Accessibility leader found inspiration in daughter

Debra Ruh was comfortable working for corporate America, collecting regular paychecks and building up her retirement fund.

She risked it all for TecAccess, a Hanover County-based provider of accessibility and workforce solutions for people with disabilities, baby boomers and disabled veterans.

"I think an entrepreneur came up with the saying that ignorance is bliss," Ruh said.

Her inspiration for TecAccess was daughter Sara, who was born with Down syndrome.

"It's all about me," said Sara, 22.

Ruh, who at one point was late paying bills and making payroll for her venture, has turned the budding 8-year-old company into multimillion-dollar business, most of whose employees are disabled..

Clients include Wachovia Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., AT&T Corp, AOL, Canon, Best Buy, Dominion Resources, the Department of Defense, and state and federal agencies -- all trying to widen their customer bases and make their technologies more accessible.

Banks, for instance, need to make sure people with limited mobility can use online banking and bill-payment systems. Canon needs to ensure that blind people can use their copiers.

Where do baby boomers fit in?

"The day I turned 40, I needed these glasses; I had to have my glasses to see technology," said Ruh, now 50. "As we age, we acquire disabilities."

. . .

Ruh had worked in technology and training for the banking industry, coming to Richmond from Jacksonville, Fla., with her husband in 1994 to work at what was then Crestar Bank.

"He was the trailing spouse," she said. Edward Ruh, who worked at Capital One Financial Corp. for 11 years, is now at TecAccess, handling internal information technology.

After 25 years in banking, Ruh said, she wanted to do something different and start her own company. She dismissed ideas for a bakery or T-shirt printing company.

"I'm a horrible cook," said Ruh, a vegetarian.

What she knew was Web development and electronic learning. "What would be really cool would be to make sure technology is accessible," she thought.

What she cared about was employment opportunities for Sara.

They weren't promising.

Someone suggested that Sara could collect shopping carts from parking lots for a grocery store. "I don't want to do that," she said.

Sara wanted to be a nurse. But she would need to read at a fifthto eighth-grade level to become an aide. That wasn't happening.

Sara worked at a Wendy's during high school, cleaning tables, filling condiment containers and helping customers with trays and drinks.

She graduated with her peers from Patrick Henry High School in 2006 with a special-education diploma and worked at Henrico Doctors' Hospital that year, collecting equipment that needed to be cleaned.

Last year, Sara was named to the Top 40 under 40 by Style Weekly, the youngest person to make the list.

She works at Nordstrom's two days a week as a hostess, waiting tables or in the kitchen. "I love that place," she said.

She also discovered talent as public speaker. A spokeswoman for TecAccess, she gives a voice to people who may not be able to speak.

A big crowd doesn't faze her, she said. The mother-and-daughter team travel together, sharing the stage and speaking to people about TecAccess and the benefits of hiring people with disabilities.

"My husband and I are very blessed to have Sara," Ruh said.

"She can be bossy," said Sara, when asked about her mother. "She is always saying, 'Watch your tone.'"

Sara mentions a story she heard on a recent trip to Heidelberg, Germany. Someone jumped off a tower and left a footprint in the cement, she said. According to legend, if your foot fits the print, you are the long-lost German princess.

"I am the princess," Sara said.

She points to a new tattoo on her ankle -- a dolphin. An angel is supposed to ride the dolphin, she said. But right now, the tattoo is just a fish.

"I love dolphins," Sara said. "They protect people from sharks."

Like mother, like daughter, Ruh has a tattoo on her ankle -- the word "dream" in Chinese.

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Ruh started TecAccess in 2001, after the dot-com bubble burst. Banks weren't lending money to risky ventures, and no grants were available, despite Ruh's mission to help people with disabilities.

She came up with creative ways to fund the business, like cashing in on $150,000 in her 401(k) and pulling $300,000 in equity from their house.

"I was never funded properly. I couldn't pay employees what they deserved. . . . I used to think that everyone got money but me," Ruh said.

She stuck with it nonetheless.

"I believed in it," she said. "We built it piece by piece, using credit cards and not taking salary increases."

A national bank where she had her business account warned her to slow down, because the business was growing too fast and it would implode.

"They were right, but I didn't know how to stop," she said.

Ruh switched accounts to Virginia Business Bank, which believed in her vision.

"Debra has a real passion for what she does," said Michael Pirron, founder and CEO of Impact Makers, a Richmond information technology, management and health-care consulting service that donates its profits to charities. "It's hard for a for-profit business to protect a social mission, but Debra has done a good job of it."

Randy Wyckoff, former executive director of the Children's Museum of Richmond and Ruh's business coach, said TecAccess is a "head-and-heart business."

John Kemp, whose Washington law practice specializes in disability employment and technology, said Ruh is a compassionate, sincere person.

"She understands how important is it for everyone to be given an opportunity to participate in life -- not just employment, but life," Kemp said.

. . .

TecAccess employs 60 fulland part-timers, most with disabilities who work from home.

Ruh once hired a paraplegic from India who could not find a job. TecAccess trained him on Web testing. He now works for IBM in India.

"You always hate to lose good people. It's just the power of what we do," Ruh said.

LaMondré Pough said his job as a business development manager for TecAccess is like working with your family -- "in all the positive ways."

Pough has spinal muscular atrophy. He uses a wheelchair and can barely use his hands, yet one would never know that talking with him over the telephone.

"I have never before worked for an organization that is really interested in your individual success. This is an unusual place to work. You feel your talents are respected," he said.

He said Ruh is a ball of energy. "Her energy and passion rub off on you."

Pough and Ruh met at a conference last year in Columbia, S.C., on Web accessibility. He gave a short talk, and she invited him on spur of the moment to help with her presentation. Then she asked him to come work for her.

"The work we do really is about helping people and transforming the world to be inclusive of all people regardless of disabilities," Pough said. "Technology has always been the great equalizer for people with disabilities."

Pough said his job is building relationships. "I understand that the world of accessibility can be complicated and difficult to navigate. We're here to help you navigate the process."

He uses a microphone connected to a computer that types what he speaks. He works from his home office in Columbia.

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Making technology as accessible as possible is still an emerging business but is expected to become even larger under the federal stimulus package, Ruh said.

She doesn't worry so much about money any more, although she still marvels at how the supply rooms at big companies are "magically" full of supplies.

She recalls the early years of her business when bills and payrolls were late: "Things that really make you gray. . . . If I knew what I would do, I would have been terrified."

If she were to advise others about starting a business, she would tell them to follow the rules: "Have one year's worth of financing to pay all the bills and eight months of salary."

One wonders if she would have followed her own advice.

"I love being an entrepreneur," she said. "You're constantly redefining what the world looks like. And I feel privileged to be around the people who work for me."

Contact Carol Hazard at (804) 775-8023 or chazard@timesdispatch.com.