Microsoft Africa Development Center’s (Microsoft ADC) event on International Day of Persons with Disabilities aims to tackle stereotypical perspectives affecting the employment of talent living with disabilities.
The engineering center for Microsoft will host the Disability Inclusion event; which will focus on engineering and non-engineering professionals with disabilities on the 3rd of December across Africa. “More than one billion people around the world live with a disability. And employment rates are relatively lower and poverty rates are higher for people with disabilities than for those without disabilities,” stated Jack Ngare, Managing Director, Microsoft ADC- Kenya; also the event’s keynote speaker.
“From our 25 years of work on accessibility at Microsoft, we at ADC have learned that people with disabilities represent one of the world’s largest untapped talent pools; and that inclusion of disabled talent is crucial to achieving our mission,” he explained. “Our employees with disabilities continue to be the catalysts of our innovations; such as Learning Tools, live captioning in Teams, Seeing AI and many more. We continue to actively work to hire and nurture people with disabilities to bring their expertise into our processes, products and culture at every level.”
ENGAGING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Diversity in the workplace is “an essential component of any highly inclusive organisation like Microsoft”, added Sophie Okonkwo, Engineering Talent Sourcing Specialist at Microsoft ADC. “Organising this event to engage people with disabilities and allies in the Africa tech ecosystem is imperative; as the awareness of disability and inclusion needs to be widespread. The Microsoft Africa Development Centre Disability Event aims to celebrate the ability in disability; and bring to the fore the limitless possibilities that people with disabilities can achieve in an inclusive world.”
The event is diversity-centered and will encourage the inclusiveness of people living with disabilities in key career paths; while also raising awareness about the potential of talents living with disabilities. It will showcase appropriate facilities, programmes, and tools well suited for people with disabilities to achieve functional change.
EMPOWERING PROGRAMMES
Africa’s event will cover the Microsoft Accessibility; an essential tool used in delivering on Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. It will also unveil the next phase of the accessibility journey. This includes the companywide commitment to creating and opening doors to bigger opportunities for people with disabilities; and bring together every corner of Microsoft’s business, while focusing on these three priorities. This includes spurring the development of more accessible technology across the industry and the economy; using the technology to create opportunities for more people living with disabilities to be included in the workforce; and building a workplace that is more inclusive for people living with disabilities.
The Microsoft ADC Disability Inclusion event is an open to all virtual event to commemorate the International day of persons with disabilities in Africa. It will also reveal the ecosystem of Microsoft’s commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce and work culture.
Earlier this year, Microsoft partnered with non-profit social enterprise Tech4Dev to empower millions of girls and women across Africa with tech and coding skills. Click here to read more.
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