Using technology to drive inclusion is good for people and business
WASHINGTON – Access to mobile technology is changing the world around us, but it’s more than being able to watch cat videos while riding the bus.
The recent M-Enabling Conference brought together companies from 28 countries to discuss using technology to assist people with disabilities as a way to eliminate barriers and enable better living with mobile access.
Frances West is the chief accessibility officer for IBM, one of the oldest and largest technology companies in the world. She took the time to speak with RCR Wireless News about IBM’s accessibility goals.
West said the company has dual missions in regard to accessibility.
“Internally we make sure that IBM has the right policy and governance in place so that our business units and different corporate functions from HR to CIO focus on making sure their products or services are as accessible as possible. The other mission is more external focused. Externally we are focused on three areas: establishing IT accessibility standards; shaping government policies; and developing new accessibility solutions as well as working with clients to ensure their employee systems and Web and mobile apps are accessible.”
Accessibility is not a new concept to IBM; the company hired its first disabled employee in 1914. Since then, IBM has strived to accommodate its employees with disabilities via assistive technologies, such as screen magnifiers or sign language interpreters for people who are deaf in order to create an inclusive workplace environment.
IBM’s goal is to incorporate accessibility seamlessly into every level of the corporate structure.
“We’ve always been at the forefront of making our workplace very diverse,” West said. “Because of this, a lot of time we’ve had to innovate to accommodate. For example, by creating new solutions we’ve used internally and have since rolled out to the market, such as IBM Accessible Workplace Connection … and the IBM Compliance.”
This history of inclusiveness has given IBM a great deal of, as West describes it, “knowledge, know-how and insight,” when it comes to accommodation and accessibility innovation.
IBM has begun to share this experience with its customers and has seen it widely embraced by clients across multiple sectors from government to financial services
A big byproduct of IBM’s focus on accessibility has been the ability to find ways to reduce situational disability.
“The widespread use of mobile phones means everyone can be situationally disabled,” West explained. “For example, when you’re driving and you receive a text message, your eyes have to be on the road so at that point you’re situationally blind because you cannot be looking at your screen.”
Through its dedication to accessibility, IBM has found what many technology companies are discovering: Making technology more accessible for a few makes it easier and more practical for everyone. In an economy increasingly reliant on brain power rather than brawn, being able to harness the potential of workers regardless of their physical impediments is a situation both empowering for those employees and good for the company’s bottom line.
