Accessible Horizons- Accessibility Unveiled - The Journey BeginsPodcast

Nadine: I’m Nadine Charron

Luna: Good afternoon everyone. I am Luna Bengio, and I’m very pleased and excited to be here today. This is a first for us Nadine, so I hope everything is going to go as planned. We are first going to acknowledge that 219 Laurier Avenue West in Ottawa is located in the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe people. I would invite each and everyone of you to reflect on where you are located and where you are working, and the immense contribution and history that our indigenous people have made to our society and continue to make to our society.

And now we can get going. We can talk about some of the accessibility features of this webinar. We have our American Sign Language interpreter who has joined us. And please make sure to pin the interpreter on your screen if you need to access their interpretation. You can use the captioning on teams. We have no documents for this podcast.

We will make sure, that anything that we do is explained and described so that everyone can participate. We welcome your feedback. Please don’t hesitate to contact us. And you all receive copious reminders emails from Nadine. So you should know where to reach us to give us some feedback about this first edition of what we hope is going to be an ongoing occurrence, and where we’ll bring you practical information.

But Nadine, let’s first say what is 219 Laurier? And what are we at AAACT? What do we do?

Nadine: Well, thanks, Luna for that. And AAACT is fabulous. So we do a lot of work when it comes to accessibility. And it’s not just about individualized client service. We also new digital services. We help with accessibility plans. We do a lot of training and accreditation. We provide procurement advice to all departments. And everything we do here at AAACT is for the Government of Canada.

One thing that I love to be able to tell people is completely free of charge, so it’s very easy to reach us. Luna, you mentioned 219 Laurier, and I’m so very proud of 219 Laurier. It is a space that has been designed with accessibility at the forefront. So the first thing I need to do is to acknowledge all of our colleagues and our colleagues in different, departments and in facilities for delivering a space that is going to be a showcase space for persons with disabilities and with accessibility in mind.

If you all allow me, I’m going to talk a little bit about the features. And because you talked about this being a series, what we’re going to do is to show you bits and pieces of 219 Laurier and we’re going to start with this room. Are you good with that?

Luna: Absolutely. Until we have an opportunity to fully open it to our visitors or clients or colleagues, and for all of you who are not in the National Capital Region, we will make sure we continue to share with you the wonderful features of this location. Go ahead with this room.

Nadine: So we’re going to start by describing this room. This room is one of the many closed offices that you can find here at 219 Laurier. What makes it accessible? It’s some of the features that are in this room. For example, there is a back wall here that has some columns. These columns are made of felt in there about three inches thick.

And what that does, it really helps absorb the sound within the room. It’s really important to talk about the noise machine. So here every single room that has a door has a noise machine with a button on the wall. And this button allows you to control the white noise. You can either turn it on or you can turn it off.

The lighting in here is also dimmable, or you can completely turn it off, which is a great feature for a person that may have a light sensitivity. Somebody that would like it nice and bright, someone that would like it nice and dark. It allows you to customize the room to your liking. For those of you who can visualize, the chair that’s in back of me is an anti-gravity chair.

And you see, we do have someone that actually works here and she’s a real person. It’s not just a figment of your imagination. We have sit, stand desks. Well, we also have these types of chairs that allow us to work in a different position. So you have that and it’s something you can come to the office and test out if you would need this kind of chair, which I mentioned that eventually a client can come and try different things.

Luna: So you mentioned two very key things. The first thing is Lending Library. And the second thing is you can try in the store. Can you tell us a little bit more, more about those two services that we offer.

Nadine: I can definitely do that. The lending library has over 3000 items that range for very simple items to different mice, and keyboard to the extravagance of an anti-gravity chair, different, brailers, as we call them, and everything in between. We also have a really great team for research and development because technology advances all of the time. So how can we support our employees and make it easy for them to obtain tools that are going to remove barriers within their workplace?

These items would come to you through an info session that you would have with parts of the team, and then you could actually loan it out for two, three, four months to make sure you try out the tools to make sure they are the right ones. Once that is done, if it’s not the right one after 2 or 3 weeks, you can actually exchange it for a different one.

So similar as if you would go to the library and rent a book. You’re renting adaptive technology equipment here at the lending library, which, you know, allows us to provide a lot of different tools. And our next segment of our conversation will actually going to be displaying some of these tools and explaining a little bit of what they do.

Luna: Excellent. And I think the option of coming here physically, whenever possible to try some of this equipment to explore what it can do, is the way to look at any barriers that employees are facing in finding the right solution without having to buy gadgets, as I call them, or a software that you can you buy, but then it’s not the right fit so it stays somewhere in a drawer or on a computer unused.

It’s an opportunity to find the right solution for people’s accommodation.

Nadine: Excellent I think so do you think we should show one of our specialty tools, Luna?

Luna: Absolutely. We are very excited. And by the way, something that we didn’t see. But today is December 4th and we are, in an International day or International Week of Persons with Disabilities. So we are proud to come here to come to you on this day, to celebrate IDPD with all of you.

Nadine: And I hope you all joined the event yesterday, which was excellent. So I’m going to show you, a few, different items, and I’m going to start Luna with the X keys. And I’m trying to show this, and I’m hoping that people see this on the camera. This X keys that I’m holding right now has 24 key.

Each of these keys has been programmed to do one thing. So for example the bottom button here is control alt delete. I don’t have to use both hands and hit a number of buttons to turn off my computer or to lock it. I can close one button here and it’s going to do control alt delete. Luna, can you give us a concrete example on how this would help someone do a variety of tasks, and why it’s important?

Luna: Why it is important? Because sometimes involve repetitive task tasks that you do very often and that involve many small steps. So one of the uses of these devices is they can be programed to add the hitting one button, perform multiple steps. And the example that we want to give is of people who do translation. So they want to translate this specific paragraph.

They want to check a word. So they’ve got to select the word go open their browser, copy the word, find the explanation, copy that explanation, replace it in their word doc. Those are tasks that they do very often and time is of the essence. So it allows somebody with one button to do all those operations at once.

Imagine of the improvement in terms of stress for the individual, but also we have eliminated or mitigated a barrier that can be caused by repetitive tasks. For example, if you had to memorize a series of steps and you could program those steps into one of these keys and imagine how much easier it would be to do.

Nadine: That’s great. Again, there’s a lot of different ones. This one is already set up, but all of them can be customized for each person. We have different sizes, so this one I’m showing now is a 24 keys. So this one here is not programmed. So you’ll notice it doesn’t have any information or stickers to say what there is.

But this one is a 64 key. So you can actually change some of the information that you put on here. And you can have up to 64 on this one. If you’re looking for something small, if you wanted to put it above your keyboard, for example, then we have one that looks like this. This one is 16 keys.

It is in one row. Keys are very easy to press. And again, it can be programed with your laptop, with your computer, with your keyboard as well. And we also have the largest one that we have here has actually a 128 keys that can all be programed with macros. And that looks like this. So it’s almost like having two keyboards, but this one would allow you to, create a whole bunch of different information with the keys.

So there’s 128 here again, allowing you to do that. And I’m going to go back to one of the things that you said. You talked about repetitive tasks and you talked about barriers. How important is it to know what the person will be working on, what kind of tasks they’ll be working on before we just hand out any tools that we have in the lending library?

Luna: Well, first of all, because barriers that people face are situational, what that means is that the barrier really occurs differently in different situations. So for example, if I am the policy analyst, constantly typing on my computer, the barriers I encounter may be completely different from someone who’s in a call center responding to calls all the time, or somebody who is in a fisheries and oceans those ship trying to rescue people in the ocean.

So really barriers are very much related to the type of work that we do. The conditions in which we work or so are we in an office, are we in on the field somewhere? Are we at home? So that’s why it is important to understand the job and the working conditions, and to describe what is it that is more difficult to do among the tasks that we have to perform?

Where are the barriers and therefore how can we find the most effective solution? And for all of you who are managers out there and who may feel sometimes that you don’t know what you don’t know, you don’t know how you can address, the barriers so you can help, address the barriers, how you can meet your duty to accommodate obligations.

Again, please reach out to us. We you can find our coordinates .

Nadine: You, Excellent. Thank you. Luna. And again, we gave you one small sample of some of the tools that we do. And hopefully each segment in our series will allow us to bring forward another, different tool. Some of them will be something you are not sure of or you’ve never seen before. And we’re hoping to tell you why that is useful and what kind of barriers it addresses.

We will also show you why we’re using this different mic today, or why we can use a vertical mouse, or a simple mouse, or a magic mouse or a trackball mouse. So we’ll be showing you some of the things that you’re used to seeing. And that’s our goal. What we want to do today. Now that we’ve talked to you and told you about our excuse that really cool.

What we want to do is we want to show you what a conversation with a new employee might look like. That is not just run of the mill. Hello. What are your barriers? How can I help you? Luna and I, I think we’re going to demonstrate a little bit of a conversation that we’ve had and that we sometimes have with onboarding some of our employees.

And we hope that you get other some insights and some tips and tricks on the conversations that you have with your employees moving forward.

Luna: These conversations can be difficult, especially when the two people don’t know each other so the manager doesn’t know the employee, and vice versa. The employee may feel reluctant to say, I need a ceratin action because they’re concerned about being looked at differently, about being treated differently. They think they may think it’s going to limit their approach. It’s all it’s going to create stigma and all that kind of stuff.

So how do we create the kind of conversation that is going to make it easy for both the employee and the manager to discuss the barriers and the solutions? And you will note that a consistent theme, the consistent theme about situation barriers and solutions, that’s what the conversation needs to be about. People don’t have to divulge their diagnostic, their condition, their treatment, how they do X, Y, or Z at home.

That’s not what’s important to know. What’s important to focus is on is the workplace and how are we going to do things. So Nadine, thank you for this interview. I am so excited at the prospect of working with the accessibility, accommodation and adaptive computer technology team already. I can say the name. I think I deserve to become part of this team.

Nadine: I agree, if you can say the name and know the acronym, I think you’re good to go. But seriously, thank you. I loved the interview that we had and I think you’ll be a great fit for this team. So I’d like to offer you the position. And while I’m doing that, I’d like to talk about some of the tools we have and some of the tasks that you’re going to be doing so that I know how to accommodate you.

Once you do start working in about three weeks. Are you okay to answer a few questions for me? Excellent. So one of the things that you’ll be doing here as a strategic advisor is, is really looking at different sources of information and compiling that. So oftentimes there are decks to write. There is information to research. We use PowerPoint.

We use Word and sometimes we use Excel. You’ve told me already that you’re used to using these tools. Are there any other tools that you would need in order to complete your tasks?

Luna: So, you know, Nadine, because we’ve already discussed it, that I use adaptive software to access my computer, where some of the barriers are that I face have to do with ensuring that I have all the sources of information. Keeping a good list of the sources of information. Let’s say we discuss a bunch of possibilities during a meeting. Having a written list that somebody can send me by email helps me refer to that list, and it’s much easier for me to find the information that I’m looking for.

Would that be something that you would be prepared to do? As my manager?

Nadine: Definitely. I think that’s really important. And one of the things that I’ve noticed with using the Microsoft products, because we do use Teams and OneNote, it allows me to take notes when I am providing information and when I’m requesting tasks. So definitely after a meeting, easy for me to do. A quick summary with tasks so that you can I can send you an email or a one note if that works for you, that would track all of the tasks that you’ve been assigned with that work.

Luna: That is fantastic. And I noticed from talking to prospective colleagues that we have access to a co-pilot here as a test to try and tested for Shared Services Canada. Copilot is an amazing tool, and so would I be able to access that license in order, for example, to create meeting summaries or to get started with documents, to get started with research?

Is that something that would be available to me?

Nadine: In theory, yes. That’s something that I do have to double check. You did mention that Shared Services is piloting Copilot and it is a great tool. So a lot of people on the team have it in order to ensure its accessibility. I’ve been working with it the way I would have to look at how to get that license for you, but in order to do your tasks, if that’s something that is needed, definitely work with the team to have that in the next three weeks so that when you do start, it’s a tool that you can use as soon as you start your day.

Luna: Excellent. I think that would cover it for now. Obviously, it may be possible that as time goes by and different tasks or different responsibilities get assigned that I may need other tools or other measures. I like to know that I can have that conversation with you at any time, so that we can discuss how things are going and if any changes are needed.

Nadine: Well, that’s good to know as you will be working directly with me and that will be regular bilats. So we can have this conversation. And I hope that our conversation stays as open as it was today, and that there’s a really good rapport between the two of us so that there’s trust and there’s openings for using different tools.

Or if Copilot is not available, how else can we address the barrier or the obstacle that you may have within your work? And how can we work differently so that it makes it easy for you to do? It was great having this conversation with you today, and I’m looking forward to the next three weeks. We should have a laptop ready for you, a phone, and the right software so that we can start on your first day, giving you the tools and the tasks that you’re going to be accomplishing within the team.

Luna: Excellent, because that will allow me to focus on the work and to really hit the ground running as we see, so that we don’t have to worry about accommodation for a long period of time before I can be functional and productive. Thank you very, very much. I look forward to it.

Nadine: So within the team, that’s one of my goals, is really to accommodate a person the day they start working.

Luna: Okay. And to our participants, obviously you can tell this is a bit of an ideal conversation. What we want to demonstrate to you is how these conversations should go. Of course there are variations, there are different twists to a situation, a solution may not be readily available, and more exploration may need to happen. But having that openness and creating that climate of trust, I feel like we can trust each other.

I feel we can have that conversation. I noticed it was never about me personally. It was always focusing on the work, and that’s where it kind of demystifies, normalizes the workplace accommodation conversation. And that’s the goal.

Nadine: So you took the words right out of my mouth. And when you come to AAACT, sometimes people will come to AAACT because the conversations are not always as easy as this one. This was, you know, this was our first one. So we’re good. We took it easy and we made sure that it wasn’t that much of a difficult conversation.

The reasons people do come to AAACT is because we don’t always know as a manager what is happening, what the tools that we have that are available and what can be done. The conversation with our team will allow us to explore that. Talk to the manager, look at the tasks for each employee, and because everything is a case by case basis and also help with the conversation.

One of the things that I forgot to ask you, Luna. We talked about barriers and solutions, how are we going to document this and make changes as we go? So shall we talk a little bit about the passport and how it’s a great tool to allow this solution and barrier to go with you, because we know that now that you’re an “AAACTor”, never going to leave us and go to another department or change jobs.

But in reality, everyone moves around, everyone goes to different departments. They get a promotion, they get a deployment. They want to learn something new. So tell us a little bit about the passport. And we have a two minutes. And then we’re going to have to say goodbye. And until next time.

Luna: The Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport is a tool that allows us to record these kinds of conversations. What is the situation? What are the barriers? What are the solutions? And to have an agreement between the employee and the manager that these solutions will be implemented. The passport also serves, as you mentioned, as a basis for a conversation with a new manager in a new organization.

In the new position, it’s a starting point. Rather than having to tell the story over and over and over again. So that is the passport again, you can Google the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport for next editions of these webinars. We will be better equipped to share links with you and to share resources with you. Also, I think one of the features that I did not mention is that this is being recorded, and a recording and a transcript will be available.

Great.

Nadine: Stay tuned. Luna, it was a pleasure working with you today. I’m Nadine

Luna: And I am Luna, and see you next time.

Nadine: See you next time. And thank you for participating.