[ Wind Blowing ] [ Music ] >> The following program may contain strong language and brief nudity, but don't get your hopes up. After all, this is Public Access TV [ Rooster Crowing ] This program was made possible from the support of VSA of Texas and Amerigroup. [ Music ] >> Rise up, Amerigroup. >> You're watching the Gene and Dave Show. >> Live from Austin, Texas. >> Well, I'm Gene. >> And I'm Dave. >> And we're the Gene and Dave Show. Dave, I'm excited today. Today we -- >> I am, too, Gene. We're actually in the capital. >> We're in the capital, and we're not under arrest this time. >> And we're interviewing Ron Lucey who's the Executive Director of the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities. Ron, welcome to the show. >> Ron Lucey: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here with the legendary Gene and Dave from Gene and Dave Show. >> And that's quite a title you've got, Ron. >> It really is. You put that on one business card or two? >> Ron Lucey: It's a wrap around. >> I see. Great. Ron, you're the Executive Director now of the Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities. This committee has been in existence since what? The 50's or so? >> Ron Lucey: Since the 1950's when Governor Shivers, Allan Shivers, officially enacted the committee. >> Okay, great. I've got to tell you. I haven't heard a lot about this committee. Can you tell us what the committee does? >> Ron Lucey: Yeah. The committee has several core functions, which are enacted in the human resources code, and we have -- when we talk about the committee, we're talking about both our committee members and our staff. The governor appoints 12 committee members. Seven of those must be people with disabilities. And then we also have our ex officio members, which represent the major state agencies that serves Texans with disabilities like the Health and Human Services Commission. It used to be DARS was on there, but now that they've merged with the Texas Workforce Commission, TWC and vocational rehabilitation. Some exciting news. This month we're adding the Texas Education Agency as an ex officio member. So we're very proud to have their contributions. We have the Department of Family and Protective Services, Department of Aging and Disability Services and also the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and DSHS. Our major work is to recommend -- to provide policy recommendations to the Texas legislature. Every even numbered year, we will develop a biannual policy report. We cover ten core issue areas, and we have a small staff, myself and four staff members, and we will do the research for the committee members. But we take direction from them on which way to go. Those policy issues areas were pretty broad. We have, for example, access which can include accessibility in the [inaudible] environment. And right now we're doing work on accessible parking study. We have communications, which can cover effective communications access for people who are deaf, making sure that captioning and American sign language is available. Also something that I know Mr. Dauber is very active in, and that's accessible information and communication technology, making sure that websites are accessible for people to use the system and technology. We also deal with education issues for both K through 12 education and higher education. And having TEA, our committee is an ex officio is going to help us be more effective. In fact, one of our committee members is a principal from the Rosedale Schools. And we also deal with emergency management, and this may not be a topic that you've heard a lot about, but my predecessor, Angie English, was very passionate about emergency management and helping both Texans with disabilities prepare for all kinds of emergencies, but also helping the emergency management community, both the state operations center and local emergency managers including the need of Texans with Disabilities and their emergency plans. And it's interesting as a state you go back over a decade and at that time, we had shelter plans to deal with evacuating families and their pets, but we didn't have shelter plans to deal with the accessibility or the access and functional needs of people with disability. So we've come a long way, and I really respect the work that my predecessors did on that. We also deal with housing issues and issues related to veterans and then finally workforce. Transportation -- a couple of years ago the committee did a substantial study on paratransit, and then of course work force, which includes employment to people with disabilities. You may have heard of some of our work programs. We have our national disability employment awareness month poster contest. We have, I think, the most fantastic art collection in the state of Texas of art that's created by Texans with disabilities, and we have a panel of esteemed judges that judge the art and winning artists with a disability gets to have their art placed on our poster that goes out statewide with the national slogan for national disability employment awareness month. This year's poster is by an artist who's deaf, and it's really a neat poster. I'll be sure to give both of you one of them. A girl with butterflies in her hair, and she's using the American sign language sign for butterflies. We have a Barbara Jordan Media Award, which I know the Gene and Dave Show will aspire to win some day. Keep trying, guys. >> I think we have to submit an application first. >> Ron Lucey: Or somebody would have to nominate you. There's been some tremendous journalists that have been recognized -- the Barbara Jordan Media Award. This year, Bob Phillips from Texas Country Reporter was one of them. Yolan [assumed spelling] Stevens from KT did a really good spot on the employment first task force, and people working in sheltered workshops for less than minimum wage. There was an excellent book by a parent of the child with a developmental disability called Meredith and Me, and her name is Sarah Barnes. She used to have a syndicated column in the Austin American Statesman. So the media awards were -- in recent years, we partnered with the Colleges of Journalism and Communications at different universities around the state. This past year, we were up at the University of Texas at Arlington, and that went really well. And then in October during national disability employment awareness month, we hold our annual Lex Frieden employment awards, and I'm sure both of you know Mr. Lex Frieden. Many people are cited as being involved in helping with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Lex Frieden was certainly one of them. He was at the White House signing ceremony and did a lot of background work and so the committee honored Mr. Lex Frieden by naming our annual employment awards after him. Have a lot of activities. We could go on and on, but I want to make sure that you get all your questions in. >> And I'm already tired of hearing about [inaudible]. >> Ron Lucey: Not what I do, it's what my hard working staff do and what our committee does. And so very proud. >> Oh see, we got it wrong. We thought you did all the work, and the committee took all the credit. >> Ron Lucey: Well, it's a team effort. I have to say one of our guiding principles of value that I've had throughout my career is to work with partners, and one of the examples is one that I know Mr. Dauber has contributed to that we -- on the governor's website, we have Microsoft Office accessibility training videos. And last time we updated those was in 2012, and it was a collaboration between 13 different state agencies. And these videos trained people on how to make common Microsoft Office documents and emails, Excel spreadsheets successful so that people with disabilities that use assistive technology have equal access to that information. Those videos have been so tremendously popular, they've been accessed all over the country and all over the world. >> Whoa. >> Ron Lucey: Now this same collaboration of agencies led by our friends at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is updating those videos for versions of Office 2013 and 2016. And I've always held the belief that the taxpayer shouldn't have to pay for the same good idea more than once. And so if one state agency is working on something that could benefit the people they serve and their employees, why not share in that effort and share those resources and collaborate between agencies? So that's kind of another unique focus of the governor's committee is we look across the state, and we see what's going on, and we try to bring people together to collaborate, solve problems across those silos. Make sure we learn from each other too with those best practices. >> Would you ever address the legislature and say we think this particular bill is very important? If there was a particular bill that -- >> Ron Lucey: That's an interesting question. As a state employee, I may be called on to serve as a resource witness to the Texas legislature. For example, in the last session, they passed a bill that passed the governor's committee on people with disabilities to study the issue of -- [inaudible] handicap parking. We like to call it accessible parking. And at the end of October, we have to turn in a report to the Texas legislature on our findings. And so I -- as a state employee -- cannot testify in favor or against any legislation. But I can certainly come before the legislature and answer their questions and provide them with factual information to help them make decisions. Now, just as any citizen can do, I can take vacation time, and if there's something I'm passionate about, I can take off my executive director badge and come up here and testify just as you can. But I think I'll have my hands full during the session just answering questions on policy recommendations. Our policy recommendations are developed by our committee members, and the staff do the background research to try to bring them the best information to help shape those policies. I think there's a lot of opportunities with the legislature, but I have another guiding principle that I brought to my leadership at the governor's committee. I believe that Texas with Disabilities can hope for legislative solutions, but they can work often for administrative solutions. And what I mean by that is a lot of times there's enough laws on the books to already accomplish many of the things that we want to do, and a lot of the state agencies already have the statutory authority to accomplish great things for the people of Texas, and so it's working with those agencies with that agency leadership to say there's something that you can do differently or do more of or adjust your approach, make things more accessible. And those are the sort of opportunities that I get excited about because as you know in the state of Texas, the legislature only meets every two years. But state agencies function 365 days a year, and I view that as an endless opportunity to make positive change for Texans with disabilities. >> So do you have an example or story of where that's worked? >> Ron Lucey: Absolutely. We have fantastic partners, and one of the unsung heroes this year is the Department of Public Safety. And you don't often think of a law enforcement agency as being an agency that does great things for Texans with disabilities, but they've demonstrated a lot of leadership this year. One area that they demonstrate leadership on is with the Texas Division of Emergency Management. They formulated a Texas disability task force on emergency management, and I was the first chair of that task force. And that's the group that has developed some tools for emergency managers to help better meet the emergency preparedness response and recovery needs of Texans with disabilities and so we're working with them to update some of those tools. Another thing that they did and once again, they looked at their statutory authority and said we don't need a bill to be passed to do this. We're just going to do this because it's the right thing. They partnered with a great nonprofit organization called Asperger's 101, and with the governor's committee on a driving with autism initiative. And as you know, autism is a spectrum. You have people with varying levels of ability and many individuals with autism are high functioning, can get a driver's license. But they may have an impediment to communicating effectively with a law enforcement officer if they get pulled over. So this driving with autism initiative is an initiative with DPS where we've been able to get them to allow an individual to put a code on their driver's license, their Texas driver's license that indicates that that driver has a communication impediment with police officer, and it's entirely voluntary. And so to paint a scenario for you, if a state trooper is driving down the highway, and they see a car that's having some problems and they get ready to pull that person over, often they'll interrogate the license plate with their onboard computer system called [inaudible]. And the code that indicates that this is a driver that has autism or communication impediment can pop up. And that will allow them to kick in their training. If we just stopped with that, that wouldn't be enough. But working with DPS, we -- and with Asperger's 101 who did much of the heavy lifting through Ms. Jennifer Allen, who's a Mom who has a teenage son with autism. They've developed some fantastic training resources for police officers, and I'll give you an example. Often in heated situations will resort to idioms for communication like why were you flying down the road or where's the fire? Well, a person with autism may not understand those idioms and say, "Well, officer. I don't know where the fire is." Or "I wasn't flying. I was driving." And you can imagine that things could get off on the wrong foot. >> Sure. >> Ron Lucey: And so by training law enforcement officers on interacting with people with autism, letting them know in advance before they pull somebody over that this is a driver that may have autism, those are a couple of things we can do to avoid those misunderstandings. And if that was all that DPS was doing, that would be pretty amazing, but they took it even further. Up in Florence, Texas, we have a tactical training center, and this is where DPS troopers learn how to do their driving when they're doing pursuit driving or evasive driving and it's a pretty amazing tactical center, and they've turned that tactical center over for a day of driver training for drivers with autism. They're doing a -- kind of a one day trial of it this fall, and going to work out the kinks on it and then hold it a couple times a year where they invite young drivers with autism from around the state to learn how to feel more safe and secure in their skills and how to interact with law enforcement officers. And each one of the drivers will have a one-on-one DPS trooper coaching them during that day of driving camp. So this is something that the legislature didn't say you guys have to do this, this is something where there in the leadership they saw a problem. They saw a challenge, and they said we can help with this. And I see aimless opportunities for that sort of innovation and people of good will wanting to make the lives of Texans with disabilities better. >> That's great. And that's a great example of the other agencies around this state. >> Ron Lucey: Absolutely. >> I hope they do follow that example. Now, Ron, you mentioned this accessible parking survey. Can you speak a little bit about that? >> Ron Lucey: Yes, I can. This was an issue that was brought to the Texas legislature by a Mom who has a daughter with a developmental disability, an adult child. And she has encountered numerous parking challenges in her day to day life. And the one that most often occurs is when she's trying to find van accessible parking, especially in hospitals and medical clinics where the kind of people who go to hospitals are people that are more likely to need accessible parking. >> Right. >> Ron Lucey: They'll -- her daughter cannot be left alone so unloading at the curb is not a good option, and so when she comes to park in the van accessible parking spots already full, she has to circle or schedule a different appointment or other options they've had is getting a second wheelchair that folds up to go into a sedan, hire an attendant, go to extraordinary lengths. >> And the ADA has a certain number of -- did they say like how many parking spots you should have or a parking lot? Like five percent or whatever [inaudible]. >> Ron Lucey: It's one in 25. >> It's one and 25. When you're in a hospital setting, you've got 50 parking spots so that means you've got two wheelchair spots. >> Ron Lucey: Yeah. >> Or two accessible. >> Ron Lucey: So -- >> Clearly would not be enough in the hospital setting where you've got 20 or 30 patients a day coming in that need those handicap parking spots. >> Ron Lucey: We're looking at some innovative solutions for how to address this. In addition to looking at our existing lots here in the state, we're also looking at the laws of all 50 states around the country, and some of them have come up with some pretty unique ideas for addressing it. This week and next week, we're conducting an accessible parking survey on our governor's committee survey monkey site, and we've sent out the survey to independent living centers, vocational rehabilitation offices, local mayor's committees, community rehabilitation providers, everybody we know and can think of, ADA coordinators. And we're hoping the Gene and Dave Show will also share this with the audience. Now if you ask me to recite the URL of the survey, I'm not going to be able to do that so we may have to have that in post production. >> It's on the bottom of the screen, folks. >> Ron Lucey: Perfect. Right here. >> Right there. Popped up. >> Ron Lucey: Magic of editing. But I'm excited about this survey because it's -- it's looking at some challenging issues. We're talking to veterans about their concerns. We also held a public hearing earlier this summer at our August quarterly meeting and had a really good turnout of a lot of parking advocates, and so we're getting input in that way as well. And then when we do go to the legislature with our recommendations, we can anticipate that they'll want to know what the business community thinks. And so we're working on a second survey that's going to go out either Friday afternoon or Monday to talk to business owners that own parking lots and strip malls and that sort of thing about their issues and concerns. We can provide a balance report. But already we're seeing some low hanging fruit, some easy solutions. One of the things we learned from the state of Kansas is that their Bureau of Vital Statistics is talking to the Department of Motor Vehicles and sharing information to make sure that dead people don't apply for parking plackards. >> Very important. >> Ron Lucey: They have a remarkable number of dead people that were getting disabled parking hang tags or license plates and by sharing data on death certificates, it really cuts down on the dead getting accessible parking. We found out from our friends at Travis County Precinct 5 that it's -- there are people selling parking plackards on Craig's list for about $160 to $180 depending on the expiration date. We also found out that that's not illegal. [ Music ] >> Okay, so tell me again about the plackards? >> What do you want to know? >> Plackards are legal to sell, right? >> Well, it's legal, but it ain't 100 percent legal. I mean, you can't just roam in some parking spot, jump out of your ride. I mean, they want you to have a real disability to use the actual spot. >> And those come from the doctor? >> Yeah. It breaks down like this, okay? It's legal to buy. It's legal to own it. And if you're the proprietor of a plackard, it's legal to sell it. But it's illegal for the guy that bought it from you to use it for parking in a disabled spot. But if you sold it, that doesn't matter because get a load of this. The guy that bought it from you gets busted. Oh man. I'm selling mine. That's all there is to it. I'm selling. >> I know baby, you dig it the most. >> Ron Lucey: But I've held the belief that if you have four people in a room that are reasonable and all four of them agree that there ought to be a law against that, it's likely that the legislature is going to agree as well. So that's another example of low hanging fruit. We've seen some model education programs, parking campaigns that educate the public. In the state of Colorado, we found that they were able to reduce parking violations of people that were illegally parked in accessible parking to a simple sign. The sign said think of me and keep it free, and it had a picture of kind of a grandmotherly looking woman who used one of those walkers that has the hand brakes and can sit down in. And something about seeing somebody to remind you of your own grandmother that makes you want to do the right thing. And they've tried a lot of other campaigns, but that one actually hit a bull's eye. Anytime you can solve 50 percent of a problem with a sign, there's not too many things you can sell 50 percent of with a sign, but I thought that was pretty impressive. >> That is impressive. But I tell you, Dave and I both have accessible vans, and I think we both seen abuse in the use of accessible parking. But I'm thinking one way we can cut down on this is the application form. I'm thinking why not just make it available to people with mobility impairments? Right now, anyone with any sort of disability can get a handicap parking plackard. >> Ron Lucey: That's not entirely true, but it is an extensive list. For example, people who are legally blind can get an accessible parking permit because crossing the vast expanse of an open parking lot with a white cane can be challenging. However, people who are deaf unless they have a secondary disability are not automatically eligible for an accessible parking hang tag. What we are seeing is there's people that have vans are saying van accessible spot should be only available to people that have a van. And that's possibly a good recommendation. But with small businesses, if you're a small doctor's office or dentist office or clinic, you may only have one accessible parking spot. And if it's a van accessible parking spot and somebody comes up who has osteoarthritis or a heart condition where they can't walk very far or have limited mobility but don't use a van, they use a sedan, then should we tell them they can't park there? That's going to be one of the most challenging issues to address. Likewise, we see with DV plates, disabled veterans can get a DV plate, and they may have a disability like post-traumatic stress disorder, which may not impinge on their ability to park and so there may be some opportunities to tighten up on that. We also see that the length of time that you can get a temporary disability plackard seems to be often longer than the healing process for a typical broken leg or that sort of thing. Remarkably, we found that there's -- I think the number was five million parking plackards and license plates out there in the state of Texas. It's on par with the number of people with disabilities in the state, but when you talk about the number of people with disabilities, we're talking people with intellectual disabilities, autism, deafness, blind -- all disabilities. And as you correctly stated, not all disabilities need accessible parking. So that number is so large because it includes people that have a temporary need for that parking. And I think doctors who are in the business of not only providing healthcare but pleasing their patients may often be quick to hand those out. >> Yes, yes. >> Ron Lucey: If we had time to do a third study, we might survey doctors. But I'm not sure that we -- what kind of information we could get out of them because I think they're going to do what they're going to do or what they think is in the best interest of their patient. They're advocating for the interest of their patients. They're not advocating for what's in the necessarily best interest of the state at large. >> Right. >> Ron Lucey: That's the kind of doctor I'd want to have frankly, but does have issues around who to help. >> It's definitely a hard subject to take on because it's big, and it's in every town and city all over the country. Every city has their population, but it's great that you're allowing -- you got this survey out there that's on the web, which is also accessible for people. I checked it out today, and I completed the survey myself. >> Ron Lucey: Thank you. >> So it's great to go out there and be able to get people's opinions and a lot of times people will complain and complain about this and that. And now you're giving them a voice, a place to put your check and your ideas. I notice there was also a lot of places to -- well, there's a lot of checkmarks and different values that you can put on things, a lot of radio buttons. You pick this, pick that. But you also have areas for comment. So that if people want to describe something or explain something or give their ideas to the committee that those can be taken down as well. >> Ron Lucey: They can even send us an email and text pictures if they want. Our email address is GCPD@gov.Texas.gov and so beyond just taking a survey, they can give us a call and send us an email and share even more information if they want. So one other issue that we're studying is parking near capitol. >> Excuse me, Ron. Before we go onto that, some people may not understand this, but if you have a relative who has a disability and they get a plackard, that doesn't mean you can leave that person at home and go run your errands with that plackard and park in accessible parking spots. It's not for that. It's only when you're transporting that family member. >> Ron Lucey: That's absolutely correct. >> And I think a lot -- in survey you mentioned is education -- is more education needed, which I agree, it probably is for people that are getting their driver's license or an education for people that have a plackard or a plate. Educate people that maybe you should yield to the place that's marked van accessible. If -- yeah, that's the last accessible parking spot, take it. But if not, please allow someone that uses a van that needs that extra space out to the side to park there first. >> Ron Lucey: One other aspect of my career, part of my leadership style is systems thinking. And I like to look at problems from a systemic standpoint from end to end and see where are those natural gates where you can most effectively address a problem, and a lot of problems are in multiple areas where you can impact it. One of the education target areas we're looking at is the Texas Driver's Handbook for young drivers who are getting their license for the first time. If we can educate them on accessible parking, hopefully we can influence them for a lifetime about the importance of keeping that spot open. So we -- all those types of suggestions are going to be in our report, and we're hoping that the legislature will pick and choose the ones that they think will best address the problem. And the ones that can be addressed administratively without a change in law, I think those are going to be easy ones to implement in the state of Texas. >> Yeah. Dave and I take this issue very seriously, and I've got some training through the constable's office so I can write tickets for folks that are illegally parked. >> Ron Lucey: Here at the capitol, we had a meeting last week with the Texas Facilities Commission, the Department of Public Safety and the State Preservation Board to study parking here at the capitol, which is the people's building. This is very important that any citizen who wants to come to testify here at the capitol be able to do so and have access to parking to do so. And we know that it's us who -- an important building to remain secure, it's got an extensive security perimeter around it. So parking is a little bit farther away often. But we're looking at innovative ways of addressing that including looking at a completely accessible drop off area or valet area where it has good overhead cover to protect you from the weather and the sun and the rain, has good curb cuts and good flat surface, good accessible path of travel to the accessible side of the capitol, and that could be just one thing that we add to the capitol grounds because we know there's never going to be completely enough parking here. But we're also looking at policies with human resources departments where we can encourage employees to park in assigned parking garages and leave the metered spots for people with disabilities or visitors or guests. Often we're seeing that employees are parking out on the curb or the street. When citizens want to come to the capitol, there's nothing left for them. So that's something we think might be able to be addressed by human resources policy change and not necessarily require change in state law. Once again, looking at the innovative and most effective ways to address those issues. >> You certainly got your work cut out for you, and I was looking at your committee members, Aaron Bangor. Everybody in the state knows Aaron. >> Ron Lucey: Aaron is great. We're so lucky to have him as our chair. Fantastic leadership, a brilliant mind. Works at a fantastic employer, AT&T, who is -- both gets it in terms of employing people with disabilities and gets it in terms of accessibility. >> Ca-ching. >> Ron Lucey: But we really appreciate having Aaron as our chair. We have some good diversity in our committee right now, and that's really what it takes. When you think about disabilities, although the Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities is the only state agency that looks at disability issues from across disability standpoint and looks at both state and federal laws, we understand that disability is not a model that [inaudible] condition or group. It's a very diverse group. You've got disabilities that happen at different ages. You have sensory disabilities and physical disabilities. And in fact, the biggest group of people with disabilities or people that don't even regard themselves has having a disability. I remember on the tenth anniversary of the ADA, the American Association of people with Disabilities asked me to go talk to different community groups, and I went to an adult Sunday school class at a church here in Austin, and there were lots of scooters, lots of canes, lots of walkers, lots of hearing aids, lots of very thick glasses. But not a single person with a disability in the room. And what I mean by that is they explained to me that they appreciated the information I had to share and that they just had a few challenges to work around, but I think there's a lot of people in the population that benefit from accessibility and don't always understand that when we're talking about accessibility for Texans with disabilities, we're talking about them. We're talking about their family members. So that's probably one of the biggest minority groups in the nation in terms of consider its impact on individuals and then on family. Easily, one in three families has a person with a disability in it. >> If that disability is severe, it could mean a change in housing. Maybe even change in location, where you live. So we're glad to have you at the helm, Ron. >> Ron Lucey: Thank you. >> Your work at the mayor's committee is well known so very much appreciated here. >> Ron Lucey: I think that was the best bootcamp training I could get for a job like this. I view ultimately all disability and accessibility issues are local issues because we all live in towns, villages, communities, cities and when we think of issues that are not state of Texas capitol issues that need to be solved, a lot of them are issues that can be solved locally. And that's the other opportunity we see. We work with a network of 44 mayor's committees and county committees, and not all of the problems can be solved by the Texas legislature, nor should they. A lot of advocates need to work with their city council and their county commissioners or county judges to make sure that ordinances are being passed locally. I remember a lot of great work from the mayor's committee including the visitability ordinance that passed a few years ago that requires that all construction of new single family homes in Austin have five basic accessibility tenets. And as we see those sort of laws getting passed in Austin, there's no reason why that can't happen in Lubbock or Fort Worth, Plano. So our goal is to in the coming years strengthen that network of mayor's committees and learn from each other and make sure that the advocates have the information they need to affect change in their own community. >> Having said that, when should people -- when should people contact the governor's committee? At what point in their -- >> When they're struggling with the law or something like that, and they want some action or they want -- they need something to happen. They just want to bring it up to somebody. When should they go to their local? When should they go to governor's committee? And then after that, tell us how to get in contact with that committee. >> Ron Lucey: Well, based on how often our phone rings and our inbox fills up, it appears that they're contacting us every day. Information and referral is large component is what we do. We have an accessibility disability rights coordinator, Ms. Randy Turner. And she does a lot of research on what I've referred to as a lot of the very challenging issues. We often get people when they've been entirely at the end of their rope. They've already worked locally either with their local school district on special education issues or on an accessibility barrier in their neighborhood, in their city or town. And they're not making progress. And if they contact us, we'll put them in touch with other state level resources, disability rights Texas Texas. The people that handle the complaints is the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. We can also get them in contact with federal resources with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. But we also track these calls and emails that we get because those contacts from the public tell a story. They help us guide and inform the committee on policy issues that [inaudible]. So in aggregate, all of those calls help us better guide the state of Texas and in terms of information and referral, we do a pretty good job of helping them troubleshoot. I often try to tell my staff there's not enough of us to provide case management because we feel very emotionally involved with the people that call our office. We want to try to fix it for them, and we've certainly taken it further then what we would reasonably expect. One of my employees was saying, "I want to go help this woman. She can't drive for the next three months, and I want to help go get her vehicle registered and inspected." And so I'm very proud of my staff. They're very caring, very committed to the job that they do providing information and referral helping the people of Texas. I always believe in starting local, but often people just don't know where to go. We keep a database of 88 coordinators for cities and counties and also universities. Not every city or county's ADA coordinator if you type in that word in Google, you're not necessarily going to find one. And so we've done the hard work and heavy lifting of trying to identify those individuals so we can [inaudible]. >> So we can we find that on your website? >> Ron Lucey: Not everything's on our website. Our website's a work in progress. But we do have a key laws and resources page on our website, and I'll encourage people to check that out. The key laws and resources are grouped by our topic like emergency preparedness, housing, access, ADA. We also have a list of state laws. And no, we [inaudible], but that's a good idea. And that's something we can work towards. >> Okay. >> And how's your support from up above, from the governor? You know he's got a disability. >> Ron Lucey: I've noticed that. My first encounter with Governor Greg Abbott was when he was supreme court justice, Greg Abbott. And it was on the tenth anniversary of the ADA, and we were doing a torch relay. This was the ADA torch that was lit at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta and making its way across the country. And we wanted to light the Austin torch on the grounds of the capitol. And at the time, the Capitol Preservation Board didn't want open flames on capitol grounds and so I remember calling supreme court Judge Greg Abbott and asking if we could have the torch lighting ceremony on the grounds of the supreme court, which was exactly 12 inches away from the capitol grounds. And he was very gracious and said absolutely yes. I'm fortunate in that my direct supervisor is the Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Robert Allen. And he's got a direct line to Governor Abbott. And we have a fantastic working relationship. There -- the Governor's executive team is very committed to serving Texans with disabilities. In fact, this month the entire executive leadership team is participating in something called Archer's Challenge. I don't know if you've heard about that. Archer Hadley is one of our committee members. >> Oh yes. >> Ron Lucey: Young man with cerebral palsy who's on the board of Easter Seals, also an eagle scout, which I appreciate since my kids and I are into boy scouts. But Archer has challenged Governor Abbott's staff to participate in the Archer's Challenge to spend a day in a wheelchair, which will help them understand how important access is. >> They accepted that challenge? >> Ron Lucey: Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Wow. >> Ron Lucey: On October 12, you'll see many, many members of the executive staff all participating in the Archer's Challenge. I'm not sure where they're getting all the wheelchairs from, but it's -- I'm really impressed. >> I'll keep an eye on mine. I don't want it to go missng. >> Ron Lucey: October 12 is a busy day. It's also the day we're observing White Cane day on the campus of School for the Blind. Our staff have been invited to give a national disability employment awareness proclamation and participate in some awards recognition in Bastrop for a group of veterans who work at the Federal Department of Corrections in Bastrop. I was really impressed. 25 percent of their employees are employees with disabilities. >> Fantastic. >> Ron Lucey: And we expect the tempo of activity in October to remain that busy every day in October. As you know, it's National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Texas Disability History Awareness month. Disability Mentoring Day, White Cane Day. >> Of course, we knew that, didn't we, Dave? >> That's right. You're on the Gene and Dave Show. >> Ron Lucey: Good luck finding a parking spot on October 12. >> Yeah, right. Right. Well, Ron, Dave and I were discussing another possible law. I mean, since your office serves the disabled, how about free beer for people with disabilities Saturday maybe? I don't know. >> Ron Lucey: As you know -- >> We're flexible on that. >> Ron Lucey: In my official role as a state employee, I cannot advocate in favor or against any law. But I could provide resource testimony if you want to divide the first round and I were able to sample it and see what this free beer tasted like. So that would be a pleasure for me to participate and that would be [inaudible] some time to enjoy a glass of beer. Austin is famous for lots of artisan handcrafted beers and so -- I don't know that that's the solution the legislature needs to get involved in, but -- >> So bartenders, listen up. And people with disabilities, this is how you start a law. You start a conversation. You do testing on it. And -- >> Ron Lucey: And I'll have to participate in that test with you after 5:30. >> Very well. All right. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Let our audience know? >> Ron Lucey: Well, I just want to say how much I appreciate the legendary Gene and Dave Show. Y'all have been at this for a while and consistently doing a great job. And you bring a lot of fun to the topic of disability inclusion. Pretty excited to hear that you now have an international audience so that's impressive. Keep up the good work. >> Thank you, and thanks for your support. We really appreciate you telling us all about the governor's committee for people with disabilities and all the work that you're doing. You've got a lot on your plate, and as a person with a disability, I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. >> Ron Lucey: Thank you. >> Same here. >> All right. Thank you, Ron. We'll get you next time on the Gene and Dave Show. >> Bye now. >> Bye. >> Good deal. >> Well, if you've learned anything from the Gene and Dave Show, you learned that you don't say anything bad about the governor. [ Music ]