AXSChat Podcast

 Access Israel, established in Israel in 1999, is the first non-profit organization in Israel whose main mission is to promote accessibility and inclusion to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and the elderly

Access Israel strives to make Israel a place where people with various disabilities are integrated into society with dignity, respect, equal rights and maximum independence.
 
Since its establishment, Access Israel has revolutionized the quality of life and accessibility for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities and elderly in Israel, and has become a leading organization worldwide and a model for making businesses, governmental, academic, and non-profit organizations fully accessible.

These achievements result from a wide range of innovative projects, ongoing awareness activities, and improvement of business models aimed at making Israel an accessible place.

Access Israel makes it an issue to act in all sectors of life, in all geographical areas in Israel with an emphasis on the periphery to make Israel more accessible and inclusive for 100% of its population (and possible guests from abroad).

Over the years, the organization has succeeded in promoting the topic of accessibility and giving a voice to the disabled population. Promoting legislation, raising awareness, unique accessibility consulting methods, web portal, complaint center, accessibility training, accessibility in education, accessible culture, tourism, and more.

We are now aiming to enable the future digital era, making sure it's accessible and usable on day one for people with disabilities and the elderly.

Access Israel also aims to share its experience and knowledge regarding accessibility so that countries from all over the world can learn and implement.

Accessibility and integration of people with disabilities in Israel have come a long way since Access Israel was founded, but there is still much to do. 

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 Neil has been recognised as one of Britain’s most accomplished entrepreneurs. Alongside his business successes he is well known on the international disability stage, himself being blind.​
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GoodMaps revolutionary indoor navigation solution transforms the built environment into an inclusive space for everyone. Making a wide variety of locations; office, transport hub, educational setting, hospital, shopping mall; along with countless other examples, entirely accessible. Delivering upon the Access For All ethos celebrated in Global Accessibility Awareness Day. 

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With more than a decade of experience developing and demonstrating accessible technology in mobile, web and artificial intelligence, Heather Dowdy is passionate about connecting the dots across disability, race, and tech. She currently manages Accessibility Skilling at Microsoft, with a focus on making the future of work more inclusive. Heather is responsible for the global partnership strategy to scale skilling opportunities that lead to employment for people with disabilities.

Before relocating to Redmond, she was the Senior Product Manager of Accessibility Engineering at Motorola Mobility in Chicago. Heather has served as Chair of the Accessibility Working Group (AWG) of the Mobile Manufacturers’ Forum (MMF) and Chair of the Board of Directors of the World Institute on Disability (WID).

As the oldest daughter of Deaf parents, Heather is fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). She loves using the design thinking process to create solutions that empower marginalized communities and improve usability for everyone. A strong believer in empowering communities through education and benevolence, Heather is the co-founder of Microsoft Ninja Camp and a Board member of deaf Kids Code providing STEM leadership training to high school students with disabilities. Heather obtained her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A native Chicagoan, she can now be found exploring the beauty of the Pacific Northwest with her husband and three young children. Heather also enjoys reading, journaling, and interacting with different cultures while traveling abroad 

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Dr. LaMondre Pough 

LaMondre is a passionate speaker, mentor, and a recognized leader for the community of People with Disabilities. 

As CEO of Billion Strong, he brings to the position his natural ability to empower audiences to embrace diversity and create environments where people genuinely belong. 

Diagnosed before his second birthday with spinal muscular atrophy, Pough challenges people to find purpose and ways to improve themselves in every circumstance. 

In addition to his role as CEO of Billion Strong, he serves as the Chief Sustainability Officer for Ruh Global IMPACT, Chairman of Arts Access South Carolina. 

LaMondre was recently inducted into the Susan Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame, Class of 2020, for his unwavering work supporting disability justice, racial justice, and COVID-19 related issues that impact the disabled community. 

Her believes that developing a positive disability identity is a key component to uniting and elevating the community. 

He says, “it is vital to create environments where people with disabilities are invested and supported and can learn about the experiences of others with disabilities. 

A community by people with disabilities for people with disabilities. Focusing on identity is critical when we can talk about our lived experiences with disabilities. 

We all benefit by sharing our stories and letting others know what is happening worldwide. Much work has been done, but there is still a lot more that needs to be accomplished.” 

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Orla has been involved with live captioning delivery for nearly 30 years.  15 years with the BBC as part of the team managing 5%-100% subtitled content across the BBC.  Orla was responsible for managing captioners and researchers, delivery and project management looking at the varied broadcast content on the channel: drama, game shows, political chat shows, 24-hour news, music festivals, sports coverage, children’s programmes and writing protocols, that are still in use today, for successful live captioning of each genre. Moving on from the BBC into events and direct to client delivery, Orla set up MyClearText with Elaine McCarthy to support clients and captioners to deliver high standards of live captioning and technical expertise in the delivery to ensure the best end product to end users. Working with Dan Dexter for many years to remove and overcome barriers to adding captioning  accessibility to livestreams for MyClearText, AccessLOOP was created to simplify the delivery of captioning, sign language and language caption translation. 

Dan is a highly experienced webcast engineer and producer who has worked for over a decade providing high quality streamed events, including product launches for OnePlus (1m+ viewers), Facebook, Asos, Atos, Body Shop, Care Quality Commission, Adobe and Harvey Nicholls plus many more. He has a particular interest in Diversity and Inclusion and has been working for a number of years to make live streaming more accessible. 

Dan has been working very closely with Orla and Elaine at MyClearText to work on solutions to make streaming much more accessible. This has resulted in the creation of AccessLOOP. AccessLOOP is the only tool on the market which allows the easy addition of live captioning, multi-language captions and sign language onto any streamed event. 

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When Cigdem Knebel struggled to find decodable “big-kid” chapter books a young dyslexic could painlessly read, she began to write one herself for her son. Cigdem is the founder of Simple Words Books. Her mission is to help young dyslexics and early readers with fluency, comprehension, but most importantly, reading-confidence.

She accomplishes this by using many carefully chosen words in her books with the skills of young dyslexics in mind. The attention is put into using many:

-short and one syllable words

short vowels, digraphs and blends
• closed syllables words

high frequency sight words 
• short sentences. 
  
Cigdem believes that all children love to read. This is no different for children with dyslexia; they just need to find that right book for them. 

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Rosemary Musachio’s life has been based on miracles and dreams.  Like any other birth, Rosemary’s was a miracle but with a twist.  Since she developed cerebral palsy at birth due to brain damage, Rosemary was presumed a vegetable by the doctor who delivered her. 

Yet, another miracle happened when Rosemary proved that doctor dead wrong.  For every limitation she has, she has been able to overcome it in one way or another.  Although she cannot walk, she dances in her wheelchair to music.  Although she cannot talk, she uses a word board to communicate quite eloquently.  Although she cannot use her hands to perform daily tasks, she uses a head pointer to type on a keyboard.

Despite all her challenges, Rosemary has been able to accomplish a great deal during her life so far.  She has made many of her dreams come true, one of which was becoming a writer.  A year after graduating Cleveland States University Magma Cum Laude with a B.A. in Communications, she became a monthly columnist for Sun Newspapers in Cleveland, Ohio.  Her column, Bit of a Challenge, was the paper’s most popular column, running for ten years.  She also had articles published in The Plain Dealer and Italian Gazette.  Additionally, she edited and published two monthly disability-related newsletters, The Able Informer and Ability Age.  Issues still roam around the Internet.  In her spare time, Rosemary writes poetry.  In fact, one of her goals is to publish a book of her poetry.

Besides establishing herself as a writer and a poet, Rosemary has pursued another dream of traveling and setting new heights…literally.  She has visited Italy (5 times so far), Germany, Austria, France, and Spain.  During one of her visits to Italy, she even met the Pope!  She also has a daredevil spirit.  Several years ago she did tandem hanggliding in Ridgley, Maryland, where she went up twice at 2500ft and 5000ft.  A year afterwards she took a ride on a customized motorcycle through eastern Metroparks and Chagrin Falls in Ohio.  She even rode horses on a dude ranch in Colorado.  No wonder her motto is “If you don’t accept challenges, you are not living.”

In September 2001, Rosemary saw an ad by TecAccess, a Virginia-based technology company, in a disability newsletter.  It needed web testers, so she applied for the position.  That commenced her fifteen-year career as an electronic and information technology (E&IT) accessibility analyst.   Besides TecAccess, she also has worked for two other similar companies.  Working for those companies has allowed Rosemary to present at major disability conferences including California State University, Northridge (CSUN), United States Business Leadership Network, and National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA).

Now that Rosemary is the Chief Accessibility Officer for Ruh Global Communications, she has realized another of her dreams.  She is following her father’s footsteps since he was a local public relations man.  She also loves the creativity that is involved in being a marketing specialist, crafting content and developing campaigns to convey important messages and ideas to the world.  Particularly, Rosemary wants to help persons with disabilities like herself get their voices heard loudly.

When people say how inspiring Rosemary is, she shakes her head and rolls her eyes.  Of course, she is humbled by and grateful for the compliment.  Yet, she feels there’s nothing inspiring about living life to the fullest despite disabilities.  Ironically, her parents and friends have been Rosemary’s inspirations.  Without their love and support, she might have ended up where that doctor at the naval hospital insinuated to place her. 

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 Elaine Katz oversees Kessler Foundation’s comprehensive grant making program and its communications department. During her tenure, the Foundation has awarded $49 million for national and community-based employment programs. Katz works with non-profit organizations in board development, fundraising, marketing, and business development. She serves on the boards of JESPY House, New Jersey Association of People Supporting Employment First, Essex/Newark Disabilities Issues Committee, and program committee of the Council of NJ Grantmakers. She is an appointed member of Empower NYC Advisory Board, Workforce Matters National Steering Committee, ReelAbilities NY Advisory & Council, ReelAbilities 2020 Selection Committee and the NJ Veterans and Community Collaborative Network (VCCN). Elaine served as a member of the Human and Children Services Transition Advisory Committee for Governor-elect Phil Murphy. Elaine received the Community Access Unlimited 2019 Humanitarian Award, 2016 GI Go Fund Jackson Drysdale Civilian of the Year Award and the 2015 Betty Pendler Award from Community Options, Inc. 

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 Dr. Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup is a health scientist and Health Policy Counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum. Dr. Hendricks-Sturrup’s work involves exploring and addressing ethical, legal, and social issues and implementation barriers at the forefront of health policy and innovation. Her research centers on generating best practices for the use and processing of health and genetics data across the patient-consumer spectrum.

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After graduating from the Vienna University of Economics, Michael Fembek (born 1961) joined GEWINN, an Austrian business magazine, serving between 2000 and 2007 as editor-in-chief.

In 2009 he initiated “Sinnstifter”, a project by Austrian philanthropists, and launched the annual Austrian CSR-Guide on corporate responsibility. In 2010 he joined the Essl Foundation as Programme Manager and – until 2014 – the bauMax group as its Head of Social Affairs.

Since 2011 he is the Director of the Zero Project, a project of the Essl Foundation, and organizes the annual Zero Project Conference in the UN Headquarters in Vienna.

In 2014, he co-initiated the Verband für Gemeinnütziges Stiften, the Austrian philanthropic association, where he serves as Vice President. In 2015, he became the Chair of the Thematic Group on Disabilities within the European Foundation Centre (EFC), in 2016 he co-initiated the Haus der Philanthropie in Vienna, and in 2019 he co-initiated the Sinnbildungsstiftung, a foundation focusing on innovations in education, and now serves as a Board Member.

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