A Stepstone visit to Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centre
As part of our continued work on Sustainability at The Stepstone Group, and our Responsible Product and Tech initiatives focusing on digital inclusion, colleagues were invited to join for a half day visit of Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centre (ADC) in London.
This was our second visit to the centre, as our Champions of Accessibility Network went back in March.
What is the Google ADC?
The Centre was launched only last December, in Google’s King’s Cross office, the home of their dev and engineering teams. It is managed by Christopher Patnoe, Head of Accessibility and Disability Inclusion EMEA — and out host for the day.
The space contains a research lab, gaming pods in collaboration with the charity Everyone Can, and stations dedicated to specific disability inclusion areas: visual, hearing, dexterity & cognitive.
This is the only ADC for Google outside the US, and one for which we had to negotiate hard to gain access and benefit from Christopher’s wisdom and expertise.
Who went?
Colleagues from Product, Technology and Marketing (primarily) were nominated by their leadership team to join, because of their roles, their potential influence and/or their commitment to building more accessible product and technology.
With twice as many nominations as we had spots available for this opportunity, it was a challenge to mix and match people based on areas, seniority and roles in relation to digital inclusion, but ultimately we managed to have a wide representation of colleagues from all across.
What happened?
The morning went by fast, and was structured around three main parts:
1. Introduction to digital inclusion and inclusive marketing, held by Crystal Li, Senior Industry Manager Marketplaces at Google
To start, Crystal reminded us of the need to build diverse teams in order to build products that truly reflect needs to diverse customers. With call outs to fashion and make up brands, to more comprehensive diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) thinking, this led to a sharper focus on disability.
As 1 billion people worldwide experience some form of disability, we were reminded that the community represents the world’s largest minority group. And it turns out that ‘how to be an ally’, is searched more than ‘how to be an influencer’… Evidence of people caring more and more for the topic of inclusion.
With the following video, we were also reminded of the importance of curiosity in all the work we do to build a fairer and more equitable world of work:
This first session led to questions and conversations about being intentional with decisions made in relation to DEI while being authentic and meaningful, querying the ways to showcase inclusion e.g. in job postings, or also how to deal with a bad ‘PR’ moment or receiving backlash.
2. Reminder of where Accessibility sits within the Stepstone Group’s Sustainability strategy
Here, we shared a message from Thorsten Otte, our Chief Financial Officer and Accessibility Sponsor at The Stepstone Group.
The colleagues present were also informed of the most up-to-date plans in relation to responsible product and technology, and our social impact work. We made of accessibility our top priority, with 2025 and the European Accessibility Act on the horizon.
This section led to questions about accountability and leadership exemplification of our commitments, team enablement vs individual responsibility (in our deliverables but also the way we recruit ourselves), the cost of not complying with accessibility standards, and the cost of being accessible (e.g. refactoring to meet compliance ad-hoc vs building accessibility as part of our basic / best practices).
3. Accessibility and digital curb cuts, by Christopher Patnoe, Head of Accessibility and Disability Inclusion EMEA at Google
Christopher started off by reminding us that we have more things in common with anyone, than differences. But what leads to exclusion, is exaggeration of those possible differences, and ignorance of differences.
He then went onto explaining to our group the challenges he himself faced throughout his career, also at Google — for example when he inherited a damaged space to build the ADC from scratch. When then moving onto building the case for and the awareness of accessibility, he explained how to explore drivers that could help gain leadership and teams buy-in.
Lots of wisdom in the statements Christopher made, that clearly had an impact and resonated with the colleagues present:
Accessibility is a mission, not a return-on-investment question.
We should not ask about accessibility ‘why should it be’ but ‘when is it going to be’ a priority.
Accessibility is part of the real (existing) work, not a separate task.
As an echo to our own purpose and mission, Christopher also highlighted that when marketing or building products for ‘everyone’, ‘everyone’ does include people with disabilities (sometimes shortened PwD) — stating that ‘building for the edges (e.g. minoritised groups) gives you the middle for free (i.e. a universally usable product)’.
Christopher also shared this very moving spot, showing how impactful innovation and care for disabled users can be:
More questions were then raised in relation to how to prioritise DEI and accessibility. He also reminded us to strive for delight and usability, as consequently accessibility compliance should then be met.
Finally, a wider conversation about needs of the users took us to closing the session and moving onto visiting the rest of the ADC, for which no words are needed as photos will explain that much better!
My own reflections on the day
If I personally were to pick one quote from the day and the experience shared by Christopher, it’s this, as I can perfectly relate it to my own day-to-day:
[accessibility] is progress, not perfection.
I constantly remind myself that every single step, no matter how big or small, moves us in the right direction with DEI and I am thankful for the colleagues who have driven accessibility forward with me in the past year.
To bring more Stepstoners to the ADC is another step forward.
It was truly amazing to feel the excitement in the room, and see the reactions from colleagues throughout the day and afterwards. We didn’t have enough time for all questions after each presentation, testament that the colleagues were engaged and inquisitive. We left the centre feeling empowered, more educated and buzzing with anticipation as to what we can each do next.
Thank you
A big thank you to Crystal Li and Christopher Patnoe for having us.
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