Over 300 diversity professionals met in Washington, DC this week at the Reagan Center to discuss keeping diversity and inclusion high on the agenda even when economic factors are forcing cuts in spending in all programs. It was the annual Diversity Best Practices Summit, a two-day event where Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) and their teams exchanged ideas with the best and the brightest in the field. CEO leaders in diversity like Kodak’s Antonio Perez reminded other CEOs that diversity and inclusion must be a business imperative, core to how a company does its work, core to how it looks at its employees, it vendors, and its customers.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Tricia Rose, author of “The Hip Hop Wars” and a professor at Brown University, reminded the audience that each individual may be a part of the workforce and identify with a company; but they still bring with them their unique characteristics -- maybe they are cultural, maybe they are the reality of living with a handicap or as a married person, as a mom, or a single.  Our collective experience is modified by our individual experience and others around us cannot ignore that.

Likening a company’s diversity journey to building a backyard zip line, fraught at first with excitement then boredom, then new challenges and obstacles, Joe Watson, the author of “Without Excuses: Unleashing the Power of Diversity to Build Your Business” reminded the audience that the current recession is the beginning of a long-term shift in how business is conducted.  He said, the diversity and human resource professionals are not only dealing with the shift in the marketplace but with the thinking of employees.  Even those who may feel secure in their jobs are touched by others who have lost jobs, have failed mortgages and fear their college and retirement savings have slipped through their fingers.  That represents a major shift in collective thinking. Stress levels are high.

Working Mother Media’s Deepika Bajaj unveiled her new book "#DIVERSITYtweet: Embracing the Growing Diversity in our World.”  She tells the diversity story in 140 tweets – 140 characters each.  Bajaj says her favorites go from the simply descriptive: “Diversity is a team sport – where we are surrounded by unique players for a common goal.” To the clearly colorful:  “A diversity example: Indian woman wearing American clothes, eating Italian food, and drinking French wine while in China.” The tweets resonate with a community facing multicultural challenges everyday.

Disability is the only affinity group that everyone might be able to join one day, whether its through illness or accident or simply the process of aging, reminded Dr. Jonathan Kaufman, a disability expert.  Several panelists rang a call for universal design and universal acceptance that workplaces and all public spaces be made fully accessible to embrace all ability levels.  After all, it was disability that gave birth to the typewriter and the telephone, universal acceptance of computer screens that can enlarge text and offer voice software.  The 20-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act only lays the groundwork. It is individuals and companies which must continue to push the envelope to create an inclusive world.

Helen Jonsen is the editor of workingmother.com.