An interview at SETWorks
Disability advocate and keynote speaker: Alycia Anderson shares her journey, lessons from leadership, and what it takes to make inclusion real, not just aspirational.
When it comes to inclusion, most organizations have the right intentions. But as globally recognized TEDx keynote speaker, disability advocate, and inclusion superwoman Alycia Anderson points out, intention doesn’t always translate into access.
After building her career as a tech executive, Alycia now works with organizations through The Alycia Anderson Company to help them think more critically about representation and accessibility as a core part of how they operate and grow. She also hosts the Pushing Forward with Alycia podcast, where she speaks with disabled leaders, advocates, and changemakers driving inclusion forward.
We first heard about Alycia through the Pacific Northwest Employment Forum. What started as an idea for a virtual lunch-and-learn quickly grew into something more. She later joined us in person as a featured speaker during our annual planning week, where her message left a lasting impression on our team.
Following that experience, we sat down with Alycia to talk about her path to leadership, what actually helps people thrive and advance, and why something as fundamental as physical accessibility is still inconsistent today — along with what continues to give her hope.
SETWorks: You come from a tech background and were a Vice President at a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company. What did your path to that role look like?
Alycia: My career started in the fast-moving world of startup technology, where I spent many years helping build and scale SaaS companies. I worked my way up through sales, partnerships, and leadership roles, eventually becoming a Vice President in a multifamily technology company.
That path wasn’t linear. I had to navigate the same professional challenges many women face in male-dominated industries, while also navigating the world as a wheelchair user in spaces that weren’t always built with disability in mind.
But those experiences shaped my leadership. They taught me how to advocate, how to build relationships, and how to see opportunities where others might see limitations. Sitting at the executive table gave me a clear view of how decisions are made and also how often disability and accessibility simply weren’t part of those conversations.
That realization ultimately helped guide my transition into the work I do today: helping organizations understand that disability inclusion isn’t just a compliance issue, it’s a leadership opportunity.
SETWorks: You’re a lifelong athlete and co-founder of the Adaptive Athletics Association, which you started alongside your husband Marty and fellow board members. How has being involved in sports influenced your career and professional life?
Alycia: Sports have been one of the greatest teachers in my life.
As a wheelchair athlete from tennis to cycling, I learned discipline, resilience, and the power of community very early on. Athletics also taught me something that translates directly into leadership: you don’t succeed alone. You succeed because of the systems, teammates, and people around you who believe in possibility.
When we co-founded the Adaptive Athletics Association, it was about creating access so others could experience that same empowerment through movement and sport.
Adaptive athletics simply means creating opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in sports through adapted equipment, inclusive programs, and supportive communities. Through the Adaptive Athletics tech platform, we’re creating a gateway where adaptive athletes can discover organizations, events, and new sports to try. It also gives fans, organizers, and community members a place to connect and interact with athletes. At its core, it’s a community-driven platform devoted entirely to adaptive sports and bringing people together through movement and shared experience.
In my professional life, that athletic mindset has always carried through. Those skills translate directly into business, leadership, advocacy and having the motivation to win!
Alycia speaking at SETWorks annual planning week in December 2025.
SETWorks: You’re no stranger to sitting at an executive table. What positive shifts have you seen when women and people with disabilities are truly represented in leadership — not symbolically, but in the rooms where decisions get made?
Alycia: When representation is real — not performative — you see better decisions.
Leaders who bring different lived experiences naturally ask different questions. They notice barriers others might miss. They think about the customer differently. They think about the workforce differently.
I’ve seen rooms where disability or diversity changed the conversation entirely, where someone said, “Have we thought about accessibility?” or “How might this impact employees who aren’t in the dominant group?”
Those moments matter. Because inclusion at the leadership level shifts culture from the top down. It moves organizations from just checking boxes to actually designing systems where more people can contribute and succeed.
SETWorks: A lot of organizations focus on inclusive hiring but struggle with advancement and retention. From your experience, what structures or leadership behaviors make the biggest difference in whether people thrive, advance, and stay over the long term?
Alycia: Hiring is the easiest part. Creating belonging is the work.
Organizations often celebrate bringing diverse talent in the door, but if the systems inside the organization haven’t changed to support that diverse talent, people quickly realize they’re expected to adapt to a culture that wasn’t built with them in mind.
What makes the biggest difference are leadership behaviors and structures that support long-term success. That includes:
- Transparent promotion pathways
- Leaders who actively sponsor and advocate for diverse talent
- Accessible workplaces, physically, policy and culturally
- And cultures where people can show up authentically without feeling like they have to hide parts of who they are
When people feel seen, supported, and valued, they stay and they lead.
When people feel seen, supported, and valued, they stay and they lead.
SETWorks: Looking back on your own journey, what’s one thing leaders or organizations could have done differently to make the environment more genuinely inclusive?
Alycia: Listen sooner.
So many barriers persist simply because organizations don’t invite the voices of the people experiencing them.
For years, accessibility and disability inclusion were treated as afterthoughts, or feared altogether, rather than as design principles. If organizations had involved disabled professionals earlier in conversations about workplace design, technology, travel, policy or leadership development, many of those barriers wouldn’t exist today.
Inclusion improves dramatically when the people impacted are included in the solution.
SETWorks: You’ve said that “quality of life isn’t determined by disability — it’s shaped by access, inclusion, and respect.” From your experience, why do basic aspects of physical accessibility still fall short in so many organizations and systems?
Alycia: Part of the reason is that accessibility has historically been viewed as compliance rather than culture.
Organizations ask, “What do we have to do to meet the minimum requirements?” instead of asking, “How do we create environments where everyone can fully participate or how will this help us innovate?”
When accessibility is treated as a design principle rather than a legal checkbox, everything changes. Spaces become more thoughtful and innovative. Technology becomes more inclusive. And people begin to understand that accessibility benefits everyone, not just people with disabilities.
Organizations ask, “What do we have to do to meet the minimum requirements?” instead of asking, “How do we create environments where everyone can fully participate or how will this help us innovate?
SETWorks: From your perspective, what policy or systemic shifts would most meaningfully support inclusion in leadership — not just access, but long-term participation and advancement?
Alycia: One of the most important shifts is recognizing disability as a core part of diversity conversations.
Disability is a significant identity group that anyone can join at any point in their lives. Yet it’s still often missing from leadership pipelines, boardrooms, product development and policy discussions.
Policies that matter include stronger accessibility standards, better pathways for disabled professionals in education and employment, and leadership development opportunities that intentionally include disabled talent.
Representation at the leadership level doesn’t happen by accident, it happens when systems are designed to support it.
SETWorks: In one of your articles you wrote, “[Ableism] is so ingrained in our society’s way of thinking that it’s often overlooked, goes unnoticed, or missed altogether, even by those of us that are meant to be the guardians of inclusion.”
Where do you notice ableism showing up today, even in organizations that are trying to get it right, and what’s an example of a simple but effective way it can be interrupted?
Alycia: Ableism often shows up in subtle assumptions.
For example, organizations may assume disabled employees can’t travel, can’t lead, or can’t take on demanding roles. Sometimes accessibility is framed as a burden or a special accommodation, rather than simply good design.
One simple way to interrupt ableism is to normalize conversations about accessibility. Ask questions like:
- What would make this meeting more accessible?
- Are we designing this event for everyone?
- Who might be excluded by the way this is structured?
Small awareness shifts can lead to meaningful change.
At The Alycia Anderson Company, we’re also launching something we’re calling The Accessibility Check. It’s a collection of practical resources, checklists, and guides designed to help organizations be more thoughtful and intentional about accessibility from website design and marketing to events, workplace culture, employee resource group (ERG) development and language.
The goal is to make accessibility feel approachable and actionable so leaders and teams have real tools to implement inclusion in their everyday work.
SETWorks: You’ve spoken at major corporations like Microsoft, Netflix, and Uber. In light of recent headlines about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) rollbacks, what’s your read on how inclusion is evolving?
Alycia: We’re definitely in a moment of recalibration.
Some organizations are pulling back from the language of DEI, but the underlying issues of equity, belonging, and representation haven’t gone away.
What I’m seeing is a shift toward conversations about leadership, culture, and business impact. Inclusion is increasingly being framed not as a social initiative, but as a strategic advantage, which is exactly what it is. The companies that understand that and stay committed are the ones that will lead in the future.
What we’re also seeing more than ever in our events and workshops is that employees are craving community. In the world we’re living in today, especially in 2026, people want to feel connected, seen, and like they belong to something meaningful at work.
We’re proud to show up in that space and help organizations create environments where people truly feel that sense of community and belonging.
And if there are companies or partners reading this who are interested in collaborating or partnering in that work, we would absolutely love to connect and start that conversation.
SETWorks: What gives you hope or what are you most excited about in the inclusion space right now?
Alycia: What gives me hope is the next generation.
Young leaders today are far more comfortable talking about identity, accessibility, and belonging than previous generations were. They expect inclusive environments and they’re willing to help build them.
I’m also inspired by the growing visibility of disabled leaders across industries. Representation matters. When people see disability in leadership, entrepreneurship, media, and culture, it expands what everyone believes is possible.
And that’s really the heart of the work I do helping people see possibility where they may not have seen it before.
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Thank you so much, Alycia! If you’d like to stay connected, you can learn more about Alycia’s work and upcoming initiatives at alyciaanderson.com, subscribe to the Pushing Forward with Alycia podcast, or follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram.