BRIANNA BLASER: Well, folks.
I think we'll go ahead and get started.
For those of you whom I don't know, my name's Brianna Blaser.
I work with AccessComputing here at the University
of Washington.
And we're really excited about this webinar
today, because I know I get a lot of questions
about applying for jobs, and whatnot,
and inclusive hiring initiatives that companies have.
So I'm going to let Richard Ladner, who is our PI,
do some introductions, and we'll get started.
And again, if you need the captions,
the link is in the chat.
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah.
Hi, everybody.
And it's really a great pleasure to have you all here.
Brianna mentioned I'm the PI.
What does that mean?
It doesn't mean the number 3.14.
It means principal investigator for the AccessComputing
project, which is a National Science Foundation funded
project, to increase the participation
and success of people with disabilities
in computing fields.
And we partner with a lot of other institutions, about 50
other universities, and a number of organizations,
and also a number of companies, including Microsoft and Google.
So we're really fortunate today to have
two leaders at Microsoft and Google,
who run programs, hiring programs, for people
with disabilities.
And so we've asked them to give 20-minute presentations.
And if you have questions along the way,
just put them in chat for now, or save them
for after the two presentations.
And then we'll take care of the question-and-answer period
after.
Because some of the questions might relate to both programs.
And that will allow them to answer,
So Neil Barnett is someone I've known for quite a few years.
And he is in charge of the inclusive hiring
program at Microsoft, and also a pioneer in the autism hiring
program, which is a little bit different.
It's included in an inclusive hiring program,
but it's special.
In fact Microsoft, I understand it
has quite a few employees who they
didn't know were in the autism spectrum, but are.
And so there's more things to do there, more support
for those kinds of employees.
And then Lorne Needle is somebody I met fairly recently.
I've had long connections with accessibility at Google,
at least 10 years.
I'd been going to conferences at Google, and activities,
and I didn't know about their inclusive hiring
program for people with disabilities
until somebody contacted me about Lorne.
So I'm really happy to have you on board.
And you'll go second, Lorne.
So Neil, yeah.
Great.
And I think Lorne, you've been at--
just turn off-- un-mute for a second.
I just want to ask you a quick question now.
How long have you been at Google?
LORNE NEEDLE: Hey, Richard.
At Google, five years; in this role leading our hiring
work around disability inclusion,
for about nine months.
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah, that's nine months, just started.
So that's great.
And Neil, I'm going to let you start right now.
So you can share your screen and show your slides.
NEIL BARNETT: Great.
Let me know if it comes up, hopefully.
BRIANNA BLASER: Yep, it looks great.
NEIL BARNETT: OK.
All right, let me see if I can full screen it.
Maybe that will help you guys.
So yeah, thank you.
So my name's Neil Barnett.
I work at Microsoft.
And I lead our inclusive hiring for people with disabilities.
I have one side.
I'm going to talk about how I frame the program.
We've got really three things that I tend to talk about.
And at Microsoft, I think to start,
it's really important to understand we see disability
as a strength.
And so we want individuals to come to Microsoft,
to have a career at Microsoft, to make an impact on the world.
And we know that by hiring people with disabilities
into the core fabric of our company as employees,
that everything that we do will be more inclusive, whether it's
producing our products, whether it's
Windows, or Office, or Xbox, or if it's a service
or it's an event; whatever.
By having intentionally hiring people with disabilities
into the fabric of the company, we've
seen already great things, like if you think about the Xbox
adoptive controller, or if you think
about products like seeing AI.
Those are all products that were designed, and built, and led
by people with disabilities at Microsoft.
So with that, from a hiring perspective,
I'm going to start on the right-hand side, where
I talk about everyday hiring.
And anyone at any time can apply to Microsoft.
You don't need to go through an autism program, or some
of these other type of events that I'll talk about.
You can apply any day for any role at Microsoft.
And one of the things that we pride ourselves on
is trying to ensure that that interview process for anybody,
no matter what your disability may be, is inclusive.
And so we have things that we try to put in place, everything
from when you go to the career site,
ensuring that the career site is accessible.
To there's a spot on the career site
that if you need an accommodation,
you can check a box, and the recruiter will contact you.
So obviously if you self-identify
during the recruiting process, we can ensure that you have
what you need to be successful.
But again, that's totally optional.
We have, on the right-hand side, you
can see that we have we've got a centralized accommodation
process, and so we make it really easy for both employees
and candidates to have what they need to have productive-- not
just interviews-- but if you're hired, to ensure that you have,
whether it's the software that you need,
and it could be a third-party software,
not necessarily Microsoft software.
Or it could be anything else that you may need,
it could be a Braille device, it could be a screen reader,
it could be an interpreter.
All these things are examples of accommodations
that whether it's for the interview or as an employee,
that we would work to provide.
What I think is great at Microsoft
is we actually have a dedicated, what I call a disability
recruiter that I work with in our talent acquisition team,
to help us find talent.
And when you send us resumes, ensure
that the team's interviewing are all set up for success.
And so we've got a dedicated recruiter.
If you haven't seen it, we've got a dedicated hiring site
that talks about some of our programs,
whether it's our autism program, or support employment program,
or about the culture at Microsoft.
And it's just Microsoft.com/inclusivehiring.
And there's a lot of great resources
out there for anybody.
We do trainings for teams.
If a candidate self-identifies, let's just
say a candidate self-identifies that they're
low vision or blind, we will have hiring teams
before the interview sit down.
Within Seattle, we'll use the Lighthouse for the Blind.
And the Lighthouse for the Blind will come in and kind of
go through some inclusive techniques to ensure that
the interview, and then also the onboarding
is as successful as smooth as possible.
So we partner with local nonprofits
on disability training.
And inclusive interviews, like I stressed
in the beginning, every interview
we strive to be inclusive, whether you self-identify
or not.
And that could be examples of not having interviews back
to back.
So there's time in between meetings.
There's quiet space.
There's time to regroup to--
I know that sounds silly-- but at Microsoft there's
a lot of buildings.
And when I interviewed, I had to go to four different buildings,
where it would be great if as a candidate you came to one spot,
and the people interviewing you, even if they're
on different teams, come to you.
So things like that, we try to do to make
it a more inclusive process.
So that's the everyday hiring.
And so I just want to stress that it's an everyday process.
So you can apply anytime.
You don't have to wait for a specific hiring event.
And we do have hiring events, that very first bullet.
We have something called ability events,
which we do three or four times a year,
which is like a super day, where we bring in 20,
30, 40 candidates with disabilities.
And we have jobs, and we have a lot of hiring teams.
It's like a job fair.
And we do interviews all in one day for multiple roles.
So that's also an example of a hiring event specifically
for students with disabilities.
I'll not pause, I'll keep going through.
So the second program, and this is probably for this audience
probably more awareness, we have a supported employment program
at Microsoft.
And so this is targeted for individuals
with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
And so we hire through our real estate group at Microsoft.
So in this capacity, you're working
as a vendor at Microsoft.
And you'd be working in different types
of roles at Microsoft.
It could be the reception.
It could be warehouse.
It could be our cafe.
It could be landscaping.
And you'll be working with a job coach.
The job coach would be with you for most of the time,
not always, but for most of the time.
And this is a great program to give people
real world experience.
It's part time and full time.
We've been expanding this program for years.
It doesn't get a lot of attention.
And we've started to do it outside of Redmond.
But clearly, we have a lot of roles
that we are using for this program
here at our main campus.
And then finally, as Richard alluded to,
Microsoft has been part of this corporate movement,
I would say, around autism hiring program.
And I would say that to Richard's point,
people at Microsoft have worked here
for 10, 15, 20 years that are on the autism spectrum.
They didn't come through this autism program.
And so that's an example of everyday hiring,
where you don't need a program.
But what the autism program is-- and we started this
about five years ago-- it's a more intentional way
to let the community know that we as a company
are hiring, and in this case individuals
on the autism spectrum, and that we've tweaked our interview
process.
So it's not a one-day back-to-back kind
of interview process that's a typical Microsoft
or corporate interview.
It's a way for candidates to come and really
showcase their skills, get to know hiring managers,
get to know other peers, and in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Get to interview with the same high bar, the same job
expectations, the same pay and performance
as any other employee.
But it lets our candidates really showcase their skills.
And I think why this program has been
a success, not just at Microsoft but with a whole host
of other companies, is we're finding talent that I would say
for one reason or another, didn't
get through that traditional interview process.
And I wrote down 50% of the people, roughly, approximately
50% of people that we hire, so extend job offers to
will say, hey, I applied to Microsoft.
But my resume wasn't picked up.
I never got contacted by a recruiter.
Or if I did and I had a phone screen,
you can imagine potentially you didn't get past the phone
screen, if you didn't self-identify
and you answer questions, yes/no questions, where
the recruiter didn't get a good feel of your skills.
So when we bring folks in we screen them
in through this other front door, this other lens,
and they get to meet hiring managers who
may not have met them before.
And they get a showcase, in this case, technical skills
for most of our roles.
We have hiring managers in Windows, Xbox, Azure;
saying, we want you, not just for a job, but for a career.
And so it's been very rewarding in the sense
that we're finding some incredible talent that we
have not been finding before.
So with that, I don't know what the time is,
but those are the three big buckets,
the pan-disability, everyday hiring,
supported employment disability program.
RICHARD LADNER: On your panel, Neil, this is Richard.
On your panel, you have by the numbers on the far left.
Maybe you could say what that is.
NEIL BARNETT: Sure.
So when you think about, one of the questions we get
is, what's the business case?
And everyone on this phone probably knows the business
case, and whether it's the data point of there's
over a billion people in the world with disabilities,
or obviously the one that drives us is the unemployment
rate for people with disabilities
is twice that those without a disability.
And so our goal at Microsoft is not just
to hire some great folks, whether it's
through these programs, or whether it's
through our everyday hiring.
But it's really to work with the broader community,
and definitely the broader corporate employers.
Because we all need to do our part.
So if we hire 100, 200, 300 people through the autism
program, that's great.
But imagine if all these other companies hire 10, 20, 30, 40,
50 people?
It adds up pretty fast.
And to change the unemployment rate, last stat I did
is you have to hire over half a million people to move it 1%.
And so we can't do it ourselves.
We need to do it with partners, whether it's
with partners like Google, or partners like Ernst & Young.
There's a lot of great companies out there.
And I think that's important for everyone to know.
It's not a Microsoft thing or a Google thing.
There are a lot of great companies
that are doing this type of work.
And that if you're looking for work,
now is a great time, because there's
a lot of employers that are really leaning in,
not just in autism, all disabilities, and really
are looking for talent.
RICHARD LADNER: Thank you, Neil.
Why don't you un-share your screen now, and then
we can move to Lorne.
You can unmute yourself too.
LORNE NEEDLE: Great.
Thank you.
And I don't use Zoom very often.
So let's see if I get this right.
RICHARD LADNER: At the bottom of the--
bring your mouse to the bottom of the screen,
and there's a Share button there.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah.
RICHARD LADNER: Did you find it?
LORNE NEEDLE: I did.
RICHARD LADNER: There you go.
LORNE NEEDLE: All right, and let me just bring up--
hang on a moment.
There we go.
All right, can people see this presentation?
BRIANNA BLASER: We see something that says TechStop.
Go to TechStop.
LORNE NEEDLE: Oh, got you, OK.
Let's see.
On my screen, I'm showing you the deck.
Brianna, maybe just to be safe, we should have you present it,
so we don't--
BRIANNA BLASER: Yeah, let me pull that up.
Just one second.
LORNE NEEDLE: So I'll stop sharing.
Apologies, everybody.
While we're--
BRIANNA BLASER: Let me share my screen.
There.
Can you see it now?
I put it in presentation mode.
Is it showing up now?
So now I'm clicking through it, unintentionally, sorry.
RICHARD LADNER: Yes, I don't know
what happened to Lorne though.
BRIANNA BLASER: I can see the list of participants as well.
And I am--
RICHARD LADNER: I think he accidentally left the--
NEIL BARNETT: Oh, yeah.
RICHARD LADNER: He'll be back in a second, hopefully.
BRIANNA BLASER: Yep, I see him on the list.
RICHARD LADNER: Oh, he's there.
Where is he?
BRIANNA BLASER: He's muted.
RICHARD LADNER: Is he muted or un-muted?
BRIANNA BLASER: Muted, he might have just reconnected.
LORNE NEEDLE: There we go.
All right.
Can folks--
RICHARD LADNER: There you go.
LORNE NEEDLE: All right, a little
live technical difficulties, but here we are.
So anyway, let me just jump in.
So Richard already introduced me, and Richard and Brianna,
thank you very much for the chance
to be part of the webinar.
And thank you, everybody, for your interest
and for listening.
So my role at Google, as you can see here on the screen,
is I'm our global lead for initiatives around people
with disabilities in staffing.
So my role is really to think about and execute
the work we're doing globally around hiring more people
with disabilities at Google.
And I'm going to, like Neil did, walk through some things
that we do.
I want to say first, if there's one thing you take away
from this as a message, is that we're really
excited to meet you.
We think of you as really important talent,
and encourage you, if you're interested in roles
that you see posted at Google, and you
think you're qualified for them, to apply.
Because we would love to have you.
From a values basis, Google really
believes in diversity and inclusion.
And we want to see people with disabilities
have the opportunity for the careers,
and the jobs, and the experiences
that you want to have in your life.
And if that brings you to Google, we love that.
And just like Neil said, from a business perspective,
you are talent that we need.
You are people that will help our business be successful.
And so we want you on our team.
If you want to be here.
So just remember that, and take that in.
I also want to take a moment and recognize Microsoft.
You know, we may compete fiercely in various product
verticals, like gaming, like software, like other things.
But the fact is that Microsoft is unquestionably
one of the leaders in industry when it comes
to disability and inclusion.
And one thing I like is that while we're all competing
fiercely, we're all trying to help each other
do more to create opportunities for people with disabilities.
And I have personally leaned on Neil and many of the experts
at Microsoft to help us think about what we're doing
and expand that, so have my teammates.
And so all of us are benefiting from some of the ways
that Microsoft has blazed a trail for us.
Next slide please, Brianna.
So our commitment starts with our CEO on down.
This slide shows a picture of Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO.
And there's a quote from his 2018 founders letter, which
is the letter the CEO issues every year, where he talks
about building for everyone and ensuring
that people with disabilities can access and enjoy
our products.
So we believe in that from a product perspective.
If you look on our diversity site, which is available,
you'll see that Google's mission is
to make the world's information universally
available and accessible for everyone.
And that where it accessible is in there.
And combine that with our commitment
to diversity and inclusion, and that means that we deeply
believe that we need people with disabilities in our workforce,
like we need people who are representative in other ways.
So from the top to the bottom, our company
cares about including you and what
you have to bring to the table.
Next slide, please.
There is an organization or rather there's
a tool in the United States called the Disability Equality
Index you may be familiar with.
It is created and managed by several independent non-profit
organizations.
And what it does is it rates companies as good places
to work around disability inclusion, which
includes hiring process, the employee
experience, and other things.
We were very proud in 2019 for the first time
Google was scored for the index, and scored 100%.
And we're in good company with a lot of other leading companies
who are at that level.
And what that means is we're definitely
doing some things right, and we're serious,
and we're committed.
Not to oversell that 100%, it doesn't mean we are perfect.
There are lots of places where we have more work to do,
and we know that.
But just to share that with you is
something that gives you a sense of Google's efforts
in this space, and some independent evaluation of that.
Next slide, please.
We publish an annual report every year
which, you can access on our website called the Diversity
Annual Report.
And if you look at the 2019 annual report,
we haven't published 2020 yet, you'll
see that we conducted in 2019 an internal survey
of our employees, a self-identification survey.
And 7.5% of our employees identified
as having a disability.
I don't actually have the data of how that breaks down
in technical employees, like engineers versus business
employees, versus employees in human resources,
and other kinds of support functions.
But that means thousands of people across Google
are identified as having a disability,
and are making really critical contributions
to the business every day, and we are very mindful of that.
And that also tells us that in some ways,
our hiring process is working, and it also
tells us that we can do more.
Next slide, please.
So I want to talk briefly about three areas
that we're working in around disability inclusion.
One of those is creating a good experience
for our current employees.
One of those is product accessibility, and then
of course, what we're doing around hiring that's inclusive
of people with disabilities.
Next slide.
So let's start with creating a good experience
for our employees.
Like I said, since we're committed
to an inclusive workforce, we're trying
to create a space where employees have the chance
to feel safe, feel welcome, thrive, learn, do
all the things they need to do.
And that includes having a global accommodations
program for our employees, and it includes some other things.
In terms of what we do in the workforce,
we are focused on, for example, supporting our employees
and managers to be more aware of,
and know how to work with employees with disabilities.
So we talk about things like empathy.
Do you understand?
Are you open to people's experiences?
Etiquette, do you know how to interact?
Google is a nice place.
There's lots of nice people.
And people are open, and they are also sometimes a little bit
worried about offending.
And so they might meet someone who is a wheelchair user.
They might meet someone with limited vision.
And if they don't have the skills,
they might choose not to engage, because they don't
want to offend the person.
Well, we'd like the opposite.
We'd like people to know how to engage and make sure
that they make that individual feel welcome
in a respectful way.
So we have training and other resources
for employees around that.
We have training for our managers.
There is mandatory diversity equity inclusion training
that all managers take.
That includes attention to people with disabilities.
We have other resources that we're developing for managers
as well.
We also have done training across the company called
unconscious bias training.
And you may be familiar with this.
But the idea is to have people recognize biases
that we may be holding that we're not even aware of,
and how that affects our interaction with each other,
or a manager with employees, in this case around disability.
So we require across our company that people do that training
as well.
And that's all intended to create that environment where
people can thrive.
In terms of our accommodation programs,
similar to what Neil talked about from Microsoft,
we have a central accommodations team within our benefits
group at Google.
They work with employees across the company globally.
And any employee at any time can submit
a request for accommodation.
And that team includes experts who will look at that,
evaluate, figure out how best to support and help the employee,
and then set things up for them.
So that could be a screen reader.
It could be having an interpreter available to you.
It could be making sure that the building you're entering
has access, if you're someone who has limited mobility,
and so on.
So we make sure that we are attending
to the needs of every employee.
And then thinking more globally, not just individually, about
are we creating the kind of space
where things are working well.
We think about that starting with our employee orientation.
So if you're a new Google employee,
we call our employees Googlers.
And we call new employees Nooglers.
And when you start at Google, you
spent your first two days in Noogler orientation.
And that orientation has been specifically
re-designed to be accessible.
So in the way the information is presented,
having captioning, having spaces that are accessible,
having quiet rooms so someone who may be experiencing anxiety
or sensory overload can go and take some time for themselves.
And also starting right with your first day at Google
with orientation, you're reminded
about the accommodations team and the availability
of those resources.
Next slide, please.
I also want to talk about our internal community,
because this I think is one of the best things
that Google has going in disability inclusion.
We have an employee resource group,
over a thousand members strong, that's called the Disability
Alliance, formed by Googlers who identifies having disabilities.
And their purpose is to connect with and support each other,
to advise and advocate within Google around things that
would make experiences better for employees,
to have events and other activities.
And they're a fantastic well-led bunch of people.
The Disability Alliance, by the way, is the umbrella group.
And we have a number of branch groups.
So there is a subgroup called Autistics at Google
that is like it sounds like, a membership group formed
by our autistic employees.
And they are respected and listened to across the company.
They have access to our CEO.
They have access to our Senior Vice
President of People Operations, and all kinds of other people.
Next slide, please.
Among the things they do is hold an annual event called
Accessibility Week every November.
And this is done in offices globally,
and a number of activities-- so fun events,
and speakers, and educational opportunities.
What's pictured here on the slide
is a sign language class that was offered in our Zurich
office in a previous year.
One of the interesting things that
happened in Google in 2019, by the way,
is interest in learning sign language just exploded.
There's a bunch of course is being taught by Googlers
you know sign language across the company.
And these activities serve to build a sense of community
and pride, to bring people together,
and also to educate and involve the rest of Googlers who
are not people with disabilities,
but to welcome and engage with the community.
Next slide, please.
I want to talk about our products,
because we're very proud of them.
In all of our product teams, so when
you think about search, or maps, or on our hardware side,
with the Pixel phone, et cetera; we
have accessibility experts who are often people
with disabilities, not always.
And they're working on the design, and the building,
and the iteration of our products.
And this is a commitment that comes from our CEO on down.
It's only been reinforced in the start of 2020.
Our CEO has already been talking about how
we want to up our game across the company
around accessibility of products.
And that includes features in existing products.
So last year if you use Google Hangouts or Meet,
we added captioning, so that that was available there.
In Google Slides, if you're making a presentation,
you can now switch on captioning.
And let me share with you a few of my favorite products.
Next slide, please.
This is a picture of a Google Liftware spoon.
Some of you may be aware of Liftware,
which is a company we acquired, and we've grown.
And essentially Liftware for people with limited mobility,
with tremors, allows you to stabilize the food.
So this picture shows a spoon with some vegetables
in the cup of the spoon, and somebody using that.
And that's been a really powerful tool
that's been life changing for some people.
Next slide.
We also launched last year a new app that some of you
may have used called Live Transcribe.
And that's something you can download onto your phone.
And that's for people with limited hearing
or may be deaf, where Live Transcribe shows the words
that you're speaking, or that someone else is speaking,
so you can have a conversation and use that.
And I've actually used that with both fellow Googlers,
and with people in the community,
and showed that to some people.
That's been downloaded over 5 million times
in our Play Store, and is rated I think 4.2 out of 5.
And we're always adding features to that as well.
So on our product side, trying to offer
things that empower people, make it possible
for you to be successful.
Next slide, please?
Then when me talk about our hiring process.
We are committed to a fair and accessible hiring process.
And that's for everybody.
We also care a lot about candidate experience.
We want candidates to feel like they were really treated well,
that they were respected, that they
had good things happen when they went
through interviews with Google.
And what that means for people with disabilities,
in addition to just a great general experience,
is we want the process to be accessible,
so anything you need to participate,
and that it feels fair.
So that you feel like you have an opportunity
to apply and present what your capabilities are,
and that your disability in no way
affected our ability to assess you as someone
who should be at Google.
So we do that in a few ways.
Just like we have an employee accommodations team,
we have a candidate accommodations team.
They're also global.
And they're available in the interview process.
And there are several moments when
you're interviewing with Google, where you have the opportunity
to request an accommodation.
That's private.
We understand and really respect people's choice,
whether to disclose or not.
And if you disclose that's confined
to the people who need to know to set up your accommodations.
The team will work with you to set that up or work
with the recruiter to set that up,
and make that happen in your process.
And similar to what Neil talked about,
so we might allow extra times.
We might choose a location that's
more physically accessible.
We might have for people of limited hearing,
the opportunity to do the interview completely
in a Google doc, instead of verbally, and similarly
for people might have social anxiety
and they're more comfortable doing the interview in a doc.
So those are some examples.
But we try to work out any accommodation that's
reasonable that helps somebody present themselves effectively.
And I can answer questions about that.
Next slide please, just a few more to go.
We also feel that programs and partnerships
are going to help us be successful, and aspire
to be as far along as our friends at Microsoft.
Some of the things that we've been doing
include online career fairs.
And I'll say more about that in a moment.
Partnerships with some organizations
that support and work with candidates
who have disabilities and with Google, so one
of our favorite partnerships that has to do with students
is with Lime Connect.
You may know them.
They're an organization that works
with undergraduate and graduate students,
helps connect them with companies,
prepares people for the interviews.
In our case Lime Connect actually
has Google Jobs posted that they can help you look at.
And we have a scholarship called the Google Lime Scholarship,
where students can apply for $10,000
towards their education, and they also
come to Google for a summit, where
they get to learn and meet other people and meet Googlers.
And of course, we're privileged to be working
with Access Computing as well.
Next slide please.
You need to click again, I think, to get the text.
Yeah, so we've been doing some online career fairs
as a new thing for Google.
You can picture a typical career fair where it's a big space,
and everybody has a booth, and you could approach the Google
booth, and talk to me, or talk to a recruiter about do
you have jobs, and would you look at my resume,
and that kind of thing.
And we do those things.
We also know that for people with disabilities,
it might be hard to physically get to that booth,
or to have a conversation for various reasons.
So these online career fairs are an alternative
where you can picture that instead of a physical booth,
it's a virtual online booth, and you can video chat
with a Google recruiter or text chat with us.
We did two of those last year.
They were very successful.
We met job seekers with technical backgrounds,
with business backgrounds, who are in school,
or 10 years out of school, who are very excited about Google.
And for most of them, they said, gee
I didn't even think that I could talk to Google, which
is certainly a brand issue we have to make sure people
know that we can.
But afterwards, there's a quote here from one
of those participants who said to us, gee,
I never thought my sales and real estate background
would've been such a good fit for Google,
or that I'd be considered.
And now I'm going to look at several jobs that you have.
So any way that we can make ourselves available,
have those conversations, answer your questions,
and encourage people to apply, we want to do.
Next slide, please.
I mentioned our partnership with Lime.
And here's their logo for the Google Lime Scholarship.
Next slide please.
Last thing I want to mention is that we
are looking at how we can do more work in specific areas.
Microsoft and others have been leaders around employees
with autism.
And we are looking at what we can
do for people with a variety of disabilities, including autism.
This is, you may be familiar, the picture
here is of the cover of the Autism Network
Playbook, which was published last year by University
of Washington.
You all are leading experts in this field.
And everything about how you think about and create
an effective autism at work program.
And we are thinking hard about this information,
and what we might do with that in 2020,
and we might have good news to share about that soon.
So that's a lot of information.
Thank you for listening.
And let me pause there, and happy to answer any questions.
BRIANNA BLASER: Excellent.
Thank you.
Were you going to say something, Richard?
RICHARD LADNER: I was just going to say thank you too.
Thank you, both Lorne and Neil.
It's very interesting.
I should mention that over the years,
I've worked with both Microsoft and Google.
And I know many employees at both companies
who have disabilities.
And they're in high-paying-- very high-paying jobs.
So it's kind of exciting to hear these two presentations that
solidify and make real the way these two companies
can hire people with disabilities,
and how welcoming they both are.
BRIANNA BLASER: So I'm going to encourage folks.
You can either ask a question by typing it into the chat box,
or you should be able to see a raise hand function.
I can't see on my screen.
But I think it's because I'm logged in as a host.
Do you see it, Richard?
RICHARD LADNER: Where is it?
The raised hand?
BRIANNA BLASER: Maybe on the right, above the chat.
Normally it's there.
And I don't see it, which is why I'm wondering
if it's because I'm logged in.
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah.
I think what people could do is they
could un-mute, if they want to, and ask a question as well.
And we'll try to manage it.
The chat, the chat box is really good, though.
Because we're watching that right now.
BRIANNA BLASER: I do have one question.
I hear this from students that I work with a lot
about they have something like, say, anxiety
or an invisible disability.
And they don't know what accommodations are typically
given for that, or what they can ask for.
So I was hoping to hear a little bit more
about some of the typical accommodations folks use.
LORNE NEEDLE: Sure, I can speak to that first, if you want.
In terms of employees at Google, there's
actually a wide range of accommodations that people use.
Let me give you a few examples.
We have a number of employees who have limited vision, maybe
legally blind or fully blind.
And so we offer screen readers, and other tools
that they can use to be able to do
the work that they need to do.
We have business analysts who are
doing complicated spreadsheets and financial analysis.
And since a screen reader is helpful for that, for example,
and engineers of course that are building code
in one of our code tools.
And so they need that as well.
For our employees who have limited hearing,
the captioning has proved to be just really
helpful and exciting.
And a lot of people at Google are using those new features.
But we also have interpreters available both just
individually, so you can request and have an interpreter join
you in your meetings during your regular day at Google.
And then at events and presentations,
we'll often have interpreters and/or people
who are interpreting in sign.
In terms of other accommodations,
for some of our Googlers who may have sensory overload going
on due to their disability, people
can request a desk that's in a quieter place,
or with different lighting, or some other kind of situation
that allows them to manage effectively.
And we also have actually recently started
with our facilities team looking at some of our facilities
around the world, and mapping which spaces are
most accessible for the thousands of job candidates
who come to Google every year, and preparing our recruiting
teams to have priority to schedule people
into those rooms.
So it might be a first floor room,
or might be one with just more space
in the room for a wheelchair user, or that kind of thing.
So those are some examples for Google.
NEIL BARNETT: And this is Neil.
I think those are all great, and I would echo all those.
I think the interpreters are a big line.
Cart captioning, noise-canceling headset,
so not all accommodations are big ticket items We even
have Braille in the kitchens, in the refrigerators,
and all those type of common areas.
You can think about everything from how do you order food
at a kiosk in the cafeteria, and making sure
that's accessible, as an example.
BRIANNA BLASER: Great.
I see a couple questions in the chat about online career fairs
and whether there are any coming up, whether software engineers
are hired in those events, and how
they can find out about them.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah, I'll share from my experience.
But I know Neil has additional experience as well.
We participated in those events through third-party partner
organizations.
One of those was a nonprofit organization
called Ability Jobs.
The other one was a company called Getting Hired.
And by the way, I will share this information
with Richard and Brianna, so they
can share it with all of you.
And both of those organizations do several online career fairs
during the year.
And they typically have 20-plus companies participating.
So we're figuring out now which of those we might be a part of,
and we'll certainly advertise that in advance.
But there are other ones out there besides the ones
I talked about.
NEIL BARNETT: Yeah, and so we--
I don't have one planned.
We tend to do one or two a year.
Sometimes we do one during Autism Awareness Month,
and we usually do one in October for National Disability
Employment Awareness Month.
And we invite all these corporate employers to come.
So we'll keep everybody updated when we do them.
RICHARD LADNER: Yeah.
Both Lorne and Neil, I think if you let Access Community know,
we can spread the word among our 450 students that are part
of the Access Computing team.
And for those of you on the call, hopefully most of you
are on the Access Computing team.
If you're not, there a lot of advantages to join us.
BRIANNA BLASER: Yeah, and I will follow up with that information
as well, after the webinar.
A couple of folks are asking about disclosing
when you apply for a job.
So where do you disclose when you apply for a job?
But somebody also asked one of the questions
on the application, asked for a doctor's notes or verification
of a disability, and how that typically
works in the interview process.
NEIL BARNETT: So this is Neil.
I think for non-Microsoft employees for candidates,
I think there's a couple things.
When you apply, so you go to the career site.
As I mentioned, if you go there today, at the bottom
there's a little box that you can
check that says you'd like to request an accommodation.
And that's a way to--
the recruiter picks up your resume
as a way for them to engage and start that conversation.
If you're talking to the recruiter
in the initial stages, if you're comfortable to self-identify
that's the time to do it, to the recruiter, who will ultimately
work with you on the scheduling of your interview
with Microsoft, to make sure that you have everything
that you need.
So those are some early touch points before.
I think it's tough when you show up to campus,
and then find out that you might need a third-party screen
reader on your machine, or you might need interpreters.
I mean, obviously we'll scramble and do our best.
But ensuring that you have what you need up front before you
show up is always the best.
LORNE NEEDLE: Similar for Google,
at any point during your hiring process,
you can ask your recruiter to set up accommodations.
But we also have several touch points
where if you don't feel comfortable
telling your recruiter, there's other opportunities.
So when we first schedule you, you get an email
from our scheduling team to set you up,
and there's a thing in that email, you can click and say,
I would like to request accommodations.
And that goes confidentially to our candidate accommodations
team.
And similar to what Neil said, if we find out
at the last minute, we will absolutely try to scramble
and give you what you need, easier
to do if we know in advance.
And we also, I would just say, that we
are very respectful of your very personal decision
whether to disclose or not.
And if you choose not to, that's your option as well.
BRIANNA BLASER: Lauren asked about interviews
at conferences.
So is it standard practice to have interview accommodations
at conferences, all conferences, not necessarily
ones that are focused on hiring folks with disabilities,
and other in-person interviews that might not be on-site
at Google or Microsoft?
LORNE NEEDLE: Well, I'll start.
We are doing some of that.
And I think we need to do it universally.
So we're moving towards that.
We have actually just recently developed
a set of resources and tools for our teams
that run the events and run programs,
if you come to Google for a coding boot camp,
to guide them on what accommodations to have
available, and how to create that opportunity,
that opt-in opportunity for attendees in advance
to indicate to us that they need something.
I don't think we've done it at every event,
like we would like to.
So that's something that we're working on.
NEIL BARNETT: And again, I would say the same thing.
If you go to Disability In, a disability event,
I think you'd be set up for success.
If the question is, I attended a Grace Hopper,
and I'm doing interviews, I think
we strive to make sure that you have the accommodations,
and it's an inclusive interview.
But I think there's more than we can do in the process
to ensure that happens.
BRIANNA BLASER: Great.
RICHARD LADNER: So this is Richard.
Just a little clarification, so for Neil, on the application,
and also for Lorne; on the application,
there's a place to request accommodations,
but there's no place to say that you have a disability.
Is that correct?
You don't disclose on the application?
Is that correct, Neil--
NEIL BARNETT: Yeah, for us it's correct.
I mean not as an employee, as a candidate
we're concerned about making sure you have
what you need, right, for an interview.
And so the accommodations is what's important to us.
LORNE NEEDLE: For Google, when you submit an application,
there is an optional question where you can provide us
with demographic information about yourself, which
includes disability, the gender, race, other things.
It is strictly optional.
It has zero bearing on whether or not
you get considered for the role.
The recruiter never sees whether or not you check that box.
And if you check that box, that doesn't trigger
an accommodation request.
So it's treated very separately for purposes of protecting
and ensuring your privacy.
But that does appear, and some people elect to provide that
information, and some people don't.
RICHARD LADNER: So this is Richard again, and again
for Lorne.
So on one of the slides you talked
about the percentage of employees, 7% or something
like that.
So that's where that number came from, from people checking
that box, it sounds like.
LORNE NEEDLE: Good question, no.
What I just described is if you are not an employee,
but you're a candidate, and you're applying to Google.
The survey that I mentioned was for people who
are already Google employees.
So we did what a number of companies do,
which is what's called the self-identification survey.
And we invited employees to provide
demographic information, because we're always
trying to get a better picture, and under federal laws and laws
in other countries, we're required
to collect some information.
So that's where that 7.5% number came from.
BRIANNA BLASER: Dionne asked, are there
any work-from-home positions with Google or Microsoft?
NEIL BARNETT: So, this is Neil.
I think at Microsoft the answer is yes.
There's work-from-home positions.
But I think that differs by role, by manager.
We definitely have a lot of people working from home
at the company.
But the decision is always up to the manager,
when they create the role, knowing what they need.
And so it's just really looking on a career site,
and seeing if it's Redmond based or if list multiple cities,
then there's a good chance that it's remote.
Yeah.
The answer is both.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah, a great question.
The answer for us is, yes, but limited.
So we understand very clearly that for job seekers
with disabilities being able to work from home
often makes a big difference, and being
able to stay in the place that you live
and not relocating someplace else, and having
to rebuild your solutions and your support system
is important.
So we understand that Google culturally, over our 20
years of existence, hasn't really
had a work-from-home culture.
So we're adjusting to this newer age, believe it or not.
And for us, it's similar to what Neil said.
There are some roles where if it serves the business
to have you work from home, that's there.
Otherwise it is to the manager's discretion.
And I will say moving from new employees
to existing employees, there are times
when an existing employee experiences some kind
of temporary disability.
And it's not unusual for a manager
to arrange for them to work from home two or three days a week,
or whatever helps them to manage that.
BRIANNA BLASER: Great.
Venkatesh asked, it's interesting to see Microsoft
partnering with organizations like Lighthouse
for the Blind in Seattle, to support inclusive hiring.
How does this work beyond the US?
Are there similar partnerships in other regions, like India?
NEIL BARNETT: Yeah, so it's outside the US,
is to be honest with you, is not as
developed as it is in the US.
And so we do do partnerships in India, in the UK.
I can't name every market outside of the US.
But it's definitely something that we're
trying to figure out the best practices from the US,
and then work with our colleagues
in the different markets with the same concept of bringing
in third-party providers, whether it's
training, as an example, to help our employee base.
Yes, but again, more needs to be done there.
RICHARD LADNER: This is Richard again.
There is some--
I'm looking at the hands up.
And there's somebody with their hand up.
And if they unmute, go right ahead.
Introduce yourself first.
SPEAKER 1: My name is Huy.
I'm a history study at NC State.
My question was earlier was asked,
but I didn't have the answer.
So I'm asking it directly.
Where was that-- when I was interviewed with Google last
semester, there was one question on the questionnaire was that
we are authorized to--
something about like a request for a doctor note or something
to validate your disability.
Why is that a checkbox within a questionnaire of the Google?
Like when you say that you are allowed to disclose or not
disclose the disability, why is there a checkbox
to say that if you want to request for accommodation,
you have to confirm that you are authorized
to ask for the validation of our disability.
Is that?
I'm not sure if that clearly delivered.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah, thank you for the question.
I'm that may be an unusual case.
It may be a glitch.
If you want to follow up with me individually,
I will look into that for you.
Because it's actually illegal for employers
to discriminate on the basis of medical conditions, et cetera.
So we're very careful about that.
But yeah,
BRIANNA BLASER: I can put you two in touch.
LORNE NEEDLE: Go ahead, Brianna.
BRIANNA BLASER: I was just going to say,
I can put you two in touch, too.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah, thank you, Brianna.
So if you're interested in following up,
you can share with me the application and the situation.
And I will look into it and get you an answer.
SPEAKER 1: OK.
Yeah.
I just wasn't sure, because like why--
I thought that you don't have to disclose a disability,
even when you ask for the accommodation.
But like why did they ask, like oh
you have to check on this box in order to request accommodation.
But like, we have to confirm.
We can validate our disability in the request accommodation.
So that was not what I usually know.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah, thank you for raising that.
And I'll look into that in general.
But if you care to follow up, please do.
SPEAKER 1: OK.
BRIANNA BLASER: Venkatesh asked, what are good strategies
to participate in or conduct online live coding rounds,
where the interviewer wants to look at the candidate
write code, if the candidate is using a screen reader, given
that there are no fully accessible IDEs that support
live coding?
NEIL BARNETT: This is Neil.
I don't know the answer to that.
I'd have to research that one and get back to you.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah, same here.
And if part of your question is about having
sufficient time to both think about and provide
the solution in addition to whatever tool might
be necessary to pair with the IDE,
then I would just say that an accommodation you can request
is that additional time.
There are times when we will give candidates
the questions in advance.
So that if you're using a screen reader
and that might take you a little more
time to review and prepare, that you have the time.
BRIANNA BLASER: Great.
And then there were a couple of questions about disability
hiring events at Microsoft.
How do you find out about them?
Whether Google has similar events,
and what the selection process is for those events?
NEIL BARNETT: So a couple of things,
we post most of them on our inclusive hiring site,
so Microsoft.com/inclusivehiring,
there is an event section for our ability events or autism
events.
We have a big event coming up in May,
a job fair that we host during our Ability Event Summit here,
where we bring in about 25 employers.
And again, not just Microsoft, we've got--
usually we'll have like EY, Accenture, Amazon;
they're all here.
And it's all focused on people with disabilities.
So that's coming up on May 28th or 29th.
I probably should get that one on the website.
But most of it is on the Microsoft.com/inclusivehiring.
RICHARD LADNER: This is Richard again.
There's a question from a parent about their son
who has Asperger's, he's only 12 years old.
How soon can they apply to Microsoft or Google,
at what age?
And also are there any programs that you have
for younger people who have disabilities?
That's the basic.
Thank you, Dionne.
NEIL BARNETT: So the age, I don't
know outside of legal working age, I guess you could apply.
Anyone can apply, right?
It's for us, it's less about the age.
It's more about the skills, for the role.
Like if you're a good fit for the role and your 18 or 23,
I think it's less of an age thing.
Obviously you have to be of legal working age.
But it's less of an age thing.
It's more of we're hiring for skills.
And so I think that's the important piece to focus on.
And to that question around development,
I mean there are things that we do
for kids, both from a technology perspective, we
run at Microsoft something called Microsoft Ninja
Camp for the past two summers, for kids with disabilities
to get them some exposure to AI, and some very basic stuff.
And so there are some things for kids in that high-school
middle-school range.
A lot of it's online too.
But you know again, applying is when
you feel like you've got the right skills that
meet the competencies and requirements of the job.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah, Ninja Camp, I think,
is an amazing opportunity.
So you should look into that, if you think it's of interest.
Shameless plug for Microsoft there.
In terms of Google, a very similar
answer around seeking employment for with us,
if you're of working age.
It really depends on meeting the minimum qualifications
for the internship or the full-time job.
A lot of our internships are targeted current university
students.
So someone who's 12 years old might be a current university
student.
But if they're not, they would have to wait until they were.
In terms of developmental programs,
we have a range of those.
And there's a site called Google for Education.
And if you look at that site, and I'll
send this link to Brianna and Richard, as well;
we list all the different kinds of developmental programs
we have, some of which are for students prior to college.
BRIANNA BLASER: Great.
And then one last question, because we're
getting close to our time.
Cassandra asks about chronic illness,
and what sort of accommodations are
available for people with health conditions,
like flexible work schedules or medical leaves of absence?
NEIL BARNETT: So this Neil.
I think I mean again, all those are probably
very similar to Google.
All those things we have, whether it's
a medical leave of absence.
The flexible work arrangement, again, that's
obviously that's an accommodation that we provide.
You work with your manager to see what's
a reasonable accommodation.
But these are all things that are pretty standard.
LORNE NEEDLE: And same for Google.
BRIANNA BLASER: Great.
Thank you so much, Neil and Lorne,
for joining us and sharing this information.
I think this was really useful for a lot of folks.
I will share.
I've made notes of resources that both of them mentioned,
and I'll share some of those in a wrap-up email
to everybody who came.
And if there's specific things you'd like me to pass along,
Lorne and Neil, just email them to me,
and I will share them as well.
NEIL BARNETT: Thank you so much, everyone.
Appreciate it.
LORNE NEEDLE: Yeah, great.
Thank you so much.
RICHARD LADNER: Thank you both for the great presentations.
And also thanks to all the participants who asked
questions and participated in this webinar.
BRIANNA BLASER: Thank you.
Have a good day.
RICHARD LADNER: Bye-bye, all.
LORNE NEEDLE: Bye, everybody.