Nothing for Us, Without Us; Breaking Unconscious Bias in Building Products with Victor Ogunjobi

Are we really building products that serve everyone, or just a selected few? As developers, we have responsibility to ensure that our products serve everyone, regardless of their background or identity. However, our unconscious bias often creeps into even the most well-intentioned projects and impacts the way we develop products or engage with communities, leading to unintentional exclusions. When I first designed a Speech-Text-Analytic app, my focus was to simplify business communication with transcribed audio and valuable insights. However, feedback from the community highlighted it had limitations for diverse users, including those with disabilities who faced inaccurate captions for audio content. This wake-up call prompted me to improve accessibility and user-friendliness for marginalized groups. And for the same reason, I'm making proactive steps to cater for the marginalized by integrating a feature that recognizes Nigerian native languages. As tech creators, we have the power to create change, but good intentions alone are not enough. This talk will offer strategies to address unconscious bias in product and community building, while avoiding common pitfalls. Attendees will learn to understand diverse needs & experiences for more inclusive environments. This talk was presented at: https://2023.djangocon.us/talks/nothi... LINKS: Follow Victor Ogunjobi 👇 On Twitter: / chemicopy_ Follow DjangCon US 👇 https://fosstodon.org/@djangocon / djangocon Follow DEFNA 👇 https://www.defna.org/ Video production by Confreaks Follow Confreaks 👇 https://confreaks.com https://x.com/confreaks