On December third we acknowledge International Day of Persons with Disabilities and mirror on Cisco Networking Academy’s dedication to create an inclusive future for all, together with folks residing with disabilities. This yr, the United Nations unveils a theme echoing Cisco’s place: “Transformative solutions for inclusive development – the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world.”
As many as one billion folks worldwide reside with a incapacity. One in eight individuals are extra more likely to be deprived by poorer schooling outcomes and decrease ranges of employment. One research of ten least developed and growing economies stories that excluding folks with disabilities from the workforce might price these economies between three and 7 p.c of GDP.
Technology ranges the taking part in discipline.
At Cisco, we consider know-how can energy an inclusive future for all. For 25 years, Cisco Networking Academy has targeted on offering high-quality IT curriculum in modern topics like networking and cybersecurity, studying simulators, and hands-on studying alternatives by way of a studying platform to help instructors and interact learners in 190 international locations.
Innovative platform
Cisco Networking Academy creates and delivers accessible curriculum, studying platforms, and instruments to satisfy the wants of educators and college students by means of design with suitable assistive applied sciences. Cisco Networking Academy’s netacad.com and skillsforall.com studying platforms comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to make content material extra accessible to a variety of individuals with disabilities. In fiscal 2019, course enhancements included display screen reader help (together with lab directions), transcripts, closed captions, keyboard shortcuts, and on-line accessibility sources for instructors to help college students with accessibility lodging.
For extra details about our work on this space,
Purpose-driven
These course enhancements and design concerns comply with a dedication Cisco made in 2017 to coach 10,000 college students with disabilities in 5 years.
Inclusive workforce improvement goes past know-how. It additionally requires innovation and a collaborative group that’s united in objective and serving collectively.
Some progressive ‘firsts’ for our Networking Academy ecosystem embrace:
- Partnering with UT de Santa Catarina in Brazil, one of many first establishments able to providing a mannequin of academic and labor inclusion for folks with disabilities within the Americas.
- Creating Cisco Access for the Visually Impaired (CAVI), in partnership with Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, which noticed its first graduates in 2005. Dr. Iain Murray began this system as a short-term analysis undertaking in 2001 and has since been awarded an Order of Australia for his work. The program now teaches near 300 vision-impaired college students yearly from world wide by means of partnerships with organizations in India, Sri Lanka, The United Kingdom, South Africa, and Myanmar.
- The Royal National College for the Blind within the United Kingdom turned a Networking Academy in 2014.
- The abilITy Cisco Networking Academy in New York provided by the Institute for Career Development (ICD) turned the primary IT coaching program for folks with disabilities within the United States in 2018.
These are only a few of our companions doing nice work to make the Networking Academy Program out there to folks with disabilities worldwide.
Impact issues
How are we monitoring in opposition to the dedication we made 5 years in the past to coach 10,000 folks with disabilities? Since we activated voluntary self-reporting in fiscal 2019, as many as 153,000 college students have declared disabilities. Our work on this targeted space continues to evolve and we’re honored to make a good larger impression.
Meet a few of our inspirational Networking Academy graduates and instructors with disabilities:
Jacques
, from the United States, not solely achieved CCNA certification as a part of his diploma program at College of DuPage, however went on to finish a Master’s program. He was not too long ago awarded American Airforce Association CyberPatriot XIII Mentor of the Year.
Jacques discovered his ardour for know-how after his imaginative and prescient began to alter, and succeeded partly as a result of he discovered to ask what instruments have been out there to assist. He now works as a Cybersecurity and Incident Response Analyst at United Airlines.
Tyler
was working as a aid prepare dinner when the pandemic struck, and it made him notice he needed to alter his profession. With help from Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, he overcame his studying difficulties to check the Cisco Cybersecurity Associate Program at Holyoke Community College. Tyler is now Lead Associate of Tech Development at an IT options supplier, the place he instructs interns in primary PC perform, PC builds and networking, in addition to primary cybersecurity. He hopes to earn a level. “Having a disability shouldn’t limit or define your capabilities….It’s taking me longer than most to achieve what I’d like but I’ll get there eventually,” he says.
Juan, from Peru, had an curiosity in computer systems from a younger age. Despite his listening to impairment, Juan discovered his residence with Cisco Networking Academy. “When I joined the Cisco Networking Academy, the practical approach they had in their digital courses made my learning experience so much easier,” he says.
He felt so strongly in regards to the curriculum he now works as a Cisco CCNA teacher, and as an IT Supervisor for an additional firm. Check out Juan’s story on this video:
A distinct method of perceiving issues could give Richard, from the United States, a bonus in cybersecurity as a Senior Analyst. Being neurodivergent might have introduced a problem in his schooling. With help from the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and Holyoke Community College, Richard achieved each Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate and Cisco Certified Network Associate accreditation.
“The Cisco Cybersecurity training gave me the knowledge, especially in the data and privacy space, to succeed at work, and I recommend the program to anyone considering it,” he says.
Fabien, from France, studied for his CCNA and Introduction to Cybersecurity at Lycée Cabanis with the assistance of a French signal language interpreter. He transitioned from work in constructing upkeep and as an electrician to operating his personal IT contracting, networking administration, and training firm.
“I am very proud to succeed in networking as a hearing-impaired person. It proves that I am as capable as anyone,” he says.
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