Lauren Bacon Smith is the Chief People Officer at a technology firm specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) testing and data labeling for government and commercial clients. In her efforts to foster a productive company culture, she has helped ensure that employees with disabilities are a central part of her company’s workforce. “I think the biggest way that you can create a supportive work environment is by really celebrating all different types of people and creating a safe space where your employees and your team members can feel like they can truly be themselves,” she says. 

Cody Hart, who is neurodivergent, is a data annotator at a technology firm specializing in AI testing. Prior to assuming his current role, Cody worked in a grocery store deli and for a period of time was unemployed. Today, he’s thriving in a technology career he enjoys alongside people he has come to call friends. Cody understands the value and talent that disabled people can bring to the workplace firsthand. “One of the biggest ways that neurodiversity helps me on the job is how it causes me to hyperfocus, to be very attentive to the details,” he says. “That strong ability to focus and to get the project done is part of why I am able to work fast.”

Daronte Rollins lives in Richmond, Virginia. He has worked as a construction project manager and in similar roles that tap his leadership and project management talents. Daronte, who sustained a spinal cord injury in a motor vehicle accident in 2014, has paraplegia and uses a wheelchair for mobility. “We offer so much in the space of creativity and problem solving,” he says. “Just given the opportunity, a person with a disability can far exceed any expectation or any glass ceiling that is set for them.”

Evelyn Valdez is a logistics management specialist with a federal government agency. Due to a retinal degenerative eye condition, Evelyn has been blind since she was 17, but that hasn’t stopped her from building skills and putting them to work. “I have to produce the same amount of work that my sighted counterparts have to, and there are no excuses because I don't have excuses for myself,” she says. “We're constantly coming up with creative solutions on how to tackle different tasks.”