Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Sara Hart Weir Of Institute for Workplace Skills & Innovation On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have A Disability
An Interview With Eric Pines
Show Up Early, Work Late.
Know Your Worth.
Walk the Walk before You Talk the Talk.
Find a Mentor or Mentors, Be a Mentor.
Lead Differently.
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 Sara Hart Weir.
Sara Hart Weir is a leading nonprofit executive and expert on disability policy in the United States. Weir advises national and regional nonprofits, companies and public sector partners on disability inclusion. Sara serves as a Senior Associate for the Institute for Workplace Skills & Innovation America. Weir is the former president and CEO of the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), co-founder of the CEO Commission for Disability Employment and most recently, the 2020 primary runner-up in Kansas’ Third U.S. Congressional district.
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’ve spent my life working to pave the pathway to provide equal opportunities and empower individuals with disabilities to achieve their dreams. My life’s work is inspired by my late best friend of twenty years, Kasey, an individual with Down syndrome. I started working with Kasey in college (at Westminster College in Fulton, MO) as a disability support provider. I quickly witnessed how the system fails our most vulnerable and knew we could do better. Ultimately, I went on to serve for a number of years as the President & CEO of NDSS.
While at NDSS, I led the bipartisan advocacy effort behind the passage of the Stephen Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act in 2014. The ABLE Act is a landmark law allowing individuals to save their own resources in ABLE accounts without jeopardizing necessary benefits. Through persistent advocacy, we were able to garner the support of 381 of 435 US Reps. and 78 of 100 US Senators, and this became known as one of the most bipartisan laws of all time. While at NDSS, I was proud to lead new and innovative solutions on behalf of our organization — including: launching the first-ever Down syndrome employment program, #DSWORKS®, in the United States, working to expand our own internal hiring practices to include self-advocates as part of our team including my colleague and friend, Kayla McKeon, the first-ever registered lobbyist with Down syndrome, and establishing the Future of Work CEO Commission with Voya Financial and SHRM.
I stepped down in the spring of 2019 to run for U.S. Congress in my home district in Kansas after coming up second in a crowded primary. In 2021, I joined IWSI America as a Senior Associate and partnered with the organization’s President, Nicholas Wyman, to co-author the groundbreaking report, Ready, Willing and ABLE, Why It Pays to Hire People with Disabilities. The report addresses systemic inequities of disability representation in the workplace and we also combined our experiences and respective knowledge base — Nick’s workforce solutions that center on modern apprenticeships, and my experience in policy — to prop up evidence-based solutions, complete with case studies. To take additional action, we launched a new branch of IWSI, the Disability Workforce Inclusion Services, which partners with organizations, companies, and institutions to ensure people with disabilities are integrated in every aspect of business, and are recruited, retained and rewarded for their work in competitive and supported professional environments.
I continue to dedicate my career to building unique coalitions, mobilizing new networks of engaged citizens to make their voices heard at all levels of government and advance modern solutions that provide greater opportunities to work, live and thrive.
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?
Lead Alongside Your Team: The best way to achieve an organization’s goals and mission is to have a plan that everyone not only believes in, but they also help to formulate. Leadership is about leading by example, showing up and doing the hard work and serving as a source of inspiration for your team and those you serve along the way.
Being in the trenches. You cannot be a problem solver, understand the challenges your community faces and offer solutions if you don’t understand what’s happening on the ground and in people’s day to day lives. I always deploy an “in the trenches” leadership style by engaging directly with constituents and stakeholders — in local communities, in the classroom, on the job site or around kitchen tables because the best ideas come from the individuals and communities you serve, rather than from behind a desk or in a corner office.
Lead differently. There is not one size fits all to leadership. Find your path, purpose and lead with a principled foundation.
One of my proudest accomplishments was leading the effort on Capitol Hill to help pass the historic ABLE Act which is hailed as the most significant law for people with disabilities since the ADA was signed into law in 1991. The idea behind the ABLE Act started around a kitchen table in Northern Virginia. After a local board meeting, several parents from the Board of the Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia (DSANV) were discussing the inequities and injustice that existed in the current system as it relates to the ability for individuals with disabilities and their families to save for the future. These five parents sitting around that kitchen table developed the initial idea and approached us, at NDSS, to help provide expertise and advocacy early on in the process. The challenge, for many years and Congresses, was to cut through the noise and competing legislative priorities in Washington. In order to do this, we had to build a coalition of bipartisan champions, elevate the bill to the highest level and navigate the complexity of passing tax legislation [for the disability community].
We deployed in an trenches leadership style — building capacity among individuals with disabilities, family members, local disability organizations and leaders along many others, to make their voices heard and harness the powers constituents have before their two US Senators and US Representative through phone calls, emails, tweets and meetings back in home states and Congressional districts. Ultimately, we took a kitchen table idea from our community and built a robust grassroots advocacy movement alongside our community. These were critical factors that led to the passage of one of the most bipartisan laws of all time — the landmark ABLE Act.
Can you share a story about one of your greatest work related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
Our country continues to witness more political division and divisiveness than ever before. I am not one to hit send on a mean tweet or fire off an angry letter or email. I’ve always believed the best way to work through differences and find common ground is by sitting across the table, breaking bread and getting to know people for who they are. Leadership and advocacy is no different.
I have always led with the philosophy “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” By living with this guiding sentiment, I believe I have been able to build bridges, not walls, find common ground and have significant successes to show for working with both sides of the aisle.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
In May 2022, IWSI brought our Ready, Willing and ABLE movement to the state of California, partnering with the California Department of Rehabilitation (CDOR) to launch the Ready, Willing and ABLE Apprenticeship Program pilot.
The two-year pilot program will support 100 Californians with disabilities to start ongoing employment as a registered apprentice across the County’s allied healthcare sector, through partnerships with local healthcare, disability support service providers, government, industry and civic groups. This first ever pilot-program of its kind represents a unique and visionary approach to creating long-term employment opportunities, shattering the disability unemployment gap.
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?
July marks Disability Pride month. And things you won’t see — companies changing logos, celebs posting on social media, new merch or hardly any media attention to help increase awareness and drive systemic change for the disability community. The disability community represents the largest population of unemployed, underemployed and impoverished individuals in our country. We must do better.
Disability representation deserves to have a platform on the national stage. I often say from Main Street to Wall Street, businesses need to ensure any DE&I strategy includes the disability community. As a country, and the world’s leading economy, we cannot accept a 47% employment gap, nor can we afford to let the talents of more than 61 million Americans go untapped.
According to recent data, there is a staggering employment gap between people with and without disabilities: only 19% of people with disabilities were in the workforce, compared to 66% of people without a disability. Much of this is rooted in antiquated low expectations and limited job options that haven’t evolved since the 1980s.
However, as DE&I conversations and initiatives have come to the forefront of companies’ business models in recent years, we cannot stand by and let individuals with disabilities continue to be left out of the conversation. At IWSI America, we’re working to incentivize companies to prioritize including people with disabilities into their workforce, which is an extremely cost-effective investment. In fact, our Ready, Willing and ABLE report cites a 2018 Accenture figure which calculates that firms that prioritized investment in improving their disability inclusion strategies improved total shareholder returns by 53%.
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?
Aside from benefiting the company’s bottom line and improving the public perception of a company, inclusion is simply the right thing to do and it’s imperative that it is ingrained into company culture from the get-go.
Businesses and organizations should be held accountable to address and end systemic injustices, and work to ensure a positive work culture where all employees feel encouraged, empowered and supported. Additionally, a diverse board of decision makers leads to companies making better business decisions, which helps to improve ROI as a whole.
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 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990–32 years ago. The ADA serves as a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public striving to ensure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.
The challenge before us remains putting a large dent in the unemployment rate for people with disabilities that has remained largely stagnant for the last three decades. What has been done in the past, from the public to the private sector, isn’t working and I believe people with disabilities deserve more and ultimately, the chance to pursue their own American dream.
In our IWSI America’s Ready, Willing and ABLE report (previously mentioned), we outline a number of things each business can do in order to create these accommodations, which are very straightforward. Between utilizing accessible platforms to recruit new talent, building relationships with local disability organizations and educational institutions that are designed to get students with disabilities work-force ready to retaining talent in the workplace by offering individualized supports and accommodations, companies will be successful in expanding their workforce to better include people with disabilities.
In a country where one in ten people have a disability, we are overlooking an enormous pool of untapped talent. We must lead unique and innovative efforts, from Main Street to Wall Street, to reverse this trend and help expand more inclusive talent pools in our workforce.
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.
Inclusivity begins before the recruitment process, even before a job is posted. One way that HR departments can make their recruiting process more inclusive is through community outreach, as well as by making the hiring process more accessible — from the interface of their job posting platform designs, to how they conduct interviews and more. In addition, resume-building and application submission should focus on the skills that an individual can bring to the workplace as a whole — rather than simply eliminating prospective candidates by academic credentials.
There are many incredible national and regional disability organizations offering technology, recruitment tools, candidate coaching and disability training expertise for companies — large and small.
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?
You can’t just talk the talk, you need to walk the walk. When I first took the helm at NDSS, our organization did not offer a robust approach to ensuring individuals with Down syndrome were part of our staff. To start, we needed to change our internal hiring practices to ensure that the very people we represented were embedded in every department and team in our organization. Over the course of five years, we grew our self-advocate representation to over 25%.
Our organization also made history when in 2017 we hired Kayla McKeon, the first registered lobbyist with Down syndrome. Kayla was extremely qualified to take on this position after working for her local US Congressman. Kayla is a dear friend, colleague and someone I have the utmost respect for — because she speaks with conviction, personal experience and has the policy chops to back it up. It’s one thing for me, as a nonprofit leader, to walk into a Congressional office but it’s another when Kayla, as a professional and self-advocate, carries that message. She has been extremely effective in her role at NDSS and continues to be in that role to this day. She made history doing what she does best — advocating for herself and her friends with disabilities.
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”?
- Show Up Early, Work Late
- Know Your Worth
- Walk the Walk before You Talk the Talk
- Find a Mentor or Mentors, Be a Mentor
- Lead Differently
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again… who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
― Teddy Roosevelt
My favorite quote! The best way to capture how you should live your life — in the arena, fighting for a cause you believe in.
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. 🙂
We still have many outdated laws in the US that are holding people with disabilities back. One such example is a 1938 law, Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, on the books that allows people with disabilities to get paid subminimum wage through the U.S. Department of Labor. This 80+ year old archaic law remains a large impediment to solving the unemployment crisis for the disability community coupled with extremely low monthly income limitations, approx. $840 per month, that individuals with disabilities must navigate to qualify for necessary benefits (like Medicaid and Social Security Insurance (SSI)). All of these obstacles for individuals with disabilities to live a life-time of poverty
The next frontier of activism is the movement to pay people with disabilities the fair wages that they deserve — phase out 14(c), modernize the system to decouple the disability community from means-tested programs, eliminate state repository in Medicaid, incentivize disability providers to focus on employment outcomes as well as increase wages, training and educational opportunities for the disability support provider workforce. Let’s get to work!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I’d recommend visiting IWSI America’s website for informational resources and additional details on our services: https://www.iwsiamerica.org/.
You can also follow me on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-hart-weir-ms-020986a/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarahartweir
Twitter: @sarahartweir
Instagram: @sarahartweir
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: Sara Hart Weir Of Institute for Workplace Skills &… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.