Lauren Pires Lauren Pires

Building Inclusion Through Empathy - Canadian SME Small Business Magazine

A 2017 “Disabilities & Inclusion” study by Coqual showed that of the 30% of the professional workforce with a disability, only 39% had disclosed to their manager, 34% to their teams, and 31% to HR. 

That same study also found that employees who disclosed their disabilities to most people they interacted with, were over TWICE as likely to feel regularly happy or content at work, compared to those who disclosed to no one.

After hiding my muscle disability at my nonprofit arts/events job from everyone but my director and one other colleague for 10+ years, I can definitely speak to how freeing it felt to be my whole self, once I started speaking about my lived experience with an invisible physical disability!

So happy to share my thoughts with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine on Building Inclusion Through Empathy, to create workplaces where people feel safe to disclose the barriers they’re facing.

You can read the full article linked here 🫶🏽💃🏽✨

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