Episode 9
Shifting Accessibility Into the Discovery and Ideation Phase
Nicole Bergstrom, Hilton, Senior Director of Digital Accessibility
Nicole Bergstrom talks about her first exposure to accessibility while working in the federal government. She describes her move to Hilton and how they are building accessibility into all the touchpoints of their customers for digital services.
Mentioned in this episode:
Info about Accessibility at Blink
Transcript
(rhythmic music)
Speaker:- Hello, this is "Digital Accessibility,
Speaker:the People Behind the Progress".
Speaker:I'm Joe Welinske, the creator and host of this series.
Speaker:And as an accessibility professional myself,
Speaker:I find it very interesting as to how others
Speaker:found their way into this profession.
Speaker:So let's meet one of those people right now
Speaker:and hear about their journey.
Speaker:(rhythmic music concludes)
Speaker:All right, well, we're back
Speaker:with another episode looking at accessibility practitioners
Speaker:and how they got to where they are today.
Speaker:And so I'm very pleased to be speaking today
Speaker:with Nicole Bergstrom.
Speaker:Hello, Nicole, how are you today?
Speaker:- Good, how are you?
Speaker:- Everything's going well, I'm as mostly usual
Speaker:at my home office on Vashon Island, near Seattle,
Speaker:which is where Blink's headquarters office is.
Speaker:Where are you talking to us from?
Speaker:- So I am coming to you
Speaker:from just a little south of Denver, Colorado.
Speaker:And it is a bright, brilliant blue sky out, no snow
Speaker:even though we're in November.
Speaker:But I also am working out of my home office here.
Speaker:- Well, that's one of the nice trade offs of Denver
Speaker:is that even in the winter, when it gets cold,
Speaker:you still have some sparkling sunny days
Speaker:and that kind of makes everything still feel okay.
Speaker:- Absolutely.
Speaker:- Well, I think good place to start would be, you know,
Speaker:talking about what you're currently doing for your work
Speaker:and then we'll kind of move back in time after that.
Speaker:- Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:So currently I am the senior director
Speaker:of digital accessibility at Hilton Worldwide.
Speaker:And what that really means is I have the honor
Speaker:and privilege of overseeing
Speaker:a fabulous team of accessibility SMEs.
Speaker:And we have several areas of focus within Hilton.
Speaker:So the overarching is really
Speaker:from a programmatic perspective
Speaker:to grow and mature Hilton's accessibility program
Speaker:and overarching program.
Speaker:What that distills down to and looks like
Speaker:is really helping to inject accessibility
Speaker:into all of our guest facing,
Speaker:so our outwardly facing technology in the digital space.
Speaker:That's our property websites,
Speaker:our Hilton Honors mobile application.
Speaker:You name it, if it's digital,
Speaker:then we have some responsibility.
Speaker:We also really take an approach at Hilton,
Speaker:borrowing a term from others in the accessibility industry,
Speaker:of shift left.
Speaker:And in our model, the shift left
Speaker:isn't just from a testing into development,
Speaker:it's actually shifting accessibility way up
Speaker:into the discovery and ideation phase.
Speaker:And we find that when that happens,
Speaker:then it sets this stage for accessibility,
Speaker:just inherently being baked in
Speaker:all the way down the workflow.
Speaker:So that's kind of one area or one pillar.
Speaker:But given the nature and the diversity
Speaker:of the accessibility team and our expertise in technology,
Speaker:in assistive technology, being users with lived experiences,
Speaker:it also puts us in a very important position
Speaker:within the organization to help elevate disability inclusion
Speaker:and what that really looks like.
Speaker:And so that is also another big area and role
Speaker:that myself and my team play across the Hilton enterprise.
Speaker:- Well, it sounds like quite a lot of responsibilities.
Speaker:And I'm interested
Speaker:in digging a little bit deeper into your current work.
Speaker:But one of the things that I like to do
Speaker:with this interview is find out people got
Speaker:to where they are today because we come
Speaker:from so many different ways into the accessibility practice.
Speaker:So kinda where does it start from for you
Speaker:when you first started thinking about it?
Speaker:- So I really wish
Speaker:that I had like maybe this most amazing story,
Speaker:but the reality is that up until about a year ago
Speaker:I did not live in the Denver area,
Speaker:I lived in the Washington DC area
Speaker:and had been there for, you know, 30 some years.
Speaker:And folks who live in that DC area know
Speaker:that the federal government is a huge employer,
Speaker:be it actually federal employees or contractors.
Speaker:I was a federal contractor.
Speaker:And more specifically I was working
Speaker:on a contract under the National Institutes of Health.
Speaker:And when you're in the federal government
Speaker:then the accessibility focus
Speaker:is the Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Speaker:And because of the nature of work that I was doing,
Speaker:I was managing all of the NIH Clinical Center's
Speaker:online communications, both internal and external.
Speaker:It also meant that the Section 508 compliance obligation
Speaker:was part of my responsibility.
Speaker:So I go to an Access Board meeting,
Speaker:and the Access Board being the body
Speaker:that came up with the Section 508 standards.
Speaker:And at this meeting was the first time
Speaker:that I had ever encountered a person using a screen reader
Speaker:giving a presentation.
Speaker:And it was amazing, exhilarating, new,
Speaker:and it just somehow resonated with me.
Speaker:There was the learning from that and that experience
Speaker:was so powerful that it really motivated me to learn more
Speaker:and bring that back
Speaker:into the work that I was doing to an even greater level.
Speaker:And so before the, you know, the talk about shift left
Speaker:that I've mentioned, again,
Speaker:part of the work that I was doing,
Speaker:I actually injected a Section 508 check
Speaker:as part of our content workflow.
Speaker:And as I moved out of the federal government,
Speaker:it then moved over
Speaker:into web content accessibility guidelines.
Speaker:And I saw that there really is a gap and a need
Speaker:for education, awareness, training,
Speaker:and helping organizations really get
Speaker:what it means to be accessible.
Speaker:So I made a career decision and I said,
Speaker:this feels right to me.
Speaker:I think that this is where I wanna go
Speaker:and this is where I wanna take my career.
Speaker:And that's what I executed upon.
Speaker:- Well, yeah, everybody has their own starting point
Speaker:of where they come into accessibility, obviously.
Speaker:And you're talking about, you know
Speaker:in the federal government.
Speaker:But you know, when we come into this area,
Speaker:a lot of it can seem like there's an overwhelming amount
Speaker:that you have to learn,
Speaker:you know, where do we find resources?
Speaker:What's the next step when you first started
Speaker:to really get involved with it?
Speaker:What was your experience there?
Speaker:Was working in the federal government providing
Speaker:some benefits or disadvantages in that?
Speaker:Or kinda where did you go to, to start moving forward?
Speaker:- You know, that's interesting, a great question.
Speaker:So I had a technical background
Speaker:and I knew how to code web pages.
Speaker:So as I read the standards, they actually had meaning to me.
Speaker:And then again, there were two specific places,
Speaker:the section508.gov website.
Speaker:It was not as robust as it is right now.
Speaker:And then the Health and Human Services,
Speaker:so the overarching department above NIH
Speaker:had a lot of resources
Speaker:and had packaged them in a way that was really consumable.
Speaker:Whoever is listening and has been in the industry
Speaker:as long as I have also remember a tool called Bobby.
Speaker:So Bobby was an automated tool
Speaker:that you could scan your website
Speaker:and then if you were Bobby approved
Speaker:then it was an indication
Speaker:that you were, at that time, accessible.
Speaker:So a lot of it was hands on learning.
Speaker:I mean, the amount of training that is out there now,
Speaker:it is enormous, and it just wasn't there.
Speaker:So some of it was also interpreting the standards
Speaker:and then turning around and writing policy
Speaker:for how the NIH Clinical Center was going to interpret
Speaker:and apply Section 508 standards.
Speaker:- Well, so then you moved out of the federal government.
Speaker:What was the kinda next phase of accessibility like for you?
Speaker:- Yeah, so out of federal government, I then moved over,
Speaker:it was nonprofit but higher ed.
Speaker:And so that's where it was really,
Speaker:because it was higher ed
Speaker:working with higher education institutions who get funding
Speaker:from the Department of Education,
Speaker:it was still Section 508, but then the injection
Speaker:of the web content accessibility guidelines.
Speaker:And that was really looking at working with
Speaker:this organization to do full on audits and remediation
Speaker:of very specific applications.
Speaker:- And so I imagine that that was, you know,
Speaker:quite a bit of a different work environment
Speaker:from the federal government.
Speaker:Maybe there are some things carried over.
Speaker:What were some
Speaker:of the similarities and things that were different?
Speaker:- You know, the similarities,
Speaker:and I think that the similarities that we've,
Speaker:throughout all of the different industries
Speaker:with whom I've worked, is the A,
Speaker:I don't know what I don't know.
Speaker:B, accessibility is hard.
Speaker:And C, well, is this good enough?
Speaker:And accessibility is usually on the chopping block when,
Speaker:you know, the timelines get tight,
Speaker:scope has to be tightened up.
Speaker:So I would say the, you know
Speaker:that's a little bit different in the federal government
Speaker:but much more prevalent when you're
Speaker:in sort of private industry when you're looking
Speaker:at speed to market and things like that.
Speaker:But again, it was really a thought, right?
Speaker:If you myth bust that accessibility is hard,
Speaker:it leads to ugly designs, dumbed down user experiences.
Speaker:And just a yes, I'm committed to accessibility,
Speaker:but in application the behaviors don't demonstrate
Speaker:what the mouths might be saying about their commitment
Speaker:to accessibility.
Speaker:So, you know, that is an overarching theme.
Speaker:What do you do with that?
Speaker:A lot of advocacy, a lot of awareness building,
Speaker:a lot of training.
Speaker:And at Hilton, my commitment was walking the talk.
Speaker:So that meant bringing in people who have a disability,
Speaker:both outwardly visible and invisible,
Speaker:and putting them on teams, with our delivery teams
Speaker:so that they now could say, I know someone, right?
Speaker:It brought it home and it stopped the discussion
Speaker:of why do we have to do this, right?
Speaker:Because they would look
Speaker:at their coworker and they would say, well of course
Speaker:my coworker should have equal access
Speaker:to everything that we're doing.
Speaker:And so that was something.
Speaker:And at the same time, it was a way
Speaker:for me to also demonstrate to the enterprise
Speaker:the value that a person
Speaker:with a disability brings to the workforce.
Speaker:- And, you know, that's certainly,
Speaker:one of the best ways to be able to
Speaker:build up your accessibility organization.
Speaker:I think one of the unfortunate barriers is
Speaker:that when we bring people with physical challenges
Speaker:into the workplace, suddenly we're also recognizing
Speaker:that our internal tools that we work with aren't accessible,
Speaker:that, you know, the way that we carry on business
Speaker:hasn't been set up for that,
Speaker:which is a whole different thing
Speaker:from what we're providing externally.
Speaker:But you know, I see it as a really significant problem
Speaker:as we bring more people into help us in accessibility.
Speaker:- Absolutely, I mean, as we diversify our workforce,
Speaker:even with COVID and people working from home
Speaker:relying on technology more and more
Speaker:on a day to day basis to interact with coworkers and things,
Speaker:what's interesting is that climate,
Speaker:the situation has actually, at least in, you know,
Speaker:in our situation really allowed us to, again,
Speaker:elevate the discussion.
Speaker:And that discussions around mental health,
Speaker:bring your whole self to work, they're door openers
Speaker:where we can also then help people understand, you know,
Speaker:a diverse workforce.
Speaker:It includes accessible internal communication.
Speaker:It includes accessible required training.
Speaker:It includes hosting accessible meetings.
Speaker:And so my team has just been phenomenal
Speaker:in really seeing the opportunities
Speaker:and quickly spinning up training so that we, you know,
Speaker:the appetite's there.
Speaker:And so we wanna feed that appetite and say, okay,
Speaker:here's an accessible meeting.
Speaker:And then we model it.
Speaker:You know, here's what creating an accessible email
Speaker:looks like.
Speaker:And we do it in a way that is very supportive.
Speaker:And then what we've been doing is building champions.
Speaker:And so the champions are able to take back their learnings
Speaker:and share that with other people in the organization.
Speaker:And that's really, you know,
Speaker:that is the way to really scale that.
Speaker:- Yeah, and you know, reflecting on where we've gotten to
Speaker:with your career so far with the federal government
Speaker:and then with the nonprofit situation,
Speaker:in both of those, we'll have compliance.
Speaker:We'll also have a mission to be able to support those
Speaker:with physical challenges.
Speaker:But when we get to the corporate area,
Speaker:suddenly return on investment becomes a part of that
Speaker:which maybe don't apply as much in those other areas.
Speaker:And I would imagine that, you know, that's an important part
Speaker:of what your organization thinks about
Speaker:in terms of making your, you know,
Speaker:using your properties' favorable to people
Speaker:that are looking at other options.
Speaker:- When you take the number
Speaker:one billion people in this world with a disability,
Speaker:and that's a number that you don't ignore.
Speaker:It is a, I believe, it's a segment,
Speaker:it's a segment that is eager to return to travel.
Speaker:I believe that looking at end to end accessible travel
Speaker:that includes from the time that someone starts to dream
Speaker:about where do I wanna go?
Speaker:You know, looking up, researching hotels or locations
Speaker:all the way through, you know,
Speaker:whatever they need to get to an airport, you know,
Speaker:on the plane and then arriving at our property
Speaker:and having an on property accessible experience.
Speaker:You know, that is something where
Speaker:we are really taking a a good, hard look.
Speaker:And there are things that Hilton has in play already
Speaker:that really helps facilitate.
Speaker:So my team being plugged in
Speaker:especially in the digital space, you know,
Speaker:to make sure that people can book those rooms that they need
Speaker:at the hotels where they want to travel.
Speaker:But then you get to the hotel
Speaker:and we have tools like digital key
Speaker:where you can bypass the front desk.
Speaker:You can go right to your room
Speaker:and you can use your own device set up
Speaker:in whatever way you need it to be set up.
Speaker:You can have voiceover running,
Speaker:you can have your large text,
Speaker:and you can then activate the unlocking of your room.
Speaker:You no longer have to figure out, you know,
Speaker:which way does the key card go or try to, you know,
Speaker:have fine motor skill in order to plug it in to the door.
Speaker:And so that is really freeing
Speaker:in support of independent travel.
Speaker:You know, some of the other things that we are also
Speaker:looking at and refining would be the smart room
Speaker:and having smart room technology.
Speaker:I tell the story, one of my team members
Speaker:you know, before COVID, he traveled extensively.
Speaker:He's blind, he has a guide dog.
Speaker:And so he would travel to our various offices and stay
Speaker:at usually the same hotels in the different offices.
Speaker:And they yet, when we would go to the hotel, you know,
Speaker:it was always a different room.
Speaker:And he would have to feel along the walls
Speaker:in order to locate the thermostat
Speaker:because it was not in the same place in every room.
Speaker:And then he would have to figure out, is the heat on?
Speaker:Is the AC on?
Speaker:Turning it up, turning it down.
Speaker:Well, this smart room technology, again,
Speaker:puts control of a thermostat in a person's hand
Speaker:through our mobile app.
Speaker:And they can use whatever assistive technology
Speaker:or adaptive techniques, and then control that, right?
Speaker:Again, that is pretty freeing.
Speaker:And quite frankly, I think it benefits everybody.
Speaker:I've had a long day, I've finally made it to my hotel,
Speaker:I'm tired, I've put my feet up, and now I'm cold.
Speaker:I don't wanna get outta bed.
Speaker:Guess what?
Speaker:Boop boop boop boop,
Speaker:I can control my thermostat through my phone.
Speaker:So just a couple examples.
Speaker:And some of how we're thinking, right,
Speaker:is that it really is something that it benefits everyone.
Speaker:And it also supports this travel mindset.
Speaker:- Well, those are some exciting things to hear about
Speaker:going on at your organization.
Speaker:Of course, inclusive design
Speaker:where we're supporting the whole spectrum
Speaker:with our solutions
Speaker:I think is kinda where we all wanna be with everything.
Speaker:So we've kind of come full circle
Speaker:back to where you're at today.
Speaker:Do you have any thoughts about, or, you know,
Speaker:things that your organization
Speaker:is looking forward to farther into the future
Speaker:or maybe some other things that you're passionate about
Speaker:that are going on right now?
Speaker:- So some of the things I would say,
Speaker:I'll keep it closer to home that I'm passionate about,
Speaker:is really helping the enterprise understand,
Speaker:you know, what is being successful
Speaker:in hiring more people with disabilities?
Speaker:And the kinds of support mechanisms to have in place
Speaker:so that we set folks up for success.
Speaker:And, you know, again,
Speaker:that includes a lot to do with technology.
Speaker:Obviously, technology is one of my areas of expertise
Speaker:so I'm particularly sensitive to that.
Speaker:So I see that as very exciting to be able to do that, right,
Speaker:to be able to then have Hilton looked at as,
Speaker:hey, this is a great place for everyone to work.
Speaker:And it does doesn't matter, you know, your ability, right?
Speaker:You're race, it doesn't matter where you live,
Speaker:if you will, Hilton's a great place to work
Speaker:and we will support you in your career success.
Speaker:The other thing that, you know,
Speaker:I always keep an eye on is directionally
Speaker:where are we going with accessibility guidelines?
Speaker:And so thinking about
Speaker:what is the 3.0 of WCAG going to look like?
Speaker:Thinking about, you know,
Speaker:setting again the scaffolding, if you will,
Speaker:so that Hilton can quickly pivot
Speaker:and really understand how much do we really need to do
Speaker:to pivot.
Speaker:So those are some of the things.
Speaker:And then looking for opportunities to partner
Speaker:with disability advocacy groups, and also looking
Speaker:for opportunity to build features, functions
Speaker:in our Hilton ecosystem that are very specific
Speaker:to addressing needs of certain disability populations.
Speaker:And I think that that would be just fantastic.
Speaker:And again, I maintain that it'll benefit everyone.
Speaker:- Well, Nicole, it sounds like you're definitely
Speaker:have more than enough on your plate
Speaker:in terms of current activities
Speaker:and things that you're thinking about.
Speaker:And I want to thank you
Speaker:for taking the time to share those experiences with me,
Speaker:talk about your journey.
Speaker:And, you know, maybe we'll meet up in the real world
Speaker:at some point.
Speaker:- Well, Joe, I appreciate the opportunity to share my story.
Speaker:Hopefully it will inspire others to follow along
Speaker:and do some great work as well.
Speaker:- Yeah, I'm sure it will.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
