WEBVTT

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I'm Dr Karen Sacs, I'm a professor

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and Chair of the Department
of Administration, Rehabilitation

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and Post Secondary Education 
at San Diego State University.

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I've been here for almost 30 years
now, but I started my career

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as Special Education Teacher.

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And, the first year that I taught,

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was the first year that my students
were ever allowed

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into public school,

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because of the severity of 
their disabilities.

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A law was passed in 1975, that
allowed students

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with very significant disabilities,
for everybody to be able

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to come to public school.

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And that was the first year 
that I started teaching.

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And we were in a small building,
with about 40 students,

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and a bunch of us, new teachers

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trying to figure out what to do
with all these kids

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from ages 5 to 22, who first
stepped foot into public school.

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So when I was teaching, this was
far before the ADA was passed,

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I learned a lot about
the lack of accessiblity.

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In fact, with the students
I was teaching,

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I started teaching the older
students, the teenagers,

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and I didn't have a whole lot
of time with them in school

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because they've just started.

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And I realized that they needed

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to learn how to access their
community,

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They needed to learn how to
get jobs,

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they needed to learn all
those life skills

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because you had so short time
with them.

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And in my school district

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they had people whose job was
to look for jobs for students,

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so they were 'job developers'
of sorts, and when I asked

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for a job developer for our school,

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I was told that we wouldn't 
be getting one,

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because our students
couldn't work.

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And, as you can imagine,

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that just motivated me to
figure it out.

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Because I knew that my students
could work.

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And so I started going out
and meeting

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some of the business people
in the neighborhood,

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and they introduced me 
to other business people,

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I started learning how to talk
to employers,

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which was nice, something 
I learned

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in my Special Education Program,
learning to be a teacher.

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And I found that, 
my students of course, could work.

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and I appealed directly to 
employers,

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and they helped me learn
the ropes of how to do all of this

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and I started teaching my students

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how to ride the bus,

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and how to figure out some kinds 
of accommodations for them

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to do jobs, and it was so exciting

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when a student got a job

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and found something that 
they liked to do

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and that they were good at.

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And we had parents who never 
in a million years had thought

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that their sons and daughters
could work, and yet

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they saw them being successful

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and parents who were very 
nervous about

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having them involved in the community

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were so excited, they became 
of course our biggest advocates

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for expanding this
educational program.

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And so I found that no matter
where I went

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I was trying to raise awareness
and more importantly,

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raise expectations

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about the students I was 
working for

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and well, working with.

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When I came to San Diego State,

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it was to really look at how we
could use assisted technology

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to connect people with disabilities

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whether they were going to school,
getting jobs,

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accessing their community in 
any way.

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So assisted technology really
became an area I was focused on

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and we had a couple of 
federal grants

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that funded me, funded me and
other colleagues

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to develop some community
partnerships

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to support the development
of assisted technology

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so this was in the earlier days,
I think the ADA had just passed,

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the communities were opening up,

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employers were becoming
more aware,

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and we started getting people from 
the community

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really interested in helping us
to make modifications,

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to help individual access the work
that they wanted to access.

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And so I started teaching a course
around the applications

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of assisted technology,

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I co-taught it with an engineering
faculty member

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and we had students from Special 
Education, from Rehabilitation,

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from Englineering...

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we also had people from 
the community,

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we had occupational and physical
therapists, speech therapists,

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we had people who sold equipment,

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we had different kinds of engineers
who took the class,

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and we all sort of long together

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what the possibilities were when
we made a good match

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with people with disabilities

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and an assisted technology that
connected them

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to the activities that they
wanted to do.

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And we found out that made
such a huge difference

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and it gave people control over
their lives.

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And one of the activities we did 
in the class

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was to do the ADA Accessibility Survey

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and this was so eye opening for
me and for my students

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and for people who were in
our community,

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who were working with us.

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So we would have students 
go out and conduct the survey

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and find out how accessible 
-or not-

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their local neighborhoods were.

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They went to retail places,

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they went to restaurants,

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and hotels, and any kind of places

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that they might want to access 
in their neighborhoods

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and what we found is, for all of us,

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we just never looked at a place 
the same way.

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And having that ADA Accessibility 
Survey as a context,

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and as a guide to help us look at
where we could make changes

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because part of the assignment

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was not only taking the survey and
finding out what was good

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and where people could make
improvements,

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but also to do the advocacy,

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to bring that awareness, and to
make sure that people realize

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that they have a whole market
out there

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that they hadn't thought about.

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And in order for that market to
access their businesses,

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they needed to make it more accessible.

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So it was a really exciting and,
to this day, I still teach the class,

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and I still do the ADA Accessibility 
Survey, and luckily

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things have gotten better and
we've seen a lot of improvements,

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but we always find things that 
can be improved.

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So I have seen many 
positive changes,

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both in physical access
to buildings,

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but also access to electronic
and digital communication

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and that's a big one that has made
a huge difference.

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I think that what happens often is,

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we don't think about these
considerations up front.

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That all too often is after
the fact.

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even at the university, whenever

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they're introducing new software,
new technologies, new platforms,

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that we're using,

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I always ask upfront

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what about the accessibility?

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and it used to be that the answer
was always, inevitably...

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"we'll get to that."

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"We'll get to that later"

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I've seen that change and people
are really looking

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at the accessibility issues upfront.

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But I think that really happens...
needs to happen more.

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And the idea of universal design
has to be thought of upfront,

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And it's much more inclusive

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it's also much more cost effective.

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And so I think getting into 
the mindset of people upfront

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and I've had the chance to work

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with architecture students, 
for example, and being able to

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introduce them to individuals 
with disabilities has given them

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insight that it's not about 
compliance

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it's not just about compliance 
and going with the codes.

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But once they've met people

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who were accessing the
community in different ways,

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it helped them think about
design in a new way.

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And it encouraged them to 
consider their creativity

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in how to make their designs,

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whether these were buildings, or
outside landscapes,

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whatever it was, that they
should make those

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more accessible
for a wider range of people.

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What I'd like to see, is 
disability

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firmly planted in the diversity
discussions.

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I think, all too often

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the diversity discussions,

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particularly that are happening
now, often leave disability

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out of the equation.

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And disability crossings over 
intersects with every other identity

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whether it's gender, age, 
ethnicity....every aspect

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you'll find people with disabilities.

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And in fact, any of us can join

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the disable group, at any time
and most of us will at some point

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in our lives. So I think

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being able to think proactively and
holistically about disability...

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is really critical and it has to be
forming part of those conversations

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that we're having about diversity.