Hi everyone. My name is Nandita Gupta
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and I'm a petite Indian woman with long
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black hair wearing lilac today.
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I was on a party boat.
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A Bollywood dance party happening right
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here in Seattle on Lake Union.
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Now for those of you who know me, I love
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good Bollywood music.
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So there I was grooving, having the time
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And that's when I knew
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this was a good first date.
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everything changed.
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My chest started seizing. My lungs were
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I couldn't breathe.
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So I frantically looked around at the
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source of this problem
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somebody was smoking.
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I was having an asthma attack.
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So I quickly find my bag, dig out my
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take a quick hit. Um I'm trying to act
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casual because I'm still on a date. Uh
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so I mumble something to my date and I
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bolt up the deck to get some fresh air.
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So I'm holding on to the railing for my
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Uh [sighs] breathing
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letting my lungs settle
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staring out of the Seattle skyline.
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And I turned and I saw that he'd
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So I turned to my date and I said
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are you sure you want to do this?
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You don't know what you're getting into.
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Are you sure you want to date me?
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Because here's what I was thinking about
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His life would be so much easier
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if he was dating someone more normal.
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And here's what I mean by that.
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No more triple checking the air quality
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before making plans.
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No more canceling plans last minute
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because the air quality changed.
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My sister got married in India last
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And I couldn't make her wedding.
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Because the doctor told me
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that it was dangerous for me to travel
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back home. Not uncomfortable,
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That's not an inconvenience.
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This is a life shaped by something
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So, here I was listing out every reason
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why he shouldn't date me, uh why he
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and you know what he said?
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He looked at me and he said that he fell
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for me and all of me.
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And that my experiences, including my
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disability, made me who I am.
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He wouldn't change a thing.
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So, 5 years later we're married.
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So, clearly this deck conversation
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didn't scare him off.
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But here's what I've been thinking about
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ever since that night on the deck.
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I was the one who saw my disability as a
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I was scaring him away or trying to
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scare him away from something I hadn't
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yet learned to see differently myself.
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And you know, back then I didn't have
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the language for it. All I knew was here
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are places I can't go to. These are some
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experiences that are closed off to me.
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Ooh, here are some things I can't do.
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And I carried that. I carried that for a
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And it's truly taken me years to
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Nothing was wrong with my body. Nothing
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that hadn't included me.
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And that is what I want to talk to all
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of you about today. Like that's what I
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want to discuss with you today.
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This imprint, this magic, happens when
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the world is designed to be accessible.
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Where everyone can truly show up in
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their most authentic self.
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And it's measured by the people who feel
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seen and heard because we showed up.
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And so let's explore this question
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How might we truly build an inclusive
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when no one is left out regardless of
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Now when I say disability, what comes to
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A lot of people think permanent
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disabilities, you know, someone who
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might be using a wheelchair, someone who
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might be using a cane.
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Disability is so much bigger than that.
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and rough and uneven cobblestone
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And where the sidewalk meets the street,
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No slope, no transition, just a hard
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A young mother is maneuvering
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maneuvering a stroller with her two
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children. One of them is crying, the
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other one's pulling at her sleeve. Oof,
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she's struggling. She's struggling to
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get the stroller over the curb.
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A couple is carrying four oversized
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dragging them across the street. One of
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them hits the curb. Domino effect,
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everything goes flying.
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They're sweating, they're apologizing,
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they're stressed. How are they going to
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And finally, a woman in a wheelchair.
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She rolls up to the curb and just
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because there's no way up.
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Now, she has to go all the way down, go
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around, and something that should have
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taken her 10 seconds
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is going to take her 10 minutes.
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Three completely different people. Three
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completely different situations.
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But they're all experiencing the exact
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And the environment is creating this
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that's a temporary disability. She's
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only using the stroller for a few years.
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The young couple, that's a situational
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disability. That's just for this one
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And finally, the woman in the
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wheelchair, that's a permanent
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But the curb doesn't care.
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It's the same exclusion for all of them.
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Now, I want you to picture the exact
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same scene, but with one small change.
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So, instead of the hard edge, imagine a
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smooth and sloped transition for where
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the sidewalk meets the street.
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The young mother with the stroller
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easily go right up. The suitcases, they
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glide right over. And the woman in the
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wheelchair just crosses.
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And that's the beauty of what happens
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when we design for disability.
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If there was a grandfather using a
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walker, if you had an injured ankle and
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you're struggling to climb up a step,
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when you design for disability, you
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design for everyone.
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And that's the beauty of this.
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It's all about making those small
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changes and making those changes.
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And that's actually is called the curb
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cut effect, where a solution that's
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designed to help one group of people
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ends up benefiting everyone else.
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You're going to need these curb cuts
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If not permanently, then maybe
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temporarily, or just in certain
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Now, a quick show of hands.
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How many people here are in a
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relationship or have ever been in a
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All right. Oh, we have a good crowd.
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Now, keep those hands up
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if you've ever had a fight about chores.
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Oh, I see you. Yes, I see you. Okay.
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Keep those hands down. Put those hands
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So, pretend you're me.
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You're in the middle of doing something.
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Maybe you're watering your plants.
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And your husband walks up to you and
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"Hey, babe. I'm going to go work out. Uh
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your mom called. Make sure you reply to
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her. The landlord sent an email, so
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respond back to that. Oh, and make sure
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you take the chicken out of the freezer.
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I'm going to cook later. And your
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prescription's ready, so make sure you
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pick that up. Oh, and the laundry's
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ready, so make sure you put your clothes
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away. I sorted them for you. And yeah,
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I'm going to go, so I'm headed to the
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grocery store. If you need something,
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Okay, how many remember everything on
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Wow, no hands. Okay. How many remember
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All right. All right.
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How many remember maybe one thing and
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then just forgot everything else?
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Yes. Raise those hands proudly. Yes,
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that's me. That's me.
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he thought he was being helpful. He's
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like, "Well, I was being efficient. I
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was telling you everything so you can
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Why can't I just remember things like a
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So, my brain doesn't process these long
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But you know what it loves?
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It loves checkboxes.
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will move mountains for that little
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And the minute we figured that out,
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No more fights, no more frozen chicken.
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He just sends me a list, I check things
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off. Everyone's happy, yay!
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Did my ADHD suddenly disappear?
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Did I develop better memory?
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The environment changed.
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So, we adjusted how we communicated.
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Earlier, when my husband was rattling
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off this list at rapid speed,
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the way the information was getting to
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just didn't match the way I process it.
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But the minute we adjusted that,
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I wasn't disabled anymore.
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Most of you just experienced that as
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You know, you may not have ADHD,
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but the environment that I created,
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rapid, one time only,
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and completely verbal,
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disabled you from succeeding.
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And that doesn't mean anything's wrong
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It just means that we need to be mindful
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of the environment we create.
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Because if this environment is only
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it excludes everybody else who doesn't
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And guess what? We all process
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information so differently.
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And so, it's super important to be
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how might we really create that
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environment for everyone.
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It's all about making those small
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changes that can create massive impact.
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But here's the thing I've noticed,
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not just in myself, in all of us.
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I mean, hey, you just saw me forget an
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entire grocery list. We forget. And it's
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not malicious, it's not intentional, but
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we just forget that not everyone moves
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through the world the same way we do.
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And what might feel effortless to
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someone could be an invisible barrier
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And that's why inclusion has to be
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It's not a training, it's not a
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checkbox, it's not a one and done.
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It's a lens that you pick up every
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you walk into a room, have a
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build something, go to work, do
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You have to be intentional
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and it has to be intrinsic.
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Because what happens when we forget?
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What happens when we don't pick up that
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They feel the absence. They feel the
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They feel that moment that someone built
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didn't think about them.
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I know what that feels like.
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I know some of you know what that feels
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when someone does include you.
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I'd love to share a story that truly
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changed my perspective of what
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intentionality can do.
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So, a few years ago, I was a UX
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researcher at Zoo Atlanta
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and our goal was to build an inclusive
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experience at the zoo for everyone, but
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with a focus on people with vision
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Let me let you in on a little secret. I
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thought I understood who I was designing
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You know, vision disabilities isn't just
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a one thing. You know how we talked
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about making assumptions that it's all
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about permanent disabilities. It's not.
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So, you could have 10 people standing in
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front of the exact same elephant exhibit
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and experiencing something completely
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You know, one might see the elephant in
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shifted, muted colors.
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One might only see half the elephant.
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And someone else might not see anything
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And our goal was to build an experience
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honored every single one of them.
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So, what did we do?
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We went out there into the community and
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we asked questions.
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We truly wanted to understand
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what would it even mean
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to design this experience for the
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And we have a saying in the disability
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"Nothing about us without us."
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And that is something we absolutely
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followed in this project. And magic
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That decision, that intentionality
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changed everything about what we built.
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And at the end of the project, I had a
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participant walk up to me and say
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something that has just
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stayed with me ever since.
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"Thank you for making us feel seen,
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for making us feel included,
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and that our experience at the zoo
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matters just as anyone else's."
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That's what intentionality does.
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It doesn't just build better products.
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It It fix broken experiences. It tells
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someone you belong here. We thought
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And that's the imprint I want to leave
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But that's also the imprint I want all
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of us to leave as well.
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let me bring this in full circle. Do you
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remember the way I started?
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Hi everyone. My name's Nandita Gupta and
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I'm a petite Indian woman with long
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I didn't start that way because that was
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I started that way because I didn't want
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anyone watching me can perceive exactly
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That small action was
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my way of ensuring that nobody felt like
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You have the same power.
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Each and every single one of you
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watching this right now,
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you have the same power
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to make someone feel heard, to make
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someone feel seen, to make someone feel
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Starting with your very next action.
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Maybe it's including captions on the
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next video that you post.
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Not just for the parent who's watching
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while their baby sleeps, but also for
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the person watching on the noisy train.
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Maybe it's including 5-minute breaks
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Just to give everyone's brains a moment
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>> breathe and reset.
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These small actions matter more than you
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There's nothing wrong with you. You are
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perfect the way you are.
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It's the world that needs to change.
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It's the environment that needs to
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And maybe someone in this room needs to
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hear that today as well.
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Because inclusion is a choice.
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It's a choice that we make over and over
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again every single day.
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And it leaves behind something that
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outlasts all of us.
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It leaves behind this feeling that
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whether it's for the first time or the
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that someone thought about them
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and that they matter.
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And that's the imprint I want all of us
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