1. Business and Educational Services in Technology
David Best: An Accessibility IT Specialist helping organizations to increase employee productivity and market growth.

2. CNIB National Braille Conference
Digital Intelligence And The Social Conscience - Bridging The Digital Mindset
Exploring the emerging global economy and the impact on disabled Canadians. Digital communications and the power of knowledge is shifting the balance of society. From corporate control to crowd sourcing influence, we are changing the world and the role we each play. What is the future of education and employment for blind, low vision, and deaf-blind Canadians? Are we in control of our destiny or subject to fate?

3. CONTENT Objective Purpose Progress Trends Observation Conclusion
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Background Information

4. Objective
A greater level of understanding in the business need for flexibility and community engagement sustainable growth in revenue, return on investment, and profitability is not just about legal compliance.
A greater appreciation for product and service standards. A competitive advantage is built upon talent and market growth.
Motivated to embrace change, and create a business model that enables people. Innovation and collaboration is at the intersection where humans and machines connect.

5. Purpose
To create a more inclusive society through Education, Awareness, and Advocacy, that will result in greater equal employment opportunities for blind, low vision, and deaf-blind Canadians.
Measuring economic growth and maturity of progress:
Education to improve quality of life
Awareness to shift attitudes
Advocacy to improve Collaboration

6. Progress
How is your organization preparing to compete in a rapidly changing world of compliance standards and inclusion best practices? Comparing past events and current activities will provide a greater understanding for future global economic trends and changing societal expectations.

7. Progress
We are moving toward a global digital economy by seamlessly integrating machines and people:
Machines connected together through a network, provide big data analytics and artificial intelligence, for economic growth.
People connecting together through a vast network, are closing the gap in cultural differences and levels of education for a more inclusive society.

8. Trends What Is Changing: People: Myths and attitudes
Technology: Employment and performance
Collaboration: Partnerships and inclusion
Innovation: Processes and behavior
Business: Strategies and growth

9. In the 1960's we measured people ability by their IQ, intelligence.
People Trends
Shift in attitudes and expectations:
In the 1960's we measured people ability by their IQ, intelligence.
In the 1970's the women's movement promoted EQ, emotional ability to build relationships and value people.
In the 1980's a shrinking world (increased air travel and telecommunications) forced us to think SQ, social ability.
In the 1990's governments legislated standards and policies for PQ, political correctness in speech and behavior.
In the past decayed, we shifted toward Cultural Intelligence (CQ), engaging and interacting with people around the world.
This decayed may be known as the Digital Intelligence (DQ) era, the merging of people and machines.

10. Shift in technology tools:
Technology Trends
In the past century assistive technologies were stand alone devices.
In the past century digital communications was primarily character based.
Blind people were the first to use GPS, OCR, and voice recognition technologies.
In the past decayed Graphic User Interfaces (GUI) were increasingly in use, creating new barriers for disabled people.
In the past decayed assistive technology support began appearing in mainstream products.
We now see a movement toward miniaturization, cloud sourcing, and wireless devices.
We now see an increasing network of connecting machines.
Shift in technology tools:

11. Collaboration Trends shift to open source:
In the past century we saw a separation of private research and public research.
In the past assistive technology research was a niche market that lead innovation.
In the past assistive technology was extremely expensive.
IN the past century there was a lot of public funding for nonprofit organizations.
We now see greater innovation collaboration between private and public sectors.
We now see a growing acceptance of global standards and regulations.
We now see a greater level of acceptance and involvement of the disabled community.
We now see a growing acceptance of diversity and inclusion best practices in the corporate workplace

12. Innovation Trends Shift toward cloud based processes:
In the past products were designed for a specific use without user design input.
Social media is connecting people in real time.
Crowd sourcing on cloud clusters are engaging people around the world.
Increasingly, assistive technology is being integrated into mainstream products and services.
We now see a shift in power for innovation from corporate to grassroots.
There is a growing acceptance for universal user experience design.

13. Business Trends Shift in business priorities:
Stats Can reports a huge skills gap between talent and qualified Canadian worker.
Employment reports show a persistently high unemployment rate for disabled Canadians.
Blind employees have limited career training and networking opportunities.
Reports show 1 out of 5 working Canadians live with a mental health issue, reducing productivity due to absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover.
Economic growth within Canada is shifting toward entrepreneur and small business ventures.
Business reports show a large increase of innovative business start-ups within Ontario.
Business reports show that large successful companies (like Nortel and Blockbuster) have failed due to cultural arrogance and system blindness.

14. Future Trends
Technology: We are crossing a new frontier in the evolution of computing and entering the era of cognitive systems. scientists and engineers around the world are pushing the boundaries of science and technology to create machines that sense, learn, reason, and interact with people in new ways to provide insight and advice. The speed of smart wearable's innovation is outpacing established Smartphone and tablet market growth. The global wearable technology market estimated value is $5.26 billion. Ontario is a recognized global leader in wearable innovations.
People: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the first international human rights treaty to place an obligation on countries to focus on mechanisms for monitoring (Article 33-2). The 76 ratifying countries represent 72 percent of the world population. The CRPD progress report offers a unique benchmarking tool that collects data on country laws, policies, and programs pertaining to accessible and assistive Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) around the globe. Ontario is a recognized global leader in establishing inclusive society standards (AODA).

15. Observation
Innovation: The trend data shows us that the technology is accelerating faster than our ability to put it to use. This innovation is being driven by consumer demand, and organizations are struggling to maintain IT infrastructure stability. This is having a profound impact on the workplace. A paradigm shift in society, driven by miniaturization, cloud sourcing, and wireless mobile devices, is placing greater power in the hands of consumers. However, the ability to use new emerging technologies is currently at the heart of social inclusion, with those excluded being left out of many work, entertainment, communication, healthcare and social benefits.
Business: The rules of business are changing at exponential rates. The capabilities and processes that created leadership positions in the last century are diminishing in relevance or being neutralized altogether, making way for a new set of competitive forces. And as we move from an industrial to information economy, every company will need to move and innovate at the speed of their competitors.

16. Conclusion
As we approach the intersection of people and machines, the rapid change in society is having an impact on the way we interact with one another and how we conduct daily life tasks. Progress is influenced by two societal barriers.
Attitudes:
Technology fatigue in the workplace impact decisions and career choices.
The business case for disability is based on legal compliance or best practices.
Employees with a disability are a business asset or liability.
AODA enforcement is a business burden or a growth strategy.
Universal design and accessibility strategies introduce operational challenges or business opportunities.
Employee discontentment and satisfaction effect productivity and workplace health.

17. Conclusion
Individuals work well together, but large organizations have created barriers through automation.
Systemic:
For the most part accommodation programs are not effective.
Social media and Virtual Education/Ecommerce has excluded blind people.
Innovation R&D, for health and fitness, does not reach the blind population until it is in the mainstream.
Cost and complexities of emerging technologies have marginalized at risk groups.
Organizations are struggling to develop good accessibility governance models.
Improved processes for accountability and responsibility is needed for greater employee and customer relations.

18. Business Actions
Develop a Genuine Progress Index (GPI) to measure satisfaction and growth.
Define a baseline of standards and expectations to guide progress.
Create an interactive communications process to engage all employees in decision making.
Evaluate productivity for technology fatigue, career opportunities, and social engagement.
Identify attitude and systemic barriers that impede market growth.
Build trusting relationships through collaboration and innovation.

19. Community Actions
It is estimated that less than 20% registered CNIB clients are totally blind, and only 10% are Braille users, and less than 1% of those are professionally employed. It is estimated that less than 23% working age clients are employed, and about 20% live below the poverty line.
BeBot's Bad Day - YouTube
Get emerging technologies into the hands of the blind community as soon as possible.
Educate business leaders on workplace technology solutions.
Train/mentor blind professionals in the use of workplace technology tools.
Make WCAG accessible website screen reader usable.
Shift advocacy into the hands of the blind community.
BeBot:

20. Resources
Roger L. Martin, Harvard Business Review: The Rise (and Likely Fall) of the Talent Economy
Special report: America's Best Companies to Work for in 2014
DiversityInc report: Top 10 Companies for People With Disabilities in 2014
Canadian Business SenseAbility (CBSA) Economic Action Plan
Tom Turpin, president of Randstad Canada: Canada needs a mindset shift to fix the skills gap.
Monique Valcour, Harvard Business Review: Give Your Organization a Work-Life Vision
Kathy Caprino, Forbes Magazine: The Crushing Similarities Between Family And Business Dysfunction
JANET MCFARLAND, The Globe and Mail: Culture of arrogance felled telecom giant Nortel, study finds
Daniel Goleman, Author of FOCUS: The Hidden Driver of Excellence: Systems Blindness: The Illusion of Understanding
Gerald parker, Executive Director of the Institute of Canadian Justice: Inaccessible, Dangerous and Deadly

21. Thank You Contact David Best Phone 905-791-1081
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