Inclusively Telecom

We were joined by Ulrike Haltrich  a Senior Manager at Sony Europe, but who also has a chair role in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as the chair of the ETSI Human Factors Technical Committee. We discussed ETSI's work in developing standards for information and communication technologies, including accessibility, and emphasized the societal impact of these standards.

A standards and security perspective on inclusion and accessibility. We were joined by Gill Whitney who works independently with organisations like ANIC, the European consumer group. Her focus is on standards and ensuring accessibility and inclusion. Gill has previously also worked in academia and with the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) in the UK so has seen the inclusion topic f...

A city is smart only if its services, both digital and physical, are accessible to everybody. How can we achieve this goal? Chris and I spoke with Frazer McKimm , Director at New Way Networks , about how inclusivity in smart city infrastructure should not be an add-on feature, but rather be embedded in the design and deployment of services. We discussed the roles of public and private ecosystem en...

Following his success organising the London 2012 Paralympics, Chris Holmes, Member of the UK House of Lords, now uses his role in the UK House of Lords to focus on the opportunities that all of these so-called new technologies bring to the table, but, always with the golden thread of inclusion running through everything. Some surprising parallels with the broader telecoms industry come out alongsi...

Nick Hunn, a physicist with extensive experience in Bluetooth technology, discusses audio accessibility and inclusion. He highlights the shift from traditional telecoil-based hearing aids to advanced technologies that benefit everyone, not just those with hearing impairments. The new Bluetooth Auracast standard is a game-changer, enabling easy access to audio broadcasts and enhancing experiences i...

Larry Goldberg, a media and technology accessibility consultant, shares his journey from public broadcasting to consulting, focusing on accessibility and inclusion. He introduced captioning and audio description at WGBH in Boston and later worked on accessibility initiatives at Yahoo. Larry emphasizes the importance of captions and audio descriptions, noting their widespread adoption and benefits...

Chris McGinley , a Senior Research Fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design , part of the Royal College of Art a wholly post graduate art and design institute in London, joined us for this Inclusively podcast. Chris is a Senior Research Fellow. He focuses on the ageing market and diverse user needs in design, but the Centre as a whole looks more broadly at Inclusive Design. In fact, the term I...

Neil Milliken and Antonio Santos work for  Atos , the global IT Digital Transformation & IT Services Organisation. For them, accessibility and inclusion cut across all domains. Neil and Antonio are also the founders of the AXSChat podcast, which has been running for over ten years and delivers regular content looking at the many aspects of accessibility and Inclusion. Their perspective is one...

The elderly population is exploding, and so are their needs and desire to live a fulfilling and independent life and have easy and effective access to healthcare. Wi-Fi and cellular can be game-changing through sensing and home-based services. I talked to Ronnie Chang, Marketing Director Fixed and Multimedia Terminals at ZTE , about a set of applications and services that are commercially deployed...

Jane Hatton started Evenbreak to help employers to improve the recruitment of disabled people, not as a way to comply with regulation, but as an imperative to improve the quality of the workforce, and as an approach that helps everybody—enterprises, disabled people and everybody else. We deep-dived into the impact of AI in recruitment, the value of diversity in the workplace, and how telecom compa...

Frances West has a vast experience in making technology more inclusive, that started when she was at IBM. She believes that technology can be a great enabler of inclusion if we put humans—all of them, with all their differences—first from design to market. An inclusive approach will drive demand, user satisfaction and profitability. She also shared her advice for startups and established companies...

How should we make the workplace more inclusive for mentally ill and neurodiverse people? How will AI help in diagnosing, treating and helping mental illness? Will AI help disabled people to socialize or cause isolation? We explored these issues and more with Rupert Baines , Chair of the UKTIN Semiconductor Expert Working Group, who has been dealing with mentally ill and neurodiverse people workin...

We were joined on Inclusively by Mansoor Hanif , recently of Neom, previously with BT/EE and Ofcom. Mansoor is currently enjoying himself as an angel investor (for instance in Darabase ) and strategic advisor after his recent stint in the desert. He brings vast experience to the discussion about how we build more inclusive cities in the future. His ideas will make you think differently about how w...

Current Classic Audio Bluetooth connectivity to assistive hearing devices does not deliver a good quality of experience and requires too much power. Bluetooth Low Energy Audio (LE Audio) is a new technology for audio streaming over Bluetooth that allows audio devices to run longer on a charge, with increased audio quality and reduced latency. We talked to Giovanni Severini, Principal Group Program...

Salesforce has built accessibility and inclusive design into its processes, products and services and established an accessibility group at the heart of the business. Its multi-pronged approach benefits from executive buy-in and builds up from the bottom with a specialist accessibility team spreading the word throughout the organization. In this Inclusively conversation, Jacqui Tolisano  Senior Di...

Be My Eyes is a fantastic example of how human volunteers and, now, AI, leveraging the power of smart phones, can help blind people interact with the world around them. From a simple start using the phone camera to help guide someone around their home, it has now evolved into a global business helping blind people, as well as businesses serving their blind and vision impaired customers.   Chris an...

Chris Lewis and Lewis Insight, and Monica Paolini at Senza Fili, the hosts of Inclusively Telecom introduce the new podcast. They talk about the format, goals, topic and approach. You can find out more about Inclusively Telecom and the live Inclusively events at https://senzafili.com/inclusively_in_telecom/ Send us feedback, questions, and suggestions for guests and topics at inclusively@senzafili...

Diversity benefits everyone—people, businesses and customers. How can we improve gender diversity in the workplace, in our daily work practices and in our environment to benefit both women and men? In this Inclusively conversation, in collaboration with UKTIN, women and men compare their perspectives on how gender diversity plays out and how to create a work environment and career opportunities th...

Inclusivity starts at home. Being able to live independently at home is, for many of us, fundamental to our quality of life. How can technology help us live on our own more safely and give our caretakers better tools to assist us? We talked to Saibal Chakraburtty, Director of Product Management at Cognitive Systems, about how Wi-Fi sensing can do this. Wi-Fi sensing uses the Wi-Fi radio signal to...

Rachel Collins, Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Colt joined us in this Inclusively event. Rachel brings a wealth of experience and will describe how accessibility, inclusion and diversity form a key part of building the business and culture of which Colt is rightly very proud. This comes from the very top of Colt and the CEO’s very open ESG agenda. 

AI and ML are powerful tools that can improve our lives, but also can create social and economic challenges, and increase inequality. What role can they play in promoting inclusion, reducing biases, helping people with physical and mental disabilities? Or can they hinder these efforts? Is there something we need to do to ensure that AI and ML will bring a positive contribution? Our guest was Greg...

Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO at TELUS, joined us in a live conversation to explore how he sees the organization and the wider ecosystem building towards a more inclusive future both inside of the telco but also extending out to customers in Canada. We explored how technology and business model shifts bring many exciting opportunities to build a better-connected society and industries. Ibrahim shared his pe...

This year, at Inclusively, we celebrated our first International Women’s Day as we are still in our early infancy, having launched it last fall, with a wide-ranging conversation on how gender diversity is valuable in telecoms for women, men and business.  Increasing women’s participation in the workforce, especially at high levels, is more than a box to check or a quota to meet. It improves profit...

A more inclusive approach from all parts of the communications industry will bring benefits to everyone. It will open access to digital services to those formerly excluded. It will create new services. It will generate new revenue opportunities. And it will underpin the customer experience every customer expects. Chris Lewis, Lewis Insight, and Monica Paolini, Senza Fili, discuss how inclusive des...

We were honored to have Tareq Amin, CEO at Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony, as our first guest on Inclusively. Tareq shared his experience at Rakuten in creating and supporting a diverse customer base and workforce. Diversity at Rakuten is an integral part of the culture and of the success of the company, and for Tareq, both a business and personal priority. There were no slides – we had an ho...