Many disabilities go unnoticed and are unrecognizable, visually. Hyatt recognizes that many people/colleagues are ill informed about the various disabilities that one may be struggling with internally and has made strides to inform and impact our community.

During disability awareness month, Hyatt’s Diversity Business Resource Group (DBRG; affinity group) Hyatt disABILITIES focused on the many different disabilities that are unrecognizable to those around us each day. The DBRG created a ‘Disabilities Pop-Up Museum,’ to learn about and encounter hands-on experiences with different disABILITIES (including learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, Autism, physical disabilities, hearing loss, chronic illness, memory loss, mental illness, vision loss, speech & language disorders). Colleagues were able to visit the museum-like event throughout the day to read about the various disorders, learn ways to help, and even ask questions.

The event led to Hyatt’s disABILITIES DBRG Executive sponsor, Alex Zoghlin; Global Head of Data, Innovation and Business Transformation to take action. Alex quickly saw a need for those that are visually impaired and reached out to building maintenance and security in the Chicago corporate office to enact a voice prompt on the elevators by badge if someone is visually impaired.

The news spread about the improvement and within hours, one colleague’s ID badge was updated and in use the following day with the new voice prompt. One colleague shared, “…[Hyatt] disABILITIES is the youngest and smallest DBRG, but I chose to join this group because I felt a positive momentum with Alex as the executive sponsor—he just gets things done!”

Tyronne Stoudemire