Evanston firm offers solutions to businesses for fostering inclusion
BY CAROL GODDARD Contributor January 31, 2012 5:18PM
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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:39AM
If it were up to Pat Hughes, he would change the iconic white-wheelchair-in-blue sign that indicates something is accessible to people with disabilities.
He maintains that sign doesn’t mean the deaf person can use a drive-through to place a food order or that a wheelchair-bound person can enter a restaurant. The person needing help must still somehow get an employee’s and then convince the employee to offer some assistance.
Hughes has a better idea. Or rather his company, Inclusion=Solutions, has a whole bunch of better ideas: Big Bell, Fuel Call, Ballot Call and Order Assist. Each product makes it easier for people with disabilities to gain access to businesses.
These are not expensive do-overs; most of the products offer low-tech solutions to real problems.
Hughes gets passionate about describing the problems people with disabilities face.
“The disabled are denied access everywhere,” he said. “This company was set up to solve real problems.”
Restaurant alerts
The Lucky Platter, a popular Evanston restaurant, has been using one of Hughes’ products for many years. A small 5-inch step into the popular Main Street eatery can prove a total barrier to someone who uses a wheelchair.
Instead, a large round doorbell outside the building connects to the kitchen wirelessly. When a person needing assistance rings the bell, a message is broadcast to alert staff. An employee can then set up a portable ramp allowing access or offer other help.
“It tells our customers we take this issue seriously,” Lucky Platter owner Eric Singer said. “It’s helped us keep a fair amount of our longtime customers.”
Hughes said his products offer companies a way to connect with an untapped market.
He cites the 28 million deaf or hard-of-hearing folks who find useless those squawk boxes so common to drive-ins.
“It only made sense to me to fix that,” Hughes said.
His product, Order Assist, has been installed in 60 Culver’s locations. Customers with impaired hearing can ring a bell alerting an employee that a customer is unable to use the regular ordering system. Employees then give the customer a small clipboard with menu options and a pencil to indicate their order.
Help at gas stations
His company’s Fuel Call works similarly in gas stations. A sign alerts customers that help is available and notes the hours when the service is available. A bell summons employees to help the customer.
An employee who uses his hands to drive his car inspired this idea. Before Fuel Call, he had to rely on his wife to swipe the credit card, open the gas tank and insert the nozzle when he needed to fuel his car. Now he has other options.
The cost per station is $1,000, but Hughes says some corporate parents will pay half that fee. He adds that the payback for installation costs is an impressive six months.
The most successful products Innovation=Solutions sells are those that enable everyone to vote. The Bush-Gore election that ushered in the Help America Vote Act of 1992 provided the impetus to change polling places to make them more accessible — and the federal funds to pay for it.
“We offer 350 products to make polling places accessible to everyone,” Hughes said. Those products range from better signs and magnifying glasses to lowered tables for those in wheelchairs.
How it all started
Hughes drifted through high school and college until 1998 when he chanced upon an autistic man named Jay. Hughes struck up a conversation and started meeting with Jay three days a week. Gradually Hughes became aware of the needs of millions of mentally and physically challenged people.
He realized he wanted to encourage friendships and social relationships between people with disabilities and those without.
“I graduated from school with a stack of letters from parents who wanted me to get their son or daughter connected to society,” Hughes said.
With the help of two Northwestern professors, he started a nonprofit, Natural Ties, that expanded the idea of social inclusion.
But social interaction could only go so far; Hughes wanted to make it easier for people with disabilities to overcome the physical boundaries they encounter. That led him to found Inclusion=Solutions.
At first the company had a Chicago address, but two years ago Hughes moved the business to Evanston where he grew up.
“It feels like a small town,” he said of Evanston. “I like the people, business owners here. I want to see them succeed.”
The biggest push-back Hughes gets from businesses, he said, is that there is no impetus for them to change: “Most disabled have figured out how to do it.”
“But rejection only makes me stronger,” he said. “One day I’ll get some connection with someone who has a deaf son or who lost part of his hearing.”
“The feeling of being included makes you feel good,” Hughes said of helping those with mental or physical disabilities overcome some natural barriers. “People can connect; I can physically see it.”
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