Now I’m really hoping that this topic grabbed your attention, because it is a topic that is really worth unpacking in the context of building diversity rich and inclusive organizational cultures. Let me explain…
I recently had the honour of joining GE Aerospace in Atlanta, Georgia, USA as a keynote speaker for their inaugural four-day Employee Resource Group (ERG) Summit. It was a great collaboration of like-minded people who have a passion for inclusion and promoting the agenda of equal value and equal opportunity for diverse groups of people in our world. My attendance at this conference, presenting on the topic of “We’re all disabled by something” required me to travel from the UK, where I am currently based, to the USA.
Now one thing you really should know is that, being a wheelchair user, the planning that takes place in preparation for an international trip requires the highest level of attention to detail and risk analysis. Firstly, there is the ever-challenging hurdle of booking accessible flights with airlines who, as standard practice, require the full measurements, weight, and specs of not only you as an individual, but also the wheelchair in which you are travelling. Here lies the first instance of why 2 inches really does matter! Why? Because the height, width and weight of your wheelchair will determine whether the airline will accept you as passenger. I have, in fact, on more than one occasion been asked if I could rather bring a smaller wheelchair. Well no, these are not shoes that we can select from a range of options – it really is quite similar in fact to asking if you could please bring another pair of legs. But that’s a story for another day. Back to the point …
So once you’ve navigated this interrogation, and convinced the airline that the FDA regulations do in fact accept the size of your wheelchair, you can set off on the first leg of your travels, fully expecting to receive the identical interrogation when checking in for your flight despite having provided all electronic evidence during the booking process. Never mind, with steely resolve you make it to the door of the plane and you are transferred into the dreaded on-board wheelchair, a very small very narrow little chair designed to fit down the aisles of the aeroplane. Here, two inches really does matter!! To put it bluntly, the width of your buttocks really does influence whether it’s going to be a pleasant trip down the aisle or not. I personally find myself inspired to recommit to my diet after the harrowing experience of being nudged 34 times by the armrests as you travel from the front of the plane to your allocated seat. It makes a lot more sense to book a seat closer to the front of the plane, but people get twitchy when it’s left up to you to save them in the event of a necessary evacuation, given that I’m unable to leap up and open the doors of the aeroplane. First class just seems so much better aligned to my needs – all it would require is a 2 inch thick wad of $1000 bills to make that happen.
Once landed in the USA, having successfully avoided drinking any liquids that might necessitate a trip to the on board bathrooms (another situation where two inches added to the door width would really make life better) I was faced with the option of the metro train to get from the airport to the hotel, or an excessively expensive and rare wheelchair accessible taxi. This is where two inches starts to take on a life or death implication as, based on my past experiences, the width between the platform and the train becomes quite an important factor in determining whether your front wheel is going to get jammed in the gap. Nothing spikes your adrenaline quite as much as trying to get your wheel up the groove when the train doors start to close. So, I opted for the safer, yet harder to find, accessible transport company who collected me and delivered me safely to the hotel.
Exhausted from a long day’s travel, I entered the accessible room of the hotel, and was very pleasantly surprised to find that the size of the room and layout was actually quite conducive to maneuver a wheelchair. The bathroom had a lovely wide door and plenty of space to navigate, the shower was a step-free, roll-in shower with a flap-down seat that was positioned at the correct height, and most exciting was the discovery that some logical person had actually put the handheld shower and taps within reach of the flap-down seat. Needless to say, all of these illustrate just how important two inches actually is in my efforts to maintain some socially acceptable standards of hygiene. Kudos to the hotel for getting that right, although the toilet certainly could have been two inches higher as transferring back from the toilet up onto the wheelchair acquainted to what I imagine you pedestrians experience during a high impact aerobics class – exhausting stuff! Brushing my teeth also required some aquatic skills as the height of the basin could most certainly have done with being two inches lower. The bed was beautifully nestled and thick wooden base which left a significant gap between the wheelchair and the mattress, inducing a similar adrenaline spike during transfer to that experienced accessing a train. Had that wooden base been two inches thinner, and had that bed been two inches lower, I have no doubt that my transfer into the bed would have been far more elegant.
I have many more stories to share about my travels into the world of accessibility, however I think perhaps I’ve illustrated my point about the difference that two inches can in fact make in the life of a mobility impaired individual. The underlying message which I think is an important take away for anybody reading this article is that very often building a disability confident accessible and inclusive environment is far better achieved when you have the insights of those with lived experience of disability. It is not the builders or the architects or the shopfitters who experience the disabling impact of half measures in designing for accessibility – indeed if they lived that on a daily basis, we surely would have far more thought and proactivity put into the way we build our environment, facilities, infrastructure and transport systems.
This brings me full circle to emphasizing the true value of well-structured, well-supported and well-connected Employee Resource Groups within your organization. It is only through the lens of those who have lived the diverse experiences of our people that we can truly understand how to unleash the full potential of enabled, supported, capacitated, and valued employees.
If you’d like to find out more about how to create, develop or supports employee resource groups focused on building disability confidence in your organization, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I have many more stories and experiences of amazing work that is being done to share – as well as ways to address and overcome the two inch issue.
Author: Lesa Bradshaw