Accessibility is about creating a workplace where everyone can participate and thrive. With over 1.3 billion people worldwide living with a disability, many of which are invisible or acquired during working life, inclusive design and accessible experiences are essential, not optional.

At Schneider Electric, we’re working to embed accessibility into our culture, tools, and ways of working, ensuring that everyone can access the same opportunities and contribute at their best. Because when we remove barriers, we create better experiences for all.

Sitting down with Rick Blair, he reflects on his 38.5-year career and the personal journey that shaped his passion for accessibility, offering a candid look at what it takes to build a workplace grounded in inclusion and care.

Rick, 38.5 years is an incredible journey with Schneider Electric. What has kept you here for so long?

From the very beginning of my career at Schneider Electric, the draw was the people and the challenge. I started as a validation engineer, and there was a real sense of camaraderie, developers and testers working side by side with a shared mission to build the best possible products for our customers by finding what could break before our customers ever did. We worked hard, but we also genuinely enjoyed each other. Lunch breaks often meant competitive card games (Spades, Hearts, or Sheepshead) depending on who showed up, and when a critical defect surfaced, Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” would blast through my Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater speakers. A successful release deserved celebration, so “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees went on the turntable and the lab turned into a dance floor. We had fun, and we still delivered.

That balance of meaningful work and enjoyment continued throughout much of my career. As my eyesight began to fail, that same culture of support became even more important. I received strong backing from my teammates and managers, which allowed me to continue working in my profession. While navigating the reasonable accommodation process wasn’t always easy, I encountered far more support than resistance. As the Rolling Stones put it, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you’ll find, you get what you need,” and ultimately, I did.

Schneider Electric also gave me opportunities to grow and evolve. I was supported to pursue accessibility work, first part-time, and eventually full-time, which allowed me to align my professional skills with lived experience and make a broader impact across the company.

In the end, I stayed for 38.5 years because of the people, the technical challenges, the culture of support, and the seemingly unlimited opportunities to grow, adapt, and contribute in meaningful ways.

You’re recognized as a Senior Electrifier—one of Schneider Electric’s top experts. What has driven your curiosity and growth over the years, and how has that shaped your career?

Learning has always been a defining theme in my life. Long before my professional career, I was driven by curiosity, learning how to rebuild small engines as a child, then later teaching myself to play the guitar. Engineering proved to be a natural extension of that mindset, opening the door to constant learning and reinvention. Over the years, that curiosity has taken many forms, from control systems and industrial networking to patents, standards work, and most recently, accessibility and artificial intelligence (AI).

When the Electrifier program was first launched, originally as the Edison program, I was accepted early on at Level 1 and later advanced to Level 2. What struck me immediately was that this was not a symbolic recognition program. It was a framework that legitimized deep expertise, made learning visible, and, most importantly, connected growth directly to business impact.

Earlier in my career, learning something new often happened during evenings and weekends, disconnected from formal goals or recognition. The Electrifier program changed that dynamic. It gave me a way to clearly articulate development objectives, pursue meaningful upskilling, and have those efforts formally recognized and discussed as part of the annual performance review and goal setting process. That direct connection, between learning, contribution, and impact, was both motivating and empowering.

What sparked my creativity most during my Electrifier journey was the freedom the program provided to think beyond my immediate role. It created space to explore emerging topics, to connect with other experts across domains, and to shape ideas that did not yet have a clear home. That environment was instrumental in giving me the confidence and organizational support to lean further into accessibility at a time when it was not yet a formal program within Schneider Electric.

In many ways, the Electrifier program helped bridge my transition from deep technical expert to broader systems thinker and advocate. It reinforced that expertise can and should be used to challenge the status quo, surface blind spots, and help the company evolve. The credibility and visibility that came with being an Electrifier also made it easier to engage leaders, influence discussions, and turn conversations about accessibility from “nice to have” into “business‑critical.”

Looking back, the Electrifier program did more than accelerate my learning; it validated a way of working that values curiosity, mastery, and purpose. It played a meaningful role in shaping the final chapter of my career, one where lived experience, technical expertise, and organizational impact came together in ways I could not have predicted but am deeply grateful for.

You’ve become a strong voice for accessibility and inclusion. Can you share what sparked that journey and why it became so important to you?

Before I began losing my eyesight, I took independence for granted. I could complete everyday workplace tasks on my own, like filling out timesheets, taking required training, submitting expense reports, enrolling in benefits, without giving them a second thought. As my vision loss progressed, that independence slowly disappeared. Tasks that had once been routine suddenly required sighted assistance, and the loss of autonomy was both frustrating and deeply personal.

That experience came into even sharper focus when I tried to purchase a newly released Schneider Electric product for my own home, only to discover that it was completely inaccessible to me. Even more troubling, it was not just inaccessible to people who are blind; it also posed barriers for people who rely on enlarged text or who are color‑blind. That moment was a turning point. It transformed accessibility from a personal challenge into a professional calling.

I realized that if I was going to speak to colleagues about inaccessibility, and about its very real impact on people’s independence and dignity, I needed to truly know the subject. I immersed myself in learning everything I could about accessibility: not only technical requirements, but how people with different disabilities interact with digital products and services. Just as importantly, I was determined not to focus solely on accessibility as it relates to blindness. People who are blind represent only a portion of the disability community, and meaningful inclusion requires considering a wide range of needs and experiences.

What ultimately made my role as an advocate effective is that I was not speaking from theory alone. I was speaking from lived experience. Inaccessibility was not an abstract concept; it directly affected my independence, my confidence, and my ability to fully participate at work and at home. That authenticity resonated. I sometimes wonder whether someone without a disability could have had the same impact, but what I do know is that lived experience gave my voice urgency, credibility, and purpose, and that’s what turned me into a natural ambassador for disability, inclusion, and accessibility.

Looking at Schneider Electric’s accessibility journey today, what are you most proud of, and what progress stands out to you?

In my nearly five‑decade career as an engineer, I have had many accomplishments I am proud of. But since this conversation is tied to Global Accessibility Awareness Day, I will focus on those related to accessibility.

People sometimes credit me with “starting” Schneider Electric’s accessibility initiative. The reality is that lasting, sustainable change did not happen until a critical mass of other advocates joined in. Accessibility only truly moves forward when it becomes a shared responsibility. What we have today is a growing community, a snowball rolling downhill, gaining both size and momentum.

I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished in just three years as an executive‑supported accessibility initiative. I’m also deeply grateful that Schneider Electric initially allowed me to pursue accessibility part‑time while I was still working as a systems architect in industrial automation and later trusted me enough to step into a full-time accessibility role with leadership responsibilities.

In the early days, getting teams to consider accessibility often felt like pushing a rope. Today, many of those same teams proactively come to us asking for guidance and partnership. That shift, from resistance to demand, is what I appreciate most.

The progress we have made makes me proud. What excites me even more is seeing accessibility increasingly embedded into how we think, design, and build, and knowing that the best work is still ahead of us.

As you approach the end of your career at Schneider Electric, what kind of impact or legacy did you hope to leave on the people around you?

As I prepare to leave the company, I see my responsibility as twofold: to share knowledge in a way that elevated performance, and to demonstrate care—for myself and for others.

After losing my eyesight, I was faced with a choice: to retreat and rely entirely on others, or to reinvent myself and show that blindness could be a strength rather than a limitation. I chose reinvention, and I chose accessibility as my new passion. That decision was as much about self‑care and resilience as it was about professional responsibility.

I also knew that credibility mattered. To teach others effectively, I first had to become proficient myself. I invested heavily in learning through courses, webinars, conferences, and collaboration with others deeply knowledgeable about accessibility. I then translated that knowledge into practical guidance, demonstrations, and real-world examples that individuals and teams could apply to improve their work.

What began as grassroots knowledge sharing grew into a formal, company-supported program powered by a community of like-minded colleagues. Today, that initiative is in its fourth year and embedded in how Schneider Electric thinks about accessibility.

As I transition out of the company, I continue to work closely with those who will carry this effort forward. My responsibility has been to leave behind not just documentation or standards, but capable people, confident, informed, and motivated to continue building accessible products and experiences long after I’m gone.

If there’s one mindset or action you’d like someone to take away from your experience, what would it be?

One thing I would like every team to do differently is to stop designing for an “average user” and instead design for real human variability from the start.

In the 1950s, Gilbert S. Daniels analyzed anthropometric data from thousands of U.S. Air Force pilots and found that not a single individual was average across even ten basic body dimensions. His conclusion was clear. The concept of the average human is misleading and breaks down quickly when more than one dimension is involved. The research reinforces a powerful truth: there is no such thing as the “average person.”

This lesson applies directly to the things we create today. Every person or team produces tangible outputs, emails, documents, websites, mobile apps, internal tools, physical products, to name just a few, and people will interact with all of these in different ways based on their abilities, preferences, environments, and technologies.

Accessibility is fundamentally about acknowledging that diversity and designing for it. That means offering multiple ways to accomplish the same task: ramps and stairs, audio and captions, keyboard and mouse, text that does not rely on color alone, and interfaces that work across assistive technologies.

If teams truly internalize that there is no “average user,” the natural outcome is more accessible, more usable, and ultimately more resilient designs for everyone, not just people with disabilities.

Looking ahead, together

Hearing from Rick, one thing becomes clear. Accessibility is about both the systems we build and the people behind them, the tools, policies, and practices that enable inclusion, and the care, understanding, and support that bring them to life.

Over 38.5 years, Rick’s journey has been shaped not only by his own resilience, but by the colleagues, leaders, and teams who made it possible for him to keep learning, contributing, and evolving. In turn, he’s helped shape a more accessible and inclusive Schneider Electric for everyone coming next.

That’s the kind of workplace we’re continuing to build, one where your experience matters, where you’re supported to grow through change, and where you can turn what makes you different into something that drives real impact.

If that sounds like the kind of workplace you’d like to be part of, explore careers at Schneider Electric.

About Rick Blair

Rick joined Square D Company on December 21, 1987, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a validation engineer supporting the development of the SY/MAX Model 400 series Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Following Square D’s acquisition by Schneider Electric in 1990, Rick relocated to North Carolina, where he held a variety of management roles focused on testing, sustaining, and evolving the SY/MAX product line. After Schneider Electric acquired Modicon, Rick moved to New England to support the consolidation of the SY/MAX and Modicon controller platforms and to manage the validation team.

In 2007, Rick transitioned from management back into individual contributor roles, including product and system architecture, industrial networking, local patent coordination, and participation in industry standards activities. During this period, he authored numerous patents and presented technical papers at external conferences.

Beginning in 1999, Rick experienced progressive vision loss and by 2012 was almost completely blind. He was paired with a Seeing Eye® dog in 2010 for mobility and began to use screen reader technology for digital access. As digital inaccessibility increasingly affected his ability to work independently, particularly in areas such as mandated training and HR systems, Rick developed a strong personal and professional commitment to accessibility.

Rick began advocating for accessibility within Schneider Electric whenever barriers were encountered, helping to raise awareness and drive change. Over time, others joined these efforts, and in 2023 Schneider Electric formally launched its global accessibility initiative with executive sponsorship. Rick defined, and was hired into, his current role as the Senior Principal, Digital Accessibility Program Manager focused on advancing accessibility across the organization, where he continues to help teams integrate accessibility into everyday practices.

Despite thoroughly enjoying his new role, Rick plans to retire on June 30, 2026, after 38.5 years with the company.