Top5 Ways ReAbility Serves Individuals & Families with Disabilities

According to the CDC, 61 million adults in the United States live with a disability. This week's guest, Christopher Myers, share his personal story with Tara Thurber and illustrates the importance of his platform - ReAbility.

ReAbility is a service providing real-time information to individuals with disabilities -  parents, caregivers, case managers, etc. – to improve the quality of their lives. This information includes but is not limited to resources, leisure activities and networking opportunities.

Christopher currently lives in the greater Memphis area as an adjunct professor of marketing at the University of Memphis, owner of a consulting practice and author of 11 books. He is a loving husband to his wife Susie and their 4 adult children.

To learn more about ReAbility, please visit: https://www.dreamscapereability.org/ 

Transcript

Tara Thurber: 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to Top5 brought to you by DefinedTalent. We are a results driven service working with clients to connect them with quality talent as well as working to make an impact within the recruiting industry. We talk straight about today's professional world with real world professionals, experts in recruitment, job seekers and business owners alike. Have a question for us. Send it in and you might spur our next conversation. I'm Tara Thurber, co founder and director of talent partnerships here at DefineTalent. And joining me today is Chris Myers, a multi hat wearing marketer professor and advocate. Hey, Chris, how are you today?

Christopher Myers: 0:42

I'm doing great, Tara, thanks so much for having me.

Tara Thurber: 0:44

Awesome. I am so excited to have you on and and let's just dive in. I know you've got an amazing story that we want to share with our listeners. So can you please start by sharing your personal history that led you to where you are today?

Christopher Myers: 0:58

Sure, thanks. So I'm the youngest of seven good Catholic family. Grew up down in Louisiana and moved to

Tara Thurber: 1:03

(laughs) Memphis when I was young. Five years old. My father was President of Better Business Bureau, which is kind of a quasi governmental agencies support type of group anyway, and stayed through high school, went away to college, Washington, DC, eventually met my wife there and then went to graduate school out in Arizona got an MBA in international marketing. So along the way, I started to think about how can I make an impact? My father really stressed that in our family, get out there and volunteer as much as you can do things to help the community around you? His whole life, his whole career was built on that. So when my wife and I started a family back in the late 80s, and into the 90s, we have now four children, my oldest is now almost 35, hard to believe. He has his own business. My son Taylor, who I'll talk about in just a minute. Then I have my youngest son Cameron, who's got his own eBay business. Yay, Cameron, and then my daughter is a graduate student, hopefully is going to be a teacher. She's in the College of Education at the University of Memphis, where I teach marketing. So my wife is a proud registered nurse and postpartum at one of the hospitals here in Memphis. So we're busy bunch. So I guess my point is how I got to this point today, when Taylor was born, Taylor is my special one. He's my pride and joy. He's 32. He has cerebral palsy, autism and intellectual disability. He functions about a two year old level with no speech. So he's constant care. Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 2:34

When he was diagnosed in May of 1992, with significant developmental delays, this was really pretty much pre internet. My wife and I just kind of went into orbit, like, how are we going to support him, because his older brother was what I affectionately called the golden child.

Tara Thurber: 2:49

(laughs)

Christopher Myers: 2:50

Tristan was born 1989 You know, beautiful nine& a half pounds, and he didn't have a cold, he was eight months old for pete's sake.

Tara Thurber: 2:58

Wow.

Christopher Myers: 2:58

Taylor was the complete opposite. Taylor had a partially clubfoot. He had to wear braces, it just a totally different type of child. We love him certainly as much as any of our children, but he needed special care.

Tara Thurber: 3:11

Right.

Christopher Myers: 3:12

So in the early 90s, I'll be very frank for your listeners, when I was I was angry, I was frustrated, I didn't know why. The good lord, you know, provided a child who, you know, I thought it was a good person, you know, all these emotions going through. And frankly, my wife said you're not helping Taylor, you're not, you're not, you need to do something more, stop with all the focus on you and focus on him. So by the mid 90s, when Taylor was going to some special programs, I joined several of the boards here Memphis. So for your listeners, I'm in the Memphis, Tennessee area. And the challenge there was I needed to learn - learn about the world of special needs, learn about how states allocate resources or not learn about how budgets and all those issues, wherever your listeners are, I'm sure they have the same issue. All the states are struggling financially, all of them or I don't care if you're in New York or California, Texas or Tennessee, all the rest. They're struggling because the number of folks who are in the world special needs is continuing to grow at a very surprising, almost alarming rate. So for your listeners, they may not know there are 60 million people here in the United States that have some form of special needs.

Tara Thurber: 4:26

Wow.

Christopher Myers: 4:27

In the state of Tennessee, it's over a million in my area of the Memphis metropolitan area. 160,000. I will tell you candidly, as much as I love the agencies here, they don't nearly support anywhere close to what is needed, including for my son.

Tara Thurber: 4:41

Right.

Christopher Myers: 4:42

Well along the way, I'm basically trying to find a way to make a difference on the board and be a good corporate person to help them with their budgets. But along the way, Tara, it was very apparent to me, I need to engage in a totally different way.

Tara Thurber: 4:56

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 4:56

I need to be part of the community in a totally different way. So, through a lot of just kind of trial and error and whatnot I decided to be a part of other types of activities and agencies. And then eventually, I made my way to, which I think we're going to talk about here in a minute, the ReAbility platform idea, what else can I do? I can't change the fact that my son functions at a two year old level, but I can help improve the quality of life. Right? And what can you do to make that happen? information? Knowledge is power, as we all know, can you provide information in real time that can truly make a difference in that those parents, caregivers, grandparents, whomever, can make good, hopefully good quality judgment decisions about the future of their child, right?

Tara Thurber: 5:44

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 5:44

So that doesn't exist. At least in my state it doesn't exist. There are a lot of folks out there that pop on the web, and they'll look at a particular site. But those are all static. They don't, they don't really change.

Tara Thurber: 5:55

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 5:55

And they're, and they're not permission based, and they're not customized. So you can look up a particular agency focused on autism, that's great. But unless that agency changes its programming or add something else to it, it's exactly the same. So from a parent's point of view, that doesn't really help me.

Tara Thurber: 6:12

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 6:13

I need to know what else is out there so that I can plan ahead, planning so that I can make good decisions on behalf of my son. So yeah, that's kind of the genesis so those early years with Taylor, honestly, I was not a good dad, I'll be the first to admit I wasn't, I was angry at the world and angry at everything. And my wife's like, you got to do better, you're not helping.

Tara Thurber: 6:35

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 6:35

So it really was an epiphany moment.

Tara Thurber: 6:38

Wow.

Christopher Myers: 6:39

Yeah, so that's kind of the backdrop. And along the way, you know, it's being a good marketer for various corporations in other places. I'm also a professor of marketing at the University of Memphis, I do marketing, consulting, I do a lot of different things. I'm a writer, 11-time writer. But fundamentally, this is what I'm passionate about is really giving back to the community because I think it's just in my DNA, from my upbringing, that my father really instilled that in all of us, you have to give back. There's so many people out there struggling, what can you do to help them and not just writing checks, be a part of the solution, not just writing a check and walking away? That doesn't solve anything. It'sg reat, but it doesn't solve the problem.

Tara Thurber: 7:19

Agree 1,000,000%. You need to join together and bring the forces together so that it's not just an individual, it's it's a oneness. It's everybody coming together to make a difference.

Christopher Myers: 7:31

Yeah, absolutely. And it's hard. I mean, I'll be the first admit, I mean, I didn't really know how to be a great advocate. What are the guidelines? Where's the book that tells you how to do this?

Tara Thurber: 7:45

(laughs) The Book of Life or The Book of Partenting.

Christopher Myers: 7:47

Yeah, The Book of Life. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's like, how do you figure out it's like, being a parent, you know, so I know you're a proud parent to Tara, as I am.

Tara Thurber: 7:55

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 7:56

Where's the book about being a parent? There isn't one a lot of it's instinctive. And so in this case, though, but there are other people that are involved. In other words, supporting other families, many of whom I will never meet, and advocating for them. That's a totally different level. Because now you're saying I'm looking at the big macro level type issues for my community. We're in desperate I know, we'll talk about we're in desperate need of de center programs for those young folks who aged out of the school system. I'm not sure about your state of New Jersey, been in Tennessee, it's at 22 at 22, the state boots you out, you're gone. You gotta go, wherever you are. In your birthday. My son's birthday is in April. So by the time he graduated in May, he was he was gone from the school, no matter what, you got to find a way you know, Chris, and Susie, my wife's name is Susie Chris and Susie Meyers, you gotta find a way for your son Taylor. By, thankfully, because we were both advocates, and you know, a lot of it on me, I was able to find a program where we'll build something for him, but it's still anyway, it's still very tenuous, there still needs to be so much more than is out there

Tara Thurber: 8:58

You know, I was doing some research, and there's so much more. a statistic from October 2023. That says 90% of websites are inaccessible to people with disabilities who rely on assistive technology. So for our listeners, can you explain to us what makes a website inaccessible? And then I'm gonna stack a question here, What are some ways websites can adapt to become accessible?

Christopher Myers: 9:28

Sure. So for my own personal research, that's a great question. I've had this question asked to me before. Is the platform that we're going to talk about a minute, is that accessible? And answer is yes. Fundamentally, you know, when when websites are built by any company, including the one that I work for, no one honestly thinks about ADA, the American Disabilities Act. No one really thinks about enlarging letters

Tara Thurber: 9:49

Yep. and keys and stuff on keyboards and when all those types of things, the images that are on, on screens and whatnot. So some images for some autistic children and adults, for example, Tara, are not necessarily offensive, but they can be alarming because those images can be bright colors and very loud and things that are coming at them can be extremely distracting and also debilitating. So I think what has happened, and again, love technology out there and people building the newest, coolest thing. AI is out there, and everybody's talking about it. But the reality is for this population, those websites are out there honestly, are not accessible because they didn't really think about how do I make the keys bigger? How do I make the font bigger? How do we make this more conducive to their needs, as opposed to just make it standard for everybody? Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 10:43

So you can go on any website at any point in time. Google this and Google that that's not a problem, this population, you have to take a step back, take a deep breath, and like, okay, can they really connect with what the information is being shown and use the platform and tools the way it's supposed to be done? Chances are probably not.

Tara Thurber: 11:01

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 11:01

And that's really sad.

Tara Thurber: 11:02

It is sad. It is sad. And I know I mean, in my industry, digital accessibility has been really huge. I mean, our sister company from DefinedTalent is DefinedLogic and they're a digital product agency. And they have a specific accessibility team that will help clients to make sure that their websites are digitally accessible, but it's a long road. I think it's a long road, I still don't think it's out there are enough in the public, for businesses and people that are creating these websites to understand and so it's as a creative myself it starts with the idea, but then you need to make that idea accessible to everybody to right? If you want to put that out there. And with the internet and everything else that we're dealing with, it is so important to make sure it is all accessible for people across all spectrums.

Christopher Myers: 12:07

Correct. Absolutely. I mean, think about let's go back in time, 30-40 years, so the when the President George HW Bush got the ADA and put it into motion into legislation enacted, how many years did it take for businesses, organizations to get ramps for wheelchairs to do all the bathrooms and all the things that so many grumbled, oh, my gosh, you know, this guy is going to fall because business is going to shut down, he asked us to do too much. We're spending too much blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Still today, in 2024, I would bet you if you, if I go out in the Memphis area, there gonna be some businesses that didn't do what they're supposed to do and shame on them for not.

Tara Thurber: 12:45

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 12:45

So the technology end of it. It's it's a lagging kind of indicator, I think it's going to take time for to get. And now again, with AI, it's going to be accelerated, I can only hope and pray that these organizations do the right thing.

Tara Thurber: 12:59

Yeah, I agree. So let's dive into the biggest reason on why we're here today. And its ReAbility, let's dive into why ReAbility was created the population it serves and some of the core functionalities of it.

Christopher Myers: 13:15

Sure. So, back during the Great Recession, I had this kind of epiphany moment people talk about writing things on the back of a napkin, right? I was having lunch one day here in Cairo,

Tara Thurber: 13:25

(laughs) which is a suburb of Memphis, with some friends from a consulting firm. And I was president of a board, a nonprofit board at that time, and I said, you know, what I've done a pretty good job of keeping track of all the budgets and all that, but there's still something missing. What else can we do to help these families? And I frequently get lots of families that come up to me, call me Text me, email me, whatever, Chris, you're an advocate, what are you doing? What's happening in the world? Why can't we have something of you know, of technology, whatever? So I had this idea. What if we had a real time information platform that provided information to you based on a customized profile? You could log in, you can register, you can put in some keywords, and when these agencies around the country have a change in their programming, let's say for a job or for social events or something else, you would get an email or text alert. And so the people the consulting firm kind of looked at me like I had two heads(laughs).(laughs)

Christopher Myers: 14:27

At that time in May 2010, Google I think was here, but I don't certainly not to level it is today. So the thought was, hey, we need to have this platform. So one thing led to another as a good marketer, that I hope that I am. I know I needed to have research done. So I found a professor at the University of Memphis her name is Dr. Susan Neely Barnes, as I affectionately call her my second favorite Susan, my wife's name is Susan.

Tara Thurber: 14:52

Right (laughs).

Christopher Myers: 14:53

And I did quantitative research. So for those listeners out there, they'll appreciate that statistically as a valid sample here in the state of Tennessee and it said 81% of the people said, You know what, we love this idea of this real time platform. That's great. Chris, go and build it. And some even said, You know what, hey, if you build it and if we can get your help to build customized plans for us, because we don't know what we're doing for our child, hey, yeah, they X amount of money. Not that great. Hey, I hit a home run. Okay, now what? Well, now you got to build a pilot program. Okay, so I found some other folks here locally in the Memphis area to do that. Unfortunately, the technology, honestly, Tara, was pretty clunky. It was it was not very good. When you had to have 18 minute video to explain what it is, oh my gosh (laughs).

Tara Thurber: 15:38

(laughs)

Christopher Myers: 15:40

So no offense to that person, delightful woman to you know, a brilliant technology person, but she totally missed the mark. So I got discouraged a little bit. Kept my faith going and say, There's got to be another way I am not going to let go this. People want this to happen. So in March of 2019, literally on the web, I found a foundation down in Naples, Florida, called Dreamscape. And as it turned out, the executive director took my call on a Friday afternoon, as the story goes, and explained who I was. And he didn't know me from Adams, like, Who is this guy calling from Memphis? So one thing led to another, I sent him my research and said, I need a partner, I need someone to help me build this platform, can you help me? So I flew down to Naples. A few weeks later, we signed an agreement and we found this IT consulting firm in New Delhi, India called ISK Pro, about a year later, in July, just after July 4, 2020, we launched ReAbility. So the features of it are again, you

Tara Thurber: 16:39

Wow. log in, you register, you put some keywords in about things that you're interested in for yourself, if you're able to cognitively or your loved one, let's say you're interested in dance classes, or you're interested in going to movies, or whatever the case may be my son, Taylor loves to play with balls. So, always use the example of Hey, Chris, what if there's a ball camp in Jackson, Tennessee, which is a city about an hour away from me, east of me, you know, in dollars, click on this link, there you go. And you say, Well, gee, I could find that anytime, then not necessarily that program, that activity would come to you, we would come to you in an email or text alert. That way, again, you can plan ahead. So the purpose, really is twofold of why I created ReAbility. One is honestly to give hope for parents that there is something other than the static websites out there. And two is that you can have real time information so that you can make those good decisions on behalf of your loved one. And the other really cool feature of the site is it's got 10 gigabytes of storage, per person. So what is the as that matter? Well, if you're a person listening to this podcast, if you've had any kind of medical reports, or some of these other things, for your loved one, we had binders and binders I'm embarrassed to say this, Tara, on your podcast but we had binders and binders of handwritten notes from one of his caregivers, handwritten notes, not going to Acrobat, you know, Adobe, PDF, handwritten notes, God forbid, if we ever had a fire (laughs). All those things are original. So that has storage capability. So it's password protected and encrypted. So if you wanted to put your doctor's notes, your medical notes, notes from your teacher, or whatever it might be for your child or adult with special needs, you can safely do it in your profile, and on the site. So yeah, that's really cool. And so all those features, and so many others, and maybe we'll talk about some things that I would love to see to be enhanced by, but that's why the site is out there. The target audience simply is, honestly, any agency that wants to be a part of it. There's 50, today across the country, we started with three now we have 350. Wow.

Christopher Myers: 18:59

And then two, it's all the individuals, parents, their loved one, the center, those are the people I really want to see use the site much more so that they can go in and connect with others. This population unfortunately, some of the agencies don't play well in the sandbox, honestly, they're very focused on their own mission. So this is hopefully opening doors for them to collaborate with each other locally or frankly nationally about other challenges and other issues. If I can tell real quick story.

Tara Thurber: 19:29

Please.

Christopher Myers: 19:29

There's a lady that I chatted with yesterday, he started at a place called Harbor House in Louisville, Kentucky. Absolutely phenomenal place. And she just said you know what, Chris? Almost 30 years ago I had this vision to and I wanted to have something better for the adults in our area where they could go now she has over 200 adults that are there and it's a wonderful, incredible place. It's just warms your heart when you hear

Tara Thurber: 19:53

Wow. about these great stories of people using technology and using you know vision of where they want to go. And so that's why I created it. I'm so very proud of it. And I love the folks at Dreamscape, you know, for what they did to help, hopefully we'll talk about in a minute that where it needs to go. But yeah, 60 million people across the US who have special needs. So if I can help every single one, I would love to, you know (laughs) I really would! It's so amazing and how it can bring people together to just provide information and a community for support.

Christopher Myers: 20:29

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, especially the social networking is an area we're really going to focus on this year, because this population, your viewers may know, is, unfortunately, probably at the bottom as far as connection, but other they don't really have a lot of friends.

Tara Thurber: 20:46

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 20:47

Unfortunately for that, that leads to boredom leads to lethargy.

Tara Thurber: 20:50

Yeah.

Christopher Myers: 20:51

It leads to have a problem. So that's why in part is sharing all that information with each other, engaging people like my son, be able to go to different places go to different parks and movies and stuff with other people, not just by himself, or with his, you know, PA or somebody else. That's important. That's improving the quality of life. Right?

Tara Thurber: 21:09

Yes.

Christopher Myers: 21:10

The medical aspects of it, it's improving the quality of life. And that's so important today.

Tara Thurber: 21:16

Wow. I mean, I want to know everything and the vision of moving forward with ReAbility, I just, it's definitely something that is so important, and to be able as a parent to, you don't get a book on parenting, and then to have a child with a disability. That's another layer of trying to figure out what to do. So this access it's like gold that you're providing,

Christopher Myers: 21:46

Right?. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. It's my thinking is simply this, Tara, is that as a parent, I've been there. I mean, I've written two books about my relationship with my son.

Tara Thurber: 21:56

Yes.

Christopher Myers: 21:57

It's how do you how do you respond to something that's just not the same? When he had four children, one has special needs, you always have to think about, okay, I can think about the commonality for the three. But what about for him? He's always needed something special. And I feel very blessed. My wife. And I've said this many times, we felt like the good Lord gave us Taylor for a reason. For me to be an advocate, maybe it's for me

Tara Thurber: 22:18

Yep. to create technology. I don't know, maybe it's something else. But the reality is there a lot of people out there hurting. And so anything that I can do, from my point of view, using technology or advocacy, or whatever, I'm happy to do it. Absolutely happy to do it. I love it. I absolutely love it. And I just anything, it makes the impact. And the purpose behind it is so important.

Christopher Myers: 22:46

Yeah, it totally is. I mean, when you think about it today, again, some stats for your your viewers is and listeners, the vast majority of the states out there honestly are stretched to the absolute max, I don't know about in New Jersey, but in Tennessee, the Medicaid waiver was something people were basically lining up and waiting in line, basically for years. And years. We waited 12 years to try to get Taylor on the Medicaid waiver here. And then they lost our paperwork.

Tara Thurber: 23:14

Oh my gosh!

Christopher Myers: 23:16

That's so true story. And thankfully, my wife and I had a contact with someone and thankfully, we're able to get him on. But my point is, we are the privileged ones. We really feel that way very strongly. We're the privileged ones. There's so many other folks out there. So if you can provide something for them, and it's real time and they can make some good decisions, hopefully, for their child or adult with special needs. Hey, you know what? That makes me feel I feel good. That makes me feel good for the day that I've made something happen for someone else.

Tara Thurber: 23:44

Yeah. Wow. Oh, Chris, this year, we are asking all of our podcast guests to describe their perfect day. Can you share what your perfect day would look like with us?

Christopher Myers: 23:57

Well, it's not gonna be anything that's snowing (laughs).

Tara Thurber: 23:59

(laughs)

Christopher Myers: 23:59

Sorry for your listeners who love this snow! Hey, Christmas time and New Year's Eve, I've always said go ahead and snow away! But we've all experienced that this past week. All kidding aside. Honestly, I thought a lot about this, I'd say a perfect day for me is I wake up, obviously I feel blessed that you know, I'm able to enjoy another day as I call it another day in the sun. My children are safe, they're happy. My wife is happy and happy, you know, happy life is a happy wife. You know, you gotta be happy that makes it

Tara Thurber: 24:30

(laughs) makes it all worthwhile. But just the world around us that I have actually helped one person, one person would come up to me and say, You know what, thank you for the whatever, let's say the ReAbility platform, I was able to make a decision for my son or daughter or grandson or whatever. And then that helped us and I really, really appreciate that. That would warm my heart that would make it a very special day. You know, all the other stuff and all the things that we all have access to materialize don't really matter to me. I mean, it's great, I want to have a nice home and all those things too. But a perfect day for me is, the world is so crazy today, being able to help one more person find a way to make their lives just a little bit nicer, a little bit easier, would definitely warm my heart for sure. I love that I am tearing up over here because it's true. You know, it's being able to help others or give to others and just make that impact is so important. So Chris, I would love for you to share with us your Top5 Ways ReAbility Serves Individuals and Families with disabilities. I know we touched about a little bit, but let's dive into your Top5 list.

Christopher Myers: 25:44

I don't know if I have five, maybe have 10. No, I think that the main ones, honestly, I'm kidding.

Tara Thurber: 25:47

(laughs) it's real time information, which no other platform that I've researched, at least in my neck of the woods can deliver. Two is gives you information about jobs and programs and activities specific and customized to you it's personalized, see based on your profile? Right? I guess the third one would be that 10 gigabytes of storage. And that's when we talked about that in 2019/20. I thought, Wait, we're gonna get 10 gigabytes of storage for everybody? Yes, we're gonna do that for everybody. And that's really important again, because you think about, you store some so much information. It's all very safe, right? We're all so worried about, you know, cyber attacks and all that craziness, which we should. And we want to make sure our money saving all our, you know, valuable information, say this is the same. So we said, You know what, let's do it. Let's make sure that available. So what I think going forward, I think some of the other benefits will be when we can get some additional enhancements, those are the key right now, I would say the information, that's the programs etc. or the socialization part is really critical to but the ability to add, you know, put the ReAbility on an app, I would love for it to be on on Android and iPhone, I'll be candid with you. We're looking for a technology partner to help us do that. I would love to have ReAbility provide statewide information on key legislation. So let's real quick for the state of Tennessee. You know, disability laws here change fairly frequently, usually every couple of years, regardless of who's in the state house, they change for whatever reason they do. So you as a parent, sometimes you could be it's '24. Maybe I'm thinking about laws that were enacted five years ago, and I'm behind the times. And now why does that matter? It matters because if you don't have the proper information to support a special needs trust or other information, you could be putting your your child a little bit at risk financially, as they go through their life, stuff like that.

Christopher Myers: 27:49

Here real quick in the necessary to it's

Tara Thurber: 27:49

Yeah. having information about dentists and doctors and lawyers and financial advisors, you know, by market, why is that important? Because respectfully to all your listeners. I'm not sure where they live. But here in Memphis, not every lawyer, not every financial advisor, not every dentist will take a special needs child or adult they won't. Why? Because most of them, including my son are on TennCare on the equivalent of you know, Medicaid. Right.

Christopher Myers: 28:16

And so that they don't want to deal with the bureaucracy of Medicaid. No, no, no, not the federal government. No way. No way. You have Cigna, you have Humana and one of these other players? Absolutely. Hey, we'll take it all day long. But if you have state funded health insurance of No, no, no, no, no. So I want to be able to provide that not to, you know, call anybody out, throw him under the bus, candidly, but just to say, Hey, this is a list of dentists, this is a list of attorneys who are very sensitive to and want to work with a special needs population, there's nothing wrong, so that you, as a parent know, hey, where can I go? Instead of just Googling all day long, I want to be able to go to a place I know that they'll take my insurance, or they'll take my information ect. So things like that. I mean, those things, and there are many, many others. But that's the value today is you know, really providing that information in real time.

Tara Thurber: 29:07

I love all of it. And, you know, it makes sense to have these types of businesses readily available, not just so caregivers and parents go through a deep spiral of trying to find information, but so that it's reliable, it's a business that somebody else has maybe used or it's a business that has been a large advocate for people with disabilities, right? You don't know that. And you don't want to be blindsided by what maybe a facade may look like on a website. And then when you reach out to them, they're just kind of it's all pretend right? Or it's not real.

Christopher Myers: 29:53

Yeah, Tara, I totally agree. And it's interesting for this population. I mean, you're talking about 60 million people.

Tara Thurber: 29:59

Right.

Christopher Myers: 29:59

About almost 20% of the US population has some. Now I always say that and that includes dyslexia, which I'm for your listeners, I'm not diminishing that at all. It can be very debilitating. I get that. But autism and cerebral palsy and everything on the autism spectrum is totally different. My son is total care as are most in the area. So you have this special resource, just having access to something that will help guide you. I think it's really important. We can't answer all the questions for all the challenges that are out there. But we can make a dent in it right?

Tara Thurber: 30:32

Right.

Christopher Myers: 30:32

We can provide something as a baseline foundation. And then hopefully, if I find this wonderful technology partner to help us this year, would love to make those enhancements do even more. That's the name of the game,

Tara Thurber: 30:44

Perfect. Oh, Chris, this has been wonderful. I really, really appreciate you taking the time and sharing with us everything about ReAbility, I look forward to sharing this podcast and the links in your information so people can contact you directly. It's really it's been a pleasure. And you're doing amazing work and you're making an impact. So great job at that.

Christopher Myers: 31:08

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you for the opportunity and to your listeners. I will just say one final closing thing for those who really may be struggling on their own or really not sure, please reach out because I've had lots of, hundreds of conversation of the year with folks, if I can help you in any way. I'll be more than happy to.

Tara Thurber: 31:29

You're the best. Chris, thank you so much again.

Christopher Myers: 31:32

Tara, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Tara Thurber: 31:36

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