Accessibility Should Be an IT Imperative

More inclusive technology deployment will be a key topic at Enterprise Connect 2023.

Eric Krapf, No Jitter

November 3, 2022

2 Min Read
employee in wheelchair working on a laptop
Alamy

The story that most stuck with me from Enterprise Connect 2022 came out of our Enterprise Summit, a keynote panel made up of representatives from enterprise user organizations. Gary LaSasso, senior director of global IT at Amicus Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company, shared a story about a remote-working colleague with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who kept his audio muted throughout calls out of self-consciousness over the background sound of his ventilator.

LaSasso noted that this employee's colleagues weren't concerned about the noise, but the employee's reluctance nonetheless caused him to be less involved than he could have been. When Amicus's IT team learned about the situation, they were able to provide the employee with background noise suppression—not yet a standard feature at the time—and he was able to participate more fully.

"It made his experience so much better," LaSasso said, adding that the employee "literally said, ‘[it] changed my life.'"

At Enterprise Connect, we believe that every enterprise IT organization is in a position to make a similar difference in the lives of its employees with disabilities. We also think that a dedicated focus on accessibility through communications technology can open up opportunities for enterprises to hire more people with disabilities and make these employees' experience better than anyone might have thought possible. That's why we're going to put a focus on accessibility at Enterprise Connect 2023 (EC23).

Related:5 Ways Back-End Developers Can Improve Software Accessibility

For a good introduction to the issues around disability and communications technology, check out this No Jitter post by Claudio Luis Vera, a disability consultant who is also the guiding force for EC23's programming in this area. "Most disabled people would agree that it's not the medical condition that disables you," Vera writes. "It's that the world isn't designed to work with your body or abilities. If there's a mismatch between your abilities and the task at hand, that's where the disability arises."

Vera goes on to write that we don't lack assistive technologies (ATs) that aim to mitigate disability barriers: "Instead, it's that the systems, the websites, the apps, and the content we build don't play nicely with existing AT."

Read the rest of this article on No Jitter.

Read more about:

No Jitter

About the Authors

Eric Krapf

Eric Krapf is general manager and program co-chair for Enterprise Connect, the leading conference/exhibition and online events brand in the enterprise communications industry. He has been Enterprise Connect's program co-chair for over a decade. He is also publisher of No Jitter, the Enterprise Connect community's daily news and analysis website.

Eric served as editor of No Jitter from its founding in 2007 until taking over as publisher in 2015. From 1996 to 2004, Eric was managing editor of Business Communications Review (BCR) magazine, and from 2004 to 2007, he was the magazine's editor. BCR was a highly respected journal of the business technology and communications industry.

Before joining BCR, he was managing editor and senior editor of America's Network magazine, covering the public telecommunications industry. Prior to working in high-tech journalism, he was a reporter and editor at newspapers in Connecticut and Texas.

No Jitter

No Jitter, a sister publication to ITPro Today, is a leading source of information and objective analysis for enterprise communications professionals and decision-makers faced with rapidly evolving technologies and proliferating business/management challenges.

Sign up for the ITPro Today newsletter
Stay on top of the IT universe with commentary, news analysis, how-to's, and tips delivered to your inbox daily.

You May Also Like