0:00:00.308,0:00:02.232 I'm Dr Karen Sacs, I'm a professor 0:00:02.232,0:00:06.698 and Chair of the Department[br]of Administration, Rehabilitation 0:00:06.698,0:00:10.874 and Post Secondary Education [br]at San Diego State University. 0:00:10.874,0:00:17.177 I've been here for almost 30 years[br]now, but I started my career 0:00:17.177,0:00:19.676 as Special Education Teacher. 0:00:19.676,0:00:22.231 And, the first year that I taught, 0:00:22.231,0:00:24.936 was the first year that my students[br]were ever allowed 0:00:24.936,0:00:26.086 into public school, 0:00:26.086,0:00:29.090 because of the severity of [br]their disabilities. 0:00:29.090,0:00:32.493 A law was passed in 1975, that[br]allowed students 0:00:32.493,0:00:36.490 with very significant disabilities,[br]for everybody to be able 0:00:36.490,0:00:37.708 to come to public school. 0:00:37.708,0:00:40.343 And that was the first year [br]that I started teaching. 0:00:40.423,0:00:45.405 And we were in a small building,[br]with about 40 students, 0:00:45.405,0:00:48.177 and a bunch of us, new teachers 0:00:48.177,0:00:50.857 trying to figure out what to do[br]with all these kids 0:00:50.857,0:00:55.022 from ages 5 to 22, who first[br]stepped foot into public school. 0:00:56.002,0:01:01.347 So when I was teaching, this was[br]far before the ADA was passed, 0:01:01.347,0:01:04.235 I learned a lot about[br]the lack of accessiblity. 0:01:04.675,0:01:07.158 In fact, with the students[br]I was teaching, 0:01:07.158,0:01:11.302 I started teaching the older[br]students, the teenagers, 0:01:11.302,0:01:14.060 and I didn't have a whole lot[br]of time with them in school 0:01:14.060,0:01:15.747 because they've just started. 0:01:15.747,0:01:18.382 And I realized that they needed 0:01:18.382,0:01:20.734 to learn how to access their[br]community, 0:01:20.734,0:01:23.241 They needed to learn how to[br]get jobs, 0:01:23.241,0:01:26.303 they needed to learn all[br]those life skills 0:01:26.303,0:01:30.301 because you had so short time[br]with them. 0:01:30.301,0:01:32.276 And in my school district 0:01:32.276,0:01:37.746 they had people whose job was[br]to look for jobs for students, 0:01:37.746,0:01:42.513 so they were 'job developers'[br]of sorts, and when I asked 0:01:42.513,0:01:44.843 for a job developer for our school, 0:01:44.843,0:01:47.906 I was told that we wouldn't [br]be getting one, 0:01:47.906,0:01:49.660 because our students[br]couldn't work. 0:01:49.840,0:01:51.549 And, as you can imagine, 0:01:51.549,0:01:54.615 that just motivated me to[br]figure it out. 0:01:54.615,0:01:57.215 Because I knew that my students[br]could work. 0:01:57.215,0:02:00.112 And so I started going out[br]and meeting 0:02:00.112,0:02:02.648 some of the business people[br]in the neighborhood, 0:02:02.648,0:02:05.031 and they introduced me [br]to other business people, 0:02:05.031,0:02:07.653 I started learning how to talk[br]to employers, 0:02:07.653,0:02:09.717 which was nice, something [br]I learned 0:02:09.717,0:02:12.981 in my Special Education Program,[br]learning to be a teacher. 0:02:13.081,0:02:18.180 And I found that, [br]my students of course, could work. 0:02:18.180,0:02:21.544 and I appealed directly to [br]employers, 0:02:21.544,0:02:25.004 and they helped me learn[br]the ropes of how to do all of this 0:02:25.004,0:02:27.629 and I started teaching my students 0:02:27.629,0:02:29.517 how to ride the bus, 0:02:29.517,0:02:32.690 and how to figure out some kinds [br]of accommodations for them 0:02:32.690,0:02:35.654 to do jobs, and it was so exciting 0:02:35.673,0:02:37.543 when a student got a job 0:02:37.543,0:02:39.735 and found something that [br]they liked to do 0:02:39.735,0:02:41.916 and that they were good at. 0:02:41.916,0:02:46.265 And we had parents who never [br]in a million years had thought 0:02:46.265,0:02:50.649 that their sons and daughters[br]could work, and yet 0:02:50.649,0:02:52.702 they saw them being successful 0:02:52.702,0:02:54.917 and parents who were very [br]nervous about 0:02:54.917,0:02:57.642 having them involved in the community 0:02:57.642,0:03:00.811 were so excited, they became [br]of course our biggest advocates 0:03:00.811,0:03:03.422 for expanding this[br]educational program. 0:03:04.128,0:03:07.828 And so I found that no matter[br]where I went 0:03:07.828,0:03:10.489 I was trying to raise awareness[br]and more importantly, 0:03:10.489,0:03:12.341 raise expectations 0:03:12.341,0:03:16.251 about the students I was [br]working for 0:03:16.251,0:03:18.610 and well, working with. 0:03:18.674,0:03:22.254 When I came to San Diego State, 0:03:22.254,0:03:27.178 it was to really look at how we[br]could use assisted technology 0:03:27.178,0:03:30.486 to connect people with disabilities 0:03:30.486,0:03:33.126 whether they were going to school,[br]getting jobs, 0:03:33.126,0:03:35.385 accessing their community in [br]any way. 0:03:35.385,0:03:39.677 So assisted technology really[br]became an area I was focused on 0:03:39.677,0:03:42.050 and we had a couple of [br]federal grants 0:03:42.050,0:03:45.807 that funded me, funded me and[br]other colleagues 0:03:45.807,0:03:49.080 to develop some community[br]partnerships 0:03:49.080,0:03:52.139 to support the development[br]of assisted technology 0:03:52.139,0:03:55.981 so this was in the earlier days,[br]I think the ADA had just passed, 0:03:55.981,0:03:59.047 the communities were opening up, 0:03:59.047,0:04:01.268 employers were becoming[br]more aware, 0:04:01.268,0:04:05.006 and we started getting people from [br]the community 0:04:05.006,0:04:07.944 really interested in helping us[br]to make modifications, 0:04:07.944,0:04:12.661 to help individual access the work[br]that they wanted to access. 0:04:12.661,0:04:17.161 And so I started teaching a course[br]around the applications 0:04:17.161,0:04:19.851 of assisted technology, 0:04:19.851,0:04:22.395 I co-taught it with an engineering[br]faculty member 0:04:22.395,0:04:26.675 and we had students from Special [br]Education, from Rehabilitation, 0:04:26.675,0:04:27.987 from Englineering... 0:04:27.987,0:04:31.271 we also had people from [br]the community, 0:04:31.271,0:04:34.650 we had occupational and physical[br]therapists, speech therapists, 0:04:34.650,0:04:37.242 we had people who sold equipment, 0:04:37.242,0:04:40.326 we had different kinds of engineers[br]who took the class, 0:04:40.332,0:04:42.732 and we all sort of long together 0:04:42.732,0:04:45.648 what the possibilities were when[br]we made a good match 0:04:45.648,0:04:48.205 with people with disabilities 0:04:48.205,0:04:50.607 and an assisted technology that[br]connected them 0:04:50.607,0:04:52.665 to the activities that they[br]wanted to do. 0:04:52.860,0:04:57.080 And we found out that made[br]such a huge difference 0:04:57.080,0:05:00.220 and it gave people control over[br]their lives. 0:05:00.220,0:05:03.043 And one of the activities we did [br]in the class 0:05:03.043,0:05:06.253 was to do the ADA Accessibility Survey 0:05:06.253,0:05:09.671 and this was so eye opening for[br]me and for my students 0:05:09.671,0:05:14.021 and for people who were in[br]our community, 0:05:14.021,0:05:15.751 who were working with us. 0:05:15.751,0:05:20.100 So we would have students [br]go out and conduct the survey 0:05:20.100,0:05:22.071 and find out how accessible [br]-or not- 0:05:22.071,0:05:24.394 their local neighborhoods were. 0:05:24.414,0:05:26.566 They went to retail places, 0:05:26.566,0:05:28.300 they went to restaurants, 0:05:28.300,0:05:30.612 and hotels, and any kind of places 0:05:30.612,0:05:33.642 that they might want to access [br]in their neighborhoods 0:05:33.642,0:05:36.812 and what we found is, for all of us, 0:05:36.812,0:05:39.694 we just never looked at a place [br]the same way. 0:05:39.971,0:05:44.221 And having that ADA Accessibility [br]Survey as a context, 0:05:44.221,0:05:48.072 and as a guide to help us look at[br]where we could make changes 0:05:48.072,0:05:50.430 because part of the assignment 0:05:50.430,0:05:54.856 was not only taking the survey and[br]finding out what was good 0:05:54.856,0:05:57.712 and where people could make[br]improvements, 0:05:57.714,0:06:00.534 but also to do the advocacy, 0:06:00.534,0:06:05.397 to bring that awareness, and to[br]make sure that people realize 0:06:05.397,0:06:07.632 that they have a whole market[br]out there 0:06:07.632,0:06:09.560 that they hadn't thought about. 0:06:09.560,0:06:12.284 And in order for that market to[br]access their businesses, 0:06:12.284,0:06:14.510 they needed to make it more accessible. 0:06:14.510,0:06:18.126 So it was a really exciting and,[br]to this day, I still teach the class, 0:06:18.126,0:06:23.264 and I still do the ADA Accessibility [br]Survey, and luckily 0:06:23.264,0:06:26.972 things have gotten better and[br]we've seen a lot of improvements, 0:06:26.972,0:06:29.935 but we always find things that [br]can be improved. 0:06:29.935,0:06:32.785 So I have seen many [br]positive changes, 0:06:32.785,0:06:36.342 both in physical access[br]to buildings, 0:06:36.342,0:06:40.833 but also access to electronic[br]and digital communication 0:06:40.833,0:06:44.359 and that's a big one that has made[br]a huge difference. 0:06:44.359,0:06:47.744 I think that what happens often is, 0:06:47.744,0:06:51.411 we don't think about these[br]considerations up front. 0:06:51.411,0:06:54.631 That all too often is after[br]the fact. 0:06:54.631,0:06:57.072 even at the university, whenever 0:06:57.072,0:07:02.434 they're introducing new software,[br]new technologies, new platforms, 0:07:02.434,0:07:04.004 that we're using, 0:07:04.004,0:07:05.550 I always ask upfront 0:07:05.550,0:07:08.114 what about the accessibility? 0:07:08.114,0:07:12.729 and it used to be that the answer[br]was always, inevitably... 0:07:12.729,0:07:13.706 "we'll get to that." 0:07:13.706,0:07:15.086 "We'll get to that later" 0:07:15.086,0:07:18.729 I've seen that change and people[br]are really looking 0:07:18.729,0:07:21.266 at the accessibility issues upfront. 0:07:21.266,0:07:24.396 But I think that really happens...[br]needs to happen more. 0:07:24.396,0:07:30.853 And the idea of universal design[br]has to be thought of upfront, 0:07:30.853,0:07:32.241 And it's much more inclusive 0:07:32.241,0:07:34.144 it's also much more cost effective. 0:07:34.144,0:07:38.868 And so I think getting into [br]the mindset of people upfront 0:07:38.868,0:07:41.106 and I've had the chance to work 0:07:41.106,0:07:44.386 with architecture students, [br]for example, and being able to 0:07:44.386,0:07:50.050 introduce them to individuals [br]with disabilities has given them 0:07:50.050,0:07:53.605 insight that it's not about [br]compliance 0:07:53.605,0:07:56.429 it's not just about compliance [br]and going with the codes. 0:07:56.429,0:07:58.962 But once they've met people 0:07:58.962,0:08:01.601 who were accessing the[br]community in different ways, 0:08:01.601,0:08:03.941 it helped them think about[br]design in a new way. 0:08:03.941,0:08:07.904 And it encouraged them to [br]consider their creativity 0:08:07.904,0:08:10.285 in how to make their designs, 0:08:10.285,0:08:13.078 whether these were buildings, or[br]outside landscapes, 0:08:13.078,0:08:18.337 whatever it was, that they[br]should make those 0:08:18.337,0:08:20.509 more accessible[br]for a wider range of people. 0:08:21.289,0:08:25.175 What I'd like to see, is [br]disability 0:08:25.175,0:08:29.046 firmly planted in the diversity[br]discussions. 0:08:29.046,0:08:30.242 I think, all too often 0:08:30.242,0:08:32.672 the diversity discussions, 0:08:32.672,0:08:36.814 particularly that are happening[br]now, often leave disability 0:08:36.814,0:08:38.789 out of the equation. 0:08:38.789,0:08:45.317 And disability crossings over [br]intersects with every other identity 0:08:45.317,0:08:49.747 whether it's gender, age, [br]ethnicity....every aspect 0:08:49.747,0:08:53.022 you'll find people with disabilities. 0:08:53.022,0:08:55.991 And in fact, any of us can join 0:08:55.991,0:09:01.671 the disable group, at any time[br]and most of us will at some point 0:09:01.671,0:09:03.235 in our lives. So I think 0:09:03.235,0:09:09.282 being able to think proactively and[br]holistically about disability... 0:09:09.282,0:09:13.468 is really critical and it has to be[br]forming part of those conversations 0:09:13.468,0:09:16.101 that we're having about diversity.