{"id":20520,"date":"2023-11-10T03:13:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T03:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/inside-indeeds-efforts-to-literally-bring-accessibility-and-empathy-to-the-real-world\/"},"modified":"2023-11-10T03:13:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T03:13:11","slug":"inside-indeeds-efforts-to-literally-bring-accessibility-and-empathy-to-the-real-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=20520","title":{"rendered":"Inside Indeed\u2019s Efforts To Literally Bring Accessibility And Empathy To The Real World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When most people think of accessibility and assistive tech, they mostly think of software: operating systems and apps and websites. That\u2019s logical and the natural inclination. The physical, three-dimensional spaces in which we live and work typically aren\u2019t associated with technology companies from an accessibility angle. For that, laws on the books like the Americans with Disabilities Act, more colloquially known as the ADA, does well to regulate the outside world. Accommodations such as curb cuts, wheelchair ramps, and disabled parking spaces\u2014things people are familiar with\u2014exist because the ADA says it so.<\/p>\n

For LaFawn Davis and Indeed, accessibility includes physical spaces.<\/p>\n

Davis, Indeed\u2019s senior vice president of environmental, social, and governance, told me in an interview last month\u2014which, incidentally, happened during National Disability Employment Awareness Month\u2014her role involves helping job-seekers from marginalized communities (cf. disabled people) enter the workforce. It\u2019s also important to Davis and team to help people break through barriers such as criminal records, the lack of a collegiate degree, and more. More pertinently to physical spaces, Davis said Indeed focused on what she described as \u201cretrofitted office space and guidelines for future buildings to ensure that the accessibility of our workplaces go beyond code compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal, Davis said, is to make Indeed more accessible and inclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to share how we took this [physical spaces project] on so that other companies can follow suit,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n

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According to data Davis shared, Indeed has to date retrofitted 16 offices with this accessible ethos. A major aspect of the work, she added, was \u201cmaking all offices consistent globally for traveling employees and for visitors.\u201d Employees, Davis said, were asking in biweekly Q&A sessions what the company is doing not merely to be compliant but be disruptive. The work on physical spaces is one such manifestation of disruption, with Davis saying \u201cit\u2019s an ongoing project\u201d that will incorporate ideas for adjustments and the like. It\u2019s not a vanity project or one-and-done deal.<\/p>\n

As a practical matter, Indeed has teams spanning disciplines across the organization\u2014Apple CEO Tim Cook often likes to call this \u201cdeep collaboration\u201d\u2014that came up with a matrix that Davis said \u201c[creates] consistency across the office space, both in our existing office and any new builds.\u201d Much of the design work involved garnering feedback from focus groups, as well as employees whose lived experiences might help inform what and how to build certain elements. And of course, there were logistical concerns regarding budget and other areas of feasibility. All of these learnings were packaged and delivered to company leadership as a sort of \u201caccessibility settings\u201d for the project that featured various degrees of negotiability. Indeed\u2019s employee resource group, called Access, has over 1,100 members worldwide and had a heavy hand in designing these spaces specifically due to, as mentioned earlier, Davis and team\u2019s insistence on leaning on people\u2019s lived experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Accessibility is] not just our products and technology. It\u2019s also our physical spaces,\u201d Davis said of Indeed\u2019s ethos on accessibility. \u201cWe wanted to make sure we were able to highlight the voices of our employees with disabilities [and] our potential job-seekers and candidates and clients with disabilities to ensure their voice was heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis said although Indeed has discussed its product accessibility work in the past, the company felt a compulsion to bring in the physical component as well. Making sure users and workers have equitable access is, David told me, \u201ca core value\u201d to Indeed. It\u2019s one of those aforementioned non-negotiable items. More pointedly, David said Indeed considers the disabled community a \u201ccore population\u201d that drives a lot of what happens inside and outside of the company. The efforts Indeed have made in this realm have been concerted, with Davis saying they \u201cdefinitely want to shout it from the rooftops\u201d because they want others to look at what they\u2019ve done and draw inspiration to undergo a similar endeavor for their company. The work in making physical spaces accessible is even more important considering an increasing number of organizations are mandating people return to work. While Indeed understands the value and accessibility of working remotely, they feel a responsibility to make offices as inclusive as possible for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want other companies to understand what we already do,\u201d Davis said of the philosophy behind sharing their work reimagining physical spaces in the name of inclusion. \u201cThe return to office may be a barrier for some, and we want them to take steps to remedy this\u2014whether that\u2019s changing the office space to be more accessible or allowing more employees to remain work from home. It\u2019s important for us to talk about the fact we\u2019re doing this work, but honestly, it\u2019s also more of a call to action so that job-seekers, already facing barriers and employees with disabilities, don\u2019t lose the ground they\u2019ve gained in being employed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alluding to what I wrote in the lede, Davis and team are keenly aware the majority of technology companies think of accessibility in product terms. The literal building in which they ruminate over pixels and marketing prose usually isn\u2019t thought of as something that could be made accessibly. Davis is an ardent believer in the idea that physical spaces have the potential to make a \u201cbig difference\u201d in terms of accessibleness and inclusiveness. Importantly, they wish not to stand alone. The team hopes others will be \u201cinspired to make changes within their physical office spaces\u201d in order to bolster an inclusive culture.<\/p>\n

Going forward, Davis was candid in her humility with Indeed\u2019s accessibility work, whether in product or the physical space. In both arenas, she readily concedes they aren\u2019t perfect and \u201cdon\u2019t know everything.\u201d In their march towards institutional self-actualization, Davis told me Indeed is committed to soliciting feedback and incorporating new ideas and essentially just learning as they go along. To borrow an old (and tired) cliche from interviews with athletes everywhere, Davis and Indeed work hard every single day to get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is going to be something that we continue to just adjust over time,\u201d Davis said of her visions for the future. \u201cThere could be spaces that work better for people who are neurodiverse, and we want to hear about how the spaces work for them. We continue to leave the door open [and we] continue to listen, and we\u2019re getting great feedback so far.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When most people think of accessibility and assistive tech, they mostly think of software: operating systems and apps and websites. That\u2019s logical and the natural inclination. The physical, three-dimensional spaces in which we live and work typically aren\u2019t associated with technology companies from an accessibility angle. For that, laws on the books like the Americans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leadership"},"yoast_head":"\nInside Indeed\u2019s Efforts To Literally Bring Accessibility And Empathy To The Real World | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When most people think of accessibility and assistive tech, they mostly think of software: operating systems and apps and websites. 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