Employees and members tend to have common needs, and most leaders are savvy enough to maintain the key supports, products, and services that assist them. But employees, members, and meeting attendees with disabilities—both visible and not—may have challenges that can require closer attention. 

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review highlights how stressful this can be for people who feel they’re not being seen. In “How to Weigh the Risks of Disclosing a Disability,” leadership expert Ludmila N. Praslova, who is autistic, is blunt about the ways that organizations can be neglectful, and sometimes even actively cruel, in response to her needs.

“In most work settings I haven’t disclosed or asked for accommodations, relying instead on job matching and job crafting to use my strengths to excel,” she writes. “I did, however, lose career opportunities — my sensory sensitivities make noise and artificial lighting debilitating, so I’ve had to turn down otherwise excellent job offers that didn’t come with access to quiet space, natural light, or hybrid work. When I do disclose my health needs, most people are considerate, but some have laughed in my face, dismissed the information, or even used it against me.”

Such benign or malignant neglect presents a problem for disabled persons, who are forced to develop workarounds if they don’t want to disclose an issue—or brace for a negative reaction if they do. Praslova’s article offers guidance for those persons to assess whether disclosure makes sense, and who they can trust with the disclosure. Leaders aren’t the target audience for the article, but they ought to read it, because it exposes the level of unseen stress organizational policies can cause, and points to some solutions.

The main point leaders should take from hearing about disabled persons’ challenges is that organizations, events, and experiences should be designed with them in mind and not as an afterthought, to avoid the kind of isolation and anxiety Praslova details. At this month’s ASAE Annual Meeting & Expo, one of the Catalyst speakers, disability advocate and entrepreneur Keely Cat-Wells, will speak on how associations can do that. In an interview over email recently, I asked Cat-Wells what leaders can do to actively support disabled persons (the full interview will run in the on-site Daily Now). Her response:

“Leaders need to embed accessibility and disability inclusion into the DNA of their organization, not as a side project, but as a business imperative,” she says. “This means creating accessible recruitment pipelines, building disability inclusion through training at every level (because as many of us know, many times attitudinal barriers are the biggest ones that exist and the hardest to break down), and holding each other accountable with measurable goals. Retention comes from listening to disabled employees about what actually works and then resourcing it whether it’s access to assistive tech, flexible work arrangements, or clear career mobility pathways. Most importantly, center disabled voices in decision-making from the start. Nothing without us.”

Nothing without us can read as a bold challenge to many. But in truth it’s a function of the work that is already built into how associations operate: understanding the needs of a particular group, doing the active listening that others won’t, and designing responses that accommodate everybody. As leaders get to work designing their meetings, committees, programs, and more, those often unheard voices matter as much as anyone’s.