Webinar

Accessibility Needs to be Continuous

Abstract

Watch this on-demand broadcast as David Dame shares his personal journey with disability and his path to becoming a passionate advocate for accessible software. Discover how accessibility impacts everyone at some point, whether through aging, temporary illness, or everyday tasks like carrying a child while opening a door.

David highlights the power of an accessibility-first mindset in creating inclusive products that not only benefit users but also drive success and offer a competitive edge. Don’t miss this inspiring session on the transformative importance of accessibility in design and its role in building better experiences for all.

Accessibility Needs to be Continuous

Explore the importance of accessibility in design through a personal journey with disability, highlighting how an accessibility-first mindset creates more inclusive products and offers a competitive advantage.

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Video Transcript

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good afternoon everyone welcome to the keynote 

today what I’m going to be talking about today

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is accessibility needs to be continuous 

we heard Matt talk about the complexity

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of mobile development and mobile testing but as 

somebody with a disability and I’ll give you a

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bit of my background in a second um there hasn’t 

been any better technology than mobile devices

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to give Independence and agency to people with 

disabilities it’s really allowed us to leave the

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home and be able to bring compute with us where 

we’re not just Tethered to the desk or or near

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a computer device rather the technology that 

enables us can follow us wherever we go so a

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little bit about who I am um I was born in 1971 

and my parents were told Dave may not live past

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12 Dave may not be able to speak clearly if at 

all and even if he does don’t expect much because

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there’s not much that someone like Dave can do in 

this world they actually advised my parents to put

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me in an institution now that sounds harsh but in 

1971 that was the status quo and luckily for me

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my parents were very blue collar and they didn’t 

want to make that one single decision that was

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going to impact the rest of my life and I couldn’t 

have been born at any better time in history with

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a disability because in about 14 years there was 

going to be rights that would allow me to go to

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a normal school get a University degree and have 

a career and there was going to be this new thing

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called technology that was going to enable me to 

go further than anybody else could have done with

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a disability in years previous my parents fought 

hard to get me into school before there was right

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so I got to school and I started using technology 

because it wasn’t my sural poliy that held me

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back rather the mismatch in the environment to 

accommodate my Cal poliy is what held me back

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but technology was going to close that margin and 

I remember being in high school trying to decide

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if I wanted to go to business or technology for 

University and I couldn’t make up my mind and my

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dad walked down the stairs and said David let’s 

be honest being in a wheelchair you’re not going

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to be a fireman police officer or a construction 

worker but you know what else you’re not going to

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be living under my roof for free the rest of 

your life so you better figure it out and so

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I went to school I was in for engineering did a 

lot of technology did a lot of testing and then I

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moved to product management I worked at numerous 

companies adopting uh delivering product Market

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but for 14 years before I entered accessibility 

I did agile where I helped organization

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deliver to customers quicker in all different 

kind of sizes either startups that want to scale

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up or large companies that want to act more like a 

startup whatever it was I helped change them and I

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actually before I joined Microsoft I became a vice 

president at a global financial institution think

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about it as a visible disability I was able to 

break the glass ceiling and when the pandemic had

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like most of us I really thought about what is 

it I want to do with my life you know I’ve done

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a lot of great things in technology now what 

um and I did a leadership talk for Microsoft

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and they started pursuing me and this position 

came up where it was to lead the accessibility

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portfolio for Windows and devices although I’m 

in a wheelchair I never really advocated for

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accessibility in my early years uh CU I never 

seen others like me so I didn’t know and I and

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I always thought how ironic would it be the dude 

in the wheelchair preaching about accessibility

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so I avoided it but now that I became an industry 

leader and have done so many things been married

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had a lot of great things traveling the world now 

my wife convinced me to join she said if you join

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Microsoft you’re going to help others like you 

achieved the things you did hopefully with a lot

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less effort because at my age I was the canary and 

a cave so let’s think back to the 70s 80s and 90s

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there was a time where there wasn’t even ramps to 

get in the building architecture was terrible and

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you know what you even had to get off the chair 

to turn your own channel it was before remote

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controls but the world was about to change we’re 

going to see what the power of diversity would be

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crucial so why I like diversity it’s not for an HR 

play but I think if you hire all different people

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with different backgrounds disability ability 

different cultures different whatever you build

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a more resil resilient team that really gives you 

multiple perspectives different experiences new

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ideas and a dynamic tension let me share with you 

an example from my career after I graduated from

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University in the 90s the first job I could get 

was a training Logistics coordinator at a major

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automotive company and my first job was a lot of 

paperwork if you see my hands paperwork wasn’t

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made for them so what was taking my peers eight 

hours a day to be able to uh sign up students and

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put them to the logistics was taking me 12 hours 

a day so it took me four hours longer each day and

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I would work that overtime just to keep up with my 

peers but you know in the 990s think back that was

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before there was a computer on every desk I was 

the first one to get a computer on the desk and

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there was this new thing called the internet that 

I thought was going to be a big deal so I designed

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a website where people could sign up for their own 

training and the places I wanted to host it could

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sign it what was taking me 12 hours a day was now 

only taking me three hours a day I was like who’s

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disabled now and it wasn’t like I was smarter than 

anyone else but because it was a problem for me

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first I decided to solve it which made it better 

for everybody so I became from being the outlier

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to creating an organization where they were all 

the out buyers because I used technology to really

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transform in the things we did but that was the 

start the beauty is technology was moving from

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less stationary to more mobile so now how do we 

bring this innovator this huge thing that allows

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people to accomplish more in a mobile device so 

you bring your computer with you wherever you’re

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out through the day but the challenge is is when 

we’re designing sometimes we forget to design for

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accessibility up front and just like in pesting 

we always want to move it left so too do we want

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for accessibility because if we don’t design 

with it up front it becomes an afterthought so

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I’ve always lived the be barrier where technology 

was starting to allow me to enable everything but

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then as technology evolved and of accessibility 

wasn’t to the left or up front just like we want

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testing it became a Leger where I couldn’t use 

it when the computer first came out it allowed

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me to type use spreadsheets to move quickly it 

was the greatest productivity tool ever but then

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the mouse came and the mouse was an input device 

that I struggled with using so what was enabling

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me now was limiting me I had to wait until we 

thought of other multimodal inputs like a track

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ball or like now there’s other input devices that 

allow to interact with the technology when you’re

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designing for mobile or technology the key is 

multimodal input how do we find multiple ways

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for people the input where on the mobile device 

it could be typing on a touchcreen or why not use

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voice somebody like me uses voice anytime because 

disability is complex you can’t find one solution

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that solves all the only way you can build and 

test for accessibility is through multimodal input

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and this happens more than just productivity but 

even in gaming I remember when I was a kid going

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to regular school the beauty thing was was there 

was an Atari 2600 it allowed me to be in a video

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game so not just so I could play video games but 

it gave me the social platform where I could make

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friends I could play with them compete with them 

and even score against them and I got really good

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where I could talk junk with them but the problem 

is as games evolved the controllers went from one

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joystick to a button to what you see in front of 

you multiple buttons and switches it turned out to

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be that I could play real hockey easier than video 

game hockey because the controllers were leaving

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me behind and this is constantly the mismatch 

that always happens as we evolve technology if

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we don’t think about accessibility of front it 

becomes the lagger and on Microsoft that’s when

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we designed the Xbox game controller so you’ll 

look at that controller and go what’s the big deal

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about that and how do you do it with multitudes 

of disabilities of different mobile challenges

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and maybe different interactions remember the only 

way to solell for complexity is flexibility so as

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you can tell all the buttons along the top of the 

controller they actually allow input switches so

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people can customize the way they want to interact 

and find the right input for them to be able to do

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that and we were always told when we designed 

this that we’re very Innovative and Innovation

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comes with you know what do we always heard 

about Innovation solof for problems that people

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don’t know exist yet and that is the beauty of 

disability because mismatches are easy to see if

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somebody doesn’t have a disability and runs into a 

challenge they’re easy to mask it because of their

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ability they can compensate for it where they 

don’t realize it’s a mismatch where if you study

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with people with disabilities that becomes a fault 

stopping issue that now we can study it understand

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What’s blocking them and solve the problem 

to make it possible for them but it makes it

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easier for everyone else I always like to say if 

accessibility is the solution then disability is

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the opportunity and when we design for disability 

that makes it possible through one means of input

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and output it gives everybody else a multiple 

ways to choose from what they prefer depending on

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the situation now we’ve seen a lot of problems we 

solve for disability become kind of common place

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for everybody else to use now Clos captioning was 

originally designed for death people now if you go

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into a bar your environment can prevent you from 

listening but you can still follow the game on TV

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when close captioning is on what if you’re a new 

parent and you’re trying to put your children to

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sleep now you can follow your TV shows with Clos 

captioning without wakening the house or the Y

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The Young Ones voice commands voice commands were 

originally made for someone like me with a mobile

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or dexterity challenges where we used it to really 

dictate large volume of text to get content now I

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watch all of you on your phones dictating and you 

get just as frustrated as I do when you’re when

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you’re dictating and they get it wrong that’s what 

I call equality now we can be equally frustrated

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and even texting texting was originally made for 

dep people to have conversations we can argue that

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teenagers are hard to hearing but texting is 

became for everybody and I bet half the people

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here today use Audi books or podcasts that was 

originally made for people that were blind but now

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everybody uses audio books when they can’t move 

their eyes from what they’re doing for example if

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you’re commuting to work and you want to keep up 

on your on your books now you can play your audio

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books because your eyes are supposed to be on 

the road now you’re able to do multiple things by

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using these things that were once accessibility 

features now are wide open for everyone

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else and this is how I like to really kind of 

outline how we see disability and opportunity

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there are people with pernament disabilities 

through the way they think speak here see or

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touch that you’re either born with it or you get 

an accident which makes a pernament for example

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for touch you could have one arm right you’re 

born or you lost a limb throughout your life so

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we always got to make sure we have multiple ways 

to interact that might not require two hands or if

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it’s a temporary solution you could break your 

arm hurt your elbow so temporarily you have a

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disability but you still need a multimodal way to 

do it there’s maybe situations where your one arm

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isn’t available like if you’re rocking your baby 

to sleep or maybe you’re in court and you got to

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find a different way to do your paperwork and 

come up with a way to do a lot of tax so when

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we design for the pernament or temporary we also 

get uh the situation you heard me about um being

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able to see so either you’re born blind or you 

might you know have a cataract but then you know

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what you might need your Siri or your Android bot 

to be able to speak to you because you can’t take

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your cars off while you’re driving so when you 

design for accessibility you’re giving users the

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opportunity to be able to inter interact with 

your technology no matter what the situation

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and no matter what the environment is and we call 

this inclusive design and inclusive design is one

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of the principles is you design for one and 

extend to many so that’s like looking at one

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person with one type of disability really study 

it and really figure out what the uniqueness is

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the exclusion of it is and then you design and 

build for it and then you adapt to it then you

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use the inclusive design process and tools 

to know that we’ve solved it for one what are

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other diverse perspectives accessibility tools 

and participation can we do to really extend

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that with solving for one and extend to many like 

what I shared before whether it was an audio book

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whether there was many different things how 

do you get it to enable everyone and that’s

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the power of using an inclusive design process 

you start with one you begin to understand the

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problem look at the problem in a whole different 

lens and then look at a broader beneficial impact

0:18:19.240,0:18:26.960

where everybody can use it just like what we 

shared previously now when you’re advocating

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for designing a accessibility and invest in it 

there’s three usually things I look at there’s

0:18:34.720,0:18:42.480

the responsibility which everybody gets there’s 

Equity what everybody gets and before I was in the

0:18:42.480,0:18:50.360

field I noticed those were the two things people 

wait on but remember I came from product and other

0:18:50.360,0:18:57.920

non-accessible products I also want to talk about 

the return on investment for when you design for

0:18:57.920,0:19:05.200

accessibility you’re extending your user base and 

you’re getting to reach more and more you more and

0:19:05.200,0:19:13.640

more users but you need the ability to influence 

I always like to say there’s storytelling that

0:19:13.640,0:19:19.480

might convince the hearts and Minds to invest 

in it but there’s also data I always like to

0:19:19.480,0:19:26.400

say stakeholders speak two languages PowerPoint 

and money so you need to be able to talk about

0:19:26.400,0:19:36.120

the hearts and The Logical sense to do it but 

here’s the real business case to do it in 2030

0:19:36.120,0:19:44.760

there’s going to be two billion people that 

actually identify as having a disability two

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billion people let’s think about that that’s two 

billion customers that’s two billion users if we

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found another country on the planet with two 

billion people but we haven’t sold Hardware or

0:20:00.040,0:20:08.160

software to we would instantly be going after 

that market right away but the the truth is we

0:20:08.160,0:20:14.720

have a two billion people all around us that if 

we don’t think about building for inclusively

0:20:14.720,0:20:24.600

and accessibility we’re leaving two billion people 

two billion potential customers to the side that’s

0:20:24.600,0:20:33.040

money which we could be having and really there’s 

a benefit of really the same product metrics why

0:20:33.040,0:20:40.920

we invest in accessibility there’s acquisition 

right the more open we are to be able to our

0:20:40.920,0:20:47.040

software and Hardware to handle people of all 

abilities or people with disabilities and everyone

0:20:47.040,0:20:53.440

else we get higher acquisition numbers because 

we’re not excluding them from the beginning and

0:20:53.440,0:21:01.720

then if we make it good they activate and we keep 

them and a great retention and they refer people

0:21:01.720,0:21:08.120

to the product because they see them using 

it how it enables their life and it brings

0:21:08.120,0:21:16.560

Revenue we’ve all heard about the lifetime 

value of a customer right that if you get

0:21:16.560,0:21:24.760

a customer early the longer you have a customer 

the more profitable it is and less effort it is

0:21:24.760,0:21:32.240

to keep that customer happy there was the same 

I once said when I first joined Microsoft an

0:21:32.240,0:21:40.240

executive went to me and said Dave why should I 

give a damn about accessibility and I said we’re

0:21:40.240,0:21:46.080

all going to be disabled someday just some 

of us beat you to it so when you design for

0:21:46.080,0:21:52.560

someone like me today you’re actually designing 

for your future selves so if we know this is

0:21:52.560,0:21:58.680

where the Market’s going if we know this is 

where every user is coming if we have techn

0:21:58.680,0:22:04.360

ology that meets their needs throughout 

their whole ability life cycle we can

0:22:04.360,0:22:12.320

build that customer loyalty and keep them and 

make them our most profitable customers as we

0:22:12.320,0:22:20.120

go and this is why I always say we’re all going 

to be disabled someday it’s just a matter of

0:22:20.120,0:22:29.680

time we’re all there with it when I was a product 

maker the first thing I was told was designed for

0:22:29.680,0:22:38.040

the masses so if we look at this par we look at 

the center we’re always told to design for where

0:22:38.040,0:22:47.640

the majority of the users are that was false if 

we design for the edges we get everybody else in

0:22:47.640,0:22:57.280

the middle so when we design develop and test for 

the extreme we get everybody along the middle and

0:22:57.280,0:23:05.080

when I used to work at at a financial institution 

they were going to build a banking nap and I was

0:23:05.080,0:23:12.840

leading the teams that were designing and building 

it and they said Dave we put accessibility is a

0:23:12.840,0:23:21.360

version 2.0 and I’m like you know what I have 

svel py but my money doesn’t so if you want my

0:23:21.360,0:23:28.880

money you better build a product from day one that 

I can use or I’m going to spend my money elsewhere

0:23:28.880,0:23:36.560

it’s good business designing developing and 

testing for accessibility because that’s a

0:23:36.560,0:23:43.520

market we need to go after there’s an aging 

population we need to go after and I always like

0:23:43.520,0:23:51.200

to think about the pandemic we all had those older 

relatives that used Zoom our teams for the first

0:23:51.200,0:23:58.120

time and they were using it and we could all see 

up their nose as they were holding the screen if

0:23:58.120,0:24:06.680

we didn’t design technology to really enable them 

that would have been the difference to be able to

0:24:06.680,0:24:16.240

talk to him during the pandemic to say I love you 

one more time and regret so the best way to design

0:24:16.240,0:24:23.120

for accessibility like I showed in the process 

earlier is designing people with the disability

0:24:23.120,0:24:30.600

and it’s also how do you do that you actually hire 

and make sure you have diverse teams I always like

0:24:30.600,0:24:37.160

to say the people who build our products should 

be reflective of those people who use our products

0:24:37.160,0:24:43.880

oops there’s a spelling mistake they out to 

fix that but the thing is is we create Global

0:24:43.880,0:24:51.120

products now especially in mobile devices we’re 

localized where we go everywhere but the thing is

0:24:51.120,0:24:59.400

is we need to be reflective of all our different 

kinds of users so we build that from day one so

0:24:59.400,0:25:08.160

we make sure we build the product that everybody 

wants to use can use with that up front because

0:25:08.160,0:25:16.280

it’s more than just designing accessible features 

it’s about what people can achieve an experience

0:25:16.280,0:25:26.000

because that technology it’s not just my banking 

app makes it accessible for me to you know use it

0:25:26.000,0:25:33.920

allows me to pay bills it allows me to live on 

my own it allows me Independence it’s more than

0:25:33.920,0:25:42.080

the technology features it’s what people achieve 

because of the technology and now we’ve enabled

0:25:42.080,0:25:49.440

I’ve been able to be where I am I’ve been able to 

design but it’s all about really getting up front

0:25:49.440,0:25:58.240

early and designing it from the beginning because 

it’s technology that all of you are going to use

0:25:58.840,0:26:06.360

so how do you get this from your stakeholders you 

really kind of have to get buying from the top and

0:26:06.360,0:26:12.520

everywhere else we’re going to go and it’s really 

connecting with everybody to be able to get them

0:26:12.520,0:26:20.280

involved and use start measuring the usability 

start measuring the numbers that you have pre

0:26:20.280,0:26:28.480

accessible features and post accessible features 

remember if you wait too late you might exclude

0:26:28.480,0:26:36.600

people from Ever trying your product again you 

get one time to do a first experience and I know

0:26:36.600,0:26:43.480

this is really hard I know what I’m asking is 

pretty much you know challenging for a lot of

0:26:43.480,0:26:50.600

people but you have to imagine the world what 

it’s going to be because you know if I look

0:26:50.600,0:26:58.360

back to my life when I was born somebody like 

me didn’t exist luckily my parents could have

0:26:58.360,0:27:07.160

imagine something different luckily I was able to 

push through the challenges I had to struggle in

0:27:07.160,0:27:13.840

silence where hopefully no one needs to now and 

whether you have a disability you recognize to or

0:27:13.840,0:27:21.200

not everybody knows what it is to struggle 

everybody knows what it is to be excluded

0:27:21.200,0:27:30.160

but technology is the platform that is complex 

challenging and brings everybody together it makes

0:27:30.160,0:27:39.080

what was previously impossible possible and if you 

can look at the world differently if you can see

0:27:39.080,0:27:46.560

a different world then you’ll have a different 

world available to you now I left some time for

0:27:46.560,0:27:54.960

Q&A because I would love to really discuss more 

about how do we create a more inclusive workplace

0:27:54.960,0:28:00.920

how do we create more inclusive mobile products 

and how do we make sure we’re doing it from the

0:28:00.920,0:28:08.240

beginning and testing at the end I’m going to look 

at the chat here to see if there’s any questions

0:28:08.240,0:28:17.360

or Q&A oh thanks Cara designing for future self 

so if you have any questions feel free to pop

0:28:17.360,0:28:28.400

it into the chat or is it the Q&A oh here we go 

do you have a top three that some of us who may

0:28:28.400,0:28:36.880

not let me read more here I’m trying to learn 

the tool too what are the three top things you

0:28:36.880,0:28:45.320

can focus on starting with great question Chris I 

would say start with multimodal input and output

0:28:45.320,0:28:50.920

especially when it comes to mobile device I 

know when I was designing one at a company

0:28:50.920,0:28:57.640

I was working for I came in because they were 

um presenting it to me as a stakeholder and I

0:28:57.640,0:29:04.640

said did you guys try it with voice and they’re 

like oh no we never thought of that and luckily

0:29:04.640,0:29:14.080

the iPhone IOS and dictation really handled it by 

luck so when you’re designing mobile applications

0:29:14.080,0:29:21.400

try to think of is there multiple ways to input 

keyboard and voice and different ways of output

0:29:21.400,0:29:28.040

can it be read and can the device uh read 

the text so that way they can either read it

0:29:29.120,0:29:36.960

or listen to it um and think about different 

ways to even visually see it what does your

0:29:36.960,0:29:43.480

app look like when it is on a high font 

and high contrast so those are the three

0:29:43.480,0:29:50.680

things multiple input multiple output and 

really validating that your design looks

0:29:50.680,0:29:58.040

properly in any different font size 

hopefully that answered your question

0:30:01.800,0:30:07.360

Adam my friend do you have any questions yes I 

wanted to pop in and just say thank you so much

0:30:07.360,0:30:13.680

I know I had a few people um direct messaging me 

doing this saying it’s a it was a great session so

0:30:13.680,0:30:20.200

I think you have some new followers um I’m looking 

at Woodrow’s comment here in the chat as well

0:30:20.200,0:30:24.680

worked for a company that didn’t care much about 

accessibility until they wanted to get a contract

0:30:24.680,0:30:30.720

with the US government and then all of a sudden 

they got to care well this is the thing too I want

0:30:30.720,0:30:38.240

to tell people um people think accessibility is 

just compliance and I’m like just because I can

0:30:38.240,0:30:44.480

use your product doesn’t mean I would choose 

it so no don’t build it just to Simply meet

0:30:44.480,0:30:51.200

compliance standards build it great that I want 

to use it and I want to choose it that I want to

0:30:51.200,0:30:58.480

spend my valuable money to actually utilize it 

and I know we get caught up in the comp iance

0:30:58.480,0:31:06.000

thing a lot but I think compliance is like the the 

barrier to entry but if you start building a words

0:31:06.000,0:31:13.320

it’s exceptionally usable it helps everybody 

yeah absolutely and I think you touched on

0:31:13.320,0:31:18.920

that with the slide too where even if you are an 

able-bodied person you may have a temporary or

0:31:18.920,0:31:25.720

situational thing that has to be dealt with and 

accessibility just really does help all of us I

0:31:25.720,0:31:33.160

like this do you recommend any tools for testing 

accessibility I don’t really have a preference

0:31:33.160,0:31:43.120

on any automated tool that I think a lot of IDE 

have naturally I’m a big I’m old school I rather

0:31:43.120,0:31:51.080

just you get users of different disabilities and 

when you get to watch them use it because what

0:31:51.080,0:32:00.560

automation doesn’t show you is the cognitive load 

or challenge it is for them to perform a function

0:32:00.560,0:32:08.520

because I think accessibility 1.0 and this is just 

Dave opinion I think it stopped short of Simply

0:32:08.520,0:32:17.160

making it possible where I think in accessibility 

2.0 we got to start making it a great experience

0:32:17.160,0:32:23.080

because we’re noticing a lot of accessible 

features get abandoned and I think because

0:32:23.080,0:32:30.640

the automation shows is possible but we don’t 

really appreciate even though we made it possible

0:32:30.640,0:32:38.440

we don’t see the user struggle that it takes 

them now that it is possible so understanding

0:32:38.440,0:32:47.440

the cognitive load and the EAS of using it I 

think really amplifies the need for human manual

0:32:47.440,0:32:54.840

testing I use automation like we do for all unit 

tests to make sure you have your tab order your

0:32:54.840,0:33:04.520

tags and all those things for uh the compliance 

standards but don’t ever shortcut the user testing

0:33:04.520,0:33:09.560

absolutely thanks Sean for your

0:33:09.560,0:33:21.280

comment yeah there were a couple questions I saw 

in the chat as well let me try and find them um oh

0:33:21.280,0:33:27.960

wait Sean had a question when I extended it have 

you seen accessibility needs ever framed out as

0:33:27.960,0:33:36.400

better UI and that has a better chance of getting 

uh approved I beg borrow and install so I’ve used

0:33:36.400,0:33:43.280

that approach too to show that if we create 

a user interface where the buttons aren’t too

0:33:43.280,0:33:51.080

close together it also helps people that might 

be thick thumbed might have arthritis or you

0:33:51.080,0:33:56.640

know an easier Target to land you know not 

that they should be using their device while

0:33:56.640,0:34:02.440

driving but if they happen to use their device 

while driving it makes it easier for them to

0:34:02.440,0:34:13.520

multitask I didn’t mean to cut you off Adam oh 

you’re good I think the Q&A comes first um yeah

0:34:13.520,0:34:20.320

so we had a couple questions in here from Tam 

Lee uh the first one is uh what are some of the

0:34:20.320,0:34:25.840

challenges of mobile accessibility testing from 

your experience and then the kind of follow on to

0:34:25.840,0:34:31.920

that is what are some best practices specifically 

for mobile spe uh accessibility that you’re aware

0:34:31.920,0:34:43.440

of the biggest challenge for for mobile devices 

is you’re limited to the multimodal inputs you

0:34:43.440,0:34:50.520

can do because of the portability of the device 

sure you can connect Bluetooth peripherals that

0:34:50.520,0:34:57.800

would help but then it doesn’t make it any 

portable right so I think the nature of the

0:34:57.800,0:35:04.800

portability it needs becomes the real challenge 

so that’s why you have to use everything the

0:35:04.800,0:35:13.280

phone naturally has and even the camera as an 

input method I’ve noticed um Apple recently is

0:35:13.280,0:35:21.480

starting to um use head tracking on their iPad to 

be able to easily select different icons because

0:35:21.480,0:35:28.160

the camera can follow where you’re looking on the 

screen so try to utilize the native things that

0:35:28.160,0:35:34.680

that do that and what was the second part of that 

question Adam uh the second part of that question

0:35:34.680,0:35:40.640

were are there any best practices specifically 

for mobile accessibility that you’re aware

0:35:40.640,0:35:50.520

of best practic is just multimodal right I 

know I’m a broken record but if you do that

0:35:50.520,0:35:59.640

you cover a big chunk of things to go the real 

challenge is is the difference between Android

0:35:59.640,0:36:09.760

and and iOS iOS is further ahead and their 

accessibility Journey than than Android but

0:36:09.760,0:36:15.320

Google is actually really doing a lot of 

good things to help enable developers to

0:36:15.320,0:36:26.760

use their accessibility features out of their 

IDE so learn what classes in ide accessibility

0:36:26.760,0:36:35.080

features built in your programming thing and 

try to leverage those and just join um join

0:36:35.080,0:36:42.880

a lot of meetups with accessibility and uh make 

friends with people with disabilities right and

0:36:42.880,0:36:49.520

just watch learn and observe what they need to 

do because then you understand by using the ID

0:36:49.520,0:36:57.800

and automation tools you coded to standard but 

then by watching and observing it gives you idea

0:36:57.800,0:37:05.440

is how to go beyond that just like in normal 

testing where we learn from users and use cases on

0:37:05.440,0:37:16.880

the edge cases kind of use the same approach but 

for a specific segment of users yeah absolutely um

0:37:16.880,0:37:22.400

I have an offline question here from one of my 

colleagues actually um are there any standards

0:37:22.400,0:37:28.440

for accessibility that you recommend I know in 

our world we we kind of come up against w3c a

0:37:28.440,0:37:34.920

lot but are there anything specifically that you 

think is worth paying attention to uh well w3c

0:37:34.920,0:37:43.560

gives you the right to RFP for things right so 

it’s your barrier to entry so nail that one but

0:37:43.560,0:37:51.760

look at inclusive design practices and really 

kind of um amplify that and if you put that

0:37:51.760,0:37:58.920

in your RFP it’s going to make you stand above 

everybody else that might using an automation

0:37:58.920,0:38:10.840

cheacker I like the Shameless plug by by Cara 

thank you for uh thank you for the link on uh

0:38:10.840,0:38:17.720

mobile accessibility testing and this is you 

know when I seen carara post that it it kind

0:38:17.720,0:38:24.800

of brings a smile to me because when I 

was born in the 70s my disability was

0:38:24.800,0:38:31.920

my parents Challenge and my challenge now 

it’s comforting to see that organizations

0:38:31.920,0:38:39.640

like uh your organization is caring about 

accessibility too and being an advocate for

0:38:39.640,0:38:47.680

it not just the people impacted by it and as 

somebody that’s kind of been through the whole

0:38:47.680,0:38:57.280

spectrum of this that is so heartwarming to see 

thanks Cara for H sharing that who could have

0:38:57.280,0:39:04.840

thought a Shameless plug would be heartwarming 

exactly excellent any other questions from the

0:39:04.840,0:39:13.920

audience was this worth your time did 

I put you to sleep I mean I think from

0:39:13.920,0:39:18.240

my perspective and the few people that reached 

out to me directly this was an amazing session

0:39:18.240,0:39:23.520

I had quite a few folks ask me if this is 

going to be available on demand as well so

0:39:23.520,0:39:27.360

I think they they definitely want to share 

it with some colleagues and co-workers also

0:39:28.120,0:39:33.200

and please follow me on LinkedIn if you 

have any questions after I’m always more

0:39:33.200,0:39:39.640

than happy to answer I might not respond right 

away because I use voice to attack so I got a

0:39:39.640,0:39:47.240

dictated afterwards but um I’m always here to 

make sure we help everyone and leave no user

0:39:47.240,0:39:56.760

behind absolutely yeah I think accessibility is 

is more about usability at this point than than

0:39:56.760,0:40:01.880

specific individuals so thank you so much David 

well what what I’ve been calling accessibility

0:40:01.880,0:40:09.160

for a lot of part is uh relevant because you heard 

me say we’re all going to be disabled someday just

0:40:09.160,0:40:17.280

some to it so we can’t just call it accessibility 

it’s going to be where you need to go because

0:40:17.280,0:40:24.280

that’s where all your user base will eventually 

be what better to keep them is to knowing your

0:40:24.280,0:40:31.360

platform and knowing the flexibility that they can 

use by using those features as they need either by

0:40:31.360,0:40:37.920

preference because a lot of times now I’ll let 

um a screen reader read my blog post while I’m

0:40:37.920,0:40:45.120

checking my email even though I can visibly 

read no problem it allows me to multitask but

0:40:45.120,0:40:52.760

if I ever lose my vision as I age now I know that 

tool is available when it’s not just a different

0:40:52.760,0:41:00.600

or alternative method to consuming it might become 

my own choice so when you design for accessibility

0:41:00.600,0:41:09.720

it’s the only path for some users but it gives 

every other user a multitude of choice yeah

0:41:09.720,0:41:16.840

absolutely awesome well here we have a few minutes 

before the next session begins so if any other

0:41:16.840,0:41:22.600

questions come through um we we’ll grab them while 

we can and then David you’re more than welcome to

0:41:22.600,0:41:27.360

hang out with us throughout the event I’m sure 

people can ping you through the chat as well so

0:41:27.360,0:41:32.840

thank you again this was an amazing session thank 

you for having me and thank you everyone for your

0:41:32.840,0:41:39.320

great questions and engagement I’m hoping at 

least even if half of you can carry things

0:41:39.320,0:41:47.000

forward it’s moving the movement further for 

greater products wider user base and enabling

0:41:47.000,0:41:50.680

everybody well

0:41:50.680,0:42:01.120

said thank you everyone enjoy 

the rest of your conference

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