Wells Fargo SVP Kathy Martinez: “We all use accommodations at work, the more people with disabilities we have working in our midst, the less special my tools will be”

Please remember, we all use accommodations at work. The ones most people use are standard operating practice so they are not considered special. The more people with disabilities we have working in our midst, the less special my tools will be. People will begin to see them as just another way to do business.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kathy Martinez, senior vice president and head of Disability and Accessibility Strategy at Wells Fargo. She was nominated by the President in 2009 to serve as the assistant secretary of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). Kathy is blind, Latina and identifies as LGBT.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what events have drawn you to this specific career path?

When I was growing up, many blind people I met did not have careers and were not expected to seek career opportunities. As I went through school, attitudes for people who were…