Understanding Disability Will Make You a Better Leader, Colleague - Heres How

A few years ago, I might have told you that disability inclusion was a workplace issue, something for HR teams to handle, something that could be solved with better policies, abit more training, and the odd awareness campaigns. Evidently, I was oblivious.

After seven years living the disabled dream, I finally see it differently.

Because disability isn’t just about what happens in the workplace, it’s about how we see the world, how we show up for people, and how we build environments where everyone can thrive. Equity over equality.

The more you start to understand disability, not just as a concept, but as real lived experience, the more you start to notice the things that were invisible to you before. I've heard this from family, friends, colleagues and acquaintance alike. Once you see it, you can’t un-see it, and then you start to see it everywhere.

The small things that make a huge difference. The barriers that are so ingrained, most people don’t even realise they exist.

The Things You Notice When You Start Paying Attention

Most people don’t notice inaccessibility because they’ve never had to - and neither had I. I didn’t realise how many spaces, places, conversations, and experiences subtly exclude disabled people until I was the one being left out. I definitely didn't notice the small, everyday ways the world wasn’t built with disabled people in mind. It’s not just about the inconvenient inaccessibility when you’re in a wheelchair it runs way deeper than that.

Until you are a disabled person, love a disabled person, or intentionally stop to listen, it’s can be easy to miss. But when you do pause and really see, well that’s when things start to shift.

Not because someone told you to care and not because you were handed a corporate DE&I strategy. But because something clicked, and suddenly you could see the problem in front of you.

That’s where change starts.

It’s Not About Overhauling Everything Overnight - It’s About Small Shifts

You don’t have to be in HR or a position of power. You don’t even have to know exactly what to do next. The only thing you need to do is start noticing.

Pay attention to the spaces you move through - who is included? Who isn’t? If something isn’t accessible to everyone, ask why. If someone’s voice isn’t in the room, ask if they were ever invited in the first place.

It's time to challenge assumptions and ask yourself the questions.

When you think, “That wouldn’t be an issue for me,” follow it with the thought—but what about someone else?

Currently, it feels like everyday I am learning something new. Not about being a disabled wheelchair user, instead about what others need to exist in the spaces I can access so easily. It isn't always, all about step free access, and I'm still in my own education on that.

Because the more we see, and understand others experiences, the more we start to care. And the more we care, the more we create the kind of world where everyone, disabled or not has the chance to thrive, not just survive or merely exist.

When it comes to something like this, change doesn’t start with a big strategy or a policy from the top, it starts with the people who choose to see, to listen, and to do better. Those people become better colleagues. Better leaders. Better all round human beings.

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#DisabilityInclusion #InclusionMatters #EquityOverEquality #AccessibilityForAll #DisabledVoices