Alexa Huth shares her story of vision loss and telework and talks about the rapid pace of digitization and the rise of telework.
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Telework Tech
Transcript for Telework Tech
Hi, everyone. I'm Alexa Huth from the Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology, and I'm here today to talk to you about telework tech accessibility, trials and triumphs. Basically, we're going to discuss how to bring new technology into your workplace, and make sure that's accessible from day one, and also how to use that technology to make sure that it's accessible, because just bringing new accessible tech is step one. You also need to make sure that the ways you use it are accessible.
Today will be covering my story of vision loss and telework. So, we'll be talking a bit about why this is so important to me. Then, we'll be talking about the rapid digitization of work, and the rise of telework. We'll also be talking about procuring accessible technology, and making sure that it works for your organization. Then, we'll talk about turning telework trials into triumphs, and then we'll end by talking about the future of accessible telework, and where things will be going from here. Then I'll be happy to answer your questions about my presentation.
So, my story of vision loss and telework. To begin with this, we have to go all the way back to 2009, when I was a college student at Carnegie Mellon University. I was just like any other student. I was finishing up my bachelor's degree in professional writing, and I was going to transition into a master's program, which I was very excited about. And it was an accelerated master's, and I thought oh, one year a master's degree, it's going to be great. Of course, the best laid plans, it did not work out like that.
After I started my master's program, I started seeing green, and I can't pinpoint exactly when that began, but I do know that it was something that was present throughout every day when I was studying, when I was resting. I just wasn't able to see correctly. And I assumed that I was studying too hard, because as any college kid would, you don't really think that you're losing a sense. That just doesn't really occur to you, at least it didn't to me. I guess I mentioned it to my family a few times too many, and so they brought up that I should see an eye doctor. So I did.
I went to an eye doctor on a Friday afternoon, and I was referred to a specialist on Monday morning, and that's when I found out that I had lattice degeneration, and lattice degeneration causes my retinas to detach. Now, it presents differently in every person who has it, I just seem to have a very aggressive case. What that leads to, is flashes, floaters. I don't have peripheral vision. I see double, which is probably the most pronounced issue that I have. I also am blind close up in my right eye. I can't see in 3D, I don't have depth perception. The list really goes on.
But that's all to say, that it made getting my degree and entering the workforce a bit more complicated. It was different than I had anticipated. And so as I was wrapping up my degree, and moving into the workplace, I had to realize that I was going to be a person with a disability entering the workforce. What would that look like for me? Luckily I had fantastic coworkers at my first job, and they really helped me navigate a lot of on site difficulties, such as moving plants, so that I wouldn't bump into them, announcing themselves because I could not see when someone came this way.
And all of those things really help with physical accessibility, but I still needed to test myself. I needed to learn who I was, as a person with a disability, without having the support system that I currently had. So a few years after I stopped having my eye surgeries, I was cleared to travel. And I took that to mean that I could travel semi-permanently, which led me to begin working in Japan.
I got a job in Fukuoka Japan, and moved within a few months, I packed up all my things and decided that it was a good way to challenge myself, and a way to figure out who I was, and how I was going to make the best of my eyesight, and make sure that I could have the career that I wanted. That's how I began working with startups. And if you know anything about startups, you probably know that they often don't have much office space, which led me to telework.
I was sometimes on site, and then sometimes I would work remotely. And that turned out to be a fantastic option that I had no idea I would love so much. But it gave me the flexibility to control things that I needed to control, such as light. Working in an office environment often has fluorescent lights, or people turning on and off lights unpredictably, which can be very difficult for someone like me. It hurts, it takes a while for my eyes to adjust, and if you turn the lights on and off too frequently, I end up getting a headache.
So, if I was a remote worker, I could control my lighting situation. I could work flexibly. If I got a migraine one day, or if my eyesight wasn't cooperating, because it is a moving target, every day I see, I see differently. But I'm just trying to figure out how to work remotely at this point. So, what I did was trial and error. I worked with different assistive technologies.
I found that text-to-speech actually worked really well for me. It removed a lot of the anxiety that I had around turning in different assignments, making sure that I heard them could help when I couldn't see them. So, that really changed a lot of things for me as well. And I wouldn't have known, if I hadn't started doing telework from Japan.
As my contracts grew, and I started doing more remote meetings, I started taking on more assignments, I found a lot of other benefits to the flexibility of telework, and the ability to choose how I was working, when I was working, and what my schedule would be. So there are so many benefits to telework for people with, and without disabilities. And that's why we need to make sure that everything is accessible, for people like me, and people like everyone, who have suddenly found themselves in a position where they have to make their home their office. We need to make sure it's accessible and ready for them in whatever form they need it.
So now that you know a bit more about my background, and how I got started in telework, let's talk about the digitization of work, and how telework has become so popular in the past few years. Employment and technology. They're intertwined, and they forever will be as far as we can tell. Over 1 billion people worldwide have a disability. So, that is an important statistic to remember, because it's a very, very big population, whether or not those people choose to disclose.
I personally did not disclose my disability for several years, because I was still trying to learn who I was as a person with a disability. Making emerging technologies accessible could bring $350 million people with disabilities into the global workforce. Now that is an important number, because often people say, well, why do we need to make technology accessible? It's just for a few people, or it's not a priority right now.
But it has to be a priority. That is so many people that are ready to work, and willing to work, we just need to give them the tools to do it, just like myself. If I hadn't found the tools that I needed to make sure that I could continue my writing career, I don't know that I would have been able to. But getting text-to-speech was pivotal for me.
Companies who hire people with disabilities earn 28% higher revenue, two times the net income, and 30% higher economic profit margins than their peers, according to an Accenture report. And that really counteracts the debate on whether or not it's too expensive to make technology accessible. It's expensive not to.
Also, technology is used at every stage of employment. So you can't make sure that technology is accessible for one piece of employment and not another. On the screen right now, I'm sharing an image of a circle, and it says accessible technology and employment life cycle in the center, and each piece of the circle has a different phase of employment. They are one, recruiting, two, hiring, and onboarding, three, work immersion and productivity, four, career advancement, five, retention, and six, post-employment and retirement.
All of these pieces have technology embedded into them in some way. With recruiting, we have a lot of HR, and we have a lot of AI hiring technology in HR systems. And that is a really important thing. I would really recommend that you visit the PEAT website, peatworks.org, p-e-a-t-w-o-r-k-s .org. To learn more, we have an AI technology tool kit that can help you understand how bias can enter the AI processes, and make the recruiting process difficult for people with disabilities. So I strongly encourage you to go there, and look at that.
So again, work has digitized in a way that we probably could not have predicted, because of the COVID 19 pandemic. People turned their site work experiences into digital work experiences very quickly. So, what occurred in eight months, would have otherwise taken three to seven years, according to McKinsey. It happened in such a short time.
And often with that, came a lack of thought to accessibility. And I understand that, because these companies really had to overnight shift their entire working environment. But that doesn't mean it was the right approach, and now we need to look at things more critically. And say, what in these remote working systems is not accessible, and how can we change that?
And often that starts with the technology we're using. Also the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the EEOC, published legal guidance around COVID, and accommodations with regard to telework, and that's incredibly important for everyone to check out. I highly encourage you to go to the EEOC website, and take a look at that guidance. And finally, as I've been talking about for this entire time, telework is normalized.
If it was a person like me, that discovered it years ago, it's a person who went from remote work to even hybrid work, now. There are a lot of different ways that telework has normalized, over the past two years, especially. And so, we need to make the on-site experience, and the off-site experience equal. We need to know how to take that technology, and kind of replicate on site experience for our remote workforce, so they're not missing out, and they don't have to skip important meetings, or miss documents just because they're not in the workplace physically.
The challenges are also magnified for people with disabilities, because organizational culture, and technology themselves are often aren't accessible. That can come in the form of platform limitations with inconsistent quality, and user experiences. And accessibility can even vary by license level, so a user with a certain license may have access to more features, that end up in a more accessible user experience than another user. So, you need to make sure that the license level isn't limiting the accessibility.
In addition, there are also some conflicting accommodations needs that can result in issues. Some teleworkers don't find remote meetings accessible, while others like myself do. So, it really varies by person. So you need to understand your team, and their requirements. There can also be an experience with new tools paired with limitations on tech support, for people using assistive technology remotely.
You can imagine that this comes up, for example, when I switch screen readers. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out the new sound, the new cadence, how to enable certain features, how to get it to read what I want it to read, and if I contact tech support, and they aren't aware of the assistive technologies that I'm using, there can be issues, and that can lead to inaccessibility, and also a loss of productivity. So it's really important to know the technology that you're using, and what your users need.
In addition, bandwidth and broadband access can be a big problem. It's often taken for granted that we can just plug-in and go. But, many people don't have access to the digital capabilities, so they can't necessarily log in in the same way. They may need to plan when they will be around internet, and when they can access Wi-Fi. I know that this has been another issue that a lot of people have experience working from home, when everybody is working at the same time. There can be limitations on the bandwidth speed, and video calls might not even be possible for them. So these are all things that are challenging, and they're magnified for people with disabilities.
In 2021, we have a lot of work ahead, but I know we're up for the challenge. The challenge is that companies are quickly building a new wave of virtual infrastructure, but they might not be prioritizing accessibility. And as we saw in 2020 and 2021 with the rise of telework, often that did not come with accessibility built in, which is why we have to talk about it retroactively in many cases.
The opportunity is huge though. We're at a unique moment in time to push the needle forward. Disability experiences can foster new, and transformative ways to think about how we work. We need to remember that inclusion is important for innovation. It's critical to make sure that we move forward, and we make better products, more accessible products will benefit everyone, it's not just for people with disabilities.
So now that we've talked about that, let's talk about procuring accessible telework technology. This is an eight step process, but we will just be reviewing step one today. On my screen right now, is the Buy IT guide, and with that comes a circle that has in the center the accessible procurement lifecycle. Outside of that initial circle, is a larger circle that has three phases, planning, solicitation, and post-award. And outside of that circle is an even larger circle with eight steps.
Step one is setting procurement priorities. Step two is preparing to buy. Step 3 is issuing your solicitation. Step 4 is evaluating proposals. Step 5 is negotiating contracts. Step 6 is testing and validation. Step 7 is managing performance and relationships, and step 8 is reviewing and learning. So this eight step process is summarized in our Buy IT guide, and actually more than summarized. It's told in great detail that you can follow, to make sure that every technology that you bring into your organization is accessible from day one.
We're just going to talk about set and procurement priorities today, because that is a detailed process in itself, but please go to peatworks.org, and look for our Buy IT guide if you'd like to go through every step. So, step one, plan your procurement strategy.
First, gain executive support. So you need to make a business case, for why you should be bringing in accessible technology. Often, it's not apparent to leadership why technology needs to be accessible from the start. They may see the value in bringing in the technology, but not the extra steps that need to be taken to verify that that is accessible technology. So step one, making that business case, getting that C-suite support, and that way the rest of the process will flow more smoothly.
Within the business case, you should tell the C-suite the following, accessible technology fuels productivity, it's less expensive to buy the right product the first time, instead of going back, and figuring out how to make a product that you've already procured accessible. Implementing accessible ICT mitigates legal risk, so that ICT is Information Communication Technologies, and accessibility leads to improved, and expanded recruitment, making sure that you can bring in the entire candidate pool, instead of just a subset of it.
As I mentioned before, the AI tool kit talks about recruiting and hiring technologies, and how they can be inaccessible for people with disabilities, and also how to make sure that they are accessible. So it's not saying don't use these AI technologies, we're just saying figure out ways to make them accessible, so that all candidates have an equal chance of working at your organization. Accessibility also boosts employee retention.
I'm a great example of that. If I'm working in an accessible organization, I am more willing to stay, and that is a big part of employment, retaining those excellent workers that you want to keep within your organization. Making the organization accessible will be a big incentive for them to stay, especially because many people will find themselves having a disability at some point during their careers, or a temporary disability, a situational disability.
There are all sorts of ways in which people may need accessibility options within your workplace. So it's good to have those features in place now, so that you don't have to worry about it later. And, accessible tech fosters workplace diversity. It invites people into your organization that you may not have otherwise attracted.
So next, define your target users. This is incredibly important, and on the screen, I have images of an eye for visual, a brain for cognitive, a hand for physical, a person with a speech bubble for communication, four smiley faces of different emotions for emotional, a scale for socioeconomic, and a Venn diagram for intersectional. All of these are just to say that there are a wide variety of needs that your users may have, and so you need to consider them all when looking at workplace technologies.
You can't just define for a certain type of user, because that will rule out the needs of so many other people, and that will make the technology inaccessible. So these are some of the categories that you should look at, when defining the users that will be trying the technology that you are implementing. You should also determine your technical standards for accessibility. That's a key part of planning your procurement strategy.
It's understanding the standards and regulations that your organization's products should aim to meet. You should explore the following standards as a starting point, but again, in PEAT's resources, we explain more standards and explore them in more depth. The US federal government section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, often called Section 508, the international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, also known as WCAG, and the European standard, EN 301 549. So those are a good place to start.
Next, you should define your purchasing needs. Any procurement planning should include a comprehensive review of your company's business requirements, and overall purchasing needs. So you're not just looking at the one technology, look at the breadth of your needs, and make sure that you're including all of them. That can enable your company to purchase technology strategically, and also simplify the process of creating an accessible workplace, because you're looking at all technology needs, and making sure they are all accessible, instead of pulling different technologies when you need them. That can be a process that's inefficient and also leads to inaccessibility.
Next, assemble and educate your purchasing team. This is really important, because these are the people that are going to be actually choosing and advocating for the technology that you acquire. The team should include individuals from across the organization who have an interest in the needed product or service. It's really important that this is a diverse group, and that it reflects the widest array of users, as I've been saying all along. This team will define the project scope and requirements, develop the solicitation, and evaluate the responses that they get back, to make sure that they match the needs of your organization.
Next up, you need to develop procurement policies for accessibility. First, identify and understand your company's acquisition policies and procedures used to acquire technology. So, what's already in place, and how does that work? Then, determine if adequate consideration of technical standards is already included in these policies and procedures. If not, work with the appropriate stakeholders to change this. You should also develop criteria for when, and how accessibility, and technical requirements, exceptions, terms and conditions, evaluation methods, acceptance criteria, and related proposal response requirements are included in solicitations.
In addition, procurement policies that you should develop are establishing a formal accessibility compliance determination process, providing for independent expert reviews of accessibility exceptions, and vendor accessibility claims prior to award, also use a risk based model to determine when independent testing is required to validate vendor conformance claims, so make sure that they can do what they're saying they can do, provide authority to the accessibility program team, to stop any contract, or application that puts the company at significant risk, and also create a governance process to ensure Accessibility Conformance is an evaluation factor in awards decisions.
So make sure that it really does bear weight within your organization, and that Accessibility Conformance is important. And again, that all links back to getting C-suite buy-in, and making sure that the leadership in your organization really values your accessibility, and your technologies. If you're moving forward with procurement, as I said before, the steps are preparing to buy, issuing your solicitation, evaluating proposals, and negotiating contracts, testing and validation, managing performance and relationships, and reviewing and learning, and all of those steps again are in our Buy IT guide.
Now let's get to the fun part of telework trials and triumphs. So, you have technology. You brought in into your organization, you've made a trip made sure that it's accessible, and then you go to use it. And this is the part where, there's so much room for error, and it can be really confusing what you should do, what the best practices are. So let's talk about a couple of things that I've experienced working as a remote employee for so long, and how you can turn these trials into triumphs for employees.
So, can you see this? This is something that I think a lot of us have experienced when we're on a video call. It's very difficult not to say it, and I'm not saying it shouldn't be in your vocabulary, but there are ways where saying, can you see this, can be difficult for participants in a video meeting. If you say, can you see this, and you're projecting slides, for example, you should have sent those slides ahead of time. That is because many meeting participants, myself included, might not be able to see the slides.
That could be for a variety of reasons, which could be disability related, or also just because the person can't see their screen at a given time. Maybe they're driving, dropping off their kids at school, and they're listening to the meeting. So, make sure that they have the information they need before the meeting begins, so that they can review, and know what you're going to be talking about.
Another related example that I've seen in meetings, is as this chart shows, it's been a great year. That's just an example of a phrase that can be very difficult for people. Perhaps they can't see in the chart, or perhaps the chart is very small. So these are things where you need to illustrate what's on the screen for the person. You should be telling them what they're seeing, in case they can't actually assess their screen, or because there's someone like me who can't see the information on the screen.
So, you should be saying as this chart shows, we have 25% growth this year, so it's been a great year. And, that will help the person get context to understand what you're talking about, and know that there's a percentage attached to that sentiment. So that's just one example, but make sure that you're explaining any critical information that's on a slide, so that people understand what you're talking about.
Also, speak up now if you have questions. That can be very difficult for people for a variety of reasons. In a digital setting, sometimes people don't feel comfortable going on camera and talking, so if you say speak up now, and assume that silence is agreement, that's going to be an incorrect assumption. You need to give people different ways, when they're teleworking, to weigh in, to express themselves, to ask questions.
So having a chat feature, an email option, even saying if you agree, say plus 1 in the chat, or minus 1 if you disagree. These are options. You need to make sure that your participants don't have only one way to express themselves, that there are different options that they may feel more comfortable with. Some people aren't great when they're put on the spot, and so you need to give them time to respond.
Another one, that I kind of alluded to just now, is actually tricky. Cameras on, I want to see your faces. This is one of those conflicting accessibility needs.
For some people, cameras on it's very helpful. It can provide lip reading, or just context emotionally for people, but for other people, such as myself, it can be more difficult. So if cameras have to be on, I have to be pretty close to my screen to see a lot of text.
If I get close to my screen, then the other participants will only see my forehead if my camera is on, and I don't want that, and I don't think anybody else wants that. So you have to understand the needs within your organization, and that goes back to considering the diversity of the people that work with you, and work with the technology that you're implementing, and knowing what their needs are, and addressing those before a meeting. If they're conflicting needs, you need to figure that out ahead of time.
And finally, can you hear me. This should never be the only way that people can interact with content. There should always be live captioning provided automatically. One of the worst things that I've seen, is people trying to figure out things mid-meeting. You need to know ahead of time where that captioning button is, it needs to already be on, so nobody has to ask. Putting people on the spot like that, it just shouldn't happen. They should be included in the meeting from the second they join, and that is one good way of doing it, is making sure that there are multiple ways to interact with the content. So those are some ways to turn trials into triumphs.
Finally, let's discuss the future of telework, which is very broad, and very bright. There are a lot of opportunities for growth in this space, and it's a very exciting time. So telework can take many different forms these days. It doesn't just have to be remote video calls or chats. There are immersive options, also known as extended reality, or XR, that are pushing the envelope on this space.
So people wearing headsets, and being able to virtually see themselves in a meeting, as well as see the other participants surrounding them, that's one really exciting option. We need to make sure that it's accessible, so that people understand the space as well as they would any other environment, that they can interact with it, that they're not losing things just because it's a new technology. So we don't want things to get lost in translation, we want to make sure that they're accessible from day one, so while the future of telework is really cool, and really exciting, it needs to be accessible, instead of just pushing the envelope, and pushing the envelope, and pushing off accessibility.
So, luckily, PEAT has come up with some resources on that as well, in conjunction with the XR association. We just launched a one pager on a white paper on immersive work options, and how these new technologies can be accessible, and really enhance the user experience across the board, for people with disabilities, for people without disabilities, and all through accessibility options. So I encourage you to check that out as well.
Again, I'm Alexa Huth from the Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology, also known as PEAT. Please go to @PEATWorks on Twitter, follow us, interact with our content, we always love to chat.
And you can also follow our e-newsletter, at PEATWorks.org/enews. Sign up, and subscribe, and also see our back issues, and, if you email hello@PEATWorks.org, that's H-E-L-L-O at PEATWorks.org.
You can get in touch with our team. We'd love to hear from you. Now I'm happy to take questions. Thank you so much for your time.
Live Q&A
Transcript for Live Q&A
(Kevin McDaniel) Thank you Alexa so much for that really incredible presentation. I mean, it was not for like if you could hear me or not. There you are. Can you hear me?
(Alexa Huth) Yes. Can you hear me?
(Kevin) I can, and I have to tell you that was an incredible presentation.
If it was not for the questions that were coming in, I was sitting here thinking, OK, does anyone have questions? It was so thorough. I mean, that was so great.
(Alexa) Thank you. I really appreciate that. And I want to apologize in advance.
If there's any background noise. New York City is hard to find q quiet place, So.
(Kevin) Oh no, I understand. I understand. No worries. No worries. I appreciate it. So we'll we'll we'll push through it. I just was.
That was so, so impressive. I do have some questions, though, and a lot of folks want a copy of your presentation. I hope that's OK.
(Alexa) Yes, absolutely. The more we can spread the word, the better. So, yeah.
(Kevin) Yeah, I mean, it was so good.
So let me just get to the first question that came in. And then there were several that I feel like fit in so well. The first was, you know, a lot of folks embraced, you know, telework during COVID-19, of course.
And you know, I remember there was a time where, you know, telework as an accommodation was just something that was just out of the question. You know, especially if you got into whether it was a full time employee or a part time employee and what was still with their contract, their contract, it just out of the question.
And COVID-19 happens and everyone can telework all of a sudden. But now you know, what's your experience? The question was directly actually was how would you respond to leadership that challenges telework, basically saying that their their their organization of collaboration of team building, they have an office culture that wants in-person interaction and they're resisting?
They're going back to resisting the idea of teleworking even as an accommodation. What what how would you respond to that type of leadership?
(Alexa) I think it's difficult for people to change. I absolutely understand the perspective of this is the way we've always done it.
But I would challenge them to consider even a hybrid model. Apologies for the revving engines if you can hear those up. But a hybrid model would be a nice balance, and there are often ways that you can make a business case if you check out Peatworks.org, which I mentioned during my presentation.
We have an AI and disability inclusion tool kit that talks about making a business case and that can be said for hybrid work, remote work or these technology tools as well. There is always a business case for the productivity of people, the accessibility of people.
You just have to make a strong enough case and not rely on people emotionally thinking, Oh yes, this is what we should do if you can back it up with numbers with support metrics, things like that, then it's a lot easier.
Unfortunately, you wish you could just be trusted, but that's not always the case. So I would say back it up with data really get your productivity metrics to make sure that you have a strong case behind you?
(Kevin) Well, I totally agree with you on that.
When it's subjective, it's easy to overcome, but if it's objective data. So speaking about the data, then what would you? What are some of the highlights and efficiencies that you would? You would you would tell someone to start with that they need to make that business case?
What are some of the efficiencies you've identified?
(Alexa) Sure. For me personally, it has definitely been the increase in productivity in the morning because there's no commute because of my visual impairment. That is the time when my eyes are the strongest.
As we progress through the day, things get a little bit worse. And then by the end of the day, I usually have a headache and it's a lot more challenging. So if I'm able to even track how long it takes me to successfully edit a document and turn that kind of data over.
Luckily for me, nobody's really requested that they've just generally trusted that yes, Alexa does understand when she's most productive. But if you even, I think, Outlook tracks your productivity throughout the day. So it says when you acquired hours, it says what you're responding to, emails, how quickly you are.
You could even default to that data if you wanted to and just showcase your talents in that way. I think it's it's a really difficult case when you first think about it. But then when you start to understand this is why I like working from home or this is why I like hybrid work.
You can find those bright spots and really highlight those to your employer.
(Kevin) Mm-Hmm. And that's that speaks to the efficiencies for the employer. But I know that one of the biggest challenges that employers are having right now, obviously, is hiring and retention.
And the thing that you know, everything I've read has talked about the benefits of of the barriers that have been knocked down for employers and for employees in teleworking. What are some of the other barriers that that are removed in teleworking for employees with disabilities?
And how does that impact employers and their ability to retain new and diverse talent?
(Alexa) Sure. So I think for me specifically, it was a lot of barriers to a physical environment turning on lights, things like that are just very difficult for me, even navigating the physical space.
And so being able to remove that element? Let me focus on my work more. But I also am in a unique situation where I'm working with incredible accessibility experts and so my remote situation is ideal for me. They really, Bill Curtis-Davidson, who you'll hear present on Thursday, and Corinne Weible have been fantastic at making sure that
I have a supportive remote environment. But in terms of barriers, I think a lot of it is down to controlling your environment, at least from what I've seen and what I've talked to other people, the ability to make sure that your space is the way that you want it every day and you can predict that is incredibly helpful. And it's also something where employers then they don't necessarily have to chime in when there are different requirements that you need. Sometimes you can do it yourself, and that's what I did for my freelancing career. Now, I do think reasonable accommodations also obviously need to be met.
But if you want to personalize your space in a certain way to really maximize the way you work, for me, a dark environment basically working in a cave is ideal. So that that's really that's really where the barriers have lifted for me.
(Kevin) So it sounds like one, there's efficiencies and accommodations, first of all, because you're working in a familiar environment with equipment that you're familiar with. What do you think are some of the other things like, I think about transportation, you're in New York City and I think about, you know, the kind of opportunities this creates for folks who don't have access to transportation or are living in places where, you know, housing accommodations and accessible housing is not necessarily readily available in most places. How do you what would you say to an employer that says, Yeah, that's great.
I understand that it removes the transportation barrier it, you know, it probably lowers the cost of my accommodations because you're working in the in a familiar environment. But I just want people on site. What why do you think they would think that?
(Alexa) I think it could be hard for people to envision a remote model working for a long time. There was a lot of emotional reaction to moving so quickly to remote because of the circumstances we were all in.
And so I think that people helped themselves adjust and in some cases, rightfully so, by promising that things would quote return to normal. But for many of us, returning to normal is not as simple as it seems, and now is our opportunity.
So I would say to those people to actually listen instead of feeling old feelings, open yourself up to new ones. And really, I know that that's a very emotional thing to ask an employer to do. And in many cases, you do need data, metrics and actual results behind you.
But even even in those cases, it is a new way of working. And it's one where there are so many new technologies out there that can really enhance people's work on extended reality is a great example of that, where you can wear a VR headset and be able to interact with coworkers as though they're right next to you. And that can also lift a lot of barriers for people with disabilities as well. So making sure that you highlight that there are new ways of working and that this isn't an isolated case where you just want a special exam exemption.
This is an example of the new way of working. I think that will help lift some of the concerns and open people up a bit more.
(Kevin) Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, you know, you talked to you touched on in your presentation, you talked about the socio-economic challenges and the intersectionality piece.
And so for me, I'm looking at, you know, an employer who says, Hey, you know, it's great. I want to remove those barriers. I want to create more opportunities. How can we get them there across the hump? You know, how can we say, Hey, you have a diverse pool of of talent and you have.
These barriers to educate to employment that exist, that are compounded really in a lot of cases by the socioeconomic conditions, the intersectionality of of someone's education, their employment status, even how can we? Is it is it more outreach?
Is it more education? Is it? Is it incorporating teleworking into the to a culture into the inclusion initiative when you're building that culture? How do you how do you where do you rate this? How do you prioritize this effort?
(Alexa) I think that it's all of the things that you mentioned, but I do think that normalizing telework and not offering it as a perk, but as a way an option for people is really going to open things up.
But also, as somebody who didn't understand accommodations before later in life, disability making sure the conversation is there and open and not forcing people to disclose their disability, making sure that they're already included and remote work hybrid work models can be a great way to do that because in a lot of instances, then I wouldn't have to explain why I got tangled in a plant the way I used to have to. I wouldn't have to worry so much about those things, and I would really have been welcome to me early in my career, and I assume it would be for many other people as well.
So I think making it so natural that it doesn't have to be a concern can really help people and remote work as an opportunity can be a great way to do that. (Kevin) And so let me ask you this because we have a few more minutes and you're at your your presentation was so comprehensive, but I tell you
(Kevin) it's just really impressive your knowledge in this. Where do you see? I live in an area where there's low bandwidth in many places. I live in the mountains right now and we have another issue where we we can't find interpreters in a lot of cases.
And in that situation, you say, Well, you can use vraie virus, but well, we can't get interpreters and we can't we don't have the bandwidth for VRC. Where do you see this going? What's the answer to, you know, talking about the intersectionality, the socioeconomic piece for the folks who, let's say, a company embraces remote work, but a good portion of their of their employee population lives in areas where there's low bandwidth. That's not something we can solve on this call, but where do you see that going in? Are there any other creative ways you have identified to work around that?
(Alexa) Sure. So for me, I do think that that is a major challenge and one that, yes, we can't solve on this call. But I was remote working from Cambodia and Thailand for a time and connectivity was spotty and I felt the frustration.
I also felt when a document would crash and I would lose my work and that that just anxious feeling that you get. And I think one of the things that helped me was a mobile Wi-Fi unit. And that's actually what I'm on right now because I am not on the most reliable connection.
I have the fastest that I could get. It's still not great, so I'm tethered to my phone. So if there would be a way for companies to offer some sort of mobile data hotspot or something like that for employees, I'm not really sure if that's the answer, but it has helped me in the past and it's something that I relied on quite heavily while I was freelancing.
(Kevin) Well, I like that suggestion, though, because, you know, I've worked in government most of my career, and I know when you look at companies who were trying to identify new places for their organization.
They look at tax incentives. You know, the you know how far the access to public transportation and education, the type of talent and workforce. And you know, you think about the significant investment that goes into building call centers are distribution centers.
And then you say, Well, you know, if you consider just looking at maybe looking at maybe a mobile hotspot or identifying partnerships that can improve that that that access. Another thing that came up in your experience and end of that year was mostly about remote work, but many people have benefited from this in a lot of ways its removed the identity piece, the negative ways that identity is associated with disability. You know, unfortunately, we have a long way to go. How how what do you see the future of education in remote and tele- tele-education, I guess you'd call them.
(Alexa) I think tele-education needs to be integrated into every education system. I think that people really need to understand how important it is and not take it for granted, especially because opening up the conversation in all aspects of disability, accessibility, and working will make everyone connect more quickly.
I think that there are these ideas that people are siloed and the ways they interact, the ways they work are just so different and they're not. It's a complete person, and if we can educate people early on what we all need to succeed.
I think it will benefit everyone. I don't know how quickly that will happen, though. I think that the education system has a ways to go when it comes to accessibility telework. All of these topics.
(Kevin) Wow. Well, I tell you what Alexa I really appreciate, and I wish we had more time and how can I know Alycia's here so we've got to keep moving, but how can someone reach you if they have more questions? Because I have for you, I like another presentation or another presentation. I have two pages here. How can they reach you if they have more questions?
(Alexa) Sure. My LinkedIn is connected on my speaker profile, so I would love to hear from anybody. You can also visit Peatworks.org for more information and to see our latest work.
(Kevin) OK, well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Alexa, this is great.
(Alexa) Thank you for the opportunity.
(Kevin) No thank you. Thank you.
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