Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion | WOTC
Release Date: 09/26/2024
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Samuel Levine, Professor of Law & Director, Jewish Law Institute, Touro Law Center
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Samuel Levine, Professor of Law & Director, Jewish Law Institute, Touro Law Center In this thought-provoking episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk sits down with Professor , law professor at , Director of the , and founder of Touro's , to explore why advancing disability inclusion requires more than "laws on the books." Levine shares how his work blends legal analysis with broader cultural and human elements, compassion, storytelling, religion, the arts, and lived experience, because, as he and Kirk discuss, you can't "legislate...
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with John B. Grimes, Survivor Inspiring Resilience, Author, Destiny is Debatable
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with John B. Grimes, Survivor Inspiring Resilience, Author, Destiny is Debatable In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams talks with about the life-altering night in 1998 when, as a 19-year-old Texas Tech student, Grimes contracted meningococcal disease and woke up in the hospital days later blind, disoriented, and relearning basic functions, walking, talking, swallowing, while also navigating lasting neurological impacts. Grimes explains why he once called himself “ambiguously blind,” describes the role the Texas...
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jerred Mace, Founder & CEO, OnceCourt
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jerred Mace, Founder & CEO, OnceCourt In this inspiring episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams talks with of about how haptic technology can make live sports dramatically more accessible for blind and low-vision fans. Adams shares his own "hands-on" encounters with the OneCourt device, feeling the raised layout of a basketball court and the vibrations of a synced, fast-moving play, and later experiencing baseball through touch by sensing pitch location, ball flight, and baserunners in real time alongside the radio broadcast....
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sheldon Guy, Director, Women's Athletics, Improve Her Game
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sheldon Guy, Director, Women's Athletics, Improve Her Game In this deeply moving episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams speaks with Sheldon Guy, Director of Women's Athletics with Improve Her Game and, by his account, one of the only blind basketball coaches, about the sudden, life-altering loss of his vision and the raw, real-time process of rebuilding a life. Sheldon recounts how quickly his world shifted, the heartbreak of what that meant for his son, and the moment he reached a breaking point, only to find a reason to keep going...
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Alyssa Dver, Founding CEO, Speaker, Educator, Motivator, Spokesperson, ERG Leadership Alliance
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Alyssa Dver, Founding CEO, Speaker, Educator, Motivator, Spokesperson, ERG Leadership Alliance In this insightful episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with , Founder and CEO of the , to explore how employee resource groups (ERGs) can drive both inclusion and business performance. Alyssa breaks down what ERGs are, why they're different from social clubs, and how volunteer leaders navigate the paradox of doing “extra” work that still has to align with business goals. She and Dr. Adams discuss the current backlash...
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Ssanyu Birigwa, M.S., Co-Founder, Narrative Bridge
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Ssanyu Birigwa, M.S., Co-Founder, Narrative Bridge In this illuminating episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk shares how a stressful season leading the American Foundation for the Blind and pursuing his PhD led him to the healing work of guest . He recalls powerful half-day sessions in New York that began with reflective writing and moved into energy practices like the hara seven-minute meditation, creating “energy bodies” with the hands, and chakra work. Those tools, which he still uses most mornings, helped him re-center, move...
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Vanessa Abraham, Speech Language Pathologist
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Vanessa Abraham, Speech Language Pathologist In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with speech-language pathologist, author, and ICU survivor to trace her extraordinary arc from clinician to patient and back again. Abraham recounts the rare Guillain-Barré variant that left her paralyzed and voiceless, the disorientation and aftermath of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome, and the painstaking work of reclaiming speech, swallowing, mobility, and identity. She explains why she wrote Speechless, to humanize the...
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One National Door, Local Results: How Kathy West-Evans' NET Turns Inclusion into a Hiring Advantage
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
Here Dr. Kirk Adams frames disability inclusion as a hiring advantage powered by one national door and local execution. He spotlights CSAVR's National Employment Team (NET), led by , as a single gateway into every state and territorial public VR agency, with TAP (the Talent Acquisition Portal) and on-the-ground VR specialists turning postings into interviews, OJT, accommodations, and retention. The article walks leaders through why inclusion breaks at the national-to-local seam, how the NET's “one company” model fixes it, and where the ROI shows up—shorter time-to-fill, stronger...
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Elizabeth Whitaker and Rachel Buchanan, Vispero
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with and of Vispero to explore how AI and JAWS' 30-year legacy are converging to expand employment and independence for people who are blind or low vision. After Kirk shares a personal JAWS origin story from 1995, Liz and Rachel trace their own paths through VR and training, then introduce Freedom Scientific's new "Learn AI" series: live, first-Thursday-at-noon ET webinars that begin with fundamentals (terminology, prompting, hands-on practice) and progress to specific tools, ChatGPT in October, then Gemini and Copilot in November. Each...
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion Webinar: Interview with Paolo Gaudiano, Founder & Chief Scientist, Aleria (PBC)
Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams
In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with , Founder & Chief Scientist at to unpack how measuring day-to-day workplace experiences, rather than headcounts or vague culture scores, translates inclusion into business outcomes. Gaudiano traces his path from computational neuroscience and complexity modeling to a 2015 “lightbulb moment” that led him to build simulations and tools showing how inclusion lifts productivity and retention, and how focusing on diversity alone can spark backlash. He outlines the premise of his 2024 book Measuring Inclusion: Higher Profits and...
info_outlineDr. Kirk Adams and Evan Amundson discussed the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and its benefits for businesses hiring individuals with disabilities. Evan highlighted that WOTC can provide tax credits ranging from $1,200 to $9,600 per eligible new hire, with over 2 million eligible new hires in 2023. He emphasized the importance of vocational rehabilitation agencies in connecting employers with qualified candidates. Kirk added that only 35% of people with significant disabilities are in the workforce, despite many being highly motivated and qualified. They also mentioned other tax credits, such as the Disabled Access Credit and Barrier Removal Deduction, to incentivize businesses to hire and accommodate individuals with disabilities.