Full Transcription
Laura Allen:
-where now I spend really all of my time on sort of cross-organizational strategy and working on helping to bring alignment and understanding across the different teams working on accessibility, and on disability inclusion.
Jeff Thompson:
Please welcome Laura Allen.
Laura:
I happen to be low vision, I have a very rare visual condition called choroidal osteomas.
Jeff:
Google’s Head of Strategy for Accessibility and Disability Inclusion.
Laura:
There’s so much to be done, also, ensuring that the different company environments are actually really equitable and excellent for people with disabilities.
Jeff:
Laura’s journey from high school to college to the workplace.
Laura:
I was really one of the first students with a visual impairment that went through my high school, and those early years were challenging, so I’ve really used a number of things and developed, over the years, the right mix of assistive technology for me to be independent and productive in my everyday life, but it took me a while to get to that point.
Jeff:
New developments in accessibility from Google.
Laura:
And it provides a way to interact with Android in a hands-free way, so you can really use your voice to say many different types of commands, whether opening an app or doing a search, there are lots of different things, lots of text editing, and typing, and whatnot, all through voice.
Jeff:
And now, from the Blind Abilities studio, please welcome Laura Allen.
Laura:
One thing that I would definitely say is building the muscle of being able to advocate for yourself is really critical.
Jeff:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson, and today in the studio, we have Laura Allen, Head of Strategy for Accessibility and Disability Inclusion at Google, and formerly the lead project manager for the Chrome and Chrome OS Accessibility team. Laura, thanks for joining us on the show!
Laura:
Thank you so much, Jeff!
Jeff:
Thanks for taking the time coming onto Blind Abilities, and with me in the studio here is Raqi Gomez, Raqi?
Raqi:
Hello!
Jeff:
How’re you doing, Raqi?
Raqi:
I’m great, Jeff.
Jeff:
Great. Laura, strategy for accessibility and disability inclusion at Google seems very encompassing, can you give us a glimpse at what your daily job looks like?
Laura:
Yeah, absolutely. So, I have now been at Google for coming up on 11 years, this summer, so it’s been a while, and the bulk of my time I have been working specifically in the realm of accessibility and disability inclusion, so for about six and a half years I spent time as the Senior Program Manager for Accessibility on Chrome and Chrome OS, where it was really just doing everything possible with the team to help progress accessibility across the Chrome browser, building accessibility features into Chromebooks, and really just helping to up-level that level of usability across the board in our products and increase education among the broader teams of, you know, many many people who work on Chrome and Chrome OS, all the different things that they’re building. We did a lot of consultation, and working with them to make all parts of the browser and all parts of the Chrome operating system more accessible and more usable for people with disabilities, so I spent a lot of time, you know, really heavily focused in that main product area, but also was kind of doing a lot across the board, collaborating with other product area teams and our central accessibility team, working a lot on different sort of events, externally at Google, so like accessibility-related events, and spending a lot of time among Googlers with disabilities in our employee resource group, which is called the Disability Alliance, so over time I was spending a lot of effort outside of just particularly Chrome, Chrome OS, and I more recently back in November 2020 transitioned into this new role, where now I spend really all of my time on sort of cross-organizational strategy, and working on helping to bring alignment and understanding across the different teams working on accessibility and on disability inclusion, and you know, bringing people together, we just got done with running a really large internal event, for example, which we called the Disability Inclusion and Accessibility Summit, where we brought together, it was actually over 1500 people that participated across the world, across so many different countries, and we just had all kinds of different sessions about different teams giving updates on what they’ve been working on for accessibility, hearing about, you know, stories of different Googlers with disabilities and their paths, and having brainstorm sessions, just really trying to create more momentum and understanding and transparency across all the different places, and in the company, because the company has gotten so large, so there’s a lot of things to learn every day. It’s pretty amazing to think about how many different people are now kind of working on progressing this shared mission, but from their different corners of the company, you know? So, I’m very happy to be in this new role, and I’m excited to see where it goes. It’s still relatively early, so.
Jeff:
Wow, that’s a big step to have all the different divisions communicating and bake it in, that accessibility, so that’s really cool, that’s a great strategy for accessibility, of course. The other half of your title, can you talk about disability inclusion?
Laura:
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we think about a lot of different progress that companies are making in the realm of product accessibility, but there’s so much to be done also ensuring that the different company environments are actually really equitable and excellent for people with disabilities. So a lot of what I do now in this new role as well is working on, again, making Google a better place to work for people with disabilities. And we have this really wonderful employee resource group called the Disability Alliance, which is, it’s many many different people within Google, whether it’s people with disabilities, people who are, you know, maybe they have parents or children with disabilities, or family members, and then just a whole bunch of allies who want to learn more about disability inclusion and be able to better support their colleagues or their friends. So we have this wonderful resource group, and we’re kind of, we all work together to help support each other and lift each other up, but there’s also a lot of other work going on across teams, so whether that’s in our hiring and recruiting teams, in the teams that are working on accommodations, in the teams- you know, we’re all working from home these days, during COVID, and eventually we will have to go back into the office, and we’ll have to figure out how the office space is going to change, and how do we do that, keeping accessibility in mind for people with disabilities, and there’s a lot to consider there, so a lot of my work actually isn’t only focused on the product side these days, it’s also thinking about how do we make Google more inclusive and more accessible for everyone.
Jeff:
Wow, that’s cool, that it is building a network of awareness throughout the corporation.
Laura:
Yeah, it’s something that we work on every day, and the Disability Alliance has been growing and growing over the years, I think there’s a large desire to learn about- even just as an ally, to learn about how can I be more inclusive for my colleagues, and there’s a lot that people just maybe don’t know or don’t understand, and we still have to keep driving that awareness and that education, and help to break down some of those barriers about, like, if somebody doesn’t know the right words to say or the right questions to ask, like we’ve even started doing what we call Ask Me Anything sessions, with groups of Googlers with disabilities, just to break down that barrier, make it more comfortable for people to engage in that level of dialogue. It’s been an exciting time.
Jeff:
That’s great. Now it’s pretty clear to me, not only do you have a strategy for accessibility throughout Google, but you also have disability inclusion for the employees that work within Google, so that’s great. Good for you. Laura, you mentioned you’ve been there for 11 years, but there must have been quite a journey that led you to Google. Could you share a little bit about your path to Google?
Laura:
That’s a great question. So, I guess I can share a little bit first about my vision, as well, because this definitely played a role. Well, I happen to be low vision. I have a very rare visual condition called choroidal osteomas, and what this means is it essentially means my central vision is mostly not there. It’s mostly covered by these tiny little flashing pulsing lights, and my peripheral vision is still intact, for the most part, but anything I look directly at is largely distorted, and I have a tiny little field that has come, it’s kind of shifted in and out over the past years, but it’s a tiny little field that is- gives me the ability to read about two to three letters at a time, in the right lighting with the right contrast, and everything. But I use a wide variety of different assistive technologies, mostly using text-to-speech software, large mouse cursor, high contrast and inverted colors, little bit of magnification, so I’ve really used a number of things and developed over the years the right mix of assistive technology for me to be independent and productive in my daily life. But it took me a while to get to that point. So I started losing my central vision in my left eye when I was 10, and then in my right eye when I was 14. When I was 14 it was a really, really sort of harsh transition, because the way that the brain worked, at least in my case, was when I lost central vision in my left eye, my brain kind of shut it out, and it basically still just pieced together a clear view of the world with the central vision from my right eye, so I just didn’t really think about. I didn’t, as a 10-year-old, you know, I didn’t really process it at all, and then when I lost vision right before I was about to enter high school, everything sort of shifted. So that was a very challenging time for my family and for me of just trying to figure out, okay, well, what happens now, how do I go into high school just no longer being able to read a book or see the chalkboard? I had lost all central vision at that point, I didn’t have that kind of small field that has kind of resurfaced over the years, so it was a very large transition, and we wound up pulling together the pieces. I was relying heavily on my parents, who were just amazing, they’ve been an incredible support system, and my brother, same thing, he was just such a huge help, but they were really there to piece together what was missing or what my school wasn’t sure how to provide. I was really one of the first students with a visual impairment that went through my high school, and those early years were challenging and really defined by a lot of dependence, and it took a while but we figured out the right mix of different assistive technologies, again, to regain that independence, and then I wound up applying to Georgetown University, which I attended in Washington D.C., and I loved Georgetown, I made the choice to go to Georgetown for a few reasons, one of them being that I really connected with their student services team, and knew that they would have my back with getting my materials in accessible format and really supporting me. That was really fantastic, and I’m super grateful for Georgetown in that regard. So at Georgetown I studied international business and marketing, and I minored in music, which is just a side passion of mine, and I decided, you know- I on a whim had done a number of internships throughout my college experience, which I really valued and really kind of gave me more confidence to go out there and put my name out there for different jobs and whatnot, but I decided to go to an event that was being hosted by Lime Connect my senior year of college, and for anyone who’s not familiar with Lime Connect, they’re just this wonderful organization that helps to sort of partner with different companies and help to draw more awareness to students with disabilities about the different companies, and connect students with recruiters or employees that have disabilities, and I had never really thought about Google, to be totally honest with you. I had thought I would go back to one of the places that I had interned, I just didn’t really think about it until I went to that event and I heard from a few different people from Google, which- some of whom have had disabilities themselves, and all of a sudden it really opened my mind to thinking about applying, and I went ahead and applied, I stayed in touch with some folks from Lime Connect, and somehow was able to move through the interview process and I started at Google in California, working in the Sales Division, so something completely different from what I do now, but I started my career working on tech, business-to-business sales, so working with companies on their advertising and marketing strategies, and I started over there. I’ve had a much more in-depth path towards accessibility, which I’m happy to share about, but that’s where I started at Google.
Jeff:
That’s real neat that you mentioned Lime Connect, because I was told about that from Jack Chen-
Laura:
Yes, yes.
Jeff:
-a while back ago. That’s really neat, because that’s a really good program for people who are going into their master’s degree and stuff like that. Good stuff.
Laura:
Yeah, yeah. It was a wonderful event, I’m so glad that I went, and that my mind was open to this opportunity, I had never really thought about moving across the country, not knowing anyone in California, but it was an adventure and I’m so grateful that I did it.
Jeff:
How’s it feel to go through this journey, this path to Google, and now that you are actually helping level the playing field for so many people?
Laura:
Well, I’m very honored to be able to do this, and I feel very, very grateful every day for my job. I feel a real purpose and a real mission to this work, I’m very connected to this work because of my personal experience, I reflect often on my path, and again, like exactly how much I had to rely on my family, and on my support network, and I was so, so lucky to have that sort of support network in place to help piece together what was missing and bridge those gaps and help me advocate when I didn’t know how to advocate for myself, but I know not everyone has that. That’s definitely more of the exception than the rule these days, and I’m so grateful that I was able to make it through the education system and make it into Google, and once I got to Google I started just kind of reaching out to people when I used to be on the sales side of Google, I would reach out to different teams, just saying hey, I’m Laura, I have low vision, I have some feedback for the different product that you’re working on, would you be up for grabbing coffee? And I was so blown away by people’s responses just being so open and so receptive to hearing this feedback, I didn’t really know that this was a field I would want to go into, but I quickly fell in love. I quickly kind of found my purpose, and found my calling, and realized okay, this is something that I want to explore much further. So I spent a while just meeting with different people and starting to advocate and give that user feedback, and it was kind of this flip that switched in my mind of this thing that I’ve had, my visual impairment, for so long, which has kind of caused me to be nervous about pursuing opportunities, or oh, are they gonna have my materials in an accessible format, it was always something I had to really just know how to navigate and gain that confidence and now, all of a sudden, it’s this super beneficial perspective that I can bring to the team, saying no, I can provide you perspective on how to make this more visible for someone with low vision, or more usable for someone using a screen reader. It just really flipped the narrative for me, and I just realized, again, like I consider myself to be almost at this point of privilege of having that path and having that support, and I want to be able to use my voice to help advocate for those who may not be in the same position, and then help to use technology through Google to really help level the playing field, like you said. I’m very honored and humbled to have this role, and I’m extremely dedicated to just continuing to push forth this mission.
Raqi:
What a wonderful story. It’s- I love those empowering stories, you know? We don’t realize sometimes, we start on this path, right, where it’s gonna take us.
Laura:
Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s so interesting too, because I certainly enjoyed my time in sales, it was an interesting moment, again, when I realized, I think I am a very- I’m a person who puts my whole self into what I do, and it made such a change for me, when I shifted into working on accessibility, something that I personally cared so deeply about. I just remember having this thought, back in my, you know, early career, when I was putting a ton of hours in, and I wasn’t totally tied to what I was doing, and then I shifted to accessibility, and I was like okay, this is what it feels like, to put all you have into something that really matters to you, and I just, I’m very grateful for that feeling.
Raqi:
You seem to have turned something that for a number of people is a barrier into an asset, in a way, and I hear that over and over in your narrative, that something that as- growing up blind myself, and I’m not in the same position you and Jeff are, as a totally blind person, but I know we go from trying to minimize our own disability or trying to find workarounds for other people or make other people comfortable, we treat it like a barrier, our society teaches us, and to go from that sort of mindset to having good support tools like you did and turning it into an asset, you know, between that and your collective experiences, sounds like it’s really been empowering for you.
Laura:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Raqi:
Do you have advice that you would give to young people that are looking at, you know, maybe aspiring to have a career in a field like yours, are there things that you would say to young students?
Laura:
I think that one thing that I would definitely say is building the muscle of being able to advocate for yourself is really critical, so I definitely had to learn this over the years, early on I wasn’t comfortable advocating for myself, again, I was leaning more heavily on my parents to help me navigate that in those early days, but I started to get more confident, and I started to understand that no, I’m not burdening them, I deserve to have these sorts of accommodations, and I deserve just as much to have my materials in an accessible format. If getting, you know, a piece of paper for an exam didn’t quite work for me, I needed to have it on a laptop with text-to-speech technology, that wasn’t a burden, and it took me a little while to get that, but I really started when I went off to college and was really on my own, I started building that muscle more and more, and it really helped. It helped me to feel more confident and more empowered, to be the student that I wanted to be and that I knew I could be, and it also gave me a bit of a benefit, because I would go in before each actual class started each semester, I would book time with the professor, I would have a sit-down and talk with them about, okay, I got to introduce them, and I remember my friends just being kind of envious, they were like “How do you know the professor so well already?” And it, you know, it was just helpful to have that sort of direct relationship and build that bond, even before we got started with the semester, and then I’ve taken that advocacy to my job and was able to help advocate for myself, but then, you know, now I view my role as advocating for so many others, not just for myself, so I would definitely say advocacy is something to prioritize, but I would also say, just trying to navigate the journey of when and how to disclose a disability is really key. For me, with my visual impairment, is really, you know, in my central vision, I still have peripheral vision mostly intact, I don’t use a navigational aid at this point, and you know, many people will tell me that they don’t necessarily know that I have a visual impairment unless I explain it to them, and they don’t quite understand what I mean when I say I have a central vision loss, and so I have to really go into it. In many cases I kind of picture it as it’s more of an invisible disability, which so many people have what are considered invisible disabilities, and that then also means you really need to figure out the right ways of when to disclose and whom to disclose to, and I remember before I was getting more and more comfortable with disclosing and explaining, I had a lot of challenges socially, back in college, and you know, when you’re- there’s no really easy way to just explain to everyone all at once, and I just remember having so many instances with people who either were in my classes or someone I had met out, somewhere, and connected with, but then I would walk by them on campus and not say hello to them because I couldn’t recognize their face, and this would happen a lot to the point where I actually got yelled at publicly a few times from a few rather rude girls who didn’t know about my visual impairment and just thought that I was being incredibly hostile and rude and just not saying hello to them. And I had to then explain the situation to them and say it’s not personal, I promise, this is- I have a visual impairment, this is the way that I see the world, I’m not recognizing your face, but the damage was kind of done already, so I just remember always being so nervous about that, and always being- almost hiding, like I remember walking through campus where that was always the hardest, when anyone could come at you with any context, like someone you met in this class or that class or out this night, and you know, it’s a free-for-all when you’re walking through a campus. I remember just always trying to call my mom on my cell phone while I was walking, so that in case somebody walked by me and I didn’t say hello, I had an excuse. I was on the phone. My attention was somewhere else. And that was my little hack to avoiding the situation, but I realize looking back it was just, it was coming from a place of fear, and I feel very grateful now because I feel a lot more comfortable explaining and owning this and being more proud of my path and my vision, and again, just being at a company that really embraces disability and embraces just the different perspectives we can bring. That has changed everything for me, because now that I work in the field of accessibility and disability inclusion I can really just shout from the rooftops about my personal story and I don’t have to worry that it’s going to, you know, when should I explain this, when should I hold back? It really does give a little bit more of an authentic perspective, that, you know, I do have this personal lived experience, so it’s definitely been a journey for me, of learning the way to disclose and how to disclose, and learning about people’s reactions and how they differ, but I think it’s a very personal journey, so I would say that in terms of advice, just navigate that journey in a way that feels comfortable to you. Never feel pressured to disclose a disability, but know that there is a level of empowerment that comes when you’re able to disclose and explain and show someone your whole self.
Jeff:
Wow. What a sense of freedom that must have felt, to be in an environment where it’s accepted and almost encouraged to have your voice be heard, especially since you’re dealing with accessibility.
Laura:
Absolutely.
Jeff:
I’ve seen a lot of clubhouse things going on, I’ve seen a lot of other events going on, webinars going on, about women in tech, and here you are, you’re in tech. What advice would you have for someone breaking this, what, glass ceiling a little bit, but I guess it’s been broken already. But it’s still one of those stigmas a little bit, that you don’t see a lot of women in tech.
Laura:
Yeah, I will say we need more of you. We need more women, yes.
Raqi:
I second that over here.
Laura:
Yes! I would say, you know, there are so many resources out there, there’s so many opportunities out there, don’t hold yourself back if this is something that interests you, like by all means pursue it, and I would also say there’s- it doesn’t really feel like there’s just one path anymore to get into tech, I work with a lot of different people who have very different backgrounds. They didn’t all study the same thing in college. Maybe they didn’t even study things relating to computer science or design. For example, I didn’t, I studied marketing and international business, and I was able to work through and learn on the job and do side projects and study on the side and take some additional sort of like learning opportunities and courses, and it wasn’t what you would consider a traditional path into tech, but that’s becoming more and more common, so I would say be open to it, if this is something that interests you and you’ve already kind of gone through your education, maybe you had other roles so far, like, it doesn’t mean it’s too late. So I would say we need more of you.
Raqi:
Fantastic.
Jeff:
I read in an article where they were asking you questions and you had- what, let me get this right, what is one habit that makes you successful? And I really loved your answer for that one, I don’t know if you remember that one, but.
Laura:
Ah, okay. Well, thank you! I think I know which article you’re talking about, and I think I had responded around creating space. So, I always like to think about creating some intentional time and space for the things that I want to particularly do, or things that I want to make progress on, and so I’m in a role where, you know, I could be pulled in so many different directions, every single day, and if I don’t actively try, I mean, I could spend 99% of my time just being reactive, and just responding to things, responding to requests coming at me, and I could kind of lift my head up and months may have gone by and maybe I wouldn’t have made progress on the core things that I really wanted to move forward. So I really try to be intentional about, you know, creating that space for my different projects, whether for work or from a personal standpoint of I want to make time to reconnect with that friend from college or whatever it may be, but just kind of carving out time in a week. I like to block my calendar sometimes, just to, again- so that somebody doesn’t come in and add a bunch of meetings, and I need to preserve that space. I like to write a list each week that kind of goes into that, and I think about it from a personal standpoint and a professional standpoint, but that has really helped me, because it just helped me better sort of own my work path and the things that I’m really prioritizing, because I know all of us can get pulled in so many different directions at once.
Raqi:
I love that.
Jeff:
I know a lot of students, K-12, that use the- used to be G-Suite, now it’s Google Workspace.
Laura:
Ah, workspace, yes.
Jeff:
Mm-hm. I was talking to a gentleman who’s now going to Penn State, saying that they use this Canvas, which is what professors use to distribute grades, assignments and all that, and he said that he’s been having good experiences with his Chromebook, he’s in Chromebox.
Laura:
Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah, the team has been working so hard for so many years on improving accessibility within Chromebooks, Chromebox being the sort of full-system screen reader. I’m really glad to hear that, there have been so many improvements that have come about over the last few years in particular, and you know, they’ve recently added a handful of new things including some new tutorials. There’s this set of menus, essentially, that has been developed, kind of like a portal so that you can have this as a one-stop shop for everything Chromebox. They’ve added some new abilities within those menus, like there’s all the different jump commands, a bunch of different speech customizations and whatnot, but they’ve added the ability to search those menus, they’ve added faster voice switching to be able to detect what language a given page has on it, and then kind of more smoothly transition between the different languages with the text-to-speech voices, so the team has been really hard at work just continuing to make those improvements, so I’m definitely glad to hear that.
Jeff:
And last fall, there was some big news, I think towards winter, about voice access, where someone can, in association with Hey Google can give voice commands to do certain tasks.
Laura:
Yes, so we have voice access on Android, which is available in the Play store, and this is really developed for individuals with mobility impairments, and it provides a way to interact with Android in a hands-free way. So you can really use your voice to say many different types of commands, whether, you know, opening an app or doing a search, there are lots of different things, lots of text editing and typing and whatnot, all through voice, and there’s been a lot of improvements there as well. Now there are voice commands to adjust magnification levels, to be able to zoom in and zoom out, or pan left or pan right, there are also some interesting innovations that are more recently landing. For example, I know the team has been working on using machine learning to recognize icons, so for example, you could just be able to say “Tap send” on the send button, and voice access will be able to do that, even if the app developer hadn’t actually added an accessibility label for send, so the machine learning will be able to better understand what is on that icon, and help sort of bridge that gap. I know the teams also working on a number of things, like things to save time, so for example if I wanted to do a search for puppies with my voice, my go-to search, you could basically, you know, you could say “Search for puppies” and this would kind of take on that task of, instead of having you just say, you know, tap the search field, type “puppies,” tap search, it just does it more seamlessly, which can really help to save a lot of time, so lots of exciting things coming from the voice access team.
Raqi:
Very exciting.
Laura:
Yeah.
Jeff:
Yeah. I like that, shortening up the commands because it becomes pretty, you know, the protocol to get something initiated sometimes gets redundant if you have to keep on saying it over and over. That’s really cool. Machine learning, I like it.
Laura:
Yeah.
Raqi:
Well, that’s kind of the way our society’s going now, right, we talk to things, so the more- it’s ubiquitous, it’s everywhere, so the more we can make that efficient, speak to things more efficiently, that’s really exciting.
Laura:
Absolutely.
Jeff:
Yeah. Well, Laura, is there anything else that you want to share with our listeners?
Laura:
I just want to say thank you so much for having me. I’m a big fan of the podcast, and it’s been a pleasure to be on, it’s wonderful to be with you all today.
Raqi:
Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming, we’re so glad you could come.
Laura:
Thank you.
Jeff:
I want to thank you for what you’re doing and what Google’s doing for accessibility, and you know, in your new position, reaching across all the divisions and pulling everything together to bring awareness to the needs of accessibility, so thank you very much.
Laura:
Absolutely, thank you again.
Jeff:
Such a great conversation with Laura Allen. To find out what strategies they’re doing at Google for accessibility and for disability inclusion, within Google, and if you want to find out more about Google accessibility, check out the links in the show notes, check out the blog, check out their articles, and check out their support for accessibility across all their line of products. And for more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and on Facebook check out the Blind Abilities page and the Blind Abilities community, where you can learn, support, and advise. And if you want to give us feedback, have a question, give us a call at 612-367-9063, that’s 612-367-9063. We’d love to hear from you. And a big shout out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music, you can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @lcheechau. And from all of us here at Blind Abilities, to you, your family, and friends, through these challenging times, stay well, stay informed, and stay strong. I want to thank you for listening, and until next time, bye-bye.
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