KATE FIALKOWSKI  0:01  
Hi, this is Kate Fialkowski with the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. This is being recorded for the Dischange 20 symposium online. I'd like to introduce everyone to Debra Blair, associate professor in the School of Tourism and Hospitality management, and also the incoming Chair of the Faculty Senate subcommittee on disability concerns. Deb thanks for joining us today to kick off the seventh annual disability and change symposium presented this year is an online mini course. Welcome, and I'm going to turn it over to you.

DEBRA BLAIR  0:36  
Thank you, Kate, and a warm welcome to all of you that have joined us today. I'm sending out a virtual high five, fist pump, elbow pump, whatever we need to get by right now. as Kate said, I am faculty in the School of Sport, Tourism, and Hospitality management.

I wear a couple of hats here at the university. I am also the area coordinator for general education in race and diversity in human behavior. I'm excited to work as a coach here on the faculty subcommittee on disability concerns with Dr. Kenneth Thurman, a professor in the Department of Special Education. And my most honorable role this year has been the faculty sponsor with Kate on the disability and change symposium this year.

I think we all know where we are right now. You know, this, we are living in some unprecedented times, right? We've, we have had to shift every institute, every business, every individual across the world has had to change the way they do business. They've had to change the way we communicate and the way that we engage everyone. So I want to just really say you know Godspeed to everyone and we really are thankful that you've taken the time out of your day because there's many priorities going on right now. But you've taken some time out to join us for this really wonderful symposium.

We have to to, to understand kind of where we are with with this process this year. And it's really kind of exciting to have a university like every other university or institution that has education, as its priority has had to make some major decisions. we've shifted all of our educational opportunities to an online format. And so in suit, we have changed this symposium to an online format. And I have to, you know, hats off to Kate and the team for providing this very meaningful content for everyone around our concept this year, and they've done it in a very short period of time. So I know it's going to be fantastic. And again, I just want to thank Kate for all the energy that she's put out there.

In terms of topic this year. It's about combating implicit bias with the emphasis on employment. And I can't tell you how relevant the the word and the concept of bias, unconscious bias, implicit bias, or conscious bias how relevant that is today. If we just think about all of our, for example of Asian Asian American citizens who have experienced quite a bit of bad bias as a relates to Covid-19 and how people have been reacting to them. It's been a significant change and challenge for a lot of people. What we what we understand about bias has the potential to negatively impact the contribution of people, the relevancy of people, and the idea of inclusion and equity for everyone.

You know, in talking with Kate, one of the examples that she really, you know, brought to my attention again was this idea of, of inclusion for the disability community, the way that we are doing business today, this new mode of communicating and working in a remote type of environment. You know, the disability community could really be leaders in this in this new world that really, that we're living in because they have been engaging in a lot of these Equity and Inclusion strategies to live and execute what they need to do on a day to day basis. And I'm really looking forward to our panelists to kind of expound on that that topic. Because biases is a significant issue that we've been dealing with with various communities, but our disability community has really been impacted over the years and in multiple ways.

But in terms of our speakers, we've got some great speakers for you this year. I want to say thank you to every single one of them that have made themselves available to Kate to do the interviews, you know, to be recorded to get these transcripts up and ready for anyone around the world who will be able to engage this content, which is really, really exciting. And again, I have to say thank you to Kate and the Institute for bringing seven years of amazing content and having the forethought and flexibility to convert everything so very quickly to an online format that people will be able to engage over and over and over again. So thanks to all the mini course participants, and we know that you're going to find this content to be extremely useful. I do want to give this one quick last shout out to some of my STHM students.

This year, Kate allowed a group of students from my diversity management class to help her in the planning and development of this year's conference. So I'm going to by name, just give a shout out to Madeline Culbert, Jair Guardia, Hallie Ingram, Thomas Leoanard, and Bryan McCurdy, they have just been doing an exceptional job and helping with the planning prior to this point, but have also been very engaged and helpful as we're transitioning to this new format. So get ready for some great content, folks. And again, Kate, thank you for the opportunity address the group. And I'm looking forward to the next couple of days when we start to roll out the material.

KATE FIALKOWSKI  6:27  
Deb, thank you so much. Well, first, for your for your nice words. I want to let everybody know that no money exchanged hands in this. Thank you for your nice words. Thank you for your overview, and yeah, boy, this has been quite an experiment. All of this we can consider an experiment and who knows how this may radically change the way that we do business in the future. So thank you so much for your time today. And I hope to talk to you soon.

DEBRA BLAIR  7:02  
Great. You're welcome and take care of yourself.

KATE FIALKOWSKI  7:05  
Thank you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai