Gary enlightens his audiences as a keynote speaker with his proven lesson of adapting the changes which he learned after meeting with an accident. After injuring his spinal cord and being restricted to a wheelchair Gary completed his rehabilitation and continued to live an independent and active life. He graduated with a degree in architecture and worked for eleven years in the presentation graphics industry. Since then, Gary has authored three books, is a public speaker and is a regular contributor to the New Mobility magazine. For his contributions, Gary was inducted into the Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame as a Disability Educator. Gary has also worked with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) since 2016 to help survivors with disabilities.

What are the key initiatives today for promoting inclusiveness in the workplace?G: There is a very wide community devoted to Diversity & inclusion out there now, and it is common for large organizations to have someone at a high level as Director of D&I. They conduct workforce training in “Cultural Competency” to ensure that staff are comfortable with people of all types. They also focus on training managers in hiring processes that recognize ability in everyone, and avoids discrimination in the process. Disability is still a fledgling issue in the D&I world. Most of the work has to do with gender and ethnicity, and the leaders in this realm come from those worlds. Disability has a long history of being about NOT being able to work, so there is a paradigm shift to be achieved that is more complex with disability. Diversity is universally about getting past entrenched stereotypes, but the prevailing messages about disability are particularly deep.

What challenges did you face during your rehabilitation after your accident? How did you face them?G: My challenges were primarily about learning how disability worked. I faced them by fully embracing the rehab process. They made me very strong, they helped me manage my upper body balance (tricky when you can’t use the muscles of your lower body), taught me skills such as wheelchair use, opening doors, transferring myself in and out, etc. They also taught me clinical skills I needed to protect my skin from breakdown, and managing biological needs. The more I learned how it was done, then the more a vision formed about how I would live my life and what was possible (which turned out to be a very great deal). My internal adjustment and sense of self with my disability integrated into my self-image followed somewhat naturally from that – though it involved getting out there once I was back in the community. I’ve always used the analogy of jumping off a diving board knowing the water is going to be cold. The trick is just to get yourself in the air. Then you’ll get used to it once you’re in it.

What is the inspiration behind your book Life On Wheels: The A to Z Guide to Living with Mobility Issues?G:  Following up on the above… I wanted to provide people with a readable resource that helped them better understand their path to active and independent living with their disabilities. It is substantially a How-To book, but it also speaks very much to the internal process of disability becoming your “new normal.” The tone was also critical – that people don’t need to shoot for some heroic standard, but just embrace the process and all of the resources available. There is a political thread in the book, describing how the world has changed to open up our potential, and that it was people with disabilities who made that happen. Mainly, I wanted to help people reach for their potential and not be stopped by a lot of misconception about disability.

Can you tell us about your involvement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)?G: Three years ago I was hired into FEMA as a Disability Integration Advisor. My work was to help ensure that all survivors had equal access to the recovery process – physical access, programmatic access, and effective communication. The Three Pillars of Equal Rights. We also helped FEMA address specific unmet needs, working with community partners to ensure that people with immediate needs (loss of mobility equipment, loss of access to their homes, personal assistance needs, transportation to critical appointments, etc.) I am now a reservist with FEMA, and when I am not deployed (I’ve worked nine disasters), I do consulting and training in the Arizona emergency management community as an access and functional needs specialist.

What message do you like to convey via your keynote presentations?G: I do all I can to help people get inside of the real human experience of disability, and understand that people are people, that we are all wired with a powerful capacity to adapt to change, and that everyone wants — and deserves — the right to pursue their greater potential. A central theme I share is how dramatically the world has changed, removing obstacles and opening up possibilities on an historic scale. I explain how disability is now far less a matter of loss and limitation, and much, much more a matter of possibilities and adaptation. I try to make it personal for everyone in the room, that it can happen in anyone’s life at any time, and what we all would want is optimal independence and the right to control our own lives.

What are your other hobbies?G: I’ve always been interested in many things, so it’s kind of a long list. Been a musician since I was a kid, playing guitar and singing, and some piano. I got heavily into photography as a teenager. I’m a pretty serious backgammon player, bake bread, and am very devoted to my Black Labrador Retriever, Trilby. In the late 80s I got deeply involved in the juggling community. More recently, been getting into card magic.

What is your favorite place to visit? What do you love about that place?G: I’ve been blessed to travel the U.S. extensively, and also around the world. I’ve been to new Zealand and Australia, S. Korea and Japan. the Netherlands, and as far north in Canada as the Yukon Territory. My favorite was two weeks in Paris. It’s just such an amazingly beautiful place, and I find the people to be discrete and classy. Not the snobby stereotype they have here.

What is your suggestion for families of children with disabilities to empower their children?G: The people I know with disabilities since childhood were treated equally as full members of their families, and not raised to think of themselves as “different.” That meant that their families didn’t try to “protect” them from having responsibilities or having to do things for themselves. It’s the families who “take care of” their children with disabilities who harm them profoundly by denying them the opportunity to develop as whole independent people.

What tips/advice do you have for those in our community who are interested in becoming an author?G: Write. It’s a craft. You have to do it to get good at it. Over time, your first drafts will get better, you’ll stop using wasted wordage like “as a matter of fact” and the like. And you’ll get better at creating the natural “flow" of whatever it is you’re expressing. And then there’s luck. My first book, Life On Wheels, came about thanks to an editor who reached out to me because she liked the way I wrote. A year later I had a signed contract. Having good editors is a big help. The woman who supported my process with Life On Wheels helped me evolve in very important ways. Likewise the editors I’ve worked with at New Mobility magazine made a big difference in my evolution. Writing as a journalist really makes you get better. When you have to write on a deadline to a work count, you learn you to not waste words, get to your point, and make it efficiently.

Any special message for our community?G: First and foremost: model to the world that you are able and wiling to take responsibility for your successes and failures like anybody else. Our goal is to accomplish a level field so we can pursue our potential and interests. The more society sees that we are just people with the same essential needs as everyone, then the more we will gain policy support for the things people need. Sufficient rehab, funding for prescription mobility equipment, accessible housing, and so much more are just a few remaining priorities of the modern disability movement. These are investments that foster everyone's independence. That’s a win for our civil rights, for our economy, and for our society and democracy as a whole.