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Gary Karp

  • Hall of Fame Disability Educator & Wheelchair User Since 1973
  • Gary makes people with disabilities real for workplace culture in a transformed world
Fee Range*
$5,000 - $7,500
Traveling From
California

A wheelchair user for over 40 years since injuring his spinal cord at the age of 18, Gary Karp was inducted into the Spinal Cord Injury Hall of fame as a disability educator for his books, journalism, and public speaking. Through his business, Modern Disability, Gary literally shifts workplace culture’s understanding of disability from loss...

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A wheelchair user for over 40 years since injuring his spinal cord at the age of 18, Gary Karp was inducted into the Spinal Cord Injury Hall of fame as a disability educator for his books, journalism, and public speaking.

Through his business, Modern Disability, Gary literally shifts workplace culture’s understanding of disability from loss and limitation to recognizing the natural adaptive ability and drive for independence that people with disabilities prove every day. They are more healthy, more mobile, living in a more accessible world, empowered by technology, and more highly educated than ever in history, this emerging population is a meaningful — and largely untapped — human resource and part of a diverse workforce.

He is the author of Life On Wheels: The A to Z Guide for Living with Mobility Issues, and has written widely in disability media about adjustment to disability, sexuality, disability culture, and employment.

Gary has helped organizations including Microsoft, SAP Software, Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, and the U.S. EPA, Department of Justice, and FDIC gain a clear picture of Modern Disability, so they can hire the best workers — and effectively respond to existing employees who acquire disability to keep / return them to work more effectively.

Known for his natural speaking style, his humor, and his advanced juggling skills, Gary helps everyone see the shared humanity in people with disabilities, cutting through obsolete models so everyone can relax, be at their best, and get the job done.

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Speaker Programs

Modern Disability; Tap Into Their Exploding Potential
Dramatic social transformations have thoroughly changed what it means to have a disability. That means that people with disabilities are capable of making real contributions in the workplace on a scale never seen in human ...more
Dramatic social transformations have thoroughly changed what it means to have a disability. That means that people with disabilities are capable of making real contributions in the workplace on a scale never seen in human history. An information economy, combined with adapted technology and a largely accessible workplace, means that disability simply doesn't preclude someone with a disability being a great employee. Gary Karp helps move belief systems about disability in line with the current picture of real people with real abilities and goals, so business can embrace this substantial human resource which is ready to pitch in to success. ...less
Modern Disability; The Disability-Savvy Workplace Culture
A disability-savvy workplace culture sees people with disabilities as the adaptable, problem solving, hard working people that they are. In this talk, Gary describes the historic emergence of people with disabilities and how they can ...more
A disability-savvy workplace culture sees people with disabilities as the adaptable, problem solving, hard working people that they are. In this talk, Gary describes the historic emergence of people with disabilities and how they can contribute in the workplace like anyone else. He describes the elements of a disability-savvy culture where employers recognize the whole person and their abilities, whether it is a candidate for a job, or an existing employee facing the process of staying at or returning to work. A disability-savvy workplace culture commits to giving everyone what they need to be at their best. ...less
Modern Disability Etiquette; ...So Everyone Can Relax and Get the Job Done
It's common for people to be more than a little uncertain about how to react to a person with an apparent or a revealed disability. What do I say? What do I do? Do I ...more
It's common for people to be more than a little uncertain about how to react to a person with an apparent or a revealed disability. What do I say? What do I do? Do I help? Can they do the job? This confusion and discomfort can easily cost seeing a person for what they have to offer; or it can mean the unnecessary loss of an existing employee with a recent disability. Employers have reported in surveys that they aren't sure they could be comfortable managing a person with a disability. Gary Karp clears it all up with his Three Principles of Disability Etiquette: They are people first; They treasure their independence; and They are experts at living with disability. ...less

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