In 2000, Dr. Carlos Archilla-Cady was driving home from work when he lost all vision – the world suddenly became a dense white fog before him. He managed to pull over, and in half an hour, his sight had cleared enough to continue home. Badly shaken, he went to an ophthalmologist. His eye pressures were found to be highly elevated, characteristic of glaucoma.
It was the beginning of many years of challenges, operations and even corneal transplants – but also the beginning of new adventures and (literally) new horizons that would soon be sending him into space.
A career backup plan
As a pediatric anesthesiologist in Orlando, Florida, Archilla-Cady knew that any permanent vision impairment would have left him unable to work as a clinician. When glaucoma was formally diagnosed, “I realised how much I had to lose,” he recalls. After 19 years of procedures including two rejected corneal transplants, a third transplant in 2019 has been successful.
Realizing he needed a career backup plan, Archilla-Cady pursued the Global Executive MBA at IESE in 2020.
“IESE was very accommodating of my disability the whole time, something that I needed most at the beginning of the programme,” he says. “While I was applying, I mentioned that I would need certain accommodations, which they were happy to provide. By the time I actually started, I was on the road to recovery following my latest transplant.”
This episode of disability has sensitised him to the need for inclusion in all aspects of life and in the business world, and for Archilla-Cady, that mission has taken on epic proportions.
Redefining “the right stuff”
When Archilla-Cady read about a group of people living with disabilities who were invited on a zero-gravity flight, he felt uniquely positioned to add value.
Astronauts who spend significant time on the International Space Station often experience swelling of the optic nerve and have reduced vision when they return to Earth. As someone living with a complex eye disease, Archilla-Cady was concerned about the effects of microgravity on visual acuity. Data have been gathered from healthy volunteers, but Archilla-Cady felt data collected from people like him could provide richer insights into the effects of microgravity on the human eye, opening the potential for people like him to participate in space travel.
Archilla-Cady has already completed microgravity training with NASA and undergone a zero-gravity simulation flight, in which he made what are believed to be the first-in-history measurements of its effects on eye pressure in a person with active glaucoma.
With space travel getting to be less and less of a dream and more of a reality for non-career astronauts, Archilla-Cady is adamant that space exploration must democratise access. He believes people living with disabilities can help develop innovative solutions for future space programmes.
Disability as an asset
Living with a disability requires resilience, grit, determination, empathy and flexibility – all desirable traits in employees and leaders more generally. Archilla-Cady, for example, has pursued education, returned to work during the pandemic when his medical skills were in high demand, and begun his training for space. Thriving with a disability demands constant innovation to function in a world that isn’t adapted to it.
“I think the skills that come from living with a disability can be helpful to business,” he says. “We’re used to having to navigate difficult terrain in one way or another. We can respond quickly and creatively if things go wrong.”
“Disability doesn’t mean inability; it means that capabilities are exercised differently. It’s also worth considering that a billion people around the world live with some type of disability – which likely includes many of your customers who would like businesses to move from ‘accessibility’ to full access in the disability economy.”
He insists people with disabilities should be redefined as assets. “They really do have ‘the right stuff.’ And their skill set, when applied to business, can be truly transformational.”
