On the Spectrum Empowerment Stories with Sonia Krishna Chand: Adult Autism, Neurodivergent, and Mental Health Expert

We Put Wheels on Inclusion (And Yes, They’re at Target) with Drew Ann Long

• Sonia Krishna Chand | Autism and Neurodivergent Mental Health Coaching Expert • Season 2 • Episode 48

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A store manager said, “There’s no such thing as a special needs shopping cart.” That moment lit the fuse for Drew Ann Long, who turned a napkin sketch into Caroline’s Cart—now standard in Target, Walmart, and Sam’s Club, and a symbol of what happens when families refuse to accept exclusion as normal. We walk through the emotional and practical beats: Caroline’s Rett syndrome diagnosis, the day-to-day realities of caregiving, and the exact problem that made shopping unsafe and exhausting once novelty carts were outgrown.

From there, we trace the hard road of accessibility innovation. Multiple major manufacturers said no—twice. Drew Ann built a prototype anyway, rallied a global community through social media, and reframed the question for retailers: why offer carts for able-bodied kids but none for people with disabilities? The proof arrived in the form of customer demand that wouldn’t quit. Target committed nationwide in 2017. Walmart and Sam’s Club followed with coast-to-coast rollouts in 2024. Along the way, the original holdouts returned to manufacture the carts in North Carolina, a testament to persistence, grassroots momentum, and a market hiding in plain sight.

We also spotlight Caroline’s Cause, the nonprofit funding scholarships for siblings of people with disabilities—kids who often shoulder silent compromises in therapy rooms, hospital schedules, and quiet family tradeoffs. 

You could find more information at https://www.drewannspeaks.com/

When organizations book Drew Ann to speak, fees support scholarships, turning awareness into action. And there’s still work to do. Some major chains haven’t adopted the cart, leaving room for listener-led advocacy: ask your local store to order, tag retailers publicly, and help rebuild the Caroline’s Cart social pages after a recent hack.

Subscribe, share this story with a friend who cares about accessibility, and leave a review with the name of a retailer you want to see add Caroline’s Cart next. Your nudge might be the one that tips the scale.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello everyone. Just imagine, you know, you have a challenge thrown your way, and there are many ways that people can go when there's a challenge presented to them, right? Either they A give up and just live in despair, or B, take it head on. And in even some cases, use that challenge to become creative. Challenges happen in many different ways and many different forms for people. And in today's case, we have our guest, Drew Ann Long. She is the inventor of Carolyn's cart, largely inspired by her daughter who has a disability. And not only did Carolyn inspire her mom in many ways to do something to bring awareness, Carolyn, Carolyn's cart is now featured in stores all throughout the US and internationally, including Target and Walmart. And here to share her story is Miss Mrs. Drew Ann Long. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah. I can't wait to get started. This is gonna be fun. I'm excited. All right. So why don't you tell us a little bit about how everything started to come into being? Why don't you tell us, like, share with us first, like, you know, your daughter, she has a disability. So if you wouldn't mind sharing with us like that journey in and of itself.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. So I'm a married mom. I have three kids. They're all adults now. But my middle child, Kaeline, was born with um RET syndrome, R-E-T-T, a genetic syndrome, um, that she's had since birth. She doesn't walk or talk. She's now almost 25. She'll be 25 next month. But um, when she was younger, and I had two typical kids as well, so I had three little kids, and I was constantly going to the grocery store and I would carry Caroline in and just use what the stores had. But Caroline soon outgrew what the stores had. You know, you've all seen the fun carts. They look like race cars or fire trucks. Those were great, loved them, used them for Caroline. But when she outgrew those, I thought, well, she needs a special needs shopping cart. So I went to the store manager and I said, you know, you see me in here all the time. She is now outgrown. Everything here. I'm in small town, Alabama. Can you get me a special needs shopping cart? He said, Well, I've never seen one, but there probably is one and I'll get it. So about a week later, I circled back with him and he's like, There is no special needs shopping cart. There's none. And I was like, What? And I was really shocked because, as you probably know, the special needs population is the world's largest minority group. We are in every community. So I'm like, wow, if I need Caroline's cart, millions need Caroline's cart. And so it was born out of a need for my own daughter, Caroline. That's how it started. Just an idea.

SPEAKER_00:

So how did she get diagnosed with Rhett's syndrome? And how old was she when she got diagnosed?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so Rhett's Rhett syndrome, um, it's it's really cruel because I left the hospital. I was told she was perfectly healthy. When she passed all the newborn screening tests, life was great. Rhett doesn't appear till they're about a year and a half to two years old. Um, and she started regressing, and I knew she wasn't hitting milestones. She was my second. I was, I knew. So we just you, you know, you just chase diagnoses and all the things. And she was pro she was late. She was probably four-ish, three to four, before she got diagnosed with Rett syndrome.

SPEAKER_00:

So, what exactly is Rhett syndrome for people who don't know what that is?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, it's genetic. So I'm not a carrier, my husband's not a carrier. It's just a random genetic mutation, mainly in girls. Just, you know, just happened. You know, just happened. I think, I think probably more girls walk than don't walk. Mine's in the category that doesn't walk. There's a lot that don't walk. Mine, mine is non-caroline's nonverbal. Most girls are nonverbal. Some girls with ret do have words. They don't talk like we talk, but they might have some words. I've heard ret girls have, you know, a very limited vocabulary, but there's no cure. You just manage symptoms. So, yeah, she's now 25. Uh, she's in a wheelchair, she's tube fed. You know, it's a severe disability for sure, but she's aware and she's happy and she goes to day programs. Yeah, we just take one day at a time.

SPEAKER_00:

When she was first diagnosed, were they kind of suggesting any kind of treatments for it? Did they try to say, you know, certain, you know, try to send her to certain places?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think the main thing when she was diagnosed was just early intervention therapies. So we did all those. Just you work as hard as you can with what you have. Now Rhett syndrome has come a long way in research. And there are some drugs that are given not to cure, but to help manage symptoms. So we've really seen Rhett syndrome evolve in what they are doing with research and treatments since she's been diagnosed. Again, no cure. Maybe someday, we're hopeful someday that there will be a cure. I think the the main thing for us and for most girls is just intensive therapies. You know, each, it's it, it's it's it's kind of a spectrum. I think that there are some that are higher functioning than others, of course. I think Caroline is on the lower end of the Rhett Girls. And um, yeah, we just we do the best we can with what we got.

SPEAKER_00:

So when you started with Caroline's cart. Now you this started, you went to the store, the store said to you that there's no special needs carts after a week of asking. So then what was your next move?

SPEAKER_01:

So I I I knew it I in my mind it was very simple. If you I don't know if you've seen it, but it it it's it's you know, it's just a simple modification to a shopping cart. So I I literally drew it on a napkin. My husband and I were out to dinner one night, and I thought, wow, this is not hard. This needs to be out there for the older child and the adult with special needs. So drew it on a piece of paper, and there's four major shopping cart manufacturers in the United States, and I reached out to all four of them, and all four of them told me no, that they were not interested. So I, yeah, it kind of made me mad. And I'm like, gosh, if if there can be a variety of shopping carts, you're missing out on the world's largest minority group. So I was determined I was just gonna find a way and learn how to do it, and that's what I did. Just had to figure it out every step of the way.

SPEAKER_00:

So, what was that process like for you to have to figure it out on your own?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, it was so hard. I'll tell you this, I was very naive, and I'm glad that I was because that I had if I had seen the journey and the money and the years and the rejection, I probably would have not done it. But I thought it would be easy. So I'm so glad that I was naive in the beginning. Yeah, I just was determined. I I finally got a prototype made in Indiana. I'm in Alabama, I couldn't find anybody in Alabama to to do anything with me. So I got my first prototype in Indianapolis, Indiana, and I brought it home and I started social media, and the response was tremendous from post and day number one of families saying, We need it, we need it, we need it, we need it. So tons, tons of great encouragement from families all over the world. I mean, I remember my first month. I'm sure I probably still have it because I've never deleted an email. I've got millions, just about. I got an email from South Africa. And I'm like, oh my gosh. It was a global unmet need. So I feel like I just had jumped off a cliff and I was like, oh my gosh, we got to do this now. You know, so many people want this, want this, want this. So then I took my prototype and I went back to corporate America shopping cart manufacturers and they told me no a second time. And I was like, oh my gosh, I don't understand why. Why is this so why was the rejection from the shopping cart manufacturer so, you know, like just didn't want to do it, hadn't zero interest. So I had to find a manufacturer. I found one in Georgia that did not make shopping carts, but he he was able to make me a hundred Caroline's carts of my first. And, you know, it started just like that, just trying to get it out there and build the demand.

SPEAKER_00:

And what was it like for you to get all this outreach from families who, when they saw Carolyn's cart for the first time, they were just awestruck and were, you know, expressing a need for it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here today talking to you because I'm just one voice. And I needed a grassroots nationwide effort to build the demand, to prove that this was needed. You know, I created a product that the consumer wanted, but the consumer couldn't buy it. You know, I had to sell Caroline's cart to the retailer to, you know, and and and retailers don't buy Caroline's cart, mark it up, and sell it. You know, Caroline's cart comes off the bottom line, you know, an operating cost, an overhead cost. So I feel like I am the unicorn of innovators. You know, millions of people create products, watch Shark Tank. It happens all the time, and boom, they they they put them on Amazon, they they get them made and they sell to the consumer. It's just success. I didn't have that. I didn't have that luxury. I had to, I had to sell my product to the retailer. And without that grassroots effort, without families all over the country, it would have never happened because again, I'm just one voice and I needed to make some noise. And we needed to just storm these retailers to say, wait a second, you are, for lack of a better word, discriminating against us when you provide carts for the able-bodied, but you're not providing carts for the disabled. So had to have them, social media was a great thing for me because without it, it would have never, ever gotten off the ground.

SPEAKER_00:

Tell me about the first time you got contacted by Target and you realize now in 2017 here, Target did a big rollout of that of the right.

SPEAKER_01:

It was just, it was so exciting. We we had been in maybe of all the targets in the United States, we had probably been in 50, you know, but they wouldn't do a nationwide rollout. So finally, after, you know, again, their customers all over the country saying, Well, why does a Michigan Target have it? But I'm California, my target, you know, Target was hearing from their customers. And Target was like, it's time for us to put these in all of our stores. So that was probably the biggest home run at that time in 2017, because Targets are in every state, I believe, you know. So, and I mean, who doesn't know Target? Target's a nationwide retailer. We all love Target. I'm a Target girl. So that really, really, really was um huge, a huge win for Caroline's cart and a huge win for the special needs community.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, when Target did their big rollout, were you at the store at that time when they announced it?

SPEAKER_01:

I was not at the store. They did a press release. Um I, of course, went to my store, you know, and I I went to my all my channels on social media and um it got a lot of nationwide press. I think you can still go to Google and Google Caroline's cart, and I mean, you see all the media, and you can even pull the press releases from 2017 when when that happened.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and then in 2024, another big home run was made when Walmart did a big rollout. And in fact, uh William White, uh, their chief marketing officer, had reached to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, yes. I got to go to Bentonville, Arkansas. I got to meet William White. I mean, that's it. I mean, I was starstruck just to be on, they called it exec row at corporate Walmart in Arkansas. So I got to go there, I got to take pictures. They rolled Caroline's cart out to every super center and neighborhood market. And I don't know, you know, it's kind of like a grocery store, the Walmart grocery store. So we are in every single one in the country. So if you've not heard of Caroline's cart or if you want to see what it is, just go to your local Walmart. And we they also did a rollout for every Sam's Club.

SPEAKER_00:

This must have been so heartwarming and so touching to have this big of an impact. And in many ways, basically, it's a big slap in those manufacturers' faces who refused to give you any aid of those people who are making shopping carts and refuse to help you. Well, nationally, internationally, it's a big slap in their face of being like, you know what? We didn't allow to have made it.

SPEAKER_01:

Let me circle back. So when I had the hundred carts, I was just trying to seed the market to build the demand, but Walmart wouldn't buy, wouldn't buy my first round. Target wouldn't buy them. They're like, oh, we only buy from one manufacturer in North Carolina. Well, that's the one that told me no two times. So after I had created enough demand and placed my first hundred carts, that manufacturer called me back. And on my third trip up there, we got with they they gave me a contract on my third trip. So now every Caroline's cart that you see comes out of North Carolina. But it did, it did, it took two no's. And then finally on the third, on my third try, I did finally get a yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And this is just the power of belief and persistence shown right here. And it's so admirable what you've done. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and again, I I I there I'm only one voice. It was it was a huge, huge effort nationwide. I, you know, I needed, I needed the special needs families to rally behind this, and they did.

SPEAKER_00:

This is so amazing, and I'm so proud of you, so proud of what you've done. So what now is I understand that you also now have a nonprofit. Yes, correct?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. So I started Caroline's cause, and it's it's, you know, because of the success of Caroline's Cart, we wanted to give back to the special needs community. How do we do that? Well, I wanted to give, I have, you know, a daughter graduated from college, I've got a son in college. College is expensive. So I wanted to give a scholarship, and it's never been done before, to a special needs family. So the family has to be a dynamic like mine where, you know, there is a special needs sibling in the mix. So to qualify for Caroline's cost scholarship, you have to have a special needs sibling. And we know that siblings take a backseat to their special needs brother or sister. And I watched it in my own family, you know, it's not always easy to grow up in a house where there is a special needs child. A lot of sacrifices have to be made. And we wanted to honor and recognize that family and that student by saying, hey, we give a one-time$5,000 scholarship to someone that is entering their freshman year of college. It is really exploded. We haven't been able to fund all that we get. So now I am really looking for corporate sponsors. I'm, you know, on my website, which is DrewAnspeaks.com, you can link to Caroline's heart and Caroline's cause. And I travel speaking. And when speakers, when companies hire me to speak, they pay my nonprofit. So they get a tax benefit for me coming to speak, and their money goes to scholarships. So I really hope that you have listeners that are like, wow, I need them to come speak at my company. And it's a win-win because you're helping, you're helping send kids to college by hiring me to come speak. And your company gets a tax break because I'm a nonprofit. DreannSpeaks.com. That's my website.

SPEAKER_00:

Dreamspeaks.com.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. All together. Drew Ann D-R-E-W-A-N-N speaks. S-P-E-A-K-X-U-S dot com. Drew Anspeaks. And that links you to everything that I'm doing, the cause in the cart.

SPEAKER_00:

Excellent. And this will be definitely in the show notes. What are other ways that people can learn more about Carolyn's cart? Other ways that people can find you?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, um, social media used to have 100,000 followers, and I got hacked this summer. They they kept my pictures, they didn't shut my page down, but I guess they just they deleted all my followers. So I'm really I'm so so go to go to social media, go to Facebook, Caroline's Cart, like it. You know, a lot of your listeners might be like, gosh, I haven't seen them around in a while. Well, because they they they took you off. So now everybody's got to go back, like my page. I'm on Instagram as well. I'm on TikTok, all the channels. So the best way to support Caroline's cart is to continue to raise awareness. You know, we still have runway left. Costco. Costco has said no to Caroline's cart. They don't see the need. It's shocking. Home Depot doesn't see the need. So here we are in every Lowe's, but they're their number one competition, Home Depot, has said no. Can you believe that? Yeah. So I'm a Lowe's girl. And you know, Lowe's, Lowe's and Home Depot, same type stores. They're both nationwide. So if you're a Home Depot shopper, if you're a Costco shopper, we need to reach out and we need to say, why would you say no to Caroline's cart? Why? So I still have a lot of work to do on spreading, yeah, on doing advocacy. And that's what I need help on probably the most is if your store doesn't have it, any store can order it. Any store can order it. So if your store doesn't have it, be sure to request it.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And, you know, we're happy to support all the causes and definitely, you know, wishing you much continued success. Thank you. And very proud of all the work you've done. Thank you. Have you seen Caroline's card?

SPEAKER_01:

I have. I have. You've seen it, yeah. Well, again, it's it's almost hard to not find it in your store. If, you know, again, we're not in Costco's and we're not in home. I mean, we're in a few Costco's. So you might have a listener that like, well, my Costco has it. Well, we're in very few. Corporate refuses to do a nationwide rollout. So other than those two, yeah, we're we're just about everywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I really hope that Home Depot and Costco get on board with it and get it. And I'm really rooting for you guys and supporting your cause.

SPEAKER_01:

And I appreciate you having me. I mean, if it wasn't for people like you helping me get the word out, you know, I I wouldn't be able to continue this work. So thank you for having me on your show. I'm excited. I hope I hear from your listeners. You can contact me through my website, drewanspeaks.com, and I'm excited to see where comes of this.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Well, thank you very, very much for being here. And everybody, please go on drewandspeaks.com to learn more, find ways to support and advocate, and let's help get the word out for Carolyn's cart even more now. Thank you. Thank you.