The maxim "This Is The Way" from the Mandalorian highlights the Accessibility philosophy for the ... [+]
Yesterday marked the commemoration of GAAD or Global Accessibility Awareness Day. For over a decade now, the third Thursday of every May highlights an awareness day that focuses on digital access for the over one billion people with disabilities and as described by GAAD’s website “... to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access or inclusion and people with different disabilities.” In this high-tech world, where digital accessibility is certainly a gateway toward greater inclusion, it is critically important to think about the idea of Accessibility in its totality.
Perhaps to truly understand the breadth of Accessibility we should look toward the mythos of the Star Wars universe and accentuate the maxim of the Mandalorian people reciting the words “This Is the Way.” The expression underscores that this saying is about a code of traditions and ideals that must be upheld. Similarly, Accessibility can be viewed in the same light, a philosophical tradition that can be understood in a multitude of ways, but with one purpose in mind, Accessibility is an instrument of design that builds a community of belonging. Much like the words of Tim Brown, CEO of the design firm IDEO who stated, “It’s not ‘us versus them’ or even ‘us on behalf of them.’ For a design thinker, it has to be ‘us with them.”
The road to Accessibility is not about compliance or checking the proverbial corporate boxes but rather offers a much broader meaning. Within this new business environment where uncertainty and anxiety have become a prevailing narrative, we need to generate a culture of belonging. Accessibility offers a practice method to achieve this and apply it in many different forms becoming an essential ingredient in the future of work. A prime example of this is the role it plays in the areas of mental health and performance. The book Tommorowmind: Thriving at Work with Resilience and Connection by BetterUp Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and venerable psychologist Martin Seligman provides another look into how Accessibility is being examined through data-driven analysis, and by a means to best rethink solutions that will mend workplace toxicity, industry volatility, and technology-driven turnover that has threatened the psychological well-being of employees.
In the pages of Tommorowmind a book steeped in the research of behavioral science, we do see the fingerprints of the revolutionary mindset of Accessibility grace throughout helping to accentuate its potential place in the future of work. One area that Kellerman and Seligman highlight is the skills that are needed to flourish in a modern work environment. Using the acronym PRISM to encapsulate their thinking they present a set of principles that can help tackle the challenges of human capital management in a truly holistic, or accessible way. PRISM offers a window into the five key skills that are the fundamental building blocks for allowing one to thrive in today’s work environment. They are defined as:
Prospection (P): The uniquely human ability to imagine and plan for disparate futures, so that we are in a greater state of empowerment and readiness for whatever is to come.
Resilience (R): Bouncing back from change unharmed – or, better yet, growing stronger through adversity.
Innovation and creativity (I): The ability to generate novel, surprising, and useful solutions to problems. We can cultivate this ability at all levels.
Social support, by way of rapid rapport (S): The ability to build trust quickly across interpersonal differences and geographic distance, with both customers and colleagues.
Mattering and meaning (M): The motivation to fuel the work of navigating each successive chapter of change.
These five skills that define the foundation of the Tommorowmind mentality are kindred spirits to the values espoused by the expanding philosophy of Accessibility. As we look forward to what is needed across various industries and organizational levels, we can see thematic ideas start to percolate and recognize that there is a shared vernacular that is starting to emerge. Accessibility is not just a language for the digital age, but a bridge that helps form connecting points in the larger human story. Accessibility is as much about transformation recognizing new attitudes that embrace our need to belong and developing more confidence in what is possible.
