Last month, we celebrated our 5^th anniversary at Ablr, but I didn’t get time to reflect on what type of accomplishment that is until now! It’s estimated that only 50% of new businesses make it to their 5^th year of operations. One of the reasons I believe that we were able to beat the odds was the fact that we set out a plan and executed on it. However, along the way, we made the necessary tweaks and pivots – we live the “lean methodology” of build, measure, and learn. In fact, I was on this “Build, Measure, learn” journey for 3-years prior to us launching Ablr, and during that time, there were several folks who didn’t believe in me or my vision. That’s because from the outside, it looked like I didn’t have a plan!

When I joined LCI, I was tasked with one thing, launch a new business that would create upward mobility for people who are blind in tech (simple, right!) in fact, several other organizations like LCI were also interested in doing the same thing. Although we all had a similar end goal, we took different approaches to this noble initiative. Some invested in fancy office space and took the Field of Dreams approach – if you build it, they will come. And some thought they could skip the line, and acquire established businesses, and then try to retrofit and adapt the roles for people who are blind afterwards. At the time, those strategies seemed to be more planned out and thoughtful than what I was doing!

From the onset, our approach was always people first – and that’s why we focused on addressing the underlying issues that were keeping people who are blind out of the workforce. And as someone who is visually impaired, and struggled to find a job, I had a unique perspective to the challenges that many people like me faced when finding employment. And it wasn’t just one challenge we faced – in fact, I saw three unique barriers, that all had to be addressed if we were going to address this problem. That included the fact that many people couldn’t access information online if they were using assistive technology like a screen reader. Also, many hiring managers didn’t even understand what reasonable accommodations were and never thought about hiring someone who was blind. And finally, we had to train people who were blind, so that they had the skills to pursue tech related careers.

Each of these issues were equally important and had to be addressed. And when we tried to do this at the same time, we were seen not to have a direction or focus.

I think the fact that I couldn’t clearly communicate what we were trying to do, in a concise way, caused a lot of the doubt about our direction. However, that all changed when we determined what we were doing was eliminating the digital divide, changing the mindsets of people and organizations, and creating pathways for employment. That tweak to our communication was a critical moment in our business because that simplified what we were doing, and that was something that people who had no idea about our business could get behind.

Even 5-years later, we are still eliminating the digital divide through our accessibility services, we are changing the mindsets of people and organizations through our various trainings, and we are creating pathways for employment through our multiple workforce development programs. However, since we are continuously building, measuring, and learning, the way we do these things might not look the same way they did when we started, but we still take a people first approach to everything we do.

Over the years, I’ve also seen how many of our customers and partners have also taken a people first approach to accessibility and disability inclusion, and I’ve seen them have success just like us! For instance, on the accessibility side, many companies come to us to address a compliance issue, but they stay with us when they understand that accessibility isn’t about a line of code or compliance, but rather human experiences. And when they have that “ah ha” moment, it’s amazing! Likewise, with some of the organizations who partner with us on the internships for our workforce development Candidates, they might come because the internship is paid for, but during the time that the Candidate is working with them, they stop seeing the intern as a free resource, to becoming a value add to their team. It’s these types of examples why we have found sustained success over the past 5-years, and why I strongly believe it will continue!

So, as I wrap up, I challenge you to think about what a person first strategy would look like at your organization, and how you can also adopt a “build, measure, learn” mindset when it comes to accessibility and disability inclusion, because if you do that, I promise you that we’ll continue to beat the odds together!

If you are interested in taking a person first approach to the accessibility of your website or find a great person to join your team through our internship program, please reach out to us!

Originally posted at Ablr: https://ablr360.com/how-we-beat-the-odds-at-ablr/