In honor of all that is going on with my Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility Business and in celebration of Disability Pride Month, I have officially launched my podcast, Pushing Forward with Alycia!

This podcast is a passion project of mine that has come to fruition through many long hours in collaboration with esteemed members of the disability community, my hardworking creative team and a lot of my own personal growth in pushing through fear and stepping up to being the changemaker I want to be.

Late last month, we launched the Official Promotional Trailer for the podcast as well as Episode 1 – Meet Alycia Anderson | Disability Advocate & Episode 2 – Disabling Ableism | Hello TEDx. As many of you know, I am an advocate for disabled people. I am also a TEDx motivational speaker and have broadened my service offerings with a Disabling Ableism Microlearning Series Training and a Beyond ADA Compliance Consulting Service. It has truly been a whirlwind start to my business in just two years since its official formation.

I’ve juggled my first official film project, My Story, been featured in several news articles, spoken to over 70 companies, spanning over 100 and more events, in a variety of formats from: in-person, virtual, keynotes, firesides or panelist and others. I’ve also appeared as a guest on a growing list of podcasts.

I am doing this pretty much all on my own along with just the help of my husband. It is truly amazing what one can accomplish when you put your heart, mind and soul into accomplishing it!

Through this latest venture I’m hoping to help advance the conversation of disability inclusion in all aspects of life, and broaden my audience to as many allies as I can find out there!

I hope to use my voice for a positive change in this world and honor all those who have believed in me my whole life. I have accepted the fact that I am a bridge for all to see what is possible in this world by embracing and owning my experiences with disability as a valuable commodity that should be shared with the world.

Whether you’re a person with a disability, someone who wants to be a stronger disability advocate, or a company striving to be a more inclusive employer, you’ll learn something and you’ll leave every episode with inspiration to do your part in helping the world learn to accept, nurture and discover the inherent benefits that lie within disability inclusion.

I will share my personal stories of resilience and overcoming the countless obstacles I’ve faced due to ableism, such as the doctors recommending I be permanently placed in a long term care facility after my birth and on to experiences like being denied opportunities for inclusion in school or the workplace, I have experienced it all.

I will share how instead of allowing these challenges to define me, I have turned them into fuel for my advocacy work and leveraged them into my life’s most bucket list memories.

In my first episode you’ll gain insights into:

• Who is Alycia and how my advocacy work has led to me disabling ableism in my life.
• What is ableism?
• You will hear about my journey of self-discovery and finding my voice as a disability advocate in the DEI + diversity community.
• I will give eye-opening examples of ableism’s impact on disabled people’ lives and opportunities for change.
• I will open the discussion on how we dismantle and combat ableism to foster a more inclusive and accepting society, and I will touch on this in every upcoming episode as well.
• I will share my empowering messages for disabled individuals who are navigating their own paths, and invite my husband to share his story too.

In the second episode we will explore disabling ableism?

I will go on a solo dialogue diving into an introduction on my feelings of how disabling ableism is creating a world where we are creating products and services and infrastructure and social settings and education and employment, that creates a path of accessibility for everyone where we’re not looking at the able bodied only as the only box, we need to check off to make everything work.

• You’ll hear example after example of how ableism exists in our society today.
• You’ll learn and understand how you can make a difference with combatting ableism.
• And, you’ll learn how my path to TedX speaker changed my trajectory in my life.

Join us and become a part of the Pushing Forward Community

As we delve into the depths of all things disability and uncover the power of advocacy, education, disabling ableism and allyship. I will help guide you along with my guests to that incredible resilience and unwavering dedication that will motivate you to join the fight against ableism and make a difference in the lives of disabled individuals everywhere.

Please listen, like, follow, subscribe and share wherever you listen to podcasts! Thank you so so much! ??