In this week’s ImpactExpert QT, we welcome Joanne Austin, Inclusion Delivery Manager at HSBC.
Joanne’s work sits at the heart of disability inclusion and carer advocacy. Her impact is built from lived experience, not theory. From influencing global platform accessibility, to building grassroots carer support networks, to shaping financial wellbeing resources used across borders, her work is deeply practical, deeply human and quietly powerful.
Her work sits at the heart of courage, care, and what happens when someone refuses to “walk past” the things that need fixing.
Key Takeaways:
- Lived experience shapes stronger leaders: when you’ve lived inside the system, you design better solutions for it.
- Inclusion begins with courage: real change starts when someone is brave enough to speak up, even when it feels uncomfortable.
- Small ideas can create big shifts: human, simple interventions often grow into system-level impact.
- Connection drives impact: people change systems through trust, shared experience and honest conversations.
- Helping others builds strength: purpose grows when you create space for other people to be seen, heard and supported.
What’s one of the best roles you’ve ever had and why?
I’d say my current role. It lets me use my experience of disability and being a carer in a really practical way. I can recommend things, share subject-matter expertise with the business, and help drive real platform change for the communities we serve.
I love that no two days are the same. I get to speak to lots of different people and I’m always learning. Being in a global role is a big part of that – you get such different perspectives from different cultures and ways of working.
It’s not just focused on disability and caring either. I can step away, look at other things, then come back to this work with a fresh pair of eyes. I really value that variety.
And honestly, because my caring role is quite complex, work sometimes gives me a bit of sanity. I’ve got a brilliant team – we’ll grab coffee, have a laugh, play games, just create space. The people you work with make such a big difference to how you feel about your job.
What’s one decision you’ve made that helped align your work with your values?
I’m a real believer in not walking past things that can be fixed. During the pandemic, someone shared a moving image on screen that triggered my epilepsy. Then more content with similar patterns started appearing. I remember thinking, what do I do here?
But I knew I couldn’t leave it. If it could have such a serious impact on me, it could do the same to other people. Zoom isn’t just used in one organisation – it’s used everywhere.
It was really frightening to speak up, but I kept thinking that if I didn’t, the next person might not be as lucky as I’d been. So I said something.
What’s the biggest thing you’ve done to create or improve social impact?
The epilepsy work is probably the biggest thing I’ve done. We’ve got a brilliant digital accessibility team. When I raised it, they were so supportive and just got stuck straight in – they reviewed the guidance and worked directly with Zoom.
Zoom then built epilepsy controls into the platform. Now, if someone tries to share flashing or risky content, it gets blocked at source. We tested everything together, tweaked it, tested it again, and then Zoom rolled it out globally. Around 65 million people can now use those controls.
For me, it’s the reach of that which makes it feel like the biggest impact I’ve had.
What milestones or proudest moments stand out in your career?
Getting involved in the Disability Employee Resource Group was a really big step for me. I eventually became the UK lead and then the global co-chair, which opened up so many opportunities.
I’m really proud of the work I’ve done in the caring space. I was able to use my own lived experience, alongside the support of a strong network, and that helped me move into my current role.
We sponsored a report with Carers UK and held a parliamentary event to launch it, which felt like a really important milestone.
I’ve also created financial wellbeing resources that are now being used both internally and externally, in the UK and Hong Kong, which I’m really proud of.
What’s one project or piece of work that taught you a big lesson about impact?
During the pandemic, it became really clear that carers were almost becoming invisible – not because people didn’t care, but because no one was really talking about it.
So I set up something called Coffee for a Carer. It was really simple – people would join, bring a coffee, and just talk honestly about what they were dealing with.
We had hundreds of people joining, and what surprised me most was how many people didn’t know what support they were actually entitled to. They started learning from each other.
That then grew into a carers’ charter and wider support forums.
The big lesson for me was that the simplest, most human ideas are often the ones that make the biggest difference.
What’s a piece of strategic advice you find yourself giving often?
I always say: be open and be honest.
People can’t help you if they don’t actually know what you’re dealing with.
There’s a lot of stigma around epilepsy, and that makes it really hard to talk about. But what I’ve found is that most people genuinely want to do the right thing – they just don’t know how unless you tell them.
Once you find the courage to speak up, that’s usually when the support starts to show up too.
What’s one learning from delivering work at scale?
It is hard, there’s no getting away from that, but you learn so much along the way.
Scaling this kind of work really opened my eyes to how differently disability and caring are viewed across cultures. It completely changes how you think about solutions.
It does take time, and it definitely takes resilience, but honestly, the impact you can have makes it worth it.
Who or what inspires your approach to impact?
My children are my biggest inspiration. My son is autistic and my daughter-in-law uses a wheelchair, and they honestly drive everything I do.
I just want them to live in a world where they can be themselves, have opportunities, and go after what they want in life without it feeling ten times harder than it needs to be. That’s what sits behind so much of my work.
What brings you the most work joy?
For me, it’s about using my own experiences to help other people. I’ve had tough experiences, but if I can use those to help someone else through resources or signposting, that makes it worthwhile.
If I support just one person and they come back and tell me that something has changed for them because of a conversation or a bit of guidance, that’s it – that’s why I do what I do.
Finally, what’s your favourite quote?
“The best way to help is to help someone else.” That came from my dad, who passed away in 2019, and it’s always stayed with me.
When I set up Coffee for a Carer, it was about helping others, and it helped me too. I built community and support I use to this day. Helping other people has helped me more than I probably realised at the time, and I still live by that.
