Ruth Owen – Transport and Individual Responsibility

“All I was doing was trying to get home from work”

(Quote from Rosa Parks on the civil rights struggle for inclusive transport.)

Last week I MCd an event run by Open Inclusion on inclusive transport. We had seven speakers in total. Four disabled people with a range of impairments. Three industry people from Virgin Atlantic, Network Rail, and Uber.

It’s not so surprising to hear the take away was ‘we’ve come far, but there’s a long way to go’. However getting everyone together was very important. For disabled people to understand industry, and industry to understand disabled transport users. The solutions began flowing.

Ruth Owen is my latest podcast guest. Transport is one of two key points raised in our interview. The second being our personal responsibility to speak out against injustice.

Having faced all of the barriers that wheelchair users do, her personal experience is very insightful. Ruth also lived in Africa for a while, had a successful career in UK business tech, and now is CEO of the disability charity Whizz Kidz.

In our chat we explore the amazing journey Ruth has been on. Her insights into employment, empowering others, and changing the world for the better are fantastic.

With our personal responsibility to change things that we do not agree with. It always seems impossible to change external events. It’s like watching a nasty car crash when reading the news lately. Jumping in the car and saving everyone is a tad Hollywood. What if there’s another way?

What if you can see the causes of the accident. If you can see the solutions to stop it happening again. If you could share the solutions with a few people. If they liked them. If they’d help you campaign for them. If it snowballed. If that change happened.

Remember. You can create change. Just speak your truth. Just do the small actions. Just try. Rosa Parks did.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ruth. There’s lots of advice. Lots of interesting ideas. Lots of hope and motivation. Which unfortunately we all need with the current affairs in the world at present.

Listen to Ruth and I discuss inclusive transport and individual responsibility here.

Also please can you follow/rate the podcast, share it on social media, and let me know your thoughts on new guests?

See you soon! Episode 5 is with another big hitter 🙂

Martyn