"DISABILITY MATTERS"
JANUARY 16, 2007
1 PM CST
HOST:
JOYCE BENDER
GUEST:
DEBRA RUH
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This text is being provided in a rough draft
format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order
to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim
record of the proceedings.
*******
>> Welcome to "Disability
Matters" With your host, Joyce Bender. All comments, views and opinions
expressed on this show are solely those of the host, a guest and callers. Now
the host of "Disability Matters." Here's Joyce Bender.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And
welcome to the show and welcome to Martin Luther King Jr. Week as we continue
to celebrate a true champion of all time, who fought the fight for freedom so
well. And I want to thank so many of you for all the calls, e-mails, as I say
frequently on the show, I have the best listening audience in the world. I do.
I have such a loyal following and I appreciate how you're helping me change the
way people think about people with disabilities.
And today, we have a champion on this show.
It truly is my honor to have her as a guest on our show because I know her.
Many of you know of her, but she has become the champion foremost in the world
of accessibility for people with disabilities, not just in the
>> DEBRA RUH: Thank you
so much. Thank you so much for having me.
>> JOYCE BENDER: It is
an honor to have you. And Debra, since this show is heard throughout the world,
I want to make sure everyone knows a lot about you and your company, TecAccess,
which you are the founder and president of.
So my first question is how about if you tell
everyone how and why you became involved in the world of accessibility in the
world of disability.
>> DEBRA RUH: Thank
you, Joyce. I would love to. About seven years ago, my daughter who has Down's
syndrome and is a huge passion in my life, she started middle school. She had
been talking about being a nurse and the transition specialists had started to
come in and talk to us about the options she would have for employment. And as
I listened to what their suggestions were, based on her abilities, her academic
abilities at the time which were pretty minimal, and based on what her dreams
were, there was a huge disconnect. So I sort of woke up to the employment
issues for people with disabilities.
At the time, I was more focused on what I
knew which was intellectual disabilities or cognitive disabilities just because
my family had been impacted by that. But the more I really woke up to the issue
and started looking around, I thought well, there's a huge issue out here, and
at the time, I felt I could be part of the solution or part of the problem. So
I decided I wanted to be part of the solution so I created a technology company
because that is what my background was in.
I was in the banking industry for many years
in technology so I created a technology company, and my mission was and
continues to be, to hire the majority of workers were going to be people with
disabilities.
So it started because of a passion I had for
my daughter, and it has grown into -- we have over 60 employees and associates
and most of our employees have all different types of disabilities, including
some of our employees have very severe disabilities.
>> JOYCE BENDER: Do you
know what? That is such a great story. How many people are there out there that
hear people say, your child can't do this. And you know, look what you did. You
turned it into a whole new world. That is truly awesome that you did that. It
really is. Kudos to you.
So now you made a decision. You wanted to be part of the solution. What
made you decide to focus on accessibility?
>> DEBRA RUH: When I
first started down the path, I knew I wanted to be in technology, and then as I
was looking around at the technology and I started hiring certain different
people, some associates could only use one hand. One associate was blind. We
started realizing we had accessibility problems, and right at the same time,
right around that time frame, 2001, the Section 508, the Rehabilitation Act was
being revisited. And Section 508 was on a lot of people's radars and we thought
of, as a matter of fact, Dr. Larry Skadden he used to be the director of
the National Science Foundation was the person that told me you should really
take this company and focus on Section 508. I thought what a great idea. We are
the people that are impacted by inaccessibility offering services to support
accessibility for people with disabilities and making sure everything is fully
accessible and for people that are aging, because we're finding more and more
that as people are aging, they're acquiring disabilities that impact their
ability to properly use the computer or technology if accessibility has not
been designed into the product or solution.
So it sort of dovetails.
>> JOYCE BENDER: That
was great advice because there is such a need, still today, for accessibility
in many corporations and within parts of the federal government. That is an
ongoing need, not just here, but of course, in other parts of the world.
Before we go to our first break, I want to
take a question from a listener, and we have a question from a listener, Linda
in
>> DEBRA RUH: Wow! What
a great question. I have never been asked to speak about that, but as you can
imagine, I would love to talk about that, but you could probably also guess
which side of the fence I'm going to be on. My daughter, Sarah, she has been
such a blessing to us, in every single aspect of our lives. Sarah is high
functioning in some ways, and then there's other ways that she is -- well, I
guess she's like everybody else. She has abilities and disabilities.
But what a great topic. I would be very
passionate, but as you can imagine, I don't think we get to pick who our
children are going to be. Are they going to be blonde, red-haired, dark hair,
dark skin. Some of that is genetics, but I would have lost so much if I had
made a different decision -- my life would be so different not having Sarah in
it. Sarah has been such an inspiration
to us, and I have seen people that have made different decisions, and that's
fine for them.
Anyway. I'm babbling. I have not talked about
the subject, but as you can tell, I would be very passionate for giving people
a chance at life especially someone adding to the world like Sarah Ruh.
>> JOYCE BENDER: That
is a hot topic right now. But certainly, I would suggest, you know, you could
recommend Debra as a speaker, whether that be to the National Down syndrome
Society, or what ever groups, you know, whenever they have conferences. But I
want to tell you that I think that is a very, very important topic.
>> DEBRA RUH: I agree.
And it's a powerful topic.
>> JOYCE BENDER: What
would life have been without your daughter?
>> DEBRA RUH: I know.
And look at the people that have been helped because of what she inspired. And
every day she inspires me. She inspires me to be calm a little bit more. She's
just an inspiration to me and to so many others and that's just one person. So
start multiplying it out.
>> JOYCE BENDER: The
problem is a lack of education, people having the wrong views about children
with Down's syndrome. Just as Debra said in the beginning, people saying that
for her daughter in school that she could only do certain things. But, you
know, if they're not -- had not been a Sarah, look at all these people with
disabilities who would never have met Debra Ruh. Think about it.
>> DEBRA RUH: Probably
gone down this path before, determining that people could only be a certain
way. We have done this over and over in our society. It's not true. The
brilliant, talented people who work at TecAccess who are deaf, who are blind,
who are deaf and blind, paraplegic, dramatic brain injury, mental-health
issues. They're brilliant and they have something to say. Every single day I
learned from these people, and I hope they learn from me.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And as
Debra alluded to, this mistake was horribly made many years ago, and it was
made in
Anyone listening to this show, I would
recommend that if there's any conference or anything related to disabilities or
intellectual disabilities, that would be a great thing would be to recommend
Debra Ruh as a speaker because she is surely one person that can talk about
look what happened from knowing Sarah.
That alone is a great, great topic.
How many people have I met, and by the way,
that I have working or I have placed at companies that have intellectual
disabilities? Where is the idea that these people should not be living is
beyond my wildest dream.
>> DEBRA RUH: I'll tell
you a real short story, Joyce. There is a young man. His name is Kyle Mayhew.
He had cerebral palsy and was in the class with Sarah when he was in sixth
grade when I was making this decision. This young man just had a soul as big as
the world. He was incredible. And he went through high school with Sarah,
graduated, went to the prom and unfortunately, he passed away this summer. It
killed a lot of us. It broke our hearts. And somebody said to me, see, Debra,
when you're hanging around those kinds of people, that's what's going to
happen. I was like, oh my God! I am such a better person from being around this
incredible young man. I am such a better person. I would not give that up for
anything. Sorry.
>> JOYCE BENDER: What a
topic! You know, I don't even know how people can think that. I really don't.
It's very frightening, and that's why the genetic testing and all of these
things can that lead down a horrible path for people with disabilities. You
have to remember when people start saying, we don't need to give you health
insurance because -- which already is happening. That can turn into you even
want to have that child when they have this genetic predisposition which is
happening right now with Down's syndrome. It's going to happen in many other
areas. It already has with spina bifida and some other disabilities, and yet,
here are some of the greatest people in the world that have contributed to so
much would not be allowed to be here. What a horrible thought.
>> DEBRA RUH: I agree.
I'll tell you a good story about insurance. TecAccess where the majority of our
people are people with all types of different disabilities, and I thought and
many people thought, you'll never be able to get insurance. You'll never be
able to get insurance. Guess what? Your customer Wellpoint/Anthem, they
provided insurance at very affordable rates. Every one of my employees have a
great benefit package so we are making some progress.
Maybe in the past a company like TecAccess,
nobody would have insured us. We are insured now and have a really nice benefit
package. I am just always hopeful things are going to get better, but we do
need to continue to argue that. There's a place in the world for everyone.
>> JOYCE BENDER: That
is right. We're going to break. If you just joined us, you're in for a great
show because we have Debra Ruh, the founder and president of TecAccess. You're listening to Joyce Bender,
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>> If you have a question or
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"Disability Matters." Here's Joyce Bender.
>> And welcome back. And if you're
looking for a company to help you with your accessibility issues for people
with disabilities, you're listening to the right show today because we have a
Debra Ruh, the founder and president of TecAccess.
And Debra, maybe you could take a minute and
tell our listeners, the mission of TecAccess, you know, and types of the things
you do or some of your customers just case business is listening to this show
would know some of the areas you work in.
>> DEBRA RUH: Okay.
Great. Thanks, Joyce. We help organizations whether they are industry,
government, state, education, nonprofit, multinational organizations make sure that
their technology is fully accessible to everyone, and that could be a website.
What we worked with Cannon, www.Cannon.com to make sure that was fully
accessible to all their customers on an international basis. We also have
worked with HP quite a bit to make sure their E learning is fully accessible
and their products, are they saying the right thing in their marketing and
newsletters? We do a lot with HP to help build awareness.
We've worked with quite a few government
agencies like the Department of Education and
We've done the work with IBM who was just a
real leader with accessibility, and just a host of other companies including
Wachovia and AT&T, MCI and a lot of states.
The
>> JOYCE BENDER: Isn't
that great? I know that in the state of
>> DEBRA RUH: We really
do. Katherine McCary is another one that inspired me. I used to work for Crestar
that was acquired by SunTrust and when I looked at my daughter and technology I
said wait a minute, maybe I could do this because I saw what SunTrust was doing
to hire and support people with disabilities.
>> JOYCE BENDER: Is
that right? That doesn't surprise me. She is an awesome person.
>> DEBRA RUH: She
really is.
>> JOYCE BENDER: She is
a great person.
Debra, it still amazes me today that so many
companies are afraid of hiring people with disabilities because what did they
say to me, Joyce, if we do that, our accommodation costs will be so high. It
will cost us so much money. We don't know what we'll run into. And I'm always
so amazed that so many people still think that do you run into this often, and
you know, do people say that to you? For example, people are often concerned
that if the person is blind, it's going to cost them so much money if the
person is hired. Did you hear these things?
>> DEBRA RUH: I hear
that all the time. I hear if I hire people with disabilities they are going to
need their own bathroom and they're going to take a lot more sick days. What if
they sue me? I think what? I haven't had to do any of that, and I find that the
accommodations we make for all of our employees including sometimes we have to
accommodate our employees without designated disabilities because, you know,
life happens to people.
I just accommodated one of my employees
because he just had a baby. His wife just had a baby so we accommodated his
work schedule so he could be there for his wife and his new baby girl. That's
accommodations. It didn't cost me anything. If anything, it just made my
employee more loyal to TecAccess because he appreciates that we understand
sometimes life isn't about work.
>> JOYCE BENDER: How
true that is. And you know what? Where TecAccess can really help you is I often
-- I just said this the other day. I guess I need to take Debra Ruh in first
when I'm talking to some of these companies because they don't understand that
with assistive technology today,that people with disabilities can compete
equally.
And so a question, Debra, that we had more
than one e-mail from various listeners asking this question. Does TecAccess go
into corporations and do some type of training on accessibility? What do you do
to educate companies?
>> DEBRA RUH: Yes. We
do a lot of training. We will go in and help companies with their diversity
training to make sure that they're building accessibility awareness right into
that training. We do a lot of training for the Web developers or the software
programmers, the application developers, to teach them how do you design with
accessibility in mind. A lot of times, our customers will come in and say will
you also train us to use a screen reader like jaws or Windows Eyes or even with
the Dragon naturally speaking. We will
also provide testing and we'll provide training on how to test with assistive
technology to make sure -- I mean, that's one way to do testing. I say the best
way to do testing is to test with people that have those disabilities using
assistive technology. But they're also a place to enter weave accessibility
testing right into your QA, your testing methodologies. So we do quite a bit.
>> JOYCE BENDER: Is
there a way, for example, people who go into technical support or help desk
support administration who are blind and have to use Jaws software and are now
having to access tons and tons of screens from so many different places, would
you ever go into companies and help them with something like that? Because that
is one of the reasons that some companies are concerned about hiring a person
who is blind at a help desk.
>> DEBRA
RUH: Absolutely. We do that all the time. As a matter of fact, we're
working with the company right now that is a big Internet provider, and they
want to introduce people of different -- with different disabilities into their
call center. And sometimes it's okay to start with certain segments, but we're
starting with people that have physical disabilities and people that are blind
or have a vision impairment. We're taking it in a little bite sized pieces like
that. We're showing them what they have to do and how would you train these
associates, and how you get them up to speed and ready to work. We're having a lot of successes.
Now, we don't go and find people with
disabilities for them to employ. We're not an employment agency. We help them
get ready for their employees. And once the employees are there, for example,
they started off hiring a really smart woman that happens to be deaf. And so
they said well, we did these things. I said, well, give her access to IM, instant
messenger so she can have dialogue with her co-workers which, that's pretty
much free. And so they did that and that immediately started helping the
dialogue between the associate.
And what we found, and not only at TecAccess,
and you know this, Joyce, the people who come in with "Disabilities"
Are the ones -- the first ones that will be there when it snows. They are the
first ones. They have the best attitudes. You will get a very high-quality
employee a lot of times when you hire People with disabilities, and that's not
just wishful thinking. There are statistics that have proven that.
>> JOYCE BENDER: See,
this is what my point is that if a company like TecAccess would go to some
companies, you know, when I first meet them because it's attitudinal barriers
about employing People with disabilities in corporate
>> DEBRA RUH: It really
is.
>> JOYCE BENDER: It
sometimes takes me years before the person actually starts working with us. And
one of their big fears, is of course, how many times have people said to me,
how would a blind person do this programming?
How would a blind person be an accountant? I believe that if a company such as yours was
put on a retainer and could go in and educate them first and showed them this,
that that would also help break down the attitudinal barriers.
>> DEBRA RUH: And
you're right. That's what we've seen. It goes back to that word you used
before, awareness. You have a company like TecAccess that we doing it. Don't
tell me a technology company can hire programmers. Don't tell me they can't
hire Web developers that have disabilities. We're doing it.
I just hired a man that has an amazing
background. He's built multiple software applications and then sold -- he's on
his third company that he's about to sell. About six years ago he became
severely disabled where he has to work from home. When he sent his resume
around, employers would say, my goodness. This guy is incredible. They would
say okay, fly to
>> JOYCE BENDER: How
many times have I heard that? We're going to talk more about that, but we have
to go to break for one minute. If you just joined us, we're with Debra Ruh, the
president and founder of TecAccess. This is Joyce Bender,
>> Bringing
you around the world right from your desktop, VoiceAmerica.Com.
>> If you have a question or
comment call toll free at 1-866-472-5788. Now please welcome back the host of
"Disability Matters." Here's Joyce Bender.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And
welcome back to the show. And here we are today talking to truly a great
champion for all people with disabilities, Ms. Debra Ruh who is the
president and founder of TecAccess in the
Debra, a question we have here from
>> DEBRA RUH: As far as
being Bobby compliant, most of our clients are looking at it at a much higher
level than just Bobby. Bobby is one way which I think Bobby is owned by WatchFire
now. We look at the law, the section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act law so we
look at that and we might even look at the W3C Standards and there are a lot
more, most people consider a lot more robust than just Bobby. Bobby is one tool
that you can use so we don't look at Bobby compliant. We look at Section 508
compliant or are there state laws if you're in the state. And what we do is we
test the site, for example. We will tell them not only the findings that we
have a there's something wrong, but how to correct them. We will do training of
the Web developers because this is just part of the process.
We don't fix it once and then hold our
breath. You fix it and then you make it part of the process and you develop
that way so that the site is always accessible.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And,
of course, if you have any questions about this and you contacted TecAccess,
you would be able to take that high level and review their entire Web site,
correct?
>> DEBRA RUH: Yes.
We can do it a lot of different ways we can do it from knowledge
transfer to actually going in and testing it is seeing what's wrong and even fixing
it ourselves. We prefer to not do that because if we always fix it for you,
then we haven't done a knowledge transfer. We'll do whatever the customer
wants.
>> JOYCE BENDER: Okay.
We have a listener here in
>> DEBRA RUH: That's a
great question. What we do is our employees represent all types of disabilities
and certainly all the disabilities that could be impacted by accessibility.
People that are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or a vision impaired, mobility
impairment, intellectual or cognitive impairment and sometimes it's a
combination of a lot of them. And so we work with all of that, and we have a
lot of expertise.
But once again, the way we look at it when
we're dealing with our clients is we're looking at what does the law tell you,
you have to do, and after they get that nailed, then we move it up and say, how
can we improve accessibility, the usability, a universal design of your product
or your Web site, as opposed to looking at it just from the perspective of
maybe a blind audience or a hard of hearing audience.
We harmonize it across disabilities by
keeping in mind what are the legal interpretations of it as well. A lot of our
clients like H-P and Cannon, they want to follow the law, and the government
clients certainly have to follow 508 law.
So we look at it at a lot of different levels.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And,
you know, you really have to be careful. When that Section 508 came out, many
firms jumped on this bandwagon, but you really have to make sure you're with
someone credible, you know, like TecAccess because just because someone says,
oh, yes, we know about this, not everyone really knew about it. So you really
have to be careful when you select the firm to make sure they understand how
involved this really is. And by the way, there are, as she said, various forms
of assistive technology for various types of disabilities.
And as Debra has already told you, at her
company, she has people with various disabilities working on site at the
organization. And Debra, one thing that we run into frequently is that people
with significant disabilities such as people who are blind or deaf or use for
example augmentative communication, that it's very difficult to break down that
attitudinal barrier when it comes to competitive employment. Why do you think
people think that?
>> DEBRA RUH: I think
the reason why they think that is a once again awareness. I think when somebody
is different and we don't understand the difference, people will get
uncomfortable. A lot of times, when we do a training class, our instructors
will be blind or they'll have a hearing impairment in some cases or coming in,
in a wheelchair or whatever. What we do is try to put the audience at ease to
let them know this is okay. This is what we're going to do to make you feel
comfortable with the information we're presenting. Once they really see the
person just being a person, a lot of those fears will go away, but at the
beginning, we always take time to go to build awareness right into the
beginning of the program to sort of dismiss some of the fears that people might
have because they haven't been exposed to it.
>> JOYCE BENDER: Well,
you are, in my opinion, one of the experts in this country on a section 508.
And you speak about this, I know, frequently. In your opinion, are companies
and agencies and everyone, federal contractors, are people really obeying this
law?
>> DEBRA RUH: Well,
I'll tell you more people are obeying the law than they were in the past. That
doesn't really answer your question. Before I answer that, just go back to
something you said earlier, Joyce, when you're selecting someone to help you
with accessibility. Select someone that's willing to go with you, if you're challenged
on your accessibility say that you're taken to court or you're selling your
services to a government agency and their challenging you. That's what we do
with our clients. We go all the way in with our clients. We don't to say oh,
yes, it's successful. Good luck with that.
It sort of goes back to this question. We see
a lot of people starting to make it part of their process, but there are still
so much work to be done, and there's so many Web sites and so much technology.
It is still being put out on the marketplace and the software applications
being sold to businesses that is not accessible, and it's almost like nobody
has even thought about it.
And I think how can nobody have known about
this so there's still so much work to do, but there are companies, big
companies like H-P and Cannon and IBM and Microsoft, that are paying attention
to it. SAP or Oracle or Avaya. So why
are the Giants paying attention to it? They obviously have found out that it's
a way to differentiate themselves so all of the other companies need to be
paying attention to what the leaders are doing because they've decided this is
part of our strategy. This is a way to
differentiate our products and to make sure it's available for anybody to
purchase.
And that's where we are in the
>> JOYCE BENDER: Well,
you know, if all corporations had disability as part of diversity, firmly as
part of diversity, and had some type of process legally in place must adhere to
Section 508, or, you know, must make sure this is evaluated. Think what would
happen.
>> DEBRA RUH: I agree.
I mean, if we're not paying attention, we are going to get in big trouble with
this because we are aging. The baby boomers started retiring last year. We know,
according to The Economist magazine, we're going to have in the three years a
10 million worker shortage, a 10 million people are going to be short in the
>> JOYCE BENDER: In
2010.
>> DEBRA RUH: Should we
just offshore it all? No. How about we look at who we have in our country
today. I'll tell you part of what we do at TecAccess is we let people telework.
Not all of our workers can telework. Some of our employees report to a
government agency some days. The majority of my team teleworks, and if you're
somebody with a very severe disability that allows you to be so productive.
>> JOYCE BENDER: That
is so true because think about this. When you have all these baby boomers
retiring, there's going to be a group in this country that suddenly -- and they
already have power. We already know that AARP has power, but when you add this
huge, huge number of baby boomers, oh my goodness! This is going to get the
attention of the media, the presidential candidates, of everyone and guess
what? With aging comes disability. So therefore, you're really putting yourself
at peril if you don't stop and say hey, maybe we need to have a test. Maybe we
need an evaluation. Maybe we need to know are we really doing this right, and
if you are that company, that's why now would be the time to get in touch with
TecAccess.
And so I don't forget at this part of the
show, Debra, how do people reach you. What is best way?
>> DEBRA RUH: Our web site is www.tecaccess.net.
>> JOYCE BENDER: That is TecAccess.Net and Debra Ruh is the
president and founder. We've got to go to break. We'll be back to close the
show with my friend and yours, Debra Ruh. This is Joyce Bender on
"Disability Matters." We'll be right back.
>> The
powerhouse of Internet talk radio, the VoiceAmerica.Com.
>> If you have a question or comment
call in toll-free at 1-866-472-5788. Now please welcome back the host of
"Disability Matters." Here's Joyce Bender.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And
welcome back to the show. We've been talking to Debra Ruh the founder and
president of the TecAccess and Debra, a question that I have for you, and I can
relate because of course, I own Bender Consulting Services, but we have only
been in business for 11 years. I, myself, have been in employment for over 25
years, but I know what it's like and I know how hard it is to start a small
business. What are some of the biggest obstacles you’ve run into marketing as a
small business because I know we've talked about this before, but, you know, it
may be easy for a large corporation to say, hey, do this. Do that. Use all
these other resources, but, you know, when you're a small company, you're doing
it all.
>> DEBRA RUH: I would
say that's the biggest point right there. When you're a small company, you're
doing it all. You just have to wear so many hats. And we're a small company
like so many small companies in that cash flow can be a problem, especially
because we have government clients. Sometimes that can affect the way our cash
flows.
What we've gotten really good at is figuring
out how to properly use the Internet. The Internet is an amazing communications
tool. Just telling our story, trying to get the story out in a different free ways
or inexpensive ways, networking and letting the media learn and getting them to
help tell the story.
Another thing we've done is with our clients,
we've done some joint media exposure campaigns and that's helped a lot because
a lot of the real large companies, they have access to things that small
companies are just not going to have access to.
So Canon and TecAccess has worked on a joint
project together that we've got a lot of marketing out of. And H-P has been
really good, a wonderful partner. So using your partners and always, always you
want it to be a win/win for everybody. It can be viewed as a small company
holding out your hand going hurry up. Give me more money. You've got to bring
more value to your client even when they're a large client, bringing them value.
Like you've done, Joyce, helping to tell the story of your clients. That
becomes a success.
>> JOYCE BENDER: You
know what? I'll tell you, Debra. It's hard to do what you've done. I tell
people frequently you know, when they say tell everyone with a disability to be
an entrepreneur. Of course, I do have disabilities. I have epilepsy and a
hearing loss. That doesn't mean I tell everyone to be an entrepreneur just as I
don't tell everyone with a disability to work for corporate
>> DEBRA RUH: Yes. I
would agree with that. I have never ever worked so hard in my whole life that I
have as I've built TecAccess. And we won't even go about the reduction in
salaries that I've had to take because I wanted to make a difference. Sarah, my
daughter has inspired me, but I have never worked so hard. Forget weekends,
nights, holidays. You're afraid not to work.
>> JOYCE BENDER: That
is how it is. And think about this all the time, weekends, at night time, all
the time, you are living it. I am like Debra I wouldn't be doing anything else.
I'll be doing this as long as I live, but I'm just saying when you become an
entrepreneur, it really takes firepower so that's why I said if you can do what
you're doing now, Debra, you can do anything. So congratulations to you. It is
harder for a small business because of so many -- because of doing everything,
and that's why I feel so many great entrepreneurs -- look at Bill Gates and all
these people that started in a small company. Boy, it is wonderful when you can
direct your own future so, Debra, you've done so many great things and you’ve
accomplished so much.
I ask this question, by the way, these last
two questions to every single person I have on the show. What are you proudest of? What is your proudest accomplishment?
>> DEBRA RUH: I would
say my proudest accomplishment is taking a dream and making it into a reality
and really providing a place where people of all kinds of disabilities can have
marketable, solid work to do. And I really wanted -- my vision was to create a
technology company that was a best practice. We don't want to be a non-profit.
We wanted it to be a for-profit that said well, look at these amazing
employees. So I would say that's the thing I'm most proud about is
accomplishing at least that part of my vision.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And a
great thing you have done. And, Debra, if people want to follow what you're
doing or where you are speaking, how would they do that?
>> DEBRA RUH: Go to my
web site which is once again www.tecaccess.net. A lot of times people will put
a TECH. There is no H in my name. I love to speak about the topics I definitely
raise my hand to take on any speaking engagements. That would be helpful.
>> JOYCE BENDER: You
heard it. When you're looking for speakers on accessibility, you know, here you
have the founder and president of tecaccess that you can reach and one more time,
www.tecaccess.net. Is that correct?
>> DEBRA RUH: Yes it
is.
>> JOYCE BENDER: Make
sure you get in touch with the company so that you can have Debra speak at one
of these events. She is the expert in this area. And Debra, if you are speaking
different places, would they know this by looking at your website?
>> DEBRA RUH: We did
have it out on my website. I think we're going to put the 2007 calendar out
there. I don't think we've loaded it yet for 2007.
>> JOYCE BENDER: Once
you get it out there, so that we can know and our listeners can know and also,
Debra, VoiceAmerica.Com this show will be archived on VoiceAmerica.Com and on
benderconsult.Com, but, so that if you're interested in this show using any
information from this show, you will be able to go to those archives and go to
the show so if you know someone that is interested, come back and listen again
so you can get back in touch with Debra.
Debra, what message would you like to leave
with our listeners today?
>> DEBRA RUH: Please
consider a qualified person with a disability as an employee. You will not
regret it. Don't just try one person. That's just not fair to anybody. Try
different people and give people with disabilities a chance. You will not
regret it. Please make your technology accessible to everyone.
>> JOYCE BENDER: Yes.
What a great message. And that goes to everyone, businesses included. You can
avoid so many problems by doing it right the first time. And remember, why
wouldn't you? There's 54 million Americans with disabilities. I would think
you'd want these people for consumers, but if they can't get in, they can't buy
anything. Right, Debra?
>> DEBRA RUH: That's
correct.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And
that includes getting to your Web site.
>> DEBRA RUH: They'll
go to somewhere else if they can get through yours.
>> JOYCE BENDER: And
you'll lose that business. So
Remember, people
with disabilities want to buy what you have also. I can't buy if I can't get
in. If I can't get into the website, I can't purchase what you have. That is so
absolutely critical, especially with today was so much Internet buying. I mean,
I know so many people who no longer go holiday shopping to the stores. They
purchase everything over the Internet so knowing that there is this huge and
continuing large volume of opportunity, why would you not want to be
accessible? So here is someone that can help you, Debra Ruh, with TecAccess.
Debra, I just want to tell you I'm very proud
of what you do, and I'm also very inspired by, you know, how Sarah caused all of
this to happen. You have helped so many people with disabilities. I just only
wish you the very best year you ever had at TecAccess and thank you for
everything you are doing.
>> DEBRA RUH: Thank you
so much, Joyce, for everything you're doing. I so appreciate being on the show.
>> JOYCE BENDER: It is
our honor to have as our guest. You listened today to Debra Ruh, the president
and founder of TecAccess. And at the end of every show we always end the show
with a quote by a famous civil rights leader or person with a disability and
today that quote is from Helen Keller who said,"The most pathetic person
in the world is someone who has sight, but no vision." Isn't that what
it's all about with accessibility?
Thank you so much for joining us today. We
look forward to talking with you next week. You've been listening to Joyce
Bender, the voice of VoiceAmerica.Com where disability does matter. See you
next week.
(Broadcast ended 1:59 PM CST)
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This text is being provided in a rough draft
format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order
to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim
record of the proceedings.
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