spaces for all
OPEN YOUR DOORS WIDER
Transform Your Venue into an Inclusive, Welcoming Space for Neurodiverse Guests
CERTIFICATION
Create A Place for All Visitors
With Autism Embrace’s SPACES FOR ALL certification and training, your organization can confidently welcome all guests, including those with autism.
Why Inclusion Matters
Did You Know?
Neurodiverse Individuals Make Up 15% of the Population
Navigating public spaces can be challenging for guests with autism and other neurodiversities due to a lack of tailored accommodations and understanding. By making intentional changes, your venue can provide an environment where all guests feel safe, supported, and respected.
Our Services
Solutions for a More Inclusive Guest Experience
From audits to staff training and sensory-friendly design, Autism Embrace provides the expertise to ensure your space meets the needs of all visitors.
1. Accessibility and Inclusion Audits
Are your spaces unintentionally inaccessible?
We conduct in-depth audits to highlight accessibility gaps, providing actionable recommendations to make your venue welcoming to neurodivergent guests and those with disabilities.
2. Staff Training and Development
Does your team feel uncertain about engaging neurodiverse guests?
We empower your staff with customized training that promotes autism awareness, neurodiversity knowledge, and best practices, creating a compassionate and confident team.
3. Customized Social Narratives and Visual Supports
Do unfamiliar spaces create anxiety for your neurodivergent guests?
We design visual supports and social narratives to help guests navigate your venue, easing anxiety and enhancing their experience.
4. Sensory-Friendly Event Planning
Are standard events overwhelming for guests with sensory needs?
We help plan sensory-friendly events that feature quiet spaces, adjusted lighting, and reduced noise, ensuring enjoyment for all.
5. Communication Support Tools
How can you support guests who communicate differently?
Our communication aids, like sensory maps and communication cards, help non-verbal guests express their needs comfortably.
6. Inclusive Hiring and Volunteer Programs
Is your organization missing out on diverse talent?
With our guidance, create inclusive job postings, onboarding, and training practices that welcome neurodiverse individuals into your team.
7. Accessible Digital Content and Social Media Consultation
Is your digital presence inclusive?
We provide strategies for accessible websites and social media, making your digital content available to all users.
8. Family and Community Outreach Programs
How can you foster a sense of community for neurodiverse guests?
We partner with you to develop community events and family programs that encourage interaction and a culture of belonging.
Grounded by a Philosophy
spaces for all
We believe everyone wins when spaces & programs are designed for everyone. Inclusion & access work can be intimidating - but successful initiatives strengthen communities.Our values drive this work:
1. We are on mission together.
We are here for a cause – to create safe spaces for all. We pursue that end with each other in mind. As an African proverb suggests, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We are committed to the cause and so commit ourselves to each other – to growing and developing one another, to working collaboratively, to challenging and supporting one another. We are on mission together, because together we can go far.
2. We believe for all beats for some.
Everyone wins teams are trained to be inclusive, and when a community's spaces & programs are designed for everyone. Whether adapting what exists, or creating from scratch, inclusion work removes barriers and brings people together. That's a great way to build strong community.We are driven by inclusion – to create safe spaces for all. We work for the underdog, the marginalized, the left out and isolated. We acknowledge the privilege we experience and actively ally ourselves with the voice-less. We do so because all of us learn more when all of us are here.
3. We are rigorously committed to excellence.
We have set a weighty target – to create safe spaces for all. We believe it will take excellent work to hit the mark, and getting their will take rigor. Rigorous effort looks like grit, accountability, and integrity. We work hard because we know our efforts make a difference in the lives of the marginalized. We work hard because we know we are on mission together. We work hard because it will take hard work to move the needle for inclusion – we must be excellent if we want to be the change we hope to see in this world.
Why Partner with Autism Embrace?
We're guessing that you're reading this because you get it. You understand that inclusion and access work matters - even if it feels impossible. We believe it matters too. Everyone wins when your staff is trained to engage neurodiverse guests. Everyone wins when spaces & programs are designed for all rather than for some.
We can help. We specialize in training teams, creating inclusive environments, & developing inclusive initiatives that move the needle - strengthening your team, building trust with your guests, and offering your community more community. And, we could all use more community, right?
What makes us unique?
1. Enhanced Guest Satisfaction and Loyalty
Visitors feel valued and are more likely to return, generating positive word-of-mouth within diverse communities.
2. Improved Staff Confidence and Workplace Morale
Staff members are equipped with the knowledge and empathy to serve all guests, enhancing morale and job satisfaction.
3. Distinctive Brand Recognition
Stand out as an inclusive, certified venue that prioritizes accessibility and community.
4. Risk Reduction
Certification reduces the risk of negative incidents related to inaccessibility or lack of accommodations.
5. Long-Term Impact on Inclusivity Culture
Certification is a step toward creating a more inclusive world, one space at a time.
What Clients Say
Our inclusion training with JJ was life changing, and we look forward to engaging more staff in future trainings. Her expertise in disability inclusivity and training others to embrace diversity is astounding. She is a warm and personable trainer who demonstrates her desire to help organizations better connect and serve disabled community members. I would recommend a consultation with JJ for any business that serves their local community.
Hannah
I really appreciate how thought out JJ's neurodiversity training was! It was super fun and informative. I have a brother with a disability so personally know how valuable these lessons are. JJ was thoughtful in her presentation and I believe it really left a lasting impact on all of us.
Sophie
JJ introduced ‘neurodiversity’ into our team's lexicon and provided tips for improving the accessibility of our outdoor adventure tours. Many of the conversations we have around accessibility focus on the physical nature of disabilities, however JJ was able to tweak that conversation and open it up with a 30-minute discussion that only touched on the surface of the broader topic. I hope to work with JJ again in the future through more training of our staff and even publicly-facing materials around our business!
Kyle
I already had an appreciation for kids with special needs but listening to JJ explain how the spectrum works was very informative and allows me to get a better understanding of how to work with kids in the future.
SB Adventure Co. Guide
I really enjoyed the discussion we had about rebuilding the narrative for disabled clients and re-writing the social narrative surrounding integrating them into activities from the get go (versus accommodating after).
SB Adventure Co. Guide
JJ's presentation on inclusiveness, diversity and disability strategies was not only inspiring but very educational as well. She is a very knowledgeable speaker.
Asé
About Us
Partner | JJ McLeod
Education director and disability advocate with over a decade of experience consulting & developing programs, JJ supports clients by designing innovative approaches and spaces for equal access and appropriate services.JJ combines a background in education (M.Ed. & Education Specialist & Mild/Moderate Credentials) with layers of experience in formal and informal settings, developing events and creating strong partnerships.JJ speaks nationally on best practices for inclusion integration into community organizations and spaces. She also was honored as one of Pacific Business Times 40 under 40 business professionals in 2020.
Partner | Aaron Marshall, PhD
Entrepreneur & C-suite executive with over a decade of experience advising & coaching, Aaron helps clients get clear, strategic, & focused so they can scale their impact.Aaron pairs a strong background in research and academics (PhD, Experiential Learning | eMBA | MA, Philosophy) with practical business experience across sectors - as brick-and-mortar entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, NPO Founder, & Zoo COO.In addition to zoo work & coaching, Aaron serves as affiliate faculty at Penn State's Kurt Hahn Consortium for Values & Experiential Learning and Westmont College's Downtown Program.
spaces for all
OPEN YOUR DOORS WIDER
foster inclusion | impact your guests, your business, & your community
Why CERTIFICATION?
Disability impacts 1 in 4 people in the US. More narrowly, 15% of the population navigates some form of neurodiversity.Unfortunately, staff are ill-equipped to serve guests navigating disability - this is true across hospitality and recreation venues. Being ill-equipped has a significant impact on those businesses. For families navigating neurodiversity, a visit is simply too risky.Ill-equipped venues never get a chance to serve the 15%.At Autism Embrace, we equip venues to offer fully inclusive venues – “Spaces for All” – through staff training, program development, and site mitigation. Our team brings deep guest service and inclusion experience together to train staff how to be aware of and navigate challenges when supporting neurodiverse guests.Spaces for All certified venues don't just serve the 15%. Inclusion is about everyone. That means more participation, better representation, and deeper community partnerships. Spaces for All venues see growth in their audience, guest satisfaction, and as a result, revenue.And, “Spaces for All” certification means membership (and synergy) with other inclusion minded venues.Our goal is to change the way venues think about their spaces, and the way they serve the guests they haven’t yet met. We believe this is a game-changing opportunity to make the world a better, more inclusive place.
CERTIFICATION Process
1. Assessment
We work with your team to assess current inclusion/access opportunities. We audit existing staff training, your physical space, existing partnerships, web assets, brand positioning, & marketing presence.
2. the Plan
We walk your team through certification requirements and identify other opportunities for inclusion initiatives.Alongside your team, we develop frameworks for quiet spaces, guest engagement, and a social story. Together, these initiatives form a support system for other-abled guests that benefits all guests.
3. the Work
We support your team with thoroughgoing training to build awareness and offer specific strategies to support guests.We partner with your public relations team to maximize ROI, and expand awareness that your organization is a leader in inclusive and accessible practices.
4. Certification
Your team has member access to training (for new staff and refreshers). We also work with your full team to establish an internal champion equipped with best practices to maintain existing initiatives.And as a "Spaces for All" member, you stay connected to a network of inclusion minded members.
Ready to Get started?
dream big | make it happen
Ready to scale your impact?
It's time you changed the world.
Transformational leadership pathway for change-making individuals & teams.
Assessments
Understanding starts with measuring. Identify the start, the goal, and the gap. Then, attack it. We use a variety of personality and behavioral assessments.
Text
Executive Coaching
We specialize in supporting your executive team with coaching that digs in to those so called "soft skills" required to hone presence and grow teams.
20 Habits of Executive Leadership
There are thousands of books and entire workshops on the high-level strategies of executive leadership. But what about the daily minutiae of leadership?How do you achieve a balance between quality of life and leading your organization to success?In this course, I offer 20 manageable and beneficial habits you can build into your life to help you flourish as an executive leader - habits to keep you grounded and habits to help you stay disciplined, habits for handling your relationships, and habits to become a more discerning thinker.And best of all, these habits can easily be integrated into your life, starting today.
What Clients Say
Working with Aaron was extremely beneficial for myself and my business partner! From our limited sessions, we walked away feeling equipped and motivated to outline our HR strategy for the coming year. Aaron gave us tools to navigate both the relational aspects of our business (as friends and co-owners) and the day-to-day operations as a young start-up. Our sessions with Aaron were both humbling and eye-opening and certainly put our business back on the track we needed it to be on. I would highly recommend Aaron!
*Working with Aaron was a fantastic experience. As a first-time manager, Aaron helped me hone my instincts into clear managing tactics. His resource recommendations were spot on, and our weekly sessions held me accountable to do the work. The experience was both humbling and empowering, and my team and organization are better because of the work we did with Aaron. I can't recommend him enough! *
"Aaron's style feels relaxed. He has a knack for asking penetrating questions and moving you to action." - Sara, Executive
"I appreciate how Aaron worked with me to assess our position, clarify direction, and take tangible steps to achieve that vision." - Jaime, CEO
"I have a fresh understanding of myself - my passions and strengths - and how they shape what I really want in life." -Patrick, Manager
"I hit a point where I needed to reevaluate where I was heading. Aaron helped me think through that and step forward with fresh enthusiasm." - Brian, Director
Grounded by a Philosophy
Culture | how we do life together.
Success happens at the intersection of talent and strategy. Finding the right people, getting them into the proverbial right seat, and making sure everyone is clear about where the bus is heading. It's about growing your people, and getting them on mission together.These two truths drive the work:
1. Leadership is learned.
Exceptional leaders are grounded, disciplined, relational, and discerning. Developing these traits requires practice, but they are learned traits. And, research shows that this kind of leadership transformation happens best through "experiential learning cycles."
2. People want to be on mission together.
It's the organization's job to help they climb aboard. People want to be known, and they want to contribute to something meaningful. Organizations that provide hope, stability, trust, and compassion foster engaged teams on mission together.
TRAIN STAFF
CREATE SPACES
asdf
Founder, Aaron Marshall, PhD
Aaron is an entrepreneur & C-suite executive with 12+ years of experience advising & coaching entrepreneurs to get clear, strategic, and focused so they can scale their businesses and grow their impact.His academic journey in character formation (MA, Philosophy) & experiential learning (PhD, Education) blends nicely with his practical business experience across sectors: as a brick-and-mortar entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, NPO Founder, & Zoo COO.Beyond that, Aaron enjoys speaking, teaching Social Entrepreneurship for Westmont College, serving as affiliate faculty at Penn State's Kurt Hahn Consortium for Values & Experiential Learning, and sitting on several local boards.Aaron has published a variety of content including "Creating a Culture that Inspires" and "20 Habits of Successful Executives."He and his brilliant wife Janay have three children. As often as possible, you'll find them enjoying life together - hiking, biking, paddling, skating, or surfing - in Santa Barbara.
clarity | alignment | culture
Speak the same language.
Seek the same goals.
On mission together.
Transformational leadership pathway for change-making individuals & teams.
robust culture-building
The approach is simple. Assess where you are, identify where you want to go, and close the gap. But, it's hardly easy. Alignment has everything to do with vision, clarity, expectations, and culture.
Imagine deep support across your company, providing the talent and org development partnership you need to keep people rowing together.
Creating a Culture that Inspires
If your organization is like most, you’ve watched as culture just sort of happened. Like a backyard garden left unattended, workplace habits and practices develop on their own. If you have people, they will behave in particular ways and establish particular habits. With or without your attention, your workplace culture will grow. When left unattended, your workplace may produces some fruit alongside thistles and weeds.But if you tend the garden - making sure the soil, sun, and water are there, prune properly, pull weeds at the right time, and on - you’ll end up with a bountiful harvest and a lot less thistle.
Assessments
Understanding starts with measuring. Identify the start, the goal, and the gap. Then, attack it. Unlock transformation with growth-framed personality and behavioral assessments.
Text
Executive Coaching
It can be lonely at the top. Provide the support your executive team needs to know themselves more deeply, to lead themselves, and in turn to lead your organization.
Leadership Development
Transformational leadership pathways should develop management practices, emotional intelligence, productivity, & alignment.
Team Building
People want to be known, and they want to be on mission together. With a focus on clarity, alignment, & culture building - get your team inspired & in sync.
Text
Org Development & Design
Honing vision, mission, & values ought to be more than wordsmithing. Organize strategically around your core beacons.
Offsites | Workshops | Retreats
Focused learning accelerates skills development alongside trust-building & alignment. Get more out of team experiences.
You recognize the value of robust culture building.
You want to see your talent developed. Getting it done sounds daunting and expensive. You need support building out the processes and systems that sustain culture and develop people. Who needs what? How many hires will it take? What if it doesn't work?
Let's work together.
Rather than bolt experiences on to the hustle that already overwhelms, Equip to Scale works alongside your organization to foster talent development and culture building as an integrated function for your business.
Accelerate your talent & team.
Imagine everyone moving in the same direction.
clarity | alignment | culture
Building relationships
Helping small & medium-sized clients cultivate talent & team during rapid growth.
What Clients Say
Working with Aaron was extremely beneficial for myself and my business partner! From our limited sessions, we walked away feeling equipped and motivated to outline our HR strategy for the coming year. Aaron gave us tools to navigate both the relational aspects of our business (as friends and co-owners) and the day-to-day operations as a young start-up. Our sessions with Aaron were both humbling and eye-opening and certainly put our business back on the track we needed it to be on. I would highly recommend Aaron!
*Working with Aaron was a fantastic experience. As a first-time manager, Aaron helped me hone my instincts into clear managing tactics. His resource recommendations were spot on, and our weekly sessions held me accountable to do the work. The experience was both humbling and empowering, and my team and organization are better because of the work we did with Aaron. I can't recommend him enough! *
"Aaron's style feels relaxed. He has a knack for asking penetrating questions and moving you to action." - Sara, Executive
"I appreciate how Aaron worked with me to assess our position, clarify direction, and take tangible steps to achieve that vision." - Jaime, CEO
"I have a fresh understanding of myself - my passions and strengths - and how they shape what I really want in life." -Patrick, Manager
"I hit a point where I needed to reevaluate where I was heading. Aaron helped me think through that and step forward with fresh enthusiasm." - Brian, Director
Grounded by a Philosophy
Culture | how we do life together.
Success happens at the intersection of talent and strategy. Finding the right people, getting them into the proverbial right seat, and making sure everyone is clear about where the bus is heading. It's about growing your people, and getting them on mission together.These two truths drive the work:
1. Leadership is learned.
Exceptional leaders are grounded, disciplined, relational, and discerning. Developing these traits requires practice, but they are learned traits. And, research shows that this kind of leadership transformation happens best through "experiential learning cycles."
2. People want to be on mission together.
It's the organization's job to help they climb aboard. People want to be known, and they want to contribute to something meaningful. Organizations that provide hope, stability, trust, and compassion foster engaged teams on mission together.
Founder, Aaron Marshall, PhD
Aaron is an entrepreneur & C-suite executive with 12+ years of experience advising & coaching entrepreneurs to get clear, strategic, and focused so they can scale their businesses and grow their impact.His academic journey in character formation (MA, Philosophy) & experiential learning (PhD, Education) blends nicely with his practical business experience across sectors: as a brick-and-mortar entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, NPO Founder, & Zoo COO.Beyond that, Aaron enjoys speaking, teaching Social Entrepreneurship for Westmont College, serving as affiliate faculty at Penn State's Kurt Hahn Consortium for Values & Experiential Learning, and sitting on several local boards.Aaron has published a variety of content including "Creating a Culture that Inspires" and "20 Habits of Successful Executives."He and his brilliant wife Janay have three children. As often as possible, you'll find them enjoying life together - hiking, biking, paddling, skating, or surfing - in Santa Barbara.
Grounded by a Philosophy
Culture | how we do life together.
The goal is your success. Equip to Scale knows that you win when your leaders are learning and your teams are invigorated.These two truths drive the work:
1. Leadership is learned.
Exceptional leaders are grounded, disciplined, relational, and discerning. Developing these traits requires practice, but they are learned traits. And, research shows that this kind of leadership transformation happens best through "experiential learning cycles."
2. People want to be on mission together.
It's the organization's job to help they climb aboard. People want to be known, and they want to contribute to something meaningful. Organizations that provide hope, stability, trust, and compassion foster engaged teams on mission together.
Building Relationships
Helping small & medium-sized clients cultivate talent & team during rapid growth.
What Clients Say
Working with Aaron was extremely beneficial for myself and my business partner! From our limited sessions, we walked away feeling equipped and motivated to outline our HR strategy for the coming year. Aaron gave us tools to navigate both the relational aspects of our business (as friends and co-owners) and the day-to-day operations as a young start-up. Our sessions with Aaron were both humbling and eye-opening and certainly put our business back on the track we needed it to be on. I would highly recommend Aaron!
*Working with Aaron was a fantastic experience. As a first-time manager, Aaron helped me hone my instincts into clear managing tactics. His resource recommendations were spot on, and our weekly sessions held me accountable to do the work. The experience was both humbling and empowering, and my team and organization are better because of the work we did with Aaron. I can't recommend him enough! *
"Aaron's style feels relaxed. He has a knack for asking penetrating questions and moving you to action." - Sara, Executive
"I appreciate how Aaron worked with me to assess our position, clarify direction, and take tangible steps to achieve that vision." - Jaime, CEO
"I have a fresh understanding of myself - my passions and strengths - and how they shape what I really want in life." -Patrick, Manager
"I hit a point where I needed to reevaluate where I was heading. Aaron helped me think through that and step forward with fresh enthusiasm." - Brian, Director
"Let's work together to grow your talent & get your team on mission."
clarity | alignment | culture
Founder, Aaron Marshall, PhD
Aaron is an entrepreneur & C-suite executive with 12+ years of experience advising & coaching entrepreneurs to get clear, strategic, and focused so they can scale their businesses and grow their impact.His academic journey in character formation (MA, Philosophy) & experiential learning (PhD, Education) blends nicely with his practical business experience across sectors: as a brick-and-mortar entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, NPO Founder, & Zoo COO.Beyond that, Aaron enjoys speaking, teaching Social Entrepreneurship for Westmont College, serving as affiliate faculty at Penn State's Kurt Hahn Consortium for Values & Experiential Learning, and sitting on several local boards.Aaron has published a variety of content including "Creating a Culture that Inspires" and "20 Habits of Successful Executives."He and his brilliant wife Janay have three children. As often as possible, you'll find them enjoying life together - hiking, biking, paddling, skating, or surfing - in Santa Barbara.
Get equipped for the work ahead.
clarity | alignment | culture
Where do you need support?
Values & Cultural Artifacts
Text
Vision, Mission, Strategy
Leadership Development
Team & Trust Building
Text
Organizational Alignment
Clarity & Communication
"A problem well-put is half-solved." –John Dewey
Most organizations go through similar growing pains as they scale.
Increased workloads lead to rapid hiring cycles. Rapid hiring reveals onboarding deficiencies & group dynamics challenges. Culture is tested. A gap develops between the stated culture & the way work really gets done.As things settle, the team finds a new normal & accelerates to new work levels. Then, the cycle repeats.As the cycle repeats, new challenges emerge - founding employees are skipped over for leadership roles, iterations shift power between functions, alignment wanes, role clarity & capacity building get fuzzy, & leadership feels the brunt.
Sound familiar?
And so it goes - in predictable ways, through predictable stages.
Start with what you know.
Are the proper foundations in place?
Do you have systems for clarity, alignment, & culture-building?
Do you have the right people? In the right roles?
What pain-points are most pressing today?
"It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are." –Wendell Berry
Resources
Creating a Culture that Inspires
If your organization is like most, you’ve watched as culture just sort of happened. Like a backyard garden left unattended, workplace habits and practices develop on their own. If you have people, they will behave in particular ways and establish particular habits. With or without your attention, your workplace culture will grow. When left unattended, your workplace may produces some fruit alongside thistles and weeds.But if you tend the garden - making sure the soil, sun, and water are there, prune properly, pull weeds at the right time, and on - you’ll end up with a bountiful harvest and a lot less thistle.
20 Habits of Executive Leadership
There are thousands of books and entire workshops on the high-level strategies of executive leadership. But what about the daily minutiae of leadership?How do you achieve a balance between quality of life and leading your organization to success?In this course, I offer 20 manageable and beneficial habits you can build into your life to help you flourish as an executive leader - habits to keep you grounded and habits to help you stay disciplined, habits for handling your relationships, and habits to become a more discerning thinker.And best of all, these habits can easily be integrated into your life, starting today.
CLARITY + ROADMAP
Congrats! Your in.Exercise 1 is already zipping through cyberspace looking for your inbox."It will feel like a springboard."Do the work & it will transform you.
clarity | momentum | roadmap
Text