Guests: Anastasiia Gubska (LinkedIn) | Sandeep Kanabar (LinkedIn)
Organization: CNCF (Twitter)
Show: Let’s Talk

The Linux Foundation has long been recognized as one of the most welcoming and inclusive organizations, and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) follows this ethos. The organization recently created the CNCF Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Working Group (DHHWG) to empower community members and enhance their participation in flagship events like KubeCon + CloudNativeCon.

In this episode of Let’s Talk, we spoke with two community members: Anastasiia Gubska, SRE/DevOps Engineer at BT Group and the first Deaf CNCF Ambassador, and Sandeep Kanabar, Lead Software Engineer at Gen. They discussed the challenges faced when attending tech conferences without adequate accessibility features such as captions or sign language interpreters. They also highlighted the positive steps taken by the DHHWG, including the increased involvement of deaf speakers and the creation of a dedicated DEI community hub. As the first deaf CNCF Ambassador, Anastasiia is dedicated to fostering allyship and advocating for improved accessibility across tech events.

Both speakers stress that building a truly inclusive environment requires empathy, proactive advocacy, and ongoing commitment.

Issues & Risks

• Accessibility challenges for deaf and hard of hearing individuals at tech conferences.
• Lack of captions and sign language interpreters at most conferences.
• Difficulty in networking and interacting at conferences for those who cannot hear.
• Challenges in translating sign language to spoken language due to its complexity.
• Visa complications preventing Anastasiia from attending Kubecon.

Next steps

• Setting up a dedicated DI (Diversity and Inclusion) community hub at Kubecon for marginalized communities, including the DHHWG.
• Creating more content in sign language to be stored in cloud native resources. (Anastasiia)
• Pairing deaf speakers with hearing speakers for presentations at future events. (Sandeep)
• Refactoring the best practices document to make it more user-friendly and accessible. (DHHWG)

Questions discussed

• What is DHHWG, and why does the community need one?
• What were CNCF and organizations doing to make events more accessible?
• What kind of progress is being made by companies to enable deaf and hard of hearing individuals to interact more easily?
• What is the value of having diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in enriching companies and communities?
• What advice do you have for people with disabilities who want to participate but feel hesitant?