Disabilities Reimagined
You already serve clients with disabilities. Does your practice work for them?
Practical accessibility audits, training, and consulting for therapists, counselors, and small practices. Find the barriers you cannot see, and address them in ways that fit your caseload and your budget.
Free · 6 questions
Leading a team or organization?
Start Here →TRUSTED BY ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS TEXAS & BEYOND
— THE HIDDEN GAP
1 in 4 U.S. adults has a disability
- CDC, Disability and Health Data System, 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
The barriers are usually invisible to the person who built them
Most practices never hear about the access needs they are not meeting.
Many practitioners assume accessibility matters only when someone requests an accommodation or has a visible disability. In reality, clients with disabilities are already moving through your services: your intake forms, your scheduling, your waiting room, your sessions, and your follow-up. Many of those disabilities are non-apparent, and people rarely name them unless it feels safe to.
When barriers go unrecognized, they affect:
Service quality · Client outcomes · Participation and follow-through · Communication and responsiveness · Staff confidence · Trust and reputation
01 · RECOGNIZE
Find the barriers you cannot see
The clients you are already missing
- Recognize the clients with disabilities you already serve
- Understand why people do not disclose
- See the barriers your practice creates without meaning to
02 · INCLUDE
Build a practice that works for everyone
Small changes, real impact
- Make changes that are simple to put in place
- Create space for folks to disclose
- Improve communication and service delivery
03 · IMPROVE
Better outcomes for every client
Practical gains that last
- Support engagement and follow-through
- Strengthen professional competence
- Practice ethically and responsively
— TRANSFORM YOUR SERVICES
Choose the path that fits your work
Two ways in, depending on whether you are building your own practice or leading a team.
Private practice and small teams
Social workers, counselors, therapists, and other helping professionals who want a more accessible, disability-informed practice — without guessing what to do.
- Accessibility audits sized for a private practice
- “Building an Accessible Practice,” a self-paced course
- Ready-to-use templates, intake language, and workbooks
- One-to-one consultation on your own caseload
Serve more clients well, meet professional standards, and build referral relationships you can rely on.
Organizations & teams
For nonprofits, healthcare organizations, schools, conferences, and service-based teams improving accessibility, staff readiness, and client experience.
- Accessibility audits scoped to your organization
- Staff training programs and workshops
- Strategic consulting and implementation support
- Event accessibility review and keynote speaking
Expand reach, strengthen reputation, improve service delivery, and stop paying to solve the same access problem one person at a time.
— FIND THE BARRIERS
What NeoBilities does
Audits, education, and consulting that help you find the barriers in your own practice and fix them in a way that holds. The work is built around implementation, so you finish knowing not just what to change, but how to change it in day-to-day practice.
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Accessibility and practice audits covering services, policies, communication, and forms
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Disability education and training for practitioners, staff, and leaders
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One-to-one consultation for helping professionals and small teams
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A self-paced course on building a disability-informed practice
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Organizational consulting to align policies, workflows, and systems
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Event accessibility review and speaking for conferences and gatherings
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Follow-up support, tools, and resources so changes hold
— RETHINKING ASSUMPTIONS
Common myths about accessibility and disability
MythWe don't really serve clients with disabilities.
RealityYou already do, whether people disclose or not. Many disabilities are non-apparent, and people rarely identify themselves unless they feel safe, welcomed, and supported.
MythAccessibility is only about compliance.
RealityCompliance is the floor. Accessibility shapes service delivery, communication, participation, staff readiness, and the whole experience someone has with your practice. Ethical, culturally responsive care asks more of us than the law does.
MythWe'll deal with accessibility if someone asks.
RealityWaiting for a request produces inconsistent experiences and uncertain staff, and it costs more. Solving the same problem one client at a time is slower than fixing the system that created it.
MythAccessibility only helps a small number of people.
RealityClearer forms, better communication, and more flexible systems improve participation for almost everyone, including people who never mention a disability at all.
— WHAT CHANGE CAN LOOK LIKE
Small, concrete shifts with real impact
Recent work has included:
COUNSELING PRACTICE
An accessibility and practice audit led to revised intake forms and communication workflows, making it easier for clients to share access needs and reducing last-minute cancellations.
NONPROFIT CONSULTING
An audit-informed consulting engagement added disability-informed questions to a nonprofit's program planning process, so accessibility is considered at the start rather than after a problem appears.
CONFERENCE EVENT REVIEW
An event accessibility review improved communication, proposal processes, and access to information for speakers, attendees, and participants.
Each engagement focuses on realistic steps that fit your capacity and improve service delivery, participation, and client experience.
— MEASURED ACROSS TRAININGS AND CONFERENCES
Training people actually use
91%
found the training very useful for their practice
5,000+
professionals trained across disability and mental health organizations
96%
rated sessions excellent for expertise and enthusiasm
Based on aggregated post-session evaluations from NeoBilities trainings, presentations, and conference sessions.
— WHY NEOBILITIES IS DIFFERENT
Beyond awareness, toward stronger systems
Disability-founded and disability-informed
NeoBilities is led by Tessa Bathauer, LMSW, a social worker with lived disability experience. That perspective shapes how barriers are identified and how solutions are built. Tessa looks at your practice from your client's side, asking: what happens when someone actually tries to find your service, understand what to expect, ask for support, and take part?
Practice and systems, not just awareness
Audits, training, and consulting focus on how disability shows up in real services, policies, workflows, and communication, not in concepts or one-time sessions.
Right-sized to your capacity
Recommendations are built around your staffing, funding, and constraints, so the changes are ones you can actually make and keep.
Rooted in helping professions
The work is shaped by social work practice and community-based service, which makes it directly relevant to practitioners, nonprofits, and service-heavy teams.
— IN THEIR WORDS
What professionals say afterward
“This session was really valuable. It helped me gain more perspective and a framework for how to think about disability inclusion.”
Social Worker
“An outstanding presentation which provided great information and resources — lots to think about and bring back to my organization.”
Group Practice Professional
“Fantastic presentation. Very knowledgeable presenters and excellent visual aids and activities — gave me lots to consider in the workplace.”
Mental Health Professional
— ABOUT NEOBILITIES
Built on lived experience, for real-world practice
NeoBilities is led by Tessa Bathauer, LMSW, a disability consultant and educator who works with practitioners and organizations to turn accessibility into better client outcomes.
Tessa holds an MSSW from The University of Texas at Austin, with portfolios in Critical Disability Studies and Nonprofit Management, and draws on lived disability experience across healthcare, mental health, education, and human services. She has presented at the NASW National Conference and the Network for Social Work Management Annual Conference, and guest lectures for social work and healthcare programs.
“I started NeoBilities after realizing that good intentions are not always enough to create accessible, welcoming services. My own experience as a Deaf person, along with my social work education, showed me that disability is too often treated as something to fix instead of a valuable part of human identity and community. I wanted to give professionals practical, real-world support so they can build services that work better for the people they serve.”
Tessa Bathauer, LMSW
Founder & Lead Consultant, NeoBilities
— WHAT DISABILITY-INFORMED MEANS
Access in mind from the start
Disability-informed means recognizing disability as a normal part of human diversity, and building services, systems, and professional practice with access in mind from the start.
It means noticing barriers early, improving how people are served, and making sure people with disabilities have a voice in the decisions that shape care, programs, and organizations.
— FAQ
Questions people ask before getting in touch
Who is the accessibility quiz for?
Do you work with both individuals and organizations?
What happens after I take the quiz?
Do you offer virtual and in-person services?
What is the difference between accessibility-informed practice and ADA compliance?
How much does an audit cost?
— READY WHEN YOU ARE
Start with the quiz and find your next best step
Take the quiz, get your score, and see the next step for your situation, whether that is the self-paced course for your own practice or an accessibility audit for your team.
— FROM THE BLOG
Disability, accessibility, and practice
Articles on disability-informed practice, accessibility, and inclusive service delivery.
