Executive Order 24-05

Problem Statement

The way that the state recruits, hires, supports, promotes, and accommodates employees has created barriers for people with disabilities. These barriers prevent state agencies from benefitting from the skills of all workers.

Project Purpose

The purpose of this project is to make Washington state government jobs more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. By implementing Executive Order 24-05, state agencies will work together to remove barriers that prevent people from finding, keeping, or growing in jobs at any stage of their career. Providing equal opportunities for all will lead to a state workforce that reflects the diversity of Washington’s population.

When more people with disabilities are included in the workforce, everyone benefits. Inclusive workplaces are more productive, creative, efficient, and better at serving the public. They also strengthen our economy and reduce unemployment among people with disabilities. This project also reduces the risk and cost of lawsuits, complaints, and investigations caused by not complying with legal requirements.

FRAMEWORK

The State of Washington uses the framework of targeted universalism. Under targeted universalism, we set a shared goal for everyone. We look at the different barriers that people and communities face in reaching that goal and then design specific strategies to help each group succeed.

This approach doesn’t give one group an unfair advantage over another. Instead, it helps everyone by addressing different needs in different ways.

This project focuses on strategies that meet the specific needs of people with disabilities so that everyone can have barrier-free access to state employment.

We commit to doing the work of meeting the specific needs of people with disabilities by gathering the voice and input of people with disabilities, in accordance with expectations of the disability community.

The above “Named Entities” work together to guide and carry out the goals of Executive Order 24-05 as the Steering Committee.

Project Leads support the Steering Committee by developing and managing the project plan, charter, and communications.

Workgroups will be created as needed to involve more partners including community members, commissions, and other agency leaders.

Roles and Responsibilities

Steering Committee (Named Entities)

Washington State Office of Equity (EQUITY) – Jordan Feyerherm, Director, Access & Accessibility and Carolyn Cole, Strategic Initiatives and Access Advisor

Office of Financial Management (OFM) State Human Resources (SHR) – Mia Navarro, Chief Human Resources Officer

Washington Workforce Empowerment Collaborative (the Collaborative) – LaTasha Tisdel, Inclusive Culture & Belonging Manager, OFM State Human Resources

Governor’s Committee on Disability Issues and Employment (GCDE) – Elizabeth Gordon, Executive Director

Disability Inclusion Network (DIN) – Michael MacKillop, DIN Executive Sponsor and Executive Director of the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind (DSB)

Department of Enterprise Services (DES) – Joanne Lee, Deputy Assistant Director

Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) – Dana Phelps, DVR Director

Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech) – Tavares Terry, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Director

Steering Committee responsibilities:

• Determining the project direction, scope, goals, and objectives.
• Participating in all Steering Committee meetings or sending a delegate on their behalf.
• Co-developing, approving, and amending the project charter.
• Providing and coordinating support and resources from their respective entities.
• Ensuring all work assigned to their entity is completed.
• Identifying advisory partners for additional feedback, consultation, and collaboration.

Project Leads

Chuck Burk, Disability and Accessibility Strategist, OFM

Wendy Holden, Disability Access Program Manager, EQUITY

Project Lead Responsibilities

• Developing, managing, and implementing the project plan and charter, ensuring all required deliverables are completed by the deadlines.
• Coordinating communications across the Named Entities, workgroups, and advisory partners, including convening and leading meetings, providing progress updates, and clear action items.
• Developing draft proposals, recommendations, and documents for Steering Committee review and approval.

Support Team

• Aunna Moss, Organizational Strategy and Performance Consultant, OFM

Support Team responsibilities

• Providing strategic guidance, recommendations, and other assistance as needed.

Meeting Cadence

• The Steering Committee will meet bi-weekly. Additional meetings will be scheduled as needed with a majority vote.
• Special meetings may be called to enable the Steering Committee to work on timely issues that need consideration and action.
• Workgroups will determine their own work plan and meeting cadence.
• Agency-owned work streams should meet monthly with Wendy and Chuck to provide status updates on their project(s) and identify needed support.

Accessible Meetings

The Project Leads shall ensure that meetings, events, and communications are accessible to all participants to ensure full participation and engagement.

Decision Making

Decision-making Conditions

• Project Leads and the Support Leads are not voting members.
• No decisions or voting can occur without a quorum of members in attendance. A quorum is 51% or more of members in attendance.
• Each Sponsoring agency will have one vote regardless of the number of people on the project. This is the role of the Executive Sponsor.

Voting Procedures

• When a decision arises that requires enterprise-level consideration, either Chuck or Wendy will present it to the group for collective input and discussion. Ultimately, the Steering Committee comprised of primary agencies will hold the final decision-making authority regarding the enterprise delivery of the 24-05 initiative.
• Project Leads will use the Fist to Five method to determine how close or far everyone is from consensus. Fist to Five is a method to gauge the general level of agreement within a group based on how many fingers each meeting participant holds up. Participants can also indicate their level of agreement verbally or in chat. A fist indicates no agreement, whereas holding up five fingers expresses total unity.

Fist: No way.

1 Finger: Hold on. We need to talk about this.

2 Fingers: I agree with some reservations

3 Fingers: I guess I’m okay with it.

4 Fingers: Sounds good.

5 Fingers: Total Agreement. I support the proposal and am willing to help implement it

• Each member of the steering committee will indicate their agreement with the topic being discussed. Members who believe that additional discussion is required, by indicating verbally, in chat or with a fist, 1 or 2 fingers will be given the opportunity to voice their concerns.
• After all objections have been heard, members will again be asked to indicate their agreement using the 1-5 finger method.
• For the second round a fist, 1, or 2 fingers are considered “no” votes while 3, 4, or 5 fingers are “yes” votes. Ideally, all concerns will have been adequately addressed and consensus reached at this point.  If consensus has not been achieved, the decision will be made when 51% or more of members in attendance agree.
• Members who disagree with the committee’s decision may submit their concerns in writing. Such documents will be included with the meeting notes.
• In the context of 24-05, individual decisions concerning specific agency-owned work streams are delegated to the designated agency executive sponsor. Each decision-maker is responsible for advancing their respective projects within their agency. Ideally this would be through designated a project lead for the agency.

• Development of workforce assessments and plans by all executive agencies.
• Systematic analysis and improvement of recruitment, hiring, retention, and training practices.
• Accessibility audits and updates of all online systems and internal documents.
• Mandatory accessibility and disability inclusion training for all staff.
• Statewide strategy and policy updates, including
• Development and tracking of performance metrics and compliance by the Office of Equity.
• Collaborative governance and support from agencies and external partners such as The Governor’s Committee for Disability Issues and Employment (.)
• Addressing gaps in the current Reasonable Accommodation process.

• Impact Strategic Action Plans from all executive agencies with integrated hiring/workforce plans. (EQUITY)
• Reasonable Accommodation curriculum for supervisors and managers. (DES)
• Disability inclusive practices curriculum for supervisors and managers. (DES)
• Revised USER-01-01-S policy. (WaTech)
• Enterprise-wide list of approved accessibility tools (WaTech)
• Annual statewide report on disability representation and inclusion outcomes.
• Updated reasonable accommodation funding and tracking framework. (OFM)
• Statewide Universal Access & Belonging Plan. (Equity)

• All executive agencies have integrated, measurable hiring and workforce goals for people with disabilities.
• Accessibility training completion rates reach for new employees within six months of their hire date by Dec 31, 2026. Completion timelines will be determined by DES, the primary agency responsible for delivering training.
• Accessible systems and content across digital platforms, confirmed through audits.
• Other success criteria will be determined by a group dedicated to defining what success looks like. These recommendations will be delivered to the Executive Sponsor group for adoption.
• Improvement in Employee retention: decrease in attrition rate for persons with disabilities.

Individual agencies should collaborate with OFM for any funding requests. Due to budget constraints, a detailed funding strategy will be developed collaboratively by OFM, the Office of Equity, and agencies. It must include:

• Funding for training development and delivery
• Accessibility audits and updates
• Reasonable accommodation support
• Systems modernization for digital accessibility

Resources needed for this project:

• Project management
• Meeting facilitation
• Accessible meeting services, including ASL interpretation, CART services, etc.
• Outreach and accessible communications
• Assigned notetaker
• SharePoint page or another accessible platform

DES to deliver Training modules in Q3, 2026:

• Accessible Outlook – July 2026
• Accessible Excell – September 2026

OFM – Enterprise Reasonable Accommodation Policy Analysis (Q4, 2026)

• OFM is collecting all Reasonable Accommodation policies from executive branches to conduct an analysis of policy gaps. Agencies are uploading their policies through OFM’s Compliance Checker by Aug 30, 2026. Currently OFM has received 19. (See Upcoming Activities for next steps)

EQUITY – 24-05 Toolkit, Workforce assessment (Q3, 2026)

• EQUITY to share draft of EO 24-05 Toolkit and introduce the Hiring and Workforce Plan at the Impact Leader Series (ILS) on August 11. The final version of both documents will be shared in the ILS meeting on September 8.

DES delivered four training courses in compliance with EO 24-05

• Accessibility Inclusion for Managers and Supervisors – March 2026
• Reasonable Accommodation – April 2026
• Accessible Word – March 2026
• Accessible PowerPoint – May 2026

OFM delivered key quarterly reporting in compliance with EO 24-05 in addition to the annual Disability Employment Report which was released in Q1, 2026.

• Q2 Disability Employment Report
• Q2 Supported Employment Quarterly Report
• Released updated Diversity Dashboard

OFM Released Training Directive 26-02 to address training implementation requirements

• Statewide Human Resource released directive 26-02 from Interim State Chief Human Resources Officer, Mia Navarro, outlining how to implement the required training as specified in Washington Executive Order 24-05

OFM & EQUITY relaunched the Reasonable Accommodation Community of Practice

• OFM and EQUITY hosted the inaugural relaunch of the Reasonable Accommodation Community of Practice which featured a report out on the Lifecycle of PWD at the State of Washington, an updated on EO 24-05, and a presentation from DIN on the Employee Guide for Reasonable Accommodation.

EQUITY & OFM bi-weekly EO alignment meetings

• Equity and OFM established a cadence of alignment meetings to reduce overlap of deliverables and agree on work efficiencies across multiple EO’s, as both agencies have significant responsibilities across multiple Executive Orders.

OFM Data & Analytics released updated Diversity Dashboard (Q1, 2026)

• OFM Data and Analytics released a revised Diversity Dashboard that provides insight into the composition of the state’s workforce in alignment with reporting requirements for 24-05. These changes were based on user feedback and legislative reporting requirements.

Diversity Data Dashboard

OFM – Reasonable Accommodation Policy Analysis report out (Q4, 2026)

• Once the analysis is complete (November 2026), it will be presented in multiple venues including The Collaborative and The Reasonable Accommodation Community of Practice in November 2026 – January 2027.

OFM – Reasonable Accommodation Policy Workgroup (Q1, 2027)

• In February 2027 OFM state HR will convene a workgroup comprising of DIN, GCDE, EQUITY, The Attorney General’s office, people who work in Reasonable Accommodation, and people with lived experience with the RA process to review findings and craft an agency policy directive to be released in early Q2, 2027.

EQUITY – Draft of Workforce Equity Assessment (Q3, 2026)

• These questions are intended to measure agency performance and compliance with the requirements of Executive Orders 24-04 and 24-05. The EO 24-04 questions were developed by the EO 24-04 Steering Committee and have already been reviewed by agencies and finalized
• The draft EO 24-05 questions will be shared with agencies this fall for review and input. Once finalized, the combined assessment will be distributed to agencies in January 2027, with responses due at the end of March 2027.

EQUITY – Draft of EO 24-05 Toolkit (Q3, 2026)

• The toolkit is intended to help Washington State agencies implement 24-05 by providing practical guidance, tools, and resources. EQUITY will share this information on the OFM website alongside the EO 24-04 Toolkit.

EQUITY – Updated draft of Universal Access and Belonging Plan (Q3, 2026)

• There is a new introduction that clarifies the purpose of this document and objectives that outlines the ways that the Office of Equity will support each of the bodies of work within the EO.