disability inclusion, individual empowerment, and accountability, NSITE is able to create paradigm shifting programs and services that strengthen and modernize service delivery, skill building, and most importantly, the U.S. workforce.
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”?
- Fail often and fail fast. When someone starts their career, they mostly focus on not failing at their job. This fear does not move you forward. To use a sports analogy, the greatest baseball players strikeout 70% of the time. The point is you cannot be afraid to swing the bat. Early in my career, I was a curator at children’s nature center supporting learning for low-income students. I was so worried about making folks happy with our currently academic offerings, I did not focus on expanding the opportunities these children to get ahead in school.
- Company culture is everything. Becoming a successful professional does not happen in a vacuum. You need to be invested in. You need to work in place that values its employees. I had the opportunity when I turned thirty to oversee a very important federal initiative with a federal contractor. I loved my job and the impact it was having globally. However, the company I worked for had a toxic environment, high turnover, and was mismanaged. Creating change and innovating in that kind of environment was extremely difficult. Growing my skills and abilities and those of my staff was nearly impossible. I took that lesson with me and promised not to repeat it if ever I was the driver of change.
- Create your own job description. Rarely does a job description encompass what you job ends up being. Seldomly does your supervisor focus on growing your skill capacity and knowledge acquisition. In a world that is both hyper-competitive and ultra-complex, you must think beyond your role. Overseeing three start-ups over the last twelve years, I have learned that my title is just the foundation of which my responsibilities are determined, not the entire structure of my role. Make yourself invaluable by stepping up and stepping out when your company needs you to.
- Find mentors. There are always people who are more successful than you, that know more than you do, who have insight to things you have never considered. Invest in yourself by finding great people who are willing to invest in you right back. Having someone to talk to and provide honest feedback in immeasurable to personal growth. Out of college, I was given a director role at a municipal organization, and I had to work with people who wanted to see me fail. I went and talked with a mentor who was well known in the community about my problem and to seek sympathy. What I got was a reality check. His words not only changed my thinking on that specific issue, but it changed my overall perspective and possibly my career trajectory.
- Don’t build connections, build friendships. Many individuals come out of college/graduate school with big ambitions. Striving to connect with the right people, the big decision-makers. While this inherently makes sense, you also have to be authentic. Transactional relationships do not stand the test of time. Transformational relationships can last forever. Valuing what is important to others, supporting as well as being supported, and learning about other people and their work and investing time and energy into them is transcending. I have been a Rotarian for almost twenty years. I have worked with people around the world on big humanitarian projects that have changed and saved lives. This could only take place through mutual respect and friendship. This level of investment in each other transcends beyond just civic duty into professional and educational opportunities. I have had job offers and prestigious scholarships because of the authentic relationships I have had. And more importantly, I have given opportunities to others because of these same genuine friendships.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
Growing up, my father would always tell me to “leave a place as good as or better than you found it.” I try to live this quote every day. If you apply this to all aspects of your life — relationships, work, community — it’s a good mantra. It’s a great way to think about problem solving. NSITE’s ultimate goal is provide opportunities for those facing unrelenting barriers and to strengthen organizational culture within corporations. If you start with the premise that everything you create has to be left better than you found it, then you are pushed to create change, to innovate, and to find solutions that do just that.
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. 🙂
My message is simple. In your DEI efforts, don’t overlook the disabled workers and especially the blind and low-vision community. These individuals are ready to work, have tremendous bodies of knowledge and are incredibly good at what they do. Once you work shoulder-to-shoulder, as I have, you will see that through the assistive technologies that now exist so readily coupled with their incredible work ethic, this is an incredible hiring decision.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Please follow us on LinkedIn at NSITE (https://www.linkedin.com/company/getnsite/), and I am posting regularly there as well. You can also find news about us on Twitter at the handle @get_nsite. I hope you will find us and connect!
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: Jonathan Lucus Of NSITE On How Businesses Make… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.