Sustainability and Inclusive Technology: Empowering Individuals and Society

1. When you hear the word sustainability do you immediately think of the environment, green energy and windmills? @NeilMilliken

2. What’s the link between sustainability and accessible / inclusive technology? @NeilMilliken

3. A child born in Japan in 2007 will have a more than 50% chance of living past the age of 107. @NeilMilliken

4. Children born in that year in most advanced economies will have similar odds of living past their 100th birthday. @NeilMilliken

5. Most disabilities are acquired as people age. @NeilMilliken

6. Older people and people with disabilities are workers They are also working for longer: Some want to, others have to... @NeilMilliken

7. Older people and people with disabilities are consumers. @NeilMilliken

8. It is imperative that we enable people to remain independent & economically active for as long as possible. @NeilMilliken

9. New technological & economic models can empower inclusion in society. @NeilMilliken

10. Technology is giving people options to work in ways that suit them. @NeilMilliken

11. 3D printing is delivering the prospect of personalised and localised accessibility solutions for people. @NeilMilliken

12. Smart devices may unlock the potential to make our homes & cities much more inclusive. @NeilMilliken

13. Augmented Reality gives us opportunities to support people with cognitive and other disabilities. @NeilMilliken

14. Accessibility puts customers, employees, you & me in control. Sometimes for the 1st time ever. @NeilMilliken

15. But … We make hurdles for people to jump over before they can realise the potential of the technology & their own potential as individuals. @NeilMilliken

16. Inaccessibility is effectively closing the door on talent. @NeilMilliken

17. Lack of access leads to a huge disability employment gap. @NeilMilliken

18. Poor accessibility directly impacts the employment prospects of hundreds of millions of people with disabilities. @NeilMilliken

19. Under employment is unnecessarily burdensome on the individual, the societies and economies that they live in. @NeilMilliken

20. Let’s build a future where everyone can participate. @NeilMilliken

21. A 10% rise in the employment rate amongst disabled adults in the UK would contribute an extra £12 billion to the Exchequer by 2030. @NeilMilliken

22. Do I sense a little scepticism? How is accessibility - stuff that benefits individuals linked to sustainability? @NeilMilliken

23. Businesses already report on sustainabilityand the reporting metrics are starting to include social factors such as disability. @NeilMilliken

24. Disability inclusion is embedded in the UN Sustainable Development Goals: @NeilMilliken

25. Jim Tobiasspeaking at this very conferenceobserved that:“Inaccessibility is kinda like pollution.” @NeilMilliken

26. The logical extension of this idea is to take frameworks designed to address pollution & apply them to accessibility. @NeilMilliken

27. Smog. The conventional view of pollution. It is what is known as an externality. @NeilMilliken

28. When we don’t include the environmental costs of manufacture in the price people pay for goods then society has to foot the bill. @NeilMilliken

29. Poor accessibility is an externality of the production & planning process. It is a kind of pollution & it is unnecessary. @NeilMilliken

30. The polluter isn’t paying. Society is paying a high price to deal with the negative externality of inaccessibility. @NeilMilliken

31. The impact of a disability discrimination case is high. But the actual risk of going to court is relatively low. @NeilMilliken

32. When legislation is not enforced businesses are often willing to gamble. @NeilMilliken

33. A lightbulb moment: Legislating for accessibility isn’t enough - we need frameworks. Just like we applied to lightbulbs. @NeilMilliken

34. Incandescent bulbs were cheap to buy.But their inefficiency created a negative externality of pollution… @NeilMilliken

35. Efficient LED lights used to be very expensive. @NeilMilliken

36. Now LEDs are cheap to buy and run. A combination of legislation, regulation and a timeline for implementation has allowed industry to adjust. @NeilMilliken

37. In order for any legislative framework to be successful there needs to be a balance struck. We need both carrots and sticks. @NeilMilliken

38. Legislative sticks only work if they are used consistently. We need to create certainty that there will be penalties for being inaccessible. @NeilMilliken

39. Any penalties or levies must differentiate between new and existing products so start small & grow over time. @NeilMilliken

40. The Carrots: We need to offer business incentives to be accessible. @NeilMilliken

41. Fines should be used to reward businesses that are delivering inclusive accessible products and services. @NeilMilliken

42. Monies that are collected in fines can subsidise investments in accessibility. @NeilMilliken

43. We already have an economic framework for carbon emissions trading so let’s adopt a similar concept for inclusion. @NeilMilliken

44. @NeilMilliken Carbon trading is not without its critics. Some say it allows wealthy companies to pay to avoid taking action.

45. The difference between accessibility and carbon trading is that the planet will not burn as a result of organisations paying the fines. @NeilMilliken

46. A sustainable approach to accessibility opens business to new markets supporting economic growth. @NeilMilliken

47. Cleaning up the pollution cycle of inaccessibility will take a coordinated effort and require a new way of doing things. @NeilMilliken

48. But who doesn’t want to be part of something this valuable? @NeilMilliken