Facilitating Inclusion: Empowering the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Cloud Native and Open Source

[CathPag]

Last update: August 15, 2023

Check out our repo for the latest on this initiative

_Want to participate? Join the #deaf-and-hard-of-hearing channel on the CNCF Slack. We meet on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 5pm ET (meeting details are on the CNCF calendar), and "meet" the team here._

This initiative draws inspiration from the pilot program led by the Mentoring Working Group, which aims to engage Maori youth in the open source community. It seeks to create a path for young community members to thrive and contribute to open source, and will hopefully serve as a blueprint for other indigenous communities.

Problem statement

Diversity in the tech industry has long been a concern, prompting the CNCF and leading tech companies to foster inclusive environments for various underrepresented groups. Progress has been made in supporting women, people of color, different gender identities, and sexual orientations, although there is still much work to be done. However, there remains a significant gap in initiatives that specifically address the inclusion of disabled communities, such as the deaf and hard of hearing (deaf/hoh).

Vision

In any community, if you don't see individuals "like you" thriving in a particular field, it can be difficult to envision a path for yourself. Without visible representation, they may not even know that such opportunities exist.

To cultivate greater representation and inclusivity for all communities, we must establish pathways that enable individuals with specific disabilities to enter the cloud native and open source space. By paving the way for a critical mass of diverse individuals to succeed in these fields, we can inspire and empower them to become role models within their own communities. In turn, these role models will serve as catalysts, motivating a new generation of engineers to join them on this journey.

Overall, by facilitating the inclusion of the deaf/hoh, we can foster a more diverse and vibrant tech community where everyone has the opportunity to contribute their unique perspectives and talents.

Mission

Create a supportive and inclusive cloud native/open source community that offers pathways to deaf/hoh members to become active community members — from occasional contributions to maintainers to recognized experts — and provide them with the tools they need to get access to the best-paying jobs of the industry.

Audience

Program goals

• DHH (computer science) students: Educate students on cloud native, job opportunities, and how/where to acquire or deepen their skills ⇒ raise awareness
• deaf/hoh in tech: same as deaf/hoh students
• deaf/hoh in cloud native: Educate the CNCF, projects, and employers on why and how to improve accessibility so deaf/hoh can become active community members ⇒ improve accessibility to provide pathways into the next audience "level"
• deaf/hoh recognized experts: Support deaf/hoh to become recognized experts (e.g., speak at conferences, active TAG/TOC/… members ⇒ Empower deaf/hoh to become role models for the next generation of deaf/hoh engineers.

Strategies

TODO

Tactics

TODO

Deliverables

TODO

To ease collaboration as we fill all the gaps, we'll be using this working doc.

cc @nate-double-u @jaytiaki

[JimStLeger]

It's fantastic to see CNCF start to recognize that inclusion should also include people with disabilities. One immediate and easy action moving in that direction would be to add an "Accessibility" issues label to any/all projects as a way of showing recognition for and a desire to resolve accessibility issues. OpenFL recently added the accessibility label and is now working on accessibility issues. Open source communities should in general have an accessibility label as a standard label option, IMHO. Inclusion starts with accessibility.

[CathPag]

Thanks, @JimStLeger! @geekygirldawn @jberkus, thoughts?

[JimStLeger]

And at the risk of overloading you on some stories of developer inclusion and accessibility, here's a great GitHub post on LinkedIn "To build better software, learn about accessibility." Annalu Waller's story "Champion Accessibility to Unleash Untapped Potential" provides great insights. And Paul Chiou's software accessibility checker work at USC is inspirational. Read "Coding accessibility: Disability as a catlyst for creativity." Watching Paul work and code might open your eyes if you have not met quadriplegic coders before. And note the innovation wrt I/O. Pretty incredible tech.

[CathPag]

Wow! These are amazing stories. Thanks for sharing 💙

[CathPag]

Going back to the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) specifically, I don't think there is a big accessibility issue for the work itself. Development tools don't need any adjustments. In fact, in a space where a lot of the work is done async and known to attract introverts who often prefer communicating via chat to face-to-face, open source is a perfect environment for DHH.

Where I see accessibility issues is in becoming more visible community members by, let's say, speaking and attending KubeCons and participating in more public discussions where other DHH could see and be inspired by them.

Work-related accessibility issues certainly exist but are probably not related to the actual work. For instance, finding a workplace willing to accommodate DHH so they can participate in company meetings and interact with their colleagues. And the general fear of interacting with disabled community members because we simply don't know how to behave (a fear that fades quickly as we interact with them).

Those issues could be mitigated to an extent by the cloud native community and CNCF leading by example, providing DHH with more public opportunities, and facilitating public discussions among DHH and hearing engineers.

That being said, I do hope that, if this program succeeds, it can become a blueprint for other disabled communities needing work-related accessibility. So starting that discussion now does make sense.

Disclaimer: This is what I believe is the case. I have yet to speak with a Gallaudet University professor, who may see things very differently. There are probably accessibility issues I am completely unaware of.

[JonZeolla]

I would like to help with this 🎉

[CathPag]

I would like to help with this 🎉

Awesome! Let's connect! Are you on the CNCF Slack?

[jberkus]

As someone with hearing disabled family, the biggest issue to tackle I'd see with most CNCF projects is the reliance on video meetings.

[alena1108]

+1 @jberkus. Even with assistive technology like hearing aids or cochlear implants, it's hard to decipher what people say without meeting transcript enabled. And even if it is enabled, it's often not 100% accurate, and requires a significant mental effort to follow.

When it comes to conferences, background noise level can be a big issue for DHH population.

@CathPag what a wonderful initiative, thank you for driving it. I would really love to help.

[parispittman]

a good artifact to produce from this could be a checklist or best practice guide for maintainers, oss leaders, and community managers who are creating those meetings, facilitating collaboration, etc for things to do and not to do.

agree with Alena, thanks!

[ismith]

Gonna leave a note here that we're starting to gather d/hoh involvement (I am myself deaf) on this - feel free to comment here or message me elsewhere if you're d/hoh and curious what's going on. We'll have a more public update around the end of the week.

[jamescarr]

Wow, it is fantastic to see this. As someone who has been hard of hearing my entire life, it has always felt like it has been an unseen disability in tech. Happy to help anyway I can!

[tobyfitch]

Dropping by here to express my interest, not sure how I can get involved though as I'm primary a deaf designer in tech.

[CathPag]

Hi @tobyfitch, glad you found us! Please join the #deaf-and-hard-of-hearing channel on the CNCF Slack.

[brycewilkins]

Wow -- so glad to see the support here! I'll connect with ya'll on CNCF's #deaf-and-hard-of-hearing Slack channel :)