In 2018, Kristin Adair experienced a catastrophic stroke that would permanently limit the mobility on the left side of her body and leave her with a near constant feeling of fatigue.

One of the first people to visit Kristin in the hospital was her manager, Joselyne Gallegos.

“The kindness and support my manager and team showed me at that time made a huge difference in my recovery,” Kristin said. “Once I was moved to an inpatient facility, my staff and managers all came at various times to have lunch and just visit with me.”

Once Kristin returned to work, the support continued.

“Sandia allowed me to choose the schedule I needed to accommodate my outpatient rehabilitation, I was able to work remotely when I needed, and they arranged for a co-worker to drive me into the tech area, so I didn’t have to walk as far,” Kristin said.

Kristin’s occupational therapist worked with the team at Sandia to arrange for workplace accommodations including a speech recognition software, as Kristin could no longer use her left hand to type.

“The support here really comes from the top down,” Kristin, a research and development science and engineering manager, said. “Sandia doesn’t just pay lip service to caring about their employees, they’re committed.”

Disability Equality Index Score

In 2023, Victoria Morrison and other members of the Abilities Champions of Sandia employee resource group put Sandia’s name in the hat to be recognized by the Disability Equality Index.

The Disability Equality Index is a benchmarking tool that measures numerous factors related to advancing disability inclusion within corporations across the country. The scorecard is divided into six categories: Culture and Leadership, Enterprise-Wide Access, Employment Practices, Community Engagement Supplier Diversity and Non-U.S. Operations.

“We wanted to see how Sandia compared to other organizations, identify what gaps existed and create a roadmap for how we could continue to improve our own accessibility and inclusion efforts,” Victoria said of the decision to submit Sandia for consideration.

Sandia ended up receiving a top score and was named one of 2023’s Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion by the Disability Equality Index.

“Sandia is highly committed to advancing disability inclusion in our workplace and supporting our many employees who can benefit from increased access and programs that provide broad opportunities,” Deputy Labs Director and Abilities Champions of Sandia Executive Champion Laura McGill said. “We are especially proud of our recognition this year from the Disability Equality Index.”

Increasing representation

The recognition pays homage to the many efforts Sandia has made and continues to make in creating a more accessible workplace.

One of the biggest accomplishments in this space includes Sandia’s effort to increase the number of employees who identify as disabled.

Currently, 7.4% of Sandians identify as disabled, up from 3.07% in 2019. The benchmark set by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is 7%.

“We are working to breakdown stigmas surrounding disabilities, both physical and invisible, and create a culture where people feel like they belong,” Victoria said. “We want people to know that they can disclose their disabilities in a safe environment.”

In addition to the self-identification campaign, Sandia has developed targeted efforts to hire more disabled employees. In 2019, Sandia hired its first recruiter who specializes in hiring people with disabilities. Since then, the number of new hires who identify as disabled has fluctuated between 10% and 12%.

“Having more employees self-identify helps increase representation. It also helps us secure the resources needed to improve accessibility,” Victoria said. Sandia needs these perspectives at the table, whatever the table is — new initiatives, policies, whatever conversation we’re having. We need these diverse viewpoints to be included in everything we do.”

The work online

Michelle Burke, a software systems engineer, is part of a team leading the charge to ensure all digital touchpoints across Sandia are accessible.

Michelle and her team have been working on a retroactive review process looking at Sandia’s most visible and visited websites and spreading awareness about what improvements are needed.

“Common things we encounter include videos without closed captions, color contrast concerns, alternative text issues and keyboard accessibility issues,” Michelle said. “We started this effort in 2020 and we still have a long way to go, but I’m proud of what our team has accomplished.”

The effort is part of Sandia’s goal to be fully compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. This federal law requires agencies to provide people with disabilities equal access to electronic information and data, comparable to those without disabilities.

“It’s important that everyone understands the basics, not just content developers,” Michelle said. “Digital accessibility impacts how you run meetings and how you present information. If you include a photo in a presentation — do you include alternative text or consider the colors you’re using? We want to build awareness, so people understand how this stuff touches everything they do online.”

Michelle encourages employees to visit Sandia’s Web Accessibility site to learn more about her team’s work.

The work on-site

“Sandia enforces the requirements of the American Disabilities Act, Architectural Barrier Act and International Code Council for all new construction, renovations, alterations and additions,” Susan Spencer, operations architect and ADA subject matter expert, said. “We have multiple experts in Facilities including designers, reviewers, a building code official and inspectors that verify all construction is fully compliant.”

The ADA was not passed into law until 1990 and 67% of the buildings on New Mexico’s campus were built before that. In California, that number is 61%.

Sandia implemented a tracking system two years ago to start recording what components in those older buildings did not meet current accessibility standards. As of today, 19 buildings have been evaluated with 33 more nearing completion.

“The buildings are compliant with the previously adopted codes and standards they were built under, but our goal is to have a record of elements that don’t meet current standards to work toward securing funding to make upgrades,” Susan said.

Sandia has made great strides in correcting an array of issues, she said. Significant facilities upgrades, including 20 restroom projects throughout the Labs, most of which include building-wide restroom upgrades, are in various stages of design to construction. Additional improvements include a new wheelchair lift, a ramp and new accessible entrances.

Larger-scale projects in design include upgraded ADA-compliant exteriors and landscaping at Steve Schiff Auditorium and the Thunderbird Café, an interior ramp at the employee medical clinic and a new accessible entrance to another building.

“We’ve done a good job so far and are ahead of the curve or on par with other labs,” Susan said.

The work left to do

While Sandia has made several inroads in creating a more accessible workplace, the work is ongoing.

Victoria said Sandia is working on getting a centralized accommodation budget approved.

“This will help managers fund accommodations without having to worry where the money will come from,” she said.

Additionally, there are some benefits and policies that can create challenges for people.

“The 90-day reset on sick leave can be problematic,” she said.

Another hot issue has to do with the DOE’s policy change related to Medical Portable Electronic Devices, or MedPEDs.

For years, DOE policy had stated that Sandians or visitors could not bring personally owned prohibited technology into certain secure and limited spaces on campus. This includes items such as cellphones, smart watches and tablets. Until 2019, the order had made exceptions for MedPEDs, such as Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids, glucose monitors and pacemakers, to name a few.

The 2019 order was updated to say MedPEDs would now need to be approved by the Sandia Field Office Oversight group.

Jennifer Samora has been leading the efforts to comply with the DOE order.

“When it first went live, if someone’s device was denied, they couldn’t come on-site with that item, and we initially had no way to compensate employees or help them get a new approved device,” she said.

Jennifer and her team have streamlined the approval process for MedPEDs with an online application. They’ve also worked to make the change easier for employees who rely on these devices.

“If an employee has a prohibited device, we now have a list of high-confidence alternative devices that we can recommend, and Sandia can pay for those devices. We’ve also created a charge code that people can use so they can get paid while they wait for new devices,” Jennifer said. “I have some rock stars on my team who put in a lot of behind the scenes work to make a difficult process just a little bit easier for employees impacted by the change.”