Allyship Workshop: A Human

The presentation discusses a human-centered approach to allyship and DEI in tech/STEM, focusing on challenging questions about how individuals show up in a given environment or situation.

• Introduction and accessibility information
• Land acknowledgement
• Introductions and positionalities
• Defining disability and highlighting diversity among disabilities
• Models of disability and ableism
• Intersectionality and tools for being a better ally
• Resources for further learning

The presenters emphasized the importance of having open conversations with disabled individuals about their experiences, but also cautioned against asking intrusive questions. They suggested framing the conversation as an opportunity to learn more about disability, while leaving the decision to participate in the conversation up to the disabled individual.

Conversations around DEI and allyship have come into focus in many areas of tech/STEM, especially in the past several years. From this heightened level of awareness have sprung common paradigms for thinking about and addressing how one might best show up in support of historically excluded groups, oftentimes focused on prescriptive or performative allyship behaviors.In this talk, we intend to flip the script. Instead of focusing on the “correct behaviors” and “right responses” when demonstrating allyship, we’ll be taking a look at a human-centered approach on those we are intending to support while asking challenging questions about how we each show up in a given environment or situation.Thank you to our sponsor, Google Cloud!