Accessibility in Space with Anna Voelker

James Berges 00:00 
What do astrophysics, Shakespeare, and autism have in common? And how could having a disability give you an advantage as an astronaut? You'll find out in today's episode of Exceptional Leaders, where Mai Ling interviews Anna Voelker, founder of Astro Access, a program dedicated to breaking the barriers of space exploration. 

Anna Voelker 00:22 
You know, where we are in time right now, we have this whole phase of commercial space really opening the aperture for who gets to go. And we've started seeing a wider diversity of folks with, you know, with different ages, you know, more diversity in terms of gender, etc. 

Anna Voelker 00:39 
Being able to access space. 

Mai Ling Chan 00:43 
Welcome to the Exceptional Leaders Podcast. I'm Mai Ling Chan, and together with James Berges, we're getting you top tips and resources for building and scaling your disability -focused offerings straight from the forefront of disability advocacy and leadership. 

Mai Ling Chan 01:00 
Yeah, so imagine people with disabilities all over the world accessing zero gravity, James. 

James Berges 01:05 
That's incredible. Well, I want to do zero gravity, but it seems like I would get motion sickness. 

Mai Ling Chan 01:11 
Yeah, that is true. And what you might not know is that actually having a disability can give you an advantage now. For example, deaf people don't get motion sickness. It's not new knowledge, though. 

Mai Ling Chan 01:20 
Back in the 60s, NASA found this out. But up until this point, space exploration hasn't been open to people with disabilities. But Anna explores how we can make space the final frontier more accessible. 

Mai Ling Chan 01:32 
See what I did there? 

James Berges 01:34 
That's amazing. I wanna learn more. I think she mentions a lot of different disabilities and how they have advantages in space, which you'll learn in this episode. And how did you find Anna? 

Mai Ling Chan 01:44 
Yeah, she was great. I had so many great questions for her, and this was thanks to Zach Damon. He's our first guest of this year, actually, episode number 149, Building Bridges through broadcast media, and he is doing things along with her in this organization, and I was like, I have to meet her, and we have to have her as a guest, so he helped me out. 

James Berges 02:03 
Yeah, so inspiring to see her journey from like theater and Shakespeare to science education. And she talks about, you know, all this has in common is whether you're designing opportunities for space or the classroom, you know, way out there or down here on earth, you'll want to learn about how any educational opportunity starts with universal design, meaning, you know, how can we design tools, but not just tools and products, but also our curriculums, our classrooms, our environments to be intentionally accessible to all minds, all types of learners from the onset rather than, you know, sometimes we slap on an accessibility sticker as an afterthought and it's like the thing is already half baked and then, oh, how can we pro, how can we after the fact make it more accessible, but it's not really accessible without universal design. 

James Berges 02:54 
So, yeah, what else is going on with you, Mai Lng? 

Mai Ling Chan 02:57 
Okay, well, I'm going to first say that I do have permission to share the story. I'm not doing any type of HIPAA violations here, but my husband was recently diagnosed with vocal fold hemorrhage. And the cause is most likely because he really talks all day nonstop between work calls and then obviously family and friends calls, but he also uses voice texting incessantly because he really doesn't like that the haptic feedback and touching the screen. 

Mai Ling Chan 03:26 
So he voice texts everything. And so now, you know, he is on vocal rest for five days, total vocal rest, which is not talking, not coughing, not clearing your voice, not doing anything that will push air through the vocal folds. 

Mai Ling Chan 03:39 
And it's really changing our life. 

James Berges 03:43 
Yeah, and I wanted to say, you mentioned before we started recording, that it's your 15th anniversary? Is that right? 

Mai Ling Chan 03:49 
Yes, yes today. 

James Berges 03:51 
Happy today a happy anniversary then. So hopefully you're saying that uh, if you're both I know you're extroverted I don't know cam your husband that much but I'm imagining as an SLP Related couple that you talk a lot. 

James Berges 04:05 
So I imagine having a vocal cord hemorrhage could affect that dynamic So hopefully not negatively 

Mai Ling Chan 04:13 
I know, and I'll tell you this a little personal, is that he cannot even whisper sweet nothings because you can't whisper, believe it or not. I know that that sounds weird because you're not actually phonating when you speak, but even blowing that air through to communicate that way is negatively affecting the healing. 

James Berges 04:28 
Yeah, wow. I didn't realize that, that whispering was part of it too. So really, it's just nothing, nothings. There's nothing there. He can text me. 

Mai Ling Chan 04:39 
He can text me. No, thanks. 

James Berges 04:41 
There you go, maybe his writing of his texting game will get better by force. And that's sort of the thing with like these temporary disabilities, you know, these acquired things that can happen to anyone at any time and they affect not just you but your relationships and you find ways to adapt. 

Mai Ling Chan 04:58 
Yeah, and he's still trying to work and so all of his co -workers they know and so they had their morning meeting and he's in the chat section and then if they want to talk with him, they are leaving him voice memos and then he is texting them back. 

Mai Ling Chan 05:09 
It's really interesting. 

James Berges 05:12 
Well, my mom does all the voice messages too. I don't know if that's just like a generational thing, but I've been living in, I think it's a cultural thing too. What did you just say, 

Mai Ling Chan 05:21 
James I just wait a second I just understood what you said that your mom does voice texting and that it's generational so are you trying to age me on the show I think that's what I'm trying to do to her yeah no listener I know you're on my side and you caught that 

James Berges 05:36 
I tried to slip it in really quick. It just doesn't – I'm not being a just – I'm just noticing as an anthropologist that there's differences. But Mai Ling, hey, cultural too. I mean, I'm in Argentina right now for the last week here and everyone sends voice messages through WhatsApp and actually I've learned to love it so much that when I come back to the US, I think I'm going to do more voice messages because it's like more intimate. 

James Berges 06:00 
You know, there's so much emotional weight that's held in the voice that you don't get through text even with the variety of emojis we have today. 

Mai Ling Chan 06:09 
Okay, but I have to say I also read an article saying that you are held hostage by the person who is voice texting you because they go on and on and on and there's like a soliloquy and you're like, get to the effing point. 

Mai Ling Chan 06:19 
So I don't know about that. Maybe it's different in America. 

James Berges 06:23 
Yeah, yeah, that can happen depending on the person and the relationship. But there's always a way around it. There's an AI powered WhatsApp extension. I'm forgetting what it's called now. They all add it to the show note. 

James Berges 06:35 
But it's actually great for multilingualism and for these long voice messages when you don't have time or you're in public and you can't listen to the whole thing, you can just forward it to this app and it will transcribe it for you. 

James Berges 06:47 
And then from there, I can just read it in my preferred silence. 

Mai Ling Chan 06:53 
That's it. That's what we need. Okay. 

James Berges 06:54 
Yeah. Anyways, so we all have our different preferences but I just want to say too, like, you know, these things force you to adapt in the moment. Not as big of a deal but I really pulled my back yesterday at the gym and I'm realizing my preferred way of getting around is just like walking everywhere and even just that like little less mobility for a few days, it's not a huge deal but it really affects your mental health when the way either you communicate or the way you mobilize and move, you know, you have to adapt. 

James Berges 07:26 
So yeah, all that to say is we'll find ways around it and hopefully with universal design, the world will become just more aware and more accessible and it doesn't take these moments for us able -bodied people to realize that hopefully. 

Mai Ling Chan 07:41 
Exactly. Beautifully said. 

James Berges 07:44 
Happy anniversary, man. Yeah, I hope all goes well and you find your voices either through text or through actual voice. And speaking of, we want to hear your voice, dear listener. So you there on the other side of this. 

James Berges 07:59 
Please, if you get any value from these interviews and these episodes, which I know you do, please share this episode with one person who might find it valuable so we can shine a light on these amazing exceptional leaders making a difference in our communities. 

James Berges 08:12 
And with that, let's get to the interview with Anna Voelker. 

Mai Ling Chan 08:20 
Okay, well, I am so excited to have our guest today because it is literally going to be out of this world. Today we have Anna Volker and they are the founder and executive director of the PSI Access Inc, which is an international nonprofit dedicated to advancing disability inclusion, literally out of this world. 

Mai Ling Chan 08:37 
Welcome, Anna. Thank you so much for having me. So excited to be here. Well, before we get started, I want to thank Zach Damon. He was a recent guest on the show, and he mentioned his work with you and also helped us to get connected with you when I was just so excited. 

Mai Ling Chan 08:51 
And that's what the show is all about. And so for our listeners, if you have other great guests who you feel would be perfect for the show, please let us know because that's how we get people like Anna on. 

Mai Ling Chan 09:00 
Okay, so let's get to this. And how did you get involved in this specific space of accessibility in science? 

Anna Voelker 09:10 
Yeah, great question. So I actually started out as a student at Ohio State University studying astronomy and astrophysics. And I've always loved space my whole life, but I've also always really been interested in outreach and the communication side. 

Anna Voelker 09:26 
And I started realizing that all of my science classes and the science outreach efforts were really inaccessible. And at the same time, I started taking a theater class at Ohio State called Shakespeare and Autism. 

Anna Voelker 09:38 
And this was basically a way to bring acting and imaginative play to local students on the autism spectrum. And I just fell in love with the way this program was reaching people and allowing students to open up, step outside their comfort zone, and sort of using art as a way to help folks communicate and practice different communication skills. 

Anna Voelker 10:02 
And I sort of realized I would love to sort of bring that focus into my space world. And I felt like there was this big divide. And so that's kind of where the idea came to start working on science accessibility and how can we be making our science, both in terms of research and in terms of education, more accessible by design, as opposed to an afterthought. 

Mai Ling Chan 10:24 
Okay, so the word accessibility, I actually had a little trouble with when I was doing this huge conference back in September and I was like, come learn about accessibility and everybody's like, what? 

Mai Ling Chan 10:32 
And so I am just so mesmerized by this. How did you, how did that like spotlight for you, you know, just like where, where did that come into your, um, into your lens? 

Anna Voelker 10:44 
Hmm, like the kind of interpretation of the term accessibility itself? 

Mai Ling Chan 10:48 
Yep. 

Anna Voelker 10:49 
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great question. I think that my first introduction was from this concept of what's called universal design for learning. So this idea of how we can be making our materials basically reach the broadest audience possible. 

Anna Voelker 11:07 
So thinking about accessibility as something that you designed for from the start. And that's sort of where I was introduced to the term is how can we be making active decisions for reaching as many people as possible with our, with our outreach, with our education. 

Anna Voelker 11:24 
And, you know, in terms of in our classrooms by having thoughtful, intentional, inclusive design. So that was really my first interaction with the term. And from there it's really grown and evolved to mean a lot of different things in many contexts throughout our advocacy within the STEM outreach world. 

Mai Ling Chan 11:44 
That's excellent. Have you had any personal experience with inaccessibility? 

Anna Voelker 11:49 
I would say that most, 99% of the conferences I have attended, I have found to be very inaccessible. And I think it's because folks don't realize that it's not just a theme, you know, it's not, you can't just call your conference, you know, science for all, and have that, have that mean something, right? 

Anna Voelker 12:08 
It really has to be intentional design where you have built into your conference, those decisions. So, very commonly, for example, there's not enough seating, or there are cocktail hours I've gone to where I can't find anywhere to sit down, and you're expected to stand, which of course is not accessible for folks who might use wheelchairs, but also for people with chronic pain, or for whatever reason, can't spend an hour, you know, at that cocktail table. 

Anna Voelker 12:35 
And I think that's just, you know, there are these little things that really add up in terms of establishing who belongs in those spaces, and it creates this, this barrier to entry that's, you know, not only at the conferences, but you know, it goes deeper into the content and the community that those conferences are all about. 

Anna Voelker 12:57 
And so that's kind of where I first got really interested in, in making a conference that was accessible and was able to tear away those various barriers. 

Mai Ling Chan 13:06 
Excellent. I love when you say this because I always forget that I am just a little bit taller than short stature. I am four eleven and three quarters and I hate those cocktail hours, Anna, because everybody is talking down to me, you know, and I come up to like, you know, barely chest height for some, you know, for some people and plus, you know, women are wearing heels and I do always wear my heels. 

Mai Ling Chan 13:27 
So then there's the twofold is I'm standing the whole time in very high heels just to like, just to be in the conversations. But honestly, they are so exhausting for me and I'm I always back up because I'm trying to like reduce that how close people are to me and they're talking down like right into my face. 

Mai Ling Chan 13:44 
But that's so interesting. And I love that you had the brilliance, you know, to see that and then also to interpret that into your work. So you are very big in the nonprofit area and I really want to get into Astro access. 

Mai Ling Chan 13:59 
And so how did you get involved in this area? 

Anna Voelker 14:03 
The way I got started was in 2018, I was graduating from Ohio State, and I was lucky enough to be selected for a grant that helped graduating students start nonprofits focused on social change. And so that's how I began. 

Anna Voelker 14:18 
And so we kind of kicked off what's called Psy Access, which is the name of the nonprofit. And it started as I mentioned, a conference. And so this was sort of an in -person event at Ohio State that brought together disability advocates, students with disabilities, teachers, professors, and kind of folks who want to learn how to make their science more accessible and bringing those voices into one space. 

Anna Voelker 14:40 
And really from there, it snowballed into many different programs that we run today, the most recent of which is Astra Access. 

Mai Ling Chan 14:47 
And what is Astro Access? 

Anna Voelker 14:49 
So Astra Access is a program dedicated to breaking the barriers to human space exploration. So it's taking all of the advocacy work that we do on the psi access side and applying it specifically to how we make space travel accessible and really redefining who gets to be an astronaut. 

Mai Ling Chan 15:08 
Wow. Okay. Our listeners are like, what did she just say? Making it accessible. What I think is, I am very not knowledgeable in this area. I'm thinking that the people who are going up in space have to be the physically best, the best fit. 

Mai Ling Chan 15:26 
I think heart rate and oxygen and cognition, just all of these things to be able to take the stressors of all these different things that are going on. So how are we taking people with disabilities into account? 

Anna Voelker 15:40 
So I think that where we are in time right now, we have this whole phase of commercial space, really opening the aperture for who gets to go. And we've started seeing a wider diversity of folks with different ages, more diversity in terms of gender, et cetera, being able to access space. 

Anna Voelker 16:02 
And what's really been missing as of late is having a focus on how we can be widening the aperture in terms of disability. And that's something that we're really actively working on. And so, as you said, a lot of people, when they think of astronaut, they think of the 1960s definition of the perfect human specimen, right? 

Anna Voelker 16:24 
And that's just not accurate. It's just not accurate. When we talk about space and we talk about microgravity, in a lot of different ways, it's actually an environment that many folks with disabilities have advantages in. 

Anna Voelker 16:40 
And that's something that I think is really exciting about Astra Access, is that we are doing demonstrations and doing active research on zero gravity flights that's put a spotlight on that and make people realize in the industry and in terms of future generations of scientists with disabilities who are looking up to these people that more is possible than they have been told historically. 

Mai Ling Chan 17:07 
If you're like me, you can't get enough of books, podcasts, blogs, and other ways to find out how to create, grow, and scale. That's why I brought together 43 disability -focused leaders to give you more of what you're looking for. 

Mai Ling Chan 17:20 
You will hear their stories in three best -selling books, which focus on general offerings, augmentative and alternative communication, and speech -language pathology. I invite you to search for Becoming an Exceptional Leader on Amazon, so you can learn intimate start -up pearls of wisdom, and keep growing your brilliant idea. 

Mai Ling Chan 17:40 
Now let's get back to our amazing interview. So what about accessibility when you're actually in a rocket, and I'm thinking for vision and hearing? 

Anna Voelker 17:49 
So as I mentioned, we do what we call zero gravity flights. And these are basically taking a regular commercial airplane, and you fly it up and down in what we call parabolas, or parabolic flight. And at the top of each of these hills, or parabolas, everyone floats for about 20 to 30 seconds. 

Anna Voelker 18:08 
And so it's during that time that we're able to have folks with different disabilities who join us from all around the world to essentially do different demonstrations and experiments to show the true capabilities of folks with disabilities in space. 

Anna Voelker 18:23 
And so one example is that every deaf person who has flown with us so far has been completely immune to motion sickness. So you can imagine the massive advantage that has for astronauts where motion sickness is a critical issue that they often have to deal with. 

Anna Voelker 18:39 
And this is something that actually goes back to the 60s when deaf men actually worked with NASA as part of a group called the Gallaudet 11 to do pioneering research on motion sickness. So this is not new knowledge, and yet we have not seen deaf people have access to space travel. 

Anna Voelker 18:58 
Up to this point, it has not been possible. It has not been, or rather, it's been possible, but not allowed, two very different things. And so that's what we're working on. We're using, essentially, these zero gravity flights as a stepping stone to progress to space flight opportunities for folks with a variety of different disabilities to start breaking down those walls. 

Mai Ling Chan 19:18 
Wow, you are so intelligent and so just educated on all of this. I'm totally nerding out here, this is great. So did you have an interest in space and all of this before you got started? 

Anna Voelker 19:30 
Definitely. Yeah, I would say I've always been interested in space. When I was a kid, my parents let me skip school for a day to go see Anusha Ansari, who is the first female private space explorer and the first Muslim woman to ever go to space, as well as the first Iranian astronaut. 

Anna Voelker 19:47 
And she came to my local science center in Pittsburgh. And I remember being literally starstruck. And that really, for me, kind of sparked my imagination of what's possible. And so just by fate, you know, about a decade later, when I was in college, I did a mentorship program called the Brooke Owens Fellowship, which is for women and non -binary students who want to have careers in the aerospace industry. 

Anna Voelker 20:14 
And who was I paired with as my mentor, but the one and only Anusha Ansari. And so it really came full circle and kind of put the bow on top of that, that whole story. She actually was one of our inaugural keynote speakers for the Sci Access Conference. 

Anna Voelker 20:30 
So kind of bringing, being able to share the passion she sparked in me with, you know, others through that nonprofit. So that really kind of helped get me started on this space path. 

Mai Ling Chan 20:41 
That's really amazing. And now, are there any opportunities for you to be involved, like, personally? 

Anna Voelker 20:46 
Like to go to space or? Sure. I would love to go to space. Absolutely, I would go in a heartbeat. But I think what's more important to me is really to kind of make concrete strides in terms of the structures in place and the systems in place that we're using for determining who gets to go to space. 

Anna Voelker 21:11 
So much of it, as we talked about at the beginning, is just dependent on the design itself. So if you make your spacecraft accessible for folks who are blind, all of a sudden, you know, we're removing that barrier. 

Anna Voelker 21:24 
And so I think as we see on the earth, right, with a lot of inaccessibility issues, the issue is not disability. The issue is our built environment and the fact that that built environment was not designed for certain populations or by certain populations. 

Anna Voelker 21:40 
And that's the exact same issues we're seeing both on our planet and beyond it. And so that's what Astra Access is aiming to address by making sure that disability leaders and aerospace leaders are in the same room, are talking to each other, and are really actually investigating what real life changes we could be making to our space system designs that open those doors. 

Mai Ling Chan 22:05 
Exactly. Now space is a global initiative and so what is what does your international outreach look like? 

Anna Voelker 22:12 
Yeah, great question. So we're really proud to be an international nonprofit. On the Astra Access side, when we do our call for flyers, who we call our ambassadors, our Astra Access ambassadors, that is open globally. 

Anna Voelker 22:25 
So our last flight, we had folks from five different countries join us as part of our ambassador team doing research in zero gravity. And on the Si Access broader side for the conference, it is a virtual conference. 

Anna Voelker 22:39 
And so we're really lucky to be able to have folks so far. We've had people join from 54 different countries and all seven continents. So we have everyone from local students with disabilities to neutrino scientists at the South Pole calling in from every corner of the globe. 

Anna Voelker 22:56 
So we're really excited to be able to have such an international community by leveraging the virtual aspect of the conference. 

Mai Ling Chan 23:04 
That's incredible. This is such an exciting interview. I just, it's out of this world, right? So cliche, but funny. Okay, well, so for our listeners, how can we get involved in what you're doing? 

Anna Voelker 23:16 
So there's many different ways. The first I'll mention is if you're interested in attending our conference, the next one is taking place actually on May 10th and 11th of this year. And it's all virtual and it's all free. 

Anna Voelker 23:28 
So you can join for free from anywhere in the world. And if you go to psiaccess .org, S -C -I -A -C -C -E -S -S .org, you can sign up to register for free and kind of connect to that international community. 

Anna Voelker 23:42 
We also have a website for Astro Access where we post different volunteer opportunities. So if you're interested in volunteering your time as a member of the nonprofit, we're always growing and always looking to recruit new members of the team. 

Mai Ling Chan 23:56 
Excellent, and you know, I probably should ask this earlier, but have you ever had any hesitation or challenges in building this? 

Anna Voelker 24:04 
Hmm, I think that definitely with anything that's sort of challenging the norm, you will face some obstacles and some opposition as you go, but all in all, I would say the aerospace industry has been extremely receptive to this concept and to breaking down barriers, and I have been overall just so encouraged by seeing the industry really leaning in and really actually paying attention and caring about this work. 

Anna Voelker 24:33 
I think that that's critical to be able to implement that long -term change, and I guess I have to think more about if I can think of a specific example of a barrier in the past. It's a really good question. 

Mai Ling Chan 24:47 
Well, you know, this does also make me thinking about representation in marketing and advertising and movies and all of that. And so are you seeing changes and movement towards representation in space travel and accessibility? 

Anna Voelker 25:00 
I'm so glad you said that. I think representation is so key. I think it's just critical for ensuring that that next generation can see themselves doing whatever they dream to do. And I think we have a long way to go. 

Anna Voelker 25:12 
I think that there's a lot of progress that still needs to be made. But that is absolutely one of our key goals with Astro Access is being able to not only do the research and to not only talk to the key stakeholders within the aerospace industry, but then to have that public outreach aspect and to have that representation of scientists and artists and students and engineers with disabilities doing this work to show the world and to show, you know, future astronauts with disabilities that this is possible and that change is happening. 

Anna Voelker 25:45 
And there's a way to be a part of it. 

Mai Ling Chan 25:48 
Excellent. You know, I always think about our kids and that they want to see themselves. They want to see role models and how beautiful would that be to see themselves going up into space. 

Anna Voelker 25:58 
Right. Absolutely. Totally agree. 

Mai Ling Chan 26:01 
Well, thank you so much for joining us for sharing all of this really exciting exciting information And I really look forward to the conference which is coming up. Can you tell us again? Just one more time where well, where can we see the the free online conference? 

Anna Voelker 26:15 
Absolutely. So yes, the conference, the Psi Access 2024 conference will take place on May 10th and 11th. And it's all virtual and all online for free. And you can reach it at PsiAccess .org. S -C -I -A -C -C -E -S -S .org. 

Anna Voelker 26:31 
Excellent. 

Mai Ling Chan 26:33 
Well, that's perfect and I am just really so excited to keep following you and finding out all of the wonderful things that you are doing. Thank you so much for joining us. 

Anna Voelker 26:41 
Thank you. It's such an honor to be here. Thank you. 

Mai Ling Chan 26:45 
We hope you enjoyed this episode and invite you to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and share the show with people you think will find value from it. This helps the show a lot. Or have a great guest referral, reach out to us at xleaders at gmail .com. 

Speaker 4 27:01 
And if you want exclusive tips on becoming an exceptional leader, deliver straight to your inbox. Just go to ExceptionalLeaders .com and sign up for our mailing list. Thanks for listening.