Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So, first impression? I know PhD Electrical Engineer. It is going to be one of those dry
boring talks. No. OK. Saw a person in a wheelchair up here and you went, Oh, it is going to be
one of those sob stories, turn inspirational stories about overcoming great obstacles and
great barriers? No. I want to talk to you today about innovation and a very important
part about innovation is getting a fresh perspective. Specifically today I want to talk to you about
a secret on how to get a new perspective. I had a real dramatic shift point in my life
back when I was 17, it was back in 1975. I don't recommend this for everyone but I got
in a car accident. My parents were moving from Calgary to the West Coast and I was driving
the family car and after we've been driving for quite a while we got to the summit of
Rogers Pass. We took a break there, I got out of the car and I was running to the washroom.
I just finished a year of high school sports and I was amazed at how powerful and fast
I was running. What was interesting is that was the last memory I had and I didn't know
it then but that was my last specific memory of being a physical able-bodied person. A
little while later I was driving again in the afternoon and I fell asleep. The car ended
upside down in the ditch and the next thing I remember I was in an ambulance and paramedics
were poking my leg with a needle saying can you feel that, can you feel that? I said "no,
I don't feel anything." I knew that wasn't good. It dawned on me that I was paralyzed
in the legs. I was paralyzed in my trunk from here down. I couldn't move my fingers, I couldn't
move my hands, I could barely move my arms. Yeah, I was a quadriplegic. ?So, why did I
tell that dramatic story? Because, let me tell you it sure changed my perspective on
a lot of things. Before I was injured and I saw someone in a wheelchair I thought, oh
there is someone who has to sit down a lot. Well, let me tell you did that ever change
quickly. First thing I noticed was, bowels and bladder. Actually, that is all I want
to say about that one. The next thing, I noticed was I'm going to end up in a wheelchair because
I had no leg muscle or trunk muscle and I had to learn how to sit in my chair without
falling out. How many of you right now are thinking about, how do I not fall out of my
chair? Think about that for a second. That is a very different perspective isn't it?
?When I started getting around in my wheelchair, I'd come across these doors with rounded door
knobs, which were really hard to open and it was really frustrating. I came across these
doors with heavy springs they were really hard to open too. But of course the best of
all is when I found these doors with rounded doorknobs and heavy springs. I'd find them
in all sorts of places but I'd find them in washrooms. So there I'd be trying to get out,
stuck, praying that someone is going to come in and let me out.?I wanted to demonstrate
some new perspectives. Even to get a drink of water out of a bottle, took a few different
perspectives before I could do that without getting water all over myself. Turns out I
need to get a few more perspectives on how to do that with also a microphone on my ear.
But, you know, I started learning a lot about all of these different perspectives. When
I was going to the rehabilitation process. I ran into vocational counsellors and they
wanted to know what I wanted to do after my injury and I said, "Well I want to be an Electrical
Engineer" and they looked back at me real serious and said "No, we think you should
be a social worker." I said "Well, no. My older brothers are Electrical Engineers. They
inspired me. I've always wanted to be an Electrical Engineer." They looked back even more serious
and said, "No, you need to be a social worker because we don't think you can do the physical
aspects of the job of an Electrical Engineer." I said, "Well that didn't make sense. My brother,
he is an Electrical Engineer and I know he spends most of his time behind a desk working
on a computer." I knew I could do that. So, there was something about that perspective
that was way off. They weren't taking into account what I could contribute. Another thing
that happened to me when I was in the rehabilitation environment and I saw the technology that
was around in those days. It was back in 1975 - 1976 for people with disabilities. It really
inspired me. I wanted to get involved in developing technology for people with disabilities. I
now had my passion coupled with my Electrical Engineering. So, yeah I got into Electrical
Engineering and it was going really well. But you know, I got frustrated near the end
because I'd been looking and networking trying to find opportunities to work on areas where
I could get involved with innovations and technology for people with disabilities. But
I couldn't find it anywhere. I was ready to give up on my dream. But you know, a guest
lecture came near the end of my undergrad, his name was Bill Cameron. Bill was giving
a guest lecture and at the end of that lecture he said, "By the way I'm working with this
young man named Neil Squire. He has broken his neck very high. He is paralyzed from the
very top of his neck down and I'd like to get him using an Apple 2E computer. Anybody
interested in helping please come and see me." Well, man I blasted down there after
the end of that lecture and introduced myself and I said, "Bill, I would love to work with
you on that." So, that summer Bill, Neil and I and a few others we worked on this concept
where Neil would use his breath to do a sip and puff switch. He was able to do Morse Code
which allowed him to fully use that computer. It was a fantastic summer. Bill also gave
me an opportunity that summer to work on my first piece of technology for people with
disabilities. It's a fiber-optic tongue switch for people who could only use their tongue
to make a switching action. But Bill saw this passion in me that I wanted to work on innovation
and technology for people with disability. He became one of my real key mentors. He said,
"Gary you need to go get your PhD so you can get your own funding, so that you can work
on innovations for people with disabilities." So, I did. I went back. I got my PhD. Now
that brings me back to my vocational counsellor. Seems to me they told me I couldn't be an
Electrical Engineer. Seems ludicrous now, right? But that just shows you the perspective
they had and I think it's the perspective that a lot of employers and bosses have today.
Because there is a lot of people with disabilities who aren't contributing in the workforce right
now. I saw a fresh perspective on this about three years ago, I met a guy named Mark Wafer.
Mark owns six franchises of Tim Hortons in the greater Toronto area. He said Gary, I
have hired a lot of people with disabilities throughout my organization, all different
types of disabilities. Gary said I hired this paraplegic to run one of my Drive Thrus in
one of my franchises. Before I knew it, I realized that was my best most productive
drive-through. Why? Because he is a paraplegic. Paraplegics are very good at economizing on
their movement and efficiently placing things in their environment so they can get to them
quickly. Of course, it was the best running Drive Thru he had. Mark went on and said,
Gary I hired this baker. This baker happen to be deaf. The most productive Baker he ever
had. He still has him. Why? Not distracted by unnecessary discussion or noises that aren't
related to the job. Mark went on and said, you know Gary there is this great rub off
effect with all my staff. My retention rate has gone way up. Which is really important
in anybody's business particularly in a business like Mark's. Employees absenteeism has fallen
way down. Employee engagement was way up, innovation was up and productivity was up.
He said, "Gary I don't hire people with disabilities because it is the right thing to do or the
charitable things do. I do it because it is great for business." I'll tell you right now
he is killing his competition. So, when I think of that and I think about right now
in Canada the unemployment rate when you include those people with disabilities who have given
up trying to find work is over 50% in Canada right now. This means there is over a million
working-age Canadians that aren't working. It just doesn't make any sense to me. That
is a lot of Canadians who aren't contributing to our workforce and a lot of really valuable
perspectives sitting there wasted on a shelf. You know, people talk about this impending
labor shortage. Well, I think if you shift your thinking a little bit, adapt your thinking,
change your perspective you'll see that there is no impending labor shortage it is just
a lot of people out there that haven't been tapped yet. But people with disabilities are
a lot more than just great employees. They've inspired or been part of an innovating some
of amazing technologies and things that have benefited us all. When I first started getting
around in my wheelchair back in 1976 curb cuts were just becoming common. Thats those
ramp down sections of a curb where you can roll down and then get back up on the other
side. Mothers pushing strollers will come up to me and say, "these are fantastic and
I'm sure glad they're putting them in for you." That was the first little hint I got
that you know, what is good for me might be good for others as well. There's a lot of
examples like that, you know, when you're in a noisy bar or a noisy restaurant and TVs
gone and you're trying to follow what's going on and the words are conveniently displayed
for you at the bottom so you can follow what's going on. No, not invented for noisy environments.
Of course, it is closed captioning for the deaf. You know the typewriter, most of you
know what a typewriters is. That was invented by an Italian because he had a blind lover
and he wanted to be able to read legibly her love notes so he invented the typewriter.
Now that's love Italian style. You know the microphone, the telephone many others were
invented by Alexander Graham Bell during his passion, to develop technology for the deaf.
The key card punch system was originally developed by a person with a learning disability to
deal with the challenge of the growing numbers of people to count in the US Census. That
worked out real well. He managed to turn that into a company that some of you might know
now as IBM. It goes on. ARPANET, the forerunner to the internet. One of the key developers
who was hard of hearing and his wife was deaf. He made sure that you could send text messages
across and email. Speech recognition, largely invented for people who have trouble entering
the text onto keyboard. The optical character recognition on a flatbed scanner, originally
developed for the blind, so they can scan a text and have it read aloud to them synthetically.
It goes on and on. Vibrating pagers, vibrating phones, originally developed for the hard
of hearing. You know word prediction you're all using it right now texting out what a
fantastic talk this is. Well, that word prediction was originally developed for people who have
a disability and are very slow in entering text. So you can see the people with disabilities
have either inspired or been part of developing some amazing innovations that have benefited
many of us. But still there is, of course a lot of innovation to go. Something that
I got quite involved with and still going on is brain computer interface. That is when
you measure a signal from the brain and use those signals to control devices like the
computer or something else. Imagine how important that would be for some with a very severe
disability but I also think of pilots and surgeons when their hands are busy and they
still need to control things, great application. There are lots of applications in the area
of games but you know when I got to work in that area, I bought a new perspective and
it seemed obvious to me but it was a very important contribution that I made to the
area of brain computer interface. Now, brain computer interface isn't quite ready yet it
still needs more innovation before it's ready to be used on a day-to-day basis. So some
of you may want to jump in and do some of that innovation on brain computer interface.
But if you don't want to start there, I just want to bring you back to the perspectives
you get from simple things. I want to bring us back to those rounded doorknobs because
I am still running into those damn doors with rounded doorknobs and heavy springs. So maybe
someone here can invent a door that would meet whatever building code it has to meet
and doesn't require one of those very expensive door openers and it is just easy to use. I'll
thank you, parents bearing children will thank you, people with wet hands will thank you,
people with arthritis will thank you. It goes on. So, I hope today I have been able to give
you a new perspective on how to get a new perspective and I actually gave you an idea,
that if you pursue it and who knows, an easy to open door might actually catch on. You
know you want more ideas but you know what you need now, right? A fresh perspective.
How do you do that? Hire someone with a disability. If you're not sure how to do that come and
see me. I work for the Neil Squire Society. I'll hook you up. There is plenty out there.
Thanks for listening.