{"id":107864,"date":"2020-01-21T16:59:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T16:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=435933"},"modified":"2020-01-21T16:59:32","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T16:59:32","slug":"how-one-of-the-uks-most-famous-voices-is-helping-build-a-more-accessible-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/01\/21\/how-one-of-the-uks-most-famous-voices-is-helping-build-a-more-accessible-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"How one of the UK\u2019s most famous voices is helping build a more accessible workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Athimawritten by<\/span><\/p>\n

Athima Chansanchai<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

How one of the UK\u2019s most famous voices is helping build a more accessible workplace<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Corie Brown, a continuity announcer for Channel 4<\/a> in the U.K., is known for her tenacious voice and feisty personality \u2013 but her big voice didn\u2019t help at all when she was trying to get Jenny Lay-Flurrie\u2019s attention at Future Decoded<\/a>, an October 2019 Microsoft event in London where the two would share a stage for an interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never forget her running down the backstage corridor, yelling after me, until someone reminded her I was deaf,\u201d said Lay-Flurrie, Microsoft\u2019s chief accessibility officer. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a deaf girl interviewing a legally blind woman, which is funny on its own. But Corie and I were chatting afterwards, and I told her one of my problems is voicemail. People call me all the time and leave me voicemails, even though my voicemail actually says thank you for calling, but please don\u2019t bother leaving a message. Send me an email, shoot me a text. A couple days later, after I\u2019d returned to the U.S., she\u2019s professionally recorded new voicemail messages for me. \u2018This is Jenny\u2019s phone, Jenny\u2019s deaf, she\u2019s not going to answer. Thank you.\u2019 We cried laughing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get voicemails anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

That episode is just one example of how Brown empowers others who have disabilities. Because of an early exposure to technology and her talent for radio, she\u2019s been able to achieve professional goals that include being chosen from an applicant pool of thousands for her first job at the BBC. But she\u2019s used her voice beyond that to advocate for others as founder and co-chair of 4Purple, Channel 4\u2019s disability staff network. <\/p>\n

\n

2:06<\/span><\/p>\n

Video: Meet Corie Brown<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Brown, who\u2019s been at Channel 4 for almost two decades, was one of those who spearheaded the network\u2019s efforts to better reflect its audience on and off air. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to see themselves. The diversity of thought makes you stronger, more profitable; and so the more different voices you have internally, the more likely you are creating content people externally can identify with,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

Like other off-camera talent she can walk around with relative anonymity, until she talks at length with someone. Then maybe they recognize her voice, which on Channel 4 fills that junction from the end of one program to the start of the next one.<\/p>\n

But even then, they\u2019re not likely to suspect the role Brown has played in opening doors for people with disabilities. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the build-up to our coverage of the Paralympics<\/a> in 2012, we were in a situation where lots of people had to up their game, from a disability perspective. It was a time of seismic change,\u201d Brown said. She began to be more vocal about breaking down barriers in the workplace. \u201cYou have conversations with friends in the pub, but this was the first time I\u2019d really talked to someone at work about what life was like for me, with limited eyesight. It was unexpectedly time to stick my head above the parapet. Before, I didn\u2019t want to be perceived as different or judged to be less capable. In the build-up to the Paras it felt like everything was shifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Corie<\/p>\n

Paul Sapsford manages the announcer team at Channel 4. He said Brown has \u201cmade disability in the workplace a positive topic for discussion and has really helped move up the diversity agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sapsford has been at Channel 4 since 2007 and while he says Channel 4 has always had a positive outlook on disabilities and diversity, the Paralympics really ramped up the internal conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an extraordinarily powerful event for us externally and internally. It made everyone in the organization think deeply about our coverage and what that meant to us,\u201d says Sapsford, who made it a point to increase diversity on his team. \u201cWe hired more disabled employees and made them feel welcome. Everyone\u2019s needs are different, so you have to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sapsford had met Brown before she came to Channel 4, when she worked for the BBC and he was a network director and then an editor.<\/p>\n

He said his first impression of Brown was that she was \u201cbright, committed and full of enthusiasm,\u201d and that since then she\u2019s \u201cincreased confidence, which has come from experience and from challenging perceptions of disability in the workplace. She found a campaigning voice and uses it effectively. Corie\u2019s attitude is an important part of taking this company forward.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n
\n

Diversity of thought makes you stronger [and] more profitable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\n

The U.K. embraced the 2012 Paralympic games, thanks in large part to Channel 4\u2019s marketing campaign, which dubbed the athletes as \u201csuperhumans<\/a>\u201d and the traditional, more famous Olympics as a \u201cwarm-up\u201d to these competitions. Eighty-three percent of those people surveyed after the Paralympic games in 2012 agreed that Channel 4\u2019s coverage had improved the perception of people with a disability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were phenomenal ads that changed stereotypes and perceptions,\u201d said Lay-Flurrie, who is British and remembered how the ads were a breath of fresh air for the disabled community. \u201cWe felt included in everything they did. You never get that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Corie<\/figure>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere in the channel was electric,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe were riding on a high, but I and a few others started to think that the public perception was different than how we were as an organization, internally. \u2018Hang on, are we really as good as we are on-air?\u2019 Somehow we have to become more confident about disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The channel formed an internal diversity task force that tackled inclusion issues in general and in 2016 Channel 4 engaged a disability workplace specialist, who affected many positive changes during his tenure. <\/p>\n

\u201cBehind the scenes and on-air, we put forward our best efforts,\u201d Sapsford says. \u201cYou can\u2019t have all that focus on Paralympians without it affecting every department at Channel 4. We had a platform to build on now. We took that experience to mean that anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a stark contrast to when Brown started working for Channel 4 in 2001, when nobody was talking about workplace adjustments \u2013 screen readers and magnifiers, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, assistive software, etc. \u2013 for people with disabilities. In the U.K., there are government funds to subsidize these adjustments, to discourage employers from seeing cost as a reason to not employ someone. Brown didn\u2019t know about this Access to Work benefit until 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason I heard about it was because they were offering mini health checks, and the nurse mentioned it to me. When I told her I didn\u2019t know about it, she nearly fell off her chair,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was the start of an awakening.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n
\n

Everyone\u2019s needs are different, so you have to get it right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Brown started taking advantage of that benefit. Previously, she\u2019d brought to work her own assistive equipment \u2013 she uses a screen reader, which reads text aloud, and screen magnification. In her job she often works in live transmission. In broadcast television everything is timed to the second. Every event has an end point, every graphic has a fixed duration. To keep in sync, she gets a verbal countdown from her directors \u2013 this removes the challenge of needing to read a script and watch the screen at the same time. <\/p>\n

Brown also asks for presentations ahead of meetings and introductions of participants at their outset \u2013 accommodations that make meetings more inclusive and productive. She feels that being able to ask for what you need isn\u2019t a sign of weakness \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s actually really empowering for everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n

Channel 4 uses Microsoft Office 365 and Windows 10 \u2013 both of which Brown calls out as rich in accessibility features. She uses Microsoft Word for scripts. Whilst her colleagues print out their scripts, Brown reads on-air using a tablet running an autocue app with a large high-contrast font, reflecting a comfort level with technology that stretches back to her childhood.<\/p>\n

Brown has spent all her life adapting to a \u201csighted\u201d world. With their own lived experience of blindness, her parents decided early on she would get opportunities they didn\u2019t \u2013 starting with mainstream schooling, versus going to a specialized school.<\/p>\n

\"Corie<\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only thing I\u2019ve ever known,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSome kids have very particular needs, but you\u2019re going to go out and live in a big wide world. The sooner you\u2019re mixing, the better. And of course, the shared learning experience is empowering for fully sighted peers too. It\u2019s really important everybody is given the same opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was back in the 1980s, so they worked with the first incarnation of a scanner that read books out loud. She took typing lessons at school on \u201cproper old banging typewriters\u201d and was one of the children who tested a \u201cturtle\u201d \u2013 a precursor to the mouse. Later, she\u2019d write on a word processor.<\/p>\n

Her father, a computer programmer, used all kinds of gadgetry, so technology was very much a part of their daily lives.<\/p>\n

Besides the tools she uses at work, she likes using the Microsoft\u2019s Seeing AI app<\/a> in her daily life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like the instant text handwriting recognition feature to capture handwritten cards \u2013 especially at Christmas!\u201d she said. The Microsoft Soundscape app<\/a> is one of her favorite navigation tools, as it features 3D audio and is especially useful when coming out of the Tube (London\u2019s subway system) at a confusing junction.<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s been comfortable with technology pretty much her whole life, she now hopes to make it easier for others to use and ask for it.<\/p>\n

Sapsford said Brown is making a difference at Channel 4 through her visibility in the organization, by speaking out on the challenges faced by existing and new employees, and by demanding attention from executives and heads of departments.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\n
\n

The only barriers are our thinking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Famed for taking risks and challenging perceptions, one of Channel 4\u2019s most enduring legacies from the Paralympic coverage in 2012 is \u201cThe Last Leg<\/a>.\u201d Hosted by \u201cthree guys with four legs\u201d it\u2019s now one of the network\u2019s flagship shows. It began as a post-Paralympics round-up, but over the years has evolved into a satirical, \u201cno-holds barred\u201d topical news program. And Channel 4 has continued its coverage of the Paralympics.<\/p>\n

Channel 4 thinks others could learn from its experience \u2013 and success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s about having the right attitude and the willingness to want to make changes,\u201d Sapsford says. \u201cThe only barriers are our thinking. If you break down those barriers, there are no hindrances. We should make it work and we do make it work. We all have the same goal: we want to be the most inclusive, most diverse broadcaster in the U.K. I think here, genuinely for a long time, we\u2019ve had the attitude of, we\u2019re making a difference. We will continue to drive to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published on 1\/20\/2020 \/ Photos by Brian Smale \/ \u00a9 Microsoft except where noted.<\/em><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

written by Athima Chansanchai How one of the UK\u2019s most famous voices is helping build a more accessible workplace Corie Brown, a continuity announcer for Channel 4 in the U.K., is known for her tenacious voice and feisty personality \u2013 but her big voice didn\u2019t help at all when she was trying to get Jenny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[122],"class_list":["post-107864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-story-labs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}