To Table of Contents told my commanders about the conversation , and everyone said to me “ as long as you do your military duty and finish your tasks , we allow you to create this organization ”.
I got some friends together : one was a lawyer , a journalist , a marketer , a coder , and we made a business plan on how to make Israel accessible to everyone . We showed it to the President .
Our first project was making a website that showed accessible and non-accessible places in Israel . We did this because people with disabilities are often scared to go places because if it isn ’ t accessible it isn ’ t fun to go . And while this is cool , we wanted to make a bigger impact . 20 % of people in Israel have a disability . So we made another business plan , one that was better and deeper . We decided to go down three paths : awareness , consulting to organizations , and legislation .
Access Israel ' s Programs and Services
Our goal is to make Israel accessible to all people with disabilities in every aspect of life . So we help everyone : NGOs , private businesses , municipalities , etc . We also work with government offices to promote accessibility as a reality . For example , working with the Health Ministry to make a healthcare system that is accessible . Working with the transportation ministry to make accessible transportation .
I am very proud of our educational awareness training with schools , universities , the army , and educators so we change stigmas . The message is not just talking about it but to have them feel and experience it by seeing people with disabilities first hand .
The government does not fund our progams . 60-70 % of our money comes from projects and ventures that push accessibility and we are paid for , that is : training , building accessible things , etc . The rest is from donations .
Vision for Access Israel ' s next 100 years :
Accessibility is developing . In the past , it was focused on physical and urban accessibility . Building parks , sidewalks , etc . that were not accessible and making them accessible . Basically , making things accessible , up to now , has been retroactive work . It ’ s very time and resource intensive . Now , we are at a time where we see things becoming digital and less physical . So we came up with a national project called “ Making the Future Accessible Early ”. The idea is if we make accessibility a priority now , then we do not have to do it retroactively ( saving money and time ) and we prevent social gaps from things not being accessible at the start . And of course , technology will be a major part of every facet of life .
As the President of Access Israel , I like working hard for an organization that literally doesn ' t stop working , ever . The victories with awareness and legislation are nice of course , but the best part is meeting someone in the streets who asks if I ’ m Yuval and when I say yes , then they tell me how much I have made their life better through Access Israel .
Many changes are still needed for people with disabilities - a lot still needs to change . But first , we need luck and money , since legislation and awareness are key for changes to be made . But ideally , with our plan for the future , we will make a situation where 18 % of the population can live normal lives . Ideally though , we need to also teach people with disabilities how to use technology . Like , how does a blind person surf the web ? There are ways to do so , but it requires using a special software . And it isn ’ t intuitive or accessible enough yet . So ideally , we can help make this a reality for people with disabilities . It is important to have a more inclusive world so people understand and are aware of the lives people with disabilities lead so they can see these people living normal lives . We intend