Technology can make life easier and bring efficiencies and access to the workplace. But for employees with disabilities, are some tech tools more harmful than helpful?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 20% of people with a disability were employed in 2021. That's an improvement over 2020, when 17% of those with disabilities were participating in the labor market, but still more than three times less than the average for people without disabilities.
Not only is it harder for workers with disabilities to get hired, they often face additional challenges once they join companies and realize that
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"When it comes to creating an inclusive environment, there's a saying among people who are disabled: 'nothing for us without us,'" she says. "People with disabilities are such an underrepresented group in many technology conversations. Often disability only gets flagged when it's for accessibility — organizations paying attention to it only when it becomes something of a risk area."
The shift to remote work and the subsequent
"Right now I can actually turn on a closed captions feature [on this video call] to include those who might not be able to hear," she says. "They would see captions coming up on the screen. That same functionality also allows the person that set up the meeting to translate those captions to another language, and there's even an app that you can plug in to have an ASL interpreter come on the call and translate as well."
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Mota, who herself is dyslexic, recalls her own onboarding at ADP, which required her to read PDF document after PDF document, when a video or auditory aid would have been more helpful for her. It made a standard procedure feel exclusionary, a common pain point.
"People feel that they don't belong," Mota says. "There's a lack of awareness that makes them go 'Wait, why wasn't I wasn't thought of in this experience?'"
Today, Mota utilizes a number of
For example, Apple's voice automated guide Siri was first developed for individuals who were either blind or visually impaired, but is now utilized by most if not all of iPhone users — disabled or not.
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"If we start creating technology with users in mind that have disabilities, then we're going to end up creating a universal type of design that everyone will enjoy," Mota says. "People with disabilities are now starting to speak up a lot more, demanding that if companies are going to create a technology, they shouldn't just create it with accessibility in mind. They should create it with their experience and their representation in mind as well."
As Mota sees it, this is more than an accessibility issue —
"Most tools will have some sort of accessible options that you can turn on," Mota says. "Sometimes the issue is that a lot of these are off by default and people have to go and find these things. So even without a specific tool in mind or a specific platform, always check the accessibility options for whatever tech you're using."