Technology and Disability
Hi, I'm Neil
Jacobson. I am extremely honored to be able to address you today. As
a person with a significant disability entering my golden years, it
is wonderful seeing young people excited about taking on tomorrow's
challenges. I was asked to talk about technology and disability.
Because I seldom do exactly as I'm told, I'm also going to speak
about employment of people with disabilities. After Rolf and I speak,
I hope you have lots of questions. I love questions! Be forewarned
that if you have no questions,I have questions for you!
As background,
after 29 years of working at Wells Fargo, I retired to start a
disability-focused employment company that specializes in consulting
on staffing and placement issues. I quickly realized that there are
systemic problems which intrinsically inhibit people with
disabilities from working and being productive. Our society holds
very low expectations for individuals with disabilities. Our
government's defining of disability as the 'inability to work' in
order to receive disability benefits is an inherent disincentive. I
am dedicating the rest of my retirement to see that these antiquated
policies do change. I am doing so by working with The World
Institute on Disability (WID). To learn more about my work now,
please see Our Career ACCESS dot org.
At Wells Fargo, I
was a Sr. Vice President in their I T department. In the 80's, I was
the architect responsible for designing the first 7 by 24 banking
system in the U.S. My last assignment at the Bank was to manage the
design and implementation of mobile banking. I love I T! Especially
software. Software proves that there is always a way to accomplish
what you want to accomplish. At the Bank, I often drove my
development staff crazy. I would insist that any feature the user
wanted to put into our application, there was always a way to do so,
and indeed there was. I must admit, I live my life as a person with
a disability in a similar fashion. Whatever I really want to do,
there's always a way!
We'll
talk more about Wells Fargo in a moment. I want you also to know that
before working at the bank, I co-founded Computer Technologies
Program (C T P). It was 1975. The co-founder was a 24 year man,
named Scott Luebking, who had a spinal cord injury. At the time, I
was 22 years old and my speech was a bit better than it is now. Scott
and I set up the program, wrote the curricula, found the students,
taught classes, ran the labs, found internships and found jobs for
the graduates. Students were in class or in the lab 8 to 12 hours a
day, 5 or 6 days a week. My idea was to convince the students that if
they could survive me and CTP, they could do anything! I
always told my students how wonderful it is to work as a computer
programmer in the 'real business world'. After doing this for 4
years, I thought it might help if I actually went into that 'real
business world' for a year or two so that when I returned to C T P I
could indoctrinate the students even better! To my surprised, I found
that the 'real business world' is great. I stayed at Wells Fargo
almost 30 years.
My
experience at Wells Fargo leads me to believe that corporations are
more ready for people with disabilities than we are for them.
Focusing on making a profit can be a very equalizing activity.
Focusing on doing a great job rather than focusing on ones disability
can be liberating. At the Bank, I found that if you did a good job
and added to the Bank's bottom line, it didn't matter what color you
were or what religion you practiced or what disability you had.
Focusing on the bottom line also leads to creativity. There
were many nights when there were system problems. Support personnel
from the Bank's computer centers would call me and inevitably find a
way to understand what I was saying – because they needed to! One
of my favorite stories happened near the beginning of my career,
before there was online computing, The system crashed at 1AM. My van
was in the shop, Trains in the Bay Area don’t run all night. Wells
Fargo sent an armored van to transport me and my 300 pound powered
wheelchair to the data center.
Assistive
technology has always been an amusing concept for me. My own
disability, Cerebral Palsy, is quite significant. I cannot drink
without a straw, but are drinking straws considered assistive
technology? I also have very limited use of my hands, and use a word
expansion application to help me type faster. Many people with
disabilities I know use a speech recognition system to verbally
navigate their computer and the Internet and create documents. These
applications have been called assistive technology, but when people
without disabilities use them they are just seen as mainstream
conveniences and aids to productivity. Would anyone call Siri an
assistive technology? What about speakerphones? Gadgets and
applications seem to be classified as assistive technology only when
they are used by people with disabilities—and only until the
general public realizes how universal that gadget or app can be. When
people ask me what assistive technology I like the best, I answer it
is my Wells Fargo Visa Card. It's surprising how much easier it is
for people to understand me after they see that card!
So
is it assistive technology, or a mainstream technology product that
has accessibility features? The technologies themselves have no such
categories, and the differences only seem to arise in terms of who is
using them in what context. Most, if not all, developers and
companies I know, want to build accessible technologies. Who wouldn't
want their product to be usable by as many potential customers as
possible? At Wells Fargo, I always ensured the Bank had at least 1
team member actively engaged with the W3C Web Accessibility
Initiative (W A I). Their web accessibility standards are quite good,
which is why they’re being implemented in law and practice
worldwide. The main issue was, and continues to be, how to educate
thousands of developers on the standards and how to ensure an
ever-changing system continuously conforms to the standards. I look
forward to when changes can quickly, if not automatically, be tested
and reconstructed to meet W3C W A I guidelines. I look forward to
companies proudly displaying an icon depicting their alliance with
accessibility guidelines.
Universal
Design is a 2 way obligation. I encourage assistive technology
designers who are designing products and services for people with
disabilities to consider how their inventions can be used by the
general public. Just last week, a small hardware firm sent a designer
to my house to find out what kind of hardware might better enable me
to use my smart phone or tablet from my wheelchair. I applauded them
for considering the needs of people with disabilities. I explained
how I'd really like a stand mounted on the wheelchair that would hold
the IPAD steady and that could recharge the IPAD using solar energy.
I urge them to design the stand for bicyclists and people pushing
strollers. Marketing to the general public usually leads to a better
product at a lower price. Marketing to the general public helps
ensure that people with disabilities are aware of the product and
removes the stigma often associated with using assistive
technologies. Marketing to the general public is also more lucrative,
ensuring companies will be around to build the next great product.
The
Americans with Disability Act has been an incredibly wonderful civil
rights law. The world, especially here in the U.S. is extremely more
accessible to and accepting of people with disabilities. Technology,
including assistive technologies have progressed well beyond anyone's
expectations. There is plenty left to be done. Expectations of
people with disabilities are still extremely low. Well over 75% of
people with disabilities in the U.S. are not working. To receive
disability benefits from the government people with disabilities must
prove they are not able to work. Think about that. When I first went
to work, I received a letter from the government telling me I was no
longer disabled. I went through an identity crisis!
Now
is the time to take the next step. Now is the time to expect people
with disabilities to take full advantage of the progress made to date
and to be active and productive people. We are counting on you, the
young scholars and the young people to define the new policies and
technologies that will enable all people to be as active, productive
and fulfilled as they can and want to be. Go out there and do your
thing. Go Go Go! And whatever you do, have fun doing it! Thank you!
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