Do all your clients look the same? Maybe that's a sign to change.

Back in the day (I sound like my father) there used to be these mailers from the community college that would come around advertising for adult learning classes at night to improve your personal and professional skills. For the most part, my father would recycle them in the cat's litter box.

Since I was in charge of getting the mail each day and walking the long path down our driveway (we lived on acres of land so you can imagine better when I say 'long path') I would occasionally peruse the mail (a/k/a be nosy) and just see what came that day. And for whatever the reason, one of those adult learning class mailers jumped out to me and I set it on the table to discuss at supper that night.

It was a class on how to learn ASL (American Sign Language).?

WHY

I'm not even sure I can answer 'why' but growing up, I did find myself migrating toward learning more about other people. To the point my chattiness was on every single report card in elementary school and it concerned my father that my studies would suffer because I couldn't stop visiting with my neighbors.

I still don't actually know 'why', but it fascinated me that everyone had different ways of communicating and I wanted to learn more. I guess I wanted to simply understand them better? Again, I really wasn't 100% sure why I did things like:

-->If you spoke another language, it was likely I would ask, "How do you know how to exchange Hola with Hello?"?

-->If you were neurodivergent (and we didn't even have this word in 1982 that I can recall, at least), I wanted to know how you saw or heard the world around you.

-->If you were differently abled, I wanted to know how you experienced the world.?

MAYBE BEING NOSY IS A GOOD THING?

I'm being 100% serious. That night at supper, I had to convince my father of a few things and none of them were easy feats if you knew Daymon Brown:

(1) Would they even allow a child to take an adult learning class when I was 11 years old?

(2) How I was going to repay him for the cost of the class?

(3) What would I do to make sure my grades didn't suffer at school?

SUCCESS - IT WASN'T A 'NO'!!!

My father knew I had been a go-getter. If I set my mind to it, it was getting done! And I did:

(1) I got my teachers to sign a letter that said I was 'mature enough' to take this class, presented it to the St. Charles Community College office, and they accepted it. The adult learning class was every Tuesday and Thursday night. Ok, now to pay for it...

(2) I created a flyer and hung it on the door of every single home in Oakridge Estates for babysitting, yardwork, etc., and I was hired by 2 families almost instantly to start watching their kiddos during the weekend so they could go out for date nights. Great, and about that homework...

(3) I had to stop any futzing around with friends and random bike rides to study and get that ASL certificate and show my dad I could do hard things!

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END OF THE CLASS?

I was the only child who had successfully been able to take ANY adult learning class EVER at that time and it opened St. Charles Community College programs up to accept other grade-school students with the right support of teachers and parents.

I got more babysitting jobs and increased my savings beyond the $35.00 I owed my dad for the class. (A little side bar - my father charged me gas money to and from the class because nothing in this life is free. So I didn't account for that in my expenses ultimately owed him an additional $15.00 for the gas making it a total of $50.00.)

My grades never suffered, in fact, I did really well in school.

Most importantly - I learned an entirely new way to communicate with others and continue to try to be someone who takes the time to learn a skill, even at 51 years of age now.?

WHY DOES THIS MATTER TO MY BUSINESS, SHERYL?

I'm glad you asked (well, at least I'm guessing you thought this) what are we doing in financial services to embrace differently abled clients and employees more often? How are we continuing to learn about how we can connect with and communicate with others who may be experiencing the world differently?

Some examples may be:

(1)?Attracting those with hearing loss?- are these individuals even on your list of prospects or in your business plan? They should be. Learn more about the correct way to address these persons. Learn that Deaf is always capitalized when addressing someone. Hearing impaired is actually a frowned upon term. And of course, there are classes to learn more about sign language. Having CC (closed captioning) videos on your website and in your social media do make a difference, too.)?

(2)?Attracting those with low vision?- are these individuals on your list of prospects or in your business plan? They also should be. Learn more about the correct ways to address these persons. Learn that the term 'blind' actually refers to a total blindness and afflicts approximately 15% of the population. Many other individuals have limited and low vision. The term 'Visually Impaired' is mostly frowned upon as a term. (One thing you can do immediately is make certain every link and image has the Alt-Text fields completed on your website. So instead of website software reading, "Decorative Blue Bullet" to these individuals, it instead says, "Checklist on How To Lower Your Debt". Those fields are there for a reason and they matter.)

(3)?Attracting the neurodivergent?- are these individuals on your list of prospects or in your business plan? They should be. Learn the differences between saying neurodiverse and neurodivergent. (I also learned the difference between Acceptance and Awareness, too.) And pull in experts in this space when you need more understanding. I would say one of the leading experts in Financial Services today is?Andrew Komarow, CFP? ChSNC? MSFS, AEP? CAP? ?and his team at?Planning Across The Spectrum .?

I know this blog will not cover everything out there. And, for anyone who has great ideas - share them! I want to continue to be a learner while being a good steward of inclusivity. I've included a few resources below and am happy to update as more are provided.

Stay well -

Sheryl Hickerson, CEO - Females and Finance

Become a F&F member today!

RESOURCES TO HELP

-?National Center on Disability and Journalism:?https://ncdj.org/style-guide/

-?Making the Web Accessible:?https://www.w3.org/WAI/

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Sheryl Hickerson, CEO of Females and Finance, has proudly worked in the financial services profession for 33 years. She is an international speaker, an award-winning diversity advocate in the financial services community, and an award-winning financial services marketer.

This blog originally appeared on the Females and Finance website?found here.