Don Discusses Disability Inclusivity, Impact Groups at Audible

On October 12, 2023, Don addressed a packed crowd at Audible’s Innovation Cathedral about how disability awareness and inclusivity have been core tenets of the company since its founding. The speech was part of a panel discussion presented by audABLE — a new Impact Group at Audible for those with disabilities and their allies.

Read the full speech below.

It’s so good to be here on this beautiful day in Newark.

Since it was announced that I would have the honor to be here for this important event, I have heard from many Audible people who know me and many of them have shared their own experience of challenging disabilities. 

I fielded some of these messages as I was also spending a few days with my brother-in-law Scott, who has been battling fast-advancing Parkinson’s Disease for a decade, as have an estimated one million other Americans.  I have been friendly with Michael J. Fox and been inspired by his battle and activism in the Parkinson’s community for 15 years -- when we weren’t talking about ice hockey. 

I can assure you that the experience of drawing close to human beings navigating the challenges of disabilities, and witnessing up close their courage, is a profound window into the inexhaustibility of the human spirit. 

As Anne and I were discussing the other day, people who step up as activists at Audible, whether getting involved in our impact groups, leading our sports leagues, and having lasting experiences mentoring or managing our amazing Audible interns and scholars … these employees also tend to be the most effective champions of our customers and our products and continued success as a company at the highest level. So I hope today’s discussion inspires Audible people globally with disabilities to get involved and all others to become allies and with that elevate their experience of work at Audible.

Bob mentioned at yesterday’s Global All Hands, that last Saturday was the 26th anniversary of the launch of Audible’s service, which was two years after forming the company.  The Audible People Principles – created in 2017 and admired and celebrated by do many including the key leaders of Amazon then as indications of Audible’s distinctive culture and purpose – indeed memorialized a vision of what companies can mean in the world, and the reality of disabilities informed the ethical distinctions described by those words as they informed the original ideas that led to this company. 

My daughter Chloe’s learning differences as a struggling young student caused professionals who, in those days, called a broad spectrum of language-processing challenges “dyslexia,” to tell my wife and I not to expect her to be able to succeed in high school let alone college or the workplace.  If you know my wife Leslie, you wouldn’t be surprised that she didn’t accept this, so Chloe and Leslie would listen to books provided by the Library of Congress while tracking the words in books.  Chloe began to learn, and learned so well in high school and college and graduate school that she became a teacher and behavioralist with a double-master’s degree in early childhood intervention, and she has helped many young children and families navigate their challenges. 

As I travel the world – which I do a lot these days – I am approached constantly by people with perceptual and reading challenges who tell me Audible has not just changed but fully redefined the course of their lives. 

It was my proudly out son Dash who helped me understand and articulate an all-embracing spectrum of gender preferences and sexual orientation as reflected in the People Principles, so it is probably not an accident that despite my own lifelong study and study and focus on structural racial inequity and urban inequality in particular, Audible Pride was the first internal organization that became known as an Impact Group.  Audible Pride was founded 8 years ago (and for perspective some LGBT colleagues were afraid to come to the first meetings), and began holding happy hours within a few months. 

It’s good to create associations of people who share personal identifications to gather to socialize, but I recall in particular that the joyous Happy Hour celebration hosted by Audible Pride and attended by an outpouring of allies, was rife with purpose as it was called to celebrate same sex marriage being made legal in the US, when the concept of “equal dignity” was written into law in an opinion by a Supreme Court Justice appointed by Ronald Reagan.  Pride went on to lean into content to the point that the Audible Pride parade float featuring “Queer Stories by Queer Voices” was celebrated in a lasting way well beyond Audible.

Those at Audible galvanized around the distinctive purpose of activate caring also exhibit a consistent activism around Audible commitments to customers and creators every single day. 

I am so excited to see how the talented people you are about to hear from choose to activate caring:

·       Will they dive into activist recruiting of missionary colleagues from the disability’s community?

·       Will they seek public expression to give voice through Audible content?

·       Will they focus in on elevating the customer experience and address Web accessibility advances with our technologists?

·       I feel assured they will engage with current efforts to double down on some of the progressive physical access accommodations in our workplaces many Audible people have focused on already, particularly in the EU.

·       I have long wondered about special membership variances for students with formal Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s), or other indications of reading or visual impairments, including macular degeneration suffered by some of our most loyal customers.  There are over 2 billion people with vision impairments out there.

·       Will Andy and Robin and members of the new Impact Group work with Audible Public Policy to help bridge the often-difficult gulf between many businesses and advocates and litigants in the disabilities community?

·       Will they seek to sponsor scientific research – which Audible did in the past – to double down on making Audible a gift to people who navigate challenges like these?

The dots are out there waiting to be connected.

All of this to say that I was so proud to be asked by the gifted mission-driven leaders of this new organization to join you today. Thanks to Ian Moraes for his contributions to Audible culture and this event.  Andy and Robin - thank you for stepping up. The executive sponsor of the group is Abhinav Mathur - a soulful Audible senior leader and someone I recommend anyone wondering if Audible is indeed different from other companies talk to.  Thank you Abhinav. And Anne Erni – as always – thanks for being such an essential part of the Audible adventure for almost eight years.

Everybody please tell your colleagues to ally-up with this and the other Impact Groups.

Thanks all – and take it away Mattheiu and Puneet.