Unconference by Design + Diversity

Sheri Byrne-Haber is a prominent global subject matter expert on the subjects of disability and accessibility in business and educational settings. She is best known for launching digital accessibility programs at multiple Fortune 200 companies, including McDonald’s, Albertsons, and VMware, and consulting on government accessibility. Her programs have positively impacted millions of more than 1 billion global people with disabilities.

Presentation
It takes only 8 seconds for a person with a disability to determine whether or not your website, documentation, or mobile application will be usable for them. People with disabilities represent $8 trillion in discretionary spending, and including their first-degree friends and family, represent 51 % of all spending globally. Not only is there the potential loss of revenue for not making your digital properties accessible, failing to account for people with disabilities as customers or users presents an enormous legal risk. Almost 4000 companies in the US were sued for discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2020 alone (and that's with the courts shut for 3 months due to COVID) almost double the 2018 and 2019 figures. Learn how following the global WCAG accessibility guidelines in design, development, and content management as well as doing user research specifically with users with disabilities will help your company be more inclusive while reducing risk and increasing customer satisfaction.

In this episode, we talked to Jen O'Ryan, an Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity strategist focused on helping people build authentically inclusive and welcoming companies. We talked about how organizations can create more inclusive strategies and LGBTQ inclusive strategies. Author of the book Inclusive AF she brings a wealth of know-how and execution knowledge. 

In this episode, we talk to Carrie Fox, owner of Mission Partners, about the power of communication. Communication has the power to change the world, and we explore how communication has been part of Carrie's life as she leads this all-women B corp organization. From the pay gap to SGA President in college, we leave no stone unturned. 

Bennie F. Johnson is the Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design. Bennie thrives on the connections between marketing, technology, education, and innovation. With experience in strategic and consumer marketing, brand management, and innovation management, he is drawn to opportunities that allow him to lead and create new modes for business engagement. He has broad experience growing brands, businesses, and organizations with a special focus on venture launch and brand relaunch business environments.

Today we talked to Kate Chadha Co-Director of the User Experience Practice at World Wide Technology. From women in leadership to accessibility we touched on a wide range of topics around her growth and career. 

Lee Essner is a UX Lead Designer and Principal Consultant, Accessibility, at World Wide Technology. Based in St. Louis, MO, Essner received a BFA in graphic design from Maryville University, where he also played baseball, earning First Team All-Conference honors. Beginning his career working in advertising for clients such as Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, and Enterprise, Essner shifted to product design in 2014 by joining Asynchrony (now World Wide Technology). At WWT, Essner developed a passion for inclusive design, advocating for the implementation of accessibility considerations in product design across the company, and taking steps to codify best practices. This culminated in several presentations to senior leaders and eventually receiving the first official job title related to accessibility at the company in 2019.

Sadie Red Wing is a Lakota graphic designer and advocate from the Spirit Lake Nation of Fort Totten, North Dakota. Red Wing earned her BFA in New Media Arts and Interactive Design at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She received her Master of Graphic Design from North Carolina State University. Previously, Red Wing introduced courses such as Intro to Visual Sovereignty, Inclusive Art & Design, and Indigenous Perspective in Visual Communication at the University of Redlands, as well as Computer Science and Speech at the Indian University of North America. Currently, Red Wing serves as a Student Success Coach for American Indian College Fund (Denver, CO) where she specializes in student retention and resource building for the Native American demographic in higher education spaces.

De Nichols is a designer, activist, social entrepreneur, and lecturer addressing racial inequities within the built environment through the production of interactive art experiences, digital media, and social interventions. Today our host Tim Hykes sat down with long time friend De to learn more about her and talk about Social Justice, her book Design as Protest, and her many other design projects.

In this episode, we explore a question posed about blind hiring and whether or not it could work for hiring designers.

Blind hiring was first seen back in the 1950s as symphony orchestras migrated from solo conductor selection to blind auditions in three rounds: preliminary, semi-final, and final. This change resulted in a 30% increase in female musicians being selected.

In correlations, if we take that same idea and focus on the person’s portfolio and remove all related identification and background information about the artist, would we see the same results in the design field.

Design + Diversity is happy to debut Unconference Podcast by Design + Diversity featuring host Tim Hykes. This podcast will serve as our new additional content that will focus on a broad range of issues involving design and many of it’s adjacent and subfields.

Host Tim Hykes

Hykes is a UX Consultant at World Wide Technology. Throughout the year, he works with many organizations as a consultant for their UX needs. As he works to help companies build frictionless software, he able to learn more about the relationship between culture, company, and people. Tim uses this intersection to gain valuable feedback to enact change within the field. With this insight, he’s positioned to lead our discussions as we explore this new podcast topic.