Meet the Speaker — Gian Wild
Gian Wild is the CEO of AccessibilityOZ. Her session at WITS MidAtlantic is How to make your social media accessible to all.
Why is speaking at WITS important to you?
I think it is very important to see more women in STEM, especially in technology, and I love the opportunity to be a role model!
· What or who inspires you?
Ursula Burns: the first black woman to become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She has a really interesting take on always being the only woman, and often the only Person of Color in a room: she said this meant that people always remembered her. As a plus-size woman in the tech industry this really resonated with me.
· Most useful article you’ve read in the last month
As the CEO of a tech company I am always reading about business and leadership and less on accessibility, which is what my company does. The best article I have read lately was The Butchered Fantasy of the Independent Woman. People always talk about how women can have it all, but when you are at the top of your game you know that is not true. Many of us, myself included, have postponed relationships and family in order to maintain our independence and build a company, and this writer is right. It is lonely for women who have had to forego so much in order to survive in their career.
· When you were a kid what was your dream job?
I wanted to be an author. I wrote a series of short stories for National Novel Writing Month in 2009. I hope that one day I can do this again, but that was before I started AccessibilityOz!
· Tell us something about your session
I’m talking about making social media accessible to people with disabilities. Social media have a number of features that you can use to make your posts more accessible, such as: captions on videos; alternative text on images; and turning off the autoplaying of videos.
· What other sessions or speakers are you most excited to see?
I really am looking forward to seeing Gloria speak about bragging. As women we have been told not to brag; to be humble, and I have had to learn that; as I am a natural bragger! I am also looking forward to the end panel on How to build a Diverse and Inclusive Technical Organization. At AccessibilityOz, 80% of our staff have some kind of disability and we have a number of provisions to support the staff in our organization, including menstruation / miscarriage leave (for both parents), mental health days and time off for voting.
Hear from Gian and the other amazing women in tech speaking at WITS MidAtlantic in Washington, D.C. on March 23 & 24! Learn more and register at https://womenintechsummit.net/wits-midatlantic-2023/
