Jenny Lay-Flurrie has a passion to see people reach their full potential including people with disabilities. Jenny is Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft leading our efforts to drive great products, services and websites that empower people and organisations to achieve more. Her team is at the forefront of creating positive experiences that apply technology to make a difference in the world and the lives of individuals from how we hire and support people with disabilities in employment to innovative technology that aims to revolutionize ‘what’s possible’ for people with disabilities.
Jenny is also Chair of DisAbility@Microsoft, an employee resource (affinity) group focused on “Enabling people to be successful regardless of ability or disability.” With the help of her team and broad community within Microsoft, Jenny leads many initiatives to empower people with disabilities both in and out of Microsoft. These initiatives range from creating the Disability Answer Desk which provides specialist customer support to people with disabilities to hosting the annual Microsoft Ability Summit which focusses on empowering attendees (800+ last 3 years) with the inclusive and innovative thinking necessary to enable people around the world. Also instrumental in projects such as SoundScape and the Microsoft Ability Hackathon which has supported over 270 Hackathon teams focused on empowering people with disabilities with new technologies and capabilities.
Outside of Microsoft, Jenny is the current board chair of US Business Leader Network (USBLN) and was recognized as a ‘Champion of Change’ by the White House in October 2014.