In this interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Lauren Pires, award-winning inspirational speaker, disability advocate, and ambassador for the Invisible Disabilities Association, shares her journey of overcoming personal and professional challenges as someone living with Central Core Disease. With a passion for creating more inclusive, empathy-driven workplaces, Lauren discusses the importance of fostering environments where employees feel safe to disclose invisible disabilities. She also emphasizes the power of empathy-driven leadership to boost both emotional well-being and business outcomes. Having been recognized for her advocacy, including becoming the first Canadian to win the Invisible Disabilities Association’s “But You LOOK Good” Inspiration Award, Lauren offers invaluable advice for small and medium-sized businesses striving to build resilient, inclusive cultures that support all employees.
Lauren Pires is an award-winning inspirational speaker, disability advocate, and Invisible Disabilities Association ambassador. Born with Central Core Disease, a rare neuromuscular disorder, Lauren lives with just 33 percent of the average person’s physical strength, but she’s known for her 100 percent spirit. After years of hiding her disability at work, Lauren now uses her voice to help businesses create more inclusive and empathy-driven workplaces. She was named #2 Inspirational Speaker of the Year by Speaker Slam and became the first Canadian to win the Invisible Disabilities Association’s “But You LOOK Good” Inspiration Award, previously awarded to Wayne Brady and Yolanda Hadid. Lauren has been featured on Breakfast Television, CityNews, Global News, OMNI, and RareDiseaseDay.org, sharing her message of resilience, joy, and belonging.
What are the main reasons employees with invisible disabilities often choose to hide their conditions at work, and what are the personal and organizational costs of this silence?
Employees with invisible disabilities often stay silent due to fear – of being seen differently or as less capable, of judgment, of being passed over for opportunities. I know this firsthand, as for 30+ years, I largely hid the rare neuromuscular disorder I was born with, Central Core Disease, for fear coworkers would think I couldn’t pull my weight. Research like Coqual’s 2017 “Disabilities & Inclusion” study shows that of the 30% of the professional workforce with a disability, only 39% had disclosed to their manager, 34% to their teams, and 31% to HR.
The cost of this silence is twofold. Personally, it’s exhausting to spend energy both covering up your struggles and focusing on your work. By not acknowledging your disability, you also miss opportunities to connect your lived experience to your strengths in the workplace (like resilience, adaptability, and detail orientation). Organizationally, when employees feel they can’t disclose, the workplace loses out on authentic engagement, innovative perspectives, and team trust. But here’s the key: inclusive workplaces aren’t necessarily the ones where 100% of people with disabilities disclose. They’re the ones where people feel they COULD disclose, and they’d be met with support, not assumptions.
From your experience, what practical steps can small business owners take to build a culture of trust and inclusion that encourages employees to disclose and feel supported?
Small businesses have a unique advantage: culture is set from the top, and it’s personal. Start by normalizing conversations about differences. When differences of experience or of any kind are never brought up, it can feel like too big a disruption to introduce a disclosure, adding to the mental and emotional burden of the person with a disability.
Second, proactively share accommodation options up front with all employees as part of onboarding – not just reactively when someone asks. This signals that support is available while removing the burden of the employee being forced to self-identify.
Third, offer flexibility without demanding explanations or “proof”; sometimes the safest and most respectful approach is to provide reasonable options without asking why.
Finally, avoid making assumptions about what someone needs or is capable of. Asking “what would best support you right now?” or “what barriers are you currently facing?” shows you’re ready to listen and find a solution together. By creating these conditions, you make it more likely people will open up—not because they have to, but because they feel safe doing so.
How does empathy-driven leadership impact both the emotional wellbeing of employees with disabilities and overall business outcomes?
Empathy-driven leadership creates psychological safety—the foundation of trust, belonging, and performance. For employees with disabilities, this reduces stress, anxiety, and isolation, making space for deeper engagement and creativity.
Research supports this: Coqual’s 2017 “Disabilities & Inclusion” study found that employees who disclosed their disabilities to most people they interacted with were over twice as likely to feel regularly happy or content at work, compared to those who disclosed to no one. Empathetic leaders don’t just improve individual wellbeing; they strengthen team cohesion, creativity, and retention.
From a business perspective, inclusive environments enhance engagement, productivity, and reputation. McKinsey’s “Diversity Wins” (2020) report found that companies with diverse leadership outperform peers in profitability. While that report looks broadly at diversity, it reinforces that inclusion—driven by empathy—translates into better outcomes for people and performance alike.
How has living with Central Core Disease shaped your approach to advocacy and the key messages you share with organizations?
Living with Central Core Disease, an invisible disability which results in me having about 33% of the physical strength of the average person, shapes every part of my advocacy. For most of my life, I thought I had to hide my disability and manage it privately to “fit in” and be seen as “normal.” I thought revealing it would lead people to perceive me as less capable or “different.” But when I finally started speaking about my lived experience, it transformed my life and career.
Now, one of my key messages to organizations is: “There is no normal; there’s just us and what we do with what we’ve been given.” I encourage workplaces to recognize that difference isn’t a deficit—it’s a source of resilience, adaptability, and perspective. My personal story helps organizations see the human side of disability inclusion: the power of inviting people to bring their whole selves to work and the potential unlocked when workplaces move from assumptions to genuine support.
What final advice or insights would you like to share with small and medium-sized business leaders striving to create more inclusive and resilient workplaces?
My biggest advice is this: don’t wait for someone to disclose before you build for inclusion. Embed it into your culture from the start. Make flexibility, accessibility, and open communication the norm—not an exception.
Second, understand that resilience isn’t just an individual trait—it’s something environments can nurture. When you create a workplace where people feel safe enough not to have to spend energy hiding, they can channel that energy into meaningful, creative, productive work.
Finally, remember that disability inclusion isn’t a niche issue: it’s about your employees who currently live with disabilities, your customers who may or may not experience disability, and your non-disabled employees who will inevitably experience some form of disability, whether by accident, illness or acquisition, in the future. The disability community is the only minority group anyone can join at any time. Leading inclusively today builds a more resilient, human-centered business for everyone tomorrow.
