[Rehab] Accessible Technology Skills Gap Report, PEAT

Mon Apr 29 13:00:39 UTC 2019

I don’t usually send stiff out on messanger. I use it to keep track of the younger folks and more tech savy friends with kids!

How are things? Rhochester melted and thawed! We did finally here in madison but just when its good to ride buses again construction began. Our entire neighborhood is tore up until August with very limited bus service. 

At least the state is paying for rides yntil routes comr back some and its safer to walk. We have some programs designed to keep elders and disabled in the community. Care WI and iCare are HMO case management programs for folks that are on Medicare & Medicaid. So thankful i qualify. Paratransit is very unreliable and Uber/cabs are expensive. 

Good news here! I will do a template work experience with Goodwill in their headquarters office for 3 months starting May 6! I will get computer and other office task experience. I get to improve my jaws skills! With aeizures last year thats the only thing I didn’t really improve on. We had all the snow days and server went down for almosr a month. I never got a chance! Was skeptical about Goodwill but my excellent job developer is in the same building-Epilepsy Founfation—so i know it will be ok. Plus VR pays my salary, not Goodwill. 

If we come up to MN can we visit for a couple days? Last year unfortunately never worked out. We want to see Rochester in case kobs come up. It would be great to live by you! And in a very active NFB state!

Ericka Nelson

> On Apr 27, 2019, at 3:50 AM, Jan Bailey via Rehab <rehab at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Erica:
> 
> I don't know how to use messenger, so please send any messages to my email.
> Thanks.
> Jan
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rehab <rehab-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Ericka via Rehab
> Sent: Friday, April 26, 2019 3:36 PM
> To: Rehabilitation Counselor Mailing List <rehab at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Ericka <dotwriter1 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Rehab] Accessible Technology Skills Gap Report, PEAT
> 
> Just proves that the more you know about technology and the more you know
> about assistive technology can get you ahead sitghed or not.
> 
> Ericka Nelson
> 
>> On Apr 26, 2019, at 3:06 PM, Nightingale, Noel via Rehab
> <rehab at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> https://www.peatworks.org/skillsgap/report
>> 
>> Accessible Technology Skills Gap Report: A Report on PEAT's 2018 
>> Skills Gap Research Findings PEAT
>> 
>> [An infographic depicting research on the accessible technology skills 
>> gap]
>> 
>> The Accessible Technology Skills Gap
>> 
>> Since PEAT's founding in 2013, we have helped dozens of companies build
> accessibility awareness into their workplace. The majority of the companies
> in our network now have accessibility policies and programs in place. They
> are also increasingly making digital accessibility an imperative, not an
> afterthought, for both their internal systems and the products and services
> they bring to the marketplace. They are doing this because they have looked
> at the business case and know that this is good for the bottom line and the
> right thing to do. But PEAT has found that a current major barrier is that
> many organizations can't find job candidates with the accessible tech skills
> they need-and 57% report that as a result, their products and services are
> less accessible than they want.
>> 
>> Background
>> 
>> In December 2017, PEAT convened more than 60 leaders from across the tech
> sector to discuss how to increase accessible workplace technology. One major
> issue identified was a lack of availability of accessible technology skills
> in the IT sector. To better understand this issue, PEAT partnered with Teach
> Access to ask our community to tell us about the accessible technology
> skills in their organizations.
>> 
>> The Gap is Wide
>> 
>> We heard from 70 respondents across a broad range of companies and public
> sector organizations. 3 out of 5 respondents confirmed that it was
> "difficult or very difficult" for their organization to find job candidates
> with accessibility skills-and 0% felt it was easy. In fact, 63% say their
> current staff don't have the accessible technology skills to meet their
> organizations' goals, and 38% reported that jobs stay open longer or go
> unfilled as a result.
>> 
>> The True Cost
>> 
>> The responses indicate that although companies clearly feel such
> investment is worthwhile, the skills gap can lead to increased costs and
> decreased productivity. Specifically, organizations are paying for
> significant on-the-job training or supplementing with external training to
> help their staff build these skills. One respondent lamented that "we resign
> ourselves to the fact we can hire very bright people but are going to have
> to start from square one when it comes to accessibility." Almost 40% said
> that jobs in their organizations stay open longer or go unfilled because of
> a lack of accessible tech skills among candidates.
>> 
>> Demand Will Increase
>> 
>> Respondents project that the need for accessibility skills will only keep
> growing-which is great news for candidates looking for a way to stand out
> from the crowd! Among industry respondents, 83% reported seeing a moderate
> or significant increase in demand for accessibility skills over the last
> five years, and over 93% of industry respondents expect this demand will
> increase in the future. And 93.5% of all respondents reported that it was
> "very important" to them personally to hire more people with accessibility
> skills.
>> 
>> Closing the Gap
>> 
>> With future demand growing for these key skills, PEAT is working with its
> partners to look for ways to address this gap. Here are some of the things
> we are doing now and we look forward to YOUR ideas for how to make progress:
>> *Respondents confirmed the need to work with colleges and universities to
> infuse curricula with more accessible technology skills. PEAT is partnering
> with Teach Access [link] to help make this a reality.
>> *Only about one third of respondents said that their HR teams consider
> accessible technology skills when they recruit developer and designer
> candidates. PEAT is working with companies and HR organizations like SHRM
> [link] to help HR professionals better understand why these skills matter
> and how to increase the supply of candidates with these skills.
>> *A majority of respondents said they would like to explore using an
> apprenticeship model to train and certify employees to have these skills.
> PEAT is partnering with organizations like Apprenti [link] and IAAP [link]
> to explore such approaches.
>> 
>> PEAT has developed an infographic [link] to visually showcase these major
> findings.
>> 
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