Our organization and many others like it were founded originally because people with disabilities needed us. But along the way, we discovered something as amazing as it is self-evident once you think about it — that is, people of all abilities need each other and are better together.
In those early days, the main focus of was to promote the basic civil rights, independence and inherent value of people with developmental conditions. A major victory of that time was the passage of H.B. 90, the bill that mandates equal educational opportunity for all children regardless of ability in the state of Washington.
From the perspective of the fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters of children with developmental conditions, it was only natural that they should be welcomed into the world. They were such important parts of the family, why wouldn’t they be embraced as full members of society with the potential not only to learn and grow, but to produce and contribute and engage fully in the life of the community?
This rich potential can be seen in something as fundamental as two children playing together. We’ve seen again and again at our inclusive preschools how children of all abilities — those with developmental conditions and those without — can grow, flourish, teach and influence each other, and simply immerse themselves in the joy of having fun with another human being.
That same potential plays out over and over in the workplace. When employers embrace diversity, they invite new perspectives that evoke the best qualities of everyone involved. The benefits of employment to the person with a disability are well understood and obvious: a sense of purpose, the satisfactions of a job well done, a measure of independence, the pride of earning your own pay, a sense of belonging, and so on. But it is the benefit to everyone else in the workforce that surprises many with its profound power.
Our organization works with employers throughout the Pacific Northwest to create inclusive working environments where people of all abilities work together side by side. One of those employers is a senior executive with a major retailing chain with more than 250 stores in the United States and Canada. “I can’t get over it,” he tells me all the time. “In every store where we hire people from your employment agency, in-store sales improve, productivity improves, morale improves, and absenteeism goes down. What’s going on here?”
What’s going on here is that we are better together. When people of all abilities work together, they make each other stronger. When we add diversity to our surroundings, when we begin to develop relationships with people who experience the world differently than we do, new qualities are evoked that would never have been realized in any other way.
It really is alchemy, which the dictionary defines as “a power or process of transforming something common into something special.” Think about the magic of ordinary water, a parallel I’ve noted before. As ecologist Joanna Macy points out about oxygen and hydrogen, “One could never have anticipated the properties that emerge when these elements interact.” The whole is so much more than the sum of its parts.
People of all abilities are like oxygen and hydrogen. When we stay separated, when we have relationships only with people like ourselves, we get more of the same. When we engage in diversity, we literally get the very stuff of life.
A few months ago, one of our job coaches arranged a trial work experience in a restaurant for a highly capable young man with a developmental condition. The idea was that the young man would try restaurant work for a week or two to see if he liked it. Not only did he like working in the restaurant, the restaurant liked him. When the trial period ended, the other employees demanded that the owner hire this young man to be a permanent part of their team. The employees felt so strongly they threatened to quit, every one of them, if this young man was not hired.
He was hired, and this restaurant has become a better place to work: the employees more productive, the customers more satisfied, and the business more successful — not just because of his productivity, but because of the qualities he evokes in everyone else around him. Because of the powerful alchemy of inclusion, we are truly better together.
Tom Everill is President & CEO of Northwest Center. Contact him at inside@nwcenter.org.
