On April 19, 1987—Easter Sunday— I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Sara Renee Ruh, after almost five years of trying to become pregnant. My husband, Edward, and I fell madly in love with her, but our joy turned to concern four months later when we took her for a routine check-up. Because Sara had lost a few ounces, the doctor ran some tests. We were shocked when he announced she had Down syndrome. Ed and I were stunned and confused. We worried about what the future would hold for our precious daughter.
All we knew was that we loved Sara more than anything in the world, and we would give her whatever she needed to have a successful and happy life. We enrolled her in an Easter Seals program and started adapting to the idea that our “perfect” daughter had Down syndrome. On Sept. 13, 1988, our family expanded again. I gave birth to a son, Kevin Mitchell Ruh, who was born without disabilities. Sara and Kevin filled our lives with joy. In 1994, we moved from Jacksonville, Fla., to Richmond, Va., so I could take a position as training director for Crestar Mortgage. Almost five years later, I accepted a position as vice president of training for Market Street Mortgage. Ed, meanwhile, had a telecommunications management job at a financial institution, Capital One. I stayed at Market Street Mortgage for about six months, but when the economy worsened, my entire department was laid off.
Ed and I discussed our options and soon realized that the layoff had offered us an opportunity. Because we had a background in technology, we could easily start a technology company. But our firm would be different from the others—it would fulfill what we realized was an important societal need. Our mission would be to serve people with disabilities, but we would do more than that: We would hire them, too. From investigating our daughter’s options, we knew that although there are places where people with disabilities can receive training, it is difficult for them to find jobs, and those who do are typically under-employed. According to recent statistics, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is as high as 68%. Sara dreamed of becoming a nurse’s aide, but when she started middle school, she was reading at a kindergarten level, and her math skills were even lower. We learned that the requirement for becoming a nurse’s assistant in Virginia was a third- to fourth-grade reading level.
After a lot of research, I found that many technology jobs can be done by people with disabilities; in fact, they can perform certain functions better than a non-disabled person can. An opportunity existed to tap into a huge pool of qualified individuals who wanted to work but remained unemployed. Studies have shown that once hired, people with disabilities have lower turnover rates and generally use no more sick leave than other employees. Because they have overcome challenges in order to do things that others take for granted, they also are naturally adept at out-of-the-box thinking.
In November 1999, Ed and I formed our company, which we originally called Strategic Performance Solutions. Ed continued to work at Capital One while I built the business. In November 2001 we changed the name of our company to TecAccess to reflect our mission.
TecAccess helps organizations and government agencies to provide information technology (IT) accessibility solutions and to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Our company is uniquely positioned to develop creative accessibility solutions for companies because our employees are the very individuals for whom Section 508 was designed.
Today, TecAccess has more than 30 associates. To say that we are a diverse company is a gross understatement. We have associates with cerebral palsy, brain injury and diabetes, as well as those who are quadriplegic, bipolar, blind and deaf. Although most of our associates are people with disabilities, other staff members are not. Some are parents of children with disabilities; others learned about our mission and wanted to work with a company that would benefit society. Despite our differences, we have had few problems working as a team because we are all fighting for the same cause and believe in the mission and vision of TecAccess.
We allow our employees to work from home, a practice known as telecommuting or telework. Telework has allowed people with very severe disabilities to work for TecAccess and has also expanded our candidate pool. Our associates are based all over the U.S., and three of them live in other countries—Australia, France and India. We work with them to balance their needs and abilities with the requirements of the job. Our supervisors have a “hands-off” management style; they allow associates to work at their own pace, keeping to their own schedule, so long as the work is done well and completed on time.
Since our staff relies on assistive technology (also known as adaptive technology), we can provide our clients with meaningful, reliable test assessments from the perspective of those intended to benefit from the technology. TecAccess also employs a smaller control group of testers without disabilities. Our clients thus benefit from our staff’s ability to take the evaluation process beyond scientific guesswork and statistical probabilities. We have been asked to speak about Section 508 compliance and IT accessibility issues all over the world.
Our client base is a mix of government agencies and corporations. Our government clients include the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Executive Offices of the President, and the Social Security Administration. Our industry clients include Canon, Circuit City, Wachovia and Dominion Power.
Ed and I started the company from our home and then expanded into an office in downtown Richmond. But we rarely used the downtown office, so we eventually moved our headquarters back into our home office. Currently, we are investigating expansion opportunities and considering opening an office in Ashland, Va.
Our early struggles
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Before we were able to hire any employees, we had to raise some cash. I went looking for clients and had some initial success; I won a few small contracts with some financial clients. But those companies were interested only in my banking and technology experience. I was working around the clock, but I was unable to get any closer to our dream of hiring associates with disabilities.
I spoke about funding to everyone and anyone who would listen. I wrote business, financial and cash flow plans and projections. I applied for grants, business loans, lines of credit and private funding. I spent months upon months speaking to every banker, investor and agency I could find—with no success. I also attended SBA classes, SBDC sessions and SCORE meetings.
The funding search turned out to be a total waste of time and a humiliating and sometimes degrading experience. One of my quests, for example, involved a series of meetings with the owner of a finance company who was also an attorney. We met several times, reviewing my financials and business plans and discussing my vision for the business. He arranged a meeting with a potential investor who said he was very excited about my company and that he would give us all the funding we needed.
After that meeting, I met again with the owner of the finance company, who told me the investor would lend me the money at about 18% interest. Then he explained his terms. The owner of the finance company would have to be paid a $50,000 fee up-front and additional fees of 2% to 4% on all other money lent to the company by the investor. In addition, I would have to give him 15% ownership of the company to allow me to get the funding. He also told me that I would have to change to his accounting firm so they could keep an appropriate eye on my finances.
I asked him what I would get from him in exchange for all this up-front money, ongoing fees and 15% ownership. He told me that unless I had a white male helping me run my company, it would be hard to find someone to lend me money and my company would not be successful—and finding a white male who was an attorney (in other words: him) was even better. I ended the negotiations.
All this time spent focusing on funding was getting in the way of making the company stable. We decided the only way to be successful was to get business contracts.
We invested all of our savings, cashed in my 401(k) plan and borrowed from credit cards. Ed took out several loans against his 401(k) plan and borrowed money from my mother, Sara Newsom. We hired four people with disabilities—all part-time and all with technology experience—and pursued web development and e-learning projects.
Cash flow continued to be a huge problem. We always were honest with Sara and Kevin about the ups and downs of the business. As a family we continued to tighten our belts and cut back anywhere we could think of. At one point, Sara and Kevin asked if they could contribute their saving accounts to the company. After much deliberation and many family discussions, we accepted their offer. We borrowed about $1,500 from our children with a promise to pay them back with interest.
Ed advised me as I worked full-time on the business. Sara and Kevin filed, answered the phones and helped with administrative duties. I began to speak at conferences and workshops. Sara attended the seminars with me and also spoke at the sessions.
We started to make progress in October and November 2001, when several companies agreed to subcontract business to our company. In November 2002, we hired a CEO, Rich Belyea, to help run the company, and we started to make wonderful progress. Rich, who started out by volunteering at TecAccess, had polio as a child. His disability did not stand in his way. He had an impressive career with 3Com but had been laid off when its Richmond office was closed.
We are now stable, but we are still working on profitability and growth strategies. In 2001, we had revenues of approximately $50,000 and made a small profit of about $7,500. In 2002, we generated revenues of around $200,000, but owing to expenses we lost more than $140,000. In 2003, we posted revenues of approximately $250,000 and made a profit of about $10,000. But the good news is that as of 2003, all of our bills are paid, and we do not owe anyone money. We have repaid Sara and Kevin with interest, as we promised. My husband’s full-time job has helped pay our personal bills while our company grows.
Our associates: Inspiration and dedication
We continue to hire associates with severe disabilities. For example, our senior marketing analyst, Rosemary Musachio, has cerebral palsy. She has been able to overcome every one of her limitations in one way or another. Even though she cannot walk, she uses a motorized chair, so she is free to go wherever she wants—including Italy (four times), Germany, Austria and France. Although she cannot talk, she uses a word board to communicate quite eloquently. She cannot use her hands to perform daily tasks, so she types with a head pointer.
A year after graduating Cleveland State University with a B.A. in communications, Rosemary became a monthly columnist for Sun Newspapers in Cleveland. Her column, “Bit of a Challenge,” has run in the paper for ten years. She also had articles published in the Plain Dealer and writes poetry. She started at TecAccess as a web tester in September 2002; today, she writes business-development correspondence, manages the TecAccess website and handles media relations, including writing and distributing news releases.
Sean Stapleford, a senior accessibility analyst with TecAccess, broke his neck in a 1972 diving accident that left him paralyzed from his shoulders down. At the time, he was in high school. He spent almost a year at Portsmouth Navy Hospital. In 1973, he was transferred to Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville, Va., and spent the next year and a half learning to operate a motorized wheelchair. He also continued his education. He was trained in computer science and learned to use a “mouthstick.” This tool is a lightweight wooden dowel or metal tube with a plastic mouthpiece on one end, held between the teeth, and a rubber tip at the other. He uses it to press keys, turn pages and operate switches, remote controls and speakerphones, along with many of the other things that most people do with their hands.
After completing his rehabilitation in 1975, Sean moved to Richmond, Va., to live with his family. But at the time, Richmond had no system to transport people in wheelchairs. Because his family could not afford a specially equipped wheelchair van, he was confined to his house much of the time. In 1991, realizing that his parents were getting older and having more difficulty providing daily care for him, he moved to the Virginia Home, an adult residential care facility in Richmond, where he is currently living. The move has given him more independence. He now helps other residents and staff members to use their own computers. He has set up and maintained computer systems that are appropriate for people with limited computer skills or impaired mental abilities. He has used his Internet skills to do research for therapy departments, residents, staff members and their children, and his own family. His career with TecAccess allows him to work from home and keep a flexible work schedule.
Edward Ziegler, an account executive at TecAccess, was involved in a 1982 automobile accident that left him in a coma for two months. He had to relearn and modify functions that are taken for granted by most people—talking, swallowing, eating, rolling over in bed, using the bathroom, and walking. His rehabilitation took years.
Ed had severe ataxia in his left arm and a non-functional right arm. In 1985, he was introduced to his first computer as a Christmas gift. He took several writing courses at a community college and found that writing helped to retrain his thought processes, but it was time-consuming. Writing a one-page paper, for instance, took days to accomplish. Using the computer became easier for him with the advent of voice recognition technology. In 1999, he underwent back surgery to remove a herniated disk. That same year, he began to participate in a program at the Mill House, a support day program in Richmond for people with traumatic brain injury. He began working at TecAccess in 2000. The job has allowed him to fulfill his dream of supporting and working on behalf of people with disabilities. He also has run four times in a marathon sponsored by Richmond Newspapers and has participated in several fund-raising walkathons.
As our business grows, we will be able to employ more individuals like Rosemary, Sean and Ed. We encourage all businesses to consider hiring people with disabilities. Employers who do so will not only realize tax advantages but also will help these employees to achieve their dream of an independent life.
Sara was and still is the inspiration for TecAccess. Even though she is still in high school, she works with me during breaks and in the summer. She speaks at conferences with me in Washington, D.C., and attends advocacy meetings. She has spoken to senators, members of Congress and disability rights leaders from all over the world. She still speaks about becoming a nurse’s aide, and we encourage this dream. But she now says she wants to work at TecAccess as a speaker and in an administrative position. It is a pleasure to have Sara work and travel with me as we pursue our dream to make TecAccess a model for others to emulate.
Starting TecAccess was the best and hardest thing we have ever done. It has been a family mission, dream and struggle. We have gained more than we have given up, and we have been blessed by the experience. If it weren’t for our family, there wouldn’t be a company like TecAccess, and thus fewer job opportunities for people with disabilities. Our family business helps companies and agencies to open their doors and let their customers with disabilities enter and explore their marketplace. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but our future looks bright.
Debra Ruh is the president and founder of TecAccess (www.tecaccess.net) in Rockville, Va.