Episodes

Joyce welcomes Keri Gray, director for the Rising Leaders Initiatives and Becky Curran, Disability Equality Index (DEI) Program Manager at Disability: IN. This non-profit organization promotes an inclusive global economy that empowers people with disabilities to participate fully and meaningfully. It empowers business to achieve disability equality and inclusion. There is a shared commitment to collaborate with purpose to promote the full inclusion of people with disabilities, to inspire accessi...

Joyce welcomes Marci Katona and Shannon Austin, District Administrators for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry's Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR). Both guests will discuss in-depth their disability advocacy. Also discussed will be their roles within the OVR organization, as well as the overall mission of the organization.

Joyce welcomes Jayla Youngblood, winner of the 2018 Sam Miller Award; Gerald Homme, chairman of the Bender Lead On Team: and Ginny Emerson, mother of the late, Sam Miller, to discuss the Bender Lead On Team support group. The Bender Lead On Team assists high school and college students in the areas of setting career goals and championing anti-bullying efforts. The team provides a forum for young people with disabilities to speak out about instances of bullying and to support others who may be in...

Joyce welcomes Jim Fruchterman a leading social entrepreneur, MacArthur Fellow and CEO of Benetech, a nonprofit technology company based in Silicon Valley, which creates e-books and other technology innovations for people with disabilities. He will explain the mission of this organization in-depth.

Joyce welcomes Sherry Lapaglia, Manager Talent Programs, Gerald Homme, Recruitment Specialist, and Scott Hammerstrom, Team Lead, Talent Programs with Bender Consulting Services, Inc. Discussed on the show will be employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Joyce welcomes back to the show, Jimmy Krenn, Pittsburgh comedian and former morning-drive radio host for WDVE FM and Q-92 FM. Jimmy will discuss his extensive career in stand-up comedy and radio broadcasting and his latest charity work with the Epilepsy Association of Western and Central PA.

Joyce welcomes Diane Coleman, president of Not Dead Yet, a national, grassroots disability rights group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of discrimination against old, ill and disabled people. Not Dead Yet helps organize and articulate opposition to these practices based on secular social justice arguments. Not Dead Yet demands the equal protection of the law for the targets of so called “mercy killing” whose lives are perceived as worthless. Ms. Colem...

Joyce welcomes Jill Houghton, president and CEO of Disability:IN, formerly known as the U.S. Business Leadership Network (USBLN). Disability:IN embraces the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the labor force and marketplace; assists in career preparation for, and employment of, people with disabilities; improves customer experiences for people with disabilities; and promotes the certification and growth of disability-owned business enterprises. Ms. Houghton will discuss the reason for...

Joyce welcomes Todd Bankofier, CEO of Audio Eye, Inc. AudioEye provides enhanced web access and usability for its customers. AudioEye’s custom and proprietary digital accessibility platform testing suite automatically detects Section 508 and web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 success criteria violations and details best practices to remediate issues. Mr. Bankofier will discuss how Audio Eye is helping companies improve digital accessibility including its work making Bender Consultin...

Joyce welcomes Tari Hartman Squire, founding CEO of EIN SOF Communications, Inc, JD Michaels, executive vice president, director creative engineering/director of Diversity at BBDO Advertising Agency and Alec Frazier, director of Autistic Reality. They will discuss the Lights! Camera! Access! 2.0 Collaborative to increase media employment of people with disabilities, improve portrayals across media delivery platforms and advocate for captions and audio descriptions. Jd and Alec met at LCA2.0 at T...

Joyce welcomes Vickie D’Avanzo, the owner of Stellar Support Services to the show. Founded on March 27, 2017, Stellar Support Service offers “habitation aid” services to individuals that are Deaf/Hard-of Hearing (HOH) with an intellectual disability. A “habitation aide provides face to face support either one-on-one or in small groups, in the home or the community. They assist in learning, maintaining and improving person care, home care, and adaptive skills. They focus on the areas of communica...

Joyce welcomes Jeniece Davis, attorney and board chair, of Disability Rights Pennsylvania (DRP). Also, on the show will be Peri Jude Radecic, chief executive officer of DRP. The organization protects and advocates for rights of people with disabilities so that they may live the lives they choose, free from abuse, neglect, discrimination, and segregation. Both guests will discuss the mission of this organization in-depth.

Joyce welcomes The Honorable Tony Coelho, former democratic congressman from California and author of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to the show. As we get ready to celebrate the 28rd anniversary of the signing of the ADA into law, on July 26, 1990, Mr. Coelho will discuss the progress we have made since the ADA was passed, but he will also discuss the dangers facing the ADA if HR 620 ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 passes the U.S. Senate, and what we can do to prevent its passag...

Joyce welcomes Dara Baldwin, senior public policy analyst for the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and Client Assistance Programs (CAP). Collectively, the P&A/CAP network is the largest provider of legally based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United States. NDRN’s mission is to promote the integrity and capacity of the P&A/CAP national network and to advocate for...

Joyce welcomes Andy Imparato, executive director of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD). AUCD is a membership organization that supports and promotes a national network of university-based interdisciplinary programs. These programs serve every U.S. state and territory and are all part of universities or medical centers. They serve as a bridge between the university and the community, bringing together the resources of both to achieve meaningful change. Mr. Imparato will ...

Joyce welcomes Judy Heumann, senior fellow with the Ford Foundation, since September 17, 2017, to the show. Ms. Heumann will discuss her role in this capacity and her long career as an internationally recognized social justice leader, and longtime human rights advocate, especially for people with disabilities.

Joyce welcomes Lydia X. Z. Brown a disability justice advocate, organizer, and writer whose work has largely focused on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people, specializing in institutionalization, incarceration, and policing. She will discuss her career in depth with Joyce.

Joyce welcomes John L. Tague Jr. to the show. Mr. Tague is Principal owner of Disability Consulting Services, LLC in Pittsburgh, PA. Also, on the show will be Anne Madarasz, director of the Curatorial Division, Chief Historian, and director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum and Mary Anderson Hartley, project director for the Western Pennsylvania Disability History and Action Consortium. Each guest will discuss Western Pennsylvania Disability Rights history.

Joyce welcomes Staci Dojonovic-Schutzman, Transition Coordinator at Fox Chapel Area School District in Pittsburgh, PA to the show. Ms. Dojonovic-Schutzman will discuss the Bender Leadership Academy Program and the Pay Checks Not Pity® training that students with disabilities have been going through since 2001. The Bender Leadership Academy welcomes high school juniors and seniors with disabilities from four high schools in the area to attend four classes, held quarterly throughout the school yea...

Joyce welcomes Debra Ruh, Founder and CEO of Ruh Global Communications. Ruh Global is strategic communications and digital marketing firm helping corporations strategically include people with disabilities. The firm encourages organizations to connect and integrate the community of people with disabilities and other stakeholders. Ms. Rue will explain how her daughter, Sara, living with Down Syndrome, inspired her to start the firm.

Joyce welcomes Johna Gravitt and Jim Homme to the show. Johna has served as an Accessibility Consultant at Bender Consulting Services, Inc. for over 3 years. Jim has served as a Digital Accessibility Consultant in various capacities with Bender Consulting for over 20 years. Both guests will discuss their roles as valued team members delivering in Bender’s HighTest Accessible Technology Solutions line of business. The HighTest team ensures web applications, proprietary software, business processe...

Joyce welcomes Secretary Curt Topper from the Pennsylvania Department of General Services to the show. Appointed on January 20, 2015 by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolfe and confirmed by the state Senate on March 12, 2015, Secretary Topper’s duties include, but are not limited to, spearheading the commonwealth’s diversity, inclusion, and small business opportunity efforts within the commonwealth, including encouraging the hiring of people with disabilities.

Joyce welcomes Kathy Martinez, Senior Vice President, Disability Market Segment & Strategy, Wells Fargo Bank to the show. Ms. Martinez is a former U.S. Assistant Secretary at the Department of Labor, in the Office of Disability Employment Policy. In her current role, she works with line of business leaders and channel leaders, and network of Wells Fargo team members with disabilities, as well as customers, communities, and advocacy groups to expand the company’s capabilities and programs dedicat...

Joyce welcomes Jennifer Sheehy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) at U.S. Department of Labor to the show. ODEP is the only non-regulatory federal agency that promotes policies and coordinates with employers and all levels of government to increase workplace success for people with disabilities. Ms. Sheehy will discuss the mission of ODEP to develop and influence policies and practices that increase the number and quality of employment opportunities...