"Debra Ruh on Disability Inclusion, AI & The Future of Equity | Billion Strong Movement Explained" #inclusionmatters - video Dailymotion

RESO RESEARCH SOCIOLOGY Dr Surender Kumar

"Debra Ruh on Disability Inclusion, AI & The Future of Equity | Billion Strong Movement Explained"  Are we truly including everyone in the future we’re building?  In this powerful episode of the RESO Podcast, global disability advocate Debra Ruh, CEO of Ruh Global IMPACT and founder of Billion Strong, joins us to explore how AI, accessibility tech, and inclusive leadership can transform the world for over 1.7 billion people with disabilities.  As a US State Department Speaker and one of the leading voices in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Debra shares:  Why the DEI movement is under threat—and how we can fight back  How Billion Strong is changing traditional advocacy  The future of education, employment, and tech for marginalized communities  The role of AI and grassroots movements in building inclusive systems   If you believe in inclusion, innovation, and human dignity, this conversation is for you.  Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more thought-provoking conversations from RESO.  Watch more inspiring stories:  ! 📢 Like, Share & Subscribe for more insights. https://www.instagram.com/carpainter.tree https://twitter.com/DrSurender77715 https://www.facebook.com/share/1DiGyTXkyohttps://www.instagram.com/carpainter.tree https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-surender-kumar-88533170 https://medium.com/@research.drsurender/india-today-the-rise-or-fall-of-democracy-ecca5ff0cb45  Kindly subscribe to RESO RESEARCH SOCIOLOGY Channel: https://youtube.com/@RESOResearchSociology  Connect with Debra Ruh: https://www.ruhglobal.com  #DebraRuh #BillionStrong #InclusionMatters #DisabilityRights #AIForGood #Accessibility #RESOPodcast #DebraRuh #DisabilityInclusion #BillionStrong #AIForGood #InclusiveLeadership #AccessibilityMatters #DEI #HumanRights2025 #AccessibleTechnology #DigitalAccessibility #InclusionRevolution #WomenInTech #TechForGood #SocialInnovation     Your Queries:   debra ruh interview  billion strong movement  disability inclusion 2025  AI and accessibility  DEI backlash 2025  inclusive leadership  human rights and technology  accessibility in education  AI for people with disabilities  US State Department speaker  reso podcast  diversity equity and inclusion 2025

Transcript

00:00so thank you so much ma'am once again you know we're very welcome to have you on this

00:14reso podcast where we actually explore powerful ideas at the intersection of society justice and

00:20innovation honored to have you ma'am welcome as a global change maker pointed in inclusive

00:25leadership debra ruth ceo and founder of ruth global impact and executive chair and co-founder of

00:33billion strong you also serve as a u.s state department speaker representing united states

00:40in the key global conversations about digital accessibility disability rights and inclusive

00:45innovations you pen down to outstanding books inclusion branding and trapping into hidden

00:51capital we are very much glad ma'am to have you on board today and it's a wonderful topic you're

00:56going to be discussing and sort of your narratives are certainly going to benefit our audience so i

01:02would like to move on to my first question which is certainly a very important question ma'am it says

01:07what major shifts is still needed to transform global disability inclusion there is so much change

01:15happening in society right now i'm joining from the united states from virginia and there is so much

01:22chaos happening in my country and it's actually happening over disability and other diversity

01:28inclusion efforts but the reality is um and i continue to talk about this on the work that i'm

01:35doing i'm about to speak at the world vaccine congress um this in this week and why do people with

01:42disabilities need to be included well we should be including ourselves and in the human experience

01:49disabilities is a natural part of the experience we experience being a child we experience being a

01:55teenager we experience being adults and if we're lucky we might experience being seniors like i am

02:01but the reality to design any society where we do not include every single person it's just ridiculous

02:08that is not an enlightened society so we're fighting about it a lot in the western countries we're

02:14fighting a lot about inclusion but in the meantime a lot of us are just moving on because when you're

02:21building a big innovative smart city a smart city is not smart if it does not include human beings at

02:27every phase of their life and at a time when we have assisted we have artificial intelligence also

02:33it's even more important that we really look at designing for the entire human experience

02:39so we have a lot we have a lot of work to do in society right now this is an important question

02:45you responded very well would like to move on to my second question which is again very important

02:49question says how is billion strong different from traditional disability advocacy billion strong

02:56it's billion-strong.org it is it is different from um what i have seen with disability advocacy

03:04i have been in this field since 2000 i might say that i've been in this field since 1987

03:12when my daughter was born with down syndrome and i was like oh no i've never met another person with a

03:19disability not even really realizing at the time that legally i am considered a person with a disability

03:26because i am neurodiverse i have adhd so i was always one of those kids they were saying now be quiet

03:33deborah go sit down be quiet but the reality is it's actually made me a very successful adult so once

03:41again you having um disabilities is just part of human experience but i think that the opportunity is once

03:48again why you know what are we why are we designing anything in society why are we building

03:55any environments that are not accessible to every bit of the human experience so it keeps going back

04:01to the same thing and when i talk about these issues as i travel around the world i um i'm starting to

04:08get a lot of i'm getting a lot more hope for the um what some people call developing nature nations

04:14like india india has a billion five hundred million people if we could get disability inclusion for

04:22that matter all celebrating all of the human experience in india and designing like we are

04:29human beings that are diverse that are constantly changing it would benefit all of the other countries

04:34as well it'll be interesting to see how all of this unfolds but um i believe that the only way forward

04:41is using the innovation and the technology that we have built and making sure that it's fully

04:46accessible to every bit of the human experience which means that we include ourselves in all design

04:52and we make sure that everyone gets to experience society and contribute to society i mean respond

04:58very well this is an important question and your narratives are certainly helpful for our audience would

05:04like to move on through my third question which is important question says how can governments

05:10businesses and communities co-create inclusive systems it is about community it really is about

05:20community and i think that one thing that we're seeing in the western countries especially my

05:26beautiful country is that we it's like we forgot about community we go into our little houses our big

05:33houses with one or two maybe four people and we just forget about community so we turn to our

05:39governments and say you need to take care of us but the reality is i i think that we see we have to

05:44take care of ourselves um and so building societies that are really resistant in that way but also very

05:51supportive of community and helping community and then as you said partnering with other community

05:59members there are so so many stakeholders there's so many stakeholders and bringing them all together to

06:10design once again for the entire human experience is they really all thank you so much now i would like

06:17to move on to my fourth question it says like in the face of dei blacklash how do we keep human

06:25inclusion front and center it is it is very difficult to watch the backlash of what is happening in the dei

06:34crisis i have seen people all over the world organizations all over the world decimated i see really really

06:42important care um in crisis intervention that are being just caught it's really really hard to watch but at the

06:50same time i think okay i can watch i did not i made a decision as an american to vote in a different

06:58direction than america chose that's fine we're a democratic nation but i i also saw i'll just give you an

07:06example uh last time this president was in office which i also did not vote that way that time um there was

07:15a decision to be made to um to take away something we call in america meal on wheels which is a very

07:22important program where we reach out to our elderly people that are shut in people that might have

07:29disabilities that are very vulnerable and they they won't eat if you don't help them and so i remember we

07:36were just devastated that our government was going to take that program away but what the community did was

07:42the community just stepped up and we filled that gap because it was important to us that people do

07:48not start right even though people start every day but you know what i mean it's about communities and so

07:54the reality is now we have the opportunity to step up even more as communities as inclusive communities

08:01that celebrate every bit of our existence we celebrate our beautiful children let's celebrate being a

08:09teenager oh that's it's so difficult sometimes and so valuable let's celebrate every single phase of

08:15our lives but if we do that if we celebrate our seniors we should all celebrate our elders we are also

08:21celebrating that and every single phase of the vulnerability and the beauty of being a human we're

08:29making sure that as you said earlier we are working as community members and bringing the stakeholders

08:36the corporations are in and they're hiring us they're understanding how to include us how do you

08:41keep people with disabilities at the front and center as we talked about before you include them in

08:46everything you help them make the decisions you say hey by the way um is this this works for you even

08:53though you're blind right oh no no this works even in your wheelchair you make sure that you are staying

09:00you're keeping it front and center no matter what the politics are doing no matter what one

09:05individual leader says or whatever people are doing how can we ever argue against including humans

09:12including yourself that's what a society is not the better legislated not to admit because we might look

09:23weak we might consider be considered less we might be in a lower caste system oh we don't use that anymore and

09:30yet all over the world don't we do that we categorize people and decide they're less than

09:35because well just so ridiculous that did not happen in our design that way if you have a political

09:43person that decides that some people aren't better than others because their skin is darker their skin

09:48is lighter their hair is different it is so ridiculous we are human beings so um

09:54um i'll say we always make sure they're included by actually including them and listening and

10:01encouraging and once again there's so much good data all over the world that we we can get what we

10:07need and make sure that they are included so they can um and once again they are us it's ridiculous we're

10:13humans ma'am now i'd like to move on to my fifth question which is a rapid question final question says

10:20what roles do ai accessibility technology and grassroots leadership play in building an inclusive future

10:29i'm very excited i love technology i've loved technology since i was a little girl my dad

10:34was a programmer and he was in charge of a a computer that's it was it's my house is bigger than this

10:40i mean it was a gigantic computer which probably this phone i'm on has more computing power than that whole

10:46uh block of buildings did in the past but i believe in technology i know technology can be used and has

10:54been to harm us it has but also it can be used for great good and i really like artificial intelligence

11:02now i know that there's all kind of ways to use technology in bad ways that's just not who i am i

11:09focus on using technology for good ai for good tech for good that's what i do and when it comes to ai

11:16supporting humans as we walk our conditions as we as we go through this journey of life as

11:23sometimes we become more vulnerable than others i i am different now than i was when i was in my 20s

11:30i am and i i'm i'm accepting of that but if i can use technology to make my life even better why would i

11:37not do that so the opportunity to really really enhance our lives not to use ai just as somebody to

11:45babysit older people or people with disabilities no but integrating ai and technology into our lives

11:52in ways that is very powerful which we're starting to do we see um google did smart glasses they

11:59considered that such a failure i don't thank you for coming up with blue glasses and figuring it out

12:05so that others can keep taking that and in and advancing on the technology now there's a company that

12:11has smart glasses for people that are blind that really really are allowed them to do um wayfinding

12:19and live their lives more independently and they have over a hundred thousand people using it and they

12:26just started so where will that technology take us i mean the opportunities are just endless of what

12:32we can do with technologies and i think we can get really excited about it there's some problems with the

12:38technology we need to make sure there's not unconscious and actual bias built into the

12:44systems which we have seen but there are different things that we can do and are doing to make sure of

12:49that but it you know ai can give us the the power to walk ai can give us the power to speak when

12:55we've lost it it can it can allow us to communicate with each other even if we don't speak the same

13:01language it's just so powerful what it is going to do for the humans and especially for people with

13:07disabilities and one thing that i'm working on um we we talked earlier about billion strong why do we

13:13need to bring it together well because one thing that i was saying before the dei crisis happened

13:20was that we need to come together we are in the disability community over a billion point 700 million

13:28strong and we think even stronger because having a disability is part of being a human being so the

13:34reality is billion strong came together not as a disability organization but as an organization

13:43to fulfill the promise of nothing about us without us include yourself include people with disabilities

13:50in everything we do and you will allow society to be built so that everybody can be included use

13:57technology in a way that it really benefits mankind in this beautiful living planet the world and

14:04and in and be inspired about what we could do especially as these things unfold in other

14:11nations that look ridiculous it is such an opportunity for countries like india to show us the way forward

14:18countries in the middle east country in the middle east show us the way forward stop relying on other

14:23countries say oh you should do it this way no build societies that work for all human beings that's what we need right now

14:30you know make sure that ai compliments and helps all of us really really enjoy beautiful wonderful

14:38diverse lives um and celebrate being human instead of deciding yeah instead of doing it the way we're

14:45doing it but thank you so very much for the time today i'm responding these five important questions and

14:51this was a wonderful possibility to have you on the platform of resource such an esteemed and phenomenal

14:56personality and your detail i mean the knowledge is fast and i'm sure the audience will draw much

15:01chunk of benefit as you already familiar that resource is a platform where we step to strive through the

15:07noise to cause you most reliable and authentic sociological narratives and explanations on various

15:13different topics and domains this time we were trying to address with you tried addressing with you

15:19disability and inclusion it is such a wonderful possibility in fact we are covering this topic for the very first

15:25time and we're very glad to have you ma'am on this platform once again ma'am thank you so much joining us from the united nations

"Debra Ruh on Disability Inclusion, AI & The Future of Equity | Billion Strong Movement Explained" #inclusionmatters

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