Frances West

 

 

IBM

Headquartered in Armonk, NY, IBM is a globally integrated technology and consulting company with operations in more than 170 countries. IBM is focused on five growth initiatives - cloud, big data and analytics, mobile, social business, and security.

 

As IBM chief accessibility officer, Frances West works to establish IT accessibility standards, shape government policies, and develop human-centric technology and industry solutions that not only create an inclusive workplace environment, but are also designed to personalize the user experience so that all people reach their highest potential in work and life.

 

In addition to advising clients on best practices in accessibility, West ensures IBM is placing accessibility at the center of design and development to improve everyone’s information consumption patterns, including people with disabilities, the aging population, novice technology users, people with language, learning and literacy challenges, or any individual facing situational challenges while using a device.

 

Woman Engineer: How did you get involved in the area of accessibility?

Frances West: I began my career with IBM as a system engineer working with customers in the banking, healthcare, education, and government industries. This exposure taught me early on that even the best performing computers need to have easy-to-use applications designed for all people. This focus on user experience became even more evident when I went on an international assignment to Asia Pacific during the mid-1990s and saw how human-centered design systems can cut across language and cultural differences to enhance an individual’s experience and productivity. Accessibility is just another extension of this spectrum.

 

Woman Engineer: What is accessibility and why is IBM focused on this area of technology?

Frances West: Accessibility is about designing solutions that adapt seamlessly to each person’s abilities on any device to make interactions and decisions easier and more intuitive. The more than 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide, including the rapidly growing aging population, changing government regulations, and the proliferation of mobile devices are all creating tremendous demand for accessibility. These trends are forcing organizations to create a holistic strategy for embedding accessibility across the entire enterprise - from processes to product development to its people.

 

Woman Engineer: How does IBM approach accessibility?

Frances West: IBM has been focused on accessibility innovation and inclusion for more than 100 years. To ensure enterprise-wide accessibility, IBM instituted its own corporate-wide accessibility guidelines for all products, services, mobile apps, and internal business applications. We’re a global company, so we follow all of the accepted, worldwide accessibility standards, including Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and create checklists and user testing scripts to guide the product evaluation process, in addition to platform-specific guidance.

 

Woman Engineer: How does IBM ensure that engineers embrace accessibility from the beginning?

Frances West: It’s critically important for all IBM employees to understand how accessibility improves the lives of persons with disabilities, but also see how it creates a better product for everyone. We provide formal training and create educational materials to ensure our designers and developers understand how people of different abilities might use a product; develop proper testing tools to check for accessibility; and, most importantly, ensure that it is an essential part of our overall culture.

 

Woman Engineer:What advice would you offer organizations about establishing accessibility best practices?

Frances West: Accessibility no longer means compliance. It has become a mainstream requirement that can transform the business. That said, accessibility initiatives need to be genuine and supported from the top and not be marked as side projects. They need to involve every part of the organization so that accessibility can be a holistic endeavor serving all clients, citizens or employees.

 

Woman Engineer: What are some of IBM’s recent accessibility innovations?

Frances West: Our team is focused on helping clients manage accessibility compliance issues, enhancing the user experience on any device and creating an inclusive workplace environment. We just released Mobile Accessibility Checker, which helps determine whether a mobile application is accessible, and if gaps do exist, recommend solutions on how they can be fixed. In addition, our accessibility technology has been added to the most recent release of IBM Tealeaf to help improve the usability of a website and support compliance with government regulations.

 

Woman Engineer: How does IBM ensure it is creating an inclusive and diversified workforce?

Frances West: Employees of IBM represent a talented and diverse workforce based on our commitment to equal opportunity. Achieving the full potential of this diversity is a business priority that is fundamental to our success and has always been about our people, our beliefs, our clients, and our business. For persons with disabilities, IBM strives to make the workplace as accessible as possible and provides accommodations based on individual needs.

 

Woman Engineer: How does IBM interact with professional organizations that foster diversity and inclusion and/or the hiring of women and other minority groups?

Frances West:The foundation of building a diverse workforce is developing a diverse candidate pipeline. Our diversity and recruitment teams work to ensure the best candidates see IBM as an employer of choice. In addition, we support many national non-profits that provide a source of diverse, technical talent including the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Great Minds in STEM, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.

 

Woman Engineer: What advice can you offer new employees in their efforts to move ahead in your company?

Frances West: IBM is a global company with broad product portfolio that offers various types of jobs across many different organizations and geographies. It rewards employees to think and innovate so it’s important to be brave in following one’s heart, and not be afraid to break from the mold. While the road ahead might feel risky and difficult, the reward at the end of the journey is worth every bit of the fight.

 

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