Download transcript of episode 205.

Today’s guest is Sara Kobilka, who lives in New York state. Sara is the owner of Renaissance Woman Consulting. Sara has an insatiable curiosity that has driven her career in many different directions that she’s been able to connect in her freelance work. She primarily works in the STEM space. 

Sara is also a career coach, primarily for people looking to change industries or disciplines. She hosts LinkedIn sprints to help freelancers and others increase their presence on LinkedIn. 

She is passionate about incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, access, accessibility, belonging and justice (DEIAABJ) throughout her work. In today’s episode, we focus on accessibility — how we can support people with disabilities and embed accessibility into our work.

In this episode, we talk about: 

• The current political climate in the U.S. and how it affects DEIAABJ.
• Why the term DEI is limiting. 
• The wide variety of disabilities and the five primary categories of disabilities — it’s so much more than a person who uses a wheelchair. 
• The “curb cut effect” — how accessibility designed for people with disabilities ends up benefiting the larger population. 
• The disability community is one of the only (or only) marginalized groups you are able to join (when you break a bone, suffer chronic pain, have a temporary condition). 
• The movement away from the term “invisible” disability. 
• Remember: Progress over perfection. 
• Areas to start with: alt text, hashtags, closed captions. 

Resources:

Deliberate Freelancer Facebook group

Support Deliberate Freelancer at Buy Me a Coffee

Episode #176 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Use Conscious Language in Content Creation, with Crystal Shelley

Sara’s website, RenWomanConsulting.com

Sara’s LinkedIn Sprints

Sara on LinkedIn

Sara on Facebook

Sara on BlueSky

Sara on Instagram

Lily Zheng’s FAIR framework

Lily Zheng on LinkedIn

AccessibleSocial.com

The Open Notebook’s list of Diversity Style Guides for Journalists

BetterAllies.com

Meryl Evans’ TED Talk: “The Pandemic’s Influence on Accessibility”

Meryl Evans on LinkedIn

Sara’s blog post “Finding Resources to Support Accessible SciComm Efforts”

“10 Resources to Advance Disability Inclusion and Justice” by Lindsey Mandolini