I had the pleasure of attending the first Seattle Disability Connect event that was held at Microsoft on May 2. It was the brainchild of Christopher Caulfield, who was an AccessComputing Team member when he was in graduate school at Cornell. He is now a program manager at Microsoft. The event brought together about 130 disabled tech workers and allies from different companies.
The event had four featured speakers, all disabled, including Margaux Joffe (Minds of All Kinds), Leah Katz-Hernandez (Linkedin), Jared Mace (OneCourt), and Amos Miller (Glidance). Minds of All Kinds is a company that supports neurodiverse people and helps businesses do better with hiring and retaining neurodiverse employees. OneCourt is a start-up that creates an audio-tactile experience for blind sports fans. Glidance, also a start-up, has developed a robotic guiding device for blind people to navigate the environment. Leah Katz-Hernandez, a Gallaudet University graduate, worked in the Obama administration and now leads Social Impact at Linkedin.
After the presentations ended, we had open time for networking. I met up with Meena Das and Naba Rizvi, both AccessComputing Team members, to talk about what they have been doing and their plans for the future. Meena is now a Program Manager at Microsoft and Naba is finishing up her dissertation at the University of California, San Diego. It was great to see all the former AccessComputing students.
After the event, I realized how powerful it was bringing together so many disabled tech workers and their allies. The whole event had a joyous feeling.