RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS
Achieving accessibility and inclusion Thinking outside of the wheelchair sign
By Mina Atia of building ramps or setting up automatic washroom doors¬ to meet certain widespread accessibility standards. It’s about celebrating and valuing persons with disabilities. It’s about enabling them to fully participate in all parts of society. “I think in business too often the discussion around accessibility is a function of pain; whether it be labour shortage, an inability to hire qualified people, public scrutiny or persons with disabilities being physically unable to enter a building or room,” says Sieliakus. “What we need instead is a radical change in conversation! We really need to start talking about disability in terms of inclusion.” Shattering stereotypical attitudes Living with a neurological condition for over 18 years, Sieliakus only claimed her disability recently. “Disclosure of my condition early-on cost me my job, left me with chronic depression and nearly destroyed me,” she says. Finding her courage and publicly claiming her disability has allowed Sieliakus to have open and honest discussions, breaking down stereotypes that otherwise would have gone unexplored.
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ccessibility is as diverse as the range of human differences. The concept of being accessible is not reserved for people with assistive mobility devices: it’s much broader. Once this is understood, we, as a society, can make meaningful changes in becoming truly inclusive. Persons with disabilities have diverse needs when trying to access all facets of their everyday life. That means we need to think beyond wheelchairs signs and deeper about what they attempt to symbolize. “There is a tendency for most people to think when we talk ‘disability’ that it has to do with mobility. Even the symbol on door openers is a wheelchair; we all 24
understand what it means, but it really is much bigger than that,” says Rosalind Penfound, Accessibility Advisory Board Chair for the Department of Justice. “It's about people who have visual impairments, blind, deaf and hearing impaired, and neurodivergent folks. When you think about all these disabilities, you start to understand how diverse accessibility really is.”
“Disability is an uncomfortable topic for many and as long as ‘disability’ remains an uncomfortable topic perhaps the greatest barrier is the, often unspoken, judgment people pass about people with disabilities,” says Sieliakus. “Judgement such as not being good enough, being less than, being too much, more than, etc.”
“Accessibility is an individualized ability to access, directly or indirectly, environments, services, products and employment,” says Tanya Sieliakus, Founder and CEO of HR Pros Inc.
“Everyone faces barriers, hardships and difficulties in one time or another,” says Dawn Stegen, Interim Executive Director, Accessibility Directorate, Department of Justice. “For persons with disabilities these barriers are related to the already built environment, but there are many others including those related to attitude, stereotyping and stigma.”
Thinking this broadly and inclusively about accessibility pushes the boundaries
“That's really where the education and the awareness is very important. And it's
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