Genevieve McLachlan
Advantech
Genevieve McLachlan has been flexing her expertise and entrepreneurial vision in the accessibility sector for a number of years now, most recently as a senior consultant within Adaptive Technology Solutions Ltd—a company which she built from the ground up after seeing gaps in the distribution-chain of assistive technologies which, far from solving problems, were creating new ones.
SHIFT TO POSSIBILITY
Through her experience as both assessor and distributor of assistive technologies, McLachlan has the unique vantage and industry knowledge to grasp the links in the chain that are either weak or nonexistent. Basically, her drive now is towards developing a service which not only takes into consideration the uniqueness of a person’s access challenges—as opposed to a cut-and-dried criterion that neglects those with more nuanced needs—but also aligns those needs with a more efficient distribution of the appropriate technology. Beyond this, even when people are afforded the right gear McLachlan observed a lack in trouble-shooting services for a whole range of practical problems with the technology itself. Like any technology, certain assists will occasionally encounter issues for which ‘standard’ software has an abundance of help-services. The discrepancy in availability for such help between standard and access issues is significant, to say the least. McLachlan’s hopes then are that Adaptive Technology Solutions Ltd. will enclose all of these issues, combining a one-stop consultancy that can more attentively bridge this gap between client and distributor.
MCLACHLAN AND THE GCOP
Though assistive organisations do exist for those with overt access needs, many of these—perhaps from proverbial funding issues—have exclusionary criteria for who is eligible for aid. Too often this results in unnecessary cleavages in terms of who will and won’t receive the assistive technologies they require. Rather than being a stark ‘black and white’ metric, both McLachlan and the GCOP grasp that access needs are a spectrum which a significant percentage of the population will find themselves entering once or more over the course of their lives. Knowing this, available supports should be more attentive and better equipped to divvy out appropriate assists—because to not do so is to squander the very real economic returns of investing in an underused labour-force.
Since joining the GCOP’s Leadership Program, McLachlan has realised the feasibility, and even necessity, of her own ambition. Where before a person with access needs might tolerate a flawed system and reside themselves to the means their lot afforded them, McLachlan now realises the importance of taking leadership—especially where doing so could significantly improve the life-chances of a frequently neglected sector. Through the program she has been more actively engaged with refining and strategising this idea towards increased digital accessibility, an issue which has only gained in significance since the work-related adaptations of a global pandemic where digital proficiency is now unarguably central. McLachlan had actually been working for a GCOP-adjacent organisation called Be Lab, dedicated to working alongside potential employers and enlightening them to the economic benefits of overhauling their accessibility protocols. Statistically speaking, the returns of re-investing in those with access needs are exponential. The GCOP can see that clearly, as can McLachlan—which is why they expressly asked her to apply for the program. Because between them, they know society is at it’s best when it functionally includes everyone.