What This Better Ally Got Wrong in?2024

Each week, Karen Catlin shares five simple actions to create a more inclusive workplace and be a better?ally.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for being part of the Better Allies community over the past year. This newsletter now reaches over 40,000 subscribers every week, and I’m deeply grateful for your readership and the actions you take to make your workplace more inclusive. A special thanks to those of you who have recommended my newsletter to a colleague. Your support and engagement are what make this community so impactful. Together, we can and will make a difference.

Long-time subscribers know I write an annual “pundit accountability” edition of my newsletter, sharing mistakes I made the previous year. After all, on the journey to be better allies, we’re bound to get it wrong sometimes. This is uncharted, uncomfortable territory for many of us. Yet, that doesn’t mean we should step back. Our marginalized, overlooked, and underestimated coworkers need us to keep doing this work. We need to keep leaning in.

To help normalize that it’s okay to occasionally misstep, I’m here to share five things I got wrong in 2024 and how I could have been a better ally.

1. Avoid?classism

I learn from subscribers to my newsletter regularly, and last year was no different. After I wrote about being an owner, not a renter in March, I heard from some of you about the inherent bias and privilege in the analogy. Just because someone doesn’t have the financial means to own a home doesn’t mean they’re irresponsible or lazy. And that renting is often a result of financial necessity rather than a lack of problem-solving ability.

I should have spotted the bias, but I didn’t. It’s an example of classism, which Merriam-Webster defines as “a belief that a person’s social or economic station in society determines their value in that society.”

Moving forward, I’ll be more aware of classism in my words and actions. If you’re not already doing this, please join me.

2. Advocate for wellness?rooms

After I wrote about the issue of non-lactating employees using lactation rooms for breaks, long lunches, and personal calls, I heard from subscribers who suggested I had missed the larger issue?—?that employees may need private/quiet spaces during the workday.

Some people may need spaces for prayer or meditation. Or for privacy during virtual therapy sessions. Or to take a short rest from the sensory overload of the workplace. And so on.

If your workplace doesn’t yet have wellness rooms, consider advocating for them.

3. Nothing about them without?them

Many disability-related organizations and advocates use the phrase “Nothing about us without us” to emphasize that decisions and policies should not be made without representatives of people affected by that policy.

I’ve referred to this slogan many times. Yet, it slipped my mind when I really needed to put it into practice.

Recently, I was invited to give a keynote at a conference focused on services and support for a disability community. Ahead of time, I met with the organizers to review my outline and the points I would make. When I got to the section focused on “nothing about them without them,” someone on the call had an “aha” moment?—?we’d been making decisions about the keynote without representatives of their disability community.

I should have known better. I felt like I let everyone down.

At any rate, we quickly figured out a plan for getting feedback from their community, and I know my keynote was better as a result.

4. Offer accessible downloads

In my books Better Allies and Belonging in Healthcare, I delve into the concept of privilege at work, outlining 50 ways it might show up. Understanding and acknowledging these privileges is a crucial step in our journey to becoming better allies. It’s important to realize that our unique set of privileges significantly influences our workplace experience. And that those without the same privileges will have a different experience.

I also created free downloadable versions of these lists to encourage conversation and reflection about privilege. To squeeze all 50 onto one page, I used a 9-point font. When viewed online, it’s easy to zoom in if you want a larger font. However, when printed, the text is, well, tiny.

And tiny text isn’t accessible to everyone.

Earlier this year, I learned that newsletter subscriber Ellen Kessler used the list in a large group meeting. Afterward, a colleague mentioned that a person in the audience had a sight limitation and that someone had to read the 50 statements to them.

So, Kessler reached out to ask if I had a large-print version.

I must admit that I didn’t then, but I do now. You can find both the one-page and large-print versions on my website.

Similarly, I’m grateful to subscriber Meagan Eller, who let me know that my “50 Ways You Might Have Wellness Privilege at Work” paper was an untagged PDF. They noted, “Tagging a PDF is the first step toward making it accessible to people using assistive technology like screen readers.” I’ve since uploaded a more accessible version.

5. Point out when someone creates inaccessible content

Allyship means doing something when we notice non-inclusive behavior. Yet, there have been many times when I haven’t taken action like Kessler and Eller did to point out inaccessible content.

Even though I wrote about avoiding alternative characters in social media posts to create bold, italics, or other text treatments to help emphasize something or make them stand out, I’ve ignored dozens and dozens of opportunities to give people feedback on their LinkedIn posts.

A few weeks ago, I decided I needed to change my behavior. Now, when I come across a post that uses bold or italics, I turn on Voice Over on my iPad or MacBook and listen to it. Then, I leave a comment along these lines:

“Thank you for this post, and I hope you’re open to some feedback…You may not realize this, but using special characters to create bold or italic text on LinkedIn is not accessible for someone using a screen reader. When I turn on Voice Over and listen to your post, I don’t hear any of your bold words. It skips over them. Would you consider editing your post to make it accessible? (Please and thank you)”

That’s all for this week. If you’d like to dive into more of my past mistakes ??, here you go:

• 2023 Accountability Edition
• 2022 Accountability Edition
• 2021 Accountability Edition

— Karen Catlin (she/her), author of the Better Allies? book series

Copyright ? 2025 Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.

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