From Employee to Entrepreneur
You Got The Job!
In 2015, I left India and moved to Canada to study at OCAD University. While I was studying, I worked as a waitress, freelanced as a web-designer, and even trained Ministry of Education staff in accessibility remediation. Then I got a big break, I was hired as a UX Designer for Rogers Communications. After six months, right as I was beginning to write my master’s thesis, I was promoted to be an accessibility manager. My job was aligned with my education, and both were aligned with my passion for design. It was perfect.
I was lucky, I had the opportunity to shape my role. The position — Manager, UX Standards & Accessibility — allowed me to engage with multiple stakeholders, including regulatory, product managers, designers, and development teams.
I was trusted with the responsibility of improving the user experience for people living with disabilities. To ensure our accessibility focused work was effective, I consulted with employees who lived with disabilities and engaged them in the process.
Studying Inclusive Design introduced me to the process of engaging diverse users in design. My thesis research involved working with seniors to improve the UX of Facebook Messenger. Prior to that, I worked with TAGLabs at U of T on similar work engaging users with mild cognitive impairments.
As it stands today, there are a handful of automated tools that flag issues related to accessibility compliance, but they do not represent the user experience. By including diverse people and their perspectives during my time at Rogers, we were able to identify what issues from the automated tool should be looked into or ignored. We were able to provide custom solutions that improved the overall experience, such as adding “skip to content”, “skip to accessibility services” and “skip to sitemap” links at the top of the website. No automated tool would have told us to do that.
Integrating diverse perspectives into the design cycle was vital to improving the user experience. This process works.
The Challenge
Digital facing products move quickly. In large organizations that work in segments, it’s difficult to meaningfully implement change across the business. The biggest challenge with the work I was was doing came up often: “How do we sustain our efforts?” For that, accessibility needed to be included when a project was being scoped. That meant a change in the process — from remediation to integration — and we all know what a challenge it is to change processes.
This rigidity, I felt, limited the opportunity and the prospect of innovating. While accessible design often focuses on serving the 15% of people who live with disabilities, I truly believe it has a much broader impact. It results in digital experiences that are both adaptive and adaptable. It has positive externalities for all users. And, excitingly, it has the ability to spark innovation around digital experiences.
The Leap
I started speaking with my mentors from the industry, colleagues, professors, and friends about the challenges I faced. I wanted to work at a faster pace and engage more diverse perspectives. I wanted to prove that designing through diversity results in better experiences for everyone, not only users who live with a disability. I especially wanted to improve digital experiences for seniors. And that’s when it hit me…
Create the environment if it doesn’t exist. Build a team with diverse abilities, perspectives, and experiences. Together, create digital experiences that are easy to use for any user on any device. Challenge the status quo on how a web experience should be navigated. Give people more options and more control over their digital experience.
That’s when my partner Abid, our friend Misha and I decided to start Abil Design. We registered our company three months ago and have been preparing our business ever since.
It was a huge leap for me to shift from an employee with a great job to an entrepreneur. My colleagues, mentors, friends, and family have shown so much support that has helped me take this leap, but it’s still nerve-racking! I’m so grateful for all the opportunities that brought me to this point and I can’t wait to prove the value of what we do.
I’ll keep posting my experience as an entrepreneur as the journey continues. Until then, go check out Abil. Please feel free to comment below about your thoughts, questions, experience, and advice. I’d love to hear from you.
