Delivering an Impactful and Inclusive Bootcamp with Summer of Tech

Content contributors: Shannon Butson, Ruth McDavitt, Jay Nowitz and Nicky Maaka

One of Summer of Tech's charitable missions is to help students and graduates be more job-ready to enter the tech industry in Aotearoa. We are supported by hundreds of alumni, industry volunteers and mentors, and employers to put together inclusive and supportive bootcamps that are open for all students in our programme.

As a non-profit organisation, we empower Aotearoa, New Zealand's diverse tech students, by bridging the gap between learning and earning. We provide every student, regardless of their background, experience and skill level, the opportunity to learn and connect with industry professionals in the tech industry. We make it easy and attractive for employers to hire them.

We want to create a safe and supportive environment in every student-facing activity that we organise, including our bootcamps. Here are some suggestions that you can consider as candidates, alumni, industry volunteers, mentors, presenters and employers:

Using gender-neutral language when addressing others

1. For example, avoid using "you guys" and "ladies and gentlemen". Instead try "you all", "everyone", "team", "people".

2. If you are having a one-on-one conversation and do not know what pronouns they use, ask them how they would like to be addressed and which pronouns they prefer.

3. When referring to a third person, it is encouraged to use "they/them" if you are not sure what their pronouns are.

4. When in doubt, you can always address someone by their name. 

5. Please add your pronouns to video conferences or name tags. This encourages others to do the same and shows we care about individuals' preferences, and is also a great solution to accidentally misgendering people in our community.

Summer of Tech is committed to becoming a better Te Tiriti Partner, and we honour Te Ao Māori. 

Here are some suggestions to integrate tikanga practices into your hui (presentation). You can also read more by reading this amazing Māori Culture and Tikanga for the Workplace resource by Tūtira Mai NZ.

1. Open and close the session with karakia. Starting with a karakia calms the mood and settles the wairua (soul). Like the opening karakia, ending the hui with a karakia also settles the wairua (soul) after the mahi (work) has been completed.

2. Introduce yourself with a mihimihi or your pepeha. 

   1. Mihimihi - An introduction used to establish links with other people and let them know who you are and where you come from

   2. Pepeha - Pepeha is the traditional way to introduce yourself in Māori. It tells people who you are by sharing your connections with the people and places important to you.

3. If you are early on your Te Reo Māori journey, here are some simple phrases that you can use in lieu of English:

4. Greetings

   1. Kia ora - Hi Tēnā koe - Hello (to one person) 

   2. Tēnā kōrua - Hello (to two people)

   3. Tēnā koutou - Hello (Three or more) 

   4. Nau mai, haere mai ki te… - Welcome to ….

5. Farewells

   1. Haere rā - Goodbye (to someone leaving)

   2. E noho rā - Goodbye (to someone staying)

   3. Ka kite anō - See you again

Considerations when creating inclusive online environments 

Some participants will need to use closed captioning to optimise their experience. This feature will be tremendously helpful for non-native English speakers and people who are hearing impaired. Learn more about how to enable closed-captioning in your video call meetings:

1. Zoom - please note that the meeting owner needs to change the closed captioning setting before the meeting starts; otherwise, guests will not be able to use this feature.

2. Google Meet

3. Microsoft Teams

Some other handy tips from our previous bootcamp presenters:

1. Be prepared with your material and come early to get things set up.

2. To support all students, especially those with hearing impaired and non-native English speakers, here are what presenters can do for in-person events: 

   • talk slowly and clearly, students with hearing challenges are usually able to lip read.

   • please use the live caption feature in either Google Slides or Microsoft Powerpoint - you will need to ensure that you allow your device's microphone to be turned on for this.

3. Test your equipment beforehand. Ensure your audio and video work well, and your internet connectivity is stable.

4. Be conscious that for some neurodivergent people maintaining eye contact on video calls is hard, but this does not mean they are not engaged in the conversation.

5. Online meeting fatigue is a big issue for many people. Having videos on during a call is good for interaction. But, for many disabled people, the expectation that everyone must have their video on during a full workshop is challenging.

6. Please be conscious of your background noises and ensure other guests are muting their microphones. Excessive noise during video conferences and poor quality microphones make it difficult for neurodivergent folks to follow and causes sensory overload for some. 

7. Use the 'check accessibility' feature; this verifies your file against a set of rules identifying possible issues for people with disabilities. MS Office and Adobe have this built-in. Alternatively, please try to send out materials in advance so people can load them into accessibility software and be prepared for your session.

Thank you for being part of Summer of Tech whānau and empowering the next generation of tech superstars!