Craig Leen - Accessibility is Common Sense | #AccessibilityPlus2021

Published September 22, 2021

Kevin McDaniel speaks with Craig Leen, Partner at K&L Gates, former Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP) Director,  former Coral Gables City Attorney, and speaker for Accessibility.com's 2021 Global AccessibilityPlus Conference. Craig talks about his work as City Attorney for Coral Gables, OFCCP's initiatives in accessibility and inclusion, and best practices every organization should adopt to improve accessibility and inclusion. 

Introductions

Before I begin the interview with Craig, I can't help but share with him what a fan I am of his work. During his time at the OFCCP, the federal agency responsible for protecting employees of federal contractors from discrimination, Craig championed a variety of inclusion-related initiatives that translated into measurable hiring efforts at the local level.

Among the noteworthy efforts during his time with the OFCCP was his direction to create the Focus Review Program, which sought to enforce utilization goals that would improve employment for qualified individuals with disabilities, and the development of award-winning compliance review programs that strongly encouraged federal contractors to implement inclusion initiatives and best practices specifically aimed at improving workforce participation for persons with disabilities. 

What this meant was that regional OFCCP offices began to incorporate disability inclusion into their review process, and ultimately promoted best practices in hiring persons with disabilities to federal contractors. Having witnessed it first hand, it is hard to overstate the impact this policy objective had on disability-related hiring initiatives at the local level from 2017-2020. 

But Craig's efforts to improve access and promote inclusion began long before his time at the OFCCP. 

A lifetime of advocacy

Before his career as a litigator and later as City Attorney for Coral Gables and Director of the OFCCP, Craig began his advocacy in middle school working closely with students with Down Syndrome and coached for the Special Olympics.

"I've been involved in disability for a long time," he says. 

"A lot of my involvement [later] came after my daughter was diagnosed with autism. I found it so difficult to first get her diagnosed, and then to get her services, getting them covered by insurance, it was difficult [...] it motivated me to try to help other people [...] because I found it so challenging as a lawyer to get things done for her." 

His experiences ultimately translated into his work as City Attorney for Coral Gables. 

"When I was brought on as City Attorney," Craig says, "I wanted a statement that declared the City's commitment to disability inclusion, where the City would both comply and also go beyond what was required."  

I felt the City should go out of their way to include people with disabilities. - Craig Leen

That passion certainly translated into his professional work. During his tenure as City Attorney for Coral Gables, the City adopted a voluminous set of initiatives and policies to improve access and promote inclusion, which included adopting a set of principles of inclusion at the Commission level, empowering universal design, creating specialized programming, developing partnerships with local academies, updating the City's ADA transition plan, creating accessible online content, and helping create a Special Populations Coordinator position, which was responsible for developing inclusive and accessible programming.

"The Special Populations Coordinator position was intended to be similar to a Chief Accessibility Officer, which every organization should have," he says. 

During his time at Coral Gables, Craig also published over 400 opinions and rewrote the City code, all of which he says he believed were just "tenants of good government." 

As impressive as his accomplishments are, Craig believes his work is just common sense. 

"Being the City Attorney, I was empowered to make these decisions [...] but there need to be more people with disabilities in top-level positions." 

Accessibility is common sense

Craig believes every organization should adopt similar best practices to improve accessibility and inclusion. 

"The labor force participation rate is much lower for people with disabilities [...] it's really important for companies to focus on disability inclusion and adding the A for accessibility to DEIA programs."

In his Annual Report to the Department of Labor, as Director of OFCCP, those questions clearly manifested into policy. 

"Ultimately, it increases productivity to have accessible workplaces and accessible websites. Accessibility should be something that a company wants to achieve, it increases productivity, and allows for a greater customer base - accessibility should be measurable." 

Craig's extensive experience in law and advocacy continues to shape his view that accessibility should be viewed as a measurable goal rather than a minimum requirement. As to his future and work in disability advocacy, Craig continues to work on disability-related initiatives at K&L Gates and serves on multiple boards and commissions, including RespectAbility, a disability-led nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities and advances policies and practices that empower people with disabilities.

"Accessibility should not be just a compliance issue [...] it's not just a noun [...] it's an objective, it's going above and beyond, it's common sense." 

You can hear more from Craig Leen this October at Accessibility.com's AccessibilityPlus 2021 on reasonable accommodations under the ADA and the interactive process.

 

PDF Remediation Software - Free Online Event!

Join us on Tuesday, April 9th, at 1 PM ET for a free online event to explore how to evaluate and select PDF remediation software for your business. Click here to learn more about this event and to register.

Click here to see our Events Calendar.

Accessibility.com's 2024 events will utilize the Zoom Events platform, offering a virtual expo hall for attendees to meet with prospective vendors. If your company is interested in being part of the expo hall, don't hesitate to get in touch with Amanda@Accessibility.com.

Vendor Directory

Accessibility.com offers the premier impartial listing of digital accessibility vendors.  Search for products and services by category, subcategory, or company name.  Check out our new Vendor Directory here.

Comments