It was a huge honor to work with the Lenovo team, Amazing Studio, Ada Lopez with the Product Diversity Office, and Shaholly Ayers (Disability Influencer) to make a commercial on taking accessibility, inclusive, and universal design a big step beyond what many companies still do not consider as a key strategic business imperative.
For over 1 billion of us of who move, sense, think, and communicate differently – digital accessibility is a life-line for many of us.
More than that, to make digital accessibility possible in many instances, the physical design of product’s is equally essential for so many of us with disabilities. As an example, I use Dragon speaking naturally dictation software as my hands are paralyzed as a C6 quadriplegic.
However, there are times with my limited hand mobility that I need to take my laptop on the go. It’s so important how a laptop is designed with respect to how sensitive the mouse is to my paralyzed fingers, how spaced out the keys on a keyboard are, and how I can rotate with adaptive behavior my arm to turn on the laptop. The list goes on.
Each of you may be a day away from potentially joining a club that will require you to adapt in the most creative of ways.
If you should, it behooves all corporations and society at large to pay attention to Diversity, Equity, inclusion, and Belonging –in company culture, digital accessibility, and physical design of products and services for consumers and employees with disabilities.
It was my honor to be an actress for a day, as it was tremendously fun, but it’s about Smarter Technology for All.
Thank you Lenovo for continuing to step up in, not only in understanding how technology can transform lives, but in paving the way for other companies to follow your lead!