Microsoft Commercial Inside Channel 4's Workplace Inclusion Journey 2025

VIDEO Microsoft Inside Channel 4's Workplace Inclusion Journey TV commercial 2020 • Corie Brown is one of London's most famous voices. And she's using that voice to help Channel 4 on its journey to becoming a more accessible and inclusive workplace. 00:00 [aerial shot of London] 00:04 [Corie Brown walking to the Tube] Channel 4 continuity announcing 00:06 [TV with continuity announcing] Channel 4 continuity announcing 00:08 [Corie at Channel 4 London] Channel 4 continuity announcing 00:10 [Corie in recording studio] Channel 4 continuity announcing 00:14 Hi I’m Corie Brown. 00:16 I’m a Continuity Announcer for Channel 4 television in London. 00:20 And we’re the people that talk on the television between the programs. 00:23 So that’s a mix of creative, and technical, and marketing, and editorial and performance work. 00:31 I have a severe sight impairment, it doesn’t define me, and it does not devalue me. 00:37 But it does mean that sometimes I have to approach things just a little bit differently. 00:42 [Slideshow of Corie childhood photos] 00:43 I was taught to touch type when I was about 7 or 8 to help with schoolwork 00:46 And it meant that I was really adept at using keyboards by the time I was looking for work experience, 00:53 and that for me, was quite a unique sort of selling point. 00:55 And by the time I was at University, I was using what we now know as laptops, 01:01 but back then in the early 90s, it was a brick of a computer. 01:06 But I was the only person in a lecture theatre using a laptop. 01:10 It’s now widely recognized that effective workplace adjustments 01:15 can help organisations to find & retain really great people, but when I started out, it wasn’t like that. 01:21 People weren’t talking about disability, so neither did I. 01:25 I didn’t want to be judged or perceived negatively because of my vision impairment 01:30 so I just put my own adjustments in place. 01:33 [Paralympics 2012 footage] 01:35 Back in 2011 as we were gearing up to show the Paralympics of London 2012, 01:39 the business was really waking up to disability and working with disabled talent 01:46 and the whole conversation around disability. 01:49 And suddenly, I felt as one of quite few people working at Channel 4 with a lived experience of disability, 01:55 I almost had a sense of responsibility of needing to be a little bit more vocal. 02:01 I’m a founder and co-Chair of 4Purple, which is C4’s disability staff network 02:07 and our mission is to encourage a wider conversation about disability, 02:13 to raise awareness and to empower everyone at C4 to feel more confident about disability. 02:21 Of course an inclusive culture has to be nurtured and it has to be maintained, 02:26 and it’s really great to see businesses making commitments around disability inclusion, 02:31 but the pace of change is just so slow! And actually I think the only way 02:36 we’ll really start to shift the dial on disability is to have more people with lived experience 02:41 of disability in senior positions within organizations where they can really start to directly influence change. 02:49 I’m really proud to work for a company that embraces difference, 02:53 and challenges perceptions and stimulates debate. 02:55 C4 has been at the forefront of societal change when it comes to attitudes to disability, 03:02 and I really hope that continues because there’s so much still to do! 03:08 I think it’s fair to say I’ve made most of my big life decisions on gut instinct 03:14 and I’ve followed my heart. And if I could speak to my younger self 03:19 I’d say that it’s definitely OK to approach things a little bit differently. 03:25 And that really, that’s what makes us interesting. 03:30 [Microsoft logo]- advertisement spot 2020