International Women’s Day: An Interview with Chief Technology Officer Jen Kurtz

International Women’s Day is a moment to reflect on progress—and the work still ahead. In technology, leadership is expanding beyond technical depth to include inclusive team-building, equitable design, and ensuring innovation benefits everyone.

In this interview, we took some time to reflect with Jen Kurtz, our Chief Technology Officer, and winner of a Silver Stevie Award for “Female Executive of the Year” in 2025. As we spoke, Jen shared her expert perspective on responsible AI, accessibility at scale, and the role inclusive leadership plays in shaping the future of digital experiences.

What kind of leadership does the accessibility and technology space need right now?

Our space needs leaders who are technically curious, ethically grounded, and people-centered. AI is solving problems we couldn’t meaningfully address in the past. But it’s nondeterministic—it can be wrong. Leaders need to understand how these systems work, where they’re reliable, and where human judgment has to stay in the loop, especially when it comes to providing equitable access to the digital world.

Responsible leadership means using AI to remove repetitive work so people can focus on what they’re uniquely good at: judgment, context, and relationships. The value isn’t efficiency alone. It’s what reclaimed time makes possible: deeper engagement, more thoughtful collaboration, and work that requires nuance and trust.

The question isn’t just how to automate, but how to do so in ways that expand inclusion, reduce barriers, and keep human responsibility at the center of every decision.

How has working in accessibility changed how you think about technology?

Earlier in my career, the products I worked on were vertical. They were built for specific audiences with clearly defined problems. Accessibility is horizontal. It cuts across industries, products, and user journeys. It touches internal tools, customer platforms, enterprise systems—everything.

Vertical solutions solve a contained problem. Accessibility operates across an ecosystem. The complexity increases, but so does the responsibility. That breadth makes the work more challenging and more meaningful.

What does accountability look like in practice when it comes to accessibility?

Whenever we evaluate a new vendor, we assess accessibility alongside functionality. We work with colleagues who use assistive technologies to test real-world usability.

In one case, a vendor review revealed barriers that prevented team members from using the software independently. Accessibility wasn’t a priority on the vendor’s roadmap at the time, but sharing the direct impact on someone’s independence shifted the conversation with the vendor from compliance to human experience.

For me, accountability is making the human impact unmistakable. Leadership sometimes requires refusing to let that impact remain abstract.

Part of leadership is practicing what you preach. How do you ensure accessibility is built in from the beginning in your work leading Level Access’s own teams?

It starts in design and early implementation. Accessibility can’t be bolted on at the end.

At Level Access, we embed accessibility throughout the development lifecycle. We use our own tools—including Test Accelerator and Level CI—to surface issues early, and accessibility is part of our QA definition of done.

We also hold ourselves to the same standards we expect from others. As we innovate with AI, we apply it to our own products to identify and remediate issues sooner. Treating ourselves like we’d treat a customer builds accountability and strengthens how we support our own users.

What’s one assumption about accessibility you’d most like to see challenged?

That AI will fully solve it.

AI is essential for scale. It can surface issues faster and help prioritize remediation. But accessibility isn’t purely rule-based. It involves user flows, state changes, assistive technology interactions, and lived experience.

AI can analyze patterns, but humans interpret context. AI can accelerate detection and remediation, but digital experiences are too dynamic and context-heavy to rely on automation alone. Technology can scale the effort. It can’t replace responsibility.

Responsible AI amplifies human capability. It doesn’t remove accountability. Even as models improve, independent evaluation and real user interaction remain critical. Accessibility has to work for people — not just pass a scan.

How is the role of technology leaders evolving?

Technology leaders today are held to a broader standard. Technical expertise is still essential, but no longer sufficient. Leaders must build strong cultures, navigate complexity, and create environments where people feel safe innovating, raising concerns, and challenging ideas.

The most effective leaders pair technical credibility with empathy. They understand both the technology and the people building it. And, when teams have purpose and are valued, the quality of the work reflects it. Recognition increasingly reflects this broader definition of leadership—one that values emotional intelligence and inclusion alongside technical depth.

Where do you see momentum for women in technology leadership? And where is there still work to do?

There has been real progress. Technology has become more visible and accessible as a career path, with more entry points—from traditional degrees to alternative pathways—broadening participation.

But representation still isn’t where it should be. Visibility remains a major barrier. It’s difficult to enter a field when you don’t see people who look like you succeeding in it. And once you’re in, psychological safety matters just as much as opportunity.

What’s encouraging is that leaders of all genders are working to make technology more inclusive. Inclusion is increasingly understood as foundational to performance. Diverse teams make better decisions, challenge assumptions, and produce stronger outcomes.

Within our own organization, I consistently advocate for diverse candidate pools when hiring. Our recruiting team has been very intentional about broadening access to opportunity, and that discipline is making a significant difference.

Leadership today isn’t only about what we build. It’s about who we build it for—and, just as importantly, who we build it with.