Event Recap: Disability in Tech

On October 20, 2021, Diversability hosted our event Diversability Unplugged: Disability in Tech as part of the month-long celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). This event brought members of the Diversability team, community members, and four (4) panelists together for an important conversation about the experiences of disabled employees in the tech industry. Our panelists included Ovidio Reyna from Ad Hoc, Meenakshi Das from Microsoft, Aubrie Lee from Google, and Derek Van Oss, who has a long-term career in tech having worked for multiple companies. The event was moderated by Marie Dagenais-Lewis, Content Associate for the Diversability team. 

Event poster with text and round photos of the 4 panelists. Text reads “October 20, 2021; 7:00 ET/4:00 PT; Diversability Unplugged: Disability in Tech”. Below each photo is the person’s name, title, and pronouns. From left to right: Meenakshi Das, she/her, Microsoft; Aubrie Lee, she/her, Google, Ovidio Reyna, he/him, Ad Hoc; Derek Van Oss, he/him, Deloitte Digital.”

We spent the session exploring the unique experience of the disabled community in the tech industry, systemic barriers to accessible workplaces, and more. Panelists answered a number of targeted questions, shared personal stories, and engaged with attendees in a Q&A session to close out the event.

Diversability’s Marie Dagenais-Lewis kicked off the evening by welcoming attendees and sharing more about Diversability’s work. She, as well as the four panelists then briefly introduced themselves before diving into the evening’s topics.

Meaningful Work

Panelists were asked to describe why their careers in tech are so meaningful to them. Ovidio shared that he joined the industry because he believes in helping people. He loves his work at Ad Hoc because of the real-world impact it has on people’s daily lives. Ad Hoc works with government agencies to develop digital services to meet their needs and better serve people. He is currently working with The Pan Foundation which provides grant funds for transportation of disabled and chronically ill persons so they can receive care.

Aubrie added that she sees the power and purpose of tech as what it allows people to do. Often the people that benefit most from technological advancements are disabled people. She reminded us that NDEAM is not just about hiring disabled people - it’s about ensuring that employees and the people they serve have a voice. That’s one of the driving motivators for her role at Google as a marketing representative. 

For other panelists, the attachment to their work was more task driven. Meena for example works diligently with her code team at Microsoft to make the code they produce as part of their daily jobs more accessible. Although tech can directly impact the disabled community, the industry itself is not directly related to accessibility and is often riddled with issues related to access. Her goal is to get tech professionals considering accessibility as a fundamental part of their code-writing process rather than an afterthought or niche community that addresses the issues after the fact.

Derek’s personal experience having started in tech before his disability and directly benefiting from the tech he spent years working on in order to keep his work motivated him to continue progressing advancements in the field.

All panelists agreed that the most powerful part of being in tech is seeing their work positively impact lives every single day.  

Employment Experiences

The conversation then shifted focus to highlight disabled employment experiences. Panelists were asked a variety of questions related to their lived experiences as disabled employees in the tech industry. 

Disclosure, often a contentious subject in the community, was the first subject of discussion. Marie asked panelists when (or if) they disclosed their disabilities to their employers - and why they made the decision they did. Panelists had a variety of answers - some choosing to disclose during interviews, others waiting until after successful hire, and one even proudly highlighting their disability on their resume. Their reasoning: “It’s part of my identity”. Often disabilities come with a myriad of stigma, assumptions, and negative connotations, and dismantling them can be incredibly difficult. Rather than add this draining process to an already stressful process, many disabled people choose to wait until they have been officially hired and started work to do that labor. Not only does waiting save energy, but disclosure after hire comes with a much greater level of legal protection, and the likelihood of losing employment often drops. Waiting is a form of self-protection in a workforce resistant to becoming fully accessible and accommodating of our needs.

The accommodations process, also incredibly important for our community, was another focal point. Accommodations help us to perform daily tasks but more importantly meet basic human needs. And yet they are so frequently difficult to get. This fact alone robs our community of dignity and autonomy taken for granted by our nondisabled counterparts, especially in the workplace.

Aubrie told a powerful story about her accommodation needs directly related to water and going to the bathroom. Because of her muscular dystrophy, going to the bathroom is no longer a simple task. Thanks to her condition, it becomes a logistical struggle and she needs assistance. At the time of her hire at Google, there was no accommodation available for such a request. As is so frequent with wheelchair users with muscular dystrophy, to account for this lack of access, Aubrie intentionally dehydrated herself at work to avoid the consequences of not having proper assistance to and from her wheelchair while going to the bathroom. It is a story “every wheelchair user with MD knows.” Eventually, a group of employees advocated for a personal care attendee program, a revolutionary approach at the time. Although the accommodation became integral, it is unfortunate that having basic human needs met in the workplace is revolutionary. 

Allyship

In an industry that is continuing to rapidly grow, employers within the tech field have the power to make it more inclusive and accessible. First and foremost, making the hiring and accommodations request processes transparent and straightforward would be a significant step in the right direction. So frequently both are unclear, exclusionary, and lack the structure necessary to empower disabled applicants and employees to thrive.

Further, panelists brought up an important point that representation is key. The ways in which companies market themselves to the general public presents and engrains a perception of their values right from the start. If companies commit to advertise positions and highlight products that are inclusive and accessible then the communities these initiatives affect are attracted to the brand. They are more likely to buy, more likely to apply, and better positioned to contribute to the growth of the organization and its goals. It’s ultimately a win/win.

Additionally, amplifying disabled creators and working diligently to further their reach is a step large organizations especially can make with a huge impact. The advocacy and creativity happening by disabled creators are immense. And yet they so often are lost in the digital space by algorithms that disregard them and pay them less attention than others. Tipping the scales of exposure and disadvantage in the digital market is a necessary focus of the tech industry in particular, which has a unique position to be part of the solution. 

Attendees shared that they appreciated that the panelists could speak from their own experience and had a broad variety of expertise and knowledge. 

Watch a replay of the event above. Transcript and chat can be found here.