Jenny Lay-Flurrie
Chief Accessibility Officer, Microsoft
Twitter: @jennylayfluffy
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jennylf
As Chief Accessibility Officer of Microsoft Corporation, Jenny champions inclusion, equity, and views accessibility as a fundamental right. Joining Microsoft in 2005 to work on Hotmail and Bing, Jenny’s passion for accessibility led to the creation of the Disability Employee Resource Group at Microsoft, and her current role as CAO. Jenny has spearheaded the company’s comprehensive approach to accessibility since 2016, driving accountability across the company, and fostering a disability inclusive culture. From engineering processes, physical accessibility to skilling and inclusive hiring, Jenny advocates for inclusion of disabled talent as a driving force to deliver next generation technology, programs, and partnerships. Jenny identifies as deaf and disabled and believes accessibility is essential to innovation.
Outside of Microsoft, Jenny is on the board of directors of Disability:IN and Team Gleason, was recognized as a Disability Employment Champion of Change by the White House in 2014, one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business in 2017 and received the Jim Thatcher Lifetime Achievement Award and John D. Kemp Inclusion Award in 2023. She created the Disability Answer Desk, which provides customer support for people with disabilities, created and hosts the annual Microsoft Ability Summit, an international event with 20,000+ attendees dedicated to advancing accessibility and disability inclusion, and was instrumental in the development of the Autism Hiring Program, Microsoft’s Ability Hackathon, the driving force behind technologies including SeeingAI, Immersive Reader, Windows Live Captions, and Eye Control.