Disability Matters

Joyce welcomes Marian Vessels, director of the Mid-Atlantic ADA Center, Robin Jones, project director of the Lake Erie ADA Center, and Oce Harrison, director of the New England ADA Center. All three guests will reflect on the 25th anniversary of the ADA and what it means to people with disabilities and expound on the reason the centers were incorporated and why. The mission is to provide information on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to individuals and organizations in the respective locations.

Joyce welcomes Dr. Carr Bettis, chairman of the board and executive chairman of AudioEye, Inc. Also on the show will be Todd A. Bankofier, a member of AudioEye's advisory board. Incorporated in Tucson, Arizona in 2005, the company focuses on achieving Web access equality and usability for all people, through technological expertise and innovation. Both men will discuss their roles in the organization and explain how their company can help business comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires federal contractors to make their websites accessible to all people with disabilities.

Joyce welcomes Jerry MacCleary, president of Covestro LLC (formerly Bayer MaterialScience LLC) for North America. He also leads the Polyurethanes business for the North American region, a responsibility he has held since 2004. Mr. MacCleary will discuss his continued commitment at Covestro LLC to hire people with disabilities as part of their diverse workforce.

Joyce welcomes Jill Houghton, executive director of the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN). The mission of the BLN is to help business drive performance by leveraging disability inclusion in the workplace, supply chain, and marketplace. Ms. Houghton will discuss the success of the 2015 US Business Leadership Network's 18th Annual National Conference entitled, From Compliance to Competitive Advantage: The Legacy of the ADA and the Next 25 Years held in Austin, Texas September 28 through October 1, 2015. The conference is the preeminent national business to business event that focuses on disability inclusion in the marketplace, workplace, supply chain and professional development.

Joyce welcomes Peri Jude Radecic, chief executive officer of the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania. During the show, Ms. Radecic will discuss the mission of the organization in depth, which is to advance, protect, and advocate for the human, civil, and legal rights of Pennsylvanians with disabilities.

Joyce welcomes Ben Matlin contributing editor at Institutional Investor and Financial Advisor magazines and author of MIRACLE BOY GROWS UP: HOW THE DISABILITY RIGHTS REVOLUTION SAVED MY SANITY (Skyhorse, 2012). During the show he will discuss his disability rights advocacy. His essays have been featured on NPR's Morning Edition and in THE NEW YORK TIMES, NEWSWEEK, SELF magazine, USA TODAY, the LOS ANGELES TIMES, the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, and Washington Post.com.

Joyce welcomes Beth Cobert, acting, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to the show. She will discuss the OPM's role in assisting agencies with the implementation of their plans to increase federal employment of individuals with disabilities, in support of President Barack Obama's executive order.

Joyce welcomes Diane Coleman, the president of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group which she founded in 1996 to give voice to disability rights opposition to legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. She will discuss the mission of this organization in depth, as well as her testimony that she has given four times before Subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. She is a well-known writer and speaker on assisted suicide and euthanasia topics.

Joyce welcomes Stuart James, executive director of the Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, California. Mr. James will discuss the mission of the CIL, which provides services, support, and advocacy to enhance the rights and abilities of people with disabilities to actively participate in their communities and to live self-determined lives. The CIL emerged from the independent living movement of the 1960's as a powerful social catalyst on the University of California at Berkeley campus. There, Ed Roberts, Hale Zukas, and Jan McEwan Brown joined forces to lead a movement that made the full academic and social life of the college accessible to all. In 1972, these students along with community members formally incorporated as the Center for Independent Living, Inc.

Joyce welcomes Andrea J. Carelli, senior vice president, public relations and special events for PNC Bank to the show. She will discuss PNC's programs and services and its commitment to employing people with disabilities as well as its efforts to give back to the community it serves.