Meet Rachael, an accessibility and work culture thought leader based in York. With decades of lived experience of disability and over ten years of professional expertise in various people-focused industries, Rachael has made significant strides in promoting accessibility and inclusion. She founded SIC CIC, an award-winning non-profit that supports disabled people in enhancing their work skills to confidently enter the workforce. After exiting the company in 2023, Rachael pursued a research fellowship as a Churchill Fellow, travelling to the USA and Europe to study best practices in inclusion and accessibility. Her comprehensive report on the subject will be launching in September 2024. 

In this Q&A, we speak with Rachael to learn more about her incredible work in making workplaces more inclusive. She shares insights on how to better attract and retain employees with disabilities and neurodiversity, and the importance of accessibility in the workplace. 

1. Hi Rachael, what inspired you to dedicate your career to accessibility and work culture? 

Hi Flexa! I’ve worked in people and operations management for my entire career, at small and large businesses, so it’s an area I thought I knew a lot about! I knew I wanted to pivot into accessibility after being headhunted into a new role, and then fired a few months later after asking for a reasonable adjustment. The company then rolled this adjustment out company wide a few weeks later due to Covid. I consider myself a pretty empowered person, and knew if I was struggling with what had just happened, other people would be too. 

2. What challenges do companies face when it comes to accessibility? 

For many companies there is a misconception that accessibility comes at the end as a check box exercise. So much time and money is spent on recruitment, onboarding and retention without ever considering how accessible those processes are and how costly they are when they get it wrong. If you have a team of more than four people, the chances are you have a disabled person on your team. Disability affects 1 in 4 people in the UK, and 1 in 5 people globally, but there is a lot of stigma and fear around it. Disclosure is a huge barrier for both the individual, and the company. 

There's an alarming stat that of the 96% of companies worldwide who have an EDI strategy, only 4% of those, actually include accessibility. It’s not a tack on process, it needs to be embedded into the people and operational strategy. 

3. It would be great to hear more about your upcoming research project. Can you share any interesting findings on inclusion and accessibility? 

It was a huge honour to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship and I learned so much about how the global companies who are well known for employing disabled people, or are actively investing in this area, think and approach this topic. I headed to the USA and Europe, where I spent some time with and talked to the Heads of Accessibility for companies such as Goole EMEA, Walmart, Sanofi and ING bank. All of them had one thing in common ; accessibility was a part of the core operational decision making process. The recognition of the talent pool opportunities, the innovation from diverse thinking, Also the idea that these processes were, as a by product, developing a ‘culture of belonging’ beyond risk management, that every single other employee could tap into if needed. Disability can be short term too, or an individual may not want to use the label of ‘disabled’, such as those who are neurodiverse, or going through menopause. Even ripple effects into how it supported single parents, carers, and an overall improvement in building trust. 

4. How do you measure the success of an accessibility initiative or project? 

This is difficult! It's something a lot of organisations really struggle with. In the UK, there are legal requirements around disclosure, so actually tracking the number of disabled people in a company can be a challenge. You’re trusting your team to tell you, before you’ve started investing in building a culture of trust around disability disclosure. So it’s about tracking things you can see, like reasonable adjustments requested at an interview, how many candidates got to the interview stage? Retention rates - have they decreased? Disclosure rates, accessing internal support services? Has this increased? This is incredibly nuanced, and something I go into in my report, also highlighting a caveat. Did the project not work because it wasn’t needed, or because it didn’t have the appropriate access or insight to make it work? 

5. The King's Speech highlighted the Labour government's focus on mandatory reporting on the disability pay gap for companies sized 250+. What impact do you think this policy could have on workplace accessibility and inclusion? 

This is an interesting one! Definitely an area that most people would feel like a celebration moment, but I’m not sure how this is going to play out. Evidence from organisations like the Business Disability Forum shows us that this is actually going to be more harmful for disabled employees in the long run. It feels counter intuitive, but the reality is that many disabled people are either working in entry level jobs, or on reduced hours, both of which means less pay, so the pay gap is going to be wider. It also relies of disabled people disclosing to the company that they are disabled, something many senior leaders don’t want to do in fear of being seen as incapable of doing their role, being passed over for promotions or not trusted to do the work is a story I often hear. I don’t pretend to know the solution, the idea of building this culture of trust and belonging is a long term strategy, and not one that can be solved by companies token hiring a few disabled people so they don’t look bad at the end of the year. 

6. What advice would you give to organisations just starting their accessibility journey? 

See how you can embed accessibility into your next project from the start. Bring in a project manager, consultant, advisor who actually has experience of operational management. It’s not about a few workshops, bringing in a disabled speaker on an awareness day or signing up for the Disability Confident scheme and thinking that’s the job done. Accessibility is a huge topic, from physical accessibility, online accessibility, people focused accessibility, internal and external. Don’t expect one person to be able to do it all, or know it all. But pick your priority, and start somewhere. 

Work with Rachael to build a more inclusive workplace

Through her thought leadership backed process, Rachael creates strategies and solutions that help businesses build inclusive work cultures that drive hiring, retention and ultimately, innovation. You can find out more about the work she does here.