impairment

illustrated disabled people in brightly-colored clothing

Published: Are You Missing the D in DEI?

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
June 10, 2024May 26, 2025

I had an article published in the recent Workplace in Action® People Excellence magazine. My newest piece, “Are You Missing the ‘D’ in DEI?,” explores how diversity & inclusion initiatives may be missing the mark if they aren’t including disability.

My full article is shared below (along with a page for the #A11yBook!), but I hope you’ll check out the full magazine here as well. I’m still reading some of the great articles contributed by my colleagues. It’s a robust issue with a variety of perspectives!

In Summary

Many companies talk about being fair and including everyone. They can often forget about people with disabilities. When we leave out people with disabilities, it means those people feel unwelcome. Companies can miss out on great ideas and talented workers. To truly include everyone, businesses need to make sure events and online tools can be used by people with disabilities. Disabled voices should be heard in all discussions about fairness and inclusion.

a person with arrows icon in black on an orange background

Making Work Accessible: Recruitment

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 28, 2024May 26, 2025

This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Making Work Accessible

Welcome to this series of posts on Making Work Accessible! I’m so excited to share this deeper dive into accessibility at work, based on some content from a recent webinar and presentation. We’re going to explore the phases of the employee life cycle: Attraction, Recruitment, Onboarding, Development, and Retention. I’ll share some accessibility and inclusion best practices in each of these areas, and also include a related benefit of disability inclusion.

In HR, “recruitment” refers to the process of screening resumes, interviewing, and hiring within an organization. What does that look like for people with disabilities?

In Summary

Hiring people with disabilities brings in fresh ideas. It can help companies solve problems in new ways. By changing how they recruit and interview, businesses can find talented individuals with different ways of thinking. This can spark creativity and new solutions.

a magnet icon in white on a pink background

Making Work Accessible: Attraction

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 27, 2024May 25, 2025

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Making Work Accessible

In HR, “attraction” refers to the process of enticing qualified candidates to apply for job openings within an organization. What does that look like for people with disabilities?

In Summary

It's smart for businesses to hire people with disabilities because it creates a stronger talent pool. To do this, companies should follow some best practices for attracting employees with disabilities. By doing these things, businesses can find more skilled workers they might have missed before.

cover of The Inclusive Speaker: How to Truly Connect With All of Your Audience Without Leaving Anyone Behind by Denis Boudreau

Review: The Inclusive Speaker

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 25, 2024May 26, 2025

The Inclusive Speaker by Denis Boudreau has been on my radar for a bit, and I got to finally finish up reading on my flight back from New Orleans last weekend.

I have to start by saying, I really wanted to be able to recommend this book. I went in with the highest of hopes, imagining myself sharing this book with my speaker’s community and creating a wave of more disability-inclusive speakers. Since I speak on accessibility and disability inclusion, other speakers often ask me what they can do better to reach these audience members. This book has some good wisdom, but is in other places… problematic.

In Summary

This review of "The Inclusive Speaker" points out some good parts and some problems. The reviewer really wanted to like the book, especially since they teach others about being inclusive speakers. The main issue is that the book often talks about "learning styles," which research has shown is a myth. However, the book does have helpful parts, especially the checklists in Part 3. These checklists give practical advice on how to make presentations more inclusive for people with different disabilities.

blue icon of emoji - 3 faces and a question mark

Writing Bonus! Accessible Emoji Use

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
April 27, 2024May 25, 2025

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Writing for Accessibility

I was done with my planned series on Writing for Accessibility… or so I thought! We covered writing ALT text, writing for readability, and writing captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions. I wanted to add one more “writing” topic to the series: accessible emoji use!

In Summary

This article shares how to use emojis in an accessible way. Key tips include not replacing words with emojis, avoiding them as bullet points, and placing them at the end of sentences. It's also important to check emoji descriptions, and to use them in moderation.

Writing Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
April 18, 2024May 25, 2025

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Writing for Accessibility

Welcome to this deeper-dive series of blog posts! I’ll be digging in to some accessibility topics that relate to my presentations on accessibility, with the goal of providing you with information and resources to make your workplace more accessible. The third post in this series is on Writing Captions, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions. (Did you miss the others on ALT Text and Readability?)

In Summary

When we talk about making videos and audio easier for everyone to use, we focus on three main things: captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions. Captions are like subtitles that show up on a video screen. They display what people are saying and important sounds. A transcript is a full written version of everything said and important sounds in a video or audio recording. It tells you who is speaking and when certain sounds happen. Audio descriptions are for people who can't see well. They're like a narrator who describes important things happening on screen that aren't explained by the talking, like what someone is doing, where they are, or their facial expressions.

Myths About Accessibility and Disabilities

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
August 9, 2023May 25, 2025

In this post, I want to dispel some common myths about accessibility and disabilities. You may have heard some of these statements before!

In Summary

Some people think you can always tell if someone has a disability, but actually, many disabilities aren't obvious. Many think that making things easy for everyone to use is too much work. In fact, designing things to be accessible from the beginning helps everyone. It's also usually cheaper and easier to do it right from the start. This way, websites and online tools are usable for all.

What’s the Difference between Accessibility, Usability, and Inclusion?

by Britne Jenke, CPACC
May 18, 2023May 25, 2025

What’s the difference between accessibility, usability, and inclusion? I’m so glad you asked! This topic comes up a lot when discovering the world of accessibility, and these topics intersect and apply in different ways depending on your goals. I’d love to share a few definitions and sources I’ve found helpful.

In Summary

Accessibility means making sure websites and online tools work for people with disabilities. You either do it right, or you don't. Usability means making things easy for everyone to use. But sometimes, even if something is easy for most people, it's still hard for someone with a disability. Inclusion is about making sure everyone feels welcome and can be part of things, no matter what. So, accessibility is about following rules to make sure disabled people can use things. It's a "yes" or "no" answer. Usability and inclusion are more about making sure everyone feels good using something and like they belong.