08/27/2026
A few minutes can feel like an eternity in an emergency.
Chris Soukup, CEO of Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc., shared a powerful example: during a 911 emergency, a deaf person may face delays while trying to connect through video relay before communicating with a dispatcher.
And his response wasn’t resignation.
It was simple:
“There’s a better way.”
That sentence captures something bigger about CSD’s 50-year journey.
The organization isn’t simply asking systems to be more accessible.
It’s asking us to rethink the systems themselves.
From emergency communication to employment.
From technology to policy.
From corporate partnerships to entrepreneurship.
Because accessibility isn’t an extra feature added after the fact.
It can determine whether someone gets a job, starts a business, stays safe in an emergency, or gets the opportunity to participate fully in society.
Chris’s superpower may be perseverance—but CSD’s larger lesson is innovation with purpose.
When we encounter a barrier, the goal shouldn’t always be to make the barrier easier to navigate.
Sometimes, the goal is to remove it entirely.
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