[Music]
I’d like to take you back in time to
March 19th 2006 it’s the day that
changed my life forever my family and I
were in Old Kentucky during a dirt bike
race family friends and I did that for
fun something we did when we were
younger when I was 17 years old the last
thing I remember from that day was being
in a trailer with my brother preparing
for a race after that time I woke up
about two weeks later I didn’t know what
had happened I suffered a spinal cord
injury and my life changed forever in
that moment in that instant my
independence was taken from me that that
day it was tough I went from being a 17
year old boy to it only thought about
really three things in life mostly most
important things of course my job which
was very important that worked my job so
that I could make money to put parts on
my truck because trucks are important
bill I’m very important and I drove my
truck around with all the pretty girls
third most important job truck girls 17
years old now I will say that not much
has changed since then
I will admit it now looking back on that
time and that day things have
transformed and changed incredibly
luckily for me with the support of my
friends my family my nurses and my
therapist I was able to graduate from
high school on time with my classmates I
then moved on to this beautiful campus
at the University of Southern Indiana
and graduated just a few years ago I’d
like to call it the five and a half year
plan
I’m sorry parents I know you think a
little bit differently I promise you the
four year plan is only underrated and
over and all the same time what’s
interesting is that going from a 17 year
old that knew nothing about disability
being thrust into a very unique position
where again I had to account on someone
to help with feeding someone to help
with itching my nose someone to help
what’s wiping my I make credible
transformation I had the opportunity in
2012 to serve as a national ambassador
for Easter Seals now if you don’t know
much about Easter Seals it’s one of the
largest not-for-profit organizations in
the United States that serves people
with disabilities I had the opportunity
to travel all across the United States
and learn about people with disabilities
the challenges they face and learn a lot
about myself really opened up my world
to disability and people in general I
had a great impact on me so when I
graduated from USI five-and-a-half okay
maybe it was six years all right
oh hold it against me when I graduated
from USI and ready to jump into the
employment world when I met with with a
few local executives around our
community
one of the things that I repeated in our
ongoing talks in our exploratory
interviews was my passion about
disability well lucky for me somehow
someway that led to a position with
local company called old National Bank
and I’ve been with old old national for
three years now my position is to help
our company do a better job of including
people with disabilities and our
workforce now when I got the offer after
graduating from USI with a degree in PR
and advertising thinking that I wanted
to go into ports management I thought
I’d Bank on me I don’t even trust myself
with a credit card this is bad news my
parents sure as heck don’t trust me with
a credit card mom please don’t okay
having the opportunity old national to
lead employment function where we’re
working with people with disabilities
has been incredible one thing I didn’t
know I’d like to share with you today 60
million Americans are affected by
disability 200,000 Hoosiers our own
state are affected by disability one in
five people in the world 1 billion
people are affected by disability
disability is not you disability is not
me
disability is us so taking that into
consideration with my new job with old
National Bank how do we do a better job
of including people in the workforce
because realizing that there’s this
incredible population of people out
there that just so happens to be one of
the most underemployed populations in
the world people with disabilities make
up the largest manoa
that are underemployed in the world so
as an organization what do we do how do
we accomplish this how do we bring
people these problem solvers these
people that are you these people that
are mean these people that are our
family members how do we bring them
aboard our company our lives and our
community and why haven’t they been
apart let me provide a couple examples
for you so Evelyn Evelyn has an anxiety
disorder she is a very very talented
individual she has tremendous skills so
Evelyn came to old national for a job
interview
about a year before we began our
initiatives our inclusion initiatives
now with her anxiety sometimes she had
trouble answering a direct question
right away because she was
self-conscious of it about some of the
things that she would say right all of
us have trouble with that thinking twice
about what we say and in an interview do
you thought three times about what she
was going to say so sometimes you think
about a recruiter that spends six
seconds looking at your resume
two minutes interviewing a person now if
you don’t right away answer that
question you’re out of the pile right
unfortunately we missed out on Evelyn
now we circle back with with Evelyn a
year later after we began our
initiatives
Evelyn sat down she had a folder with
all of her test scores that said she was
an incredible candidate for this
position which was in an input position
it told us that she was really great
at the job that she wanted to do yet
sometimes she didn’t have the answers
right away with our normal questions so
we took this great risk and we hired her
Evelyn has now been with all national
for three years she is one of our
highest performing input operators and
she’s one of the most outgoing people
and our operations department we had in
our minds we thought just because Evelyn
couldn’t answer those questions right
away at normal interview process we
excluded her we learned a lesson let me
tell you about risk and Madeline Chris
is our CFO and Madeline is or was a
student at the University of Southern
Indiana
Madeline happens to be a double major in
finance and accounting
he’s also blind now I introduced Chris
and Madeline or mentorship be friends
and to learn from each other and to grow
and Chris came to me it was very stunned
II he thought how in the world is
Madeline going to be an accountant how
can she solved these mathematical
problems if she can’t see well Chris
quickly realized the Madeleine had been
dealing with her disability or
impairment since she was 13 years old
Chris toka that back and said Madeline
is is completing a degree at the
University of Evansville Chris then
realized after speaking with Madeline
that there were all kinds of assistive
technology solutions that helped her
read enough to be successful even more
than anyone could ever expect Madeline
Chris found found out had just returned
from traveling to 15 different countries
in Europe five of them by herself now I
don’t know about you guys but
I had trouble finding us i travelling
from the east side to the west side so
risk finding out that madeleine was able
to navigate different countries by
herself independently helped him realize
that we as people make assumptions about
the barriers that people with
disabilities or all of us face but the
assumptions that we as people make
now those those two examples i hope will
make you think about some of the
assumptions that we make because as an
organization they’ve done an incredible
job transforming the way that we think
now what’s even more interesting is that
we’ve found this great talent of people
that have been excluded from the
workforce these great individuals a
significant population and while doing
so I’m receiving messages emails
voicemails from all throughout old
Nationals five-state footprint people
that want to help people that want to be
a part of our initiatives because
someone in their life has faced a
disability someone in their life has
been affected and they understand the
importance of our hiring initiatives
so now have we found a skilled and
talented labor force but the culture of
our company has been transformed the
passion has transformed let me leave you
with one last example they think about
me just think about me for a moment
they’ll be creepy
then why are you laughing about that so
when I went been with a disability
thinks about going to a friend’s house
it’s about going to a restaurant I have
to consider is there going to be enough
space for my ramp to fold down are the
doors wide enough for me to get in or
the countertops or the tables tall
enough is there an elevator to where I
need to go now if you think about that
those questions that individuals with
disabilities have to think about before
they even go out I’m pretty sure what we
call people like that are problem
solvers its losses significant
significant amount of people out there
that because of some of the assumptions
that we make as people have not been
included in the workforce yet with
thinking a little differently stepping
back and adding some passions some love
and some compassion we’re able to
transform our work force our minds and
our culture so I encourage you I’ll
leave here today to think a little bit
differently about the assumptions that
we make as people about other people and
in the spirit of the tagline of our talk
here today grow I encourage you
entrepreneurs business owners to grow
grow your workforce grow your compassion
and grow your culture I promise you you
won’t regret it
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
I’d like to take you back in time to
March 19th 2006 it’s the day that
changed my life forever my family and I
were in Old Kentucky during a dirt bike
race family friends and I did that for
fun something we did when we were
younger when I was 17 years old the last
thing I remember from that day was being
in a trailer with my brother preparing
for a race after that time I woke up
about two weeks later I didn’t know what
had happened I suffered a spinal cord
injury and my life changed forever in
that moment in that instant my
independence was taken from me that that
day it was tough I went from being a 17
year old boy to it only thought about
really three things in life mostly most
important things of course my job which
was very important that worked my job so
that I could make money to put parts on
my truck because trucks are important
bill I’m very important and I drove my
truck around with all the pretty girls
third most important job truck girls 17
years old now I will say that not much
has changed since then
I will admit it now looking back on that
time and that day things have
transformed and changed incredibly
luckily for me with the support of my
friends my family my nurses and my
therapist I was able to graduate from
high school on time with my classmates I
then moved on to this beautiful campus
at the University of Southern Indiana
and graduated just a few years ago I’d
like to call it the five and a half year
plan
I’m sorry parents I know you think a
little bit differently I promise you the
four year plan is only underrated and
over and all the same time what’s
interesting is that going from a 17 year
old that knew nothing about disability
being thrust into a very unique position
where again I had to account on someone
to help with feeding someone to help
with itching my nose someone to help
what’s wiping my I make credible
transformation I had the opportunity in
2012 to serve as a national ambassador
for Easter Seals now if you don’t know
much about Easter Seals it’s one of the
largest not-for-profit organizations in
the United States that serves people
with disabilities I had the opportunity
to travel all across the United States
and learn about people with disabilities
the challenges they face and learn a lot
about myself really opened up my world
to disability and people in general I
had a great impact on me so when I
graduated from USI five-and-a-half okay
maybe it was six years all right
oh hold it against me when I graduated
from USI and ready to jump into the
employment world when I met with with a
few local executives around our
community
one of the things that I repeated in our
ongoing talks in our exploratory
interviews was my passion about
disability well lucky for me somehow
someway that led to a position with
local company called old National Bank
and I’ve been with old old national for
three years now my position is to help
our company do a better job of including
people with disabilities and our
workforce now when I got the offer after
graduating from USI with a degree in PR
and advertising thinking that I wanted
to go into ports management I thought
I’d Bank on me I don’t even trust myself
with a credit card this is bad news my
parents sure as heck don’t trust me with
a credit card mom please don’t okay
having the opportunity old national to
lead employment function where we’re
working with people with disabilities
has been incredible one thing I didn’t
know I’d like to share with you today 60
million Americans are affected by
disability 200,000 Hoosiers our own
state are affected by disability one in
five people in the world 1 billion
people are affected by disability
disability is not you disability is not
me
disability is us so taking that into
consideration with my new job with old
National Bank how do we do a better job
of including people in the workforce
because realizing that there’s this
incredible population of people out
there that just so happens to be one of
the most underemployed populations in
the world people with disabilities make
up the largest manoa
that are underemployed in the world so
as an organization what do we do how do
we accomplish this how do we bring
people these problem solvers these
people that are you these people that
are mean these people that are our
family members how do we bring them
aboard our company our lives and our
community and why haven’t they been
apart let me provide a couple examples
for you so Evelyn Evelyn has an anxiety
disorder she is a very very talented
individual she has tremendous skills so
Evelyn came to old national for a job
interview
about a year before we began our
initiatives our inclusion initiatives
now with her anxiety sometimes she had
trouble answering a direct question
right away because she was
self-conscious of it about some of the
things that she would say right all of
us have trouble with that thinking twice
about what we say and in an interview do
you thought three times about what she
was going to say so sometimes you think
about a recruiter that spends six
seconds looking at your resume
two minutes interviewing a person now if
you don’t right away answer that
question you’re out of the pile right
unfortunately we missed out on Evelyn
now we circle back with with Evelyn a
year later after we began our
initiatives
Evelyn sat down she had a folder with
all of her test scores that said she was
an incredible candidate for this
position which was in an input position
it told us that she was really great
at the job that she wanted to do yet
sometimes she didn’t have the answers
right away with our normal questions so
we took this great risk and we hired her
Evelyn has now been with all national
for three years she is one of our
highest performing input operators and
she’s one of the most outgoing people
and our operations department we had in
our minds we thought just because Evelyn
couldn’t answer those questions right
away at normal interview process we
excluded her we learned a lesson let me
tell you about risk and Madeline Chris
is our CFO and Madeline is or was a
student at the University of Southern
Indiana
Madeline happens to be a double major in
finance and accounting
he’s also blind now I introduced Chris
and Madeline or mentorship be friends
and to learn from each other and to grow
and Chris came to me it was very stunned
II he thought how in the world is
Madeline going to be an accountant how
can she solved these mathematical
problems if she can’t see well Chris
quickly realized the Madeleine had been
dealing with her disability or
impairment since she was 13 years old
Chris toka that back and said Madeline
is is completing a degree at the
University of Evansville Chris then
realized after speaking with Madeline
that there were all kinds of assistive
technology solutions that helped her
read enough to be successful even more
than anyone could ever expect Madeline
Chris found found out had just returned
from traveling to 15 different countries
in Europe five of them by herself now I
don’t know about you guys but
I had trouble finding us i travelling
from the east side to the west side so
risk finding out that madeleine was able
to navigate different countries by
herself independently helped him realize
that we as people make assumptions about
the barriers that people with
disabilities or all of us face but the
assumptions that we as people make
now those those two examples i hope will
make you think about some of the
assumptions that we make because as an
organization they’ve done an incredible
job transforming the way that we think
now what’s even more interesting is that
we’ve found this great talent of people
that have been excluded from the
workforce these great individuals a
significant population and while doing
so I’m receiving messages emails
voicemails from all throughout old
Nationals five-state footprint people
that want to help people that want to be
a part of our initiatives because
someone in their life has faced a
disability someone in their life has
been affected and they understand the
importance of our hiring initiatives
so now have we found a skilled and
talented labor force but the culture of
our company has been transformed the
passion has transformed let me leave you
with one last example they think about
me just think about me for a moment
they’ll be creepy
then why are you laughing about that so
when I went been with a disability
thinks about going to a friend’s house
it’s about going to a restaurant I have
to consider is there going to be enough
space for my ramp to fold down are the
doors wide enough for me to get in or
the countertops or the tables tall
enough is there an elevator to where I
need to go now if you think about that
those questions that individuals with
disabilities have to think about before
they even go out I’m pretty sure what we
call people like that are problem
solvers its losses significant
significant amount of people out there
that because of some of the assumptions
that we make as people have not been
included in the workforce yet with
thinking a little differently stepping
back and adding some passions some love
and some compassion we’re able to
transform our work force our minds and
our culture so I encourage you I’ll
leave here today to think a little bit
differently about the assumptions that
we make as people about other people and
in the spirit of the tagline of our talk
here today grow I encourage you
entrepreneurs business owners to grow
grow your workforce grow your compassion
and grow your culture I promise you you
won’t regret it
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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