Alex and Amy talk with Jay Wyant, who serves as chief information accessibility officer for the state of Minnesota. We talk with Jay about how state organizations can improve accessibility in technology and procurement as well as best practices within the state to be more inclusive.
See full transcript in transcript tab on Buzzsprout at https://www.buzzsprout.com/704052/13443893.
Episode 102 -- Jay Wyant
Mon, Aug 21, 2023 12:50PM • 16:08
SPEAKERS
Alex Whitaker, Jay Wyant, Amy Glasscock
Amy Glasscock 00:05
Hi, and welcome to NASCIO voices where we talk all things state IT. I'm Amy Glasscock, in Lexington, Kentucky.
Alex Whitaker 00:12
And I'm Alex Whitaker in Washington, DC. Today we're talking with Jay Wyatt, who serves as Chief Information Accessibility Officer for the State of Minnesota.
Amy Glasscock 00:20
About a dozen or so states have a role like this, but it's still somewhat unique. So today we're talking with Jay about what he does and what other state IT agencies can do to be more accessible. Jay, welcome to NASCIO voices, and thanks so much for joining us.
Jay Wyant 00:34
Thank you for having me here. I really appreciate the opportunity to have a chat with you all this morning.
Alex Whitaker 00:39
Yeah, Jay, welcome. So tell us about your role as Chief Information Accessibility Officer and what you do.
Jay Wyant 00:46
Well, I was lucky, first of all when I was hired to do the job, it was my opportunity to build a job they had not had before, so it was like, here's your job, you figure it out. And basically, my role is to work with agencies and employees to embed accessibility into the culture of the state. One of the ways we did that was by seeding agencies with digital accessibility coordinators throughout all the agencies and the IT partners and to empower them with effective sustainable policies, processes, tools and procedures to basically get everybody to own accessibility in one way or another.
Alex Whitaker 01:29
Got it? Yeah, that's, that's really fascinating. And so, you know, based on our sort of basic research on you, we've seen that you have a long history of working in accessibility and technology, can you tell us a little bit about your professional background, and kind of how you came to the role?
Jay Wyant 01:44
Sure. My career had been a very winding path, which is actually not uncommon for people with disabilities. So, after being a very passionate, but not a great teacher in high school history, I fell into creating on-demand technology training for the telecommunications industries. That was in the 1980s, the 1990s, so really, you know, the ground floor of how the internet had been developed, but I was providing training on how the building blocks of the Internet work.
Then, after that, I became a marketing manager for a software startup that was kind of the precursor to cloud-based computing. Which was a lot of fun--it didn't go anywhere, but it was a lot of fun. I also became the marketing director for one of the nation's largest captioning companies. And the way I got into that was that on the side, as a volunteer I served on boards of non-profits, both local and national boards and part of my role is that I wrote a column and articles for magazines on how to make technology work, how to basically hack technology for accessibility, to kind of build my accessibility credentials by what I did on my own in addition to the work that we were doing.
So, combining my technology work, and working with people to figure out how to hack things to make things work for people who are deaf, or otherwise, kind of led to where I am today.
Alex Whitaker 03:25
Yeah, that's, that's really fascinating and further proof that
Episode 102 -- Jay Wyant
Mon, Aug 21, 2023 12:50PM • 16:08
SPEAKERS
Alex Whitaker, Jay Wyant, Amy Glasscock
Amy Glasscock 00:05
Hi, and welcome to NASCIO voices where we talk all things state IT. I'm Amy Glasscock, in Lexington, Kentucky.
Alex Whitaker 00:12
And I'm Alex Whitaker in Washington, DC. Today we're talking with Jay Wyatt, who serves as Chief Information Accessibility Officer for the State of Minnesota.
Amy Glasscock 00:20
About a dozen or so states have a role like this, but it's still somewhat unique. So today we're talking with Jay about what he does and what other state IT agencies can do to be more accessible. Jay, welcome to NASCIO voices, and thanks so much for joining us.
Jay Wyant 00:34
Thank you for having me here. I really appreciate the opportunity to have a chat with you all this morning.
Alex Whitaker 00:39
Yeah, Jay, welcome. So tell us about your role as Chief Information Accessibility Officer and what you do.
Jay Wyant 00:46
Well, I was lucky, first of all when I was hired to do the job, it was my opportunity to build a job they had not had before, so it was like, here's your job, you figure it out. And basically, my role is to work with agencies and employees to embed accessibility into the culture of the state. One of the ways we did that was by seeding agencies with digital accessibility coordinators throughout all the agencies and the IT partners and to empower them with effective sustainable policies, processes, tools and procedures to basically get everybody to own accessibility in one way or another.
Alex Whitaker 01:29
Got it? Yeah, that's, that's really fascinating. And so, you know, based on our sort of basic research on you, we've seen that you have a long history of working in accessibility and technology, can you tell us a little bit about your professional background, and kind of how you came to the role?
Jay Wyant 01:44
Sure. My career had been a very winding path, which is actually not uncommon for people with disabilities. So, after being a very passionate, but not a great teacher in high school history, I fell into creating on-demand technology training for the telecommunications industries. That was in the 1980s, the 1990s, so really, you know, the ground floor of how the internet had been developed, but I was providing training on how the building blocks of the Internet work.
Then, after that, I became a marketing manager for a software startup that was kind of the precursor to cloud-based computing. Which was a lot of fun--it didn't go anywhere, but it was a lot of fun. I also became the marketing director for one of the nation's largest captioning companies. And the way I got into that was that on the side, as a volunteer I served on boards of non-profits, both local and national boards and part of my role is that I wrote a column and articles for magazines on how to make technology work, how to basically hack technology for accessibility, to kind of build my accessibility credentials by what I did on my own in addition to the work that we were doing.
So, combining my technology work, and working with people to figure out how to hack things to make things work for people who are deaf, or otherwise, kind of led to where I am today.
Alex Whitaker 03:25
Yeah, that's, that's really fascinating and further proof that no one has a linear path to state technology. Everybody has sort of a cool background. So that's, it's great to hear yours. Thank you.
Amy Glasscock 03:34
Yeah, absolutely. It seems like one thing that states can start doing if they aren’t already is being mindful of accessibility in the procurement process. So what are some key questions that folks in state it should be asking when choosing a vendor?
Jay Wyant 03:50
Sure, what you could do is ask the organization, hey, do you have a policy affirming your commitment to accessibility? And you can also then ask them, can you describe how you ensure that your staff and contractors have the knowledge and skills to create an accessible digital technology? Do you provide training? Do you hire people with credentials? Then also ask them what is your approach to ensuring accessibility for your offerings? And so, what do you do for example, do you test? Do you build from the beginning accessibility into the software lifecycle--if you do, tell us more about it. So basically, ask the company to tell you in their own words, what they do and how they do it.
Amy Glasscock 04:45
Yeah, that's great. That seems like pretty simple, practical advice too, a good way to get started. So, I'm also interested in you know, what are some key considerations for agencies when determining how to improve accessibility for employees and then also, how about improving accessibility for the citizens that the agency interacts with?
Jay Wyant 05:06
First of all, think about your back-office applications. When you hire someone can they submit a timecard? Can they check on their eLearning offerings or their learning requirements? Your back office has to be accessible in order for an employee to be able to do the job.
So that's one thing. Another very simple thing is your documents. When you create documents, when you create training material, when you create video training, be sure they are all accessible. Very basic, simple things make people feel included and wanted and valuable to the organization. It's not just what we buy but how do you implement that? Making sure that when you buy something you don't break what works. Also, very simple things like plain language, making sure that everything is written in plain language and providing multi language support from human translators allows you to think about inclusion. Accessibility is really a tool for inclusion and making people think that they belong here. That they can do things, they can get things done.
Alex Whitaker 06:17
Got it. Thanks. Yeah, so obviously the pandemic change really so many aspects of work for all of us. But we're also really curious about how specifically did pandemic and work from home influence your state's accessibility efforts?
Jay Wyant 06:32
Let’s look at collaboration providers--think about Zoom, Teams, they realized they had to up their game. They had a lot of things, like Teams, Microsoft was saying, "Yes, we're planning to implement captioning in quarter three of whatever." And agencies were saying, "No, we need it now. We need to do it now." Because all of a sudden, nobody was face to face, people needed a way to be able to talk to each other. So, they collaborated to provide a way to up the game and speed up and change the development time.
Another thing is that a lot of accessibility is in process and culture. This is not just simply technology; it's how you use it and how you incorporate it. So, think about people calling in to a meeting, okay, imagine you're calling into a meeting, and somebody provides a slideshow. And they're realizing oh wait, I need to tell people what's on the slide. And they would verbally describe the slide. Think of the person on the phone as the same as the person who is blind. So people started realizing "Hey, we need to start incorporating a process of how do we include people whether they’re on the phone, in person, remote, or whatever. So it's not just describing things, it's also, for example, if you attend a meeting at the state of Minnesota, you're finding people have a habit of saying, this is Jay. This is Bob. This is Mike. We start with our name first, so people know "Oh this is that person talking.” You don't rely on people knowing by seeing or hearing who the person is. So culture is a big part of it.
Amy Glasscock 08:15
That's a really good point. I appreciate that, too. Because it's something that I you know, wouldn't have considered in this world of Zoom where our name is displayed under our face. So I appreciate that. So what advice do you have for state IT offices who don't have a Jay Wyant working for them already, who don't have an IT accessibility coordinator position, and if they want to up their accessibility game?
Jay Wyant 08:42
Sure, well, first of all, accessibility is everyone's responsibility. Even though my office is within Minnesota IT Services, the reality is accessibility is not an IT issue, it's an organizational issue. The organizations are the ones who are buying and delivering the technology. IT, they're the partner with them to help them do it. So, much of our success has happened because we've got people in the state who are passionate about inclusion, and they work hard to make sure that their little corner of state operations thinks about and understands what to do. And the most successful people are those whose managers and supervisors recognize that value and give them the leeway and the time to do those efforts. Also everybody is successful when they're able to collaborate across silos to share information with someone over here, who already knows how to make PDFs accessible, someone over there really knows how to make the modals accessible, someone over and so on to everyone knows a little bit something else and if they are allowed and enabled to collaborate and share resources, all agencies benefit. And that's one of the things we've done by having accessibility as an office. And we've been able to reach out and say, "Hey, you over there, who helped this person over here with the organization over there," know what you've done right, but now they can do it by themselves.
And then here's the standpoint of low hanging fruit: PDFs and other documents, make them accessible.
Also use plain language to support simple surveys and forms to make them more accessible. For example, not all the forms that you buy out there are accessible. So, by keeping it simple, you will avoid too many issues. Just like we talked about meetings, you can improve accessibility, even without having to know a whole lot, by keeping it simple and straight forward.
Also, I would say that procurement leaders have resources to start to incorporate accessibility. You've all probably heard of Voluntary Product Accessibility Template VPAT. Now it's a mixed bag how effective they are, but the fact is, they are put out by the Information Technology Industry Council, ITIC. It's not a government organization, it's a private industry, okay. They put it out and they've got a training program. Right on their website. So, if you're in procurement, and you're told, hey, do you know about VPATs? The information's there, the training's there, you could do that. And then there's lots of information on accessibility that's free, so start Googling, find a reputable organization, ask around, "Who do I trust?" WebAIM is a great nonprofit out there that has free training and free information out there. There are several other organizations that are constantly pushing out free information. So, you can ask around, and you can learn a lot really easily.
Alex Whitaker 11:40
Got it. Thank you so much. Hey, we really appreciate that. So but of course, we can't let you go today without asking a couple of questions about your life outside of work in a segment that we call the lightning round. Are you ready?
Jay Wyant 11:54
Absolutely. I'm ready.
Alex Whitaker 11:56
Alright, Amy take it away.
Amy Glasscock 11:58
Okay, Jay, your LinkedIn profile mentions that you like doing home remodeling project. So what's something that you've done around the house recently?
Jay Wyant 12:07
Well, the reason one reason why I did that was that we decided, we have a garage, that was built well after our house. Our home was built in 1903 and the garage was built much later than that and it was really a piece of crap. And the snow would leak right into it. And it was messy. So, we tore it down. And we said, well, you know what, let’s put an apartment on top of it. So, we, my wife and I, built the garage with an apartment on top of it ourselves. And so, we got the whole structure up, got the siding on, put a roof on we had an electrician and plumber in and I just finished building the stairs last weekend, and now we’re working on the flooring, the sheet rocking and all that up there. So yeah, that’s our project.
Amy Glasscock 12:56
Well that’s a huge undertaking.
Alex Whitaker 12:58
Yeah, Jay, it takes me weeks to get pictures hung up in our in our house. So I’m incredibly impressed by that. That’s very cool. So our annual conference this year is in Minneapolis, what’s something you would recommend to visit or do in your city?
Jay Wyant 13:12
Well, you picked a great weekend to come, the first weekend of October is peak fall season here in Minnesota. And what’s also great about Minneapolis is that we’ve got lakes in the middle of the city within walking distance from downtown. I live right by one of those lakes. And so we really would encourage you to take a bus or Uber or whatever to the lake to walk around the lake and enjoy the fall. If you have a car or you can take a ride share—now here’s the problem. You’re coming in one week after the Twin Cities Marathon with the most beautiful urban marathon in United States or the world—you could have them drive you on the marathon route. And that leads you around the lake, up the creek down to Minnehaha Falls along the river down to the capital, it’s a beautiful drive, and it’s a great way to get a view of the Twin Cities.
Alex Whitaker 14:08
Awesome.
Amy Glasscock 14:09
That sounds great. And I know Alex is probably jealous that he’s missing the marathon. He’s a runner.
Alex Whitaker 14:14
Just one week. Yeah.
Amy Glasscock 14:15
All right. And then final question. Have you gone on any vacations this summer? And if so, where?
Jay Wyant 14:20
Well, we had a family reunion for my father’s side of the family in Colorado in Breckinridge. And then our family used that opportunity to stay for two days after that and we went through a town called Frisco which is right off of Highway 70. We had some people in our family who are not too thrilled about the idea of going up a windy mountain road, but Frisco's right off of I-70. And it was really nice to go there, and we took a trip to Leadville which is the highest incorporated town in the country. And so of course we had to checkout Leadville, so fun to hang out in Frisco, in Breckinridge, Leadville, and be in high elevation without too many winding roads.
Alex Whitaker 15:03
Yeah, I lived in Denver for two years. And I've been to all those places--absolutely beautiful. Love them.
Amy Glasscock 15:07
Yeah. I love it when a family reunion gives you an excuse to check out some places that you maybe wouldn't otherwise. So that's always fun. Well, Jay, that's all the time we have for today, unfortunately. But thank you again for taking the time to talk with us about accessibility and information technology and then broader state government as well. We really appreciate it.
Jay Wyant 15:27
Thanks. Yeah. But thank you, too, for taking the time to talk with me. And I'm always happy to talk about accessibility with anyone and everyone who has a question or wants to learn more about it, so please feel free to put my contact information in and let people know we are available to help them out.
Amy Glasscock 15:44
Okay, great. Will do, thanks. If you liked this episode, please consider sharing it on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Alex Whitaker 15:46
Thanks again for listening to NASCIO Voices. NASCIO Voices is a production of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers or NASCIO. We'll be back in two weeks in more great state IT content.