Transcript for Deaf:
Upbeat music plays for 10 seconds.
Host: Welcome to Ability Anyware Radio, a disability advocacy podcast with transcript for Deaf
viewers. This is DJ Ability bringing you our #LaborDayPodcast episode dedicated to all the
hard workers out there, including entrepreneurs with disabilities. Special thanks
to all the essential employees, healthcare professionals, and other frontline staff
who work diligently to provide necessary services and a clean, safe, environments for
fellow citizens.

This episode is also a precursor to National Disability Employment Awareness Month,
abbreviated NDEAM. To commemorate NDEAM, we will bringing you an accessible online event,
Uniquely Able for Entrepreneurship. This will be the kickoff or a series of workshops with
the goal of working to change the concept of what it means to have a disability.

Stay tuned to this episode for an unprecedented interview with a disability influencer
and advocate who has been working behind the scenes for 20 years. She has a lifetime
of experience creating accessibility in an often inaccessible world. You don't want
to miss this. She is going to share an important message from which we all can benefit.

And to start off this podcast right, we are going to play an oldie, but goodie, it was first
performed by the Isley Brothers and then sung by the lovely Vanessa Williams.
Did you know that Vanessa Williams co-starred with Christopher Scott, in a film, called My
Brother. If you haven't seen it, please do!

For all the hard working folks out there, we appreciate and respect you! And here it is "Work to Do"

"Work to Do" performed by Vanessa Williams lyrics

Flute playing

I can't wait to get home to you
I got so much work to do, work, work
Oh, come on work me baby, come on home, oh
Come on work me baby, oh

I'm taking care of business, baby can't you see
I've gotta make it for you and gotta make it for me
Sometimes it seems boy I'm neglecting you
Well I'd love to spend more time
I got so many things to do

Upbeat piano solo

Oh, I, I got work to do
I got work baby
I got a job baby
I got work to do
Said I got work to do

Host: You're listening to Ability Anyware Radio, a disability advocacy podcast. Up next, our special guest that we're honored to have on our Labor Day podcast episode.

Mellissa Green: Hi my name is Mellissa Green, I'm a digital accessibility and founder of the company, A Blue Green Galaxy. This company is designed to change the concept of what it means
to have a disability. Thus far, the company only has one brand under the A Blue Green Galaxy
umbrella. It's called Uniquely Able. Under the Uniquely Able brand, is the Uniquely Able brand is
Uniquely Able for Entrepreneurship Summit and the audio only YouTube channel.

I'm sure they'll be some other things in the pipeline at some point. I can see T-shirts and mugs
and all sorts of stuff later on down the line. So it means being a digital accessibility consultant. I also have the life experience of someone who uses assistive technology.

And I've discovered that many websites are accessible, but some are not. For those that are not
accessible, I've contacted many of the companies to tell them that their websites are not accessible
and to ask them if they had an accessibility team.

They didn't have a accessibility team on staff. And then I tell them that I am a digital accessibility
consultant and have a rate sheet and happily send it over to them. They'll say. Oh, we'll get
back to you and let our team know about your offer.

And I'm still waiting! Some years ago when I started contacting companies. Well, one
response I got was: Well, if I have to make If I have to make accessible for you, then I have
to make it accessible for everyone else, which they say is too much work.

I think that technology has come a long way. It may not be as much work as it could
have been back then. So, I've been offering to help website designers add accessibility features.
That I have been doing for free. And now I'm looking to make some money from it.

This is the expertise or skills economy. And I have the skills to assist with making things like
websites, and web apps, and documents more accessible.

So the YouTube channel that I am creating is called Uniquely Able. And it will have book reviews,
film reviews, and other educational information about changing the concept of what it means to have a disability.

Accessibility is definitely something that matters and I feel like a lot of people in the technology industry are not listening. I plan to do solo project then branch out later with interviews.

Accessibility is definitely something matters. And I feel like a lot of people in the technology
industry are not listening. I think if they knew someone if they knew someone who had or
disability (or had a disability themselves) that would be more important to them. They would be more willing to make their digital properties accessible right out the box. At the moment they are not. And they are wanting to make things accessible as an afterthought.