Latest / The Diversity Career Podcast with Fexingo: Inclusion, Equity, and Underrepresented Professionals / How a Media Company Hired Blind Candidates for Audio Roles
Transcript
- Lucas: You ever think about how many jobs in media are essentially audio-based — editing, mixing, producing — and how few people with visual impairments are ever considered for those roles? Luna: It's a good point. I've never really connected the dots between the skill set and the candidate pool. Lucas: Well, one media company did. Back in 2024, a mid-sized podcast network called — let's call it SoundBridge Media — partnered with a nonprofit called the Blind Institute of Technology. They launched a pilot to hire blind and visually impaired candidates specifically for audio production roles. Luna: How'd that come about? Was it a leadership initiative or something from an employee? Lucas: It actually started with a single producer who had a family member with vision loss. She realized the tools they used — Pro Tools, Ableton, even basic editing software — were already screen-reader compatible. The barrier wasn't technology, it was assumptions. Luna: So what did they do first? Lucas: They started with one internship. They worked with the nonprofit to redesign the job description — removed requirements like 'visual multitasking' and 'color-coded waveform editing.' Instead they focused on auditory cues: being able to identify peaks in a waveform by sound, not sight. Luna: Interesting. So they literally rewrote the role from the ground up. Lucas: Exactly. The internship lasted three months. The candidate, a guy named Marcus, had been a musician before losing his sight in his twenties. He picked up the editing software in two weeks. By month two, he was faster than the sighted editors on certain tasks — like removing background noise by ear. Luna: Faster? That's surprising. Or maybe it shouldn't be — when you rely on one sense, you train it differently. Lucas: Right. After the internship, they offered Marcus a full-time position. And then they formalized the pipeline. Today, about 8 percent of their audio production team are blind or visually impaired. That's roughly 12 people out of a 150-person department. Luna: What kinds of accommodations did they have to make beyond software? Lucas: Pretty straightforward ones. They added tactile markers on mixing boards. They ensured all internal documentation was available in text format, not just PDFs with embedded images. They also set up a mentorship program where sighted and blind editors pair up for the first month. Luna: Did they see any pushback from existing staff? Lucas: Some at first. A few editors worried it would slow down production. But after the first quarter, the data showed the opposite. The blind editors had a 15 percent lower error rate on repetitive tasks like removing pops and clicks. The sighted editors started asking for training on auditory editing techniques. Luna: So it actually improved the whole team's skill set. Lucas: That's the underrated part. Inclusion here didn't just help the new hires — it made the existing team more aware of their own habits. The company also reported a drop in turnover among audio editors, from about 20 percent annual to 12 percent. People felt the team was more collaborative. Luna: I want to get into the cost piece. Was it expensive? Lucas: Not as much as you'd think. The software accommodations were mostly free — screen readers like JAWS and NVDA are either free or low-cost. The tactile markers and hardware modifications cost about $200 per workstation. The biggest investment was the nonprofit partnership, which charged a flat fee of $15,000 per year for candidate sourcing and training support. Luna: That's less than one month's salary for a single producer in most markets. Lucas: Exactly. And they calculated the ROI based on reduced turnover and increased productivity. They estimated a net positive within six months. The nonprofit also provided ongoing coaching for managers on how to give effective feedback without relying on visual cues — like pointing at a waveform. Luna: That's a detail I wouldn't have thought of. How do you say 'this section needs more compression' if you can't point? Lucas: They developed a shared vocabulary. Instead of saying 'here,' they'd say 'at the two-minute mark, the transient spike is too sharp.' Everyone had to be more precise. Managers reported it made their feedback better for the whole team. Luna: So this is a model that could transfer to other industries. I'm thinking about tech support — phone-based roles, or even data analysis where audio cues matter. Lucas: Absolutely. The Blind Institute of Technology also works with companies in finance and customer service. But media was a natural fit because the core task is listening. Still, the principles are the same: audit the job for unnecessary visual requirements, invest in simple accommodations, and partner with a nonprofit that already has a pipeline of trained candidates. Luna: What about the candidates themselves? Did they feel included beyond just the hire? Lucas: SoundBridge did something smart. They created an internal resource group for employees with disabilities, but they also made sure blind employees were represented in leadership meetings. One of the blind editors now sits on the product team to give input on new software features. That's rare — usually accessibility is an afterthought. Luna: Yeah, that's the difference between hiring for diversity and actually integrating it. Lucas: Right. And to be fair, SoundBridge isn't perfect. They still have work to do on career advancement — only one blind employee has moved into a senior role so far. But they're tracking it, and they've set a goal to have blind and visually impaired employees in 15 percent of leadership positions within three years. Luna: Wow. That's a concrete target. And it makes me think — if a mid-sized podcast network can do this, what's stopping a tech giant or a bank? Lucas: Often it's just inertia. Companies don't know where to start. But this case shows you can start small — one internship, one partnership. And if it works, you expand. Luna: Honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, we'd love it if you'd consider supporting the show. It's what keeps this ad-free and focused on stories like this. The link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, we don't run ads, so listener support is what makes this possible. And it helps us dig into these specific cases rather than just talking in generalities. Luna: Exactly. Okay — back to SoundBridge. What's next for them? Lucas: They're now looking at expanding the program to include other disabilities. They're piloting a similar partnership for deaf and hard of hearing candidates in transcription and captioning roles. And they're open-sourcing their job redesign templates so other companies can use them. Luna: That's the kind of scaling that actually matters. A playbook, not just a press release. Lucas: Exactly. And I think that's the lesson here — inclusion doesn't have to be expensive or complicated. It starts with questioning your own assumptions about what a job requires. Luna: And then actually talking to the people who can do it. Lucas: Right. Marcus, the first intern, now trains new hires — sighted and blind. He says the best compliment he gets is when someone forgets he's blind. Not because he's hiding it, but because the work is just the work.