As companies begin looking at initiatives for the New Year, they may be thinking about how to improve their accessibility and disability inclusion. However, creating a culture that cares about accessibility and disability inclusion is difficult in an organization that’s not psychologically safe.
A psychologically safe environment is one where there is a shared belief between individual contributors, managers, and executives, that it’s OK to take risks, to express ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes all without fear of negative consequences. People with disabilities, won’t disclose those disabilities publicly in psychologically unsafe organizations because of fear of retaliation.
Team members will not raise accessibility as a risk or ask questions like “how would somebody with dyslexia use this” in psychologically unsafe organizations.
Rather than attempting to dive into accessibility, and then quit because “waah, it’s too hard” look at your organizational psychological safety and attempt to reduce or eliminate that barrier first.
Alt text: Accessibility can only be implemented at the culture level in psychological safe organizations.