Home

The latest interview with our guests – Debra Ruh

This week we interview the co-founder of AXSChat Podcast, Debra Ruh, to explore a critical question: if we can identify every brand that gets accessibility wrong, why do so many disabled people still hesitate to work for disability organizations?

We unpack what makes this index different from the many corporate scorecards already out there. The focus stays on governance and leadership, employment, programs and advocacy, communications, and economic ecosystem inclusion. We talk candidly about why leadership without lived experience creates mistrust, how inaccessible internal processes shut people out, and why credibility collapses when organisations that claim to represent us cannot meet the standards they promote.

We also zoom out to the bigger systems problem: technology and AI accessibility tools are advancing fast, yet real inclusion can stall or slide backwards when the community is fragmented and under-resourced. Deborah shares how Billion Strong plans to strengthen methodology with university partners, fund the work through a membership organisation model with scholarship options, and build practical resources so the index helps organisations improve rather than just get judged. We close with a hard truth and a hopeful path: when we coordinate and raise our own bar, we gain power to change everything else.

Digital Badge - A yellow circle with the word Goodpods and white earphones and a rounded rectangle containing the words top 10 Podcast and a siler and yellow trophy icon.

AXSChat has been ranked by Goodpods as an all-time top podcast in multiple categories.

Amazon Logo

Thanks to our sponsors!

We rely on sponsorship to keep AXSChat running.

Ground Rules

We are a global community, and the written word can be misinterpreted so if you have comments or feedback we ask you to:

  • Be respectful.
  • Be courteous.
  • Be part of something bigger than yourself.

Everyone makes mistakes once in a while and has errors in judgment.

With that in mind we are adopting the three strikes you’re out guideline.

We no longer host regular chats on Twitter or Bluesky

Due to changes in the algorithms & a falloff in engagement we decided to stop running the weekly Q&A.