0:00  
Hey, Katie onto the stage, and then lessa I am going to bring you on, but you can you can get rid of your camera. And then let's Katie, we're going to add this to the stream ready to go. We'll do the whole thing.

All right. Okay, so let's get confirmation that we're all set. And then we're going to get into it. Katie, how you doing today?

0:31  
Great. I'm very excited to be here. Mallory's presentation right before me was just absolutely awesome. It was great. Really glad to be a part of that.

0:42  
Well, thank you for coming. I'm excited. For our next session. I'm going to do a quick introduction, then get off and then I'll also be back here to facilitate

And so amplify your authenticity through accessibility with Katie murch of 52 alliances, Katie and I have had a beautiful way that we've gotten to know each other and I'm going to credit her with the fact that if you are enjoying the captions, enjoying the American Sign Language, Katie is a big reason for that. So without further ado, Katie, I'm gonna hand it on over to you. Thank you very much. I'll be back in about a half an hour. Thank you, Tim.

1:27  
Thank you. I'll see you in a few minutes. Thank you, everybody. I am Katie murch sign name is Katie. Because I always smile and have bright shiny eyes. Okay, so I'm glad to be here today. And this journey has been a wonderful journey

1:51  
their them. And I'll mention them a little bit later, it's important to emphasize that I am a white female, I have a three quarter sleeve shirt. And I'm in a comfortable office with a neutral wall and a blue chair and bookshelves behind me and cozy curtains. I am a deaf person myself. And I use American Sign Language and captions but I speak at but I prefer not to I recognize that even as a person with a disability, I still hold privileges in some areas. So it's important to emphasize my perspective is that is not representative of everybody. I can't represent everybody's identity. So it's important for me to emphasize that and this presentation is where I'm going to be using people with disabilities or disabled person interchangeably. People have their own preference and what they use. And so when you meet a person with a disability or a disabled person, ask them their identity and what you prefer. And what do you prefer to be called? For me, I'm a deaf woman. I have over 15 years of experience in nonprofit industry, and I was a child using nonprofit services as I grew up. And so the nonprofit industry is very important to me. And that's why I set up 52. Alliance, an agency that really supports nonprofits and their operation needs and their marketing needs their IT and fundraising. All of that is important 5-2 actually is part of a sign.

3:28  
Purpose. There's a five and a two so you can try to sign it with me if you'd like. the handshape is a five and then a two. And then movement like this means its purpose and it's a weight to my culture and my business name. So I'm gonna jump in it's important for accessibility is why why is this? Why is disability access important? It's not only for people with disability access, but also it's for broader market. Let's just dive in. You know, I always find it fascinating that our society has based things on weakness, things that need to be improved, but ironically, we can be weak in an infinite number of things. For example, I do not know engineering, and I can cook Italian meals but not from scratch. And I don't know coding for apps, and those could be considered a weakness but there are some strengths that society forgets to focus on instead of the weakness so for the disabled community, often the word itself can be problematic. It's personal topic. Disabled means not able, again, the perspective on weakness, it's interesting to think about that perspective. Some people argue that it's a fact compared to today's society

5:18  
and the disability perspective okay. Okay, so many years of history have shown people with disabilities have contributed have given to society and across the globe, we wouldn't be here through technology, the features that we have in the license live, our lives have become easier and easier thanks to people with disabilities. And it's often overlooked. It's often not appreciated. So how, for example, this picture shows one of the very first video phones in that fascinated compared to down days, it was really bulky and look at what we have now that fits in the palm of our hand. But this was in this 50s, late 50s. And 60s, as technology really developed, and that technology, to overtime has evolved to become a video phone, it's in our pocket. It's fascinating. And not just that, but ramps, think about mobility needs and use of ramps as you go into a building, not only with people to build with disabilities benefit. But parents with strollers, and babies and maybe kids that want to walk up on maybe it's just a delivery service to supplies, it's easier to come into the store using a ramp, it's a great benefit. And accessibility does not only benefit people with disabilities, it's a smart market. And there's a lot of opportunities. there as well. There are many examples that we see evolution of captioning, you see that included in restaurants and noisy bars and a gym where you're running, there's captioning, so you can see the content of the video, voice control and spoken language. You see that with Alexa and Google and so many things with screen technology becoming text to voice capabilities as well, when you can listen to a book driving a car, or you can listen to a PDF of something for work, or you can text 911 even. So there's new technology that's really coming, it benefits us all. Maybe if there's no signal, you can't really call but you could text 911. So automatic doors is really a benefit. And thanks to the people with disabilities because they have contributed so much to the access. So we want to translate the opportunities into economic wealth. We often forget that part of the people with disabilities is a huge market, it's often overlooked. So people with disabilities actually make the world's largest minority. about 1 billion people worldwide. That number is possible to increase especially from pandemic or longterm COVID. And at worst, that's continue it will continue to grow. And if we just look at that market alone, and how much money the nonprofit is leaving on the table, how many programs impact are missing? The opportunity to tell a story, people with disabilities and only 71% Well let me back up 29% are visible disabilities, you can see that a person has a disability but the 70% Plus you never aware that the person has a disability with movement until they tell you you won't know I'm deaf until I sign. So there is that big block and if you think about how that expands to their family and friends and how that extends to the market is huge. Now that benefit of accessibility training and inclusivity practices like I mentioned before with your market will be a value and we'll dive into that a little bit. The injury itself industry itself about it's about a trillion dollar industry 73% though of global marketing for disabled people influences our space. Wow. Unfortunately 70 to 80% of people with disabilities experience and when brands is a failure. There are missed opportunities, lost revenue, lost impact lost relationships lost of branding value. And I know you know that, but the experience for people, I've heard a few that, you know, good experiences spread, but

10:17  
one negative experience will can really spread, that would be a big impact. So, how does nonprofit, even start? It can be overwhelming, especially when there's new topics and new areas that you have not experienced? Will hearing people ever really fully understand what it's like to be a deaf person? No, really, you can't, it's just like, a white person will never understand a black person's experience. And a white person will never under a male will never understand a female's experience. But there's ally ship and support and authenticity. So how do we begin? Well, including people with disabilities might be a little obvious, but that's how you start with your board with your staff, hiring people with disabilities in general. their work, their workforce is underserved. They're underemployed. And they can also be one of the most loyal employees. And the design thinking is the foundation of inclusivity. In universal design, the design thinking starts with empathy. The Empathy is what begins. As I mentioned, you can't fully understand what a person goes through, and their journey, but you can empathize and listen and incorporate their perspective and support their involvement in the process. And for a training for organizations inclusivity is I hate when people say sensitivity training, I don't think it's about being sensitive. I think it I call it leadership training. You can't be a good leader if you're not inclusive anyway. So really, it's leadership training that you should develop for your organization. The design thinking, let me give you a few technical applications of how accessibility improves your nonprofit programs, services, and especially with the year end campaigns that are just now starting for fundraising, that will begin very soon. First, for example, the captioning

12:55  
you know, many people often don't realize that 80% of people who scroll or browse on the internet,

14:05  
awareness and being of Top of Mind. So it's not only are you being including deaf and hard of hearing people in receiving your content, it's also 80 available to 80% of people who are just browsing the internet. It's a very valuable tool.

14:24  
This is a slide from Stranger Things a TV show

14:29  
for Vecna, the villain.

14:33  
It's amazing that person who captioned that show did a beautiful job.

14:39  
We're used to you know, like creepy sound or music playing. It's so boring to see that really it is a reflection of the story of what's going on. So the Stranger Things that caption is really tried to explain and be descriptive. Some of the descriptions are too advanced Some words perhaps maybe more simple, but still there. There's needs to be some transparency with transcriptions. And then you need to think about that for your nonprofit as well. Captioning, your virtual meetings, maybe webinars like this, or maybe you're hosting a meeting, or a board meeting, or you have a one on one meeting with a donor or a foundation for fundraising, a discovery meeting and you're using virtual background, I would say don't. It's a beautiful virtual background, I love the artists, the design, it's gorgeous, the smile is wonderful. And the background is really shown showing her personality. But there are two reasons not to one is accessibility as a deaf person looking at the expressions, the virtual background will distort the handshapes or interfere with the expressions, I'd say 80% of the body language is in its is seen on the face, and it's hard to notice otherwise. And that not only that, but that Harvard Business Review, the article found out that virtual backgrounds are not effective for building trust. For a nonprofit, to know how serious and you know, you know how important trust is for your donors, for your audience, for your members, for your clients, for your staff. So some here's some of the statistics. So out of the surveys that they did 20 in 2020, they recognize that the background of your virtual meeting is more important than your clothing. Wow. And it's not just that, but it's the kind of background that you have as well.

17:16  
People really want your authenticity, they want to see what's behind you. I believe that, you know, it goes back to the person, you know, our history. We've been through wars, we have peace time. And then, you know, there's many different stories about how the handshake really developed. And one of them is how is the handshake develop, it was shown that I don't have a weapon, I'm not a threat. So in that instance, when you meet someone with a handshake, it's similar to virtual backgrounds in a way that the backgrounds are blocking, maybe someone's thinking who's in that room? Is this information private? Am I being recorded, that trust then decreases if you want to be perceived as more authentic and more of an expert, and more creative or even more trustworthy, drop the virtual background it shows in show them your room and your office, even if it's a little bit messy. Really, it's authentic to who you are. And these days, it's more and more important. Now, the virtual background is really impactful on trust. And I just said captioning and both are related to something called Image Description. For example, we have this beautiful red button that you want to capture for your donors on your website. And they it's on a page for you to click for your year end appeal. So it's a donate with a heart. Often we overlook the alt image, alternative image and what that means is it's a visual description of what that graphic represents or shows on the webpage or on a PDF. It benefits those who are deaf blind, low vision or other visual disability. Not only benefits people with disabilities but also your general market. I look at this as an opportunity to extend your brand, your voice, your message and your personality. What I mean by that there was a beautiful piece talking about how

19:57  
dry and stan-

20:00  
dard image description is like, for example, for this red button graphic that says Donate now in white, with a heart shape on the left,

20:58  
look at the alt images will be fascinated with the story behind something that they might have overlooked. It's kind of like an Easter egg when you find the video game or the movie. And you see that and you're excited about it. That tends to be an opportunity to elevate a hidden moment for people to find personally throughout your organization and your nonprofit. Again, I want to emphasize make it fun. This platform is could be used on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, they all have more and more inclusivity accessibility practices, which is a plus, we still have a long way to go. But we're eventually going to get there. So the features that like alt image are important, those are embedded. So when you bring up a picture, you can ask they ask if you want to do an alt image don't skip that part.

22:02  
leverage those opportunities and don't skip them. I know that it may be something that you overlook. But I think that it's really good to add to your campaign. Using those features are better than if you were to use a paragraph or a comment or an image description. Alt image will take the same space where the image is. So if you have a comment under the image, then they may read that later. Sometimes the comments are mismatched, and it doesn't even show up and they don't see it first. So use the fields to maximize your accessibility practice in and inclusivity in your organization.

22:54  
Websites make sure their accessibility practices are utilized here as well. There are so many really cool resources that you can add to your website for if you use WordPress. They include their include with your either swag the list of the few things that plugins that you're able to use those plugins give people options to modify the website to their needs. So now, we benefit with people with disabilities. But for example, people who live in a rural area, maybe their internet's lousy, and they that accessibility feature to turn off motion on a graphic, or stop the video from starting. Because of load time, it can improve your customer experience if you use that feature. So if like me you like to look at nighttime, and that white glare bothers your eyes or hurts your eyes, you can use the high content or dark mode to flip and make it darker. So I'm more willing to donate at that point. There are standards like SW a G, no WCAG. That standard for website accessibility. Take that with a grain of salt. Really, it's any disability training or any

24:33  
content that you receive. It's not reflective of all disability needs. So that organization is missing in some areas for people that are deaf and hard of hearing. And I'm assuming probably there's missing important key points for other people with disabilities too.

24:59  
Developing

25:00  
frustration free packaging is really important. Think about a package of scissors. It's a silly image, the scissors, you have the scissors, but to open the scissors, you need scissors. It's silly. That is very complicated. And it's not necessarily accessible to people with disabilities. So if you want

25:41  
make appointments to meet with your team members? Really, that is a step that we sometimes miss. And it's a part of their journey. It's simplify it. It's not only for deaf people, but people with disabilities. neurodiversity, neuro-diversified people also need that. And your team members will thank you as well, because it makes their job a lot easier.

26:08  
Really, the bottom line is you designed for people with disabilities, it's actually a designed for everybody. You know, this is very, very in depth topic. And it's not easy to summarize in 30 minutes, but I hope today to really give you some insight and how you can begin to think about developing and improving your nonprofits, your programs and services, especially with donators, donations, especially with the season coming up for your year end appeal. So how are you thinking about your nonprofit? I would love to see your comments. Hi,

26:53  
hi. We have a question we have

from Suzanne Richard. How do you develop the market for people with disabilities, when before this, they had not been included? So they don't know how it is now.

27:19  
I think that's a great time for me to share the story of how our relationship developed Tim, actually tried to come to this conference last year and asked for accessible content, so that I could participate with everybody. But it was interesting, because normally in the past, I would try to go to a conference and I would have to ask, and they would make it hard for me Well, I don't know, we'll see. And it's not in our budget. And that made me feel so unwelcome. But Tim, for Neonn one was completely different response. I was expecting the standard response of He ha You know,

28:00  
just I'll just accept whatever they give me. But Tim went beyond and above. He, he gave, he said it was a won- wonderful learning opportunity. He pulled in ASL interpreters, he pulled in captioning. And after that, he followed up and he checked in. And then I was just surprised. And honestly, I told many other deaf people about neon one after that, because it was simpler to see. And to get an answer. So to answer your question, are I

28:32  
really being authentic and vulnerable and sharing that I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do? How would I support you better and do that work? And really invest in your answer and just dive in. You have to start somewhere. There's no one place to start. It is a process. So I think that's a good place to start and incorporate people with disabilities. That's key.

29:01  
Thank you, Katie, in a lot of different ways, I'm trying not to cry. But it was something that in all honesty, even for this session, I had a feeling that I was gonna mess something up for you. And besides the stage URL, which we figured out, but yeah, I think it's just being open to it and asking the questions and being inquisitive. I actually

want to read Suzanne's next question and then we will need to unfortunately... we'll have you back, Katie. But we'll end on this one. How do you pay for ASL interpreters, live captions. I am a small nonprofit and by people with disabilities and I can't have

afford it

30:00  
I really understand and emphasize with you 1,000%, I was an executive director of a nonprofit and it was not easy. So I really understand that the good news is that there are several programs that support those with needs, not just for deaf and hard of hearing accessibility, but blind neurodiverse people, physical mobility issues and those check with your state, they often have a commission of whatever for disabilities, blind, deaf, hard of hearing disabled, they also provide grants, they may have seed funding to support

30:41  
what you need their needs, and also reach out to interpreting agency, maybe they have a foundation that they can help support your nonprofit needs. For example, the state of California just recently released a free caption service for virtual live events. So you can use the state funding for that kind of need. There is also again, you can look for grants. We're happy to support your grant needs too. And so really, there's a lot of grants out there. So you just have to find them. And do that search and hire good grant writers and support your needs. And it doesn't have to be complicated. And for I tried to keep it short because of the time.

31:28  
It's a big topic. Yeah, also helps to get fantastic sponsors like Visa, bonfire and click bid. So that helps. Right. Well, Katie, thank you so much for your time today.

31:51  
Thank you for having me. Thank you. I was great to see everybody.

31:55  
Great to see you. I'll see you soon. If you can send me the deck too. Oh, no, you sent me the deck. You folks it's already in the thing. Katie's on top of it. I'm not so we are good. Talk to you soon. I'm going to lead us into speed networking. Thank you so much to the both of you for

Transcribed by https://otter.ai