Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Sydney Elaine Butler Of ‘Accessible Creates’ On Why It’s Important…

Yitzi Weiner

1 year ago

Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Sydney Elaine Butler Of ‘Accessible Creates’ On Why It’s Important To Include Neurodiverse Employees & How To Make Your Workplace More Neuro-Inclusive

An Interview With Eric Pines

… A movement I would like to inspire is understanding intersectionality in both professional and personal settings because it allows us to understand a whole person and what makes them well them. We need to understand how intersectionality connects us all and builds a sense of community …

Research suggests that up to 15–20% of the U.S. population is neurodivergent. There has been a slow but vitally important rise in companies embracing neurodiversity. How can companies support neurodiversity in the workplace? What are some benefits of including neurodiverse employees? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about “Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Companies Including Neurodiverse Employees”. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sydney Elaine Butler.

It is Sydney’s understanding that their professional purpose must be to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be successful regardless of barriers in their way and that they must as a professional remove these barriers. Sydney conducts training and consulting for other companies on how to be more Accessible and Inclusive from a Human approach and how to recruit and retain more diverse individuals through the lens of Intersectionality/Human Resources as well as other areas of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in an authentic manner at the company they founded called Accessible Creates due to understanding the barriers that exist within the workplace for diverse individuals.

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?

My backstory? Sounds a lot like an origin story. I grew up understanding that I had more obstacles than most being a biracial girl who had speech and other challenges, however, my parents were always supportive and encouraging where they could be. I attended speech therapy for numerous years while in school and had challenges in school. I had special interests in certain subjects in which I excelled. I thrived in extracurriculars, such as Soccer and Girl Guides. Throughout my time in Girl Guides, I became more confident in learning as well as speaking up for myself and using my voice. I then went to an Art School for middle school, and fell in love with acting and performing, and learning how to overcome my speech challenges. In High School, I fell in love even more with Theatre and found also love in Business studies. I wanted to be an Environmentalist, but I did not have the grades to do so in Mathematics and Science. So, I applied for a Business-Human Resources program and fell in love again while also understanding the lack of Accessibility in Business and decided to become an HR Professional who focuses on Accessibility, and other areas of Diversity and Inclusion.

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?

1. Persistent: I always wanted to be a speaker, and growing up as I mentioned above, I had speech challenges, so everyone made fun of me for wanting to be a speaker and said I will never be able to talk properly. I began talking more, doing speech therapy, and doing drama and theatre to learn how to use my voice. I coached myself and got help from professors in College and University on how to speak with confidence for group or solo presentations. I began taking the lead on projects and speaking up. I told people my goal of being a speaker, and now I speak at events and companies.

2. Kind: Being a kind person allowed me to know what is truly important and how kindness can go a long way. When you treat people with kindness and leave their day or life a little better than when you first saw them, it makes all the difference. No one wants to work or support someone who is not kind to them, and being kind allows me to understand the good in the world, and be the good in the world. For example, I was kind to one person who attended my event, and he came out to another event to support me and even helped promote my event.

3. Ambitious: I always wanted to change the world I lived in, I just did not know how exactly, but I was always my best when I was giving back in some way and educating on issues. I worked for a summer at a company and taught them the importance of Accessibility, and then posted the session on LinkedIn and was asked to speak at an event, and after the event talking about Supporting Neurodiversity at Work, I was like Ok, I want to continue to educate people, and consult, so I went about launching my own business which is now known as Accessible Creates. Where I get to make a difference in businesses, and people’s lives by facilitating workshops, training, and consulting.

Can you share a story about one of your greatest work-related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?

One of my greatest work-related struggles is when I was being abused by a co-worker. She verbally abused me. I remember one day, I decided to cover a shift for someone and go to work when I normally don’t and then I had to work as her switch-off. That was very hard. She said I am not black, because I was light-skinned and that I just tanned myself. I also worked with adults with disabilities as my leg condition was getting worse, and I had to do a change with her one day, and I didn’t feel it was safe to lift a participant by myself and did not understand why we did it in the first place, it should always be two people. I said I do not feel safe doing that, so then she just did it, and then spread rumors saying I was lazy and did not want to do my job anymore but she is the one who checked her phone before we left the changing room. Well, I got formal accommodation for my leg condition and told people the truth about what was happening, and then COVID-19 started so I lost that job and started my career shortly after and did not return to that job even though I was asked and was tempted when it was hard finding new employment. I knew I could not be subjected to those working conditions again.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I am very lucky that I have a lot of projects that I am passionate about that I am working on. Some examples include; Creating an inclusive onboarding process alongside other Neurodivergent leaders, working on a session for a conference to teach HR Professionals how to bridge the gap between Accessibility and HR Strategy, and lastly, making the recruitment process more accessible for a local government and federal government.

Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about neurodiversity in the workforce. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to include neurodiverse employees? Can you share a story with us?

I provide training and consulting to companies on supporting neurodiversity in the workplace. For example, I did training and consulting at Evernote on supporting neurodiversity in the workplace last July. I worked with the HR department to make sure they had a more accessible and inclusive hiring process for people who are neurodivergent, and helping them retain neurodiverse employees. By doing this, they had a more streamlined process of hiring neurodivergent talent and posting to neurodiversity-specific job boards.

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?

It is so essential for businesses and organizations to have an inclusive work culture because everyone deserves to feel included at work. As humans, we deserve to feel included in all aspects of our lives. Life is too short to not include someone and to not be included. People spend so many hours at work, and where they work is a central part of their identity. Fostering and maintaining an inclusive culture also leads to increased innovation, and productivity because when one feels they can be themselves and bring all their different skills and experiences, it allows for creative problem-solving to day-to-day business operations.

Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help include neurodiverse employees? Can you share with us how the work culture was affected as a result?

More accessible recruitment processes.
Breaking down attitude barriers for neurodiverse individuals in the workplace.
Removing organizational barriers.
Educating HR and the whole company on Disability and Neurodiversity Awareness.
Remote Working Conditions.
My company is a company that helps other companies and businesses promote disability and neurodiversity inclusion in the workplace. However, I also implemented these ideas at the other workplaces I worked at before starting my own company, and while working at a Start-Up, and these shifted the narrative and lead to more of an inclusive workplace for all. When you promote disability/neurodiversity inclusion, you are promoting cross-sectional inclusion.

What are some of the challenges or obstacles to including neurodivergent employees? What needs to be done to address those obstacles?

The biggest obstacle that companies face when trying to make neurodivergent employees feel included is what different individuals need in order to work and complete tasks to the best of their abilities and capacity. Companies often fail to consider the different needs of each employee and just settle for a one-size fits all approach to providing support, therefore, it is important to listen to each employee’s own individual needs and concerns, and support them in how they best to be supported and not how you assume they need to be supported. “How can I best support you in your day-to-day tasks?”

How do you and your organization educate yourselves and your teams on the concept of neurodiversity and the needs of neurodivergent employees? Are there any resources, training, or workshops that you have found particularly helpful?

It is important to be aware of the possibilities that you could help accommodate the needs of neurodivergent employees. Everyone has their own needs and it is important to be mindful of this when accommodating your employees, as yes, sometimes accommodations can overlap but just because you have accomodated one person with ADHD and Autism for example, does not mean another person who also experiences the same needs the same exact accommodations. There are so many amazing resources which include https://mindyourautisticbrain.com/, and https://www.accessiblecreates.ca in regard to training and workshops. https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/culture/neurodiversity-workplace/ is an article I wrote about neurodiversity in the workplace, and is a great place to start your journey.

This is the main question of our interview. Can you please share five best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people who are neurodivergent? If you can, please share a few examples.

1 . Neurodiversity Awareness Training

Have training on Neurodiversity to help bring education and awareness to all staff, management, and human resources.

2 . Providing Reasonable Accommodation

Change job tasks.
Provide reserved parking.
Improve accessibility in a work area.
Change the presentation of tests and training materials.
Provide or adjust a product, equipment, or software.
Allow a flexible work schedule.

3 . Having Various Formats of Communication

Slack, Email, Virtual Meetings, In-Person.
Communicate how the employee needs you to need to communicate e.g. communicate in email, tasks required for the week, vs just verbally communicating if they better process information in a written format.

4 . Accessible and Inclusive Hiring Processes

Modify job postings to use more accessible and inclusive language.
Make it clear that the company welcomes neurodiverse talent.
Modify questions and/or provide questions ahead of the interview.

5 . Have regular check-ins with employees

Check in with employees daily or weekly (Agreed upon Basis) based on their support needs.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” -Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

My teenage years I spent in the storm, in the thick of darkness, and until I was 21 I was there and not knowing how to get out. Until I was 20, when I had my rock bottom, and I vowed to get better, learn how to take care of myself, and pull myself out of the darkness, I will be dealing with the consequences of my teenage years for the rest of my life on a personal level, but I got super clear that I want to get better and have to get better to help make the world a better place as well. I am not the same person I was, and I am more confident and know what impact I want to make on the world. We all go through things that destroy us and break us, but it is how we sit with and move forward from it that defines us. I know I am going to have depression, and the impact of the trauma for the rest of my life, but I will use my voice to speak up for myself, and others like me. What will you do once you are out of the storm?

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. 🙂

Oh, my goodness, there are so many movements, but I think a movement I would like to inspire is understanding intersectionality in both professional and personal settings because it allows us to understand a whole person and what makes them well them. We need to understand how intersectionality connects us all and builds a sense of community.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Yes, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydney-elaine-butler/ where I post a lot of my content and work, and view my website at https://www.accessiblecreates.ca/. Also, check out my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accessiblecreates/.

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.

Neurodiversity in the Workforce: Sydney Elaine Butler Of ‘Accessible Creates’ On Why It’s Important… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.