Latest / Authentic Living / Embracing Inclusivity: Technology, Web Accessibility, and The Inclusive Speaker with Denis Boudreau

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Embracing Inclusivity: Technology, Web Accessibility, and The Inclusive Speaker with Denis Boudreau · Authentic Living

• 0:01
  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
• 0:08
  things that really matter in our lives.
• 0:11
  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
• 0:36
  Hi, everyone.
• 0:36
  It's Roxanne Durgesh with Authentic Living with Roxanne.
• 0:39
  Today, I have a a colleague, that I meant, oh my goodness, Denise.
• 0:44
  It's probably about, 4 or 5 years ago now.
• 0:47
  Wouldn't like that?
• 0:48
  Yeah.
• 0:49
  We're both members of the Canadian Association Professional speakers.
• 0:53
  And Denis Denis Boudreaux, and is, his title is a chief inclusion officer, and he's the owner
• 1:03
  of Inclusive Communication.
• 1:06
  So, Denis, thanks so much for coming on and I'd like to talk a little bit about inclusivity,
• 1:12
  and I know this has been something that you have been talking about well before it became
• 1:20
  I'm gonna say a thing that most of us focused on.
• 1:23
  So tell us a little bit about your path and and what got you into this kind of work, Danny.
• 1:29
  Absolutely.
• 1:29
  So so, yeah, I've I've been interested in that topic for about 23 years now.
• 1:35
  So I guess a little bit before it became a AA thing, a trend.
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  I stumbled into this by accident, as a web developer back then, I was responsible for
• 1:47
  leading a team developing websites for different organizations back in Montreal where
• 1:51
  I live.
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  And and one day, one of our project managers came to me and said, we won this this project
• 1:58
  to redesign a particular website for one of the hospitals in Montreal.
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  One of their requirements is that decide to be accessible to people who are blind, figure this
• 2:07
  out.
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  Like, what?
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  Really?
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  So I'd never heard of you know, blind people wanting to use the or, you know, be even
• 2:14
  thinking of using the internet.
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  To me, the web was a very visual medium.
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  So I started researching about that and discovered that there was all these
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  possibilities in terms of how you would develop a website that it would be usable.
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  People who were blind.
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  People who had different types of disabilities, and I really got passionate about that
• 2:34
  particular challenge because to me, it was all about challenges initially.
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  And, and and over the years, I just developed a a a very profound attachment passion for that
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  particular mission, which is making the digital space a more equitable, just accessible,
• 2:54
  inclusive space for people who have disabilities.
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  And that grew into also considering the needs of people who are aging people who are
• 3:02
  marginalized by technology one way or another, and that led me into building a business around
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  this idea of helping organizations provide more inclusive communications like use use better
• 3:14
  channels, more inclusive channels so that when they are communicating with their with their
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  people, whether their prospects, their customers, for instance, where they're talking
• 3:21
  internally to their teams, their their their workforce, that they do that in a way that is
• 3:26
  inclusive, and that no one feels left out.
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  So it's been it's been a 22, 23 year long journey of just helping people understand that
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  there's an actual market around disability.
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  That disability inclusion is the smart thing to do.
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  If you if you have a business, if you're in a business, that it's a great way to make sure
• 3:45
  that you hit your goals, that you cover your bottom line.
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  All these different things is like building awareness around these these topics so that
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  organizations can be more successful reaching a broader largely untapped market with folks that
• 4:00
  are typically just not considered in the first place.
• 4:02
  You know, it's so funny.
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  Right?
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  Because it's, you know, you think of you don't think about inclusivity until you're in it.
• 4:09
  Right?
• 4:09
  So, for instance, when my son played hockey, my mum my mom had mom had a stroke and, so we
• 4:19
  would try to get her into the ranks, for instance, you know, Not having thought about it
• 4:25
  because you're when unless you're in it, Denny.
• 4:27
  I don't know if, you know, and it's interesting.
• 4:28
  I wanna hear your perspective is you don't start to think along those lines.
• 4:32
  So on my you know, what started to happen to me is every rink that I went to before we would
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  get her out of the car and figure out, is there an elevator?
• 4:42
  First of all, and I'll and it's shocking how many, you know, places, didn't have elevators.
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  And those steps.
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  You don't even think about it in a hockey rink.
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  How many steps there are, you know, to be able to get her up steps.
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  So somebody like me would hadn't thought about that before.
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  So I just think about the evolution that you may have seen, and I wanna talk a little bit
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  about that.
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  In 23 years ago, like you said, like, it was like, if someone's not not able to see what
• 5:12
  kind of things, you know, you'd have to do to build it, what did what what were some of the
• 5:17
  needs that you started to see 23 years ago?
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  And let's talk a little bit about coming up to the present about where we are and even maybe
• 5:26
  potentially kind of some of the gaps that you're still seeing.
• 5:29
  Ah, of course.
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  I mean, I I wanna start by talking a little bit about that experience that you had with with
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  the Aki range, for instance, I've had very similar experiences with friends who are in
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  wheelchairs.
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  Just trying to find a restaurant in downtown Montreal.
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  I mean, it's not it's not perfect today still.
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  You still have a lot of of restaurants that are just not that accessible.
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  But it got a lot better than it did 20 years ago.
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  And I remember one particular evening, after a a a meetup that we had in Montreal, here in
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  Delta Montreal.
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  Just trying to find a restaurant and, you know, hitting every place that we could find around
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  the area where we were, and none of them having a ramp and a lot of them didn't have a huge,
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  you know, barrier.
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  Maybe it's 1 or 2 steps, but that's all it needs to prevent someone from getting in.
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  Or sometimes you would be able to get into the restaurant and then you realize that, you know,
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  the bathroom is on a different floor and you have stairs to get there.
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  So the place is technically accessible.
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  You can reach it, but once you're inside, you can't really navigate around the table since
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  it's too narrow or you can get to the restrooms or this or that.
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  So so those are, like, you're you're completely right.
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  When you start paying attention to these details, they jump at you from everywhere.
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  Like, they're they're they're all over the place.
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  So so, yeah, things that I've seen, my my most of my most of my my activities really related
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  to digital, so web and Internet in in general, I I've seen I've seen a lot of improvements
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  over the year over the years.
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  Most of them having to do with the fact that There's a lot of of different laws that were
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  adopted over the years that, you know, force organizations to be more inclusive to pay
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  attention to international standards to make sure that they comply with different sets of of
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  guidelines so that their content is not exclusionary of people with disabilities.
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  Or anyone who's marginalized by technology again.
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  It it goes from, you know, the ability to put content online say in a PDF document and not
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  having thought of someone being able or wanting to to use that document and the document not
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  being compatible with the tools that they're using.
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  Instance, if you think about someone who's blind, for instance, you know, it it it becomes
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  self evident when you start thinking about it, but the idea of using a mouse to point and
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  click on a monitor is pretty useless for someone who can't see.
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  So what's your what's your fallback and and to someone who's who's blind using their keyboard
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  as their fallback.
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  So they're gonna learn how their keyboard works.
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  They're gonna know where the keys are.
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  Much better than you and I ever will.
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  And that's how they that's that's how they interface with with the content, and they're
• 8:10
  going to use that keyboard to navigate in lieu of a mouse, for instance.
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  So and and the way that they're going to get the information on the screen is they're
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  they're going to have a software, a piece of software, that will either read the information
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  back to them, or they're going to have a different type of keyboard that basically is a
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  a braille display.
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  So it will convert the information that's on the screen and temporarily can read the
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  information with their fingers.
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  So and that's just one example out of many of how people with disabilities are going to work
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  around the challenges that they face so that they can select this content.
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  So over the years, we've seen that a lot of the the content online, a lot of the ways in which
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  developers, designers, content creators are putting content together as evolved from a
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  technical take the technological standpoint terms of complexity, in terms of all these
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  different things that we've seen, anyone who has paid attention to how designers evolved
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  over the last 20 years, knows that it's become more and more interactive, more and more
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  visual, and, and less and less just text based.
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  So through the years, as these different technologies were coming together, as video
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  became a thing, for instance, for a long time, these videos were not automatically captioned.
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  Someone who has deaf or hard of hearing had a much much harder time to follow along.
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  At some point, it became more of a thing that people were doing, and it now it's pretty much
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  a given in in, you know, most cases that there's gonna be at least some kind of
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  captioning happening or transcript happening for a podcast episode, for instance, that sort
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  of thing.
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  And and in all areas, basically, we've seen these improvements, never to a point where
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  things are perfect, but it's definitely easier and it gets easier over the years, because
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  technology allows for a lot of these things to the handle a bit more, you know, easily than
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  than they used to be.
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  So let's talk a little bit about, you know, the marketplace, right, for people that are
• 10:02
  inclusive versus not.
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  Okay.
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  And for, you know, Employers, you know, thinking of our interfaces, you and I are
• 10:12
  speaking here, but when people go to purchase any any service.
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  They're generally going to a website.
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  Right?
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  What are some of the fundamental things that you in your freight?
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  Cause I know you're you're gonna look at completely different potentially from me who
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  doesn't have those eyes for kinda, you know, digitizing and inclusivity.
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  What are some of the basic things that we should be looking for as a consumer if we're
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  looking for inclusivity if we if we go to a website.
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  Well, one of the most basic things, I'm gonna go back to what I just said.
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  So the ability to use a website without your mouse, being able to just use your keyboard.
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  A lot of people, you know, they're they're kind of power users of their keyboard instead of
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  pointing and clicking on different things and all that time moving from one target to
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  another, they might use their tab key, and then they're just gonna use tab tab tab and then go
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  through all the active elements of done their page that way.
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  So one of the key foundational pieces to see if a website is accessible is can you use the
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  entire website?
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  Can you do all these things that are available to you all, can you use all those features
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  without requiring the use of your mouse?
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  Can you can you achieve all of those things using just keyboard, your tab key, your return
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  key, your space bar, your escape key, the arrow keys on the bottom right corner.
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  Like, if you if you can use those those controls, and still use a site a 100%.
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  That's a really good indication that the site is accessible.
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  Someone like me, I'm color blind.
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  So, you know, I I am I experienced a lot of frustrations or barriers regularly with the use
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  of color on websites.
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  If colors are being used as a way to convey information and there's no other way to get a
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  sense of what that information is.
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  I I miss out on some of the content.
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  I miss out on some queues, for instance.
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  I may miss an error message if it's a dark red against dark gray text, like, I might not even
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  notice it in the first place.
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  Most people wouldn't think about that.
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  But for the 10% of us who are color blind, you know, that's the thing.
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  So there's all of these different things that that you can look into, in terms of how colors
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  are being leveraged how, how you can use your content without that mouse, how, logical the
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  the order the the ordering of the content is how technical the actual copy is.
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  You know, some of the things that that we we pay attention to in my field is the complexity
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  of of the copy itself.
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  And most people who create copy online are people who have postgraduate degrees.
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  They they they have university degrees.
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  Like, they're very well educated.
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  They have a re really high level of literacy.
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  And after population, as an average reading level, that's around 4th or 5th I mean, 9th or
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  10th grade if you convert it to, to to the the English system of the of the French Canadian 1.
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  But, so new the equivalent of about 13, 14 fifteen year old is is what most people have.
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  Like, more than half of the population is that's where they're at.
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  So there's a huge disconnect oftentimes between people who write content and people who consume
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  content.
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  People like me, what did we do is we work with organizations who have a tendency to over
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  complexify what they're writing and bringing it to a to a level that is better understood by,
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  by the majority of people.
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  So connecting through content that way, connecting through visuals, images, for
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  instance, making sure that if you have those images that contain information that we are
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  going to provide a file back again, a different modality to get the content of those images, So
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  that's someone again who's blind, for instance, when they get to an image with their screen
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  readers instead of just hearing image and not really knowing what it's about, that they hear
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  a description of what the graphic is so that they can tell what that's about and still
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  understand, you know, the content is being conveyed through visual, like a visual
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  component as opposed to just text and a bunch of other things like that.
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  But but it it's about making things simpler to use.
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  It's about making things more perceivable more operable, more understandable from a person's
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  perspective and from their tools, it's to make sure that the content is more robust and that
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  it works really well with the tools that they use so that all these different technologies
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  work together and can actually convey something back to them.
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  In a way that will make sense.
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  So it's technical.
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  A lot of it is technical.
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  And and we do this work with, with with, you know, designers, developers, and other other,
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  professor, web professionals, tweaking the message that an organization wants to send,
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  like, the the the brand wants to convey in a way that will be usable by more than just your
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  typical average user as we as we like to think of them.
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  What's interesting, you know, to my point about until I had a need, I didn't think about it.
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  So I think and now you're making me think about my website because I'm, like, thinking, you
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  know, is it accessible?
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  I'm not thinking, oh my goodness, Denny.
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  I I'd have to talk to you because
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  I'm
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  just thinking of an image.
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  And I know, like, captions.
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  I love it now because sometimes I don't wanna hear the sound.
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  And I actually just, you know, I actually turn off the sound and reread the captions because I
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  think I don't wanna hear something because I'm tired.
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  I might I might might you know, I might much prefer to read the words and and watch the
• 15:25
  person.
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  So it's interesting, right?
• 15:27
  Based on kind of how we're having different options.
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  It may not have been something that I would have even considered before, but now I might
• 15:34
  say, oh, I'm gonna watch this interview with Roxanne and Denny, but I'm just gonna you know,
• 15:37
  read the captions and and watch them instead of listening.
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  So it's giving you, you know, other people that may be able-bodied potentially, I think, up
• 15:45
  from my perspective with, mental resilience or, us using our capacities to detriment on being
• 15:53
  online, what, you know, the different ways that we might be accessing the information even
• 15:58
  though we have the capacity, but we want a different interface based on some of the things
• 16:03
  that you're talking, around senses, sites on taste, touch, smell, and and being able to
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  adapt, you know, to say, I'm gonna try this.
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  You know, I like Audible, for instance, because I can just listen, So, you know, because I'm
• 16:18
  reading all day and if I want to to hear something and I think, I wouldn't mind reading.
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  The last thing I wanna do is use my eyes.
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  So I will listen to
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  it for
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  books.
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  You know, so I think just, from inclusivity, it's probably also allowing other people to you
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  you to consume data or information in a different way.
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  It it absolutely absolutely is.
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  So I'll give you a couple of examples of that.
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  Most technologies that you and I use on our phones today come from a need to that need that
• 16:50
  needed to be addressed for disability standpoint to begin with.
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  Like, every day, I'm sure you use your phone and you magnify things on your phone by new new
• 16:58
  getting that little pinch to zoom gesture.
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  That was never built for you and I.
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  That was built for someone who had a low vision impairment and just couldn't see.
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  So, you know, you can zoom in and and read better.
• 17:10
  It became something that everybody adopted for obvious reasons, much in the same way that I
• 17:15
  know auto completion, whether we love that feature or not, and however, you know, accurate
• 17:20
  that feature is, it was not initially built us be more efficient in when when we're typing.
• 17:24
  It was meant for someone who had difficulty with you using their their hands to type, for
• 17:29
  instance, to help them get more efficient.
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  And it became something that everybody adopted.
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  Captions are the same way.
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  Captions were there initially to help someone who had a hearing a deficiency disability
• 17:40
  impairment or whatnot or someone who was completely deaf, and it became something that
• 17:43
  obviously a lot of people are using today.
• 17:46
  There's a lot more people leveraging captions on Netflix that have no hearing impairments,
• 17:51
  but, you know, they're watching Netflix where while there's there's spouse is sleeping next
• 17:56
  to them or their their kids are sleeping or no in a noisy environment.
• 17:59
  It don't wanna be disturbing to other people, that sort of thing.
• 18:02
  In a gym, in an airport, like, wherever we we consume captions, everybody, you know, adopts
• 18:08
  this and it becomes mainstream, but it all started from this idea of, okay, so how do we
• 18:13
  address particular challenge that some people have so that they can participate.
• 18:18
  And a lot of what I do, a lot of what people like me do, released exactly that.
• 18:23
  It's taking those technologies and then making them more mainstream so that they become part
• 18:27
  of our, you know, day to day, use and we take them for granted.
• 18:33
  But for some people, they're more than just a convenience.
• 18:36
  They're a necessity if they want to participate.
• 18:39
  So when you look at that, because I think I I know I've hit the voice activation on my on my
• 18:44
  iPhone and then trying to figure out how to turn it off with my dilemma.
• 18:47
  Today?
• 18:48
  I'm like, it's telling me stuff.
• 18:49
  I'm like, what did I touch?
• 18:51
  But really from a perspective, let these got developed for, to give people capacity based on
• 18:57
  the, whatever they're needing.
• 18:58
  I think that's that's phenomenal that that's been possible.
• 19:02
  Now I want you to talk a little bit about, the concept of what are we missing in the
• 19:11
  marketplace if we're not being accessible.
• 19:15
  Like Right.
• 19:15
  With, you know, topic.
• 19:16
  Because I think you have so many employees, that need inclusivity for lots of different
• 19:23
  ways.
• 19:24
  What is the what what are employers or companies missing if they're not thinking
• 19:31
  through things from the perspective of inclusive that's safe.
• 19:34
  So so the the first thing I wanna tell you and and and all the listeners is that people with
• 19:39
  disabilities are a much more prevalent group than we realize.
• 19:43
  Most of us might know a person or 2 that we identify as having a disability, but most of us
• 19:50
  are I mean, the majority of us, if not all of us are unaware of all the folks around us who
• 19:54
  actually have disabilities.
• 19:55
  In Canada, for instance, it's 22% of the population that self identifies as having at
• 20:00
  least one disability.
• 20:01
  If you're thinking United States, it's 26%.
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  So we're somewhere between 1 to 4 to 1 to 5, 1 out of 5 of the population, self identifying as
• 20:10
  such.
• 20:11
  The thing is the reason why we don't notice those people like that much is that 80% of
• 20:15
  those disabilities are invisible.
• 20:16
  And what I mean by that is you know, learning disabilities, ADHD, for instance, I mean,
• 20:21
  dyslexia, for instance, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, everything around neurodiversity
• 20:27
  ADHD, the autism spectrum, you know, traumatic brain injuries, like, all these different
• 20:32
  things that exist that are not necessarily visible color blindness, again here.
• 20:37
  Yes.
• 20:37
  Is another example of that anxiety issues, mental health issues, like, all those things
• 20:41
  will fit into this general category of situations that can be quite disabling for some
• 20:47
  people, but you can't really tell the way that you can tell someone being blind or someone
• 20:51
  being in a wheelchair, for instance.
• 20:52
  Someone being deaf, you know, it becomes pretty obvious, pretty but some of these other things
• 20:57
  like ADHD, you might never really know.
• 21:00
  So but all those folks are going to experience the same web that we do in a very different way
• 21:06
  based on their challenges.
• 21:08
  For some people, it's gonna be about the ability to see what's there for some other some
• 21:12
  other people is gonna be aware whether they can hear it or not.
• 21:14
  And in some other cases, it's gonna be whether they can process the information or not.
• 21:18
  But that 22 to 26% of the population in North America, let's say, Canada and US, this group
• 21:27
  has a very significant, purchasing power as well.
• 21:31
  In in Canada alone, if you look at the information based on the Ontario Chamber of
• 21:35
  Commerce, it's $55,000,000,000 a year in after tax disposable income.
• 21:39
  That's 55,000,000.
• 21:42
  With a b as in banana.
• 21:43
  Right?
• 21:44
  So 55, 55,000,000,000 in Canada alone per year.
• 21:48
  If you look at the United States, it's 504,000,000,000 a year.
• 21:51
  So half a $1,000,000,000 a year, is what they what they control.
• 21:57
  If you if as a bit, as a business, you are not paying attention to inclusivity.
• 22:01
  If you're not paying attention to accessibility, you're basically cutting
• 22:05
  yourself out of that potential market because those folks, if they can't use your services,
• 22:10
  they're gonna go elsewhere to someone who actually pays attention to that.
• 22:13
  So it is by far the largest untapped and underserved market that we have that we're not
• 22:19
  even aware that we have.
• 22:20
  And, and so in the you know, that's one of the reasons why there there's there's so many laws
• 22:24
  and regulations around these questions because it's a very large group of people.
• 22:29
  And as we've become more and more, you know, embedded into the digital space, for services
• 22:38
  and products and everything, you create a pretty significant chasm between some
• 22:43
  population and and some others and people are left behind.
• 22:46
  But when you look when you look at and and the thing is also because you're you're we're
• 22:50
  talking about the market here.
• 22:51
  If we just look at Canada, for instance, like I said, 55,000,000,000 a year, not an
• 22:57
  insignificant.
• 22:58
  And, but that's just people with disabilities.
• 23:02
  And and and the data that I'm sharing with you, that 22% for Canada, for instance, that's you
• 23:06
  know, working age population in general.
• 23:08
  It's not we're not even considering people that are getting older are seniors, for instance,
• 23:12
  people who have spent the last 30, 20, 30 years with technology that eventually retire.
• 23:18
  They don't stop using technology all of a sudden.
• 23:20
  They still use technology, but they've also gathered, you know, wealth or over over their
• 23:26
  their their their their their time, like, their lifetime, and they have money to spend.
• 23:31
  And they have time to spend it.
• 23:33
  And they have grandkids to, you know, to to spoil and have all these different things.
• 23:37
  Where are they going to spend their money?
• 23:39
  Online, are they going to be sending it with you or somebody else?
• 23:42
  Probably somebody else if your site is not accessible to them.
• 23:45
  As we get older, all these things that we identify a disability standpoint become more
• 23:51
  and more relevant for someone who's just getting older.
• 23:53
  And I'm 51, arguably, pretty young still, though I don't feel that way every single day,
• 23:59
  but I know that my sight, my hearing, my ability to maintain concentration for a long
• 24:04
  time.
• 24:04
  All those things are not as great as the use be just 5 or 10 years ago.
• 24:08
  I have no idea what that's gonna look like when I'm 65, but it's probably not gonna be better
• 24:12
  than today.
• 24:13
  So I'm I'm on the path where all my senses are slowly deteriorating that way.
• 24:19
  And and I recognize a lot of the early signs of other things that, you know, at some point, I
• 24:23
  may need that kind of accommodation to be able to to to successfully do what I'm doing.
• 24:28
  So on top of of the this data that I shared with you, you've got all the data that relates
• 24:33
  to our seniors.
• 24:36
  Their prevalence in terms of of a demographic around 18, 19%, again, in in due to the the US
• 24:42
  and Canada.
• 24:42
  Somewhere around there is what we have for sixty five year olds and older.
• 24:46
  And then what they control is much higher than what people with disabilities control.
• 24:50
  So, again, that's another market.
• 24:52
  And when you look at at what people call the disability market, which is basically folks
• 24:58
  with disabilities and those who care about them, people who could be swayed one way or
• 25:03
  another to go do business with your company or somebody else's company because of the way that
• 25:08
  their friend or their loved ones were treated or felt they could be swayed to go in a
• 25:13
  different direction and not go to you because you failed to service people that they care
• 25:17
  about.
• 25:18
  And and we live in a in a world now where inclusion, diversity, equity, all these values
• 25:24
  are much more present in people's minds.
• 25:28
  And the data shows that 77% of people are likely to choose a an organization that is more
• 25:35
  inclined towards DEI.
• 25:36
  And and as a result of that, you are identified as not being that way, then again, you lose
• 25:41
  opportunities.
• 25:41
  So if it even if it wasn't for a society from a societal standpoint, like wanting to do the
• 25:46
  right thing as a business, from a business standpoint, there are so many incentives to pay
• 25:50
  attention to those things and just open up to to a new market.
• 25:54
  Right?
• 25:54
  Because you never wanna think, you know, that you're trying to exclude anybody, right,
• 25:59
  intentionally.
• 26:00
  I mean, unintentionally, clearly, Denny, I would say, that a lot of companies do that.
• 26:06
  But, you know, with with all this capacity now, like with digitization across the board.
• 26:11
  And, of course, we know that's just gonna get more and more in business.
• 26:14
  It it even becomes more, important from not just from, like I said, from doing the right
• 26:21
  thing, but really, fiscally from a business perspective, it makes sense that you start to
• 26:26
  consider this.
• 26:27
  Now I'd like to I'd like to talk about your book.
• 26:29
  Denise has just, just, just, released an amazing book, which Dani, I want you to tell
• 26:36
  everybody about the book because this is all information that I think, is valuable, and we
• 26:42
  all need to be able to read this start thinking about it in our business.
• 26:46
  So tell us a little bit about the book and, you know, what, what do you think some of the
• 26:51
  nuggets are in reference to why people should go up and buy the look.
• 26:55
  Sure.
• 26:55
  Thank you for the opportunity.
• 26:57
  Well, the book is is titled the inclusive speaker, speaker in the sense of professional
• 27:03
  who speaks in front of a group.
• 27:05
  In some cases, like you and I, it's professional speakers talking to an audience.
• 27:09
  In other cases, it might be, you know, a a business leader talking to their teams in a
• 27:13
  meeting room, or it can be a salesperson making a pitch in front of a bunch of prospects and
• 27:18
  trying to convert them into into clients, like, anyone who speaks with other people and
• 27:23
  monetizes that activity is is who that that target audience is.
• 27:28
  So the book is a titled Incosa speaker out of truly connect with all of your audience without
• 27:31
  leaving anyone behind.
• 27:32
  So it's pretty telling what the book is about just by that that title hopefully.
• 27:37
  In the book, I'm bake basically making the case that I very briefly mentioned, like, may made
• 27:43
  up with you now in terms of the the market and all these different opportunities.
• 27:48
  It's all it's about helping people understand how much money they're leaving on the table
• 27:52
  every year.
• 27:53
  By not, paying attention to inclusion as much as they should or could.
• 27:58
  It's about showing and teaching people different tips and tricks so that they can
• 28:03
  change their approach when they're communicating to, to an audience so that no one
• 28:08
  feels left out so that no one feels disengaged, feels like they're not welcomed into that
• 28:15
  conversation.
• 28:17
  So it's like I'm I'm using it from an approach of different types of disabilities the book
• 28:21
  introduces, 8 different personas or or characters, if you will, that have different
• 28:26
  types of disabilities that are into different in different situations.
• 28:29
  Attending, you know, live events, for instance, or or meetings in a boardroom, that sort of
• 28:34
  thing.
• 28:34
  And the kind of challenges that they or barriers that they run into and how we as
• 28:38
  speakers could have avoided those barriers by just doing things a little different by by
• 28:42
  accounting for a particular consideration of this or that.
• 28:46
  And, so there's over, like, 200.
• 28:48
  I I I lost count really, like, over 200 different tips and tricks like that to pay
• 28:52
  attention to.
• 28:53
  To become more inclusive as a communication professional.
• 28:57
  And then the book leads into a model that I'm that I'm proposing to people to, to go down
• 29:03
  that path of becoming more inclusive?
• 29:05
  Like, how and what can you do to take stock of where you are today in terms of how you
• 29:10
  deliver, how you share information, the words that you use, the techniques that you use, and
• 29:15
  learn to to adapt and add more to your toolkit, so that when you speak in front of a group,
• 29:21
  everyone feels compelled to, you know, come in with with that conversation with you.
• 29:26
  Because they feel like you see them, but you welcome them as well.
• 29:31
  In a nutshell, that's what that is.
• 29:32
  There there's a ton of different tools in there to help you, again, like, self assess where you
• 29:36
  are and help you understand how to get to the next level.
• 29:40
  And hopefully through that, people can go down that particular path.
• 29:43
  And become consciously more and more inclusive knowing and understanding why they do it and
• 29:50
  the benefits that come from doing that.
• 29:53
  Towards towards reaching a broader audience.
• 29:56
  That's amazing.
• 29:57
  So I think something that, we all can, learn from.
• 30:02
  So let's say you're talking to a CEO and I want you to think, you know, there's gonna be some
• 30:07
  senior level people or CEOs listening and what are some of the top, say, 1 or 2 tips that you
• 30:14
  can tell them or could tell them to consider about being more of an inclusive, speaker that
• 30:21
  maybe they could walk away and reflect on and then potentially go on and and if they wanted
• 30:26
  to learn more, buy the book.
• 30:29
  There's so many things that that CEOs can do, that senior executives can do really to to
• 30:35
  create a culture of inclusion in their organization.
• 30:38
  It begins by embodying the message yourself.
• 30:44
  You have to provide people with the buy in that they need so that they can feel that this is
• 30:49
  worth their time, that they're not going to be you know, discarded if they tried these
• 30:53
  different things.
• 30:54
  So speaking to the value of inclusion in your under in in your organization, educating
• 31:02
  yourself, really, about the benefits of having a diverse workforce and and, you know, the
• 31:06
  benefits of being able to draw from different perspectives if everybody in your company kinda
• 31:11
  looks the same, everybody kinda thinks the same way, it diminishes your ability to innovate, to
• 31:16
  be creative.
• 31:17
  If you have people that have very diverse perspectives, whether it's because of of their
• 31:22
  gender, because of their race, because of the where they come from, because of new cultural
• 31:26
  differences, because of disability, people come in with their own experiences.
• 31:31
  And when you put all that together, you get a much more diverse creative workforce, and you
• 31:37
  can benefit from that.
• 31:38
  So so one of the ways in which CEOs can really impact that piece is making sure that you you
• 31:46
  are in an organization that that favors hiring diversity, that you make sure that people who
• 31:52
  are in, like, checking that that that that box of diversity are not just tokens for you, but
• 31:59
  they're really put in a position where they influence your company.
• 32:03
  They are getting the same opportunity that as others to grow into the business and influence
• 32:07
  the business in in their own way themselves so that others can see that they're doing that so
• 32:12
  that you can understand that day 2 could eventually grow into disposition and transform
• 32:16
  your culture with everyone contributing to a broader, more diverse perspective.
• 32:23
  So it really begins with sharing the message about this is something that we value.
• 32:28
  And and, of course, why not explain why that is.
• 32:31
  I mean, part of it course, it's gonna be, yes, we wanna do the right thing, but it's totally
• 32:34
  okay to say, you know, there's a huge market, huge opportunity that we could tap into if only
• 32:39
  we were doing that as well.
• 32:41
  And start with something like this.
• 32:43
  I mean, it's pretty simple to begin with.
• 32:45
  Allow people to create, you know, resource groups internally where people can can gather
• 32:51
  and talk about these ideas if you don't have a diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative
• 32:55
  already start putting one together, like, task someone to be responsible for creating ADI
• 33:01
  initiative internally so that people feel that they belong in your business that they're, you
• 33:07
  know, they're they're they're they're they're seen, they're respected, they're valued, and
• 33:12
  see where that leads you.
• 33:13
  I mean, it can only lead you down a very positive path, ultimately.
• 33:17
  Yes.
• 33:17
  And I think, to your point, it's, if you are the role model to say, if I don't know within
• 33:23
  my, employee base, what that translates out to.
• 33:28
  Right?
• 33:28
  Like, how many people are visually impaired?
• 33:30
  How many people have deficits in hearing?
• 33:33
  How many people have neurodiversity needs, or how many people are from different culture,
• 33:37
  racially, they're different.
• 33:40
  Orientation, they're different.
• 33:41
  To that's, to me, is a beginning step to say, okay, we need to be able to have, like you
• 33:47
  said, these ERGs where we start to discuss implications for whatever industry you're in
• 33:54
  starting there to show that you are willing, to stand behind this, who think is a is a is an
• 34:00
  amazing beginning point.
• 34:02
  Now, Denise, this has been amazing.
• 34:05
  Where can people reach you and and where can they buy the book?
• 34:09
  Please let them know.
• 34:10
  We will also have a link, with the podcast, but let them know where they can get a hold
• 34:15
  Sure.
• 34:16
  So so the book can be easily found on on my website.
• 34:19
  So inclusive.ca.
• 34:20
  So that's in klusiv.
• 34:24
  Dotca/books.
• 34:26
  Simple enough.
• 34:27
  There's a dedicated page to the inclusive speaker book.
• 34:31
  It will lead you to Amazon.
• 34:33
  You can you can easily get a Kindle copy.
• 34:35
  I I I I long I soft launched last Thursday.
• 34:38
  That was at 16th March.
• 34:41
  So until the 1st April, it's $1.99.
• 34:45
  So, I mean, it's not that expensive, really, to get to get the the Kindle copy.
• 34:50
  The bulk will get to regular price as of April 1st, and the paperback is coming out any day
• 34:55
  now.
• 34:56
  We're we're still working on last little last couple of details with the the publisher for
• 35:01
  design, but any day now, the paperback will be available as well.
• 35:06
  Yeah.
• 35:06
  So so inclusive.ca/books is where you can find all the information about that book and
• 35:11
  incidentally about me as well.
• 35:13
  Awesome.
• 35:13
  Well, thanks so much for your time.
• 35:15
  So what am I walking away with?
• 35:16
  Like, I think, Denis has blown my mind when I think about in Canada 50 4,000,000 and
• 35:23
  55,000,000.
• 35:24
  Billion.
• 35:25
  Sorry.
• 35:25
  And in in the US, 560
• 35:29
  4,000,000,000.
• 35:30
  4 504.
• 35:32
  If if you if you combine if you combine US and Canada together, basically, you're talking
• 35:35
  about 555,000,000,000, 554,000,000,000
• 35:39
  Oh, you've educated me on it it's it's, you know, if we're missing the boat on this as in,
• 35:45
  company owners were really missing.
• 35:47
  And it's in, again, it's the good thing to do, but other than that, it makes such business
• 35:51
  sense.
• 35:52
  Yeah.
• 35:53
  Definitely.
• 35:54
  The call to action is to look and see who's around you, how are you addressing it, and what
• 35:59
  steps are you willing to take to start ensuring that you have and become a DEI model for the
• 36:05
  company, that you lead.
• 36:08
  So for everyone, thanks so much, Denise, thanks so much for your time.
• 36:11
  Everyone, If you're needing more on me and you wanted to know more about how you be as a
• 36:17
  leader on authenticity, go to roxanderhodge.comforward slash quiz.
• 36:22
  1 one zed, and you can do a quick assessment and we'll send you off the results.
• 36:26
  Again, Denis, thanks so much for your time.
• 36:29
  And I look forward to connecting and, We'll see you soon.
• 36:33
  Thank you.
• 36:35
  Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive,
• 36:40
  healthy change.
• 36:42
  Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne.
• 36:48
  Visit Roxanne Durgesh dotcom/blueprint.
• 36:52
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