Lessons in Workplace Culture From My Daughter’s Preschool

Last fall, I walked into my daughter’s preschool classroom for the first time. The coat hooks hung at her height, no stretching, no help. The sinks didn’t require a step stool. Even the bathroom stalls had doors she could reach and lock herself. She didn’t have to ask adults to make things work for her. The space just worked.

I watched her teachers move through the room, constantly adjusting: lowering a book, repositioning a chair, restating instructions with a visual. They had designed the entire environment for her and her peers from the start.

Think about your own work environment: Have you ever sent a dense email assuming everyone had time to read it carefully? Scheduled a late meeting without considering who it might exclude? Used jargon that made sense to you but lost half your audience? We knew how to make adjustments for three-year-olds. What happened to us as adults?

True inclusion isn’t about diversity statements. It’s about whether your workplace is designed so everyone can actually participate, not just the imagined “default” worker: young, able-bodied, native English speaker, no caregiving responsibilities, quiet home office with high-speed internet.

Building genuinely inclusive workplaces requires attending to five elements most organizations overlook, five elements my daughter’s preschool teachers practice every day: Accessibility, Modality, Language, Pre-testing, and the gap between Intent and Impact.