Taking Up Space: Making Room for People with Disabilities at The Times
In July 2019, I facilitated a session at SRCOON to bring together newsrooms and product folks from around the country to use design thinking to make their workspace more inclusive.
[Image Description: Title slide reading "Taking Up Space: Making Room for People with Disabilities at The Times. Facilitated by Katherine McMahan. A logo for The New York Times. And some geometric shapes are on the slide.]
[Image description: This is the agenda slide. The agenda is: Hello; What is the point of this?; What do you want to get out of this?; Storytelling; Challenges; What can we do?; Next Steps and Check in. The sixth step "What can we do?" is highlighted. There is a gif to the right that says "Here we go".]
[Image description: Chapter slide that reads "Hello! Who am I?"]
[Image description: The slide is titled "Things about me:" and the body reads: "I am a product manager at the New York Times. I used to be a project manager and believe that for a product to be good the process has to work. I love immersive theater, muppets, and film and TV. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. But I am here because I started an ERG at the Times focused on Employees with disabilities; hoping to create a safe space for the disabled, a space for advocacy and a way to educate the rest of the company." The phrase "Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus" is highlighted. There is an image on the right side of the slide of a dog about to give a human a high five with his paw.]
[Image description: The title of the slide is "What is the point of all this?" and the body reads: "To move the conversation from compliance to inclusion when it comes to our work space, employee benefits, and hiring practices. We started the ERG at the Times and realized that we can't do it alone. My hope for today: First, for disability to be included in all discussions of diversity and inclusion and second, by the end of this session, each of you will have one or two actions you can take back to your employers." The phrase "conversation from compliance to inclusion" is highlighted, but I should have highlighted "move the conversation from compliance to inclusion".]
[Image description: This is a slide that indicates a group activity for the attendees of the talk. It instructs the audience to write down one thing that you want to take away from this session.]
[Image description: A chapter slide that reads My Story.]
During this part of the presentation, I told my experience with disability. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was 16 years old. When I was 32, on a work trip to Barcelona, I forgot to bring sunscreen and got a very bad sunburn during a Barca Game. I developed a rash and ran a low grade fever for almost four months before I was diagnosed with Lupus. Unlike in high school, I did not have my parents to advocate for me. I learned a lot about leading with vulnerability, advocating for myself, and the challenges of working full-time while disabled.
[Image description: A large picture of Angela Lansbury in a formal rose gold sequin gown, with a large white fur draped around her neck and arms takes up most of the slide. There is a smaller picture of a short-haired dachshund smirking in the bottom right corner. These are images that I found represented how I felt while sharing my story — Angela glamorous and demanding attention but also shy and awkward, like the dog.]
[Image description: Another activity card that instructs the audience to Think about your experience with disability. Whether it’s you, someone you love or someone you’ve heard about. If comfortable, share it with your table.]
At this point in the presentation I acknowledged how overwhelming building inclusive workspaces can feel. Our society is not built to be inclusive and retrofitting accessibility is no longer enough. While it feels overwhelming, we have to start somewhere.
[Image description: A chapter card that reads So. Many. Challenges.]
I list out some of the challenges that I have run into in starting the employee resource group at The New York Times. There is not a common definition of disability. We cannot legally measure the number of disabled employees in our companies. How can we measure the impact if we don’t know how many people are disabled? Not all disabilities are visible. What does it mean to disclose to your employer that you’re disabled? And what is the right language? Disabled? Person with disabilities?
[Image description: The slide is titled Challenges. The body copy says Creating space for employees with disabilities creates unique challenges that other diversity initiatives do not face. Some of those are: What is a disability? What is the impact? What does it mean to come out as disabled? What is the right language to use?]
We are not wizards. We cannot solve all the problems of disability inclusion on our own, right now.
[Image description: A chapter slide that reads We can’t solve them all now.]
[Image description: This activity slide instructs the audience to think about the story from the previous activity. What were the major challenges faced? Was there one big thing? Many small things? Write them down.]
Now that we have written out some of the challenges, we have to start problem solving. That may feel overwhelming and like you want to curl up in a ball. Do not despair, there are steps we can take to start tackling these challenges. Let’s start small and put the user first.
[Image description: The text on this slide reads We’ve started the conversation. And just like any other problem, let’s apply product thinking. Where can we use our skill set to have an impact? How can we test it? What is the fastest way to help our user?. There is an image of Donald Glover’s character from Community crying on the right side of the slide. This is because there are so many challenges to inclusion and it is okay that it feels overwhelming.]
[Image description: This activity slide instructs the audience to within their small groups, brainstorm ways to address these challenges. Take a few minutes think, writing one idea per post it, then share amongst themselves.]
[Image description: A chapter title card that reads What did you come up with?]
[Image description: The slide starts off prompting the audience with the question What to take back with you? Then it reminds everyone to revisit what they wrote down at the beginning of the session as what they wanted to take away. Then it asked if anyone has one specific task they can take back to their newsroom.]
[Image description: This is a chapter slide that says Thank you! in the middle. In the bottom left there is a picture of Ali Wong’s character from Always Be My Maybe smiling. In the top right there is a picture of Keanu Reaves from Always Be My Maybe giving a double-handed air kiss.]