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The Hidden Potential of Accessible Websites · The One Small Change Podcast

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Welcome to the One Small Change. I am thrilled that you're here with me
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today on this journey of exploration, transformation. I'm your
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host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of
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entrepreneurial experience, and I have a passion for discovering
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growth through the power of seemingly small change. And every
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week, I try to, you know, bring into your world somebody who's got
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an amazing story, and they're going to share how
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a small, unexpected, or insignificant
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decision sparked a remarkable transformation and growth in
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their personal or professional life. And this week
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we have Danielle Stephens. Danielle, thank you for giving us some of
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your time today. Yeah, no, I really appreciate it, and I'm glad
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to be here. So this is not the first time we've talked,
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and I want you to tell everybody what it is that you do,
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because I think they're going to be amazed and how you got to
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do what you do. Awesome. So I am an accessibility
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tester consultant, and I
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have been a independent contractor for the past
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three years for a program, a
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company called Make It Fable Technologies. And they hire people
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with disabilities, like myself to help
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different help companies to make their products,
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insert products and websites accessible for people
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with disabilities. And you have an amazing
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statistic. So I want to say this up front and at the beginning of
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this so people know how important this is.
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Yeah. So the statistic is that
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there are 15 million people in the United States that are blind and
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visually impaired. However,
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those. That's not the statistic that is, like the
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most jarring, but the one that is the most jarring
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to me is that there are millions of websites that are out
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there. Of the millions of websites that are
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out here today, that
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only 3% of them,
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3% are fully accessible
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for a person like me, which means that 96%
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of them are either partially
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accessible or in some cases,
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not accessible at all.
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And I think one of the things you said to me and one of the
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things that I thought was so important, it said, not only are you leaving
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money on the table, but you're really leaving people on the table as well.
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Yes. I think that is so important to know. But I was.
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When you first said this, I was totally blown away, because
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this is a problem that entrepreneurs have that
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they don't know that they have. And I think
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when they hear this, they will be amazed at
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some of the things that they can do that can
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correct some of these, because that's a lot. I mean,
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you know, 96% are not accessible.
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The market itself is millions. We're. We're.
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We're leaving A lot on the table. Yeah.
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Yes. So tell us how you got where you are
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so that you are working in this area. So
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I've always been interested in tech ever since I was in high
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school, and I threw some
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coaching and. And some influence
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through teachers and other things, other people in my life.
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I decided after I got out of college
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that it was Covid, and I didn't want to, like,
3:50
go into anybody's office or anything like that. And I.
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I wanted to really help. Right. I. I was able
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to. Thanks to the power of zoom and
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cell phones, I was able to meet with a bunch of people, different
4:07
entrepreneurs. And one of the things that
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I was. I was given a challenge by
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one of them, and they told me, they said, hey, you need to create
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some type, of course, or go in the business for yourself to help
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entrepreneurs. And that's kind of what
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sparked it all. And I. I just.
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I. I've really.
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I've really grown, right, by
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doing all the things that I'm doing, being on podcast
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and networking and connecting
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with so many people like yourself and others.
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And now I am about
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to launch my program here in the next
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six months. And that's. And I only did that
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because I've only invested in
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myself, right. Because I know that it's not only
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a market that is. It's a
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market that is much needed, but also that
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by being able to connect with people like myself,
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you're going to be able to increase your profits and grow your customer
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base. Absolutely. And so I want to kind of go back
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to what I said. We. It. It's a
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problem. Guys, I got a dog. The doorbell
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rang. We're live. I don't know how much you're hearing of this.
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I want to go back to what we don't
5:43
know.
5:43
Oh,
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all right. I hope that's it. No, it's not. I want to go back to
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what we were talking about, that this is a problem that entrepreneurs don't know that
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they have. And you may have only been
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experienced this when you had a parent that couldn't read something on a
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website because they were older. I had a friend who
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told me that, and I noticed it for
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myself that when the print is gray, sometimes I have trouble
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reading it, you know, and there are lots of other ways
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that it shows up. So can you talk about some of the
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ways that people have trouble interacting with the
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websites and things that we take for granted? I guess,
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yes. And it's not just the websites. It's. It's other things,
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too. But I'm glad You mentioned that, because that actually leads
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me into my gift that everybody's going to be getting,
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which is it's not only my top 10
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AI tools, but this gift really
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enables you to kind of get
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a glimpse into the world of
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digital accessibility and AI from my
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perspective. And so within this gift, one
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of the tips that I put, put in there was
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the fact that using AI bots,
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AI chatbots to
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help your customers and clients
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to be able to get to know you, right? Where they can.
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Instead of maybe they don't want to write an email, right? But
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guess what? They can go on your website and interact with your
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chatbot and ask them, ask it
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questions about what you
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do and who you serve and about your programs,
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right? Also, you can
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use different AIs like ChatGPT,
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Claude
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Otter AI. And you can actually take the,
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take your, you can
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take your, your,
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your audio podcasts,
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right? And you can take them and you can
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put them in these AIs and they will
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literally transcribe them into text for you,
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right? So that somebody like myself or somebody who
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has a ADHD
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can be able to, to read them and
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to be able to, to enjoy them, right? For people who don't
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like audio, well, they can get a
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summary of whatever you,
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whatever your video is that you might
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have on your website. You can put a transcript there. And guess what?
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All you have to do is ask AI to create a
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transcript from your video and you
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can add it at the bottom, which is something that
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I noticed that when web, when people have webinars that are on
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demand, they forget to, they always remember
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to do the captions, but they forget to put a transcript up the
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bottom so the people like myself can follow along.
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So this is something that I want to highlight that you're talking
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about. So a lot of the things that you're suggesting
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that people do are not just for people with
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disabilities, but people with different learning styles. Yes.
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You know, so for instance, you know, if you are a
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visual learner, you typically don't like listening to things.
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You would prefer to read it rather than listen to it.
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If you are an audio person, you would typically prefer to
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hear it when then read it. And so even, you know, even
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your regular customers are going to benefit for some of the
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changes that you would put on your website. And you know, like
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I said, I'm getting older. I know, for instance, you know,
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I can take things and just make it bigger on my screen,
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you know, if I'm in the chat box or whatever. So I can, you know,
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it's Easier for me to use or whatever. But that wasn't the
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only thing that we talked about. We, we also talked about,
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what's it called? Chat. Yeah, Chatbots. And
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like. Oh, captcha. So, yeah, so the, these
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little captures that you see all around, whether it's on your
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apps, your websites, whatever it might be.
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One of the things that is really important is that
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you not only have an image for the people that can see,
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but also that you have an audio captcha so
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that somebody like myself is able to
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register for your event or,
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or subscribe to your email address, to your email list
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without any barriers. And so
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I can either listen to it. Like they
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have a way that you can play. You can,
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it'll. It'll. You can play it. Or if you want to just
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put like a text or maybe
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numbers or whatever that the person has to
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enter right into a text box instead
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of just an image. That is something that is such
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so helpful because I, I know that I
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actually didn't sign up for someone's accelerator
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because of the captcha. Everything else was fine, but
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when I got to the captcha, I couldn't. It was
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not accessible. So I have to tell you, I hate
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them. I hate to find which one has a crosswalk,
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find which one has a bicycle, find which one has a motorcycle.
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Right. Because the pictures are so weird. I think.
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So I could see how that could help, you know, not not only people
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who are visually impaired, but just people who have, you know, have short
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attention spans. Exactly. Like me. I mean, it's like,
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you know, if I miss one, am I going to have to do it again?
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Am I? You know, so y. And I know the
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other thing we talked about was a statement that people
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can put on their website. Yeah. So it's called an accessibility
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statement. And a lot of times I haven't really seen
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it a lot in entrepreneurs websites, but however,
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they call it an accessibility statement. However,
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I just say put it in your Contact us. Right.
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And normally what you can just do is on your Contact us
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page you can just say for any
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questions or if you need any assistance, like
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please write me or email me or call
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me. Right. Just so that somebody like
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myself can have a place to know that hey,
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this person really cares about
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making about me and what I have to
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offer. And so. Or
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you can also do a. Like they have
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something called they have an access. I've seen people have
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feedback forms and in this little form it just
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says it's like an accessibility feedback form. And it. And
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ask, well, did you. If
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you have Any accessibility issues, please write
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them here. Right. So, so that, and,
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and we will take your suggestions and
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feedback into consideration. So that's also something that you can
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do. That's good. That's good.
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And, and when we talked before, we were talking about, I mean, those were
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the three big ones that I remembered that I think people can
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take action on immediately.
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But you were saying there, you know, part of it has to do with some
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simple things like fonts. Yeah. So it's
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like making sure that. So a lot of times these
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platforms or social media,
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web, social media websites, they have
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things already like kind of built into them.
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Right. Where it's like, hey, you could turn on alt Text
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on Facebook. Right. And, or you can
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turn it on on LinkedIn. However, if
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they're not available already, there are these things
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called Accessibility Checkers where
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you can. And some of them are free, some of them do cost.
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Right. But there are
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ways that you can put your website into
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these Accessibility Checkers and it
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will literally scan your website and let you
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know if your website is accessible and
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if it is, how much is it, how much of it
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isn't accessible. Right. And
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it'll also give you recommendations
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on how you can improve it and fix it and make
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it better. I mean, that's something that I am going to be
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offering to people, but
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it's just something that you can do right now because you
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can go out and search for Accessibility
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Checker. There's plenty of them. One of them I use is, that is
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Accessibility Insights. They can call you too,
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right? Yes, they can.
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Yes, they can. I have a Contact Us page.
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I have a. I will, I do have a way
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to connect with me and
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my gift, actually. Okay. So we, we definitely want to
16:04
get the gift. I, I, like I said, I think that this is
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really important, important issue because it
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is a problem that we have that we
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don't know we have. And it is, you know, it is
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keeping us from a huge market
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and a huge, you know, you know, a huge
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group of potential clients that we didn't even know
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that we were cutting off. And, and so the first time I talked with
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Danielle, you know, at a networking group,
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I was like, oh, my God, I never even thought about this. And
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so I know that, you know, I know that I have had my disability,
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not disability, my, my own visual and, you
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know, learning stumbling blocks. So I am
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aware of that kind of stuff, but never thought of it in terms of
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my business. The other thing I'm going to ask you,
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Danielle, is only because I know
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the story is Tell us why you picked your background.
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So I picked the background because when I was in
17:13
high school, I got a chance to attend a program called Protein
17:16
Crystals in Space. And I'm a huge science buff as well as a tech
17:20
geek. I nerd out on both of these. And I got
17:24
a chance to go to Hunville, Alabama,
17:28
and participate in a program that allowed
17:32
me and some of my other friends to make
17:35
protein crystals. And as a result of that, we got
17:39
to go to the Kennedy Space center here in
17:43
Florida and actually watch this launch happen
17:47
where they actually launched into space.
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And we all got to like to see it happen
17:55
live. I mean, who would have thought, right, that
18:00
I was in 11th grade, and
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it was honestly one of the highlights of
18:08
my year that year. And I can imagine most of
18:11
us would love to see a launch and have our project on
18:15
a space thing. All right, so let me ask you, when was the last time
18:18
you did something new? For the first time, on Wednesday, I
18:22
participated in Ponta Palooza. I participated before
18:26
as a general admission, but I was interviewed
18:30
on five podcasts, and that
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was. It was awesome because I got to
18:39
talk about my. My. What I do
18:42
and who I serve from five, and I get to.
18:46
I got to do it with five different people who do
18:50
all do different things, which means that I got to give
18:54
five different perspectives of about the same
18:58
topic. So you. You. You
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enlighten five different audiences about the problem that they
19:05
have that they don't know they have. Okay, Exactly. And one of
19:09
them. One of them is not only going
19:12
to be a podcast, but it's going to be
19:16
a part of a book that's.
19:20
Yeah, it was all about AI, and so
19:24
I'm gonna be a part of a book as a result of
19:27
participating in that on that podcast. That's
19:31
fantastic. All right, before we run out of time, I need to slip in the
19:34
commercial, and so I hope everybody will take a moment to
19:38
subscribe, share, and engage in on social media with the
19:42
podcast. I did it so to help you to supercharge
19:45
your business and to bring people into your orb that you may
19:49
not have met to find tips that are going to help you
19:54
and grow and fuel your quest for growth and impact. So I hope you
19:57
will continue to. To tune into the one small change
20:01
and, you know, see where even the smallest shift can
20:05
yield monumental transformation. And if you haven't done
20:08
it, you may want to listen to some of the, you know, the one off
20:12
episodes. The one. The first one that explains why I did what I. Why
20:16
I decided to do this podcast, but also the
20:19
ones that are the the quarterly clarity check ins which talk
20:23
about things to think up with about the upcoming quarters
20:27
and possible trends. So
20:30
Danielle, what is, you know the last thing you
20:34
want to leave our listeners with? So I want to leave you with
20:38
two things. One is that
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accessibility,
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it's not just a box that you check, but it should be
20:50
at the forefront and the center of your business.
20:54
And two, if you're not accessible,
20:58
then you're leaving money and people on the table. And
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I, I really, really, really want you to get
21:06
my gift because I don't want to give everything away.
21:09
But please connect with me. Let's have a
21:13
virtual coffee chat at the very least so that
21:17
I can help you to
21:21
to make your products and services accessible
21:25
and also so that I can find out more about what
21:29
you do and who you do it for so that we can
21:33
collaborate in some form
21:36
or fashion. And maybe you'll join my program
21:40
when I, I launch it in the future. But I
21:44
just really want you to think about
21:47
access digital accessibility and how you
21:51
can use it to be more productive
21:55
and grow your customer base.
21:58
Sounds good to me. Okay people, remember,
22:02
change is simple, but it's not always easy. And it requires
22:06
courage, resilience and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone. If
22:10
you're not willing to be uncomfortable, you are not growing. And the world
22:13
is constantly changing. It is moving forward whether you want it to
22:17
or not. So if you're not moving, if you're not
22:20
uncomfortable, if you're not growing, you're stagnating, you're falling behind.
22:24
So I hope you will join me we on the one small change again as
22:27
we embark on this journey of bold visions and innovative
22:31
possibilities. And until the next time, I hope you stay
22:35
very curious. Danielle, thank you for sharing with
22:39
us. Yeah, it was great. And I hope
22:43
everybody takes a chance to listen
22:47
and connect with me. Goodbye everybody.