>> Sean Marihugh: My name is Sean Marihugh
and I work at Microsoft. I’m an escalation engineer
on what's called the Disability Answer Desk
which is a free technical support service
for customers with disabilities.
>> Jean Hodgson: I'm Jean Hodgson.
I work for PROVAIL.
We're a nonprofit organization
that advocates for folks with disabilities.
We help them get into the mainstream job market,
into mainstream jobs working with Americans
in the fields of all different types of work.
>> Sam Sepah: I'm Sam Sepah.
I am an HR professional and I have worked
for a variety of tech companies over the last 10 years of my career.
And now I'm focusing on recruitment for software engineers.
>> Susan Sears: I'm Susann Sears and I work for the University of Illinois,
specifically with the Disability Resources and Educational Services office.
>> Mike Forehand: I'm Mike Forehand.
I work in the recruiting space
with a focus on creating diversity outreach
primarily towards the disabled community.
>> Tony Baylis: My name is Tony Baylis.
I work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
that's in Livermore, California.
It's one of 17 Department of Energy labs.
Our focus is on national security.
[music]
>> Sean Marihugh: People with disabilities
are in general fairly underrepresented in a lot of fields.
Computing’s definitely one of the top fields there.
I think it's really critical that we, that students,
feel encouraged and empowered to pursue fields of computing
because I think they can pave the way
to make everyone else's experience with technology better.
>> Tony Baylis: How are we supposed to solve societal problems
if we're not representing society as a whole?
And in that regard, you need to be inclusive
with the individuals that you're serving and that's the entire population.
If you have 2 billion people with disabilities,
how can you ignore that?
How can you ignore not inviting them into the discussion?
>> Sam Sepah: Candidates with disabilities
have a unique thought process to bring to a company.
Our country is diverse so the marketplace needs to attract
a lot of diverse people who will
use the products that we're selling or the services we're providing.
If a country is diverse, your team needs to be diverse as well
to parallel what our country's demographics are.
>> Mike Forehand: As team members
they're just as passionate about making a contribution
and being a part of a broader team as everyone else is,
the difference being that they look at the world
and they have different problem-solving and coping skills
that lead them to different solutions.
>> Sean Marihugh: I don't think it's the case
that someone with a disability knows everything about everyone else's disability,
but I think they bring a certain empathy to a company
so they'll understand people have different experiences
and having interns and employees with disabilities,
I think they can bring that perspective.
>> Tony Baylis: I think having people with disabilities in your culture
actually helps people to better understand
about our cultural differences, about our learning differences,
about how you can have different perspectives.
>> Sam Sepah: More sensitivity is needed
when you're talking about interviewing these type of candidates.
You need to think about the support that they're going to need
in the interview beforehand.
And have more of a streamlined process
that makes the candidates feel welcomed right at the start of the interview
so that they feel welcomed into the team.
They know what's going to have to be happening
in the process of the interview.
It empowers them and really allows
for that magic to happen in the interview process.
>> Jean Hodgson: We work currently as a partner with Microsoft
on their autistic hiring program.
We help them recruit, we help them obtain lots of individuals
that they might include in their hiring pool.
We coach the folks that are going to be interviewing them,
we coach the interviewees
in helping them through some of the difficult areas
like phone screenings,
making a little bit of a softer job interview process
so that you can get to the core of the skills of the individual
and see if they are a great fit for your employment.
>> Sam Sepah: One study that really inspired me
that I read about was asking customers in the marketplace
if they learned about a company that hired people with disabilities.
What they found out was that customers that found this out about companies
would be more willing to buy their products and services
and we learned that it's because customers have more respect
for a business that does that
not only because it's the right thing to do
but because they're really taking charge of that responsibility.
They're committed to diversity and hiring a diverse workforce,
including people with disabilities.
>> Jean Hodgson: Anytime that inclusion is part of a goal, everyone benefits.
And when there's technology that is inclusive,
such as videos that are captioned
or websites where it's more accessible to someone with any type of difficulty,
then there’s a more expansive audience,
there’s more expansive ability for profiting.
>> Susann Sears: I think that the investment in everybody's future
has to do with building and designing things that are accessible
from the very beginning.
It's an investment for all our futures,
not just the person, individuals, with disabilities.
None of us know what's going to happen to us individually.
In a matter of seconds, your whole life can change
and you yourself may join the disability community
and need these accommodations,
so it's not just about, you know, hiring and recruiting people
but it's an investment for all of us.
>> Tony Baylis: I think we have a challenge,
but to include people with disabilities
we have to start to work on shedding biases in general,
these implicit and unconscious biases across the board
and that’s even with people with disabilities.
I think we'll have a long road, unfortunately,
but I think it's a road that we can work together.
I think we need organizations and companies
to collaboratively work on this effort.
>> Mike Forehand: In an environment
where industry is based on cross-cultural collaboration
and everything is kind of team-oriented,
having a completely different point of view is invaluable.
>> Sean Marihugh: When we're bringing the perspectives of,
at least considering the different perspectives that other people have,
I think we can make our products way more inclusive,
make our culture, make our workplace
just way more inclusive and a better place to be.
>> Susann Sears: Truly,
attitudinal access is the most important part of being inclusive.
It's not physical access. It's attitudinal access.
So we have to impact culture and I know that takes a while
and that can be challenging
but I think starting out small and having one good success
is an incredible start and then you build momentum from there.