A Personal View of Microsoft: Accessibility, Inclusion and Acceptance

Thursday was a case of trepidation and the saying "Never meet your heroes" bouncing around my battered brain.

Microsoft were holding their Disability Confident event in Chepstow, South Wales and I was going. Not only was I attending.....And speaking....But I'd also been pestering them for months to bring an event to Wales.

Me, a lone voice appealing to one of the most successful organisations on the planet. An organisation that I respect so much for the work that they're doing to advance not only accessible technology but also the conversation around disability. So a bit like me, but with a marginally bigger budget.

As well as the stars aligning around their event commitments Microsoft listened, which is a testament to themselves as an organisation. From Jenny Lay Flurrie, the Chief Accessibility officer, Hector Minto, Michael Vermeersch, Kerri Hollis to Clare Barclay the COO. Everyone of them and in fact every person I've spoken to or contacted at Microsoft have been engaged. That's something very special in an organisation of that size and scope. No one's forwarded an email on to let some one else deal with a query, no one's not responded...Not once. That's exceptional.

So back to the event and I'm going to be very honest here, I have a chip on my shoulder, an issue which is of my own manifestation, debris from the last decade of my life since becoming disabled through my acquired brain injury. My issue is that I don't feel good enough, that I don't meet peoples expectations. If you hear me talk, I'll always big myself up around my awards and past work history, in order to negate peoples perception around me when I mention I'm disabled. It's my own problem and I need to sort it, but it also drives me so I need to find a healthy balance between the two. However on Thursday I felt accepted, equal and that I had a valid contribution for the first time since realising my brain had gone bang on the hard shoulder of the motorway on a Sunday night in 2005.

And that gave me the opportunity to talk about what I want to achieve, around what I can contribute and how we can shape the future ways of working. I don't have one moment of doubt around my own momentous abilities, but I do have doubts about people seeing me for what I can achieve rather than a story about disability and homelessness. I shy away from the word inspirational, but on Thursday in that room I was truly inspired. Inspired, engaged and motivated just as I thought I'd run out of gas after a difficult year and a lot of conversations with organisations that don't get what inclusion can bring to their business. Talk about a shot in the arm.

I'm going to do a separate blog around the day and the fantastic people that were part of it. It needs it's own article to do it justice, it really does.

But this is about acceptance and more importantly it's about people and culture....Which has always been my point around successful and transformative inclusion. It's at the heart of what Delsion does, land the people change and the shift in culture....Thank you to Microsoft for being the embodiment of that.

So not to Microsoft, but to Jenny, Hector, Michael, Kerri, Clare et al. Exceptional people make an exceptional organisation and here's the proof.