Rajesh Kalidindi, independent, Accessibility & User Experience Consultant

Rajesh Kalidindi enables individuals and corporations through his accessibility consultancy by providing training, comprehensive validations, VPATs, usability studies, empathy workshops, etc. He began as a multimedia designer and moved into UX. Joining Microsoft, Rajesh found a passion for inclusive experiences that lead to learning about standards and observing users' challenges in usability studies. He enjoys presenting at conferences.

Mentioned in this episode:

Info about Accessibility at Blink

(bright music)

- Hello, this is Digital Accessibility:

the People Behind the Progress.

I'm Joe Welinske, the creator and host of this series.

And as an accessibility professional myself,

I find it very interesting

as to how others have found their way into this profession.

So let's meet one of those people right now,

and hear about their journey.

All right.

Well, I'm Joe Welinske,

and we're going to get into another episode,

where I have the opportunity

to talk with an accessibility practitioner.

And today, I am speaking with Rajesh Kalidindi.

Hello Rajesh.

How are you today?

- Fantastic, Joe.

How are you doing?

- I'm doing okay.

Everything's going well.

I'm at my usual place, remotely,

which is my home office on Vashon Island in Washington,

which is very near Blink's Seattle headquarters.

Where are you talking to us from?

- Same, home office in the Seattle area, you know,

enjoying the work from home benefits.

- Well, it's great to have you part of this podcast.

I'm looking forward to learning a little bit more about you.

We have met before, and known each other for a while.

But for those of you that may not be familiar with you,

and your work,

why don't you start by talking

about what you're doing right now?

- Sure.

Thanks for having me on this podcast.

You're doing fantastic job

of bringing multiple accessibility professionals

together in this series.

So right now,

I am providing accessibility consulting services

for clients..

That includes training,

on how to integrate accessibility guidelines

into their design development processes,

and also doing validations and repads,

and mentoring those who are coming into the field,

and also doing executive coaching,

and giving presentations like this, in conferences as well.

- Yeah, well, I know you're very involved

with getting, with participating in conferences,

and you've done that for a long time.

Just what's it been like, you know,

most recently with the pandemic?

Obviously, you know, most things went to remote,

virtual events,

and now we're starting to have some physical events.

What's it been like for you,

in terms of giving talks at various conferences?

- I think, you know, the pandemic taught us a lot,

in terms of presenting, as well as hosting,

these kinds of conferences.

So the benefit is that now we are connected globally,

truly connected globally,

because I don't need to travel anywhere,

to give a presentation, or to attend.

But after two years, you know,

not seeing, physically, people,

the connection, you know the human connection is missing.

That is what I'm looking for the in-person conferences,

as well, where you can really meet people,

and understand what they are, who they are,

and how they are bringing change into the world,

at a personal level connection.

So I think for quick conversations,

these remote conferences are good.

But if you want to make any deep connections,

I think, you know,

still we are there in the in-person meetings

and the conferences.

- Well, one of the things

that I like to get into in this program,

is find out how people found their way

into accessibility as a profession.

Sometimes it's lived life, or work life, or a combination.

How did it start for you?

- It's a long story.

I'll try to make it as short as possible.

I started my career as a multimedia designer,

and then transitioned into the web design,

and the user experience design.

But it almost, like 14, 15 years back,

when I joined Microsoft,

this is where my soul searching has happened.

With the support and motivation

from my managers at Microsoft,

I found that I have a passion

for making the experience for aged population,

and as well as the people with disabilities.

That is where I got the support to learn how to do it,

by learning the standards,

as well as observing the people with disabilities,

how they use the experiences.

So I have tried a couple of years,

while doing the UX design and research,

mainly the usability studies helped me a lot,

to learn what it takes,

to make the digital world inclusive for everyone.

Mainly the Communication Video Accessibility Act, the CVAA,

me a jumpstart to transition my career,

from the UX discipline, into the accessibility discipline.

So since then, I have been learning many skills,

in terms of developing these inclusive solutions.

More than the technical knowledge,

I think the soft skills helped me a lot,

to grow into the accessibility profession.

There is a lot of convincing that needs to be done,

in terms of prioritizing accessibility standards

into the work.

The negotiation skills, and the leadership skills,

and many other soft skills help me a lot,

to become a accessibility profession.

So I spent many years after that CBAA at Microsoft,

and then I took that experience

into a non-technology company,

and led an initiative at Liberty Mutual Insurance,

for a couple of years.

And now I am helping clients,

and other people who are coming into the profession,

as an independent consultant.

- You mentioned your work at Microsoft,

and then with Liberty,

and you mentioned research and usability testing.

I think a lot of people that maybe new to accessibility,

often just are hearing about compliance, and audits,

and remediation, maybe not as much about the value

of what we can find in research, and usability testing.

Maybe you could talk a little bit

about your experiences with, you know,

what that consisted of,

not necessarily specific to those organizations,

but maybe if you have just some general thoughts

about the value, and the types of things

that went on for those activities.

- Absolutely.

I think the standards, or the guidelines,

show the path

of how you can make your experiences inclusive.

But unless we observe how this is being used,

so you learn a little bit of, you know, from the guidelines,

and then you start implementing, to make it inclusive.

But unless this is put to the test,

or unless you see the person actually using it,

you don't know whether all the guidelines

that you put into the work,

is really meaningful to the user or not.

So I have learned a ton,

by observing people actually using the solution,

and found many creative ideas,

about how we can tweak it to make it more usable.

So I think the guidelines are a good starting point,

where you can start thinking about accessibility,

but actually testing it with users,

without observing how they use it,

will not make it completely, you know, a solution.

- Well, going to, you know, from the, you know,

the research and usability testing area,

one of the things I notice,

that you list for your services for clients,

is coaching organizations, and individuals,

to have mature accessibility programs.

Can you talk a little bit about what that consists of?

- It depends on where the organization is in, you know?

So sometimes, we may start with validating

what the existing solutions are, and finding the gaps,

and then fixing, initially, what we found,

and then build upon how you can enhance these experiences

by integrating accessibility into the left.

So, you know, in the industry,

there is a term called shift left, right?

So as part of this shift left,

slowly transitioning the organization

into integrating into the design process,

and then developing process,

as well as helping the management,

how to measure this work,

The amount of work that is being done,

and how they can measure,

in terms of making it more inclusive,

not just being compliant,

with the guidelines, and the regulations,

but also how they can transition

from compliance, to the usable solutions.

So the journey varies from different angles.

Sometimes the journey

starts with,

a customer might have logged a complaint.

And you know, handling that compliant.

And from there you transition

into a truly inclusive world.

Or, you know,

sometimes the UX people have a lot of empathy

for people with disabilities,

and the champions come forward to work on accessibility.

That is my journey where, you know,

I was the champion for accessibility,

and then matured and transitioned

into the accessibility world.

So these are different flavors.

Wherever you start,

you need to make sure that you have pieces,

like you know, your resources,

the people who are working, having enough skills,

and having enough tools,

and also, most importantly, empathy for the end users,

how you can build that empathy into the people

who you are working with.

So these are the main buckets I would call,

to make it you know, to help our organizations.

- Well you've been involved in accessibility

for quite a while now.

As you look back on on where you started,

and where we are today,

are there certain areas where you're kind of amazed

that we've gotten to where we are?

Or on the other side of it, are there some areas

where you're concerned

that maybe we haven't invested enough,

or we still have a lot of work to do?

Any thoughts about kind of, you know,

where you'd like to see things go in the future?

- Fantastic question.

Accessibility has been there in the United States,

for almost like, you know, 30 years.

But my involvement only in the last decade or so,

as a full time profession.

But in the last decade, I have seen,

when I started,

people were not paying to attention

to the accessibility much.

And since then,

I have seen a lot of interest, and also,

a push, or a motivation,

to make the solution, the digital solutions, inclusive,

across multiple industries.

So in my observation,

multiple things might have contributed to this.

I think lawsuits, many lawsuits, you know,

exponentially increased in the last 10 years.

That might have paid attention to accessibility.

And also, strong leaders in the industry,

being in the big corporate companies like Microsoft,

to Google, IBM, and then Salesforce.

A lot of other companies also started paying attention.

And there are so many other companies.

The technology companies have taken the stand,

in making accessibility more of a priority.

I cannot say that, you know,

it was not a priority before, it was.

But I think the focus is increased on accessibility.

That might have, you know, contributed the focus.

And the rest of the technology world

is also paying attention.

And also, the advocacy groups being very vocal,

and the actual people with the disabilities,

also started becoming vocal,

in terms of their experiences,

talking openly about their disabilities,

on multiple social platforms.

So from all these angles, I think, you know,

in helped a lot, big jump in terms of, you know,

attention on accessibility.

Well this is good progress,

but there is a lot to be done, you know?

In terms of not just disabilities that are notable,

there is a lot of work to be done,

in terms of the invisible disabilities as well.

And you know, the aged population,

also there is a lot of work to be done.

So there are a lot of inventions happening right now,

using artificial intelligence,

to enable the various needs.

So there is a lot of complexity also, I see,

when a person with, you know, having multiple needs.

There are multiple solutions that need to be relied on.

So how can these things can become intuitive

for the end user?

My mantra is to make the simple experiences,

but it takes a lot of effort to make, you know,

experience very simple, right?

So I think there is a lot of work to be done,

in terms of making it easy for real users,

and how it can become intuitive.

And there is a lot of innovation,

that also needs to be done,

in terms of enabling many other personas,

that we have not touched upon.

- Well are there,

you've always been involved in the community,

in doing a lot of different activities.

We can definitely have information in the show notes,

where people can find out more about you.

But are there any things coming up,

that you wanna talk about, about new activities

or talks that you might be giving at conferences?

- Yeah, I'm looking forward to the CSUN,

in San Diego, 2023.

And I'm also looking forward

to the for the User Experience Professionals Association,

the Annual International Conference, in Austin.

Those are my to-go places, almost like every year.

But in addition to that, you know,

there is an Inclusive Design Conferences coming up.

I'm looking forward for that content.

Many professionals are going to present.

Those are the three things that come to mind,

in terms of, you know, what I can look for,

in the rest of the 2023.

- All right, great.

Well, we'll make sure we have links in the show notes,

so people can find you.

But Rajesh,

it's been a great to have this opportunity to chat with you.

And I look forward to hopefully seeing you

at one of those physical events in the future.

- Yep.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, Joe.

and I'm looking forward to seeing you,

and many other professionals,

either virtually are in person.

- All right, thank you.