disability

a pink-orange-purple gradient with a white icon of a unicorn and the words "I'm a Learning Style!" in white

The Learning Styles Myth

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
August 2, 2024May 26, 2025

When you’re working in adult learning and development, it’s only a matter of time before someone brings up “learning styles” as a methodology.

Otherwise content-rich books and articles fall on their face at the mention of this myth – it’s a clear cringe for those of us that have done the real work – and research.

Many adult learning practitioners know this myth well – and we do our best to stop it from perpetuating. Despite the popularity, there’s no credible evidence to support the concept of learning styles. While people may have preferences for how they like to learn, these preferences don’t often translate into better learning outcomes.

In Summary

A lot of people think everyone has a special "learning style," like being a visual learner or a hands-on learner. But studies show this isn't true. Even though you might prefer to learn in a certain way, it doesn't mean you actually learn better that way. Instead of focusing on these "learning styles," it's smarter to teach in many different ways and have people actively participate so everyone can learn best.

illustrated disabled people in brightly-colored clothing

Published: Are You Missing the D in DEI?

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
June 10, 2024May 26, 2025

I had an article published in the recent Workplace in Action® People Excellence magazine. My newest piece, “Are You Missing the ‘D’ in DEI?,” explores how diversity & inclusion initiatives may be missing the mark if they aren’t including disability.

My full article is shared below (along with a page for the #A11yBook!), but I hope you’ll check out the full magazine here as well. I’m still reading some of the great articles contributed by my colleagues. It’s a robust issue with a variety of perspectives!

In Summary

Many companies talk about being fair and including everyone. They can often forget about people with disabilities. When we leave out people with disabilities, it means those people feel unwelcome. Companies can miss out on great ideas and talented workers. To truly include everyone, businesses need to make sure events and online tools can be used by people with disabilities. Disabled voices should be heard in all discussions about fairness and inclusion.

a group of 3 people in a circle of arrows icon in white on a blue background

Making Work Accessible: Retention

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 31, 2024May 30, 2025

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Making Work Accessible

Welcome to this series of posts on Making Work Accessible! I’m so excited to share this deeper dive into accessibility at work, based on some content from a recent webinar and presentation. We’re going to explore the phases of the employee life cycle: Attraction, Recruitment, Onboarding, Development, and Retention. I’ll share some accessibility and inclusion best practices in each of these areas, and also include a related benefit of disability inclusion.

In HR, “retention” refers to the ability of an organization to keep its current employees and prevent employee turnover. What does that look like for people with disabilities?

In Summary

"Retention" means keeping people from leaving their jobs. To keep employees with disabilities, businesses should follow these best practices. When companies do this, employees feel more valued and tend to stay with the company longer, which benefits everyone.

an open book with a graduation cap in a light bulb icon in black on a green background

Making Work Accessible: Development

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 30, 2024May 30, 2025

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Making Work Accessible

In HR, “development” refers to training employees, providing coaching and feedback, and preparing them for future roles in the organization. What does that look like for people with disabilities?

In Summary

"Development" in a job means training and helping employees learn new skills. For people with disabilities, this means making sure everyone can access all resources. Companies that do this often make more money and can even get special perks.

a person with arrows to workflows icon in black on a yellow background

Making Work Accessible: Onboarding

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 29, 2024May 28, 2025

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Making Work Accessible

In HR, “onboarding” refers to the process of introducing a new employee to an organization and helping them adjust to their new role. What does that look like for people with disabilities?

In Summary

When a new person starts a job, "onboarding" is how the company helps them get settled. For employees with disabilities, making this process easy and fair is key. Doing the things in this article makes the company look better to customers and shows they care about fairness.

a person with arrows icon in black on an orange background

Making Work Accessible: Recruitment

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 28, 2024May 26, 2025

This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Making Work Accessible

In HR, “recruitment” refers to the process of screening resumes, interviewing, and hiring within an organization. What does that look like for people with disabilities?

In Summary

Hiring people with disabilities brings in fresh ideas. It can help companies solve problems in new ways. By changing how they recruit and interview, businesses can find talented individuals with different ways of thinking. This can spark creativity and new solutions.

a magnet icon in white on a pink background

Making Work Accessible: Attraction

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 27, 2024May 25, 2025

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Making Work Accessible

In HR, “attraction” refers to the process of enticing qualified candidates to apply for job openings within an organization. What does that look like for people with disabilities?

In Summary

It's smart for businesses to hire people with disabilities because it creates a stronger talent pool. To do this, companies should follow some best practices for attracting employees with disabilities. By doing these things, businesses can find more skilled workers they might have missed before.

cover of The Inclusive Speaker: How to Truly Connect With All of Your Audience Without Leaving Anyone Behind by Denis Boudreau

Review: The Inclusive Speaker

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 25, 2024May 26, 2025

The Inclusive Speaker by Denis Boudreau has been on my radar for a bit, and I got to finally finish up reading on my flight back from New Orleans last weekend.

I have to start by saying, I really wanted to be able to recommend this book. I went in with the highest of hopes, imagining myself sharing this book with my speaker’s community and creating a wave of more disability-inclusive speakers. Since I speak on accessibility and disability inclusion, other speakers often ask me what they can do better to reach these audience members. This book has some good wisdom, but is in other places… problematic.

In Summary

This review of "The Inclusive Speaker" points out some good parts and some problems. The reviewer really wanted to like the book, especially since they teach others about being inclusive speakers. The main issue is that the book often talks about "learning styles," which research has shown is a myth. However, the book does have helpful parts, especially the checklists in Part 3. These checklists give practical advice on how to make presentations more inclusive for people with different disabilities.

a blue icon of an open book with a pencil in the crease

Writing for Readability

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
March 29, 2024May 25, 2025

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Writing for Accessibility

Welcome to this deeper-dive series of blog posts! I’ll be digging in to some accessibility topics that relate to my presentations on accessibility, with the goal of providing you with information and resources to make your workplace more accessible. The second post in this series is on Writing for Readability. (Did you miss the first post on Writing ALT Text?)

In Summary

Readability means writing clearly and simply so everyone can easily understand. This is important because it helps people with reading challenges, those using screen readers, or even people learning the language. You can make your writing more readable by using easy words and short sentences and paragraphs. Organizing text with headings or bullet points helps too. There are even online tools that can check how easy your writing is to understand.

Myths About Accessibility and Disabilities

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
August 9, 2023May 25, 2025

In this post, I want to dispel some common myths about accessibility and disabilities. You may have heard some of these statements before!

In Summary

Some people think you can always tell if someone has a disability, but actually, many disabilities aren't obvious. Many think that making things easy for everyone to use is too much work. In fact, designing things to be accessible from the beginning helps everyone. It's also usually cheaper and easier to do it right from the start. This way, websites and online tools are usable for all.