WID's GADRA Events and Value of Digital Accessibility to Business

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 everyone in the United States and around the world, I am telling you, I'm so excited June 8th, June 8th, I'm having Richard Roberts from the State Department. Hello, Richard. He is such a great friend of mine, and it is going to be live, live. Well, it's recorded, but you know what I mean. It's right from Japan, right from Japan. And you just are gonna love this show, especially people from the deaf community. And if you want to hear a prior show with Japan, Just go back to get my show, subscribe on Spotify, and you can hear all the shows and the older shows. And you know how long we've been on now? 18 years. Can you believe it? 18 years. And we have listeners now in 18 countries. And I want to thank you, China. Wow. Largest listening audience. But you know what? Saudi Arabia, one listener. Every listener counts, no matter where you are. But everyone, keep spreading the news. Spread the news. Tell your English-speaking friends to make sure they get this show, or have someone translate it. Also, speaking of Japan, Yoshiko Dart, a special shout out to you. I know you know I I love you, Yoshiko. So I'm not— and I know you're going to love this show because it's a friend of yours on the show. And also, I have to say again, shout out Richard Roberts, Gang Young in South Korea, Veniamin in Kazakhstan, and Cheryl Harris in Tunisia, all friends of mine. Well, speaking of friends of mine, My guests today are both outstanding people. I have to tell you though, I've, I've known Marcy Roth for a long time and I just love her more all the time. She is a rock star in the disability community and she is the CEO of the World Institute on Disability with her partner, her Senior Director of Operations, and her Deputy Director, Kat Zygmont. Both of you, welcome.

Thanks so much. We're so glad to be with you, Joyce. This is Marci speaking, and we are always so excited to be on your show. Thanks so much for having us.

Of course. So, uh, Marci, You are strike zone expert in the area of supporting people with disabilities in disaster recovery. And if you don't know, Marci during the Obama administration was an appointee at FEMA. I mean, she knows this. She knows this. So, at WID, because I know, you know what, if you don't know WID, You've got to go there. Is it wid.org, Marcy?

Yes, it is. It's www.wid.org.

And you know what? You can go there and make a donation. And after you hear this show, you're going to want to make a donation. So, Marcy, a lot of people don't know all the great things going on at Wid, What are you doing on a global basis to help people with disabilities that have been left out during a disaster?

Well, let me begin by saying that the World Institute on Disability is one of the oldest disability rights organizations in the world, founded by people with disabilities, continually led by people with disabilities, of course, with Founders were Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann, and Joan Lyon. In fact, as you know, Joyce, both Judy and Joan and Ed's mom, Zona, are all on the WID board as our emeritus. The World Institute on Disability—

And like, talk about legends, talk about Superstars in the disability— okay, go ahead.

Absolutely right. And Ed, Judy, and Joan launched the organization back in 1983. Actually, Ed won a Genius Award from the MacArthur Foundation. And they used that to launch the organization to bring disability rights across the globe. Since then, WID has done work to impact the 1.3 billion people with disabilities worldwide. And currently, our global focus is in 3 areas. We focus in 3 domains, and we're going to talk a little bit about all 3 of those today. But, you know, very specifically, and as we have all been so affected by COVID over the past 14, 15 months, the global impact of this particular disaster, as well as so many other disasters, disproportionately impact people with disabilities. So whether it's a cyclone or a hurricane, whether it's a public health emergency like COVID, whether it's flooding, which is happening in several parts of the world today, whether it's wildfires, whether it's volcanoes, people with disabilities are— and the UN has, has done some research— people with disabilities are 2 to 4 times more likely than people without disabilities to to be injured or to die in a disaster. Needless to say, as a result of COVID the disproportionate death of people with disabilities has been just catastrophic. And although it hasn't been much recognition of The impact of COVID on people with disabilities, it's been frequently referred to as impacting older people or people with, quote, underlying conditions. You know, that's— those are words that actually mean disability. And certainly people in congregate facilities nursing homes and long-term care institutions, the impact has been especially devastating. And, you know, virtually all of those folks are people with disabilities. You know, it has really been a genocide of people with disabilities. Because of the failures in infection control, because of the failure to provide home and community-based services. So much has gone horribly wrong for people with disabilities. So as many people are talking about disaster recovery, we are, are nowhere near the point of recovery when it comes to COVID and the concurrent disasters that are underway. Tremendous amount of work still needs to be done to identify and remove the barriers that create that disproportionate impact for people with disabilities everywhere across the globe.

And Marcy, you shared with me this with me before, but isn't it correct that like it's terrible for these disasters that often people are left out or forgotten about? So don't you try to find boots on the ground in those countries? Is that what you do?

Well, I'm happy to talk about the work that we're doing with the Global Alliance for Disaster Resource Acceleration. That is an effort that WID launched July 9th, 2020, and the Global Alliance Alliance for Disaster Resource Acceleration is a collaboration between disability-led organizations, foundations, corporations, and other allies. And we work to identify local disability-led organizations and their disaster-impacted communities linking them with partners who can support them to accelerate the resources that they need to be able to serve the people of their community during and after disasters. That's one of the things that WID is doing on the disaster front. We are also also very focused on climate justice and the imperative that people with disabilities not only be considered when decisions are being made about climate adaptation, but in fact that people with disabilities have the tools and resources to lead community climate justice and environmental justice initiatives. We're also designing a certification for experts to work with companies to help those companies to be able to prepare for the inevitable disasters that companies will face, whether those are hyper-local or global in the case of a COVID pandemic, for example. And working with these companies, working with local government and the private sector to help them to be able to get back to work or to continue their operations during disasters. So we're doing a lot of work in the disaster area. We work very closely with disability-led organizations around the globe. We work very closely with the United Nations and in support of their disability inclusion strategy that they've been working on for the last year or so. And that's just in our disaster domain. And I'll be happy to talk a little bit about an upcoming event that the Global Alliance for Disaster Resource Acceleration has coming up this week.

I am so excited about that. I don't want to make everyone wait. Do you want to tell them right now?

I would be happy to. So, um, we started a very, um, very important and very much overdue discussion back in January, uh, Black Disabled Global Disaster Experiences. And this was a global conversation about the experiences of Black disabled people during and after disasters. It was a really important discussion, and it was very clearly only the beginning of a discussion that needs to be ongoing. So, as a result of that, we are bringing those folks who were the leaders of that discussion back together this Thursday, May 20th, at 12:00 PM Eastern Time or New York time and 5:00 PM UTC. We will be providing captions in English and American Sign Language. And this continued conversation with our panelists will be on how to address racism and ableism, building forward to create an equitable culture, and especially to center Black leadership in the disaster and climate justice and health emergency impacts around the world. We have 5 fabulous panelists who are joining us for the second time. They include Vivienne Isibor, She's the founder and director of community outreach and well-being at ADHD Babes, and she's in the United Kingdom. Leroy Moore, who is here in the US, and you may know Leroy. He is the founder of Krip-Hop Nation. The third panelist is Akaman Kelly Wassup, and he is with the Papua New Guinea Assembly of the Disabled, and he's also the chairman of the Papua New Guinea Blind Union. Anita Cameron, also from here in the U.S., and she's the director of minority outreach at Not Dead Yet. And our fifth panelist, Dikko Yusuf, is from Nigeria, and he is a teacher and project coordinator at the Special Needs Initiative for Growth in Nigeria, in a part of the country that is dealing with a tremendous unrest. And these leaders will be— after this conversation, will be joining the Global Alliance for Disaster Resource Acceleration to launch a workgroup where we can move the words into action in centering the expertise and leadership of people of color in addressing racism and ableism before, during, and after disasters.

Okay, well, I'm going to tell you, this is awesome. This is awesome. Thank you. I'm so excited about this. And, you know, I was I had a sign, Black Disabled Lives Matter, because we can't leave out people with disabilities that are Black or people of color or Indigenous. You know, the intersectionality goes across the board. So, I'm really, really glad that you are doing this. And then we have Kat. You are the Deputy Director. And work with the great Marcy Roth. And WID is hosting an event that we talked about, but what else is going on? What else is happening?

Absolutely. Well, thank you for the question. Yeah, WID is so excited to be celebrating the 10th Annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day. and we will be hosting an event that is going to help people understand, um, and outline the need for digital accessibility, show the process, um, of usability testing, and demonstrate the impact that has for businesses that sort of lean into this process, while all the while highlighting the work work that we're doing in this space. So we have 3 amazing speakers to open up this Global Accessibility Awareness Day event. They're WID board members who are global experts in digital accessibility, and they're going to talk about how digital accessibility is a business imperative and a market opportunity. Then we're going to show what accessibility guidelines are and what that looks like, expose the community to a user tester going through a poorly built website and a well-built website to really show the lived experience of, in this case, a screen reader and user. And then we're going to have, I'm so happy to say, one of our clients, TracFone Wireless, will be doing a testimonial about the benefits of digital accessibility and usability testing for them and the journey that they've been on. Really, I mean, they're clients, but they're also our partners in accessibility for the last 5-some years, and they're going to really talk about the impact. And we're going to also have a Q&A where we're going to have some of those speakers and myself to really engage with businesses in the community about any questions they have and, you know, how they can start the process process of becoming a more accessible and inclusive business. So that event is also on May 20th at 4:00 PM Eastern Time, 1:00 PM Pacific Time, and 8:00 PM Coordinated Universal Time. And it will also have captions in English and American Sign Language. And so we're so excited to have this great event to celebrate, you know, digital accessibility globally.

Now, I have a few questions. First, how does someone register for this to attend?

That's a— yeah, that's a wonderful question. If you go to wid.org, our website, both of these events that are on May 20th are right on the home screen. If you click on their image, it'll bring you to registration page. So just go to WID.org and you can't miss it.

Okay, my next question, and Marcy, I would also like to hear from you on this. I remember during the Obama administration, I was invited to this event at the White House. Maria Towne actually invited me, and Eve Hill was one of the speakers. So actually, yeah, could have even been in his first term before Maria was there. But Eve Hill, who's now the chair of the Bazelon Center of Mental Health Law, that I'm so proud to serve on that board, uh, she said, how can I work for you? "if I can't apply through the website." And she was talking, of course, about the lack of accessibility. So I have a question, and I'd like to hear from both of you on this. We all know that websites are supposed to be accessible, but Tony Coelho was speaking at an event where he said 98% percent of websites in the world, worldwide, are not accessible. In the United States, why, why do people not feel that's, you know, earth-shaking to be accessible?

Kat, would you like to go first, or shall I?

Yeah, I would love to go first on that. In my experience, I think that one of the major barriers is that businesses and programmers in particular, they don't know what they don't know. There is not, you know, as part of their education and schooling, there is not, you know, general education on this topic. Now, there is absolutely resources and lots of organizations that work in this space, but when we are approached, typically, you know, people are unaware of the need to have accessible websites. And so a lot of our initial conversations are talking about the need, what accessible technology is, and how accessible technology works with websites. I really think that it's a grand lack of awareness, and that is something that we're working on. One of the reasons we're actually doing this webinar is to enlighten people that this is really a global issue that needs to be addressed in a more organized manner, and we can help you. We can help you get there.

Marci? Because Marci, I know many companies, they're not accessible. I mean, the website Or the internal applications. I mean, once you get a job and you start working there, whether it's IT, accounts payable, whatever it is, if the internal applications aren't accessible, you can't do your job. And I know, as you know, companies that have been sued because, you know, someone blind or deaf, whatever, could not use the website or get their benefits through an insurance company. So what's the deal here? Why aren't companies, like, racing off to make sure, oh my God, I better be accessible? Why is that?

Well, you know, there are probably many different reasons. And You know, for some folks, it's just simple ignorance. They just don't know that they're missing out on a huge pool of highly qualified candidates. For others, it's that they assume that it will be too difficult to make their application process accessible. They assume it will be too difficult to accommodate employees with disabilities. Of course, you know, we all know that not only is it not too hard, we know that there are many, many companies who are really leading the way because they found that it's not hard, and more importantly, they've found a pool of qualified workers that has really expanded their ability to, you know, meet the priorities of their company. So, you know, a couple of the things that WID has been doing for quite a while now really those companies that want to improve, want to be accessible, want to tap into those potential workforce opportunities. And also, many companies recognize that, you know, with 26% of the U.S. population, 15% of the global population population, people with disabilities, that, you know, they would be foolish if they left the money of those of us with disabilities on the table rather than making the changes that are necessary for us to be able to spend our money like anybody else. So, among the services that WID provides, and Kat talked a little bit about this. We can help folks to take a look at their digital accessibility. We can help them take a look at the accessibility of their built environment and make very practical recommendations, whether it's the digital online, the information dissemination that a company provides, or whether it's, you know, on the ground, we have experts who will help to improve accessibility. We also have, you know, we conduct focus groups to help companies and universities and medical facilities and what have you to listen to their potential customers, their potential users, to hear about what will make for a better and more accessible experience. We as well provide a calculator to enable people with disabilities who want to work to be able to continue to utilize the benefits that they need in order to maintain their health and their independence while being able to go to work. And those calculators, which are currently in 10 US states and soon to be an 11th US state, and the expertise that our team has in designing those kinds of tools make it possible to eliminate the barriers that you're talking about, Joyce, in terms of accessibility in the workplace and also in all aspects of business.

Well, Marcia, you have worked with the President of the United States and other presidents. Uh, what I'm wanting to know is, what do we have to have happen with the law for everyone to say, hey, I have to do this? You know, just like with the ADA, hey, this building has to be accessible. I mean, what has to happen here?

Well, So, there's a couple of things. Globally, we have the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and virtually every country has ratified. The United States is one of 11 countries that have not ratified the—

Which is horrifying. Horrible. Go ahead.

Horrible. Ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous. We need for the U.S. Senate to ratify so that we join the other 183 countries who have ratified this human rights, disability rights, um, uh, guide that countries are using to make everything work for all of their people. But, you know, in addition to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, here in the U.S., we have the Americans with Disabilities Act. We also very importantly have the Rehabilitation Act. Which, you know, the Rehabilitation Act applies to every penny of federal funds that are spent by the federal government or are given to state and local government, non-governmental entities. And both the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act make it possible for everyone to have equal access and not to be discriminated in the physical or built environment, in equally accessing effective communication. Information has to be accessible to be actionable. And as well in all of our programs and services here in the US. So, you know, we have the laws. We have the important policies. What's needed is both a desire for justice, So, not just a matter of, you know, people with disabilities having the opportunity or having to fight for what everybody else has, but in a just world, everyone has the opportunity. Everyone gets what they need in order to fully participate. And, you know, WID is deeply committed to not just the obligation to monitor and enforce laws, but really to ensure that a just world is a world in which everyone can fully participate., and for the 1.3 billion people across the country, this justice is deeply and disturbingly elusive even now.

Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, I can't begin to tell you how I'll talk to people and they'll say, "Yeah, companies, executives, yeah, we need to do that. We're not totally accessible.", and we need to do that. And I'm thinking, what? Why aren't people concerned about this? I mean, what? Kat, what do you have to say about that?

Yeah, I mean, I really feel like once companies, as Marcy said, understand the market opportunity and that they're leaving money on the table, I think it's at that point where it's to their advantage to make sure that they, you know, really look at their systems and, you know, and try to better their inclusion efforts. And there's many ways that people can do that. What you're speaking of is employment-focused. So you can't get in the door if you can't fill out the application. Well, once you get the job, what type of intranet system are those companies using, and are they accessible? And I think that there is fear, fear of doing it wrong, but I would argue that doing nothing is, you know, is to their detriment, right? Being proactive, I mean, you can get into this work kicking or, you know, kicking and screaming. But, you know, it is really better to come at it in a proactive way. It is a cheaper solution, right? And what I see in working with companies is that the employees and the programmers that work in this space really, you know, love this work. And they really want to know and understand how to build accessibly because it gives their work purpose that it previously didn't have. It is something that they can feel a mission-driven eagerness about. And so not only is it good for for the company, but I think employees that work in this space really do want to improve those systems and those digital spaces and websites. So, you know, the more people can expose folks to this, the more you are talking to people, Joyce, you know, the better to get the word out that this is something that needs to be, you know, as I said earlier, a business imperative and something that's focused on proactively. And you're right, I mean, I don't think enough companies come to it until, you know, until they get hit with a lawsuit perhaps, right? And, you know, That's an unfortunate way to find yourself to digital accessibility. And so, WID's goal is to try and get folks before they're at that critical moment, right? And really, not only take them through the experience of moving towards digital accessibility, But also, you know, understand diversity inclusion of the disability community in a larger way. Create employee resource groups, you know, make sure you have reasonable accommodation policies. All of that kind of work is really important for companies to lean into. So, and I have, I have seen such, you know, um, great responses for companies that get it, you know. And I just think that we need to just keep, keep pioneering this work. Um, and, you know, through your Tony Colejo, um, you know, statistic, there's plenty of this out here for everybody, right? So, you know, um, we are definitely ready to take on all types of companies that are ready to make this difference and really reach out to the disability community.

And I will be with you on this 100%. First, at the Bender Leadership Academy, we have a product, Direct Access at Work, where we are teaching high school students with disabilities how to work at a company and make it accessible. You know, how to work with JAWS or whatever it would be. And we're doing a lot of other things, but I got to tell you, this is so awesome what you're doing. And I, once again, I hope everyone will get behind us at the World Institute on Disability because so hard everyone's working here to make a difference. How about policy, Marcy. WID, what are you doing in reference to policy, systems, because you're doing so much for global inclusion? What else are we doing at WID?

Well, I'm glad you asked about policy. You know, there's some very important work underway, you know, in the U.S. There's some legislation that is, you know, currently being considered that would significantly expand community living resources and options. So, you know, what folks in other parts of the world world may not know is in the U.S., people who are eligible for Medicaid, which is our system for providing healthcare to people who are very low income, In our Medicare— I'm sorry, in our Medicaid system, which is a poverty-based system, that system makes congregate facilities, nursing homes particularly, a required option. So, people who are Medicaid recipients, their state must offer them nursing home care. The alternative of staying at home and in the community is optional for states. So, some states have waivers that enable the use of those Medicaid funds to keep people out of institutions. Uh, some states have a variety of waivers, um, you know, depending on a specific disability or a specific age or a specific type of need. Um, other states have a completely different configuration. And so, um, there is a piece of legislation that is about to be reintroduced, and it's called the Home and Community-Based Access Act, or the HAA. And this will very simply require that home and community-based services is a mandatory offering for states. Alongside nursing homes. And so, rather than making nursing homes required and home and community-based services optional, it would mean everyone has a real choice regardless of what state they live in. This would be trans— informative for people with disabilities who do not want to be institutionalized, which is the case for virtually anyone with a disability of any age. Um, what also makes this, uh, bill notable is that it would result in elimination of waiting lists for home and community-based services. There are currently long waiting lists in virtually— I don't know how many states— most states. And passage of this bill would eliminate those waiting lists. Imagine, Joyce Bender, how much better our communities will be if people are getting the support and service that they need to optimize their daily lives without being forced into congregate facilities. We've seen this year, for those of us who've been working on closing institutions for, you know, decades, We've seen this year that other folks are starting to catch on to just how problematic congregate living is. It's time to make the alternative available to every single person. That is a just way for people in every community to live their fullest lives. So that's a big piece of US policy, way overdue, and hopefully not too far in the distance. We're very hopeful about that bill.

Okay, so what can our listeners do to help with this?

They need to talk to their congressional delegation. And, you know, when we talk about congressional delegation here in the U.S., we're referring to your 2 senators and the member of Congress from your district. So, it means reaching out to them and telling them how important it is that everyone have the opportunity to live at home, in the community, and to get the supports and services that they need. It also means that workers are being paid a living wage, are getting the benefits that they need, You know, we need to honor the work of people who provide those supports and services. As we've seen again this year, the work that is done that enables people with disabilities to live at home and in the community is extremely valuable work. And yet, unfortunately, it is so devalued. And, you know, as many people are well aware, people who are Black and Brown and Indigenous and other people of color, people who themselves have disabilities, are often the workers in supporting people to live in the community, and we need to honor this work. That bill will as well support those workers. The Biden administration has a lot of money in the, um, you know, they've already funded $400 billion, and we are very hopeful that the investment of those funds in home and community-based services are going to make a significant difference for the whole community.

Now, would this help increase the—

I would call your congressional delegation and tell them to support home and community-based services. Good for you.

You got to do it. Got to do it. I always say, don't sit back and say, why not do it? Make a point of doing it. And yeah, you know, I'll never forget when Marcy said to me during this whole pandemic, Joyce, we're being slaughtered. And she was referring to people with disabilities at these institutions. So if that did not demonstrate what can happen at those facilities, I can't think what else would. So, Marcy, what else do you want to talk about that you're doing at WID?

Well, you know, we are undergoing a— I guess it's called in the business a a refresh, a brand refresh. We're really excited to be taking a good hard look at this almost 40-year-old organization and, you know, stepping aside and listening to our customers people with disabilities, people who— from companies who are seeking our services, policymakers, what have you. So, we are listening to them and will be making some significant changes in the look and feel of the World Institute on Disability over the coming months. We're very excited about it. Oh, that's— that's— We also have a— yes? No, go ahead. We also have a big event that we're just starting to plan. Maybe we can come back later in the summer and talk about that. It is going to be an event with a global impact. We're very excited about it. And we've also been growing as an organization. We have some really great folks who are part of our team. We also work very closely with, you know, we think of them as our family from the Partnership for Inclusive of Disaster Strategies. We work very closely with the National Council on Independent Living, the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living, the American Association of People with Disabilities, and many other disability-led organizations, as well as our allies who are disability service organizations, you know, many of whom we work with on a daily basis. We're active with the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, and some of the work that we have been doing with the United Nations focuses on humanitarian Action and persons with disabilities. As well, we're working globally with several universities on climate justice initiatives. We, you know, the Global Alliance for Disaster Resource Acceleration has a Founders Circle that is growing and continues to be an incredible partnership, as we were talking about earlier, focusing on bringing together organizations led by people with disabilities, corporations, and foundations. To accelerate resources where they're needed most. So, you know, all of the work that the World Institute on Disability does on a daily basis is driven by our relationships, our partnerships, our incredible board of directors, our amazing team and working together to eliminate the— we say we are disrupting exclusion by accelerating radical inclusion. And we do that in every way we can. With our focus always on the rights and opportunities of 1.3 billion people with disabilities across the globe.

So awesome. And that is why you should go to www.wid.org and make a donation today. Just go to donate. There's a donate button there. But see, all these great things, can't do it without money. That's just the way it is. And Marci and Kat, thank you so much for being with me today.

Thank you so much for all you do, Joyce. We really appreciate you and, and love you very much.

The feeling is mutual. And we end every show with with a quote. And, you know, we just had to have something that would fit today, and that is from Senator Tom Harkin, who said the CRPD would build on the work of the ADA and help to ensure that people with disabilities can enjoy equal access around the world. This is Joyce Bender. America's Voice, where disability matters, at voiceamerica.com, WID.org. Make sure you check it out. Talk to you next week.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11:00 AM Pacific Time and 2:00 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.