How Amazon Builds Workplace Accessibility For 1.5 Million Employees

Accessibility at work is easy to talk about and hard to deliver, especially when your “office” includes fulfillment centers, delivery stations, corporate teams, and cutting-edge tech roles spread across the globe. We sit down with Megan Smith, Global Accommodations and People Accessibility Lead within Amazonian Experiences and Technology, to unpack what it really takes to run accommodations and workplace accessibility programs at serious scale and with real speed. Megan shares her own path into disability inclusion as a legally blind leader, and why self-advocacy plus operational rigor is a powerful combination.We walk through the full accommodations flywheel: intake, evaluation, decisioning with managers and sites, and making sure the accommodation is implemented. Megan explains why much of the volume comes from temporary injuries that need fast, consistent handling, how pregnancy-related accommodations require dedicated expertise, and why complex disabilities benefit from high-touch support that adapts to different job environments. We also explore how people accessibility focuses on preventing barriers in the first place by setting standards, offering tooling, and influencing what the company builds and buys for employees.Then we look forward. AI is already blurring the line between assistive technology and personalization, with big implications for screen readers, captions, and the idea of a “one console” work experience. Megan breaks down what must remain true today (solid accessibility fundamentals and WCAG principles) and what might change tomorrow, including trust, privacy, and how we filter signal from AI-generated noise. If you care about disability inclusion, HR accommodations, accessible technology, or the future of AI accessibility, this conversation gives you practical mental models and sharp questions to take back to your team. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Send us Fan MailSupport the showFollow axschat on social media.Bluesky:Antonio https://bsky.app/profile/akwyz.comDebra https://bsky.app/profile/debraruh.bsky.socialNeil https://bsky.app/profile/neilmilliken.bsky.socialaxschat https://bsky.app/profile/axschat.bsky.socialLinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/antoniovieirasantos/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/axschat/https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmilliken/Vimeohttps://vimeo.com/akwyzhttps://twitter.com/axschathttps://twitter.com/AkwyZhttps://twitter.com/neilmillikenhttps://twitter.com/debraruh