Meryl K Evans, Speaker and Accessibility Consultant
- Meryl is a speaker and an accessibility consultant.
- She is one of 12 people on LinkedIn top voices for disability advocacy.
Podcast
Overview
Diversity, equity and inclusion are the important parameters that the businesses are considering to follow, especially in the world post the pandemic. With diverse resources available cross the globe, efforts are taken to employ diverse communities and shed off the biases of colour, gender, etc. Another important community that need attention are the disabled people with different challenges. Today, we talk about the challenges of inclusion of disabled people with deaf community in particular.
[00:40] – About Meryl K Evans
- Meryl is a speaker and an accessibility consultant.
- She is one of 12 people on LinkedIn top voices for disability advocacy.
- Meryl is also an author of two books.
- Meryl was born partially deaf and has grown up learning how to speak by lip-reading. She doesn’t know sign language.
- Her career started with the Federal Government, when the American Disabilities Act made it possible for the relay service to be provided nationwide.
- In 2000, I started writing on the side and never planned to do my own business because I knew it would be harder to bring in clients when you have a disability.
- But in 2005, I decided to work for myself full time and transitioned from writing to digital marketing.
- In 2018, I started making videos which were surprisingly taken very well and in 2019.
[04:40] – What are the challenges that deaf people face at work and in society?
- The challenges vary, as all deaf people can’t talk or use sign language.
- We struggle to communicate with the world at large, that is why I prefer promoting remote work.
- In remote work, I didn’t have to deal with face-to-face meetings and try to keep up with the confrontation.
- But the addition of automatic captions on video platforms, have enabled us to participate in meetings all the time.
- It makes us more connected, informed and included.
[07:20] – What are your thoughts on inclusion happening on the ground?
- A lot of companies say that they focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, yet they keep showing that they are not thinking about people with disabilities.
- People with disabilities emailed me that they are not happy with their job because they don’t have the support to be successful.
- The companies hire them to check a box, but do not help them with the tools they need to do their job and pick opportunities within the company.
[09:49] – How do you handle society biases and what should society be doing?
- A good place to start is to avoid assumption.
- Ask people what they want or require. Read books or articles. Listen to podcasts and watch videos about people with disabilities.
- Pay attention to the stories. When we don’t know something, we tend to be afraid of it or make assumptions.
RESOURCES:
You can connect with Meryl K Evans – LinkedIn
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Profile
- Meryl is a speaker and an accessibility consultant.
- She is one of 12 people on LinkedIn top voices for disability advocacy.
- Meryl is also an author of two books.
- Meryl was born partially deaf and has grown up learning how to speak by lip-reading. She doesn’t know sign language.
- Her career started with the Federal Government, when the American Disabilities Act made it possible for the relay service to be provided nationwide.
- In 2000, I started writing on the side and never planned to do my own business because I knew it would be harder to bring in clients when you have a disability.
- But in 2005, I decided to work for myself full time and transitioned from writing to digital marketing.
- In 2018, I started making videos which were surprisingly taken very well and in 2019.
