Leaders for Accessibility Summit: Employee Inclusion Day

It's been nearly half a year since I've attended a conference, and since this one is fairly small, I was able to work it into my schedule. I must say, I like the format, being only two half-days, and with talks being short and to the point. Not to mention being based in Europe and being delighted by British and Irish accents all morning! I was able to learn a lot of new information, and also get some billable work in! Here's my thoughts on today's lightning talks.

ADHD communication tips for the workplace

Speaker: Ettie Bailey-King

Pretty much all of us have someone with ADHD  (Attention deficit hyperactive disorder) in our lives, whether we're aware of it or not. Sometimes the person with it isn't even aware, since it can easily go undiagnosed. Ettie asked us to consider the alternative way to look at ADHD, which is not as a disorder, but as a style of thinking with a new name: DAVE (Dopamine attention variability executive dysfunction).

The communication tips in this talk are applicable not only to employees with ADHD, but any employee, or even client that we communicate with! Once again, the accessibility mantra "essential for some, useful to all" comes into play. Below are just some of the tips from the talk.

Time agnosia

Time agnosia, sometimes referred to as "time blindness," covers a spectrum when people may struggle to interpret implied timing of tasks, non-specific timing requests, or forgetting when something needs to be done altogether. Here are some ways to alleviate this:

• Be specific with timing. Use a specific time something needs to be completed or started by if possible. Without specificity, tasks can be forgotten, or conversely a person could drop everything to do the task even when they should have wrapped up what they were doing first.
• Avoid "right now" language. This can cause anxiety in people, and once again be misinterpreted.
• Phrase requests using a "what, when, and why" framework. It helps people with ADHD (and everyone, really), to clearly define what a task is, when it needs to be completed by, and why it's important. This can alleviate anxiety and unblock some people if they feel overwhelmed or don't understand why something needs to be done.

Attention differences

It's not attention deficit, it's attention differences! Basically, it doesn't mean that people aren't paying attention, but that they're processing differently than what you might expect. Tips to accommodate attention differences are especially applicable to all, in my opinion.

• Get straight to the point. Don't include a lot of filler or fluff up front. Start with the main point of the communication, and add details afterwards. You can always write something up, then rearrange it as needed.
• Include a TL;DR (Too long; didn't read). For longer communications, including a TL;DR helps make the main points clear so they don't get lost if a person experiences attention fatigue or distraction.
• Keep your writing simple. Don't use long sentences, jargon, or complex words if they're not needed to get the point across. I could work on this one myself!

Working memory

There's a person in my life that struggles with this one for sure, and I have been experimenting with the best ways to support them and communicate in a way that doesn't get forgotten. I will say that people know themselves as well, and can tell you what their preferences are or set up some of their own systems to fill the gaps in working memory.

• Send reminders. Many platforms do this anyway, but for meetings, due dates, and more, having reminders be sent helps keep people on track for success.
• Plan meetings. Meetings should be scheduled in advance. We should also work to avoid last-minute changes and back-to-back meetings. This gives people time to process new information, transition cleanly and avoid anxiety.
• Use routines. Having recurring meetings at the same time, even using the same meeting link, can help make things easier for people, rather than always shuffling meetings around and having to look up when/where it is each week.
• Share meeting recaps. Everyone takes different styles of notes. Some people can't take notes during a meeting at all, since writing up what was said distracts them from what's being said next. Sharing what's been covered and what action items resulted from a meeting helps make sure people don't forget what was said, and is also good for transparency and making sure everyone is on the same page.

Emotional regulation

Full disclosure, this is something that I struggle with myself in a professional and personal setting. Lack of clarity can make me overly anxious, which takes attention away from my productivity. There's even a medical term that defines part of this, called Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD). Here are some tips to help manage emotional regulation:

• Explain reasons for meetings. It can be extremely anxiety-inducing to get an email in your inbox that says you need to meet with the boss in two hours without a reason why. My mind tends to go to negative places, and I start thinking "oh my goodness, I'm fired. I'm in trouble." Explaining the reason for a meeting, or at least getting an assurance that meetings aren't for a negative reason, helps ease anxiety around the unknown.
• Give praise in public, constructive criticism in private. This pertains specifically to RSD, and again is something I struggle with if I let my emotions go unchecked. If something is done well, tell the person they did a good job. Criticism is definitely still allowed, and is honestly essential with a job that deals with design and user experience, but it should be constructive, and in the proper setting. If done too publicly, it can make a person feel like a failure, and they get overly embarrassed, even if it's well-intentioned.

There were more tips, but I just wanted to share some of the ones that resonated more. Ettie was also kind enough to share a more detailed communication guide for free on her Fighting Talk blog.

Top tips for setting up Employee Resource Groups

Speaker: Sarah Healy

This talk was perhaps less applicable to an agency setting vs. corporate with a higher volume of employees, but the benefit of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) is unquestionable for people that are perhaps marginalized or need community with people who have similar experiences. Sarah helped define ERGs, but also gave some tips for setting one up. Having a clear purpose, emboldened members within the community, and clear strategy and roadmap can be key to getting an ERG started. Endorsement from leadership and creating safe spaces and allies help make an ERG successful long-term. While I don't see an immediate need for an official ERG at RDG, our UX team meets weekly to have a session where we review each other's work and do collaborative brainstorming that helps to give a sense of community in an unofficial capacity, and helps us to support one another professionally. So, in a way, I suppose we already have one!

What to consider when hiring a deaf employee

Speaker: Erin Fox

While this talk shared some specifics over hiring/working with a deaf person, there were tips that could be more widely applied. What's more, many accommodations are absolutely free, and just need to be discussed up-front or considered more actively than they are now.

Here are some considerations that we could use to be more inclusive in the workplace:

• Use good lighting for meetings. Avoid being backlit, sitting in shadow, or having poor lighting. Someone deaf or hard-of-hearing may rely on lip-reading to understand what you're saying, and someone with low-vision may need quality video to see presented materials in the background. These tips apply to in-person and virtual meetings.
• Allow time for listening breaks. This can help people catch up with notes, process information better for long-term storage, and ease anxiety. Listening fatigue negatively affects retention of information.
• Ask what kind of accommodations are needed. Don't assume, just ask. Most people are happy to tell you their preferences or requirements to communicate successfully.
• Recap meetings. Using AI or assigning a person to take notes and identify action items out of meetings relieves anxiety and helps catch people up who may have experienced listening fatigue or distraction.

Panel discussion: Disclosures and disabilities at work

Speakers: Conor McAuley, Ettie Bailey-King

We got to hear from Conor, with a visible disability of being in a wheelchair, and Ettie, with an invisible disability of ADHD/neurodivergence. They made many good points throughout the discussion, such as viewing disabilities not as something we have from birth or even develop, but rather a lack of support within our community and environment. Also, while disclosing your disability to a potential employer can result in them not moving forward with recruitment, it also vets them as a company that does not value diversity and inclusion or prioritizes accommodation. One comment that especially resonated with me was regarding employers that receive a request for accommodation from an employee. They stated that instead of feeling like a failure if someone comes to them, but to feel good that they've created an environment where the person felt they can come forward, and use it as an opportunity to create positive change. There are gaps in employment that can be filled with skilled people in the accessibility community, if only we can see past stigmas and give them a chance. Many accommodations are free or low cost, so they can be easily implemented.

Scaling neuro-inclusion through a data-driven lens

Speaker: Jaqcui Wallis

I loved this talk. Statistics aside (and there were many surprising ones), I liked the shift in thinking about addressing neuro-divergence in the workplace. Instead of looking at issues through the lens of medical diagnoses and disclosing disabilities, we can try to address issues more broadly, deemphasizing diganoses altogether. After all, how many people are undiagnosed? How many people self-identify as being neuro-divergent? Instead, looking globally at all employee strengths and weakness can help employers address issues at their core that will benefit the greatest number of people, as well as cater to strengths. This approach applies a greater benefit, often at a lower cost, and removes the stigmas surrounding neuro-divergence as a medical diagnosis/disorder. I really want RDG to use their Genius Finder tool to find out our own strengths and weaknesses!

The Workplace Inclusion Maturity Model

Speaker: Niamh Kelly

Niamh identified six different areas that companies can evaluate to see how inclusive they are. They are as follows:

1. Application process. How easy it for people to apply? Consider UX, language use, hiring managers and HR personnel, etc. Don't use gendered language or role descriptions that can be misinterpreted.
2. Interview process. Ask about accommodations needed to conduct interview successfully, what they would require if hired. Does it need to be virtual or in-person? If captions or an interpreter is needed, make sure to set it up.
3. Onboarding/training. Is training tool accessible for everyone, or equivalent available?
4. Working environment. What physical needs are there?
5. Disclosing needs/disabilities. Remove the stigma and fear around disclosure and requesting of needs.
6. Access to supports. Don't require official diagnosis to take seriously. Self-identified neuro-divergence and other issues that take a long time to acquire a medical diagnosis should still be accommodated.

She also outlined a three stage process in the maturity model:

1. Taking action. Be honest, gain awareness of limitations, make organization welcoming of disclosure. Create strategic plans, implement education for teams, and set goals and timelines for change.
2. Optimizing. Processes are in place, teams have structures, awareness is greater, and time to change is shorter.
3. Achieving. Accessibility processes are embedded in systems, knowledge is engrained across departments and the time to change is low.

In order to move up through the accessibility maturity model, we should be offering structured support, check-ins with specialists, seeking input from people that require accommodation, and more. 

Panel discussion: Supporting neurodiversity in the workplace

Speakers: Jacqui Wallis, Dr. Richard Purcell

This panel was interesting, especially hearing from Dr. Richard, who has ADHD and dyslexia. He actually built some assistive technology to help in his own work that has gone on to help countless others. He founded CareScribe, the company that has an AI note-taking software and a dictation software. These helped him to be successful during medical school and mastering medical terminology with dyslexia, which would have otherwise been a much larger struggle. He pointed out that he didn't even get additional support until he got a diagnoses, and the extra support still wasn't sufficient. Jacqui also added that people don't always realize they may have neuro-divergence, so don't seek a diagnosis or additional support.

At the end of the day, we should stop expecting an official—and often long-awaited and expensive—medical diagnosis that must be disclosed in order to offer help. People are all different, and many adjustments that can be made in the workplace to help people succeed that are free or low cost. Making tools available to all helps unlocks the full potential of the workforce, rather than seeking to tick a box saying baseline accommodation has been provided. Some doesn't have to be neuro-divergent to benefit from solutions geared towards those with disabilities or neuro-differences.

End of day one

Glad this talk was a half-day, since so many topics were covered in a short time I'm already feeling a little conference fatigue! But a lot of valuable information was shared, and there was the often-repeated ideology that inclusivity doesn't have to be narrow and target specific user groups, but can be expanded without impacting costs, and remove stigmas around disabilities in favor of just accommodating everybody where they're at. Can't wait for day two, to hear from designers and developers about digital inclusion topics!