Stephie Elms, head of disability equity and neuroinclusion at Novartis International, says her current role is “the most engaging, inspiring and sometimes overwhelming job of my career”
Privilege and bias. These are the two factors that consistently arise when one initiates a conversation around accessibility.
For people with disabilities, privilege mostly transpires as ableism, the notion that a person cannot perform a task or be a contributor to societal or economic goals due to their disability.
There is also a leading perception that disabilities are easily identified, discounting the 80% of disabilities that we know to be non-apparent. It’s frustrating to hear “I haven’t seen anyone in a wheelchair” on such a frequent basis.
I believe that in a corporate environment, we have the mandate to challenge this narrative, and it makes good business sense to do so.
It is no surprise that many people with non-apparent disabilities or neurodivergent people decide not to disclose their personal circumstances to employers or colleagues, choosing instead to struggle in workplaces that simply do not allow them to perform at their best.
Performance is, of course, a benefit for the employer. Benefits for the disabled or neurodivergent employee include a sense of inclusion, belonging and self-esteem.
As a transgender woman, coming out at work was not an easy decision to take. However, I could benefit from great support from Novartis and our LGBTQI+ community. Now I truly feel that I belong in the organisation as a visible transgender leader.
The parallels with disability and neuroinclusion are not lost on me, anchoring my work around inclusion and belonging for all our 75,000-plus employees.
Novartis is a focused medicines business, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. We operate in over 140 countries, in countless locations. With research, development, manufacturing, sales and support functions, our diverse operating environments present equally diverse accessibility challenges.
As many corporates, we historically focused our DEI efforts on gender equity. However, in 2022 we restructured our global DEI function to drive DEI efforts across many, what we call, equity pillars. One of these pillars is disability, with the addition of neuroinclusion coming in 2024.
As I write this, I have been “in role” for a little over two years. By education I am a pharmaceutical scientist and have spent my entire adult life working at Novartis, with two previous careers in manufacturing compliance and, latterly, IT.
I started out in the UK and have had the opportunity to live and work in Germany, Singapore and Switzerland. Now I am on what I call “career 3.0” heading up our disability and neuroinclusion efforts globally. I can honestly say that from over three decades at Novartis, my current role is the most engaging, inspiring and, sometimes, overwhelming job of my career.
Coming into the role, I quickly realised how little I knew and how my opinions had been, unfortunately, informed by my innate biases and privileges.
Improving accessibility for all is imperative when designing workplaces
It’s never too late in life for some introspection and self-awareness! Fortunately, we had some well-established disability Employee Resource Groups at Novartis, who have been incredibly supportive in highlighting those topics that needed attention.
Coupled with wonderful partners at organisations like the Business Disability Forum, Purple Space, Valuable 500 and the ILO GBDN, I was able to take in the complexity and develop a focused roadmap for change.
It is important to realise that disability equity is not a competitive sport; practitioners across companies, sectors, NGOs and consultants are keen to share and move the needle together. Indeed, some of Novartis’ fiercest competitors are incredibly open to discuss accessibility. We are still early on our accessibility journey at Novartis. However, disability equity and neuroinclusion are now well established within DEI globally and sponsored by C-Suite leaders.
We established a five-year strategic roadmap and accessibility, both physical and digital, are central themes. People are openly talking about disability at senior levels in the company, momentum is building.
Specifically for physical accessibility, we have a great partnership with our global real estate team, and we are jointly developing workplace guidance, incorporating universal design principles and the learnings from some independent accessibility inspections performed in our Basel campus.
In conclusion, improving accessibility for all is an imperative. We should not underestimate the complexity of varying international regulations and the broad spectra of disability. Designing workplaces that respect that every person is an individual is a paradigm shift that needs to be made by many and a large step for many.
My advice is to stay open minded, be humble, be prepared to repeat your messages daily and, most importantly, engage with your disabled employees with respect and empathy, truly living “nothing about us, without us”.
