Former IBM exec: CIOs play an important role in digital inclusivity

From smartphones that offer accessibility features to specialized IT programs, game controllers, AI-powered therapy stuffies, and over-the-counter hearables, tech and IT inclusivity has evolved significantly over the past decade. “When I started getting into this field—close 20 years ago—it’s hard to imagine,” Frances West, who was IBM’s first chief accessibility officer, told IT Brew. “Back then, actually, the term accessibility was not even well understood.”

“When I went to China in 2004 and started talking about this a little bit, the word accessibility was not translated to Chinese,” she said. “I helped them…[the] CDPF China Disabled Persons’ Federation, to literally go to the dictionary and find the word to translate accessibility.”

West, author of the book Authentic Inclusion Drives Disruptive Innovation, told IT Brew her journey into the accessibility tech space is one that started out quite simply by taking on a new job.

“When I started working in this area at IBM, I actually came from a background of sales and marketing,” she said. “When I was asked to head up this Accessibility Center…the organization was [building out] IBM Research…and at that time, I already had 25 years with IBM in all the other divisions: hardware sales, software sales, you name it.”

West initially thought she’d stay in the research department, “a well-respected place,” for three years because “it’s a big company—you kind of rotate every three years, right?”

“But once I got into it, and I met my first, for example, blind scientist on my team, and I met a deaf researcher—it blew my mind in terms of their innovation, their creativity. And then actually, it spoke to me on a personal level, as a first-generation [immigrant] and woman in tech.”

West, who was born in Taiwan, found a new home in the digital inclusivity space, noting that it was no longer a job, but a career that turned into a calling.

“I can appreciate and understand the desire to be included, the desire to have the opportunity to showcase or to really contribute to the cause—whatever that cause is,” she said. “So, when I retired in 2016 from IBM, I decided that this was going to continue to be my cause.”

To accomplish digital inclusivity in the workplace, she says there has to be “governance in place” as well as testing, tooling, and verification to ensure accessibility. 

“Having a technologist understanding not just UX design but accessible design—that’s very important.”

Thinking about accessibility in the IT space, West says accessibility brings about decisions that relate directly to infrastructure. While people oftentimes think accessibility falls under the “HR agenda,” she says her biggest ally was the CIO.

“If you as a company or institution really, authentically believe that digital inclusion is a must-do, then your CIO office actually has to be part of it,” she said. The CIO office plays an important role in inclusivity, West says, because of the responsibilities involved, such as “making IT decisions for both internal and external—all the way from workplace visibility to intranet to extranet.”

“The CIO office, the CTO, they actually hold the key to both the present and the future,” she said. “And I will just say that, when you think about AI and when you think about digital transformation, if the word ‘digital inclusion’ or ‘accessibility’ is not part of that thinking, then you may want to think twice.”