Inclusion Missteps in the Workplace

Creating a more inclusive workplace environment for people with disabilities is a challenge for many organizations but putting the burden on disabled people to come up with solutions for a more inclusive workplace environment for disabled people in the workplace, is wrong-headed. While they are an important resource group that can help to facilitate the problem, employees with disabilities cannot create greater inclusion and accommodation in the workplace for disabled employees on their own.

There needs to be a team/group with various players in the organization, including managers, who need to be equally invested in creating greater inclusion for those who are under-included. It is absolutely essential that companies interested in creating inclusion and accommodation for disabled employees in the work environment, invest in viable strategies and plans for accommodation and inclusion for employees in the workplace who happen to have disabilities—with the help of a diversity of stake-holders in the organization.

Inclusion is not necessarily an instinct for most species, but, rather, is something that needs to be actively developed. If you look, for example, at other primates who are the closest relatives to humans, while they share the jungle with other creatures, most of these species live closest to their own kind in the jungle. There is a tendency to exclude “others” from their immediate habitats. Monkeys, for example, like to hang out with other monkeys; lions like to hang out with other lions; and giraffes prefer the company of giraffes—even if they are all in the same jungle.

Not only do these species prefer to associate with their own kind, but many do not express a keen interest in greater inclusion into their close-knit groups of those of their own species that are not “100% normal”. In other words, if you are sick or in any way incapacitated, you could find yourself getting left behind if you are having trouble keeping up with the rest of the group.

This tendency to exclude those who are not like us is not unique to just people, monkeys, lions and giraffes. Look, for example, at birds. They are one of the most discriminating species on the Earth. They seem to be born with the mantra that “if you are not the right color, you can’t fly with us.”

This tendency can also be seen in humans who typically distinguish themselves by skin color but can, in fact, use other criteria to discriminate and exclude, such as physical appearance or physical ability. In the case of physical ability, this can have consequences in the lives of those excluded, especially in the context of work.

People with disabilities are clearly different from their able-bodied counterparts in many ways, and sometimes, this can be a very challenging thing to accommodate which is why many companies either don’t hire persons with disabilities, or they do not provide adequate accommodations for workers with disabilities. That has had dire consequences for persons with disabilities who desire to work, but who often find themselves unable to find jobs, or even when they find work, they find it difficult to assimilate and fit in. This often leads to employers avoiding hiring people with disabilities, which then leads to a high unemployment rate for persons with disabilities.

The problem is so commonplace that the United States and other western countries have implemented laws relating to persons with disabilities in the workplace. In How to Build an Inclusive Workplace for People With Disabilities, the author opines that “all U.S.-based companies with at least fifteen employees are legally required to accommodate employees with disabilities (within reason) at the very least.”

But here is the problem with a lot of the policies that some of these companies have put in place: these companies put the burden on the persons who are disadvantaged and impacted, i.e., the workers with disability to come up with the solutions and strategies for greater integration for disabled people in the workplace. This is a very narrow-minded approach. While the impacted persons are an important part of the solution, i.e., they are in the best position to know what their weaknesses are and what they need help with (and thus, they are an important “ERG or ‘employee resource group’” that must be a part of the solution), they cannot bear the burden alone of solving the problem of lack of integration, lack of accommodation and lack of available training for all parties concerned who can help to facilitate integration of disabled people into the workplace).

In How to Build an Inclusive Workplace for People With Disabilities, Inc Magazine points out that: “Company leaders cannot continue to rely on and put the burden on the people who are within those ERGs to advocate for change across the entire company.” It will take a diverse team to implement strategies that will work for the entire company, while at the same time address the needs of the workers with disabilities.

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