Design Thinking Meets Disability Inclusion

Since its passing in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act has acted as a major piece of civil rights legislation, helping to ensure equality for people with disabilities across the country. Specifically, businesses were mandated to modify their spaces and practices to align with ADA requirements. While the ADA helped make great strides in improving accessibility for people with disabilities, the workforce landscape looks much different than it did over thirty years ago.

COVID-19 has impacted the business sector immensely as the number of disabled people identified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reached 1.2 million by the end of 2021, with almost 500,000 of those people participating in the labor force. It is more important now than ever to address accessibility (or lack thereof) in professional spaces and foster disability inclusivity as a principle in the workplace. As organizations adapt to various post-COVID changes in the business world and society more broadly, design thinking can be utilized to successfully integrate and support disabled employees in the workforce.

Strategies for Fostering Inclusivity

By adopting the design thinking methodology, organizations can become more disability inclusive for their employees. Human-centered, empathy-first approaches can foster a more innovative and open workplace, but what specifically can employers do to create this kind of environment?

Meet and Exceed ADA Standards in a Human-Centered Way

It is vital for organizations to make sure they are adhering to the rules and regulations outlined in the ADA as a baseline for building up accessibility and inclusion. Making necessary changes to physical spaces and digital tools to meet compliance standards is not only required by law but will show employees that you are committed to accommodating their needs in the workplace.

Organizations should not only be meeting these ADA standards but should strive to go beyond the bare minimum outlined within them. Technology and culture have evolved greatly since 1990, and workplace practices that exceed what is legally necessary should be commonplace. Employers can prioritize employee experience by reframing work methods and leveraging components of the design thinking methodology, such as empathizing more with employees, collaborative brainstorming and prototyping, and continuous improvement to best fit the unique needs of a team.

Increase Collaboration to Enhance Employee & Customer Experience

Beyond designing for products and services, companies can and should employ the design thinking methodology to employee experience strategies and processes. Collaboration allows for a more open dialogue between colleagues about disability modifications and accommodations. Creating a strong foundation of trust and openness when discussing disabilities will make the workplace experience better for everyone. This foundation can be achieved through increased transparency and collaboration around these policies.

Cross-functional human-centered collaboration can help to improve the customer experience as well. Having a diverse group of individuals work together on a project allows for varied perspectives and experiences to be shared as a team. These different perspectives can give rise to potential accessibility issues that may not have been addressed without taking multiple voices into consideration. In turn, a product, service, or experience that only fits the needs or wants of a single target market or customer base can inherently limit its potential reach to a much wider market.

Encourage Feedback & Transparency to Build Trust

Once an organization embraces new practices to cultivate an inclusive space for all, its leaders must continue to improve upon these practices. The best way to continuously enhance the employee experience is to encourage feedback and include people with disabilities in the conversations and decision making.

This feedback can reflect the changes from old to new approaches, as well as what can be done better to further improve accessibility. Constant reevaluation and improvements will ensure employees feel that their needs are a priority and that they have a seat at the table.

Importance & Impact

All these factors intertwined will promote closing the "disability divide" - a major gap in social structure between disabled and non-disabled individuals - for people with disabilities in the workforce. Shifting the workplace culture to one that focuses on employees' well-being is so important to the growth of an organization internally and externally.

Internally, people with disabilities will feel more valued and supported within their organizations as the stigma surrounding disability breaks down within their workplace. Further, increasing overall accessibility of technology, tools, and work methods will allow employers to hire a wider range of potential employees because they will have the means to support them effectively.

Positive internal employee experiences can yield external success. Employee experience strategies that are built to recognize people’s differences and prioritize inclusivity will ultimately lead to a more comprehensive understanding of varying consumer bases’ needs and expectations. Overall, adopting design thinking methods to everyday workplace practices has the potential to benefit everyone involved in the end-to-end customer and employee experiences.