\u201cThe diversity of the people that we want to serve helps us look at a problem in a more holistic way, because we\u2019re understanding all of the different points of view and we\u2019re trying to make sure that we are designing solutions that can help everyone,\u201d Hernandez says.<\/p>\n
The Windows teams also worked on empowering people of all abilities to sharpen their focus, limit distractions and improve their workflow in this update.<\/p>\n In the before times (pre-pandemic), Alexis Kane<\/strong>, a product manager on the Windows Accessibility team, often left her laptop behind when she attended in-person meetings. (She commuted to the Redmond, Washington, headquarters of the company daily from her home in Seattle.) Most of her day was spent collaborating with others, so she estimates she actively used her laptop only one-third of her day.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t even bring my laptop into the conference room. I would sit there and be able to listen to whoever,\u201d says Kane, who prefers to take notes with a pen and paper. \u201cIf I was focused, my door would be closed and I wouldn\u2019t look up. So if someone walked by my office, they wouldn\u2019t interrupt me.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything changed during the COVID-19 lockdowns when she had to work from home.<\/p>\n Kane found the number of notifications popping up on her laptop \u2013 which was now always on during her work hours \u2013 to be overwhelming, exacerbated by her ADHD. Pings came left and right \u2013 something she admits initiating, because she wanted to relay questions before she forgot them.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when you\u2019re the person receiving the notifications, it feels like \u2018oh no.\u2019 At least for my brain,\u201d Kane says. \u201cI instantly see this notification and maybe I\u2019m not answering it right now, but I\u2019m definitely thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Another big change that\u2019s still making a big impact on her happens during meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cI struggle with this. There\u2019s been such a change in standards and how we do meetings. And so even now that we\u2019re a little bit back in the office, it\u2019s kind of etiquette to always be on the call as well. And so that means your laptop is still open and you still have access to the meeting chat, which some people I think have really enjoyed, being able to put their comments in the chat during a meeting, if they don\u2019t feel comfortable speaking out, or just want to write out their thoughts,\u201d says Kane, who\u2019s gone back to the office once a week. \u201cFor me it now adds double the amount of work, it feels like. I have to go back and read the chat because I can\u2019t do both at once and it\u2019s extremely overwhelming if I try to read them during the meeting. So it\u2019s just kind of constant.\u201d<\/p>\n Hernandez says this could affect other users, too \u2014 like people who are blind or have low vision and use screen readers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re trying to listen to this meeting and then all the chats that are coming in as notifications tell them: message, message, message, message,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As companies around the world continue to embrace hybrid work, the new accessibility features in Windows are helping people of all abilities to be as productive at home as when they are in the office. Carolina Hernandez, who leads accessibility for Windows and recently wrote about how inclusion drives innovation in Windows 11, says that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50,1327],"class_list":["post-128957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-recent-news","tag-windows-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128957","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=128957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/remote-work-challenges-inspire-windows-11-updates-to-increase-productivity-and-lessen-distractions.jpg\")
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