Episode 9
360 Degrees of Accessibility
Meryl Evans, independent, Professional Speaker and Trainer
Meryl Evans is an accessibility evangelist who works as a trainer, speaker, and consultant. Her early career was with business writing and digital marketing. She then became involved with making and instructing how to make high-quality captions for video. Meryl stresses the importance of going beyond digital accessibility and considering the touchpoints with the physical world. That includes offering multiple formats for interacting with a product or service.
Mentioned in this episode:
Info about Accessibility at Blink
Transcript
(intense music)
Speaker:- Hello, this is Digital Accessibility:
Speaker:The People Behind the Progress.
Speaker:I'm Joe Welinkske, the creator and host of this series,
Speaker:and as an accessibility professional myself,
Speaker:I find it very interesting as
Speaker:to how others have found their way into this profession,
Speaker:so let's meet one
Speaker:of those people right now and hear about their journey.
Speaker:All right, well here we are
Speaker:with another episode where I get the opportunity to chat
Speaker:with an accessibility practitioner,
Speaker:and today I am pleased to be visiting with Meryl Evans.
Speaker:Hello Meryl, how are you today?
Speaker:- Hi Joe.
Speaker:I'm doing great.
Speaker:Thank you for having me.
Speaker:How are you today?
Speaker:- Everything is off to a pretty good start,
Speaker:and I am in my home office of Vashon Island,
Speaker:which is near blink's Seattle headquarters office.
Speaker:Where are you talking to us from?
Speaker:- Well, I am talking to everyone from Plano, Texas,
Speaker:which is right by Dallas.
Speaker:We're having beautiful weather right now,
Speaker:so it's fall and it's a busy time of the year
Speaker:for so many people.
Speaker:- Well, you certainly have a long resume
Speaker:of activities within the accessibility community
Speaker:and with your work, but you're probably the best person
Speaker:to introduce yourself maybe to people
Speaker:that have not met you yet,
Speaker:so tell us a little bit
Speaker:about the work that you're involved with.
Speaker:- So I'm self-employed
Speaker:at Meryl.net, where I'm a professional speaker,
Speaker:trainer, and accessibility marketing consultant
Speaker:who is a Certified Professional in Accessibility
Speaker:Core Competencies, CPACC for short.
Speaker:As a speaker I talk about diversity, equity
Speaker:and inclusion with the focus
Speaker:on people with disabilities and accessibility.
Speaker:On the consulting side, I work
Speaker:with marketing and communication leaders
Speaker:to ensure their departments create accessible content,
Speaker:and I work with companies
Speaker:to help them improve their accessibility
Speaker:and disability inclusion efforts.
Speaker:So I was born hearing free, well,
Speaker:in medical terms, profoundly deaf.
Speaker:It came with this accent,
Speaker:so I grew up learning how to speak and lip read.
Speaker:Many people assume I know sign language, and I don't,
Speaker:but it's not a good thing or a bad thing.
Speaker:It just is.
Speaker:It's what works for me.
Speaker:- Well, we'll definitely make some links
Speaker:to your TEDx talk that you've done,
Speaker:and you're very visible online,
Speaker:but all of this had to start somewhere,
Speaker:so why don't you take me back
Speaker:in time and talk about
Speaker:how accessibility first was something
Speaker:that you became aware of in your lived life or work life,
Speaker:and then we can kind of move forward
Speaker:and see how you found your way into this profession.
Speaker:- I've known about accessibility for years,
Speaker:and I wish I had gotten into it sooner.
Speaker:We know how we all wish we could change something
Speaker:in the past.
Speaker:The reality is if we could do that the outcome could be
Speaker:very different.
Speaker:We're going to stop playing the what if game here.
Speaker:Anyway, in 2018 and 2019, I started making videos
Speaker:about high quality caption.
Speaker:They caught the attention
Speaker:of the organizers at an accessibility conference.
Speaker:They invited me to speak and that was that.
Speaker:That was that.
Speaker:I felt like I finally found my place,
Speaker:and decided I wanted to work in accessibility.
Speaker:I wasn't sure how, but I was on a mission
Speaker:to figure it out.
Speaker:Meanwhile, as a result of appearing at the conference,
Speaker:I got another speaking opportunity,
Speaker:and it snowballed into many more speaking opportunities,
Speaker:including TEDx.
Speaker:I never dreamed of being a speaker or a trainer,
Speaker:because I was realistic.
Speaker:I knew I had an accent, and it could be a problem.
Speaker:All these invitations proved otherwise.
Speaker:Anyway, eventually the owner
Speaker:of an accessibility consulting firm,
Speaker:he saw my writing on LinkedIn.
Speaker:I originally started out doing marketing
Speaker:for them and I also studied
Speaker:and passed the exam to get my accessibility certification.
Speaker:So now I do client project as an accessibility consultant.
Speaker:- Well, you're certainly very busy and visible today
Speaker:in this work.
Speaker:Had this been a career change for you?
Speaker:What were you involved
Speaker:with before you got into your most recent work?
Speaker:- I've been self employed since 2005,
Speaker:and my focus was writing and digital marketing,
Speaker:so I was able to use the digital marketing
Speaker:to help me break into accessibility,
Speaker:and so pretty soon I was doing both
Speaker:and I still do both,
Speaker:but I'm hoping to do more on the accessibility side
Speaker:because that's what I love.
Speaker:That's my passion, advocating for people with disability
Speaker:and accessibility keeps me going every single day.
Speaker:- And how did it move forward
Speaker:for you to educate yourself about the various parts
Speaker:of accessibility that we use on a professional basis?
Speaker:Were there certain communities that you got involved with
Speaker:or certain places that you looked for information?
Speaker:How did that work for you?
Speaker:- Well, when I share content on LinkedIn,
Speaker:I consider myself a student, simply sharing what I learned.
Speaker:So I learn every day from other accessibility leaders
Speaker:and influencers, so that can be on Twitter.
Speaker:That could be on LinkedIn.
Speaker:That could be just reading articles online
Speaker:that I find through various resources.
Speaker:I always want to be learning,
Speaker:and applying that, and sharing that with others
Speaker:because we can't expect to know it all.
Speaker:There is so much in accessibility to learn.
Speaker:That's why I wear this shirt, Progress Over Perfection
Speaker:with the accessibility icon in the O,
Speaker:because people get so overwhelmed
Speaker:at the thought of, "Where do I start",
Speaker:that kind of kind of thing.
Speaker:They just don't know.
Speaker:I'm like, "Just take that first step."
Speaker:It doesn't hard to be big,
Speaker:and sometimes you take two steps back, and that's okay.
Speaker:You just keep moving forward and keep learning.
Speaker:I mean, it takes a lot to build completely a culture
Speaker:of inclusion that thinks about accessibility for everyone.
Speaker:Don't forget your own employee, not just your customers
Speaker:and your vendors, but your own employees.
Speaker:So, it's progress over perfection.
Speaker:- Well yeah, I'm glad you brought up the part
Speaker:about our own employees because I think sometimes,
Speaker:in digital accessibility, we're focused
Speaker:on supporting our customers and clients and external facing
Speaker:yet within a lot of our own organizations,
Speaker:we don't provide the tools and technologies and processes
Speaker:and culture, as you mentioned,
Speaker:for everyone to be able to participate regardless
Speaker:of their physical challenge.
Speaker:- That's very true.
Speaker:I have heard three people reach
Speaker:out to me and they shared their stories
Speaker:that they have a disability,
Speaker:but they don't feel supported in their company,
Speaker:almost like they hired them to check off a box.
Speaker:"We hired someone with a disability,
Speaker:but we didn't give them the support they need.
Speaker:We didn't give them the tools they need to thrive
Speaker:in their role and the tools they need to grow
Speaker:in the career,"
Speaker:so they just put them in their desk, and that's that,
Speaker:and you can't do that.
Speaker:That's just not fair to anyone.
Speaker:People with disabilities have so much to offer
Speaker:if you would just give them a chance.
Speaker:Get to know them.
Speaker:See, because we've been excluded so long,
Speaker:and for so much of our lives,
Speaker:it's that exclusion that had given us the lived experience
Speaker:to come up with creative solutions, innovative solutions,
Speaker:work arounds, and that kind of thinking you just can't get
Speaker:with someone who hasn't had that adversity in their lives.
Speaker:- Well, now that you've been working as a consultant
Speaker:in accessibility, what are some of the areas that you find
Speaker:that you most often have to address?
Speaker:Are there any particular issues or challenges
Speaker:that come up regularly that you have to solve
Speaker:for your clients?
Speaker:- Actually no.
Speaker:It seems like pretty spread out.
Speaker:I mean it could be, in some situations,
Speaker:it can be making sure you have accessibility
Speaker:for your own people.
Speaker:That's a big one.
Speaker:Oh, another big one is so many people,
Speaker:when they think about accessibility,
Speaker:they're thinking about digital accessibility,
Speaker:but accessibility is also physical, in person, non-digital,
Speaker:and that's why I just wrote an article called,
Speaker:"360 Degree Accessibility",
Speaker:and too often companies,
Speaker:the way they have their organization chart,
Speaker:the tech team was siloed and so they don't think
Speaker:about the physical side of things,
Speaker:and the physical side of things, that customers support,
Speaker:customer service, is siloed away from the digital side,
Speaker:so it's got to find a way to bring it all together
Speaker:and think about the full circle.
Speaker:I love to tell the story.
Speaker:I've told it so many times,
Speaker:people probably start reciting it with me.
Speaker:When I had to get my first COVID test,
Speaker:I was able to make the appointment online no problem,
Speaker:but I'm sighted, so I don't have those barriers,
Speaker:but it was not until I got to the pharmacy
Speaker:that I've lived by for more than 20 years
Speaker:that I ran into a barrier.
Speaker:You had to go through drive-through for testing,
Speaker:and there were so many things wrong with that.
Speaker:First of all, there was a window
Speaker:and it was reflecting the outside, so you couldn't see in,
Speaker:and then they were talking
Speaker:to me through a speaker and with a mask on,
Speaker:so every barrier possible, so meanwhile, I heard a story
Speaker:from someone else who wanted
Speaker:to use the drive through testing,
Speaker:but they told her she had to come in.
Speaker:She had a mobility disability,
Speaker:and she wanted drive through.
Speaker:Then a third person with another disability, he's blind,
Speaker:and he could not make his own appointment online.
Speaker:So we have three people
Speaker:with three different disabilities,
Speaker:all having a different barrier in one process,
Speaker:and that's to get COVID testing.
Speaker:- Well I like your term
Speaker:that you used about 360 degrees accessibility.
Speaker:That's a very interesting way to think about it,
Speaker:and most of the people that I interview
Speaker:on this program, their focus is
Speaker:on the digital accessibility,
Speaker:but we have had several people
Speaker:where their products also are distributed
Speaker:in physical environments
Speaker:and they're also responsible for internal accessibility,
Speaker:and so I think your idea about the 360 degrees is good
Speaker:for all of us to just look around our own world,
Speaker:and see what we may be missing that we can contribute to.
Speaker:- Yeah, the little things make a huge difference.
Speaker:There was a time when I went online for tech support,
Speaker:for online chat,
Speaker:and the first thing they asked me was,
Speaker:"Can you give us a call back number
Speaker:in case we get disconnected?"
Speaker:I'm like, "I would prefer to do that,
Speaker:because that's not the best way to contact me",
Speaker:and I submitted a suggestion
Speaker:to the company to add a second option,
Speaker:so that's the other thing I'm trying to push
Speaker:for is always offer
Speaker:at least two modern communication options
Speaker:or in person route,
Speaker:so the next time I contacted tech support,
Speaker:they asked me, "Could we get a call back phone number
Speaker:or email address?"
Speaker:Problem solved, so that was great.
Speaker:So we need to offer multiple options,
Speaker:because not everybody wants to default
Speaker:to the most common one.
Speaker:- Well you have already mentioned a lot
Speaker:of things that we can look to improve,
Speaker:but I always like to check in to see
Speaker:if there are any particular issues that you feel need
Speaker:to be addressed by accessibility professionals,
Speaker:maybe things that we haven't paid enough attention to
Speaker:or possibly just things that you're particularly excited
Speaker:to work on looking into the future,
Speaker:so any and all of those that you would like to comment on?
Speaker:- Well I like to start small because I think
Speaker:when you show
Speaker:how the smallest things make the biggest difference,
Speaker:it gets people excited because a simple solution,
Speaker:so that two communication was a big one.
Speaker:So often when we fill out forms,
Speaker:they ask for a phone number,
Speaker:but they don't give us the opportunity to say,
Speaker:"Hey text me, and don't call me."
Speaker:And I can't tell you how many times I put my phone number
Speaker:in and I get a phone call, which is what I don't want,
Speaker:so it's okay to make the contact field required,
Speaker:just give us choices.
Speaker:One airline made me so happy
Speaker:when getting my ticket and they gave me a choice
Speaker:of email, text, or automated phone call.
Speaker:That was wonderful because the littlest things,
Speaker:it felt like I didn't have to stress at all
Speaker:that they could possibly call me.
Speaker:My poor spouse, I give out his phone number far more
Speaker:than my own because they kept calling me.
Speaker:So I'm a big girl.
Speaker:I would like to handle my own communication,
Speaker:so it's very empowering when you make those small changes.
Speaker:- And looking forward to the future for you,
Speaker:I assume you'll do more consulting work,
Speaker:but are there any other special activities
Speaker:that you might be getting involved with in the future?
Speaker:- Well actually I just joined the board
Speaker:in my local community.
Speaker:I'm very excited about that,
Speaker:and we have a good diversity advocacy committee.
Speaker:It's a mouthful, isn't it,
Speaker:and I'm really excited about that because I
Speaker:and one other person were the first people
Speaker:with disabilities in their program,
Speaker:at least that they know about,
Speaker:because we know a lot
Speaker:of disabilities are not apparent, right.
Speaker:So because of that,
Speaker:they established the committee to make sure
Speaker:that all underrepresented group are thought about,
Speaker:and that we make our experiences inclusive,
Speaker:so it's a volunteer thing,
Speaker:so it's very exciting to see my local organization thinking
Speaker:about this, and wanting to make change for the better,
Speaker:so it makes me happy to know
Speaker:that they care and it makes it possible
Speaker:for other organizations to adopt this same thinking.
Speaker:It doesn't mean you have to go out and spend lots of money.
Speaker:That not the case.
Speaker:A lot of things that can be done
Speaker:to create an inclusive organization don't cost anything
Speaker:or very little, and it's worth it,
Speaker:so that's the thing I'm most excited about,
Speaker:because I'm making change outside
Speaker:of my professional career.
Speaker:- Well, as a speaker, I mean everyone who is a speaker
Speaker:on topics, the pandemic's certainly changed a lot
Speaker:of things,
Speaker:and so maybe those of us that had mainly spoke
Speaker:in person got used to being online.
Speaker:For others being online was the first time
Speaker:that we were able to get out there.
Speaker:How has it been for you?
Speaker:Do you find there are more challenges, or that you enjoy one
Speaker:or the other, virtual experience versus physical experience?
Speaker:- I love that question.
Speaker:So my very first conference that I mentioned earlier,
Speaker:that was in person in 2019.
Speaker:So when I started getting invitations to speak it was
Speaker:after the pandemic hit,
Speaker:so it just broke down the wall.
Speaker:I've always been comfortable with public speaking;
Speaker:however, I like to script out my presentation,
Speaker:because it makes me a better speaker.
Speaker:It helps me focus on speaking clearly
Speaker:like I am right now,
Speaker:rather than thinking of the next thing I'm going to say.
Speaker:So it was perfect,
Speaker:so I could get the hang of it, get the hang of speaking,
Speaker:and then January 20, wait January, 2022, this year,
Speaker:I went to a big, big event,
Speaker:and got to speak in person there,
Speaker:but I had been speaking
Speaker:for so long before that point that it was an easy change.
Speaker:I like both actually.
Speaker:I enjoy in-person events.
Speaker:I do get overwhelmed with all the noise.
Speaker:It's makes it harder to listen
Speaker:and listening's so important to me,
Speaker:because I know what I know.
Speaker:I want to learn from other people.
Speaker:So that's why I love online meeting and online events,
Speaker:because it's quieter.
Speaker:People are less likely to talk over each other,
Speaker:and you don't have the noises from the network setting
Speaker:or the restaurant,
Speaker:I can hardly go to restaurants anymore,
Speaker:because it's taking away the joy of somebody else's company.
Speaker:- Well, that's very useful
Speaker:and interesting perspectives on your experience with that.
Speaker:And Meryl, it's been a pleasure to have a chance to chat
Speaker:with you for a short time here.
Speaker:Hopefully we can meet in the physical world
Speaker:at some point, but we'll definitely include information
Speaker:about your activities in the show notes for this program.
Speaker:- Thank you so much for having me, Joe.
Speaker:It was a joy to have a conversation with you.
Speaker:- All right, well thanks a lot.
Speaker:Bye-bye Meryl.
