, and she wanted to meet me. I rolled up to a table as she slowly ambled over in a way that reminded me of how I used to move. She had recently been diagnosed with ALS. Over lunch, we talked about the difficulties of getting help with personal care and about the subtleties of discrimination. \u201cPeople don\u2019t make fun of us anymore,\u201d I said. She smiled and replied, \u201cThey just ignore us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nOver the years, I and other disabled employees at Google have aspired to be the change we wish to see in the world, especially the tech world. I\u2019ve been heartened by how much allies want to do the right thing, even when it means putting in real work, questioning what they thought was true, or recognizing their own privileges. I\u2019ve encouraged people at all levels of the company to improve Disability inclusion, and when they listen and act, I can feel us pulling the future toward us.<\/span><\/p>\nAfter my community\u2019s activism, Google now has more roles across the company dedicated to making Google\u2019s systems and services Disability-inclusive. We\u2019ve come so far since the days when Google first approved personal care services as an accommodation after a VP was moved by listening to Ada and me at his lunch & learn. It shouldn\u2019t be revolutionary for someone to be able to use the bathroom when they need to, but for us, the personal care program was a critical milestone. Employees with low mobility who came after us said they could not thank us enough for making the program happen.<\/span><\/p>\nMost companies are not founded by people who are disabled (let alone who consider themselves Disabled and proud). Therefore, anyone like me who enters these worlds as an employee enters them as an outsider. This is simply the truth. But what doesn\u2019t have to be true is the notion that disabled people must fight for access. The people making decisions about a company\u2019s products, policies, and practices can decide to actually include disabled people, or they can decide to ignore us.<\/span><\/p>\n