Social Media and Accessibility

By Debra Ruh, CEO of Ruh Global Communications

I am a big communicator and to be honest it got in trouble a lot in school for chattering.  In High School, teachers said that I couldn’t stop talking and my Mom often got notes about this issue.  I remember in 5^th grade my teacher saying if one more person talks or laughs you will be staying after school.  You guessed it that made me giggle and yes – I stayed after school and then stay in my room that weekend on restriction.  I love to talk, sing, write and just chatter.  My family and friends understand and usually appreciate this about me.  Sometimes I think my husband wouldn’t mind gagging me but after 29 years of marriage he would never openly say that because then we would have to “talk” about it.  He says that I even talk in my sleep.

So I bet you have guessed it – I LOVE social media.  Social Media allows me to chatter with people all over the world.  Plus I can get instantaneous chatter back, I remember when Virginia had our earthquake (okay California- no wise cracks) it was traumatic for us.  I couldn’t believe how many aftershocks we felt.  One night we had a 5.3 aftershock and it woke everyone up in the house.  My husband and daughter went back to sleep but I was shaken and started thinking scary thoughts like what if a really big one comes and what if a tree falls on the house.  I have a great imagination and sometimes I don’t appreciate it late at night.  So I got up and got on my social media to chatter about it and calm my nerves.  I chattered with people all over Richmond and it really helped calmed me down and made me feel safe knowing others were feeling the same way.

I also use social media to chatter about the community of people with disabilities (PwD) and accessible Internet, Communications and Technology (ICT).  I believe that the community of PwD is starting to find our voices via social media.  However, there are some significant accessibility problems with social media.   We find that many social media tools and applications are not blending accessibility into their products.  So PwD are often left out of the social media conversation and movement because they are inaccessible

Really – come on – can’t everyone be allowed to participate?  If we don’t make social media accessible than we continue to widen the “Digital Divide” and according to the World Health Organization (WHO) one in seven people are impacted with disabilities worldwide.  Plus 1 out of 3 households in the U.S. are 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 an organization really afford to lose this audience?  I don’t think so and this community is really chattering on the more accessible platforms so if social media tools are not accessible those platforms stand to lose out on major benefits.

Sometimes we hear that it is too hard to make an application or platform accessible.  How ridiculous – accessibility should be built into the system just like you would build in privacy, security or usability.

There is NO excuse to not make your Social Media applications fully accessible so that everyone can use them.   In years past, developers were afraid that making the application accessible would make a system less usable or “dummy” the system down.  Once again, ridiculous – we have seen amazing strides with accessible social media and now it is BAD design if you do not blend accessibility into the process level.

Want to know more?  Join our free webinar on Accessible Social Media or download a free trial version of our Accessibility Management Platform (AMP) it is a knowledge platform that has tons of tips, online training and suggestions for making applications fully accessible.

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

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

Debra Ruh argues that making digital publishing available to a broader range of people with disabilities is good for a company’s image, and good for the bottom line.

• The American Association of People with Disabilities estimates that the number of people with disabilities impacts an estimated 1 in 3 households in the US.
• Worldwide, this group numbers 500-750 million people.
• People with disabilities have almost two times the spending power of teens and more than 17 times the spending power of tweens (ages 8-12) – two demographics often sought after by businesses.

• Marketing studies of the Atlanta Paralympics (Solutions Marketing Group, 2003) reveal that even households with no disability connection felt goodwill towards companies that included people with disabilities in advertising and were more likely to buy their products.

• According to AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), 4 million Americans
• In the same Census, the percentage of PwD is larger than any single ethnic, racial or cultural group. At 19.3%, the number of people with disabilities exceeds the next largest group – Hispanic people (14.9%) – by a fairly wide margin.
• And these numbers do not include the family and friends that support inclusion for people with disabilities.
• There may also be unexpected benefits for publishers’ other customers. Many things that were designed for people with disabilities have, over time, benefi ted the
• Debra Ruh with her daughter Sara turn 50 each year. Many adults will experience age-related physical changes that may aff ect hearing, vision, cognition and mobility after age 50. And while they may not think of themselves as having disabilities, they often seek out businesses that accommodate those changes by off ering more accessible services.
• There are 76 million baby boomers in the US. AARP studies show that more than 46% of people over the age of 65 have a disability.

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

SmartMoney.Com

By Diana Ransom

WHEN GEORGE W. BUSH last year signed into law an expanded Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) that made it easier to qualify as disabled, employers worried what the impact would be on their businesses. Right now, they have a temporary reprieve as the Obama administration reviews the act, but in the next six months that could change if the law is broadened again.

The changing landscape has benefitted Debra Ruh. The owner of TecAccess, a Rockville, Va., technology accessibility consulting firm, Ruh, 50, works with tech clients such as Dell and AOL to comply with the law and ensure that their web sites and products are accessible to people with disabilities. Business is picking up as the economy recovers: TecAccess’s revenue this year will reach $4 million, double the 2008 number, says Ruh. She expects profits to drop about 5% from last year, to $200,000.

SmartMoney asked Ruh about the ups and downs with her eight-year-old firm. Here are her condensed answers.

Name: Debra Ruh
Business: TecAccess, a technology accessibility consultancy.
Industry: Technology
Location: Rockville, Virginia
Year founded: 2001
Number of employees: 25
Web address:www.tecaccess.net

You were a vice president at a prominent mortgage lender. Why the switch to a technology consultancy?

My daughter Sarah was diagnosed with Down syndrome when she was 4 months old. To be honest, we thought she’d grow out of it. But after several years, we realized that thinking wasn’t realistic. My husband and I started weighing employment options for Sarah. But the

existing jobs for someone with her condition were fairly menial, while the more rigorous positions were only available to those with intellectual disabilities or the seeing impaired. At the time, we thought we should create a company that understands the value of hiring people with disabilities. I’m proud to say that Sarah who is now 22 years old has two jobs. In addition to serving as TecAccess’s chief inspiration officer, in which she speaks at events, answers the

phone and performs some light administration, she also works at Nordstrom.

How do you work with companies to revamp their products and services?

Even something as simple as fixing the way a web site is constructed can make a huge difference in improving accessibility among the disabled. Many web sites contain flashy graphics and images. However, for someone who is, say, sight impaired, pictures don’t translate. You have to tag all of those images in a certain way so that a screen reader will pick up what the image is. A side benefit of all of this tagging is the more accessible you make your web site, the easier it is for search engines and mobile devices to read it.

Does hiring disabled workers present its own set of challenges?

Initially, it did because we didn’t hire based on qualifications as much as we hired based on the fact that someone was disabled. Regrettably, this led to a few hiring failures. However, now we hire based on qualifications first and disability second.

How did the downturn affect business?

We didn’t feel any changes for the first couple of months last year. But then the projects started to just trickle in, and, all of a sudden, our customers went from paying us within 35 days to paying in 60 to 90 days. I had to reduce salaries across the board. And while we didn’t lay anyone off, we didn’t fill positions when people left. Although things are now looking up, the lack of cash flow stopped us from being able to create new products and services.

Helping companies cater to millions of disabled consumers is an effective sales pitch. During the downturn, did you have to change it?

Regardless of the positive return on investment we could provide, we found that, starting in January, potential clients were more interested in staying out of legal trouble. In recent years, companies including Target, Bank of America and Sony have been sued thanks to alleged violations against the Americans with Disabilities Act. As it turns out, when the economy goes down, lawsuits rise. (Editor’s note: The ADA is currently under review by the Obama administration and may or may not become more inclusive.)

Considering that so many companies are struggling to make ends meet these days, what do you say to businesses that say they can’t afford to add handicap-accessible products, features or services in spite of government mandates?

In this economy, we all need to expand our client base. While introducing new products and features will cost you, you’ll also be widening your reach by making them more accessible. Plus, as members of the baby boomer generation age, many of them will acquire disabilities. Not taking the steps to include these individuals can quickly erode future profits.

What is your best advice for entrepreneurs getting started today?

Today, especially, it is very important to follow the rules. Now you should have enough cash to cover eight months of expenses in the bank. If you grow too quickly, slow down, or you’ll exhaust your resources. Make sure your financials are always in order. Understand your balance sheet. And, of course, spend less than what you’re making. While these tips seem obvious, I didn’t follow them and perhaps had a more painful start-up process because of it.

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

For many, the ability to telework — working remotely, usually from home, via computer — is viewed as a pleasant convenience, a benefit offered by progressive employers to enhance the work environment. But for the employees of TecAccess, it is a necessity of professional life.

“Commuting to work is annoying for many of us,” said TecAccess founder Debra Ruh. “But for most of my employees, it’s impossible.”

TecAccess, an electronics and information technology (E&IT) company, employs more than 30 associates, nearly all of whom have disabilities ranging from quadriplegia to cognitive disabilities. Many TecAccess employees, including market analyst Rosemary Musachio, require access to assistive technologies or personal care assistance that makes it difficult to work outside the home. Musachio, who has cerebral palsy, cannot speak or use her hands, but uses a word board and headpointer to communicate, both in her work for TecAccess and as a regular columnist for Sun Newspapers.

According to a 1997 U.S. Census Bureau report, the employment rate for adults aged 25 to 64 with a severe disability is just above 30 percent (and has hovered at this level for the past 12 years), with median earnings of $13,272, compared with an 84 percent employment rate for adults without disabilities, who also draw nearly $23,000 in median earnings. But constantly improving assistive technologies and a global telecommunications infrastructure have made access to higher paying, flexibly scheduled jobs more achievable.

And broadband, said Ruh, has made it practical.

About 70 percent of TecAccess associates use broadband to telecommute, collaborating with one another and with their clients. The remaining 30 percent, including Ruh herself, are dialing up and waiting not-so-patiently for broadband to become available in their areas.

“Broadband is so important to where we’re going. Some people think broadband is trendy, that it’s a nice convenience, but not really necessary,” Ruh said. “But not for TecAccess associates and for the millions of other people with disabilities.

“Broadband isn’t a luxury. Broadband is the difference between quality of life or not. It’s about being able to work and being able to interact in ways that haven’t always been possible for people with disabilities. One of our associates said to me, ‘You gave me my life back. You gave me my respect back.’ “

TecAccess specializes in information technology (IT) accessibility as well as compliance solutions for Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and 1998, providing accessibility testing and assessment, training, engineering, policy review and consulting. Section 508 requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. The quickly growing company’s clients include some well-known corporations, including Avaya, Wachovia, Verizon, Canon and Circuit City, not to mention U.S. government bodies, including the Navy, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Agriculture.

Ruh, who started TecAccess in the late 1990s, was inspired by her daughter, Sara, who has Down Syndrome. Ruh, a former telecommunications and IT professional, realized that the future employment options for Sara were limited, so she decided to create an IT company that would hire mainly people with disabilities.

“People said, ‘Oh, open up a bakery, open up a T-shirt shop,” said Ruh. “But what do I know about cakes or clothing?”

Instead, Ruh created a company with a specialized mission and a compelling logic: evaluation and development of disability-accessible technologies by people with disabilities.

Originally, the company’s focus was on building accessible Web sites for companies, work that is clearly a perfect fit for the telecommuting model. But as the company expanded, they found an increasing number of their clients were looking for assistance in Section 508 compliance and the accessibility of technologies beyond the Internet. From there, growth has been rapid and exciting.

For example, one corporation that was working with TecAccess on various accessibility projects asked the company for its recommendation on the “dream copier.” If money were not a consideration, what would a totally accessible copier look like? Sean Stapleford, a TecAccess associate who is paralyzed from the neck down, came up with 15 pages of ideas, from symmetrical voice automation (the copier both responds to voice commands and provides voice prompts to assist users with tasks) to a copier that senses when it needs to be repaired and automatically contacts the technician, or in some cases, repairs itself.

“The client brought Sean’s ideas to their engineers in Japan, who were really excited by what he suggested,” Ruh said. “They are actually building some of his ideas into their next design.”

Ruh is counting on broadband to continue to open doors for people with disabilities. True high-speed connectivity not only supports a “virtual office,” by allowing video conferencing and transmission of large files and applications between locations, but provides people with disabilities — typically a more isolated and under-served population — with more opportunities to interact socially, learn marketable skills and achieve increasing fiscal and social independence.

Ruh is excited about the possibilities for herself and her employees with fiber to the home. For now, she’d settle for access to a DSL line (she estimates that she’s contacted her local carrier no fewer than 30 times in the last year or so to see if broadband is available in her area yet!), but for the long term, she knows her associates, and millions of other individuals with disabilities, will need as much bandwidth as they can get.

“The technologies that assist people with disabilities are constantly improving, offering more options, more independence and more accessibility,” said Ruh. “If telecommunications can’t keep up with our technology, we might as well just slow down our technology. And that’s not going to happen. That can’t happen. So let’s make sure the telecommunications can keep up with us.”

As for TecAccess, Ruh and her associates continue to draw big corporate clients, with the dual goals of both improving technology accessibility as well as growing the employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Ruh has set her sights on developing a curriculum for training people with disabilities for information technology professions.

“It’s time for more companies like this, don’t you think?” said Ruh. “And without broadband, without the Internet, we could not have this company. We would not exist.”

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1UMk04eRBk

Rockville, VA – February 4, 2010 — TecAccess, the leading provider of accessibility and risk management services, announced today that Sara Ruh, a longtime employee and inspiration for the creation of the firm, was awarded the 2010 Compass honor by Northstar Academy. The inaugural Compass Awards honors publically nominated individuals and organizations that have contributed to the advancement of the special needs community.

Sara Ruh, an international keynote speaker and leader in the accessibility industry, was recognized by Northstar Academy for her efforts to improve the lives of people with disabilities in both the community and the boardroom across the globe. Northstar Academy, in coordination with the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, created the award series as part of their “Leading Change” initiative. Other honorees included the Honorable Walter A. Stosch (Senator, Virginia), Tammy Burns (Pastor of Family Ministries), Ellen Bohon (Henrico High School), Donald Oswald (Virginia Treatment Center for Children), and Garth Larcen (Positive Vibe Cafè).

Sara Ruh and the other honorees were recognized at a dinner on January 29th at the University of Richmond. “It´s a true honor,” said Ruh of her award as she prepares for continued speaking events and accessibility leadership around the world in 2010.

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 and their current endeavors, visit their website at SSB Bart Group