Here, Dr. Kirk Adams recounts attending CES 2026 as a strategic advisor and small shareholder in Innosearch.ai, which exhibited in Eureka Park, an area he describes as vibrant and community-like for accessibility and disability-inclusion innovators. Surrounded by companies building assistive and universally designed tech, he feels both energized and affirmed, arguing that disability inclusion isn’t charity but a market-expanding driver of better design.
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Here, Dr. Kirk Adams announces that Innovative Impact, LLC has joined the Good Business Network of Washington and frames the decision as a practical commitment to making inclusion a measurable, local economic advantage, not a compliance exercise. He ties the network’s mission of helping people buy, produce, and invest locally to his central thesis that inclusion is a strategic advantage, arguing that the same ingredient powers both: strong relationships across businesses, municipalities, community organizations, and residents.
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Practical Strategies for Workplace Inclusion and Leadership
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Here, Dr. Kirk Adams steps into his new role as Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion (ISDI) and names what he’s hearing, loudly and consistently, from the people doing DEI and belonging work right now: they’re committed, they’re still showing up, and they are exhausted. Drawing from an ISDI survey shaping the 2026 Northwest Diversity Learning Series (and a scan of practitioner discussion spaces), he surfaces a clear set of needs: real encouragement (not platitudes), calm and current legal guidance, evidence-based practices that actually work, sustainable ways to do the work without sacrificing health, and strategies people can act on immediately.
Continue readingA Harbor in Stormy Waters: Listening, Learning, and Building What Comes Next at ISDI
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Here, Dr. Kirk Adams invites readers to join Birdability’s Blind Birder Bird-a-Thon (May 3-4, 2026) and shares how a simple walk through Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood, punctuated by the unmistakable call of his favorite red-winged blackbird, captures what Birdability is building: a birding community where belonging is not reserved for those who see, but extended to everyone who listens. Drawing on his lifelong practice of “seeing with the ears,” he frames birding by ear as more than a technique; it is a pathway to confidence, spatial awareness, and agency that follows blind birders beyond the trail and into daily life.
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Here, Dr. Kirk Adams highlights Touro Law’s “3rd Annual Disability Rights & Inclusion Conference,” a hybrid convening taking place March 12-13, 2026 at Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Central Islip, New York, and online via Zoom, offering up to 13.5 CLE credits (including ethics/professionalism). The conference is organized by Professor Samuel J. Levine, a Touro Law professor and the Director of Touro Law’s Jewish Law Institute, whose background spans legal practice, scholarship, and leadership in professional ethics, helping explain why this event reaches beyond narrow doctrine into the real-world systems where disability rights are won or quietly lost.
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Here, Dr. Kirk Adams invites readers to join him at World Trade Center Seattle’s “Can We Talk: Don’t Leave $18T on the Table!” on January 22, 2026, and uses the event as a launch point to argue that disability, neurodivergence, and aging are not niche issues but the world’s largest overlooked economic opportunity, an ecosystem tied to an estimated $18 trillion in purchasing power that investors and business leaders routinely undervalue. He frames accessibility as strategy, not charity or compliance, emphasizing that the real cost isn’t inclusive design; it’s exclusion, lost customers, lost talent, and missed innovation, especially as nearly everyone will experience disability at some point in life.
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The Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion (ISDI) announces two major leadership additions: Dr. Kirk Adams has joined as Executive Director, and Dr. Joseph Marth has joined the Board. Framing these appointments as the “spark” for what comes next, ISDI positions this moment as the start of a larger push to protect and expand justice, access, and opportunity across sectors.
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In this deeply moving episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams speaks with Sheldon Guy, Director of Women’s Athletics with Improve Her Game and, by his account, one of the only blind basketball coaches, about the sudden, life-altering loss of his vision and the raw, real-time process of rebuilding a life. Sheldon recounts how quickly his world shifted, the heartbreak of what that meant for his son, and the moment he reached a breaking point, only to find a reason to keep going through messages of love and belief from his son and the players he coached. From there, he made a conscious decision to “pivot,” return to the gym, and keep his commitments, launching a story of resilience that later drew major media attention and led to documentary coverage of his journey.
Leave a CommentIn this insightful episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with Alyssa Dver, Founder and CEO of the ERG Leadership Alliance, to explore how employee resource groups (ERGs) can drive both inclusion and business performance. Alyssa breaks down what ERGs are, why they’re different from social clubs, and how volunteer leaders navigate the paradox of doing “extra” work that still has to align with business goals. She and Dr. Adams discuss the current backlash against DEI, the recent U.S. executive order that both constrains and reinforces the importance of inclusive ERGs, and why organizations that were already committed to DEI are now doubling down on ERGs as engines of belonging, innovation, and retention. Throughout the conversation, they connect ERGs directly to disability inclusion, emphasizing that disability crosses all demographics and that every ERG can and should be disability-ready.
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