How Accessible Technology Helped Me Reclaim My Career
In the span of 6 hours, I went from a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University without a physical disability to someone who was rapidly losing eyesight. I suppose my retinas didn’t crumble in that time span; that’s just when I found out what was happening. After a year filled with surgeries, I went back to complete my degree with far less vision than when I started. I pushed myself through that last semester and secured a job as a technical editor when I graduated. The big question was, how would I even work?
Trial & (Many) Error(s)
Over the next 12 years, I have used trial and error to keep working. It’s been a struggle, and I’m sure there are easier paths to take. Trust me — doing a web search of “I’m going blind” is disheartening. Seeking solutions to stay employed when you already feel defeated is asking too much. Well, it was for me, at least.
Perhaps I made things more challenging by relocating to Japan for work. I desperately wanted to see more of the world while I still could and figured working there would be the best way. But that’s another complex part of losing a sense that we can get into another time.
Eventually, I stumbled onto a system that’s a rough combination of word processing software, text-to-speech, and a grammar app because easily seeing commas is a thing of the past for me. So, while the way I work has changed, the output has not. That’s thanks in large part to accessible technology and employers who understand that there isn’t just one way to get things done.
Bring Employees Options
More employers need to understand the critical role that accessible technology plays for so many workers. Whether an employee has a disability or not, accessible technology can help them. We call it the “curb-cut effect,” basically that those dips from the street to the sidewalk were initially created for people who use wheelchairs, but they help pretty much everyone. While the change was created for people with disabilities, the impact is much broader.
This same thing can happen with technology. Think about captioned videos. While captions were created for people who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, many people use them when they’re in a loud environment. There are so many ways that flexible technology can help everyone in the workplace. I wish I had known about text-to-speech prior to my vision loss. There is something about hearing your words read back to you that changes how you revise.
Employers must understand that creating an inclusive environment means ensuring every piece of hardware and software their employees use is accessible. These technologies should be procured in ways that focus on accessibility so that employees do not need to search for solutions like I did. If employers provide flexible technologies from day one, their employees can build paths to success — and hopefully struggle with it far less than I did in the early days of my disability.
Let This NDEAM Be the Beginning
This National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), I’d like to remind everyone that technology can be an enabler or a barrier. It’s up to employers to make flexible options available so that employees can test and come up with their own combinations of success. It’s up to designers and developers to work with people with disabilities to build more inclusive products.
But more than anything, it’s up to everyone to understand that this isn’t just an issue that impacts one or two rare cases. We all benefit from flexible options, so let’s start requiring them. The result can be improved workflows, reduced time wasters, more impactful content — the list goes on! So, bring your employees options, and if they’re anything like the people I know, they’ll bring you outcomes that exceed your expectations.
