Building Capacity in Industry: Recruiting and Retaining Employees with Disabilities was held in Seattle, WA on June 15-17, 2016. Its purpose was to encourage efforts to make industry careers more welcoming and accessible to individuals with disabilities. Attendees included computing students and professionals with disabilities, computing employers, disability experts, and professional organization representatives.
As is typical of a CBI,
- all participants contributed to its success;
- speakers participated in group discussions;
- experts in all topic areas were in the audience; and
- participants gave presentations and participated in large and small group discussions.
- some predetermined professional development was presented, new content was delivered as the meeting unfolded, and participant interests were expressed and expertise was made known.
The CBI provided a forum for discussing recruitment and access challenges, sharing expertise and successful practices, developing collaborations, creating resources, and identifying systemic change initiatives relevant to the meeting’s goals.
Topics discussed include
- the experiences of computing students and professionals with disabilities,
- activities designed to recruit and retain employees with disabilities, and
- best practices for making companies welcoming and accessible to students with disabilities.
The agenda for the CBI and summaries of the presentations, panels, and working group discussions are provided on the following pages.