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Alycia and Marty Anderson explore disability employment, accessible AI and how organizations can remove barriers before employees are forced to ask.
What if accessibility didn’t begin with an accommodation request?
What if captions were already on, documents were already accessible, meetings offered multiple ways to participate and workplace technology was designed with disability in mind from the beginning?
That’s the idea behind Access Before Ask, and it’s at the center of Episode 160 of Pushing Forward with Alycia.
After a short break from the podcast, Alycia Anderson returns alongside her husband, business partner and frequent podcast guest Marty Anderson for a timely conversation during National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).
The official 2026 NDEAM theme, Celebrating Value and Talent, recognizes the skills and contributions people with disabilities bring to America’s workplaces, communities and economy.
But Alycia and Marty want employers to take the conversation further.
Because awareness is valuable.
Access requires action.
And disability inclusion cannot disappear when October ends.
♿ FROM AWARENESS TO ACCESS: WHY NDEAM STILL MATTERS
National Disability Employment Awareness Month has roots stretching back to 1945, when the United States established a weeklong observance recognizing workers with physical disabilities. The observance expanded over time and became National Disability Employment Awareness Month in 1988.
Today, NDEAM is led by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and serves as an annual opportunity to recognize disabled talent while encouraging employers to examine the policies and practices that shape employment opportunities.
But the employment gap remains significant.
According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2025, labor-force participation among working-age people ages 16 to 64 with disabilities was 41.8%, compared with 78.0% among people without disabilities.
That gap is why this conversation needs to extend far beyond hiring.
Alycia and Marty challenge employers to look across the entire employee experience:
Recruitment. Onboarding. Accessibility. Retention. Leadership. Advancement. Benefits. Technology. Procurement. Culture.
Hiring a disabled employee is not the finish line.
It is part of building a workplace where disabled people have meaningful opportunities to contribute, lead and advance.
🚪 ACCESS BEFORE ASK: WHAT IF THE WELCOME MAT WAS ALREADY THERE?
One of the biggest ideas Alycia and Marty explore is a phrase increasingly central to their work:
Access Before Ask.
Traditional workplace accommodation systems often begin after a barrier has already appeared.
An employee encounters an inaccessible process.
They decide whether they feel comfortable disclosing a disability.
They determine who to contact.
They request an accommodation.
The request is reviewed.
Then they wait.
Individual accommodations will always matter because disability is personal and access needs vary.
But what about the barriers we already know how to remove?
As Marty explains:
All of that is work. All of that takes time. All of that can be avoided.
Access Before Ask challenges organizations to proactively build accessibility into everyday experiences wherever possible.
That might mean:
• Turning captions on by default
• Creating accessible digital documents and PDFs
• Offering multiple ways to participate in meetings
• Designing accessible physical meeting and event spaces
• Providing voice-to-text and alternative input options
• Creating accessible websites and employee platforms
• Giving employees flexibility around camera use in virtual meetings
• Considering accessibility when choosing vendors and technology
The goal is not to eliminate individualized accommodations.
The goal is to eliminate unnecessary asking.
Because when access already exists, employees don’t have to continually prove that they need it.
💬 VIRAL MOMENT
Access before ask means belonging.
~ Marty Anderson
When accessibility is already part of the environment, disabled employees receive a message before they ever have to disclose anything:
You were considered. You were expected. You belong here.
🤖 AI AS THE GREAT ACCESSIBILITY ACCELERATOR
The conversation then moves into one of the biggest workplace shifts happening right now: artificial intelligence.
Alycia and Marty recently developed Alycia’s presentation, AI as the Great Accessibility Accelerator, exploring how artificial intelligence can dramatically expand access for people with disabilities.
AI can already help with tasks such as:
• Creating image descriptions
• Generating captions and transcripts
• Simplifying complex language
• Supporting voice-to-text communication
• Translating information
• Reducing cognitive load
• Creating alternative ways to interact with digital tools
• Scaling accessibility practices across organizations
Alycia shares a simple example from her own work.
For years, creating image descriptions for social media required additional manual time. AI can now help integrate that accessibility task directly into her workflow.
The technology didn’t eliminate accessibility.
It made accessibility easier to deliver.
That is the opportunity.
🪜 ARE WE BUILDING THE “STAIRS OF TOMORROW”?
AI also introduces enormous risk.
Marty offers one of the episode’s strongest metaphors:
If we aren’t building accessibility into our projects… we’re actually developing the stairs of tomorrow.
Technology can remove barriers at extraordinary speed.
It can also reproduce them at extraordinary speed.
As organizations introduce AI into recruiting, hiring, employee evaluation, communications and workplace systems, Alycia and Marty argue that disability must be represented in how those technologies are selected, trained, tested and governed.
Consider AI tools designed to interpret facial expressions, communication patterns or human behavior.
What happens when a neurodivergent candidate communicates differently from what an algorithm expects?
What happens when disability affects speech, movement, eye contact, facial expression or response time?
What happens when a system interprets human difference as poor performance?
Accessibility cannot be something organizations attempt to bolt onto AI after deployment.
It needs to be part of development from the beginning.
⚠️ THE QUESTION EVERY EMPLOYER USING AI SHOULD BE ASKING
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has specifically addressed the intersection of artificial intelligence, employment decisions and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
That makes this bigger than a technology conversation.
It is a talent, accessibility, employment and leadership conversation.
Organizations should be asking:
Who was this technology designed around?
Was disability represented in its development and testing?
Could the tool unintentionally screen out a qualified disabled applicant?
Are accessible alternatives available?
Are humans still involved when decisions meaningfully affect people’s employment?
And perhaps most importantly:
Are we using AI to remove barriers, or accidentally automating the barriers we already have?
📊 DISABILITY BELONGS IN THE FUTURE-OF-WORK CONVERSATION
The episode moves beyond accommodations into something bigger: disability as a workforce and leadership issue.
Alycia reminds listeners that employment inclusion means looking at:
How you’re recruiting.
How you’re onboarding.
How you’re retaining.
How you’re advancing.
Who you’re promoting.
Who gets to make decisions.
Disability inclusion isn’t simply about getting someone through the front door.
It is about whether opportunity continues once they’re inside.
Marty puts it this way:
“Disability is the common ground in this conversation.”
Disability can intersect with every community, profession, generation and level of an organization.
That makes accessibility relevant to all of us.
🗓️ OCTOBER 31 ISN’T THE FINISH LINE
So what happens on November 1?
Alycia offers organizations a practical challenge: choose one or two measurable actions and keep going.
Turn NDEAM Momentum Into Year-Round Action
Start with opportunities such as:
Review procurement practices.
Consider accessibility when selecting vendors and intentionally create opportunities to work with disabled-owned businesses.
Audit employee platforms.
Look at the technology and processes employees depend on every day and identify unnecessary accessibility barriers.
Train managers.
Give leaders the knowledge and confidence to understand disability, accessibility and accommodations.
Review accommodation processes.
Where can friction, unnecessary waiting or complexity be reduced?
Examine hiring and advancement.
Don’t only ask who you’re recruiting. Ask who is being retained, promoted and invited into leadership.
Make accessibility part of planning.
Move it upstream so it becomes part of meetings, events, communications, procurement and technology decisions from the start.
And then ask:
What’s our disability inclusion game plan for the other 11 months of the year?
⚡ NDEAM RAPID FIRE WITH ALYCIA + MARTY
The episode gets a little lighter when Alycia puts Marty through an NDEAM edition of rapid fire.
Remote work or office work?
Remote.
Accessibility feature that should be everywhere?
Voice-to-text.
A meeting habit Alycia would eliminate?
Requiring everyone to have their camera on.
Two-hour mandatory training or four-hour meeting with no agenda?
Two-hour training. Easy.
And finally…
Finish the sentence: Access Before Ask means…
Belonging.
🎧 EPISODE 160 TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia
01:35 National Disability Employment Awareness Month
03:22 What employers should know before planning NDEAM
05:46 Moving disability awareness into workplace action
07:29 Introducing Access Before Ask
09:15 The hidden burden of requesting accessibility
11:23 What proactive workplace accessibility looks like
12:46 The Accessibility Check™
14:20 AI as the Great Accessibility Accelerator
16:16 Are we building the stairs of tomorrow?
18:39 Making accessibility the standard
20:23 AI, disability bias and employment risks
22:35 Why disability employment still needs attention
23:41 Hiring disabled talent is only the beginning
24:24 Disability and the future of work
26:48 What happens after NDEAM?
28:27 NDEAM rapid fire with Alycia + Marty
31:02 Access Before Ask means belonging
31:14 Marty’s Pushing Forward Moment
32:25 Alycia’s Pushing Forward Moment
🧩 EXPLORE THE ACCESSIBILITY CHECK™
Not sure where to begin?
The Accessibility Check™ from The Alycia Anderson Company turns accessibility awareness into practical action.
The growing collection of guides, checklists, training resources and tools helps organizations explore accessibility across areas including:
♿ Meetings and events
💻 Digital accessibility
📣 Accessible marketing and communications
👩💼 Leadership and workplace practices
🌐 Websites and digital experiences
🤝 Disability representation and inclusion
Resources are available individually and in team-focused bundles, including the complete Accessibility Check™ suite.
Explore The Accessibility Check™ and start removing barriers before someone has to ask.
🎤 BRING THE NDEAM CONVERSATION TO YOUR COMPANY
National Disability Employment Awareness Month can be the starting point for something much bigger.
Alycia Anderson works with organizations around the world to challenge assumptions, equip leaders and teams with practical tools, and motivate meaningful progress around disability inclusion and accessibility.
Through keynotes, interactive workshops, leadership programs and Alycia’s newest presentation, AI as the Great Accessibility Accelerator, The Alycia Anderson Company helps organizations move from awareness toward everyday action.
Planning an NDEAM event or looking for a disability inclusion experience for your employees?
Connect with Alycia Anderson and bring the conversation to your organization.
Because October can open the door.
What matters is what we do after we walk through it.
ABOUT PUSHING FORWARD WITH ALYCIA
Pushing Forward with Alycia is a disability podcast hosted by international TEDx speaker, disability advocate and accessibility strategist Alycia Anderson.
Through candid conversations with advocates, leaders, innovators, creators and members of the disability community, the podcast explores accessibility, employment, leadership, relationships, representation and the lived experiences shaping a more accessible world.
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