- Well, thanks,
everybody, for joining us

for this learning opportunity.

It's my pleasure to introduce
Katherine Schneider,

who is a PhD, a retired
clinical psychologist

living Eau Claire with her
seeing eye dog, Luna.

Katherine passionately
advocates for access

to all the good
things in life.

She's authored a memoir,
"To the Left of Inspiration:

"Adventures in Living with
Disabilities,"

a children's book,
"Your Treasure Hunt:

"Disabilities and Finding
Your Gold,"

and a book for seniors,

"Occupying Aging: Delights,
Disabilities, and Daily Life."

She also founded the American
Library Association's

Schneider Family Book Award

for children's books
with disability content

and an award for superior
journalism about disability

issues through the Walter
Cronkite School of Journalism

at Arizona State University.

Locally, she started the Access
Eau Claire Fund through the Eau

Claire Community Foundation to
help nonprofit organizations

work toward full inclusion of
people with disabilities.

I've gotten to know Kathy
because of her impactful service

on the Wisconsin Public Radio
Association Board.

And she is a compelling
advocate for public radio

in that context, as well
as a good friend.

We are thrilled to welcome
Katherine Schneider to

Wisconsin Public Radio and

Wisconsin Public Television.

Kathy.

[applause]

- It's an honor
to be here today

and to help make you
more access-able.

And part of that involves
me sharing the world

of what it's like to
have a disability.

And a little bit of that, as we
go on you'll hear about how we

make different accommodations
to get the same job done

but done slightly differently.

So, when this presentation
opportunity came up,

I was 68 years old and I thought
I would get through life

without ever doing a PowerPoint.

[laughter]

But it turns out everybody
else does PowerPoint.

So, not to be outdone--
[laughter]

I did the content
of this PowerPoint

and I outsourced the
visuals to a friend of mine

who used to teach PowerPoint,
how to do it, in her classes.

And what I figured out
for the workaround,

because I am not going to
try to do my own flick

and I can't walk and chew
gum at the same time anyway,

so I will not do
my own flicking

but what I will do is
I will ring a bell

and I will ask my slide flicker
to go to slide number...

[bell rings]
one.

So that's how we do PowerPoint.

[bell rings]
Two.

Picture of the three
books I wrote.

Double advertising.
[laughter]

End of advertising.
[laughter]

[bell rings]
Three.

Let's start by doing a little
bit of trivia questions

to get your brains warmed up.

[bell rings]
Four.

Name two US presidents with
disabilities, and I know our

studio audience is just
writhing wanting to name them,

but, instead, they are very
quietly thinking the names.

[bell rings]

So, on slide
five, we have people

like FDR, Kennedy,
Taft, Lincoln,

and there's about
12 US presidents

that have had disabilities
of one kind or another.

[bell rings]
Slide six.

Braille was invented when?

And when I give this
question to students,

I say full credit
within a hundred years.

[laughter]

So get that idea in your
mind and then we'll go to

[bell rings]
slide seven

and realize that it was
not until the 1820s.

So only 200 years ago

did blind people have a method
of written communication.

[bell rings]
Number eight.

Beethoven composed what
symphony after he became deaf?

Now, I could give you a clue
and do a little whistling,

but that was not my
field of study so--

[bell rings] Nine.
We have the answer.

The Ninth Symphony.

[bell rings]
Slide 10.

The first deaf college
president, where and when?

[bell rings] 11.
We have our answer.

Gallaudet University, 1988.

[bell rings]

Question on slide 12.
The Help America Vote Act

guaranteed secret ballot to
people with disabilities

in federal elections
in what year?

I think you will be surprised.

[bell rings] 13.

Not until 2002.

Before that, when I voted,
I could take a friend

into the booth with me to
help me cast my ballot

or I could take one republican
official, one democrat official,

one guide dog, and me
all in the booth.

[laughter]

Now, this did not feel
like a secret ballot,

although I'm sure everybody
was confidential about it.

The first time I voted
independently using what people

called a handicap voting
machine, which has a remote kind

of a thing where you press big
buttons and you wear earphones

and it reads all the choices
and you use a remote.

The first time I
voted all by myself

I cried because
to me that's part

of what being an American is,
is to have secret ballot.

And I finally had achieved that.

I think it was about
2006 when that happened.

So next time you vote, and I'm
sure you think about it some,

but I bet you may
think about it more,

in terms of this is recent
access for many of us.

[bell rings] 14.

According to the census data,

what percent of people
have disabilities?

And if you only remember one
thing from this talk,

I hope you remember...

[bell rings] 15.

...the answer to that,
which is 19%.

So, as you look
around your world,

whatever that is,
whether that's journalism

or whatever you're
doing in life,

think about one out of five,
one out of five.

One out of five stories

have some kind of
disability content.

One out of five sources, on and
on and on with one out of five.

When you look around
the good life,

however that's
defined for you.

Is it open to the one
out of five people

who have disabilities
in our world?

Now, if you went through
that quiz and said,

"Ooh, I didn't know quite
all of them," that's fine.

That's actually good.

Because that means I'm going
to give you a little bit

of information about a world
that's parallel to your world

and intersects your world
in a lot of ways

but that you may not have
focused on in the past.

So-- [bell rings] 16.

The world of people with
disabilities, we'll talk briefly

about statistics, language,
stereotypes, images, realities.

[bell rings] 17.

The statistics, 19%, we
already hit that one.

Half of people over 65
will develop a disability.

So I usually ask audiences
how many of you plan or hope

to get to be over 65?
[laughter] Okay.

So if that is you,
it's no fair

to look to your right
and left and say,

"Okay, well, you can have
the disability piece."

We don't know who's going to
get the disability piece.

But half of people over 65
will get a disability.

And that means
something like

one out of four families
has a family member.

So as you're
thinking about,

if you're in some
kind of a business

and you're thinking
about market share,

disability is a piece of that
that you want to consider.

[bell rings] 18.
Language.

What are you going
to call us? Okay.

Best thing to do is be accurate.

For example, I am blind.
That's a fact.

It's not a dirty word.
It's just plain a fact.

I am not visually-challenged
or differently-abled

or some kind of a euphemism.

I'm blind. That's it.
Use accurate words.

If you're giving care to
somebody with dementia,

you are a caregiver.
You are not a caretaker.

You take care of property.
You give care to people.

And language does matter

because language kind
of creates our reality.

Many of you will have heard,
"Oh, people first."

You meet Kathy, say she
is a person who is blind.

Well, once you get these truisms
down, then it turns around,

things change so that some
people with disabilities,

especially people from
the deaf community,

are nowadays asking that
it be disability first.

So they are a Deaf person,

and usually that's
spelled with a capital D.

So people first?
Maybe.

Disability first?
Maybe.

What's a poor
human being to do?

Poor human being,
ask the person.

If you want or need to refer to
the disability piece, ask them.

What do you want me to call it?

Or what do you want it,

how do you characterize
your disability?

And they may tell you
something that you never

would have thought of,
but that's how they do it.

No two people do the
disability piece

just like no two people do

the Packer-backer piece
the same way.

[laughter]
It depends.

[bell rings] 19.

Stereotypes about those
of us with disabilities.

Probably the biggest one is that

people with disabilities
are very different.

They don't care about the
same things as other people.

No. We still want to
love, work, play, pray,

and enjoy the good
things of life,

whether we have a disability
and may have to do some pieces

of that differently,
same things.

Another stereotype is that
if you have one disability,

you have many disabilities, so
that people oftentimes shout

when they're around me because,
after all, they're cool,

they've heard of Helen Keller,
so deaf, blind go together.

Now, I would hasten to point out

shouting at deaf people
doesn't help either.

[laughter] Okay, so.

Or many times people
speak to somebody else,

if I'm with a sighted person,

they look at the
sighted person and say,

"What does she want?"

And it usually takes
about three rounds

of me answering the question

before the person realizes,
yeah, actually, she can talk,

she can understand
the question,

so I can be directing

and not have to go
through an intermediary.

And then there's the stereotypes
that we're super people,

we're inspirational, it's just
amazing, kind of a stereotype.

And you might say, "Well, geez,
why don't you want that?

"Why don't you want
to be on a pedestal?"

Well, people don't go out
to coffee or out for a beer

with somebody up on a pedestal.

It's lonely up on a pedestal,
and it's untrue.

Most of us, whether we
have disability or not,

we're inspirational
occasionally,

and most of the time,
not so much.

[laughter]
For any of us.

So... it's images.

20.

There's an old access symbol
and a new access symbol.

And very few people
in the Midwest

are familiar with the
new access symbol.

It seems to be more
known on either coast.

But, as you think about it,
think about if that was you

that was the wheelchair user,
which one would you rather be?

And maybe next time
you get a chance

and your local parking is,
the signs are getting changed,

maybe see about
getting a new image

instead of the old
stationary image

where the person is not moving,
not going anywhere.

[bell rings] 21.

Ways of viewing people
with disabilities.

There are kind of-- There's
a very old way which views

a disability as something
morally wrong with a person.

For example, back in Leviticus
it says somebody with a blemish

can't offer temple service.

So we may think, "Oh, well,
that's 3,000 years ago.

"That is long gone,"

that we would view
disabilities as a bad person.

But it's not really long gone,
especially with some kinds

of invisible disabilities
like alcoholism, like AIDS.

Morbid obesity is a disability
that a lot of times

people view as bad, as in,

"Well, a person could
do something about it
if they wanted to."

Not necessarily.
It is a disability.

So we got the old moral model,
shame on you kind of stuff

in the back of our minds.

Then there's the medical model
which says a disability is

something that can be fixed,
hopefully.

So fix it.

And/or if you can't fix it,

accommodate to it.

Get the person a talking
computer or do what you need

to do to ameliorate the
effects of the disability.

Then probably the newest model
of disability is the minority

group model that says it's
a kind of diversity.

Like any other kind
of diversity,

it is a piece of
who that person is,

and it's a piece
that has both positives

and negatives about it.

And the person integrates it
into their complete personhood

in their own unique way.

[bell rings] 22.
Realities.

Every individual is different.

What I say, you may go
up to somebody else

who has a disability and say,
"Well, I just learned that,"

and they may say, "Oh,
that's full of bull."

[laughter]
No, that's not how it is.

Okay. Everybody does
it different.

Not all disabilities
are visible.

So when you see somebody whip
into the handicap parking spot

and jump out of the car,
you don't necessarily get to

give them a dirty look
because you do not know.

Maybe they are having cancer
treatment, and they've got about

the energy of a slug and they're
just barely getting there.

You don't know what somebody
else's disability is.

You don't know whether
they have one.

So if you look
around your world

and you don't see people
with disabilities,

don't assume
they're not there.

19% is around.

And a new disability is
obviously different

than an old disability,

which is why I wrote
my occupying aging

because I'm an old hand, I got
a few tricks of the trade,

and people with new disabilities

need to know some of the
tricks of the trade.

[bell rings] Okay, 23.
Some realities.

I'm going to go through
kind of an A through E

of realities, of having, living
every day with a disability.

[bell rings] 24.

Those of us with
disabilities have to ask

and advocate for what we need,

which means ask repeatedly
and train, describe,

and keep after
getting what we need

because the only one who knows
exactly what I need is me.

So that's my job.

Now, you can help by asking

what you need to ask
to meet my needs.

"May I help?" is a good opener.

It is not ever an insult to say
to somebody, "May I help?"

It's putting them in charge.

They get to say, "Yes, please,"
or "No, thank you."

Now, if they bite your head off,
you get to come back to me

and say, "They bit my head off."
[laughter]

"I did what you told
and they bit my head off."

Okay. They were
having a bad day.

[laughter]

Now, that's no excuse
for being rude,

but that you do the right
thing when you ask

because, for example,
if you just smile at me,

unless you've
had a lot of garlic,

I don't know you're there.

[laughter] So, saying,
"May I help?"

is a way of letting me know

there is a human
being around here.

[bell rings] 25.
Bubble.

There's a bubble
around those of us,

especially with
visible disabilities.

People don't want
to get too close.

They don't want to
do the wrong thing.

They don't want to
say the wrong thing.

We might fall apart if
they did the wrong thing.

Not really, but
that's the fear is,

"Ooh, I don't want
to mess this up,"

so people stay away.

For example, at church I don't
get passed the collection plate.

Now, you may say
what's the problem?

You don't have to give.
But, no.

[laughter] That's
not a good thing.

What you need to do
is feel the fear of,

"Ooh, I don't know
how to do this,"

but just go ahead
and reach out and offer,

for example, with the
collection plate,

saying "Here's the plate."

Now, that's not rocket science.
[laughter]

But it's not done

because it's not the
normal thing to do.

I am lucky to have a guide dog.

I've had guide dogs
for 44 years,

and they are great
bubble breakers

because people want
to pet the dog

and maybe know that they
should ask, which is good,

because then that
breaks down the bubble.

[laughter] For those of
you that didn't hear that,

there was editorial comment from
my dog, groaning and saying,

"By all means, ask
if you can pet." [laughter]

And... the answer will
probably be yes,

unless we're in the middle
of a street trying to do a

street crossing or something at
which point, please don't.

But there's a bubble.

You reach through,
I reach through,

and then there's good contact.

[bell rings] 26. It costs
more to have a disability.

So, if you're going to
sign up to be part

of the great minority group,
sign up to be rich.

But it doesn't always
work that way.

It costs more time,
energy, money.

You have to plan more.

For example, to get down here,

I needed to come from
Eau Claire to Madison,

needed to plan a ride,

needed to bring Mona's
drinking bowl, etc., etc.

It takes time, takes energy.

Sometimes things with
disabilities cost more,

like when I got my first
computer that talked.

That was a thousand bucks
for the program.

Now, in many ways,
that's better.

For example, turn on iPhone,
turn on voice-over,

and it reads everything
on the screen,

and that's right
out of the box.

So, sometimes it
doesn't cost more,

but a lot of times it does.

And sometimes people are
not able to afford that

because much of the cost
is not paid for

by the government for
people with disabilities.

So lots of people, for example,
with hearing aids say,

"No, not going to get one
even though it might help.

"Even though it might help, I'm
not going to get one because,

"number one, there's a huge
learning curve,

"number two, they're expensive,

"number three, might not
work and I can't afford it."

So not everybody has
every new gizmo

that might help their disability
because it does cost more.

What you can do,
there, again,

the "May I help?"
What's needed?

Let's figure out
how we can do it.

[bell rings] I think we're
up to 27. Discrimination.

Now, discrimination
can be little stuff,

like word choice, saying,
"Well, that's really lame."

Or, "Well, you gotta be
blind to not know that."

Those kinds of word choices

that could be stated
differently and better.

Or sometimes the discrimination
is actual wrong-headed,

illegal kinds of discrimination.

For example, sometimes
when I go into a place

of public accommodation,
they say no dogs.

And then we go through,
well, it is a service dog

and legally any place of
business is welcome to ask,

it's legal to ask, "Is that a
trained service dog?

"And tell me some tasks that
that dog can perform for you."

You don't get to
say to somebody,

"What's wrong with you?"

Number one, it's kind of a
rude way of putting it,

and, number two,
that's not legal.

But you can say,
"Tell me some tasks

that trained service
animal performs for you."

That is legal.

It's not legal to say,

"Get out of here,"
with a service animal.

What you can do is
using universal design

in the things that you create.

For example, next time you're
out there Facebooking a picture

of a great sunset, instead of
saying, "Wow, look at this!"

please write, "Wow,
look at this sunset."

You don't have to go into a
big complex description of it,

and, no, I can't
see the sunset,

but if I am your
Facebook friend,

I would at least like to know

that it's a sunset we're
going "wow" about.

[laughter]

Accessible web design, I could
say a whole lot about it,

but the thing that I
want to emphasize

is putting appropriate
alt text tags on buttons

so that when my screen-reader
reads a button,

it doesn't just say
button, button, button.

[laughter] It needs to
say choice one,

choice two, or choice three,

or something
to accurately label that.

[bell rings] 28.
It's every day.

I don't wake up saying,
"Oh, I'm blind."

But it's there.
It's every day.

Most the time, don't
think about it.

But when I'm in a new
environment, you bet.

It becomes a bigger factor.

What you can do about the
every-day-ness of your

friends' and neighbors'
disabilities? You can listen.

Sometimes it's listening
to them tell stories about

something that happened
because of their disability.

You don't have to have an
answer, but listening.

Walk beside. Enjoy.

Later we're going to get to
some of the fun stories

because there are good things
about having a disability.

It's a different perspective.

And learn from that
person with a disability

because their world
is different,

and it's fun to learn about
other people's worlds.

[bell rings] So, 29.

I'd like to talk about
some basic etiquette

kind of tips for interacting,
some of which

you've already figured out,
talked to the person.

If you have trouble
understanding them,

ask them to repeat themselves
however many times it takes,

rather than just saying,
"Oh, yes, dear,"

when you have not a clue what
they've just said to you.

Using your words.

Okay to use words
like deaf or blind.

Avoid the words
wheelchair-bound, caretaker.

They're not accurate.
They're not appropriate.

More tips.

When you meet a blind person,
greeting,

tell them who you are.

My least favorite is
people who come up

and say, "Oh, I
know who you are."

Well, great. I don't
know who you are.

Or, "Do you know who I am?"

Which, now that I'm old and
cranky, I tend to answer,

"No, I'm sorry I don't.

"I'll have to
find somebody else who does."

[laughter] So, tell
them who you are.

Say "bye" when you leave a
discussion with a blind person

because if you're on carpet,
you may have walked off

and they have not heard you
leave, so they're having

a great conversation
and you're not there.

If you want to pet a
service animal, ask.

Everybody's got their own rules
for how that works for them.

So, good stuff.

You've heard about some
of the frustrations--

[bell rings]
The A through E kind of stuff,

but there are
the pearls. 31.

Takes time to find the pearls,

and you can't give
them to somebody else.

If you remember your biology,
an oyster,

first there's an
irritant in the oyster,

like a piece of sand or
something grating on it,

and then there's
enough calcium carbonate

or oyster spit,
whatever you call it,

and it boils down to
sometimes there's a pearl.

So some of the pearls that I
would like to mention.

[bell rings] 32.

Joy in accomplishment,
like this PowerPoint.

It took at least two
people to make it,

but I'm pretty proud of it.
It's done.

I can take that off
my bucket list.

[laughter] What you can do?

Celebrate the accomplishment
with a person.

Please don't overpraise.

Don't condescend when somebody

with a disability
has done something.

You can always comment on the
effort, even if the actual

production isn't something
that you can celebrate.

Celebrate the effort.
A lot of effort went into that.

I can tell.

[bell rings] 33.

The funny stuff that goes
along with the interactions

between all of us
with each other.

And I am not
setting myself up

as always being
the innocent one,

because I can be just as
awkward and fumbling

with somebody else's disability
as they can be with mine.

But things are worth
laughing about.

For example, when I
travel on airplanes,

because my dog has metal
in her harness,

both she and I have
to be hand-searched,

wand-searched, enhanced search,

which means they grope your
crotch and your butt crack.

Then, as of 2012, I
have to wipe my hands

on a rag and then they
put it in a machine

because what TSA has
determined is a good way

for sabotage would
be for somebody

to fill their service
animal with explosives

and blow everybody
to kingdom come.

Now, the fact that
that has not happened,

you can say, okay, here's
a good one for TSA

and I am very glad
it's never happened,

or you can say, well,
maybe they're

barking up the
wrong tree.

But, anyway, the people
that do the searching,

they didn't make the rule.

I didn't make the rule.

So we all just put
on our game faces,

do our jobs, and it's all fine.

So a couple years ago I was
in the Minneapolis Airport,

up came a person from TSA and
said, "What sex is your dog?"

Now, you don't mess
with those people.

You answer their questions.
So I said, "It's a female."

Thinking to myself she'd
rather be searched by a male

but it wasn't going to be her
choice, so okay. [laughter]

The gal from TSA said,
"By law, we have to have

the same-sex person search
the dog as the dog is."

[laughter] Now...

I bit my tongue
to not laugh... [laughter]

because I did not wish to be in
any trouble with these people.

So, okay, mm-hmm, have a
nice day, and on we went.

I later Google searched
and no, it is not the law.

[laughter] But that person
did what all of us do.

From time to time, when
we don't know what to do,

we get all officious
and official

and "It's the law
and I'm in charge,"

and, you know, that's how it is.
Okay.

I've been dining out on that
story ever since. [laughter]

You can't make
that stuff up

but it happens, and you
might as well laugh.

If you have happened to be
the one that did something

extremely foolish and it
comes to your attention that,

"Oh, well, that was dumb,"

by all means, say,

"Whoops, let me try that again,"

because we all do err when
we're around each other.

[bell rings] 34.
Interdependence.

I have a picture there of a Hopi
Kachina doll called Tehabi,

and it's a mobility impaired man
being carried by a blind man,

and it says, "You see for me,
I'll walk for you."

And that is a great description
of life, in my opinion.

I may know that every day
more often than you do,

but it's all of our lives.

We've got two hands:
one to reach out and help,

one to reach out and be helped.

As I mentioned, I've had
guide dogs for 44 years now.

They're a great example of
the kind of interdependence.

Because working with
a guide dog is not just

telling them left, right,
forward kind of stuff,

it's working as a team to
accomplish the goal.

So, for example, when I
go into a new building,

I've taught my dog
the word "up."

And she can find the
stairs that I have no idea

whether to tell her left,
right or where.

We just keep walking and I keep
saying, "Up," and eventually.

Now, interestingly,
each of my dogs,

when they get to be
about seven years old,

which is middle
age for a bid dog,

instead of showing
me the stairs,

they often show
me the elevator.

[laughter]

They're that smart
about doing things.

There's an interdependence
that I know about.

For example, up until a couple
years ago, the only way I knew

a one-dollar bill from a five-
dollar bill was asking a person.

I've been cheated once in 68
years of life. That ain't bad.

I, as a psychologist,
would not have thought

that well of human nature.
[laughter]

So we have-- A couple
years ago the government

came up with a gizmo
to give blind people

so they can put the
money in a machine

and it tells them,
says out loud

whether it's a one or
a five or something.

But most of the time
I still rely on

the kind of interdependence
of people

are good and helpful
most of the time.

Okay, let's-- [bell rings] 35
is a picture of us walking

across a bridge on a
campus where I work.

And then you could flick
through 36, 37, 38.

We have some
"for further information"

kinds of things presented there.

And then we have thank yous,

including to the
people that helped me

design this fabulous
PowerPoint kind of thing.

So, what you've got here
is a little bit of welcome

to the world of the 19%,

and I hope it
works well for you.

There is my email, I
believe is on the screen,

and I appreciate feedback.

So if you like it,
if you don't like it,

don't hesitate to be in touch,

and thank you for
your attention.

[applause]