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The short answer: You listen before problems surface, you act without waiting to be asked, and you make accessibility part of daily culture instead of a once-a-year initiative.
That's what we heard when we sat down with leaders from our Belonging Communities for Cohesity's Accessibility Awareness Month. We asked them how they create environments where teammates with disabilities can thrive, and what they'd want every employee to leave with a better understanding of. Their answers get at something bigger than compliance. They get at how leadership actually works day to day.
Here's what they told us.
It starts with listening. Not the passive kind. The kind where you take employee feedback, direct or indirect, and actually act on it before it becomes a problem instead of after.
From there, it's about visibly modeling that behavior as a leader. Taking proactive steps around accommodations so employees experience that support as real and available.
That is different today than it was five or six years ago. Back when most teams worked from an office, accessibility meant one thing. Now, with hybrid and remote work the norm, leaders have to be more intentional. Connecting with someone through a screen isn't the same as understanding how they actually work, what they need, and how to support that.
Key takeaway: Accessible leadership means listening consistently, acting early, and adapting accommodations to how people actually work today, not how they worked a decade ago.
Awareness is easy. Anyone can be aware of something. The harder part is turning that awareness into action, and creating opportunities instead of waiting for someone to flag a problem.
Until you create the opportunity, you can't know whether someone is able to grasp it. Taking that step first can fundamentally change how someone performs and shows up at work.
Accessibility isn't one team's responsibility. It's everyone's job, and it shows up in daily moments more often than people realize. If an employee doesn't feel comfortable approaching their manager, they can go to the accessibility team, HR, or a leadership community instead. And if you're a teammate who notices someone might need support, community groups exist to help guide that conversation too.
Key takeaway: Don't let assumptions be the barrier. Ask instead of assuming, and let capability speak for itself.
This is where inclusion moves from reactive to proactive. Identifying what someone needs before they ask requires leaders to stay curious, pay close attention, and build habits that catch what would otherwise go unnoticed. It's the difference between an accessible workplace and one that just says it is.
Key takeaway: The most inclusive teams don't wait for a request. They build habits that surface needs early.
Workplace accessibility means designing policies, environments, and daily practices so employees with disabilities have what they need to do their best work, from physical accommodations to flexible ways of working.
Managers can support employees with disabilities by listening proactively, acting on feedback early, modeling accommodation support visibly, and checking in on how someone actually works rather than assuming based on limited visibility, especially in hybrid or remote settings.
An employee can talk to their manager, their organization's accessibility team, HR, or a peer-led belonging or accessibility community if going to a manager feels difficult.
Accessibility that goes beyond compliance builds trust and lets employees perform and show up as their best selves. It shifts the burden of self-advocacy off the individual and makes inclusion part of everyday culture rather than a policy on paper.
None of this requires having every answer up front. It requires building the habits, the awareness, and the willingness to act that make real belonging possible. That's the standard we're holding ourselves to, this month and every month.
Watch the full conversations above, or head to our YouTube channel for the complete series.
Want to learn more about Life at Cohesity and our RADIO Values? Read more from our employees here. Want to join us? We're hiring!
