jess. ✨

jess. ✨

A view to Microsoft Ability Summit 2023

Become an innovator in accessibility

This week, Microsoft got together to celebrate and continue the conversation about accessibility in their 13th Annual Ability Summit. I always look forward for this event, as you get to learn so much about what teams are working on to contribute for a more accessible experience in the products the company provides.

"But Jess, don't you work there?" Well yes, I do. But, as you can imagine, with a company as big as Microsoft, there is a lot of great work happening in different organizations, and we employees get the opportunity to catch up and learn about them from these events as well.

Here are the things I took from this year event:

Discovering new people in the community

My greatest takeaway on each accessibility event I attend is to learn about people in the community. For some reason, the space of accessibility feels quite small and somewhat isolated than other areas I have been part of. The fact that I may compare it to something like the UX or front-end community can definitely make it feel that way. It can also be a more expected experience as an ally. Either way, the space feels so much bigger when I attend events like this one, and be more connected to the conversations that are current in the community.

Judith Heumann (1947-2023) "Mother of the Disability Rights Movement" 🤍

Through the event this year, Microsoft took the opportunity to commemorate the life and legacy of Judith Heumann, Disability Rights Activity, who passed away on March 4th of this year (2023). It was moving to hear from so many people in the community the impact that she left and she became a role model, mentor, and friend for so many. I invite you to lear more about her contributions to the disabled community through her site.

Gaelynn Lea, Musician and Co-Founder of RAMPD 🎻

The event started with the performance of Watch the World Unfold, by Gaelynn Lea dedicated to Judith Heumann. Gaelynn is a musician, public speaker and Disability Rights advocate. You can find her music, upcoming events, and more of her content on Gaelynn Linktree.

Jen White-Johnson, Neurodiverse Artist and Boricua ✨

You better believe I was beyond excited to learn about Jen White-Johnson during the session "Building for the Brain: designing for cognitive inclusion, lead by Christina Mallon, Microsoft Director of Inclusive Design. Jen didn't shy away to bring the topic of race and disability, and the complexity that comes from living in the intersection of this two communities. There is so much more I can unpack from this topic, maybe for another post. Watch the session at the Ability Summit website.

New Tech to try

It is known by now there is a great of investment Generative AI across tech companies, from tools and experiences, and accessibility is an area that can really benefit from it. It is also a great opportunity to have accessibility in mind at this early state. To understand how to have a inclusive design mindset, check out the newest Microsoft Inclusive Design Toolkit. Here are some of the tech that I'm curious to explore more about.

Visual Studio Code: IntelliCode and Zen Mode

During "Keynote 2 - Build more inclusive technology (32:00)", Mary from Microsoft shares different ways on how she stays focused, including VS (Visual Studio) Code extensions that helps her stay focused, including IntelliCode. IntelliCode is an AI assistant development extension created by Microsoft, which helps identify improvements in code. I'm excited to try this and others setups like macros and VS Code Zen Mode.

Other VS Code extensions mentioned:

GitHub Copilot

As part of the "Generative AI for A11y: Empowering everyone with Generative AI", Rizel from GitHub walks through different scenarios where GitHub Copilot empowered her feel more confident with coding. The one that resonated to me the most was the comments in a different spoken language. As a Spanish native speaker, I'm so excited to see progress into a more inclusive coding experience with this. Taking some time to explore this and other project at GitHub Next.

Me tweeting about this.

Books, Books, and Books

Do I need more books? I mean, should I even being asking this type of question? The reality is, every Microsoft event is an opportunity to discover new books, and Ability is not left behind. The typical background with shelves full with unique things which the speaker connects with. For Ability Summit, Jenny decorated the shelves with different books about accessibility, including honoring Judith Heumann and her passion for baking, plus Microsoft Adaptive 3D printed accessories, and her beloved marmites. Not even Dona was able to stop her on that last one.

Here is the list of Jenny's books and other books I spotted during the event: 📚

Words to reflect on

I'm a fan of quotes and phrases. I think part of it is related to my love for poetry. Hence, here it is a dedicated section for them.

  • "It's our responsibility to meet change with curiosity." -- A. Silver
  • "I may not necessary know or understand everyone's struggle, but that does not change my goal of making the world a more #accessible place for everyone." -- Chris Sano
  • "Motivation has to equal or exceed cognitive or physical effort." -- Cathy Bodin
  • "If an airline gets you there, but your wheelchair doesn't arrive in working condition, it is as if a traveler has arrived, where they need to be, without their legs" -- Secretary Pete Buttigieg
  • "Transforming technology to speak the language of the disability community" -- Jen White-Johnson
  • "Access for the sake of access is not liberatory" -- Jen White-Johnson
  • "Is this technology celebrating the way that my mind works?" -- Jen White-Johnson
  • "Nothing about us without us" -- Ability Summit

Homework

This recap is my way to internalize all the learnings from this year event. I way for me to reinforce the things I knew, learn new way to support the community, and reinforce the meaning and value of all of it. By sharing this, I hope someone finds this valuable as well. Now, listing my todo here:

  • [ ] Install all VS code extensions that I don't have yet.
  • [ ] Create macros for coding focus time.
  • [ ] Start reading and find new quotes.
  • [ ] Try GitHub Copilot.
  • [ ] Make this post accessible. 😬
← Back to home