Jill Houghton: 2022 Disability:IN Conference

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hi everyone, welcome to the show to all of you in the United States and around the world. I have to start again by saying that we at Voice America Disability Matters, Bender Consulting Services, are behind all of our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine with disabilities working to get out. I'm very honored to be on the board of the World Institute on Disability, and I know that we are working very hard to help change that whole situation and help get people out. It's terrible that people cannot get out of the country. So those of you listening, you know what? We're with you. Now, we're around the world. We have over 17 countries around the world that listen to the show, and it changes. The number of listening countries change. But, you know, someone asked me the other day, they said, hey, we don't hear— who are these countries? So I'm going to give you a little example of who they are. They are Australia, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Philippines, Italy, Ireland, Canada, Japan, Egypt, France, France, Sweden, Mongolia, Bolivia, Spain, the Netherlands. And guess what? That's just one week. They change and are added all the time. Although I must say, China is really getting a larger listening audience. But hey, okay, this person in Mongolia, you one person, you one person can change the world right there by just telling other people, English-speaking people, to listen to the show. So I mean, I just think that's so awesome. So are my friends from the State Department. Richard Roberts, I love him so much. He is Met him first in South Korea, then in Okinawa. He is just a wonderful, wonderful person. Cheryl Harris, I met virtually when I did a program for Tunisia and Libya. And guess what? Now she is in the United States at the State Department. So awesome, Cheryl, to have you there. Wow, Venyamin in Kazakhstan. I am sure you are nervous, but we are thinking about you and we are praying for you. Gangneung in South Korea, love you so much. So, the State Department, that's really how I got to go to these countries. So, you know, you have to remember what they're doing also, because that's really a big thing. And Panama, Panama is the first place I went over 8 years ago. But, you know, you've got to remember the good work they're doing. Yes, I got your kind letter, Yoshiko. Yoshiko, who I have the shout-out on every show for years now, is because I love her. She's a great advocate. And also because of Justin, the great Justin Dart, who passed away several years ago, her husband, who was the general of the ADA. I am not going to let anyone forget that. Yoshiko, I know, go ahead. I know you're saying, "Lead on," from your room. I know you are, and I can hear you all the way here. Highmark is our lead sponsor and has been for years. They are the sponsor of Disability Matters with Joyce Bender. David Holmberg just received the Corporate CEO Award at the AAPD Gala. Oh, so awesome. Given to him by Senator Casey, and I had the great honor of introducing Senator Casey. I especially loved my ending where I said, "And now, from the great state of Pennsylvania," I loved saying that, "to Senator Bob Casey." But hi, Mark, you are just Joyce Bender, I have no words for how wonderful you've been to Bender, more importantly to people with disabilities. So my hat's off to you. And once again, David, congratulations again. Well, as I said on LinkedIn, we have a rock star. Do you know what I was so excited about this show today? Because I knew who the guests would just get everything rocking and fired up, and she is a rock star. She's a really wonderful person, so talented, so smart, and she just is awesome. That's what I would say. So, Jill Houghton, President and CEO of Disability:IN!, welcome to the show.

Well, thank you, Joyce Bender. It's such an honor. I love, I love how you— I love you, and I love how you started today's show by just engaging with all of these beautiful humans from all over the globe and calling out the work that people are doing around the globe. And thank you, Joyce Bender, for being that that uniting force to pull people together from all parts of the world, and for shining a light on those in the Ukraine and the work of the World Institute on Disability trying to get individuals with disabilities out of Ukraine. We absolutely stand in solidarity and send lots of prayers and love to the people And I know you mean it.

And so those of you listening from Ukraine, but also Kazakhstan, where Mary and I spent a week with Veniamin, I know there's so much fear and tension, but you heard it. We're all with you. And Jill, I know we'll talk about this in a little bit, but you certainly have expertise globally in the world of disability. But first, for all those listeners, I we just talked about, and in the United States. How about if we hear your story? You know, like, how did you get here? You know, where did you grow up? Why did you, you know, why did you end up in this role? Why did you move into advocacy? I'm sure everyone would love to hear that.

Well, I would just say that life is what happens when you're busy making plans. I grew up in a little town in the middle of nowhere in Kansas, which is in the middle of the U.S., where people honk to say hello, not get out of my way. I have a learning disability, and I had a really hard time in school and in college, and I really thought I wanted to be a lawyer. And when I bombed the test to get into law school, we had a family convention to really talk about my learning disability and to talk about what were some other things I could do. And that took me to Washington, D.C. as an intern and really changed the course of my life, having that experience, getting to be an intern for Senator Robert Dole, who was an amazing man. And a U.S. senator who was one of the authors of the Americans with Disabilities Act and just a great human who really worked across the aisle. And that kind of set the tone for my career. And honestly, one of my first jobs was helping people who were born with developmental disabilities get jobs, and then when I saw a young woman get a job and realized that it wasn't just about a paycheck, right, that it was about respect, it was about having friends, it was about being included as a valued member of society, I knew why I existed. And so, you know, the rest was history.

Well, how did you get— I know, of course, Disability and is the name, but before when it was called USBLN, how did you first get connected?

Honestly, when I first learned about this movement, I didn't think it was real. I thought it sounded like companies just talking. And then I got involved locally in my community in Seattle. Washington at the time, and I met a CEO of a company who was doing really good work around including people with disabilities, and he wanted to tell people on his road, like other companies, and I said, there's this thing and it's called the Business Leadership Network, and honestly, you can make it whatever you want to make it, but I I think it's that thing. And, uh, so I got involved locally, and that led to the opportunity to meet people like you, Joyce, and to meet Mary, and to meet people from across the U.S. who were working to build this movement that was really based on the premise that if one company's doing something that's good for their bottom line and they're including people with disabilities, so it's not pity like you say, then their competitors want to know what it is and they want to do it better. And so I thought, wow, this is really something. This isn't what I thought it was. This is what we want to make it. This can be that place. This can be that movement to change the world, to make the world more inclusive for all of us.

Well, I remember honestly as if it was yesterday. I can see you up there telling everyone, "Are you ready to rock and roll?" And I remember thinking, wow, she is Wow, what a fireball. This is my kind of person. And I was right because look what— now, I hope all of our listeners, especially young people, people with dyslexia or dysgraphia, I hope you heard this. You heard how Jill talked about how it was. Okay, she's the CEO of this huge organization with how many companies, Jill, are members?

Almost 500.

Okay, now we're talking, everyone, large companies. I mean, there are some small because there are Adobes, but we're talking like Microsoft, uh, Highmark, Merck, I mean, we're talking huge, Northrop Grumman, huge corporations. Jill's over all this. Jill is at the White House, Jill testifies before Senate, I mean, Jill goes known internationally. Jill is known. So my whole point is, She's successful. She's well-known. She is at the White House. She is at Senate. She's everywhere. And guess what? She has a learning disability. You know what my point is. You know it. Learning disability means you learn differently. That's it. Gerald Homi, our manager, who Jill will be at the conference this year, with Paul and I. Gerald is the manager over talent programs, and he talks frequently about his dysgraphia and dyslexia, but he is a leader at Bender. So what I'm saying, especially to you young people listening, doesn't have to stop you. Believe me, it hasn't stopped Joyce. She is like a constant meteorite. She's like a fireball at all times. So it certainly hasn't stopped her. And speaking of a great thing coming, it is the Disability:IN conference will be coming soon. And Jill, did you ever think you'd end up being the president and CEO of Disability:IN?

Never in a million years, right? I didn't even want to talk about the fact that I had a disability. So, I love how you call out like that one person in Mongolia right now. And the power that that individual has, that we all have as humans, right, to come together to work to drive the change. Because it is going to take all of us, right? And many more. All of you young people out there, we have so much work to do. We are barely scratching the surface. And we have to pull together and keep moving forward.

That's right. One decision. Everyone gets that chance in their life to make that one decision. And hopefully you choose the good one decision. Because look at this. Bill Lowry passed away 2 or 3 years ago. He was the CEO of Blue Cross when it became Highmark. I meet with him, Bill. I have this idea. Would you stand behind me? Would you agree to have 6 contractors on site. They will be entry-level. Some of them don't have a college degree. They all have disabilities, but they have training to be a COBOL programmer. But I need them on contract for a while. 6 people on contract, 3 years. Why? It only takes them 1 day to say yes. And when I was in Kazakhstan or, you know, any of these countries, I'll say to myself, He would never believe it. One decision. Look how many lives he has changed. One decision. That can be you. As Jill said, no matter where you are, one decision can change other lives. But Jill, from when you took over this fabulous organization, how much has the organization grown? Because just so you all know, I remember going to some of these I remember one. I forget where it was. They were only like a small group, maybe 30 companies. I mean, it was nowhere near the way it is right now. Do you remember that, Jill, when it was real small?

Yeah, I mean, in the beginning we were like 7 boxes of paper. Um, I mean, literally. And, and we were You know, we were a lot of advocates coming together, talking about wanting to get business to the table with people like Joyce Bender and Bender Consulting Services that were working with business, that were bringing business to the table, right? You've been bringing business to the table since the beginning. Um, but you know, it's been a journey and we're still on that journey. We have So much more work to do, but what has kept us moving forward is staying true to our mission, right? And staying— we exist at Disability:IN to empower business to achieve disability inclusion and equality. So what that means is We have to listen to what business needs, and then we have to work to be responsive to that. We have to take action. And it's hard, and it's not perfect. And again, we're barely scratching the surface. We've come a long ways from 7 boxes of paper, but we got a long ways to go. And it's just really, it's a privilege to get to be on this journey with leaders like yourself, Joyce Bender, and with your team. Because again, together we can get so much more work done.

That is so true. That's why when people, you know, oh, you work with this company, or oh, Disability:IN, they have these companies, you know, what we want to— why aren't we working with those companies? I always say, Do you know how many companies there are in the United States that don't at all hire people with disabilities or know anything about hiring people with disabilities or Bender Consulting or Disability:IN? Hey, go at it. They're all out there. You know, I mean, this is still 70% of people with disabilities not counted in the workforce. What is going on here? But I got to tell you, it's changing. The ship is moving. It may be slow, but it's moving. It's moving in the right direction, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But Jill, when you started, from when you took over, how much has the organization grown since then, and how many years ago was that?

So, I came on board in 2010. I took over as CEO in 2011. And I don't know, maybe we were 100 companies. We probably weren't even 100 companies. Maybe we were like 50 companies. So, you know, it's not just about It's not just about getting a company to, like, be part of our network. It's really, it's so much more than that, right? It's like, we want to work with companies and to create an environment where companies take action. And there's a lot of different actions that they can take. And when they take those actions, we ultimately want them to talk about it. We want them to be empowered and use their voice. Because if a company is out there like Highmark talking about how they work with Bender Consulting Services, which is an action because you are a disability-owned business enterprise, then you can bet that the competitors of Highmark want to know, well, what is that? Well, why aren't we working with Bender Consulting Services? So, you know, yes, we have grown, but more importantly, we're trying to engage with these companies and get them to take action and use their voice.

Yes. And, Jill, you're very modest here. But what I'm trying to say is look how much it has grown under your leadership. I mean, I know what you're going to say right now. You're going to say it isn't just you, and I know it isn't just you. I know that, but the buck does stop at the top. And I have to say, it's amazing what you have done. I mean, it is amazing that under your leadership— I remember when it was small, Jill. I was there when it was small. I was there when people were trying to figure out how could they get more people to go. But boy, it's not small now. It is growing, growing, growing, growing. And there is something that you did that the whole— that I just love, and I know Judy Uman loves. Let's start with this: why did you decide to change the name from USBLN to disability? And I mean, what caused the board to say we're going to change the name?

Honestly, I'm going to say this: U.S. Business Leadership Network. What, what does that say? Like, people would say, what do you do? Who are you? Well, why, why doesn't your name reflect who you are and what you do. And I will tell you that the stars aligned on our board. We have an amazing board, and we've tried to change our name so many times, but we didn't have the right— the timing wasn't right. And in 2018, the stars aligned. We had a board chair, Jenny LeFlurry, who is the Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft, who is deaf, right? She is a female business leader who is deaf, and she's proud of the fact that she's deaf because it's a natural part of the human experience. It's a beautiful part of the human experience. And so we had this opportunity to rebrand to a name that reflects Disability pride. And you invoked Judy Heumann's name, and I'm just going to say that when we were on this journey in rebranding, I'll never forget being at a conference, and I was in this room, and Judy was there, and Judy was leading a session with a bunch of corporate professionals. And they were talking about diversely abled and differently abled and special, and they were trying to call disability all these different things. And Judy got tears in her eyes, and she said, "Do you know how hard we worked to achieve 'What we have achieved. And do you know that disability is not something— we're not broken. Like, this is a strength.' And she said, 'Please do me a favor and say the word, and say it with pride.' And so, when we rebranded to Disability:IN, that was one of the best thing, like the best days in the history of our organization to really like have a name that evokes disability pride.

Well, I was on top of the world and I still am. I'm with Judy whenever I talk to her, and then young people like Emily Liddell, you know, I don't want to hear diverse ability, differently abled, handicappable, take the dis out of disability. I have epilepsy and I'm hard of hearing. I have a disability. I'm not ashamed I have a disability. But see, you don't realize it, but when you say don't say that word, you're saying it's bad. So why the heck would you hire bad people? So when you did that, Jill, I am so proud of that board. I am. I'm so proud of that board because not only is it disability, but it's in. Disability in. Oh, I love that. I love that so much. So, Jill, the DEI, wow, this has really rocked the world, and we're going to talk about it next. But first, on the half hour, is our newsbreak for, yes, the past 4 years. How fast does time go? Did you know we're the only organization where every week you can go and hear on the half hour what's happening in the world of disability nationally or states, whatever it is. We are that place you go. And that is why I am so excited to have our anchor, our newscaster, CEO of Disability Rights PA, which I'm so honored to be on the board of, Perry Jude Radesik. How are you, Perry?

Joyce, I'm fine, and I've been listening to the show, and it's very exciting, all of the progress that's been made.

It is. Perry, I bet you're with me too, huh, on using the word disability?

Oh, absolutely. Refer to myself as disabled all the time.

Yeah, yeah, we are not, uh, Diversibility of Pennsylvania. I hate that, Perry, when people do that. I hate it. Uh, but anyway, okay, what's going on in the news, Perry?

Yeah, well, we want to remind voters that primary elections are underway across the country. Indiana and Ohio. So if you're living there, you know you have a primary election today. Now Pennsylvania joins 4 other states who have scheduled their primaries in 2 weeks. So on Tuesday, May 17th, uh, 5 states go to the polls. Pennsylvania is one of them. If you want that complete list of all of the 2022 state primary election dates go to disabilityrightsPA.org, click on today's advocacy matters segment, and you'll find a list of all of the state primary election dates if you want to know, uh, when your state is voting. Now, here in Pennsylvania, Disability Rights Pennsylvania, along with 19 other civil rights organizations, raised concerns with the state legislature and the Secretary of State about the most recent allocations of voter fraud in Pennsylvania. This most recent allegation actually focused on individuals who were providing voters with disabilities assistance, and they do this as a designated agent. So it's legal in Pennsylvania to designate an agent who can assist you to go pick up a ballot or return a ballot like returning a ballot to a county drop box. But Joyce, some counties have been recording individuals dropping off more than one ballot at a drop box, and some county officials have compared this legal accommodation to fraud. It's ridiculous. So unfortunately, there could be some confusion about the law because agents are only supposed to return one ballot per voter or assist one voter. And sometimes people who are well-intentioned may be trying to help maybe several loved ones in their home who have disabilities. So instead of lobbing accusations of voter fraud at people who are trying to assist voters with disabilities, Pennsylvania counties and the Secretary of State's office has to provide more training and education around the use of designated agents. So advocacy matters. It's important to remember that a voter with disabilities in Pennsylvania can legally use a designated agent to help them vote. Disability Rights Pennsylvania has a fact sheet on the designated agent process. And if any voter who has questions about designated agents or other issues related to voting in Pennsylvania, they can contact Disability Rights Pennsylvania at 800-692-7443.

That's 800-692-7443.

But go to disabilityrightspa.org, click on today's advocacy matters segment. You'll see the designated agent form. You'll see the fact sheet we created on designated agents. And you'll see the letter we wrote with 19 other civil rights organizations about the allegations of voter fraud in some of our counties, Joyce.

Oh my goodness, I, I guess that we can't have training there, huh? That's terrible if people aren't trained to understand that. That's why I think it's very important if you have any concerns about any of this, you've got to get it, you've got to get disabilityrightspa.org. Perry, before you go, I have one last question. What about the absentee ballot? Can people still get that or is it too late now?

No, people can still get an absentee ballot. Be sure to request those from your county elections office. If you have a question about, you know, where to call to get that, call us at Disability Rights PA. We'll be happy to hook you up with that, with your county. And as soon as you get your ballot, be sure that you have someone help you return it to a ballot drop box or mail it in right away. It's really important that you vote in 2 weeks. We've got a governor's race, we've got lieutenant governor, we've got a U.S. Senate seat, we have House seats, lots, lots of opportunities to weigh in on who is going to represent us at the federal and state level, Joyce.

Okay, well, thank you so much, Perry. Thank you and have a great day. Thank you for keeping us up to date.

Yes, Joyce, take care.

Jill, I just love to keep everyone up to date on the news, what's going on. Sometimes, you know, a lot of times it's federal, but I think this was really good what she went over today. And what we were going to talk about is the DEI, and I will have to say that has become such a powerful word that I'll be to like a Fortune 500 company and they'll bring up the DEI. You know, everyone will talk talk about the DEI, you know, and I will have to say that Ted— I know it started with AAPD and Disability:IN, all of this, and the certification and everything else that went on, but Ted Kennedy really took this and just blew it up, didn't he?

Ted Kennedy Jr. is a force who is on a mission, and he is a gift for his tireless, just tireless commitment and hard work to really helping us, helping AAPD and Disability:IN work together to grow the Disability Equality Index. I mean, words, words can't really do justice to what he has done to help us advance this work.

I know. He has done, he has done so much. And isn't he like the co-chairman of the DEI?

He, I mean, with disability and, you know, under, under Ted Kennedy Jr.'s leadership, he, he co-chairs the DEI along with David Casey, who's just, uh, taken a new job and is going to emerge at a, at a company as a leader in, uh, later this month. But, but Ted, Ted really has taught us the power of taking the data from the Disability Equality Index and teaming with Accenture to build a business case called Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage. And we took that— he took that data and he went to Comptroller DiNapoli of New York State, one of the largest, you know, shareholders, you know, public investors in corporate America, and formed the Joint Investor Statement and has secured the support of Treasurer Reed in Oregon and Treasurer Goldberg in Massachusetts and the Ethical Partners Fund in Australia. You know, signatories from all over the globe, 31 and growing, with $2.8 trillion in assets under management, calling on the companies that they invest in to advance disability inclusion and make— to make disability part of the environmental, social, and governance The ESG investing, that is huge to work to get disability in that S, in the social vein. And none of that would happen without Ted Kennedy Jr.

Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, he told me from the beginning he was going to go to where it would have the biggest impact, and that's money. And profit. And that's exactly what he did. And now he has the attention of the CEOs. And Jill, the letter— let's talk about that letter that now how many people have signed on? I know when I was at the conference, I can still see the CEOs all coming out, you know, talking about it. How— where are we at now?

So, on the CEO front, we are at 108 and counting. And every month, there are more coming on board. And this is really by design. We've got the DEI, the Disability Equality Index, which is not a flashy campaign, okay? It is a tool designed to help companies take action, identify opportunities where they can do better, where they can do more. Because as we all know, there is not one company out there where discrimination isn't alive and well. So this tool is designed to meet companies where they're at and help them take action. So we've got the joint investors on one arm, calling on the companies that they invest in to take action and to utilize the DEI. And then on the other arm, we've got the CEO letter where CEOs are urging their peers to prioritize disability inclusion and to utilize tools like the Disability Equality Index. So we're coming at it from both angles. Right? Really trying to get more companies, because you talked about it, you said there's so many companies out there, to get these companies to the party, to get them to take action. So, last year we were 7 years old, 319 companies participated, 67 of the Fortune 100, and we piloted a global version. You have a global audience. We tested a global version. We had 30 companies participate with over 40 countries, and we're dissecting that and we're learning from that. So we fast forward to this year, the DEI is going to be 8 years old. We're in the process of collecting the, the submissions, and we're going to be launching registration for the global version. So, what does that mean? We got a lot of work ahead of us. We got a lot— these companies have a lot of things to do, but again, trying to meet companies where they're at and get them to take action. And it's things like the CEO letter and like the joint investor letter that's bringing them out to the party, that's getting disability on their radar, because we are missing. In the work that companies are doing, right? If we look at workforce representation, companies are reporting out on minorities, and they're reporting out on women, and they're sometimes reporting out on LGBTQ. But there's only 21 companies that we're aware of around the globe that are including disability in their workforce representation data. That's publicly shared. We want to be included. And what gets measured gets done.

That is so true. Oh, I mean, I am hoping that we see some big things happen, Jill, some other big things happen, because how can we be 32 years this year for the ADA, how can we be there and have double the unemployment rate? How Is that possible? And I just want to say to everyone, when you talk about we want to do something, we want to do something, hire someone. That's where the rubber meets the road. That's how you start. Hire someone. And of course, you can learn so much at the Disability:IN conference. So, Jill, let's talk about that great conference. When is it and where is it? And can people still go, and what should they expect?

So, we have the global corporate disability event of the year, and we're going to be in person. Can you believe it?

Finally. I know, that is so great. Yes, that's great.

We're going to be July 18th through the 21st in Dallas, Texas. And if you go to disabilityin.org, disabilityin.org, and you click on News and Events, you can see a link to the conference. It says Global Conference and Expo. If you go to that page, you're going to find the agenda, you're going to find the how to register. You're going to find information about the hotel, about how to exhibit, about who's, you know, about this awesome talent. So far we've unveiled that we're having Marlee Matlin from CODA in the opening session. We've got some amazing talent, Loshi, who's going to be with us during the dinner where we celebrate the top companies on the Disability Equality Index, there's opportunities to matchmake, to actually meet DOBEs like Bender Consulting Services. And, and there's opportunities to matchmake with NextGen, with young people who are in college or who have recently graduated who will get jobs on the spot. Or will get invited to second-round and third-round interviews. There's opportunities to come together to learn from each other. Maybe one company is doing something really, really well around their accommodations, and maybe there's another company that does a horrible job around accommodations, but they've got some really great work going on around self-identification. This is the place where companies are coming to learn from each other and to engage with certified disability-owned businesses and talent, talent who identifies as disabled.

I love it. I love it. And I would say this to a disability-owned business enterprise. If you own your own business, you have a disability, You should be at this conference. Let me tell you, there isn't any other place you're going to go where you're going to meet all these people. I mean, you're going to meet heads of procurement, HR, business leaders in different areas all together. And guess what they're looking for? Disability-owned business enterprises. I mean, I have met so many great people that I became friends with from this conference, from the Disability:IN conference. And I will say this to you, Raul, I am still going to have wilder socks than you at this conference. I have put the gauntlet down to Raul Suarez Rodriguez, who is constantly trying to have wilder socks than me. You're going to lose. So, you know what, you need to go to the conference just so you can see those socks that we'll be wearing. But that gives you an idea of what I mean about how I made friends. And by the way, he's the head of diversity from Merck. When you go there, that matchmaking, do you know what that is? That's that you as a disability-owned business enterprise get to sit there and give a 15-minute presentation on your company. And you know, Jill, I'm the Master Mentor, so you know I'm going to expect everyone to be ready to go at this. And then not to forget, as you said, all those young people with disabilities looking for employment. And then all just so much global, so much companies. If you're listening, you need to go. Jill, once again though, I'm a corporation. What do I have to do if someone, a business is listening, a manager, and they go talk their company about this? They go to the website, correct?

Yeah, go to the website, to disabilityin.org, click on News and Events, and, and scroll down. And honestly, you can— there is a link if you scroll down, it says, need to make the business case to attend. You can actually click a document, and there is an overview packet that we put together that you can take back to your company to make the case for them to support your participation, whether it's you coming in person in Dallas, Texas, or to support your participation virtually. So, there is a virtual option. This is the first year for hybrid. So, it's a new frontier for us. What that means, it's— if you purchase the virtual, you will have access to all of the plenary sessions. You will have access to all of the attendees to, you know, text and share contact information. You'll have the opportunity to engage with the exhibit hall. And you will have the opportunity to attend one breakout during every breakout. So, not Not every single thing is virtual, but a lot of content is going to be virtual. So, certainly something there for everybody. And again, you can click on this document that is accessible to help you make the business case for your company to support your participation.

I'm so glad that you said that because now there are people listening that if you can't go to Dallas, you can still participate virtually. So, you know, someone may have been listening saying, oh, I won't be able to get there, the company won't be able to get there. There you go. There's your other option. This is hybrid. You can, you can do this virtually. I mean, I think that's so great, Jill, that you have either option.

Absolutely.

It is something for everybody. And, you know, I think that that's one of the beautiful outcomes of COVID Is that we have learned to do things differently, and we're going to come and we're going to be casual. We're going to be wearing disability and swag and jeans. I can hardly wait.

Oh, I didn't know that part. I'm glad you told me.

It's a new day, so come ready to rock, rock your brand, rock your brand.

You mean this whole thing is Casual. The conference.

Wear your wild socks and rock your Bender Consulting Services brand.

Except, are you— you still have that dinner, or is that going to be casual also?

Well, except for the dinner. People want, you know, I think there's this pent-up demand to get fancy at least once, so we're going to do that for dinner.

Yeah, you know, I mean, Jill, I can't even think of everything. I'm trying to think of everything. Global, let's talk about global. What are you going to be doing there about global?

Well, as we continue to build this organization, there is a large growing demand globally. And I mean, you can see it, look at look at who's on this, on your show every week, Joyce. You called out all of the countries participating and said that it changes week to week. We're seeing that. And so we have councils around the globe. We have an APAC council, an EMEA council, a LATAM council, and we are engaging in country with companies in country. So, we just got done hosting an APAC conference. We had over 1,200 attendees from 37 different countries where people came together virtually in that region to hear people in region talk and, and learn from each other on actions that they're taking in their companies, that you're taking in your companies to advance disability inclusion. So this is the North American version. We're gearing up for the EMEA virtual meeting in October. So, you know, this is Disability:IN continuing to evolve and working to be responsive. In country. So, we're engaging with a lot of folks around the globe.

Wow. What is this you're doing in October?

Well, we're going to be hosting a virtual conference in the EMEA region. So, stay tuned for more information.

It's— How can people find out?

—coming together as we speak.

How can people find out more about that? Just keep following On your website, I would say follow us on social media.

One of the best things to do is follow Disability:IN on LinkedIn. That's where it's at.

LinkedIn Disability:IN. And by the way, Jill, are you in?

I am all in. I'm in. I'm in, and you know what?

You better all be in to sign the contract. That's what I have to say. Everybody better be in to sign the contract with Adobe. So, you know what? You look out, look out, we're coming, and you've got to be there. You've got to be there. So, Jill, what is your dream for Disability:IN?

Honestly, that— that the world— that we work towards a place where disability— where we are at parity, right? Where employment is at parity with those without disabilities. I mean, that's really what it's all about. It's about— like you talk about, it's about a paycheck, not pity. And what we need in order to make that happen is we need companies to take actions to be inclusive and to engage with us, right? Because nothing happens. It is nothing about us without us. Like, the greatest resource that every company has are their people. So, engage with your people with disabilities and listen to what they have to say to help move you along on your journey and work with disability-owned businesses and work with NGOs, work with people, engage with people with disabilities because we want to have equity. We want to be at parity with everyone. And so we got a lot of work to do. The world is a very big place, and to your point, there's a lot of companies out there, and we're already in the door in your company.. And in some cases, we're not. So, we want to create a world where there is equity and equality for all.

Amen to that. And hey, companies that are listening, or businesses, let's say you're thinking, wow, this is all new to us. We're not doing this. And maybe we should look at it. And boy, we're not— yeah, we need people with disabilities working here. Oh, they already are. Just so you know. Oh yeah, they're there. They have a learning disability, they have epilepsy, they have depression, they have post-traumatic stress disorder, they have diabetes. They're there. They just aren't telling you, which is why you need to get with an organization like Disability:IN or AAPD so that, yes, you understand what you have to do to get those people to self-identify. Jill, thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, and I can't wait to hug you in person.

Me too. Me too. So we end every show with a quote, and today it is: There are two ways of exerting one's strength. One is pushing down. "The other is pulling up," said Booker T. Washington. This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, where disability matters at VoiceAmerica.com. Remember, in the words of Mary Brooker, choose joy.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific Time and 2 PM Eastern Time for another installment of Disability Matters, right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.