The Future of Work for People with Disabilities
A Video Conversation Celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day
In 2020, the move to virtual workstreams accelerated rapidly. McKinsey reports that the adoption of digital technologies sped up by several years in just 8 months—and that many of these changes are likely permanent. The tools behind virtual workplaces are also increasingly powered by new and emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR).
2020 also brought the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This landmark legislation opened the door of opportunity for people with disabilities to participate in all aspects of society, including employment. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Global Accessibility Awareness Day this year, the following video conversations explore what the current and future landscape looks like for people with disabilities at work.
Learn from these 4 professional leaders about how lived experience with disabilities have shaped their careers, what the future holds for people with disabilities, and the potential to make every workplace an inclusive workplace where technology understands and serves people with diverse needs.
Chancey Fleet, Technology Educator
“If you’re allowing an algorithm to judge me by my eyes, you are gonna miss out on my talent.”
Lydia X. Z. Brown, Policy Counsel, Center for Democracy & Technology
“I always encourage people who are designing or launching any product, an application, a website…to go to the drawing board and start there in collaboration and partnership with multiple marginalized people.”
Ather Sharif, Software Engineer at Comcast and Founder of EvoXLabs
“What the future for me looks like, it is personalized design…tools that we can build that can automatically adjust to a person’s abilities, and so that’s putting less burden on the user.”
Haley Moss, Attorney and Educator
“Before we all started working from home, pretty much, people with disabilities would request telework and be told it’s an undue hardship and now we’re seeing that’s not quite the case.”
