Transcript CNIB National Braille Conference

Business and Educational Services in Technology
David Best: An Accessibility IT Specialist helping organizations to increase
employee productivity and market growth.
CNIB National Braille
Conference
Digital Intelligence And The Social Conscience Bridging The Digital Mindset
Exploring the emerging global economy and the
impact on disabled Canadians. Digital
communications and the power of knowledge is
shifting the balance of society. From corporate
control to crowd sourcing influence, we are
changing the world and the role we each play.
What is the future of education and employment
for blind, low vision, and deaf-blind Canadians?
Are we in control of our destiny or subject to
fate?
CONTENT
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Objective
Purpose
Progress
Trends
Observation
Conclusion
Actions
Background Information
Objective
1. A greater level of understanding in the business need
for flexibility and community engagement sustainable
growth in revenue, return on investment, and
profitability is not just about legal compliance.
2. A greater appreciation for product and service
standards. A competitive advantage is built upon talent
and market growth.
3. Motivated to embrace change, and create a business
model that enables people. Innovation and
collaboration is at the intersection where humans and
machines connect.
Purpose
To create a more inclusive society through
Education, Awareness, and Advocacy, that will
result in greater equal employment opportunities
for blind, low vision, and deaf-blind Canadians.
Measuring economic growth and maturity of
progress:
1. Education to improve quality of life
2. Awareness to shift attitudes
3. Advocacy to improve Collaboration
Progress
How is your organization preparing to compete in a rapidly changing world of compliance
standards and inclusion best practices? Comparing past events and current activities will
provide a greater understanding for future global economic trends and changing societal
expectations
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Progress
We are moving toward a global digital economy by
seamlessly integrating machines and people:
• Machines connected together through a network, provide
big data analytics and artificial intelligence, for economic
growth.
• People connecting together through a vast network, are
closing the gap in cultural differences and levels of
education for a more inclusive society.
Trends
What Is Changing:
1.People: Myths and attitudes
2.Technology: Employment and performance
3.Collaboration: Partnerships and inclusion
4.Innovation: Processes and behavior
5.Business: Strategies and growth
People Trends
Shift in attitudes and expectations:
• In the 1960's we measured people ability by their IQ, intelligence.
• In the 1970's the women's movement promoted EQ, emotional
ability to build relationships and value people.
• In the 1980's a shrinking world (increased air travel and
telecommunications) forced us to think SQ, social ability.
• In the 1990's governments legislated standards and policies for
PQ, political correctness in speech and behavior.
• In the past decayed, we shifted toward Cultural Intelligence (CQ),
engaging and interacting with people around the world.
• This decayed may be known as the Digital Intelligence (DQ) era,
the merging of people and machines.
Technology Trends
• In the past century assistive technologies were stand alone devices.
• In the past century digital communications was primarily character
based.
• Blind people were the first to use GPS, OCR, and voice recognition
technologies.
• In the past decayed Graphic User Interfaces (GUI) were increasingly
in use, creating new barriers for disabled people.
Shift in technology
technology tools: support began appearing
• In the past decayed assistive
in mainstream products.
• We now see a movement toward miniaturization, cloud sourcing,
and wireless devices.
• We now see an increasing network of connecting machines.
Collaboration Trends
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shift to open source:
In the past century we saw a separation of private research and
public research.
In the past assistive technology research was a niche market that
lead innovation.
In the past assistive technology was extremely expensive.
IN the past century there was a lot of public funding for nonprofit
organizations.
We now see greater innovation collaboration between private and
public sectors.
We now see a growing acceptance of global standards and
regulations.
We now see a greater level of acceptance and involvement of the
disabled community.
We now see a growing acceptance of diversity and inclusion best
practices in the corporate workplace
Innovation Trends
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Shift toward cloud based processes:
In the past products were designed for a specific use
without user design input.
Social media is connecting people in real time.
Crowd sourcing on cloud clusters are engaging people
around the world.
Increasingly, assistive technology is being integrated into
mainstream products and services.
We now see a shift in power for innovation from
corporate to grassroots.
There is a growing acceptance for universal user
experience design.
Business Trends
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Shift in business priorities:
Stats Can reports a huge skills gap between talent and
qualified Canadian worker.
Employment reports show a persistently high
unemployment rate for disabled Canadians.
Blind employees have limited career training and
networking opportunities.
Reports show 1 out of 5 working Canadians live with a
mental health issue, reducing productivity due to
absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover.
Economic growth within Canada is shifting toward
entrepreneur and small business ventures.
Business reports show a large increase of innovative
business start-ups within Ontario.
Business reports show that large successful companies
(like Nortel and Blockbuster) have failed due to cultural
arrogance and system blindness.
Future Trends
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Technology:
We are crossing a new frontier in the evolution of computing and entering
the era of cognitive systems. scientists and engineers around the world are
pushing the boundaries of science and technology to create machines that
sense, learn, reason, and interact with people in new ways to provide
insight and advice. The speed of smart wearable's innovation is outpacing
established Smartphone and tablet market growth. The global wearable
technology market estimated value is $5.26 billion. Ontario is a recognized
global leader in wearable innovations.
People:
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the
first international human rights treaty to place an obligation on countries to
focus on mechanisms for monitoring (Article 33-2). The 76 ratifying
countries represent 72 percent of the world population. The CRPD progress
report offers a unique benchmarking tool that collects data on country laws,
policies, and programs pertaining to accessible and assistive Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) around the globe. Ontario is a
recognized global leader in establishing inclusive society standards
(AODA).
Observation
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Innovation:
The trend data shows us that the technology is accelerating faster than our
ability to put it to use. This innovation is being driven by consumer demand,
and organizations are struggling to maintain IT infrastructure stability. This
is having a profound impact on the workplace. A paradigm shift in society,
driven by miniaturization, cloud sourcing, and wireless mobile devices, is
placing greater power in the hands of consumers. However, the ability to
use new emerging technologies is currently at the heart of social inclusion,
with those excluded being left out of many work, entertainment,
communication, healthcare and social benefits.
Business:
The rules of business are changing at exponential rates. The capabilities
and processes that created leadership positions in the last century are
diminishing in relevance or being neutralized altogether, making way for a
new set of competitive forces. And as we move from an industrial to
information economy, every company will need to move and innovate at the
speed of their competitors.
Conclusion
As we approach the intersection of people and machines, the rapid
change in society is having an impact on the way we interact with one
another and how we conduct daily life tasks. Progress is influenced by
two societal barriers.
Attitudes:
• Technology fatigue in the workplace impact decisions and career
choices.
• The business case for disability is based on legal compliance or
best practices.
• Employees with a disability are a business asset or liability.
• AODA enforcement is a business burden or a growth strategy.
• Universal design and accessibility strategies introduce operational
challenges or business opportunities.
• Employee discontentment and satisfaction effect productivity and
workplace health.
Conclusion
Individuals work well together, but large organizations have created
barriers through automation.
Systemic:
• For the most part accommodation programs are not effective.
• Social media and Virtual Education/Ecommerce has excluded blind
people.
• Innovation R&D, for health and fitness, does not reach the blind
population until it is in the mainstream.
• Cost and complexities of emerging technologies have marginalized
at risk groups.
• Organizations are struggling to develop good accessibility
governance models.
• Improved processes for accountability and responsibility is needed
for greater employee and customer relations.
Business Actions
• Develop a Genuine Progress Index (GPI) to measure
satisfaction and growth.
• Define a baseline of standards and expectations to guide
progress.
• Create an interactive communications process to engage
all employees in decision making.
• Evaluate productivity for technology fatigue, career
opportunities, and social engagement.
• Identify attitude and systemic barriers that impede
market growth.
• Build trusting relationships through collaboration and
innovation.
Community Actions
It is estimated that less than 20% registered CNIB clients are totally
blind, and only 10% are Braille users, and less than 1% of those are
professionally employed.
It is estimated that less than 23% working age clients are employed,
and about 20% live below the poverty line.
BeBot's Bad Day - YouTube
• Get emerging technologies into the hands of the blind community as
soon as possible.
• Educate business leaders on workplace technology solutions.
• Train/mentor blind professionals in the use of workplace technology
tools.
• Make WCAG accessible website screen reader usable.
• Shift advocacy into the hands of the blind community.
Resources
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Roger L. Martin, Harvard Business Review: The Rise (and Likely Fall) of the Talent
Economy
Special report: America's Best Companies to Work for in 2014
DiversityInc report: Top 10 Companies for People With Disabilities in 2014
Canadian Business SenseAbility (CBSA) Economic Action Plan
Tom Turpin, president of Randstad Canada: Canada needs a mindset shift to fix the
skills gap.
Monique Valcour, Harvard Business Review: Give Your Organization a Work-Life
Vision
Kathy Caprino, Forbes Magazine: The Crushing Similarities Between Family And
Business Dysfunction
JANET MCFARLAND, The Globe and Mail: Culture of arrogance felled telecom giant
Nortel, study finds
Daniel Goleman, Author of FOCUS: The Hidden Driver of Excellence: Systems
Blindness: The Illusion of Understanding
Gerald parker, Executive Director of the Institute of Canadian Justice: Inaccessible,
Dangerous and Deadly
Thank You
Contact David Best
Phone 905-791-1081
Send E-mail to [email protected]
Presentation:
http://www.davebest.info/html/CNIB2014.html