The First Steps to Breaking into Digital Accessibility Careers

LOUISE: Who am I? I am Louise Clark. I am a certified professional in web accessibility. I've been in the tech industry for about six years now.

I am currently a UX digital accessibility consultant at US Bank. I work with designers. I help them think about ways to be more inclusive. Ways to communicate about accessibility needs to our developers.

When we're handing off our designs. It's a lot of fun. I work with a great group of people. I also co-founded a group called Queen City Bytes.

And we are a tech group that... Our mission really is to provide technology training to marginalized groups in our city, in the Charlotte area. So we work in partnership with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library to provide these trainings. We've been online for quite a while now.

As have we all. But our goal especially was to be able to get out into the branches. So we could reach more people and provide access to thinking about technology careers. And I do have my email here, in case you want to get in touch with me afterwards.

Have any questions. LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter, whatever. You can get ahold of me. You can find me.

And today, we are going to... Well, I'm gonna talk a little bit about my journey to accessibility. Mainly because it has some of the themes that I'll be talking about in the presentation. About how to break into the accessibility profession.

Then I want to talk about three things that I think are important in this conversation. One is: Expanding your awareness. Two: Expanding your community. And then three: Exploring the career paths' skill sets themselves.

And I'll always start my presentations with this very well known quote. And I say very well known. But very well known maybe to digital accessibility professionals. "The power of the web is in its universality.

Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." And this quote really lights me up. It really gets me excited about my work with digital accessibility. Because I realized...

And it reminds me that the idea of inclusion, the idea of accessibility, the idea that everyone should be able to access the web and all of the services and information in it has been part of the original inception. The original idea. So I always love to remind myself of that. Okay.

So my path to accessibility, moving beyond the crossroads, and I have an image here, and the image is of criss-crossing train tracks, and it kind of looks like spaghetti train tracks. And that's because I found accessibility -- and really my career in technology, when I was at a crossroads in my life. Up to that point, in my previous career, my previous life, I was a Latin American history professor. I taught women and gender studies.

Colonial Mexican studies. And lots of conversations about institutions that created inequity in society. And so... From being a Latin American history professor, it really inspired me to get involved in my community.

And really join a lot of different kind of social justice efforts. So I was a refugee and racial justice coordinator for the Stan Greenspan Center of Peace and Social Justice. I was the President of the Charlotte chapter of the National Organization for Women. I also helped to organize a group that...

It was called the Compassion Action Network. And we were organizing to try and assist children, undocumented children, who are arriving at our border. This was in 2014. I'm telling you all of this, because...

Really just to emphasize that my instinct have always been about being vigilant around issues of social justice and issues of equity. And so it was absolutely amazing, when I was able to connect those with my work in technology. And my work in technology... It was a non-traditional path.

I attended frontend developer Bootcamp. And I loved that. I will caveat to say that in that Bootcamp, there was no mention of accessibility. Or disability.

And it's a huge problem for Bootcamps, continuing to today. That was six years ago. I haven't seen a whole lot of improvement. And I know that there are organizations -- we will talk about this especially in the academic realm -- that we're really working to address accessibility, digital accessibility awareness.

And so we'll talk a little bit about an organization called Teach Access. That's really working with universities, to provide that awareness. But when I was going through Bootcamp, and even when I had my first developer jobs, accessibility wasn't even on my radar. And it wasn't until I was given an opportunity with an internship for a software development company -- the UX lead gave me a research project on design systems.

And in the design system research, I found accessibility. Right? As part of that research. And I was so intrigued by the idea of it that I reached out to Deque.

I found a software company that I knew was invested at the time. I knew it was invested in these software accessibility tools. I wasn't really sure what they did. But I reached out.

I said... Hey, I'm a developer. I'm also part of a group at that time -- I was co-leading a group called Girl Develop It. I said...

Would you mind... Do you have anyone who could train us or lead a workshop? And the CEO, Priti Kumar, reached out herself, and flew herself and her lead trainer down to Charlotte. And they did this training.

And it changed my life. Not only did that change my life, and was of course impactful for our group, but she flew me out to CSUN, the Assistive Technology Conference, at the time -- was in San Diego. And it was an amazing experience of connection. And I had never been around a community, and especially in the tech space, technology community, of such a welcoming group of people who just wanted to make a difference.

And there were people there advocating for themselves. There were people who were just really motivated to bring about change, and make the web, and digital applications, more inclusive for everyone. And I came back from that, and knew that accessibility was gonna always be part of my career. Whether it was in my title or not.

And so I'm gonna keep going with that. But we'll talk more about this. Oh, one important part about the CSUN conference -- and we'll come back to this as well -- but I saw a woman named Glenda Sims, who was people out at the Deque -- they had a whole room where they were doing presentations about accessibility. And she was so warm at recognizing my...

Just enthusiasm for accessibility. And I asked her if she would mentor me. And she said: Absolutely. Without hesitation.

And I just want to say: To those of you who are watching this, who maybe are in the accessibility profession, you know, who are you going to spark to become part of this industry? Because she was so warm and welcoming that it helped me very easily transition to a career. Both she and Priti. Transition to a career where I could focus and wanted to focus on issues of accessibility for people with disabilities.

Okay. So expand your awareness. This is my first bit of advice, for anyone breaking into... Who wants to break into the digital accessibility space.

Expand your awareness by centering people with disabilities. And what I mean by that is: A lot of times, if you are interested in technology, you may go in as a designer or a developer, or a product manager. Content author. Right?

All of these different kinds of jobs. And you don't actually discover accessibility until you get into your work. And even then, it's not necessarily about people with disabilities. It might be about writing good semantic code.

Or if you're a designer, testing your designs -- color hex codes. Are they accessible? But what does that actually mean, right? What does it mean to be someone with low vision who can't interact with an app, because of low color contrast.

Or because we have a ridiculous amount of stuff that is sticky, and when they zoom in, they don't get enough context to be able to operate the application. So... I love this quote by Samantha Evans. Getting at the why means understanding the who, so that we can put together the how to deliver the what.

We have to start with the people. Okay. So one way I recommend getting... You know, gaining more understanding is reading...

I have a number of books here. And I'll read off the titles. But then I will tell you about a few of them. Demystifying Disability by Emily Ladau, Disability Visibility, by Alice Wong, More Than Organs, by Kay Ulanday Barrett.

A Boy Called Bat. By Elaina Arnold. The Degenerates, Spectrums, Haben, Blind Man's Bluff, Cost of Living, and Fish in a Tree. And I can already tell, just by reading that list out, I'm not gonna have enough time to read all these out, but I have created a resource list for you, that I will distribute after this conversation, that has everything in my presentation listed and linked.

Described and linked. So fear not. What I want to mention in this: Demystifying Disability really I feel like could be recommended reading for any kind of team. Product team.

And especially if you're thinking about getting into the accessibility space. Emily Ladau does a wonderful job. It's very personable. It's not this academic speak.

It's just her experience. And she's trying to communicate with all of us. How to speak about disability. So it's a lot of disability etiquette.

Disability history. Talking about some important topics like ableism. And it's not an overwhelmingly big book or anything. So I highly recommend starting with that.

Disability Visibility I love, because... Every chapter is an individual story. You don't have to read the whole book at once. And there is...

You know, for example, a chapter of a gentleman who was deaf. And then was sent to jail. And accommodations were not made for him. And so it was just...

I hadn't even thought about that type of experience. Where you have... I mean, how frightened he was. And already having obviously a very horrific and tragic moment in his life.

But then having that moment exacerbated with fear and terror, because nobody understood and nobody cared to understand him. Okay. The next little group of books here that I want to mention is: The Blind Man's Bluff, Cost of Living, and More than Organs. And I'm actually gonna take us out of presentation mode really quickly.

And tell you that... To expand your awareness, you really want to look for all types of events, where disability and people with disabilities are front and center. And so recently, I got to attend this great panel at Greensboro Bound Literary Festival, and they had this panel. The truth about disability, what we don't talk about.

And each of these authors presented their work, their writing, and their life experiences. And it was very informative. And moving. And funny.

I mean, there was just so much to learn from that experience. And so I put all of their books in as recommendations. And then finally I want to talk about the fact that, if you are a parent, you can also expose your children and normalize disability with your children, through literature. That's what I do with my youngest son.

We've read A Boy Called Bat, which has a character -- a boy with autism. We also read Fish In A Tree, a really great book about a character who had dyslexia. My son was really moved by how she carried this fear with her, that all the time people would discover her secret, that she couldn't read. So it was a really great opportunity to normalize disability.

I had a fantastic article listed in my resources. About how to talk to kids about disability. Other things they mentioned. Being mindful of language.

And how you talk about whether people are disabled people or are they people with disabilities. There's a whole conversation around identity there. And kind of the long and the short is: Ask people what they prefer. Don't be afraid to ask.

How people like to be referenced. And finally, the other things in all of these books... You know, what I like about them is that it really helps us... I said normalize, but kind of keep disability neutral.

That this isn't a pity party. When we're reading these. This is an understanding, a learning, and a recognition that there are barriers for a lot of us, and these are their barriers being presented in these stories. Educate yourself about ableism.

I have this quote. Ableism is attitudes, actions, and circumstances that devalue people because they are disabled or perceived as having a disability. Ableism doesn't just happen in relation to disability. It happens in relation to the intersections of other marginalized identities that people also hold.

For example, a person of color with a disability experiences significantly different types of ableism than I experience as a privileged white woman. And we're gonna come back to that concept of intersectionality. But just... You know, other examples of ableism.

I'm looking at some of my examples. Lack of compliance with disability rights laws like the ADA, or building inaccessible websites. Or refusing to provide reasonable accommodations to people who need them to do their job. Or do their learning, if they're in school.

So... Please educate yourself about the topic of ableism. I have several film recommendations. Sound of Metal.

I really appreciated the film Sound of Metal, because of the way that I was able to follow this man's journey into his loss of hearing. And so I really gained... I feel like a bit of understanding or at least empathy or... You know, just the idea of this journey of the loss of a sense of...

Like, hearing... It really upended this gentleman's life. There were a lot of issues with him not being able to afford the care as he dealt with his failing hearing. Relationships that got upended.

So I was talking with Meryl right before this. It's not that any of these movies are an accurate portrayal of disability. Just like other movies are not accurate portrayals of our everyday lives. But they certainly give you insight.

Gosh, I really enjoyed Drought. It's a wonderful movie about this family. One of the actors happens to be autistic. But that's not the front and center piece of the whole film.

You recognize by the end of the film every single one of these characters has their barriers, their traumas, and their joys. And I loved that film a lot. And then the last thing I'll mention... I know I've got five here.

CODA, Peanut Butter Falcon. Give Me Liberty was one that has a leading actress who is disabled. In the story, she has multiple sclerosis. And she is also African American.

And I struggled or had trouble finding movies about disability with people who are African American. People who are Latinx or just any type of intersectional representation of disability. And so it led me to this last bit, which is... And I'm gonna come back to this idea of inspiration porn.

Educate yourself about intersectionality and Disability Justice. I have a short -- it's only two minutes. And I have it pulled up here. That I did want to show.

Because I feel like it is important for us to see.

Keri Gray is a black disabled woman. And there's power behind that. In the United States, one in four in the black community have some type of disability. Whether that's visible or invisible.

Historically speaking, organizations and institutions have shown us that they want to identify with one thing and build power around that. Build influence and access. And I get it. Right?

So this idea that you have disability rights, you have women's rights, you have LGBTQ rights, and those kind of different pockets are really building a strong narrative. But the thing that I find to be harmful is when we're not building in coalition. Because the reality is: Is that you have people like myself, who are black, disabled, and women, and so many other things. And when you live at the intersections of all three of those, then you can't split your political and social dynamics between these different groups.

It doesn't produce real results of freedom, and it doesn't produce real results of access to employment. And other opportunities that you're looking for. I'll give one example on this. So the Black Lives Matter movement.

When it was created, it was created in conjunction mostly with a lot of young folks. What was unique about this particular movement was the intersectional philosophy that it was built upon. The folks getting up and saying: We are not just fighting for one narrative. But we are specifically fighting for folks who are on the margins.

We are fighting for black folks who are also LGBTQ, who are women, who are fem, who are trans, who are disabled. They named it. They saw their people across the country and said: I'm fighting for all of you. Not just some of you.

Not just the ones that have traditionally gained power and access. And that gives me a lot of hope. Because no one wants to be left behind.

LOUISE: And I have a quote here by Patty Berne, which is about kind of taking this idea od intersectionality and encouraging you to explore and research on your own about Disability Justice. And there is a quote I have here. The histories of White Supremacy and ableism are inextricably entwined, created in the context of colonial conquest and capitalist domination. We cannot look at the history of US slavery, the stealing of Indigenous lands, and US imperialism without seeing the way that White Supremacy uses ableism to create a lesser/"other" group of people that is deemed less worthy, abled, smart, capable.

We can only truly understand ableism by tracing its connections to heteropatriarchy, White Supremacy, colonialism, and capitalism. And I will show you that... So again, I have this resource list. But...

Let's see here. I'm scrolling down to... This topic of intersectionality and Disability Justice. And I have several resources here for you to kind of ground yourself in the idea of intersectionality.

I've got resources by Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, who really coined this term and this understanding about intersectionality. Intersectional feminism. But then I have Patty Berne and Sins Invalid. Their work that they have articulated, Skin, Tooth, and Bone, the basis of movement are our people.

So you can read much more about Disability Justice. What is it. The principles of Disability Justice. So...

Okay. Just a few more things, and then I'll pause and just take any questions. At that point. One other thing.

I feel like it's really important to educate yourself on, if you're getting into this field. Is educating yourself about inspiration porn. So I have this image here. It's actually -- you can watch the video of Stella Young.

Who coined this term about inspiration porn. But I'm not... She says... I'm not here to inspire you.

I'm here to tell you that we've been lied to about disability. Yeah. We've been sold the lie that disability is a capital B Bad thing. Capital B, capital T. It's a Bad Thing, and to live with a disability makes you exceptional.

It's not a bad thing. And it doesn't make you exceptional. And she tells a story about how her community was going to give her an award as a child, and her parents refused. Because they said...

Well, that's all very nice. But she hasn't done anything. Exceptional. She is just living.

One thing I want... Well, let me actually give you a couple examples about inspiration porn. Because I want to make sure you understand exactly what it is. It really lives in our social media spaces.

Or a lot of times it does. So I've got some different types of inspiration porn. So you could have that meme or... Video of a person with a disability who's receiving praise for participating in a normal activity.

Such as joining their football team. Or maybe they're going to homecoming with a person who doesn't have a disability. That's kind of one version of it. Or another one is...

You know, people overcoming their disability. In some way. So if a baby -- you've seen the videos. The baby is deaf.

But then they get hearing aids and can hear for the first time. Or you've got a child who gets a prosthetic, and then they're running races. That's a different kind of inspiration porn. Because those types of scenarios are about the person who's viewing that feeling...

Better about themselves for not being disabled. Right? It's not like... You know, I have...

If I go back here... To some of the documentary recommendations... And I'll certainly talk about that. I was reading an article about Rising Phoenix.

And Rising Phoenix is a documentary about the Paralympics and the Olympians there. And there was a whole conversation. Is this inspiration porn? It was like...

Absolutely not. This is a story celebrating athletes. Celebrating people engaged in these various sports. You know, and overcoming these feats.

It was not about... Or I guess it could be... The perspective of the person viewing it, of course. If you're sitting there feeling better about yourself for not having some sort of physical disability.

But... The article was really emphasizing that... No. That is not inspiration porn.

However... This is a topic where intersectionality really comes into play. And I put into the resource list as well... So I've got a section on inspiration porn.

I found some conversation about one article. Black disability gone viral. A critical race approach to inspiration porn. And conversations about white privilege and inspiration porn.

But I really recommend the journal article. It is a little bit lengthy. But it's a very great critical analysis of how a lot of inspiration porn doesn't... That there is not that intersectionality.

I'm not going to go through any of the documentary recommendations. Again, it'll be in my resources page. And you can read about them. I have many here that are quite wonderful.

And probably one of the ones you might know the most about is Crip Camp. It was very... I think 2020 was when it was released. And it's the story of the young adults who went to Camp Jened in New York and really found community amongst themselves, and then took that sense of community and used it to become activists.

And really push and advocate for disability rights. And it's an amazing documentary. But what I would like to make sure you know about is... I encourage you to go to their website.

But they had an amazing series of panel events. And this is the list of panel events. That you can access. You have to write to them.

[email protected]. But they're so generous. They'll send you the links. I've been able to share them at different events.

But just some really powerful and intersectional panels on disability. So... I really encourage you to check those out as well. And finally...

If you have done... You know, you've gone through a lot of this work, I will call it, in educating yourself, then you can get to this concept about web accessibility perspectives. How are people with disabilities, then, using the web? How are they interacting with your app?

And I have an image here of... Oops. I have an image here of the Web Accessibility Perspectives videos. And I don't think I pulled it up.

But let's see if I can just get to it. I'm not gonna play any of these. But I highly encourage you to visit them. They are only...

You know, maybe 30 seconds or a minute. But it will go through all of these different colors with good contrast, customizable text, video captions. Understandable content. And it really exposes to you how people with these different disabilities are actually interacting with your app.

And really how helping them helps an even broader audience of people. Which, if your business is building useful apps and services, digital services, then that's important. Okay. And this was actually my last bit in this section.

Educate yourself on the different types of assistive technology. And there certainly is a lot of articles and training. And I have linked several. But I found this great explanation.

It is a 30-minute video on assistive technologies and digital accessibility. Put together by Stanford University. Auston Stamm. He's a digital accessibility instructional specialist.

It's a great 30-minute introduction to all of the different types of assistive technology. So again, assistive technology is any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities. And so you can really learn about the different tools that people are using to interact with the products and services that you are building. Okay.

I know I'm doing a time check for myself... And I knew this was gonna happen. Because... I have a whole lot to say on this topic.

But I felt like the time spent on that first section was the most important part to me. I might kind of quickly move through my second part, which is: Expand your community. And then... I want to leave time for questions.

And I do... You know... I am giving you this PowerPoint. And I do want you to know that I have this section here on expanding your community.

I do want to read this quote really quickly. It's by Bryan Stevenson. He's the director of the Equal Justice Initiative. He represents wrongly accused people on Death Row.

And he says: We cannot create justice without getting close to places where injustices prevail. We have to get proximate. And if you are willing to get closer to people who are suffering, you will find the power to change the world. And I think that idea of getting proximate...

It was like a huge lightbulb went off in my head, when I heard him say that. You know, not just about his... In his context, in his scenario. But just any...

You know, if you're going to advocate and really try and light a fire under some serious advocacy work to right injustices, you've got to expand your community. You've got to hear the conversations that are happening. In the community. You have to talk with members of the community.

Oh, yes. And I love this quote. I should have it tattooed on my arm somewhere. We must use our skills as technologists to protect the equal rights of users.

So we want to expand our community. We want to get to know people. We want to know the conversations. We want to know the barriers they're experiencing.

So that we can fix them. So how do we do this? And I'm gonna come back to these different roles. Maybe, Thomas, we could do a part two.

So I could kind of get into some of the role-based skills stuff.

THOMAS: Absolutely. So many people here. Obviously there's a huge interest. So thanks.

LOUISE: That would be awesome. That would be awesome. I was just going to say... So expanding your community, getting proximate, listening and learning.

I started building out this list of organizations and resources. And then I found one. So why reinvent the wheel, right? Let me go here.

This is a fantastic group of organizations where... You know, maybe they're having chapter meetings in your local communities. Or if you check out any of these groups, you can join advocacy efforts. So definitely check that out.

And then I have... You know, listen and learn. So attend conferences. And there are free conferences.

Like Axe-Con. Or Inclusive Design 24. And again, fear not, but I have all of these resources. Podcasts.

Meetups. Newsletters. Blogs. I have all of these in my resource list.

But what I really... My advice is to just fill your world with this information. You know, when I go for a walk in the morning, I listen to a podcast. Or I start...

I look at one of my news letters, and I say... Okay. I'm gonna read one of these today. Even though it's overwhelming.

You get tons of stuff. I get stuff sent to me all the time. I sign up for webinars, just to get the recordings. And I do watch them later.

Sometimes. I know we all have that list of 100 webinars we need to watch. But sign up for them. And have them...

You know, save them. And go to them when you have time. And seek mentorship. So if you are even just slightly interested in pursuing a career in technology and having that intersection with accessibility, which I would hope everyone is, but...

If you are very, very new to this, Accessibility NextGen is a mentoring program that I participated in, these past six months. I have an amazing mentee, Ken Simuoshi, who was just... It was really... I learned so much about...

I learned so much about this field by trying to help him kind of break into the field. And that really... Working with him helped me contextualize all of the stuff that I'm sharing with you now. So whether you're new to the field or you're really very advanced in the field of accessibility, again...

Who are you gonna spark? And when you do that kind of mentoring relationship, it really of course is symbiotic and helps you both. Accessibility Community is another mentoring program. That I have listed.

That's with some of these heavy hitters like Deque and Level Access. And I forget the other companies that are involved. But lots of great mentors. And then if you are in the field of technology, your designer or developer, you could go to Knowbility and participate in their Accessibility Internet Rally, where you will work with mentors, get all kinds of training, and build a website for a non-profit organization.

So really, I encourage you... And maybe I'll leave with you that. Is... Always feel free to reach out and ask.

And talk to people. And even if it's like... Oh my gosh. They're the biggest rock star, whatever.

I can't talk to them. No! Send them a message. Send them a message on LinkedIn or Twitter.

I mean, what's the worst that can happen? They're not gonna respond? I mean, that's okay. But I have to say, in this community, a lot of times if you reach out and you ask a question, and you show that light, that passion for accessibility, there are so many in the accessibility community that will respond and help you, and help you map that next bit into your career.

So it's happened to me throughout my whole career. And now I've been able to give back. To people who have asked me for mentorship. And...

You know, it's amazing. And I do want to leave time for questions. So I promise... If Thomas...

If it's okay at some point in the future, I would love to go through really kind of the nitty-gritty of the skills and roles and all of that. And job hunting and that kind of thing.

THOMAS: That sounds great. I think we will... We're so happy to have so many people here in your presentation today. The part one.

So great. So yeah. We would love to work with you to plan a part two. Because this was so excellent.

And I want to echo what you were saying there on the reaching out to people. You know, I completely agree. Reaching out to so many people in our community of accessibility professionals. We all want to meet everyone.

And also, like you said, I like the line: It's free. There's no reason not to try. And if you're interested in this area, come for it. So we really want to take a few questions now.

And thank you so much for the excellent presentation. I have a few questions lined up for you now. So if we could... I'll start with our first question, Louise.

In terms of training, skills, and steps, what do you suggest is a priority? What should be the first step?

LOUISE: I guess... I guess it depends on where your interests lie. So if you're talking about training, if you're really brand-new to accessibility, I like the EdX introduction to accessibility course. I think it's 16 to 20 hours.

And I think that number is stuck in my head, because I just read about it. But I do have it linked. And it's a wonderful overview of disability, accessibility, and then some of the guidelines governing a lot of what designers and developers and content people, product people, are needing to understand and follow, in terms of compliance and in terms of building accessible products. So I would start with that.

If you're a little more... Say you're already a developer or a designer or something... Or you're already in technology... I have a slide in here about certifications.

And I'll just go to it. And we can talk more about it. But this was really how I was able to focus myself on kind of leveling up on all of my skills. Because these certifications also helped me, you know, understand...

Oh. This is about disability and people with disabilities, as much as it's about the technical and the compliance and the laws and the regulations. So if you're just getting started, I would say maybe like the CPACC exam. That kind of gives you a foundational basis.

And they have a wonderful resource booklet themselves. Of how... What to study for. To take the exam.

I think that both of those... If you're looking for training, and you're really early in your career, I would start with those.

THOMAS: Awesome. Thank you so much. Great. Next question.

How can someone find entry level employment in web accessibility without a college degree? And who is hiring, or how to find job opportunities.

LOUISE: Okay. So... That's a great question. I think if you're not gonna have a college degree, which I don't think is a requirement, but...

I say that with a caveat. In that a lot of the employment algorithms can be exclusive. And they'll be searching for those degrees. So you're right that it can be a problem.

But it shouldn't exclude you from finding a job. One of the ways around this, I think, are certifications. I know test taking is not for everyone. And it's certainly not the only indicator of whether or not you can be successful in digital accessibility.

But if it is something you can do, get that CPACC. Get the foundational understanding. The other thing I have here is trusted tester. Trusted tester is a great certification that teaches you how to test digital web.

Kind of in the Windows environment, I think. And it teaches you the skills to become a tester of digital products. So you can get that trusted tester certification. They've got a free training program.

You can take the test. If you get that certification, that's something you can put on your resume. You don't have to go work for the government with that. It's just saying: Hey, I understand how to test and I understand about compliance.

Particularly at the WCAG 2.0 level. And I think the last little bit I would recommend is networking. Right? And I know it's so much harder over the past few years with COVID.

But really doing as much as you can to attend meetups. Reach out to people and set up coffee chats. If they're open. Start trying to talk to people about what you're excited about doing.

And where you want to go. I know when I hear people talking about it, I want to help them find things. And a lot of times, it's through your personal networks that you get... Like, a job that you want in the field that you want.

So... Try and work on that. And that is, again, I know it's difficult when everything is virtual. And I know it's difficult for a lot of people, if you are an introvert.

And social settings aren't your thing. But maybe in that case, try to set up the individualized kind of conversations.

THOMAS: Great. And we're now gonna take two more questions. So we're going to the next question. It is...

Basically what are the main roles or types of jobs that people can apply for. Like, in this world of accessibility, in the software world? And I think the question is coming also from someone that also is currently in the software world. But wants to work more specifically in the accessibility profession.

LOUISE: Yes. Okay. So... This is...

We'll definitely do the part two. But these were just some of... And I'm trying to move the Zoom. But...

That's okay. These are some of the different types of specializations. And it seems to be growing. Right?

The titles. You can be an accessibility focused interaction designer or visual designer. Or developer. Content writer.

UX research. I mean, in my opinion, that's where we're shifting left. You know. To product and shifting left to research.

Because that's really where we can catch accessibility barriers very, very early in kind of... When we're thinking about creating and building products. You know, digital products. So UX researcher.

Product managers. QA. Like I was saying. Testers.

Accessibility specialists. So you might go and work with a whole team of people. Maybe you're helping designers and developers. Giving them some guidance on how they can be designing inclusively and with compliance in mind.

Maybe you're not a coder at all. Maybe you want to get into law. So you could be legal counsel. If that's the case, I highly recommend a book called Structured Negotiation.

By Lainey Feingold. That is a fantastic book. But if law and advocacy and getting in the courtroom is your thing, definitely read that. And she has an amazing website, which I should put on my resource list as well.

Multimedia content. I'm trying to get my 16-year-old son, who does video editing all the time, into this. But these are people who are dealing with video and audio. And podcasting and captions and audio description.

I mean, that's an art, right? So there really is a lot of different types of work in the digital accessibility space. That could certainly speak to your passion. Oh, and what was the other thing about role-based skills?

THOMAS: This is good. No, I think this is great. And again, I want to say... We're going to be sharing a lot of resources.

And we have gotten a lot of questions for you, Louise. So we are taking stock of all the questions. And we'll make sure that you receive them. And also hopefully doing a part two or some other way to set up...

We'll make sure that they get addressed. So I'm gonna end with the last question for you. It's just around: You know, around livestreaming, podcasting, YouTube, email lists. People that are talking about their role in -- specifically, for example, a role of autism influencers, but what do you feel about how...

People using these social media tools can help influence the accessibility profession?

LOUISE: Well, I think as long as you just come at it from the perspective of having a community that you're kind of responding to. I can get caught up in... I actually have some struggle with social media. Because I'll get caught up in people's arguments and dramas.

And... No, it's done this way. It's done that way. No.

You know, this is my experience. And this is my experience. And everybody can be... It can be a little more aggressive than I like in particular.

But I do feel like it's important to have a whole diverse group of people from... You know, the argumentative to people who are just trying to spread that kind of love and joy and peace and everything. And everything in between... Because like I said...

You want to hear the conversations that are happening, even the good and the bad. And if it's too much of the bad, or it's too aggressive, then kind of filter that out a little bit. But you know, there's a lot of people who deserve to be angry. And deserve to be heard.

It doesn't mean that you have to fill your feed with all of that anger. But just be aware of it. Or nastiness. If people are too aggressive with each other.

You don't have to tap into that. You can find other people who are speaking in a way that aligns more with your ability to process the conversation. So I would say just be careful. And...

Take that social media break when you need it. And we all know when we need it. It's that ugly feeling of imposter syndrome that settles over your soul and says: I'm not good enough, because all these other people are awesome! No.

That's when you turn off the social media. Go read some articles. Or... Go work in the garden at that point.

And come back. So...