Accessibility HackNight Night: Creating Technology for All — My Very First NYC Meetup

I went to my very first meetup in NYC.
It was part of Progressive HackNight at ThoughtWorks NYC, an incredible tech company that focuses on sustainability and economic and social justice. I found Progressive HackNight on Meetup while looking for creative ways to showcase my design skills with people working on social and economic justice initiatives.
What is Progressive HackNight?
Progressive HackNight is a bi-weekly gathering for developers, designers, and other tech-minded folks inspired to use technology to do good. It’s a structured way to hack among peers, converse about social and economic justice issues, or talk about how to use our collective talents as creative professionals to push forward positive social change. There’s even pizza and empanadas.
When and Where?
It happens every other Tuesday from 6:30pm — 9:30pm at Thoughtworks NYC.
What to expect?
The structure went like this:
6:30–7:00 Pizza, empanadas, and mingling.
7:00–7:30 Announcements, intros, guest speakers / Q & A
Progressive HackNight is an intersection of tech and activism. Progressive HackNight is divided into speaker hack night and no-speaker hack night.
7:30–9:30 Breakout into groups / solve problems
The community breaks out into two groups — discussion groups and working groups. Discussion groups are centered on talking and strategizing about solutions to problems. Working groups are focused on hacking and working on awesome projects.
Why Did I Show Up?
It’s been on my mind to intersect my design skills with social impact initiatives. During my time at Ironhack’s (Miami) UX / UI Design Bootcamp we had a guest speaker, Claudio Luis Vera, talk about Web Accessibility and Inclusive Design and it sparked my interest in learning more.
This past Tuesday’s Progressive HackNight’s speakers featured Xian Horn, a professor, author, disability activist and Exemplar for the AT&T NYU Connect Ability Challenge toward the technology of Assistive Technology who also lives with Cerebral Palsy. And, Thomas Logan who has worked on projects that create solutions for people living with disabilities.
I was inspired by hearing how Xian Horn thrives while living with her disability and the technology she’s seen advocating for people living with disabilities. Thomas Logan, owner of Equal Entry, whose focus is on a mission to contribute to a more accessible world, shared a wealth of resources that allow you to test whether your designs are accessible to all. I felt inspired by this inclusive community of creative professionals committed to projects from “text — banking” for non profits, a social media website to provide accurate information for people living with disabilities, and an app to help educate on microaggressions in certain spaces, among other projects that came from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
What Did I Learn?
They addressed taking actionable steps for creating a more welcoming and inclusive environment for people living with disabilities, not just accommodating to a particular group because they are living with a disability. Another interesting point for me was getting to know a disability other than your own. To build a good user experience, you need to get to know your user(s.) This means doing some initial work to understand who your users are like actually talking to someone living with a disability and getting to know about their life.
I was so happy to have joined accessibility experts and these exciting speakers for the evening. If you’re interested in learning about how to create accessible tech for everyone, look for a Progressive HackNight in your area or make your own!
