When coworking pioneers chose “accessibility” to name one of the five core coworking values, I’m pretty sure they didn’t strictly mean ADA-type accessibility, though that’s important. Referring to this post by Alex Hillman, who helped define the core values, what they meant is access to coworking. Anybody who has autonomy over where and with whom they work can cowork. You don’t need a designated “coworking space”. You can cowork in a living room, a park, your friend’s house, a coffee shop, or an office. You can cowork anywhere.

We’re talking about access to community, not necessarily a building. If we’re living the core values, we coworking space owners and managers are not “curating” communities. We’re extending an open invitation so people can self-select into coworking.

Again, borrowing from Alex’s thoughts, a coworking space is one of few workplaces where every person is there because they choose to be. They have self-selected themselves into the community. That creates a remarkably positive and productive environment – one that is truly special. And, for people to self-select into a coworking community, it has to be something they can do themselves. The entry has to be accessible.

That means being not just tolerant but welcoming of all kinds of people. Getting back to Alex’s post, he notes that in the life of Indy Hall, sometimes people joined whose “social skills needed a little work. Maybe they were shyer. Maybe they were boisterous. Maybe they were snarky. Maybe they were know-it-alls. In time, most of those attributes vanished. … And in the best cases, they improved themselves over time. … Coworking as a melting pot allows all of these extremes to normalize on their own. It trusts that when people have to actually deal with other people instead of have managers, mediators, or human resources solve their problems for them – most of the time, things work themselves out.”

At Cowork Frederick, our community is defined by any particular profession, religion, hobby, political view, gender, or any other demographic. People with many backgrounds, perspectives, heritages, cultures, opinions, skills, lifestyles, work styles, etc. do more than coexist. They cowork. They share ideas and help each other. They sustain each other. Diversity is one of our greatest strengths. You’re not likely to get diversity if your community isn’t accessible.