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Big Picture: All Roads Lead Back to Workplace Accessibility

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Ben Congleton, CEO @ Olark Chat

ben@olark.com

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Follow along with speaker notes

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https://olark.page.link/csun-talk

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Goal

You leave with one idea you can try at work to help your organization make progress in your accessibility goals.

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ben@olark.com

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Table of Contents

About Me and Olark
Our Accessibility Journey
Three Lessons

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ben@olark.com

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Hi, I’m Ben.

I like to learn.

I like to solve problems.

I care a lot about humans.

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A little about me.

I am a lifelong learner. CSUN is so much fun for me because I get learn so much from every conversation, topics have ranged from the most accessible platform to build a marketing website on, to how AI can improve content governance, and why folks on the western side of finland speak swedish.

I like to solve problems. And sharing that excitement, for example, to help my daughters who are now 4 and 5 (I show them on this slide to emphasize their cuteness and how important they are to me) I've been teaching them to dive deep and ask 5 whys when they run into situations like, why daddy couldn't find parking last time he went to the supermarket in Santa Clara. Solution, don't go during rush hour and dinner time.

I care a lot about humans. When I built my company our mission was to make business human, and I've always viewed my role as CEO as creating the environment where our team can have what they need to make the most impact in their personal and professional lives. Things like remote, flexible work, good leave policies, and solving meaningful problems.

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Melanie

Product Engineer

Lead engineering for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.

Atinder

Sales

Closed deals with our a11y customers

Rhi

Product Ops

Coordinated audits and AT usability testing and tracked fixes

Kelly

Marketing

Assembled team and made the booth and brand more inclusive

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What makes Olark unique?

We’re small.

We’ve been around awhile.

We’re bootstrapped.

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Table of Contents

About Me and Olark
Our Accessibility Journey
Three Lessons

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ben@olark.com

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Accessibility Journey

2009

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Accessible by Chance

We learned that simplicity supports accessibility

…and disabled people appreciate chat.

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Accessibility Journey

2009

2017

2020

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Accessible by Chance

Accessible by Craft

Accessible by Requirement

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Accessibility Journey

2017

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Accessible by Craft

Passionate people will take ownership of accessibility

…but if they burn out, where does that leave you?

Madalyn Parker

Front-End Developer

Champion of humans

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Accessibility Journey

2009

2017

2020

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Accessible by Chance

Accessible by Craft

Accessible by Requirement

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Accessibility Journey

2020

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Accessible by Requirement

Buyers who mandate WCAG will motivate leaders

…but not necessarily your team

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Accessibility Journey

2020

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…because compliance is boring and requires tedious back-and-forth

Accessible by Requirement

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Accessibility Journey

2021 Accessible by Intention

2022 Accessible by Design

2023 Accessible by Delight

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Accessibility Journey

2021 Accessible by Intention

Accessibility on the web

needs help

…and it’s everyone’s job

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Accessibility Journey

2021 Accessible by Intention

2022 Accessible by Design

2023 Accessible by Delight

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Accessibility Journey

2022 Accessible by Design

True impact requires everyone row the same boat

…it’s a marathon, but sprinting is good too.

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Accessibility Journey

2021 Accessible by Intention

2022 Accessible by Design

2023 Accessible by Inclusion

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Accessibility Journey

2023 Accessible by Inclusion

All roads lead back to workplace accessibility… and that requires looking inward

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Table of Contents

About Me and Olark
Our Accessibility Journey
Three Lessons

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ben@olark.com

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Progress

Lesson 1

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Meryl Evans

Accessibility Consultant

Perfection

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Becoming More Accessible

Fun!

Integration

Usability

Compliance

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Lesson 2

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Christopher Patnoe

Disability Inclusion @ Google

“The best thing to do is just hire people with disabilities.”

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“Disabled people don’t get to have fun.”

Elsa Sjunnesson

Inclusive UX Designer

Writer and Disability Rights Activist

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Is a Creative Director, Illustrator, Animator

Part of the Big D Deaf community in Austin, TX (full-time ASL)

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Sammi Schouten

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Sammi’s work

sammikschouten@gmail.com

(hire her)

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Trained Olarkers for booth duty on etiquette w/ disabilities

Issued guidance on language around disability for brand style guide

Conducted market research into the WCAG status of our competitors

Credit: Lisa Frank

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Anonymous Golden Retriever

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Motivated > Obligated

Lesson 3

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If you’re not…

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Making them money
Saving days of time vs minutes of time
Giving teammates *new* access

…don’t expect a11y customers to �behave differently.

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"And so to put things at a high level there, we definitely were impressed with how accessible Olark was."

— Blake Steinecke, Head of Growth, Clusiv

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Workplace Accessibility

Progress > Perfection
Hire people with disabilities
Motivation > Obligation

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Elsa Sjuenneson

I want to close with an anecdote from Elsa. Part of her role on our marketing team was to help us review our content from the perspective of someone with low vision.

As some of you know we’ve been giving out icecream to folks who complete a survey at our booth. Elsa didn’t hold back in pointing out that our original ice cream cone illustration looked like a big penis for someone with lower vision.

Up on the slide, I have two examples, one with a flier that looks like an cup of icecream, another that looks like a big white penis to folks with low vision.

Sometimes having multiple perspectives is a nice to have, other times it saves the day!

[This slide features two examples of a postcard design for the conference. The first is on the top left, and it has a white background with dark text and an illustrated Joe’s Italian Ice. The second, and final design on the bottom has a purple background, light text, and a photo of the Joe’s Italian Ice.]

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THANK YOU.

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Accessibility Motivated?

Want to demo our

accessible operator experience?

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EMAIL:atinder@olark.com

SUBJECT: CSUN

TRY IT