Podcasts about disability awareness month

The Bible's “policy” on disability is dignity, inclusion, and care.  __________ Register for the upcoming Breakpoint Forum: A New Sexual Revolution at breakpoint.org/greenville. 

March is Disability Awareness Month. Steve and Director Fish discusses services for developmentally disabled in Wichita.

In this episode of Quillo Pod, hosts Cynthia Morraz and John Dickerson discuss the significance of Disability Awareness Month, the power of storytelling, and the role of accessible technology in creating inclusive communities. They highlight how sharing personal experiences fosters connection, shifts perceptions of disability, and encourages kindness. Additionally, they explore how accessible technology can enhance independence, break down barriers, and provide practical tips for making digital spaces more welcoming for all.   Resources mentioned in the episode: Listen to our episode with Lisa Drennan Strengthening Our Bridges : A conversation on inclusion Want to share stories with us? Email us at Quillopod@myquillo.com To learn more about Quillo Connect, visit MyQuillo.com

March is Disability Awareness Month, and Rev. Grace Bukachi challenges us to be intentional in embracing and supporting people with disabilities—both visible and hidden. From inclusion in church to simple ways of connecting, this conversation calls us to care, respect, and provide opportunities for all.#citamchurchonline #ChurchEverydayGet in touch with us:http://www.citam.org/churchonline@citam.org(+254) 784 277 277(+254) 728 221 221

John and Maria discuss DJ Daniel, Disability Awareness Month, and Christian history. Also, the idea that being “unencumbered" by responsibilities and dependents is the way to happiness is just wrong. And a new study puts another nail in the coffin of those pushing surgical mutilation for gender confusion. Recommendations Strong Women Lent 2025: The Songs of Lent Would You Rather Have Married Young? by Lillian Fishman Segment 1 - Disability Awareness Month FOX: Boy honored by Trump says cancer won't slow him down until 'God calls' him home AP: Transcript of President Donald Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress Breakpoint: Chris Nikic (who has Down Syndrome) Completes Ironman Joni & Friends Dancing with Max: A Mother and Son Who Broke Free by Emily Colson Lighthouse Voices with Joni Eareckson Tada Segment 2 - The Key to Happiness Institute for Family Studies: Ladies, Miranda July Is Not Your Friend ET: Kieran Culkin SHOCKS Wife With 'Fourth Kid' Reminder During Oscars Speech Oscars: Mikey Madison Wins Best Actress for 'Anora' | 97th Oscars Speech (2025) Segment 3 - New Study on Trans Surgery Oxford Academic: Examining gender-specific mental health risks after gender-affirming surgery: a national database study FOX: Trans surgeries increase risk of mental health conditions, suicidal ideations: study __________ Use code BREAKPOINT25 at checkout for a discount on registration for Summit Ministries worldview training camp at summit.org/breakpoint.  Learn more about the Colson Fellows Program at colsonfellows.org.

March is Disability Awareness Month, and we're shining a light on the incredible work happening in Pickaway County! This week, we welcome Heather Foll, Community Outreach Director, and Kathleen Carlson, Service and Support Administrator, from the Pickaway County Board of Developmental Disabilities to share how our community is coming together to celebrate, advocate, and support individuals of all abilities.Learn more at pickawaydd.org or about events in Pickaway county at Pickaway.com!

Cecilia Coble and Sarah Buckner talk about Disability Awareness Month

Aubrey gets the opportunity to learn more about Little Eden Society through to Ann Coetzee, CEO of Little Eden Society, about the work that they do for people living with disabilities. Little Eden Society, a registered non-profit organisation providing life-long care to 300 children and adults with profound intellectual disabilities in two custom-designed residential facilities.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Host: Anita Murcko, MD, FAMIA Guests: Denis Newman-Griffis, PhD, MSc, University of Sheffield Description:In celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (and Disability Awareness Month in March), listen in on this exciting discussion that intersects AI, disability, and responsible design. Dr. Newman-Griffis describes their work as "Designing ethical AI systems to improve equity of all populations".  

In this insightful episode of America's Heroes Group, host Sean Claiborne and guest Keisha Jackson, an Air Force veteran and family caregiver advocate, discuss the importance of preplanning for difficult caregiving decisions. As part of Disability Awareness Month, they cover the emotional and practical aspects of long-term care planning, especially when caring for loved ones with disabilities, aging parents, or veterans returning with physical or mental challenges. Keisha shares her personal experience caring for her mother and offers advice on how to prepare for the unexpected in caregiving situations.Topics:Introduction to Disability Awareness Month and acknowledging caregivers (00:00:00)The importance of preplanning for caregiving (00:00:42)Challenges and barriers in discussing care with loved ones (00:03:22)Keisha Jackson's personal caregiving experience with her mother (00:08:55)Legal considerations: Power of Attorney, Medical and Financial planning (00:11:00)The financial impact of caregiving and the importance of resources (00:15:10)Role of faith in caregiving and support from the community (00:23:35)Future planning: Next steps and follow-up strategies for caregivers (00:26:16)

With October now proclaimed Disability Awareness Month in Connecticut, David Doukas with the State Bureau of Rehabilitation Services and Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Coordinator Jonathan Richmond talk about efforts in Connecticut to ensure greater access to services and employment for individuals with disabilities.

You may or may not be aware of ARC. This is an organization that for many years has championed the lives, rights and welfare of persons with Intellectual and developmental disabilities. One of the main funding sources for ARC is its thrift stores. Not only do these stores provide a revenue source, but they also provide employment for many persons with all kinds of disabilities.   Our guest, Lloyd Lewis is the CEO of the ARC Colorado Thrift Stores. For the past 18 years he has grown the Colorado network from approximately $2 million to a large operation employing several hundred persons and greatly helping to financially support the activities of ARC.   My conversation with Lloyd is far ranging and quite informative. We talk a lot about the broad subjects of disabilities including the myths and fears promulgated within society. Lloyd offers some keen observations on how we can and should work to make society more inclusive. Lloyd's education and earlier business and legal background afford him a unique and strong skill set for the job he does today. I think you will find our conversation well worth your time.     About the Guest:   Lloyd Lewis is the CEO of the Arc Thrift Stores of Colorado, one of Colorado's largest nonprofits, employers of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and relief organizations. Under Lewis' tenure, Arc Thrift has funded over $250 million to nonprofit causes and charities since 2005.   Lewis is a passionate champion on a crusade to promote a new way to think about inclusion and diversity.   Lewis the recipient of a Civil Rights Award and received the World Citizenship Award from the International Civitans, an honor that has included such noted past winners as England's Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Eunice Shriver, the founder of Special Olympics.   Lewis sits on the board of The Arc of the United States Foundation and is treasurer of Inclusion International, a worldwide organization advocating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with members in over 100 countries.   Lewis has a 19-year-old son with Down syndrome.   He is the author of Why Not Them? a book about how his life was transformed by the birth of his son. In it, Lewis hopes to change the way our communities think about, connect with, and employee people with disabilities.   Why Not Them? is about a purpose-driven organization, arc Thrift Stores, whose mission is the success and inclusion of all of its employees, regardless of their abilities. It's about opening doors, challenging the way we do business, and touching hearts and minds.   Written from the perspective of a father and a businessman, it asks us all to join in the fight for inclusion and understanding. It is educational and moving and challenges us – as individuals and as a community – to perhaps look at the world just a little bit differently. ** ** Ways to connect with Dr.Jonathan :    https://lloydlewis.net/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislloyd/     About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hi, everyone, and welcome to another edition of unstoppable mindset where inclusion and diversity in the unexpected meet. And we get to talk today about inclusion and diversity. And if we're not, we may hit the unexpected as well, which is anything except inclusion and diversity. But our guest today is Lloyd Lewis, who is the CEO of the ark, Colorado thrift stores. And we're going to talk about ark and the thrift stores and everything else under the sun and why he's doing it and all that. So I'm not going to talk much, because that's his job. So Lloyd, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here, Michael.   Lloyd Lewis ** 02:00 It's great to be with you. And I really appreciate our opportunity to get to know each other and have a conversation. Looking   Michael Hingson ** 02:06 forward to it. Now we're in Colorado, are you?   Lloyd Lewis ** 02:10 We're actually I have stores across Colorado, from Fort Collins in the North Pole in the south across what we call our front range. And also on our western slope. My company is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, which is just a little bit southeast of Denver. Okay, we are all across the state. I   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 get to be in Littleton in May for the board meeting of the Colorado Center for the Blind and Littleton.   Lloyd Lewis ** 02:37 Oh, nice. Very cool. Yeah, Littleton is isn't as the city very near to us where we have a store and a very successful operation. And it's a wonderful city. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 02:49 I'm going to have to make sure that when we're going to be there that maybe we can at least meet in person. That   Lloyd Lewis ** 02:58 would be great. Please let me know when you're here.   Michael Hingson ** 03:01 I will. I don't remember the date. But I think it's around the ninth of may. But I'll let you know.   Lloyd Lewis ** 03:06 Maybe we could meet at my warehouse. We have a lot of wonderful blind call center agents there with adapted software. They do an amazing job for us. And I think they would appreciate getting an opportunity to meet you and and get to know you a little bit.   Michael Hingson ** 03:22 I may just stay an extra day or come in a day early to do that.   Lloyd Lewis ** 03:26 That'd be very cool. Very well. In any case, why   Michael Hingson ** 03:29 don't we start with you if you would tell us maybe about kind of the early Lloyd growing up and all that. Yeah, the   Lloyd Lewis ** 03:36 early Lloyd grew up in Tacoma, Washington. And I have a lot of family there. And the early Lloyd moved around a bit. California bit Bakersfield, high point North Carolina and Oklahoma City. And I had a stepfather who was doing transfers as a FAA controller. And I grew up, you know, doing well in school and playing sports. And really appreciate where I grew up, where we can see Mount Rainier from my backyard. And we had covered playgrounds because it rained all the time. Not like the kind of rain you're getting now. But it rained a lot in Washington and I actually like rain if it's the appropriate level. Not the LA rain you got right now but I've always found it refreshing. You had some snow this year. We've had a lot of snow this year. And we had that this past weekend. We were expecting a couple inches we got eight or nine inches. And we're having better weather right now as we're speaking. But this weekend, we could get even more so it's you know, I just wish we weren't getting so much of this because it interferes with my stores. If the roads aren't drivable people aren't likely to be out On the road, visiting my stores. So hopefully it'll be milder than what they're predicting right now.   Michael Hingson ** 05:08 Just for a point of reference, we're recording this on February 6 2024. So that's why we're talking about rain and snow and everything else. And typically, a lot of the weather that starts out in California does go East and elsewhere. So it's probably going to be a follow up to the storm that we have here that that you get. But it's a very slow moving storm. And that's why it's been so crazy out here, because we've had so much rain since it's just stayed over us and dumped a lot of moisture.   Lloyd Lewis ** 05:40 We see it on the news media, and it's very, you know, concerning. It's a lot of damage there. And power outages. And, you know, we in Colorado, we are, you know, sorry, this is the experience that you are having. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 05:56 well, and we will we will deal with it, which is cool. But at least we can and the cities and the government is doing their best to try to keep up with it all.   Lloyd Lewis ** 06:06 Well, I hope they can.   Michael Hingson ** 06:07 I hope. So. You did you go to college in in Colorado, or   Lloyd Lewis ** 06:13 I did not I ended up going to undergrad at the University of Oklahoma, in Norman, Oklahoma, and got a degree in political science.   Michael Hingson ** 06:23 Now, why did you go there as opposed to sign close? And I was   Lloyd Lewis ** 06:27 I was in high school at the time there. My stepfather had transferred Oklahoma City because he was teaching at the FAA Academy which is located. Yes. And then when it came time to do my undergrad. I had some counselors who thought I should attend an IV instead, I followed my friends to Norman, Oklahoma. And that was my undergraduate education.   Michael Hingson ** 06:53 Then what did you do? Then   Lloyd Lewis ** 06:55 I followed a girlfriend out to Massachusetts. From there, I did a paralegal training program in Atlanta, then hired at the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville, where I spent a few years as a paralegal and applying for a paralegal job with an investment firm in Philadelphia, because I'd never been in the big city in the Northeast. And I ended up prior to grad school, being a municipal investment banker working on municipal financing projects, ultimately with Smith Barney, which Wow, fairly prominent firm at the time. Yes.   Michael Hingson ** 07:33 Did girlfriend follow you around or?   Lloyd Lewis ** 07:36 No, she that didn't work. He did her own thing. She actually she's done quite well. She went to do a PhD at Princeton and English, and became a professor at the University of Mississippi in a very successful career.   Michael Hingson ** 07:51 That's great. So did you ever find another girlfriend that took?   Lloyd Lewis ** 07:57 I did? Oh, good. Okay, I found a few. And then from Philadelphia, we thought the 1986 tax bill would disrupt our industry. So I took the Graduate Management Admission Test the GMAT application test for business school, I got admitted to Duke to Michigan to some other schools and Oh, my word and versity of Chicago. Which is, you know, considered, I guess, the best business school in America, per US News rankings. And I did an MBA graduate in 88, with a specialty in finance. It came out to Colorado in Boulder with IBM, as a senior financial analyst in their executive training program, and from there did a series of companies. I was director of finance for publicly traded medical equipment company. I was a CFO for high tech ultimately sold to micron. And then in 2003, my world changed. I had a little boy born with Down syndrome, whose name   Michael Hingson ** 09:07 I'm sorry, his name again. Kennedy.   Lloyd Lewis ** 09:11 Okay, and I got involved in scientific research advocacy. I met a neuroscientist at the University of Colorado working in that arena. And we partnered up and advocated at CU University Colorado across the country to try to get more funding for Down syndrome research at the time. It really didn't receive much funding and met a philanthropist daughter, whose father had founded stars encore she has a little girl my son's age with Down syndrome. We partnered up and ultimately that family created what's now the largest world's largest Down Syndrome research facility. The Linda cernik Institute named for the neuroscientist that I met and worked with initially on advocacy. My whole world changed with the birth of my son candidate What?   Michael Hingson ** 10:00 What caused you to really decide to make that change and go away from being a financial analyst and being very successful in the corporate world to clearly something else, just just because of his birth? Or did things happen that changed your life or when   Lloyd Lewis ** 10:17 he was born? You know, a lot of parents if they have a child with Down syndrome, you know, surprise them at birth, they might get anxious or depressed or angry or concerned. For whatever reason, none of that occurred to me, I just thought he was great would always be great. And I immediately thought about trying to help Kennedy, because people with Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities have a lot of challenges and obstacles. So I went to a personal development seminar. I announced my goal in life was to raise $25 million in Down Syndrome research and Everyone applauded. And when I got down from the podium with that, holy smokes, I don't have money, I don't know anybody with money. And ultimately, the philanthropist daughter that I met, that family created the world's largest Down Syndrome Research Institute gifted with 32 million from that family believer in pointing the bat to centerfield, and, you know, shooting for the moon during the moon shot. And a few years later, unfortunately, the neuroscientist who was my friend and partner passed away from an aneurysm I took was my best friend at the time, I took a hiatus from Down Syndrome research, and was recruited to our by a friend that I had at IBM, and I joined arc, Mio five as CFO. Why? Well, I thought I could take my business skills and help create funding programs that would help people like my son.   Michael Hingson ** 11:56 So tell me more about Ark. So where it came from, what it is, and so on, if you would. Ark   Lloyd Lewis ** 12:03 thrift stores was created in 1968. To find Ark advocate chapters, who helped people with intellectual disabilities by jobs, housing, medical services, services and schools, affiliated with the Ark United States, the ark in the United States was the first parent organization during the 1940s, to advocate for humane treatment in large institutions where people like my son were being abused. And had my son been born in the 1940s. We would have been told, send him to Tunis, and forget about him, he won't walk or talk, tell people he died, don't tell people about him. But the Ark United States set about trying to create more humane conditions in these large institutions followed by deinstitutionalization advocacy, mainstreaming inclusion, public education, people like my son now live with their families, they participate in their communities. And the arcade United States with chapters all across the country, one of the top 10 charities in America does direct services and advocacy all across the United States, including advocacy in DC, with Congress and people, you know, important departments of the US government. So the art chapters of Colorado, all across Colorado, 15 art chapters, work with 1000s and 1000s of families and kids and adults. And again, try to help them achieve goals that, you know, a lot of us take for granted. How to find this job, how to find a place to live, you know, how to get your medical needs cared for, you know, how to be treated with respect in schools. And in our world, as as much progress has been made. You know, just through inclusion, people like my son have gained, on average 20 IQ points going from severe to mild impairment, moderate impairment to moderate to mild impairment. But still, there are tremendous challenges. 80% of people with intellectual dis 80% of women with intellectual disabilities will be abused. 40% multiple times 40% of men. There's an 80% unemployment rate for people with intellectual disabilities, the highest in the country. There's extreme shortage of housing and supports, there's a higher need for medical care. schools still have segregated classrooms for people with intellectual disabilities. So a lot of progress has been made, but there's a lot of progress yet to be made that the arcs are working.   Michael Hingson ** 14:54 Now is arc today an acronym for something. Now   Lloyd Lewis ** 14:57 it's no longer an acronym. Back in a Yeah, the word retarded, which is never used was actually an improvement over previous descriptions like Mongoloid ism, etc. It's no longer acceptable, right? It's just our it is just art today legally things are name as did the United States as have all the art chapters across the country, which   Michael Hingson ** 15:19 is, which is great and which makes perfect sense. And I kind of always wondered that whether and I sort of thought that that was the case. Well, my experience of being blind going back to when I was born in 1950, doctors told my parents the same thing, send him off to a home because no blind child can ever grow up to be a contributor to society. And he's just going to be a drain on your family. And that was the the tent the tone and the trend at the time, it was even worse than the other countries where they would just dispose of kids with disabilities when they were born.   Lloyd Lewis ** 15:57 Right, you know, we have many blind friends in Colorado, and they've all had similar experiences growing up, and challenges and obstacles. And, and, you know, our deep belief is that people with all disabilities, whether it's mental health, blindness, intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, should be treated equally and afforded the same opportunities through education or employment as anyone else in society. And that's what we endeavored to do.   Michael Hingson ** 16:31 Being a little bit of a rabble rouser and troublemaker, of course, my position is, every person in society has a disability. And for most all of you, it's the fact that you're like, dependent. And if the lights go out, and you don't, well, if the lights go out, and you don't have a smartphone, or a flashlight nearby, you're in a world of trouble. Yeah,   Lloyd Lewis ** 16:51 I mean, everyone has issues of some type, whether it's, they have, you know, physical, physical issues, or, you know, they have hearing issues, or issues related to aging, or mental health. Or for some people, it's alcohol, some people, it's drugs, sure,   Michael Hingson ** 17:14 but I really, but I really do seriously choose to believe that life dependence is a disability, the only thing is that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and now light on demand has become so ubiquitous, that your disability is covered up, but it doesn't change the fact that it is one of the things that most people have to contend with in some way or another. Well,   Lloyd Lewis ** 17:36 you know, thank you for sharing that, you know, and you are absolutely correct if to do anything in our household, before we go to sleep depended on light. And without light. And without vision, I would be completely immobilized.   Michael Hingson ** 17:57 So and and the reality is, of course, you don't have to be but that's the way we're, we mostly are brought up. And the result is that we keep talking about blind people as being visually impaired, which is so wrong on so many levels, because visually, we're not now we look, we don't look different, simply because we're blind, necessarily. And impaired, is what some of the professionals in the field have made it but impaired or not. And it's it's really wrong for people to ever accuse anyone who has a so called traditional disability, physical or intellectual, of being impaired, because that means you're really just comparing us to someone else. And that's so unfortunate.   Lloyd Lewis ** 18:45 Well, thank you for sharing that. That's, that's very profound. And that's very meaningful and impactful. So thank you for sharing that. But   Michael Hingson ** 18:54 it is, it is something that we, we all deal with, in one way or another, and it's just kind of the way it is. So if we, you know, in looking at a lot of all of this, what about EI and people who are dealing with intellectual disabilities and so on.   Lloyd Lewis ** 19:18 But really, I just came to this conversation, from a meeting with my dei director, who happens to be African American, and our senior staff of 10 plus individuals, talking about the importance of Dei, with respect to people who have intellectual disabilities, with respect to broadening the tent as much as possible across the company for people with various various challenges in their own lives. They might be homeless, or they might be, you know, from poor economic or backgrounds, or they might be immigrants or refugees or veterans or formerly incarcerated or black or Latino, female, or we just, you know, every, every part of our society, we like to reach out to as much as we can to offer opportunities to be involved with us. We're very diverse company, which is pervert produced our latest EDI report. And we believe that diversity makes us all stronger, that everyone's different in some way. How   Michael Hingson ** 20:41 did we get most people in society, however, to recognize that we're not including disabilities in the diversity discussion, if you talk to most experts about diversity, they'll talk to you about sexual orientation, and race and gender and so on. And they won't deal with disabilities at all physical or intellectual or developmental. I   Lloyd Lewis ** 21:07 think it's a matter of awareness. I think it's a matter of reaching out and having these discussions, I presented to a group of two or 300 CEOs last year about the importance of including people with intellectual disabilities in their dei programs. I've spoken to national organizations. I've written a book, I'm at work on a movie with a film producer. And to me, I think it's a matter of, we need to reach out, we need to bring this to people's attention. And we need to advocate for our communities. And make sure we're included in DDI programs and discussions, I mean, that the ones that people talk about are more than deserving they're really deserving. But we are no less or no more deserving than other parts of dei programs, right need to be speaking out on behalf of people with disabilities to make sure that we're included in these conversations and in these programs.   Michael Hingson ** 22:15 Well, and we need to teach and help people with disabilities speak out as well, because the reality is that we tend to be ignored. And it's it's so unfortunate, you know, we're talking this month in February, about Black History Month, and so on. In October, it will be in Disability Employment Awareness Month and Disability Awareness Month. But you won't see anywhere near the visibility and the publicity and the talk about it. Even though it's a larger minority than black history, or blacks or African Americans or any of the other minorities who get recognized at one time or another during the year.   Lloyd Lewis ** 22:55 I think it's on us, I think it's on us to really speak out. And, you know, make sure we're represented, make sure we're included, make sure we're part of these conversations. And we need to bring this to people's attention and advocate, just like other groups have that advocated. And they're no less deserving of more than us. But it's really on us, it's on you and me and, and others disability leaders and people with disabilities to make sure that we have seats at the table.   Michael Hingson ** 23:33 Yeah. And I think that, that is a lot of it. We've we've got to get Congress and the states to do more to stiffen the laws and give us more of the laws that we need to have. Even though it should be a no brainer to do so. We don't find that legislators work nearly as fast as they ought to on some of these things. For example, we're just seeing reasonable movement on a bill that would require medical devices to be accessible. We still have debates regularly in the states and even in Congress about the fact that while the Americans with Disabilities Act should cover the internet, and the Department of Justice finally said, so there's still a lot of argument about it. And the result is a lot of places say well, I don't need to really make my website accessible because the Internet didn't come until long after the the ADEA. So the ADEA can't add in any way involve the internet, which is a ridiculous argument. But yet it is what we encounter.   Lloyd Lewis ** 24:52 Well, that is a problem. And you know if we could turn out 50 to 100 people to go talk to our legislators Talk to them session after session, day after day, week after week, we will get their attention. And we will make sure that we get these kinds of issues. You know, I chair five disabilities in Colorado, one of which is a Colorado cross disability coalition representing people with all kinds of disabilities. And the leader of that organization has become very prominent as an advocate, we have a policy aide for the lieutenant governor, who is my co chair for that organization. And we are making big strides in Colorado, getting lots of good legislation, but there's still there's still advocacy to be done. And we're talking about creating a permanent disability office as part of the governor's cabinet. But it again, it's on us to go after these issues. To get the attention of the decision makers, the legislators, the corporation's to make sure that we're not ignored to make sure that we're not back to the bus.   Michael Hingson ** 26:07 Yeah, it's it is a process and there's been growth, there's been movement, but there still is so much more that that does need to be done. And we also have to be proud of our own history and, and recognize that we've made a lot of progress. But there is a lot you have to do.   Lloyd Lewis ** 26:28 I am chair of something called the Atlanta Community Foundation, which is was a sister organization of Atlanta's community Inc, which was the nation's second created Independent Living Center initially on it, or it's helping people move out of nursing homes and get independent living skills. And we manage 200 affordable apartments for people with cross disabilities. And part of the history of this organization is the formation of an organization called adapt, which you're probably familiar with, which does all kinds of advocacy, nationally, nationally has annual sins and protests. Famously, in the 1980s. A gentleman Wade Blank, would march with Dr. King was in Denver, and he was Associate Director for a nursing home where he tried to create, you know, fuller lives, more enjoyable lives are some of the residents, his reward was getting fired. When he got fired. He started suing, you know, the nursing home, getting people removed from the nursing home and creating this independent living center. And one of the more notable actions he organized was something called the gang of 1919 people in wheelchairs, went out to a Denver bus stop as the bus rolled up, they rolled in front, some roll behind another bus rolled up, they roll behind that one. And that led to the first accessible buses in the country here in Denver, that spread out across the country. But they're you know, Berkeley and Denver are two prominent centers of disability history in America.   Michael Hingson ** 28:41 A couple of years ago, I read an article that said that New York City Manhattan specifically made a commitment that they're going to make, I think it was 95%. But it may have been even higher of all subway stations accessible, which meant wheelchair accessible, and so on. And I and I know, having lived in the area and been on a lot of those subway platforms. That is a monumental task, because some of them   Michael Hingson ** 29:20 I'll be interested to see how they create the space to put an elevator in to get people down, which is not that it shouldn't be done. But it was a pretty major commitment. And I gather it's moving forward because I'm not hearing anything that saying that people aren't moving forward with it.   Lloyd Lewis ** 29:35 Well, that hopefully they fulfill that commitment. Yeah. It's again, as you say, it's very important to listen to our community. And make sure that we are included to make sure that we have accessible means to live just like everybody else. How   Michael Hingson ** 29:54 does this whole lack of in some senses regarding disabilities dei I affect the civil liberties of people with disabilities.   Lloyd Lewis ** 30:06 Well, you know, if you're discriminated against in employment, you know, that is a financial impact that is unequal and unfair in very disturbing, there's a very high rate of poverty in our community, which is, needs to be addressed. And those are things that we are working on. And people need the ability to have equal opportunities employment. Similarly, in housing, housing needs to be accessible, it needs to be affordable, needs to be available to people with disabilities, medical care, there's higher needs of medical care. Yeah, there needs to be more attention in Medicaid and other insurance programs to make sure that our community get the kind of medical care that that that they deserve, as human beings, as citizens who should be treated equally with everyone else, you shouldn't have to be rich to get medical care. Yeah, you shouldn't have to be without the disability and the way we think of disability to get appropriate medical care, similarly, in schools, there's still segregated classrooms and school. Yeah, in the world of abuse. People with disabilities, extreme experience higher rates of abuse than others, just in every aspect of society. We are we are hurting people with disabilities if they're not treated fairly and equally with equal opportunities. We   Michael Hingson ** 31:52 were talking earlier about the whole issue of becoming more involved in the conversation and what you were just talking about reminded me of something. My wife, when she was alive, was in a wheelchair her whole life, we were married for two years, and she passed in November of 2022. One of the things that she loved to do and so she got me to watching it as well was television shows like The Property Brothers on HGTV, or they call Property Brothers. Okay. And it's to get two twins, twins, who will go renovate homes for people and, and so on. And they, they do build some, but the thing about it, and there are so many shows like it, that are all involved on Home and Garden Television, with renovating homes, fixing up homes and so on. I don't even even though it would make sense to do, especially since we have an aging population, what I don't see is any of these people making a part of their vernacular or vocabulary or modus operandi, putting in appropriate things to consider the fact that somebody in the future who may get that home will have a disability. And, and so the result is we don't, you know, they don't do it. I think I saw one Property Brothers show where it was a wheelchair issue, or there was a person in a chair. But they don't do it as a matter of course, and it would make sense to do. And some architects will point out why it's sensible to do.   Lloyd Lewis ** 33:36 That's a very important point. Again, we need to be reaching out to the cable show producers, we need to be reaching out to the media, we need to be reaching out the networks, the streamers, Netflix, Amazon, we need to be reaching out to the builders, the builders associations, they can't ignore accessibility. Accessibility needs to be able to be built in everywhere, everywhere. And it's unacceptable to gloss over our community and not really listened to our requests for accessibility and inclusion is just not acceptable.   Michael Hingson ** 34:21 I suppose. And I hear what you're saying. And I don't argue with with that at all. But I do suppose on the one hand, where where should people focus most of their attention? I know in the National Federation of the Blind, for example. Well, the whole issue of access in the way we're talking about for people in chairs and other people isn't quite the issue. It really is. But at the same time, how do you decide where to focus your efforts?   Lloyd Lewis ** 34:57 Well, you know, I I'm very involved in cross disability advocacy. I'm very involved in affordable housing integrated for people with disabilities. I'm very involved in a state disability funding committee funding innovative disability projects on the ark of us Foundation Board, working in the arena, trying to assist them expand their funding capacity. I'm on an international board with members in 100 countries because as much challenge as we have in America, in some parts of the world, it's even Oh, yeah, extremely challenging, and concerning and troubling. And I'm very involved in my own company, and providing relief to our community and food, food insecure, employment opportunities to marginalized populations. And we've hired hundreds of employees with disabilities to my company. You know, where one focuses, it is really dependent on one's primary concerns. And one's bandwidth. I am fortunate to be blessed with an ability to sort of, you know, do a lot of things all at once. And so I try to do as much as I can as much as many different arenas as I can. But, you know, whatever the primary issues are for the National Federation of the Blind. If that's one's main concern, you know, go for it, you know, start reaching out to as many people as you can,   Michael Hingson ** 36:53 yeah. Well, and, and they do. But I, but I think that the, the challenge is, is for all of us so overwhelming, but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be dealing with it. And one of the reasons that is overwhelming is that there are so many myths and so many poor attitudes and misconceptions about things like employing persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or any kind of a disability, you know, what are some of the kind of myths that you encounter every day? And how do you? How do you deal with some of those?   Lloyd Lewis ** 37:30 Well, in my company, it's relatively easy to deal with the myths because I'm at the top of the company. So we don't have the same kinds of barriers and challenges that employees face in other companies. We are completely accessible, we are completely responsible, responsive to the needs of people with disabilities who work for us. With other companies, you know, it becomes more difficult because there are miss that it's going to be too costly, or there's going to be too many accommodations, or they're going to be safety issues, or legal issues or what have you. My response to all of that is, you know, we have to be provide accessibility to our employees, well make accommodations for all our employees. Well, so it's no no different than making accommodation for a person with disability than it is for someone who, who needs some time away with their kids or time away with an illness. Or they need a flexible schedule, or they need some kind of medical support. We need to think about providing accessibility and accommodations for everybody, regardless of ability or disability. Well, here's   Michael Hingson ** 38:51 another example. And one of the reasons I brought it up is to get to this point. So take the average employee who doesn't supposedly have a disability, right? What does any company provide them with? We provide them and I tell me this in a facetious way, but we provide them with lights so that they can see to walk down the hall and go to the restroom, and so on. We provide them with monitors and computers, and especially the monitors so they can see what it is that they have to do on the computer. We provide them with rooms that have coffee machines, so they can get coffee and other things like that. You know, we provide so many reasonable accommodations to the average employee period, that why should it be difficult to provide specific accommodations for maybe a subgroup of those people? And the answer is, of course, it shouldn't be a problem. If I go to work for a company, I instead have a monitor because I'm not going to use a monitor, although typically, computers come with monitors, but I need a screen reader to verbalize the the information that comes across the screen. But I'll get the argument well, but we didn't budget for that. And my response is, yes, you did. You provide what it is that people need in order to be able to access the information on the computer, just because what I use is a little bit different. We, a part of the conversation needs to be that we're providing lots of accommodations for everyone already.   Lloyd Lewis ** 40:35 Yeah, I completely agree. And in my own experience, it's no more costly to provide accommodations to people with disabilities and people who supposedly don't have disabilities. And it's just there's not really an expense differential anyway. And they were even if there were, we need to treat people humanely. People opportunities, well, where are we at as a society with our morality? Yeah, if we don't help everyone who can use our support? What what does that say about our society, even   Michael Hingson ** 41:11 if there were significant differences in expenses, which we know there are not. But even if there were, the bottom line is that any company that is doing anything, can figure out ways to offset those costs. But, but the reality is, there aren't significant differences at all. We   Lloyd Lewis ** 41:32 now live in this world of artificial intelligence. We now live in this world of the cloud. We now live in this world of extreme technical advances, medical advances. There's really no excuse not to support everyone in society, and give them reasonable accommodations. There's just no excuse. And that's   Michael Hingson ** 41:57 one of the reasons is that I object to the concept of being called visually impaired, because impaired is such a negative term, when you start to say anyone is impaired compared to anyone else. Everyone has impairments of one sort or another. And the reality is that we need to get that kind of concept out of our vocabularies, and least out of our mindsets. Well, I   Lloyd Lewis ** 42:23 again, I totally agree. Yeah. They totally agree.   Michael Hingson ** 42:27 So this is probably a little redundant, but what are some of the, the myths and fears that and this gets back to the whole conversation about disabilities? And I think why we're not so much included, but what are some of the myths and fears that people typically have about all of us, and especially I think, even more so with intellectual and developmental disabilities,   Lloyd Lewis ** 42:49 safety cost, legal accommodations, but we experience No, in my company, we have 450 employees with intellectual develop developmental disabilities, 450, Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, all forms of types of developmental disability, my company has never been more successful. I got the company near 37. When we were doing all of 2 million in earnings, we have had 17 of 18 record years only interrupted by the COVID. year, we're now doing 20 million. And I've hired 450 employees with developmental disabilities.   Michael Hingson ** 43:34 How old is the company today?   Lloyd Lewis ** 43:36 is 55 years old? All right, so   Michael Hingson ** 43:39 in 18 years, look what you've done. Yeah, and,   Lloyd Lewis ** 43:42 you know, I attribute a lot of that to employ people with disabilities, love to contribute, love to work in teams are very, you know, positive and inspirational to their fellow employees. And they just appreciate being able to be part of the workforce, and do what the rest of us do. And, you know, to me, I would do it in any company. If I were the head of IBM or the head of Facebook or Apple, I would do the same thing.   Michael Hingson ** 44:20 I would, I would submit that one of the advantages of hiring a person with any kind of a disability who thinks at all would tell you I'm going to be more loyal to you because I know how hard it was for me to get a job and the very fact that you gave me a job is going to want me to stay there because you made me an offer and in theory, you made me feel welcome. Why would I ever want to   Lloyd Lewis ** 44:50 leave boys with with disabilities are extremely low in the hate to miss work? We get to three feet of snow on the road and they want to come into work. I have to order them not to. Yeah, I believe all of our employees with disabilities are our blind agents or employees with intellectual disabilities or wheelchair users. They are extremely loyal, the Colorado's, and they can benefit from employment period that the Colorado   Michael Hingson ** 45:21 Center for the Blind in Littleton has actually purchased an apartment complex where all the students reside. And they have to learn independent living skills, learn how to keep up the apartments and so on. But they go every day to the Senator. So it usually means taking a bus, I think it's close enough that you can walk but not during the snow. But again, people do the same thing. They're very committed to being there to learning the skills that that need to be learned. And they do whatever is necessary to make it work out. And that's what it should be.   Lloyd Lewis ** 46:02 Yeah, again, total agreement you did acquire,   Michael Hingson ** 46:05 I would add one fear that you didn't mention. And I'll, I'll say it and then I'll fall aside a little bit. The fear is, I could become like you, I could get a disability, it could happen to me in a moment's notice. Having said that, the response is, how often when we start to deal with fear, do we just worry about things to death? That will never happen? The reality is most people won't get a dis become a person with a disability in any way. Why are you worrying about it?   Lloyd Lewis ** 46:46 Well, in the employment world, I agree with you. But as we age, more often than not, people eventually acquire some kind of disability, physical mental, cancer, Alzheimer's, you know, as we age, more or less well, true herb as well, not everybody. But I think part of it is not realizing that, you know, at, at the end of our lives, most people are dealing with issues that they didn't deal with earlier now. Sure.   Michael Hingson ** 47:25 And so they also weren't prepared for that either, which is part of what society really needs to do.   Lloyd Lewis ** 47:32 So I think people need a deeper empathy and understanding of, you know, people like my son are born with Down syndrome. And, you know, they have typically cognitive issues, resulting in IQs, less than 76. And, you know, it's not like they chose that live. It's not like, you know, they didn't do things in their life to prevent that happening. My son was born with an extra chromosome 21. But he's, he's a wonderful human being. And he deserves the same kind of opportunities, and treatment as everyone else in society,   Michael Hingson ** 48:19 will he have a job somewhere?   Lloyd Lewis ** 48:21 He, he's already working part time at one of my stores. And he's finishing his last year of high school transition. Cool. But I think people need to understand that a lot of people don't choose their so called disability. They're born with it. And people don't understand that later in life. Most people will probably have some kind of issue they deal with, and how would they like to be treated later in life? Right? What kind of respect they deserve later in life? What kind of treatment do they deserve later in life.   Michael Hingson ** 49:03 One of the wonderful things that happens at the Colorado Center, and that I've talked about before is that if you enroll there, and become a student, if you are low vision, as opposed to blind, that is totally blind. But if you have some eyesight, you will still do most of your work, your travel training and so on, under sleep shades. And you will learn to do that as a totally blind person. And the reason   Lloyd Lewis ** 49:33 pardon me but describe sleep shades for me. Sleep shades are   Michael Hingson ** 49:37 the things that some people put on at night when their lights so basically, covering your eyes or got it. Yeah, I forget the other terms that people use for them, but that's basically just so that you don't see any light. Okay? And the reason for it is many people who enroll or matriculate into the center with and have who have low vision are people who have retinitis pigmentosa or something else has occurred with them. And they will probably lose the rest of their vision. And the philosophy of the center is. This is the time for you to learn all about blindness. And really what blindness means. And by doing so, when you lose the rest of your eyesight, which is not to say you shouldn't use the ICU half, but when you lose the rest of it, which very well could happen, you'll already know what to do. And you don't have to go through a second psychological trauma, and learn things all over again, which I think is so important, because we teach people that blindness isn't the problem. And I think it's true with other disabilities as well. It's not the problem. It's our attitudes and our perceptions that are the real issue that we face.   Lloyd Lewis ** 50:56 Yeah, I very much appreciate that kind of thought process. It's,   Michael Hingson ** 51:01 it's pretty cool. One of the things that you have to do if you're going to graduate from the Senator, is you have to cook a lunch yourselves, for staff and all the students, which means you're usually cooking for between 70 and 80 people, and you get to do the whole lunch plan, the menu and everything. It's really excited on graduation day for anyone when that happens, because they've learned Linus has been gonna keep me from doing stuff.   Lloyd Lewis ** 51:32 Do you know Brenda Mosby does that name ring a bell? No. She's my co chair for the Colorado processability coalition. And she has low vision, I believe. And that's a person that is you remind me, I will email intro I think you would really enjoy me with Brenda, who has a lot of your experiences and philosophies. And I think she would be an important person for you to get connected with in Colorado.   Michael Hingson ** 51:59 Sure. And on top of everything else, we can get her on the podcast.   Lloyd Lewis ** 52:03 She would she would be great on the podcast,   Michael Hingson ** 52:08 always looking for guests. So anybody who has a person you think we I   Lloyd Lewis ** 52:13 guess be at work? Yes.   Michael Hingson ** 52:15 We're always looking. So anybody listening, if you've got a thought for a guest, we want to hear from you. But that's great. I'd love to meet her. And, and again, we're going to be in Colorado, we'll we'll work that out. I think it'll be a lot of fun to do. But I think that for the most part, we really do need to recognize that what people think about us and not necessarily the way reality really is.   Lloyd Lewis ** 52:47 Here, I mean people's misperceptions that people have intellectual disabilities as an example. If they're not connected to someone, they don't realize the full value and contribution someone like my son can make. What I'd say get to know him, and his personality, and his sense of humor. And you know, the things he enjoys? Yeah, his ability to verbal communication is a little tough for him because of some, you know, physical features. Yeah, sometimes a company down syndrome. But you can miss estimate what his real intelligence level is, because the verbal thing, but   Michael Hingson ** 53:33 I will bet he's not shy about voicing his opinion or articulating where he can.   Lloyd Lewis ** 53:37 He's not shy at all. In fact, he's kind of like the life of the party. And he loves to give speeches. And he is not embarrassed at all, to be in front of 1000s of people and get the microphone and express his opinions.   Michael Hingson ** 53:55 What's the difference between an intellectual and a developmental disability?   Lloyd Lewis ** 54:02 Well, they describe two things intellectual is around IQ and developmental as around the various stages of development, you know, crawling, walking, the typical developmental phases of early childhood.   Michael Hingson ** 54:24 What are would you say some of the best industries? I'll be interested to hear your answer to this some of the best industries that are suited to support or employ persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.   Lloyd Lewis ** 54:37 I would say every industry there you go. That's what we tend to think of certain industries that Yeah, look, but I'm telling you, every industry can have people with IDD work in that industry and be productive contributing members every year. I don't care whether it's tech aerospace, or the military, or every single and energy, retail groceries, every single industry can have seductive employees who have IDD and productive employees who have any form of so called disability.   Michael Hingson ** 55:24 Yeah, I think that's really the right answer. Why should we be limited?   Lloyd Lewis ** 55:32 Well, we're limited due to misperception. Yeah, that's my point, he went to lack of understanding, lack of awareness, lack of connection. And it's not always particularly the fault of these industries. Because unless you have a personal connection, you may not have had the opportunity to become aware of who people really are. This is same experience African Americans had back in the day and still have today that women have had and still have today, that gays have had and still have today. That there, there's a lack of understanding of so called, you know, diverse communities, that with understanding and connection, all of that goes away. All of that goes away   Michael Hingson ** 56:16 with all of the things that are going on today in society. And I think in so many ways, we are losing the art of conversation, and so on. Do you think that's making the opportunities and the whole potential for having the conversations that we're talking about tougher?   Lloyd Lewis ** 56:40 Yeah, these kinds of conversations can be tough, because people aren't familiar with them. And these are new concepts. And one has to set aside some biases, in a lot of cases unconscious biases, that again, with personal connections and awareness and direct contact. A lot of this stuff goes away. Yeah, you get to know who they are, she   Michael Hingson ** 57:03 got to know. Yeah. You discovered for   Lloyd Lewis ** 57:08 literally being in a room with somebody, or on the phone with somebody and getting to know,   Michael Hingson ** 57:12 you discovered that what you thought isn't really the way it is.   Lloyd Lewis ** 57:16 That is correct. That's absolutely correct. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 57:19 I want to thank you for being here with us and taking the time to chat with us about art about disabilities in general. Of course, needless to say, it's a topic that's near and dear to my heart. If people want to reach out to you and and talk with you more or or learn more about our How do they do that?   Lloyd Lewis ** 57:42 They can email me a Lewis l e w i s at ARC thrift.com, A R C thrift.com. On my cell phone 720-206-7047 Just say you heard this on this program. There   Michael Hingson ** 57:55 you go. Well, I hope people will do it, I hope people will reach out and the people will be more now stimulated and more knowledgeable about disabilities than they were before they came. I think that it's extremely important, and that they will help promote the conversation. And we'll have to work on getting the Property Brothers to come on to unstoppable mindset. These days. I think that'll be fun as less contact those guys. Yeah, Jonathan and drew Scott.   Lloyd Lewis ** 58:26 Wonderful conversation, really enjoyed getting to know you and have this conversation. And I think I learned a hell of a lot more from you than you learn from me.   Michael Hingson ** 58:35 Ah, not sure about that. I always love to   Lloyd Lewis ** 58:38 add a lot of wisdom in what you said.   Michael Hingson ** 58:41 Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I think we both learned a lot, which is the way it should be. I feel that if I'm not learning on these podcasts, and I'm not doing a good job, and I always find ways to learn so   Lloyd Lewis ** 58:52 this podcast is gonna be one of my favorite podcasts, you   58:55 will definitely get it. Well thank you and I want to thank you all for being here and listening to us. Love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to email me at Michaelhi M I C H A E L H I at accessiBe A c c e s s i b e.com. Or go to our podcast page at WWW dot Michael hingson.com/podcast. Michael Hingson is m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com. And I should have said and will now say that we met Lloyd through Sheldon Lewis at accessiBe you know, Sheldon.   Lloyd Lewis ** 59:29 Well, thank you. Thank you so much, Michael. I very much enjoyed this.   Michael Hingson ** 59:32 Well, thank you for being here. We really appreciate it. And let's do it again.   Lloyd Lewis ** 59:38 Please do it again. More to learn. Let's do it again.   Michael Hingson ** 59:45 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

GDP Script/ Top Stories for Mar 19th       Publish Date:  Mar 18th          From the Ingles Studio Welcome to the Gwinnett Daily Post Podcast. Today is Tuesday, March 19th and Happy 68th Birthday to actor Bruce Willis. ***03.19.24 – BIRTHDAY – BRUCE WILLIS*** I'm Bruce Jenkins and here are your top stories presented by Gwinnett County Public Schools 'Dateline' Features Murder of Heather Strube German Electronics Company Moves U.S. Headquarters To Duluth Area Trickum Middle School's Ryan Queen Named Georgia Principal Of The Year All of this and more is coming up on the Gwinnett Daily Post podcast, and if you are looking for community news, we encourage you to listen daily and subscribe! Break 1: GCPS   STORY 1: 'Dateline' Features Murder Of Heather Strube — Who Was Killed In Snellville NBC's "Dateline" aired an episode focusing on the 2009 murder of Heather Strube, a 25-year-old mother from Conyers, killed in the parking lot of a Snellville Target. The episode included interviews with detectives Trey Downs and Dean Boone, and former Snellville Police Chief Roy Whitehead. Strube was shot in the head following a dispute with her estranged husband, Steve, in the parking lot. The two were exchanging their 18-month-old son as part of their divorce proceedings. The episode delved into the investigation and the pursuit of an unlikely suspect. STORY 2: German Electronics Company Moves U.S. Headquarters To Duluth Area German electronics company Leuze Electronics Inc. relocated its U.S. headquarters from Michigan to Duluth, Gwinnett County, bringing over a dozen new jobs to the area. The move was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Partnership Gwinnett and Gwinnett Chamber officials. Leuze specializes in sensor solutions and sees Gwinnett County's dynamic business environment and skilled workforce as conducive to its growth strategy. The relocation represents a $1.2 million capital investment and is expected to create 17 new jobs. Partnership Gwinnett and local officials hailed the move as a testament to the region's business-friendly environment and welcomed Leuze as an integral part of the community. STORY 3: Trickum Middle School's Ryan Queen Named Georgia Principal Of The Year Ryan Queen, principal of Trickum Middle School, was surprised with the news that he has been named the 2024 Georgia Principal of the Year by the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals. The announcement was made during a visit by the association to the school. Queen, visibly moved, expressed gratitude to the school community for their support and credited them for his success. Gwinnett County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Calvin J. Watts praised Queen's leadership and highlighted Trickum Middle School's academic success under his guidance. Queen, with 26 years of experience in Gwinnett County, has held various educational roles before becoming principal at Trickum. He is the third GCPS Principal to win the GASSP Principal of the Year award since 2018. Watts expressed pride in the district's leadership and achievements under Queen's stewardship.   We have opportunities for sponsors to get great engagement on these shows. Call 770.874.3200 for more info. We'll be right back Break 2: TOM WAGES   STORY 4: Inmate guilty of pandemic fraud sent back to prison Isaac Camon, a Valdosta resident serving a federal prison sentence for drug trafficking and gun convictions, received an additional 36-month prison term for wire fraud related to illegally obtaining money from a pandemic unemployment program. U.S. District Judge Tilman E. Self III sentenced Camon to a total of 72 months in prison, with three years of supervised release. Camon falsely claimed unemployment benefits while serving time in prison. He filed a fraudulent claim, asserting employment with non-existent companies. Camon's intended fraud loss amounted to $19,452, with restitution of $16,322 owed to the Georgia Department of Labor. The FBI and other agencies investigated the case, emphasizing the pursuit of justice against COVID-19 related fraud. Reporting attempted fraud involving COVID-19 is encouraged through the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline. STORY 5: Georgia senators back bill to help teachers pay for classroom supplies State lawmakers in Georgia are proposing a solution to address the problem of low-paid teachers having to pay for classroom supplies out of their own pockets: a centralized online purchasing system. Senate Bill 464, which passed the Senate with a 52-1 vote, aims to establish this system under the oversight of state School Superintendent Richard Woods. The bill also includes provisions related to statewide literacy testing. Some teachers spend over $1,000 annually on supplies, and while Governor Brian Kemp has offered grants for supplies, the need remains significant. The proposed system aims to alleviate this burden by providing funding for teachers to purchase necessary supplies. While metro Atlanta school districts do allocate funding for supplies, additional state support is welcomed to further assist teachers and students.   We'll be back in a moment   Break 3:  HENRY CO SHERIFFS – ATL HEALTH FAIR   STORY 6: Accessibility is key during Disability Awareness Month Georgia's State Parks & Historic Sites are celebrating Disability Awareness Month by highlighting their dedication to inclusivity and accessibility. They offer all-terrain wheelchairs at 11 parks, ensuring visitors with mobility challenges can explore nature trails and enjoy activities like fishing and adaptive hunts. Additionally, ADA cabins provide comfortable accommodations, while accessible trails cater to various abilities, including paved options. Hard Labor Creek State Park features an ADA kayak launch, allowing individuals of all abilities to experience kayaking. Don Carter State Park offers an ADA horse ramp for accessible equestrian experiences. Furthermore, park rangers provide aids and services for effective communication, ensuring everyone can participate equally. These initiatives make Georgia's State Parks & Historic Sites leaders in accessible outdoor experiences. Visit GaStateParks.org for more information and to plan an inclusive adventure. STORY 7: U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde accepting entries for 9th District Congressional Art Competition U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., is hosting the 9th Congressional District Art Competition, inviting high school students to submit their artwork. Entries are accepted until April 19, with the winner having their piece displayed in the U.S. Capitol for a year. Clyde encourages Northeast Georgian students to participate, emphasizing the opportunity to showcase creativity. Artwork must be two-dimensional and original, with specific size restrictions. Accepted mediums include paintings, drawings, prints, mixed media, computer-generated art, and photographs, with adherence to U.S. copyright laws required. Questions about the entry process can be directed to Clyde's Gainesville District Office. Entries must be mailed or delivered to the Gainesville District Office at 210 Washington St NW, Suite 202 Gainesville, GA 30501.   We'll have final thoughts after this.   Break 4: INGLES 5 Signoff – Thanks again for hanging out with us on today's Gwinnett Daily Post podcast. If you enjoy these shows, we encourage you to check out our other offerings, like the Cherokee Tribune Ledger Podcast, the Marietta Daily Journal, the Community Podcast for Rockdale Newton and Morgan Counties, or the Paulding County News Podcast. Read more about all our stories, and get other great content at Gwinnettdailypost.com. Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Giving you important news about our community and telling great stories are what we do. Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 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It's Disability Awareness Month, so keep your eyes open for people living with a disability who need help and hope. Give that hope, give that help, and the Lord will give it right back to you. -------- Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible.   Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org.   Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

Through Christ, you can be more than a conqueror over anxiety, discouragement, fears of the future, or depression. It's a good lesson to remember during Disability Awareness Month. Even if you don't have a disability, Romans 8:37 is a good lesson for you today, too. -------- Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible.   Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org.   Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

March is Disability Awareness Month and the local Advisory Committee on Disabilities in Fishers is planning a long list of activities. Stacey Oldham & Cecilia Coble talk about that and much more in this podcast.

Katherine, (Kat), Magnoli grew up in New York and definitely has an unstoppable New York attitude. At birth it was discovered that Kat was born with Spinal Bifida. As a result, she is a paraplegic and uses a wheelchair. Unlike many, Kat's parents fully embraced Kat and the many gifts she has exhibited over her 39 years thus far. In grammar school Kat experienced a number of bullying events, but worked through them with the help of her parents. Those childhood experiences and others Kat will describe shaped her decision to advocate for persons, especially children, with disabilities. She works a great deal to advocate on behalf of children with autism. As we learn during our conversation, we share in our own ways many similar experiences especially concerning how people react to disabilities. Also, both of us are authors. I leave it to Kat to tell you about her books which you can procure. If all her advocacy and writing work aren't enough, Katherine is Miss Wheelchair Florida for 2017. Is that cool or what? I believe you will enjoy our conversation during this episode and I hope you come away with a deeper understanding about disabilities on all levels. About the Guest: Katherine Magnoli is an inclusion advocate. She began her journey of advocacy by writing and publishing Children Adventure Books about a super hero in a wheelchair . Her books are titled The Adventures of KatGirl. Over the years, Katherine has read her stories to thousands of children. Since then, Katherine has expanded her advocacy by participating and being the title holder of Ms. Wheelchair Florida 2017. During her time Katherine developed the Abilities Program, whose activities were used during Disability Awareness Month and Inclusion Week in 2018. She, also, created beach access in Sunny Isles Beach, Bal Harbour and Surfside. After this, she joined Miami Inclusion Alliance to help bring awareness to the epidemic of Abuse against People with Disabilities. In 2021, she was awarded the Idelio Valdez Advocacy and Leadership Award by the Florida Developmental Disability Council and became the representative of District 11 for the Commission of Disabilities Issues Board. Which, she is now the secretary, as well. In addition, Katherine is the Founder, and President, of KatGirl and Friends Inc. It helps educate children about inclusion through her book series. Finally, Katherine has recently begun disability etiquette training and has had the privilege of training students at University Level and prestigious Organizations such as American Civil Liberties Union. Katherine is currently very active on social media helping educate the masses on inclusion of people with disabilities. In the near future; Katherine will take part in the Family Cafe in Orlando, Miami Dade County's ADA Celebration and will be a virtual panelist for the Space Coastal Progressive Alliance to discuss issues pertaining to services for people with disabilities. Ways to connect with Kat: https://katgirlandfriends.com/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes **Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.  **Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hi and welcome once again to unstoppable mindset. Today, I get to have the honor of chatting with an author and a person who was Miss wheelchair in 2017. I've never met a miss wheelchair before, although my wife of 40 years was always in a wheelchair. So wheelchairs are not new to me. But a miss wheelchair is a new experience and an author. I have written books and love to talk to people who are authors and Kat Magnoli is definitely an advocate and a very prolific person in a lot of different ways. And we're gonna get to all of that. So Kat or Katherine, whichever you prefer, whoever you are. Welcome to unstoppable mindset. **Kat Magnoli ** 02:05 Thank you so much, Michael, for having me today. This is such an honor to be with you. And let's get it started as you'd like. **Michael Hingson ** 02:15 Well, we got introduced by Sheldon Lewis who also like I do works at accessiBe. And Sheldon had was interviewed on our podcast a long time ago. Well, we had a great conversation. And he's been kind enough to tell us about other people like you ever since. So, well. Let's start. Tell me a little bit about the early Katherine growing up or the early cat growing up, you know, a child and some of the early the early stuff about cat we should know. **Kat Magnoli ** 02:44 Okay, well, first off, I am the youngest of seven children. I'm the only person in my family with a disability. And that was an interesting way to grow up. Because, you know, I was kind of sheltered. My parents were both very protective of me. But my siblings, you know, they never treated me as if I was in a wheelchair growing up, they always wanted me to be a part of the games that they were playing. And they made sure that they adapted it to my needs. They never were like, oh, you can't do this, you know. And so I felt very accepted in that way. And I also at the time, was going to a school just for children with disabilities. So I really never experienced at a young age, you know, any form of bullying or discrimination or anything like that. That is until I was eight years old. And I was put into the public school district in a small town in New York called Yorktown Heights. And they, you know, I was the only person with a disability throughout all my schooling. And that was when I really got to see how people without a disability, treated those with a treated those of us with a disability. I went through a lot of bullying, a lot of ostracizing a lot of, you know, oh, you're a liability. So you can't come on this class trip. Or you can't come on the camping trip or not being invited to birthday parties. actually remember this one story that you know, my neighbor had a birthday party, and it's a pool party and I wasn't invited. And she was in my class. And all my classmates were there and so they actually saw that I live next door and they walked over to my house. And the mother of the little girl was like What's going on? Like, Why did everyone leave? And my mom was like, Well, you didn't invite my daughter. So now her classmates are coming to say hello. And the mother tried to fix the situation by inviting me. And my mom was like, No, like you're not going. So that's one of the stories that I like to tell because it shows how great of a mom I have. And speaking of my mom, I just want to tell you this one other story about her. You know, as I said, I grew up in a large family, and I was the only one with a disability in my family. And I asked her why that was. And she told me this beautiful story about the spine being like a magical tree. And she told me that it had these little magical leaves called nerves that help you move your arms and legs, and I'm missing some of my magical leaves. But then she went on to say that even though I can't walk, that I can do anything else that I put my mind to. So that just gives you a little bit of a glimpse of the good and the bad of my earlier years. So **Michael Hingson ** 06:13 to skip around a little bit. Oh, I don't know how long ago. How long ago was that? Roughly? That may be giving away your age, but I'll ask anyway. **Kat Magnoli ** 06:24 How long ago was which one? Well, **Michael Hingson ** 06:29 so sorry. So let me do it this way. How old are you? **Kat Magnoli ** 06:34 I am 39 years. Okay. **Michael Hingson ** 06:37 Okay, great. Yeah, so, so now, so the birthday party and all that stuff took place? Roughly 30 years ago, **Kat Magnoli ** 06:45 about 30 years ago. Okay. So here's, here's **Michael Hingson ** 06:49 the question. Do you think that that kind of behavior would still be exhibited today? **Kat Magnoli ** 07:00 Um, I can't speak for all parents. So I don't know. But I can say this. I think that there's a really wonderful movement going on in society, where the media, and literature and all that is really starting to embrace the disability community more than they did, let's say, 30 years ago? No, I think that there's more education about the disability community out there. And I think that that's helping make bullying maybe less, hopefully, I mean, I don't know, I can't really say, Yeah, **Michael Hingson ** 07:45 you know, I think things from my perspective, I think things are better, but, and the but is that it's all about education. And there are a lot of people who still really haven't decided that disabilities are not something that makes us less than they are. And so it does depend on the individual. I think that there has been some progress. But we have, I think, a long way to go. Yes, I agree. And so that's something that we we have to work on. I know that as a person who is blind, I continue to see lots of challenges. And I think that the reality is that we emphasize eyesight, so much in our lives, that we view people who, who don't have eyesight, or whose eyesight is less than perfect. We view those people as less than we are, we still haven't dropped the expression visually impaired. And that's got so many negative connotations, because visually, we're not different, because we're blind. But the professionals adopted that long time ago. And we continue to see impaired, well, we're not impaired, you know, you're not mobility impaired, you use a wheelchair, you're in a wheelchair. But as your mom pointed out, that doesn't make you impaired or less than anyone else. Because while you can't walk, there are short people who can't do the things that taller people can do. And even tall people can't necessarily do all the things in the same easy way that some short people can do because they have to fit into smaller places sometimes, or whatever the case happens to be. And what we don't really understand is that disability is not a lack of ability, but rather it's a characteristic. And we all have it in one way or another. **Kat Magnoli ** 09:39 I am 100% on board with what you're saying. And another thing that I like to reiterate, it's kind of in the same sense of what you're saying is that the disability community is actually a community that anyone can join at any time because someone can wake up and they can be blind or someone can wake up and get into an accident, and then be in a wheelchair or someone can go dead, you know, maybe listening to too much loud music throughout their life, whatever the case may be it or just like a gradual thing that happens as you get older, you know. And so it's it's not something that's so taboo as maybe society has made it out to be throughout the years, because it really is like the most common thing that it's it's the only minority that anyone can join, you know? **Michael Hingson ** 10:39 Yeah. Well, and I would submit actually, something slightly different. I agree with you. But what I also would say is that the reality is, every person with eyesight has a disability. And I've talked about it on this podcast before, the issue is that in 1878, Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb. While Why did he do that? He did that so that people with eyesight would have light on demand and would be able to function when it would otherwise be dark at night, or whatever. And so over the years, we've put so much emphasis on developing the technology, that light is around us pretty much all the time. But the but the other part about it is until it's not like if you're in a building, and there's a power failure, you have to go scrambling whoever you are for a phone or a flashlight or something to turn on the light. And if you can't find one, you're in a generally a world of hurt, because of the fact that it's dark, and you can't see what to do. So every sighted person has the disability of being light dependent, whether they like it or not. And technology has mostly covered it up. But it doesn't change the fact that the disability is still there. We just as a society don't like to acknowledge that, because light is so readily available most of the time. **Kat Magnoli ** 12:04 That is fascinating. I never really even thought of that. I definitely got Wow, that's amazing. See, that proves my point that you don't even have to go through an accident or anything that I just mentioned, like, just take away. Something that helps you enhance that sense. And that sense is no longer there. So it's really interesting what you just said, I'm fascinated by it, **Michael Hingson ** 12:37 we've got to get to the point where we recognize that disability does not mean a lack of ability. You know, people say well, but disability starts with this well, so does discretion. So it is it mean, a lack of question, whatever that is, or, you know, any number of things just doesn't need to be a negative term. And we've got to grow up to recognize that as a as a society, I understand that people with eyesight do have advantages, in some ways, because the world is being created around what they have access to that a lot of us don't, but that doesn't mean that we're less than they, whether it's a wheelchair or whatever, **Kat Magnoli ** 13:19 of course, of course, 100%. And actually, just to keep going on this topic for a second, I read an amazing book called no pity. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. **Michael Hingson ** 13:32 I haven't. But that's okay, go here. One of the things **Kat Magnoli ** 13:36 that they stress in the story, and it's not only a story, it's actually like a it's a book that talks about the entire history of the disability rights movement. And one of the things that they stressed in it is that disability no longer exists when you make things accessible to us. So for example, me, if, if there's a ramp, and there's a button for the door, I no longer have a disability because I can get into any building, if those things make it accessible for me. For for instance, for you, if there's Braille, your disability goes away, because you're able to understand and communicate in a in a better way by being able to read, you know, the bumps, and the Braille signage. So you can know where to go in a building, let's say like the elevator. And so I think that that's a really cool concept that disability is kind of like perception only because if you make the world more accessible, then no one really has a disability. That's the flip side of it all. And **Michael Hingson ** 15:02 that's the real point. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's and that's that way. So are you, quadriplegic or paraplegic? paraplegic? So So you see, you can hit people upside the head if they start getting too and setting them up people with disabilities write to you. **Kat Magnoli ** 15:23 I tried to be very nice and to educate first. Yeah. But if they don't listen, then I might have to run over a tower to my **Michael Hingson ** 15:33 wife, when sometimes we've gone to places even like Disneyland, although it's been a while. Got so very frustrated, because being in a chair, and she also was a para. We could be talking and sitting somewhere or just walking along and people just jump over the foot rests rather than having the consideration to walk around. Because they're in such a hurry to get somewhere. People are people are amazing. **Kat Magnoli ** 16:00 Yeah, yeah, I that's one of my biggest pet peeves. Another one is people just wheeling me up a ramp, like as I'm wheeling, and then someone of total stranger will come up behind me and think that they're doing a kind gesture. Yeah. And you start pushing me up the ramp, and it's scary, it startles me, you know, it scares me. So I always flip it out, you know, to the other side, where I'm like, How would someone feel if I just like started pushing them on their backside, and like toiling them to essentially walk faster, you know, like, that's not very nice, I wouldn't be able to do that I'd probably get arrested if I did that. Because you can't just put your hands on someone's backside and start busting them. So it's the same concept, people think that they're doing something nice, or that they're, you know, you know, not bothering us by like asking us to move over or whatever, I'd rather you say, excuse me, then push me or jump over me. You know, I'd rather you acknowledge me and be like, Excuse me, I need to get through, like, find a way to do it? Or **Michael Hingson ** 17:13 do you need help? I'd be glad to push you up the ramp if you would like I mean, but the point is to ask **Kat Magnoli ** 17:19 exactly the point is to ask, it's really not that hard. No, **Michael Hingson ** 17:24 it's not that hard at all. So I'm curious. What do you think of the truncated domes, all the dots that go across driveways, and so on to warn people when you're at the bottom of a ramp or, or going into a street? They've put those out saying blind people need to have those warnings and so on? What do you think of that as a person in a wheelchair? **Kat Magnoli ** 17:53 Well, let me say this, if it is good for people with blindness, then I think it's necessary. However, for a person with a disability. Again, it can be kind of a hazard almost, I will say, because, let's say one of my wheels, you know, gets stuck in between one of the bumps, I could fall forward, if it's a quarterly made structure, you know, I could fall forward. So for me, it can sometimes be a hazard. And it has been in the past. However, if it's good for people with blindness, then I'm all for it. And I'm accepting of it. And that's all that I'm gonna say about it. **Michael Hingson ** 18:40 The the place where it becomes valuable is not so much on ramps, or even in train stations, because if a blind person is using a cane properly, they'll be able to detect the edge of a train well of a train track or if the tracks are dropped down, like in a lot of subway stations or whatever. The the comment is where you have to have it so blind people know that they're coming to the edge. That's what the cane does. Although a lot of people don't necessarily use their canes well, so the compromise was to put those those dots in, but I know my wife hated them because it just shook her violently every time we went over them. **Kat Magnoli ** 19:30 Yeah, I definitely have noticed with my friends who have spinal cord injury that tend to have spasms below the waist, that it does trigger, you know, well for her more shook her neck and very sad and you know, yeah, well, it's **Michael Hingson ** 19:48 it's it's one of those things that that there are places where where they can help if you've got a very flat curb, not even a curb cut or a ramp but you It's such a gradual ramp down that you don't really notice it and the curb is, or the entrance to the street is flat so that you don't really have a noticeable demarcation between the sidewalk and the street. There is a place where it's relevant to put something but yeah, it's it's interesting, everyone has different challenges and some people love the the dots, and some people don't. And it's always a matter of trying to figure out the best way to make it as accessible and usable by the most or by most everyone and people have to adopt and adapt to different ways of doing stuff. **Kat Magnoli ** 20:40 Well, I'm actually going to flip the question and ask you something now if that's okay. **Michael Hingson ** 20:47 Oh, sure. This is a conversation. **Kat Magnoli ** 20:51 What is your opinion about ramps as a person who's blind? Does it hinder you or help you in any kind of way, not affect you at all? Well, **Michael Hingson ** 21:02 if it's a ramp, that's why I'm mentioned the very flat curbs. So from from my perspective, I can go either way ramps or stairs. However, it is my belief that ramps are very important. So I don't mind at all having ramps, but I don't believe that ramps enhance my ability to walk around. Because I'll use a cane or a guide dog and I will go where I need to go. And if there's a ramp, it's fine. If there are stairs, that's fine. And I realized that stairs generally take up less room than ramps. But having been married to a lady in a wheelchair for 40 years, I totally value ramps and have never had a problem with ramps so ramps don't bother me at all. **Kat Magnoli ** 21:53 Okay, that's interesting. **Michael Hingson ** 21:57 So on I am a firm believer that that ramps need to be available not just in the back of a building or whatever, but they should be readily available. So that people in chairs are people who need ramps. people with strollers just older people can walk in the front entrance of a building just as easily as I can. Even though I can walk up the stairs, so I'm fine with ramps. **Kat Magnoli ** 22:27 Okay, well, thank you. That's, that's very interesting to hear. **Michael Hingson ** 22:31 So it is kind of one of the things that that we we all do deal with. But I think I'm what I'm really surprised that is and we watched. We watched my wife passed away last November. So it's just me now. But as I tell people, she's up there somewhere. And if I misbehave, I'm going to hear about it. So I gotta be a nice guy. **Kat Magnoli ** 22:56 Well, I'm so sorry for your loss. **Michael Hingson ** 22:58 Well, it's been 40 years. And as I say, the spirit sometimes moves faster than the body and her body just finally kind of gave out and it is what we have to deal with. But, you know, the, the other the other side of that is that, you know, I learned a lot from her and having 40 years of memories and marriages is a good thing. And it it helped broaden perspectives in a lot of different ways. So I certainly have no complaints about it. **Kat Magnoli ** 23:33 That is so beautiful. Oh my goodness, you're gonna make me cry. **Michael Hingson ** 23:39 Well, like I said, she's somewhere and if I misbehave, I'm going to hear about it. So I will, I will continue to just be a decent person and behave well. **Kat Magnoli ** 23:50 That's all. That's all that all of us can do. **Michael Hingson ** 23:54 Yeah, that's about all there is right? That's all we can do. Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about you. You grew up did you go to college? Yes, **Kat Magnoli ** 24:06 I did. I actually got my AAA degree. My associate's in arts degree for exceptional student education. I really wanted to be a teacher for children with disabilities. However due to my health that ended up not being the case. But I still have my degree which is great. **Michael Hingson ** 24:35 What do you think of the the terminology Exceptional Children? **Kat Magnoli ** 24:41 Um, I think a lot of the time we spend too much time nitpicking. Yeah. At terminology. I think whatever a person is comfortable with is very like subjective. Like there are some people that don't like People First language they don't like the term, people with disabilities, they like, disabled **Michael Hingson ** 25:07 disabled person. **Kat Magnoli ** 25:08 I personally do not I like people first language, I want to be seen as a person that has a disability. So I think it's just all it's very subjective. It's however you feel. But, you know, the school district felt like it was a better transition to go from special ed, or special education, to exceptional student education. **Michael Hingson ** 25:37 And, you know, the only thing I would say about that is that, and I agree with you about People First, by the way, but I also think that we have to look at terminology in the light of what is it conveyed to people about us, like I mentioned, visually impaired. The fact of the matter is that continues to promote the concept that we're less. So a much better term such as like, happens with people who are deaf, it's not deaf or hearing impaired, it's deaf or hard of hearing, and that is what the deaf community likes, with good reason. And so, visually impaired isn't nearly as progressive and as helpful attitudinally and socially as blind or low vision. And so I think there is some relevance to recognizing that terminology can be part of the problem, rather than always being part of the solution. **Kat Magnoli ** 26:40 I 100% agree. And that's why I think that as a person within the community, when someone approaches you, whether it's you or AI, it's our obligation to educate them and let them know how we want to be referred to. Because again, there might be some people in your community that don't mind the term visually impaired. Maybe that's how they refer to themselves. There are and there are. And so I again, I think it's really about how we educate others on how we want to be addressed. Well, **Michael Hingson ** 27:22 that's part of it. And the other part is, and I've had discussions with some people say, I don't I find visually impaired, I'm impaired, I'm visually impaired, until they think it through, or until somebody talks with him about it. And gets them to really explore what they're saying, when they say impaired, for example. And that's part of it. And so in the blindness world, we haven't grown up yet, nearly as much as, say, people who are deaf have in terms of not being hearing impaired, but rather hard of hearing. So the fact is there there are people who are blind, and I've had discussions with them who say, No, I'm visually impaired, and I point out the issue. And if I get them to think about it, they usually come back and say, I never thought about it that way. Just like we talked about earlier, every person on this planet has a disability. And the fact is that most people are light dependent. And that's his disability, too. **Kat Magnoli ** 28:30 That's so true. Yeah. And actually, it's interesting, because a few years ago, I had the privilege of making friends with a man named Daniel Ruis, who is a big advocate for the ADEA, which is, for all of you that might not know is the Americans with Disabilities Act law. And so he makes places accessible, so on and so on. And one day, we got into a discussion about the word handicap. And I never knew what that term actually means. And I don't know if you know, either. Maybe you do. But for all your listeners, I just want to say that handicap actually means hand in cat, which was, which is a symbol of saying that people with disabilities are needy, and we're beggars and we're, you know, it's just it has such a horrible connotation to it. So that's one term that I will not accept to be called. Whenever someone says, like, oh, handicap parking, I'm like, No, it's accessible parking. You know, like I make that's the only thing that I'm like a stickler on, is handicap and also crippled. I don't like the term cripples. I think that that is something that degrades me. Again, I go by people first language and that just really is, you know, the case for me. **Michael Hingson ** 29:57 Well, and I think it's a matter of of really people just accepting that we're as equal as they. And unfortunately, though some of the language doesn't necessarily imply that and that's what we really have to deal with, which is why anything that utilizes the word impaired is a problem. But people have to grow to deal with that in their own way. And that's something that we just will have to work on over time. And hopefully, people will come to recognize it is a problem, just like when we talk about race. You know, we talk about African Americans or our people who are black, as opposed to other terminology that nowadays, it is frowned upon to say that, in most cases, although black people sometimes use that terminology amongst themselves, but by the same token, we need to recognize that there are words that promote negative and less than stellar attitudes in a lot of different ways. So it's, it's a challenge. Well, **Kat Magnoli ** 31:11 going back to something I had said earlier, when you asked me Do I think that the same kind of incident would happen now in relation to you know, how I grew up? I think the more and more we are exposed in the media, in a positive light, through books, through movies, through TV, through songs, whatever the case may be, I think, through politics, I think that the world will kind of shift its perception, the more they see what we can do. **Michael Hingson ** 31:49 I agree. We need to be more involved in the conversation. And I think more people need to help bring us into the conversation and talk about us or talk with us. And it's a slow process, because changing a societal attitude like that is is not a simple thing. And is a is a challenge for a lot of people because they've grown up thinking something totally different. And now we're saying no, you really need to change that. That just doesn't happen overnight. **Kat Magnoli ** 32:24 Yeah, it's interesting when Coda won in the, in the Oscars, I asked my friend, same as Mark McGwire. how he felt about it, because he's a person living with deafness. And he was like, so I didn't win. He's like, I don't care. I thought it was like such a tremendous thing. The disability community and someone living with deafness was like, okay, you know, like, he didn't acknowledge it as like this huge thing as maybe I did. Well, but **Michael Hingson ** 33:03 I spoke. First thing, I spoke at a conference later that same year, a conference on inclusion here in California for one of the county departments of education, and had occasion to interact with several people who are very active in the deaf community. And of course, needless to say, they loved it. So, yeah, it's different for different people. Yeah, exactly. So you got an AAA degree, and then what did you go off and do with yourself. **Kat Magnoli ** 33:34 And then, like I mentioned, my, my health kind of took a turn for the worse that I had developed kidney failure and was on dialysis. And this was actually during the time that I was still going to school. So when you're studying to be a teacher, you have to do what's called clinical hours, which means that you go into a school and you kind of shadow the teacher, and you learn from her by interacting with the kids grading papers, doing things like that. And one of the places that I did this was at a school called cacher LD, which is a school for children within the autism spectrum, and other learning disabilities. And that's really what inspired me to become an advocate because one thing that I didn't mention earlier is that with all the bullying that I had endured at a young age, it kind of actually depleted the message of the magical tree for me, and made me feel like maybe there is something wrong with me. So when I got the chance to be around these kids with disabilities, and really see their inner strength and see how amazing they were, it helped me re accept my own disability at the age of 2420. 85 So that's when I started to think, Okay, if this teaching thing is not going to happen for me, because, you know, my health is not allowing me to dedicate the time that's needed for this, how else can I help the disability community? So one day, I'm sitting in a pool, and I'm noticing that there's two children who are quote, unquote, able bodied or non disabled, whatever term you like. And they were staring at me, they were trying to figure out how I got in the pool for my wheelchair. And one of the kids actually said that he felt sorry for me. I was so sad that he would feel sorry for me that it dawned on me how I could help be an advocate. And I thought, like, after much thinking, I was like, I want to educate children about disability, because they're the ones most curious about it. So how do I do this? And then I thought about something that I've always loved to do, which is write. And that's when I decided to write a children's book called The Adventures of cat girl, which is about a superhero in a wheelchair, and she helps kids who are being bullied. And **Michael Hingson ** 36:21 you've written several books now happened to as I recall, yes, **Kat Magnoli ** 36:25 there are four stories in the cat girl series, they each touch on a different kind of bullying. So we have bullying, children and wheelchairs, bullying children who are deaths, bullying children who are overweight and racial bullying. Those are the four topics that I cover in my cat girl series. And then I have another story called Pete, the private eye, who's actually a blind detective, and he uses his magical cane to help him solve mysteries of lost objects. **Michael Hingson ** 37:03 Hmm. Well, you know, all I have to say is that if you ever decide to do a picture book on the disability of politicians, don't worry, they deserve bullying. Just just I love that I love to tell people, I'm an equal opportunity abuser. We don't do politics on unstoppable mindset, because I'll pick on all of them. And rightfully so. But you know, but that's your voice, especially now is right. So do you, do you self publish? Or did you self publish? Or do you have a publisher for the books. **Kat Magnoli ** 37:44 So when it came to the adventures of cat girl series, I went through my grandparents, who at the time had owned an educational toy business called Dexter educational toys. And when I came to them with this idea of my book series, my grandfather was a little hesitant. But my grandmother jumped on the idea. And she really, you know, used her resources of a printing company that she was in affiliation was to help publish the book. And with Pete, the private eye, I used another company called Print ninja, they're in China. And they do a fabulous job with printing as well. **Michael Hingson ** 38:38 That's great. Do you have any other books coming out in the future? **Kat Magnoli ** 38:44 I hope so. I do have a lot of ideas. I have some crossover stories of cat girl and Pete, that I really would love to, you know, have them meet in this story and work together and use both her magical wheelchair and his magic cane. And just kind of have fun, you know? Maybe finding loss items for bullies. **Michael Hingson ** 39:09 Well, there you go. **Kat Magnoli ** 39:12 That can be the crossover story. **Michael Hingson ** 39:16 So you sent me several photos. I'm assuming some of those are the book covers. **Kat Magnoli ** 39:23 Yes, I did send you one photo that has all four cat girl. book covers plus the cat girl puppet. Threes **Michael Hingson ** 39:35 I ask is that all I see are titles that say like img something so I don't. I don't get a description. That's okay. But I'm glad you did because I would have asked you to send them if you hadn't. So that's great, because we want to make sure they get into the podcast notes and so on because I want other people to read the books needless to say, thank you. So that's kind of important to be able to do Who? But you know, so you've written them. So did you. So what did you do for a job along the way? Did you go into teaching? Did you start advocating? To to start your own company? What did you do? **Kat Magnoli ** 40:17 Well, first and foremost, my number one passion is my book. So I've dedicated a lot of the time of my advocacy, to reading to children and selling my books to schools, and at different events throughout Florida, and in other states. And then from there, because I did still have a desire to be a teacher, I did some tutoring for about a year to through a girl that I knew named soudha that I had met in college. So I did get to do some teaching, later on in my advocacy. And then, you know, as I grew as an advocate, different organizations started to reach out to me to do work with them. So for a while, I was working at the Center for Independent Living. And then I worked a little bit for ShakeAlert. Miami, which is a wonderful organization that helps people get with disabilities get the chance to go sailing, and kayaking and canoeing. And so I have had some, like, odd jobs here and there, but all have to do with disability and advocacy in some way. But my main focus is my books and public speaking. **Michael Hingson ** 41:36 You've definitely kept active. Yes. **Kat Magnoli ** 41:40 So calls me the Energizer Bunny, **Michael Hingson ** 41:43 that are you go? Well, so cat girl was in a wheelchair is in a wheelchair, right? **Kat Magnoli ** 41:50 Yes, she is. **Michael Hingson ** 41:51 So did you involve in any way in any of the books dealing with autism? I haven't you since you've had a lot of interest in that and exposure to it. I **Kat Magnoli ** 42:03 have not had the chance to write a story about autism yet. I really want because the children that started my journey into advocacy to fall into the autism spectrum. I want to be as sensitive and correct with it as possible. So I want to do more research and make sure that I do that immunity, that justice that it deserves when I write about it. **Michael Hingson ** 42:34 We've come a long way with autism. I know I've talked to several people on the podcast here who discovered that they were on this they say the Autism Autism Spectrum. But they discovered it in their 30s and in their 40s because we just didn't really know enough about it earlier on to recognize it and diagnose. **Kat Magnoli ** 42:56 Yeah, yeah. And to be honest, you know, sometimes parents are hesitant, even if there are clear day signs, you know that their child is in the autism spectrum. Sometimes parents can be hesitant to get that diagnosis, and then the person will make that decision later on in life to finally get the test that helps them you know, be diagnosed, right? **Michael Hingson ** 43:30 Or it just never came up. And they never no one ever thought about it. But yeah, it is a challenge. And I think that that's, uh, you bring up a good point in general that a lot of times, parents of children with disabilities don't really want to necessarily deal with it either. And it's mostly because they haven't themselves become educated. Your parents were fairly unusual. And same with mine. The doctors told them when it was discovered I was blind at the age of four months that they should just send me to a home and they said absolutely not. He can grow up to do whatever he chooses to do. But parents that are willing to really step out like that are much rarer than we would like to think sometimes. **Kat Magnoli ** 44:17 You know, I've been beyond fortunate to have the mother that I have, and I am grateful for every single day of my life. Because my mother was unaware of my having Spinal Bifida. throughout her entire pregnancy. It did not show up on any ultrasound that she had had during the nine months that she was carrying me and so when I was born, that was the day that her my father had found out that I indeed had spinal bifida. And she always tells me the story because as I mentioned, I'm the youngest of seven So she would read a lot of medical books every time she was pregnant. And she always skipped over Spinal Bifida. It was like, Oh, that'll never happen. And when it did happen, she didn't feel sorry for herself. She immediately when she came home from the hospital, you know, started doing research started calling different organizations like, March of Dimes, and all these other organizations that can help her, you know, raise me in the best way that she could. So I'm just very, very fortunate to have a mother like I do. Yeah, **Michael Hingson ** 45:37 she learned and she dealt with it. Which is, which is great. And presumably, she's still alive and, and helping. She's **Kat Magnoli ** 45:48 72 years old, and she's the one who's truly the Energizer Bunny. She's unstoppable. **Michael Hingson ** 45:56 Well, then we need to get her on the podcast. It's good to have unstoppable people on the podcast. **Kat Magnoli ** 46:01 She's actually sitting right next to me, but she's shaking her head know that Oh, come **Michael Hingson ** 46:06 on. **Kat Magnoli ** 46:10 Can you just wave? Please? **Michael Hingson ** 46:12 Nope, she's, well, I'm not gonna see your wave. So that's okay. **Kat Magnoli ** 46:18 To everyone. Same way? Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 46:21 Well, it's neat to have a very supportive person. And that goes both ways. Because you give back and I'm sure help her and a lot of different ways. And just the very fact that you do what you do. Totally validates everything that she's done. **Kat Magnoli ** 46:40 Yeah, yeah, I actually just recently got a proclamation from Palmetto Bay, which is a neighboring town from Sunny Isles Beach. And they gave me a proclamation to honor Spinal Bifida Awareness Month, which is within the month of October, and my entire speech was dedicated to my mom, pretty much. I mean, I spoke for like four minutes, and three and a half of it was all about how wonderful she is. **Michael Hingson ** 47:17 And rightfully so no matter what she thinks or says. I agree. Like I said, moms who are and parents in general, who are that much risk takers are very rare in, at least in my experience, and from everything I've observed. So it's great to have that kind of really wonderful person in your life. So that's great. Now did even though you don't you haven't dealt with an autism an autistic person yet, in your books? Did they have some involvement in inspiring you to write the books, they **Kat Magnoli ** 47:59 were 100% the inspiration because while I was having the privilege to teach them, I saw how they were able to handle episodes of bullying far better than I did when I was a child. And it just was so inspiring to me. And I was like, wow, they have a strange that I did not have at 910 11 and 12 years old. And so it just really, it really did inspire me a lot. And they were part of the reason other than the two children in the, in the pool that had the curiosity about me. If I'd put it all together, it was like, a melting pot of inspiration for me, of why I wrote the adventures of capital. **Michael Hingson ** 48:47 I was at an IKEA store in California, once in a young man came up and said, I'm sorry. And I said, why? And he said, because you can't see. So I've experienced the same sort of thing that you did. And we could we didn't get to have much of a discussion about it because his mother dragged him away. Don't don't talk to that man. You know, you shouldn't do that. And people miss out on great education opportunities. Sometimes. Needless to say, **Kat Magnoli ** 49:13 yeah, yeah. And that's another thing that I really try to stress to parents that it's okay for your child to talk to me. It's okay. For them to ask what happened? It doesn't offend me if anything, them staring and the parent pulling them away is what offends me. Yeah, that that hurts my feelings more so then the child's coming up to me and asking me about my chair, you know, and asking me what happened. I would much rather that and so I've actually gotten into the habit of Do you mind like asking the parents do you mind if I tell your daughter or your son what happened? They seem to be Interested in my chair? Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 50:04 And, you know, I, I experienced a lot of that or, and sometimes actually promote it to get conversation started. A lot of times I'll be walking somewhere with, with my guide dog and parents say oh, don't, don't, don't go up to that man, the dog might bite you and all that, and I'll stop. And I'll almost block their way and said, let me let me talk to you about what guide dogs are. And then I'll also take the harness off, which is the thing that the dogs love the most, because then they know they're not working. And the last thing they want to do is to avoid getting attention, especially from kids. So we get lots of opportunities. And when I go to speak to schools, it's always fun after the speech to take the harness off and let the kids come up. And the dogs have figured out that if they lay down and stretch out every which way they can, as far as they can, and maximize petting space, they'll get more kids to pay attention to them, and they love it. **Kat Magnoli ** 51:06 Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, they, **Michael Hingson ** 51:09 they enjoy it a lot. So it's fun to do. That's wonderful. So do you know you've you've started your own organizations to help with advocacy, right? **Kat Magnoli ** 51:23 Yes, I, within the last two and a half years started, capital and friends Inc. It is a 501 C three that just helps educate people about the importance of inclusion through literature and my public speaking. And it just gives me a chance to reach a larger audience. **Michael Hingson ** 51:48 How far have you traveled to be involved in doing speeches and do public speaking, **Kat Magnoli ** 51:52 I actually went to the American Association school for children who are deaf. And that was in Atlanta. And it was really, really amazing. It was such an incredible experience. All the kids were signing their questions to me, which unfortunately, I don't know, sign language. So there was an interpreter there. But it was just such an amazing experience that I never forget that and I'm so grateful to have done. And I also got to go to New York where unfortunately, I couldn't be at the school because it was during like COVID regulations still. But I did a zoom session for a school in the district that I grew up in, which is Putnam Valley School District. So that was really cool to be able to do. And I've actually done that two times since then, where I've done zoom sessions for them. So I've been able to reach different schools in different states as well as make a pretty good impact in in my community as well. Well, **Michael Hingson ** 53:14 it's, I think, extremely important for us to recognize that one of the best things that we can do is to help teach and educate and I didn't tell you this, but when I was in college, I also went through the University of California, Irvine. College of teaching, so I have my secondary teaching credential as well. So I, I never did teach professionally as a teacher in that sense of the word. But I ended up being very involved in sales. And I believe that that the best salespeople are also teachers as well, because that's what they should really be doing. Rather than trying to force a product on someone, they should be educating people, and helping them come to the best decision for whatever they need. And that's a philosophy that has worked really well. But I love teaching and after September 11. For me, I decided to take up a career of speaking and so on, because if I could help people move on from September 11 and teach them about blindness and disabilities and such then it was a worthwhile thing. And if it changes one person is all worthwhile. **Kat Magnoli ** 54:25 That's such an amazing advice and an amazing perspective. And I could not agree more. I mean, when I first started this, I was like, You know what, I want the whole crowd to hang on my every word. Now it's not so much like that. For me. I just get so excited when I can lock eyes with one child, or one person in the crowd and I know that they're really paying attention and they're really being impacted by either my the stories that I've written or my personal story, whatever is resonating with them is, is so important to me. **Michael Hingson ** 55:07 What's the most interesting question that any child has asked you when you've spoken like that? Um, we all have those stories, I'm sure. **Kat Magnoli ** 55:21 I feel like they ask the same questions over and over again, no matter where I am, which is always, how do you get up in the bed? Like, out of bed in the morning? How do you brush your teeth? How do you take a shower? How do you get in and out of the car? How do you do these things? And I'm just so those kinds of questions I find to be the most fun to answer. The one that I think is so important. Let me rephrase that, because those are important questions to answer as well, because it's educating people about my daily life and how I get around from point A to point B. But the the subject matter that I find to be most interesting when they talk about it is when they start talking about episodes of bullying that they went through, and then we can start opening up that conversation. So yeah, yeah. Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 56:23 Well, and and it's fun. I love speaking to children, because they are uninhibited. And they don't hesitate to ask questions. Once you start getting them engaged at all, they will, they will ask anything. And if we can have a session and the parents aren't around, it really works out a whole lot better, because they will, they will become engaged and they'll ask questions I remember. And I've talked about it here a couple of times, I spoke to a, an elementary school. And this third grade boy got up after I spoke, because I opened it for questions. And his question was, how do blind people have sex? So there you go. **Kat Magnoli ** 57:11 I have not been asked that by a child. But I have been asked by adults. Yeah. wanted to take me out on dates. **Michael Hingson ** 57:20 Well, there you go. Opportunity Knocks Well, for me when he asked that I am not dumb, right. I just said **Kat Magnoli ** 57:28 for the background noise. **Michael Hingson ** 57:29 That's okay. I I'm not done when I was asked that. I just said the same way everybody else does. And if you want to know more, go ask your parents because I wasn't going to get into that. **Kat Magnoli ** 57:39 Yes, that is a very smart answer. **Michael Hingson ** 57:45 But for as far as you you know, two guys wanted to take you out on on dates. There's opportunity, maybe? Yeah, **Kat Magnoli ** 57:51 I mean, when this was mostly in my 20s, where people wouldn't even ask my name before they asked, Can you have sex? I mean, I just was like, Hi, my name is Katherine. And yes, I can. **Michael Hingson ** 58:09 Yeah. And if you want to know more, that's a different story. Zach. Ah, people are interesting, aren't they? Yes. But you know, we we cope. And we, we learn. And hopefully we do get to help teach them. And that's what's really important about the whole thing. So tell me about winning Miss wheelchair Florida. **Kat Magnoli ** 58:38 It was really amazing. It was actually a funny story. Because I had been in the top three, two times before, I had gotten second runner up and first runner up. So the third year, I actually wasn't going to participate. I was like, okay, clearly, I'm not going to win. I'm just going to take a break from this. But the state coordinator actually reached out to me like a day before the application was due to be a contestant. And she was like, Why haven't I received your application? I'm like, oh, because I'm not doing it this year. She's like, Yes, you are, you have to do it. So I was like, Alright, fine, I'll do it. But if I lose again, like I'm never doing it again. So So I ended up going and it's an amazing weekend, where girls with all different physical disabilities come together. And we do workshops. We do you know, judging with it's just so amazing. And so I was really happy to be a part of it again. But I went into it not thinking that I was going to win or place in the top three or anything like that. So I went in with a different perspective of just enjoying the moment And that's interesting because I ended up enjoying it so much that I ended up Miss messing up my speech. And so I really thought I wasn't going to win. So when they announced the, you know, second runner up and first runner up, and I wasn't called, I was like, Okay, I didn't make it even to the top three. So when they said my name, my mouth dropped, and I started crying for like, a good five minutes. And I was trying to speak because they handed me the microphone. And I honestly couldn't even tell you what I said, because I was that shocked for wedding. And before they said my name, I actually looked at my mom in the crowd, and I shook my head. No, it's not me. And at the same time, one of the judges was looking up at me. And she was shaking her head, like, yes, it is you. And I was just so confused as to why she was smiling and shaking her head. So it was just an interesting situation. And then when I did when I got to meet the governor, the former governor, Rick Scott, I got to work alongside the mayor of sunny isles and the mayor of ball Harbor, which is another town and get more beaches accessible in my area. I got to work with the school district, which is Miami Dade school district to have activities for Disability Awareness Month and inclusion week, I had a podcast so it was a really, really busy time for me. And it was a lot of fun. I also got to do a lot of adventurous things. Like go to I fly, which is indoor skydiving, and I got to, you know, just do some really memorable things. **Michael Hingson ** 1:01:56 So did you do the indoor skydiving? Yes, I did. I would like to do that. I've never done it. I'm gonna have to go do it. Some I would love to do that. Yeah, **Kat Magnoli ** 1:02:05 it's really, really cool. It's a very interesting simulation of what skydiving would be like. **Michael Hingson ** 1:02:13 Yeah, I would like to do it sometime. I'll have to work that out. Well, so what's next for you? What are you doing? What are your plans? And where are you headed? What's your mindset in the world? **Kat Magnoli ** 1:02:26 Well, currently, I am doing a lot of things. It is Disability Awareness Month and awareness month. So I've been making a lot of videos on social media just talking about basically what we're talking about right now, which is all that we can do. So that's number one. That's that's part of what I'm doing. I'm also doing a lot of different events for my books, to have more of an outreach for them. I am part of the Christopher Reeve Foundation where I'm a regional champion for them, which means that I speak to senators within my state about different laws that the Christopher Reeve Foundation is trying to get passed. So that's that's basically what I'm doing. I'm also in addition to it being Disability Awareness Month and Spinal Bifida Awareness Month, it's also Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which, for whoever does not know people with disabilities are three times as likely to be victims of any kind of abuse. So myself, along with my mentor, Debbie beets are going to be partnering for a workshop with the Christopher Reeve Foundation will end of October, where we're going to be talking about the intersectionality of abuse and disability. Wow. **Michael Hingson ** 1:03:59 So you're definitely keeping busy no doubt about it. **Kat Magnoli ** 1:04:02 Yes. Oh, and one last thing. I am working currently with semi owls beach to get even more beaches accessible in my town. So that's the last thing that I'm doing. **Michael Hingson ** 1:04:16 Well, just one more thing, right? Yeah. Well, this has been a lot of fun if people want to reach out to you and maybe contact you learn more about what you're doing and so on. How can they do that? **Kat Magnoli ** 1:04:31 They can actually reach me through my website, kat girl and friends.com **Michael Hingson ** 1:04:37 Kat is k a t. Yes, **Kat Magnoli ** 1:04:39 Kat is K a t girl is G I R L and is spelled just as we know A N D friends f r i e n d s.com.com **Michael Hingson ** 1:04:52 Yeah, okay. Any other contact ways or things that people should know? They **Kat Magnoli ** 1:05:00 can also just email me at Kat that's also K A T Magnoli, m a g n o l i@gmail.com. **Michael Hingson ** 1:05:13 Wow, a Gmail address without any numbers in it. You must be the first one. Yeah, well, cat, this has been a lot of fun. And I want to just say right now that when you have more adventures and you have whenever you want to come back on and chat some more on unstoppable mindset, I would love to do it. So you just know you have an open invitation. We can talk about it at any time, but I really value you doing this and if you know of anyone else. And likewise, for any of you listening, if you know of anyone who we ought to have as a guest on unstoppable mindset. I'd love to hear about it. You can let me know Kat knows how to reach me but for all of you, just so you know, you can reach me at Michael M i c h a e l h i at accessibe A c c e s s i b e.com. Or go to our podcast page www dot Michael Hingson m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com/podcast. And we'd love to hear from you love to hear what you think about the episode. And as I said, if you know of anyone that you think we ought to have as a guest, I definitely want to hear from you. We would appreciate you giving us a five star rating, we value your ratings very highly. And I really hope that you like the podcast enough to do that. So once once more, I want to thank you Kat for being here. I'm sorry, you were gonna say? No, **Kat Magnoli ** 1:06:38 I was gonna say thank you so much for having me, this has been such an amazing conversation. And I can think of so many people that I know who are advocates that would really shine on your show, really have such incredible stories to share. So I will be reaching out to some of them and encouraging them to reach out to you. Because I think that we all should come together and work together and share stories. I think that's the real way to educate and and build inclusion for the for the world. Last question that I have, when will this be airing. Um, it's **Michael Hingson ** 1:07:21 going to be a little while yet because we've got a number of podcasts that are out there, but we'll definitely be sending you an email, unless there's some need for you to to have it airing at a particular time. But it'll be a little while yet, but we'll keep you posted. Okay, **Kat Magnoli ** 1:07:37 great. Thank you so much. And I hope you guys have a great night **Michael Hingson ** 1:07:46 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

This month at Diversity Alliance, our campaign is centred around Disability Awareness Month. In this episode I catch up with Meg Strahle, who shares profound insights into her firsthand experience of living with hearing loss and we delve into how she navigates the events industry journey. Our conversation sheds light on what event industry professionals should be mindful of to support individuals with disabilities in terms of inclusion and accessibility. Together we address the following key points:

This month at Diversity Alliance, we're campaigning for Disability Awareness Month. This episode offers a fantastic learning experience, packed with valuable insights that can equip event industry professionals with the knowledge they need to know on disability inclusion and accessibility in the events industry.   Together Lizzy and I covered: Lizzy's journey towards advocacy for accessibility in the events industry  The importance of event management degrees evolving to understanding the importance of accessibility and inclusion in events  Best practices, strategies and ideas to improve accessibility and inclusion  The Inclusive Event Design Playbook and how this guide can help the industry   Lizzy's Further Learning Recommendation: Ted Talk I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much | Stella Young: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9Gg164Bsw Ted Talk No Arms, No Matter | Mike Adams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2-jgpGr4Ek Universal Design: Creating Inclusive Environments: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Design-Creating-Inclusive-Environments/dp/0470399139   WATCH THE BITESIZE YOUTUBE EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcRL5nXNFwewbSG9xAHUR0A   Meet our contributor, Lizzy Eaton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizzy-eaton/   Visit our website to access more resources: www.diversityalliance.co.uk  ® 2023 Diversity Alliance. All rights reserved --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/diversity-alliance-talks/message

Discover the inspiring #StepItUp campaign led by South African celebrities, Musa Motha and Mpumelolo Mhlongo, raising funds to treat 400 children born with clubfoot. Our Fitness correspondent - Liezel van der Westhuizen - finds out more on how we can embrace the power of dance, download the 'I Am Possible' track, and make a difference today. Learn about clubfoot, its impact, and how Steps Clubfoot Care is changing lives. Tune in and support Disability Awareness Month.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this podcast episode, Naveh Eldar, host of The Landscape Podcast chats about his experience with Disability First Employment and the Project Search program. He highlights the importance of disability inclusion in the workplace and the progress that has been made in raising awareness and promoting employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Naveh encourages advocates to approach others with love and understanding, recognizing that everyone has something to learn. October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month #NDEAM Timeline:  3:25 Introduction and Background Experience of Naveh Eldar 9:46 Association for People Supporting Employment First (APSE). 12:35 Project Search and how Naveh was part of the team that implemented a Project Search at their company. Please check out Season 1, Episode 1 and Season 2, Episode 17 on The Landscape Podcast to learn more about. 18:33 Bias and the importance of workplace disability training. Challenges of finding employers and programs for persons with disabilities in rural areas. 26:15 Changing the narrative 30:35 Closing Remarks --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/marsh-naidoo/message

In this episode, we celebrate National Employment Disability Awareness Month with an interview with Josh Straub and Grant Stoner, two disabled professionals who are passionate about advocating for the rights of disabled people in the workplace. We discuss the challenges that disabled people face in finding and keeping jobs, as well as the opportunities that are available to us. We also talk about the importance of inclusion and diversity in the workplace, and how we can create a more accessible and equitable future for disabled people.

Frank starts the show with Steve Kates, aka Dr. Sky, a veteran radio and TV broadcaster and edu-tainer with expertise in astronomy and space. He's also a podcaster for wabcradio.com. They talk about the latest in space news. Next, Frank talks about casinos MGM and Caesars being hit by ransomware attacks and speaks to Jim McCann, Founder of 1800Flowers and smile farms about Disability Awareness Month. Then, Frank discusses TaB drinkers heading to the Coca-Cola factory in Atlanta to ask that they bring back the beverage and also Aziz Alghashian, Fellow at SEPAD and a writer focusing on Saudi foreign policy towards Israel and MENA international relations joins Frank live from Saudi Arabia to talk about the Israel - Hamas war and broader implications for the region. Later, Frank talks about actor Kevin Spacey receiving a standing ovation in Oxford after his cancel culture speech, and much more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the studio today is David Leon, Director of Workforce Programs at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS), and Kate Kaegi, Project Manager for the DIF. In recognition of Disability Awareness Month, the second podcast of our DIF series includes David and Kate explaining how Virginia's DIF grant was initiated, implemented, and adjusted to best reach their initiatives of placing 750 individuals with disabilities in STEM and healthcare careers, registered apprenticeships, and State, County, and City jobs. Learn about the challenges they navigated and what they recommend when applying for a DIF grant.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music} David: Don't be afraid to apply for a diff grant. It is an amazing opportunity to infuse energy and enthusiasm into your workforce. It is a chance to stretch, learn new skills, try new programs. You get to see staff flourish and more importantly, get some really cool outcomes for the clients we serve.   Kate: I was a little intimidated with the idea of RSA, but what I have found is this RSA is there to help us. They want us to succeed.   David: You can accomplish some great things.   Speaker1: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining me in the studio today is David Leon, director for workforce programs at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, or DARS, and Kate Kaegi, project manager for the DEP. So David, how are things going at DARS?   David: They are great. We are plugging along, working on our grant. A colleague has a SWITZI grant, so it's been neat to really try a bunch of new things here in Virginia.   Carol: Very cool. So how are you Kate?   Kate: I am doing spectacular. Thank you for having me here today.   Carol: You bet. So, David, you and I had a chance to visit in a podcast on work incentives counseling in April of 22. And just so you know, you were one of my top five downloads. And when I think of Virginia, I always think of you and all the amazing things that have been cooking all the time. You guys always have something in the hopper and this is no different. So I started a series of podcasts focused on the diff grants and career advancement, and you are the second in my series and happened to fall in October with a nod to Disability Employment Awareness Month. So I want to just give our listeners a little snippet again about the diff grant. And so this particular round, the grant activities are geared to support innovative activities aimed at improving the outcomes of individuals with disabilities. And the Career Advancement Initiative model. Demonstrations were funded in federal fiscal year 2021. They were intended to identify and demonstrate practices supported by evidence to assist eligible individuals with disabilities, including previous served participants in employment who reenter the program to do the following. They were looking at advancing in high demand, high quality careers like science, technology, engineering and math, or those Stem careers to enter career pathways in industry driven sectors through pre apprenticeships, registered apprenticeships and industry recognized apprenticeship programs to improve and maximize competitive integrated employment outcomes, economic self-sufficiency, independence and inclusion in society, and to reduce reliance on public benefits like SSI, SSDI, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and State or local benefits. Now, I remember reading in the announcement some of that sort of I thought it was disturbing data that provided the base for why RSA picked this particular area and chose to fund it. And they based it on the program year 2019, RSA 911 data. And some of the things that they said were participants that were exiting the program in competitive integrated employment reported a median wage of 12 bucks an hour and working like 30 hours a week. And the top ten most common occupations were reported. They were like stock clerks and they were order fillers, customer service reps, janitors, cleaners. I call it the whole Food, Filth and Flowers. So I know through this initiative they were trying to do more. So let's dig into what you guys have cooking in Virginia. David, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. How did you get to VR?   David: Thanks, Carol. Started as a job coach years ago. We won't say when. It'll make me feel old, and I worked for a private nonprofit. I then assisted in Virginia, working with individuals, exiting a training center and moving towards community living. From there, I came back to the Richmond area to work for a community service board and again was a job coach and then worked within a sheltered work and day services program before coming to DARS, where I started with the Ticket to Work program and now have that the work incentives and a few grants and the workforce programs.   Carol: You and I have very similar backgrounds. I too was a job coach. I did work in a sheltered workshop for a while as well and all of that. It's always interesting how people find their way to VR. Kate, how about you? Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you got to VR?   Kate: I kind of fell into this. A lot of times, similar to other people. Unexpectedly, I found out about East Carolina's rehab program and that they had a scholarship for people who wanted to get their master's. And I'm like, Oh, free money. So I jumped into that. Absolutely loved it. I did my internship at the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitative Center. It was called something or a different title when I started back in the day. As I tell my kids, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I was there, started off there as an evaluator and then kind of moved across the state, became a rehab counselor in the field, have done transition counseling, substance abuse counseling, went back to Boca Vale for a little bit, even dipped my toes into the world of job coaching and worked with David for a period of time at the CSV, came back to DARS, worked with the Department for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and also, as an aside, also had joined the military during that timeframe on the reserve side. So I'm out of that at this point. So I have quite an eclectic background. As a supervisor once said that I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do, but it was all overall 24 years of work working with individuals with disabilities in a variety of areas. So it really kind of dovetailed well for me to work in the first dif grant that we received prior to this grant where I was a VMA or Virginia Manufacturing Association liaison for our grant. And when we were working on this Phase two grant, it was just pulling from what we've learned previously and growing from there. And so here I am.   Carol: I love it, it positions you really well for the work under this new grant. Very cool. Thanks for sharing that. So, David, why don't you paint us a picture of Virginia DARS How many staff do you have? About how many people are you all serving?   David: Okay, DARS comprises the Division of Rehabilitative Services, the Disability Determination Services, Aging Services. We have roughly 28 to 30 offices around the state and are currently serving just around 18,000 clients. If you include Pre-ETS in those totals.   Carol: that's a bunch., holy cow. I didn't realize you guys were that big.   David: Yeah, and that doesn't include however many cases DDS is handling or our aging or the other units. But that's a little bit about DARS, and I like to say we stretch from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to almost as far west as Detroit. If you go down to Bristol, Virginia, which is technically a little further than Detroit. So lots of types of environments and communities and very unique challenges in different areas.   Carol: Yeah, so you're definitely facing different geographical issues and I'm sure probably even economic differences. You know, if you're talking the coast versus maybe more of a rural area. So I'm sure there's probably some challenges there with even getting providers or how you're providing services.   David: It's interesting. One of the things we've been able to see in, for instance, Southwest Virginia, there is an economic center that's only 16 miles away from an office. But to get there, you go over three mountains and it could take two hours. So are those jobs really accessible to someone without a vehicle? On paper from Richmond, it might look like, why aren't we placing folks in this community out of that office? Well, it's a two hour drive each way, and that's the only way to do it. You mentioned at the beginning those top ten job areas. And one of the things we're really trying to challenge ourselves with now is giving people the information to make an informed decision about a career choice. But if they choose a career that might not look as great, what is the best potential version of that job? What is the job within that sector that actually could become a career? So at the beginning when we were starting to work on this, our agency had been in order of selection for years with categories closed and with the pandemic. That all changed. But the clients we were seeing didn't change and their goals didn't change. I think that's going to be a longer term conversation. But if we can do things to promote the best version of a position. And so I'll just give you one example. And our commissioner, other folks would probably say, why do we have so many folks who want jobs in food service or in this? Because typically they're low paying. Typically there's a lot of turnover. It's hard to become stable. One of the first projects we worked on in this grant was a partnership with a school nutrition program, and we've been able to help a few individuals enter into work in a kitchen at a school where they have the same hours. Monday through Friday. They have the opportunity for benefits. In one case, we couldn't find transportation. That school system was allowing the individual to take the school bus for that person. That's a really stable job and it's somewhere they can grow and thrive for years. So I do want to just say we have to think a little bit differently about what Kate or I or others might think of as a career. How do we find that best option for someone where there is room for growth, but equally important room for that time for stability to get to mastery, to then look at other skills and hopefully down the road they'd come back, not because they lost that job and need it again, but because they've learned so much that they want to go on to the next thing of their own accord.   Carol: Yeah, I like that you said that because I remember that when we visited before talking about that best version of that job. So not to mean that no one can work in kind of food, filth and flowers. I know I say that and it sounds sort of condescending and it's not meant to be. But we typically relied on kind of those occupations, really entry level. But I like that you're taking a spin on that and really looking deeper because we need folks to work in those occupations too. And there's people that love doing that work. But how like you say, can you do the best version of that? So you have benefits and you're looking at those long term like working in a school district, you can get retirement and all these different really awesome things that go with that. So, Kate, I'm going to switch to you. So big picture, break it down for us on your grant proposal and what you're hoping to accomplish with I know you had said you have three core components. Talk a little bit about that.   Kate: Sure. I do want to make a caveat that I love about this grant is it is a demonstration grant, meaning we have the opportunity to try out innovative products and projects across the state. I just want to put a caveat on that to keep that in your mind as I'm going forward here. So our main goal is to place 750 individuals with disabilities in federal, state, county, city jobs and or registered apprenticeships or also Stem and health careers. So we have those three main components on that. And when we looked at this grant and David worked on the development and the proposal for this, we really wanted to touch individuals that had been kind of missed in the first grant. And this I think, is something as we're doing a grant, you're learning all the time. And we wanted to make sure that we were hitting those unserved and underserved across the state. So individuals that aren't as plentiful in different areas. So say like Winchester has a large Hispanic population, does that reflect the number served in the actual DARS office? How do we get Spanish speaking individuals more involved in DARS? How do we get women who may only recognize those areas that you talked about that flower filth? And because that's what they're aware of, that's the work they've done in the past. So I just need another job in that area. How can we open up some possibilities? Have you thought about the IT field? Have you thought about advanced manufacturing and can you see yourself doing that? So providing those opportunities, it's a way for us to look at those unserved and underserved across the state. And we're defining that as we're going and we're looking at the census data, we're looking at who we're serving within each state. And then we're also looking at our plans, the plans that the rehab counselors are creating. What are those plans? What is the main goal? Overall we see a lot of customer service because it's kind of a catch all. What does that mean? Is that customer service as a helpdesk technician as opposed to just somebody as a receptionist? So we're really helping both the VRC, the counselor, and the candidate explore possibilities like that.   Carol: I like that. I just love what you guys are doing and really fundamentally getting down, digging in and really focusing on those folks that have been underserved or unserved and just taking that twist on the occupation because there's a wide range like within customer service, you have the job from here to here.   Kate: Exactly.   Carol: Yeah, that is very cool. Now, I know you all had some really weird hiccups in the beginning when you were starting out with this particular grant. So what were some of those kind of hiccups and how did you overcome that? And Kate, I'll probably shoot to you first on this.   Kate: So part of the thing that I didn't mention was is that the roles that our team players have. So we have a liaison with Department of Labor and Industry, specifically the registered apprenticeship side. So they have their foot in the DOLI world and the foot in the DARS world. We also have a team member who has their foot in the Department of Human Resource Management Liaison, and then also her toes are also dipping in the DARS. So we've had some different team members on that. We also have a quick response, counselor, somebody who can go in and respond to immediate needs of employers, of an individual that might be working with them, that has a disability, that might need some help, whether that's in a registered apprenticeship or on that particular job. During the first year we hired and we had everybody up and running and we had two team members, one had a medical emergency and had to move away from the position because there was some driving involved. And then unfortunately, we had Lisa Hanky, who passed away unexpectedly on us. So, you know, you get all getting that hiring going and then all of a sudden we lost two individuals, so we had to restart that process.   David: But Kate, if I can add to that, and I believe this is true for everyone in our round of this DIF funding, I believe we were told two days before the beginning of the project, it was about a day after that that, you know, many agencies coming out of the pandemic have had challenges with staffing and we had those challenges in our procurement division. So getting contracts signed, getting those staff replaced. But the other thing that has been a challenge and we're finally coming out of. We created three positions that this agency has never had, and it had meant that we had to learn how to provide quality support to two other state agencies in the context of working with DARS and similarly with our quick response counselors. So we created these positions that we had an idea of how they could work. But once someone got into those roles and was learning the other agency, we've had to be flexible in understanding how they can actually benefit our clients and our agency. And that has been a learning process.   Carol: You guys bring up a really good point because I think sometimes when folks are applying for the DIF grant, you're not recognizing off the get-go That first year can be a struggle because like you said, you found out two days before and then you get the money. And then as we know with any state government, it takes time to hire and like to get through all those processes. And so RSA may be on one hand going like spend the money and you're like, we're trying, but we've got to get through all our HR processes and all this crazy stuff. So it takes a little bit to get rolling in that first year. And I know we often on the TA world are talking with people as they're applying for grants going just know as you're going into it that first year, you're probably not going to spend the amount of funds you projected originally because there's just is a time factor and getting through all of that.   Kate: Absolutely. That was the one thought that David and I, if you know, we apply for another one down the road, maybe making that first year a little bit less intensive and spreading it out from year 2 to 5 because that's where the major work will be done.   Carol: Yeah, that's smart. Very smart. So I know you guys were talking about some challenges. What are some other particular challenges that you're experiencing right now?   Kate: Well, I'll get started on that piece. One of the things we have found similar to the staffing, the challenge that we had when we first started of hiring individuals, we're finding a turnover in staff in DARS. And so we are having a lot of younger counselors that have, in some cases don't have a rehab background. They might have a social work background. So we have a lot of training that we're doing and then redoing on that. We're having a training coming up in October for the VOC rehab counselors and we're getting kind of back to basics. What makes a good referral for our Pathways Grant, looking at those possibilities of not just that receptionist job, let's look at helpdesk. What are the opportunities that are out there? And so that has been kind of a challenge, is just retraining. And I think this is kind of normal across the board. But these rehab counselors are busy. They have a lot more documentation they have to put in Aware. There's a lot more individuals coming through their door because we have the rapid engagements, so they are overwhelmed. And how can we dovetail our services to best support them, how to make the referral process as easy as possible for them, what supports make the most sense for them? So that's been one of the interesting challenges.   Carol: So, Kate, have you guys done anything around just the way in which your staff or the support of those counselors, do you have like other staff that are kind of wrapped around them, whether you call them maybe a rehab tech or some sort of a case aide or whatever it might be that can help the counselors with sort of all the documentation requirements and that kind of thing. Have you done some work in that?   Kate: Actually, here in Virginia, we do have support. We have vocational evaluators, placement counselors and what they call employment service specialists that run the job club and things like that. And they can help support with some of the paperwork. But similar to other states that actually have like a rehab tech that would do some of the counseling or the that kind of thing, not as much. And each office is run a little bit different. That's part of the appeal. And what I mean by that is, is some of the offices might not have a vocational evaluator, some might have a placement counselor that might be covering more than one office so that there is enough differences on that piece. But yeah, that has been a struggle for keeping all of that work and getting it done for them.   Carol: Yeah, You're definitely joined by your colleagues across the country on that. I keep hearing that over and over. David did you have anything else you wanted to add to that about any of the particular challenges?   David: Yeah, I think we wrote this knowing we needed to do some things better and serve certain populations differently to get to where people had the same outcome regardless of gender, race, ethnicity. And that is still a challenge. We are learning that we have a long way to go to effectively serve those folks who have English as a second language. And when we started the project, we started with like a counselor advisory board to help not only create buy in, but inform us what the counselors needed. We have now shifted to an advisory board geared towards helping us do better with the Hispanic Latino population, and that English is a second language. So we're hoping over this next year, working with members of our state who are representative of those groups will actually help us figure out what services are going to be most likely to bring people in for help. What supports we will need to think about providing for those individuals to be successful. And again, it goes back to how do we help people see for themselves greater opportunities and careers than they might have.   Carol: So are you linked in then with your like your WIOA partners on your adult basic ed side? Like under that, you know, the English as a second language, Like they're more expert than us in working with that group?   Kate: Absolutely. One of our key partners is the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center, who teach the adult ed, they help support them across the state when we get further along I'll talk about some of the projects that we're working with with them.   Carol: Yeah, that's excellent. I love that. So I know you guys are seeing some exciting results. What kind of exciting results are percolating up?   Kate: So one of the things that we found as we're moving forward is we actually had working with adult Ed, we had a program that we were doing Intro to IT, where we're starting a basic starting platform for accounting fundamentals, and we were ready to go. We had seven individuals in this first cohort, and one of the things we found was the individuals that we met, even though we just came through Covid with all of the tech training, we had individuals they knew enough to get on to Zoom and to do some items, but we really needed to step back and do some basic tech training. So, they had enough gaps in their knowledge that they couldn't move forward without some major help. So what happened on this is, is we stepped back and started to do some digital literacy training and they moved forward with that. And each of those individuals are now moving forward with the accounting fundamentals this summer. So stepping back, we're actually looking at what we're calling digital work skills training, which is really exciting opportunity for individuals to get started with North Star digital literacy. We're working on goal setting some soft skill development just to get them started on that end. So we have individuals that would typically not be able to go to a virtual training actually get started there. And what we're finding with that end is, is that we have some individuals, you know, those customer service people who just want to do clerical, they're getting introduced to IT. And so we've had a few individuals that have moved on to our next training, which we call the Max Career Lab. And Max Potential is an employer here in Virginia. And I think they go into other states as well, several other states. And what they are, they're a temp agency for IT employment. So they hire individuals to work with Dominion, to work with, you know, with all these employers doing various IT. But they have a unique hiring model. They actually have an opportunity where individuals come in and they go through a career lab five day, three hours a day, 15 hours of a career lab. Then they do an interview. During those five days, they do an overview of data analytics, networking, all these different career areas. So they'll do an hour and a half of overview of the career, and then they do an actual interactive activity that they break out in groups for. So it's a great way to explore the IT field. So we've hired them to actually run career labs for us. They do the 15 hours, then they get homework and then they have an interview assessment. So the interview is just like a typical interview that they run, but they follow up with what activities that they're interested in. So this has been a wonderful way for us to explore different IT areas and to help individuals determine what area of IT they want to do. Here in Virginia, we're blessed. We've got Nova, we've got a lot of IT careers, but counselors and vocal evaluators don't always know how to direct somebody into the right avenue because technology is always changing. You know, cybersecurity, cybersecurity, that's always a great one, right? Because we're right here in Nova. However, not everybody wants to do cyber. Have you thought of data analytics? Have you thought of the different networking positions? Have you thought of machine learning? You know what, all is out there? And so it's an opportunity for us to do a hands on career exploration and next steps with an actual employer running the sessions for us.   Carol: That's cool. Yeah, I hadn't heard about a career lab before like that. That is very intriguing because so many people learn much better, you know, by actually experiencing seeing what that's about because it can sound cool. You read about something like the cybersecurity was the big deal, but then you get into it and you're like, Oh, I don't really want to do that, you know? So giving them that opportunity, I think that's fabulous.   Kate: Yes, and we have had our first cohort. We had 25 people sign up. We had 22 complete the whole piece. That includes the interview.  Of that group we had six individuals. So they compare the group together, but they also compare them to the other public groups that they have across the board. So of those individuals, six are encouraged to look at direct work experience. The rest have been encouraged to do a few other activities, like maybe develop more professional skills or develop more tech training, possibly, you know, accounting fundamentals. We had one that decided they did not want to do IT training. And I'm thinking, what a great opportunity you now know what you don't want to do. And for us, that can be great, right? So we're looking at some other options for that young man. It has been a wonderful opportunity. We're now in our second cohort and our hope is, is to keep continuing this as we're going through this grant and to see how we can set this up once the grant is over.   Carol: Very cool. Have you had any surprises kind of as you've started this. I know you're in year two. Are there any surprises?   David: I think there are always surprises. This is right. Staff and surprises some of the opportunities that have come up. I don't think we anticipated. So we've shifted to take advantage. One of the big pieces of this grant is our focus on state hiring and the individual we hired for that aspect worked diligently during the first six months with them on an alternative hiring process through the legislation, had a go live date, whether we were ready or not. And what we didn't understand is during the first year, this process, it wasn't available to current state employees who may be disabled. That created a lot of issues for folks who were upset that they couldn't access this to move up within state government. We weren't able to change that ourselves, but it was changed in legislation. And starting in July of this year, we were allowed to offer a certificate of disability to someone who was currently employed and that has seen an increase. We've had roughly 1500 people request certificates of disabilities. I think part of what was surprising is what a great opportunity that has become as a referral source for DAR's. Roughly 300 individuals have chosen to get more information and receive VR services, and we are seeing that as a really nice piece of the process. Additionally, I think we finally had our first individual who went from what we call part time wage employment to full time classified, which was one of the intents of the process we developed. So it's nice to begin to see that work. But for Kate and I, we have to remind ourselves some of this might take two, three, four years before we really actually see these things that could be possible in action. And I think the other big surprise there is just how great of a partner our Department of Human Resource Management has been. They recently allowed us to present to 120 hiring managers and we will be a regular part of their monthly recruitment network action meetings. They've bought into our use of windmills training. They advertise it every month and we are co-sponsoring a job accommodation network training in October for them that they will heavily market to state hiring managers. So I think that's been really great. And then the other surprise, it turns out that our division of registered apprenticeship within the Department of Labor and Industry is moving to a new state agency. So we will see what that does. You know, you think things are pretty stable and static in certain ways, but they can change. That's been a surprise. But it's not a good or bad. It just, you know, might be a chance to actually work with more of our partners more directly.   Kate: And David, another surprise that we had was the use of data. We have been doing some trainings with the field and they you know, when you bring numbers involved, people get a little, oh, I don't know if I want to touch this, but what we found was the counselors, the evaluators, the placement, they enjoyed looking at this data. They ate it up. So the use of data as a tool to look at who we're serving, how are we serving them, has been an eye opener. At least it was a surprise for me. Now I'm a vocational evaluator, so I love data and I thought I was, you know, unique. But I'm not you know, everybody is, you know, surprisingly likes that data.   Carol: Yeah.. Well, and definitely how you present it to the field, you know, if you're just like blah, blah, blah, whatever, they really are interested because it's the culmination of their work, you know, so they see what's happening. It really helps to paint that picture and then they can react and respond and do things in a different way in response to that data. So I think that's smart that you guys are doing that. Now. I know you both had talked about shifting the conversation around employment and shifting that whole narrative on barriers to advancement and employment. Talk a little bit about that.   Kate: So one of the things that the counselors are really good at is, is when somebody comes in the door and they say, hey, you know, I need help finding work. But when we look at the definition of what we do, it's getting and but it's also keeping or advancing in your career. So what is that advancement look like? So if you have somebody coming in who I need a job right away, maybe this is where somebody is going to go for a stock clerk. But what about the idea of doing a quick training so that they can get a credential in the Certified logistics associate and then moving from there, maybe when they do that interview, now that they have that credential, maybe they can ask for a little bit of a raise. And what is the next step on that piece? So we've definitely looked at that. How do we make, as David said, the most of the career that you're looking at or the other areas that we've already talked about? Let's look at other areas.   David: One of the things that actually came from one of our offices that they wanted was we've heard more and more about attrition and attrition from application to plan, but also attrition from plan before employment or before successful closure. And we have created a group called Work Wise, which is designed for individuals who have just become employed to meet once a week in the evening, talk about their jobs, have an opportunity with a staff person to talk through issues, challenges. It's been really a powerful group, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how the individuals who choose to participate in a couple of cases did not want to stop going when their case was closed because of how valuable it was to in close to real time talk through things that were happening at work with someone with a VR counseling background. And that has been a really powerful group because it's also given folks to learn from each other and get to that stability and confidence to maybe also look for future opportunities. I know we're getting ready to also hold a salary negotiation training for folks. So again, let's help people think through and have those skills now that they may use now or they may use later when an opportunity to move up comes around. And similarly, we've started a group that we're calling money wise where we've partnered with a local credit union with that hope of how can we help make sure folks maximize their the benefits they choose to take advantage of from an employer. How do we help someone make sure that if there's a 401 match and it's X amount, that they do that much at the very least, Right. Those things that everyone is told, Well, if there's free money from an employer, you take it or if there's tuition assistance or some other thing, maybe there are things to plant some seeds. So someone would continue to move forward.   Carol: I can see how so much of this work that you are doing is so foundational and will be of benefit to, you know, your other colleagues across the country with the things you've uncovered and the things that you are working on, these different classes and groups and all of that. I'm sure other people are going, Gosh, I want to do that too. I think this will be amazing to help plant the seeds across the country. Now, David, I know you were concerned about implementing something that could withstand the test of time. And I know DIF grants are meant it's a demonstration grant. You're trying something out, but you want to also be able to carry forward these ideas into the future. So how are you guys structuring this to make that happen?   David: We really are thinking about sustainability and to Commissioner Hayfield's credit, that's been one of the things that she and Dale Batten have really stressed to us. It's great to do great work in a period of time, but how can we make sure that the things that have the potential to be value add or transformative continue and don't just end the day the funding stops? And we've really thought through many of the activities that we are creating, we are working on from at the beginning. What would this look like when there's no funding? How will we continue these? It's part of our partnership with Valray. We're working to get some of these pieces put into Canvas and set up through that learning management system. But within some of the positions, you know, one of our hopes is that the DHRM VR liaison could become its own full time non restricted position at the end. Similarly, we would hope that for the others, or at least those activities become a part of multiple staff strategically throughout the state. And that's one way we're looking at it.   Kate: And yeah, we're looking at the train, the trainers, also the tools that we're using. One of the pieces for vocational evaluators would be English language acquisition and knowledge. So there are assessments that are out there that can test somebody's English language, which is important for us to know if we're working with individuals and we're trying to place them on the job. So how do we get the tools necessary into the hands of the individuals and trained up for that so that that can be moving forward? So we're being proactive for these individuals that we hope to come into our doors a little bit more often.   Carol: That's excellent. So what do you guys see as your next steps? Where are you going from here? The point you're at right now, what are the next steps?   Kate: So a lot of our programming that we're doing right now is in partnership with adult ed. We see a great marriage between DARS and Adult Ed because Adult Ed works with a lot of individuals with disabilities already. They're adult educators. They can provide a little bit more support for our learners for credential training. They've got different things that are across the state. I'm working with our rehab center, Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation to really figure out how can we marry these? Right now I'm coordinating all these trainings. Is there a way that the center can provide this? And this gives the center an opportunity to look at a virtual environment? What does this look like? We're not sure what it looks like, but we're giving a try to see for that next piece so that max potential with the employer, can that be run through Wilson so that it is open and able to run after the grant is over.   Carol: So for our listeners that would want to apply for a grant, but they've been afraid to do so. What advice would you give to other people?   David: Don't be afraid to apply for a grant. It is an amazing opportunity to infuse energy and enthusiasm into your workforce. It is a chance to stretch, learn new skills, try new programs and get some great outcomes. If there are things you've wanted to try and you don't necessarily have the budget to do or don't seem to fit a demonstration grant is a phenomenal opportunity, and when I came into this agency under grants and special programs, usually we had to worry about things like a match component. And if you have the chance to apply for a grant where there isn't a match and you are willing to be patient with that work, you can accomplish some great things. You get to know your partners better. You get to see staff flourish and stretch and more importantly, get some really cool outcomes for the clients we serve.   Carol: Love that infuse that energy and enthusiasm. I wrote that down. That was a great. You're like giving a commercial for the RSA DIF Grants, that's awesome.   Kate: One thing I would add on this too is when I first came in eight years ago on the other grant, I was pretty much kind of a newbie in the grant world, and I was a little intimidated with the idea of RSA. But what I have found is, is RSA is there to help us. They want us to succeed. And if you have a solid grant application and know what you want to do, they will help you give you some ideas. They invited other states to meet with you to kind of talk about different things. So they have been very good about sharing knowledge and they want to see us succeed.   Carol: That sounds so great. Well, I am going to definitely tell our listeners like they should reach out to you too, if they've got some questions to reach out to David and Kate, because you all have a lot of very cool stuff cooking, and I'm sure you're willing to talk to others about what you've been doing as they're thinking about maybe applying some of this, even though they may not have a DIF grant, but applying some of the things that you're learning into their own work in their states?   Kate: Absolutely. We're here.   Carol: Excellent. Well, I appreciate you both. Thanks for spending time with us. And I look forward to circling back with you a little bit in a couple more years as time flies on this grant and see where you're coming in at and those good results. So have a great day.   David: Thank you very much.   Kate: Thank you.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!  

There seems to be some confusion over whether July is Disability Pride Month or Disability Awareness Month. There's no need to be confused. July is one hundred percent Disability PRIDE Month.Support the showEmail badattitudespod@gmail.comFollow @badattitudespod on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and ThreadsSupport the pod ko-fi.com/badattitudespodBe sure to leave a rating or review wherever you listen!FairyNerdy: https://linktr.ee/fairynerdy

Welcome back to Artbeat Radio! This is part two of us celebrating National Disability Awareness Month! Listen in as we celebrate by speaking with the Able ARTS Work community. Brian Corder took the lead and interviewed peers from all programs, asking them about themselves as a person, what their interests are, what they like about day program, and what they think about disability awareness month. In this part 2, we hear from Maria Galaviz-Arroyo, PJ Ward, Jermaine Freeman and Roberto Lugardo. Thanks for listening, and tune in next time! Follow us on instagram @artbeatradio For more information, please visit our website ableartswork.org

On the last Friday of each month, Bosma's Employment Services team joins host Ray Montgomery on the Navigating Blindness Podcast. This month, the team discusses real versus perceived dangers for people who are blind in the workplace, the importance of DEIA and how employers can celebrate Disability Awareness Month. www.bosma.org/center

Welcome back to Artbeat Radio! Did you know that March is National Disability Awareness Month? Listen in as we celebrate by speaking with the Able ARTS Work community. Brian Corder took the lead and interviewed peers from all programs, asking them about themselves as a person, what their interests are, what they like about day program, and what they think about disability awareness month. In this part 1, we hear from Sarah Shaw, Jonathan Garcia, and Liam Porter.  Thanks for listening, and tune in next time! Follow us on instagram @artbeatradio For more information, please visit our website ableartswork.org

Today in the lab we talk about Honey Boo Boo car chase, Sylvester Stallone running and his age, Covid and the old New York Governor, Women's day and chocolate scandals, And Chris being disabled. Full episode with video on YouTube!!!https://linktr.ee/TactLabThis is TACT Lab, a podcast where nothing is off limits. Join four guys as they talk about the greatest accomplishments and problems in life. Hosted by Tyler, Alex, Chris, and Thomas. Check us out on all social media by searching TACT Lab or click the link above. New episodes every Wednesday. Help Support us at our Patreon. Like, follow, comment and let us know how we are doing!

March is Disability Awareness Month and Fishers is busy with activities all month. Joining me to talk about it are Cecilia Coble and Kelly Hartman

March is Disability Awareness Month and Lamont N' Leah definitely wanted to get in on the action and do their part! So, they invited two guest to help them talk about Disability Awareness. Nurse Practitioner & Business Owner Marla Green & Transformational and Empowerment Mindset Coach & Disability Advocate Shanice Green. Tune in to hear their personal stories. During the break, Lamont N' Leah reviewed a Reddit Post from r/AITA. Find out how you can be an Ally to a Person living with a Disability. Tune in today! LINKS SUPPORT OUR PODCAST: https://anchor.fm/lamontandleah Marla Green: TikTok: https://www.TikTok.com/educatrixseminars YouTube: https://www.YouTube.com/educatrxaps LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlacgreen LinkedIn: https://www.LinkedIn.com/company/educatrixaps Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/educatrixaps Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/educatrixaps Shanice Green: Website: wheelempowercoaching.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/wheelempowercoaching Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/554173225421117/?ref=share Instagram: @shanicewheelempower Email: wheelempowercoaching@gmail.com ----------------------------- Lamont: IG- @lamontsjourney Tik Tok- @empoweringthemasses YouTube: https://youtube.com/user/LDamonProductions Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnityLoveLight Tumblr: http://thickbeautifulmen.tumblr.com https://your-empowerment-leader.tumblr.com Leah: IG- @jellyfishumbrella @_leleleah @LITTdesignsofficial YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/LeahKaiulani ____________________ MUSIC That's The Way - Streambeats (by Harris Heller) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lamontandleah/support

Kick off Disability Awareness Month with me and my friend, Misty Coy Snyder from @hapinessisdownsyndrome. In this vulnerable conversation, Misty opens up about receiving her son's Down syndrome diagnosis and how she wished her doctor presented the news. This momma talks about what she has learned about grief, grace and how she turned her talents and dreams into a new purpose of walking new parents through their diagnosis experience. Hey, there. If you are new to my podcast, I'm Amanda and through my social media platform, Pieces of Me, I share my journey of being a sibling to someone with a rare disability, a founder and director of a nonprofit serving those with intellectual disabilities, and finding balance as a working mom, wife, and business leader. Facebook or Instagram is a great way to connect with me! Just search @piecesofmebyamanda – I would love to hear from you! Here is how you can connect with Misty! Instagram: @mistycoysnyder @happinessisdownsyndrome Tik Tok: @mistycoysnyder Check out my latest project, The Gratitude Journal, for moms raising children with a disability. This is a collaboration with mommas from across the globe – build your village and find joy in the hard through daily gratitude. Check out my children's book, Owen the Wonderer, that helps teach kids about differences and acceptance. And my Ebook that helps talks about the many emotions of being a sibling to someone with an intellectual disability. Oh, and don't miss out on the be… collection – a line of intentional gifts that serve as a daily reminder for women to BE the person they are meant to be! I also offer coaching sessions for families impacted by disabilities, for women wanting to align their purpose or for those interested in launching their own nonprofit. Check out the coaching packages on www.piecesofme.org You might hear me talk about my health journey, only because I have discovered how we “fuel” our body is the key to “fueling” our purpose & dreams. I have figured out how to create more energy in order to keep dreaming and executing my vision, and I would love to share it with you. Interested in discovering the fuel that will ignite your body & mind to live life on purpose? Check out: www.AmandaBoarman.arbonne.com Don't know where to start but want to know more? Just email me! Piecesofmebyamanda@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fuel-your-purpose/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fuel-your-purpose/support

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On this episode, we get to meet Lindsey T. H. Jackson who grew up in Pittsburg Pennsylvania, as she describes, a little black girl who thought she was different. Later she realized she was by no means alone as she discovered that there were many black women who grew up like her. She talks about how she went so far as to decide to compete with boys and play baseball, not the traditional softball that girls were encouraged to play. Needless, she succeeded as she will tell us.   As Lindsey tells us, later in life she realized that she did not have to live her life by proving something to others on the job or in anything she had to do. Instead, she realized all she needed to do was to be herself. Lindsey and I discuss prejudices and perceptions whether they be about race issues or even issues surrounding blindness and how people view someone who happens not to be able to see. Our discussions are fascinating and, I think, what we discuss will be helpful and informative to you.     About the Guest: Lindsey T. H. Jackson is a creative force in motion. Each year, organizations call on her to welcome tens of thousands of leaders into the shared journey of Unlearning our cultural biases. Lindsey's natural storytelling and her cheeky humor invite people into their authentic selves, allowing people to enter those charged conversations with genuine curiosity. Lindsey brings more than 20 years of experience clearing the path to wellness & liberation alongside leaders, teams, and organizations with her ongoing research on the root causes of our current culture of pressure and burnout. Now, she serves in the role of Founder & CEO creating the future of work with the team at LTHJ Global — expanding access to leading-edge Diversity, Equity & Inclusion methods for healing and innovation at work and beyond.   Lindsey's audiences have been known to follow her wherever she's speaking, magnetized by her down-to-earth approach to helping leaders reach their highest human potential across their various life roles. Her natural storytelling, artistry and research-backed practices have allowed for some of the most cutting-edge methodologies to liberate ourselves, our workplaces, and our world from structures of oppression — and lead future-ready teams along the way. That's why she's regularly sought after by platforms like King5 News, The Superwoman Summit and Washington's LGBTQIA+ Chamber of Commerce (the GSBA) as well as hundreds of other businesses, nonprofits, podcasts and outlets each year.   These days she's hard (but not _too _hard!) at work with the LTHJ Global team, pioneering the brand new tech-enabled platform, Sojourn. Sojourn brings small to midsize organization leaders a DEI Journey with the plans, tools and guidance to sustainably grow a more Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive culture. They're building the platform as an anti-racist, anti-oppression organization, which impacts every choice they make as they build the future of work they wish to live in.   Ways to connect with Lindsey:   Main website - www.lthjglobal.com New platform, Sojourn website - www.sojourndei.com LinkedIn - LTHJ Global page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lthj-global/ LinkedIn - Lindsey's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-t-h-jackson/ Instagram - LTHJ Global: https://www.instagram.com/lthj_global/ Instagram - Lindsey: https://www.instagram.com/lindseythjackson/         About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:21 Hi, and yes, once again, you are listening to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, this is what we say. I am glad that you're here with us. Once again, thanks for being with us. And we have Lindsey T. H. Jackson as our guest today. She is a creative force according to her biography, which is cool. I would say she's unstoppable. And we'll talk about that, of course, Lindsey has been very involved in diversity, equity inclusion, she works with leaders and speaks all over creation as it were bringing more people into the whole discussion of dei as well as bringing leaders into the discussion of how we unlearn a lot of our biases. And I'm really interested in and excited to learn something about that. So we'll get to it. But Lindsey, welcome to unstoppable mindset and glad you're here with us.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  02:17 Thank you, Michael. It is my pleasure. What a wonderful way to begin easing into the weekend spending some time with you. So   Michael Hingson  02:26 Oh, listen to her. Well, let's start. Like I usually like to do tell me a little bit about kind of your early life kind of where, where you came from, and all that and a little bit about how you got where you are.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  02:41 Wow. Well, I am from the hidden gem of the United States, which is, of course, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And I think it's funny when I meet people who have never been to Pittsburgh, and they hear Pittsburgh, they kind of scoff at it. Like, oh, you know, that kind of steel, new town will the Steelers and the pirates and blah, blah, blah. But it was actually a really wonderful place to   Michael Hingson  03:10 Yes, yes. I remember the first time I went to through Pittsburgh airport, which was pretty new at the time, it was a pretty big place and an interesting and a lot bigger of an airport. And I didn't think it would be a little airport, but it was a lot bigger and more bustling than I thought. And I think over time, it's kind of quieted down. But I've enjoyed time in Pittsburgh.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  03:33 Absolutely. And it's so interesting. You say that about the airport, because they're about to build a brand new one tear down. What was that new one and build a brand new one. And I'm like, why are you why are you really changing these things? They're renaming the stadium again. She's, yeah, I don't know. I loved growing up in Pittsburgh, and I just find myself not wanting anything to change about it.   Michael Hingson  03:58 What do you do so, so you're from Pittsburgh will tell us more about all that. And early life and such?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  04:04 Yeah. Early life, I was an only child. So that meant naturally that every holiday season I asked for a brother and sister and a puppy on my Santa's list and never got either of them. So it wasn't a miserable childhood, but I certainly never got what I wanted at Christmas time.   Michael Hingson  04:24 Not a puppy either.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  04:26 Not a puppy, not a brother, not a sister, not a Plano. I was like, why can't we adopt? Come on, people helped me out but as an only child, I was just always out. I was out and about I was down the street. I was creating clubs. I was joining everything that I could join and really living. You know what, at that time, I know we can't say this now but at that time, it was kind of Bill Cosby upbringing, but you know Like Bill Cosby, we grow up and we learn new things that we didn't know. And our kind of youthful naivety. But   Michael Hingson  05:08 well, we can't change our history, Bill Cosby, back in those days was what he was and television show and his comedy routines and so on. And yeah, we have what he became, but we can't deny what was and he did bring a lot of entertainment and humor to people.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  05:25 Yes. And that image, Michael Wright of that black family that was together, that was upper middle class that was figuring life out. That was very much my childhood experience with my parents, Deborah and Jeff had been married something like 44 years now. We were figuring it out together.   Michael Hingson  05:49 Wow. So, so you, you went to school in Pittsburgh,   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  05:55 I started, you know, I was very much a little private school kid. And often the one of very few little black people in predominantly white bodied spaces, which I think colored a lot of my experience as a child. Now, when I read things, I am finally hearing from other little black girls who grew up to be strong black women about that common experience of nobody had hair like us. Nobody had that experience of k this person. That's my cousin. Oh, is it your real cousin? What is that question? Of course, it's my cousin, even though I'm not actually sure how we're related, you know, these very common black experiences, I thought I was different. But now, I'm realizing that that was actually a very common experience for a lot of black girls in predominantly white spaces, that feeling of being outside somehow looking in.   Michael Hingson  07:00 Do you think I think it was true for boys as well?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  07:04 I think it was, but in my experience, something about masculinity allowed them to fit in a little bit more. I think we still, at that time, and even now, we still struggle with outspoken, Intel intelligent little black girls, you know, a trope or a paradigm, at least when I was growing up to fit that. And so I spent a lot of time in detention being told, you know, stop asking questions, stop questioning what the teacher was saying, even though, you know, at that time, I was already a bit of a scientist. I was like, I don't believe what you're telling me show me some research to backup that opinion. And they would go go to detention. I was like, wow, that's not a good argument. Yes.   Michael Hingson  08:01 I think it's, it's somewhat true for white girls, too. But I understand not the same. And it's not it's not as much and it's, it's an evolutionary process. But I think for any of us who were different, I never got sent to detention for asking questions. I think I was tolerated. But as a blind child, it was still very much, in some ways, a challenge. I grew up in a pretty rural area in Palmdale, California. So didn't face a lot of I think some of the things that other people did. But I was always still a curiosity. Nevertheless.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  08:39 Yeah. How did that shape who you've become now, as an adult,   Michael Hingson  08:45 I think for me, because mostly, people didn't know what to do with me, because I was the only blanket for quite a while in the Antelope Valley. We moved from Chicago when I was five. So we were mostly out in California, and I was the only blind kid. And the only blind kid going to school later, while other other kids the only one really interested in science and those kinds of things, and very academically oriented. So again, teachers didn't know a lot of what to do with me. So somehow, I sort of fit it in, like teachers to give me tests, we would stay an extra period after class and they would come in and read me tests or asked me questions, and I would answer them and so I got to know some of the teachers pretty well. And I think that the result of that was that I was accepted because they discovered that I wasn't really, maybe what their original misconceptions were about a blanket and high school students didn't do a lot of bullying but again, I think I was was tolerated. Of course, I had an extra asset in that when I went into high school I got my first guide dog so the only kid in School who got to bring his dog to school. But even that caused a problem when the superintendent decided that since the school district had a rule that said, no live animals a lot on the school bus that I wouldn't be allowed to take my dog on the school bus and go to school with the dog. So they had to hire somebody to take me to school because I was using a guide dog. And that didn't last very long, because we took it to the school board. The board sided with the superintendent, even though the high school rule violated state law. So we actually had to get the governor involved. And I think that also taught me that you could fight city hall and win. And it sent a message to people that I was going to be a part of the system. And that should be allowed. So I again, I think it was a little bit unusual compared to other people's stories who I've heard.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  10:48 Yeah, yeah. I mean, Michael, as you're sharing that reminds me, I think, one of the formative experiences, it's not the same, but that similarly shaped me was that I grew up wanting to play baseball. And at that time, it was very clear that girls are meant to play softball. And boys are meant to play baseball. But I have seen a little movie called A League of Their Own league of their own. Yes. Which, you know, just last week at the Emmys, they were honoring Gina Davis for the work that she's done in film, around. Representation around measuring the relationship between what little girls see on the film and how it impacts their relationship to self. But that movie, I was determined, I am going to play baseball, good for you, this character. But you know, here came this little black girl down, you know the street in Edgewood and shows up to an all boys League and says, I will be playing best baseball. And they had no idea what to do. And they armed an odd and you know, unbeknownst to me in the background, my mother, you know, who is a force to be reckoned with was also having conversations with the city to make sure that, you know, nobody was going to say no to me. But for my little eight, nine year old self, I really thought that I was leading this conversation in this charge. And I eventually got assigned to a team, the enjoyed pirates, they were called. And I was just thinking about my coach, Coach, Tony DeFranco, who, all those years that I played for him never once did he, you know, he just kind of accepted, she's here. And now that she's here, we're going to be the best team possible. And, and we were I have a trophy or two actually above my desk right here, commemorating those years. But that those early moments really shaped who I am now in the trajectory to becoming the CEO of this company, I think   Michael Hingson  13:09 and what a great story and and an absolutely relevant story. And yeah, your parents were your mother was especially involved in the background and so on. But still, that support system always helps. Absolutely,   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  13:23 absolutely. And that's in our work. One of the things that we're always for lack of a better word fighting for it's to make sure that everybody has some sort of Angry Black mom in their corner, who's saying, you know, we're here to advocate in the workplace to make sure that employees feel supported based on all of their intersectional identities, blind, black, queer, you know, living with dyslexia and feeling like they cannot share that within the workplace. All of those things. I think that's often what draws you and I together, right? Our own experiences have shaped the work that we now do.   Michael Hingson  14:12 What position did you play in on the team?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  14:16 Well, I mostly played shortstop, for anybody who's a baseball fan out, I'm just gonna say it is the hardest position to get so just whatever. And then pitcher Oh, well, there you go. Yeah,   Michael Hingson  14:30 yeah. How'd you how'd you do as a pitcher?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  14:33 Well, I was cracking up I was telling my kids this just the other day, I remember this one day. And it was it was a good movie moment. It was bottom of the night. And they had kind of one player in on third base scoring position. We were up and I was, you know, just kind of losing Steam losing gas. And here comes Tony DeFranco. Coach moseying out to the pitcher's mound. And, you know, we all took our hats off and tucked our gloves under our armpits. Mason was the catcher. And he goes, Lindsay, every once in a while in our lives, we have a choice. We either have to choose that we don't have it. And we need to sit down and come back another day. Or we choose that we have it, and then we have to back it up. And he said, Well, what is that moment right now for you? And I said, Well, Coach, I think I have it. And I'm going to back it up. You said fine, any mosey it on back off the field. And I threw a strike and the game was over. So you know, those, those sorts of things? You know, I think the there was a little bit of every time I was out on the field, I will say there was a an underlying core idea that I had to prove something. And I think I played like I had to prove something. And now as an adult, I'm trying to unlearn that habit, that I don't have to go into every space trying to prove something, I can just be myself.   Michael Hingson  16:15 But probably when you were growing up, it was good to have that to keep your edge nice and sharp.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  16:23 Yeah, yeah, it has been I you know that when I left Pittsburgh, it was still with that edge. I started college when I was 15 years old. By the time I was 21, I had three degrees under my belt. I moved overseas. Actually, the year I was turning 21, I had already graduated with my graduate degree in another degree under my belt, and I felt like I just had to keep being on the move, always be on that cutting edge. And that has led me to do some amazing things. And it's also landed me in the hospital rooms needing to rest in, you know, be pumped with fluids, it's, I can see sometimes how it impacts my children. So I'm trying to trying to not feel as though my otherness needs to be the defining factor in my life anymore.   Michael Hingson  17:26 Well, and hopefully what you will discover is that your otherness is as much there but you can bring it out in different ways. You don't have to constantly be running. And I think we, we all tend to do that a lot. We tend to run we got to do things all the time. Even when we take vacations, we got to get extremely active and do this and that and the other stuff. And then we got to come back and we have to have a vacation from our vacation. And we don't we don't stop and recognize that. In reality, we don't need to do that all the time.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  18:03 Yes. How have you in your life? Do you still think? How do you define yourself now? I mean, you're maybe one or two years older than I am Michael. So I get to learn from you. How do you   Michael Hingson  18:20 Oh, could be could be maybe one or two years or so hard to say? Well, you know, I, I like to do stuff. And I like to be active. But I don't need to be active and be the absolute number one person all the time, because I think opportunities will will come. So I love to speak, I love to travel and speak and continue to do that when the opportunities arise. And I've been doing it especially ever since September 11. But I, I don't need to be the president of one thing or another, although I own my own company. And it's just my wife and I so I get to be the president. And we we did it that way because it's called the Michael hingson group. So it kind of makes sense that I get to be the president. But if she wants to run it, she can run it, but she doesn't. So I'm stuck with it. But we I believe that, for me and my place in life, I'm going to do whatever seems right to do on any given day. But I like to take time at the end of the day to stop and go, What did I do today? How'd that go? Could I learn from that? And I will always ask those questions and I will always take that introspective role and start each day with what's coming up. What have I learned that I could bring an add value and in a sense that started significantly before September 11. But especially it started when And I opened an office for a company in the world trade center, and decided that, as the leader of that office, I needed to do whatever was necessary to function as a leader. And defining that meant to meant that I needed to do things like if we were gonna go to lunch, know how to go wherever we're gonna go to lunch, because I can't let someone just leave me around, well, how's that going to look, if we're going to negotiate contracts, or know how to travel from place to place, know what to do in case of an emergency, be on top of whatever was going on with the company, understand the products, and take the initiatives to make sure that I could do whatever, any good leader based on all the things that I've seen people do and what any good leader would do. And I will still continue to do that. That doesn't mean that I'm going to work 24 hours a day. But over time, I've learned what the process needs to be to make that happen. And so the result is that I've developed a mindset that says this is what you need to do. Or in the case of the World Trade Center, I developed eventually a mindset mindset that said, You know what to do, if there's an emergency, you know what to do in order to be involved in a situation, which doesn't mean I have to be in charge of doing everything to take responsibility for whatever happens. But I need to know enough to know when I can use my gifts and other people should use their gifts. And I should encourage that.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  21:45 Yeah. Can I ask a question about something you said? Out of my own curiosity, you named that you had a thought that there would be difficulty in negotiating contracts, if somebody were to support you on the walk to lunch? Or to say, you know, coffee shop, etc? Do? How do you think that that should be that within that relationship, that that creates a difference of power within the relationship? If we need to honor the other person's humanity in any given moment?   Michael Hingson  22:36 It depends on whether you're honoring the person's humanity, or whether you're making an assumption that isn't true. So, for example, there are certainly places that I don't know how to get to around New York City. But or even here in Victorville where I live today, but do I need someone? Do I need to hold someone's arm or Be Led there? Or can we walk side by side and carry on a conversation? Do Do I need to be the one to absolutely know where to go or not? The answer is, in my basic home environment that is in the case of what we're talking about the World Trade Center. Yes, I should know how to go to Finance Shapiro's down in the lobby of the shopping mall between the towers back in 2002 1001. Because that's where I resided. And if I allowed, if I chose not to know any of that, and needed to be led, that's the issue. Not that I didn't know or wouldn't deal with someone's humanity, but rather, if I didn't know, and didn't take the time and the responsibility to know and so needed to be led. I'm reinforcing a stereotype about blindness and blind people. And so part of it is also getting people to the point in their own mindsets where they recognize that in reality, I'm as competent and as capable as they are. So it's not denying someone's humanity to say, I know how to get there, I can do it. But rather to say, what would you expect anyone else to be able to do and why should it be different for me? If the opportunity and the ability and what I need to make it happen are available to me? Yes. And so that's, that's really the difference. I could just as easily be going out to lunch or dinner with people and did oftentimes in other places where I didn't necessarily know exact actually where to go. But even there, the issue is, how do you do it? Do you assume the blind guy can't walk next to you without holding on to you or not? It's all about stereotypes and the problem that we face, when we talk about diversity, equity and inclusion, is disabilities are left out of that discussion most of the time, and they're left out, because no matter what group you are from, most people have the same perception about disabilities that other people do. And so we tend to not be included in the discussions. We don't, we don't deal with recognizing the disability doesn't mean the lack of ability, that that word needs to change, just like we've changed the meaning of diversity, because diversity doesn't include disabilities today. By and large, it's it's not inclusion should. But even then people try to say, Well, I'm inclusive, because we deal with racial issues and racial bias, and we deal with gender, but then you don't deal with disability. So you're not inclusive, but just diversity is has has gone a different way, which is extremely unfortunate. So it's not about appreciating someone's humanity. It's about do we continue to promote and enforce the stereotypes? Or do we really try to change people's perceptions? And part of my job, as the leader of an office happening to be blind? Was it, it was important to be able to change people's perceptions? Because if I weren't viewed as a competent, capable individual, how could I expect to be involved in and or negotiate sales contracts and other things like any other manager would do?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  26:58 Yeah, this is so interesting. You're naming something that I've been really personally vacillating back and forth on in terms of, as I started to name earlier, realizing in a lot of spaces that I felt the need to represent all black women, wherever I was, in school, in other parts of the world that I traveled extensively, and to always kind of be a monolith, representing the majority. And I think a lot of people who come from historically excluded cultures or communities can relate with that. But now is a near my 40th birthday, which I'm super excited. Because I hear more and more people say, once you get closer to 40, you start to care less when people think, and I'm so excited for that. But as I get closer, I find myself really trying to separate what parts of me, am I still living my life trying to prove that black women should be could be are on par with their contemporaries? And what parts of that are a burden that I don't have to bear anymore? And in the reality is, I don't have an answer. So I'm listening to you. Also trying to mind through my own thoughts. And an example is, for example. You know, I have had a partner relationship come into my life over the past couple of years. And, you know, their love for me, has been teaching me that I also deserve nurture and care. I don't always have to be strong. I don't always have to, you know, I don't always have to have my emotions down. And I think for so many years in professional spaces, as a black woman, I just didn't give myself that grace, that that part of myself. And now, you know, we've met some of my team members, the great Laura Kay or the great J. Alba and the rest of our team. You know, they've been trying to coach me like, it's okay, if you cry, too. Yeah. It's okay. If you're having a bad day, you know, like, you don't always have to have it together.   Michael Hingson  29:34 Well, and, unfortunately, and this gets back to something that we talked to just a second about at the very beginning about unlearning attitudes, because I think anyone who works toward being successful, ends up believing that they have to be strong all the time, and they have to be on top Have everything rather than finding that there is so much value in creating a team. And everyone on the team has to rely on each other. And that the strength is in the team, not any particular individual. And yeah, the leader of a team has to and should have certain gifts, and maybe they're the the outfront strong or viewed as being strong person. But that still shouldn't work without the rest of the team being part of the process. Yes, yes. And so, you know, in talking about what what you're talking about, and and what we're discussing here. So what do you think about the issue of with whatever you're doing? Are you representing all black women or women in general, I wouldn't even extend it beyond black women. But I realized why you're, you're talking about it in terms of black women. But either way, what do you think about the fact that in reality, what you do is, or you don't represent black women?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  31:09 Yeah, I think it's an ongoing, unfair unfurling, for lack of a better word, I was really relating in my own way to what you said in terms of wanting to make sure that the stereotypes about black women that I was never feeding that, that I similarly, going to dinner, an example might be the expectation that black people or black women don't have money couldn't, you know, cover the cost of the bill, or we're not as smart. And so therefore, always feeling as though I had to give an opinion, but not only give an opinion, or to be the best opinion or that they're lazy, whatever. And so, I think, on some hands, that's still very much true that we know that if you are a representative, I was still historically excluded, group or community that you are still expected as a duo Lu talks about in her book mediocre, you are still expected to give 115 120% to other people, 75% just to be considered on par. But I don't think that that has to always be our responsibility anymore.   Michael Hingson  32:33 Right? And so I'm going in a slightly different direction. I agree with you. Do you have to be 115%? All the time? No. But does that mean that you're still not necessarily by virtue of being visible? And by virtue of what you do? Does that mean you're not representing in some way or another all black women?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  32:56 I think that's a great question, I think, and my personal why if I use Simon cynics language around finding our why, and other business leaders who have used similar language, I do, as part of my why want to be an inspiration, first and foremost, to my children, I have a 10 year old and eight year old. And I want them to see in me, hopefully something that they can see in themselves. And I know that for a lot of young people who I speak with that they go, Oh, you're a black woman, CEO. I could be that too. And, and I definitely know that creating that representation is a part of what gets me out of bed on some of the tough days. And I think in our culture, we sometimes struggle to allow the full, vast experience of being a human, for anybody that we give the mantle of leadership to, I hope that I have given as much permission to succeed as I am to fail. I hope I'm given as much permission to have angry off days as I am expected to always put on a smile and show up looking good.   Michael Hingson  34:27 And sometimes you need to say and transmit the message. It's okay. And it's fine for me to have days where I'm not absolutely the only 180% person in charge. And that doesn't make me less of a human being any more than it does you and how dare you judge me? Because in reality, we're all from the same mold. We are We're all made in the same image. And we all have good days, bad days, successful days, days where maybe it's not viewed as being as successful as it could be. But when you have the off days, the real question, and so it's always fun to turn it around. The real question is, what did I learn? That will help me not do that again. And that's where it comes really back full circle, which is why I always talk about introspection, because it's important to discuss this idea of what did I learn from this? I subscribe to the the whole discussion that failure, although I don't say I will, failure is what it is. But that failure is only a learning point on the way to success. Yes. And there's nothing wrong with having learning moments we all learn. And we always all better be learning, or we really aren't doing ourselves or other people's good services.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  36:09 Absolutely. I love that you. You know, I think in both of our work, we do so much training and teaching around the world. And I think one of the things I'm always surprised, most by is some people's lack of curiosity, the assumption that are the take of there's nothing more for me to learn about diversity, or equity, or inclusion, or these these topics. I just it you know, this is my work. I'm a nerd. So I could, you know, there's no end to the things I want to learn. But I love meeting people. And I love hearing what is it like moving through the world, in your body, in your mind and your heart space? And so that, that, that take of I don't have anything else to learn here about diversity? I never understand that. Because it just seems like an opportunity to live books and movies out loud.   Michael Hingson  37:19 Yeah. Well, and the other thing about diversity, and this whole area of discussion is how can we feel that we've learned all there is when society is constantly evolving, anyway?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  37:34 Yes, yes. Yes.   Michael Hingson  37:38 And so we, we may, on any given day, at any given second? No, mostly everything that we need to know. But in two seconds, something is going to change that's going to change that whole dynamic. So there's no way we're going to learn all there is to know, the question is, are we learning it? And are we putting it into practice?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  37:57 Absolutely. I read an article, I think it was in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago, and it was saying that old, quote, unquote, can now be defined as the scale of curiosity that one has. And so those who had a fixed mindset, I know everything there is to know there's nothing more I could learn. Scientists were able to see how that fixed mindset was actually impacting their body, their brain, and how it was aging. And those who remained curious. Woke up each day with like you said, Michael, I have the intention to learn something new each day, that their bodies and their brains stayed Young. As a result, as well, Isn't that so cool? That we can now put some science around that?   Michael Hingson  38:50 It is I didn't see that article, I'm gonna have to go back and find it. But it's it's absolutely true. And we should constantly be curious. Because if we if we aren't, then we're not living. And I think that's one of the reasons we're all here is to be curious and discover. Life is an adventure and we should treat it like an adventure. I get yelled at lots when I reach out and touch something and people say, Oh, you're not supposed to touch that. Well, that's the way I get to explore things a lot. And the reality is even in museums where people say, too much oil on something may may help to damage it. But the reality is that it's the way I N other people who don't look at things, discover a lot. And there shouldn't be anything wrong with allowing us to explore and I can appreciate. It may very well be where you got to have a wipe and get the oil off your hands first. No problem with that, but don't deny me the opportunity to learn and discuss in fact, it's one of the clues that led me to understanding the mindset that I developed on September 11, one of the things that that I constantly did after I learned most of what I thought I could learn about emergencies and everything else was I would as I went into the World Trade Center, most every day, I would ask myself, anything else to learn today? I go off and look, and sometimes I found stuff, and sometimes I didn't. But asking the question is really the important part?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  40:28 Absolutely. I even do that in my own way, which is, I will intentionally some days just take another driving route, just so I can see something new the tree I haven't noticed before, restaurant I haven't seen before, just to break out of the monotony and feel as though I've entered into another vortex for a minute.   Michael Hingson  40:52 Well, I always well, walking around the world trade center wanted to make sure my guide dog didn't get into the habit of going one way because the dog's job isn't to know where to go and how to get there. That's my job, the dog's job is to make sure we walk safely. So I had to, as much as I could figure out new ways to get to the same place inside of a complex of buildings, which got to be a real challenge after a while. And sometimes I just took convoluted routes just to end up going the same route. But by going to different floors and doing other things, but, but traveling around to keep the dog from getting into the habit of memorizing something. And of course, all of that was extremely important on September 11, because I didn't want the dog to decide where she thought I should go, especially if that way might happen to be blocked, which is another way of also saying I needed to know that information, so I could deal with it. And that also helped other people because going down the stairs. And, and being in the complex that day, giving the DoD directions I had lots of people following us because they said, Well, you're confident you know what you're doing. And I heard about it later. But they they said, if this guy can go, we're gonna follow him, you know, and that was important to do. But what I eventually decided was to talk about all of that, because if it would help people learn how to move on from September 11. And if it would help people learn how to deal with developing better relationships, and trust and teamwork, and if it would teach people about blindness and guide dogs, then I was going to talk about it and continue to do that. And that was in part why ask the question before because I do think, whether we choose to or not any of us who get visible, even if we're only visible to a few people we are representing whatever it is that people view about us. And so I want people to get the best possible view of what blindness is like, because they're going to hopefully remember me and think about the next blind person they meet, at least in part in the same way. And it's all too unfortunate that all too many blind people, for example, are not taught a lot of the skills and the way that they should be taught to develop a level of independence and self confidence. And that's unfortunate, but it is still something we deal with. And it is still something that we all try to work to overcome. But I know that whenever I'm viewed up, I'm going to be compared to other people who happen to be blind. And I'm also hopefully going to be able to teach people maybe a little bit of a different view, which is okay, if I can do that and be successful. That's great. I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone, but rather I'm just gonna live my life. But if I can accomplish something like that along the way, then so much the better.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  44:00 Yeah. It's so interesting. As you're sharing, I'm thinking back and I don't think I've thought about this for years. So thank you, Michael. I was in my I was 19. Or maybe I hadn't turned 19 Yet in my senior year of college, and I was a orientation leader. So you know that first week of college? Yep. Everybody's coming. I'm in senior year we're welcoming all the freshmen there was lots of screaming and shaking of pom poms, I remember. And this was in Boston. And when 911 That year, those events occurred, you know, very quickly, Boston started to be shut down as well. And I remember I was in dance class at the time and one of our other instructors came in and, you know, kind of told us what was happening and For all of the leaders of orientation, we're quickly kind of cold to be present for these freshmen who were away from home for the very first time, most of them coming from other parts of the US and kind of just be there for them. And they were from all over the world all over the country. And everybody was having so many feelings. And we obviously had no idea what was going on any of us. And that experience was one of many experiences that led to the forming of LT HJ global and what is soon to be our dei tech platform sojourn it was that, that desire to create safe spaces for people across all of their difference to come together, to feel seen, to feel heard, to feel held and supported. And, you know, I haven't thought about how that then shaped my graduate degree in, gosh, almost 20 plus years now. What,   Michael Hingson  46:12 Where were you going to school?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  46:13 Then? My undergraduate was at Emerson, which is right, in, you know, along the perimeter of the Boston Commons. And then I started my graduate work. While simultaneously I was doing a muscular therapy degree at another school, I started my graduate work at Lesley University. Cambridge, Massachusetts,   Michael Hingson  46:38 right. So, you mentioned dance. Were you studying that in college?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  46:44 Yeah. In my undergrad, I was still very determined to be a dance and theater start. You know, I had seen Janet Jackson. And that was clearly what I wanted to be in my life. A backup singer and dancer to Janet Jackson.   Michael Hingson  47:02 Don't have any wardrobe malfunctions,   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  47:04 no word of mouth. If I had been there, Janet, I would have had, I would have been like, and it's sorted. Just like move. Lindsay right there. Yeah. Some of the listeners or people tuning in today are not old enough to know. So we just made Michael. Go look it up.   Michael Hingson  47:28 That time? The Super Bowl,   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  47:31 though? The Super Bowl? Yeah. We've come many years from there. But yeah. Go ahead. Sorry. Go ahead. No, I still think, you know, a lot of times people will ask me, How does a dance and theater major become a CEO of a company? And I go, Well, I know how to pivot very well. And you need to pivot. When you are a founder and CEO. I know, you know that Michael, you can bob and weave? Exactly. As   Michael Hingson  48:01 well, how did being in dance and so on, move you toward the kind of things that you do today?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  48:10 No, I think. I think and you know, I'm very happy to have some of your listeners or, you know, viewers, however you are tuning in today, push back on this, but I still think that the arts is a space for little kids that are considered other to come together and feel that they have a sense of community. There's, you know, maybe still 2030 years ago, you know, we didn't have the language that we have around it now. But it was a space where little LGBTQIA plus bus kids felt safe. It was a space where black and brown kids from across many different cultural identities felt safe. It was a space to be creative with kids who were moving through the world, in wheelchairs, and other you know, just ways to experience difference as being something to be normal and celebrated, as opposed to something that everybody was trying to overcome, or trying to assimilate and fit in. And I think there was something about dance and theater where it was like, we don't fit in. And that's why we fit into this group or space.   Michael Hingson  49:42 Well, and the reality is there were other kids who had none of the characteristics that you're describing who were from what people view as normal, who are also part of that society and the reality is everyone learned to I get along, and a lot of ways, a lot more than in other kinds of environments because everyone shared the arts.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  50:08 Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. When we're teaching, sometimes I think people think it's so different. But I often sometimes I'm listening to people who grew up in military households or grew up, you know, in the military, and there's a lot of similarities there to have, there's a very strong culture, you have to learn the rules, and one of the rules is, get over it, we're all different. And that difference is something that's going to make us better. And, you know, in every culture, there's still opportunities to continue looking at how we continue to grow and embrace different types of diversity. But there's something about a group that is coming together, saying that diversity is what makes them better, as opposed to diversity being some type of problem that we need to get rid of.   Michael Hingson  51:11 Yeah, it really is important to appreciate other people. And there's no better way to do it than when you're all working towards some common goal or are working in some sort of environment that that brings you all together. Like in the arts, whether it's dance, whether it's painting, singing, or music, and in any form, those are commonalities that we can all appreciate. And there, we do see all too often different people from different kinds of environments, who are successful, and maybe that helps us tolerate a much more diverse population within the arts. I don't know. But it's a thought.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  52:00 Yeah, yeah. And I think, to your point, there's still, you know, we still look at conductors, for example. And we're, I know that there's still a lot of work to try to diversify conductors at the symphony, there's still, in my lifetime been a lot of work to diversify the body styles. Within dance. It was very common when I was coming up as a dancer to kind of expect a ballerina to be almost 12% under the body fat ratio, which is very unhealthy. And to see normal bodies, which bodies comes in all shapes and sizes on the stage has really been something that's developed over the past 20 years. There's still a lot of work to do. But I think the mission statement at least is is is still an unspoken. All are welcome here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  53:09 And that's, I think, part of what's really important, and if we could only move that out of certain areas, like the arts into the rest of society, the whole idea that all are welcome or should be welcomed is so important. But we have so many places in our society where people say, Well, you're great where you are, but you can't really be where I am. And that kind of judgment never helps. Yes, yes.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  53:41 I mean, we recently had a teacher coming to our monthly unlearning series, Joy Braungart, who was talking about the relationship between capitalism and disability justice. And I think, you know, the same way that we do not prioritize arts in schools because they within a capitalistic model, we're like, I can't make money in the arts. So we're just going to focus on math, science, reading, writing. And well, that's it. Right. And so we're still fighting for Steam as a huge thing within schools. But also, I think, in terms of disability justice, this idea that the stereotype that different bodies are still within American culture viewed through the lens of can you produce within a capitalistic system or can you not produce and that that has led to legislation that has undervalued our disabled community that has, as you said, created, you know, stigmas that are just so normal and normalized for people that they don't even question the way that they A my infantilized, somebody who is in a wheelchair infantilized, somebody who is on the ASD spectrum, all of these things that tie up to? does it relate to productivity? Or not? And that is a flawed system and itself.   Michael Hingson  55:20 Yeah, we, we still have to compare and we shouldn't have to compare. We should accept and encourage, and get people to be all they truly can be. But we, we just seem to talk about that a lot not do anything about it most of the time.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  55:41 Yeah. Well, that's fine. You know, thank you for saying that. I know, it's just a drop in the bucket. But just like your company, what ltj global and our new tech platform for small and midsize businesses soldier is designed to do is to try to bridge that gap to bring the value around humaneness back into workplaces, and to give leaders and dei champions and everybody in between the tools and resources that they need and ready made work paths, ready made resources and toolkits, educational videos so that we can no longer say like, Oh, our company can afford it. We've we're leveraging technology to try to take that, that that kind of normal kind of objection out of the picture and saying, now it's not that you can't afford it. It's just whether or not you want to do it. Do you care about your people? Do you care about inclusivity? Or don't you?   Michael Hingson  56:50 So tell me what LTS j is all about.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  56:55 So l th j is our consultancy. And that, you know, was a bunch of nerds from social science and the DEI field, the mental health field, organizational change, management, psychology, etc. all came together and said, hey, you know, I think this next wave of Dei, all of our research is going to be really useful as organizations try to move forward and build strong dei functions within their organization. And it's really designed to support companies that are done with just one off trainings. Or, you know, let's talk about racism potlucks, or let's talk about accessibility potlucks, and really want to do deep, meaningful transformation work. And then more recently, from really listening to our clients, we've started developing and incubating in house a new startup, which is sojourn Dei, which is to meet the needs of small nonprofits, small businesses, between you know, the size of two to about 150 employees, and make sure that they also have accesses access to revolutionary support and change tools. How does that work? Well, we're so excited. There's so many things, I think the easiest thing to say is that, once you log in at sojourn Dei, and the platform becomes available, you know, anybody can get on there and start going through guided step by step plans, surveys that you can use within your organization, training that you can provide throughout your organization, and really start learning how to build out dei and policies, procedures, frameworks, and et cetera, within your organization, all in a budget that is affordable for small businesses.   Michael Hingson  59:00 So again, what how to how does all that work? Do they is it all online? Is it meeting with people? Is it providing classes or what is it about?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  59:09 Great idea? A great question is, first and foremost, it is a software platform. So similar to MailChimp, or a HubSpot, where we have taken all of the tools that sit inside consultants heads and downloaded them into a software platform. And so you would log in and you would have a world for your company. And it's going to allow you to have your own company dashboard where you are running initiatives where we've given you step by step work paths with templates and tools that you just apply at the right time. It'll keep you on track with compliance and with rollout. But then to your point, Michael, when you do need that some weren't the only person talking you through it on the other end of a phone or email could provide, you can actually reach out right through the platform and talk to a dei transformation manager.   Michael Hingson  1:00:13 How do you or what would you advise people who are more interested in making their their companies more inclusive? What kind of advice would you give them? What are the pitfalls that you typically see,   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  1:00:30 I think the main pitfall that we see, is trying to do one off, you know, one off trainings or one off dei statements, something like this, but not really understanding that you're implementing one of the most strategic aspects in a successful company. And so that requires attention. It requires budget, it requires time, both people time, as well as longitudinal time as you operationalize things. And so, for those leaders who are still stuck in the, oh, I'll just pull off my dei initiative, you know, work plan once a month at Disability Awareness Month, or Women's History Month or Black History Month, but then they're not doing anything the rest of the year. Those are the companies that tend to fail. And they're still confused why they're not attracting the best talent, why their company is not having some of the best outcomes with their competitors. It's because they haven't yet learned that dei is no longer a nice to have, it's a must have in this growing economic climate.   Michael Hingson  1:01:54 One of the things that I talk about, and some others talk about when we talk about inclusivity. And we talk specifically about, say blindness and hiring blind people is that, in reality, you are doing a disservice to your company, and you are missing out when you don't make inclusion. A recognized part of the cost of doing business pure and simple if you don't allow the company to recognize that everyone has expenses that the company incurs for and we we make accommodations, we make accommodations for sighted people, we have lights for you guys, we have a coffee machine for you guys. Yes, yes, we have windows so that you can look out and, and so on, we provide computer monitors and so on, but we don't necessarily provide the equivalents. The alternatives for those for a person who happens to be blind, or although it's a little bit more common, we don't necessarily tend to be as willing as we ought to be about making wheelchair ramps and other things like that. But the reality is, it's all part of the cost of doing business. And when you hire someone, and you make it a point to recognize that difference isn't going to matter here, and we're going to provide you with what you need, then that person is more apt to stay with you, statistically speaking, and there's a lot of absolute evidence to show that people will be more loyal, because we know how hard it is to get a job. When you're dealing with persons with disabilities, for example, where the unemployment rate is among unplayable people is in the 65% range. That's huge. And so, the fact is that we do appreciate jobs, and even more important, we are the ones who really ought to know what we need. And I applaud the interviewer or the employer, who will say to someone who is coming in applying for for a job, tell me what you need, and how we get it. Because a lot of times it doesn't need to be a cost to the company anyway. But bring that person in as part of the team to get themselves hired.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  1:04:28 Yes, yes. I couldn't have said it better. Absolutely. Inclusion is just a normal cost of business.   Michael Hingson  1:04:38 Yeah, it should be. And it is something that we we really need to work on all the more to make it happen. Yes. Well, we've been doing this a while, which is fun. But I'd like to ask you to tell me how can people reach out to you learn more about you learn more about LTE HJ and so During and so on.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  1:05:02 Thank you. And great now, either you can find us through LTHJ global.com. Or through sojourndei.com. And the difference there is really one solution is for larger companies 155 Plus ad LTHJ. And for companies between one and 150 people add sojourn Dei. And we're excited to, as Michael said, helped make inclusion just a normal part of making your business great.   Michael Hingson  1:05:40 So they can reach out and . Can they contact you through those? If they want to talk with you? Can they contact you through those sites? Or how does that work?   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  1:05:49 Absolutely. Either. myself or one of my amazing teammates will respond immediately, you might end up talking to any number of wonderful people, the great Laura Kay Chamberlain, who's one of our co founders, or Jay Alba, is one of our co founders. But I'm also at most things at Lindsey, th, Jackson, LinkedIn, or Instagram are a really great way to connect with me personally and track as we continue to grow and scale. And I'd love to welcome you on our journey.   Michael Hingson  1:06:28 And we met through LinkedIn. So I will tell you, it's a great way to connect.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  1:06:32 Absolutely. Hey, we should make sure you get like some royalty fees for that plug.   Michael Hingson  1:06:37 Yeah, let's let's, let's go into LinkedIn and say, you know, we're doing all this for you.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  1:06:45 Absolutely. Oh, what a wonderful time.   Michael Hingson  1:06:49 This was fun. And I really appreciate you, you coming on and being a part of this. And I said I was going to do it, Laura, you don't get to hide. Laura has been monitoring this. And I'm sure it's going to have fun talking with Lindsay afterward. But Laura, do you want to say hello, you can't?   Laura Kay Chamberlain  1:07:06 How much I love this episode, and I feel a little a little bad that I get to be the very first one to witness it. And I just took that opportunity from everybody else feel like, I feel like, yeah, they're gonna be they're gonna be excited to hear this one come out. And just such a such a natural conversation between you two, this is great.   Michael Hingson  1:07:31 No, this, this really was a lot of fun. And I appreciate both of you being here. And and I learned a lot, I always love to come on these episodes and have a chance to speak with people because I feel that I get to learn. And if, if I can learn then that's important to me. I hope I learned at least as much as anybody else. And I will, I will be going back and listening to this episode more than once to get it all. And to get the episode prepared for going up. But I really appreciate all the wisdom. And I hope we can do this some more, and would love to work with you.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  1:08:11 Thank you so much, Michael, this was really lovely. Thank you for holding the space and creating it.   Michael Hingson  1:08:16 Well, I'm thank you for being here and helping to fill it in for all of you. Listening, I really appreciate you being here. So I hope that you will reach out to Lindsey and to Laura and I would love to hear your thoughts. So please reach out to me, you can email me through Michaelhi at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. Or go to Michael hingson.com/podcast. But I hope that you will definitely connect, love to hear your thoughts and please when you are done with this, which we're about to be, I hope that you'll give us a five star rating because your ratings and your comments are what really inspire and guide what we do from week to week. If anyone listening would like to be a guest please let me know. Please reach out. I would very much like to speak with you and we will talk about you being a guest as well. So Lindsay, one more time. Thank you very much for being here and let's do this again.   Lindsey T. H. Jackson  1:09:19 Thank you. That will be our pleasure.   Michael Hingson  1:09:27 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Our final Disability Rights Awareness Month coversation is dedicated to the visually impaired. Africa is joined by Hamzah Mustak Ophthalmologist at Groote Schuur Hospital to talk about how prevelant blindness is in South Africa and what some of the causes and treatment options are.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Africa is joined by Professor  Colleen Adnams, Emeritus Professor of Intellectual Disability at University of Cape Town to talk about kids  who have suffer from Intellectual disability, specifically (FAS) and the long term effects. Disability Rights Awareness Month is observed annually from the 3rd of November to the 3rd December.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Africa is joined by Audiologist Candice van Heerden to talk about people who have sensory disabilities, specifically loss of hearing or deafness. Disability Rights Awareness Month is observed annually from the 3rd of November to the 3rd of December.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adrien Castle from BCANDS describes this year's Wellness Gathering for Indigenous Disability Awareness Month. From the November 9, 2022 episode.

Africa is joined by Sharlene Cassel, National Director at Epilepsy South Africa to talk about the organisation and the work they do. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological condition that causes brain activity to become abnormal, causing seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations and sometimes loss of awareness. Disability Rights Awareness Month is observed annually from the 3rd November to the 3rd December.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a special bonus episode in celebration of Disability Awareness Month. My special guest and I talk about her disability field guide and her multifaceted writing as a whole. Tracee Lydia Garner started out as a poet. Years before entertaining full length novels, poetry allowed her to express feelings about having a disability or life in general and the obstacles and barriers that exist as she tries to make a space in the world. Her poetry has won honorable mentions and has appeared in her campus's literary magazine. In 2001 Tracee took up longer, more dramatic fiction. Her desire to write something longer was first piqued though a story entitled Tides, a romantic love story "still in progress". The website owners invited others to contribute to the story and Tracee decided to give it a try by writing her own spin and how she felt the story should continue. After writing chapters 8 and 9, and later chapters 11 and 12, and having both her contributions posted, Tracee felt as if writing was "it". After writing and submitting the complete story to Tides, she received no information about whether it was a good story ending, neither was it posted, she turned to creating her own stories from start to finish. In 2001 after several attempts at her academics, Tracee entered her story, FAMILY AFFAIRS into the contest and won, changing her passion pursuits and her life. After winning the grand-prize award, receiving an advance, a book contract, a trip to New York to accept her award and most importantly having her work published by BET Books, she sent two more books and managed a book deal with the house. Since then Tracee has gone on to write at least 18 books, with more on the way. She's a public and motivational speaker, adjunct profession, course creator, and a loves writing more than anything. While her heart will always be in fiction, the genre that changed her life, this year, Tracee penned a book giving people with disabilities, and parents of children with special needs anecdotal advice for their life journey. In Disability: A Field Guide, she' talks about all of her barriers, hurdles and overcoming challenges faced in finding gainful employment, dealing with the lack of quality, competent caregiving personnel, deciding to drive and the pains of needing to fund and learn expensive adaptive driving equipment for her vehicle and dealing with discrimination, limitations others place on her abilities and emergency planning and so much more. As a public speaker Tracee has facilitated workshops, conferences and other events with the likes of Martin Luther King, III, former secretary of labor, Alexis Herman, former Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education, Judy Heumann, and been a guest for the radio show On A Roll, with late founder and host Greg Smith, a live weekly syndicated commercial radio talk show on life and disability. Tracee's approach to life and her presentations are filled with lots of humor, fun, real and practical talk that helps people confront their barriers in their own lives, and define a level of success that's right for them. Additionally she gives parents of special need children, the push, fortitude and encouragement to create an ideal life focused on what their child can do, rather than what they can't! Connect with Tracee at the following links: http://www.traceegarner.com http://www.traceegarner.com/blog https://bit.ly/3aOhCxe https://twitter.com/teegarner https://www.instagram.com/teegarner --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/inspirational-journeys/message

July was Disability Awareness Month. Today's guest is a member of that community who speaks about his experiences.Joseph Ellison tells us his courageous story that includes the early death of his mother, being adopted by his parents, and his diagnosis of slight “mental retardation” as a child along with ADHD in the early 90s (now changed to intellectual disability) along with the challenges and triumphs he has faced in an unforgiving world. He also tells us his involvement in the Black Lives Matter rallies. He can be found on Instagram @jojoellison99 Being mixed race and having a disability can be twice as hard for these members in our community. What can we do to give them more of a voice and be inclusive so we can address their rights? Are there any heroes and sheores in these communities we should know?Bringing stories on what it means to be multiracial in America, one story at a time, from the studio to the streets.DOWNLOAD and SUBSCRIBE to Generation Mixed Podcast.FOLLOW me on:TikTok: | https://www.tiktok.com/@genmixedpodcast?lang=enInstagram: | https://www.instagram.com/generationmixedpodcast/Twitter: | https://twitter.com/GenMixedPodcastSubscribe to our newsletter at www.Justjmarc.comPlease email us here with any suggestions, comments, and questions for future episodes” generationmixedpodcast@gmail.com

In this month's series, Amanda dives into some awareness topics related to those with disabilities. This week, she talks about 5 things you can do better when it comes to interacting with those with intellectual disabilities. Don't miss Amanda's insight and learn how you can be more inclusive. Connect with me (Amanda) on Instagram or Facebook @piecesofmebyamanda I would love to hear from you! I have some exciting things going on in my life and I would be lying if I told you I didn't want you to be engaged with it all! Check out my self-published children's book! I would love to know what you think and the impact it had on you. Owen the Wonderer – (piecesofme.org) New Blogs released: Words from Amanda – (piecesofme.org) Want to connect and grow with me? Check out my free webinars and coaching sessions: Connecting the Pieces – (piecesofme.org) OR send me a request to join my Private Facebook Group! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fuel-your-purpose/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fuel-your-purpose/support

Join us this week as we talk with advocates and leaders in Monroe County about progress made for Hoosiers with disabilities, what still needs to be done, and changes coming to Stone Belt.

In this month's series, Amanda dives into some awareness topics related to those with disabilities. This week, she talks about three things that parents to someone with a disability don't do. Whether this directly relates to you or not, you are going to walk away impacted. Give it a listen. Connect with me (Amanda) on Instagram or Facebook @piecesofmebyamanda I would love to hear from you! I have some exciting things going on in my life and I would be lying if I told you I didn't want you to be engaged with it all! Check out my self-published children's book! I would love to know what you think and the impact it had on you. Owen the Wonderer – (piecesofme.org) New Blogs released: Words from Amanda – (piecesofme.org) Want to connect and grow with me? Check out my free webinars and coaching sessions: Connecting the Pieces – (piecesofme.org) OR send me a request to join my Private Facebook Group! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/fuel-your-purpose/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/fuel-your-purpose/support

In today's episode, Ryan and Travis welcome David Stotz into the studio. David is a Creative Director for a global brand, Master Gardener, and a Culinary Savant, among other things. Ryan talks to Travis and David about disability awareness and the stigmas held towards people with disabilities in honor of Disability Awareness Month. Then, Travis and David go down a rabbit hole of Mental Health. @Tee_Platt@IAmRyanLacosse@TheCTZPodcast@randolphterraceTheCTZ.com 

Jordan speaks with representatives from The Carrol County DD board about the importance of this month and the meaning for those involved

March is Disability Awareness Month, and Fishers has some special events planned. Cecilia Coble & Kelly Hartman join Larry to talk about it.

What's up guys - welcome to another episode of the podcast you are currently listening to. This episode we continue our coverage of disabled history for Disability Awareness Month. Kat starts us off with another story of some bad*ss students who took a stand during the DPN protests and Kaleigh tells the life story of tortured artist Ernest Hemingway.Let's chat - contact us!Twitter: @TINAHLpodcastEmail: Thisisnotahistorylecture@gmail.comRemember to rate us on Apple podcasts - It really does help!

Hello everyone and welcome back to our podcast! Today we are kicking off disability awareness month with two stories from history - Kat covers the inspiring story of the section 504 sit-in and Kaleigh covers King Tut - one of the most well known but mysterious figures from Ancient Egypt. We want to hear from you!Twitter: @TINAHLpodcastEmail: thisisnotahistorylecture@gmail.comDon't forget to rate us on Apple Podcasts!

We welcome the warm spurt, but what will St Patrick's Day be like? Coronavirus be damned; Ryan is going to see Godzilla vs. Kong in an iMax. Kelly didn't exactly write a manual for Ryan like he would have liked, but she did drop some life and career Inspo on him. The best life advice, though, may be learning about all of our favorite watering holes in Macomb as we talk about college and what comes after. As March opens, we realize that we collectively represent Woman's History and Disability Awareness Month brilliantly. Does Peoria have a self-esteem issue, and how could it be hurting us during this great migration? Ryan gets disgusted at people who watched the Britany Spears Documentary. Travis and Kelly wind the episode down as they tag team the Four Sigmatic commercial, but did they nail it?