“Look at my baby,” said his mother, Lathan Wilson, watching a video of him on her phone.

He held a beer under a tap, poured, twisted and capped it off with a one-inch head.

“I never thought he could do that,” she said proudly. “When he works here, he feels normal.”

There’s nothing normal about Brewability, a craft beer pub in the Denver suburbs run almost entirely by people with disabilities. The bartenders have autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. Some are blind, deaf or have traumatic brain injuries.

They play to their strengths. A nearly blind barman judges a full glass by weight. The step-by-step brewing process appeals to those with autism, who crave routine. A partly deaf young man turns out to be a great listener.

“Everyone who comes in has a very interesting story to tell,” said Tony Saponaro, 29, a bartender who wears two hearing aids.

Tiffany Fixter, 35, opened Brewability Lab in Denver in 2016 and a pizzeria two years later with the goal of fully integrating those with disabilities into the business. Society told them what they couldn’t do; she would show what they could.

But she quickly learned that old prejudices die hard, that mixing business and idealism can be expensive and being a pioneer can be very lonely.

Growing up in Lincoln, Neb., Fixter would often help kids with disabilities in her elementary school. She continued to volunteer with adults with autism throughout college. She later took a job as a special education teacher in a rough part of Kansas City, Mo., before moving to Denver to supervise an adult day program for those with mental and physical disabilities. Few of them worked. Those who did were often treated like children, good for bagging groceries or mopping floors but not for handling money or interacting with customers.

Fixter had an idea.

“I wanted to treat them like adults,” she said, “and what is more adult than beer?”

When her boss fired her for “lacking creativity,” she opened Brewability Lab. Fixter color-coded the beer taps. Customers were given a menu — “orange” was amber ale, “green” India Pale Ale. It was easier for employees who couldn’t read. Braille was added to the taps.

There was a “sensory break room” for the overstimulated. It had low lights, a weighted blanket and headphones that blocked out noise. Some employees with autism went in repeatedly.

Managers without disabilities kept them on task. Employees earned the state minimum wage for tipped employees, now $8.98 per hour. For a variety of reasons, including health issues, none of the staff with disabilities worked full time and most lived with family.

Fixter eventually moved the pub to nearby Englewood and renamed it Brewability. Her mother sold a bakery she owned to finance the purchase of the new building.