So it's uh on the half hour of the hour. So I'll get started here. And so I'm talking today about a designer's responsibility for inclusive design in tech. Um So before I get into this presentation, I did just want to briefly talk a little bit about me.So I'm Sierra, I use she her pronouns and I'm originally from Dartmouth, which is a city located on the east coast of Canada. I actually just had my graduation ceremony today. So I just formally graduated from Dalhousie University with uh my undergraduate degree in electrical engineering uh with the Cooper Education program which actually allowed me to get industry experience while I was completing my degree. And so some of my hobbies um include things like baseball, um piano.

I really enjoy traveling um specifically going to engineering conferences uh when COVID allows. Um And I really like reading, so I would love to see any of your reading recommendations in the chat. So a little bit into the future, I'm actually in the fall going to be heading to the University of Oxford um in England as a Rhodes scholar. And I'm extremely excited for that opportunity. Um because I'm extremely passionate about science, technology, engineering and math, typically, outreach and advocacy in those fields. And with my studies at the University of Oxford, I'm going to be studying for a DFI or as it's more commonly known A phd in biomedical engineering and I'll be focused on medical imaging and making sure that um specifically magnetic resonance imaging is inclusive for all. And so before I kind of talk more about that, I will kind of touch on that and um inclusive design in health care. But before we get into that, I want to introduce the concepts of equity, diversity and inclusion or as they're more commonly known together as Ed I. And so I wanted to start with diversity, which is probably the most commonly known term of the three.

And essentially diversity is the presence of any difference within a given setting. And so often the measure of diversity that we're looking for um includes things like our socio-economic background, our ethnicity, our sexual orientation, our gender, identity and expression, our race, our religion, our physical and mental abilities, and our diversity of our own lived experiences, which is also really important when we're talking about diversity.

So diversity is actually an outcome that we can achieve. And so it's not uh you know, when you look at a space, you can actually see if that space. Yes, the space is diverse or no, the space isn't diverse. So that's an outcome that we can actually measure the next time I wanted to talk about is inclusion, which is about folks with different identities, feeling and being valued and welcomed within a given setting or space or place. And so a classic example that's often used when kind of comparing diversity and inclusion because they are quite similar. Um But this, I really like this quote is that diversity is being asked to the party, but inclusion is being asked to dance. So as you can kind of see inclusion kind of goes that extra step instead of, you know, looking like we're a diverse group, inclusion is actually making sure that everyone feels welcomed and is actively participating. Um and has a voice and like diversity, inclusion is an outcome that we can achieve. I wanted to end off with equity um in our definitions here. And so equity is actually a little bit different in that it's an approach that makes sure that everyone has access to the same opportunities regardless of their starting point or barriers that they may face um due to their different lived experiences and backgrounds.

So it's not necessarily the same as equality because we're trying to make sure that instead of starting at the same place, everyone's ending at the same place. And equity is actually a process that begins by acknowledging that, you know, these unequal starting points that people have due to these barriers that different people face. Um You know, we have to acknowledge that people are having different starting places and it makes a commitment to correct and address these imbalances. And so, unlike inclusion and diversity equity is not an outcome, it actually involves these processes and we want to make sure that our processes are equitable. All right. So now, you know, for the rest of the presentation, I'll talk about why inclusive design is so important.

And like I mentioned, I actually just graduated from my uh bachelor's degree. And so I have a student perspective that I really wanted to include here from a senior engineering student at my university. Um So they say we learn how to avoid killing trees, we learn how to avoid killing people, but nobody teaches us how to avoid being complacent in the larger issue of system systematic discrimination. Ironically, the latter issue is the most complicated and least obvious ethical territory for an engineer to navigate and thus arguably more worthy of explicit instruction than many of the topics we currently learn about. And so that really puts it into perspective, you know, um engineers and designers in tech, you know, we, we're taught about all these ethical issues, but we're not necessarily taught about, you know, the implications of our designs in society. We talk about safety, but we don't talk about inclusivity. And so this is something that we should really be thinking about when we're designing in tech. So I wanted to provide a few case studies. Um to kind of highlight why inclusive design is important and you know, highlight a lack of it in these case studies. So the first one is car crash testing.

And so when people are doing testing for the safety of their cars, um they often use what's called crash dust dummies. Um and you know, it makes sense that different bodies react differently in car crashes. But most of the car crash dummies are actually modeled after able bodied male bodies. And so because these crash test dummies are only modeled after a very small subset of people, female car occupants are actually 73% more less to be killed or seriously injured in car crashes than male car occupants. Um And you know, this is actually something that's been known to safety experts and researchers for decades, but only minimal changes have happened and we can kind of see why this might be uh you know, the car, the car crash testing teams probably have a lack of diversity. Um A lot of these voices aren't being heard at the design table. The next case study I wanted to bring to the forefront is in biased algorithms. And so, um you know, in my doctoral research, I'm going to be applying um artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to analyze large piles of data.

And you know, I acknowledge that they've had a lot of positive impacts on society, but they can also have negative impacts when personal and societal biases work their ways into these technologies, whether this is intentional or not and often it's not intentional. So an example that actually Cathy o'neill, in her book of Weapons of mass destruction, which I would completely recommend, um she talks about predpol which is a predictive policing software that actually helps law enforcement predict and prevent crime, which seems like a really good idea in theory.

But the problem with Predpol and you know, the algorithms within it is that they actually encourage people, the officers to focus on low income communities due to the inherent biases of the people who designed those algorithms. So the data that they were giving them was unintentionally saying that these low income communities were more dangerous and you know, needed a heavier police presence, you know, regardless of whether that was true. And because of this people in low income communities are more susceptible to being stopped in the streets by police. And so this can be detrimental. And so to avoid some of these issues, we really need to constantly be accountable for our own biases, acknowledge the biases that we have and really work to eliminate them. Um The third case study that I wanted to include is inequities in health care technology. So this is something that I'm very passionate about and will be something that I'm working on in my doctoral work. Um And so artificial intelligence is used a lot in health care aspects including um streamlining the patient experience, uh providing personalized health benefits and developing new medicine.

But a lot of these aspects are also very susceptible to dangerous biases that we may introduce. And some of these biases include white patients being more likely to be prioritized um for additional health care services than patients of color who may need them more. And this is because a lot of people have the conception that uh patients of color have a higher pain threshold, which is not true. But when this, you know, unconscious bias gets introduced into our technologies, then that aids itself in having these patients not be prioritized the way that they should be. And then another example is failing to accurately identify disease risk indicators um in specifically in minority groups uh due to not having enough data to support what they actually look like. Um a more recent example is that the pulse oximeter, which is a device that actually gauges how much oxygen you have in your bloodstream. And it's been really, really um efficient in the diagnosis of COVID-19. Um it actually uses light that passes through the patient's skin.

But because of the disparities in the test user groups, it actually reproduces racial biases and causes people with darker skin tones to have inaccurate measurements which again is detrimental when you're trying to diagnose a deadly disease. Some other examples um you know, and this is not at all an exhaustive list. Um but some other examples include not having adequate uh protective equipment for women, for non binary individuals or people living with disabilities. There's lots of talk about biases and hiring algorithms.

Um A personal example is that a lot of the time when I am traveling with my family, my dad who has darker skin tone than I do. Um his passport isn't actually able to get recognized by the scanner because it can't recognize darker skin tones, same thing with automatic soap or hand sanitizing dispensers. They often don't work with darker skin tones. And so issues like these could have very easily been um kind of removed if the design team was diverse and had someone testing it under a lot of these different conditions. So this is not just something that we should be striving for, it's actually our responsibility. So as designers, engineers and people working in tech, we really need to make sure that we're actively working to make our technologies anti discriminatory and not have these detrimental effects. Our designs can often have a really lasting impact on society and in the groups that we're a part of and really without carefully considering our designs, they can be causing a lot of different forms of discrimination. Um So to eliminate this, we really need to be making it a priority to include diverse perspectives in all aspects of our designing. So again, like I mentioned, I'm currently situated in Canada, so I pulled from the Canadian engineering code of ethics.

And you know, this actually shows that inclusive design is not just, you know, something that's nice to have it is our responsibility. So, in the code of ethics, it actually says that engineers need to conduct themselves with integrity, equity, fairness, courtesy and good faith towards clients, colleagues and others. And they need to treat equitably and promote the equitable and dignified treatment of people in accordance with human rights legislation.

And both of those are definitely not attainable without considering and deeply considering inclusion and inclusive design in all phases. So what can we do moving forward with this information? We really need to refocus the narrative that is currently surrounding aspects of equity, diversity and inclusion.

So instead of focusing on diversity targets, you know, we hear a lot of times of companies trying to meet maybe 30% of this specific uh minority um specifically to look good, but that's really not what we should be focusing on. It's really important for us to acknowledge that diversity in these design teams and in companies can actually increase the company and uh designs, effectiveness people from different backgrounds, um whether it's a different ethnicity, different gender, sexuality, religion, people from diverse backgrounds bring value to organizations not only from their uh different skills and amazing skills, but because of their different lived experiences that can really help to inform their design choices and this can help to address some of those inherent um implicit biases that everyone possesses.

And so a lot of these failures that I was discussing today could have been easily addressed if there were more voices at the design table, which is something that we should be striving for, especially women in tech. So I wanted to kind of conclude with this idea of technological stewardship, um which I first heard from the engineering change Lab. And if you haven't heard of them, I would 100% recommend looking at some of their workshop materials that are available online. Um But technical technological stewardship is essentially the behavior that ensures technology is used to make the world more equitable inclusive, just and sustainable, which is ultimately what we should be striving for it, calls for people working in the design and implementation of technology to be more responsible and accountable in their leadership.

And so the next challenge in kind of our design, um I guess processes is not just to create good technologies that are effective. Um We want to be able to become just as good as shaping the positive impacts of technologies as we are at inventing the technologies in the first place. So instead of, you know, looking at how effective a technology is, a measure of that effectiveness should be, how inclusive it is and how people, how it interacts with society. And I wanted to conclude with this quote from Maya Angelou. Uh is that it's time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity, there's beauty and there's strength so that really kind of brings home that idea that diversity is not something that's uh you know, something that we should be getting just because it looks good.

Diversity gives us strength and diversity in our design teams is a must if we want to be making technologies that are inclusive for all and that aren't having, aren't making biases pervade in society um as we know it. And so thank you so much for listening to my talk today. Um I would love to uh in a couple of minutes remaining, take a few questions if you have any. Um But if I don't get to your questions or if you think of anything later or wanna see any of the resources that I used in my presentation today. Um You can reach me at my Twitter, which is at Sierra and Sparks. Uh My email is Sierra dot Sparks at Dell dot C A and my linkedin is linked there below. Um And it's also linked to my profile here. So again, thank you so much for listening to my presentation here and I look forward to chatting with some of you. Um Right now, that's a really great question from maha. Um That's so to the point and diversity is a strength in all of its forms when it comes to what you mentioned about hr recruitment and quantifying diversity. How can they do that? In your view. So that's a really great question. Um I think that it's really important to really, instead of kind of trying to, to quantify diversity, um really look at every candidate individually and kind of what they're bringing to the table.

So not only are we looking for diverse teams, um you know, to reach a specific quota, there's not really a specific, I guess number that is universal to all companies. So depending on the company, um you know, there might be um I've actually seen some companies that actually have more women than men, for example. And so it's something that we need to be looking at everyone's unique experiences and what they're bringing to the table. So if we see that a specific group of people is consistently being um not included in the design workforce, we need to definitely bring in that voice. And so if someone has that experience, um then, you know, that's really important to be including them in the design process.

And so we should really be looking at it in how can individuals bring value to an organization and how can we learn from their diverse perspectives um rather than kind of looking for a specific target. Um If that makes sense. Um So actually what sparked my interest in this field was um I throughout my undergraduate um in engineering, uh we actually noticed uh the lack of kind of consideration in our education about the ethics of the designs that we were making. Um And so ethics is definitely a really big part of being an engineer and working in tech. And so this was something that we, we had a discussion with our deans and our professors about how we can actually make our classes more inclusive. Um and kind of make people think about why we need to be incorporating inclusive designs. And so we actually presented this to our faculty and we were able to implement uh kind of some of these ideas into our course curriculum, which was really exciting. Um But yeah, I actually first attended a workshop from the Engineering Change Lab, as I mentioned in my presentation um in the fall of 2018 in Toronto at Ryerson University. And um they were really excellent in kind of hitting home the point of why we need to be as engineers and designers. Um why we need to be considering diverse perspectives and how this can actually be dangerous if we aren't.

And so that really was the first time that I started thinking about this. Um But outside of that, it's just become something that's been really important to me, especially with those personal experiences of having technologies that sometimes don't um don't work for me. Like facial recognition or voice recognition often doesn't work with um higher pitched or female voices. Yeah. Um How in a team can we think of people or groups that we may be missing, that's a really great question as well. Um I think that it's just really important to be continually addressing and looking at your design kind of from an outsider perspective. So instead of, you know, running the same test and, you know, using the same outcomes every single time when we're quantifying how successful our design is, we really need to be consulting with different stakeholders, consult with the communities around you have a really diverse test group that isn't necessarily people who have worked on the product and the design.

We really need to make sure that we are um you know, incorporating voices that have a lot of different perspectives than us. And sometimes it might seem like it's introducing almost, you know, disagreements, but it's, that's not at all what it is, we want to be having these different ideas. And if it ends up seeming like it's a disagreement, then ultimately, there's probably not enough inclusiveness in that design in the first place. And so we really need to be looking at that um from a really critical lens because this is something that's extremely important. And so I think that's the end of the session. Um But once again, thank you all for your wonderful questions and um for your participation in this session. And I would be happy to continue these conversations on Twitter linkedin um or via email. Thank you so much and have a great afternoon or evening or morning depending on where you are?