Risk Free Assessment
Post by John Samuel
“It’s the first time I’ve felt part of a team.” How students with and without visual impairments will come together this summer for hands-on work experiences.
John Samuel
What happens when you meet the right people at the right time? You create a powerful partnership for the community’s benefit! This summer, Ablr and District C are joining forces to introduce Teamship, a reimagined internship experience for students, as part of the inaugural Ablr Futures program! Here’s how this exciting collaboration came to be.
Since Ablr’s inception, back when we were known as LCI Tech, we’ve had loyal partners who have stuck by us through the ups and downs of the business – none more notable than District C.
I first met Dan Gonzalez and Anne Jones (Cofounders of District C) at the Innovate Raleigh Summit in 2018, an annual event that gathers a diverse group of energetic entrepreneurs, dynamic business leaders, and engaged citizens from across the region. Dan and Anne launched District C a year earlier and were facilitating one of the breakout sessions at this event. I, on the other hand, had just launched LCI Tech a few months earlier and was trying to learn more about the tech startup scene here in the Triangle Area.
I had just started using a white cane, and the Innovate Raleigh Summitt was the first networking event in Raleigh where I brought out my cane. Despite now having assistive technology that enabled me to navigate the Raleigh Convention Center with a bit more ease, I found myself in an inaccessible situation when I was randomly selected to attend Dan and Anne’s breakout session.
As I stood in front of a round table covered with giant sheets of white butcher paper, I felt like a fish out of water. Luckily, the person standing next to me was Jessica Mitsch Homes, the Founder of Momentum Learn, a Durham-based coding bootcamp. She noticed my white cane and asked if I needed any assistance in participating in the activity. This simple act of kindness enabled me to take part in the word association activity, and it eventually led to a friendship that I cherish to this day!
Dan and Anne then took notice of how this activity wasn’t accessible for people who were blind and were so apologetic. Honestly, I didn’t think much of it – I thought that they would feel bad in the moment, and that would be the end of it. So, when I saw Dan and Anne at another event a few months later, and they saw that I was participating, they immediately implemented accommodations to ensure that I wouldn’t have to rely on a random act of kindness from a stranger to take part in the activity!
My experience engaging with Dan and Anne is a perfect example of how proximity builds empathy. They understood what I needed to be successful and were intentional about making sure that I was.
While it was Dan and Anne’s intention to be more accessible and inclusive that initially brought me to District C, it was their Teamship program that really hooked me in!
District C’s Teamship is an innovative internship model where teams of students tackle real business problems to equip them for the modern workforce. The program helps to prepare students to meet the needs of employers who are seeking talent adept at solving complex issues collaboratively. Unlike traditional internships, Teamship ensures equitable access through schools and focuses on meaningful, team-based problem solving. During this program, students receive guidance from trained educators and work in diverse teams to address urgent challenges for real businesses. The process involves building team dynamics, understanding the business problem, developing solutions, and pitching their proposals to business partners and community stakeholders during live workshops.
The reason the Teamship model resonated with me was because it reminded me of the group work that I loved so much in business school! It was also a way that I could gather fresh ideas to help us grow our fledgling startup.
The first Teamship I took part in was with students from the North Carolina School for Science and Math, and the problem we were facing was identifying a new line of business that Ablr should expand into, outside of digital accessibility. The students understood that our goal and mission was to create upward mobility for people who are blind or low vision in tech related fields, and after going through the 2-week long Teamship program, their recommendation was to offer a “Coding Bootcamp.”
I loved the idea, but more importantly, it got me thinking. Over the next several months, I spent a lot of time thinking about how we could bring a bootcamp-style program to life. Though I still had a lot of questions and unknowns, the seed had been planted!
Almost 6-months later, after our first Teamship experience, the world had been flipped upside down because of the Pandemic. As we all started to figure out how to work from home and find some personal normalcy, Dan and Anne were thinking about how they could continue to support students and help them navigate the new virtual world we were living in. So, when they reached out to ask if I would take part in another Teamship, this time working with students from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill on a multi-month program, I was ecstatic!
Despite my keen interest in launching a bootcamp-style program, I had parked the idea, since I didn’t have the bandwidth to give it the attention that it deserved to make it successful.
So, for two months in the summer of 2020, we put our trust and support into four students from UNC who worked diligently on solving the problem of building out a business plan for what would eventually become Ablr Works, our workforce development program.
Just like the high school students from NC School of Science and Math, the UNC students didn’t disappoint! Not only did we get a business plan and actionable steps to bring a workforce development program to life, but it was after this experience that I truly understood and believed why 88% of District C’s business partners say they are more likely to consider a student for employment if that student has done Teamship. It was then that I realized that we needed to get students who are blind to take part in the Teamship, especially if we wanted to change the mindsets of employers and see upward mobility for people with disabilities.
Given Dan and Anne’s commitment to creating an accessible and inclusive experience for me, I knew they would be all in on getting students with visual impairments involved in the Teamship. Despite many Ablr team members being blind, we didn’t have the experience working with students with visual impairments, so we decided to start small with a Pilot. The Pilot ran for two weeks, and we recruited seven students, three of which identified with a visual impairment, and four who didn’t. For the students who didn’t identify with a visual impairment, this was the first time that they were engaging with someone who was blind and using assistive technology. As for the visually impaired students, this was also one of the first times that they had to advocate for themselves, because at school, they had specific Visually Impaired Teachers who advocated on their behalf for the accommodations they needed.
This time, I watched from the sidelines, which was much different than being a business partner, and I could see in real time how the students were growing and becoming more confident. This was true for all the students, but the visually impaired students especially. They were speaking up, contributing, and their voices were being heard! They were part of a team.
Participating in team sports and activities is something I took for granted. When I was a kid, I could still see and take part in school or recreational sports. However, what I didn’t realize before the Teamship is that many blind or visually impaired students didn’t have that same opportunity or experience, so this was one of the first times that they got to be part of a team.
By the end of the Pilot Teamship program, we knew that it was a success and something we needed to build on.
We are now excited to introduce Ablr Futures, a new program that we have launched to prepare students for the future of work. We do this through exposing them to workforce trends, building their personal brands, and providing them with hands on experience through Teamship!
Offering the Teamship as the cornerstone of our Ablr Futures program makes me extremely happy and proud because I know that our students will gain valuable skills through this experience and that they can carry with them throughout their careers. We will also expose business partners to the capabilities of our students, and not their perceived disabilities. It’s through this changing of mindsets that we will create a more inclusive workforce and see true upward mobility for people with disabilities!
My appreciation for District C extends beyond my friendship with Dan and Anne, and through my experience I’ve come to learn that the impact of Teamship is not limited to only a couple of people, but rather a community, and I’m so happy to be part of it!
Learn more and apply for the Ablr Works Futures Program! Be sure to apply before June 10th to join the Teamship program!