Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Meenakshi Das. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Meenakshi, appreciate you joining us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I would like to be remembered as someone who not only advanced accessibility for people with disabilities – but also motivated others to do their part – however small – to make this world a better place for people with disabilities. I don’t wish to solve all the world’s accessibility problems – rather, I want to leave small footprints to at least start a conversation.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a software engineer and digital accessibility technologist, I try my best to make an impact for accessibility for people with disabilities. I am the founder of ‘Working with Disabilities’, a support group for working professionals with disabilities which has over 3500+ members. The group was created to address the lack of support for working disabled professionals and inaccessibility in technology. I was recently awarded the Stevie Awards for Women in Business – Gold in the Social Change Maker of the Year – Disability Category and named a DO-IT Trailblazer by the University of Washington for changing the way the world views people with disabilities. I am a member of the Teach Access Board, a non-profit organization dedicated to building accessibility skills among students and NextGen Council of Disability:IN which is focused on disability inclusion in the corporate world. Follow me on my Instagram Page where I share tips on digital accessibility, advocacy and tidbits from my personal life.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Being authentic, well-researched and sharing genuine ways to create accessibility for people with disabilities. These days there are many initiatives towards people with disabilities which prey on their insecurities and offer false promises of a cure. My work has always centered around self-acceptance and using accommodations to succeed. I not only educate people with disabilities – but also companies and small businesses on how to foster a sense of inclusivity for people with disabilities. I do these both through advocating for the importance of tech and how it can really improve lives of people with disabilities. New technologies such as Artificial Intelligence have truly made lives easier for people with disabilities but at the same time I seek to inform people that you don’t need AI or any high tech piece of software to include accessibility in your products and services. I educate users on simple techniques to incorporate accessibility from the start in their products so that the one billion disabled people on this planet have equitable access to technology. I offer well intentioned advice backed by empathy, research and my first hand experience as a person who stutters – which I believe resonates with users.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Being a person who stutters since the age of 5, I always thought that speaking is something I wasn’t supposed to do. I never had role models who stuttered – and thought fluency is the only way for someone to be successful. Until it was 2015 – and a dear mentor of mine – asked me to speak at a conference. When she presented me with this opportunity to speak – my first response was – “Why me? Why would anyone have the patience to listen to what I have to say?” She replied “People want to listen to what you have to say. Not how you say it”. And that has largely formed my motto in life today. I had to consciously unlearn that I do not have to be the most fluent speaker for my voice to be heard. I had to unlearn countless years of the mentality that a stutter meant something less. I am still on that journey – but I am better. Today, I’ve given 25+ talks in front of 10K+ audience and built a brand for myself. And I’m just getting started.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disabilitiesintech/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meena11/

Image Credits
The photo of me receiving award With “Are you in” in the background should be credited to Disability:IN(https://disabilityin.org)