 Welcome to virtual events one oh one. Hi everyone. My name is Alisa Worley and I'm the global marketing director for hyper ledger sorry for Accenture and the the marketing chair for the marketing committee at hyper ledger. And I want to welcome you all and thank you for joining the session. Accenture and hyper ledger the two hats I wear and the entire community really have been aligned in a mission to create a more diverse and inclusive community. And we have made great strides since we hosted our first event I think it was about four maybe five years ago, and particularly in areas like gender. I Brian mentioned in his his opening remarks today that there's 20% gender diversity 20% women attending this event. I think that's an enormous leap from, I think it was roughly 5% at the hyper ledger member summit in Montreal, maybe just three years ago, two or three years ago. So we're making great strides, but there's still work to do. And the best way to do that in my opinion is to build awareness to make it human to make it real to really understand the human element the human at the heart of the issues that we're talking about here. So today I want to open the aperture. I want to recognize the less visible attributes that impact the everyday lives of people with disabilities. Public service announcement as I've just said that closed captioning in the language of your choice is available via worldly which is sponsored by our good friends at DTCC. And you can view the description below the video player in each session for access. So public service announcement over. I'm so proud to have three colleagues with me today to tell their stories and to share their insights. I could go the entire session just talking about their accomplishments, but I will try to be brief. First is my dear Frank Christine Leong who credits her remarkable memory for detail and trust me it is remarkable to having a form of autism. She's a managing director and Accenture's decentralized identity and biometrics group lead globally. And she's also part of Accenture's global blockchain leadership team. She's many inventions to her to her credit driven in many respects by her passion for for animals and humanity. So happy to have her here. She was actually the person that that taught full idea of the structure of identity architecture. She's brilliant. Next, track and field long jumper, NCAA college cheerleader, club gymnast, Olympic bodybuilder, Olympic bodybuilder and born completely blind. While it may not seem like these all fit together for Ike Tellerene, it's just the start for his achievements. And he's modest. I had to look this up in order to get all of these accolades because I had seen a video about Ike on Accenture's internal website. Because he's currently an analyst working in client financial management and guiding financial performance for leading clients. And with experience in a variety of technologies, he looks for opportunities to drive innovation and help create process efficiencies and as a master of finding solutions and more diverse solutions and inclusive solutions. Welcome Ike. And last but not least is Lori Heneborn. She is contagiously passionate about advancing equality, diversity and inclusion for people with disabilities, having lived her own experience with multiple sclerosis since being diagnosed in 2004. She has been putting past this passion to work driving Accenture's disability inclusion research. We lost her on the blockchain team. She was actually responsible for leading that team and still is that created the research function for Accenture blockchain. And she leads thought leadership for several years now in this space as well. She is also on our Global Disability Inclusion Advisory Council and sits on boards for committees for some nonprofits in this area, like Disability IN and the American Association for People with Disabilities. I have braces you guys and I'm so sorry. I'm tripping over them as I'm trying to speak fast. Lori, over to you to present on the accessibility advantage. Great. Let me share my screen. Hopefully you can all see this. And let's get it moving. Okay. So thanks, Alyssa. And it is so wonderful to be joining you and really everyone at this event again. And in particular, your IND session. Hello to all participants. Thank you for joining. As we focus on this important area of disability inclusion in the workplace, I'm a white woman with blonde hair, hazel eyes and wearing glasses. And I have to admit that I was so good when Alyssa first approached me about this session as it is incredibly timely. We just celebrated the 10th anniversary of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. And so before we begin, two things. First, due to the continued diversity and freezing, I'm going to be using, we'll be using person first, identity first language throughout the session interchangeably. Right. And second, I'll be drawing from a few studies that you see here on the slide, on this slide, that extension with our IND organization. We've launched these over the past several years. And this, again, includes the ones you see on the slide, available through Accenture.com. So, you know, it's important with conversations like this to get some grounding, right, in terms of the scale of disability and how employment is trending around the world. This is not a niche issue. Persons with disabilities represent about 15% of the world's population. That's about one billion people with $8 trillion in disposable income, making us the third largest economic that's above Japan, Germany and the UK. And it's important not to forget, roughly 80% of disabilities emerge when people are of working age, like me. As Lisa mentioned, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2004. That was five years after starting here at Accenture. And I'm in my 21st year. It means any of us could acquire a disability at any time. This is not a matter of them, but a matter of all of us. It's not a participation in the workforce is disproportionately low. It's estimated that across the world, close to 80% of persons with disabilities are unemployed. In most developed countries, the official unemployment rate for persons with disabilities of working age is at least twice that of those who have no disability. So, we can all agree that creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is the right thing to do, yes. But that's no longer enough. We need to shift the mindset and dialogue from one that's philanthropic to one that I like to say it's foundational, right. And that's what we set out to do in 2018. It meant tackling an important fundamental question, especially among the C-suite in corporate America. Is there a correlation between how inclusive a company is of persons with disabilities and its financial performance? Can we get close to our quantifying the case for why it's also good for business? And that's the question that we discussed with our partners of disability in and AAPD, who have their annual disability equality index study. You have not heard of it. I strongly encourage your organization to take a look at it. It's really one way, you know, you only manage what you can measure, and this is one way to do that. At the time of this research, we were able to analyze the nearly 140 companies who were participating in that index. That was over the past few years of the study leading up to our project. And we were able to identify five of them who were really raising the bar for disability inclusion across areas like employment, like culture and leadership, like accessibility and accommodations to name just a few areas. And we called these companies the Disability Inclusion Champions. And ultimately, what we found was that these champions performed better financially across measures related to value creation and profitability, and that other companies performed better than other companies in that index. On average, they achieved 28% higher revenue, two times higher net income, and 30% higher economic profit margin. But that's not all, right? We needed this to also resonate with investors and the investment community. This is truly a multi-stakeholder situation here, right, in terms of finding solutions and advancing. So we took a look at correlations to shareholder value, both for the champions, but also for those who had improved their actions and scores over time. And again, we were pleasantly surprised. For example, we found that improvements on average were four times more likely to have total shareholder returns that outperformed those of their peer group compared to other companies. And so, of course, in true Accenture fashion, we needed to land at the key actions. And here were the four that surfaced for attracting, retaining, advancing diverse talent. Employee, which we just covered in terms of that quote-unquote business case, engage power. And in the next few minutes, we'll talk about the area of engagement. So, as discussed, persons with disabilities continue to be less likely in paid employment than their peers. What of those of us who are employed? The harsh reality, as our enabling change study showed in 2020 is that we are, as a community, less likely to feel included and thrive than our peers. What we found from our global survey, and this was a global survey of nearly 6,000 employees with disabilities from almost 30 companies, is that employees with disabilities are 27% less likely to feel included in the workplace compared with the average. And by included, we mean they feel like a key component of their team with real influence over decisions. And they're 60% more likely to feel excluded. And by excluded, we mean ignored or with, you know, no voice in their team. So, less likely to feel included, more likely to feel excluded. The next question, of course, is why, right? Why do we feel excluded or undervalued, perhaps? One issue we uncovered was that there's this lack of transparency and trust in workplaces. A sense that employees don't feel safe about opening up about disabilities that they may have or they have. From employee interviews we conducted around the globe, we found that there are fears around things like retaliation, slower progression, less meaningful roles. What we find from the survey is that some of these challenges, that there are some of these challenges or barriers that surface. For example, 77 employees say it's important for them to have the freedom to be the same person at work as they are at home. But just 24% are fully open with their colleagues about their disability. And so there's that clash there. If you want to be the same person at work, then surely you should be able to bring your whole self to work and tell others about who you are as an individual, even about your disability. 71% of employees say that seeing role models are important for them to thrive. Only 20% of executives are fully transparent about their disabilities. So executives are even less open about their disabilities, denying employees those role models that allow them to thrive and feel confident in the workplace. And through the same survey we asked executives and employees about whether they feel the workplace they operate in enables to thrive in terms of having the right technology, environment and support. 67% of executives say, yeah, yeah, we do this, right? But that drops to just 41% of employees who agree. That's a significant gap. One way executives must have top of mind for when the technology is not compliant with accessibility guidelines and when accessibility features are added too late in the design process, businesses find themselves exposed to legal and financial risk. However, by providing increased access, accommodations, assistive technologies, etc., that meet the needs of their employees with disabilities, the organization that foundation for inclusive work cultures that enable all employees to thrive, presenting tremendous opportunities. And in addition to that fundamental role that accessibility plays in fostering that inclusive culture, these are those eight less obvious factors that our model showed has a positive and significant impact on the likelihood of employee with a disability to thrive in the workplace role models working, employee resource groups, fair pay, parental leave, caregiving leave, freedom to innovate, mental wellbeing policies and accessible training that is relevant. Let's move on to now the final piece which is around what employees with disabilities stand to gain when the organization has these eight factors in place. And we see that in workplaces and that's the top 10% where these eight factors are most common. Compared to the worst workplaces, the bottom 10%, big increases in engagement levels are possible to the point where we found 50% higher in the most disability inclusive workplaces comparing again those top to the bottom. And then we see similar gains such as stronger career satisfaction and aspirations and that higher sense of confidence and belonging. So the area that I think is near and dear to many of us, right? So let's take a few minutes, right, just to focus on the accessibility aspect and you'll recall the earlier slide where we outlined the four key actions that surfaced through that 2018 study. Accessibility is embedded, of course, across all of these actions. We've talked about the importance of employing among a diverse talent pool and the role that accessibility plays. We talked about what it means to, you know, advance engagement among our employees with disabilities. So let's turn to the role that accessibility plays when it comes to enabling a culture of equality and inclusion. And, you know, the simple reality is this, if blockchain, I will turn it to blockchain, if blockchain is to become adopted by the masses, accessibility is a must have. Beyond being the right thing to do, we have a commitment, all of us technologists, researchers, developers, to ensure that no one is left behind. And to keep in mind that there will be backlash due to any lack of inclusion or compliance. You know, things as simple as adding alternative text to images can go a very long way. And, you know, an external example I was just reading about that's worth noting is this coming Boolean news accuracy platform on the Ethereum blockchain, which emphasizes the meeting of industry standards regarding accessibility, and they pledge to meet this promise. So I won't drown this slide, but I thought, you know, Accenture offers an excellent example of what we've been doing as we're on our journey to inclusion accessibility for several years now. Constantly striving to ensure that our employees, our teams with disabilities, those of us with disabilities are thriving. You can see a list of related initiatives here and the outcomes as well, including I'm very excited about these new accessibility centers of excellence, which serve to provide a safe space where clients can explore the latest and test the latest technology. Lori, thank you. Yes. Go ahead. I have an echo going. Sorry, guys. I wanted to take an opportunity to ask to open this up for a couple of questions if you don't mind. So thank you for all of the great detail and and Lori slides are actually part of this session's invite. So if you if you go to the session you can download the slides it's got a ton of great information about all of this work that she's she's doing follow her on Twitter because she's she's always doing something in the space and I learn every time I hear from her. So I can Christine I wanted to open up some questions for you. And I'm stealing liberally from pieces that you've both written so please forgive me. And again, for both of you but I'm going to start with you like you see life through a lens of opportunities, not obstacles. Can you talk about that. Why is that. Yeah, I think that when you have a disability, you're presented with a obstacle that nor in normal everyday person's life they don't really deal with so it kind of like you feel excluded from a lot of things. But it's all perspective. When I started to realize that this is something I can't change that I've visually impaired, then I started to realize that in order to be successful in this world I have to accept the situation I have and then be I have to see the opportunities I can from the situation. And I think it's something that's very important to me disability inclusion because it's something I've faced in my life, and every day the world gets a lot more inclusive and so much better. So to me I see so many more opportunities on a daily basis that's opening the doors for people across the board. And Christine, you've talked about this in the context of your superhuman memory and the way you use you problem solve. And I think actually you both mentioned those attributes. How has this played a role in how you see opportunities in in everything that you do. What I think is for me at least is that is is just the way that's my normality. That's what every day is for me. But it is also difficult sometimes to understand that not everyone is the same as me. My normal that I can remember most things and I can switch from one sort of I don't really ever take notes. And most of the time I remember the conversations very very well. I don't need to sort of write things down. But you have to learn that actually other people aren't the same as you because what I know as my normal is my normal, but not everybody else is normal is the same as mine. So, whilst I can, and sometimes it's frustrating but it's also a good opportunity to know that because I have this different normal than everyone else. That is okay. Everybody else also have their normal and it can be different. That's you reminded me of a Margaret Mead quote I love her she's an anthropologist and she said, everyone, you're incredibly unique, just like everyone else. So, what's really important, because I think sometimes, you know, me included, you know, what's really important for people to understand about disability inclusion and why this is so important. Like I'm going back to you. Yeah, it's important because, you know, I was thinking about this the other day space exploration. In the 1960s when they decided to go to space, it seemed like it seemed like a waste of resources like we're going to go to the moon there's nothing there. What are we getting out of this, and a lot of inventions from space helping a very a few people that were in a sense disabled, because in space you can't breathe oxygen there's all these things that do accommodate for. And all these inventions come from that you have memory foam that we all love and use every every night when we go to sleep we there's so many, you know, water filters were invented. There's a lot of things that came from that and I think solving the bigger problem the harder problem and making things accessible opens up innovation and for everyone. Christine, any anything to add to that. That's incredibly insightful. Don't think anyone can sort of. I think that's that's a phenomenal way of thinking and I think we all think differently right so in my case is is a neuro diversity aspects of it and the different ways of thinking about something in a team is is powerful. And having different it means different skills, different way of approaching a problem, which means that you might have different outcomes might come to different conclusions. Everything is is it brings this type of innovation by having a different way of thinking about something. And I think that's that's that can only be a good thing to bring to a team in terms of ability to think differently. And there are studies right there are studies that show this that working alongside employees with disabilities helps to make non disabled individuals just you know more aware of how to involve right to be more inclusive and better for everyone at the end of the day. That's so true Lori and and honestly, this is the thing that and again after that session that really has has sat at the forefront of my mind when you think about all of the potential that emerging technologies in particular technology in general but certainly I have a bias towards the emerging ones. They play a role in opening up even more opportunities for people with disabilities so how do you see that potentially playing out. And I'm now, how can we as a community start to think about how we can apply technologies to help solve some problems and make life a little bit easier for all of us, but particularly for individuals with disabilities. Is that a question for me. It's for all of you. So I can I can start I can start I could be the resident geek here right because you know this is this is we just launched our AI for inclusion research and the study. You know last month and I'm going to throw out one stat here it's actually another one of those gaps where you know we've got we had 78% of executives globally believing their organizations are going to be able to leverage advanced technology. Right, like blockchain like our like artificial intelligence to simply address barriers to including persons with disabilities and particularly in the area of accessibility by the way. Yet the same study showed that 7% have used inclusive design or that some of us may call universal design but inclusive design principles to support that development. And this is this is something we need to be thinking about right we need to and this goes back to the conversation we just had about why it's so important to be inclusive. Right, right to have a seat at the table right from the start. And Christine I know if technology could save every animal on the planet you would be you would be have more even more patents. But in a different in a different perspective how do you see this potentially playing out. I think it's, I think there is about thinking differently. And we have many of us with different abilities and disabilities can think differently. And I, I have Asperger syndrome, as many of you know, and I'm supposed to have. Well, it's people often say that people with autism have issues with empathy. It's not that I don't have empathy. It's that I have more empathy with the four-legged. So I can acquire that empathy in a different manner and be able to see what I can think of how I can use some of the technology that the sort of emerging tech capability in things that I can view differently. And think about, well, how can the pain that I feel with, because I can't express myself as well as others, or I have issues processing some of the information, maybe the dogs, the elephants feel the same way. So how can it be applied to them? How can their way of, how can my way of processing information by using technology be more relevant to them? Because I might be processing information similar to them or otherwise, seeing it from a different perspective that may benefit, for example, livestock. And being able to transport things like livestock, pets, pet health, ability to share information differently, ability to change their lives for the better. And also, our lives are the better. Well, for example, as a dog owner, how would that benefit myself, others like yourself, at least at that? How can you share your information about your dogs to your vet, for example, easier? Because it's easier, quicker, you know, and better by looking at how technology can change some of that. And it's not just one type of technology, as Laurie said, it could be many types of different technology. And it's all about showing different ways of thinking and bringing a different perspective. So I think what I'm hearing is you're saying, and I think I'm stealing from you because I think you've said this too, that we all have things, right? We all have things that make us different or things that maybe present challenges or opportunities to us every single day. And it's just being able to take on that perspective. So just to kind of, I'm very cognizant of the time. What tips would you offer about working with colleagues and collaborators with disabilities? How can we be more effective in how we all work together? Like, can I do that first? Yeah, sure. I think it's important to realize that we all have something that we're dealing with, regardless if it's a physical or mental disability. We all have things. And during COVID, we saw that more than ever. You have parents watching and homeschooling their kids while they're working. And that's something you need to consider on your team when you're working with them. Okay, they have something they're dealing with that I'm not dealing with. So even though I have a disability, I need to be cognizant that other people have situations in their life that could be impacting their life or their work. So it's always important to consider that people have something going on at all times in their life. And another thing that's probably not a fun thing to bring up is that we all are, as we get older, become more disabled. Like, we lose our seven sensory systems start declining. So we're all at one point inevitable that we will have some sort of a disability. And being younger and working on improving the workplace, I think it's important for me to also consider that we need to make this an inclusive world. Because some point in time, maybe I lost my vision early on, but maybe someone will lose it later on, but they'll still experience similar things that I am. So I think it's important to realize we're all kind of in the same boat, but we're just at a different cadence. So I think it's important to just consider that. I love that. I love the idea of kind of all of us in this together. And I'm so sorry that we, this was so short, and we are out of time. So I want to, and I want to do a clean close for the Hyperledger team. So I'm going to close with just a couple of thoughts and make it quick. I mentioned Margaret Mead earlier. I love her. And she has a quote that says, never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. And we as a community of thoughtful committed individuals, each of us has the power to make the change. That we want to see in this space. So I hope you'll take this perspective forward to create the most diverse and inclusive ecosystem and the best technologies as we're still in this development stage possible. So thank you to all of the speakers for sharing the data and sharing your stories and to all of you for attending. I look forward to continuing this conversation. Thanks so much. Thanks everyone. Hi everyone.