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So my name is Michael Nowicki. I am currently an associate attorney at Marashlian & Donahue, PLLC, The CommLaw Group. This is a small, basically a boutique firm specializing primarily in telecom law. We have a very strong telecom practice, but we don't do just telecom. We also do data privacy law and really, anything at the intersection of communications and technology. So we basically touch on pretty much every sector of the communications and information technology industry, which is very fitting for the 21st century. With the various emerging new technologies and they mostly give us a lot of professional opportunities.


Now, the other very unique thing about our practice is that everyone specializes in a more niche area within that broad market. I, myself, am working actively to build a strong practice at the intersection of accessibility, communications and information technology. I do a lot of work with the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, which is the primary landmark communications accessibility legislation in the United States, and it's very much a modernization of the American Disabilities Act. So, I graduated from the University of Illinois, College of Law. That's where I got my law degree. I got my undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I had excellent support services at all those stages that have gotten me the accommodations that I needed, and that's how I was able to get where I'm at now.


People with disabilities bring a unique perspective to employers. Now, I understand that employers have a wide range of requirements and expectations for their employees depending on the industry and the nature of the job, etc. But one of the skills that people with disabilities are really good at is problem solving, because especially for people who were born with a disability or at least had a disability for a long time, they've constantly had to adapt to living in an able-bodied world. For example, for me, I would often encounter situations where I would have to deal with an inaccessible website or a mobile app, or I was provided materials in print, which I cannot read because I have no functional vision. In some cases, the people who provided those materials to me either did not know that I was blind or just simply forgot, maybe it was something that was prepared at the last moment. So I constantly had to explore alternative ways to get that information in an accessible format.


Those problem solving skills transfer over to other areas too, those are transformative skills. The other advantage of hiring people with disabilities is that because many of us have had to work harder to get to where we are at, many of us are strongly committed and dedicated to the type of work that we do and that we want to do. So, there are many well-qualified people with disabilities, and unfortunately too many employers don't know or understand that. Being a lawyer is a very responsible job. I am responsible for preparing and reviewing contracts, performing legal research, advising on regulatory obligations. Sometimes a client will come and ask me, "Hey, I want to do this. I want to do X, but I'm concerned about Y. Can I do this under those laws?" Or sometimes they'll want me to prepare a summary of legal rules for a program, which they're applying for regulatory funding. The Federal Communications Commission, for example, has established a universal service program for telecom providers and there are lots of strings attached to preserve continued eligibility. So carriers want that funding, and it's just pretty much...


All the carriers, well, maybe not all of them, but most of them want that funding. So, making sure to have the proper accommodations, materials in an accessible format, having access to a screen reader, it really comes down to between being able to do the job or not being able to do the job at all in many cases. One great experience that I had is I recently did a business development webinar tapping into business opportunities through accessibility. This webinar was co-hosted by my firm and the Cloud Communications Alliance. Basically the CCA, when they do their webinars, they use a completely inaccessible software, it's called GoToWebinar. One of the things I stressed is the importance of using an accessible platform for this webinar. One of the issues with GoToWebinar is that it is completely inaccessible to screen reader users. Even if a screen reader user wants to call in by phone, which they have the option to do, they still need to go the meeting via the inaccessible software first and then retrieve a call-in pin, and that process is inaccessible as well.


So, I proposed that we used Zoom, because Zoom has made such a fantastic job making its platforms and web portal, basically the whole experience fully accessible to people with disabilities, aside perhaps from some minor captioning issues for the deaf and hard of hearing. They kind of joined that a little late, unfortunately, but they made significant strides there as well. My firm was always supported me in doing that. They purchased the webinar ad-on, which is required to host webinars within Zoom. They fully supported me at every step of the way with making sure that I was set up with the accommodations that I needed and resolving any technical glitches, and t
 That's unfortunately not what every employer does.


It's already helped me expand my professional network significantly. My firm really helped me a lot with marketing and making the most of LinkedIn and hopefully, down the road, this will lead to me bringing in new clients to the firm. Diverse workforce means diverse perspectives. The more diverse point of views that people bring in, the more likely it is to come up with creative solutions to problems, creative ideas for bringing in new business, especially if you're in the private sector. In the public sector, it might be more diverse ideas for implementing public policy where applicable. It could also be to creating new laws. The other thing also is that diversity also gets the employers to think about accessibility when they design their own products and services, because for example, you really appreciate the needs of a blind person when you're working with that person on a daily basis.


For example, if you work on site and you constantly see that person interacting with a screen reader reading content at high speed, that's when you really appreciate the value that making software and websites accessible can really add. Similarly here, working with a person with a wheelchair and you see them struggling to get in to use the bathroom, because there are architectural barriers that make it difficult or nearly impossible to do that. Or you're going to get a situation where maybe there are two or three steps, and you need someone to carry them into the bathroom because they won't be able to get up, they're in a wheelchair and that's when you really see the value of accessibility in action.


My advice for employers would be don't be afraid to raise any accessibility or disability related concerns you may have. Now, while some people may not be comfortable discussing their disability, most blind people and people with disabilities generally that I know are happy to assuage any concerns during the job application process, whether it's during an initial interview or at a different stage of the process. I think that can really go a long way, because often what happens is employers will make an assumption based on their limited knowledge of what people with disabilities can do. Not surprisingly, that assumption can often be highly inaccurate and could steer the employer away from seriously considering that employee for a position.


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