ABOUT BRETT HEISING
A sought-after public speaker with dozens of engagements across the United States and internationally, Brett Heising educates audiences on accessible travel, disability inclusion, and the critical distinction between ADA compliance and true accessibility. His work has shaped how organizations serve more than 60 million Americans living with disabilities.
In 2025, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs appointed Heising to the Arizona Statewide Independent Living Council, where he began serving in September. The following month, he became a published author, contributing a chapter—co-written with Dr. Stefanie Benjamin of the University of Tennessee — to the Handbook of Accessible Tourism (De Gruyter Studies in Tourism).
Heising is the former CEO and Chief Marketing Officer of brettapproved, Inc., the accessibility-focused travel company he launched in 2012 and grew into a globally recognized platform. Under his leadership, brettapproved raised approximately $1.1 million in investment capital and generated more than $1 million in earned media coverage in outlets such as The Washington Post, Today, Inc., and U.S. News & World Report.
Today, Heising serves as Principal at Brett Heising Consulting, partnering with organizations around the world to help them understand and address the complex realities of disability. His work emphasizes practical, real-world strategies that move clients beyond minimum ADA compliance toward meaningful, sustainable accessibility and inclusion. He’s also an accomplished Public Relations professional with experience in the healthcare, financial services, green technology and public utility sectors.
A graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and a Public Relations emphasis, Heising was honored by the Phoenix Business Journal as a member of its 2015 “40 Under 40” class.
His civic leadership includes long-standing service on the Board of Directors for United Cerebral Palsy of Central Arizona — where he served as Board Chair from 2021 to 2024 — as well as service on the Visit Mesa Board of Directors and the Mesa for All Foundation Board. He is an alumnus of Valley Leadership’s Leadership Advance, Class 1; served on the Phoenix Mayor’s Commission on Disability from 2013 to 2019; and served on the Ability360 Board of Directors from 2013 to 2015.
Heising lives in the Phoenix, Arizona with his wife, Claudia, and their Golden Retriever, Handsome George. A former contributor to the New York Daily News and TravelPulse.com, he’s guided by a core belief that accessibility isn’t a checklist of minimum requirements, rather a commitment to ensuring every person can participate fully in the experiences that make life meaningful
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SPEAKING TOPICS
Included but not limited to:
- “Disability” within Diversity & Inclusion (Keynote): Brett reframes disability as a core pillar of an inclusive culture, not a footnote. He blends candid lived experience with executive-level communications expertise to help leaders replace performative gestures with durable practice. He stresses language, policy, and everyday behaviors that signal belonging, then demonstrates how inclusive choices compound into trust, innovation, and market reach. The talk is frank, optimistic, and relentlessly practical: audiences leave with a shared vocabulary, a decision framework, and the confidence to change the room—not just the slide deck
- ADA Compliance vs. True Accessibility (Keynote): Brett draws a bright line between passing audits and welcoming people. He illustrates how organizations mistake legal minimums for customer experience, then shows how to move beyond checklists to journeys that actually work. With stories, failure points, and “before/after” redesigns, he proves that accessibility is an engine for product quality, talent retention, and risk reduction. He offers a diagnostic teams can apply immediately and a sequencing plan to prioritize fixes with outsized impact. The effect is liberating leaders finally see accessibility as an advantage—not a burden.
- The Economic Power of Disability (Keynote): Brett makes the commercial case with clarity and force. He quantifies the spending power of people with disabilities and their households, then connects it to loyalty, word-of-mouth, and brand resilience. He dissects common misses (messaging, product fit, service friction) and demonstrates how modest changes unlock disproportionate returns. Drawing on travel and hospitality examples, he shows how accessibility improves outcomes for all customers—shorter cycles, fewer escalations, higher NPS. This is a board-ready argument backed by practice: accessibility as strategy, growth, and reputation insurance.
- Guest Interaction Training (Workshop): Brett’s workshop turns good intentions into muscle memory for frontline teams. He demonstrates language that de-escalates, questions that clarify needs without prying, and service moves that preserve dignity and speed. Participants practice realistic scenarios, receive precise feedback, and leave with pocket-ready prompts and checklists. Managers get coaching tools and scorecards to sustain progress. The training is humane, specific, and brand-safe—the fastest route to fewer complaints, better reviews, and guests who feel seen.
- Know Your Property (Workshop): Brett leads a guided, guest-eye walkthrough to expose friction points and easy wins across entries, pathways, rooms, signage, and service moments. He prioritizes fixes by impact and cost, then translates them into an action plan facilities, ops, and guest services can own together. The session surfaces “silent failures” (lighting, reach ranges, wayfinding, housekeeping routines) and replaces them with clear standards and quick upgrades. Results are immediate and measurable: fewer workarounds, smoother flows, and a space that signals welcome before anyone says a word.
- From Adversity to Agency: Building brettapproved and Reimagining Possibility (Keynote): In this keynote, Brett shares a deeply personal and energizing account of turning challenge into purpose— from navigating life and career with a disability to excelling in corporate America and ultimately founding brettapproved, Inc., the world’s first disability-focused travel company. With candor and wit, he recounts raising $1.1 million in investment to launch a platform that redefined accessible travel and empowered thousands of people with disabilities to see the world on their terms. But the story doesn’t end there. Brett reflects on the heartbreak of closing brettapproved during the COVID19 pandemic—an unprecedented global crisis that decimated the travel industry for nearly five years. Rather than letting that loss define him, he transformed it into his greatest lesson in perseverance, adaptability, and leadership under uncertainty. Today, Brett shares how to navigate disappointment with grace, extract growth from failure, and find renewed purpose when the path forward disappears overnight. His message is raw, redemptive, and profoundly motivating—a masterclass in resilience, reinvention, and the enduring value of optimism.
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