Effective Strategies for Disability Inclusion in Open Source Communities
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00:00
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Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:04
Hi, everyone. I hope you're doing well. Thank you so much for coming to my talk. I really appreciate it. So we're going to be talking about effective strategies for disability inclusion in open source communities. So this is from my experiences
00:21
with open source communities and also the work I've been doing at Open Source Community Africa Nairobi and Community Health Analytics Open Source Software, and that's Chaos Africa. So since we already passed time with nine minutes and cut the intro short so that I can dive more into the content and plan for you folks today.
00:43
So who am I? I am a GitHub campus expert, and I'm also an alumni for the Google Developer Assistance Club lead. I co-organize a hackathon in Kenya called Balloon Hacks, and I also lead the Open Source Community Africa Nairobi chapter. I am passionate about diversity, inclusion,
01:01
hence I dedicate my technical writing skill towards writing for She Code Africa Nairobi and piloting scanner. I do skate and swim when I'm not talking at conferences or I'm not writing code, and I also do love drumming. So this is the story of how, as open source communities,
01:23
we interact with persons with disabilities or how the experiences of persons with disabilities have been in our open source communities. So just seeing from maybe EuroPython, they'll probably announce a report after the event, so we'll probably maybe get to see
01:40
how many persons with disabilities are in the event, and let's say how many males, how many females and all that. So how can these metrics then help us in making open source communities more welcoming and a better place for persons with disabilities?
02:00
So we'll start by looking at what exactly is a disability and an impairment. So these are always confused, but they come hand in hand. So a disability is anything called sensory impairment or other impairment, including visual, hearing or physical incapacity, which can impact on social, economic and environmental participation of an individual.
02:22
So you're not able to participate fully in some activities because of a specific incapacitation from your end. So the difference between disability and impairment is that a disability is any condition of the body and mind that makes it more difficult for the person
02:41
to get a condition to do certain activities, and an impairment is defined as a loss or abnormality of psychological or physiological or a technical structure or function. So that's not important, though. What is important is where are we as the globe when we talk about disability.
03:01
So currently, disability affects 10 to 15 per cent of adults globally, with 470 of them, 417 million of them, dedicated to be of working age. So these probably are the people you would have in an open source community that project managers, as our maintainers, as our contributors. And persons with disabilities experience high unemployment,
03:22
causing the estimated annual loss of more than $1.3 trillion in GDP US dollars. So if we try and see, we know that open source is the biggest enabler of innovation in the world at the moment, so can we give these people a chance to do and perform their duties at least
03:41
in our open source communities? So these people with disabilities in employment often occupy entry level jobs with low pay. So even if someone with disability gets a job, it will be something of an entry level and with very low pay, but we are again trying to give them a chance through open source. So the key barrier to disability inclusion
04:02
that most open source communities face or even most open source communities face is the skills deficit, high unemployment, poverty and marginalisation. So these are some of the key barriers that maybe might be hindering possible communities or organisations to include persons with disabilities.
04:21
So let's look at disability inclusion. So what does inclusion really mean to open source communities or to persons with disabilities who want to join our open source communities? So inclusion means that one is accepted and recognised as an individual beyond the disability, and inclusion means you have a personal relationship
04:41
with family, friends, acquaintances, and that's of course fellow open source contributors, and then having a public living and accommodation, having employment, and having appropriate formal support. So we talk about disability inclusive development in open source. We seek to ensure the full participation
05:01
of people with disabilities as empowered self-advocates in the development processes and emergency responses and works to address the barriers which hinder the access and participation. So we're not trying to talk on their behalf, we're not trying to really look into,
05:21
speak on their behalf and all that. What we're trying to do is empower them to be self-advocates in the development process of this open source that we currently use and in the communities that we are in. So as I mentioned, we can always be the changing one to see. So what are some of the fast steps we can start taking in making sure
05:41
that probably a EuroPython or any other community becomes even more inclusive to persons with disabilities? So transformation of leadership that relentlessly questions the diverse pool of systems. So this transformation of leadership is what we're currently facing at Chaos Africa. So we recently are using Chaos Africa as my case study
06:02
because it's one of the communities that I participate in and I lead the disability inclusion efforts at Chaos Africa. So one of the things that we started on is we started having disability outreaches. So thanks to our leader, that's Ruth Kaeger. So Ruth Kaeger has empowered us to take the lead
06:20
and start reaching out to persons with disabilities because we noticed in our community we don't have enough persons with disabilities who are actively participating in the activities we are doing. So we seek to reach out to them. And then creating a compelling vision for social change as an organisation or as a community, I will share in the coming slides
06:41
how you can really craft a vision for social change and for disability inclusion in your open source communities. And then most open source communities or many communities I've talked to and have a chat with, they probably say that we really want to include persons with disabilities, but where are they? We can't reach them. We need them to show up
07:02
and show out so that we can reach out to them. So one thing is to also have a referral programme when sharing opportunities and leadership positions to gather the internal disability disclosures. So we understand that we have visible disabilities, like where I can look at you and say like maybe you're physically disabled, but you have literally virgin disabilities where I can't really tell unless I have a chat with you.
07:23
So can we have the internal disability disclosures in your communities where, for example, someone can reach out to the lead or the community that deals with disability and then go, hey, I have this disability and this has been affecting my contribution in this community and I feel like if this is done, it will be better.
07:42
So having that also in your community really helps. And then building disabilities into existing agendas and not merely adding separate disability activities. So this is something that it's easier said than done. And mostly you'd find that people have special rooms for persons with disabilities and all this and all that, but persons with disabilities just want to be included
08:02
as you are being included. They're not requesting for any special treatment. They don't need that. They're not requesting for any sympathy. They don't need that. They just want you to include them into existing agendas and not just add them as a separate disability activity. One of these is probably making sure you have an inclusive venue so that they can easily walk around the venue
08:22
or access anywhere in the venue without even them having to need help or anything. Another thing which is most important to me is development and education and awareness program that challenges normal economic able-bodied notions. We've seen most of this is already happening in most of our communities, and that's really good.
08:41
We've been hosting a PyLadies special session. So those are some of the things that we are looking at. So when you're developing an education and awareness program, you're trying to reach out to these people where they are, not creating special things for them. Then refocusing our attention on the human ability to perform a task and not just ignore the existence of an impairment,
09:02
but you explore what this person can do with the intent of really unleashing their talent alongside the impairment and not just focusing on the impairment alone. So what I usually try to share with you is I want you to leave this talk with actionable strategies.
09:21
Once you're living here, you know how your community is and you know how many persons with disabilities you have. You want to see if you're increasing this number or if you have a perfect number. So what I try to share with all of you today is a disability mainstreaming strategy where you can all go out in your communities after this
09:41
and then talk to your community members and talk to your leadership programs and see how you can really include everyone in this community. So disability mainstreaming is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of persons with disabilities an integral dimension of the design,
10:02
implementation, monitoring and evaluation. So we are starting all the way from the designing of our programs in our community. So from the design to the implementation, to the monitoring and the evaluation of policies and programs in our communities, yes, so that the persons with disabilities have the same access to utilities
10:20
as persons without disabilities. So we're not having any difference in any of this. So let's look at how we can have disability mainstreaming in our communities. Disability awareness training sessions and persons with disabilities and empowerment and then accessibility to physical facilities,
10:41
offering leadership position to these people, creation of policies and procedures and practices that guarantee mainstreaming and then setting up a disability mainstreaming committee. So I'm going to go through all this step by step so that you all are, I'm going to share with you a step by step overview of how we're actually going to get started and then how we're going to move on. So the first thing is to set up a disability mainstreaming committee.
11:03
So this is the team that is going to make sure the voices of persons with disabilities are heard in your community. So what will be their work? Their work will be the focal point on disability related issues. They'll ensure that there's inclusion of persons with disabilities or PWDs in community activities.
11:21
And then 5% of these should be community members who are PWDs and then they will work on submitting quarterly progress reports and implementing recommendations, creating awareness on disability issues and the universal design in community programme and activities. So who will be part of this committee? This committee should consist of a senior community member.
11:41
For example, let's say the chair of this conference or let's say the leader of the community you are leading and then it will consist of an executive member for representation. So let's say you have someone from the PSF board joining this committee or someone from the DEFNA board joining this team and then we'll have 30% of the PWD representation.
12:01
So 30% of this committee should be persons with disabilities and then disability for calling persons as a secretary and last. So this will be like the one that, let's say, a spokesperson for this committee who will be reaching out and lasting different communities and activities about several issues. The second step is formulating an action plan.
12:22
So you have a committee. Now let's see what this committee is going to do. So this committee will work on an action plan. So after you establish that, you have to establish and train this committee and the training can be done by, let's say, for example, at Kiosk Africa, we partnered with an NGO,
12:43
an environmental organisation called Project Eneble and Project Eneble runs training for speakers during the last outreach we did and also to ask ourselves as the members of the working group. So that's how we can probably work around the training of these people. So once they've been trained,
13:02
look at the different activities that your committee is looking to achieve. So let's say you are a community in Python and you're looking to achieve these goals. So what are some of the goals that they and themselves as the persons with disabilities can also take part in? Remember, the goal is to not create a specific thing for persons with disabilities,
13:21
but to include them in what you are currently building. The third step is implementing a disability mainstreaming action plan. So you formed a committee, you created an action plan, now you're implementing the action plan. So implementation is based on specific areas as identified, for example, I'll keep using Europe, Python and Kiosk Africa.
13:41
So Kiosk Africa, we host a conference called Kiosk on Africa. So let's say, you know, just last year, we didn't have any persons with disability who took the stage, like who became a speaker at the event. So one of our action items is we'll be looking out for persons with disability to join our community, training them on how we do this, and having them to be part of our community
14:02
and looking forward to them taking the stage in next year's Kiosk one. So implementing is based on specific areas, it can be the speakers area, it can be the data science, maybe the data science working group doesn't have persons with disabilities, and all those. And then once you've identified this, have performance indicators within the specific reporting quarters.
14:20
So for example, our performance indicator this quarter as the Kiosk Africa team was to reach out to persons with disabilities and train them on data science, web development, and the different tracks in software engineering. So our specific reporting quarter will be the third quarter, and they're going to be reporting about that specific.
14:41
So those are some of the things we'll be looking at. And then the fourth step is you monitor and you evaluate. So once you've done all that, it's important to conduct a pre- and post-assessment with the ones you're reaching out to or maybe just your community members to see if these can really work. So inform the person of the community
15:01
on disability and planning, and the best way with this is if you're an open source community, having all this in your public repo or something that is public can really help. And then so this is an example of a table or a ledger that you can use to have a work plan to, let's say, base the level of in-streaming, the objective of the mainstreaming action,
15:23
and then the activity, the strategies that you need, the timeline that this is running on, and then who is responsible for this, just for accountability and all that. And then to build up on this table, you can have, like, say, level of assessment is the event venue. The tool you're going to use is the physical facilities and premises audit tool,
15:41
and then the explanation is this that means it's to identify event venues or physical facilities and premises that provides access to all persons, regardless of their physical disability or not, from the main entrance to the service areas. So this is just an example of it. And then number five, just as many open source communities do,
16:00
having a quarterly report is a great way to be accountable and share with the world what you're doing, and helping other open source communities to learn from what you're doing and build up on that. So these reports are, of course, made by the public for transparency. We, of course, are assuming all of these are open source communities, so everything is going to be public, and are based on specific disability mainstreaming indicators in the performance review.
16:23
And then it should highlight the progress made to the community against the objective and strategies outlining the action plan. So this can be an example of something like that, can be the objective you had, the activities you did, what are your performance indicators and targets, and then what are the outputs that you have,
16:41
and what remarks do you have to share. So I know I might have rushed through this talk because I'm like five minutes to the top of the hour, but once we cannot form a forest, and I need you to take this up from this talk and do this also in your communities. Let's say if you're coming in from sub-Saharan Africa,
17:01
you're coming in from Europe, you're coming in from Asia, please take this gospel to folks in your communities and let them know that persons with disabilities also stand a chance in our open source communities, and they should not just be ignored, or should not just be publishing policies for the sake of publishing policies. Let us have committees, let us publish reports,
17:21
let us tell the world what you're really doing to have them on board. So I know I might have rushed through this talk, and you might be having questions and all that, so please let's be friends. Reach out to me, maybe that will direct you to my GitHub that has all my other links including my email and my Twitter.
17:41
So please reach out to me, and we will definitely have a conversation about this. But I will bring back this slide. I just want to give a shout-out to Velda Chiara and Muhairwe. They are currently physically there at the EuroPython, and Velda Chiara and Muhairwe helped me craft all this content
18:01
you are seeing on my slides. They helped me review it in some way and everything. And everyone here in the room right now, thank you so much for joining my talk. I really appreciate that. So I'll bring back this slide. I can see we are three minutes to the top of the hour. So I don't know if I can take questions for that time,
18:22
or if maybe anyone needs to learn, if you're sure I understand. Okay. We do, thanks so much. We do actually have about two minutes now if there are any questions. Yeah, if you have a question, just go up to the microphone behind you there so we can all hear, and it'll be on the recording.
18:43
Yeah, my question would be, like you said, include the people who are already there in the community. But mostly my feeling is that the starting point is really hard. So what do you do to actually get people actually to join if there are none yet there which can voice their concerns or needs?
19:03
Oh yeah, okay. So the best way to start, I'll give an example for Kiosk Africa. So when we were starting out at Kiosk Africa, we only had one individual, I think only one individual in disabilities, and we wanted to reach out to more. So what we did, of course, open source communities,
19:20
one of the ways we tried is through partnerships. So we reached out to another governmental organization that focuses on persons with disabilities in Lagos, Nigeria. That's Project Anebola. And through them, they gave us the audience and they were like, okay, so we just have these people in our hands, but we don't really have the tech skills to teach them. So Kiosk Africa is coming in to train these people
19:42
and hoping that once they become our community members. So I'll say the first thing is try and seek some partnerships with organizations that are really dealing with persons with disabilities. The second thing is when you are, let's say, have accessibility features in all your things. So, for example, when they're publishing a call for speakers,
20:02
let's say for Python, there's a specific sign that you can add to the poster to show that this is inclusive to persons with disabilities and also add that persons with disabilities and maybe, let's say, females are encouraged to apply. So they'll be like, oh, we're being welcomed to also join this community. So have those welcoming strategies for them.
20:21
And then the last thing, as I said, is try as much as possible to also reach out to these people because it might be hard for them to actually come up and say, hey, I need this and this and this and this. So I feel like I hope I answered your question with that, but I feel like those are some of the ways you can start
20:40
if you have currently no community members that are persons with disabilities. Thank you. That answered it very well. Thank you for your talk. Excellent. Let's all give them another round of applause.