Author: Robyn Boren

By Catie George, Director, Communications & Storytelling

The Resource Center is one of the primary lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) and HIV/AIDS service organizations in the United States. CEO Cece Cox discussed corporate responsibility surrounding LGBTQ workers and the importance of acceptance in the workplace with the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) for Pride Month.

“Recognizing and celebrating Pride Month is crucial for businesses because it demonstrates a commitment to diversity, equity, access, and inclusion. It shows support for LGBTQIA+ employees, customers, and the broader community,” said Cox. “Celebrating Pride Month fosters a welcoming environment, which can enhance employee morale, attract diverse talent, and impact retention. It also sends a strong message about the company’s values, helping to build a positive reputation and brand loyalty.”

Cox shared that the Dallas business community would greatly benefit from having inclusive workplaces.

“A diverse and inclusive workplace brings numerous benefits, including increased creativity, better decision-making, and higher employee engagement. It fosters a culture of respect and collaboration, which can enhance productivity and innovation,” she said. “Inclusive workplaces also tend to attract top talent and have lower turnover rates. Moreover, companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion often enjoy a stronger reputation and greater customer loyalty. At the Resource Center, when our employees and culture are diverse, we are better able to serve the members of our rainbow community.”

Corporations can also use their platforms to promote LGBTQIA+ visibility and understanding through partnerships and education opportunities.

“Companies can effectively advocate for LGBTQIA+ inclusion through intentional focus and commitment, and it’s important that executive leadership demonstrate that inclusion is a priority,” Cox said. “They can also highlight stories and achievements of LGBTQIA+ employees and leaders, both internally and externally. Engaging in public advocacy and supporting laws and policies that protect LGBTQIA+ rights can further amplify their commitment to the cause.”

The future of business is diverse, equitable, and inclusive, said Cox.

“My advice to business leaders is to start by listening to their LGBTQIA+ employees and understanding their needs and challenges,” she said. “As society progresses, the expectation for businesses to be champions of LGBTQIA+ rights will grow, and that needs to include standing against discriminatory laws and initiatives. Those who lead the way will be recognized as pioneers in the movement for equality and inclusion.”

To learn more about Cece Cox’s work at the Resource Center, visit their website.

Visit the DRC’s website to learn more about our Diversity, Inclusion & Community Engagement work.

This article is the fourth of the Case for Change series, developed as part of the Disability Inclusion Toolkit. In this piece we expand from talking about disability in the workplace, to a related concern employees may have: finding the right educational path for their children with disabilities. Here too, companies can play a part. 

The big IDEA 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, is federal legislation enacted in 1975 to ensure equity for children with disabilities (visible or otherwise) in education. It guarantees a free and appropriate public school education suitable to each student’s ability in the least restrictive environment. This is for students who have been determined by a professional to have differences that may adversely affect academic performance. 

It was reauthorized in 2004 and most recently amended in December 2015 to clarify that disability does not void an individual’s right to ‘participate in or contribute to society.’ In other words, experiencing the world differently shouldn’t negate the opportunity to be an active part of it.  

According to the National Center for Education statistics, in the 2021 to 2022 school year, about 12% of Texas students in kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) were served by IDEA. But great outcomes are realized when the legislation is paired with specially trained educators.  

Planning for the future 

For parents of children with disabilities, navigating educational options and figuring out what life will look like after graduation can be confusing—which has the potential to impact their performance as employees. 

“While not directly the responsibility of employers to find disability resources for their employees, the more they can provide information and facilitate connection to those programs, the more supported and connected the employee will feel with the company,” said Michael Thomass, founder of ConnectIDD. “Moreover, the more a family has external support and programs in place, the better they will perform at work; it’s that simple. Demonstrating this sort of care and support for an employee and their family is an easy win, generating more committed team members”.  

In Texas, preparing both parents of students with disabilities and the students themselves for life after secondary education starts with a “transition service,’ when the child turns 14 years old.   

“In every other state, this is called an IEP – individual educational plan. In Texas, it’s called an admission review and dismissal, or ARD, committee meeting,” said Laura Caudill, a consultant who dedicated her 45-year career to working in special education. 

‘Student disability’ in the Texas definition ranges from speech impediments to dyslexia to Intellectual or Developmental Disability (IDD). For those with significant IDD, the plan may be to learn independent living skills.   

“We do an ‘interest inventory’ and then develop that transition plan based on what the child likes or thinks they would like to do,” said Caudill. 

Today, ‘innovation’ is a bit of a buzzword, but for years, special education leaders have been practicing the innovation mindset as they design, pivot, and tweak individual strategies for students. The child’s likes/dislikes and abilities are taken into consideration, a ‘beta’ version of their post-secondary plan is created, and then they ‘test and learn’ to determine if it makes sense to keep working towards that goal. 

For example, suppose a student says they want to be a veterinarian because of a fondness for animals. In that case, an educator might suggest taking an animal husbandry class (available through Texas Career and Technical Education programs). After completing that class, if the student still wants to pursue a veterinary degree, educators will search for more ways to validate and review that plan. The hope is that, at graduation, students have realistic expectations for the career they chose. 

Another resource for students with disabilities is the vocational rehabilitation program accessed through the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). The program has three buckets—education and training, employment services, and employment resources. Caudill provided an example of how the TWC helped a student who wanted to attend cosmetology school secure supplies and textbooks. 

The human touch 

State and federal legislation provide a blueprint for addressing the needs of students with disabilities, but legislation alone is insufficient. The teachers and other personnel prepare students to navigate the world without the safety net of educational resources they may have had since kindergarten. Caudill says educators take students as far as possible on the post-secondary plan by obtaining a summary of students’ performance, making any necessary recommendations, and ensuring they have the required number of credits. They also teach these students how to communicate their needs confidently. 

“The day they graduate from 12th grade, all the services provided by IDEA end [and are] replaced by Section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” said Caudill. “But the ADA is a federal program and isn’t tailored to each student. That’s why we help them learn how to self-advocate.” 

Evolving disability inclusion 

“Federal legislation like IDEA is a piece of disability inclusion—and I find that so much can happen on a local level,” said Caudill. “I’d love to see Dallas lead the nation on disability inclusion, and that starts with normalizing the conversation around disabilities. We all have them. I think one of the best things parents can do is show kids what their own challenges are and how they adapt.” 

In Caudill’s experience, students with disabilities—or who have loved ones with disabilities—are the most empathetic and intrinsically innovative. 

“These are the students who find new ways of doing things because the ‘normal’ way doesn’t work for them or their loved one. Imagine what organizations could create with more of these naturally innovative minds in the workforce.”  

Parents of any child can start changing the conversation immediately simply by normalizing the topic and challenging their assumptions of disability, which may be faulty.  

As discussed in article two, the interactive process that determines the best way to provide an accommodation begins when an employee or application discloses the need. Evolving roles, responsibilities, and capabilities are all considered to find a solution that works for the person and the company. Legally, companies are required to do this—but some are choosing to go further. 

JPMorgan Chase & Co’s strategic approach 

JPMorgan Chase is a global financial services company that has made a significant investment in this area  ̶  seeking to capitalize on the knowledge and experience held by persons of all abilities.  

“For employees with disabilities, we have adaptive technologies and all kinds of ergonomic equipment,” says Bryan Gill, JPMorgan Chase’s first Global Head of Neurodiversity, who also leads the Office of Disability Inclusion. “We have specific equipment and resources for our neurodivergent colleagues as well. The most important piece of this process is for managers to lead with empathy, listen to their colleagues and accommodate their needs to the best extent possible.”  

At JPMorgan Chase, once an employee states that something is impacting their ability to do their best work, the firm steps in with a plan to address it. The employee doesn’t need to disclose a specific diagnosis, but they are encouraged to express their needs and preferences to be their best every day.  

As a global financial services firm, JPMorgan Chase has more than 50,000 managers and it’s important for each to connect with each employee’s individual needs and adapt their communication styles accordingly – whether the employee is part of the disabled or neurodivergent communities.  

“Too often people develop a managerial approach which includes a particular style of communication, that only works in one situation. But when you get a new team member who processes information differently, or prefers not to make eye contact, the manager needs to adjust their communication style,” says Gill. “What may have worked in the past, has to be adjusted for each individual employee.”  

JPMorgan Chase has two signature programs for hiring and retaining neurodivergent talent.  

Autism at Work began as a Delaware-based pilot in 2015. Since its inception, the program has grown to encompass more than 90 different roles in nine countries.  

And in 2019 JPMorgan Chase created the Business Solutions Team (BeST)  ̶  which matches the talents of neurodivergent employees (with a focus on those with intellectual and developmental disabilities)  ̶   with roles that include data training for artificial intelligence, real estate for the commercial bank and call center analytics.  

“These are jobs that are integrated into the firm’s core business and add tremendous value,” says Gill. “The addition of neurodivergent employees has brought us diversity of thought, helps us to understand the diverse communities we serve and reinforces our inclusive corporate culture.”  

Bank of America’s record of inclusion  

Bank of America is another financial services firm with a huge footprint impacting the disability community. For more than 25 years Bank of America’s support services group has been made up of teammates with IDD. They do things like ensure that customers’ addresses are the same across accounts, mail correspondence, and track down information of deceased customers. In Dallas, Marc Woods has led that team since February 2012. 

“We are an efficiency add for the bank,” Woods says. “We allow other teams to offload processes that are time-consuming and monotonous but also critical to a well-functioning financial services firm.”  

According to Accenture, treating customer experience and other business services as a value center rather than a cost center achieves 3.5 times more revenue growth. People on the autism spectrum or with other forms of IDD typically do well at repetitive tasks required of business services functions. 

“While me and you may get burnt out on that kind of work, somebody with Down Syndrome, autism, or Aspergers – they really thrive,” says Woods. 

Woods knows this first-hand, having grown up with an older brother who is significantly impacted by autism. That experience is always with him and informs how he leads the group. He’s proud not just of the employment opportunities that Bank of America enables but also of the community it fosters. 

“This is probably one of the few environments where they are surrounded by people who are just like them. Everyone here has a disability. Everyone here needs some type of support to be successful,” says Wood. 

Unsurprisingly, the retention rate in an environment like that is quite high; employees will happily tell you they’ve been in their jobs for 10 or more years.  

“We have homeowners, car owners, retirees who never thought they’d work at a premier financial services company,” said Woods. “We even have people who have married each other after meeting on the job.” 

The total number of support services employees is around 300, spread across Texas, Massachusetts, Delaware, and Maine. Locally, the number fluctuates and has reached as high as 100. 

Creating the right fit 

Despite research into the benefits of diversity—particularly neurodivergence—in the workplace, companies don’t always approach it the same way, and many people with disabilities choose to work for themselves instead. According to the National Disability Institute, in 2022, there were more than 1.8 million business owners with disabilities in the U.S. Being their own boss also gives them a chance to leverage their experience for the greater good. One Dallas-Fort Worth example is Tiffani Martin, who started and ran Jancyn & Company, LLC for 10 years. 

The company was certified by Disability:IN and used its deep understanding of accessibility guidelines to help companies become more inclusive through artificial intelligence and digital strategy. Martin also founded VisioTech, an accessibility IT consulting firm. In both, she saw a chance to combine her skills and professional knowledge with her personal experience as a blind person. 

“I was able to be the physical and intellectual embodiment of a solution to a problem that affected not just me but other peers across industries,” said Martin. 

Martin lost her vision at age 28 because of diabetic retinopathy. Today, she’s a strategy & operations project manager for the T.D. Jakes Foundation, where she says the organization takes Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility seriously. 

“The T.D. Jakes Foundation has done an exceptional job in accommodating my needs and understanding what enables me to work to my potential.” 

As someone with entrepreneurial experience, she compares creating a truly inclusive environment to launching a startup. She says it’s a great idea that needs a talented team to bring into reality; strategic thought is needed to make inclusivity more than a public relations tactic, and it must be prioritized to ensure consistency.  

Tips for creating an accessible workplace

Disabilities can manifest in multiple ways, and while knowing how to respond when an employee voices a need is critical, organizations that prioritize inclusion are also proactive. That means thinking about disability inclusion from every angle and anticipating needs. 

Completing a comprehensive audit of a company’s disability inclusion policies and procedures takes time. Many resources are available to help with this effort. 

In the North Texas Commission’s DEI toolkit, Meryl K. Evans, speaker and disability inclusion and accessibility strategy consultant, also recommends the following as a general guide: 

• Have at least two top leaders of your organization be accessibility/disability inclusion champions; 

• Include people with disabilities at all professional levels; 

• Bake accessibility and disability inclusion into company culture by: 

• • Asking employees with disabilities for input on policies, ideas, and work environment; 

• • Creating employee-centric policies like remote working and flexibility; 

• • Making it standard practice for employees to share preferences for collaboration and communication; 

• • Demonstrating disability inclusion awareness in all aspects of business:  

• • • products and services that are produced for consumers;  

• • • accessibility for employees;  

• • • company-sponsored employee events that feature accessible products that can be used by employees and customers; and 

• Conduct company-wide training and awareness campaigns on accessibility and disability awareness. 

Accenture has also done significant research into how companies can better include people with disabilities in the workforce: 

• Employ: Beyond hiring, employers should implement practices that encourage and promote the progress of persons with disabilities.   

• Enable: Leaders must provide employees with disabilities with accessible tools and technology and a formal accommodations program. Consider cultivating greater awareness through formal training programs for those without disabilities to learn about the tools and accommodations available for better integration across teams.  

• Engage: To foster an inclusive culture throughout the organization, companies must generate awareness-building through recruitment efforts, disability education programs and grass-roots-led efforts and events. 

• Empower: Companies must offer mentoring and coaching initiatives and skilling/reskilling programs. Persons with disabilities should occupy roles at all levels, including top leadership positions. 

To access Accenture’s report: The disability inclusion imperative, click here. 

According to the U.S. Census American Community Survey five-year data (2018-2022), roughly 162 million people over the age of 16 are employed full-time in the United States.  

Of that number, an estimated 11,621,187 have disabilities. That’s nearly one and a half (1.46) times the population of Dallas-Fort Worth.

As discussed in our first article, ‘disability’ is an umbrella term that can describe physical and non-physical challenges. The government uses it to assess and distribute social benefits, and it is a way to group people who use accessibility devices or services. However, not everyone likes this term, as they feel it implicitly communicates limitations about their abilities.   

This concern can be heightened in the workplace—where Dr. Jason Cohen focused his research when earning his Doctor of Business Administration degree at Franklin University. Combined with his MBA from the University of Connecticut, he is uniquely positioned to talk about neurodiversity in the workplace. Specifically, he studied professionals who are classified as ‘level one autistic’— a diagnosis that he says is increasing. 

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that autism itself is more prevalent; more cases could be the result of better diagnostics. But more people being on the spectrum justifies further research and exploration into how to be inclusive,” said Cohen. 

Autism is just one example of neurodiversity. But whether a person has visible or non-apparent disabilities, creating an environment where everyone can be their best starts with open communication. That might be a big initial hurdle—either because communication skills are impacted by a person’s diagnosis or because of fear that they’ll be put into a category based on stigma and assumptions of capability.   

“The feedback that I got from [the professionals studied] was that when they did disclose, in some cases it was a detriment at first because immediately they had to overcome these stigmas,” said Cohen.  

People may understand disabilities through one example. “I’ve watched the ‘Good Doctor,’ so I understand what autism is.” Or — “I know one employee who has a brain injury, so I know how to create a supportive environment for anyone who is neurodiverse.”   

Cohen uses himself as an example of how an uninformed approach to disability inclusion can become a performance issue for employees.  

“Sometimes I have a problem modulating the pitch of my voice and some people may be like, oh, you don’t really seem excited.”   

Though this may seem like a small, easily rectified problem, Cohen must think about modulating his voice to do it. In a competitive work environment, where presentation skills are one factor used to describe someone’s leadership presence and readiness for promotion, he could be penalized.  

“There have been studies that show about 10% of your presentation is the content and 90% is how you present it,” said Cohen. 

If a manager doesn’t think someone looks like a leader, that person may be consistently passed over for opportunities. Empathy and open communication are the antidotes to these situations, but if individuals don’t feel safe, it’s a conversation that won’t happen.  

“There are challenges in doing it right, but consider what companies are losing by not investing in their employees—economically, it’s massive, it’s in the billions in productivity losses, and those numbers just keep compounding,” said Cohen.

A customized approach to disability inclusion 

Michael Thomas founded ConnectIDD (pronounced: connected), an agency that contracts with companies, nonprofits, and municipalities to make them more accessible for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). He cautions decision makers not to forget to show their humanity.  Adhering to legal guidelines is essential, and demonstrating an understanding of the complexities of disability inclusion will help individuals feel safe to be transparent about the way they experience the world. 

“Many times, you can see people tense up when interacting with someone who has a disability. Whether the person has IDD or another difference, that type of reaction suppresses honest conversations,” said Thomas. “You can’t approach disability inclusion the same way in every situation. Beyond just saying they care, organizations need to figure out how to both satisfy legal requirements and be authentically compassionate.” 

So, what is the right way to respond if an employee discloses a disability or are experiencing challenges such as focusing, paying attention, or comprehending? 

“The first thing the manager should keep in mind is to listen and not speak,” says Sherry Travers, a lawyer specializing in labor and employment law at Littler Mendelson, PC. “Not all words carry the same weight and you don’t want to accidentally say something that will put the company at risk or make the employee feel victimized.” 

Travers advises leaning on HR to guide the conversation, making the employee aware of support services that exist inside the company, and following the process for providing reasonable accommodations. 

The reasonable accommodation process 

Employers may need to provide reasonable accommodation to applicants and employees with disabilities to integrate these individuals into the workforce. For example, a vision-impaired job applicant may have difficulty accessing or using a prospective employer’s website to apply for a job because of an inaccessible user interface. An employee with a cognitive impairment may have trouble meeting their employer’s production requirements.  

To determine if an employer can accommodate such applicants and employees in these situations and the type of accommodation needed, the applicant or employee will engage with the employer in what is known as the interactive process. This process is conducted on an individualized basis, considering the evolving nature of the essential job functions and the individual’s functional limitations. The interactive process entails an individual and their employer:  

• exchanging information about the individual’s disability and work-related restrictions; 

• identifying potential appropriate workplace accommodations; and  

• reaching a mutually satisfactory decision about the reasonable accommodation to be provided. 

While employers are expected to take the lead role in this process, individuals who request workplace accommodations are equally responsible for engaging with their employers in the accommodation process in a timely and responsible manner.  

This article is the first in a series created to help employers identify barriers to disabled applicants and employees and implement practical strategies for eliminating or minimizing those barriers to ensure maximum accessibility in the workplace. 

When you hear or read the word disability, what comes to mind? For many, the word may conjure the image of someone in a wheelchair, even though they know that disabilities don’t begin and end with mobility challenges. Any number of conditions can qualify as disabilities, including blindness, deafness, neurodivergent conditions such as ADHD and autism, and other non-apparent issues. Complicating matters further, these conditions vary in intensity and impact, creating differences in capability between people within the disability community and with their non-disabled peers. 

That said, a lifetime of subliminal messaging is hard to override.  

The international symbol of accessibility—an icon of a person in a wheelchair—was selected after a design competition in 1968, and it was baked into the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the “ADA”).  

More than 20 years later, the same design was updated in the Accessible Icon Project, to better depict independence. So, it’s understandable that this is what we imagine when the topics of disability and accessibility comes up.  

Sure, a symbol is not meant to convey all the complexities inherent in one term, but linking complicated topics to one image may stifle conversation and reinforce recurrent and harmful stereotypes. For example, the notion that accommodating individuals with disabilities is always accomplished through procuring a specific product. 

Employers must consider the limitations of individuals with disabilities in the design and functionality of all spaces, including workspaces, to combat ideas about their limitations and foster accessibility.  

“I was born deaf, but I can walk fine,” says Meryl Evans, disability inclusion advocate, “So, a building that’s been designed to accommodate wheelchairs but doesn’t include closed captioning on the monitors still isn’t accessible for me, even though it is categorized as being ADA compliant.”  

This is just one of many examples of how the failure to consider and account for all types of disabilities excludes some individuals with disabilities. 

The ADA guidelines, like the term disability, are complicated. For example, a building with no ramp would not be considered “in violation” if built before 1990 when the guidelines were first published. Existing buildings are generally not required to comply with subsequently implemented accessibility requirements. 

As for closed captioning, per Title III, public spaces are required to enable accessibility, like ensuring the closed captioning function is activated. But display monitors aren’t considered part of the building; even if they were, buildings don’t always control how content is produced or shown.  

Equating the term “disability” with any one symbol may be exclusionary because all other disabilities are not represented. Therefore, to achieve truly inclusive environments, we must go further and apply what we learn through experience. More interactions with individuals who have an array of disabilities will help us understand and be able to anticipate needs. For example, even people who don’t have disabilities will safeguard against anyone feeling excluded or punished because of how they are built.  

The ‘D Word’  

Disability is a legal term – under the ADA, an individual with a disability is a person who: 

• has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities;
• has a record of such an impairment; or
• is regarded as having such an impairment. 

Disability can be a divisive societal term that not everyone uses. People may feel that it carries a negative connotation and implicitly says there’s something wrong with them – especially if they struggle with a mental illness. Some in the mental health community feel that equating emotional or psychiatric challenges with a disability communicates the wrong message.   

The fact is, people with disabilities are in your life every day—sometimes, it looks like lipreading, using a wheelchair, or using a GPS-enabled cane. And sometimes, the accessibility tool being used isn’t visible. It’s important to remember that disabled is not synonymous with unable—a message Dylan Rafaty reinforces through his nonprofit, the North Texas Disability Chamber (NTXDC). 

From talk to action 

Rafaty founded the NTXDC in 2017, which is part community-building (fostering engagement between people with and without disabilities) and part community education. The organization evolved in 2021 and remains a community of advocates and allies who share the goal of advancing accessibility, equity, and disability inclusion in the region. Rafaty is earning his Ed.D degree in Organizational Change and Leadership and sees an opportunity to engage organizations as a disability inclusion leader. 

“The desire to be authentically inclusive exists,” he said. “But organizations may lack an understanding of the complexities that surround disability, and that oftentimes results in solutions that fall far short of making a meaningful impact.”  

Businesses may not realize how bad this can be for their bottom line—they could be leaving billions on the table by not figuring out how to leverage the skills and unique insights of employees in the disability community. (More on this topic in article two.) 

That’s in addition to the opportunity that consumers present. Bryan Gill, who leads the office of disability inclusion and doubles as the global head of neurodiversity at JPMorgan Chase & Co., says it’s a mistake not to consider how your products and services may be excluding a group of people. 

“According to Forbes, the disabled community, and their family and friends, is worth an estimated $13 trillion in annual disposable income,” said Gill. “From a business perspective, that’s an opportunity the industry as a whole would be foolish not to tap into. By including the disability community in your workforce, you are able to influence all business operations with disability inclusion in mind.”  

Universal design is the idea that accessibility is considered from the start rather than an afterthought. This, together with the Curb-Cut Effect—which demonstrated the multiplier effect of inclusivity—makes compelling arguments for rethinking how society can better include the disability community. 

Individuals with disabilities represent the largest global minority—and they are still represented by a symbol created six decades ago when Richard Nixon was president. Leaders in disability inclusion say the common thread through apparent and non-apparent disabilities is an innovative mindset and a creative approach to a range of daily challenges. That’s hard to depict in a single image. But we can evolve our understanding, consideration, and ultimately our impact. Let’s start now.