If you use a wheelchair, why would you wanna be a shop tech?

If you use a wheelchair, why would you wanna be a shop tech?

So being able to put all of my stuff in, um, as close to me as possible so that way I'm not reaching across the table because my reach is limited due to the fact that I am in the wheelchair that I'm in, but also I'm I'm secured in so if I go over over something or if I go down the steep hill, I'm not falling out. Um, and so, yeah, I guess, for for me, the touch screens have been a huge lifesaver as part of my programming.

Um, and as I go forward, I am am still manipulating how do I want to use the touch screens slash all of the different options that I have to configure out.

I can't just sidestep over these, you know, as technology advances, maybe, yes, I will someday get to use advances, maybe, yes, I will someday get to use tech uh, you know, a wheelchair that actually can go side to side, but that is not in the case at current.

We've seen scenery and prop artists build ramps for wheelchairs.

Accessibility is innovation. When we design products with accessibility as a priority, we design products that become better, more convenient, and more efficient for everyone. A lot of accessible design might be driven by disability access, but if you've ever appreciated curb cuts or computer keyboards, speech to text, smart home technology, automatic doors, you've benefited from accessible design.

It's our job, the industry's job, to create the tools so that anyone out there can try and discover and create by removing the obstacles that we have unintentionally built into our systems and by developing accommodations we may not have considered in the past.

Well, once I first started working with Kev, um, just like I do with anybody who's differently abled, um, I rely on my engineering background to assess the person and their ability to interface with the equipment and the spaces that they need to interface with so that I can connect their brain, which is the important part, with their equipment and their surroundings.

More and more people are becoming involved and supportive of accessibility initiatives. Instead of questioning if accessibility will happen at all, our teams are questioning, how can we make it happen?

In having these conversations, ETC and and the people at ETC have repeatedly come back to this phrase, nothing about us without us. It's a phrase we we first heard from disability advocates in our industry and we decided we really needed to take that seriously. So in order to do that, we need to start showing that ETC is ready to have these conversations. We know there's a lot of work to be done and we're not gonna do everything perfect right off the bat, but we as an industry need to show that we want feedback. And when we do get it, we're welcoming it. We wanna start that initial dialogue. If somebody needs support, we need them to feel comfortable and safe coming to us and asking for it. We need to demonstrate that when you tell us what we can do better, we're ready to listen. Recently, ETC has published a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement that includes accessibility as a focus, and this work is part of that initiative. I've been ETC's UX designer for a number of years now, and I can tell you firsthand progress is being made. The difference between the conversations I was having 5 years ago and the conversations I'm having now today, it's it's like night and day. More and more people are becoming involved and supportive of accessibility initiatives. Instead of questioning if accessibility will happen at all, our teams are questioning, how can we make it happen?