"Nothing About Us Without Us" - Global Director of Accessibility at Nike Megan Lawrence Shares Her Empowering Story
“It was the support of a group of women I worked with that encouraged me as a disabled women to step into my true self and untimely helped me find my voice.” Today’s woman dreamer, Megan Lawrence, is the Global Director of Accessibility at Nike. Inspired by her own mental health disability, Megan shares her vision for disability inclusion in the workplace, the power of having a support system, and how she finds her work-life balance. Enjoy her inspiring story!
1) Tell us your story. You have been a leader in the accessibility space, currently serving as the Global Director of Accessibility at Nike. What inspired your interest in advancing accessibility and working with the disability community?
I have been working with the disability community for over 15 years. I got my start as a graduate student at the University of Oregon in Geography where I worked deeply with the blind and low vision community researching navigation, spatial thinking and geo spatial tool development. You could say my first love is tactile maps. That opened my imagination to all of the ways in which technology, community, music and art play a role in creating a culture of disability inclusion. I’m insistent about living into “nothing about us without us.” It is important that we as disabled people have a seat at the table and are a core part of the co-creation. This deep belief has driven me to create several programs over the years such as working with the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation hospital in Atlanta, to create the Accessibility User RA program that pays people with disability to give feedback on design, engineering, retail experiences, apparel and more. Everyone should be paid for their time. But the best part is experiencing innovation and new ideas come to life through community.
2) You also champion mental health communities around the world. Tell us more about this. What are some mental health topics you are most passionate about? How does your personal experience with mental health drive your work?
As a women with a mental health disability, I’m deeply passionate about storytelling to reduce bias and stigma. For a very long time I did not tell anyone outside of my family that I had a mental health condition. It was the support of a group of women I worked with that encouraged me as a disabled women to step into my true self and untimely helped me find my voice. Once I started opening up, I could see the need to create a community for people with mental health conditions to support each other, share ideas and be seen when sometimes we feel so invisible. So, we started an employee resource group.
Soon after we created the community Covid-19 hit. It became immediately obvious that we as a society were not totally prepared for how the global pandemic would impact people mental health and wellbeing. That is when I started working to better understand how we can create mental health programming to support the whole employee. I believe that a covid silver lining is how we have been checking in on one another and asking people if there ok. It’s a practice I hope we continue with authenticity and empathy.
3) You are certainly a busy woman. What do you do outside of your work to relax and refresh? How do you achieve work-life balance?
I like to call it life-work balance. Last summer my husband and two dogs took a trip to the Giant Sequoia National Park. These are the worlds biggest trees. As we spent time in the forest, I realized a few things:
I had to totally unplug. It took me a while to let go and relax. Once I did I could feel my creativity bouncing back. I stop thinking of the next task and saw new, innovative ways to think about the big picture.
I like very much being near trees that have stood on this earth for thousands of years and feel very small in a big world, know that I can have a big impact by taking care of people, our planet and having fun doing it with play. Whether that is chasing my dogs at the park or playing cards with my husband. A good game always brings a smile to my face.
4) What was the most rewarding accessibility project/initiative you have been a part of?
Now that is a hard question because I’ve been blessed to work with amazing people. But standing up a program on Disability Intersectionality has been close to my heart. Disability is not a one dimensional. I’m disabled, I’m a women, I’m a dog mom and a Steelers fan. My identify is composed of many aspects that come together. The more we give space for people’s authentic experiences to be celebrated, we move toward disability inclusion.
5) As the platform for women dreamers, what is the next big dream?
I dream of a day when the responsibility of our mental health is not the solely owned by an individual but the opportunity of an organization to create a culture of emotional inclusion. As we look where people want to work today, mental health and wellbeing is an important component. We live in a time when conversations about mental health, burn out and finding your way to work is being talked about openly. This is progress.