EP 122: Beyond What You See — Disability, Identity, and Redefining Human Potential with Daniel Hodges

In this episode of Thriving in Intersectionality, Dr. Lola Adeyemo sits down with Daniel Hodges to explore how leadership is shaped through layers of identity that are often unseen—and frequently misunderstood.

Daniel shares his journey growing up with limited socioeconomic resources, navigating life as someone who is blind, and managing invisible disabilities including chronic pain and mental health challenges. Together, we unpack how these overlapping identities shaped not only how he experienced systems—but how he now works to transform them.

Through his story, we explore the intersection of disability, socioeconomic background, faith, and leadership—and how these layers influence access, opportunity, and the way people are perceived in professional spaces.

This conversation also challenges common assumptions about who experiences barriers—and how those barriers show up. What may not be visible on the surface often carries the most weight.

Daniel reflects on navigating education systems that were not designed for him, building a career despite significant access barriers, and ultimately founding the Peaces of Me Foundation to address the root causes of exclusion through community education and systems change.

At its core, this episode is not just about accessibility.

It is about how we define capability.
How we interpret difference.
And what it truly means to create environments where people can thrive—not in spite of their identities, but through them.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• How disability—both visible and invisible—shapes lived experience and leadership
• The role of socioeconomic background in access to education and opportunity
• Why many workplace barriers are rooted in bias and inaccessibility—not ability
• The gap between how people are perceived and what they are actually capable of
• What it means to navigate systems that were not designed with you in mind
• How pain, adversity, and lived experience can evolve into purpose-driven leadership
• Why accessibility is not separate from inclusion—but central to it
• The importance of moving from awareness to action in building inclusive systems

About the Guest

Daniel Hodges, JD, MHA, is a thought leader on accessibility and authentic inclusion of people with disabilities. He is the President and Co-Founder of the Peaces of Me Foundation, a nonprofit focused on transforming society through community education, professional training, and resource connection to break the stigma surrounding disabilities.

Living with multiple disabilities himself, Daniel brings both lived experience and professional expertise to his work—helping organizations build solutions that are sustainable, practical, and human-centered.

About the Podcast

Thriving in Intersectionality explores how identity, lived experience, and leadership intersect in today’s workplace. Through conversations and reflections, host Dr. Lola Adeyemo uncovers the insights, challenges, and leadership lessons that help professionals not just survive—but truly thrive.

Each episode invites guests to define intersectionality in their own words and reflect on how their layered identities shape how they lead, navigate systems, and create impact.

Connect & Learn More

Learn more about Daniel’s work: https://www.peacesofme.org/ 

Connect with Daniel Hodges.

If This Episode Resonated With You

⭐ Share with a colleague or leader
⭐ Leave a review to help others discover the show
⭐ Reflect on how your own intersections shape how you experience the workplace

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Thriving in Intersectionality Podcast, a podcast that explores the real experiences of professionals navigating the workplace with layered lead identities. I'm your host, Dr. Lola Ateemo, the CEO of EQI Mindset and founder of the nonprofit Immigrants Incorporate Inc. I'm also an author, speaker, and a workplace inclusion strategist. I work with organizations to build communities of belonging through strategy, storytelling, and systems change. This podcast amplifies the voices of professionals from intersectional backgrounds, immigrants, ethnic minorities, first-gen professionals, veterans, working parents, individuals with disabilities, and so many more. Through solo reflections and guest conversations, we'll uncover the eating challenges, celebrate the wins, and offer insights to help you thrive, not just survive in the corporate world. Because in today's global workforce, belonging isn't just a bonus, it's the catalyst for real growth and impact. Let's dive in. Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Thriving in Intersectionality Podcast. I love having this, my guests in this space. I love posting these conversations, and I just will take a minute, as always, to set the stage with what an intersectionality is. Intersectionality is a mouthful of a word, but I love to start with also acknowledging that I came into this work through the work of Kimberly Crenshaw. It's a framework that recognizes our multiple aspects of identity, such as gender, race, ethnicity, ability, health, socioeconomic background, and so much more. How they interact to shape how we experience the world, including leadership and opportunity. Kimberly Crensher on that word, and she used it in the research that explored the experience of black women looking at the intersection of race and gender essentially. And so, you know, I'll drop those show notes in the details for people that want to look up some of the research around this word. But I love that she does emphasize that it's a framework and I think it's applicable in the way we understand people and the layers that each of us bring to the spaces that we occupy. And so I always love to introduce my guests or have them introduce themselves through the word intersectionality. Before I bring Daniel in, let me take a uh a minute to introduce uh to read his bio and then we'll get to look behind the scenes beyond the bio. So Daniel Odds, uh Daniel Odds is uh jury's doctor, as a jurisdoctorate, is uh JD MHA, is a thought leader on accessibility and authentic inclusion of people with disabilities. Daniel is the president and the co-founder of Pieces of Me Foundation. I'd like to stress that Pieces of Me, for those listening, is P E A C E S. And I'm I'm looking forward to hearing about that. Pieces of Me Foundation is a nonprofit that Daniel started while he was in law school. And the mission is to transform society through community education, innovative professional training, and connections to relevant resources that break the stigma surrounding disabilities of all kinds. As an individual who lives with multiple disabilities himself, he understand firsthand how vital this work is. And I love um the work you're doing, Daniel, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you a little bit more. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Thank you. I'm glad to be here, and I'm doing pretty well. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I'm doing great. It's almost Friday. We're recording this on a Thursday, so it's always a fun day. When it's almost Friday. All right, Daniel. So let's go right into the first part of our conversation. Um, I talked about your titles, talked about the education, talked about the spaces that you founded. But beyond that, maybe we would like to pull back that cord in for those that are listening or watching. When you personally, Daniel, think about your intersections and your identity, what are the aspects that have most shaped how you lead and move through the world today that you want people to know about you?

SPEAKER_01 5:00

And I have to say, I love how you used the full expansive definition of intersectionality because a lot of people I think would assume that because I happen to be a white male, that there are you know certain obstacles I haven't had to clear despite having disabilities. But you know, going into this question, I'm somebody who grew up with not a lot of socioeconomic advantage. I I mentioned during my property class when we were talking about trust and estates. I said, look, I don't understand trust. That never you know occurred to me. I understand food stamps. So um that's going to come up in our conversation, having to struggle for resources growing up in rural parts of the country where they didn't know where to find the right the right resources for me as a blind student. So those all come to the table. And then also I I fashion myself as a leader who runs an inclusive organization. We serve people regardless of who or how or what they worship. And at the same time, I am somebody who personally is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So my service is an extension of my faith, even though I don't proselyte or I don't, I don't, I don't exclusively work with anyone from any background, but it it helps me channel my energy and my ability to spread hope, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah. No, I love it. And I as you said, our personality, our abilities, what we bring to the table is something that, you know, we the world is sort of conditioned to help us diminish certain things, right? It's like, oh, you have to be this way in order to fit into society, and then we, you know, hopefully we are helping people realize this. Every single piece of you makes you who you are, shapes the lens through which you see the world. It might create a bias for you as well. Um, and it might also create a privilege, but it's part of who I am, and and acknowledging that is helpful because it helps us grow as leaders.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Absolutely. And you know, it helps us when we understand that our perspective is unique to us and it's supposed to be that way. And as we cultivate diversity of thought, it really helps us to unearth more advanced, more nuanced solutions for the kind of seemingly intractable problems that we face today.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

As a matter of fact, sorry, I'll just say that I wrote a piece that was published earlier this year talking about how disagreement is the the core or essential to developing authentic inclusion. So even with my co-founder for Pieces of Me, you know, she is different religiously, she's different politically. She grew up in a very different world, even though she's my first cousin. And I think that is one of the reasons why we have vibrant conversations within our organization. So I I love I love the point you're making.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yeah. So you talked about what are the experiences, what are the identity categories that you relate to. You talked about social economic, you talked about um being a white male, right? Because that's also significant in this case, because that's the first thing people say, see, is that you're a white male. Um, and that that shaped things in a different way, the socioeconomic class. Um, and then you talked about disability. Talk a little bit more about the disability aspects, because um I I don't think I think I don't think that was you led with that as an intersectionality explanation. And I I wanted to highlight that as well, that what we see sometimes is not really all there is doing.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

And and this is such an important piece because I have both the visible disability of vision loss, and I have the invisible disabilities of anxiety and chronic pain arising from a connected tissue disorder. So people think that blindness is going to be the disability that determines a lot of my struggles, but I gotta tell you, when I don't know when I wake up in the morning if I'm gonna have a hip or an elbow or a wrist out of socket that just you know dislocated in my sleep, when I don't know what joint's gonna be inflamed or maybe joint plural, that's a lot harder to deal with. It's a lot harder for me to wrap my head around. And I think going even deeper, one of the things I tell people is if you think about the struggles that I would face as somebody who is blind, even a lot of times you would say, okay, well, almost all of that's going to be native to vision loss as opposed to inaccessibility or bias. But my personal experience and the experience of a lot of my friends is that 70% of the struggle we face is actually accessibility or bias related, and maybe 30% is a direct result of vision loss. So having to prove ourselves not what we can do, but what but overcome what people think we can do. Um, dealing with the fact that 95% of the web, 95% of the web is inaccessible partially or fully. You know, we were talking before we started recording about buttons on this platform not being properly labeled, and me thankfully having my teenage son in another, you know, in another room, I was able to call him and say, hey, I can't figure out how to turn this microphone on because it's not labeled properly. Those are the things that really add up, and I think that misunderstanding is a lot of the reason why people don't understand ableism or the difficulties that come with living and disability compared to other realities such as racism and sexism.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that because I didn't know about that statistics, but I, you know, it just put things in perspective too. Again, if I lead with the fact that Daniel is a white man, what assumptions come up for people? Um, you know, when we think about that. I'm talking to Daniel, oh, a white man. What do you expect? What do you think? What do you think? You know, you assume, oh, it's got an easy life, you know, it's a white dude, you know, it's got a foundation, you know, it's got a rich, you know, it's life is good. Um, and and I and that's why for for this conversation, I like to set with that too, because we're also listening. People, most people are listening to this podcast on the audio platforms, and you know, I like people to, in your own words, tell us about who you are, tell us about the categories and the layers that have played a significant role in your leadership, in your life, in your career, and and the way people interpret it. I I've interviewed a lot of guests, and sometimes I know them, most times I don't know them, and I allow myself to go there as well. Like, what do you think this person what do you think this person is going to talk about as their intersections that have been critical to them? And a lot of times I'm very wrong. And I think that's where we are all learning is that when if we just take a minute to even just listen to people, there's so much we could take away from who they are and also how we can be more supportive of others.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

I agree, and I think it's it's important to try to hold multiple realities at once. So, yeah, racism unfortunately is a thing, sexism unfortunately is a thing. And when I talk about my difficulties as someone with a disability, I'm not trying to dethrone those conversations by any means. But I think there is a place to say ableism goes on that, for lack of a better term, pedestal is an issue we need to solve right along with those other social ills. And it's not just about trying to find a magical cure that eradicates all disabilities that in its darker days is called eugenics. We don't want to go there. But it's about saying, hey, I despite my skin color, despite the fact that I am a man, I know what it's like to experience bias in my own way. You know, I know what it's like to have my educational opportunities when I was younger put through a shredder. I know what it's like to have to fight for my kid because the hospital didn't think that blind parents could parent. Um, I know what it's like to not have a job because even though I was highly qualified, somebody thought that they knew what I could do better than I did. So is it the same? No. But it's very real and it's it's a conversation worth having, I think.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Absolutely. I needed to let that land because that's definitely a part I'm gonna um I'm gonna be sharing. Um thank you. Thank you, Danielle. Thank you for sharing that. I have I myself count, I like to think of myself as somebody who is a newbie when it comes to accessibility and disability inclusion. And I will tell you, my learning journey went up a notch when my my youngest was diagnosed with autism um a couple of years ago, and I realized so much of how much of the world is designed for something specific. And how a shift from what the world thinks is not normal um changes everything, even in the little things, even in the day-to-day. Um, and so I've been I've been growing my knowledge and awareness um in that space over the last, he's only six, so he's young over the last few years. Thank you for the work you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Thank you. And I think we're all on a learning journey in some way, right? Or at least hopefully we are. None of us has all of this figured out.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah. Yeah. And and I think that's that's part of why I host this conversation. And I was also telling you that I do a lot of work with employee resource groups and companies. And in my conversations, I like to bring in experts because when it comes to workplaces, it's there's so many niches, there's so many fractions of these conversations that need to happen. And so many people are doing, you know, now we we you know, we talk about DEI as a department that needs to be eliminated. And I'm like, maybe we just need to get rid of the world itself because inclusion and accessibility are things that should be embedded into everything that we are doing anyway. It's not a department that should sit at the side. This is a conversation that should be part of every day-to-day decisions we're making in our workplaces. So let's talk about your career journey a little bit before we start to pull to all those together in the third part. I think for me, the second part of this conversation is to um walk us through your career part a little bit. So we have a lot of career professionals that listen, and um I love to share your journey, right? Um what education experiences or career experiences, whatever that was like.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Absolutely. And so I'm gonna start by saying when you think, okay, this guy's got multiple advanced degrees, there's an image that forms in your mind of what my educational journey was likely, or how it likely looked. And it wasn't it wasn't the image that comes to mind at all. So I'm gonna start by saying, as I as I mentioned before, I grew up a lot of different places, but I spent a lot of my time in rural Ohio, and bless their hearts, they didn't know how to handle a blind or vigilantly impaired student. And so during the time I was in school, I didn't have access to the right learning materials. I was relying upon my ability to memorize everything. And from grades seven through eleven, I was supposed to be homeschooled. That basically didn't happen. So for all intents and purposes, I missed out on grades seven through 11 entirely, and then for my sitting in my senior year in high school, went to a school for the blind and eventually got my DED. I think that's important to understand because that was not the platform that people expected, you know, when you think of going on to graduate from law school and such. And I've had fits and starts. Um, I had to learn when I was an undergrad how to advocate for accommodations beyond just, you know, the blindness ones. I actually failed out of college the first time around because I didn't have the skills or even the knowledge to understand how to go to that same student services department and say, hey, I'm on a bunch of mental health meds right now. I can't even remember my own name half the time, practically help. And so the resources that might have been there for me, I didn't know how to leverage them, actually had to start at a different school completely with two classes and transferred over to basically from scratch build that pathway up again, and that was while having two kids go through kids go through cancer treatment. So by the time I had graduated, I was in my early 30s. I was in my early 30s, and I thought I was pretty much done with my educational journey. I'm like, okay, I've made it through all of this, I'm made slightly worse for the wear, you know, I've had all of these things go on. But I also knew that because of my clinical tissue disorder, I knew I was gonna be battling a lifetime of trying to keep the chronic pain at bay. And I knew from networking and from research that in order to stay in the workforce as I aged and as my symptoms became more pronounced, I had better have a Y that is powerful enough to get me out of bed in the morning, even when my pain is at a seven or eight. So I I I was focusing on that and eventually was challenged by two different mentors to go to law school. And I said, look, I'm broke, I'm dealing with pain, I worry about accessibility, so how am I gonna pay for this? How am I gonna deal with the health concerns? Because law's not easy, how am I gonna deal with the access concerns? How am I gonna deal with, you know, a spotty academic record? Because, you know, law school's not easy to get into. And eventually I said, okay, I've had two mentors who don't know each other challenge me within 48 hours of each other, I'm gonna I'm gonna pray about this and see what happens. And spoiler alert, you know, a year later I'm in law school in Baltimore with a scholarship. And it's important to say here too, access concerns happened. Chronic pain, yeah. I actually had two surgeries while I was in law school. And almost lost the use of my right hand. I lost the use of several fingers on my right hand for the better part of a year. And all different things, they they came to pass, but it was worth it, and there were so many positive things that came from it. That you know led me to know that it was the right call. So when I think about what has shaped my career to this point, it's about understanding that there is a pathway to turning pain into purpose. There is a pathway to getting where you want to go, even if you've uh fallen into the pit a few times. And there is a way to take the experiences that I've dealt with and say that okay, part of forgiveness for me, for the people who tried to take my kid or deny me a job when they shouldn't have, or all of these other things. Part of forgiveness means understanding the systems and the bias that led them to that place and taking my talents, my abilities, my story wherever I can so that I can prevent that from happening from other people by calling people into that conversation, meeting them where they are, and saying, look, I'm not here to blame or shame, I'm not here to guilt trip, but I am here to try to help you open up some of those preconceived notions, replace them with real knowledge, and help you upskill. So that's all of those things tie together for me.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Yeah, thank you. And I was trying to make sure I said your acronyms correctly when I was reading your bio, and I think I butchered it. But Daniel received his jurisdictorate from the University of Baltimore and his master's in healthcare administration from Western Governors University. There was a reason why I was trying to say it because I know these are not small programs. These are not it's not a small feature. So congratulations on all of that. Um and thank you for sharing these because I think you you are right. We we we talk about what it means to even receive these things without accessibility issues, and then to think about all of the accessibility uh challenges and and the systems you had to walk through. Um, I think the third part of this, I want to learn more about your um uh foundation um in a little bit, but I wanted to ask one more question about your program and while you were doing that, um, why did you decide to go to law school? And why did you decide to, you know, what was that choice, like going into healthcare admin and going into law school?

SPEAKER_01 24:37

You know, it's funny, I didn't even have law school on the radar until a couple of people, like I was saying, you know, put it there and they challenged me to basically let go of my fear of failure and start trying to find where my real potential was. And when I enrolled, my intention was to practice at the intersection of health care and civil rights. And I was expecting to do something in alternative dispute resolution, probably not go into litigation, but do something that helped create win-win solutions. And I'm so glad I did. You know, it was a beautiful experience of learning how to understand facts, how to understand different sides of a story, and also understand ways to help people come to a better understanding of how to tackle a problem.

unknown 25:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Well, thank you for sticking with it and then pulling it all together. So if you want to share a little bit more about um your organization, you started it while in law school as well. So, what what has that been like shaping it? And I really love hearing about the mission because I think it also ties to what you're trying to do. It's community education, right? That there's a community education piece of it, and I think that's important in the world we're in today and the way we treat accessibility as uh a byproduct uh benefit that somebody gets by pushing hard enough, as opposed to something that should be a part of the systemic design. Um, if we want to be inclusive for everyone, and then connection to relevant resources. So tell us a little bit more about this organization and how you know your experience has kind of shaped the way you designed it.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Absolutely. So I think it's important to mention I was between my first and second year of law school when this happened, and I was in the tail end of a pretty severe mental health crisis. And I was sitting down with my cousin Christy in her living room in Phoenix, talking about my experiences with hospitals and with schools and everything, and also her experience as a mom who had a daughter who was born with an unexpected limb difference. And I said, you know, these disabilities, these differences, our bodies, you know, they're everything's treated as though it's all separate, but really underneath it all, there's a common root of bias that says this kind of body is valuable and this kind of body isn't, and we're not going to truly address inaccessibility until we deal with that that vein of bias there. And so we said, okay, you know, I've got the law of stuff and education background, Christy's got the social work background. So we have that expertise that goes with our lived experience. Let's go out and actually meet with stakeholders and say, look, we know none of you wants to be the person who wrongfully takes a kid away or whatever the case may be. So we're going to provide you with the forum to ask the questions that need to be asked in a safe and in an appropriate environment so that we can break the stigma. So that's really what got us on the road of saying, okay, we're going to help people have the conversations they need to have. Again, no blame, no shame. And saying, look, if you're willing to if you're willing to sit down and talk with us, we're assuming good intent. We know that you're not going to do this unless you have at least part of you that wants to learn. Great. Don't worry about asking the wrong thing. Don't say about be saying something that comes out sideways. There's grace here. Let's just talk as humans. And if you need to know how I cross a street, or if you need to know how I change a diaper, or how I, you know, cook dinner, whatever the case may be, let's talk about it. So that when you encounter somebody with a disability in your profession, you can still do your due diligence because everybody's different, but you're approaching it from a level of informed curiosity as opposed to as opposed to skepticism.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Yeah, absolutely. And I I as I was listening to you, I was thinking of um the your intersectionality as a parent. Yep. It's something that came up as we're talking, but you know, looking at it through the lens of intersectionality. Um, how do you think being a parent has has shaped this journey for you as well and and your work?

SPEAKER_01 29:48

You know, that's a great question. And for me, um I've dealt with the healthcare system by virtue of my own stuff all my life, and I dealt with it as a child of a dad who spent the last eight years of his life fighting with aged orange poisoning. But it was the moments that we were the moment that we were fighting for custody and fighting to get our kids cancer treatment and all of those sorts of things, those are the moments that led me to say, I have got to do something in healthcare. And so, you know, yeah, we've we've we fought those battles. We actually got banned from a couple of departments at Seattle Children's Hospital along the way for insisting on the right treatment protocol for cancer. And so, yeah, there's there's no way to say that it didn't shape my passion for health equity, my passion for access within health care, and my passion for making sure that patients and families have connections to the resources they need to know where to find help for a rare disease, or where to find help for travel to get to the right care team, or where to find support when you're dealing with a condition that's not properly understood? That has totally shaped how I look at our need for resources and for bringing people together.

unknown 31:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Thank you. So let me, I guess let me ask more direct questions now for those that are listening. Uh, what do you wish more people understood about ability, access, and human potential?

SPEAKER_01 31:37

I would say if you're not someone living with a disability, what I wish you understood is that we are complex beings. There is no one characteristic or circumstance that defines us. So the best thing you can do to be an ally is not only to share hope, but to actually challenge us to reach our best selves again and again and again. And if you are somebody who's listening or watching with a disability, again, I'll say your characteristics and circumstances don't define you, and that if there's anything I want you to take from my story, I made it through law school and stuff with chronic pain because I found a way to work with my body instead of against it, and because I was able to tap into a really powerful why. And so if that's not something that you're already doing, I would highly encourage you to do it. If even you are doing it, keep keep stretching because I know even for me, I'm still learning how to manage my symptoms. I'm still learning how to work with my body, I'm still learning how to navigate this world. And again, it's giving ourselves grace, but also striving for excellence, and I think striving for impact.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Yeah, I love it. That that was going to be my next question, and I think you answered it beautifully for professionals that are navigating adversity, visible or invisible disabilities, and are still trying to build successful careers and are facing all of these barriers. I hope you walk away understanding and inspired by what Danielle is sharing is that you know, when we talk about career development, career growth, career advancement, entrepreneurship goals, you can do it too with the right resources, with the right support. And and so um if you want to highlight your nonprofit here, I want to make sure we are pointing people clearly to it for people that want to learn more about pieces of me. Um what what do you do? What can they get from there? What can they reach out for, and where can they find you?

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Absolutely. So, and I know you were gonna ask too about why we spell it P-E-A-C-E-S. So let's start with that.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Um, so we started by saying it's so unfortunately common for people to think that having a disability or a difference means you're missing a piece. You're missing part of what could have made you whole. And we wanted to turn that on its head and say, look, if you find a way to uh not only accept but love who you are, and to embrace who you are, understand that you are who you were meant to be, then there's a real PEACS that comes from that. And a couple years later, we found a second reason why we do this is because in a world that uh feels like proving a point and making a statement means burning down a city, we took in a different direction and say, look, trauma's real, pain is real, anger is real, but what serves us is meeting people where they are and finding a way to actually solve the problems. And so we brand ourselves as peacemakers who take a solid stand on accessibility being a human right, but sharing with other stakeholders how they can get there, why it matters, how it benefits them, and how we can build it together. So what that means in in real life is we go and we meet with organizations of all stripes, whether it be businesses, large or small, whether it be other nonprofits, houses of worship, schools, community organizations, you name it. We will gladly have a conversation and just sit down with you and figure out okay, where what are your goals? Where are your pain points? What have you already tried? Help us understand what you're already doing and where you want to go, and then let's see if we can help you discover that next step to become more accessible and inclusive. And it's important to do it that way because it's more effective and it's not force-feeding somebody a solution that won't stick. This is the way we believe that we can create buy-in and can actually build something that's replicable, sustainable, and relevant to them. So I would encourage you, if this sounds good to you, visit pieces of me, P-E-A-C-E-S of me.org. There's ways to learn more about uh our community education program, you know, to have us come speak with you. There's ways to serve uh time, talent, and treasure. Uh and I'm gonna say, even if you're brand new, even if you hadn't even given accessibility a second thought until this conversation, we still got a place for you to serve. Some of our best team members have come in totally from no background in this topic whatsoever, and have said, hey, we're gonna lend our skills and our expertise, teach us about accessibility, teach us about how to apply what we're doing, let's go solve this together. Those have been some of our best members, best team members. So, pieces of me.org, we've got a place for you to serve time, talent, and treasure can be part of what's actually going to make accessibility and inclusion ubiquitous.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Thank you. Thank you so much, Daniel. And we definitely would have a follow-up with that. Um, as I mentioned, I work with a lot of ERGs as well, and and I love to be able to support these specific groups in the in the areas that they need. And but when I think of the work you're doing, I think it cuts across different ERGs. And I think it's a conversation, it's a topic that each of the ERGs can help elevate. Um, and so we're looking forward to bringing that um into that space. But for those that are here, you know, that um individuals, career professionals, business owners that are looking, that are listening, um, I hope we walk away with these. If you have a background story similar to Daniel, um, portion of it, all of it, and and you're thinking about career development and growth, I hope you are inspired the way I'm inspired by Daniel's story and just the persistence and resilience. Thank you for the work you do, Daniel.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Thank you, and thank you for having me. And one last one last word for the business owners, the employers out there, the decision makers. There's a there's a notion out there that you have to choose between profit and accessibility, inclusion and merit. It's a lie, it's a flat out lie. There is a mountain of factual proven evidence to show accessibility leads to profit. Real inclusion makes your team the best it can be. If you don't believe me, let's talk. And if you do believe me, let's still talk and let's put it in the put it into practice in your organization.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

I love it. Thanks, Daniel. All right, I almost skipped my last question, but I I just remembered I usually end with a closing question around food. Oh so if you were to share a meal with your co-workers, Daniel, um a meal, a snack, a fruit, if you were to eat something with with work co-workers, what would you pick and why?

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Um I am I am a simple dude who grew up with simple country taste. So give me a good burger and fries any day to share with people.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

I love it, and it's a good win win food for most of us who love burgers and fries. I am not a portlock kind of person because I'm like, what is in there? I don't know what's in there, I don't want to try it.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Yep, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

Burger and prize it is. Thank you so much, Danielle, the work you do around accessibility. Thank you for the resilience you bring into your career and your work and all of the aspects of your life. And thank you for sharing all of that with my audience.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 41:07

If you're listening, make sure you share these episodes with your network. Uh, would appreciate your feedback. Um, we're on Spotify, Amazon, Music, YouTube. Um, we love your thoughts. Reach out, connect in the show notes. I will have Daniel's details and my details um for a follow-up. Take care and thank you. Thank you for being part of today's conversation on five-ending intersectionality. If you are an HR or DEI leader and you need employer resource group or business resource group resources, let's connect and LinkedIn and help organizations build inclusive cultures through inclusive workplace communities, strategy, and storytelling. Immigrants and first-gen professionals, join our free community at www.immigrantincorporate.org for career support, networking and resources in community with kids who understand your journey. Tag our podcast page on LinkedIn or connect with me directly to continue the conversation. Please don't forget to rate and review to help others discover these discussions. Keep thriving in your intersections. Your story matters. I'm Dr. Lola Adeyo, and this has been Thriving in Intersectionality Podcast.