Accessible Conversations

David vs. Goliath: Small Acts Lead to Big Impacts

• Jessica Fabus Cheng

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How can small actions lead to monumental change in the world of accessibility? Inspired by the timeless story of David and Goliath, Jessica Fabus-Cheng shares her personal journey of advocating for accessibility, particularly within the Duchenne muscular dystrophy community. This episode outlines three actionable steps everyone can take to foster a more inclusive world: amplifying disabled voices on social media, removing physical obstructions to aid mobility, and promoting visible disability representation in business marketing campaigns. 

Jessica highlights the significant impact that each of us can make by leveraging our unique talents and perspectives. By sharing impactful content online, ensuring clear and accessible paths in physical spaces, and featuring visibly disabled individuals in business marketing efforts, we collectively aim our stones at the giant issue of accessibility. Join Jessica in this empowering episode of Accessible Conversations to learn how you can play a crucial role in shifting the narrative toward greater inclusion and accessibility for all. Let's come together to create a more inclusive world, one small action at a time.



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Jessica Fabus Cheng:

Check one two Hello and welcome to Accessible Conversations, the podcast where our mission is to give inclusion a seat at the table, focusing on the powerful women who create accessible spaces, and I think it's incredible to explore how each and every one of us has the power to really make a difference and personally create a more inclusive world. I'm your host, Jessica Fabus-Cheng, and today I'm using the timeless story of David and Goliath to illustrate how small actions can lead to monumental change, particularly when it comes to championing inclusion and accessibility for the disabled community. So we all know the story of David and Goliath or I would say most of us do and we know it well. It basically talks about this young shepherd boy named David, who was a musician and was armed with nothing but a sling and some stones to defeat the giant warrior Goliath. Against all odds, everything was against him. This story, to me, isn't just about the underdog's victory. It, to me, is a powerful reminder that even the smallest actions can have a really, really huge impact. So I love this story because when I first started with my advocacy for the disabled community and for accessibility and in creating a more inclusive world, I saw this big issue of accessibility as the Goliath.

Jessica Fabus Cheng:

It was a huge, huge challenge, and, coming from the Duchenne muscular dystrophy community, I have heard over the years countless stories about accessibility issues, like a hotel not being the accessible room that you originally booked, or a car never showing up to pick someone up from the airport that was in a power chair and they couldn't access the car because the van itself was not accessible. So so many. I could literally go on and on, but the thing that I realized was that, despite this, and even though I truly did feel like a David in this situation, I was one person. I had a slingshot, I had some stones, but the light bulb moment for me came when I realized that if we all collectively aimed our stones at this issue, using our own unique perspectives, we truly could champion change together. And that's how I somewhat became obsessed with showing that with just a few simple actions, we can totally shift the narrative to inclusion. So today I just wanted to explore a little bit how we can be like a David in our everyday lives and use the unique gifts and talents that were bestowed to us by our creator or however you view the world, those unique things, those things inside of you that keep you up at night or get you out of bed in the morning. Maybe you're a writer, maybe you have an amazing social media account, maybe you're a business owner. There are unique ways that you can use that are very simple, that can help to promote accessibility as a standard in our world.

Jessica Fabus Cheng:

I have three actionable items for you today, and they are from three separate areas of life, and I hope you find some value in each of these, even if it may not directly apply to you. So the first one is on social media. Of course, one of the big, big campaigns that I have right now on my social media account which is, at socially underscore, accessible is about teaching our community how to take accessibility features and incorporate them into our social media posts to make them much more likely that someone with a disability would engage in your message in the way that it was intended. Those things are, of course, very important, but in today's action that I want to give you, it's about amplifying the voices of the disabled community. You can actually search on social media using a hashtag like accessibility or accessibility for all, and you can find countless examples of the joys and sorrows of what it's like to have a disability or navigate the world as someone who is disabled, some of the challenges and some things that could be done a lot better. I would encourage you to look these accounts up and Look through some of the content, because undoubtedly you will find something that is going to reach you and touch you and may give you a perspective that you didn't have before. I also would encourage if you have found something that really is resonating with you, share it. Please share it on your social media account. You don't necessarily have to make a post about it, of course, that's always something you can do, but simply sharing into your stories on Instagram or on Facebook is an incredibly powerful way to ally, and by that action, you are showing that this message is important. This voice, this perspective, is viable, is needed in our world, and it's just the perfect way to be an ally of the disabled community.

Jessica Fabus Cheng:

The second thing that I have for you involves physical spaces. If you think about some place like a park, a public park or even a playground for children, there are inevitably paths that go around these parks, and what I want you to do is to look around, give the entire area a once over, look at the paths and see are there any obstructions in the way? Are there any obstructions in the way? Now, I'm not talking about, you know, big horses up or barriers, metal gates, things like that. I am talking about things that could be on the ground, like litter trash. Are there broken parts of the sidewalk? One of the things that can actually make a huge difference is just simply throwing away the trash that might be on the pathways. This, of course, is great for our environment too. We want to recycle, we want to throw things away and set a good example, but these can cause serious harm to people using mobility devices in various ways harm to people using mobility devices in various ways, notwithstanding the fact that you might not even be able to pass through the area. Something else that could also be in the way is natural debris as well. If you can, without harm to yourself, move any of this away, that also could definitely help.

Jessica Fabus Cheng:

Another tip that I have for you today is really geared towards business owners, entrepreneurs, people in, maybe, the marketing space, and it's about having diversity in your marketing campaigns. What I mean by this is having someone who has a visible disability included in the marketing campaign. Of course, it is understood that many disabilities are invisible, but in this situation, having someone, for example, using a white cane, that might be blind or low vision or visually impaired, really sends a strong message because it is visual in nature and, not to be ironic, but it's really important that we have this representation in this diverse way because it sets the standard for any marketing that is done. It's something like 1% of marketing campaigns are actually considered to be inclusive and this is a way to combat that issue. So diversity can be represented in a host of different ways for many different groups of people, but specifically, including, in addition to those other diverse models that you might have including someone who is disabled, can make a tremendous impact. So those are the three that I have for you.

Jessica Fabus Cheng:

Of course, I have many, many more, which will be featured in future podcast episodes, but I really wanted to thank you for joining me today and just to mention about again that story of David and Goliath. It truly does remind us that we have within us the power to create change. We have the power to make a difference. No matter how small those actions might seem, our actions do have an impact. So by taking these steps to promote inclusion and accessibility on places like social media in our physical spaces, through our business practices Also, we truly can make a significant impact on the lives of disabled individuals and build a more inclusive world. So thank you for joining me on Accessible Conversations. I'm your host, Jessica Fabus-Cheng, and remember it is really the small stones that can bring down giants.