Denise Steele: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Making Money Work—Including Disability in the Financial Equation, which is our July AFB Centennial Conversation. My name is Denise Steele, and I will be your moderator for today's panel discussion. I am a community engagement manager as part of the corporate responsibility team for JPMorgan Chase, supporting the central region, and I'm also a member of the Center for Disability-Inclusive Community Development workgroup, which is managed by the National Disability Institute. I'm a black woman with braids for the summer, and I currently reside in Grand Blanc, Michigan, right outside of Flint, Michigan.
Today, we're going to speak with our panelists for about 45 minutes before we take your questions. Please be sure to add those questions to the chat and John Mackin on the AFB staff will read those out for us at the end of our discussion. As a reminder, alt+H or command+shift+H for Mac users is the shortcut to access the chat window. Please note that this session is being recorded and will be available in the AFB100 archives at a later date. You can find all of our AFB100 events at afb.org/100. We're also happy to have our ASL interpreters here with us today. And this session will also have live captioning, and the link for that is in the chat.
Now, it's my pleasure to introduce to you today our panelists. First, we have Tom Foley, who is the executive director of the National Disability Institute. Trained as a tax lawyer and a financial planner, Tom has more than 30 years’ experience serving the disability community. As a person who is blind, Tom has dedicated his career to partnering with thought leaders to address the complex drivers of economic inequality and to create pathways to employment and financial security for vulnerable communities.
Next, we have Rodney Hood, who serves on the board of the National Credit Union Administration. Until January, he served as the board chairman and had previously served as the board vice chair under George W. Bush. Rodney has led affordable housing and community development organizations prior to joining the NCUA board. He served as a corporate responsibility manager for JPMorgan Chase, managing national partnerships with nonprofit organizations, financial regulators, and community stakeholders to promote financial inclusion and shared prosperity in underserved communities throughout the United States.
Finally, we have Lauren Oplinger, a vice president with JPMorgan’s Public Finance Sales Group. Lauren has served as a member of the Global Leadership Team for the Access Ability Business Resource Group and co-founded the Blind and Low-Vision Working Group. In 2018, the firm recognized Lauren as one of its Disability Champions, an award reserved for those who go above and beyond to create an inclusive environment for people with disabilities. In 2019, Careers and the DisABLED magazine recognized Lauren as one of 10 “Employees of the Year” for being a role model for people with disabilities. At JPMorgan, she serves as a member of the Global Leadership Team for the Access Ability Business Resource Group and co-founded the Blind and Low-Vision Working Group.
I would like to thank all of our panelists for being with [us] here today, and I am very excited about today's discussion. And I'm just so excited, I'm going to jump right in. I'm going to start with the question for Tom.
Tom, NDI has done quite a bit of research into the financial landscape as it relates to individuals with disabilities. You recently developed a report that delved into the intersection of disability and race and the impact of COVID. Can you tell us a little bit about that, Tom?
Tom Foley: Absolutely. And thank you, Denise, for the opportunity to be here. Thanks to AFB. It's really exciting to be here with such distinguished colleagues. Again, my name is Thomas Foley. I'm a white male, I'm wearing a dress shirt with a collar. In the background, some of you might be able to see a piece of modern art, but I'm really excited to be here with you today. Let me give a little background first.
National Disability Institute is the only national nonprofit that works exclusively on issues of economic empowerment and financial advancement for folks with disabilities. We've been around for 15 years, and this is our bread and butter. This is what we research, this is the policy we work on, these are the programs we do. The convenings we're part of are all about money, because we know that folks with disabilities don't have access to the same opportunities and the same economic advancement as other folks. And so we try to do something about that.
Back in 2016, one of the areas that we really started to pay more attention to is this area of intersectionality. [phone rings in background] (I'm really sorry about that.) It's probably no surprise to folks that folks with disabilities' economic outcomes are not as good as the general population. But one of the things we wanted to really look at is what happens when we started to look at that intersection between disability and race, when racism and ableism came into play to affect people's lives. Starting back in 2016, we looked at lots of different data. We looked at the FDIC banked and unbanked data, we looked at employment data, we looked at net worth data, we looked at all sorts of different data to try to quantify what's going on. And back at the 2017 Congressional Black Caucus, we launched our first report on this. I'm excited to say that my colleague Rodney was there. And Denise, I think you were there as well.
One of the things that we learned, and this probably isn't a huge surprise to anyone, is that for folks with disabilities who are also folks of color, their economic and employment outcomes we re not as good as the rest of society or the rest of the disability population in general. So we know that employment outcomes are worse, we know that educational attainment is lower, and I don't want to bury people with statistics, but there are really, really noticeable disproportionate levels of financial stress in communities of color within the disability community.
Let me just give you a couple of stats to start off with. If you look at just people with disabilities in general versus people without disabilities in the United States, net worth for folks with disabilities is around $14,000 on average. For non-disabled households, it's about $83,000, $84,000. If you break that down by race, white people with disabilities have a net worth of about $27,000 versus $132,000 for non-disabled folks. In the Latinx community, folks with disabilities, about $13,000 in net worth versus $19,000. But in the African-American community, and this is the number that just really jumped out for us, for folks with disabilities, average net worth was $1,200 versus about $14,500.
So you can see a couple of things, right? You can see that across all races and across all groups, folks with disabilities are not doing nearly as well economically as their non-disabled counterparts. But we also see, again, very, very clearly that folks of color within the disability community are not doing as well on average as folks who are white. And so this is something that we've really spent a lot of time digging into. We released this study and I believe this study is being put into the chat for folks who want to follow up on it, but a lot of this data came out before COVID.
So just a couple of things to highlight that happened in the first four months of COVID. We saw that for people with disabilities who were working, on average, 20% of folks with disabilities who were working lost their jobs in the first four months in January to April of 2020 in COVID. However, that impact was even more significant in the African American community. Their job losses on average, 44%. Again, we're seeing those really, really noticeable, strong disproportionate impact in communities of color. Hopefully, we won't get back to this, but also during the height of the pandemic, folks of color were four to five times more likely to be hospitalized because of COVID than the general population. Clearly, there's a significant impact, not only because of COVID within communities of color, but just in general, within communities of color within the disability community.
And you know, if we're going to do something about this, the first step is to acknowledge this, to do the research, to quantify it so that we can highlight this issue so we can do something about it. I just wanted to touch on a couple of the issues that have come up. And Denise, I'm so glad you're here, because one of the things that you mentioned was the Center for Disability-Inclusive Community Development. Some of you have probably heard about the Community Reinvestment Act. It's a way to help financial institutions and banks that have commit to serving low and middle income communities. And so one of the areas that CDICD, the Center for Disability-Inclusive Community Development works on is making sure that folks with disabilities and particularly, folks with disabilities from communities of color, really get counted in the work that banks do around CRA, and that banks get credit for doing that work. So if a bank is really doubling down on their investment in the disability community, and it's a community of color, we want to make sure that those institutions get credit for that.
In addition to that, one of the things that has been really bittersweet to see in the disability community is how we've managed to move to a new environment when it comes to work. So many people were able to work remotely all of a sudden. I think probably lots of people on this call and lots of folks in the disability community know, for years and years and years, folks in the disability community have been arguing for the ability to work from home where accommodations might be easier, travel might be easier, transportation to and from work would be eliminated.
But one of the things lots of folks with disabilities heard is, “Oh, you know, well, we can't do that.” Well, now, given COVID, we've really seen that in fact lots of people, certainly not everyone, but lots of people can work from home. And they can work from home just as efficiently as they did when they were working in the office. So we're hoping that employers and state government and policymakers really start to look at this, particularly from a disability employment perspective to recognize that we can do a lot more to help folks with disabilities, and particularly folks with disabilities from communities of color get back to work, start saving money, and increase some of those financial outcomes. So, I will stop there for the moment. I didn't want to monopolize everything. But again, appreciate the opportunity to be here.
Denise Steele: Thank you, Tom.
Denise Steele: And for our participants, we're putting the link to that report in the chat. As a financial institution, you're right. CRA, being disabled don't make your work that you do CRA- eligible, but as that report has indicated, there's a large portion of the LMI community that are disabled. So it's a matter of being inclusive in our outreach and our engagement, to include the disability community. Thank you for that, Tom.
We know that there's a lot of work to be done to level- set the playing field for individuals with disability in particular, individuals with disabilities who belong to underserved communities, as well. And Rodney, I know you've done a lot in addressing some of these systemic issues in your role on the NCUA board, and as a member of the Board of Directors of NeighborWorks America. Can you speak to that?
Rodney Hood: Yes, but first and foremost, Denise, please allow me to thank you for moderating today's conversation. I'm honored to see you again. It's always great to see a former colleague. Ladies and gentlemen , I am an African-American man. I am receding hairline, and behind me is a flag of the United States, along with my agency's flag which Denise just referenced, and that is the flag of the National Credit Union Administration. Yes, Denise, I have worked a lot in these issues, and I'm really honored to be able to talk today about what we're doing now at the National Credit Union Administration. We are working diligently to help our credit union members have access to affordable financial services.
Credit unions grew following the Great Depression, where in 1934, many hardworking men and women could not have access to affordable financial products to their local financial institutions. So what did these individuals do? They reached into their pockets, and they took what little funds they had, and created today's system that we call the credit union system, a system of cooperative credit. Even though they've been around for nearly 100 years, credit unions have remained focused on serving their members. Credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives. Every dollar that a credit union makes, it goes back into the hands of its member owners by way of lower rates on their loan products, and higher rates on their savings products.
I'm very pleased that now, as the past chairman of the NCUA and now as a board member, I get to provide our 5,000 credit unions with the tools and resources they need to serve a third of the American people. We currently have over 123 million members of credit unions. And I, as someone who cares passionately about the issues of financial inclusion and access, am trying my level best to ensure that we're providing them with a regulatory platform that doesn't impede their progress to help bring financial inclusion, but it moves them forward. We're giving them opportunities to provide financial coaching, financial counseling. We're also, after nearly 100 years now, are giving them opportunities to provide affordable products, such as things as small- dollar loans.
Regrettably, we live in a society today where more than 40% of our American households cannot obtain $400 if there were a family emergency. Regrettably, that percentage is even higher for communities of color. In fact, that percentage is closer to 60% of those individuals not being able to obtain $400. One of the things that we have done at NCUA is to come up with very creative tools, where individuals can borrow funds for as little as $500 for a small- dollar loan, at an affordable interest rate, an interest rate that would prevent them from having to go running to the hands of a pernicious payday lender.
We're also looking to develop tools that help individuals build credit. We recognize that credit scores are so critically important to almost any and everything we want to do in life. It helps influence where we work, where we live, and those are things that we're trying definitely to address.
I, when talking to groups, I, when implementing my day-to-day activities, I often say that financial inclusion is a civil rights issue of our generation. I mention it because unless we bring more people into the financial mainstream, we're going to continue to see a lot of the chaos and discord that we've seen taking place in a lot of our cities. Following the George Floyd murder, I could not sit still. I wanted to put pen to paper. I wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, where I called on banks and credit unions to work together to help American cities heal through financial inclusion and access. One of the things that we've done through that is at NCUA, following that particular op-ed [inaudible] , we as an agency launched a new initiative when I was chairman, and we are still running forward with it today. That's called ACCESS: Advancing Communities through Credit, Education, Stability, and Support. And through that, we're looking for credit unions to work with folks in all communities.
And by the way, when I talk about diversity and equity and inclusion, I am being very expansive. I know we often talk about low to moderate income communities, LGBTQ plus. But I also speak expansively about including folks with disabilities, or differently abled individuals. I also talk about rural communities. So, that access initiative takes a broad approach.
I want to find more ways to do three things. One is promoting FinTech. I think if anything, that we’ve seen from COVID-19 is the need for us to do more. Not only just more working from home, but banking from home. FinTech can help that, so I'm really hoping our credit unions will use tools such as mobile payment systems, remote deposit capture, and digital payments. That is something that will certainly help folks who are disabled or differently abled be able to conduct business from their homes. If we really want to bring more people into the financial mainstream, we need to do it with gainful employment. That's why our ACCESS initiative looks at recruiting and retaining folks of all backgrounds, and that means disabled and differently abled. So, we are making a concerted effort to bring in folks who are disabled.
In fact, I'm very proud that 17% of our workforce at the National Credit Union Administration has self-identified as having a disability. I want to make sure that we continue to recruit others, because I want to have a workforce where people can bring their true, authentic selves to work each and every day, but also we can learn and glean insight from folks. So, 17% today, and I'm hoping that we will add to those numbers. I was very pleased that we have an employee resource group that's called Empower. That means that not only are we recruiting folks with disabilities, but we want them to know that we want to encourage and foster their career growth opportunities.
Denise also asked that I talk about NeighborWorks America. NeighborWorks is a venerable nonprofit organization that works to provide sustainable home ownership throughout the United States. I am proud to serve on that board, along with many of our other federal financial regulators from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, from the FDIC, from HUD, and the Federal Reserve. We all work together to make sure that NeighborWorks and its affiliates are promoting home ownership.
Two such examples I'd like to quickly share before I close is the Pensacola Habitat for Humanity, where they, when they're building homes for low to moderate income communities, they have a disability lens, where they are asking individuals as we build your home, "Do you need cabinet space that can accommodate you? Do you need that extra arch in your driveway? Do you need other tools that can really help you not just live in a home, but to enjoy the home, and really handle a lot of the disabilities that exist?" So I want to applaud the Pensacola Habitat for Humanity, for looking at a lot of the homes that they are building through a disability lens.
And then I'd also like to talk about the Penquis Credit Union, Penquis Group that's there in Bangor, Maine. Penquis is a NeighborWorks affiliate that provides financial counseling and financial coaching to banks and credit unions, so that folks with disabilities can learn about the ABLE accounts, that’s Achieving a Better Life Experience accounts, an account that I learned a lot about from NDI, so I applaud them for that. They also are training the caregivers, and how do they look at helping individuals with disabilities learn about budgeting, cash flow management, but more importantly, how do we help them become a part of the financial mainstream? So, I certainly want to applaud NeighborWorks for the work that they are doing.
In closing, you all, I would just like to mention a quote that I think is appropriate for today. That's a quote from Dr. Richard Pimentel, who after suffering severe hearing loss while serving in Vietnam, he later became a strong advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. He said that, and I quote, "Each of us needs to feel that we belong. Belong at work, belong in family, and belong with friends. As we strive to belong, so should we help others to feel that they belong, as well."
I believe in closing that striving to belong is an elegant summation of the progress so many Americans with disabilities have made over the last several decades. With AFB's anniversary now of 100 years, they have played a key role in really advancing a lot of the opportunities for financial inclusion, so now our job is to keep that progress growing and going strong. Thank you for allowing me to join you.
Denise Steele: Thank you so much, Rodney. It is such a pleasure and honor to share this panel with you today. I'll share with you guys, as well. My first introduction to the work in the disability field started with Rodney. So Rodney, thank you for that.
Rodney Hood: You're welcome.
Denise Steele: As part of our ongoing work to improve inclusion in all aspects of life, we've found that representation is incredibly important. We need more individuals who reflect the diversity of life in our communities to be included in our workplaces and in our leadership. I want to turn to Lauren, last but certainly not least. Lauren, being both a woman and a person with a disability working in finance, we're going to hear more about her experience. Also, I know you've worked internally at JPMorgan Chase as part of the Accessibility Business Resource Group and the Blind and Low- Vision Working Group. Lauren, can you share with us what are some of the things we can do to improve hiring and inclusion of people of disabilities in finance?
Lauren Oplinger: Hi, everyone. Denise, thank you very much, and AFB. I appreciate the opportunity to be with everyone today. As stated, my name is Lauren Oplinger. I am a Caucasian woman. I'm 35 years old. I'm wearing a white shirt and a tan blazer, and I'm working from a home office in southern New Jersey. I'm legally blind in both eyes, so I have no peripheral or central vision. I work at JPMorgan on the Municipal Sales Desk, covering bond funds, asset managers, and money market funds for tax- exempt and taxable municipal bond products.
At JPMorgan, we are committed to a culture of diversity and inclusion. We look for qualified, smart, and talented individuals for particular roles, and we have the resources to hire, promote, and retain people with disabilities. Jim Sinocchi started the Office of Disability Inclusion, and his team drives diversity initiatives at the firm, focusing on four areas: Attitude, accommodations, accessibility, and assimilation. Since the Office of Disability Inclusion started about five years ago, JPMorgan has hired several thousand employees with disabilities.
Since 2018, the Office of Disability Inclusion, in conjunction with our accommodations team, answered over 30,000 requests, including assistive technologies and building facility modifications. We've had a 400% increase in live captioning requests in the last year, and our Autism at Work program has grown significantly, with several hundred employees currently. This program gets a lot of support and visibility at the firm.
So, how did we get there? From a hiring perspective, global recruiting in 2017 created a group of diversity recruiting champions to enhance our recruiting practices. For example, making reasonable accommodations language a standard for all job interviews. JPMorgan partners closely with local disability organizations to both host and attend virtual career job fairs specific to people with disabilities. We also work with campus recruiting on an early insight program that we call the We See Ability event. Specific to juniors, this gives students the opportunity to network with senior managers at the firm, interview, and ultimately receive an opportunity for an internship. I was a panelist at this event a couple of years ago, and met another student who was legally blind. This person was offered the internship, accepted a full- time position, and is currently running the Blind and Low-Vision Working Group.
While this is just one success story, I feel these events are essential for hiring talented and qualified individuals. While I was not disabled when I joined JPMorgan, I was offered an internship after attending a women's networking event during my junior year. In general, as you can see, JPMorgan has grown significantly in the disability and inclusion space, but we hold ourselves to the highest standard. Is every application accessible? Probably not. But that is our end goal, and we are committed to holding our third-party vendors to the same standard. As we move forward, our hope is that all software and technology will be accessible for everyone.
On a personal note, I believe it's important to have an open dialogue with your manager and colleagues, and to be proactive, especially when requesting the accommodations that you need in order to be successful in your role. The pandemic has created its own set of challenges, especially for people with disabilities, as our workstations were drastically changed. It took a while to get the technology that I needed to work from home, and my manager was my biggest advocate. He followed up on every issue until I was fully operational from home. In my opinion, I would imagine that across all industries, there were a large number of requests for technology and accommodations in the last year. Yet another way that JPMorgan continues to show its support for people who are disabled is by recently launching a technology hub specific to people with disabilities, so now I can connect directly with a team who specialize in accommodations like my assistive technology that I need to do my job. Thank you for the time.
Denise Steele: Thank you, Lauren. Thank you so much for sharing your story. And it looks like we have a few more minutes, and I want to look a little bit into the future here. We've been seeing, and Rodney kind of touched on it a little bit, we've been seeing a lot of activity in the FinTech or financial technology from established firms such as JP Morgan Chase and newer, more niche companies that are focused on serving particular groups of people. For example, MoCaFi, that's aimed at underserved communities. How might FinTech be changing the financial landscape? And what does that mean for individuals with disabilities? And if each of our panelists, if you would like to share your comments on that, I would appreciate it.
Tom Foley: Well, this is Tom, I'll start. It's really interesting because, so I've been visually impaired all my life. So when it comes to access to financial services, I remember writing out checks and having to have someone read me a bank statement. And I think if 40 years ago you had... and that's hard to say out loud... if you had told me that my bank account, my credit cards, my investment accounts, I'd be able to reach all through a little device that I hold in my hand, I don't think I would've believed it. And one of the things that we see in the data all the time is that more and more folks with disabilities are using FinTech and financial apps, basically to do things that they didn't used to be able to do. There's a famous quote about accessibility that says technology makes things easier for many people.
But for folks with disabilities and I think particularly for blind folks, technology makes things possible, because what I can do with a smartphone these days is not... the things, the freedom and the autonomy that it gives me just weren't available to me before digital technology and access. That being said, I've probably got, I don't know, 40 or 50 different apps on my phone, and most of them are pretty accessible, but I'm sure there's some people watching today and listening that one of the big issues around FinTech is making sure that those apps are accessible. Sometimes developers recognize that a large portion of the community might be visually impaired or have particular access issues and some don't. And that's part of why I think meetings like this are so important and the work that Rodney's doing around accessibility and the FinTech area is just critical to making sure that all these new tools and opportunity are available to as many people as possible.
Rodney Hood: And Tom, I couldn't agree with you more. I want to thank you, Tom and NDI, because a lot of the data that I use in my day-to-day activities, this all comes from your organization. And Denise, we at NCUA, we just had a board meeting two hours ago where I talked about digital platforms. In fact, we as an agency are asking the industry to give us requests for information around how they plan, and use, and deploy digital platforms, whether it be mobile bill pays and other types of FinTech activities. When chairman, I work with my fellow board members to create an office of innovation and access, and I'll tell you where I'm going with that. I don't believe that we are innovating just because it's the cool thing to do these days. I believe that if we are being intentional about innovation, then through it should become possible for folks to have access to affordable financial products, whether it be loan s, or whether it be the tools that they need to look after their families.
So we are excited about meeting with FinTech companies. Every week I try to meet with a different FinTech company to learn what they're doing, but in so doing, I ask them, "How are you serving the needs of marginalized and underserved communities?" And I point-blank ask, "How can differently abled or disabled communities use your tools?" And many of the folks who create these wonderful game-changing tools that we're seeing, many of them may not approach it initially with that lens, so I try to always ask them, are they making them accessible so that folks can have greater control over their lives? As I mentioned in my opening comments, I do think the COVID pandemic because we were all working from home, it really did catalyze the need for these digital platforms. I think we're going to continue to see them proliferate. And again, I want to make sure that our credit unions are using the tools to meet the needs of their member owners. I know that we have many members of those credit unions that are perhaps disabled or differently abled, so let's make sure that we're giving them the tools to what Tom was mentioning with the 40 apps on his phone.
I'm sure that many of our folks are using some of those same tools such as being able to cash your check from home through remote deposit capture. You've mentioned the locale group, Denise, I just met with them on yesterday to see what they're doing to bring about greater financial inclusion. So one of the things I think will happen with FinTech, I think it democratizes financial products, that little D, democratizes. It's making it far more widely available. Let's think about many folks are still afraid of going into banks and credit unions, there's still a trust issue, there's still a comfort issue. But if you know that you can be financially served from the comforts of your home, then I think that also makes it more opportune moment for you to gain control of your financial welfare. So that's one piece. And I just want to continue to provide a regulatory format so others can continue to enjoy that. So Denise, a really timely question.
Denise Steele: Thank you, Rodney. Lauren, anything you want to add to that?
Lauren Oplinger: I think they both really summed it up.
Denise Steele: Yeah.
Lauren Oplinger: I would say, having access to the app and being able to do online banking is life- changing for somebody who is visually impaired. I became visually impaired at 23. So when all of a sudden your whole life and the world that you knew is then gone, but then as our technology has increased over time, it has certainly made me feel independent, which is a great feeling. Obviously FinTech touches every aspect of JP Morgan, whether it's applying for a loan or even making trading more efficient on the investment banking side, which is what I've been seeing from my perspective. But I think in general, you guys have summed it up really well. So thank you.
Denise Steele: Thank you, Lauren. And really what I hear from all three of you as we continue to move this work forward is awareness, as we're meeting with the tech companies, and as we begin to inform some of our work and our strategies, awareness, access, and inclusion. I want to thank our panelists today. You guys, this was a very robust discussion. I thank you for your participation. It looks like we're at time. I could go on a little bit, but I want to be invited back again so I'll stop. I want to thank all of our panelists, and our attendees, and our event sponsors. John Mackin from the AFB will now announce the questions from the chat as we move into the Q&A portion of the program. Again, thank you all. And with that, I'll turn it over to John.
John Mackin: Thank you, Denise. And thank you, panelists. Before we jump right in, I just wanted to ask one of you just in case anyone in our audience doesn't know, could one of you please define FinTech?
Rodney Hood: I often use the definition of innovative tools that are helping people expedite services that they're using, whether it be in the payment system place, the loan system place, but it's a tool of just, how do we do things more efficiently? How do we do them a little bit more effectively? So that is how I use it, and just as a tool, just as we looked at the ATM machine years ago, that was an innovative discovery then. So as things that are helping us do things differently, more efficiently and effectively.
John Mackin: Thanks, Rodney. Really quick follow-up, do you think that this area or this industry is aware of the need to make their tools accessible?
Rodney Hood: That's a good question. I would say that when I'm meeting with, again, one or two FinTech leaders per week before the COVID, I was going out to Silicon Valley almost every month to meet with folks around looking at tools that can really help bring about greater financial inclusion. When I talk about disabled and differently abled communities, it's always the aha moment, we should be more intentional. But I think it's going to take all of us and beyond the folks on this call to really make sure that folks recognize that as they're designing some of their tools, a lot of the individuals, they have these brilliant ideas that are game -changing in nature. But the thing is unless we really get people to think about the use cases, and again, those use cases would be folks who are disabled or differently abled, the more we need to just let them know. No one has ever said, "Oh, no, I don't want to make my wonderful game- changing tool accessible." It's just a matter of calling it out. So I think it's going to take continued dialogues, and AFB is doing a great job with that today.
John Mackin: Appreciate that. Thank you, Rodney. Where are the statistics on Asians, Pacific islanders, indigenous populations with disabilities?
Tom Foley: That's a great question. In fact, and sorry, this is Tom. That's a great question. We were just having that discussion in the office the other day. So we were just looking at a very large data sample and there were a total, for example, of 30 women with disabilities in a data sample of tens of thousands. And so from a statistical perspective, we ended up not reporting on that because what you wind up with is really skewed data. So what we'd like to do, so particularly for Asian Americans and for indigenous folks, those numbers just aren't there in the current surveys that we have access to.
So one of the things we always talk about in our work is that we need to do, everybody needs to do a much better job of reaching out to all communities, making sure that that information, that we're basically getting a large enough “n” to learn something. Because with 5, 10, 15, 20 people representing an entire group we can get really skewed data. And because it can be really skewed, we don't report on that because we don't want someone taking that information and running with it when we know that there isn't a large enough group for effective statistical analysis. That's a great question.
John Mackin: Thank you, Tom. And you just touched on this a little bit, but I still want to get this question out there. So many people with disabilities are unaware of the opportunities that exist to help them gain financial security. What can be done or is being done to get the word out to this audience?
Tom Foley: Sure. Well, it's funny you mentioned that. I think the work that Denise is doing, and Rodney is doing, and panels like this, and Lauren representing women in finance is a big piece of it. In addition to that, over at ND I we have two... I want to tell you guys about two websites. And Rodney made reference to this earlier, one is about ABLE accounts. So for those of you who don't know, ABLE accounts are a special savings vehicle for folks with disabilities who receive federal benefits, it's a way to save money and not put those benefits at risk if your disability onset is before age 26. For more information around that ABLENRC.org, it's the leading source of information about ABLE accounts. And what an ABLE account allows you to do is kind of what we're talking about today. If all of a sudden you lose your job, having a few thousand dollars in savings can be the difference between being financially resilient and not, right?
And one of the things we were also able to do in addition to ABLENRC.org is during COVID, we recognized that the disability community was really going to be impacted by the economic turndown. So we set up a financial resilience center. So if you need information about the stimulus, if you need information about the advanced child tax credit, if you need financial coaching for free, if you want to take a financial empowerment class at your own pace, FinancialResilienceCenter.org is another website that we manage and provides lots of great actionable information for people to take steps to improve their financial outcomes. In addition to that, obviously lots of policy work, making ABLE accounts more accessible to more folks with disabilities. Policy work about changing that $2,000 asset limit that probably lots of folks are familiar with. Increasing Medicaid opportunities for folks with disabilities who are working. We have a full policy agenda that I'd also be happy to share with everyone. But I'll stop there. Thanks.
John Mackin: Thanks again, Tom. I see one here that might be good for Lauren or Denise. Does JPMorgan have a financial literacy curriculum for youth with disabilities?
Denise Steele: That's a great question. I'll take that. We don't have a curriculum per se that was created by Chase, but in our outreach, when we're teaching it, we will use the CFPBs or either the FDIC’s curriculum, which has specific modules for people, for the disability and differently abled community. So that's a great question. So we're able to be inclusive with our outreach as it relates to financial education.
John Mackin: Thanks, Denise.
Denise Steele: And that's the FDIC Money Smart curriculum. I had a blank there for a second. That's the FDIC Money Smart curriculum, and the Your Money, Your Goals with the CFPB.
John Mackin: Thank you for that. Is there any intention to address the trading aspects of things, that is creating data tables instead of graphical charts, making sure advanced trading platforms are accessible for users with a visual impairment?
Lauren Oplinger: I guess I can start. I would say, I don't know. This is hard because, in my opinion, I believe that most of the assistive technologies sometimes operate in a different way with different applications. So the main application that I use is Bloomberg, and I tend to only be able to listen to my IB messages. F or the most part, graphs, regular messages, or anything else that I'm looking at on Bloomberg I use the zoom function on ZoomText. So I think graphs, pictures, I think the more that we get it out there that, that is not compatible with whether it's JAWS or ZoomText or any sort of assistive technology, I think that's certainly an ongoing issue. But outside of Bloomberg, JP Morgan is aware of, and they've definitely made an effort to make everything accessible, whether it's a chart, or an email, or a graph. I know that's something that we're all very focused on.
John Mackin: Thanks Lauren. Let's see. Does any survey data exist that tries to quantify the types of things that people with disabilities themselves feel they need?
Tom Foley: Again, I apologize if there's a phone in the background ringing. To some extent, so one of the pieces of research that we conducted at the beginning of this year was actually trying to quantify the cost of having a disability. So again, I think everyone in this webinar knows that having a disability there's additional costs. So maybe it's like Lauren talked about, it's JAWS or ZoomText, or the cost of a guide dog, or a wheelchair-accessible van. So we did some research with a couple of partners earlier in the year where we dug through a lot of data. And so much of those expenses are really individual. So we weren't able to collect that, but we were able to quantify that and this is on average, the number is it costs $17,000 a year to accommodate a disability. And that's on average.
So that's an interesting data point because when we talk about savings, when we talk about a financial future, and particularly when we talk about policy work, we need to remember that for folks with disabilities and for folks who are blind there are those additional expenses. And they need to be recognized from a policy and a savings perspective, as well.
John Mackin: Thank you, Tom. For the group, have you seen a rise in disability employment with the pandemic and being able to work from home?
Tom Foley: This is Tom again. We have...well, yes and no, I’ll say mostly no. So, as we talked about earlier, the first four months of 2020, we saw of people with disabilities who were working, 20% of them lost their jobs. And for African-Americans it was worse, even a 44% downturn. As things started to improve earlier in the year, one of our programs that helps people go back to work, we had our biggest month ever. As far as people going back to work, but not everyone is allowing people to work from home. And for a large number of folks with disabilities, who are maybe not in the knowledge working fields, there's been a requirement to go back to work. So what the data shows us, and since the beginning of COVID, net loss, significant net loss for folks with disabilities, from an employment standpoint. But we're hoping given COVID and given lessons learned that industry and government will recognize that working from home is more doable and particularly for folks with disabilities.
Rodney Hood: And if I may, John, I'd just like to say Tom, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think that what we're seeing now, as we do try to return back to having post-vax ... in fact, I'm sitting in my office for the first time in a little over a year and a half in terms of us bringing people back gradually. But what we've learned now, is that people can be effective and productive as they work from home. Overnight, we had to shift, we have over 1100 of our employees all go into that remote work posture. And yet we were still able to hit our objectives and serve out our mission. So I think a lot of the stigma that may be was associated with working from home in the days of yore, I think that stigma now has been debunked. I think people will now find that it is all right to have some of your employees working from home and still being tied to their mission and getting their work accomplished.
I was very interested the other day in seeing an article that there is a new job that's being created called the chief remote work officer. And that is a title that is now being bandied about in some industries. So that, to me portends that the future of working from home is not going away at all, but yet it's going to be something that's going to be a part of our work dynamic. Tom, whether you're in the public sector or the private sector, I think that, that is going to be here to stay. So it's probably going to be more of a hybrid feature that we're going to see for quite some time. That's the only if I'm into predicting, but I think that is something we're going to see.
John Mackin: I appreciate the thoughtful replies from both of you and it's worth noting that AFBs president and CEO, Dr. Kirk Adams also penned an op-ed on the very topic about a year ago. Perhaps a colleague of mine can pop that into the chat when they have a sec. Another good one right here, as we begin to wind down. Understanding that access equals success, are there standards for banking/CU credit union mobile apps to work with Apple VoiceOver?
Rodney Hood: That is something that I would certainly be willing to look into and meet with some of the folks. I have not seen that displayed as of yet. But again, I have a lot of really smart technologists who I'm sure I can ask that question to and they could opine with a little bit more precision. But if anything, I am open to all suggestions and tools, whatever it's going to take to help bring about greater financial inclusion. So to the degree that we learned at those opportunities to the degree that we can link them to a third of the Americans who have credit union accounts, of course, we're going to look for those opportunities when possible.
John Mackin: Thanks, Rodney. I think I have one here that looks like it would probably be for Tom. Tom, Child Tax Credit payments started going out last week. Your group has some information on this -- could you share some details on that?
Tom Foley: Absolutely. So yeah, on July 5th... Yes. Sorry. I forgot what month it was for a minute... on July 15th, the Advance Child Tax Credit started to go out. So the size of the credit depends on how many kids you have and how many of them are 18 and under. But this is a one- year credit. It might be renewed, but we don't know that yet. But if anyone, I'm trying to remember what the date is, and they have kids, saw a bump in their take-home pay that is most likely why. So I made reference earlier to the Financial Resilience Center. So again, if you go to FinancialResilienceCenter.org there's lots more information on the Advance Child Tax Credit. The policy around that is estimated to lift nearly 50% of the kids in poverty, out of poverty. So it's an amazingly powerful program. Hopefully it'll be renewed for next year, but go to FinancialResilienceCenter.org and check it out. Lots more information there.
John Mackin: Excellent. Thank you. We only have a couple of minutes left, so I want to thank everyone. And maybe we can take these last couple of minutes. I would love to hear from each of you, including Denise, about a project that you're currently excited about or would like to share.
Denise Steele: I'll start. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a part of the community development work group that's managed by the NDI. And I'm just excited about the innovation and the creativity that comes out of that work group, which really informs our work as it relates to the disability community. So that's something that I'm really excited about.
Tom Foley: This is Tom, I'll go really quick again on ABLE accounts, tax- advantaged savings account for folks with disabilities, and it doesn't affect one's benefits. There is a piece of legislation slowly moving its way through Congress at the moment called the ABLE Age Adjustment Act. Right now, your disability onset has to be before age 26 to qualify for an ABLE account. The ABLE Age Adjustment Act would move it to 46 and create 6 million new potential account holders. A million of those would be veterans. Again, powerful savings tool, average account in the United States for an ABLE account is 8,000 dollars . Think how $8,000 could help someone navigate episodic unemployment, or a financial turndown. So I'm really excited about the ABLE Age Adjustment Act passing this year and going into law by the end of 2021.
Rodney Hood: And I'm really excited about continuing with our efforts to create our new Office of Innovation and Access. We made the announcement last December, and now we have over a hundred applicants for us to select the person who will stand up and create this new office. Where once he or she is selected, I certainly will be mentioning to them how we'd like for them to focus on working with disabled and differently abled communities. Also, as they do the outreach, along with me to some of the FinTech companies, making sure that there's intentionality around ensuring that the products can reach all segments of society. So that's my biggest excitement. And can't wait to have you all meet our new Director of Innovation and Access soon.
Lauren Oplinger: And I would say this isn't necessarily my project, but Jim Sinocchi inspires me tremendously. And he's the head of our Office of Disability Inclusion. He is on the Airline Carriers Act and he is very focused on making airlines accessible for people with wheelchairs. And he was recently asked to go out to somewhere on the West Coast for Boeing, and i s going to be meeting with them directly about this. And I'm just really excited to see all that will come from that.
John Mackin: Excellent. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you, every panelist. Thank you, Denise for moderating. This has been AFB's Centennial Conversation, Making Money Work: Including Disability in the Financial Equation. Please check back shortly on afb.org/100 where it will be archived. Thank you again.
Narrator: A logo AFB100, inclusion knows no limits. Closing text, American Foundation for the Blind would like to thank our centennial sponsors for their generous support. Diamond sponsors, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Horizon Therapeutics, JP Morgan Chase and Company, and Encore. Platinum sponsors, American Printing House, Exelon, Facebook, LHH, Opportunity Delivered, Northrop Grumman, Pepco- An Exelon Company, US Bank, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, and Walmart. Gold sponsors, Microsoft, and Verizon. Silver sponsors, Charter Communications, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Guiding Change, Getting Results, and IBM. Exhibitors, NLS, The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress, Spark Therapeutics, TracFone Wireless Incorporated, and Willis Towers Watson. Additional supporters, CTIA, New York Life, 175 years, and the Lighthouse for the Blind Incorporated.
