Debra Ruh

Debra Ruh (born 1958) is an American business woman and an advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities. She founded TecAccess, LLC, which provides software development, training, and consulting services designed for information technology accessibility for people with disabilities and Section 508 compliance. The technical solutions that her company implemented for Canon's voice activated photocopiers won an award from the American Foundation for the Blind in 2007. She started Ruh Global Communications, which focuses on strategic communications and digital marketing.

She has advocated for fair pay and trained and helped individuals, including veterans of the Iraq War, so that they obtained employment. Ruh is co-founder of AXSChat which has weekly podcasts and regular Twitter discussions about accessibility. In 2016, she published the book, Tapping into Hidden Human Capital: How Leading Global Companies Improve their Bottom Line by Employing Persons with Disabilities.

She has participated in panel discussions, like the United Nations program for International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3, 2014. She serves on a number of boards and advisory panels. Ruh is Chair of the UN's G3ict EmployAbility Task Force that supports information and communication technologies accessibility and has assessed 104 countries regarding the status of people with disabilities.[1] As of 2016, her brochure, Making the World of Technology Accessible, is on the White House's website. Ruh and her company have received a number of awards, including the Department of Labor's New Freedom Initiative Award for her efforts to help people with disabilities build careers.

Personal life

Ruh was born December 18, 1958, in Pensacola, Florida. She is married to Edward Ruh and has a son and a daughter,[2] who was diagnosed with down syndrome.[3] Edward, who worked in an IT department of a bank, joined TecAccess in 2006 and worked there for one year. He returned to TecAccess in 2008 and managed relationships with clients. Their working relationship featured in The Wall Street Journal article, "Married to the Job (And Each Other)."[4]

Career

Early career

In 1994, Ruh was hired by SunTrust Mortgage, now Crestar Bank, and worked into 1998 as vice president of training, development and quality control.[2][5] Beginning in 1998, she worked as a banking consultant until 2001, and was at Market Street Mortgage in Tampa, Florida as vice president and distance-learning dean until 2000. She started Strategic Performance Solutions and was its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from 1999 to 2001.[2][6]

TecAccess

In 2001, Ruh founded Strategic Performance Solutions[7] or TecAccess,[2] a firm that designs online learning tools and websites for people with disabilities. After the federal government amended a law to make technology accessible for people who were mobility impaired, deaf or blind, TecAccess had an increase in its number of clients.[3][8] A federal statute, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, that took effect June 21, 2001, requires that people with disabilities have accessible telecommunications, websites, and computer equipment. The law applies to governmental agencies and some companies that do business with them.[7] An example of technology that assists people with disabilities is use of software that reads the text to help a person that is blind navigate through the site.[6] Her staff included people with and without disabilities.[7]

It was hired in 2003 by Canon to make photocopiers more accessible for people who cannot user their arms or are blind. The solution is a voice-recognition feature in the ImageRunner series, which allowed it to remain competitive with its clients who require accessibility features, like governmental agencies. Canon's voice activated photocopiers won an award from the American Foundation for the Blind in 2007.[6] In October 2005, the organization was one of the recipients of the United States Department of Labor's New Freedom Initiative Award. According to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, the award-winners "demonstrated great commitment to helping Americans with disabilities enter the workforce and build solid career paths."[9] That year she was on a radio program with the Dr. Roy Grizzard, the assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy. They discussed employment issues for the disabled and adaptive technology. The show was "Disability News and Views" on WXRL.[10]

In 2006, the company had $2.5 million in sales to governmental agencies and businesses. The firm's clients have included the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, Hewlett-Packard, and the Patent and Trademark Office.[3] The organization was located in Rockville, Virginia, but many of the workers telecommuted. 80% of the workers had a disability,[3] and performed their jobs by using adaptive technology, like keyboards that could be operated with one hand.[6] In 2006, there were 25 employees and 60 associates.[3]

The company provides contract and staff workers for organizations, like Genworth Financial who have found that disabled people are often motivated employees. Ruh trains individuals with disabilities so that they may find employment. For instance, by 2008 she training and found jobs for 30 disabled Iraq veterans.[6] Because of her company's leadership role in employing disabled people, it was selected as the "Small Business Success Story" of 2007 by Virginia Business Magazine.[11] She was one of the top ten success stories of the Small Business Administration in 2007.[6]

TecAccess merged with SSB BART Group in 2011.[12] In 2016, the CEO is Rich Belyea and Ruh is president. The company offers consulting services, software development, testing and assessment, training, auditing, certification, and policy review. It focuses on Section 508 compliance and IT accessibility solutions for public and private organizations. It is located in Rockville and Montpelier, Virginia.[8]

Ruh Global Communications

In January 2013, Debra started a new firm called Ruh Global Communications, which focuses on strategic communications and digital marketing. The firm's objective is to help corporations strategically include People with Disabilities and help governments implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The firm's clients include E&Y, MS, IBM, HP, Verizon, AT&T, Wells Fargo, Best Buy, Deloitte, TD Bank, CVS and Walgreens.

Ruh, the Chair of the UN's G3ict EmployAbility Task Force, spoke June 16, 2016 at the 9th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Ruh was one of the speakers that discussed data collected by G3ict (Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies) and Disabled People’s International (DPI) in 104 countries. Based on the information, they discussed education, employment, poverty reduction and information technology to meet their 2030 goals.[1]

AXSChat

Debra co-founded a social media venture - AXSChat (access chat) with Neil Milliken and Antonio Santos.[13][14] It is a social media site about providing access and inclusion to those with accessibility needs. Ruh states, "The only disability is when people cannot see human potential." It operates through Twitter chats and weekly video interviews[14] to discuss ways to be more inclusive or how to use technology to provide greater accessibility.[15] AXSChat conducts weekly podcasts on iTunes.[16] In January 2015, Ruh and her co-founders discussed the topic "Professionals Devoted to Creating an Inclusive World to Talk Technology on PA Independent Living" on online radio.[17] It was an event partner for the Paralympic Games in 2016.[18][19]

Prior to starting AXSChat, Ruh was a panelist on Social Media and Small Business during National Small Business Week held by the Small Business Administration in Washington, D. C. in 2010. She stated that businesses could use social media to zone in on their target market groups.[20]

Writer and speaker

Ruh was coauthor of Helping Veterans with Disabilities Transition to Employment with Paul Spicer and Kathleen Vaughan in a 2009 edition of Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability.[21] She was one of several "editors and advisors" for the 2010 book, Hidden Battles on Unseen Fronts: Stories of American Soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD.[22] She also advocated for fair pay, and her testimony was given before a Congressional Hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions regarding A Fair Share for All: Pay Equity in the New American Workplace on March 11, 2010.[23]

She was part of a panel that discussed "Disability-Inclusive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" for the United Nations program on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3, 2014. Other members of the panel were Penny Hartin of the International Disability Alliance, Ambassador Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota with a Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations, Kartik Sawhney of Stanford University, and Kamal Lamichhane a Research Fellow of JICA Research Institute. They discussed "how technology can impact the achievement and outcome of the goals for persons with disabilities and how it can be used to promote the benefits of assistive technology, accessible information and communications technology."[24]

In 2016, she wrote the book, Tapping into Hidden Human Capital: How Leading Global Companies Improve their Bottom Line by Employing Persons with Disabilities.[25] As of 2016, her brochure, Making the World of Technology Accessible of 2009 is on the White House website.[26] In late April 2016, experts from governmental agencies, international NGOs, UN organizations and businesses met in Geneva to discuss "Opening pathways into 'unusual' employment for persons with disabilities". Ruh was on a panel that discussed "Inclusivity of Employers" and the ways in which employers can be more inclusive to people with disabilities. The two-day conference was hosted by the International Labour Office.[27]

Board and organization membership

She has been on the:[2]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 "9th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)". United Nations. June 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Debra Ruh of TecAccess". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Rayasam, Ranuka (November 6, 2006). "How Hiring the Disabled Means Good Business". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on January 13, 2010. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  4. ↑ Debaise, Colleen; Needleman, Sarah E.; Maltby, Emily (February 14, 2011). "Married to the Job (And Each Other)". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Lenders Scramble for Talent to Handle Refi Rush". American Banker. November 2, 1998. Retrieved December 3, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hise, Phaedra (September 15, 2008). "Why disabled techies rock". CNN Money. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 "Virginia Web Firm Plans to Help Make Sites Accessible to the Disabled". Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. August 27, 2001. Retrieved December 3, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
  8. 1 2 "Company Overview of TecAccess LLC". Bloomberg. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Secretary of Labor Announces Seven Recipients Of the Secretary's New Freedom Initiative Awards". Department of Labor. October 2005. Archived from the original on January 16, 2009. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Events for the Disabled". The Buffalo News. Buffalo, NY. July 10, 2005 – via HighBeam Research.
  11. ↑ Hise, Phaedra (February 2008). "Company makes technology accessible for the disabled". Virginia Business Magazine. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  12. ↑ Springer, Timothy. "SSB BART Group and TecAccess Announce Strategic Partnership – Press Release". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  13. ↑ "The Team". AXSChat. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  14. 1 2 "14 quotes that celebrate a more accessible world". Chicago Tribune. May 26, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Tweet chats". Symplur. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  16. ↑ "AXSChat Podcast". iTunes. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  17. ↑ "AXSChat - Professionals Devoted to Creating an Inclusive World to Talk Technology on PA Independent Living". Pennsylvania Disability News. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Nielsen shares key research on the power of the Paralympic brand". Paralympic.org. September 14, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Paralympics - Q&A: Neil Milliken, Co-Founder, AXSChat". Sportcal. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  20. ↑ Higgins, Reese (June 1, 2010). "Small Businesses Should Take Advantage of Social Media". The Small Business Advocate. Retrieved December 3, 2016 – via HighBeam Research.
  21. ↑ Griffin, Kimberly A.; Gilbert, Claire K. (January 2015). "Better Transitions for Troops: An Application of Schlossberg's Transition Framework to Analyses of Barriers and Institutional Support Structures for Student Veterans". The Journal of Higher Education. 86 (1): 71–97. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  22. ↑ Driscoll, Patricia P.; Straus, Celia (November 2010). Hidden Battles on Unseen Fronts: Stories of American Soldiers with Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD. Casemate Publishers. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-935149-40-8.
  23. ↑ Pensions, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and (2012). A Fair Share for All: Pay Equity in the New American Workplace: Hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, United States Senate, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, First Session, on ... S. 182 ... S. 904 ... March 11, 2010. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 63, 66, 119.
  24. ↑ "International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December 2014". United Nations. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  25. ↑ "October Is National Disability Employment Awareness Month". National Disability Institute. October 3, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Making the World of Technology Accessible" (PDF). White House. 2009. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  27. ↑ "Opening pathways into 'unusual' employment for persons with disabilities" (PDF). International Labour Office. April 26, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.

Further reading

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