Letisha Wexstten is on a quest to see more people with disabilities in the workforce. This purpose-driven mission is personal for Letisha, who was born without arms and struggled mightily to find employment after earning an associate degree in graphic communications from St. Louis Community College in 2012. As the rejection letters piled up and her non-disabled peers landed jobs, Letisha concluded that employers simply doubted her ability to do the work.
The experience motivated her to find a way to empower others facing similar challenges. While finishing a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the University of Missouri–St. Louis in 2019, Letisha created V15Able (pronounced “visible”), a digital platform that allows job seekers with disabilities to connect and showcase their skills with potential employers. Her idea got a major boost from UMSL’s inaugural Entrepreneur Quest Student Accelerator pitch competition, where Letisha won first place and a $15,000 development grant. She then received a $50,000 award from Arch Grants and more recently earned a spot in the Pipeline Pathfinder program, which helps underserved entrepreneurs. Through her UMSL journey, Letisha has taken an idea and turned it into reality, creating a resource that stands to transform the workplace for disabled job seekers everywhere.
“I want to see more businesses making accommodations and using V15Able to find out how to make their environments more accessible,” she said. “I really believe that long-term, this platform has the potential to help connect people with disabilities around the world.”
Among other things, V15Able will allow users the opportunity to demonstrate to prospective employers how they would complete projects and tasks. The idea for this was prompted by her own YouTube page, Tisha Unarmed, which she started in 2012 to inspire others as she was dealing with frustration in the job market.
"When I saw how much difference the YouTube channel was making, I knew that I wanted to help other people like me gain the confidence they needed to take back their independence," she said. "V15Able is a game changer that connects people with a platform that will allow them to truly express their capabilities."
