As part of a recent Disability Lab, Maria Giulia Marini led a presentation about the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace. She connected this to the different types of empathy and how people can learn empathy, not only in childhood but also throughout adulthood.
While empathy is partially intuitive, much of it must be taught from a young age. There is a distinction between one’s affective nature, which arises instinctively as one shares another’s emotions, and cognitive nature, which activates more evolved areas of the brain as one learns to understand another person’s reasoning and perspective. Affective empathy may manifest in phrases such as “I feel your pain,” while cognitive empathy may manifest in being able to say “I understand why you are thinking this way” and “Let us work together to accommodate your needs.” Although affective empathy is a useful baseline for understanding others, cognitive empathy – which must be taught – helps us adopt inclusive practices.
As one works toward learning cognitive empathy, one must understand why it does not occur instinctively. Out of an instinct for self-preservation that is thousands of years old, a person’s “primate” brain automatically wants to reject anybody it perceives to be “different.” Consider, for example, the amygdala, which plays a large role in activating fear. Regarding physical disability, the most primal part of the brain reacts negatively due to the perception that a person with a visible disability is “different”.
However, we use our neocortex, the most evolved layer of our brain, to exercise trust and reason. Consider the prefrontal cortex, which helps us moderate our social behaviors and foresee the consequences of our actions. Thanks to the evolved brain, we can educate ourselves and others about embracing diversity.
In a breakthrough 2024 study, Professor Grit Hein found that adults can learn empathy – beyond mere imitation – by observing others around them. This exciting observation challenges the popular belief that empathy can only be taught in childhood or adolescence. Other researchers have also shown that neuroplasticity, the ability of the nervous system to reorganize itself in response to new information, persists into adulthood. Together, these findings show us that learning cognitive empathy is possible due to both nature (the exercise of our neocortex to learn from experience and observation) and culture (the behavioral norms of a group), which influence each other in turn.
Internalizing cognitive empathy allows us to build inclusivity for people with disabilities both in the workplace and in society at large. Inclusivity means not only acknowledging the barriers that a person with a disability faces but also actively adopting practices and infrastructure to ensure that that person can fully participate in social and work activities without discrimination.
This presentation specifically focuses on the inclusion of people with invisible disabilities, who often are unrecognized because their disabilities are not easily noticeable. In one narrative, a woman with Myasthenia, a disease that causes muscular weakness, writes, “I don’t look sick but
I am and not seeing it acknowledged makes one feel bad” (translated from Italian). The readiness with which coworkers, family, and friends acknowledge and respect somebody’s disability makes all the difference in promoting inclusivity. Two contrasting narratives by people with epilepsy illustrate the extent of these impacts.
One of the people with epilepsy, who is a woman working in a management position at a hospital, documents a positive experience in her workplace. She writes, “Relationships at work are very good, almost all my colleagues know about my illness and do not make an issue of it… People close to me tell me that I am a brave, stubborn but big-hearted person” (translated from Italian). Due to acknowledgement and support from her colleagues and loved ones, she is able to make the most of her hard work and dedication to her job.
On the other hand, another person with epilepsy discusses the difficulties they have faced due to their condition in their narrative. They experienced isolation from their friends and difficulty finding a job for a long time because of their condition. Eventually, they were hired at a fuel station and took over the business with the help of their family after the owner retired. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced our narrator to close down their fuel station. Following the pandemic, they have been searching for another job, but discrimination makes it very difficult to be hired. They state, “[…] as soon as they [employers] know I have epilepsy the job opportunity disappears” (translated from Italian).
Overall, these cases highlight how disability inclusion in the workplace must occur at the levels of both institutions and individuals. Institutions must practice cognitive empathy in their hiring processes and workplace policies, and individuals must demonstrate it by actively ensuring that their colleagues with disabilities can fully participate in the workplace. Loved ones also play a vital role in providing a well-rounded support system outside of work, fostering an empathetic social environment in addition to the work environment. By promoting cognitive empathy as a group, employers and colleagues can more effectively create a disability-inclusive workplace that accommodates people’s needs.