- Welcome to the "Our Ability Podcast" 2024.
Excited to be back after a year of hiatus.
Got some exciting thoughts
and some exciting guests in 2024.
My name is John Robinson.
I am the owner and founder of Our Ability Inc.,
and excited to bring you this podcast this year.
Our goal with the "Our Ability Podcast" in 2024
is to bring you some information.
We've invited accessibility experts,
entrepreneur experts,
and employment experts from around the country
to join us on our podcast.
Every other week, we will release a podcast
and hopefully, it provides you some great information.
We've already prerecorded a few of them
from a good friend of mine at Walmart,
from an entrepreneur that we were at their conference
in the fall.
And Pfizer, which is one of our bigger employers
of people with disabilities also has been prerecorded.
So, we're excited about these.
The first episode in two weeks will be
Caroline Casey from The Valuable 500,
and so stay tuned to the podcasts and make sure you join us.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
If you're a business and entrepreneur,
person with a disability advocate, what have you,
and would like to talk about,
you know, your feelings about DE and I,
diversity, equity, and inclusion,
accessibility,
please email me,
happy to have you on the podcast.
Really, the goal with this is to bring DE and I
and accessibility back into the conversation.
And that's what I wanna do.
And I'm doing that for a very specific reason.
I, over my shoulder, have a television monitor.
A lot of you know that I came out of the television industry
some 12 years ago before I started Our Ability.
And so, a big part of my DNA is media.
And so, I follow media, and still do when I certainly can.
Another big part of my
DNA is that I grew up in New Hampshire.
And so, New Hampshire is an interesting state.
It's, in a lot of ways, a misused word,
but it's a very libertarian state.
And it doesn't necessarily mean
what you take it to mean today.
But whether you're a democrat, republican,
conservative, liberal, libertarian,
there's a voice for you
or was a voice for you in New Hampshire.
And so, growing up in the 80s,
politics was sport.
You know, a lot of us, you know, maybe follow ESPN or NFL,
or the National Hockey League, which I do.
But growing up in New Hampshire, politics was your sport.
You followed it.
You had political leaders coming to the State
every four years,
inundating the State, your high school,
your college, your coffee shop,
your breakfast spot, your ice cream store,
and you're shaking hands and meeting political leaders.
I was really lucky I got to meet Fritz Hollings. (chuckles)
I got to meet Bob Dole.
I also got to meet Jesse Jackson.
So, you know, the political spectrum was there in the 80s,
and you got to meet a lot of people.
And that really forged in me
an interest in politics.
So I've got an interest in politics,
I've got an interest in media,
and obviously, I'm a quadruple amputee,
born without the extension of my arms and my legs.
And so, I'm a person with a disability.
If you're looking at this video right now,
you know, if you look at me and I keep my arms down,
I'm a 55-year-old white male, brush cut.
If you see me driving my pickup truck,
you might think I'm politically bent in one direction.
But if you see me walking down the street, 3'8",
you know, limited arms and legs,
you might think something else.
And the truth is, I'm a little bit of both.
I think that's the way a lot of us should be.
In 2023 though,
I felt the change.
2024, it's a political season, right?
We're about to go into a political campaign.
We're about to be inundated with political ads,
left, right.
Unfortunately, no center.
But you're gonna get political ads and you're gonna be told
a lot of different things from mainstream media.
And I implore all of you to listen.
Really, take a moment and listen to what's being said.
But I listened in 2023.
When we didn't do the podcast
and we were focusing on our jobs board,
our artificial intelligence to help
individuals with disabilities find jobs.
And that's been an exciting year in 2023.
To be able to finish that project
and help people find employment
using our generative AI.
But wasn't doing the podcast,
wasn't cycling across New York State,
wasn't necessarily out there in the community,
but here at my desk.
But I had CNN,
MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC on over my shoulder.
And I was noticing something extremely troubling.
And it didn't matter
what side of the political fence we were on.
What I've noticed in the last nine months
is that there's a lack of diversity,
equity, and inclusion conversation.
It's really stopped.
About two years ago,
there was a heavy DE and I conversation
in corporate America.
There was a lot of conversation early in COVID on DE and I,
partially because our workforce was changing
and we needed to bring more people into the workforce
in a virtual hybrid way.
And so, it was opening up pathways to DE and I,
and certainly people with disabilities.
But in 2023,
and as the economy started talking about,
quote, "recession,"
and we were told that the economy was in peril,
diversity, equity, inclusion, the conversation was cut.
There's a reason for that.
Coming out of television,
coming out of the television industry,
I know full well that in the 90s and the early 2000s.
that if there was the appearance of an economic downturn,
that advertising changed, advertising was cut.
It's the first place that's cut.
You start cutting your advertising
because that's 3%, 5%, 10%, depending on your industry,
that you can cut back and save,
and continue to keep your profit.
Well, in today's day and age,
DE and I is one of those places that you can cut.
You don't have to spend money
on diversity, equity, inclusion.
You don't have to recruit
around diversity, equity, inclusion.
You certainly don't have to have programs.
And so, I was noticing firsthand,
that Our Ability Incorporated, the lack of conversation,
but also, secondarily on the media,
that DE and I was taking a backseat.
What is troubling is that it's completely
non-existent in conversation.
And so, what I'm hoping that we can do
with "Our Ability Podcast,"
is we can refocus the lens here,
If I can use a camera metaphor,
on diversity, equity, inclusion,
with the hope that we can talk about disability.
And I'm doing this for a very specific reason.
Some of you may think it's self-serving
with what we do with our company, and maybe it is,
but it's also here to open up the eyes,
and hearts, and minds of people out there
that there's pain out here
when you stop talking about DE and I.
And so, what's the pain?
The pain is that there are less people with disabilities,
less people with diverse backgrounds,
less people who are marginalized,
that are being welcomed into the workforce,
that are being welcomed into the conversation,
that are being welcomed onto mainstream media.
And there is much less.
In 2023, we saw less conversations on mainstream media.
I'm specifically thinking about Bloomberg and CNBC
because I'm a big believer in follow the money.
You wanna know where we're going?
Follow the money and you're gonna find out.
And that's, I think, what troubles me the most,
the lack of conversation.
And so, I'm hoping that we can shed a little bit of light
in our small universe with Our Ability,
with our podcast, with our website, with our social media,
that there are some parties out there
that care a great deal about DE and I.
Again, I mentioned at the beginning
that we interviewed Victor Calise, who is with Walmart,
who's a champion for disability.
We interviewed Pfizer.
Pfizer wants to talk about employment
and opportunity for people with disabilities.
We interviewed Caroline Casey,
who's a rockstar in Europe on entrepreneurship
and employment for people with disabilities,
and many, many more coming in 2024.
And we're doing it, hopefully, to elevate the conversation.
And the conversation needs to be elevated.
The truth of the matter is that we're in a troubling time.
I'm having a debate right now
with some of my college friends, college roommates,
personal friends.
And if you know me, you know how important
that they are having a debate right now that,
is democracy lost?
Are we gone?
Has it gone away?
Why does that matter in this DE and I conversation?
Well, here's why I think it matters,
and it's my personal opinion,
so take it for what that's worth.
I followed a pickup truck today,
and I'm driving my pickup truck
with my Syracuse University bumper sticker,
and I'm proud to be Orange.
Followed another pickup truck today
that had the bumper sticker, "Biden is a piece of shit"
And I'm thinking about that
as I'm driving behind the bumper sticker thinking,
how much hate do you have in your heart
that you're willing to put
a bumper sticker on your truck that says that?
How much hate do you have?
You probably don't think you have any hate.
But there's some hate there.
Maybe you should just put
a Republican bumper sticker on your truck.
Do you have to take it to the point
that you're making it personal,
and then likening the President of the United States,
whether you like him or not,
to fecal matter? (chuckles)
Do you have to do that?
So where does that come from?
Again, I said I watched CNBC
and watched Bloomberg all last year,
and I'm realizing the lack of conversation on DE and I,
but I'm also noticing a huge conversation,
probably 10 to one,
conservatives to liberals.
So why is this?
Why is this?
So we've got a world that is limiting
DE and I funding and spending.
Not everybody. We've got some great corporate partners.
We hope to have more.
We've got a world that's spending less money
on diversity, equity, inclusion.
And we've also, at the same time,
got a world that is completely bent 35% of us
to get back to where we were four years ago.
Why is that?
Profit.
Money.
Why do you think Rupert Murdoch
and Lachlan Murdoch have taken this stance with Fox Media?
Why do you think they've leaned into
certain aspects of misinformation?
Money.
Why do you think that CNBC,
the sister or brother of MSNBC,
MSNBC considered liberal,
probably isn't,
why is CNBC so completely conservative in the morning?
Money.
Why do companies stop spending
on diversity, equity and inclusion?
Money.
Profit.
Why are there bumper stickers out there
that call Biden a piece of shit?
Money.
Because the conservative media
and all media, quite frankly,
want you to pick a side.
They want you to pick a side,
so that the hatred amongst the two groups
allows the very rich to stay rich.
They want me to pick a side.
MSNBC, Fox News, Democrat, Republican,
whatever you want to call it,
they want me to pick a side
so I'm so angry at the other side
that I forget what's really going on,
which is a lack of an inclusive society.
Inclusive meaning economic as well.
What we advocate for...
I shouldn't say, "we."
What I advocate for is an inclusive society.
An inclusive economic society,
an inclusive opportunity society,
and an inclusive DE and I society.
See, I think the real problem is economic.
Steve Forbes said it right in the 80s or 90s,
that there should be a flat tax.
Everybody should be taxed the same.
It would create opportunity for everybody across the board.
But the extreme wealthy get to keep their money.
Elon Musk,
Jeff Bezos,
they profit from the hate of the other side.
They do.
Part of why I wanna do this podcast in 2024,
is I don't wanna get into debate.
The debate necessarily of which side is right or wrong.
But I do wanna elevate the conversation on what's missing.
In my opinion, what's missing is opportunity.
In our specific case, people with disabilities
want the opportunity to work,
to start businesses,
to buy products,
to purchase services,
to be included in society.
And oh, by the way,
if we're still gonna limit immigration,
and we're a country of immigrants,
who are we kidding, ourselves?
But if we're gonna limit immigration,
where else are you gonna get future employees?
People with disabilities have to be part of that equation.
And for people with disabilities
to be part of that equation in employment,
you need to have diversity, equity, and inclusion.
You're driving around in a bumper sticker that says
Biden is a piece of shit,
or you've got somebody pissing on Donald Trump's name,
good for you with the hatred.
But do me a favor,
think about the other side.
And think about who gets hurt in that argument.
Because who really gets hurt
in that political argument, is you.
We get hurt.
Each other gets hurt.
And the greater good is lost.
And what's the greater good?
The greater good is a melting pot
called the United States of America.
The greater good are policies
that equal the playing field for all Americans.
The greater good is diversity, equity, and inclusion.
That's what we need to be working towards.
I won't spend a lot of time
in our podcast in 2024 doing this.
But once in a while I will.
I'm looking forward to it.
What I'm even more looking forward to
is speaking to some powerful people.
Caroline Casey and Victor Calise are two of the ones
coming up in the next couple of episodes.
I hope you can join us.
If you'd like to join us personally, please do.
If you've got something to say, send me an email.
I'd be happy to invite you onto the podcast.
If you know a business leader,
industry that's interested in diversity, equity, inclusion,
let us know.
If you know an entrepreneur with a disability,
please let us know.
We would love to include them in our podcast.
I'm John Robinson.