Monica speaks with John Samuel, co-Founder and CEO of Ablr360 – a Disability Inclusion and Digital Accessibility company that aims to remove barriers for all people with disabilities.   

  

In this episode, John shares his story of losing his eyesight and the impact that had on his career. You’ll learn about the accessibility barriers that exist in physical and virtual workplaces, on the web at large, and in employment opportunities and training. John and Monica also discuss current and future solutions, including how to make your website accessible today right now and how we can encourage disabled professionals moving forward. 

“I always say ’Proximity Builds Empathy’- I don’t want people to think about accessibility as a line of code, but rather as a human experience.”

– John Samuel

Timestamps

• 1:32 – When John first realized the impact of his work on the disability community 
• 3:36 – Where there are gaps in the digital divide for accessibility 
• 5:10 – Accessibility in education and voting 
• 6:48 – Barriers to accessibility on websites 
• 8:26 – Recommended adjustments to make your website more accessible 
• 9:56 – Changes for accessibility that help the general population 
• 10:57 – Setting disabled employees up for success 
• 12:34 – Making the process of finding and hiring disabled employees easier 
• 14:22 – How to build a more accessible environment for your employees 
• 16:46 – Options to give blind employees autonomy and assistance navigating 
• 18:06 – New technology that John is excited for in the future 
• 18:52 – Extended Reality (XR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) and their benefits for the disability community 
• 21:54 – Tools to find people with disabilities to hire and to help you test your products 
• 23:17 – How John advocates for the disability community 
• 24:33 – Technology John would love to see in the future 

Episode Takeaways

1. Disability inclusion is an essential aspect of the modern-day workplace. Through removing barriers to reduce the digital divide, companies can expand their outreach of qualified and talented workers no matter their physical ability.
2. Barriers to entry for employment goes beyond the workplace. Job training, applications, and contact forms need to be accessible to people of varying abilities as well.
3. Proximity builds empathy. Accessibility is more than building codes and accommodating needs. It’s about lifting up the human experience.

Actionable Tips

1. Hire disabled workers. When creating increased methods of accessibility in your workplace, these workers can bring their perspective to ensure the problems that need to be solved are being prioritized.
2. There are some things you can do to make your website and workplace more accessible right now, even without any coding experience. Add captions to your videos and video calls, create transcripts for audio content, and add a skip link to your site.
3. Put an accessibility statement on your website, so that if someone has a challenge navigating, they can reach out for assistance.

About John Samuel

John Samuel is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ablr360 – a Disability Inclusion and Digital Accessibility company that aims to remove barriers for all people with disabilities. They do this by eliminating the digital divide, changing the mindsets of people and organizations, and creating pathways for employment. John’s passion for his work is very personal, as he is blind. He wants to make sure the obstacles he has faced are removed for others.

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