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This week’s theme: Accessibility & Inclusion
In this episode of From Fear to Fire, host Heather Hansen O’Neill speaks with disability advocate, educator, and author Jenna Udenberg about lived experience, leadership, and the true meaning of Accessibility and Inclusion. Jenna shares her journey as a lifelong wheelchair user and founder of the nonprofit Above and Beyond With U, emphasizing that accessibility is not about checking boxes or meeting minimum ADA requirements. Instead, it requires involving disabled people from the very beginning so spaces, systems, and decisions reflect real human needs rather than assumptions.
Jenna also reframes disability as a neutral part of the human experience, explaining that barriers are most often created by environments and attitudes, not bodies. She encourages organizations and leaders to move beyond good intentions and take intentional action rooted in Accessibility and Inclusion across workplaces, education, and community spaces. Her message is clear: when people feel welcomed, safe, and valued, everyone benefits, and that awareness is what helps individuals and organizations truly move from fear to fire.
From Fear to Fire: Secrets to Overcome Fear, Embrace Your Gifts and Achieve Success
This is the place where real people share real challenges. Where you can find a common bond and uncommon wisdom through their stories. Use tips from the breakthroughs of others to jump-start your success. Speaker, author, adventurer, and host Heather Hansen O’Neill takes you on the journey from fear to fire. Today, we explore how true accessibility and inclusion are achieved by centering disabled voices, challenging assumptions, and intentionally designing spaces, systems, and cultures where everyone can belong and thrive.
Jenna Udenberg
Jenna Udenberg is a lifelong resident from the Northshore of Minnesota and is a former music educator of 19 years. She has used a manual wheelchair since the age of 8 due to Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Jenna is a 2017 Blandin Foundation Community Leader, a 2020 Bush Fellow, and a 2025 Shannon Leadership Institute Fellow. Writing for the Lake County Press in her column, Local View from 4 foot 2, inspires vulnerability and the sharing of lived experiences from the seated perspective.
Within My Spokes: A Tapestry of Pain, Growth & Freedom is Jenna’s published memoir which you can find on the A&BWU website, on Amazon or wherever you find your books. In her free time, you can find Jenna outdoors on paved trails or fishing with friends, playing board and card games, as well as coaching the Robo Dweebs, a LEGO robotics team. Jenna is the founder of the non-profit, Above & Beyond With U, which works to increase accessibility and inclusion in Minnesota and beyond.
Connect with Jenna:
Website: Above and Beyond With U
LinkedIn: Above & Beyond With U
Facebook: Above & Beyond With U
Instagram: aboveandbeyondwithu
Quote of the Day:
“Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.” ~Jim Rohn
Finding Humanity: The Evolution of Sales is out now. Check it out here!
