Ultranauts Inc

Digital Accessibility = Neuroinclusion. As Kelly Everly-Hall, #Accessibility expert at Ultranauts Inc, writes: "Humans of course have a diverse range of needs that can vary depending on the specific condition or combination of conditions they experience. Reflect on how you absorb information. Is your process identical to that of your parents, children, neighbors, or colleagues? In fact, it makes sense that the way we approach creating digital content should also reflect our human diversity." Read on for 20 practical tips on how to design digital content so it's #accessible and #neuroinclusive https://lnkd.in/gt2gw_k2

Neuroinclusion FAQ #3: How do we train our managers to provide support for neurodivergent team members? Lesson learned: Workshops for managers won’t make a workplace neuroinclusive. Creating awareness of neurodiversity through workshops and courses isn’t a bad place to start. But awareness workshops are not training. Training should build competencies that target a specific capability, e.g. neuroinclusion, and 1 workshop or course won’t help you do that. And when it comes to building a capability like neuroinclusion (or inclusion in general), it needs to be developed in everyone on the team, not just the manager, because a (neuro)inclusive work environment is the result of changes made by a team as a whole. It’s not something that’s “provided” by a manager. So what changes might your team need to make? Ask yourself: 1. Are your team communications usually clear? E.g. Do you have a clear understanding of the expectations of your role and requirements for your tasks? Or do you need to read between the lines and intuit what a peer or manager or other stakeholder actually needs or expects? 2. Do your group and 1:1 interactions tend to be inclusive? E.g. Are meetings usually planned and is the purpose usually clear? And are you able to contribute to the topics being discussed by sharing your thoughts in writing during or before the meeting? Or is the only way to contribute to speak up on the spot, in a meeting called at the last minute? 3. Is knowledge shared openly and readily accessible? E.g. Do you have easy access to the information you need to do your work? Or do you need to go on an org chart adventure to unearth tribal knowledge only known to colleagues you don’t know. 4. Does decision making tend to be transparent? E.g. Do you usually know who gets to make which decisions, and do decision makers usually provide context and rationale for their decisions? Or do a few people, regardless of their specific expertise, make all the decisions, or do most decisions get handed down “from up high” with no explanation? Start with the first two, as those are mostly within your team’s control. Then work on the next two, even though it might mean enrolling other teams and/or leaders to adopt more inclusive practices. Doing this work will not only create a more productive work environment for neurodivergent colleagues, it will reduce stress and increase productivity for everyone on the team. It’ll take a little more work than attending a workshop, but the end result will be a workplace that’s better for EVERYONE! #neurodiversitycelebrationweek #neuroinclusion #lessonslearned

Neuroinclusion FAQ #2: What kind of accommodations do neurodivergent teammates need? Lesson learned: Accommodations are a band-aid. The goal is to keep evolving your organization’s policies, practices and processes so no one needs an accommodation. The reason some teammates need accommodations is because your work systems aren’t designed for them, and accommodations put the burden on individual team members while relieving the organization of the real work to be done - which is to keep chipping away at those underlying design flaws until flexible norms, accessible resources and inclusive interactions are the default in the organization. Start by stopping these things: 1. Do you have a culture that’s interrupt driven (i.e. lots of last minute meetings popping on everyone’s calendar)? STOP. “Agile” is being responsive, not being disorganized. 2. Do you have a culture of ambiguity (e.g. communications are vague, expectations are implicit). STOP. A culture of clarity and transparency increases velocity, the lack of it leads to waste and rework. 3. Do you have a culture that’s controlling (e.g. everyone has to be in the office on X days, everyone has to work from A am to B pm). STOP. Focusing on outcomes (while leaning into autonomy), not control and compiance, drive results.   In the meantime, job accommodations can be an important tool for removing barriers that might be preventing a team member from fully participating in their work.  - There should be a central budget for accommodations (so team leaders aren’t forced to draw funds from limited team budgets) - The process to request an accommodation should be simple, quick, and widely known (so you don’t to find an HR business partner to ask what’s possible/required, and then wait for weeks) - A standard set of accommodations could be offered to everyone (since many team members may not feel comfortable or safe to ask for what they need) The team members who need an accommodation in your current context are the canaries in your coalmine. Give them the accommodation, then work really hard to make that accomodation irrelevant. #neurodiversitycelebrationweek #neuroinclusion #lessonslearned

Neuroinclusion FAQ #1: How can we start a neurodiversity hiring initiative? Lesson learned: Don’t just start hiring. Do you know whether you have a psychologically safe work environment? In measurable terms? Are your training and development programs accessible? To all types of learner profiles? Is individual performance evaluated fairly? Against explicitly stated benchmarks? Are promotion decisions made transparently? Based on objective criteria? If you’re not sure about the answers to those questions, or if any of those answers are “no”, then take the time to diagnose why, and figure out how you could get from “no” to “yes”. You don’t need to wait till you’ve created a perfectly neuroinclusive work environment to start hiring neurodivergent talent, but you do need to know which organizational gaps you need to close and start working on those as well. And the best part is that closing those gaps will set EVERYONE up for success. #neurodiversitycelebrationweek #neuroinclusion #lessonslearned