Your accessibility statement is not a system.
Not a resilience talk. A build manual.
Book Ryan →An estimated 15 to 20% of people are neurodivergent. A PDF does not onboard them.
Source: Doyle (2020), British Medical Bulletin, 135(1).
- Accommodation is a form somebody has to ask for.
- The awareness session happened. Nothing changed on Monday.
- The people the policy is about were not in the room when it was written.
Your disabled staff stop being an accommodation request. They become the design brief.
Three threads. One keynote.
Lived experience
Autistic, ADHD and dyslexic. Diagnosed at 41. He describes what he built, not what he read.
Invisible disabilities
What your team cannot see is still shaping how they work. He makes it visible without making it a spectacle.
Disability justice
Build around the people at the margin first. The system gets better for everyone in it.
He fights systems, not people.
Ryan Perez is a cognitive architect, the author of three books and a stand-up comedian. He founded Bow Tie Kreative in Calgary in 2013. He is autistic, ADHD and dyslexic, and he was diagnosed at 41.
The room laughs first. Then it learns.
What the rooms said
All 43 reviews ↗“He took a room full of leaders and quietly dismantled every assumption they had about neurodivergence. Then he handed them something better.”
“Delivered a keynote at our Mental Health Summit while he was unhoused. The honesty in that room changed how our whole organization talks about wellbeing.”
“A pattern-thinker who sees what the rest of us miss. His framing of “activation over accommodation” reframed our entire DEI approach.”
“The most authentic speaker we have booked. He does not perform inspiration — he earns it, story by story.”
“Every time we have Ryan Perez speak with the community at Virtual Gurus we always walk away with so many gems. If you're looking for someone to speak to your community about how to embrace different ways of thinking, I cannot recommend Ryan enough.”
“I want to thank you. I have tried to explain this for years.”
FAQs
Is this an inspiration talk?
No. Not a resilience talk. A build manual. Your team leaves with something to do, not something to feel.
Does Ryan speak from lived experience?
Yes. He is autistic, ADHD and dyslexic, and was diagnosed at 41. He describes what he built and why it had to exist.
Who is it for?
Leadership rooms, HR and people teams, nonprofits, small businesses and enterprise events.
What does it cost, and how long is it?
Ask Ryan about fees, talk lengths and virtual options for your event.
Tell him about the room.
Tell Ryan about your event. Event, desired change and your email are required. The other details help shape the conversation.
Submitting sends your enquiry to Ryan. It does not confirm a booking.
