Title:
Diplomacy and Disability: Vicki Loffelmann’s Global Advocacy Journey

Subtitle:
Navigating the World’s Perspectives on Accessibility | Beyond the Barriers

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths.

Let’s go.

Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia and I have one of my besties from when we were young on the tennis courts today. I’m so excited. Vicki Loffelmann. She is an adventurer, an advocate, a traveler, a wheelchair user. She’s a diplomat. Her and her husband both. She’s a mother of two. She’s been navigating abroad for literally years.

We were just talking about the last time we’ve seen each other. I can’t even put a date on the calendar. It’s been a long time. She’s been living abroad, dedicating her career to defending the US interests, protecting American citizens, and exposing fraud and waste. We’re gonna dive into crucial and timely discussions about the removal of DEI, with the extension of accessibility initiatives and as somebody who has been deeply embedded in the foreign service community, Vicki has unique insights into these changes and how it impacts her and honestly, countless many people around the world. So we’re gonna explore what this means from a representation standpoint, from an inclusion standpoint, from an accessibility standpoint. And then I also wanna talk a little bit back about our day on the tennis court and growing up as women with disabilities, and how you’ve become this mother that’s traveling around the world and adapting. I think all of those stories are gonna really help our community as well. So Vicki thank you for coming on the show it is amazing to reconnect with you.

Vicki Loffelmann: Alycia, it’s so great to be chatting with you and to be able to share a little bit about what I do. We talked about this a little bit offline. But I’m really proud of the work that you’re doing and you’re giving us a platform to be able to talk about the things that we’re doing on in different parts of the world on a different scale.

And I think that’s so important because our voices need to be heard all around the world. And this is a tribute to exactly that.

Alycia Anderson: Hallelujah, sister. Let’s bring it around the world. Okay, how about this? We’re gonna start with just getting a little bit of your background. So you’ve lived a very full life, like women empowerment, tons of determination. You’re living a very interesting life as a woman with a disability as a mom. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey from being born with spina bifida and now advocating the way that you are as a diplomat around the world?

Can you just give us a little look back in the rear view mirror so we understand who you are and how you’ve become?

Vicki Loffelmann: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve come a long way from a little girl in Downey, California. Born with spina bifida worked at AT&T Wireless, which is where I met my now husband. And that’s really where the story starts for us. He got an opportunity to work in the foreign service. One of my favorite past times is to travel.

So together we thought, wow, what a dream opportunity. Let’s go travel the world and do some good work. So that is initially how it all began. Our first assignment was in West Africa, and it’s not a place that you hear a lot of people talk about. It was Dakar, Senegal, and if you looked at it on the map, it’s just below Morocco.

This was pre-children, so I will tell you that it was easier because my husband was essentially my legs when you can imagine Africa didn’t have the kind of infrastructure we are used to in the States, so that was really amazing. Yet frightening eyeopener to accessibility and what really doesn’t exist and how privileged we are to be living in a country where you do have access to all of the things.

And I’m talking about simple things, Alycia. I’m talking about ramps. I’m talking about elevators to get to the second floor just to be able to get into a restaurant without having to go up a flight of stairs. There is a number of things that I could name that were challenges. But it was also an amazing learning experience.

I think back during my beginning years of diplomacy and it wasn’t even what I couldn’t do, it was what the perception was. Here these Senegalese people, these West Africans, looking at the little blonde girl in a wheelchair coming into their zone. Trying to make a difference. And this is also a place where people with disabilities are asking for a handout.

They don’t get employment, they don’t have those opportunities. The infrastructure is not gonna change for them. They’re just surviving day by day. And I thought, wow, what a great opportunity to share those experiences. You see what I can do, and I learn a lot from every country that I go to.

How to ask for things, how not to ask for things because there are cultural standards too, and you have to know when you have it crossed the line or when you’re inappropriate. So that carries over from West Africa. We’ve done that in Europe and Denmark. We were in Costa Rica and now we are here in Athens, Greece, and that’s one of the oldest country in the world.

And I will tell you, access to most things absolutely stinks here. It’s so frustrating. And I speak Greek, I’m fluent. So for me to be able to advocate for myself comes at another level because I can really ask for what I need, but also I can get the response that and they have this saying in Greek, the word is, dystychós but essentially what that means is unfortunately, and I absolutely lose my mind when I hear, dystychós because I know it’s going to be a follow up of, unfortunately we do not have X, Y, or Z.

We don’t have a ramp for you to access this. We don’t have a big enough bathroom. Now, you should know also that all bathrooms in Europe, not all, but most are in a basement. Or somewhere upstairs, they’re never on the same floor as you and there’s no access to it. So days are all real struggles. As a mom I think it’s amazing that my kids are seeing this.

I like to think that I’m fostering education. And ideas in their mind that I need you to go out there and I need you to advocate for people like Mom. I need you to keep your eyes open. And if you see something that’s a barrier, I need you to remove it if you can. If you have a friend out there who’s struggling support them. I see that my kids are really they’re at an age now where they’re really understanding and that’s, I can’t tell you what that feels like.

From my part to hear them say just small things like, oh, mom can’t go that way. Go see if she can go that way. Let’s go investigate for her. They’re like my little spies. It’s really cute. So in regards to all of that, it’s amazing, and my husband’s got my back all the time, just like you’ve got Marty, we’ve all got a support system.

But how about those people that don’t have support systems? How about the people that have been left behind in these societies? That’s the part that I really struggle with, and that’s where I’m really putting the lens on the or the importance on those topics, the people in those countries.

Alycia Anderson: I can imagine the impact that you’re making globally experiencing these different cultures. And the challenges with accessibility and being the model the vision of what things could be or can be, you’ve gotta be making a lot of impact. My, I have an aunt and uncle that are missionaries and they lived in Senegal, so I know what Senegal is like, and I’d always say I wanna come visit you.

And they’re like no. This isn’t the place for you. It’s really inaccessible. So the fact that you were navigating those types of environments, those cultures, and I’m sure educating, whether you were deliberately doing it or not, just by people watching your actions and how to adapt is really powerful.

And I can only imagine how many people you’ve helped in those cultures advance, like accessibility, even if it’s in the slightest way. In, in, like the way that we look at accessibility. I’m sure there’s been massive impact just by watching and learning from you. That’s amazing, Vicki. Incredible.

Vicki Loffelmann: It’s definitely been a modeling type of example. Just like you said, just by watching me in Dakar. I’ll give you the perfect example. We have a housing survey and as me and my family put down our five top priorities that we would like in our housing, right? ’cause they’re gonna give us this house that we’re gonna live in for three years.

And our very first assignment at DakarI didn’t know what Dakar looked like. I just knew that it was gonna be rough and I was very minimal. I would like very much to have a ground floor house. I would like to have, a bathtub if it’s available, but that was not a priority.

Like I was just thinking very minimal things. We show up Alycia, and they gave us a massive mansion. It was two stories. All the bedrooms and bathrooms were upstairs. So I mentioned this because their interpretation of providing housing was to give me just something really big. I couldn’t get into any of the rooms because they were up a flight of stairs.

I couldn’t go to the bathroom because there wasn’t one available downstairs. They were having a problem solve and come up with solutions and we’re gonna fly somebody in to build you an elevator. Okay, I like that. But in the meantime, what’s happening? So I literally had to leave the country, go home and wait for them to make these adjustments.

So they are learning from me. And here’s the other caveat, it’s not a one size fits all, and yet. they treat it as such. So when you say I’m a wheelchair user. Whatever their experiences have been in their past, that’s their image of what that means. An accessible anything. So it’s been for every country, an entirely different interpretation.

And I will tell you, for four out of those five houses, they’ve had to rehome us because they didn’t have the right perception of what was happening. And I really had to advocate for myself and for my family. They put us in places, they’re like, sorry this is an ADA house that we have available.

It’s the only one in the housing pool. You’ve gotta take this one. When I show up, it’s, just because they’ve got wider doors. That was it, that was the extent of it. But I’ve got these two young kids living in a high rise where it was completely unsafe. So it was, it’s always, it’s complicated.

And then in Greece, there’s zero housing accessible. They built a ramp here. It’s stressful. I understand. And it’s cost. Which is another reason why DEI and some A is now being excluded from our, mission statement per se. It’s a real struggle and instead of moving forward, I feel like now unfortunately, we’re moving backwards a little bit and that’s disheartening.

Alycia Anderson: Okay. So there’s so much to unpack there, but you mentioned it. So let’s talk about all of that. I want to hear from you the impact that this pullback of DEIA accessibility for those of you who are not sure what that is. From a government standpoint doing the work that you’re doing, can you share with us the impact that is having on your life and the work that you do?

Vicki Loffelmann: Absolutely. So the challenges can be very pronounced if you don’t have someone. Who has humanity. You know what I mean? It’s really just a dignified way to help someone with something that they need. It’s not really that big of an impact. Like I said, it’s not a one size fits all, in Greece this past 4th of July, we actually focused on accessibility for all.

So we threw this huge gala and we included neurodivergent friends, blind friends, deaf friends, wheelchair user friends, and there was support at every single level. There were quiet rooms, there were interpreters, there were ramps, there was everything available to everybody that needed that support that otherwise wouldn’t have received it in past years, it was actually the initiative of this particular gala. Now, unfortunately that piece is now been removed and it’s not something that we’re really focusing on. I really felt the momentum, I had the opportunity to emcee, that particular program, and it was exciting to be able to, both in Greek and in English, talk to all of the government officials of the country and express how important this particular initiative is.

Now it’s been removed. But here’s the thing. We’ve made an impact. We’ve made a thumbprint. You can’t take that away and it the louder we are, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I would tell everybody to continue that advocacy. Continue making that noise. We need to continue on the road. There’s no reason to go backwards.

Fine. It’s not part of the initiative. It doesn’t mean I stop being disabled just because it’s not part of the initiative anymore. And I’ll tell you, I have an amazing team. My team sees things I don’t even see. They’ve come up with an entire workstation that they put together so that I could feel comfortable, for us that have grown up with our disability, we’ve adapted, we have made those modifications in our head without actually having had the modifications made on the actual items.

So there are now desks that you push a button and they go up and down. We’ve got printer stations and fax machines and the various tools that we use that are on these tables. So now I don’t have to reach high and wonder whether or not I’m getting what I need to get done. Correctly. So it’s the small things, but it’s the dignity.

It’s the humanity. It’s the people that are making the difference. They understand that my work is important, their work is important, and together we’re powerful. And they are. They are so on my team, they’re on our team. I can’t tell you how included I have felt this year with this particular team because of that initiative that we put out there.

People learned so much, and that was the thing they said after the event, oh my God, Vicki, I had no idea. Thank you for opening my eyes. And it really is that Alycia, right? It’s education. It’s us sharing our experiences and yours are gonna be a little different than mine.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, and it’s so important. I think it’s number one on the highest of importance level because from, you said the key words, dignity, humanity this acronym, DEIA is not this scary, horrific thing that, is frankly being politicized right now. We need to understand what it is, and it’s literally just being empathetic to somebody else’s lived experience and finding a path forward that we can all have a life to go after. And I think this education piece that you’re doing is so important. Again, modeling, like I heard you say it through your travel, I heard you say modeling your ability and the need for accessibilities to your children that’s now translating for them to see where the barriers are and also to your global team in that they’re themselves looking, how can I make it better for Vicki so she can have a space where she feels like she belongs in this environment to really perform at her most optimal. And all that is such important work. And I, just spoke at a major airline and I got the same feedback when I got off stage. Wow, I didn’t even realize that you can’t go to the bathroom or that this piece is very difficult for your dignity or that X doesn’t work. Wow. I didn’t even realize. And so we just lived in this space of not lifting up disability inclusion specifically for so long, and then we got ramped up and things have really been happening over the last four years specifically. And then it was ripped away. It was like, like you’re saying, then it goes away. And for me, I was like, oh my God, no. What does this mean? But it’s more important than ever, like you’re saying, for us to keep our voices loud and keep educating. Because the simple piece of education goes massive. It goes really far. So that’s incredible.

Vicki Loffelmann: Thank you for doing that and thanks for being a part of that because there’s power in numbers and the more of us that speak up and the more of us that show what we can do, show where we do struggle, where the deficiencies are, that’s when the people are gonna make the difference. And when I say the people, it’s the people we educate.

As you said, it’s the cultural differences and the barriers that we need to break through and let’s make this connection and humans are humans. We can all find a connection. It’s what you’re willing to put forth to break the code. What will it take for you to listen to me?

Alycia Anderson: And it’s that human connection that once you created that between another person, they care and they’re not gonna leave you behind. And it’s the human connection from a societal, disabled experience that we’ve been blocked left out from for push to the side that we are just getting a seat at the table of having that like really authentically come in and be more accepted.

I don’t know if you have felt that in the last several years, but I know I have. So it’s,powerful. Wow.

Vicki Loffelmann: Our work is powerful. I want everybody to see it the way that we see it, the people that we love, the people that are around us. They see how independent we are. And I think just creating that collaborative network is the key. Because it’s a trickle effect. It’s a domino effect. If you help me and someone sees that and what kind of impression that has, the next person’s gonna engage and they’re gonna be a policymaker and they’re gonna make big decisions, and it absolutely makes the biggest impact and it’s a beautiful thing to watch have happened.

My husband and I had this joke that every time we show up at an embassy, you literally start seeing the changes. The doors are, really heavy and they’re bulletproof. So you start to see the blue buttons appear at all the different doors. You start to see the aisles open up. And this is truly been every embassy that we’ve gone to because it’s not a thought factor.

There’s a lot, not a lot of mobility using device folks, if that makes sense. Out there in the missions doing these things. And that’s another thing, Greeks are the same way. They look at me and they’re just like, wow. Because they just don’t see it. They don’t see the day-to-day I am working in the office.

They can see me through the window and they’re 100% fascinated, enchanted, and charmed and they wanna know more. And I am very happy to share this story. And that’s another conversation. Some people are not comfortable telling their story, and that’s okay. You’re not the advocate we’re looking for to the rest of us who are comfortable telling people what we need, how we need it, what it should look like, and how we can make it a better place for the future. This isn’t about us today ’cause

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Vicki Loffelmann: What year are we living in 2025? When did this whole, movement start? Thank god for Judy Heumann she gave us the opportunity. And now it’s our opportunity to give it to the next generation. And that’s my goal. And I think having people, children, I’ll, go and speak to my kids’ school and they allow me to share my story with them. And even these kids, the stuff that they say, they’re fascinated.

They don’t get to see this on a day-to-day basis. And I’ll tell you what, when I go to my kid’s school, the school’s not accessible. But I will tell you that on the third and fourth visit, you better believe I start seeing ramps. I start seeing various, people directing me to accessible bathrooms, and they’re just making those modifications.

That’s what it takes. It takes being out there asking for it and being loud and proud, and I’m not embarrassed. And I will tell you when I was younger, I was embarrassed. I didn’t wanna bring attention to myself. I came late to the party. I absolutely did not want to be around anybody else that had a disability.

I felt like it was embarrassing. I didn’t wanna be associated that way. Shame on me. What was I thinking? But also, wow, how profound when I did discover what an amazing community of people that have disabilities and the power that they have are, and I’m so thankful to be a part of that now.

Alycia Anderson: I’m so happy that you just shared that because I have the exact same experience and I wonder if it’s just the time that we grew up in because I was embarrassed to, I wasn’t loud and proud about my disabled friends in the community that I had through tennis. That was a separate life and I wonder if it was just like a cultural thing, like we were talking about how we didn’t have social media when we were growing up, and how that has created an opportunity for disabled people to take the narrative into our own hands and put out, who we really are.

And I think that’s really helping the generations today be loud and proud and advocate a lot sooner than the both of us did. It took me into my forties to be yes, I can do this. So we have very similar experiences there and I’ve been embarrassed to admit that out loud. But it’s the truth. It’s absolutely exactly the same experience as you exact.

Vicki Loffelmann: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of us that have that same experience. I have other friends that you’re familiar with that, have these exact same stories. But the good news is we’ve, blossomed into these adults who wanna make a change. We wanna make a difference. Not about having the spotlight on me, it’s not about wanting to have any kind of attention.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I would very much prefer not to have all of the spotlight and attention I would as a person, sure. But for the reasons of, Hey, look at me. I’ve got a disability, and you have made a barrier. Or you’ve made it, you’ve created, excuse me, a barrier, and I can’t get beyond it.

That’s not the kind of attention I want. And I imagine that’s, that goes for, a very high percentage of us. And I think about that person that thinks we’re annoying or that we’re trying to use this as an advantage to ourselves. That’s a very false interpretation of what’s happening here.

Anybody who has lived the disabled life has in one way or another, been discriminated against, or has had something tragic happen to them. We talked about it earlier, wheelchairs breaking down or other mobility devices. Those are our legs. When those things break down, we are done. We’ve broken down.

I’m not feeling the independence anymore. I’m feeling quite the opposite. So I think that it’s such a big deal to amplify our voices and to put everything out there that people are uncomfortable with, and it’s our job to make you comfortable. I like to think that when I go into a room, I demand the presence and I demand the presence because I want you to see me.

I don’t want you to not see me. And that’s my key right now. I make a very major point of going into any kind and this intimidating, walking into these diplomatic meetings and these big round tables. And I absolutely, as you said before do take a seat at the table. I make room for myself and people move out of my way, whether it’s intentional or not, and I make sure I get a space in there because what I have to say is important, and I want you to see me because I deserve this space as well.

Alycia Anderson: I think we’re kindred spirits.

Vicki Loffelmann: Without a doubt.

Alycia Anderson: Some of my branding says literally see me on it. And when I started this, that’s all I wanted to, was to just be seen for the value that I bring. And what you just said is really important for our community to hear. You need to demand that seat at the table. If they didn’t create one for you, you need to scooch the chairs over to make your own space and use your voice and be proud of it. And the difference that you’re making is palatable. And for me, in my corporate life going into corporate meetings and these executives are not expecting of women with a disability to roll in.

And there’s always this moment of oh, whoa. So I imagine how that is for being at a table of foreign leaders and doing diplomatic work. That takes a lot of bravery and it takes, strong advocacy for you to go in and do that. But I can’t stop thinking of what you just said about you go into these rooms, you have the conversations, you’re doing this work, and then you start to see little door opening buttons and small changes are starting to happen, and that’s palatable and that must feel really impactful for you as achieving some of these goals that seem maybe small to the people who don’t understand this, but starting to see those changes in accessibility has to be really amazing.

Vicki Loffelmann: Absolutely, because it’s not about me, it’s about the person after me and the person after that. You’re starting a chain of something that’s going to have a long-term impact. And isn’t that ultimately the goal here?

Alycia Anderson: It is the goal. Gimme a day in the life, A day in the life of Vicki, the diplomat who’s advocating for accessibility, universal accessibility, all the things that you’re doing. What does that look like? And can you give me one success story that you rolled away from and you’re like, wow, we did that.

Vicki Loffelmann: It has to be that 4th of July event that I was telling you about because not only doing it in a country where my roots come from, but having this stage with 2000 people staring at me waiting for me to deliver an impactful speech, right? They don’t, I don’t want these people to start to look like they’re zoning out.

When I spoke my words on that day, I genuinely looked at every government official. I spotted them. I knew where they were in the audience before the event started, and I’m telling you, I zoned in on these people and I looked and spent time trying to resonate through my words. Why this was so important, why you have to have this infrastructure for your community, how we can make an impact as a group of people, how we can collaborate, how we can be successful as a unit, how we can help you further your projects, your whatever it is.

Because we have amazing problem solving skills. We have the ability to be extremely creative because how many times have we been in an oh shit moment and we’ve had to work our way through it because, I don’t know, I got a flat tire, a wheel broke. I lost a front caster once going on a push, and Mike Box was 500 miles, 500,000 miles away.

He was far away. And I needed rescuing. I had to roll around with three wheels. This is a day in the life. I’ll tell you, I had to roll around for three days the man, did a priority delivery of a front caster wheel, because I lost it in Costa Rica somewhere.

It was ridiculous. Who’s gonna save me in Costa Rica, they don’t have the kind of resources we do where you can walk into one of the shops and grab some support really quick.

Alycia Anderson: The day in the life of the quick call to Mike Box at Box Wheelchairs to save us. I lost a front caster wheel when I was traveling on a flight and did the same thing. Help me, Mike. I’m missing a front wheel. I dunno what to do. Yeah, how, does the future look and how can we support your global efforts? How can we be good allies to the work that you’re doing specifically around the world?

Vicki Loffelmann: We have to continue advocating for a universal design. We have to ask for better infrastructure. We have to tell people what we need. There’s no other way to go about it. If you don’t know as a, as an individual what someone needs, and this is just anything in life. Your partner, your child, your sibling.

If I don’t know what you need, I can’t give you what you need, but it’s about delivery to Alycia. Don’t think that. Nowadays, we’re such critical, judgmental people, and I think that’s a safe thing to say. I can’t come at you and be like, you guys are falling short. I need this, I want this.

That’s not gonna get me very far. But if I can come in and be eloquent and I can present myself in the kind of manner that’s professional and I can see you eye to eye, so to speak, we have the same demeanor and we are on an equal playing field, that’s when I feel like I’m gonna get. What I’m asking for, right?

I’m gonna get your attention. You’re not going to feel offended or threatened. I’m not coming at you, I’m working with you. We’re collaborating. I think that’s such a big thing to be able to make decisions together, but collaboration. We gotta leverage those personal stories, but we have to make them so that people are fascinated, not scared of us.

We’re not coming out there being rah. Here are my protest signs. It’s not that kind of story. I am asking you to let me engage and work with you because I have a lot to offer. I’m well educated. I have a lot of worldly experience. I’ve got a great resume. How can I bring my skillset to you and help you in your whatever company, corporation, blah, blah, blah.

How can we grow together? But in order to do that, you have to include me. It really is that simple and I think it gets lost in the ideas that we have to tear down an infrastructure and start over. We have to spend billions of dollars. You didn’t earn it on merit, Alycia. Someone just felt sorry for you and they gave you a step ahead.

This isn’t the fast line at Disneyland. I’m not asking to cut to the front of the line. I’m asking for you to just let me be next to you besides you so that I can have the equal opportunities that you have. And that sounds so basic, right? But here we are. Here we are in 2025 and we’re still asking for the same things.

And we talked about how we’re not gonna make this a political discussion. I did go to my leadership team when I saw that the DEIA initiatives are now not part of the administration. And I said, what does that mean for people like me? Am I gonna have to worry about housing now? Is someone not going to make these special modifications for me?

Am I not gonna have the opportunity to go to work and work inside the missions because. Those blue buttons can’t show up and maybe the desks are too high or whatever the case is. And I will tell you the answer with all of these leadership people is absolutely not Vicki. We’ve got you.

And you know why they say that? ’cause we have a relationship, because we have created a bond and we’re working together. It’s not a hierarchy, it’s a business of people sitting around a table making decisions together. And that’s really what I really can’t stress it enough. Leverage those personal stories, engage with policy and decision makers, create those collaborative networks, use those social platforms.

We’ve got the world at the tip of our fingers. We can scream as loud as we want. We can put the words out there. When you put stuff online, I get so excited. I’m like, Ooh, I wanna see what Alycia did this week. What impact did she and Marty make? It’s amazing. It’s amazing what we can do. I’m advocating for that universal design on this end.

I’m trying to mentor the non-disabled community because there are so many people who are like. Vicki, I’m so glad I met you. I just never looked at things the way that you’ve shown me and I appreciated, and that’s really all it takes, right? Make a friend and they’ll watch you. They’ll watch you navigate the world, and they’ll be really fascinated by the fact that you make it look so easy.

Wow. I’m just, wow, Vicki, absolutely incredible. And I really thank you so much for sharing your perspective on the DEI piece and it being wiped out and what that means for literally your existence and the work that you’re doing. I think that’s really important for us to hear as a society and as a community and, we don’t need to fear accessibility. It’s there for all of us to navigate our life, and really important work. So I really appreciate it absolutely incredible. Thank you, Alycia.

Alycia Anderson: Did we miss anything?

Vicki Loffelmann: Don’t think so. I could talk about this stuff all day. I’ve had so many unique experiences outside of what you and I once knew on the tennis court. Life looks a lot different from this aside. And I would love to, sit down and talk about all these things, but I think just the message that I really wanna get across, and if I can steal your words the pushing forward movement and what does that mean to me?

It means challenge those discriminations and biases, challenge them, foster an inclusive culture, and most importantly, ensure accessible workspaces and environments for people. Above. All above, above all. Amplify the voice. Amplify it as loud as you can from the highest mountain, because someone’s gonna hear us.

Someone’s going to make that change. And we have, we’ve made the movement. We just need to keep, like you said, pushing forward.

Alycia Anderson: I think that was your pushing forward moment. That was beautiful. I think you need to come back on ’cause we have so many other things to talk about. Motherhood being a total boss traveling around the world. So many more topics to talk about, but this was really timely, really important and I really appreciate you wanting to come on and share your perspective and your amazing, beautiful life of advocacy that you are actively engaging in right now and have been and I know will be.

So thank you for all of that, Vicki.

Vicki Loffelmann: Thanks for having me. I’m so happy to have been able to catch up with you, share some of the very, minor things that we’ve done and hopefully we’ll have bigger things to share in the near future. ’cause we’re evolving,

Alycia Anderson: Yeah, and I wouldn’t call it minor. I think the things that you’re doing are life changing for people that had no idea there was things like a blue button to help you open a door. I think that’s not minor, that’s massive. And thank you for the work you’re doing. Okay, I’m gonna do the wrap up. Thank you so much for your time, Vicki.

I’m so happy to reconnect with you and thank you to our pushing forward community. I hope you enjoyed this episode, I think it’s gonna inspire a lot of our community to figure out how do I go be a diplomat? That sounds like an amazing career that’s making huge impact. So thank you for sharing your story, Vicki. This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia and Vicki, and that is literally how we roll on this podcast. We will see you next time.