What if we taught accessibility before anyone had to ask?

Notice where the buttons are placed on the two vending machines.

Why is one ticket gate wider than the others?

How would you approach someone at the station who is blind?

These were some of the questions posed to children at Barrier Town, an exhibit inside Osaka's Kids Plaza. Kids navigate a mock train station and identify accessibility features and barriers built into the environment around them.

The point was to teach kids to notice how people access services and move through the world differently. And to think about accessibility before someone asks for it.

I've been returning to Japan every few years since settling in Ontario as a teenager. One thing about visiting a place intermittently is that incremental changes become visible all at once. This time around, accessibility infrastructure stood out to me. Especially the ubiquitous ostomy-friendly basins in public washrooms and Barrier Town.

Watching my child race around the exhibit, answering questions about why spaces are designed the way they are, I found myself wondering what it would look like if we taught adults to think this way too.

But I also want to be careful not to romanticize Japan. The recent travel boom has sometimes flattened complicated realities into stories of a country that somehow "gets it right." No place does. Accessibility advocates everywhere continue to push for change, and barriers still exist.

Still, the underlying assumption that accessibility should be anticipated rather than requested is worth amplifying.

Accessibility in the workplace often begins too late

In workplaces, we often approach accessibility differently. Here's the usual order:

1. Someone encounters a barrier.

2. They disclose a disability or need.

3. They ask for accommodation.

4. The organization responds, sometimes with requests for further information before deciding whether to grant the request.

As we know, these accommodation requests are not frictionless.

The hidden costs of relying solely on accommodation requests

Employees may worry about retaliation, whether that fear is ultimately borne out or not. They may have to navigate managers who function as gatekeepers and who do not consistently apply broader organizational policies. Decision-makers may misunderstand the law of accommodation, overestimate what constitutes undue hardship, or simply make mistakes.

The burden falls on the individual to identify the barrier, disclose personal information, advocate repeatedly for themselves, and trust that the system will respond fairly. When employees repeatedly have to seek exceptions simply to participate fully in working life, they are often required to share deeply personal information and make themselves vulnerable under conditions of uncertainty.

Reducing unnecessary barriers is not only administratively efficient. It can shape whether people feel psychologically safe at work.

Even where everyone involved is acting in good faith, accommodation processes can consume significant organizational resources. HR, managers, in-house counsel, health and safety, and employees all spend time navigating barriers after they have already affected someone's experience at work.

Sometimes this is inevitable, but have we considered which barriers we could reduce before anyone needs to ask?

Designing workplaces with flexibility in mind

Consider return-to-office policies. Organizations may identify legitimate reasons for in-person work, and many employees genuinely value regular time in the office for collaboration, mentorship, and social connection. For some, being physically present is energizing and helps them feel connected to colleagues and organizational life.

Others, including some employees with disabilities and employees with caregiving responsibilities, may benefit significantly from greater flexibility in where and how work is performed.

Emerging research from the post-pandemic period suggests that rigid return-to-office expectations can disproportionately affect employees with disabilities and employees with caregiving responsibilities, responsibilities that continue to be borne primarily by women. For some workers, reduced flexibility contributes to difficult choices about changing employers, reducing hours, or leaving workplaces that no longer fit their circumstances.

A workplace designed around a single model of the "ideal worker" can force employees to repeatedly seek exceptions.

A workplace designed with flexibility in mind can reduce those barriers from the start.

Accessibility is also about advancement and belonging

Organizations also need to consider whether opportunities for mentorship, high-profile assignments, professional development, and advancement remain equally accessible to employees who are not physically present as often. Flexibility can remove one barrier while inadvertently creating another if proximity becomes a proxy for commitment.

None of this eliminates the need for accommodation processes. Individual circumstances will always arise, and individualized accommodations will remain an essential part of an employer's legal obligations.

But thoughtful design can reduce how often people must navigate those processes simply to participate fully.

Beyond compliance: noticing barriers before employees do

Accessible design can increase efficiency by reducing the need for repeated case-by-case problem-solving. It can enhance psychological safety by signalling that difference is expected rather than exceptional. It can minimize human rights risk by reducing reliance on individuals to identify and challenge barriers after harm has already occurred. And it can help organizations move beyond a compliance mindset.

Consider asking yourself:

• What assumptions have we built into the way work gets done?
• Who is most likely to experience friction in our current systems?
• Which barriers could we remove through thoughtful design?
• What flexibility could be normalized rather than negotiated?
• How do we teach people to notice obstacles they themselves may never encounter?
• What signals do we send about who belongs and who is expected to adapt?

Barrier Town wasn't teaching children to become accessibility experts, of course. It was teaching them to get curious and think about others' experience. We can normalize that thought process in our workplaces, too.

Designing accessibility before it’s requested

If your organization is still relying primarily on individual accommodation requests to manage accessibility, there are often opportunities to reduce friction earlier in the process through policy design, training, and day-to-day workplace systems.

I work with employers to build more accessible workplaces through:

• Accessibility and inclusion training for managers and teams, focused on recognizing and removing barriers before they escalate into formal requests
• Workplace policy and program design, including flexible work frameworks, accommodation processes, and inclusive workplace standards
• AODA compliance support, with a focus on translating legal requirements into practical, usable workplace systems

This work is most useful where organizations are asking questions like:

• Are we only responding to accommodation requests, or are we designing to reduce them?
• Where are employees experiencing friction in how work is structured?
• Are our policies unintentionally creating barriers for employees who are not in the “default” work pattern?

If you’re exploring how to build accessibility into the way work is actually done, I'd love to connect and discuss what that could look like in your organization.

You can learn more about my services or get in touch to see how Clausework can support your accessibility design.

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