“Supporting children with disabilities and becoming a role model for other philanthropists.”
By Debra Ruh

I had the pleasure to interview Jay Ruderman.  He is the President of the Ruderman Family Foundation, an impressive organization that focuses on the inclusion of people with disabilities in the United States and Israel. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Funders Network and is a member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Executive Committee.

Jay is married and a father of four children.  He is a life-long Bostonian and after graduating from law school, he began his career as an assistant district attorney in Salem, Massachusetts. He became Deputy Director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in New England in 2001.  He also enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 2005 and became the liaison between the IDF and Diaspora Jewry.  After his service in the IDF, he became the Leadership Director for AIPAC in Israel.

Let’s begin the interview:

Debra Ruh (Debra) question:  Jay you are on a mission to change the way the United States and Israel view individuals with disabilities in society.  Tell us more about your mission.

Jay Ruderman (Jay) answer:  Individuals with disabilities are one of the last communities to have their rights systematically violated by the government.   Wikipedia defines social justice as, “the ability people have to realize their potential in the society where they live.”  This definition can be broken down into three parts: realizing potential, in society, and where they live.  For Jewish people with disabilities, each of these parts presents a challenge – and for the rest of us, they present an opportunity.

The full inclusion of people with disabilities in society is a matter of social justice, civil rights, and fairness. Every Jew counts, every Jew has something unique to offer our community, and every Jew is created in the image of God, no matter how they look or express themselves.  Approximately 1,000,000 Jews in the United States have some form of disability.  Look at that number again: 1,000,000 people, in the Jewish community alone. Our job must be to invite them in, not put up barriers to keep them out.

Can a person with a disability realize his or her potential?  The unemployment and underemployment rate for people with disabilities of working age is close to 80%.  Gainful employment can build a person’s self-esteem, enable him or her to get out of the house and be social, and change preexisting prejudices about his or her abilities.  Additionally, gainful employment allows individuals with disabilities to become contributing members of the workforce, which benefits the overall economy.  Keeping people with disabilities out of work leaves them at home, with little chance to realize their potential.

Are we, as a society, inclusive?  Many of our schools are not.  Many parents are forced to forgo a Jewish education because schools lack the resources or are unwilling to “accommodate” a child with disabilities. These children should not be accommodated.

They should be welcomed with open arms, like every other child! When considering moving to a new city, all parents have to consider educational options. Parents of children with disabilities have added concerns:  If the community is not inclusive, then the community is not meeting the needs of all citizens.

Debra Ruh (Debra) question:  Please explain more to our readers about your work in Israel and in the United States to include children with disabilities in society.

Jay Ruderman (Jay) answer:  Let me give some background about our foundation. The Ruderman Family Foundation is an American-Israeli foundation which focuses on recognizing and rewarding innovative programs which provide services that foster full inclusion of people with disabilities in their local Jewish community. It exemplifies the best in Jewish values. Guided by our Jewish values, we support effective programs, innovative partnerships and a dynamic approach to philanthropy in our core areas of interest: advocating for and advancing the inclusion of people with disabilities throughout the Jewish community and modeling the practice of strategic philanthropy worldwide.

Our first major foray into philanthropy was a large initiative to improve the Jewish day school system.  We partnered with another family and we determined that children with disabilities were not able to access the Jewish educational system.  We made a big commitment to this effort and have been involved in this project for over 10 years.

After becoming the president of the Ruderman Family Foundation my goal was to continue the excellent work of the foundation.  I also wanted to raise the inclusion of persons with disabilities to other foundations and philanthropists.

 Debra question:  Let’s talk more about your work in Israel.  

Jay answer: The foundation got involved in a major initiative with the Israeli government and an organization called the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to make Israeli society more inclusive of people with disabilities.  This was the first time a private family foundation partnered with the Israeli government.

The project is a series of pilot projects that allows the Israeli government to be a more proactive with inclusion of persons with disabilities.  The programs are supporting the Israeli government to move away from housing people with disabilities in institutions and instead create programs that allow persons with disabilities to live independently in their communities.  Centers for independent living programs are now located throughout Israel.

We felt strongly about supporting the established centers for independent living throughout Israel.  The programs help individuals with disabilities obtain or improve job skills.  We also have programs that are teaching them independence, self-defense strategies and how to react to violence.  The programs provide families that have young children with disabilities support networks of a myriad of issues focused on inclusion and unity.

After these programs were successful, we began to invest in other societal programs to help people with disabilities.  For example we support a project in Israel that helps persons with intellectual disabilities get married.  We partner with major organizations to help educate and bring awareness to issues that are impacting the full inclusion of individuals with disabilities.  By advocating for a more progressive model inclusion and funding innovative programs.

We are very active online and are heavily engaged with media in both the U.S. and Israel.  We believe it is critical to take a leadership role and publicly advocate for individuals with disabilities.

Debra question: How about your efforts in the United States?  Why don’t you tell us more.

Jay answer:  We are heavily engaged in the Boston area.  We realized that there is a major gap in the United States between education and entering the workforce.  Persons with disabilities are provided educational options until they are 21 years old.  We saw major transition from education to employment issues.  Unemployment for persons with severe disabilities is over 70%.   We decided to become part of the solution so we created an employment program in Boston called “Transitions to Work”.

The individuals with disabilities are trained at specific job sites.  For example, we have a program in a Boston area hospital.  After the student completes our program they secure positions with that hospital or with other hospitals in the area.

Our program teaches skill sets that are valuable to these employers.  Our program also is unique because we work with employers to determine the skill sets and the employers sign-off on the program to be sure it meets their training needs.   We started having more successful employment outcomes when we facilitated these conversations at the CEO level.  Once that happened we started to see a change in attitude and employers started to become major advocates for employment with people with disabilities.

One employer has hired many of our graduates.  The lead manager started talking to colleagues about the program and they found many positive by-products.  The manager noted that the company hired these employees not only because it is the right thing to do it but because it was good for their businesses bottom-line.  These efforts have changed their workforce.  Employee morale has been boosted all over the company.  Their employees feel good about working there because it’s not just about the bottom line but about becoming a socially conscious business.  They have become an employer of choice and they are able to recruit and retain better talent across the board.

Debra question: Tell our audience about the foundation and your efforts to support disability inclusion.

Jay answer:  We take a different approach from many other foundations.  For example, we do not accept unsolicited applications for support.  The Foundation’s methodology is very interactive with our grantees.  We issue an invitation to an applicant to apply after we have conducted a thorough analysis of the potential partner.  We check to be sure there is a shared vision, innovation, organizational strength and a willingness to collaborate.

We collaborate with other major funders to partner and promote the sharing of knowledge on or about successes in its mission.   Also our staff is heavily involved in the development of the programs.  They remain very involved in major programs funded over multiple years.  We carefully monitor the programs to assess future funding potential.

As part of our commitment to inclusion and enhancing the lives of adults and children with disabilities, we are actively supporting a range of innovative projects with organizations that focus on integration into society and minimizing feelings of loneliness. These projects cover education, housing, employment, synagogues, community life and much more.

To learn about the many organizations in the United States and Israel, past and current, who have received grants from the foundation, please click below:

Major partnerships:
http://www.rudermanfoundation.org/programs/inclusion/major-partnerships

Grantees in the United States:
http://www.rudermanfoundation.org/programs/inclusion/u-s-grantees

Grantees in Israel:
http://www.rudermanfoundation.org/programs/inclusion/israel-grantees

To learn more about The Ruderman Foundation please visit: www.rudermanfoundation.org

To learn more about Jay Ruderman please visit: http://www.rudermanfoundation.org/about-us/staff/jay-ruderman

Debra Ruh is a digital marketing professional who enables people with disabilities’ voices to be heard and included in marketing and communications outreach. As the founder of Ruh Global Communications, a strategic communications and digital marketing firm, she strongly believes that social media empowers a diverse array of perspectives to be shared, and is optimistic about the future of digital.

I had the pleasure to interview Joy Kniskern for this blog.  Joy is an amazing woman with many talents.  She started her career determined to make a difference.  She has accomplished those goals and her efforts are going to making a difference for many years to come.   Joy is a shining example of a woman that believes that her success comes from helping other people succeed in life.

Joy has spent her entire career making a difference in other people’s lives.  She has also accomplished a lot academically including earning a Master’s Degree in Counseling & Psychological Services from Georgia State University and was honored with a Phi Chi Honor Society.  She also holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Sociology from Vanderbilt University.

Joy works with Dr. Christopher Lee and his team at AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center (AMAC).  AMAC is part of the Georgia Institute of Technology located in the College of Architecture.

I recently highlighted Dr. Lee in my blog about Leadership.  “Leaders Making a Difference in the World” Story of Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities and Finding his Greatness – Introducing Dr. Christopher M. Lee. To read the blog please visit: http://ow.ly/COCRX Here is my interview with the Joy Kniskern:

Debra:  What led you to this field?

Joy: I wanted to contribute to the social good, and found rehabilitation was an area where so many people with disabilities wanted to go to work but encountered so many barriers – stigma, lack of training opportunities, physical access issues, no transportation.

Debra: What are some of the highlights of your career?

Joy: The first grant I received to establish, before ADA one of IBM’s Projects to give persons with disabilities skills to become COBOL computer programmers.  There was excellent involvement of private industry in every imaginable way, over 90% of graduates were hired at wages higher than staff within 3 months of graduation, I worked with first braille printers and speech output devices. I started a parallel program in customers’ service skills training so students who didn’t like or do well at programming had a path to good employment.

Debra: Tell me about our work with AMAC – what role do you play in this program?

Joy: I am the Technology Initiatives “go to” person at AMAC- I led several initiatives like our 508 and Accessible ICT work, special grants, and outreach to new and global partners.

Debra: AMAC is part of GA Tech, College of Architecture that is an interesting place to be located.  Do you think this provides an advantage to the AMAC program?

Joy:  Absolutely!  The College of Architecture is focused on design expertise and we are seeing that inclusive design is just as important as good and accessible design of physical spaces. AMAC started in 2006 as a production environment to meet the needs of students with disabilities through disability services providers within and outside of Georgia. Now that we are in the School of Architecture, we know that we have access to some of the finest research and academic resources in the world, and that fact and our action on it will help deepen and broader our path and impact on ICT accessibility in our digital world.

Debra: There is a lot of work to do across the US and globally to fully include PwD in the workforce and other aspects of society.  How can and should Universities be part of these solutions?  What steps are AMAC taking to also be a major part of the solution in US and abroad?

Joy: Research shows that to support the 9 million people in a world whose resources can support roughly half that number of people considering current consumption of goods and resources suggest that we all need to be engaged: governments, universities, thought leaders, environmental experts, in how to better engage everyone.  Universities like Georgia Tech can identify technology applications that make competitive work more possible. Robots and SKYPE make telework more possible, for example. There are many examples of how universities can be engaged in developing technologies and resourceful strategies to tap into talents of persons with disabilities.

Debra: AMAC has recently won several significant grants – can you highlight and explain the part you played in winning these grants?

Joy:  The First in the World Grant to establish Center for Accessible Materials Innovation (the Center) to expand access to higher education digital course content for students with disabilities, thereby supporting the improvement of their retention and graduation rates.

The proposed Center addresses the identified issues with an over-arching goal of expanding the availability and use of fully accessible textbooks for all students with disabilities, and for students at MSIs in particular, through four objectives:

(1) To develop applications to pioneer an innovative marketplace mechanism (a digital label) for the disclosure of standardized consumer information about the accessibility features of digital textbooks;

(2)  To provide textbook remediation services to increase the immediate availability of frequently used titles, especially those requested by students, and to use the tools created for Objective 1 to check accessibility and add to the pilot database of digital accessibility labels;

(3)  To research the causes of the seeming under-utilization of accessible textbooks by MSIs and to reverse this pattern with education and services; and

(4) To provide professional education and training on accessible electronic information for college faculty and staff including DSPs, administrators, content developers, curriculum procurement officials, and information technology managers.

AMAC, through partnerships with ATN members, publishers and AT vendors, will devise tools and applications to support the availability of consumer information through the creation of a standardized Document Accessibility Profile (DAP) for disclosing the specific accessibility features of digital textbooks. Similar to a nutrition label for packaged food, this “label” produced by an application or ‘app,’ will be created from a checklist of features enabled in the existing Online Information eXchange (ONIX) international standards used by book publishers and distributors. The “label” will be available on a web portal, and accessible from computers, tablets and mobile devices.

I designed and wrote the evaluation section of the proposal which includes an conducting focus groups at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) focus groups to understand why the Digital Divide is much greater for minorities. We don’t have enough information about this issue to properly address it.

Debra: When you look towards the future of AMAC – what do you hope to see unfold?

Joy: My hope for AMAC is that it continues to unfold as the “go to” place for disability service providers and students they serve for digital access, and that we fully embrace the opportunities to make a difference in creating greater ICT accessibility in Georgia, the US and the world. We can play a significant role in reducing barriers related to access to information for people with disabilities. I also hope that we can sustain and strengthen allied efforts of the “Pass It On” Center for AT Reutilization, a national technical assistance center, and resources to grow our capacity for Georgia’s State AT Act Program – Tools for Life.

Debra: When you look back on your career in the future – what do you hope to see?

Joy: You know, it’s not about my career, it’s about my contribution to making the world a little better. That is what matters.

Debra: What advice do you have for young people that are interested in following your footsteps?

Joy: Look toward the highest good in everyone you encounter, do your best, and do what matters most, and take time to step aside and reflect on what is going on in your life, and those of others around you.

Debra:  What are you most proud of in your career?

Joy:  When I was 27, taking a risk by stepping out of the status quo early in my career to find funding and launch the Georgia Computer Programmer Project.  One of my students retired making a six figure income after 20 years of employment with a well-known software company. It started me on a path of social entrepreneurship that I’ve mastered ever since then.  ***End of interview***

Speaking to Joy is a breath of fresh air.  She has accomplished so much during her career and she is still going strong and changing the world.  I look forward to watching her career continue to unfold.  She is a woman that has made a huge difference in the world.  Joy Kniskern is global role model for us all.

For more information about Ruh Global Communications please visit: www.RuhGlobal.com

Deb Dagit, President of Deb Dagit Diversity, LLC has 22 years’ experience as a diversity practitioner and has worked as a top executive in both the Information Technology and Health care fields informing both HR and business practices and strategies.

She is known for her pragmatism, subject matter expertise with regards to all dimensions of diversity, and results orientation.

She recently retired from her role as the Global Diversity & Inclusion Officer and Vice President at Merck, where she spent over a decade advancing the Company’s global diversity and inclusion strategies.

From an early age most people’s expectations for Deborah Dagit were very low.  Doctors told her parents when she was born that it was unlikely she would live to see her second birthday. They asserted that if she did live beyond that milestone, she would not be able to engage in any normal life activities.  Educators were similarly pessimistic about her ability to learn.  Her first two years in school she was segregated with other children who were considered too disabled to participate in a regular classroom, in an environment that was in essence a babysitting service for children with a disability.

Deb’s working-class single mother knew that although her daughter was physically fragile, she was also bright and capable of learning.  Deb had learned how to read before Kindergarten, and was described as precocious by most adults.  Deb’s mom pleaded with a local elementary school Principal to allow Deb to attend public school in the second grade. At that time (1966) there were no legislative policies or protections to promote school mainstreaming, and she would be the only child in her school with a disability through the remainder of her K-12 experience.

Despite more than 70 fractures and 25 major operations to repair and straighten her legs, Deb was always a straight A student and graduated from high school with honors in 1977, just before her 18^th birthday.  She was also active as a student leader and received many accolades at public speaking competitions.  She went on to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in Clinical Psychology.  She applied her academic and leadership skills to become one of the premier Fortune 100 corporate leaders in an emerging HR discipline that came to be known as Diversity.  Along the way she married her husband Dan, and they adopted three children, who also have various disabilities.  She also became very active as a community leader serving on the boards of a broad array of national nonprofit organizations.

Advocates and thought leaders for people with disabilities are often from the medical or health care community, who often consider people with disabilities as a population in need of a cure and/or relief from the symptoms associated with their diagnosed condition.  No other diverse population is subject to this type of assessment in modern society. While women, racial minorities, and gay people have historically been labeled as genotypically predisposed to be weaker, less intelligent, and or medically compromised – only people with disabilities continue to bear this burden in modern times.

Throughout her career Deb has been a compelling and vocal advocate for people with disabilities. As the only Chief Diversity Officer with a visible disability, she has often found herself in the unenviable position of being the sole voice in the room to advocate for societal and workforce inclusion for people with disabilities.

Her journey to achieving personal and professional success is all the more remarkable given the lack of belief that these achievements were even remotely possible.

Deb has an anonymous advice column called “Dear Deb” on her website www.debdagitdiversity.com.  It is a unique resource for practitioners to seek support, affirmation, and ask questions re: how to cope with the emotional roller coaster that can come with performing diversity and inclusion roles.

Visitors can pose questions and provide a name that is anonymous to others. Only Deb will know the original author from their e-mail address and any other identifying information they wish to provide. (e.g. signature that appears could be something like “Troubled in Toledo”)

Typical topics may include:

• expectations of colleagues who share the same demographic affiliation as the practitioner who are requesting a primary focus on their needs and interests
• concerns about how to respectfully address and show up as an effective ally for groups a practitioner is not familiar or confident with
• addressing internal conflicts that can arise when what is expected in the diversity role and how a person was raised to think about and interact with people from different backgrounds creates stress and/or confusion
• demonstrating confidence and executive presence when working with senior leaders
• friction that can arise with colleagues who do not share a similar priority/passion for diversity work

To learn more about Deb’s firm please visit:

Please visit Deb Dagit Diversity, LLC at www.debdagitdiversity.com