Accessible Technology Helps to Level the Playing Field for Everyone | Episode 103

Accessible Technology Helps to Level the Playing Field for Everyone with Jessica Ann Stewart | Episode 103

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Can you imagine navigating the world when everything seems to be designed for those on two legs? Our guest for today, Jessica Ann Stewart, founder of Given Accessibility, has been courageously challenging this reality every day. Turning her personal journey as a wheelchair user into her mission, she has been relentlessly advocating for accessibility, starting from her college campus at Lorain County Community College. Tune in and get inspired by her story of transforming obstacles into opportunities, from fixing broken door buttons to lowering paper towel dispensers.

In the second half of our chat, Jessica lets us into her world of motivation. She speaks lovingly about her family's unwavering support and the enduring legacy of her late father. Listen as she takes us through the meticulous process of registering Given Accessibility with the United States Patent and Trade Office, adding credibility to her cause. Moreover, Jessica shares how she harnesses the power of the internet and social media to amplify her reach and spread her message globally. Join us as we explore Jessica's inspiring journey of turning her passion for accessibility into a mission to bring awareness and make a difference in the world.

#Accessibility #Inspiration #Podcast #Advocacy #Advocate #accessible #Japan #Tokyo #Osaka #Singapore #Malaysia #Australia #Sydney #Melbourne #Brisbane #KualaLumpur

Transcript

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 0:01

Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices. We're going to go ahead and jump straight into our conversation today, really excited to have our guests joining us. If you are able to, please like and share, follow us. Reach out to your friends, your family, loved ones, share this show with them and podcast. Again, this comes in all forms, comes on TV, it is on our YouTube channel and then all audio platforms. So we're really trying to reach and help the most people. If you want to learn more about Voices for Voices, we are a 501-C3 nonprofit charity organization. You can visit us at VoicesforVoices. org or on any of the social media platforms to find the latest and greatest that we are working on, planning and again trying to reach that goal over my lifetime to help 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. So we'll go ahead and jump in.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 1:13

As I said, joining us from Lorain, Ohio, is Jessica Ann Stewart. She is the owner of Given Accessibility. She is a large advocate for the disabled community and under. If we look at Given Accessibility, she has kind of three pillars that really describe that and those three are awareness, advocate and accessibility. And also Jessica Ann went through the arduous process of working with the United States patent and trade organization and getting Given Accessibility registered, so gives just extra credibility to her work. Her organization helps obviously with algorithms when people are doing searches across the web on apps. Jessica Ann is also a huge Ohio sports fan and likes fishing. So, Jessica Ann Stewart, thank you for joining us today.

Jessica Ann Stewart: 2:20

Oh, thank you for having me.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 2:22

You're welcome To get started. Can you maybe talk about where the advocate and you came from, kind of how that got started, and then we can mold and transition into Given Accessibility and where you're at and then all the great things and the outreach that you're doing.

Jessica Ann Stewart: 2:45

Yes, so I was a Marine County Community College student and that's what started my advocacy, because the college was not 100% accessible. So I had to kind of work with them to make it more accessible for me, as me being a wheelchair user. So I work with the accessibility office to kind of make it more accessible for me as a wheelchair user.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 3:30

So being able to reach out to the accessibility office, that's something that some of us reaching out to people that we might not know is a little bit scary and like, okay, who do I talk to, Do I visit them in their office or how do I even start the process? Was that an easy process? Because you had that drive of wanting the accessibility to be more uniform across school?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 4:01

Yes. So when I first registered as a student, one of the first things is I registered with the accessibility office so that I could be more successful in the classroom. And then, as time went on, as I was going through my student career at the college, I noticed that, for example, some of the buttons on the doors wasn't working, so I would have to go to them and ask them to fix it. So that kind of what started against my advocacy.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 4:45

Yeah, and that's important. As for me as a person, I know there's many things that I take for granted and, like you, mentioned the buttons on the door. I would take that for granted because I would look at the options and say, okay, well, the button's not working, so I'll just go ahead and open the door. But that's not the case, and that's where bringing everybody together and learning that we need to make everything accessible Everything from one of the hot topics is accessible playgrounds as well that children are able, no matter what they look like, what their disability, what their ability is, taking all that out and just say, if a child wants to go play on a playground, let's give them a space to do it and not have to make different steps along the way. So thank you for doing that for your school and your college, because I think that probably opened up their eyes of their student base that they rely on some of these things that we sometimes might take for granted.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 6:07

How did that conversation go? Did you just ask? Or you say, look, here's the problem, just from somebody out there might be going through the same thing across the nation or across the world and they're saying, oh, the button's on for the doors open at my school or where I go to, maybe to the gym or whatever that might be they're not working. And so what's the process? What would be a conversation? Was it just as simple as? Excuse me, I utilize the buttons on the doors. They're not working. Can we fix that?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 6:51

So what I would do is, when I go to the accessibility office, I would go to the front desk and I'd say, hey, this door in this building is not working. So they would then put a work order in. But sometimes that could be a slow process, so once in a while I'll have to remind them like, hey, this door is still not working. So yeah, it is a little bit of a process. You do have to be willing to speak up for yourself, otherwise the problem will never be fixed. If they don't know, Absolutely.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 7:31

And what you just said I think is key is stand up for yourself and if there are things that don't look right, don't feel right, bring those topics up, find individuals that can at least address it. And it might be fixed in a day, it might be fixed in a month or whatever that timeframe might be. But I bet that made you feel good about yourself when you go through that, like, look, I was able to do this, I was able to affect a positive change.

Jessica Ann Stewart: 8:06

Yeah, and there was also another incident where in one of the bathrooms I used to work in a library at Marine County Community College and the paper towel thing was way too high. So I then went to the accessibility office again and I said, hey, I can't reach the paper towel. Can you lower it so I can? So then they went through the maintenance people and the maintenance people put a brand new paper towel in there and lowered it so I could re-jip and also the soap as well. Okay.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 8:50

Great, that's great To hear you take an action, seeing a problem that is able to be fixed and should be fixed. Just as an organization, if they sell a product to their consumers, they wanna make sure that it's accessible to the consumer so they can purchase it. And you, at the time, being a consumer at the school, being enrolled, you're effectively paying their salaries through tuition and what have you. And so, being a consumer, you were able to take that step forward, and now you're able to have an organization that you're an owner of, that is named and titled, given Accessibility. How did that come about? Was that an easy transition or a lot of thought went into it?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 9:51

Well, you know, it's funny I never even thought about being an entrepreneur. I am going to Kent State University with a partnership with the Lorain County Community College to get a bachelor's degree in general business administration with a minor in marketing, and in 2019, I took a entrepreneurship class and the one thing that I always love is that majority of entrepreneurship is built on problems that need to be fixed, and I just thought that related a lot to me and that's how it kind of started.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 10:43

Fantastic. So the words given accessibility was that. Was it easy to think of that, or what did that process look like?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 10:55

At first I named it the perspective of accessibility and I used a wheelchair symbol, but then I realized that the name was way too long and I shouldn't just use a wheelchair symbol, I should. You know, I should try to bring where it's not just wheelchair users and it's not just one disability. I should do it to where it brings everybody together.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 11:29

Absolutely, and for those tuning in to this broadcast on TV, youtube or even on the audio platforms checking out the given accessibility logo, do you want to share what that looks like for somebody and how they can find that?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 11:50

Yes, so it's a circle. It's a red on the left, purple in the middle and green on the right, and then on the bottom it has awareness, advocate and accessibility, and there's three people. There's a red person on the left, a purple wheelchair in the middle and then a green person on the left. And then on the very top it says given accessibility, and all the E's are in a upward angle, which is how I use the right, my E's.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 12:34

Oh, wow, the colors. How did, how'd that come about? The choices of what colors to use and what order to put them in?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 12:43

Well, the red was actually my daddy's favorite color and I put him on the left side because he's one handed. I wanted to be in the middle because I'm holding hands with my daddy, and then on the right is my mother and I'm holding hands with her, and green is her favorite color.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 13:11

Oh, awesome. So you received, and you're continuing to receive support from their family. Can you talk just a little bit about that, the importance of that and supporting what you wanna go after and go down some of these ventures which might seem a little bit difficult even just to anybody, regardless of who they are and where they're from?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 13:38

Yeah, so my mama always supported me, and when I was a kid I couldn't really speak up for myself, so she would be the one to, I guess, give me what I need, take care of me, get me to wear and with the words, where I would be able to get what I need as far as education, being able to live in the house, be able to go out. And then, you know, I wanted to kind of homage my daddy somehow, because he passed away in 2020, so I wanted to make a logo to where he could live on.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 14:30

Oh yeah, that's that's so. That's touching from all kind of perspectives of so much thought went into what you're doing and what you're continuing to do, and that's so. Speaking about fathers, my father just just recently. He's still living, but he was diagnosed with stage for cancer and given with treatment somewhere between like a year and two years to live, and so I'm starting to just take more advantage of the time with him than I had him previously and obviously there's you know, things happen in the past good, bad and so really just trying to just be there and talk with him and sit with him so I can.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 15:27

I can understand what losing a father is like, but I can understand learning news about okay, here's what's going on, and then you know how are we gonna, how are we gonna progress. So that's so awesome that you're able to honor him and continue his legacy through the work that that you do so. Getting given accessibility registered with the United States Patent and Trade Office, can you talk a little bit about that process, of what that entails and then what you were looking for as an outcome of once this is completed and approved? What does that mean for given accessibility?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 16:21

so it's actually a very hard and long process and I would recommend, if you wanted to do any, any registration, whether it's a trademark or a patent get yourself a qualified lawyer and have them help you, because it is a long, tedious process, especially when it comes to the application, and even once the application is done, it's mostly just a waiting prop, a long waiting process for me. Let's see, I filed it on June 29th of 2022, okay, and it got registered August 8th of 2023, so that's over a year, right yeah so, yeah, it is a very long process and you have to keep.

Jessica Ann Stewart: 17:26

You have to keep up with it, check the status to make sure you don't have to send nothing out and and just just wait and see yeah, and it's interesting to where we're chatting about that.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 17:45

So, voices for voices, we submitted our application and at the end of January 2023 and we're in that waiting process. So the talk to you about kind of your timeline and it helps me feel a little bit better that I'm not the only person that's kind of going through the, the waiting process. That that's kind of just how it is. So the day that you learned about it and then the message came in the mail and can you talk to us about that feeling of the waiting process given accessibility and another accomplishment for you?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 18:27

so yeah, so actually I think I, I, I didn't even, because usually I check my status every day and I think I actually skipped my day and I noticed that I got email from my lawyer that hey, you're, you're logo record, and I was just so excited and so happy and I printed out the electronic certificate and now I'm like, wow, look at that yeah that it's such an amazing accomplishment to to do that in the organization and and the work that you have and you're continuing to do.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 19:14

Can you talk maybe about given accessibility and how the Facebook group is helping people and what you maybe see as a vision for the future?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 19:29

so, yeah, I noticed that you know a lot of people will ask for help, like, hey, you know I'm looking for a wheelchair. So I noticed that you know members try to help each other out, try to give suggestions or, if there's no in a wheelchair, them so. So it's just a lot of like, I guess, a lot of help and advice. So what I wanna do is I wanna try to turn, given accessibility, to a referral company where we put everything and everybody in one place, where, like, let's say, you're looking for something, you're looking for a service, but you just don't know where to go. Could you could Google, like, hey, I'm a disabled person, I'm looking for employment, and you'll get a whole bunch of results. So I kinda wanna be that place where, okay, what do you? You come to us, what do you need? And here's the suggestions that we have for you.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 20:52

Wow, and you're not just reaching people in Ohio. Can you talk about how the footprint of given accessibility is able to grow due to the advent of the internet, the social media platforms, and how you're able to reach and help more people than if it was maybe just a local Northeast Ohio thing?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 21:22

So, yeah, I tried to share other organizations that support disabled community, not just Ohio. I tried to share outside of Ohio and I noticed that more people are joining outside of Ohio because I'm doing that. It's not just local, we're reaching more people.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 21:59

Yeah, and that's exciting, I know from my experience when I learn of the first person, the first testimonial of somebody in Australia or Italy or Ukraine, where they're reaching out and just saying, hey, thanks for doing this. And then also looking at the analytics, the numbers behind this scenes, information that we can see where not everybody is gonna send a comment, but to be able to see that, oh, wow, this feed, this show, this thing that we're doing is reaching all the continents across the world and who would have thought that that would even be possible from a house, from a basement, from a room. And I think that's speaking for myself, one of the great feelings of knowing that that's happening, but then also puts added pressure in a way on myself of trying to make sure the best I can. But we're catering to everybody, that it's not just one given audience or one specific geographic location. But, yeah, where can people find out about given accessibility and where do you wanna guide them, like your plug for that?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 23:36

Well, for now we are on LinkedIn and Facebook For now. Eventually, like I said, I wanna turn it into a referral company. So I'm kinda just in the, I guess, thought process now how I wanna be able to help people, cause I wanna reach, like, the elder community as well. So I don't know if an app would be a best suited for that or if I wanna do a website. So thinking about that, and plus I'm still going to school and I'm working, so for now we'll do social media and then maybe, after I graduate, I'll work on step towards that.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 24:30

Great, so name me. And why is it? Should people look up Jessica Ann Stewart on Facebook and, given accessibility on Facebook and then the same on LinkedIn, or where would you recommend they go to?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 24:49

Actually, I think if they search just given accessibility on Facebook and Lincoln, it will pop right up.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 24:58

Okay.

Jessica Ann Stewart: 25:00

And then again my name will be associated with that.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 25:05

so How's it feel to be an owner of an organization?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 25:13

Oh, it's nice. I enjoy the attention I do have today.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 25:20

Are you able with your schoolwork to do maybe different projects and work on given accessibility through different ways and means, and share with your class and your professors?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 25:37

Yeah, like in their introduction, I'll mention it and then sometimes people join, but maybe not everybody you know. But I will share it with my class at first and then just focus on the schoolwork. But the schoolwork will allow me to learn more how to run, be able to run my given-ass accessibility.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 26:14

Awesome. Did we miss anything that you wanted to share before we close out?

Jessica Ann Stewart: 26:21

Yeah, I did notice when you were talking about your daddy. I wanted to say that the reason I put my daddy under the awareness side is because he did suffer a stroke in 2011. And we didn't know anything about strokes before that happened. So because of him, I was able to learn more about strokes and I yeah, there's a lot of education with that.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 26:58

Thank you for sharing that. That's all so we are. We're at the end of our time. Don't log off. We'll grab some pictures for social media. But Jessica and Stuart, owner of Given Accessibility, thank you so much for your time. We thank you so much for joining us today. We wish you nothing but success and all your future endeavors, and thank you for being another voice to help others and try to make the world a little bit better.

Jessica Ann Stewart: 27:35

Thank you.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 27:36

You're welcome and we want to thank our audience, our viewers, our listeners, those checking out our subtitles, our transcripts, on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We are just thrilled to be able to put this together and bring it to you and bring fantastic guests and human beings like Jessica and to you. So until next time. I am Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, and please be a voice for you or somebody in need. Thank you.