This article was taken from the May 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online. "I was 17 when I discovered I was a bit different," explains Caroline Casey, 39. "I realised I was [legally] blind only after a driving instructor said my sight wasn't good enough. When you are between a rock and hard place you do the most stupid thing you could possibly do." And she did. Casey, along with Myles Hilton Barber, who is blind, and Mike McKenzie, a double-leg
amputee, went around the world in 80 days using 80 different modes of transport, including abseiling, ostrich riding and scuba diving. "I got to race a car at the Malaysian Grand Prix track at 190kph. Mike thought he had nothing else to lose so he got in the car with me."
In 2000, Casey founded the charity Kanchi (originally the Aisling Foundation), which aims to change perceptions of disability. "Enabling business to see the value of this demographic -- by 2020, 20 percent of the European population will be disabled -- is at the core of what we do. In the UK alone, disabled people have a spending power of some £86 billion. We don't have a global leader in this industry, so there is this enormous opportunity for somebody to step in and take control."
Kanchi's Ability Awards scheme, launched in 2004, rewards businesses for including disabled people as customers and employees. Interest has surged, even as corporate budgets have shrunk: "Businesses are looking for a way to define themselves."
The scheme operates in Ireland and was launched last year in Spain, receiving around 500 applications. "Disability is the new green. I think disability is just about to hit its own tipping point," she says. kanchi.org
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
