Katherine Lewis,
Hawaii, USA
Katherine is an inclusive business consultant and accessibility advocate for small business owners and entrepreneurs. After disability ended her classical music career, she worked in a variety of creative spaces, each sharing one theme: they were wildly inaccessible. Katherine saw an opportunity to change that and today she works to empower small business owners to grow their business inclusively.
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Particularly in the digital market, Katherine saw an opportunity to impact change. She began coaching others to leverage the power of accessible design to build business strategies that align with their values, serve their community more fully, and help them grow more easily. Today, she works to empower compassionate small business owners and entrepreneurs to finally build and grow their business inclusively - while generating the revenue they need to thrive. She approaches business strategy from the lens of intersectional access - because creating spaces and experiences that are accessible for all people is the key to building a truly human-centered business.
Katherine says: "The path to an accessible and inclusive business is nonlinear. It’s a journey. People want to buy from and engage with businesses that are genuinely doing the difficult and imperfect work to dismantle exclusive and harmful systems in every part of their organization. Rather than approach them as checklists or tasks, work to embody the values that allow you to deliver."
Katherine says: "The path to an accessible and inclusive business is nonlinear. It’s a journey. People want to buy from and engage with businesses that are genuinely doing the difficult and imperfect work to dismantle exclusive and harmful systems in every part of their organization. Rather than approach them as checklists or tasks, work to embody the values that allow you to deliver."
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There’s a common assumption that accessibility only relates to disabled people and their needs. "That’s certainly an important part, barriers to equitable access exist in a variety of ways and affect many diverse people and communities - particularly in the online space. Especially for historically marginalized communities, access is a complex intersection of systems designed against them - with the sole purpose of exclusion. Financial access, cultural considerations, language - just to name a few - are all part of accessibility. To address accessibility fully, we must address all kinds of barriers - not just one type or one community. As small businesses, we have a unique position and opportunity to do something about it. We work closely with our clients/customers in ways larger organizations often don’t. The human core of business is much more present for us, which provides us endless opportunities to help move the industry forward towards a more accessible and inclusive future."
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Katherine shares on her instagram how to empower entrepreneurs to build and grow accessible business which in the end will be inclusive to all. It's worth visit and giving her follow to be up to date with latest posts. You can do so by clicking an instagram icon on this page.
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