KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA 2024 | Destiny O'Connor, Women Blessing Women & Travis Johnson, Convo Communications

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More from KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA 2024

Destiny O'Connor

Co-Chair Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Deaf Kids Code

Travis Johnson

Level 3 Engineer

Convo Communications

CNCF Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group aims to drive cloud-native accessibility

Within the technology industry, there’s a growing push for accessibility and representation, with a goal to transform how communities collaborate, innovate and make space for underrepresented voices. That’s playing out during KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group and its goal for cloud-native accessibility.It’s been a little more than a year since theCUBE first profiled the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group

play_circle_outline Breaking Barriers: A Sign Language Glossary for Cloud-Native Foundation Terminology in Tech Conferences

play_circle_outline Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group and BIPOC Group support

play_circle_outline ASL translation services provided by Convo Communications for deaf individuals

play_circle_outline Involvement in helping deaf individuals find jobs and scholarships

play_circle_outline Hope for increased accessibility and representation

play_circle_outline Empowering Accessibility: Elevating Stories Through Content Creation and Appreciation for Interpreters and Production Teams

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Destiny O'Connor, Women Blessing Women & Travis Johnson, Convo Communications

Destiny O'Connor

Co-Chair Deaf and Hard of Hearing Deaf Kids Code

Travis Johnson

Level 3 Engineer Convo Communications

The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group has been active for over a year, focusing on making the conference more accessible for individuals with disabilities. Progress includes developing a sign language glossary and advocating for representation in the tech industry. The group consists of about 20 members from around the world, providing support to the community. Members like Travis and Destiny shared their experiences and emphasized the importance of representation and support. They also discussed the establishment of the BIPOC Working Group to provide ad... Read more

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What is the process for inventing new signs for the glossary specific to the Cloud-Native Foundation? add

What different working groups did the speaker mention they have joined and what is the goal of these groups? add

What services does Convo Communications provide as a video relay service provider? add

What roles and responsibilities do you have as a web developer for Women Blessing Women? add

What do Destiny and Travis hope happens in Europe in terms of representation and accessibility? add

What is the speaker expressing gratitude for and thanking various individuals for in a conversational manner? add

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Destiny O'Connor, Women Blessing Women & Travis Johnson, Convo Communications

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Savannah Peterson

>> Good afternoon Cloud community and welcome back to Salt Lake City, Utah. We are here on the end of day three of three days of coverage at KubeCon North America. My name's Savannah Peterson. Really delighted to be able to bring you a super special segment featuring the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group and two fantastic individuals, one of which is essentially a celebrity on theCUBE. Destiny and Travis, thank you so much for joining us today. Hi.

>> Hi. Hi everybody.

>> Hi everyone.

Savannah Peterson

>> I am so thrilled you could make time and come back. The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group has been going on now for over a year. When we chatted in Chicago, it had just gotten started. You were recruiting new members. What's going on now? It's been over a year. I see a lot of accessibility around here.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes, yes. We've had so much going on. So accessibility you mentioned has been terrific at the conference that we've been picking up each time and we've given them feedback and within the day they've changed it according to our feedback. So we've had some of our working group became keynotes last year in Europe, in Paris, and Anastasia Gupta became an ambassador. She was on the keynote stage last year and now she's deaf ambassador. She's our first one. So now we still are working on our documentation. We're making a few more documentation for best practices and accessibility for other people who are deaf and do not sign who use their own voice and read lips. And right now we are creating a sign language glossary as well for cloud-native terminology. And so it's a lot of exciting things are going on. So many things. It's amazing.

Savannah Peterson

>> So many things. So many. Okay. Need to unpack that a little bit. I heard there were seven deaf and hard of hearing speakers on the stages this week. Yes,

Savannah Peterson

>> We did have seven talks.

Savannah Peterson

>> That is amazing.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes, and we had two people per talk and yes, it was amazing.

Savannah Peterson

>> And you also did a sign language event and taught this community how to do sign language yesterday?

Savannah Peterson

>> That's correct, yes. It was 92 people in the room, so we had a terrifically packed room. It was a marvelous time. So what great experience.

Savannah Peterson

>> I saw the photos, standing room only everyone looked super happy. I got to ask, so you're making this glossary specific for the Cloud-Native Foundation. How do you decide how to invent new signs when words are created in new industries like this in tech?

Savannah Peterson

>> Well, we have deaf people in tech who work in the cloud native space and we get together and have a conversation on it and if we don't agree on it, we don't do it. We keep asking other input from other communities and if the sign makes sense for our deaf constituents, then we do that. Of course, we improve them as we go. Sometimes in open source, just like open source tech, it's open source language for the glossary.

Savannah Peterson

>> Of course, it's open source. That's really.

>> Right, right. Yes, exactly.

Savannah Peterson

>> Travis, this is your first KubeCon. What made you decide to come this year?

Savannah Peterson

>> Well, I decided to come to KubeCon because really originally I had joined the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group, but I have had a big use of Linux in my career and so I saw with the CNCF Foundation, I saw the Linux Foundation post these things and they invited us to come to Kubernetes and it was all in ASL and so I decided to join the working group at that time when I saw the ASL advertisements and I had bought the voucher for the certification classes for the C certifications for becoming a Kubenaut. And so I was just looking forward to learning more about Kubernetes and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group and the people who had already been here had encouraged me to come and I felt like I was missing out. I had so much FOMO about coming to KubeCon so I decided to do whatever I could do, however I could contribute to the group, support them with the glossary and the work in order to be able to attend. I'm still considering setting up more workshops specifically for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group. But for me, coming to KubeCon, I love technology, I love Linux, I love open source and there's nowhere else better to be than to get the solutions to your questions. I absolutely love it.

Savannah Peterson

>> I can tell and feel your energy just sitting over here. I can tell that love is real. Very real. So how long ago did you see that video that taught you that the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group existed? Because it's all pretty new.

Savannah Peterson

>> I think the first post I saw was back in January of this year actually. And so I saw that on LinkedIn and I attended some of the workshops and Rob, one of the members of the working group, he had hosted three workshops and in my opinion, they were very successful workshops and I definitely wanted to be working with Rob and hopefully we'll be able to do more work together because there's a lot more work that needs to be done. We are just trying to spread the word about Kubernetes throughout the deaf world and so that people know more about it.

Savannah Peterson

>> We love Rob, by the way. We had Rob and Destiny on in Chicago last year. That was our first one of these segments. What are you going to try and do now moving forward? What is that work you want to do?

Savannah Peterson

>> So for me and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group, we are continuing to work on the ASL Glossary. That is our primary objective at this moment. We are trying to create an ASL Glossary for signs related to Kubernetes because some of the challenges are is that not everybody knows what those are. They don't know what Kubernetes is. And so definitely we're thinking about teaching some additional workshops and trying to encourage more deaf and hard of hearing individuals to come to this tech space and to feel more comfortable participating and learning and enjoying the process and the different lessons that we provide.

Savannah Peterson

>> Just keep growing, just grow in that community.

>> Exactly.

Savannah Peterson

>> Speaking of, Destiny, I know you're a part of many communities that support deaf and hard of hearing. Tell us about those.

Savannah Peterson

>> I'm part of the BIPOC Working Group as well, and I'm helping-

Savannah Peterson

>> Which is new, yeah?

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes, it is very new. Very recently founded, I would say maybe just a few weeks ago.

Savannah Peterson

>> Wow.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes. So we're trying to grow that as well. That's been amazing. And we're trying to spread the word the same way we're doing with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group, we're doing that for the BIPOC Group. It's about representation and making sure people have advocates and mentors and allies so that people can say, "Oh, there is help out there that they can get." It's the same with our group, with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing space.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah. So how is the BIPOC group coming together? You mentioned you had a meeting here. Yeah.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes, we did. It was great. So Google Cloud asked us some questions about how we feel about the needs that we have, the feedback we would provide and help us open up and get the discussion going because it's very hard to do that sometimes. It's hard to speak up, it's hard to get people to do that because sometimes they expect that nothing will change. So what was your experience, Travis, maybe for that?

>> Yeah, so Destiny and I just happened that we are both Black, which is apparent and I identify as a deaf person, primarily but Destiny, you also identify as a deaf person primarily as well, right.

Savannah Peterson

>> Particularly with the success we've had with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group, we wanted to see it be successful as well, and we wanted to show them that they could do it just like we did.

Savannah Peterson

>> Love that. It's better together and more inclusion.

>> That's correct, yes.

Savannah Peterson

>> How many people are in the Deaf and Heart of Hearing Working Group now?

Savannah Peterson

>> Oh gosh, a lot. I think we have about 20 members now, but the Deaf and Heart of Hearing Group, I've lost count. I mean, to be honest with you, we keep growing.

Savannah Peterson

>> Amazing. That is so exciting.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah, it's all over the world too. It's not just the United States. We have someone from Hungary, from just Mexico and England, all over the place.

Savannah Peterson

>> Oh, yeah. Anastasia is in London, right? We'll get to see her at the next KubeCon.

Savannah Peterson

>> Well, I hope so. I hope so.

Savannah Peterson

>> I bet. So I would place money on that. I am very confident.

Savannah Peterson

>> So I do want to mention, I just want to go back to the BIPOC Working Group. I do want to add just an additional comment about what happens here is we had asked to join that particular working group and we are Black, and so the intersectionality of who we are has been really interesting as far as our experiences go. So I definitely wanted to be involved in a group that resonated with my blackness. And so I've got the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group and the BIPOC Working Group, and both of those fall under the label of DEI. But the goals are very similar. Raising visibility and helping empower people in those communities.

>> Really we were trying to encourage them to know that they can do everything. They can contribute, they can make documentation. Because a lot of times what we experience is people don't know how to contribute. They don't know how to get on the stage to give a talk. And it's the same experience we're having with the BIPOC group, as we did with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Group. Really we're just trying to get the community more visible.

Savannah Peterson

>> I agree. In the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group, we support each other. In the BIPOC Working Group, which was just established, we are trying to provide the same sort of support and aid to the members, just a way that we can support each other in our experiences. And a win for me would be something like a post on social media that there was, for example, a really great presentation recently where we were talking about some junior members who had just joined. They were able to come and join CNCF and give a presentation. And that's the goal really, to increase visibility and make sure that everyone is aware and has an opportunity.

>> Yes, they feel seen.

>> We want people to be seen.

Savannah Peterson

>> Absolutely.

>> We just really want to thank William and Catherine for that, for helping to get that going because a lot of people are joining. They can give their input there. It's been great so far.

Savannah Peterson

>> Lots of allies here. One sitting at this table as well as you know. I'm curious, as folks find you, are they usually earlier in their career? Later in their career? What's that mix up in the groups? All over the place.

Savannah Peterson

>> All over the place, yes. The whole spectrum.

Savannah Peterson

>> I believe that. So one of the stories that Catherine told me about this week, and you mentioned it briefly in the beginning, was that on the first day, the captions were on the bottom of the screen-

Savannah Peterson

>> That's correct, yes.

Savannah Peterson

>> But it was hard to see because there's people in front of all these screens and you were in a Slack channel and mentioned it.

>> Yes, that's correct.

Savannah Peterson

>> And they changed it?

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes, and we took pictures and we posted it and we said, "Hey, we can't see the captioning. We're sitting over here. What's going on with this?"

Savannah Peterson

>> Bless you.

>> Sorry, excuse me. Bless you. We posted it in that Slack channel and on LinkedIn, and the very next day the change was made and we were sitting on the front row. The captions were on the top rather than on the bottom. The change was done immediately, and we thought maybe they'd change it next year. It was the next day. It was amazing.

Savannah Peterson

>> I am really inspired by that and happy to hear that, honestly, because one of the things that I really took from our first interview that you did with Rob was when we make things accessible for one group, we end up making the experience much better and more accessible for everyone, no matter where you're at.

Savannah Peterson

>> That's right. Yeah.

Savannah Peterson

>> I actually-

>> And we're teaching them that.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah, I noticed the caption change myself because I had walked by and I can't go sit down sometimes because I have to be here, but it's nice to be able to read and not interrupt anyone and get in the way. So thank you for that.

Savannah Peterson

>> Oh yeah. So we showed them how to do it and it was an open source, open communication on Slack. We complained and everyone saw it.

Savannah Peterson

>> And collaboration and then progress.

>> That's right.

Savannah Peterson

>> And that's been a theme with KubeCon and CNCF as well now. They've been a much more accessible conference since working with you. I believe it had just started in Chicago when we were together last time.

Savannah Peterson

>> That's right. Chicago.

Savannah Peterson

>> Are there any other improvements you hope they make between now and next year?

Savannah Peterson

>> I just want it to continue to be more accessible, not just for the deaf and heart of hearing, but for people who are hard of hearing and deaf who don't sign, who just use spoken English or different languages, but accessibility for the breakout sessions as well, not just for the keynotes and networking. And we just want to make it accessible for other disability groups as well. For instance, blind and low vision.

Savannah Peterson

>> We're going to have to throw a party.

Savannah Peterson

>> And another crash course.

Savannah Peterson

>> Oh, yes. And one at a time when I can come.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes. We'll have to make it a big auditorium.

Savannah Peterson

>> Absolutely. We should have it in the keynote room. Why not?

>> That's awesome.

Savannah Peterson

>> You heard it first CNCF. Put them in the keynote room next year. Both of you do a lot of work here for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group and now the BIPOC group as well. When you're not doing all of this cool stuff, tell us about your day jobs. You can go first, Travis.

Savannah Peterson

>> You want to go first, Travis?

>> So my day job, currently I'm working for Convo Communications and we are a video relay service provider.

Savannah Peterson

>> Cool.

>> And what we do is we actually provide ASL translation services through the phone network. So let's just say a deaf person needs to make a phone call, but unfortunately they can't pick up the regular phone and speak with someone who doesn't sign. That's just not something that they're capable to do. And so they load their app and they connect in a video phone and it's a three-way call.

Savannah Peterson

>> Cool.

>> They connect to the interpreter and then the interpreter calls the hearing person, and the hearing person actually speaks back to them on an audio line, and then the interpreter interprets to the deaf person on this video line. And we're not the only provider in the US. There are several providers in this particular space. So what I do every day is I am a level three engineer and I provide support to level one and level two teams that we have internally. We troubleshoot, I investigate bugs, just issues that we're facing.

Savannah Peterson

>> That's amazing. I had no idea. I didn't know about Convo Communications until now, but what an incredible service and not surprised that you as a technology fan and someone who identifies as being deaf is helping lead that. That's great. Destiny, you have 17 jobs. Tell us about all of them.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes, so I'm a web developer for Women Blessing Women, and I also, I lead the program there. Definitely empowered, so I help deaf people learn, really find jobs and resume build, advocacy, all those things. Mentoring, whatever they need help with, helping them get a job. Also, scholarships, CNSF scholarships. We have that for Cloud Native, the Linux Foundation scholarships, we have those and I'm involved in that. Getting people into tech, learning more about Kubernetes. It's been amazing too. Also, I create groups for deaf kids and I work with deaf kids, so I mentioned that before. I have a few organizations for them and I go to different schools and work with the kids and teach them now about hot topic. Right now we have p5 JavaScript. So really we're making art in JavaScript, so that's really cool. The kids absolutely love that. They're excited every time we come to do that. It's really great.

Savannah Peterson

>> What an incredible way to introduce kids to JavaScript to make art. I love that. And I'm sure you came up with that. You're so clever.

>> Oh, yes. I love it. Yeah, we all enjoy it. Every group and we do it every Thursday and we talk about how we're going to demonstrate technology to the kids and we don't speak to them, so we're signing to them and showing it in sign language, teaching the kids in visual gestural language as well.

Savannah Peterson

>> Wow. You're going to have to send me some of the art. I want to see. We'll do a little-

>> For sure. Yeah.

Savannah Peterson

>> We do a little segment with the kids too, if you want. That would be very-

Savannah Peterson

>> That would be so terrific. Yes, I would love that.

Savannah Peterson

>> We'll have to do that. That sounds absolutely amazing. I want to ask you both 'cause I always love Destiny's response to this, but there's, I'm sure folks just like Travis becoming acquainted with KubeCon, this community, both working groups, what would your advice be to someone who's feeling a little nervous maybe about joining this new community, but excited and inspired having watched YouTube? Travis, I'll let you start.

Savannah Peterson

>> What I would tell you, if you are nervous when you come, you won't be nervous if you stay. So you have to show your excitement. I mean, I've been so excited since Tuesday afternoon. It's been absolutely crazy. My advice to anybody who is feeling the nerves is just don't be afraid, don't be nervous. There will be mistakes. I mean, you got to just think just like any other thing you've done the first time isn't going to be perfect. The first trial is not going to be perfection. Now, next time for your second trial, of course it would be phenomenal, but my advice is to come, try, make your errors and perfect it for the next time.

Savannah Peterson

>> We all mess up. I mess up even up here on camera, so that is great advice, Travis. Nobody's perfect. If you are, I don't even want to be your friend. It's not very human. You're probably lying to yourself. Oh, yeah. Destiny, what about you? You're always full of good advice.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes. Well, first I want to shout out to Catherine and William and all the people who've been involved in the working groups, and I want to tell everyone that I know that you may have some reluctance or anxiety about coming in. Just come, introduce yourself, join the meetings. That's where it starts. And even if it's only two people that show up, that's fine. After that, there's all kinds of flexibility built in and then you are inspired to say hello when you see them around. We're here. Come say hello. Don't be scared. Please just come up and say hi.

Savannah Peterson

>> I can validate that. I don't think there are more welcoming faces than when I see you or Milad or Rob and now Travis, you're going to be a part of the group smiling at me when I show up. You were the first person I saw that I recognized when I got here on Tuesday, and that smile and your big hug just warmed my heart. So that is the truth. Okay, last question for you both. When we get to hang out in London, 'cause we're going to make sure you're there. I'm just manifesting that now. We're definitely going to be there. Love that. What do you hope to be able to say either about the BIPOC Group or the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group or even just your community work in general that you can't yet say today?

Savannah Peterson

>> I hope the word gets out more because Europe is not... Well, I mean, what I'm trying to say is that I hope, that it's not as open as we are here in the US, so they need more interpreters, they need more representation, they need more accessibility, all of the things. And so I hope that happens. I'm really hopeful for that.

Savannah Peterson

>> Great. What about you, Travis?

Savannah Peterson

>> I just have to say the same thing as Destiny just now. There are some challenges, absolutely. And I'm not going to tell you that America is the best as far as disability rights go, but I do know that lots of people say they want to leave the country after what's happened recently, but the access, the accessibility, America honestly is one of the leaders in the world. I can't see myself living anywhere else. I've seen some things that, don't get me wrong, there's still more we have to do. We still have to push and make this more visible. But in London, I hope you see us. I hope you see that we are here. So that's my hope.

>> And put ourselves first as well.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's a really good point that you just brought up. Rather than running away, it's a really important time to collaborate. Perhaps more important now than ever to make sure that people feel seen and valued. I can say so one of my lines and representation and diversity is always, seeing is believing. I think it is. I mean, we see you for the record at theCUBE and we love that all of our viewers at home get to see you and be inspired by you. It is such a treat to learn from you. I can tell you internally, since we started doing our interviews, we have thought about multiple ways to make our content, our studio, and everything else that we do more accessible. So I want to say thank you for teaching me, quite frankly, and-

>> You are welcome.

Savannah Peterson

>> We are so here to learn.

>> We love you.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah, baby.

>> Yeah, no. Yeah. It's just like blessing the man with the gestures, right? Spider-Man.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah. I'm all about it. I mean, Jazz hands. We're all excited. Yeah.

>> That's right. Jazz hands.

Savannah Peterson

>> Jazz hands will not get you. When I get you scheduled on the show, I feel jazzy when I know that I get to interview you and it's just so fun.

>> Yeah.

Savannah Peterson

>> Thank you both so for taking the time.

Savannah Peterson

>> Thank you. Thank you Savannah for interviewing us.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yeah, it's been amazing.

>> Thank you. It was my pleasure. It really was. Thank you for having us. Yeah, I just feel very touched.

Savannah Peterson

>> Me too. This is the most important work I do, and I am very grateful that you share your stories and your candor and your insights and inspire not only me, but the tens and hundreds and sometimes million people that end up saying this content. You're changing lives, sitting up here right now and with all the work you do. So thank you very much and I look forward to having you on at every KubeCon and other shows. We're definitely going to get the kids on. That is a great idea. Anytime you have an idea, actually, both of you should really know this. Anytime you have an idea for content we can do to help elevate the accessibility story and help educate people on how to make those entire world more accessible, we are happy to be your platform.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes.

Savannah Peterson

>> Yes. So good thinking. Yeah. Yeah. You use those. Send me a message anytime you want. Travis. Destiny, I could talk to you all day long, but I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up. You're the best. My heart feels full, and I'm already looking forward to seeing you both in London, and thank you to both of the fabulous interpreters here making this possible. Appreciate you and our production team that always makes sure these segments are so special, particularly to Anderson who cuts our highlight reel for Deaf Awareness Month. And thank all of you for tuning in to our fabulous three days of coverage, but more importantly, this very special segment. Honestly, I feel in my chest almost makes me emotional on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group here as a part of CNCF. Also, check out the BIPOC group. There's so much cool stuff going on and I can tell you, even as an ally who doesn't necessarily identify with each one of these communities personally, I feel very welcome. So you will too. My name's Savannah Peterson here in Salt Lake City, Utah. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.