Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Collaboration Simplified,
our podcast series. And today I have a very special
guest, Sue Venso from Microsoft, who is also
a co -pilot solutions engineer. And Sue, why
don't you just introduce yourself and let everyone
know who you are, where you are, what do you
do at Microsoft, and we'll go from there. Sure.
I'm just so excited to be here. I'm usually a
listener, so I feel like I'm a first -time caller
and a first -time attendee here. Thanks for having
me, Shervin. My name is Susan Vensel. Everyone
calls me Sue. And I've been here at Microsoft.
This month, 20 days, will be my fifth anniversary.
So time has really flown by. And like you, I
came here from Cisco. For me, it was over 19
years. I was there a long time. And when I showed
up here at Microsoft, I started off at SPS. And
every year, Shervin, you know, there's a change
for us. And now for this fiscal year, we are
really dedicated to co -pilot, Microsoft M365
co -pilot. So I live, eat, and breathe Copilot
and AI and all that exciting stuff that's going
on. And then, of course, here at Microsoft, we
pick up a couple side projects. And, you know,
we always go, we have extracurricular activities
here at Microsoft. You know, they stretch us
all the time. So I know that we're going to talk
about accessibility. And that's when I got involved
with accessibility was here at Microsoft. That's
great. You're right. They do stretch us. One
of the mantras here is growth mindset, which
I think every company obviously has it, especially
in tech, because things are always changing and
you have to have that type of a mindset. So whether
it's Microsoft or our time at Cisco, which I
didn't remember that you were there 19 years.
I joined Cisco in 2005. So I was there like 15,
16 years before. coming to Microsoft in 2020.
Yeah, that was a good run. We had a good run
there. Oh, the early 2000s especially. Oh, gosh.
Yeah. That was fun, for sure. Yeah, that was
super fun. And now, you know, it's funny because
I tell people I've actually been doing a very
similar role, and I just generally call it technical
sales as the umbrella term. And under that umbrella
term, I've had so many different titles, right?
A lot of them at Cisco, like systems engineer,
solutions engineer, consulting systems engineer,
technical solutions architect, technical specialist.
And I'm like, I don't care what you call me,
but they're all just technical sales. That's
right. I agree. And so you've been doing this
a while too, or have you had actually legit different
roles? Yeah, I would say I've been in technical
sales since 2000. I started working for Cisco.
I would actually sprint. And then I was working
for a Cisco partner. And then from there, I went
to Cisco and then here. So, yeah, and I love
it. I studied hotel resort management. I had
no idea this is where I was going to end up,
but I love it. That's great. And, you know, I
always find it so interesting, like the career
paths that people have into this line of work.
And so you said hotel resort management. And
the other day I met somebody who studied biology
and is like doing some really great coding in
VS Code and Copilot Studio. And I was like, man,
like biology to this or hotel resort management
to this. Like, that's awesome. That just shows
how smart you are. I don't know about that, Shervin,
but thanks. Yeah. No, that's awesome. And the
other thing on the career side, real quick, is
the other part that I tell people is like, yeah,
my job itself hasn't changed that much, but the
technology has changed a tremendous amount, you
know? Yes. And so talking about that, the technology
side, you know, and you mentioned both you and
I are focused on Copilot. But before we even
dive into that, Let's talk about that extracurricular
activity you mentioned, which is accessibility
and kind of like how you got into it and what
are some of the things that you do around it
with people and projects and tools. So maybe
just expand on that. Sure. When I first arrived,
one of my required trainings was the accessibility
in action, and it was a badge. And it was just
one of those courses, you know, most people will
probably hit next, next, next, whatever, you
know. check that box. But it changed me. And
the culture, I just, I spent the first six months
here just soaking up the culture here at Microsoft,
because it's also not just the growth mindset,
but it's also the learn it all attitude that
people have here. And so one of the things that
I really jumped on after taking that required
training was accessibility, because I didn't
mention this, but I'm in health life sciences.
So when it comes to accessibility, I used to
use the term accommodations. Well, I'll talk
about that later. But when it comes to like kind
of making sure everyone has the opportunity to
make a difference, you know, because someone
can't type or because they have low vision, shouldn't.
They shouldn't be held back because of that.
And technology has evolved so much to to not
only level the playing field, but like Microsoft
has tapped in to unbelievable talent, especially
in the coding world, especially on our Xbox side.
You know, people that just really weren't able
to to to. do the jobs the way other people are
able to do their jobs. But now with technology,
they are able to do that. And I'll give you some
of these examples here in a bit. But I saw this
community, you know, we had these connected,
we still do, they're connected communities. They're
a smaller version of what we used to call the
employee resource groups. We changed the name
of that too. Can't remember what it is, but it's
a smaller group. It's about a thousand people.
And I was asked to present. accessibility to
a customer. So again, HLS. So our entire patch
cares about accessibility. You know, if it's
not for their own employees, it's because their
patients, their clients, their customers, you
know, they want to be able to reach them as well.
So it's a hot topic in HLS. And then the second
fiscal year I was here, I was asked to be a leader
of that community. And we're evangelists. That's
what we do. So we get the word out about some
of the latest features, what's going on, what's
happening. And we're also a vessel for feedback.
The product group, you know, each of our product
groups have people just for accessibility. Satya,
a long time ago, worded it so well. Accessibility
isn't something, it's not an add -on. It's not
a bolt -on. You know, it's thought about from
the very beginning. And that's why some of the
features I'll talk about later, they're just
embedded everywhere. And then the other thing
I'll tell you, too, is that I discovered some
of these tools made life -changing difference
for me. And I never thought of myself as disabled,
you know, but... And that's why I mean, like,
there's so many different ways. There's also
short term and long term. You know, the person
that broke their arm, well, they're going to
need a little extra help. You know, that type
of thing. So there's also temporary situations,
not just permanent situations. For me, it's my
learning disability. And my big aha moment, and
there are a couple others, was it's called the
immersive reader. Have you ever had to use that?
No, I haven't, but I've heard about it, but I
haven't actually personally used it. So what's
special about it is that, for example, in an
edge, let's say you're looking at a PDF, you
can right click anywhere on that page and you'll
see an option for read aloud. And once you click
it at the top bar, you'll see that there are
actually some options that you can select. And
my issue has to do with reading the same line
over and over. Like I'll read a line five times
and still not know what I read. It's frustrating.
So it slows me down a lot. What happens with
the MRSA reader is I'm able to hear it and I
have it highlight one line at a time. So it isolates
that line one at a time. So I'm able to hear
it. I'm able to see it. I'm able to focus on
it. And I can adjust the speed because it doesn't
have to be slow. It's just an attention issue
for me. And, you know, I had a huge learning
curve. So it changed my life. And then I started
realizing all these other little features that
have made great things possible for many people.
That's awesome. Yeah, no, thanks for telling
me about that because that happens to me too,
you know, when I'm reading something and maybe
I'm not paying attention after reading it a few
times. And to know that there are tools like
that, sometimes, like you said, being the evangelist
and just kind of letting people know and maybe
someone's listening to this and they're thinking,
oh, I should definitely check that out. And I
think on the accessibility side. People don't
really think about it until it happens to them.
And it's great that Microsoft and companies are
creating these types of tools and technologies.
That's excellent. I think one thing that happens
to everybody, as long as you're a human being,
you know, unless you're some weird mutation,
probably as you get older, your eyesight is going
to recede a little bit. So it's going to be harder
to see up close. You know, that's why most people
are holding menus like three feet back and trying
to look at the menu. Right. So I think even just
on that side of it, I know that. You can increase
the font size on your mobile device or on your
laptop. And so there's all these different things.
And there's a whole accessibility menu that I
use on my iPhone that you can, you know, change
parameters. But it's also good to know that on
the Microsoft tool side, there are some of them
as well. So with that, I mean, what are some
of the kind of the interesting ones that come
to your mind when you talk to your customers?
I'm so pumped up right now. Yeah. All these different
things that we have are coming to my mind all
at once. When you mentioned mobile, Microsoft
makes an app called Seeing AI. Have you ever
heard of that? No, I haven't. Oh, my gosh. It's
incredible. First of all, it's free. Okay. And
this app is for low vision or no vision people.
And it will allow you to do a lot of different
things. I can put my camera like if someone's
showing me a picture, like a physical picture,
I can put my camera on it and it will tell me
what we're looking at. You know, like a young
boy with blonde hair holding a baseball glove
at home base up to bat, you know, that kind of
thing. But let's say I had your picture in my
phone, you know, like. your contact info with
your picture. And if I showed a picture with
you in it, it would tell me it was Shervin. And
it will read you a menu out loud. So if you're
at a restaurant, it gives people so much independence.
There was this one story that hit so hard. This
lady, she was no vision. She was blind. And she
was using seeing AI. She got to read. And I mean,
a little personal, but just to give you an idea
of the impact, she got to read by herself her
pregnancy test. Like she didn't have to go to
someone else to find out if she was pregnant
or not. She was able to use seeing AI to do that.
So it's like giving people their independence
to me is you just can't put a dollar on that.
Exactly. And that part, like independence and,
you know, I'm seeing that firsthand now with.
parents that are getting older and you're kind
of like oh wow like you see how everyone obviously
you always want to keep your independence as
much as possible your freedom being able to drive
being able to make decisions and and i think
to your point like these accessibility tools
for different reasons whether you're born with
something or it happens to you at some point
in time it's nice to know that tools like this
exist. So the Seeing AI, I hadn't heard about
that. So I'll definitely check that out. And
again, maybe people, yeah, that's awesome. Maybe
people would be interested in that if they need
that type of help or assistance. Here's the thing
though, Shervin, it's also if you create, let's
say you have no issues at all, but you create
content that is shared with others, one in 12
men are colorblind. Oh, wow. So the chances that
you are sharing content that you created that
is not accessible for someone is extremely high
and it happens all the time. So there are features
that we all should care about. For example, the
accessibility checker, it's built into all our
M365 apps and it's huge and it's amazing and
sad. the number of largely distributed content
that's distributed across the board where it's
not accessible. And it could be because there
isn't enough color contrast. You know, like the
background is yellow and the words are white,
for example. But if you run the accessibility
checker, It checks for things for people with
low vision or no vision, but it also checks for
things like, hey, is your slide in the right
reading order for a screen reader? So that would
be someone that needs, you know, they have a
utility, a tool that actually reads the screen
for them. Well, if it starts reading the slide
from the bottom up, it's not going to make any
sense. So we all need to care because more than
likely there's someone that's looking at our
content that might not be able to get full advantage
of it if we don't. Exactly. Yeah. And these tools
have improved quite a bit. I know with that accessibility
checker, especially in PowerPoint, I came across
that when I was putting some content together
for a large audience and it was a requirement
to make sure that. you know, gives you that green
checkbox that you're good to go. And, um, but
I think to your point, the other part of it is
like, even when you're not required because I
was required for this event, but on your own,
you should have that consideration that to your
point, like maybe one in 12 men is colorblind
or someone's going to be able to benefit from
this in your audience. Right. So it's always
good to, um, take those, those actions and make
sure that. Because, you know, normally I would
never think about what you mentioned about the
color contrast or other factors that this tool
takes into account. Yep. Yeah. And, you know,
we're in technical sales, so we're in sales.
And the last thing I want is that one decision
maker. to not understand or be able to benefit
from that one slide that could push them over
the edge to that yes that I'm always looking
for. You know what I mean? I do. And, you know,
what's interesting is because we were both at
Cisco, I remember our initial CEO at the time,
which is John Chambers, he would come up on stage
and once in a while he would say that he had
a learning disability when he was younger as
well. That he was able to overcome. And I don't
know if you remember, but I think maybe it was
dyslexia. I think you're right. Yeah. And he
would talk about this publicly. And so people
don't think that other people... that are in
high up positions, like the CEO of this 80 ,000
employee company, maybe had a learning disability
that he was able to overcome that how he overcame
it, whether it was technology or tools or just,
you know, perseverance or whatever. But I don't
know the details, but now more than ever, there's
technology to be able to help. Yeah. And the
improvements, our last accessibility connected,
which is an internal Microsoft. just so that
folks know. The last meeting we had in February,
we had folks from the PG on and just showed us
some amazing improvements with reading order,
for example, in Word. So reading a screen reader
and a table, not good, not good at all. They
made great improvements so that It can actually
read through a table exactly the way it's supposed
to read through the table. So it can make more
sense, for example. They made big improvements
there. Voice access. Oh, Shervin. Let me tell
you about voice access. I guess it's been around
two years, maybe three. And when I first saw
that in use, I cried. It it allows a paraplegic,
you know, someone that can't even move a mouse
or touch a key on a keyboard. It allows them
to control their entire screen just by saying
numbers and using their voice. It's incredible.
And the improvements they made to it. I'm going
to share with you all the links if you want to
share it, if you're able to share it in the description.
Yeah. But they've added. So Windows H, let's
say you broke your arm and you still need to
send out email. You still need to write stuff,
create stuff. Windows H is your friend and you
can use your voice to turn it on and you can
just start dictating and it will start writing.
And, you know, we have filler words. I probably
have already said a hundred of them just in the
last few minutes. But if I'm dictating and I'm
telling my email. Saying my email, what I want
it to say, and let's say I have a few ums and
uhs in there, it will actually remove my filler
words now. Okay. So it's really impressive. That
is great. Yeah, definitely. Those links would
be awesome. I will include them in the podcast
description so people can check them out. On
the AI side, you mentioned one of the tools that
looks at images and describes them. Are there
any other tools that kind of come to mind on
the copilot side that are either squirrelly in
accessibility or like kind of on the fringes
of it or anything that you can think of there?
Well, one of the things that we talk a lot about
is for, especially in my realm, learning disability,
ADHD, is being able to use copilot. because obviously
that's all I use is Copilot. And I think everyone
should buy a Copilot license. But it allows me,
sometimes someone like me sits and spins their
wheels for a really long time looking at a blank
canvas of some kind, whether it's a Word doc
or whatever. But being able to use Copilot to
get to that starting point so that you can just
kick it and run, that is giant. Being able to...
I consider, this is debatable, okay? I consider
the ability to translate an accessibility feature.
Okay, yeah. So being able to create a document
in multiple different languages easily, I consider
that accessibility as well. Yeah, I do too. Makes
sense. Those are just a few of the examples,
but, you know, AI is everywhere. Yeah, AI is
everywhere. And on this accessibility side, those
are great examples, especially the language one.
I mean, you know, maybe we think the world revolves
around this side here, the US, but there are
only like a couple of hundred other countries
that are out there and many, many different languages.
So it's nice to be able to translate so other
people can listen and learn as well. And we know
we have the Ability Summit coming up in May.
So the Ability Summit, I have a special place
in my heart. This is a Microsoft thing. Microsoft
does this every year. I don't even know how long
Microsoft's been doing it. But this is where
we nominate awards. Some of the nominees from
last year were mind -blowing. There was this
one guy that actually, there was a language that
was about ready to like... be gone up in Alaska
and was able to use AI to capture and save that
language so that we can continue to translate
documents in that language and things like that.
I wish I could remember the name of the tribe.
There were just so many different people that
get recognized and the best speakers, all in
accessibility. I saw this one person present.
She actually had a little video. I didn't know
this, but apparently when people have to travel
with wheelchairs, they get damaged all the time.
Think about that. You get to your destination,
right? And your chair won't work. How are you
going to get around? It happens all the time.
So I learned that through attending the Ability
Summit. So that's coming up in May. So I just
want to put a plug out there for that. That's
great. Where is that, by the way? Yeah, where
is that? So the Ability Summit, it's a virtual
and in -person event. It happens out in Seattle.
I'll make sure I include a link to the Ability
Summit. I want to say May 7th or May 17th, but
we always start to get really excited about it
around now. That's awesome. By the way, like...
As we kind of get closer to wrapping this up,
this has been awesome, by the way. I've learned
so much and I hope that people have been picking
up some nuggets here as well. And again, these
will all be in the descriptions too. But whether
it's Microsoft or not Microsoft or whether it's
software or whether it's hardware, what are like
just a few different technologies or tools around
accessibility that come to your mind that you're
like? this thing was a game changer you already
mentioned a few but i'm wondering if other ones
kind of come like for me personally or for other
people yeah or things that have kind of moved
the needle it can be personal but it can also
be things that you've seen that have been game
changers for people well at this point i would
say one of the one of the big ones is is fairly
recent, would be the screen reader capabilities.
We have a screen reader built into Windows, by
the way. Windows has a ton of accessibility features
built into it. In fact, we also made easy access
to it. So in your bottom right -hand corner in
your Windows, if you just do a click in there,
you can... Actually, let me try to get to it.
You can quickly get to your accessibility features
that way now. It says where it says airplane
mode, accessibility, VPN. That's where you get
to your accessibility features. And some of the
ones in there, you have quick ways to turn it
on or off. For example, you can turn narrator
on or off quickly, color filters. So if you're
colorblind, on or off quickly, live captions.
That's a big one, especially for people. We were
talking and that uses AI. We were talking earlier
about different languages, being able to turn
on live captions and select my language. Huge.
So you might be speaking in your preferred language,
but I'm reading it in my preferred language.
Another one that I do consider accessibility
is the interpreter agent. Unbelievable how that
works. From a team's meeting, I go up in the
menu where it says more. I go under language
and speech. I turn on as long as you have a copilot
license, which, by the way, we're happy to sell
to you. I haven't mentioned that yet. You turn
that on and like serving, you could be speaking
Spanish and I could speak English, but I have
it set to English. I will hear your voice speaking
to me in English. Wow. That's awesome. And that's
all AI. AI makes all that possible. Yeah. And
actually, I don't know how long ago it was, maybe
six months ago, myself and two other Microsoft
people, we did a video on this one, on the interpreter,
the live interpreter. And in the video, we just
kind of like got on a call and we, you know,
one of them, I think it was Jerome Bernier, one
of our Microsoft guys, he was speaking French.
And I was listening to it in English and I was
speaking English. He was listening to it in French.
And, you know, that I call that kind of like
the United Nations interpreter, you know, because
you would have to pay people to do this for you
on calls. And now AI is doing it for you real
time, which is pretty awesome. And you could
adjust the volume, you know, because maybe you
don't want to hear the original audio, but you
want to hear the, you know, what's been translated
for you. And I like the fact that, you know how,
I don't know about you, but I fight all the time.
I want to be the one that sends my customers
meeting invites. So that way I know I'll have
the meeting recap, but I don't care if I need
interpreter. I don't care who sets up the meeting
invite. As long as I have a license and it's
a team's meeting, it's going to work. I see.
Yeah. This has been great, Sue. Thank you very
much for talking to us about a very, very important
topic and something that everyone should kind
of be mindful of, because even if it doesn't
affect you and you're perfectly fine in every
way, which probably isn't true, but let's say
it is. Yeah, you know, there's perfect, there
are perfect people out there, right? So it's
nice to know that these tools exist and everything
has come a long way, whether it's AI or whether
it's not, whether it's Microsoft or not, like
everyone should be mindful of it. So this is
great. Well, thanks for having me, Sherman. I
really appreciate it. Sue, thanks again. We'll
talk to you soon.