On the 8th of December, Access Israel’s 6th International took place, which focused on “Creating Trends for Accessibility and Inclusion for People with Disabilities”. The webinar was a success with over 630 people registering from over 80 countries. The different speakers shared their views and experience in creating trends that capture the hearts and minds of the public.
The webinar was moderated by Michal Rimon, the CEO of Access Israel, who lead through the three and a half long event. The audience was greeted by Odelia Fitoussi, the newly elected Israeli representative to the United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (UN CRPD). Her remarks were followed by Harriet Schleifer, the President of the AJC (American Jewish Committee) who among other important points spoke about the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center and its activities. Then, Loic van Cutsem spoke about the important work of Ashoka, who manage to take successful projects and implement it around the world by localizing it. Further, the Deputy Cultural Attache of the U.S Embassy, Jessica Tesoriero, a long term partner of Access Israel, spoke and greeted the participants.
Following the inspiring opening remarks, Greg Nugent, the Creator and Producer of the successful Netflix movie “Rising Phoenix” spoke about his journey in producing the film and about the importance of representation. The movie shows the story behind the Paralympics, its importance, and the people behind it, and follows the Paralympics players in their journey.
After this inspiring lecture, Shira Ruderman the President of the Ruderman Foundation spoke about their work in promoting awareness for accessibility and inclusion in Hollywood. After these interesting insights in creating trends in television and movies, Debra Ruh, CEO and founder of Ruh Global, led a panel on “Commercials Adds on Accessibility with Impact”. At the panel participated: Amit Mashiah, CEO at McCann Israel; Aubrie Lee, Brand Manager at Google and Thomas Wlodkowski, Vice President, Accessibility and Multicultural – Technology and Product at Comcast. The four of them discussed the important and power of brands and advertisement in promoting accessibility and inclusion and the difficulty in making it a priority for companies.
Debra Ruh, CEO and founder of Ruh Global
This was followed by a presentation by Joe Devon, Co-Founder of GAAD, the Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Yuval Wagner, Founder of Access Israel, gave an inspiring and interesting lecture on “Creating Trends” and the experience of Access Israel in doing so. After Yuval, Isaac Zablocki the Festival Co-Founder of the ReelAbilities Film Festival, spoke about the festivals, its journey and importance and showed a short film which they also presented during one of the festivals. After this uplifting film, Josh Loebner, the Director of IDEAS Strategy DesignSensory &Contributing Writer at Adweek, gave an incredible inspiring and interesting presentation on creating trends.
This was followed by the insightful presentation by Elisabeth Stull, a Senior Strategist at Leo Burnett, who created the successful campaign for Access Israel “People not Symbols”. The campaign raises awareness for illegal parking in accessible parking spots and was a huge success in Israel and won international prizes. At the end, Caroline Casey, the Founder of the Valuable 500, gave an inspiring speech. The Valuable 500 is a successful initiative to raise awareness for accessibility and inclusion in business and Caroline has spoke in 2019 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
To watch the recording of the webinar, please click here
To watch the recordings of all of Access Israel’s International Webinars, visit our Global Accessibility Website, create a profile and have access to all the material.
