Bitty & Beau’s Shares Disability Hiring Lessons

Bitty & Beau’s Coffee has marked 10 years of employing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, growing from 19 employees in Wilmington, North Carolina, to more than 500 across its coffee shop system and mobile Coffee Cruisers. Founded by Amy and Ben Wright in 2016, the company says its experience has reinforced the business case for inclusive hiring. Employees work in customer-facing roles including taking orders, preparing drinks, greeting customers and stocking merchandise. The company’s model now reaches communities through coffee shops and its mobile Coffee Cruiser operations.

A Decade of Inclusive Employment

Bitty & Beau’s Coffee was established with the view that people with disabilities should have the same opportunity to work, contribute and belong as other employees. Its founders did not begin with a formal blueprint for inclusive employment, but built roles designed to put employees in visible service positions.

Amy Wright, Co-Founder and CEO at Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, said:

“For years, businesses have looked at people with disabilities and asked, 'What accommodations will we have to make?' We think employers should be asking a different question: 'What are we missing by not having these people on our team?'”

Visible Roles Shape Perceptions

The company intentionally places employees with intellectual and developmental disabilities at the counter, whether in a coffee shop or at a community event served by a Coffee Cruiser. The model is designed to put people with disabilities front and center.

Amy Wright, Co-Founder and CEO at Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, said:

“We wanted our employees front and center from the very beginning. You can talk about inclusion all day long, but there is something powerful that happens when two people who might never otherwise meet are standing across a counter from one another. Perceptions change.”

Five Lessons for Employers

After a decade of operations, the company identifies clear responsibilities, meaningful work and high expectations as important parts of employment for people with disabilities. It also stresses that people may learn, communicate or perform tasks differently while remaining valuable team members.

Its other lessons center on customer response, the wider value of employment and making inclusive hiring routine. The company says a job can provide confidence, relationships, independence, routine and purpose, while workplaces that include people of different abilities can affect the customers they serve.

Making Inclusion Ordinary

Bitty & Beau’s Coffee says its goal extends beyond placing people with disabilities in jobs within its own system. The company wants more businesses to recognize the contribution these employees can make in their own workplaces and communities.

Amy Wright, Co-Founder and CEO at Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, said:

“The dream was never that everyone with a disability would work at Bitty & Beau's Coffee. The dream is that one day every business will see what we see—that people with disabilities have enormous value to contribute. Every interaction is an opportunity to change someone's perspective. And when that person goes back to their own workplace, school or community and sees people with disabilities differently, that's how real change happens.”