Open-source communities have spent years building powerful technology platforms, but tech community accessibility extends far beyond code. Creating truly inclusive spaces means addressing the full spectrum of human experience — from neurodiversity to communication needs — and ensuring that underrepresented voices shape the solutions designed to support them.

VictoriaMetrics’ Diana Todea talks with theCUBE about the Merge Forward Initiative.

Merge Forward, a new coalition launched two and a half months ago, brings seven working groups together under one initiative to strengthen accessibility efforts across the Cloud Native Computing Foundation ecosystem. The umbrella includes a newly formed Neurodiversity Group alongside established teams focused on support for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, according to Diana Todea (pictured, left), developer experience engineer at VictoriaMetrics and co-lead of the Neurodiversity Group.

“Merge Forward basically enables a safe environment for all the underrepresented groups to come together to discuss, brainstorm ideas and also be able to mentor each other, “ Todea told theCUBE. “If you want to give a talk, speak at a conference [or] prepare something, you can pair up with somebody and do it. It’s just about enabling each other and having fun at the same time.”

Todea and Jay Jackson (right), senior software engineer at CallRevu, Deaf and Hard of Hearing WG member, and sign language team at Cloud Native Glossary, spoke with theCUBE’s Savannah Peterson at the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the Merge Forward initiative, the cloud-native glossary project, spectrum-based approaches to inclusion and the importance of centering underrepresented voices in accessibility work. (* Disclosure below.)

Tech community accessibility through collective action

Advancing accessibility requires tools that meet communities where they are. The deaf and hard-of-hearing working group has developed a cloud-native glossary to standardize sign language for technical terms, addressing a gap that left interpreters improvising across different contexts, according to Jackson. When a word gets finger-spelled repeatedly — such as “Kubernetes” — the team abbreviates it into a consistent sign, such as “K8S.” The glossary currently contains seven signs, and the team is holding ongoing collaborative sessions to discuss and agree on pictorial representations for new concepts.

“We have a group of us, it’s a glossary Slack channel,” he said. “You’re welcome to join it, of course. We meet every so often to get together via video to say, ‘How do we sign this? What do we think this is going to look like?’ It’s an open-source discussion. ‘What is the best representation, pictorial representation?’ [We] make sure that the group agrees that this is the appropriate sign.”

Understanding tech community accessibility as a spectrum rather than a binary category shapes how the working groups approach inclusion. The key is asking what each person needs rather than making assumptions about communication methods or support requirements. While accessibility accommodations carry costs, the investment reflects a fundamental principle the community operates by, according to Jackson.

“There are some people that sign, there are some people that don’t sign, but they speak,” Jackson said. “There are some people that sign and speak. There’s no limits as far as what people can and cannot do … just be willing to support people’s needs … and yes, there is a cost associated with accessibility, but we’re worth it.”

Visibility creates pathways for others who might be waiting for permission to step forward. Todea began speaking publicly about neurodiversity for the first time at age 40, describing the topic as deeply personal and the experience as a breakthrough. Simply voicing her own experience prompted other neurodiverse individuals to reach out and share their stories, demonstrating how representation accelerates connection.

Well, I would definitely say to them, ‘Please don’t wait,’” she said. “I waited up to now. For me, it was like a breakthrough. I’m going to give a couple of talks on neurodiversity for the very first time in my life, and I know just by speaking with other neurodiverse people just hearing me saying something out loud, they came forward.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA event. Neither Red Hat Inc., the primary sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE