EY Executives Talk Government Workers, Normalizing Accessibility, More In Interview

In marking National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Department of Labor released a resource guide which was written to help government employers better understand the “recruitment, hiring, and employment of individuals with disabilities.” The timing also coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, hailed as “the United States’ first major federal disability rights law.”

“Government agencies should be setting a high bar for what great accessible experience looks like. That means not just being minimally compliant but striving to create a high bar for accessibility and usability—a gold standard to which commercial organizations can and should aspire,” Chris Gianutsos, US government and public sector managing director at London-based professional services company EY, said in a recent interview with me conducted over email. “Government agencies have a real opportunity to define what excellence looks like. If they deliver, we’ll see an improvement in the service model for all constituents which will lead to better outcomes. Agencies can achieve this by taking a very customer-focused approach—one that includes individuals with disabilities not only in the upfront user research but throughout the design, testing, and iterative improvement cycle(s).”

Gianutsos was last interviewed by yours truly back in early April.

Gianutsos said the normalization of assistive technologies in the workplace is pivotal to success for disabled workers. He cited Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman’s recovery from a stroke, saying his use of assistive technologies on Capitol Hill became national news. It was news, Gianutsos told me, that made for unnecessary headlines.

“This should have merely been business as usual as this accommodation enabled Senator Fetterman to do his job effectively,” he said of the hoopla. “Stories and use cases like this should become the norm.”

In a concurrent interview with Gianutsos, his colleague Lori Golden explained several studies have shown that getting disability inclusion right in the workplace ultimately leads to better business performance. Golden, EY’s abilities strategy leader, went on to say that organizations which embrace disability inclusion “have almost 30% higher revenues and 4x the shareholder value of their peers who rate average at disability inclusion,” adding research has also shown “higher levels of engagement and productivity when people with disabilities are on a team.”

“Diverse teams are stronger because they are comprised of people who have different life experiences and perspectives; that combination tends to lead to the most innovative ideas. People with disabilities move through the world differently by necessity—they perceive, feel, and experience the world differently. They really bring that edge perspective that makes a huge impact on creativity,” Golden said. “Aligned with that, people with disabilities are by necessity problem solvers. The world is not built for them, so they need to navigate with agility, flexibility and ingenuity. While all diversity tends to lead to superior business solutions, the diverse perspective that people with disabilities bring to the table is born of the constant need to iterate and innovate [because disabled people constantly need] to recalibrate and figure things out.”

Golden called this innate need for ingenuity “an outsized contributor to superior business solutions, innovation, and productivity.”

Golden went even further, echoing a sentiment I’ve shared in this space several times: disability inclusion is important at the very least because anyone can become disabled at anytime. Not only is the disability community the largest marginalized and underrepresented group on the planet, it’s also the easiest club for a person to join. Anyone could, say, slip in the shower one morning and break an arm or something. Businesses are better when they encourage everyone to be their most authentic, productive selves while on the proverbial clock, Golden said.

“Government agencies and private companies can adopt practices and policies to ensure that everyone can access information, communicate, and use the tools and resources required to effectively do their jobs and have equitable experiences,” she added.

According to Golden, supporting disabled employees should extend beyond sheer baseline compliance with federal law like the venerable Americans with Disabilities Act. To Gianutsos’ earlier point about normalizing accessibility and disability inclusion, Golden emphasized the ADA should only be a starting point for organizations to build on. Companies need to be detail-oriented in terms of the actual workspace, ensuring that the environment is set up in such a way that a disabled person can be most effective. Golden noted how, for instance, frequently used supplies should be placed on lower shelves for more accessible reachability. Likewise, spaces should be relatively clear such that mobility devices have adequate pathways on which to maneuver. Laws like the ADA don’t regulate to this degree, but should be prioritized anyway in the name of engendering a more inclusive work culture.

These seemingly innocuous gestures mean a lot.

“[These] go a long way in creating a more inclusive environment that works for everyone; [they’re] small examples of where having a compliance mindset is a good place to start,” Golden said. “We can go above and beyond to get to how things are organized and how we interact so everyone can be efficient and productive and do their best, let alone be comfortable, feel included and have a true sense of belonging.”

Likewise with recruiting, Golden said businesses should go above and beyond what the law says about reasonable accommodations and invite people to “have choices about how they participate in a process or take in information.” The majority of organizations, she said, use algorithms in the initial screening stage during hiring. More companies (and the government) are increasingly realizing the need for telling candidates when and how said algorithms are used. This, Golden said, gives candidates more agency in regards to opting out of more machine-driven approaches in favor of something that’s decidedly more human.

“Beyond the foundations of accessibility and accommodations, another layer is looking at how benefits, processes, and norms within an organization can be more human-centric, focused around helping people feel healthy, comfortable, and able to be their best,” Golden said.

As to EY practicing what they preach, Golden told me the company has been “working on building our culture of flexibility for many years.” The concept of hybrid work, for example, has long been recognized by EY, long before COVID–19 and the pandemic became indelible parts of the societal consciousness. “Our organization has recognized for a long time that in order to give their best, people need flexibility in how, when, and where they work, with regard to what works for the individual, team, and larger group and organization,” Golden said of EY’s ethos of inclusivity.

In making this work, Golden said, training and education is crucial for success. Not everyone can or should be trained in the same ways, but there should be “topic-specific pieces of training” in order to build the ,most diverse and inclusive organization possible. Golden was keen to emphasize the so-called “curb-cut effect,” named after the wheelchair ramps on sidewalks that, while intended for disabled people, obviously have utility to everyone like people pushing their child in a stroller. In EY’s case, that they use assistive technologies like captions during presentations not only helps someone who’s Deaf or hard-of-hearing, having the visual transcription is beneficial to everyone else too.

“We have a website that brings together all EY policies and programs related to disability, including information on all of EY’s disability-related employee networks with accessibility focuses,” Golden said of EY’s internal practices for accessibility. “The site links to another dedicated landing page aimed at all professionals with accessibility tools, tricks, and training, all of which is aimed at creating a more accessible environment and more inclusive meetings and self-introductions.”

Golden also mentioned EY has a “full-time assistive technology function” staffed by trained professional hose job it is to “advise our firm on the technology we’re implementing and how it harmonizes with the other systems we have in place.” These people, she added, “consult on and provide tools that make sense for each person’s needs, including assistive equipment such as text-to-type software.” Moreover, EY also has an IT accessibility desk, which Golden said is open to all employees, clients, and anyone who uses their website. “We strive to make as much of our content accessible, but if there’s another accessible format someone might require, for example Braille, our accessibility support desk can turn that around so that everyone can get information in the formats they need,” Golden said of the accessibility desk’s scope.

EY’s webpage on accessibility states in part disability inclusion “forms the foundation” of the company. Co-founder Arthur Young became partially blind after a cricket match and later lost his hearing while in law school. After emigrating from Scotland to the United States, Young’s disabilities “drove him to become an innovator and entrepreneur, as he evolved his accounting company into what it would become today: a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and consulting services.”