Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability - Do-It

Ending the Cycle of Low Expectations

Visitor — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 21:34:51 +0000

By: Danny Thomas Vang

"A school counselor administered the Braille test to me at a different time and place than everyone else so that I could have more time. However, it was not even graded until after the winners had already been announced, and my parents asked how I had done. I can only assume that everyone thought I would not have been competitive. But after it was finally graded, I actually came in second."

How teachers and schools interact with students serves as a major indicator of future success; a negative outlook will stifle potential but a positive outlook can promote innovation and bring out the best in a student. Nicole Torcolini, a blind woman who is a computer programmer in the accessibility department at Google, spoke about how engagement with work readiness programs that outreach to people with disabilities can bridge the gap between a lackluster supportive environment for the disability community and tech relevant careers. She is a proud Stanford graduate who loves to figure out how objects and items operate.

As shown by the opening quotation from Torcolini, low societal expectations of people with disabilities can limit students with disabilities trying to carve out a path in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Like Torcolini, many of the other interviewees we spoke with remembered being discouraged from STEM fields – labs tended to be inaccessible and chemistry and math made for more challenging translations to braille.

However, Torcolini was able to break this cycle of low expectations and pursue her dreams because of her supportive family as well as several programs aimed to support people with disabilities pursuing careers in tech: Youth Employment Solutions (YES); Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (DO-IT); and camp sessions held by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB).

Torcolini expressed how the employment readiness programs gave her the chance to practice mock interviews, learn more about tech, engage in volunteer jobs, network with people in the field, and create relationships with mentors. She argues that when hosting programs to encourage people to pursue a career in tech, employers should “reserve spots for people with disabilities or reach out to the community to find people to participate in existing programs” to ensure that diverse talent is brought to the workforce. These programs will allow students with disabilities to decide for themselves whether tech is the correct path for them.

The benefits of these programs aren’t just for people with disabilities. Torcolini points out that “There is a misconception that if you have a disability, you cannot work and are going to cost the company a lot of money. But people with disabilities contribute a lot of good ideas and perspectives to companies. Even if they need equipment, people with disabilities still work and can be productive and an asset to the company.”

Torcolini demonstrates the need for people with disabilities in tech in her current role at Google, where she knows she’s making a difference. She explains, “Most people who work on accessibility have never used a screen reader before. If they have, they have played with it. But not actually used it. By hiring me, they got someone who uses a screen reader and knows accessibility problems.”

To learn more about the contributions and perspectives of people with disabilities working in tech, watch our webinar (with audio description and captioning): https://longmoreinstitute.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/beyond-diversity-101-learning-from-the-perspectives-of-people-with-disabilities-in-tech-w-webinar-video/

Read more from our series on disability as #diversityintech:

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Youth Employment Services

The Glass Elevator: Chris Schlechty’s Path through Tech

Visitor — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 22:07:36 +0000

Chris Schlechty, a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft, makes his story of breaking into tech as a person with a disability sound rather easy. He visited the Microsoft campus as a student at a nearby high school, and there he learned about the “DO-IT program” (Disability Opportunities Internetworking Technology), run by the University of Washington, which helps people with disabilities secure careers in STEM. By his senior year of high school, he was already a participant with DO-IT and an intern at Microsoft. When he graduated college, he had an offer to come back to Microsoft full time and has remained with the company ever since.

His disability may, in fact, have given him a head start on his career success. He shared, “I’ve had a lot more personal experience with time management and planning than other people have. Being a wheelchair user, I have a lot of experience planning logistics, thinking how I’m going to get from point A to B, so it’s effectively a self-managing perspective. Doing extra planning, figuring out the schedules - it kinda blends into project development and being a manager of people. You already have a subset of those skills.”

At Microsoft, where he serves as his team’s accessibility expert, he has felt accepted and welcomed from day one. His accommodations as a wheelchair rider, namely a well-organized office and an accessible desk, have always been met, and he remarks that his accommodations are treated no differently than other nondisabled team members’ needs, like working from home or being able to leave at a set time to pick up their kids.

It’s outside his place of employment where he sometimes encounters negative perceptions of disability. “People always assume that since I’m in a wheelchair and young, people think I’m not working, living at home, and then they find out that ‘You work at Microsoft? Really?,’ that initial shock that you’re defying what they expected.”

While Chris’s path into tech was straightforward, the path forward for his career is murkier due to “the glass elevator,” (think “glass ceiling,” but a barrier that is more disability-specific). “You can only get so high up before you risk losing your benefits,” Chris explains, “There are a lot of strategies but it’s really hard to navigate, it’s a huge pain… I crossed the threshold and now rely on family for personal care which I know is not a long-term solution and I’m not entirely sure how I’ll navigate that moving forward.”

While the glass elevator is a problem in all employment positions, it’s particularly likely in the tech sector today. Chris added, “The healthcare is great, but you have to be able to live and do stuff other than just going to the doctor. It’s difficult because a lot of the tech jobs are in really expensive areas, so it’s the high cost of housing, and you’d be paying for at least two added personal care assistants. There’s so many extra expenses when you have to rely on other people.”

Chris’s story raises an important point that’s often forgotten when we discuss the need for more diversity in tech. Getting people like Chris, who has clearly been an asset to the company, to work in tech isn’t just about adding a disability page to a company’s website or asking recruiters to strive for more disability hires. It involves opening up the paths for disabled people in hiring, retention, and development, and sometimes, that might involve supporting social changes that go beyond the workplace.

Interested in more on disability in tech? You can watch our webinar “Beyond Diversity 101: Learning from the Perspectives of People with Disabilities in Tech” now (with captioning and audio description).

Read more from our Disability in Tech series here:

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People with Disabilities in Tech

technology

the glass elevator

University of Washington