Creating a Truly Inclusive Workplace: A Conversation Between Colleagues with Disabilities
Four colleagues at Wheelhouse Group, who lead the PIA & PEAT initiatives as prime contractors, come together to discuss their personal experiences as employees with disabilities. Based on their lived experiences as individuals with mental health disabilities, visual impairment and substance use disorder, they offer their advice on what employers and fellow team members can do to create a truly inclusive and stigma free workplace. […]
Extended Reality & Mental Health Support
Did you know that your employees may already use extended reality (XR) tools for mental health support? Virtual, augmented and mixed reality (collectively known as XR) tools have many applications. Popular examples range from gaming to helping medical professionals train for complex procedures. However, as more experiences are created for XR technologies, mental health assessment and support are becoming more widely available. […]
Check Out PEAT’s axe-con & CSUN Slides
The PEAT team presented at some exciting events during the month of March. If you attended and want a refresher or could not make it and would like to read what we shared, the slides are linked below. […]
Podcast: Neurodiversity & Intersectionality: A Disclosure Challenge
Wesley Faulkner, Head of Community at SingleStore, shares how being a person of color and having ADHD & dyslexia impacted disclosing his disability at work. He also reveals his vision for the inclusive workplace of the future. […]
Podcast: Delivering Accessible Results Requires Lasting Solutions, Not Shortcuts
Lainey Feingold, Disability Rights Attorney, shares how HR professionals can work toward real inclusion while involving people with disabilities in every step and avoiding quick-fix pitfalls. […]
Podcast: DEIA Driven by AI
Jeffrey Brown, Diversity and Inclusion Research Fellow at the Partnership on AI, discusses strategies for using AI-enabled recruiting technologies in ways that enhance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) priorities. […]
What’s Happening in Inclusive XR
The PEAT team recently participated in the ITIF Policy Forum and the inaugural XRA Limitless Futures conference. At these events, we shared thought leadership and resources surrounding inclusive extended reality (XR) in the workplace. While there are many areas to pay attention to when it comes to inclusive XR, three key takeaways stand out. […]
Podcast: Captioning the XR-Infused Workplace
Christopher Patnoe, Head of Accessibility and Inclusion for EMEA at Google, shares his perspectives on emerging issues in accessible technology. He delves into hot topics, including how to handle immersive captioning in virtual reality and the need to recognize that traditional accommodations may not be the optimum solution for hybrid workplaces. […]
America’s Recovery: Powered by Inclusion
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). If you are a worker with a disability or an employer of someone who has a disability, you likely already know the unique considerations and often under-recognized benefits that stem from employing people with disabilities. According to Accenture, companies who hire people with disabilities earn 28% higher revenue, two times the net income, and 30% higher economic profit margins than their peers. [...]
Podcast: Recovery Powered by Inclusion
Susan Mazrui, Director of Global Policy for AT&T, discusses the importance of accessible workplace technologies and how a commitment to accessibility and inclusion can help employers navigate the implications of long COVID as we shift to an increasingly hybrid workplace. Original publication date: October 18, 2021 […]
Inclusive Workplace XR
This white paper gives an in-depth look at ways accessible extended reality (XR) technologies can enhance organizations and promote inclusion.
Inclusive XR Brief
This brief overview is designed to help leadership understand the value of inclusive extended reality (XR) technologies in the workplace.
Staffing for Equitable AI: Roles & Responsibilities
Start with a Model The Equitable AI Playbook encourages organizations to consider a hub-and-spoke model for their Equitable AI initiative. In a Hub-and-spoke model, a central group (“Hub”) is led by C-Level and establishes standards, processes, and policies. “Spokes” are business unit or function teams that oversee execution of the policies and processes by implementation teams. This type of model has typically worked well for implementing other organization-wide priorities [...]
Podcast: AI and Workplace Inclusion
John Robinson, President and CEO of Our Ability, discusses how harnessing the power of AI technology can improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities. […]
5 Takeaways from the XR Access Symposium Report
What if a construction company could use virtual reality to train employees on worksite hazards from the safety of a conference room? Or an expert wind turbine technician could use augmented reality to guide on-site technicians through repairs, despite being in a different country? […]
Podcast: How Remote Internships Can Bridge the Disability Employment Gap
Ahva Sadeghi and Paula Mora, founders of Symba, discuss how companies can increase their access to a diverse talent pool through remote internship and apprenticeship programs. […]
AI & Disability Inclusion Resources
This resource library will help guide you through specific aspects of implementing and incorporating AI-enabled tools within your workplace. Each section contains an overview of the challenge or activity as well as links to guidance, tips, and templates to assist you as you move forward with your equitable AI initiative.
Implementing AI-Enabled Assistant Tools to Make Workplaces More Inclusive
AI-enabled technologies are adding new ways to make a workplace more directly accessible to people with disabilities. The following tools are increasingly available as organization-wide subscriptions. They offer a wonderful opportunity to reduce the need for individual accommodation by making the workplace more directly accessible. It’s a best practice to offer such features to all employees, who can turn the technology on and off as needed. And while they [...]
Interview Checklist for HR Professionals Using AI-enabled Tools
HR professionals using AI-enabled tools must ensure their assessment methodologies are ethical and accurately measure potential in candidates. Even after a technology has been vetted and procured, the way it’s used can affect how inclusive it is in practice. To ensure a level playing field, everyone involved in the recruiting process should understand and follow these ongoing actions. Ensure the Team Understands the Process Algorithms from [...]
The Challenge of Fairness Audits
Many vendors provide “fairness audits” that claim to be able to measure when bias is taking place and recommend course corrections. In practice, many of these tools have only considered race and gender as dimensions of diversity. And if they are considering disability, the methodology behind it is likely flawed. The 80/20 rule In 1978, the federal government adopted the Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection Procedures to determine what [...]
Developing Staff Trainings for Equitable AI
Staff training is an essential component of your Equitable AI professional development program. Like other elements of staff training on disability inclusion, putting these structures in place helps ensure all employees understand their organization’s vision, policies, initiative structure, and resources for implementing equitable AI. Developing a successful culture of inclusion requires that everyone an organization gain a basic understanding of these issues, and people in more technical roles will [...]
The Equitable AI Playbook
The Equitable AI Playbook is a blueprint that can help your organization foster inclusion as you procure, develop or implement artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in your workplace. Organizations are increasingly using AI to screen job candidates, streamline the application process, monitor employee actions, and provide employee training. However, AI technologies can often be unintentionally biased and produce unfair outcomes for different protected classes. This can increase the risk of bias and discrimination against job candidates and employees.
Examples of Equitable AI
Below are examples of how AI tools can support job seekers and employees with disabilities, recruiters, and staff responsible for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Each example describes the value of applying Equitable AI Principles in the design and implementation of the AI Tool. Considerations that Apply to All Examples Before procuring and implementing AI tools, organizations should examine how they were designed, how they function, and how they support [...]
Business Case for Equitable AI
Adopting Equitable AI Principles can make your organization a better and more inclusive place to work. It’s a strategic opportunity for an employer to be seen as a leader and innovator in its field. We created the following guidelines to help organizations consider what can be included in your business case for Equitable AI. After reading these guidelines, refer to Play 1: Build an Equitable AI business case in our Equitable AI Playbook to learn valuable tips for building your own business case.
AI Hiring Tools and the Law
The development of AI technologies is outpacing the evolution of regulations and standards that directly enforce the use of AI hiring tools. However, employers should proactively consider legal and equity concerns related to AI hiring tools before implementing these technologies in their organizations. Acting in accordance with existing guidance can put your organization on the right path as new standards unfold over time. This page provides brief highlights from [...]
