Ross, a seasoned veteran with 17 years of service, suffered an injury during his time in the military. As he transitioned into the civilian workforce, he participated in numerous workshops aiming to translate his skills effectively. However, it wasn't until his career counselor at the Department of Veterans Affairs introduced him to Inclusively that he realized what had been missing all along.
Reflecting on his journey, Ross expresses, "I felt like I was exerting tremendous effort to align myself with employers, rather than finding a mutual meeting ground." Ross faced additional challenges due to his service dog named Perrin, his reliance on various assistive technologies, and his limited mobility stemming from his injury. When creating his profile on Inclusively, he swiftly realized that this platform provided what his previous experiences lacked—an opportunity for open and transparent conversations about his disability and the accommodations he requires.
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Ross, a seasoned veteran with 17 years of service, suffered an injury during his time in the military. As he transitioned into the civilian workforce, he participated in numerous workshops aiming to translate his skills effectively. However, it wasn't until his career counselor at the Department of Veterans Affairs introduced him to Inclusively that he realized what had been missing all along.
Reflecting on his journey, Ross expresses, "I felt like I was exerting tremendous effort to align myself with employers, rather than finding a mutual meeting ground." Ross faced additional challenges due to his service dog named Perrin, his reliance on various assistive technologies, and his limited mobility stemming from his injury. When creating his profile on Inclusively, he swiftly realized that this platform provided what his previous experiences lacked—an opportunity for open and transparent conversations about his disability and the accommodations he requires.
Please leave us a review and help others find us!
Hosted by Lainie Ishbia and Estela Lugo.
Embrace It is produced by Launchpad 516 Studios.
For sponsorships and media inquiries, drop an email to: embraceit@lp516.com
Subscribe to Embrace It with Lainie and Estela on Apple Podcasts and get notified of new episodes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/embrace-it-with-lainie-estela-smashing-disability-stigmas/id1468364898
Welcome to the Embrace-It series, where women with all types of disabilities can be real, resourceful and stylish. With each episode, you'll walk or roll away with everyday tips, life hacks and success stories from community leaders and influencers. So take off your leg braces and stay a while with Lainey and Estella.
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Estela:Hey everyone, we are back for another episode of the Embrace it series. Hey Lainey, hi Estella, hi everyone. We are excited to bring you another powerful guest from the disability community. His name is Ross Barciacchi. Am I saying that correctly?
Ross Barchacky:It's Barciacchi, but don't worry, the CH makes an SH sound, but it shouldn't.
Estela:Well, we are so excited to have you on. I know we've had a few conversations in the past, but we would love to share the incredible work that you are doing. But before we get started, I wanted to just share with everyone that you are the head of partnerships at Inclusively. You are a relationship builder, a DEIA warrior, a disabled veteran and a speaker. So welcome, ross.
Ross Barchacky:Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here. Yeah, I give a quick introduction about myself. You know, as Estella said, I'm Ross Barciacchi. I'm the head of partnerships at Inclusively, which is a workforce development platform that's designed to match individuals from our community with employers that are sort of going the extra mile when it comes to disability inclusion.
Ross Barchacky:A little bit of background on me. I did not start out in corporate America, in the startup world. I was actually a service member, joined when I was 18, spent 17 years total in there and ended up thinking that I was going to go and work for government. Afterwards, you know, moved to DC, go work for an agency pretty much the traditional route. I was about 15 years in and on an airborne operation and, as I tell it, the wind shifted before my feet touched the ground on my head touched first and ended up spending the next 18 months in one of the Army's rehabilitation facilities out in Washington state at Joint Base Lewis McCord had sort of come into Jesus moment while I was out there.
Ross Barchacky:As far as the things that I the direction I thought my life was heading in wasn't necessarily the path of least resistance anymore. You know, I had my wife and I there's a whole nother story to get into another time but we had five kids in one year. So we went from being, you know, just the two of us to having a good number of other individuals that were relying on us for support. And so, you know, military transition in and of itself can be a very stressful time for a service member, especially one that's been in for almost two decades. But then add on top of that a disability that's going to require workplace accommodations, maybe having to look into changing career fields, and now having to worry as well on top of that about benefits, right, so that's what we take for granted in the service. But you know, I know, out here now in the civilian world is much more stressful situation. So sort of juggling all of that.
Ross Barchacky:I started throwing applications into the wind, you know, trying to utilize the skills that I had gained over the last almost two decades and applying that in some way. So I did probably load a lot of people. You know I was a recruiter, so I put myself down for sales, and I, you know, was a manager for a long time, or a leader, so I put myself for operations management. I just wasn't hearing back In the few people that I was hearing back from, as soon as I mentioned that I needed workplace accommodations, now I stopped hearing back. Right, I have a service dog now, I use assistive technology. My memory is better than what it was, in all fairness, two or three years ago when I started my job search.
Ross Barchacky:But, you know, letting an employer know that, hey, I might need reminders, right, I might need you to follow up, I might need, maybe, a running document to show where my tasks are that we can both, you know access like a Mondaycom board or something like that. All of a sudden I wouldn't hear back, you know, and so I thought there has to be a better way. I was sort of venting my frustration to my counselor that I was working with at the Department of Veterans Affairs that was helping with my transition, and he turned me on to, inclusively, that you can go create an account and get matched up with employers that are specifically looking for people from this community and I thought, well, that's cool, you were, you know, in the service, as you said, for two decades, clearly not only able-bodied but, like you know, superman kind of powers, because you are now military trained, physically active, you know.
Lainie:fit all of that, what was it like to then have a disability? I mean, like you know, you had all these kids to be responsible for, but you yourself dealing with leaving the service and all that, what about just dealing with life with the disability?
Ross Barchacky:Earth-shattering is the only way that I could probably put it. You know I didn't mention I was part of the special operations community, so I'd worked really hard to get to where I was in the military and invested a lot of time. I joined the military with a GED. I ended with a master's degree in security. You know, like security studies, I just I had put in a lot of work to where I was and then literally in an instant it was over. You know, that path that my life was heading down, as I said, was no longer the path of resistance, or maybe it wasn't the thing that made sense.
Estela:So what was that recovery process? Like you said, you were in rehab for 18 months. That is a significant amount of time. Where did you start off? What kind of rehab did you have? What skills did you have to regain Sure? What were some challenges and internal, you know shame or doubt that you were feeling.
Ross Barchacky:Yeah, most of the effects of my TBI that I had were they had to do with my memory. They had to do with, like my filter essentially thinking before I spoke. You know, it wasn't as bad as having to relearn to walk and things like that. I did suffer physical injuries as well. The TBI is what really made it to where it was the military's decision to not keep me. But I also have my hip as fused, my spine on my left side. I have, you know, just wear and tear up 20 years in the military I have. I have a ton of stuff. So it was a big, a big sort of adjustment.
Ross Barchacky:I worked with really a holistic team. They have an interdisciplinary clinic there at JBLM that their soldier recovery unit has access to. So it was physical therapy, occupational therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic massage, yoga. I mean it was this really holistic sort of thing. It was great.
Ross Barchacky:I have nothing bad to say about that, except for the fact that COVID hit Like three months after I got there, and so when that happened, that clinic shut down. They tried to do stuff virtually and, like many of the rest of the infrastructure of healthcare you know, they just found that it was lacking, and so part of the reason I ended up staying there so long was due to that, due to trying to figure stuff out, barriers, to care things like that. But then also I went through surgeries, there was actual rehabilitation time and then there was also the mental health piece, which I don't talk about a lot if you've heard me talk anywhere else. But I spent a considerable amount of time in therapy, in and out of facilities, because the military, all these deployments enough for stress and now you talk about that earthshattering moment and stuff just started falling apart.
Lainie:So, like you mentioned before about having the struggle of having to find a job, someone who would even hire you, obviously now we're talking about after COVID, which is now, for people with disabilities, somewhat better in that you know there were more, there are many more virtual opportunities for people and which helps people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. Obviously. Yeah. Yeah, so where does inclusively fit in? How did you find them and like what are they?
Ross Barchacky:doing. Sure, yeah, so I think I left out you know I was talking to the counselor at the VA had brought me to inclusively, I came. I came here as a job seeker to find, you know, my opportunity, like most people do, and ended up getting about halfway through the profile creation and saying this is what I've been missing.
Ross Barchacky:You know, like most people that have a disability and applied for work understand what I'm talking about with the do I disclose? When do I disclose? How much do I disclose, you know, in order to get what I need but not lose out on the job right to not be taken out of the running. And this just put all that aside, you know. Just it took it out of the equation. So I actually reached out to inclusively and it's like I love what you all are doing here. You know, do you have anything available?
Ross Barchacky:They just happened to be hiring for their first sales development rep, which is an entry level sales position, and I remember I was a recruiter. You know I can do that. I'd love to go spread the word about what you all are doing and it just sort of took off from there. I now head up their partnerships. I moved over from the business development side and sort of use what I learned from the pain points that the employers are having around disability hiring and applying that to the organizations that are already out there doing the work and figuring out how we can meet in the middle to find these individuals meaningful employment.
Estela:And what are some of those pain points that employers are having, that's keeping them from hiring people with disabilities?
Ross Barchacky:Here I mean, I think, is, you know, the biggest one and it's the one that nobody talks about, right, it's. You know people try to say, well, it's a money thing, or well, they don't have the right skills or things like that. But at the end of the day, I think it comes down to risk management. Right, you have perceived perceivably no benefits to hiring someone with a disability, but a lot of risk, right? It also hasn't been done before. Everyone also is talk to somebody who has a horror story about it, or a legal team or a company that's gone under or had a big public suit. Why would they? Right, Like what's in it for them?
Ross Barchacky:There's so many other diversity initiatives out there that are high profile, that are visible, and it's such a lighter lift right, so to them, they're checking those boxes and DEI without having to dip their toes into this area. Another reason I think they're hesitant to do it is because it's hard to measure. There's so many you know, with HIPAA and asking what questions you can ask around disclosure and getting people in the workplace, that this goes. Go, look at, pull the top 10, you know, like this DEI reports for any Fortune 500 company and it's a very small percentage that has anything about people with disabilities, because they can. Even the successful companies, even the companies that are doing it really well, still have trouble getting every employee to get rid of all their negative experiences and come out and admit that they need help, to admit that they have something that they need accommodated.
Lainie:Someone might have done a whole TED Talk on this subject.
Estela:How do you break down those fears and really start to show the benefits, and what are those benefits and what's your experience been with opening the opportunities to these companies and to these employees?
Ross Barchacky:Yeah, when we first started reaching out, you know, like I said, I came on the business development side, so I'll conduct a lot of initial outreach and a lot of the hesitation that I heard from employers was well, we're not even ready to start thinking about talking about having the conversation about disability inclusion. You know, like we got to have a meeting on the calendar and all this stuff right, and our model over here, inclusively, is just get started, just do it right. So I would say the answer to that question is we meet employers where they are in their disability journey. There's no judgment, we don't care if you're not even at ADA, right, we applaud the fact that you're willing to start, because everybody has to start somewhere and it is a journey. If there's no endpoint, there's no finish line, there's no winning. You know, there's just self development, learning in the evolution of your organization to put these individuals into the mix.
Ross Barchacky:And so you know, a big part of what we do just starts with that sort of information changing the way that they're thinking and then also reassuring them, comforting them, like you said, that we're in their corner, that we're here sort of. Is your insurance policy right to make sure that you don't just do this, you do it right, right, and that, even if something comes up because stumbling blocks come up, I don't care if you're, you know, just new to this or you've been doing disability inclusion before. It was cool. You know we want to make sure that you have everything that you need to be supported training, coaching, consultation, ongoing support throughout the hiring process. So we're a little bit different. We're more hands on than a lot of the solutions out there that are just going to match you with talent and improve your diversity. You know our name is very intentional with inclusively, because without you know if you got to build it and then they'll come, and I think a lot of corporations try to solve for inclusion by increasing diversity.
Lainie:I mean, your brand list is amazing. It's so impressive the you know enormous and amazing companies that are you're partnering with For our listeners who may be looking for a job, you know, if they go to your website, what do they do Like, what can they expect?
Ross Barchacky:Sure, so they can go ahead and create a profile as a job seeker. It's completely free. A lot of it's going to be very familiar to a lot of the other job sites that you've been on as far as your work experience or education, things like that. Where you're really going to notice a stark contrast is when it starts asking about what you need for accommodations accommodations for the interview process, accommodations for actually in the workspace and they're going to help you. There's drop down menus and selection. You can update it as you go. So whatever you need in the moment, at that time you can let the employer know, and the hiring managers and recruiters have been trained to have that transparent conversation about that. So they're going to understand what you're talking about when you say screen reader or time blocking or things like that. So it's not like you're going to have to wait until they get compliance on board and things. So they can go in, create this profile and then they can just start getting matched with employers. And that can happen.
Ross Barchacky:Really, one of three ways One are all of our employer partners are active on the platform so they're able to go in and actually recruit from the platform, so they can take a look at our candidates.
Ross Barchacky:So you always want to make sure that your information is up to date as possible so that they can find you. The other way is through active searching. So any candidate can go in there and search any employer, any position, and go ahead and connect with them through there, based off of what industry they want to get into, their experience and whatnot, location. And then the last would be we've actually developed an algorithm specifically for this population to take out the barriers that exist in a lot of other hiring processes, like with applicant tracking systems and screening protocols, that if it sees a block of time that maybe they weren't employed, you know it might just shoot them out. But here at Inclusively we make sure that we take that bias out of there so that it can still end up making it to the recruiter. So this it will recommend them to roles. Both the recruiter and the individual get notified and they can get connected.
Lainie:That's awesome. So like are the jobs that are listed on Inclusively. Are they also like on indeed, those same positions, or are these positions just for people with disabilities?
Ross Barchacky:Mostly they are posted everywhere else and I think that has something to do. I'm not a legal person but I'm pretty sure that when you post for a role you have to make it publicly available. We do have roles that we specifically advertise on Inclusively. So an example might be if we're working with an organization and they're working on getting their office of accessibility stood up or maybe making it a little bit more robust, you know they post that information everywhere, but maybe they're going to focus a little bit more here at Inclusively so that they can have sort of that internal voice and that lived experience.
Ross Barchacky:But really the benefit to doing it is you know that you're going to be talking to someone who's been enabled and trained and is supported to have that conversation with you from application to, you know, professional development 10 years down the road. And then also that conversation is going to be had around the accommodations and not outside of it. Because that's going to be a problem with a lot of individuals. They try and wait to disclose to the last minute where they can still get the job. But what if what you need has to go to requisition and legal and compliance and then it's going to be six weeks or months till you get it, and now you have to perform. You're going to be expected to perform at the level of everyone else, but you're not accommodated and unable to do so. So it's just. We find it's a much better process, from start to finish, utilizing a platform like this.
Estela:Yeah, I mean, you're really setting people up for success and I think such an important element of this is the training for the employer how to really implement these accommodations, because it's one thing to request accommodation, but it's another thing for the company to actually know what that looks like, what that costs. Sure, you speak to a little bit about the, the financial benefits that you've seen personally for these companies that are are including people with disabilities and are hiring, you know, a diverse pool of talent.
Ross Barchacky:Sure, I don't have the study pulled up, but I think it's a year, year and a half ago. We commissioned a study with Forrester to go out and interview C-suite executives in organizations all across the country and specifically ask them about their disability inclusion practices, and the results are probably surprising to no one. Right that the more diverse your organization is, the higher your revenue is, the more retention you have, you know, the less turnaround and just all of this stuff, the more your customer loyalty that you had and brand awareness. I mean, it's just. You know everything that you'd expect.
Ross Barchacky:Individuals with disabilities make up a significant portion of the population of this world, either directly or indirectly, like they're the parents or a loved one, or they just they have someone that they care about that suffered a disability. You know, like it's just, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody whose life hasn't been touched by somebody with a disability, and so when you're an organization that's really doing the work, you have access to that right. People are starting. The world is small with social media and everything else. People can see when it's just a marketing campaign and they can learn really quickly through reviews and Reddit and all these little communities that exist, whether or not, you're actually an employer of approach when it comes to disability inclusion. So I think the benefit is access to a larger market. You know, like I said, more loyalty and then actually higher revenue, because your entire organization is more productive, because they feel supported in the work they're doing.
Estela:We'll be right back.
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Estela:We'll let you get back to the show. You were listening to another great podcast from Launchpad 516 Studios. You're tuning in to embrace it with Laini Anastella, brought to you by Launchpad 516 Studios. Yeah.
Lainie:I read that report when I was prepping for that to talk and although they had me cut so much from it that we never got to any of those steps. But what I remember feeling like really was really cool was the climate that's changed in general. When the focus is on hiring people with disabilities into the workplace, how much happier not just the employee with disabilities is, but all the other employees feel, more valid, more happier because the company is promoting people to be themselves and not high I asked these people all the time if you think of the best job you've ever had, what was it?
Ross Barchacky:And I think for a minute I said, but why it wasn't pay? It's never pay, it's never time off or things like that. It's how you feel, where you appreciate it, where you supported, what were your relationships like? Those are the things people remember, those are the things people value and if your organization is homogenous, if your organization is one flavor, it's going to be really hard to provide that.
Estela:On a personal note, you work for inclusively. You have your own accommodation needs. What are some of those? And then maybe you could tell us you have a service dog as well and you work in that? Oh, there he is.
Lainie:He's doing a lot of service right now. That's right.
Estela:He's on that duty. Tell us a little bit about what those accommodations mean for you on a day-to-day basis, what it's like having a service dog, how your work also includes working with veterans and community.
Ross Barchacky:I'm going to ask you to come back to some of those. I'm going to go with the first one before I forget all the rest. But accommodations I want to start with. Accommodations are something that service members don't really have experience with, and I'm speaking in broad terms here. Not for everyone, but for the most part in the military, disability is a four letter word. Just the ability to not perform at 110% can be a four letter word.
Ross Barchacky:Going to sick call, having a cold, spraining your ankle right those are things that you just learned to power through and that people will praise you and pat you on the back when you do. Man, this guy just ran a marathon and he broke his ankle six weeks ago. You know, like, for something you know it's supposed to be like get the help you need right, and it has to right. The military has to run that way. I'm not trying to downplay the culture or anything like that. I love the military, but it doesn't really set you up for success. When you come outside and you think that you're just gonna get by, you know that you think that people are gonna praise you for putting in 110% every day and going past your limit. You're not. You're just gonna get burned out and then you're gonna get fired, right, you're gonna quit or something else is gonna happen. And so it was a strange transition for me that I never probably would have done if it wasn't for being accepted into that soldier recovery unit and having that time during COVID to really just learn about all this stuff.
Ross Barchacky:The service dog was really the first accommodation that I'd ever even looked at, which is sort of really on the more difficult end as accommodations go.
Ross Barchacky:But when I was doing it I was at the soldier recovery unit and there was a woman there that when you know, I was sort of going through the more mental portion of my trauma that she had said there's a nonprofit that worked there that helps veterans to train their own service dogs and it's a more sort of inclusive process. You get to build that relationship and be a better handler at the end of it and I was like I don't know, that's kind of weird. I've never owned a dog in my life before parent, I'm a cat guy. I'll just put that out there into the universe, right. So it was a really weird and I had just got five kids. I don't want more sort of thing, but I met some of the people that had gone through the program and just listening to their stories about the night and day of where they were and where they are now, I was like I gotta do this.
Ross Barchacky:I at least got to try, so I ended up. I waited that whole 18 months to be paired or to get a service dog there that it didn't work out, I ended up having to move back to the East Coast where we had already had a house, and so I ended up having to go on and work with another nonprofit. But long story short, I finally got into a program with the service animal, went through it for about a year, where they essentially trained you to be a dog trainer so that you can be your own handler, and it's been an amazing experience for him. I do things now that I never would have done. I mean, I went two conferences back to back last week. I could not do that by myself.
Lainie:For our listeners who mostly have physical challenges, some with heart illnesses, who may tire easily, may fall trip, et cetera, have various neuromuscular and neurological conditions. How can a service dog be beneficial?
Ross Barchacky:You know, I knew nothing about it at first either. You know service dog. I think the two that come to mind are seeing eye dogs, right or guide dogs, and then mobility assistance dogs, so somebody that's in a chair that might need help with actually being pulled in the chair, retrieving items, things like that. But there's a whole new world. Psychiatric service dogs, which is what Perrin is, is one of the newer ones. But there's also allergy detection dogs that they have. They have autism service dogs to help individuals that can help, like if they're having a meltdown or need deep pressure therapy or go and get assistance. There's hearing dogs, which you don't hear about a lot, but you know if the doorbell's ringing or the door is knocking or something like that, they can come and inform their handler. I mean, there's just so many different types out there that a lot of people don't understand.
Ross Barchacky:But specifically with Perrin and what he does for me, there's a few different tasks that he does and we're working on more all the time, but right now he essentially just provides me with the ability to create space, I would say as first and foremost, so he can actually position stationary at different parts, so left side, right side and front behind. He can circle around me to create space. He's actually been trained to deescalate situations so he can tell when I'm starting to get agitated. Anger is one thing that a lot of people don't think about when they think about PTSD. But you tend to have a shorter fuse and so if he starts noticing that he can start escalating right, so he'll start nudging me, then licking my hand, then maybe pulling on my pants, and he's been trained to go and just find the nearest exit and get me out of there and then provide deep pressure therapy so that you can get that input. I'm pretty sure it's proprioceptive my wife is probably gonna correct me later but to be able to sort of deescalate that, deescalate that situation.
Ross Barchacky:But I mean they can do amazing things all the way to. They can clear a house. You know they can go. You go run to Airbnb. You can let your service dog in first. He'll clear each and every room to make sure no one's there and turn the lights on when the room is clear. So they can do amazing, amazing work. Parents not there yet. He just turned two. So we're really just starting to get into this journey.
Estela:Oh, I work with a few people who have service dogs for their CMT and just by hearing their experiences with helping them you know, support them when they're walking or picking up packages or you know, there's just so many things that we don't necessarily think of how they can have that and on top of the emotional side of it and the companionship of that. But Laney didn't mention something about travel and I did notice something about travel on your I believe it was on LinkedIn the situation where you face some ableism on the airlines, which unfortunately is still a hotspot for tons of ableism and wheelchair mobility device damage and all of a whole nightmare of issues for the disability community. Can you speak a little bit to what that experience was and what you came away with?
Ross Barchacky:Sure, so I will not mention names of airlines, but I will say I've taken other airlines before and I've never had a problem. Right, perrin and I have probably made about a dozen trips now everywhere, from short-term regional flights all the way to right across the country from DC to San Diego and back, and if not run into any issues, there's a few different things that the airlines can ask you. You know a couple of questions. One is is this a service dog that's required because of a disability, and what tasks specifically are the dog able to provide? Right, it's pretty standard, but airlines are sort of in their own piece when it comes to the ADA. They sort of have their own jurisdiction and certain portions of it, so they can create additional requirements. In this particular airline had some very standard ones. Right, there's a form that you have to fill out with the Department of Transportation and TSA attesting to things, but they had a lot of verbal confirmations that I just didn't think might be best practice, right, one of which was actually you understand that you can be criminally charged if you are found to have a fake service dog, which one I just feel is like wow, so I'm guilty until proven innocent, right or able until proven disabled, you know, which I just I don't think a lot of other communities would do if they had a more visible disability or things like that.
Ross Barchacky:In my particular interaction with the woman, when I asked her about it, she said because we have to make sure that people aren't faking their disabilities, which I replied do you? You know, do you, though, because I go on airlines all the time and I've never been asked that before, and so I just think that, you know, if I had anything to say, if I have the ear of anyone that works in the airline industry or any industry where you're gonna interact with service dogs, would be what do you have to provide? Right, like, what level of safety and caution do you need to take? And is there another way to do it in a more private and, I guess, just humanistic method? Right, you know? As opposed to having to go, because to them it's one right, every person that comes through they have to ask those questions.
Ross Barchacky:I get asked those questions all the time, right? All the organizations I go into, every time I check into a hotel, every time I check into an airline flight, you know, it's just, it's exhausting. By the end of it. I started off my journey as being a great ambassador for service dog handler teams and I don't think I am so much anymore because you know it really. Just it takes away your sort of emotional Tolerance yeah, tolerance that you have.
Estela:Yeah, I mean, and I do feel like you would be questions that questioned as much if you had some kind of mobility device or if you were in a wheelchair. Do you feel like, because you have a non apparent disability, that you're, your question more doubted, more in that regard?
Ross Barchacky:I'm gonna. I'm gonna say this without any scientific data, but yes, I do. I do think so, and I do have a very close friend of mine that is a wheelchair user, and when her and I go out with parent together, I get asked nothing, right.
Ross Barchacky:And it could just be coincidence, right, it's one, it's one case. But to me, you know, that's what it feels like. Is that? You know, they see me, I'm walking, they see the dog, obviously I can see, and so they're like, well then, what fake service dog you know. And so I think that you know there's a big piece of education that needs to happen, you know even in the disability community about that.
Lainie:I'm sure you're familiar with it, but that's the sunflower project that took off in Europe and now it's like I just looked there in, I think, 50 different airports across the US currently about. Do you familiar with what I'm not familiar?
Ross Barchacky:with that.
Lainie:So the sunflower project is like this badge that you put on yourself and basically saying I have an invisible condition, not impaired, and the airlines, tsa workers and the staff in particular, are supposedly now trained with these different airlines to recognize that yeah. Yeah, I mean I want to get them on this podcast too at some point because I think it's so interesting.
Lainie:But, like, obviously it only works the more people know about it and you know you're not like I have to have a lot of disability advocates who are, and no one's heard of it, so I'm like they need some help. I think, yeah, I the only the only thing.
Ross Barchacky:I know that this is already going to be split. I don't even have to do any research on it, but I know there's probably going to be a good number of people that don't feel okay about that, right, because they, because they don't want to put it out there, and people with disabilities have had to wear it more historically and it didn't work out well for them. And so you know I'm not trying to take it away from this program.
Lainie:It sounds like they've they found a solution to this sort of unique problem, but I look at it as a tourniquet and not a solution I'm thinking like for our people who always talk about the angst of leg braces and going through metal detectors and they don't have to say pre screening or whatever. You know, holding something to show. I don't think it's something that you necessarily have to like, wear on, but showing it instead of having to explain to the TSA officer and wearing braces going to go off, blah, blah, blah, Supposedly you hold up this thing and they know what that is.
Estela:It sounds like it's a more discreet version of holding like a disability parking sticker or something.
Estela:It's not more discreet but at the same time still communicating non verbally that you know they they have some form of non apparent disability, but I think it really speaks to you know your experience and many of our listeners that we are. We are many times forced to be in a situation where we have to defend ourselves or explain ourselves and that can be exhausting, and I think the work that you're doing, the, the talk that Lainey did on invisible, non apparent disabilities is what we need more of, because we really need to show the full spectrum of disability, that it's not always obvious that it has such a wide spectrum and range and that there are so many accommodations that can be made to set people up for success, to create an action, to create empathy, to create collaboration, and I think your organization is doing such a great job from that. Where can people find more about you? What projects are you currently working on? What should people you know look out for in the next coming months of the year?
Ross Barchacky:Yeah, so I mean wwwinclusivelycom. Anybody can go create a free profile, start getting connected with employers. You know anyone that identifies as having a disability Right. So you know, even if you don't have a formal diagnosis or something like that, if you can benefit from workplace accommodations, come create a profile and get a job with our employers, because I know that's a big part of it too, part that a lot of people don't don't necessarily talk about. Some of the projects that we have coming up. We just launched last month our community, and so we have the ability for creating conversations and dialogue and housing services and trainings as well, not just for our employer partners, but also for our job seekers. So once you create a profile, you'll have access to that as well. And then the last thing I'll mention is we actually just launched, starting yesterday, our partner series.
Ross Barchacky:So there's, you know, so many organizations. You all are so excited for that, you know to really highlight the work that everyone's doing in this space, because it's big and we tend to get put in our little bubbles when it comes to disability inclusion. You know I work at this. You know place that provides services for individuals with blindness and low vision. I know a lot about that, but it doesn't necessarily make you an expert in disability, and so you know. One thing that I would say is you know, come get linked in with these other organizations, hear about the work that they're doing, because we're all in the same fight, right? We're just fighting different fights within this, this sort of larger war of disability inclusion, and so knowing what everybody's doing around you is just going to help set you up to be able to sort of do this together and support each other.
Estela:Yeah, and hearing those examples from your partners and how they're implementing the program, I think really speaks volumes to its success and how realistic it can be, because, yes, it sounds good, but how, how are people actually doing it and making it successful? And I'm proud to say that a hereditary neuropathy foundation is one of your partners. We did a presentation during our Thrive Summit virtual summit last year, which is actually on the H&F website. If you go to h&f-cureorg and you click on the CMT at the top and patient resources, you'll see a whole slew of menu topics. One of those are inclusive is inclusive employment, and we have a great webinar there by Sarah the CEO, and she kind of did a demo of the platform and really went step by step on how to create a profile. So we encourage everybody to check that out, sign up for inclusively, join the community and and let's get to work, yeah and get a service dog if you are interested.
Lainie:I mean, like for our listeners who aren't looking for jobs and not really interested in that, I mean a service dog is something to think about. I mean I guess you first have to like dogs or cats, but you know, I mean it could really. I mean, all the things that you mentioned that are that a service dog is potentially capable is kind of mind blowing. So I wonder how things will change with the AI app. You know, did you see that there's this like new AI app that you know that you know the C for me app, that for people. So now they have an AI. Well, ai that leads you through a store like a virtual robot is crazy. But until you can get your virtual dog, you know, check out service dogs.
Estela:Yeah, there's action section in the patient care section as well on canine companions. We've had some people to webinars and some some great experiences with that, so we'll put the whole yeah, and feel free to contact me as well.
Ross Barchacky:Ross and inclusivelycom connect with me on LinkedIn If you have questions about service dogs where to get started, resources to help you fund one, how to train one yourself. I've gone through the journey myself. I help other people do it now Just a sort of a side project, and I'd be more than happy to share what knowledge I have with you to get you started.
Estela:Wow. So when you're not taking care of your five kids, you're doing that.
Ross Barchacky:You gotta keep busy.
Lainie:It was super informative, interesting, and thank you so much, and we're looking forward to talking with you again soon yes, when ours is going to air versus yours, but we're going to be on theirs too.
Estela:So we'll link to all. Thanks so much, ross. Thanks everyone for listening, hi everyone.
Lainie:We're going to be on our next podcast, so leave us a voicemail, or you can even send us a text to 631-517-0066.
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