“It’s rare that we find systems that are fully accessible. Johnson wholeheartedly agrees, as does McCall. If technology can help that create jobs, I think that’s a wonderful thing.” Everyone should be on the same playing field and feel equal.

We need to know where people are coming from, and it’s been a bit of a missing link in contact centers and customer service. “I think the root is we need more empathy. “My hope is that we co-develop technology that really does democratize and equalizes people around the world,” Bates said of his company’s work with Lighthouse Works. Both men believe technology is extremely powerful in giving disabled people like McCall access to flourish in the world. In terms of potential, Bates emphatically asserted that McCall is “nowhere near the top rung of her ladder” and will “change a lot of people’s lives and the work that she does, whether with us or anywhere.”Īs to the future, both Bates and Johnson shared optimism about the work they’re doing together. “I love talking about ,” she said.īates sung McCall’s praises, saying she has incredible abilities and her perspective as a blind person has proven invaluable to the organization. McCall said she likes to “surprise people” with her disability, telling me she wants to “show people, despite your disability, you’re given a fair playing field-which would be accessibility-you can go as high as you want.” She appreciates the technology Genesys and Lighthouse Works have created together because, essentially, she can perform all the same tasks a sighted person can do, and communicate with customers from the call center without them necessarily being aware of her condition. In an interview concurrent to Bates and Johnson’s, she told me she first linked with Lighthouse Works in 2016 as she was coping with the loss of her vision and contemplating how to best move forward. McCall, who works at Lighthouse Works, lost her eyesight at age 39. Lighthouse Works, he told me, strives to “level the playing field” for Blind and low vision people in terms of living and earning.įor Sophia McCall, the partnership has led to her to prosper. In many ways, accessibility is the conduit through which the ultimate user experience is created.įor his part, Johnson explained Lighthouse’s mission as providing rehabilitation and educational training to individuals who are Blind and low vision. More pointedly, Bates shared his enthusiasm for the impact Genesys and its tech stack has on enabling those in the disability community to thrive and meaningfully contribute to society.

In the cloud computing sector, where efficiency and effectiveness is paramount, Bates said technology is the differentiating factor in making everything work. At the root of the company’s work, he said, is creating “incredible, personalized customer experiences through digital channels.” With regards to accessibility, Bates told me “nothing is more important” than having empathy for disabled people and providing them tools with which to succeed at their employment.īates called Lighthouse Works “an incredible partner” to Genesys, saying he felt very fortunate Lighthouse CEO Kyle Johnson took the time to speak to the Genesys leadership team.

In an interview with me prior to the announcement, conducted in mid-May, Genesys CEO Tony Bates explained his company supports over 7,000 customers of all shapes and sizes. If given proper support and access to opportunities, both Genesys and the Lighthouse strongly believe Blind and low vision people can be tremendous assets to the workforce, with Genesys saying they are “well-suited to provide superior customer experiences in the contact center.” In the announcement, Genesys noted its work with the Lighthouse came to be as a result of “glaring lack of progress to support this talent-rich population that faces a disproportionate rate of unemployment.” Genesys added studies have shown people in the Blind and low vision community “face significant challenges finding a job,” with the unemployment rate standing at a staggering 70%. The end result is a piece of software which “delivers audio cues to agents in real-time equips those with blindness or vision loss with the tools needed for careers within a contact center.”

The Lighthouse Works development team built a user interface using a custom API that integrates with the aforementioned Cloud CX system. The collaboration involves utilizing Genesys’ Cloud CX platform and its proprietary API to give those who are Blind and low vision more opportunity for career advancement, most notably in customer service centers.

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