Alexa & Accessibility Event

Image Description: Kae and Mara pose together in front of an Amazon-branded backdrop.

Image Description: Joel Dembe and Kae pose together in front of an Amazon-branded backdrop.

Image Description: An image of a woman doing a live demo of Amazon’s products on stage.

I recently had the pleasure of attending Amazon Canada’s first-ever Alexa & Accessibility Event and it made me happy to witness not only a company trying to build an inclusive world but to also be in a room full of people with disabilities and hear their stories. It felt empowering to share space together because for once, we weren’t an afterthought; this was an event made with us in mind. 

New assistive technology aside, I was pleasantly surprised to bump into Mara (@atemara on Instagram), a disability advocate I had only known and resonated with online and yet here we are in this moment together. Our chance meeting validates our hard work in ensuring our disabled community is seen and represented. I’m proud of us and our community but this is only the beginning—we’re no longer taking a backseat.

Listen to disabled voices. Follow disabled content creators. Hire people with disabilities. Designing for disability first is designing for all.

Thanks for having us, Amazon! 💙

---