The Accessibility Advantage

Hello again, I'm so happy that you are continuing to join me and my guests as we explore the benefits of improving accessibility and advocate for more fullsome inclusion of people living with disabilities. On this episode of The Accessibility Advantage, I sat down with Jarrett Gist, an Independent Financial Advisor and Investment Advisor Representative with D.H. Hill Wealth Management. Jarrett was diagnosed with Stargardt disease at 19, and his path from that diagnosis to where he is today helping individuals and families, including many with disabilities, build financial independence made for one of the most practical, hands-on conversations I've had on the show. On With The Show Watch On Youtube Listen to the Podcast From the Texas A&M Corps to a Life-Changing Diagnosis Jarrett's vision changes first surfaced during his freshman year in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M, after a minor accident with a bungee cord drew him to an eye doctor for the first time. What followed was a referral to a retina specialist, and eventually a diagnosis of Stargardt disease a juvenile form of macular degeneration. Jarrett had to leave the path he'd been on and figure out, from scratch, what came next. A visit from a state orientation and mobility instructor someone Jarrett initially waved off, insisting he could still ride a bike and get around fine ended up planting the seed for his entire career. He went on to earn a degree in blind rehabilitation from Stephen F. Austin State University, worked as an orientation and mobility instructor for 14 years, and later earned both a master's degree in special education with an emphasis in visual impairment and an MBA. The Tools That Actually Work Jarrett and I compared notes on assistive technology from our very different eras of vision loss his diagnosis came with far more available tools than mine did decades earlier. He talked about relying on ZoomText for magnification and a built-in reader, along with a CCTV magnifier for reading physical materials. His guiding principle was one I appreciated: find the fewest tools that get the most done, since constantly switching between devices or platforms eats up time and energy that could go toward actually living your life. From Orientation and Mobility to Financial Advising Jarrett's shift into financial advising grew out of a long-standing personal interest in investing, combined with what he saw repeatedly in his O&M work: clients on SSI or SSDI who were afraid to accept raises or pursue new opportunities for fear of losing their benefits. That tension wnting to grow financially while staying protected became the problem Jarrett wanted to help people solve. Getting there wasn't easy. Studying for the Series 65 securities law exam meant 12 to 15 hour days for nine months straight. When he finally sat for it, the testing center had his allotted time wrong and wouldn't let him use his ZoomText hotkeys, forcing him to manually adjust magnification throughout the exam. He missed passing by one question and had to wait three months to retake it which he did, and passed. Building a Financial Foundation, Whatever Your Starting Point Jarrett laid out a clear, practical framework for financial independence: a checking account to handle regular bills, a savings account for the unexpected, a retirement account even a modest Roth IRA starting as early as age 18 and, when ready, an active investment account. His point about retirement accounts stuck with me: it's not about how much you can contribute each month, it's about how much time your money has to grow. Starting small and early beats waiting for a bigger paycheck down the road. He also shared a couple of lesser-known tax advantages available to people who are legally blind, including a tax exemption and the ability to freeze property taxes regardless of age. Vetting Accessible Platforms and an Unexpected Business Advantage Jarrett intentionally partners with custodians like Fidelity and Schwab in part because of their accessibility, and he makes a point of getting on the phone directly with clients rather than relying solely on digital tools. He also shared a genuinely surprising story: using a Tesla with full self-driving capability enabled by a bioptic lens that gets his vision to the legal 20/40 driving threshold has let him pick up clients and bring them into the office for in-person meetings. More than one potential client, he said, has been sold on working with him before they even reached the boardroom, simply from seeing what he's able to do. Why Accessibility Should Matter to Financial Companies I pushed Jarrett on something I ask most of my guests in some form: why should companies care about accessibility beyond the bare minimum the law requires? He was direct that compliance and regulation matter, but also pointed to something simpler people with disabilities deserve the same access to tools and services as anyone else, and companies that build genuine relationships with clients, disability or not, are the ones that earn long-term trust. Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable Jarrett's closing advice was blunt and practical: if you haven't started a financial plan, start one. If you're on the fence about stepping away from the safety of government assistance toward greater independence, know that it's hard, but worth it. His own mantra get comfortable being uncomfortable echoes something I've said for years in different words: that the real obstacle is rarely a lack of solutions, it's our own reluctance to do something unusual or uncomfortable to get there. About Jarrett Jarrett Gist is an Independent Financial Advisor and Investment Advisor Representative with D.H. Hill Wealth Management, where he focuses on helping individuals and families pursue their financial goals through personalized wealth management and investment planning. Jarrett's professional journey is shaped by his own experience living with vision loss. Diagnosed with Stargardt disease at age 19, he has navigated many of the educational, professional, and accessibility challenges that come with being visually impaired. Rather than allowing those challenges to define his career path, Jarrett has used them as motivation to build a career centered around helping others. His career also includes extensive work as a Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist, where he helps individuals with visual impairments develop the skills needed to navigate their environments and live more independently. Today, Jarrett brings those experiences together through his work in financial advising, with a particular interest in serving individuals with disabilities. He believes financial education and access to quality financial services should be available to everyone, regardless of ability. Through both his personal and professional experiences, Jarrett has developed a unique perspective on accessibility, not only in physical environments, but also with the tools that clients rely on to manage their money. Connect with Jarrett LinkedIn Facebook Schedule a time to talk or meet Jarrett C. Gist, MBA Investment Adviser Representative 6713 Old Jacksonville Hwy Suite 101 Tyler, TX 75703 903-343-3558 [email protected] Keep the Conversation Going This conversation was a reminder that independence physical and financial often comes down to finding the right tools and the willingness to do the uncomfortable thing. So here's what I'd ask of you: Watch or listen to the full episode and hear Jarrett's story and advice in his own words. Visit Jarrett's scheduling page if you'd like to talk with him directly about your own financial plan. Follow Jarrett on LinkedIn or Facebook and share this post with someone navigating disability benefits, financial planning, or both. Tell us what you learned. Drop a comment, reach out to Jarrett directly, or email me at [email protected]. And if you're a business wondering whether your platforms, tools, or services are truly accessible to clients with disabilities, that's exactly what I help with at The Accessibility Advantage. Reach out and let's figure it out together. What's your excuse? ```

Hello again, I hope you have had a good week. On this episode, I caught up with an old friend, Michael Babcock, who is now the Membership Engagement Specialist for the American Council of the Blind. Michael has been blind since birth and has spent 26 years working with assistive technology, dating back to when he was 10 or 11 years old and first started troubleshooting his way around the internet. We hadn't recorded together in about a decade, so this conversation was overdue in more ways than one. On With The Show Watch On Youtube Listen On Podcast Players Teaching as a Way of Learning Michael's approach to assistive technology has always been hands-on. He described a habit that's shaped his whole career: whenever he figured out how to solve a technical challenge, he'd immediately go teach someone else how to do it — not just to help them, but because teaching something forces you to understand it more deeply. He was talking and teaching about accessibility, in his words, "before I knew accessibility was a thing." He doesn't have formal professional training in the field, but he considers his lived experience more valuable than credentials the kind of knowledge that only comes from actually hitting a barrier yourself, like reaching the final step of booking an expensive flight only to find the credit card field won't accept keyboard navigation. How ACB Is Structured Michael walked through how ACB is organized: local chapters feed into state and regional affiliates, which feed into the national organization. ACB currently has around 62 or 63 affiliates nationwide, including 45 state affiliates and 18 special-interest affiliates built around specific communities groups like ACB Teachers, ACB Radio Amateurs, ACB Diabetics in Action, ACB Families, the Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of America, and the Independent Visually Impaired Entrepreneurs affiliate. If someone reaches out looking for a local connection and there isn't a chapter in their state, ACB will help match them to a special-interest group instead, based on what they're already interested in or used to do before losing their vision. ACB Community: Daily Connection Born Out of COVID One of the most valuable resources Michael described is ACB Community, a program that grew directly out of the isolation of March 2020, when blind and visually impaired individuals suddenly lost the informal support of neighbors, caregivers, and everyday outings all at once. What started as one or two calls a week on a conference line has grown into something remarkable: since 2020, ACB Community has held more than 29,000 events, averaging around 100 events a week, running from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern, seven days a week. Membership isn't required to participate anyone can join an event, and anyone can propose to host one, as long as the content stays family-friendly. Events range from Braille instruction and technology discussions to cooking shows, religious services, and even a weekly community karaoke night. ACB relies on around 150 volunteers to keep things running smoothly, including trained hosts who moderate conversations and make sure everyone is treated respectfully. Michael also walked through the structure of ACB Community's daily schedule email in detail and I made a point of flagging why that mattered beyond ACB Community itself. The email uses clear heading levels, consistent formatting, larger bolded headings, and specific font and color choices drawn from ACB's own low-vision guidelines. That's not just good practice for an email blast it's a direct, practical example of the same heading structure and formatting principles that make websites navigable for screen reader and screen magnifier users. Advocacy Made Accessible ACB's advocacy work happens on two fronts. Accessibility consulting and compliance services, led by Colby Garrison, work directly with organizations to identify and fix accessibility barriers in their websites, apps, and tools. Separately, ACB's advocacy platform lets anyone member or not contact their legislators about federal legislation using a "Speak For" tool. The letters come pre-written, so all a person has to do is fill in their information, review the message, and hit submit. Michael said he's used the tool over a dozen times himself and regularly gets real, substantive follow-up responses from lawmakers' offices, not just form replies. Free Wills and Audio-Described Entertainment Two other ACB programs stood out. ACB covers the cost of a fully accessible online will-writing tool, available to anyone regardless of membership. And the Audio Description Project, accessible at ADP.acb.org, functions like a searchable, accessible programming guide for audio-described content across streaming platforms, cable, and over-the-air TV tracking more than 14,000 described titles. ACB also hosts an annual awards gala recognizing outstanding work in audio description. AI, Just Try It Michael shared a story from ACB's national convention about a session he did with Ed Summers of GitHub, discussing how AI tools are changing daily life for blind users from AI-powered smart glasses that free up your hands while using a cane or guide dog, to Ed's own project using GitHub Copilot to edit footage from a GoPro mounted on his dog. Michael's core message was simple: just try it. AI tools won't be perfect on the first attempt, but trying something new is the only way to find out how it might change what's possible for you. About Michael Michael Babcock is the Membership Engagement Specialist for the American Council of the Blind. Blind since birth, Michael has extensive experience with assistive technology, accessibility, audio production, podcasting, and community engagement. He works to help ACB members connect with the organization, its programs, and one another. About the American Council of the Blind The American Council of the Blind is a national member-driven organization representing people who are blind or have low vision. ACB works to increase independence, equality, opportunity, and quality of life through advocacy, education, accessible information, and community involvement. Connect with ACB American Council of the Blind website Facebook Instagram Mastodon LinkedIn YouTube ACB Media ACB Podcasts Keep the Conversation Going This conversation was a reminder that community and advocacy don't have to be complicated to be effective sometimes they just take showing up, consistently, and making it easy for people to participate. So here's what I'd ask of you: Watch or listen to the full episode and hear Michael's insights in his own words. Email [email protected] to get added to the ACB Community daily schedule, no membership required. Visit acb.org to explore ACB's advocacy campaigns, accessibility consulting services, and the Audio Description Project. Tell us what you learned. Drop a comment, reach out to Michael or ACB directly, or email me at [email protected]. And if you're a business or organization wondering how accessible your own digital tools and services really are, that's exactly what I help with at The Accessibility Advantage. Reach out and let's figure it out together. What's your excuse?

Hello again, I hope you are having a good week so far. On this episode, I sat down with Mellissa Green, a digital accessibility advocate and host of the podcast Uniquely Abled: Disrupting Disability. Mellissa was born with retinopathy of prematurity and has been blind since birth. We swapped a lot of stories from our early years navigating assistive technology, and talked candidly about what it takes to break into digital accessibility work without a traditional professional background in it. On With The Show Watch On Youtube Listen On Podcast Players A Trip Down Assistive Technology Memory Lane Mellissa and I spent a good chunk of the conversation reminiscing about the technology we grew up with from four-track cassette tape recorders and Perkins Braille typewriters to dedicated notetakers like the Keynote and the Braille'n Speak, back when getting anything printed off of them was its own ordeal. Mellissa didn't get access to JAWS until after she graduated high school, since it hadn't been released yet when she started using computers. Before that, she used an early computer simply to transcribe her Braille homework for teachers. Breaking Into Accessibility Without a Traditional Background One of the most honest parts of our conversation was Mellissa's description of trying to break into digital accessibility work. When her family moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, she learned that some universities were looking for people with digital accessibility skills — but she felt she only had her lived experience to offer, not formal training. I pushed back on that framing hard: lived experience navigating assistive technology every single day is not a lesser qualification. It's knowledge no textbook can teach. Mellissa eventually took training through a program called Abler, which taught her the formal system for auditing websites things like how to write specific, actionable feedback to a web developer instead of just flagging that "a button isn't labeled." She learned to identify exactly which button, and to specify exactly what the label should say instead. The Trouble With Accessibility Overlays We got into a conversation about accessibility overlays those widgets that promise to make a website accessible at the click of a button. Mellissa has run into them on her own web host, and while she's had more success with them than I generally have (my experience is usually an echo and a slower browser), we agreed that overlays are, at best, a starting point rather than a real substitute for addressing accessibility at the back-end level where it actually counts. Where "A Blue Green Galaxy" Comes From I was curious about the story behind her website's name, the same way people are often curious about "The Blind Blogger." Turns out there isn't a deep hidden meaning Mellissa simply likes the colors blue and green, and writes interplanetary culinary thrillers and other science fiction on the side, which inspired the "galaxy" theme. Speaking Through Toastmasters Mellissa is a member of VIP Online Toastmasters, a group specifically for people who are blind or visually impaired. She recently gave a talk there on audio description, drawing on conversations she'd had with people actually working in the field, including audio describer Roy Samuelson and Joel Snyder of the Audio Description Project. One detail from Samuelson stuck with her: the audio description field itself needs more diversity, with more people of color and more women doing the describing. Uniquely Abled, Not Disabled Mellissa explained the philosophy behind her podcast's name: rather than framing disability as something someone simply "has," the idea is that everyone has unique abilities some people are born with a disability, some acquire one later in life, and some experience a temporary one. Recognizing that spectrum is part of what her training helped clarify for her, beyond what she already understood from lived experience alone. Accessibility Is a Right, Not a Privilege Mellissa closed with the philosophy that shapes her whole approach to this work: accessibility isn't a privilege reserved for people with disabilities, it's a right that benefits everyone. She used a clear example someone who doesn't speak English needs an accessible, translatable website just as much as someone using a screen reader does. Her advice to businesses and developers was direct: if you want as many people as possible to use your product or shop your site, you need to put yourself in the position of the many different kinds of people who might visit it. About Mellissa Mellissa Green is a digital accessibility advocate who was born with retinopathy of prematurity and has been blind since birth. She hosts the podcast Uniquely Abled: Disrupting Disability and is an active member of VIP Online Toastmasters, a Toastmasters group for people who are blind or visually impaired. Mellissa believes accessibility is a right, not a privilege, and works to help websites and businesses become more usable for everyone, regardless of ability. Connect with Mellissa A Blue Green Galaxy website Uniquely Abled: Disrupting Disability podcast LinkedIn Pinterest YouTube VIP Online Toastmasters Keep the Conversation Going This conversation was a reminder that you don't need a formal background to bring real value to accessibility work lived experience counts, and it counts a lot. So here's what I'd ask of you: Watch or listen to the full episode and hear Mellissa's story in her own words. Visit A Blue Green Galaxy to learn more about Mellissa's work and her screen reader audit services. Check out her podcast, Uniquely Abled: Disrupting Disability, and follow her on LinkedIn. Tell us what you learned. Drop a comment, reach out to Mellissa directly, or email me at [email protected]. And if you're a business or organization wondering whether your website, shopping cart, or digital content is truly accessible, that's exactly what I help with at The Accessibility Advantage. Reach out and let's figure it out together. What's your excuse?

On this episode, I had the pleasure of talking with two remarkable women: Jennifer Chassman Browne, a lifelong educator and author currently finishing her book See Us Know Us: Profiles of Disability, and Dr. Arielle Dance, an award-winning children's book author, poet, and disability advocate. Both women are contributors to Jennifer's book project, and our conversation ranged from the very different experiences of visible versus invisible disability to storytelling as a tool for advocacy, to what real allyship actually looks like. ON With The Show Watch On Youtube Listen On Podcast Players When a Disability Becomes Visible Later in Life Jennifer was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at six years old, at a time when almost no support systems existed for children with the condition. For most of her life, she was able to keep it largely hidden — managing medications, braces, and doctor's appointments privately while the outside world saw only her professional accomplishments as an educator and school leader. That changed in her 40s, when her disability became physically visible. She described the shift starkly: the same people who once reflected back her competence and expertise now approach her first by asking if she needs help — as if her capability had changed overnight, when nothing about her had changed at all except what people could see. Finding Community Through Access Needs Dr. Dance's path looked different. Diagnosed with endometriosis at 15 and living with an evolving list of chronic conditions including fibromyalgia and past blood clots, she described herself as someone whose disability is invisible to most people who meet her — she still dances, still shows up, and still "looks fine" to the outside eye. Her real entry into the disability community came in college, when a lack of air conditioning in her dorm (a serious issue for her as an asthmatic) landed her in disability housing. That single accommodation opened the door to a whole community of students who taught her she could request the things she needed — extensions, extra time, whatever her situation required — language and permission she'd never had before. Jennifer, by contrast, grew up without that kind of community at all, and didn't find one until she sought it out as an adult. Both women agreed on something important: disability isn't only about diagnosis, it's about encountering a world that wasn't built to include you — physically, procedurally, or socially. Storytelling as Advocacy Jennifer explained that See Us Know Us grew directly out of her disability advocacy and DEI training work, where she noticed something consistent. People connected far more with personal stories than with statistics or policy arguments. The book combines narrative biographies, professional portrait photography, and original poems built from deep, focused conversations about each contributor's lived experience with disability — a three-part structure designed to help readers see the whole person, not just a diagnosis. Dr. Dance's own writing is similarly personal. She's working on a novel and an essay anthology inspired by her grandmother, who died of breast cancer at 34 — before Dr. Dance ever had the chance to meet her. She also writes for the disability advocacy organization Diversability, where she works to amplify stories from across the disability community, including many experiences she'd never encountered before joining that work. The Fight to Keep — and Expand — Access Dr. Dance was direct about the current moment: much of her advocacy work right ˆnow is focused on protecting hard-won gains from Section 504, the ADA, and the Olmstead decision, rather than only pushing forward. She pointed to real threats to in-home support services and the qualifying thresholds tied to them — support that many people depend on simply to get out of bed, get dressed, or show up for remote work. On the employment side, she talked about how outdated job requirements — like a "must be able to lift 50 pounds" line dating back to 1953 — can disqualify capable candidates for tasks that rarely come up and could easily be handled by someone else on a team. She also advocates for giving every candidate interview questions in advance, framing it not as an accommodation but as basic fairness: you wouldn't ask someone to take a test without telling them what's on it. Dr. Dance also shared advocacy work from her role at the American Cancer Society, where her employee group recently helped push out research on delayed cancer screenings for disabled patients — often due to inaccessible equipment like mammography machines that can't accommodate a wheelchair, or providers who simply lack the equipment to perform an exam safely. Accommodations That Already Help Everyone One of the most memorable moments of our conversation was Jennifer describing a training session where she asked a room full of people whether they used closed captions when watching TV. Nearly everyone raised a hand — despite the fact that almost no one in the room identified as having a hearing disability. It's a small, clear example of something both women returned to throughout the conversation: accommodations built for the disability community routinely end up benefiting everyone. Understanding Ableism When I asked for help understanding ableism more clearly, Jennifer offered a simple, foundational definition: making assumptions — often incorrect ones — about someone's capacity or ability based on the fact that they have a disability. Those assumptions show up in actions, comments, judgments, and decisions to exclude. She recommended The Anti-Ableist Manifesto by Tiffany Yu as a resource for allies looking to go deeper. What Allyship Actually Looks Like Dr. Dance offered some of the most practical guidance of the conversation: lead with compassion and curiosity, not judgment, and ask rather than assume. She also pushed back on a pattern she notices constantly — strangers demanding to know "what's wrong with you," rather than getting to know her as a person first. Her advice to non-disabled listeners was direct: show up to disability community events and meetings not because you have a disability, but because you care, the same way you might join an organization like the NAACP or GLAD without personally belonging to that community. Jennifer shared a story from a close non-disabled friend who asked her directly: is it okay for me to speak up when I see ableist behavior, or should I leave that to you? Jennifer's answer was an emphatic yes — she wants that person to hear from another non-disabled ally, not just from "the angry disabled woman" pushing back alone. A Simple Lesson in Everyday Accessibility Jennifer shared a great example: asking a blind friend what I should do when passing her on a sidewalk. Her answer was refreshingly simple — just use your voice and say you're coming up on her left. No elaborate protocol, no overthinking. Just communication. About Jennifer Jennifer Chassman Browne is an educator, author, and inclusion advocate with more than 25 years of experience as a teacher and school leader. She founded New Ground Educational Consulting, where she works with corporations, schools, and nonprofit organizations to bring disability education and advocacy into broader conversations about diversity and inclusion. Jennifer was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at six years old, and lived with an invisible disability until her 30s, when it became visible. She draws on that lived experience alongside her professional background to deliver keynote presentations and training sessions on disability inclusion, allyship, and belonging. Her forthcoming book, See Us, Know Us: Profiles of Disability, profiles 30 individuals with disabilities through narrative biography, portrait photography, and original poetry, and is scheduled for release in October 2026. She has also published a poetry collection, Born on a Fault Line. Connect with Jennifer Jennifer Chassman Browne's website About Dr. Dance Dr. Arielle Dance is a Black queer writer and advocate for invisible illnesses based in New Jersey. She was diagnosed with endometriosis at 15 and has since navigated a range of chronic health conditions, including fibromyalgia and life-threatening blood clots. Through her writing, Dr. Dance promotes disability visibility, explores inclusive family structures, and writes candidly about grief and loss. She is the author of the award-winning children's book Dearest One (Lantana Publishing), a tribute to her grandmother that explores grief, loss, and intergenerational wisdom. Dr. Dance also writes for Diversability, an organization dedicated to amplifying disabled people's experiences, and serves as an Ambassador for World Thrombosis Day, sharing her own blood clot survivorship story. She holds a PhD and has worked at the American Cancer Society since 2012. Connect with Dr. Dance Dr. Arielle Dance's website Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Closing Thoughts Both women left listeners with grounded, actionable advice: get to know people with disabilities as full people, not as problems to solve or diagnoses to manage. Dr. Dance encouraged disabled listeners specifically to take up space rather than shrink themselves, and to find community when they're ready for it — without ever feeling obligated to disclose more than they choose to. Keep the Conversation Going This conversation was a reminder that disability isn't one experience — it's as varied as the people living it, whether visible or invisible, present from childhood or discovered later in life. So here's what I'd ask of you: Watch or listen to the full episode and hear Jennifer and Dr. Dance's stories in their own words. Visit Jennifer's website to learn more about See Us Know Us: Profiles of Di

Hello again, I hope your week is getting off to a good start. On this episode of The Accessibility Advantage, I sat down with Ron Sosa, a neuroinclusive leadership coach, author, speaker, and Executive Director of the Uncharted Veterinary Conference. Ron and I talked about invisible disability, masking, and what it actually takes to build workplaces that don't burn people out for being wired differently and we ended up in a genuinely open, back-and-forth conversation rather than a straight interview. On With The Show Watch On Youtube Listen On Podcast Players Turning a Layoff Into an Opportunity Ron opened up about being recently laid off, and how that unexpected transition actually accelerated a plan he'd already had to move into his leadership coaching work full-time. He credited a conversation with a psychotherapist about "post-traumatic growth" the idea that adversity can either become something you wallow in, or fuel that pushes you forward. Ron's clearly chosen the latter, and it colored the whole conversation with a grounded, forward-looking energy. Recognizing the Signs Early and Having Them Dismissed Ron traced his own neurodivergence back to early childhood: sensory overwhelm from sock seams, an intense need for food certainty, and a year spent nonverbal around age four. A court-mandated family therapist actually diagnosed him as autistic when he was three years old but his father rejected the diagnosis and sought another opinion instead. Ron didn't learn about that early diagnosis until adulthood, after he'd already been independently diagnosed again and had to "come out" to his father a second time, only to be told, "Oh yeah, you got that when you were three." Growing up, he was the kid who couldn't sit still, made noise, and got moved to the front of the classroom to keep him from talking to his neighbors the kinds of behaviors he said get caught much more readily today, but back then were just written off. The Cost of Masking and Over-Adapting Ron walked through a four-part framework he's developed around what he calls the "internal world" of a neurodivergent person: chronic self-monitoring, over-adaptation, self-criticism, and physical tension carried in the body. He pointed out that even high-achieving, high-performing employees can be carrying all four and that businesses tend to only intervene when someone is underperforming, never when someone is over-functioning to the point of eventual burnout. That pattern, he said, shows up constantly with neurodivergent professionals: rising quickly into leadership, then quietly stepping back down or leaving altogether once the role becomes unsustainable only to repeat the exact same cycle somewhere else, because the underlying support never changed. Why "Reasonable Accommodation" Isn't Always Safe to Ask For One of the more sobering parts of our conversation was Ron's honesty about disclosure. He generally doesn't disclose a diagnosis in interviews or at work instead, he advocates for specific needs directly ("I don't always have the best memory for names, so a quick reminder helps me") without naming the disability behind them. He was clear that this isn't about hiding; it's about not knowing in advance whether disclosure will be safe, or whether an employer will actually treat it as a reasonable accommodation instead of a liability. We also got our first-ever live comment during a recording, from a viewer named Jared, who asked Ron directly about when to disclose a disability in a job interview. Ron's answer advocate for the need, not necessarily the diagnosis was one of the clearest, most practical pieces of advice in the whole conversation. Where Hiring Breaks Down We spent real time on how inaccessible the hiring process itself often is inaccessible applications, inaccessible onboarding documents, and a mountain of unwritten workplace rules nobody actually teaches new hires. Ron shared a simple practice from when he co-owned a veterinary business: telling candidates exactly what to wear to the interview, because leaving that unstated and then judging someone for "getting it wrong" isn't fair to anyone, neurodivergent or not. He also pushed back hard on requirements like mandatory eye contact in interviews, asking the real question underneath it: what does success actually look like for this role, and can that be achieved without eye contact? In most cases, the honest answer is yes which means the requirement was never really about the job to begin with. Invisible vs. Visible Disability Ron and I talked candidly about how differently the world reacts to visible versus invisible disability. As a blind man with a white cane, I don't get shunned for my disability the way people with invisible neurodivergent conditions sometimes are when they disclose. We also swapped stories about the strange assumptions people make like when I look directly at someone's voice out of habit and they insist I must be faking blindness, or when Ron pauses mid-sentence because he's actually listening to an audiobook through his Bluetooth-connected hearing aids and people think he's talking to himself. Rewriting the Rules for the Workplace Ron's book, Rewriting the Rules: A Leadership Model for a Neuroinclusive Human-Centered Workplace, published this past March, lays out how organizations can rethink policies, procedures, workflows, and even physical building design around a more current understanding of the human experience. His core message: now that we know better, we can do better and that's true whether you're neurodivergent or not. About Ron Ron Sosa is a neuroinclusive leadership coach, international speaker, author, and Executive Director of the Uncharted Veterinary Conference. Through his practice, Syn-APT Neuroinclusive Leadership, Ron helps neurodivergent leaders reduce the invisible burdens of overthinking, overadapting, masking, and burnout so they can lead with more clarity, confidence, and self-trust. Ron's perspective is shaped by both lived experience and leadership experience. He is ADHD, Autistic, and hard of hearing, and built his career in veterinary medicine from client service representative to veterinary assistant, practice manager, minority partner, and executive director before becoming a coach, speaker, and author. That path gave him a rare view of how people experience work at every level of an organization and why so many talented people burn out in systems that reward adaptation over sustainability. His coaching and speaking blend emotional depth with practical leadership strategy, giving audiences language for experiences they may never have been able to name before around neurodiversity, burnout, identity, belonging, and human-centered workplace design. Ron is also the host of his own podcast, Left Unattended, where he explores what happens when high-performing, emotionally intelligent people are left to navigate systems that weren't built for their minds, through personal stories, guest interviews, and deep reflections on masking, executive dysfunction, and leadership burnout. Connect with Ron Syn-APT Neuroinclusive Leadership website YouTube Instagram LinkedIn TikTok Substack Left Unattended on Apple Podcasts Curiosity Over Shame Ron closed with a thought that stuck with me: none of this is about creating shame, for individuals or for the businesses still catching up. It's about awareness, curiosity, and asking better questions. In reply to his comment about curiosity, I referenced a line from Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic that he holds onto that curiosity will carry you through when passion abandons you. My own closing thought echoed something a friend, Mariela Palino, has told me for years: when we improve inclusion for one group of people, we improve inclusion for everyone. Ron's invisible, neurodivergent experience of the world and my visible, physical experience of blindness are different in a lot of ways but the underlying lesson is the same one either of us could have delivered alone. Keep the Conversation Going This conversation was a reminder that inclusion isn't just about visible accommodations — it's about creating the safety for people to name what they actually need, even when they can't or won't name the diagnosis behind it. So here's what I'd ask of you: Watch or listen to the full episode and hear Ron's story and insights in his own words. Visit syn-apt.me to learn more about Ron's coaching, or pick up his book, Rewriting the Rules, if you're a business owner or leader wondering where to start. Follow Ron on LinkedIn and share this post with a leader, HR professional, or business owner who's still building their hiring and onboarding process around assumptions instead of clarity. Tell us what you learned. Drop a comment, reach out to Ron directly, or email me at [email protected]. Ron and I got our first-ever live comment during this recording — I'd love for that to become a regular thing. And if you're a business owner wondering whether your hiring process, onboarding, or workplace policies are quietly excluding neurodivergent talent, that's exactly what I help with at The Accessibility Advantage. Reach out and let's figure it out together. What's your excuse?