Ruh Global has created a survey for clients to determine travel preferences for people with disabilities and all stakeholders.  Please take this survey and pass to others to complete.  Thanks for helping us gather this critical data.  Our goals are to encourage hospitality and tourism to value, accommodate and include people with disabilities.  Please share and take the survey.  It is not only for people with disabilities but family members, friends and other stakeholders.

Take the Survey Here!

The ROI of Hiring Technologists with Disabilities

By Debra Ruh, Founder of TecAccess, CEO and Founder of Ruh Global Communications

Employers looking to gain a strategic edge may find that hiring technologists with disabilities provides an attractive return on investment.  Technologists with disabilities give everyone from private industry to educational institutions a way to improve the accessibility of their technology, hire a diverse workforce, and drive in more business by focusing on social responsibility and inclusion.

Individuals with disabilities represent a huge market segment and a large untapped workforce.  Additionally, with the recent amendments to the ADA and the updates coming soon to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, technological accessibility needs to keep pace with the new legislation.  These developments will require employers to address accommodation issues in the workplace, something that can be helped by having employees with disabilities in high tech and management positions.

However, disability related myths can impede this process.  I worked with one large company that basically said, “We are going to decide what jobs can be done by persons with disabilities and then direct individuals with disabilities to those positions”.  But it’s not the place of the employer to determine what jobs people with disabilities can do.  An employer simply need to make sure that its HR systems and processes are fully accessible, and if a candidate applies and is qualified for the job, interview them and hire them to do the job.  Period.

Employers can make a wise investment in hiring technologists with disabilities.  A recent Department of Labor report indicated that workers with disabilities consistently meet or exceed the job performance of coworkers without disabilities.  One good example can be found in a Canon facility outside of Chicago that began refurbishing cameras.  They hired people with intellectual disabilities and the first year the program saved over $19 million.  They also noticed that the plant’s overall productivity increased at a higher rate than other locations.  Employees at the plant also reported increased morale and pride to work for the company.  Such intangibles can be valuable to employers seeking a competitive edge in the marketplace.

It is critical to assure that the workplace is accessible for your current employees and future employees.  Sometimes people think workplace accessibility is only critical to new hires but it is also critical to retain your talented employees.  Replacing employees is very expensive.

A study by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Berkeley evaluating the effects of the US Family Medical Leave Act found that “turnover costs for a manager average 150% of salary, including tangible costs of hiring new workers and relocation, and intangible costs such as the new worker’s inefficiency and lost productivity while the job is vacant.” The same study, incidentally, found that the cost of a temporary replacement is only 39%).

How can workplace accessibility help you retain the talented employees currently working for your firm?  As employees move through the lifecycle they sometimes are impacted by temporary and permanent disabilities.  It might be because of age, or a stroke, disease like cancer or diabetes or maybe an accident like a sports or car accident.  However, many employees can still be productive if the workplace is accessible and accommodations are provided.  Companies want their employees to be productive and do not want to lose the value assets of the employee or their intellectual capital.

What can you do to make your workplace accessible?

Assure that all HR systems are fully accessible including benefit programs, PTO, and any other internal systems.

When you hold training programs online and in-person be sure the training is fully accessible.  Assure all intranets and internal service programs are fully accessible.

Train your managers, recruiters, managers, supervisors and team members about accessibility and inclusion.  Be sure your employees understand that diversity is critical and part of your organizations culture.

Offer accommodations to all employees.  Sometimes employees need an accommodation because they broke their arm or hurt their leg.  An accommodation can be as simple as a closer parking place or a one handed key board or allowing an employee that is hard of hearing utilize and instant messenger program.

Also be sure that all videos are captioned so all employees can have access to the data.

Look at all the touch points you have with employees, clients, vendors, partners and other stake holders and assure all touch points are accessible

• Websites
• Online HR Systems
• Intranets
• Service Centers
• Products and Services
• Promotions – Marketing & Communications
• Procurement
• Training

Make workplace accessibility part of your culture and blend it into your processes.  Workplace accessibility will allow your employees to be more productive and creative and assure a solid ROI for all stakeholders.

For further information about TecAccess and their current endeavors, visit their website at SSB Bart Group

With special comments from Sam Joehl, SSB Senior Accessibility Specialist.

I was perplexed when I read about a class action lawsuit against Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.

“On June 29, 2011, the United States District Court Central District of California certified a nationwide class of blind persons in a class action pending in Los Angeles against Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. The Plaintiffs expect to establish that thousands of patrons with visual impairments visit Disney’s parks, restaurants and hotels each year, and that the three named Plaintiffs’ claims are common to those of the much larger class. The Complaint does not seek money damages, but only compliance with ADA and other laws which require Disney to accommodate the needs of, and not discriminate against, its patrons with visual impairments.”

Why the surprise? The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) just awarded Disney with a 2011 Access Award. “Walt Disney Parks & Resorts in 2010 introduced a new device at its U.S. theme parks that provides audio description for its many spectacular—and hugely popular—rides and attractions. Guests with visual impairments who visit Walt Disney World® Resort in Florida and Disneyland® Resort in California can explore the parks with unprecedented freedom with the help of a 7.2-ounce wireless device. Disney’s Handheld Device provides audio descriptions of park surroundings and rides for guests with visual disabilities, closed captioning for guests who are deaf, as well as other access features at over 51 attractions domestically. Disney’s Handheld Device also lets guests choose the type of information they would like to receive about outdoor areas, from architectural elements to the location of the nearest restroom via an interactive audio menu.”

Sam Joehl had these comments on the subject:

“In the late 1990’s I visited Disney World’s Epcot Center with my family. They provided us with a Braille guidebook listing the countries and the cuisine served by the restaurants which allowed me to independently select where I wanted to dine for lunch. Disney was accommodating people with disabilities even back in the 1990s by providing guidebooks in accessible formats.

I think lawsuits like these have the potential to hurt the disability advocacy community more than help it just as the ADA lawsuit against Southwest Airlines did. The Disney suit falls into the same category of frivolous lawsuits as the NAD complaint against Netflix (who plan to caption 80 percent of their streaming content by year’s end and has offered subtitles on iOS devices since May of this year) and the NFB complaint against SSA which has one of the best Section 508 programs in the U.S. Federal Government.

All of these organizations obviously employ individuals who are deeply committed to ensure that their products and services are accessible, but they may have gaps in their accessibility policies, lack overarching corporate accessibility policies or lack enforcement of these policies across the entire organization.

Last month I went to a talk at Accessibility DC in which Dr. Chris Law presented his doctoral thesis about the business case for accessibility. Dr. Law studied organizations in Australia to determine why some were more successful at implementing end-to-end accessibility solutions than others. He came away with seven success factors which were present in every organization that implemented accessibility across their culture and their entire enterprise, and were not present in organizations that fell short of this objective in some area. More research needs to be done in this area to identify the criteria that results in effective end-to-end accessibility programs.

We need to work with organizations to get these seven success factors implemented across their entire enterprise. Instead of attacking or threatening organizations which are making a concerted effort to implement accessibility, positive relationships should be formed with the individuals spearheading these efforts to increase their influence and fill in the gaps in their accessibility policies and their implementations.

The numerous accessibility successes which were borne out of structured negotiation agreements demonstrates that companies can be convinced to provide accessible solutions by fostering positive relationships instead of taking the route of litigation. Filing lawsuits against companies for not doing what they are already doing brands us accessibility advocates as the unreasonable hysterics we are often seen to be. Litigation should be saved for the companies who are unwilling to cooperate or who fight their legal requirements. The companies who are trying to do the right thing should be encouraged to do what they’re doing even better.”

So what can be done? How can we avoid sending mixed messages from our community of people with disabilities (PwD)? What can a company do to better understand and include PwD?

There are some logical steps: make inclusion a part of your company’s culture, include accessibility in your policies and procedures, add compliance language to all IT procurements, and make accessibility part of your service and product life cycles and development.

Focus on all human touch points, HR systems, Intranet, Internet, Service Centers, Kiosks, eLearning, Online Services, Software applications, shareholder reports, marketing communications, PDF and other reports. Anywhere that you intersect with a person should have accessibility built into the process. Train your developers, testers, QA, programmers and anyone else adding content. Make inclusion and accessibility part of your organization’s culture.

Walt Disney Parks & Resorts has spent millions of dollars to include people with disabilities in their parks. They offer wheel chair rentals, services for guests with mobility, hearing and visual disabilities, lighting sensitivity, and special parking for guests with disabilities. To learn more about Disney efforts to provide accessibility visit http://www.Disneyland.Disney.go.com/help/access.

I am not here to argue the merits of the lawsuit but do think many will be confused by an award for excellence from AFB and then a lawsuit by members of the blind community.

For further information about TecAccess and their current endeavors, visit their website at SSB Bart Group

By Debra Ruh, CEO and Founder of Ruh Global Communications

My family has been an Amazon customer for many years and I use the Kindle application.  I was discouraged to learn that Amazon’s latest Kindle the Kindle Fire is once again NOT accessible to people with vision loss.  I was shocked to read the NFB and AFB press release and blogs noting that Amazon Kindle Fire was not accessible to people with vision loss?  How can that happen again?  Accessibility has built accessible products and this process should have been built into the process life cycle?

National Federation of the Blind Condemns Lack of Access to New Kindle Fire, Baltimore, Maryland (September 29, 2011):  Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:  “Blind Americans have repeatedly asked Amazon to include accessibility for the blind in its Kindle product line.  The feasibility of including accessibility in similar products has been demonstrated.  The Department of Education and the Department of Justice have made it clear that Kindle devices cannot be purchased by educational institutions, libraries, and other entities covered by this country’s disability laws unless the devices are fully accessible.  Despite all this, Amazon has released a brand new Kindle device, the Kindle Fire, which cannot be used by people who are blind.  Enough!  We condemn this latest action by Amazon and reiterate that we will not tolerate technological discrimination.  The National Federation of the Blind seeks nothing less than equal access to all technology for blind people.  It is one of the most critical civil rights issues facing blind Americans in the twenty-first century, and we will do everything in our power to see that this right is secured.”

Darren Burton writes a blog for AFB: “I have written several articles in AFB’s AccessWorld Magazine chronicling the lack of accessibility of Amazon’s Kindle electronic book reading devices as they have evolved over the last few years. The original Kindle was completely inaccessible to blind people, and our community protested loudly and clearly. Amazon responded by adding some text-to-speech functionality to the second and third versions. Although that still did not lead to what I would call an accessible Kindle, the incremental improvements did give us some hope for the future.

Unfortunately, that appears to have been wasted hope as Amazon recently announced the impending release of the new Kindle Fire. The Fire is a touch-screen version of their popular device, and I understand that this version will again be completely inaccessible to blind people. To be blunt, I am absolutely disgusted with Amazon, as they apparently have no shame. They have no excuse in this day and age, as it has already been proven by Apple that a touch screen tablet can be made accessible. Amazon knows very well that we expect equal access to their devices, and they turned their backs on us once again. It is simply outrageous that Amazon and others who create many of today’s electronic books also create barriers for millions of potential customers who are blind.  For people with vision loss eager to read, I recommend ebooks from Apple’s iBooks app on the iPhone/Pod/Pad. Bookshare is also a great resource.” 1

As noted by NFB and AFB, the community has been through this situation with Amazon several times before.  The first version of the Kindle was accessible and was applauded by the community of people with disabilities.  The community also bought many of these devices.  We were dismayed when they next version was inaccessible and the community voice their concerns.

“Arizona State University’s decision to use the Kindle 2 in a pilot program has drawn criticism from advocates for the blind, who say the electronic book reader is inaccessible to blind students. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind are seeking a preliminary injunction in federal court to stop ASU’s plan to use the device in place of traditional textbooks in three class sections. They say ASU’s decision to pilot the Kindle discriminates against blind students because they cannot access all of the device’s features.  At issue is the Kindle’s navigation menu, which contains no audio option. A blind person cannot select a book or activate features such as the function to have the book read aloud.  Advocacy groups want ASU to hold off until the device is fully accessible. They worry that if the pilot succeeds, more professors will start incorporating Kindles into their classrooms.”2

The debate raged and got international attention and Amazon finally decided to make the Kindle 2 accessible.

“The Authors Guild has objected to the Kindle 2’s text-to-speech feature and Amazon — which also sells audiobooks — is giving publishers the ability to stop it working.  Following objections from the Authors Guild in the US, Amazon has caved on the text-to-speech features of the new Kindle 2 ebook reader. It will now enable publishers and authors to disable the text-to-speech (TTS) function if they want.  There shouldn’t be anything controversial about TTS: it’s been available on personal computers since the 1970s. It’s important to people who have impaired or no vision, but little used by anyone else. However, the Authors Guild argues that the audio rights for a book are different from the reading rights, even if the audio is provided by a software robot.”3

The community also took the time to praise Amazon after the made the Kindle accessible and we rewarded them by purchasing their products and services.  See the following note by the NFB after Amazon released an accessible version.

“National Federation of the Blind Commends Amazon on Unveiling of New

Accessible Kindle, Baltimore, Maryland (July 29, 2010): The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) today commended Amazon on the unveiling of a new, accessible Kindle.  Amazon announced Wednesday that the new Kindle will come equipped with a voice guide that reads all menu options aloud so blind and other print-disabled people can navigate the device menus.  Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “We commend Amazon on the unveiling of a new Kindle that blind and print-disabled people can use.  In order to compete in today’s digital society, blind and print-disabled people must be able to access the same reading technologies as the sighted.  The National Federation of the Blind has long been urging Amazon to make its reading device accessible, and we are pleased that our efforts have come to fruition.”4

It is a shame when the next version of an accessible product was released in an inaccessible version.  1 out of 3 households in the U.S. is impacted by disabilities. Worldwide, this group numbers 500-750 million people and is a key influencer of the public’s perceptions. The Internet has opened many opportunities and has greatly improved the quality of life for these users, but they still face barriers. You might think of disabilities in extreme terms such as blindness and deafness, but it also includes many others with visual or hearing impairments that are increasingly common in our aging population, and other challenges such motor and cognitive impairment. Can any organization afford to lose this audience?

Amazon is a wonderful company and I am sure they will make the new Amazon Kindle Fire accessible but it would be nice if it could become part of the process so that all future released will be accessible.  It sends mixed messages to the community for the products to be released inaccessible and then after we make a fuss the product is made accessible.  Why not just make is accessible from the beginning?   We all want to buy and enjoy your products, please consider making all products and services accessible during the development life cycle.

References:

1. The Latest Amazon Kindle: Lighting a Fire of Outrage by Darren Burton on 10/5/2011 2:32:50 PM
http://www.afb.org/blog/blog.asp?BlogID=7&BlogEntryID=196

2. Advocates for blind students sue ASU over Kindle use. Anne Ryman – Jul. 27, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/07/27/20090727nobooks0724lawsuit.html

3. Amazon caves to Authors Guild over Kindle’s text-to-speech reading

4. National Federation of the Blind Commends Amazon on Unveiling of New Accessible Kindle7/29/2010
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=625

5. The Latest Amazon Kindle: Lighting a Fire of Outrage by Darren Burton on 10/5/2011 2:32:50 PM
http://www.afb.org/blog/blog.asp?BlogID=7&BlogEntryID=196

By Debra Ruh, Founder of TecAccess and CEO & Founder of Ruh Global Communications

Do you believe you were born for a purpose?  I believe we all have many things to accomplish in our lives.  Since I was a little girl I dreamed of being a Mom.  I used to think all little girls dreamed of being a Mom but then I learned that some of my amazing friends had other dreams and realized that was okay because we each get to have dreams and then take steps to fulfill those dreams.  I played with Barbie dolls at an early age and my Barbie would get married and have babies.

When I got older and met my husband to be I told him that I wanted to have a baby.  He was 6 years older than me and was also ready.  I was 24 when we started “trying” to have a baby.  We did not do anything special we just did not use birth control.  It took us several years but finally we learned that I was pregnant.  I was so thrilled and terrified—oh wait, maybe I am not ready—but ready or not we were pregnant.

I am an optimistic person and it never occurred to me that something could go wrong with my pregnancy.  I had a wonderful pregnancy, feeling the baby grow inside me was a beautiful experience and I could not stop smiling and feeling like the luckiest person in the world.  I remember we were going to wait to learn the sex of the baby and when we went to get the sonogram we told the technician we did not want to know. To be honest, I already knew in my bones that our baby was a boy.  I knew because I consider myself very intuitive and a little bit psychic.  So for months I had known it was a boy.  After the sonogram we went into the lobby to leave and my husband Ed looked at me and said, “I know the sex of the baby.” I said, “What? How?”  He said that when the technician looked at the baby she had referred to it once as a gender instead of a neutral term.  I demanded that my husband tell me what he knew but he laughed at me and said, “No. You wanted to wait, so wait.”  Well, being the mature adult that I was…I ran back into the room and demanded that the technician or doctor tell me the sex because I could not wait for 5 months to know if my husband Ed knew.  They laughed at me and told me that we were having a girl.  So much for my psychic powers.  A girl?  Really, a Girl? But I had known for months that this baby was a boy!  It was funny how many plans and dreams I had already made based on the fact that she was a boy.  I readjusted my dreams to have a girl play the main part.  I was thrilled to be having a girl, just not as cocky about my psychic abilities.

Sara was born on Easter in the late 90’s.  She was born about 3 weeks before we had all projected her arrival, but she was not premature.  The poor little thing looked pretty rough.  She was bloated from being in the birth channel for many hours and had forcep marks on her cheek; she looked like a little Sumo wrestler.  When they did the Apgar test they gave her 6 out of 10 because they thought she had poor muscle tone.  I remember looking at my precious baby after I had given birth and they had given me morphine. The weirdest thought quietly floated through my mind, “The baby looks like she has Down syndrome.”  I immediately rejected that quiet whisper!  I had never known anyone with Down syndrome and had no idea what those babies looked like; plus, wouldn’t the doctors know?  I did not mention that whisper to anyone.

We named our precious gift Sara Renee.  I wanted to be fancy and make it Renée, but the nurse asked my husband and he decided the fancy way was not necessary.  So we brought our Sara Renee home and fell madly in love with her.  She was the best thing that had ever happened to our family.

For months, we enjoyed this miracle of being parents.  We dressed her in amazing outfits, took her to the park and the zoo, and threw ourselves into parenthood. We showed her off to anyone that would glance our way.  What an amazing time.  A male friend asked me one day, “Can you believe how much you fall in love with these babies?”  The depth of my love for her was surprising.  I knew that I would love her but the depth surprised and delighted me.  We would do anything for this baby.

I took her in for her regular checkups.  During her 4 month checkup one of the doctors became concerned because she was not gaining weight.   He called it “Failure to Thrive,” and blamed it on breast feeding.  I loved breast feeding her and refused to give it up completely so we agreed that I would supplement with a bottle.  He told me that we had two weeks to show she could gain weight or he was admitting her to the hospital and I had to stop nursing her.  So for two weeks we pushed food on Sara.

Ed took her back to the doctor and she had gained weight.  However, the doctor wanted to do some tests because he was still concerned.  Ed took Sara for additional testing and a few weeks later the nurse called me and said the doctor wanted to see us in his office that day at 2pm.  I asked he why and she would not tell me.  I figured it couldn’t be good news when a doctor demands you and your husband in his office.  I started praying and I asked that small voice inside my head if everything was okay.  That whisper came back saying, “Yes, everything is fine.”

Still, my head told me that when a doctor calls you into his office to talk about test results it’s going to be a scary meeting.  The doctor quickly announced that Sara had a chromosomal syndrome called Down syndrome or Mongolism.  He said, “Don’t worry, she’ll be easier to raise than a child with ADHD.”  We thought, “What?  Seriously? We are comparing disabilities and deciding which child is the easiest to raise?”  He also said we could check into institutions but most people raised their Down syndrome babies at home.  On our way home, my husband started to cry and that scared me more than the doctor’s office.  I had witnessed my wonderful husband cry twice at that time; once when Sara was born and after the office visit.  Marrying this man was the BEST move that I had ever made.  He was and still is the love of my life and the gentlest soul I have ever met.

Our doctor sent Sara to be tested for other issues like heart problems.  We were told she had the strongest heart that they had seen in a long time.  Next we headed to the geneticist.   The geneticist had a team of student doctors with her hovering all over Sara and it was unnerving to say the least.  During the examination she told us that she would probably never walk or talk and that she might get pregnant at 16 because girls with Down syndrome tended to be promiscuous.   I looked down at our precious baby sleeping in my arms and stood up and said, “Okay, we are done!” and left the room.

We told our parents but did not tell others for many months because we wanted to have time to come to terms with the news.  I had to once again reset my dreams for this baby.  Maybe she wasn’t going to grow up get a PhD, marry and have 5 children and find a cure for cancer. Darn my daydreams.  I remember driving through a fast food restaurant a few weeks after the diagnosis.  The teenager leaned out of the drive through window and said, “Does your baby have Down syndrome? She is so cute. My brother has Down syndrome.” I smiled at her and said yes and then drove away like a crazy woman.  I did not want her to have Down syndrome and certainly did not want people to be able to look at her and see she had Down syndrome.  What a dumb name anyway—Down syndrome.

My husband and I had to walk the stages of grief and learn to accept the diagnosis.  Plus we still had the cutest most amazing baby in the world.  Nothing had changed, she was still Sara Renee.  We enrolled her in a wonderful early intervention program run by Easter Seals.

Life proceeded on, and 15 months after Sara was born we had a new blessing, her brother Kevin.

When Sara entered middle school (6th grade) she was not reading or writing.  We met with a transition team to plan out the last years of school and consider future employment options.  Since she was not reading Sara had few options.  Someone suggested a job bringing in shopping carts at a grocery store.  I was shocked. Seriously? That is the goal for her to reach for?  Those words haunted me and propelled me to create an IT firm that understood the value of employing people with disabilities.

The company was named TecAccess and the majority of the team members were technologists with disabilities.  Sometimes over 80% of our team were represented by people with disabilities.   We focused on ensuring Internet, Communications and Technology (ICT) Accessibility.  When ICT is not accessible to everyone including people with disabilities the digital divide widens.  According to a World Health Organization (WHO) 2011 Study, 1 in 7 people in the world have a disability.  According to the National Organization on Disabilities (NOD), 1 in 3 American Households are impacted, and this community is the largest minority community after women.

TecAccess worked with multi-national organizations, federal, state, local and foreign governments, universities and non-profits.  Sara speaks at conferences all over the world with me about why people with intellectual disabilities add value to the workforce.  She also chatters on social media using Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.  She is now in her twenties, can walk and talk and has not made me a grandmother.  She has taught me many life messages and touched the lives of many people.  TecAccess merged with SSB BART Group, a former competitor that offers the same type of services and is also committed to employing people with disabilities.  Sara has become a spokesperson for them and continues to add value in the lives of the people that she meets.  She is a global leader and advocate for people with disabilities.  She has spoken in Qatar, Germany and all over the United States.  She has also won awards for her work including the Top 40 under 40 in Richmond, Virginia, the Award of Excellence in Advocacy from NorthStar Academy, and the Raby Award for most improved special education student in Hanover County, Virginia.

I have been blessed to be Sara and Kevin’s Mom and with them in my lives all my dreams have come true.  I have also been able to find great love in my life with their father and my husband of over 30 years.  Plus, I have had the pleasure to follow my passion to help include people with disabilities in the global workforce and to be a Thought Leader in the ICT Accessibility field.  I took my passion, joy, heartbreaks and opportunities and helped start a new industry.  Sara is my North Star and she blesses me every single day.

Debra Ruh makes high-tech available to those who are Disabled

TechAccess, works with businesses large and small to ensure the disabled can use their products.

By David Karas, Contributor / August 2, 2011
Christian Science Monitor

Debra Ruh’s life changed dramatically when her four-month-old daughter, Sara, was diagnosed with Down syndrome.

While the news was devastating, Ms. Ruh decided to turn her family’s challenge into a blessing and a redirection.

Harnessing her technological expertise, Ruh started TecAccess, a company with the core mission of making Information and Communication Technologies more accessible, notably to those with disabilities.

“We make sure technology is accessible to everybody,” Ruh says. “Everything that we choose to put out on the internet [as well as the newest gadgets on the market] … all of that should be accessible to people with disabilities.”

Working with corporations and businesses large and small, Ruh’s Rockville, Va.-based company aims to ensure that those with any disabilities, whether physical, developmental, or mental, have the same access to web pages, videos, programs, and tech products as do those without disabilities.

Her firm has worked with prominent companies such as Canon, Dell, HP, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Bank of America, among others, to help them meet accessibility mandates, serve as models for best practices, and reach an audience that is often left out of the market.

Her firm has also studied the accessibility of websites for Best Buy, Walgreens, and CVS, among others.

“These large, multinational companies – they truly do want their products and services to be fully accessible,” says Ruh, adding that there is a business opportunity in broadening the market for a given company’s products. One in three American households is touched by a disability, Ruh says, making these families a sizable market.

It’s also important that those with disabilities have access to social media sites. “By not including people with disabilities, we are increasing the digital divide,” she says.

“Practice what you preach” has not been lost on Ruh: A majority of her own employees are disabled.

“We just welcome technologists with disabilities into our workforce,” Ruh says. Her staff includes members who are blind, hard of hearing, quadriplegic, and bipolar, as well as those diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, and severe depression.

“Companies still don’t see the value in employing people with disabilities,” she says, adding that her company sees it as making sense, especially given its mission.

Many people are not born with disabilities, but rather acquire them at some point in their lives, she says. But that does not mean they cannot be good employees whose expertise and skills can be harnessed.

The recession has hit her company hard, and Ruh has worked out a merger with another company with the same mission – SSB Bart Group. Today, the two function together, harnessing shared resources and client bases.

Ruh says she feels a purpose behind what she is doing and a calling that she strives to serve.

“I have a story that is unfolding, and I’ve been fascinated watching it unfold – and at times stressed out watching it unfold,” she says during a phone interview.

At the center of that story is her daughter, Sara.

She recalls the shock that came after her daughter’s diagnosis, which neither she nor her husband had even considered during her pregnancy. While there have been struggles, Ruh says, she calls her daughter to be a blessing.

“We’ve always lived our lives like that,” she says. “Sara was always a gift. It’s not a tragedy.”

Sara is now 24, and she remains the focal point of her mother’s efforts.

Ruh says there’s still a need for a better understanding of disabilities in America.

“We still tend to look at people with disabilities with sadness or the charity model,” she says. “People are still very uneducated on the topic … [but] there are too many people impacted to ignore it.”

For further information about TecAccess and their current endeavors, visit their website at SSB Bart Group

Community Catalyst Award

Organization: TecAccess LLC 

Name: Debra  Ruh
Title: CEO & Founder

1.  What do you feel has been your most notable contribution to catalyzing positive tech-related community action or access in RVA in recent years?

TecAccess’s continuum of effort to make technology and technology-enabled access available to everyone in our society, particularly wounded warriors and the aging, is our contribution, and our business mode.

TecAcces got some significant national attention in 2009, including being named a Trailblazer in Dell’s “Take Your Own Path” campaign, helping shine light on Virginia as a center for innovation in technology access. Bringing positive national media attention to Virginia is our latest accomplishment, driven by our continuing work to make technology available to everyone. One example of that work is Virginia’s DVETS program, started several years ago and now a nationally-recognized platform.

Ultimately, it comes down to this: disabled citizens in Virginia, and across the globe, want to participate, be taxpayers, have a voice. We help them achieve that.

2.  Describe the impact of that contribution on the RVA community.

We’ve put the region on the map as a successful example of the power of employing and engaging the disabled community. Best practices for the entire country are being developed and demonstrated by a Richmond company.

In the last three years, Virginia has gone from near the bottom in services to the disabled to a solid middle-of-the-pack, which is really aggressive progress. TecAccess has helped make that happen. We won a grant for Virginia’s Office of the Sr. Advisor on Disability Policy (Kaine administration) for career development for the disabled, which came about because of our efforts to establish best practices. Another achievement was getting Virginia recognized by the National Technical Assistance & Research Center at Rutgers University.

Our biggest impact is the public/private partnerships we help create, where we work to develop  best practices for global technology-access efforts.

3.  What motivated you to create or get involved in this program?

We wanted to demonstrate how a small for-profit company can make a big impact in an important global effort, particularly in hiring the disabled. That was our spark. We turned on a flashlight, and now it’s become a floodlight.

4.   What risks have you seen with your involvement?

The risk is that we won’t achieve our mission. We’ve had to tighten our belts in the recent downturn, along with everyone else. Reinvention, opening new markets, re-tooling our processes, all of it became part of our daily work. We’re a risk-management IT company, with a new focus on how to both manage risk AND get recognized for being a market leader.

5.  What are the future plans for this program?

We are looking to build TecAccess into a scalable business model that can be adopted by companies globally. Helping our disabled fellow citizens fully participate in the economic growth of our local, national, and worldwide economy is our goal.

6.  Explain why you believe you should win this award.

The work that we do is incredibly powerful. Social entrepreneurship is our model, with both social good and the profit motive having equal weight. We’re doing things here in central VA that have global impact, demonstrating the positive impact of fully including everyone in economic growth, and the growth of human potential. We’re changing the world from right here in central Virginia.

7.  50-words-or-less

TecAccess makes technology accessible for all as a global leader in access for the disabled, including wounded warriors and the aging. Working to build public/private partnership to further its technology-access-for-all mission, TecAccess has been recognized internationally in the media, and by industry leaders like Microsoft and Dell.

Rockville, VA – October 16, 2008 — Richmond, Virginia – Style Weekly has selected Sara Ruh, inspiration for TecAccess, as one of 2008 “Top 40 Under 40” award winners. Top 40 Under 40, which was launched by Style´s sister publication, Inside Business, is an annual tradition now organized by Style Weekly to honor rising young catalysts making a difference in both business and community.

“Sara Ruh´s business card lists her official job title as ´Inspiration.´ No single word could be more appropriate to describe this young Hanover resident born with Down syndrome,” writes Chris Dovi of Style Weekly. “In a society that just a few decades ago viewed people with her disability as little more than an unfortunate burden, Ruh pushes back.”

“I´m just like everybody else,” says Ruh, whose high-energy activism has helped shape TecAccess into today´s leading—and most award-winning—accessibility and workforce solutions consultancy in the industry. “My disability allows me to see the world differently and with new ideas. I help give a voice to others that may not have the ability to speak. I want to make a difference in the world. I also believe that the world is a better place because I am part of it,” says Ruh.

Serving as both an international keynote speaker on the topic of disabilities, and a TecAccess employee, Sara travels the world with a mission to improve accessibility and employment options in competitive job fields in the community for others with disabilities. For these efforts Style Weekly selected Ruh as a Top 40 Under 40 award winner, making her the youngest person to receive the award. Ruh was greeted with a standing ovation at the Style Weekly award reception where fellow young catalysts shared their innovative ideas with the business community.

For more, visit Style Weekly.

About TecAccess

TecAccess is the most awarded risk management and accessibility consultancy in the world. TecAccess turns potential risks into a marketplace advantage through leading accessibility services and products. With a focus on Section 508 compliance, TecAccess makes Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) accessible to the world´s largest and fastest growing demographic – people with disabilities. TecAccess is a certified Woman-Owned and SBA certified 8(a) and Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB).

For further information about TecAccess, visit SSB Bart Group