Author: Rosemary Musachio, Chief Accessibility Officer at Ruh Global Communications
Recently, Ruh Global Communications appointed me its Chief Accessibility Officer (CAO). In my role, I will manage internal and external accessibility projects. I will ensure that accessibility best practices will be followed within the company and help clients meet their accessibility needs, including website and product accessibility. I will consult on accessibility and inclusion issues that clients face from the employee to the customer level.
Every business needs to include accessibility in its fabric to become stronger. Otherwise, it will rip and create big gaps. Making every aspect of a company accessible and inclusive increases productivity, embraces diversity with common goals, and promotes more of a positive image to the public. According to Frances West, CAO of IBM, “Today, it affects everyone’s use of a product or service and helps deliver information in the most consumable way possible. Organizations that have embraced and embedded accessibility throughout the enterprise are better connecting with customers, expanding their market reach and creating an inclusive workplace environment where everyone has the best chance of success.”
Since I have cerebral palsy, I bring a personal perspective to my role as CAO. I know what a company needs to do for employees with disabilities to feel accepted and purposeful, and what a business must do to serve customers with disabilities with consideration and respect. Other persons with disabilities have held CAO or similar positions. For example, Microsoft recently hired Jenny Lay-Flurrie as its new Accessibility Director. Becoming deaf from an ear infection during childhood, Jenny will integrate her personal experiences into her new position. As it’s inferred in the article Talk to the Hand, Lay-Flurrie’s motto “You can do anything” is helping Microsoft execute programs to assist persons with disabilities with technologies. For instance, she helped plan Ability Summit, a showcase of products and services to empower them for the future.
Another accessibility executive who has a disability is Jonathan Avila. His vision impairment has brought a personal perspective to his job also. Who else better than a person who cannot see can develop solutions and innovations for users with vision, as well as other, impairments? Avila also serves on WCAG working group and mobility accessibility task force.
You can be skilled at accessibility testing and know all about best practices and guidelines. But the first-hand experience of facing accessibility barriers gives a CAO an extra edge. It brings empathy to the role, making the CAO passionate about helping businesses bulldoze those barriers that other persons with disabilities have encountered.
If a company even creates a COA or a Director of Accessibility position, it is taking a smart business move. With 15% of the world’s population having a disability and $1 trillion in aggregated spending by consumers with disabilities, appointing a skilled COA will allow a business to be more profitable and reputable. If the skilled COA has a disability, it makes the company more credible, sending a strong message to the public that it is serious about accessibility.
Learn more about our work at www.RuhGlobal.com or follow us on Social Media @rosemusachio, @debraruh and @ruhglobal on most channels.
I had the pleasure to interview Joy Kniskern for this blog. Joy is an amazing woman with many talents. She started her career determined to make a difference. She has accomplished those goals and her efforts are going to making a difference for many years to come. Joy is a shining example of a woman that believes that her success comes from helping other people succeed in life.
Joy has spent her entire career making a difference in other people’s lives. She has also accomplished a lot academically including earning a Master’s Degree in Counseling & Psychological Services from Georgia State University and was honored with a Phi Chi Honor Society. She also holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Sociology from Vanderbilt University.
Joy works with Dr. Christopher Lee and his team at AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center (AMAC). AMAC is part of the Georgia Institute of Technology located in the College of Architecture.
I recently highlighted Dr. Lee in my blog about Leadership. “Leaders Making a Difference in the World” Story of Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities and Finding his Greatness – Introducing Dr. Christopher M. Lee. To read the blog please visit: http://ow.ly/COCRX Here is my interview with the Joy Kniskern:
Joy Kniskern
Debra: What led you to this field?
Joy: I wanted to contribute to the social good, and found rehabilitation was an area where so many people with disabilities wanted to go to work but encountered so many barriers – stigma, lack of training opportunities, physical access issues, no transportation.
Debra: What are some of the highlights of your career?
Joy: The first grant I received to establish, before ADA one of IBM’s Projects to give persons with disabilities skills to become COBOL computer programmers. There was excellent involvement of private industry in every imaginable way, over 90% of graduates were hired at wages higher than staff within 3 months of graduation, I worked with first braille printers and speech output devices. I started a parallel program in customers’ service skills training so students who didn’t like or do well at programming had a path to good employment.
Debra: Tell me about our work with AMAC – what role do you play in this program?
Joy: I am the Technology Initiatives “go to” person at AMAC- I led several initiatives like our 508 and Accessible ICT work, special grants, and outreach to new and global partners.
Debra: AMAC is part of GA Tech, College of Architecture that is an interesting place to be located. Do you think this provides an advantage to the AMAC program?
Joy: Absolutely! The College of Architecture is focused on design expertise and we are seeing that inclusive design is just as important as good and accessible design of physical spaces. AMAC started in 2006 as a production environment to meet the needs of students with disabilities through disability services providers within and outside of Georgia. Now that we are in the School of Architecture, we know that we have access to some of the finest research and academic resources in the world, and that fact and our action on it will help deepen and broader our path and impact on ICT accessibility in our digital world.
Debra: There is a lot of work to do across the US and globally to fully include PwD in the workforce and other aspects of society. How can and should Universities be part of these solutions? What steps are AMAC taking to also be a major part of the solution in US and abroad?
Joy: Research shows that to support the 9 million people in a world whose resources can support roughly half that number of people considering current consumption of goods and resources suggest that we all need to be engaged: governments, universities, thought leaders, environmental experts, in how to better engage everyone. Universities like Georgia Tech can identify technology applications that make competitive work more possible. Robots and SKYPE make telework more possible, for example. There are many examples of how universities can be engaged in developing technologies and resourceful strategies to tap into talents of persons with disabilities.
Debra: AMAC has recently won several significant grants – can you highlight and explain the part you played in winning these grants?
Joy: The First in the World Grant to establish Center for Accessible Materials Innovation (the Center) to expand access to higher education digital course content for students with disabilities, thereby supporting the improvement of their retention and graduation rates.
The proposed Center addresses the identified issues with an over-arching goal of expanding the availability and use of fully accessible textbooks for all students with disabilities, and for students at MSIs in particular, through four objectives:
(1) To develop applications to pioneer an innovative marketplace mechanism (a digital label) for the disclosure of standardized consumer information about the accessibility features of digital textbooks;
(2) To provide textbook remediation services to increase the immediate availability of frequently used titles, especially those requested by students, and to use the tools created for Objective 1 to check accessibility and add to the pilot database of digital accessibility labels;
(3) To research the causes of the seeming under-utilization of accessible textbooks by MSIs and to reverse this pattern with education and services; and
(4) To provide professional education and training on accessible electronic information for college faculty and staff including DSPs, administrators, content developers, curriculum procurement officials, and information technology managers.
AMAC, through partnerships with ATN members, publishers and AT vendors, will devise tools and applications to support the availability of consumer information through the creation of a standardized Document Accessibility Profile (DAP) for disclosing the specific accessibility features of digital textbooks. Similar to a nutrition label for packaged food, this “label” produced by an application or ‘app,’ will be created from a checklist of features enabled in the existing Online Information eXchange (ONIX) international standards used by book publishers and distributors. The “label” will be available on a web portal, and accessible from computers, tablets and mobile devices.
I designed and wrote the evaluation section of the proposal which includes an conducting focus groups at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) focus groups to understand why the Digital Divide is much greater for minorities. We don’t have enough information about this issue to properly address it.
Debra: When you look towards the future of AMAC – what do you hope to see unfold?
Joy: My hope for AMAC is that it continues to unfold as the “go to” place for disability service providers and students they serve for digital access, and that we fully embrace the opportunities to make a difference in creating greater ICT accessibility in Georgia, the US and the world. We can play a significant role in reducing barriers related to access to information for people with disabilities. I also hope that we can sustain and strengthen allied efforts of the “Pass It On” Center for AT Reutilization, a national technical assistance center, and resources to grow our capacity for Georgia’s State AT Act Program – Tools for Life.
Debra: When you look back on your career in the future – what do you hope to see?
Joy: You know, it’s not about my career, it’s about my contribution to making the world a little better. That is what matters.
Debra: What advice do you have for young people that are interested in following your footsteps?
Joy: Look toward the highest good in everyone you encounter, do your best, and do what matters most, and take time to step aside and reflect on what is going on in your life, and those of others around you.
Debra: What are you most proud of in your career?
Joy: When I was 27, taking a risk by stepping out of the status quo early in my career to find funding and launch the Georgia Computer Programmer Project. One of my students retired making a six figure income after 20 years of employment with a well-known software company. It started me on a path of social entrepreneurship that I’ve mastered ever since then. ***End of interview***
Speaking to Joy is a breath of fresh air. She has accomplished so much during her career and she is still going strong and changing the world. I look forward to watching her career continue to unfold. She is a woman that has made a huge difference in the world. Joy Kniskern is global role model for us all.
For more information about Ruh Global Communications please visit: www.RuhGlobal.com
