NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Rachel Cox On How To Create More Inclusive Workplaces

An Interview With Finn Bartram, Editor Of People Managing People

Start by considering your audience when you’re putting together any presentation, report or even just an email. This isn’t just for color-blindness. PowerPoints are some of the worst offenders. Avoid carelessly throwing things on a slide just to say it’s done. Often, we forget there’s someone on the other side of the monitor who has to make sense of what we’ve made. Put yourself in their shoes. Can they read it? Does it make sense? Is your point clear? Don’t make your audience suffer unnecessarily!

Creating inclusive workplaces is crucial for any organization that wants to get the most out of its talent. This means creating an environment where everyone feels like they belong, has equal opportunities, is empowered to do their best work, and feels comfortable making requests and contributing ideas. In this series, we asked prominent HR and business leaders about the steps they take to create more inclusive workplaces. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rachel Cox.

Rachel Cox is a 37 year old aerospace engineer with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and 11 years with NASA Kennedy Space Center. She is also a lifelong artist who is passionate about design and communication. Rachel noticed an invisible problem at work: people with color-blindness were missing out on visual information, and people with normal vision were either unaware or unsure what to do about it. She dove into the scientific research, collected design tools and techniques, and put it all together in a webinar so she could share her knowledge with her coworkers.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Before we drive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I have always loved art and design. For longer than I’ve been doing engineering, I’ve been making paintings and doing photography. And so I thought I knew everything there was to know about color until a coworker told me our manager wouldn’t be able to read a spreadsheet I had made because of the rainbow colors. I had to take a pause. I took pride in identifying as an artist. But I didn’t know the first thing about designing for people who are colorblind. I was even a little embarrassed, because another coworker I would consider a friend has color-blindness. I’ve known this for years, and yet I’d never stopped to think about his needs or whether he could see what I’m sending him. It was a humbling lightbulb moment.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

At first I assumed everyone who was red-green colorblind saw the same. So when I first started putting ideas together, I wanted to run it by the manager with color-blindness to get his blessing. I felt a little foolish when he chuckled at me for going to all the trouble and told me he could tell red and green apart just fine! It turns out color-blindness has a lot of variations and can be mild, as was the case with him.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

The first time I gave the talk by myself, and a couple people in the audience who had color-blindness felt very comfortable piping up about their experiences. These two added a perspective and depth to the conversation that I just couldn’t bring myself as someone who has normal vision. I ended up becoming friends with them and inviting them to subsequent presentations where one or both have always joined me. They’ve also helped me come up with new design tips. It’s been a really meaningful relationship to me. So shoutout to Arthur Waters and Tom Browder!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

During my research, I came across a talk by Douglass Pennant, who is colorblind and a video game developer. He said, “The problem is invisible to normal-sighted people. The features are often invisible to the colorblind.” And I thought, Wow, that’s true for so much more than just video games. It made the problem click for me that this isn’t just about color; it’s about helping people across our organization bridge a communications gap they don’t know exists.

Thinking back on your own career, what would you tell your younger self?

When I was in high school, I really wanted to go to art school for college. But I was worried about my financial security, so I went with a safer career path: engineering. I would tell my younger self she’s doing great, and there’s nothing wrong with taking care of her basic needs before pursuing her art. It works out well in the end. Plus, she might never have come up with the colorblind talks if she hadn’t been involved in the science and engineering community for so long first. Creativity can find a way through even the most dry, rigid environments, like a flower in a sidewalk crack.

Let’s now move to the central part of our interview. What systems do you have to ensure your workplace is as inclusive as possible?

NASA has extensive Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) efforts. In particular, the Disability Awareness & Action Working Group (DAAWG) at Kennedy Space Center was instrumental in helping me spread the word about colorblind-friendly design. It’s important that the organization sets expectations. But in my experience — and what I’ve been trying to demonstrate — is that it’s just as important that we as individuals take responsibility and act in ways that are thoughtful and considerate of our colleagues. We shouldn’t wait for management to tell us to be inclusive. We should just do it.

Based on your experience and success, what are your top five tips for creating more inclusive workplaces? Please share a story or an example for each.

I can’t speak on an organizational level, but I’d be happy to share my top 5 tips for doing it through colorblind-friendly design.

1 . Start by considering your audience when you’re putting together any presentation, report or even just an email. This isn’t just for color-blindness. PowerPoints are some of the worst offenders. Avoid carelessly throwing things on a slide just to say it’s done. Often, we forget there’s someone on the other side of the monitor who has to make sense of what we’ve made. Put yourself in their shoes. Can they read it? Does it make sense? Is your point clear? Don’t make your audience suffer unnecessarily!

2 . Avoid unnecessary color. You don’t need gradient backgrounds and 3D transparent graphs and boxes around everything. You don’t need nearly the amount of ink you think you do! Embracing a minimalist black and white color scheme with one or two accent colors will go a long way in being readable and clean looking. Grayscale has also become my friend. Use gray to de-emphasize less important data by fading it to the background — this can look really classy. Then use that pop of color to draw attention to your point.

3 . When you do use color, think of contrast in terms of lightness and darkness instead of color contrast. For example, never put medium-colored text on a medium-colored background (like red on green) or yellow text on a white background. It’s going to be hard for people with normal vision to see and impossible for others. Use black text on light backgrounds. Switch to white text for dark backgrounds.

4 . Do an internet search for colorblind-friendly palettes. They’re already out there. Some are scientifically accurate but bland. Others are pretty. My favorite is by a man named Martin Krzywinski, who said as scientists, it’s our job not just to present our work clearly, but to engage on an emotional level. He took a science-based palette and jazzed it up a bit so graphic designers might actually want to use it. I’ve installed it in all my Microsoft Office products so it’s my default to use. If you search his name and “color-blindness,” you’ll find his page with the palette and other interesting information.

5 . Try visual cues besides just color to convey relationships and other information. This depends on the context, but I see a lot of graphs at NASA, so I teach about line markers and direct labeling for making things clear. Icons can also be a really fun, color-free tool. Think outside the box. We often use color because we like it so much, but there may better ways that are universally discernible.

Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen businesses make while trying to become more inclusive? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?

Again, I can’t speak on an organizational level, but I can speak to design. And if you want to ensure you’re being inclusive, think about your audience. Pause. Put yourself in their shoes. Ask yourself questions or get a friend to look it over for you. Next, avoid creating a visual circus of colors and patterns; keep it simple. Don’t decorate. Design purposefully with an intention of clear communication in mind. Third, don’t assume everyone sees the same. We don’t. What’s discernible to you may not be discernible to someone else. Consider taking the time to learn a little bit about how others see.

How do you measure the effectiveness of your DEI efforts?

It’s hard to say because people leave my lecture, and I don’t know for sure how many go and implement my design tips. But periodically I get email referrals to help someone who wants to make sure a design is colorblind friendly. I get satisfaction out of being a resource to help people and knowing I’ve gotten a conversation started. I love seeing how many people genuinely care and are curious about how they can do better for their colleagues.

Are there other organizations you admire for their approach to DEI? Can you please explain why?

I don’t have insight into how other organizations approach DEI.

What do you do to address Proximity Bias? How do you ensure remote workers are treated the same as onsite workers and have equal access to opportunities?

Sorry I’m failing you! I’m not qualified to answer this one either!

We are very blessed to have some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have a private lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this.

I’d love to have lunch with Shonda Rimes. I just binged the very delicious and shamelessly progressive Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Scandal was another one of my all-time favorites. Shonda Rimes is a genius, and I’d love to just be in her presence.

How can our readers further follow your work?

I offer organizational training on colorblind-accessible design through my website www.purviewdesign.com. I have yet to translate this topic to social media, but that’s something I’m starting to think about to keep the conversation going.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

About The Interviewer: Finn is the editor of People Managing People, an indie media publication on a mission to help build a better world of work. He’s passionate about growing organizations where people are empowered to continuously improve and feel fulfilled in their role. If not at his desk, you can find him playing sports or enjoying the great outdoors. To learn more about Finn’s work please go to https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/