Catherine Tyler-Northan: The Accessibility Revolution

Mike Capuzzi: My guest today is Catherine Tyler-Northan. Cathy, as she likes to be called, is the founder of the Tyler-Northen Group, whose mission is to collaborate with businesses, schools, individuals with disabilities, and nonprofit organizations to dismantle barriers to accessibility to people with disabilities and pave the way for a society where people with disabilities can fully participate in community life. Earlier this year, I helped Cathy published her first short, helpful book, The Accessibility Revolution. Cathy, welcome to the show.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Thank you, Mike. I'm glad to be on and appreciate the opportunity.

Mike Capuzzi: Well, listen, I appreciate the opportunity. I really enjoyed working with you. You were always so kind, and you were a great client once you got started. You got started with your book, and you didn't finish until you were done. So we'll talk all about that, Cathy. But for my listeners, if you don't mind, share a little bit more about your background, because I didn't touch on what you did before you founded your organization. And let's start there, and then we'll talk more about the Tyler Northern group.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: I worked 30 years for the Peninsula center for Independent Living, and, of course, in the United States, there are several hundred centers for independent living across the United States and Puerto Rico. Our mission was to help is to because they're still in existence, people with disabilities, to become self-sufficient, to be as independent as they possibly can based on whatever their goal of independence is to them. That goal could be getting out on their own, finding their own apartment, it could be finding employment. It could be getting out of a nursing home. And we did this through counseling because we believe that a person with a disability, and I believe it, too, is the best guide to independence because, know, we've been through all of the, I guess the issues, the turmoil that one has to go through in order to get out there to live and be on your own. So there are a whole lot more out there to learn and to go through, but a lot of us have been through it also. Part of the other mission of the agency was to work with systems systematically to change environments for people with disabilities, making sure that, you know, there is accessible transportation, accessible bus stops, making sure that if you went to Walmart and you went to the manager and said, hey, I'm vision impaired, I need assistance, and there was someone to shop with you and I worked with people with disabilities. I worked with agencies.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: I've done training. I've worked with people from Africa. I've worked with people from Japan, because they have independent living centers over there as well. I started as what we call then a peer counselor. Now we call it an IL advocate, independent living advocate, and moved up to a consumer and community services manager when I retired. I developed a lot of trainings for the agency to teach people with disabilities how to be independent and how to live independently. What I really like, I like training. I really love training.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: I did a lot of that with city employees, bank employees, on the military basis, you know, trying to get people to understand people with disabilities. And people with disabilities can be hired. You know, we're all just alike. We all maybe do things differently. We all may learn differently, but we all aspire to achieve, aspire to contribute. I, you know, I went to George Washington University. I got my masters. And, oh, by the way, when I went to GW, I needed to use what is called Jaws software.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: That's the screen reader software. It's called job access with speech. And of course, you know, I talked to them about it, and, you know, they went on and got it. And this was in 1991. They had it put on their computers so that I could use it. So it's always been, you know, wherever I've gone, I've had to advocate for myself, you know, as well as other people with disabilities. But it was a good experience. And it's, it's an everyday experience when you're out in the world that you're advocating because, you know, in America, because of, of where we have come from, with people being in institutions and all people, it didn't matter what your disability was.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: You were institutionalized. And then we moved from there. You had a lot of veterans who went to war and came back with disabilities. And, oh, by the way, civil war, we had a people with disabilities back then. They were called the invalid corps. They didn't just want to come out of the service and do nothing. They still were soldiers, you know, who wanted to contribute. So that's a little bit.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: I have served on so many committees.

Mike Capuzzi: I remember that. I remember seeing that list you sent us, and it's impressive. And, Cathy, first of all, thank you. It's a great testimony to your passion and being significantly vision impaired yourself. I mean, you obviously can relate to this. I remember when we first met, and you were telling me how you went through one of my, my books through, I believe, was on the Kindle device. The Kindle device. Read it to you.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Yes.

Mike Capuzzi: And, you know, honestly, and this is what you probably are constantly fighting with, all that you do is sort of, you were the first person to ever tell me that. I never really thought about it, to be honest with you. And I thought that was neat. And you know that obviously you're able to read a book by listening to it through the Kindle device. I thought that was really now you retired, and again, your passion is so deep for this. You didn't just retire and spend time with your grandkids, even though I'm sure you're doing that. You went and started your own organization to help businesses figure this all out, which is why you wrote your short, helpful book. We'll talk about that in a minute but tell me a little bit more about your organization and what you are doing today with that.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Would like to do more of. And I can answer it better that way because my book, a week before my book was published, was injured. So I haven't done as much of the work as I would like to do. But the idea was to work with businesses to help to break down barriers, but to continue to work with people with disabilities as well, and some of them individually. Part of what we do is, one is people with disabilities want to go to work. Some want to retain their Social Security. So, ergo, I have some training. I have a certificate.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Social Security trained me, and so I can talk to them about work incentives. Social Security work incentives. If you want to keep your benefits, these are the work incentives that can benefit you if you want to come off of Social Security. This is how you come off of Social Security. Most people are concerned about their healthcare, especially people with disabilities, concerned. We don't want to just come off of it and not have health care because of our different disabilities. What we also do is called visitability evaluations. A lot of people who have friends who are wheelchair users and wheelchair users cannot typically go visit friends in their homes unless they maybe have a home built today where there's a zero-step entrance.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: So what we do is come to your home and evaluate your home for accessibility. And then we look at the three things that are needed to get someone who's a wheelchair user into your home, and that's a zero step entrance, a wide enough doorway, and a bathroom that is accessible for that person. Also do that because, you know, there are people who have strokes sometimes wind up living in their living rooms versus going to their bedrooms, because, again, they're not familiar with accessibility and how to make that home more accessible so that they can stay right there in their home. Another service that we offer is the Americans with Disabilities act compliance survey. And that is we're going to businesses to look at physical accessibility, communication accessibility, and we look at technological accessibility. Do your computers have the appropriate software for people who are blind or vision impaired or people who have mental health disabilities? Is your lobby area wide enough? Is your countertop low enough? Are your bathrooms accessible? Is your accessible stall a five by five? So we look at all of it. We even measure the pipes under the sink from the floor to see how far, how far they're up so that a wheelchair user can get under that.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: So we're looking at the lighting in the bathroom. So we're just looking to make sure you are compliant. And we offer suggestions of how you can become more compliant. And sometimes it's just the way you arrange your office that can make it more accessible. So we'll do the ADA compliance survey. We also offer what's called disability etiquette trainings. And this is person first language that we're talking about the technologies, assistive technologies that people use every day just to live from day to day. We talk about those.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: We get into some of the social interactions that people with disabilities have and do we will do. Have you seen in my book history? We'll talk about in these trainings. We do role playing in some of these trainings. Matter of fact, I have one coming up in October for which I'm really, really excited about. This is for Bay aging over in Gloucester. So we're really excited about that. We have done, as a way of introduction at the minister's conference at Hampton University. We did one for their ministers conference that dealt with churches.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Because I'm looking, I look at all aspects of society. I remember when I first joined the church that I have now. And, you know, it's a little different now. This was 24 years ago. And, you know, as we age, you know, things change. Your vision changes, your hearing changes. And some people kind of, you know, they fight that. And so you're in the church and you got your bible open and you're taking your glasses off and you're wiping your eyes and blinking.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: But so I said, okay, why don't we just get some giant print Bibles? Why don't we just do that? Just recently in the church, they had up on the media screen on Veterans Day, they were showing all of the veterans. So I wrote them and I said, you know what? This is what would be helpful to everybody, for almost everybody. Why don't you do for those with vision and could see caption of the person's name? And for those of us who cannot see, why don't you do a voiceover that says the person's name and the caption of the name is going to help those who say, oh, yeah, you know, I know the face, but I never knew the name. So it helps those who, you know, don't know the name, but helps those who don't remember the name, but it also helps to bring in those who are vision impaired to make them a part of what's going on in that video. They took my suggestion. Okay, great. So it's things like that when I see them, whether it's in a church, whether it's in a business, or whether, you know, it's just on the street.

Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. I mean, and I have to believe, you know, it's. It's everywhere. I mean, it's every. And because most of us, you know, and I know we've gotten better, I'm sure, as a society.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Yes.

Mike Capuzzi: But there's still. I mean, just recently, I was, after you and I worked together, was even reading about just website accessibility and just how to make it more accessible for people with disabilities to either read it or whatever it might be. And I was like, geez, you know, you just don't think of it. Right. Most people, most business owners probably aren't thinking about this, which is why I know. Which is why you wrote your book.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Yes.

Mike Capuzzi: So I want to talk about your book for a few minutes, the accessibility revolution. And we'll share the details here in a little bit. And we should also clarify, Cathy, you are in Virginia, correct?

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Yes.

Mike Capuzzi: Now, the work you do, is it just regional, or could you potentially work with clients around the country remotely, or is it just pretty much a regional business?

Catherine Tyler-Northan: What I'm doing? I can work with you wherever you are around the country. As a matter of fact, for Hampton University, there were people from all over the country who took my information, and I told them I would travel, I would come to you, to your church to do what you needed me to do. So I will go wherever I am needed.

Mike Capuzzi: Good.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Yeah.

Mike Capuzzi: Good. So, your book. Tell me, if you recall, when you reached out to us, what was the driving factor for you to want to write this book? What were you looking to accomplish?

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Several things. I wanted to accomplish. One. I wanted to. I want to start a conversation between people without disabilities and people with disabilities. I also wanted people to recognize it's more than just being compliant disability for me, it's natural. You're born with it, you can acquire it. And, of course, as you age, the percentage of people getting a disability is so much higher.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: And, you know, in America now, by the time we reach 2030, it's going to be more, what do they say? Seniors and 18 year olds. Okay. And so I wrote it for that reason. I wrote it looking at businesses, because there's people with disabilities, are untapped talent out there. There is another market. We do. Some of us have money that we want to spend. Some of us, a lot of us want to work out there.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: We just want to be a part of the community. And it's the environment as well as minds that need to be changed environments, making it more accessible. We're getting there. Slowly we're getting there because right now, I would not have been able to talk with you without Jaws having access to screen reader software. I wouldn't have been able to do it. Years and years ago, over 30 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to do it. But now we can do it. So we have people with disabilities who can work from home now, and we have people who can go into work.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: So I did it because, one, there are a lot of people with disabilities out there who are already working, who are already contributing. We have fought to get where we are. There are a lot more that we need to bring along, but there are also out there people with disabilities who need to know about people with disabilities and need to know that whatever is done for people with disabilities, as we know about the curve cut. Who uses a curve cut? Everybody. Women in strollers, delivery people, wheelchair users, skateboarders. So now we have books on audio. They've been around for people who are blind. You know, I started using them in 1982.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Okay, so the audiobooks. But they're benefiting not just people with disabilities. It's everybody. You follow what I'm saying? So if we do make it more accessible for people with disabilities, we're doing it for every. For the rest of us. So because you acquire a. A disability, you're born. You don't want to just stop living.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Even when you get to be a senior and you've made all these contributions, you don't want to just stop living. You want to keep going as long as you can. So when I wrote it, I had all of these thoughts, and because I've met so many people over these 30 years that I've been working with people with disabilities, and I. They're from babies on up to 99 and 100. And, you know, I talk about, you can do this. You know, just do it.

Mike Capuzzi: Right, right.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Just do it. So go on.

Mike Capuzzi: Okay. So who, Cathy, if someone's listening to this, and we have a lot of business owners, entrepreneurs, typically listening to this podcast, who should read your book, who did you write this for? And who should grab a copy and read it.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: I wrote it for people in your retail businesses. I wrote it for manufacturers. I wrote it for people in fast food. I also wrote it for people with disabilities. These are the people. I wrote it for local governments. Read my book. This is, you're not going to find all of the answers in there, but it will get you thinking and looking.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Where can I find the answers? I'm hoping you'll reach out to me because I want to come train you.

Mike Capuzzi: Right. Right.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: That's what I really want to do. And I want to, you know, give you information of where. Because, you know, the biggest issue I think, is that a lot of employees think about accommodations and they think, oh, my God, it's going to cost me a lot of money to do this. And it really is not. You know, I have a website that I refer them to and it's job accommodation network. And the majority of accommodations cost little money. Little money. Sometimes it's an ergonomic chair.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Now your software maybe so sometimes it's adapted keyboard that a person might need. Sometimes it might just be closed caption. It might be. You need to bring a sign language interpreter and we can get those now on video. You can just call up a video surface and you have your sign language interpreter right in the corner. You know, for so much a month, doctors need to read the book. They need to read it because many of their examining tables are not accessible. They're not accessible.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: And I always say, yeah, when I go into a doctor's office, I'm a patient, but even while I'm there, this is how you assist me. When I'm in the street, I'm just an everyday person. I'm not a patient in the street. So it's directed toward doctors as well. I have this conversation with doctors, too.

Mike Capuzzi: Yeah, no, I mean, it makes total sense. So, Cathy, as we get ready to wrap up here, you know, I was not aware that you got injured, so I'm sorry to hear that. But I do know either the writing process or whether or not it's somebody who has read the book that's been impacted by it. I'd love to hear in your own words, what it has meant for you so far to have, because this was your first book. What has it meant to you to be a published book? Authorization.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: It's been kind of exciting. I have something to offer society, to offer people that's a value that can help them, because my whole goal is to help people, to make sure that another person doesn't necessarily run into some of the issues that I have run into. You want to be treated with dignity, but it's that I'm helping people. You know, not that I'm so special, but I'm an author now and I have something, and this is for you. If you read it, it can open your eyes and maybe help you look a little further and have a conversation.

Mike Capuzzi: Yeah. I love it. I love it, Cathy, and I know there's still a lot of good things that you're going to be doing as you get back on your feet and, and using this thing and helping others. Cathy, where can our listeners get your book and where can they learn more about you and your organization?

Catherine Tyler-Northan: My book, of course, is on Amazon, so one can purchase it from there website is still being worked on. My email is catherinetylernorthan@gmail.com. Of course, if you go to the Internet and pull up my name, you'll see a little bit about me, too.

Mike Capuzzi: Very good. Very good. Well, Cathy, listen, it was nice to see you again and again. I hope everything's going better for you now. And I do appreciate your time today.

Catherine Tyler-Northan: Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate the opportunity. Thanks so much. I'm glad to know you and thanks for all you've done.

Mike Capuzzi: Thank you.