#26 Inclusion for all - building a world without barriers - with Raúl Krauthausen

“After women, people with disability are the biggest minority.”


D&I - diversity & inclusion - suddenly seems to be on
everyone’s agenda. At MyCollective, our focus is often on the
diversity part - but in disability activist, founder and public
figure Raúl Krauthausen argues that what we should all be
focusing on is inclusion, in the broadest possible sense.


“D&I actually used to just be called ‘inclusion’”, he tells
me in this podcast. “And inclusion is essentially the acceptance
and management of human diversity. It’s not something you can
tick off a checklist - but something that develops over time. So
we have to keep fighting for everyone to be thought of and
remembered.” 


For him, the cause of feminism - so central to our conversations
about diversity - illustrates this perfectly: over 100 years
after women fought for and won the right to vote, there still
isn’t adequate female representation in our businesses or
political leadership. “It's never over,” he says. “The further we
come in the debate, the more injustices we uncover. 100 years lie
between the female right to vote and today’s discussion about
female quotas. Inclusion isn’t something passive. It means that
someone with a disability can be the CEO.” 


As founder of Sozialhelden, he lobbies for legislation to make
this happen. It’s about removing barriers - both in the physical
and in the metaphorical sense. With Sozialhelden, he developed “a
kind of google maps for people in wheelchairs” - WheelMap - one
of many examples that show how disability (or just a diversity of
needs in general) can drive innovation: “Alexa, Siri, Kindle, the
electric toothbrush - these are all inventions made with
disability in mind. There’s huge innovation potential around
creating access for people. We need to stop seeing disability as
a deficit - it’s also a chance for a different perspective on the
world.” ️


For companies who want to remove barriers and create more
opportunities for different-abled people, he has some excellent
advice (which incidentally works for anyone wanting to include
more people from any kind of minority!): 


create job ads in a way that are more inclusive. Stop using
language that might exclude certain groups and discourage them
from applying. 


consider hiring for diversity and then providing training to get
everyone up to standard. Those trainings are useful for everyone,
he says: “We ask everyone, regardless of whether or not they have
a disability, the same question: how can we remove barriers in
your place of work? People always come back with a lot of
ideas!” 


I learned so much from and was so inspired by this conversation
with Raúl that I can only encourage you to listen to it too (it’s
in German) - and we’d love to hear from you too - what are your
ideas to break down barriers? 


Speaker: Raúl Krauthausen, Activist for Inclusion & Founder
@SozialHelden 


Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier - Founder @MyCollective


Music: sponsored by @Michaelkadelbach


Picture: Anna Spindelndreier / Raul Krauthausen 


Graphic & Production: MyCollective