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Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) In partnership with State Services for the Blind of Minnesota we are proud to present, PACER Center - Champions for Children with Disabilities.  Barb and Kate sit down with Jeff Thompson of Blind Abilities in the sixth of a series of podcasts in partnership with PACER Center and State Services for the Blind. You can find the entire PACER Center series here. Barb talks about her role as Co-Director of the National Parent Center on Transition and Employment and her experiences in advocacy that led her to PACER Center. Kate shares her experiences from her journey through her kids transition from youth into adulthood. What worked and where she found answers. Join Barb, Kate and Jeff in this informative podcast about how PACER Center, State Services for the Blind and others played a role in the success of not only their kids transition into college, the work place and independence, but how Barb and Kate too, made the transition themselves in part by letting them grow. From the web: PACER Center enhances the quality of life and expands opportunities for children, youth, and young adults with all disabilities and their families, so each person can reach his or her highest potential. PACER operates on the principles of parents helping parents, supporting families, promoting a safe environment for all children, and working in collaboration with others. With assistance to individual families, workshops, materials for parents and professionals, and leadership in securing a free and appropriate public education for all children, PACER's work affects and encourages families in Minnesota and across the nation. Contacts: You can find out more about PACER Center on the web at www.pacer.org You can reach pACER Center by phone at 952-838-9000 You can find out more about State Services for the Blind on the web at www.MN.Gov/Deed/SSB And by calling 651-539-2300 Live Learn Work and Play Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Full Transcript: PACER Center: Letting Them Grow – Transitioning from Youth to Adulthood - A Conversation with Parents Barb Ziemke and Kate Reinicke Jeff Thompson: State Services for the Blind of Minnesota presents PACER Center, champions for children with disabilities. This episode focuses on a parent's perspective of the transition period from youth to adulthood. We feature to speakers today. We have Barb Ziemke. She's the co-director of the National Parent Center on Transition and Employment. Also joining us is Kate Reinicke. She's the parent of three children with visual impairments. You can find out more about PACER Center and the National Parent Center on Transition and Employment on the web at www.PACER.org. Kate Reinicke: Have high expectations. Your kids can handle it. If they can't, you make an adjustment. Barb Ziemke: Desire to have my son included and to have meaningful experiences and not to be misunderstood or for people to judge his potential on the basis of assumptions. Kate Reinicke: Then after that it was taking care of. I didn't have to worry about it anymore. This was something he was handling. Barb Ziemke: Letting grow as a concept for young adults, especially those with challenges that do make this transition more challenging, as opposed to letting go. Kate Reinicke: Everyone was there with the same purpose. We all need information, we all want information, we all want to know how can we navigate this together. Everybody's there to help out. Jeff Thompson: Realizing the possibilities. Kate Reinicke: The blind abilities and possibilities. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities. I'm Jeff Thompson. I'm at the PACER Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. Today I'm joined by Barb Ziemke. How are you doing? Barb Ziemke: I'm doing great. Thanks so much for being here today. Jeff Thompson: Barb, can you tell us a little about PACER Center and yourself? Barb Ziemke: Sure. PACER Center is Minnesota's parent training and information center that receives some funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to help families navigate special education, students on 504 Plans, any individual with a disability who requires support or services or accommodations. Barb Ziemke: PACER is here to provide information in family-friendly kinds of language to interpret the language or the law to language that helps families be the best advocate they can be to get what their students need to succeed. We like to support high expectations and help families know about the possibilities so that they don't feel alone on the journey. I like to say PACER tries to give both help and hope. Jeff Thompson: Well, that's great. How about a little bit about yourself? Barb Ziemke: Well, I came to PACER 17 years ago. I am the parent of two children: my daughter, Kristen, and then her younger brother, Brandon. When Brandon was born, he had an unspecific developmental disability with global developmental issues, including he has hearing only on one side and very poor fine motor skills and a variety of challenges, including intellectual disability. Barb Ziemke: As a parent, it just threw me for a loop. My background is education, but I didn't know anything really about disability or about special education, and so I dove head first into being involved in some local efforts to include families as much as possible in both policy and practices for helping young children with disabilities really have inclusive educations that led to great outcomes. Barb Ziemke: I lifelong have been an advocate for children, but when Brandon was in about seventh grade, I remember thinking, "I think I finally know what I'm doing around advocating as a parent within the education system. I wonder if there's any kind of job out there where you could help other families who maybe don't have a background in education or don't have the family support that I have, or maybe they don't speak English as their first language or they have a disability themselves." I thought of PACER and, fortunately, they had a job opening, and I became an advocate. Barb Ziemke: My primary role here for 15 years was as a special education advocate. Then a few years ago, PACER really realized that it's not enough to get students through school because the big challenge often is what some people call the transition cliff, when you have to make that transition into adulthood. We started the National Parent Center on Transition and Employment to support families and young adults as they launch into adulthood. I am co-directing that project along with our transition team here. We've partnered with State Services for the Blind for the last couple of years to provide more support for the pre-employment transition services, especially as it relates to family engagement in that process. Jeff Thompson: Well, you've done a good job with that. Let me go back a little bit. When you first realized that you had to start advocating, what feeling was that? Was it empty or were you lost? Barb Ziemke: Well, the first feeling was being overwhelmed and a bit scared. Mainly it stemmed, for me, and every parent is different, but I don't deal well with the unknown. I'm a researcher, I'm an information person. Because Brandon didn't have a specific diagnosis and his early prognosis was we're not sure if he'll ever walk, talk, be independent, it was difficult to figure out how to proceed when I didn't have any good idea of what the end might be. To plan with the end in mind when you don't know what the end could be was really daunting. Barb Ziemke: I had an older daughter, and although none of us can predict the future, I had basic expectations for her that were similar to my own life trajectory. Now I assumed she'd graduate from school, go to college, probably get married someday. Now I had Brandon, and I was supposed to make sure he got what he needed, but no one could give me a clear picture of where we were headed. Initially, it was pretty overwhelming. Jeff Thompson: Taking that experience, you brought that to PACER Center once you found them. Barb Ziemke: Exactly, because I remember what it was like. I also remember so much that desire to have my son included and to have meaningful experiences and not to be misunderstood or for people to judge his potential on the basis of assumptions. That drove my advocacy because I found that although the professionals who came alongside us were wonderful and we couldn't have accomplished what we did without them, that the parent voice was pivotal because other people can't care as much and they don't know as much. We are the experts on our kids. Barb Ziemke: It's just really drove what I do here at PACER because I really feel like if parents don't know how important they are in their role and if they don't have the support they need, that young people won't do as well. At the core of all this, I really care about youth and children success. Jeff Thompson: Oh, great. It's a great thing that PACER is doing. There's other parents that come here for the same thing now as you did. Barb Ziemke: That's right. Those parents who don't become a professional staff advocate, the families that come to our workshops and use our resources online, it's training to be the best advocate they can be as well as to help support them in helping their youth and young adult to be the best self-advocate they can be and to make this transition as families with some supports during the process. Jeff Thompson: One of those parents we have here today. Barb Ziemke: I'm so thankful that Kate Reinicke has joined us today. Kate and her husband participated in a workshop and a focus group for us. One of the things that I personally have found really challenging as the parent of a young person with a disability was this process that we're supposed to be engaged in of consistently letting go, and especially as we reach the transition years, I would hear from many professionals, "Barb, you just really need to start letting go." Barb Ziemke: I have to say that for me that phrase early was a little bit like in my face, a little bit too much. I thought, "You have no idea why I'm concerned the way I am about this and the legitimacy of those concerns." At our house, we're big fans of Charles Schulz. When I thought about letting go, the visual image I got was like I'm flying the kite and the kite is up now and I'm supposed to let go. Then I think of Charlie Brown's kite in the tree and the string all wound around the branches and I'm thinking, "There's no way I'm letting go of this kite." Barb Ziemke: Over the years, I don't know where I heard the phrase ... It's out there, other people use it ... "letting grow" as a concept for young adults, especially those with challenges that do make this transition more challenging as opposed to letting go. I found that when I looked at it that way, I could see more of a role for me. It wasn't just an, "Okay, I'm done now," it was, "How do I cultivate some soil? How do we find an environment that's appropriate for this kind of seed? What can we do to support growth in collaboration with professionals and others? Then place our young person there and back off a bit and let growth occur." Barb Ziemke: Over the years, I've learned that the hard way. Sometimes I haven't let grow as much as I needed to. If people are listening to this who know me, I pretty much kill all the plants I try to grow, so it's not the best analogy. I did a little research, though, about growing and the two things I found really interesting were that the size of the pot is really essential, that if the pot is too small, you'll stunt their growth of their roots. If there's not enough space around the plant on the top of the soil, the plant can't grow. Barb Ziemke: I just, as a parent, I could see that what my role was going to be was make sure that we had increasingly larger pots and that I gave increasingly more space. Really, as I talk to families, I like to try to help them envision the growth process more than the letting go at this point; although, of course, you're always, as parents, letting go. That's part of what we do. Barb Ziemke: As I was thinking about doing this as part of a podcast, my concern was I have the perspective from having worked with families from all different kinds of disabilities. Then my own personal perspective as a parent of someone with a developmental disability and intellectual disability, but I don't know what it's like to parent a son or daughter who has visual impairment or is blind or deaf-blind, and I really wanted that voice to be part of our conversation. Barb Ziemke: I immediately thought of Kate. She had participated in a focus group and I talked with her at a workshop. She and her husband have, I'll let her tell you, more than one child. She has a lot of experience and she's in the middle of it. I'm really thankful that Kate Reinicke agreed to be with us here today. I'd like to introduce you and ask Kate to tell us a little bit about herself. Kate Reinicke: Hello. I'm Kate Reinicke. I'm the parent of three children, all of which have visual impairment. They range in age from 17 to recently 20. Our oldest is a sophomore at North Hennepin Community College. Jeff Thompson: Kate, how did you find PACER? Kate Reinicke: My family, we moved up here in November of 2012. Our middle son is severely autistic. In moving up here, we needed to know what kind of resources and supports were available here. I actually found PACER through a Google search, looking for supports and resources for our middle son in regards to his severe autism. Jeff Thompson: With the visual aspect, did you find State Services for the Blind? Kate Reinicke: Actually, the visual teacher for the blind and visually impaired, TVIs, we have a great set of those in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. They actually got us in touch with State Services for the Blind. We signed up our oldest son at the age of 14. Jeff Thompson: Because that's the age where transition students can apply for services. Kate Reinicke: That's correct. I was surprised that it would be that young. In my mind, transition was graduating from high school and moving on to college or career. To have a child sign up at 14 was a pleasant surprise to think about all the training that they could do in those years leading up to graduation. Jeff Thompson: Some possibilities were opening up. Kate Reinicke: Exactly, the blind abilities and possibilities. Jeff Thompson: Plug. With all those possibilities coming your way, what was it like before that happened? There had to have been some doubt, some confusion, as Barb was mentioning earlier in her situation. Now here we are with the blindness, the visual impairment aspect. What was that like for you? Kate Reinicke: These are actually my stepchildren. Coming in not only as a step-parent but also starting to learn more about our kids' disabilities, we were also in transition about learning what their visual impairment was, what the cause of it was, how severe is it going to get. We learned through the years that it's actually a genetic disorder called Bardet-Biedl syndrome, and it causes the children to have retinitis pigmentosa. With retinitis pigmentosa, I'm sure most of your listeners know, tunnel vision, loss of color vision, and blind spots in your vision. Kate Reinicke: As we're learning more about that, it was very helpful to have the TVIs and State Services for the Blind there to show us that there were already pathways set for kids like ours that, unlike Barb, we weren't starting from scratch. There were programs and resources already in place that they could help us get in contact with. Like Barb said, I'm the type of person that if I'm presented with a problem, I want to know as much as I possibly can so that I can come up with a good solution, so that the more I can learn, the better I feel. Jeff Thompson: What were some of the first solutions that came across your pathway? Kate Reinicke: TVI definitely and working with the IEP process at schools. Jeff Thompson: Did something surprise you? Was there a moment like a wow moment? Kate Reinicke: What I learned with retinitis pigmentosa is that our kids can become virtually blind in low lighting situations. In a lot of cases, I'd never paid attention to that. Going to restaurants and realizing, "Oh, it's actually pretty dark in here. My kids are going to need a sighted guide by holding my elbow," or walking through the hallways of their high school, "This area is really not well lit. This is going to be a problem," but also realizing how much accommodations could be made for our children so that they could succeed, and also getting in touch with BLIND, Inc., where BLIND, Inc. stands for Blindness Learning in New Dimensions and understanding that there are not things that my kids can't do, they just have to do them differently. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. That's a local training center for adults and transition-age students in Minneapolis. Barb Ziemke: Kate, what you just said now just reminds me to the importance of that starting early. Most parents are not thinking about what's going to happen after school at age 14. They're just trying so hard to make school work. I just love that reminder that what you need, though, is several years at least once you've identified what they need to learn the skills to develop. You're learning what accommodations are helpful. You need that time, the technology. Waiting until 18 or 19 will not give you that time. That's one of the things that we try at PACER in our training with families is start earlier than you think you need to. I just really appreciate that illustration of age 14. Barb Ziemke: The other thing it just brought to mind for me, Kate, was I'm just wondering did you encounter any lower expectations for your children than you and your husband have or in general? Did you feel like the people working with your son or daughter, you have both, right, were on the same wavelength as you? Did you ever have to close that gap? Kate Reinicke: Thankfully, the folks that we were working with didn't have lower expectations. If anything, they were at the same school of thought as you are, that have high expectations, your kids can handle it. If they can't, you make an adjustment. Jeff Thompson: With that positive attitude that you have, how was it as your son started college and started spreading his wings a little bit? Kate Reinicke: Again, the more that I knew, the better I felt. Going to college myself, I never had the experience of working with a disabilities office or an accessibilities office. I didn't even know it existed. Coming to different workshops, either through PACER or through SSB, specifically focused on transition-age students and bringing in people from different universities that could talk about their disability offices or accessibility offices put both myself and my son at ease knowing that they already had mechanisms in place to help him and, again, not coddle him, not give him an advantage, but level the playing field. Barb Ziemke: That's so important. The whole idea behind all of this for families is that it's not just the son or daughter that's going to transition. We as parents actually have to transition as well. We're learning new skills, we're learning about what's out there, and we're having to change our approach. Barb Ziemke: One of the main things I emphasize when we talk to families about what comes next is like IEPs don't go to college and IEPs don't go into a workplace, and IEPs don't go to your resident manager of an apartment. While your role will change, you'll still have a role, but it will become more like an advisor, a mentor, a supporter, not the decision-maker. You're going to move from the driver's seat to the passenger seat and then, hopefully, the backseat and then out of the car at some point. Barb Ziemke: But in that process, Kate mentioned something so important, and I want to just address that. Kate sounds like a brave parent. I have some friends who are like Kate. They were able, unlike me, to learn about some new opportunity and just get some information and just send their kid off and be rejoicing as they went. Barb Ziemke: There are a lot of different kinds of parents, and I am more what professionals would call probably too cautious and maybe overprotective. I can still remember ... I kick myself to this day. My son is now ... He just turned 30. I do want to say he's living in an apartment in the community and he works at a community job. He successfully, both of us, made this transition. Barb Ziemke: But I remember early on there was an opportunity from his deaf, hard of hearing teaching said, when Brandon was in seventh grade, "Oh, I think it would be really great for him to go to Camp Courage. They have a literacy camp." I thought, "Oh, that sounds really good. Is it a day camp?" "No, it's a residential camp." I immediately thought, because of the needs of my son, "Well, that's not a possibility. He can't do that. He has other disabilities besides his reading disability, and you don't understand how much support he would need." It's all in my head, but I shut it down way too quickly. I went to the website and it didn't tell how they give the supports for overnight support. Barb Ziemke: This is a little reminder to professionals. Give us the information we need to make informed decisions upfront. Don't assume we know what you're talking about with your programs, because from our focus groups and surveys, about 30% of parents of kids who have blind, vision impairment have another disability with that. The support needs go beyond the support for their visual impairment. But, regardless, at this time I just shut it down and we didn't go. Barb Ziemke: Now that I work at PACER, I know about that camp and I know about the wonderful outcomes. I know now that camp has been around for 15 years, no child has ever been lost or probably injured. All the things I had in my mind that could have happened, I didn't need to base my decision on unfounded fears if I would have known upfront when I heard about the opportunity to take a breath and say, "What do I need to know in order to be able to do this? What does Brandon need to know upfront in order to want to do this?" Then do the detective work upfront. That has, all these years later, I think, "Gosh, darn it. He could have been ahead of the curve." Barb Ziemke: For those of you parents who do have some of the concerns and fears and your kids perhaps do have additional support needs, there are things that are dangerous for our kids out there. The safety concerns are not invalid. The unpredictability of an environment is a real thing. I just want to encourage you to take that breath and ask yourself: what would help me be able to even consider this? Sometimes it's talking to another parent like Kate, whose son has gone off to college. She might be willing to say, "Hey, it worked and this is why," or contacting PACER, State Services for the Blind, and get that information that you need. Jeff Thompson: Well, it sounds like Kate just pulls up tuck and roll and her kids just goes out there. I'm sure it's not that easy, though. Kate Reinicke: No, it's not that easy. This is after years of training myself to not be afraid for him. You have to decide what kind of adult do you want your child to be. Do you envision them being confident and independent, or do you envision them to be tied to your apron strings for the rest of their lives? My kids want to be independent. They want to learn Braille. They want to learn the technology. They want to have their own homes someday. Kate Reinicke: My husband teases them that they're going to live with us forever and it thrills me every time when they say, "No way, dad. No way." Keeping that in mind that they are still teenagers, they still have things to learn, thinking back to how did I learn to be independent and knowing that my kids need to go through the same thing just a little bit differently. Jeff Thompson: Exactly. Barb Ziemke: That reminds me, too, of just a really important principle of the dignity of risk. Some of your listeners may be familiar with that. Robert Perske, a long time ago, talked about how in our really well-intentioned efforts to keep people safe and to make sure that they don't experience harm, we sometimes take away the dignity that we all us adults should have in making choices and being able to make mistakes and perhaps even being allowed to fail. Barb Ziemke: Of course, there's risk management involved in this. Part of the trick for parents is this delicate balance between risk management and then offering the dignity of risk opportunity that all of us needed. If you talk to almost anybody who's successful in any field about how they got successful, they almost always come back to mistakes they made and what they learned from them. Barb Ziemke: I realized just personally for myself that my well-meaning flying in at the moment I notice that there was something that was challenging to my son, and a lot of things were challenging for him, was, as Kate said, I had to think to myself, but if I do it for him, what does his future look like versus could I just wait a minute? Barb Ziemke: I just read a phrase recently that, as our sons and daughters are moving towards adulthood, this young adulthood stage, that when they contact us with a problem, we should walk as if we're walking in molasses. Just slowing down this ... I don't know if it's true for other parents, but this immediate need to intervene, and even just start to, if your son is 14, 15, your daughter is 16, 17, you start to intentionally give it longer for them to be able to figure it out themselves. There's that quote "Mistakes are the portals of discovery", and so just allowing mistakes. I like what you just said about giving them those opportunities. Kate Reinicke: Like you said in becoming a mentor and a teacher, having our kids start to take over aspects of their lives that we had always handled, for instance, refilling a prescription, I taught my son how to do that. We put the phone on speaker phone, it's an automated system, and together we went through. I showed him how it was done. The next time he needed it, I watched him do it. Then after that, it was taken care of. I didn't have to worry about it anymore. This was something he was handling. Kate Reinicke: The same went with making his own appointments. He knows to check in with me regarding the family calendar and transportation, but learning also through his TVI that Metro Mobility is an option, Uber is an option to get him where he needs to go, that that works out, too. But he's also learning to check in with others to see how his schedule can mesh with others. Barb Ziemke: Which is huge for adult living, managing your schedule. I like what you said because it makes me remember, too, around the medication thing. When it just occurred to me we go to doctor's appointments together, and I would go to the desk and show them the insurance card. I thought, "What?" One day I just thought, "What am I doing this for?" There are things he can't do and he does need support for, but he can go and show them their card. Barb Ziemke: As parents, I think just thinking through, "Oh, wait a minute. Is this something they could do? Could we back off?" and now instead of doing for them, do with them. Then again move back. Perfect example with how much we schedule our kids and keep track of all their appointments. Now we have technology. Teaching them how to use the technology to do that is a great way to help them in this transition and for us to let go. I couldn't have let go or let grow like I was able to with my son when I say he's living in an apartment without technology because he has an iPhone, we have immediate communication, there's GPS built in. If he gets lost, he has emergency numbers. Barb Ziemke: I think as families, too, that's the kind of support that can help support you. My daughter doesn't have a disability, but when she had a cellphone, she used to call it her leash because she knew I could find her when she had it. That's one technique. Kate Reinicke: That's another good point that technology can be extremely helpful. I'm always grateful to SSB and PACER for introducing us to different technologies that I didn't know existed. On top of that, there are low tech options that are helpful for folks for everyday needs. My mother-in-law actually turned us on to Independent Living Aids and other vendors that sell very low tech items that actually we end up using every day that I didn't know existed. Again, the more you can learn, the better you'll feel. Jeff Thompson: What is the importance of meeting other parents of children with a disability as blindness? Kate Reinicke: It's been great to see how they're treating their kids and also to have them model behavior, if they've been working with their kids if they're kids are older, but also to just talk shop, for lack of a better word. When we sit down and chat, it's usually, "Oh, I just found this new app," or, "Oh, I just heard that such and such station is now doing video description," or, "I just heard my son's friend actually did an internship with a company that does video description," or, "One of the women that my stepdaughter rows with, she is fully blind now, and she just recently got a job working with a company, making sure that their website is more accessible to people who are visually impaired. It never occurred to me that that was a job. It never occurred to me that that was an option." Kate Reinicke: Being able to sit down with other adults that are either parents of youths or the youths themselves or recently adult, it's great to learn about the things that you didn't even know were out there. It's only by gathering information, sharing information, saying, "You know what? I tried this, I didn't care for it. I tried that, and I loved it." Kate Reinicke: Even between the children, my oldest son really enjoys his video magnifier and really liked the more low-tech version of it. That really worked for him. My youngest, she really liked the high tech tablet-driven video magnifiers that could do a few more things, but that was right up her alley. She loved knowing the ins and out of that technology. Also thinking that one size fits all, it's not true. Your kids have preferences just like anybody else, and it's great to find those. Jeff Thompson: In finding parents, PACER Center has a big hand in that, don't they? Barb Ziemke: I will say that one of my selfish motivations for coming to work for PACER was that I already understood that a real key to success was being able to access other families who had gone through similar experiences, but were perhaps a few steps ahead of me on the road. I knew that all the advocates here are also parents of kids with disabilities and that I would be talking with families a lot. Barb Ziemke: Honestly, and I say this in my workshops, I think about 80% of the real practical, tangible tips that I received about what app or what service or what program, even other services that are available, somehow came through another parent who mentioned it or I saw a resource around that. PACER, we don't do support groups per se, but I think our workshops are an opportunity to see that you're not alone in this. There's a lot of families who are doing the same kinds of things that you're working on and just informal conversations when you get involved in State Services for the Blind activities and you're dropping off kids or picking up kids. Barb Ziemke: Those are just organic opportunities to connect with families, but there are through resources online some great online supports for the family connect and other opportunities. PACER's page, the SSB partnership website page can refer families to other resources to connect with families. Jeff Thompson: Kate, you and your husband came here to the workshops. Kate Reinicke: We did. We first started with coming to the IEP workshops because that was a new process for us. Understanding what our rights were, what our role was supposed to be, and what schools were not only expected to do, but capable of doing for us was extremely helpful in not only being able to read the IEP and understand what it was saying, it can be a different language, the language of education. It can have some jargon in it that you're not familiar with. Kate Reinicke: Being able to sit down and work one-on-one with another parent advocate to say, "What does this really say? Is this actually helpful or is this just documenting all the things that are wrong with my kid?" After that, we signed up for the PACER newsletter and their mailings, and you can get very specific about what kind of mailings you would like to receive, to have the knowledge of what other workshops were coming up. Kate Reinicke: I would say one of the most helpful ones was the housing fair that you had held. My husband and I came to that as well to learn about what kind of options are out there for youths with disabilities and transition-age adults for where they can live, because they're not going to live with you forever and you're not going to be able to take care of them forever. Barb Ziemke: That's right. Jeff Thompson: Well, that's great information. Barb, how can they get a hold of PACER? Barb Ziemke: There's a few ways that you can do that. We do have a really great website with tons of information on it. If you go to the workshops and livestream, we do many of our workshops via technology as well. There is a list that you can sort by location, by date, by topic and take a look at what's coming up for usually the next three months or so. Again, signing up for our newsletters is a great way to stay in touch. Barb Ziemke: Our National Parent Center on Transition and Employment has a twice monthly e-newsletter that goes out that highlights all sorts of resources for all sorts of disabilities. These aren't specific to vision impairment, blindness, and deaf-blindness, but there's so much overlap between the laws you need to understand and what youth need to do to prepare. Barb Ziemke: You can also call and talk to a real person. It's one thing I really like about how we do business here. When you call, you'll talk first to someone at our front desk, who'll take some basic information, and then that will get routed to the most appropriate person to respond within PACER. We do, as Kate said, work individually with families around transition planning in their IEP. Advocates help if you're in disagreement with the school and you need to resolve that. We participate in conciliation and other methods for coming to agreement about educational plans. Barb Ziemke: Then our Transition and Employment website, there's an email link there. You can email us specific individual questions as well as just get help. We do a lot of resource and referral. I often say we don't know everything, obviously. You can't know everything. But we know a lot about who knows everything, and we try to connect families to who you need to connect with in order to get that question answered. That would be the primary ways. Barb Ziemke: Kate mentioned before that there is no one size fits all either to the students or to the parents. I think for parents who might be listening today who have young adults or children even with a visual impairment plus like perhaps autism or a severe ADHD or a mental health issue that's perhaps quite significant, you may be thinking, "Well, that sounds really great, but you don't really understand the challenges and how far behind we are in certain areas," and I don't understand your specific situation, but even for me, I found that having unrealistic expectations about the transition into adulthood was not helpful. Barb Ziemke: Typical youth nowadays are not routinely getting their college degree by age 21 and moving out of their family home. Adolescence has really extended up into the late 20s. For me, I realized that there was no way by age 21, when school was over, that we were going to have a plan in place for where our son would live, work, do everything that he needed to do. Barb Ziemke: I tried to go to a five-year plan. What do we want by age 26? What do we need to be doing to do that? I will say in our particular situation, it wasn't until our son was 28 that he was now living in an apartment successfully, had been to a college program for students with intellectual disabilities, which he didn't go to until he was 25, had work experience in between that he really needed. Take the pressure off yourself about the timeline, focus on what the hope for destination is there, and then just keep taking steps forward, and you will most likely come to a successful outcome. Jeff Thompson: It's great. Like Kate mentioned earlier about the pathways that she found that, Barb, you helped blaze earlier, pick up the bread crumbs that people have left behind and just take those and keep moving forward. Kate Reinicke: You may have to do some synthesis. You may have to take what you have learned in a workshop about helping students with autism and blend it with a workshop that you learned about how to help students with blindness. Chances are there will be another parent there who knows what you're going through and chances are that the moderator or the expert that they've brought in to speak about that topic has had to narrow it down to fit into the one to two-hour session. But if you take a few moments afterwards and ask them, "Well, my student has multiple needs. Can you tell me more information regarding my situation?" they will be more than happy to share their email, take a few minutes to chat with you, or give you information where you can find the answer to your questions. Please don't ever feel alone or that your situation is so unique that no one can help you. Jeff Thompson: It may seem that it's oceans apart, but there's so much common ground once you get down to the nuts and bolts of it all. Kate, the first time you came to a PACER Center workshop, what did you expect and what did you find out? Kate Reinicke: I expected to be ushered into a small conference room with a few chairs and someone with a screen down and a slide show, giving out a few facts here and there that maybe I could figure out how to utilize in my own life. I was shocked to walk in and find multitudes of parents. Your largest room was filled from wall to wall with parents like me, with kids like mine, with questions that I had. What was great was no one felt inhibited to ask question. Parents ask questions a lot. Kate Reinicke: Not only that, if there was a question that the moderator or the presenter possibly didn't know the exact answer to, sometimes there was another parent saying, "Oh, we just went through that. I can speak to that," or, "I'll talk to you afterwards." Everyone was there with the same purpose. We all need information, we all want information, we all want to know how can we navigate this together. Everybody's there to help out. Jeff Thompson: Now with the individual education plan, that's some place where you would have to get on top of, and advocate for. What was that process like as you ... The letting grow? Did you transition through that, too? You said age 14. Kate Reinicke: We did, not only with PACER Center's help but also with the TVI. They wanted to make sure that our kids, again, had a level playing field. SSB was great about allowing us to have technology evaluations and showing us what was available and coming to realize that there are so many different types of technology that our kids had options. What do you like? Do you like this? Do you like that? Do you prefer this? Do you prefer that? They could be in the driver's seat about what was most helpful for them. Jeff Thompson: That's great. At what point during the IEP did your son start speaking up for himself? Kate Reinicke: What was great about the teachers and the team that was put together for our kids was they made a point to specifically ask our kids questions and say, "Mom and dad, we don't want to hear from you. We want to know what does your kid need? What do they want? What have they noticed? And give them the opportunity to not only express what they found to be a problem or a challenge, but also encourage them, well, what do you think would be a good solution? Be able to participate in that conversation and that give and take over, well, what would be the best of all worlds and let's compromise to what works for you and what works for the staff." Jeff Thompson: That's when self-advocacy starts. That's a lifelong skill. Kate Reinicke: Any person, whether they have disabilities or not. Barb Ziemke: Looking for those opportunities to give them voice and choice I think is a key to it. Again, that swooping in- Kate Reinicke: [crosstalk] Barb Ziemke: ... when we know that maybe we do know more and maybe we would have more to bring to the table, but allowing them that opportunity to speak for themselves is really powerful. Jeff Thompson: Kate, could you tell us a little something? Did you ever get the phone call or during a conversation where all of a sudden that light went off like, "Oh, my gosh. He's grown up"? Kate Reinicke: The light bulb went off for me that we'd reached a really good level with his independence when he could come home from class and say, "You know what? I had this problem," and my mind would immediately go to, "Oh, I need to jump in and fix this for him because that's my job as his mother," but I took a minute, I took a breath, I took a beat and said, "What do you want to do about it?" He said, "I already handled it. I walked down to the disabilities office and I explained what kind of problem I was having," or, "I walked down to the TRIO office and I explained the problem I was having. I sought help for myself. I'm just telling you about it. I'm not asking you to actually help me." Jeff Thompson: He's growing up. Kate Reinicke: Yes, exactly. Jeff Thompson: It goes back to you, Barb, let it grow. Barb Ziemke: That's a beautiful illustration of really what research even shows as, for young people in general, what they need from adults is for us to listen to validate their feelings or emotions about whatever the situation is and then support them in their ability to either fix it or take the next step. A perfect illustration of that. Barb Ziemke: One thing I wanted to talk about a little bit, too, is how I think sometimes it's harder for parents of kids who have challenges to make the shift at the same time as other students, like when they get to high school, to see them as high school students or to see them as a young adult. I learned that I needed to put on a bit of a new pair of glasses. My son has developed a mental disability, which delays him in many areas, but guess what? He still started growing a beard. He is becoming an adult even if intellectually he's at another stage. Barb Ziemke: Thinking through some of the things I wish I would have done earlier, for instance, if a son or daughter is still living at home, maybe even to go to community college. Perhaps it's time to move the bedroom down to the basement, give them a microwave and a mini fridge and redecorate a room that might still look like a childhood room to help them and to help you see them as the young adult that they actually are and are becoming. Just getting that shift from, "This is my child." Barb Ziemke: At PACER, we intentionally within our project here use the word "youth" instead of child when we're talking to parents, or young adult, because we as parents sometimes, they're our children forever, but we need to see them in this new light so that we can actually change the dynamic of our relationship. Jeff Thompson: You can't just squeeze them and keep them small like in The Waltons. Barb Ziemke: It doesn't work. I tried, it doesn't work. I think one of the tendencies for families who have students who are in high school particularly is to focus a lot on the educational component as far as academics. Academics are really important. With an overlay of visual impairment, there is a lot of work that has to be done to make sure that they do well academically. The skill acquisition around literacy skills is huge for successes in adults. Barb Ziemke: That's all important, but I think families need to consider once the school bus doesn't come anymore, once school is out of the picture, what you got on the history test may not be all that important unless your hope is to be a historian, and to look holistically at what are you focusing on. We know for students with visual impairments, blindness, for instance, having experiences in recreation and leisure, physical activities, extracurriculars, those are often where skills are developed that are going to actually allow them to have the confidence they need to have when they're in an unfamiliar environment, and that often families ... Barb Ziemke: And I don't have that perspective, but I have one from my own perspective of in trying to protect them from these environments that seem fraught with danger when you are feeling like you don't have the ability to navigate them, high school's really a time to look for those opportunities and, again, then work with your IEP team or State Services for the Blind to come up with what are those accommodations, what are those safety nets that could be put in place so that they don't lose that experience. Barb Ziemke: Social skills are going to be huge, and that's usually where those are developed, not in academic classrooms in high school. Really broadening your perspective of school is not really all about academics. College degrees don't really of themselves guarantee success. Looking at the big picture. Kate Reinicke: A couple of things that I wanted to mention that also helped our family and I feel could help other youths and parents alike is to have experiences with role models. I can honestly say as an adult in her 40s I had not met more than two or three visually impaired people in my everyday life. Now that my children are becoming more involved in the blind community, having those opportunities to meet other adults who are independent and successful not only can assure parents that it's possible, it is possible. Kate Reinicke: I know it's hard for you to imagine because you rely on your vision so heavily, it is possible to live an independent life without your vision and to then also show your children, your youths that there are successful adults out there doing what they like to do, doing what they want to do, and not feeling marginalized, not feeling that they can't. Again, they're just doing things differently. Kate Reinicke: Being involved in programs through SSB, Sheila Koenig had some really great programs. It was a job fair where all of the participants were blind adults. They ran the gamut from working in corporate America to being a package handler at UPS. The students could walk through and talk to everyone about how they were able to do their jobs successfully as a visually impaired person. I think that inspires our kids and also puts the parents at ease. Kate Reinicke: My kids have had great experiences with Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute with their adaptive sports programs. Again, they have to interact with the coaches and volunteers. I back off. I'm not going to be helpful as my stepdaughter is snowboarding down the hill. Their SHARE program, I can't highly recommend enough. Whatever activities your child enjoys, Stacy Shamblott can find them and find ways to make them adaptive to whatever supports your child may need. Kate Reinicke: My oldest son really enjoys playing the drums and has had the opportunity in the past few years to play in bands in bars and give performances and not have us hover over him. He did just fine. It was wonderful to see him express himself doing something that he loved and having an audience cheer. Jeff Thompson: Role models. That's very important. Like when you said you only knew two or three people or just met two or three people, but when they can meet a peer, someone their own age, and like, "How are you doing that?" or, "They can do it. Why can't I do it?" it just increases their self-determination and it just seems to roll after that. Barb Ziemke: I think a key component of that for all of us parents in this letting grow process is coming to terms with some of the limitations and there will just have to be some supports and ways that we ... Accommodations in place, but focusing, like Kate just said, on the strengths and the interests and the preferences. What makes this kid tick and how can we use that to launch them into adult life? Because who of us wants to have a job we don't enjoy? When we define ourselves, like if the three of us had more time to talk, I could probably see you get really excited when you talk about some of your personal interests or hobbies or things that you really like to do. Barb Ziemke: I think as parents, I always say we need to be strengths finders, strengths finder 101 to our youth and young adults. Sometimes they don't see it, and to notice what they're good at and not, again, make it all about academics but who they are and what they can contribute and how their personality and their relational skills call that out and help them see it, because that's really what they'll build their future off of. Jeff Thompson: I think this has been a great conversation for anyone that's listening to take all those analogies that you used, Barb, in the beginning that was so great, about the plant, the pot size, and the space needed to grow, and then the apron strings. I've heard that so many times, but when you can actually apply it and see [inaudible] you have to respond and let it grow, that's awesome. Thank you, Barb, thank you, Kate, for coming onto Blind Abilities. Thank you, PACER Center for putting this together with State Services for the Blind. Barb Ziemke: Thanks so much. Kate Reinicke: Thank you. Jeff Thompson: Be sure to check out PACER Center, champions for children with disabilities, on the web at www.PACER.org. Check out State Services for the Blind of Minnesota at www.MN.gov/deed/SSB. Live, learn, work, and play. A big thank you goes out to Chee Chau for his music. You can find Chee Chau on Twitter @LCheeChau.. From PACER Center, State Services for the Blind, and Blind Abilities, thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye bye.  [Music]  [Transition noise]  -When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes... [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence] ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts for the blindness perspective check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. On Twitter @BlindAbilities. Download our app from the app store, Blind Abilities, that's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening. 

Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) ROY SAMUELSON is one of Hollywood’s leading voiceover talents in film and television. Currently Roy is leading the way in the area of DESCRIPTIVE NARRATION / AUDIO DESCRIPTION, an aspect of television and filmmaking that allows Blind/Visually Impaired viewers to get audio description during a show without interruption and fills in the void as the action is not always obvious. For example, the movie Castaway is nearly silent during the first half of the movie.  This is where Roy steps in with his descriptions. Roy Samuelson is a professional Audio Describer for some of the latest Hollywood productions. Movies like First Man, Venom, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Spiderman: Homecoming, Jason Bourne, The Magnificent Seven, Get Out, Skyscraper, Atomic Blonde and television shows like Lethal Weapon, NCIS, Blue Bloods and Criminal Minds.   Join Roy and Jeff in the Blind Abilities Studio and find out how Roy got involved in Audio Description and how his voice makes it to your TV and Movie Screens across the world.   Contact: You can Follow Roy on Twitter @RoySamuelsonand be sure to check out his latest works and send in some feedback. Roy is always happy to hear from you.   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Full Transcript: Audio Describer and Voice Artist for Hollywood Movies and TV Shows: Meet Roy Samuelson Jeff Thompson: Blind Abilities welcomes Roy Samuelson, one of Hollywood's leading voiceover, audio description, and voice narrative artists. Jeff Thompson: A sharp dressed man steps from the train, pulls out a cane, and proceeds to go towards a building. Jeff Thompson: Including films First Man, Venom, Jurassic World, Spiderman: Homecoming, Jason Bourne, The Magnificent Seven, and TV shows Criminal Minds, CIS, Blue Bloods, and Lethal Weapon. Jeff Thompson: He enters a door where the sign says Blind Abilities Studios. A young lady looks up from the desk. Speaker 2: Good morning. Jeff Thompson: Good morning. Speaker 2: You've got Roy Samuelson, Studio Three. Jeff Thompson: Okay, thanks. I'm going in. Speaker 2: All right. Blind Abilities Studios. Uh-huh. Jeff Thompson: He proceeds down a hallway. He stops at a door and reads the Braille. It's door number three. He enters and sits comfortably in his chair, reaches over, flicks a few switches, pulls his boom microphone down. He pulls on his headphones, and then reaches for the big red switch and flicks it up. From the hallway, the sign above the door now glows brightly, On The Air. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities. I'm Jeff Thompson, and today in the studio, we have Roy Samuelson, who is out in Hollywood leading the way in voiceover, audio description, and descriptive narrative. How are you doing, Roy? Roy Samuelson: Hey, I'm doing great, Jeff. It's good to be on your show. Jeff Thompson: Well, thank you very much. I'm sure our listeners are excited to hear from someone who does voiceover, audio description for movies and television shows. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, I'm really passionate about it. This is really wonderful work. I really, I like it a lot, and I'm going to stop using the word really. Jeff Thompson: Now you've got me thinking about it. I'll probably be using it. Let's first tell the people what kind of movies you have been doing and television shows. Roy Samuelson: Oh sure. There's a few series that are on right now. On CBS, there's NCIS and Criminal Minds, and on Fox, I'm doing description for Lethal Weapon. Jeff Thompson: Oh, you're busy. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, it's a great season this year. There's a bunch of movies and there's another one that's coming out next month, and right now there's two movies that are out in the theaters, and they're really fun on the descriptive narration side. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, I saw the likes of, what was it, Spiderman? Roy Samuelson: That's right. Yeah, the more recent one. I was on Spiderman: Homecoming. Jeff Thompson: Wow. You even did Jurassic World. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, the most recent one, mm-hmm (affirmative). Jeff Thompson: So what do you do in your spare time? Roy Samuelson: That's a great question. The things that I love about audio description have kind of started to spill into my own personal life. Some of the connections that I'm making through social media are turning out I'm getting some more friends on that side, so it's been fun to correspond with them and some people that have been listening to audio description. As far as other things, I really enjoy hanging out with friends. There's nothing like a night out, cooking some dinner at home, and having some fun, laughs, and conversations. I'm pretty low key when it comes to that. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Well, when it comes to audio description, there's so many different areas that people can receive their movies or television shows now that some people are cutting the cables and all that or in theaters, and now they're starting to hear your voice. What got you into giving audio description to movies? Roy Samuelson: That was a long ... I can trace it backwards. I can say from where I'm at now, I can look back and say all these steps led back to one person who introduced me to someone who introduced me to someone, and I did an audition, and I'm hesitating, because it's hard to say how it exactly happened. I think a whole bunch of things happened to come together at the right point and at the right time, and a lot of the work that I do in voiceover has certainly carried over into what I do with audio description, so I think I was kind of ready for it. Jeff Thompson: So you took to the microphone. Roy Samuelson: Yeah. My first paid job was down at Walt Disney World for the Great Movie Ride, which is no longer around, but they had a gangster take over the ride, and the ride was maybe 60 people looking at different movie scenes kind of going through the movies on a ride, so with all the distractions going on, I was on mic as a gangster, so trying to figure out what's the best way to say what I needed to say, but not get in the way of what the audience members are trying to appreciate, but still getting the message across. The more that I thought about the comparison between audio description and that first job, there's so many overlaps. It's really amazing to think about it that way. Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah. That was one of the questions I was going to ask is how do you find the space? Like you were just saying, that gap, that space, that little pocket where you can describe something without taking away from the audio itself. Roy Samuelson: That's a great question. There's a script that's given to me. I don't write it. There's some really talented describers who look at the movie sometimes four or five times or even a TV show, and what they do is use a special program that gives me the words that I say as a narrator in between audio cues and between dialogue, sometimes in between visual cues. They give me a script with any one of those things, whether it's a time code where I'm looking at a screen that shows kind of like a timer countdown or a stop watch that shows all the time code, and that time code is a cue for me to say the next line. And sometimes they'll say this line needs to be brisk. You'll hear narrators talk a little faster than they normally do just to try to get it in. Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah. You have to nail it between those two points. Roy Samuelson: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: And so by doing that, you do that in your own studio? Roy Samuelson: For the jobs that I mentioned, those are done at a studio. I guess it is possible that I could remotely do it. However, there's a few things that it's kind of to my advantage to do it in studio. First of all is having the time there at the office. I get to interact with the people there. It's not just going in and doing the job. I'm not socializing and hanging out at the water cooler, but a friendly hello to someone, these are the people that I work with, and that's pretty special. The other thing is there's a lot of legal requirements. I think with the internet, it's easy for things like content to get lost in the internet and get into some hands that might not use it for the intentions needed, not that I'd do it, but the studios as well as the networks are pretty protective of their content. Jeff Thompson: Plus they're pretty much isolated there. You've got all the equipment, the room, the booth, there you go. You're at work and you don't have the phone going off or someone knocking at the door at home. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, exactly. It's very focused. People talk about being in the flow, and I appreciate that so much, being able to go in and do my job while experiencing the movie, and it taps a lot of really good synapses in my brain. Jeff Thompson: So I have a question, and this is kind of personal for me, I guess, but I'm sure listeners might be curious too. As you're taking in the script and the movie, you are a narrator. You do a narrative to it, the audio description, but do you, like you said, you get brisk or do you go with the flow of the movie? Roy Samuelson: Yeah. I'm given the script, and then two minutes later we start recording, so there's no time to really look at what is about to happen, so it is ice cold. I can watch a trailer for a movie ahead of time or some of the series that I'm on, I get a sense of what the characters are and the kinds of things that they would normally do, but when it comes to ... let me make sure I'm answering your question correctly too. Roy Samuelson: I think when I'm doing the narration, my goal is to not be the spotlight. I don't want people who listen to audio description think, oh wow, that narrator sounded so good. If anyone thinks that, I'm not doing a good job because the attention should be on the storyline, the content that I'm sharing, whether it's the TV show or the movie. I don't want to get in the way of that. I think I want to enhance it. I don't want it to be all about me, so I try really hard to be within the tone or the genre of the film or TV show, and as that changes try to go with it so that it's not jarring or unexpected. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that makes sense. Now that I think about listening back to movies, the narrative or the audio description just wants to fill in those gaps, so you get the script and you hit the marks. Roy Samuelson: Yeah. I want to be part of the story. I don't want to be the story. Jeff Thompson: So Roy, when you're doing voiceover and work like that, did you see yourself doing audio description some day? Roy Samuelson: Maybe five or 10 years ago, I was unaware it existed. There are so many great opportunities for voiceover. There's narration for instructional videos. There's what they call voice of God where at a special event someone announces someone who's next on the stage. There's commercials, promos, all sorts of experiences, and I've done my best to enjoy those, but when I found out about descriptive narration, I've never felt so laser focused. Everything about it just rang so true to me in my experience and what I was excited about. Jeff Thompson: So what is it that you found in your voice that made you a talent? I mean, I don't know if that sounds bad or something like, but someone must have recognized something that you got the voice for doing what you're doing. Roy Samuelson: I can't speak to how I get chosen, but I will say that prior to doing descriptive narration, I spent about 10 years almost every week going to a script writing group as an actor. In this group, it was a really special group of maybe about two dozen writers, and they would bring in 25 pages of their script, and these are all produced writers, so the quality was really high. As an actor, I would go in and we'd been given a script ice cold, and I'd read 25 pages of it, and afterward the feedback would be given to the writer and not the actor. Roy Samuelson: My experience with that was the first few times I was like, oh, I need to do the best I can. I need to be an actor, and then I realized that the story was what people were focused on, so what I tried to do was when I was doing my acting, I was still acting, but I was trying to bring the story into it because I saw that that's what the writers were focused on, and I think that the combination of ... how many hundreds of times of doing scripts through the years every week, there definitely was a skill of cold reading, there was the attention to the story, the writing ... I'm sorry, I keep talking about the story, I get so excited about, story, story, story, but with all these things, I think it kind of paved the way for a nice foundation so that when the opportunity came to do descriptive narration, there's definitely a lot of nuance. There's still a lot of things that I needed to learn, but I really took to it pretty quickly. Jeff Thompson: Well, that's great because the blindness community really appreciates all the audio description that they are employing today in today's movies. It's getting to the point like when there's not one, it's like hey, hey. Roy Samuelson: Oh, that's great to hear. I saw on some website, I posted on Twitter the link, I can't recall the exact address, but I think there's 2200 titles available right now for audio description, and that's just unique descriptions. That's not overlaps. I thought wow, that's great, let's keep that number going up. Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah. I hope it does keep going up, especially with all these rules about the ADA and making things accessible, and it just shows that a Hollywood production that puts out a movie and takes the extra measure to put in the audio description, it just is more inclusive. It just makes people feel like hey, we matter, and I really appreciate what you're doing to bring that to light. Roy Samuelson: Ah, thanks for saying so. It's been great to be a part of that. The studios and the networks and even the streaming services are aware that yeah, this is audience. It's in everybody's ... it's such a win-win-win situation that I can't stand it. Everybody wins. Jeff Thompson: So Roy, if a movie's coming out, how soon do you get notified about working on the movie for the audio description piece, and when you're done with it, how soon does the movie get released after that? Roy Samuelson: Ah, great questions. My experience is pretty limited, so they give me sometimes a week's notice, sometimes a day or two's notice for a film that's coming out. It's usually about maybe three to five days. We set aside a day for it. It usually takes about maybe ... I can do a movie in about four hours. Sometimes it takes the full day depending on how they need to do it, and then once I'm done with it, it's pretty close to release date. The audio description is one of the last things to get done in post-production sound. Everything else is pretty much locked as far as the picture's locked and the sound is pretty much locked. Everything is kind of good to go to the theater, and then audio description is a special track that kind of lives above and beyond the whole movie. For my work to match up with what they do, as far as the dominoes falling, I think audio description has to be one of the last. And I guess the second part of your question, a movie can come out sometimes within a week of the work I do- Jeff Thompson: Oh, really? Roy Samuelson: And sometimes a few weeks to a month. Jeff Thompson: So you're one of the last guys on that assembly line. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, and they do take it seriously. The quality control, at least the company I work for, and I'm sure all the other companies, they really do take it seriously. They want to make sure all the characters are consistent and that there's not mistakes in the story. They genuinely care about what they're doing. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's great, and who would have thought that 10 years of cold reading scripts and something of passion that you love to do, obviously you did it for 10 years, would lend into doing something like this? Roy Samuelson: Isn't it funny? I think about other people that have talked about the things that they've I'm going to say invested in for the joy of doing it. I had no intention of oh, I'm going to spend the next 10 years working on this so that I could be an audio descriptive narrator. It did happen in parallel in some ways, but for the most part, it's great to see how that seems pretty common with a lot of different businesses. I really like looking at that. Jeff Thompson: Well, it's really nice when you have a passion for doing something and then all of a sudden, it just leads into something else that someone wants you to do, and you find yourself doing it, and who would have thought? Roy Samuelson: Yeah, yeah. I think, if I could jump on that a little bit, Jeff, there's an openness, almost like a growth mindset that I think comes along. I do my best to keep a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset. I think if I had the fixed mindset, I'd think oh no, I need to make sure I stay focused on just one thing, and when some opportunity like audio description would come up, I'd think oh no, that's outside of my wheelhouse. I've never done that before. I don't know enough about it. I haven't heard about that, so it could almost be dismissed, and here's this great opportunity that can come up, and I use this example. I'm kind of digging my own pit here and my point. I think what my point is that having an almost curious eye and looking at things maybe not necessarily from the most familiar way, seeing things a little differently can open up a whole bunch of new opportunities. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well, that's great. So I'm curious. Since your tool is the microphone and your voice, do you have your own microphone, your own recording, or a preference? Roy Samuelson: Oh yeah. I've got a whole studio set up in my house. It's called a Whisper Room, just basically a four foot by six foot building, and it's moved along with me a few times. Inside there, there's one side where I can sit down and I do audiobooks on that, because those are usually long form, and then the other side is a stand-up thing, so I've got the mic almost coming from the ceiling, and I read along either auditions on an iPad or if I need to call in for a project that I'm recording remotely, I can do an ISDN connection or even a file, FTP upload. It kind of gives me the freedom to stand and kind of play around with moving my arms around and kind of get into the story a little bit more. Jeff Thompson: Oh, I suppose, especially with the audiobook, yeah. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, mm-hmm (affirmative). Jeff Thompson: So what's your go-to microphone? Roy Samuelson: You know, at the studio where I work, they have a Neumann, and it's one of those condenser microphones. I think it's the 102. I'm trying to think. I'm pretty sure it's the ... anyway, it's a nice Neumann. Jeff Thompson: Typical thousand dollar-plus Neumann. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, and then for my home studio, I really like the Bluebird by Blue. It's just got a nice, for my purposes for auditioning, it's got a nice kind of warm open sound, and yeah, I still get a lot of sibilance though, so I have to kind of process that out a little bit. Jeff Thompson: Now when you say sibilance, can you tell our listeners what that is? Roy Samuelson: Sure. Sometimes S's can come across really hard. It's almost like the microphone is picking up a little too much on the letter S. It just makes it- Jeff Thompson: Kind of like that whistle sound. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, and the microphone just loves it, and it's like a magnet. It just sucks it right up, and so it makes it a lot louder and the experience on mic is a little too much, so that's one example of sibilance. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Well, that's great. Yeah, the Whisper Room. I've got to remember to use that. I've got to tell my wife about making myself a Whisper Room. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, it's a brand from, if it's not Kentucky, I think it's Tennessee. They specialize in that for a lot of musicians and such, but there's other kinds of quiet rooms and all sorts of, especially in Los Angeles, a lot of voiceover actors like to have custom-made ones. Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah, I follow the Booth Junkie, and he's always building his little booth and going inside it and coming out. So the Whisper Room, you can actually break that down and move it with you. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, and there was one time, Jeff, I did it myself, and I probably need to remember to have a friend come along. That's definitely not a one-person job. Jeff Thompson: So Roy, with all the work that the studios are doing to make audio description available to them, what suggestions would you have for our listeners that appreciate the audio description that they're receiving? Roy Samuelson: Yeah, so a lot of the studios and the networks, they've got so many things on their plate. They're advertising, they're trying to put things together. It's easier for them to not gloss over, but kind of, I guess the best thing to say is if you're watching movies and TV shows and you appreciate the audio description, let the studios know and let the networks know and let the streaming services know that this is something that's really valuable, and that you want more of, and I think that kind of message will help everybody out. It gives more content to viewers who appreciate audio description. Roy Samuelson: In Los Angeles, we get a lot of traffic, and audio description is great for commuters who want to catch up on their TV shows or enjoy a movie when they're trying to fight traffic on the 405. It is kind of like an audiobook that's fully produced, so by trying to get commuters into the audio description game, that can only help audience members who also appreciate it for audio description. It's kind of a win-win for everybody, but I really think letting the studios and the networks and streaming services know how much this service is appreciated and liked, that helps everybody. Jeff Thompson: Oh, for sure, for sure. It's available to us. We use Comcast, and we have that on our phones, and it has audio description so my wife can use her phone to watch a TV show, but she has audio description so she considers it watching TV, and it's like a book like you said. Roy Samuelson: Yeah. Oh, very good, and that's the Comcast cable? Jeff Thompson: Yeah, Xfinity, Prime Video. There's [crosstalk 00:18:43]. Roy Samuelson: Oh, excuse me for the product placement there. Jeff Thompson: No, it's great. I like people to know that because it's available and it's working, and just turn it on, but everybody's a different individual here, and some people like a lot of description, some people like a little, but it's getting better, and as you said, there's what, over 2000 available titles out there with audio description. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, and that's just based on that one website I found, and who knows. There's probably some other options there too. Good to know. Jeff Thompson: You mentioned earlier when we were talking, I think this was before we started recording, your mother went to a show, a movie that just came out, and was trying to use the audio description in the theater. Roy Samuelson: Oh yeah, and it turned out great. The manager gave her and her guests a movie credit for it, but the opportunity for her was to try out the headset for audio description at the movie, and it just so happened that that morning there was an electrical glitch in the theater, so all the power went out and turned back on, and that audio description somehow got reset, and it was important for her to step out and let a manager know, but she was enjoying the movie and she didn't want to stop and interrupt her experience, but as theaters get more and more accessible, particularly with audio description, the more they understand how the ropes work, so to speak. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. It's kind of interesting that she wanted to hear her son. Not too many people get- Roy Samuelson: [inaudible] there. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, not too many people get that opportunity, but that's great. Roy Samuelson: So hopefully the next time she goes to the theater, she'll be able to hear it. Jeff Thompson: Well, that happens with technology, especially when you have like theaters that the workers are going to college or doing other things and stuff like that, and they have this device, and when they work, they work great. It's getting more and more available to people. I love that the entertainment industry is making audio description more available to people and I really want to thank you for what you're doing, creating the voice that people are listening to without interrupting the show. Roy Samuelson: Well, that's the goal, and I always strive for that. Thanks for saying so. Jeff Thompson: Sometimes being in the background is just as important as being in the limelight. Roy Samuelson: Yeah, it's definitely ... I feel like part of the team. Jeff Thompson: Well, great. I want to thank you for what you're doing and for taking the time and coming on the Blind Abilities and sharing this with our listeners. Roy Samuelson: Jeff, it's a real pleasure talking with you. Thanks for having me on. Jeff Thompson: You bet. Jeff Thompson: It was really nice to learn from Roy Samuelson what he does, how he does it, and his interest in it, and he's really motivated. Like he said, contact the studios that are putting out audio description. If you like it, let them know. Let's give them feedback, and you can follow Roy on Twitter  @RoySamuelson. That's R-O-Y-S-A-M-U-E-L-S-O-N on Twitter. Jeff Thompson: So as always, thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye-bye. Jeff Thompson: Jeff removes his headphones, turns off his mixer, pushes his boom microphone up towards the ceiling. He sits back in his studio chair, looking satisfied. He reaches towards the red switch and flicks it down. The On the Air sign outside Studio Three fades to black. [Music]  [Transition noise]  -When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes... [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence] ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter at Blind Abilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

Show Summary: Full Transcript Below Daniel Berlin joins Jeff in the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about phase 5 of his Team See Possibilities 7 continents in 7 years goal. New Zealand is the next target for Team See Possibilities. [caption id="attachment_4090" align="alignleft" width="300"]Team See Possibilities walking the Great Wall of China 2017[/caption] Last year it was China and the Great Wall, another was climbing Kilimanjaro, and as you can gather, these extreme endurance events gain the attention of many throughout the world, Alison, Brad, Charles and Dan get most energized when they are able to meet with children who are blind and vision impaired. Each event includes visits to blind schools, parents and teachers of the blind. Over the last 5 years, Team See Possibilities has raised over $100,000 to support children who are blind around the world. And they have been busy working on a Global Scholarship initiative that will launch in early 2019. This scholarship program is aimed at blind students wanting a college education and have a drive to succeed.   You can find Team See Possibilities on the web at www.TeamSeePossibilities.comCheck out their schedule of events and find out how you can support the Team’s mission.     Contact: Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.   Full Transcript:   Dan Berlin: We're on our fifth continent now, and taking on our fifth endurance challenge, this one in New Zealand.   Jeff Thompson: Please welcome Dan Berlin, Team See Possibilities.   Dan Berlin: It's the challenge itself that brings out the strength in us.   Jeff Thompson: Blind ultra-marathon runner, extreme endurance athlete, co-founder of his own company, and blindness advocate.   Dan Berlin: To see the possibilities, not the limitations, our message is always about letting each individual find their true own self human capacity, human potential, and help them to recognize that.   Jeff Thompson: You can find out more about Dan Berlin and the foundation at teamseepossibilities.com.   Dan Berlin: The barriers and challenges are there for someone with a visual disability, but they're not insurmountable. It's just, we always learn how to attack the problem from a different angle.   Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the app store, that's two-words, Blind Abilities.   Dan Berlin: For anyone who likes Lord of the Rings, almost all of that film was filmed around that area. Basically we're running around Mount Doom.   Jeff Thompson: Now, here's Dan Berlin. We hope you enjoy. Welcome to Blind Abilities, I'm Jeff Thompson. Today we got a special guest who's taken off to New Zealand. He's a blind endurance athlete. His name's Dan Berlin. Thank you, Dan, for taking the time in such a crunch moment and coming on to Blind Abilities.   Dan Berlin: Oh thank you Jeff. Thank you for having me.   Jeff Thompson: Oh, you bet. It's a pleasure to have you on. Can you tell people what you've been doing? You got seven countries, seven years, but you're doing something that's bigger than just the event itself.   Dan Berlin: Definitely. This started out as a recreational activity in the extreme sense with three of my friends and I looking to run rim-to-rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon. We did that four years ago. After that, it was so impactful that we decided to form a non-profit called Team See Possibilities. Since then, we've been taking on once a year, epic endurance challenges around the world with the mission of supporting children who are blind in each country that we go to. We're on our fifth continent now, and taking on our fifth endurance challenge, this one in New Zealand. We leave tomorrow evening.   Jeff Thompson: You're going to be doing an endurance marathon. I mean, it's not just around the track 26-miles, this is something quite different.   Dan Berlin: Yeah. We like to find things that are challenging. As any of us who have limited, or no sight know, uneven surfaces to the extreme of trying to run on the trail is about as challenging as it gets. That's kind of right in our wheel-house. We put ourselves in these tough situations and try to figure out how to get through it. Each time we attempt one of these runs, we're learning as we go, adapting, to different techniques of guiding. I've learned so much on the fly about how to deal with different situations as they present themselves, and doing it safely, and really relying on others, working together as a team to do these things that seem impossible at the time. Then we find a way to get them done.   Dan Berlin: Then we try to take that message and share it, especially with parents, educators, children who are interacting, or who are visually impaired themselves, and really say that this is tough. It's hard to go through school. It's hard to think of a career when you have limited sight, but the reality is that the challenge can actually make us stronger. It's just like when we do train for an endurance event, when we do train for a marathon, we don't jump off the couch and run it, we have to put ourselves through all sorts of challenges in order to build up that endurance to be able to tackle the goal that we want to obtain. We use this analogy in taking on some of these tremendously hard endurance challenges, to really say, "It's the challenge itself that brings out the strength in us."   Jeff Thompson: Doing such feats as this brings a lot of attention to it. You kind of relay into bringing attention to blindness, and the orphanages, and people involved in those countries.   Dan Berlin: Yeah, definitely. We spend a lot of time with schools. Spend a lot of the time with children who are blind, and also their peers, their communities, their educators. So often it's about not coming in with pre-set expectations, or a very low bar of what somebody's capable of achieving. Our message is always about letting each individual find their true own self, human capacity, human potential, and help them to recognize that. So often it's the most well-meaning adults in the child's life that put up these roadblocks around them, or guardrails might be more ... to say to keep them safe. In so doing, oftentimes, limit their own self-beliefs on what can be accomplished, or what they can truly achieve. That's what we try to knock down.   Dan Berlin: Professionally, I co-founded the Vanilla Extract Company, been CEO here for years. We actually just made a transition with the company, so now I'm back into a very large corporate environment. You know, the barriers and challenges are there for someone with a visual disability, but they're not insurmountable. It's just we always learn how to attack the problem from a different angle.   Jeff Thompson: When you attack this problem of the trail ultra-marathon, you're not just going to run one, you decided to do two in a week.   Dan Berlin: Yeah. You know what that say, that expression about you become the average of your peers? The real true test of that is to pick incredible peers to be hanging out with. When I got together with this team, if you said the bar was two-feet high, they looked at it and said, "Well, that's the first one, the real one's four-feet high." They're always upping the ante, and that's great for me, because we push each other to achieve things that we're not sure if we know we can do. When we go into these things, we never really know that we're going to accomplish it. That's what makes it so special when we do. This time, in New Zealand, we're taking on the Tongariro Circuit in the north island, which is about a 27-mile run. For those that love Lord of the Rings, if you picture Mount Doom, we're basically running around Mount Doom. Yeah, so you can imagine how rugged that terrain is in the films, that's where number one ...   Dan Berlin: Then, for after leaving the north island, we head to the south island and take on the world-famous Milford Track. For this one, we're going to start by kayaking a few kilometers to the start. This is traditionally a four-day hike, about 33 miles. We're going to run it, actually reverse, to the normal route that's taken. It gets a lot of climbing, and the rugged terrain in there in the first half, and take that on, in less than a day.   Jeff Thompson: Less than a day?   Dan Berlin: Less than a day.   Jeff Thompson: Wow.   Dan Berlin: We're not bringing sleeping bags, so it's going to be pretty cold and wet if we don't make it.   Jeff Thompson: There's the incentive. There you go.   Dan Berlin: Exactly. That's what they say.   Jeff Thompson: It's great what you do. I know you started this a while ago. This is number five out of the seven, right?   Dan Berlin: Yeah, this is five of the seven.   Jeff Thompson: Five continents. Last year you did the Great Wall, and wow, Kilimanjaro.   Dan Berlin: Yeah.   Jeff Thompson: The list goes on.   Dan Berlin: It's great. Each time we go to one of these countries, we have the opportunity to speak at schools, to talk with children who have vision loss, and parents and teachers, and communities in which they live. So we always get lots of ability to interact with many communities, and to really spread our message of ability, and not pre-judging. The whole goal is to just blow up these perceived notions of what someone with a disability is capable of doing.   Jeff Thompson: And let them see the possibilities as in the name Team See Possibilities.   Dan Berlin: Exactly. We want everyone, the individual themselves, and those around them to see the possibilities, not the limitations.   Jeff Thompson: Yeah, just like you said in other times when we've talked, you said, "You don't think about what you can't do, you think about what you can do," I like that attitude.   Dan Berlin: Yeah. It's exactly. I mean, in the workplace, so often we focus on enhance your strengths, play to your strengths, take advantage of your strengths, do whatever you can to diminish your weaknesses, that's so often in many things, whether it's a sport, business, personally, that's what leads to success. For someone with a vision impairment, like myself, yeah, a significant weakness is the fact that I can't see what I'm doing. Mitigate that weakness, find an awesome team. I have three fantastic guides and play to my strengths. In my case, my strengths are the love and ability to do some of these endurance challenges and make that most of that.   Jeff Thompson: Why don't you give a Team See Possibilities a shout-out right now? I think they're great. I've watched those videos, and wow, it's just neat seeing what they do for challenges along with you. Cause you seem like they're either crazy guy, and they're there with you though.   Dan Berlin: Oh, sometimes I think I am the sane one in the group.   Jeff Thompson: Oh wow.   Dan Berlin: So it's awesome. We were first started with Charles Scott, longtime friends, been friends for almost two decades now. When I first got into just running, my goal was really to start running and get to a 5k, this was about nine years ago. I had no idea of getting into endurance sports at the time. I was in my late 30s, feeling down, gaining weight, had started a new enterprise, new company, and was feeling pretty low about my physical health, and just decided to go out and start running to try to get back in shape. Charles is really the inspiration to take it a step further and try a marathon. He's one of the main drivers of the team.   Dan Berlin: Brad Graff is a longtime friend of Charles, and invaluable teammate. Brad is our logistics guru. He takes care of everything, packing list, plan-wise, transportation, gets us to where we need to be, keeps us on time. It's absolutely fantastic. Alison Qualter Berna is our third team member, and she's really the heart of the team. Alison brings so much compassion and joy to everything she does, that being out there together makes it so enjoyable. Then the four of us, we support each other. We all have our high points, and we all have our low points. It's all about doing this as a unit and being together.   Jeff Thompson: You really caught my attention when I heard about ... when you ran the rim-to-rim, the Grand Canyon. Like one foot to the left would have been thousand feet down. You ran the ... First blind person to ever do that. Let's see there is South American, there's China, Kilimanjaro, there's Europe coming up next year, but I saw on your list of number seven is Antarctica.   Dan Berlin: Antarctica is the big one. We systematically put Europe as number six, because if the opportunity opens up for us to be able to Antarctica next year, we're sure we can find a way of doing Europe the following year. That is the big one. We haven't determined exactly what Antarctica looks like yet. It's expensive. It's time-consuming. It's a pretty incredible place to be. That is going to be the capstone of this journey.   Jeff Thompson: Yeah, the thing about at the South Pole, if you go 10 miles north, 20 miles east, or west, you're still on 10 miles from the South Pole.   Dan Berlin: I know. It's pretty cool.   Jeff Thompson: Yeah, mind-boggling is what I see this as. You guys are out there, you're a team. I like that team spirit that you have, you talk about, and what you're doing for all the communities, and that you get involved with. You're doing something else this fall, not only running two ultra-marathons in one week, but you're starting something very special this fall, why don't you tell the listeners about it.   Dan Berlin: Definitely. In our travels around the world, we often speak at schools, and have been giving financial donations, contributions to school-by-school as we visit them. We started a music program in a school for the blind in Lima for instance. We helped buy supplies for an integrated school for the blind in Tanzania. What we want to do is create a more meaningful, lasting impact on the blind community, and those that interact with them. In thinking about it, we thought, tackling this transition, for youths, from high school, into college, and helping students obtain a meaningful secondary education. Now this is not for everyone, this is for the students that have the will, and the tenacity, and the fight to go and take on the college education.   Dan Berlin: I know from experience, it's very challenging. It's hard enough to understand where should we go? Where can we get accepted? What should we major in? The expense, and the cost of going. Now layering on top of that, the challenge of having to figure out how you're going to get around campus. What type of support will I need in the classroom? Will my professors understand if I can't see what they're presenting, or the video that they're showing? These stresses are just in the added level of challenge that just requires additional hard work and tenacity to get it done.   Dan Berlin: What we're starting up is a scholarship program at least where we can to help offset the cost of students that want to take on this challenge. We'll be rolling this out first quarter of 2019. Probably looking to take applications by March or April of 2019 for the fall of next year. Our goal is to be able to offer five $5000 scholarships. We targeted it around both New Zealand, and the United States for this year. The long-term goal of the project is to identify and create meaningful pathways for a student with vision-loss, or no sight, through a university program, into a career path, and be able to have mentors, and folks that have done it, that have navigated those waters before, available to help mentor, and just to be there as resources.   Dan Berlin: Again, really, this is when a student approaches a professor in a freshman year of biology class let's say, and can't see the screen, having them have somebody that they can talk to and ask about, "How did you do it?" I think that will be very powerful, and really getting back to our mission about supporting children with vision loss and helping them achieve their maximum potential. Sometimes we get stuck trying to solve the problem when there's a solution, but if we can prevent having to reinvent the wheel every time, that's what we're after. This isn't for everyone, but this is for those that are really looking to get out there and go through a university program, and not quite sure all the roadblocks they're going to face. We're looking at initially financial support, and eventually building this into a lot more peer-to-peer mentoring support.   Jeff Thompson: I really like what you say as a career pathway, a pathway for other people to follow. Like you said, reinventing the wheel, every person that comes along, they think they're the only person in the world that has ever done this, but just like when the next blind person gets to the top of Kilimanjaro, there's probably a little piece of braille up there that says, "Dan Berlin was here."   Dan Berlin: I tell you, I mean, when I take on these challenges, I research the trail, and I look for anyone else who's vision impaired that has done similar things before, part of the trail, or similar type things, and ask them. That's one of the ways I met Jack Chen. Years ago, I called him when I was looking at going up Kilimanjaro, cause I read that he climbed it several years ago. I really asked him, I said, "Well what was it like? What was the trail like? How did you handle this? How did you handle that?"   Jeff Thompson: Oh wow.   Dan Berlin: To be able to provide that level of ... Somebody there to be able to be supportive, and just be that sounding board for a student to be able to ask, "Well, how did you get through a course that's all dealing with quizzes, and clickers, and you have to see the screen to enter the number, and which one you choose?" Little practical issues like that, that are the reality in college today. If we can solve some of those issues without having to involve ... Sometimes we don't like the stigma of having to involve university services, or to make a big to-do about special accommodations.   Jeff Thompson: Sometimes there's just that little thing that gets you past something that you go, "Oh, that's it?" It's just a little simple thing. What I was going to say earlier is there's ... someone's going to get to the top of Kilimanjaro and find a braille Dan Berlin was here, but now I'm corrected, now it's going to say Jack Chen and Dan Berlin were here.   Dan Berlin: Yeah, exactly. I mean that's how I met Jack. Jack is a fantastic person. He and I have such similar beliefs, and attitude towards life, and the way we view things.   Jeff Thompson: Well, you guys did the Race Across America last year ... well this year, 2018.   Dan Berlin: Yeah.   Jeff Thompson: Wow.   Dan Berlin: Yeah, it was the past June.   Jeff Thompson: Two big major feats.   Dan Berlin: I know. Time goes by.   Jeff Thompson: Wow. Well Dan, I know you got to get packing, heading out to New Zealand for that endurance flight. I just want to thank you so much for coming on here, sharing. If you want to read more about Dan and his Team See Possibilities, it's teamseepossibilities.com on the web. Congratulations on the Race Across America. Good luck to you and your team, Team See Possibilities when you head to New Zealand, and accomplish your goals.   Dan Berlin: Yeah, thank you very much Jeff. I really appreciate having the opportunity to share this with you, and the other listeners.   Jeff Thompson: Oh great. I'm looking forward to hearing about it. I talked to you earlier, it was like, "What? You're going to New Zealand? Now what's up?" It's like, wow, that's really cool. I want to say if you get a chance to go onto the website, there's some videos there that just explain doing the wall. It's not just a path, the wall is not a path. There's obstacles, there's some parts that are perfect, picture perfect parts, but you kayaked in the morning, you climbed ... oh it was like, "Wow, this is really cool." There's other videos on there too. Just good information on there, and hopefully people can get a chance to go to your website and check it out.   Dan Berlin: Oh, thanks Jeff.   Jeff Thompson: I'm excited for you. I'm excited for your team. Good luck to all of you.   Dan Berlin: Ah, thank you Jeff. I think this is fantastic. I really appreciate this, such short notice, this is great.   Jeff Thompson: Safe travels man.   Dan Berlin: Thanks Jeff.   Jeff Thompson: All right.   Dan Berlin: Take care.   Jeff Thompson: Bye-bye. Be sure to check out Team See Possibilities on the website at www.teamseepossibilities.com. I'm sure we'll get back with Dan Berlin when they return, and some other exciting news as they start to launch the global scholarship project from Team See Possibilities. Once again, I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye-bye.   [Music] [Transition noise] When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes...   [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]   ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.   Jeff Thompson:         For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com on Twitter @BlindAbilities, download our app from the App Store. Blind Abilities, that's two words, or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

Show Summary: Please welcome Teen correspondent, Simon Bonenfant, as he steps into the interviewer role for Blind Abilities. While attending and presenting at the Pennsylvania NFB convention, Simon pulled out his recorder and went to work. Conducting 5 interviews from vendors and presenters. In this first interview, Simon talks to Dr. Cary Supalo about his work and what suggestions he has for transition age students considering going into the STEM fields. Join Simon and Dr. Supalo as they talk about the importance of learning blindness skills and the possibilities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. (Full Transcription Below) Check out previous interviews with Simon Bonenfant: TVI Toolbox: Summer Academy, Total Transition to College Experience – Welcome Back Simon Bonenfant and Meet Fellow Student, John Dowling TVI Toolbox:  Science, Technology, Engineering and Math: Carving His Pathway Towards Success, Meet Simon Bonenfant   Read below to learn more about Dr. Cary Supalo, his work and his accomplishments. From the Web: Cary Supalo Senior Developer, Cognitive Sciences and Assistive Technology Educational Testing Service Dr. Supalo received his Ph.D. from Penn State University in 2010 with a research interest in chemical education. He focused on the development of a series of talking and audible laboratory tools that promotes a hands-on science learning experience in the secondary science laboratory classroom. Through his research he modified various laboratory curricula to develop a set of best practices for teaching science in a hands-on way to students who are blind. . Dr. Supalo currently serves as a Research Developer with the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. His research addresses accessibility concerns as it relates to high stakes assessments and working to help develop the next-generation interfaces needed to promote inclusion in the STEM fields of study. He has a strong passion for collaborating with anyone interested in working to make the hands-on science learning experience for students with disabilities more a reality. Papers: Breaking New Ground in Accessibility: Innovations in Making NGSS-Aligned Assessments Accessible to Blind and Visually Impaired Students Developing Equitable Assessments: Creating Standards for Accessibility/Accommodations and Enhanced Item Innovations   Contact: Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.   Full Transcription: A Conversation with Dr. Cary Supalo: STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and of course, Braille and Mobility   Cary Supalo: I learned pursuing a STEM career, it's not going to be handed to you. If you wait for the world to make it all accessible to you, it's probably not going to happen.   Jeff Thompson:           Please welcome Doctor Cary Supalo.   Cary Supalo:    That's the essence of what STEM professionals do. We problem solve. We figure stuff, figure stuff, figure stuff out.   Jeff Thompson:           STEM, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.   Cary Supalo:    To make something out of nothing or to do something that's never been done before, that's the beauty of being a scientist. No two days of work are ever alike. There's always the chance you're going to discover something really significant on any given day that can change the world.   Jeff Thompson: Doctor Supalo has spent a lot of time creating and developing talking and audible devices for STEM students. He has created curricula for teachers of the visually impaired and is a huge advocate for blindness skills training.   Cary Supalo:    You really need to have good blindness skills. You have to be confident in your ability to get from Point A to Point B on your own.   Jeff Thompson:           Welcome to Blind Abilities. I'm Jeff Thompson. The National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania held their convention, and our man Simon Bonenfant was out there. Simon is a tenth grader. He is in attendance and also spoke about his experience while he attended a summer camp held at Penn State. We did a podcast with Simon about his experience, and you can find that link in the show notes. Simon's also been on before when he's talked about his experiences as a transition age student. He's a tenth grader and has a heavy interest in the STEM project, and that's science, technology, engineering and math.   Jeff Thompson:           This time, Simon's going to flip around to the other side of the microphone and do some interviews. Simon is interviewing Doctor Cary Supalo, and he's a Senior Developer of Cognitive Sciences and Assistive Technology Educational Testing Service. Doctor Supalo received his PhD from Penn State University in 2010 with a research interest in chemical education. Doctor Supalo has been involved in various workshops across the states helping high school and secondary school students success in the STEM programs. He has also helped develop curricula to help teachers succeed in teaching students with visual impairments.   Jeff Thompson:           Without further ado, I'd like to Simon Bonenfant, Blind Abilities' teen correspondent in Pennsylvania. Take it away, Simon.   Simon Bonenfant:       Simon Bonenfant here. Simon Bonenfant here. Simon Bonenfant here. Hello Blind Abilities Podcasting, it is Simon Bonenfant here corresponding from the Pennsylvania State Convention of the National Federation of the Blind. While I'm here, I have the opportunity to sit down and talk with Cary Supalo. How you doing, Cary?   Cary Supalo:    I'm doing fine. It's a pleasure to be here.   Simon Bonenfant:       That's good. Now, Cary is a blind man himself. Where are you from, Cary?   Cary Supalo:    Well, I'm originally from the Chicago area. I live in Princeton, New Jersey now.   Simon Bonenfant:       What do you do in Princeton?   Cary Supalo:    I work at the Educational Testing Service. I'm an Accessibility Expert to make sure that high stakes assessments are accessible for blind and visually impaired testing.   Simon Bonenfant:       Very nice. What was it like growing up for you being blind and kind of coming into your role?   Cary Supalo:    Well, when I was really young, I didn't know very many other blind people. I knew other blind kids through the educational co-op I was a part of, but I was in mainstream school with sighted kids. I used a lot of large print in my early years before I learned braille in middle school. I'm very grateful having learned braille, because I use braille every day now in my work. It was very valuable for me in college and in graduate school.   Cary Supalo:    Between learning the braille and learning how to use a long white cane to get around independently and in making that adjustment to being willing to carry a cane, that's very hard for a lot of people to accept for one reason or another, but once I did that, I was off and running. It couldn't keep me pinned down too much.   Simon Bonenfant:       Yeah. That's good. What kind of things are you interested in?   Cary Supalo:    I love to travel.   Simon Bonenfant:       Very nice.   Cary Supalo:    I love to go to places where historically significant things occurred that we've read about in our history books. I like trying to bring history to life for me. It's one thing to read about an idea conceptually in a book, but it's a whole ‘nother matter to walk through the ancient Roman Ruins. As a blind person, I really wanted to use it to test my blindness skills to see if I could really navigate in other countries where they drove on the other side of the road and where they spoke other languages. I quite-   Simon Bonenfant:       Yeah, they drive on the other side of the road.   Cary Supalo:    They do, oh yeah. Absolutely.   Simon Bonenfant: Yeah. Mm-hmm (affirmative).   Cary Supalo:    So, that's one of big interests. I also like learning. I like to play competitive trivia whenever possible.   Simon Bonenfant:       Oh, nice.   Cary Supalo:    So, knowing lots of factoids about all kinds of things has always interested me, science, math are really my go-to things in my professional career. I took a liking to that in college. Going through high school, I could do the math and science stuff, but I wasn't necessarily in love with it. It wasn't until I got to college and I started meeting other blind scientists in the world that eventually became my mentors and encouraged me to keep going on the path. I learned pursuing a STEM career, it's not going to be handed to you. If you wait for the world to make it all accessible to you, it's probably not going to happen.   Cary Supalo:    So, you need to get really good at thinking on your feet, fundamental problem solving all the time to figure out how to do things. It's one thing to do it as a blind person to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B, which we all know and love we can do, but then you take that skillset and apply it scientific questions, "Well, how do I make this compound from these starting materials? How do I design an experiment that will give me this type of result? What do I have to do to optimize the use of the scientific method to get the results that we hope to-   Simon Bonenfant: Oh, yes, scientific method.   Cary Supalo:    Yes, exactly.   Simon Bonenfant:       First step, creating a hypothesis, you know.   Cary Supalo:    Yeah. If you think about what blind people do, we have to figure out where we're going. We have to figure out how to read something. We have to figure out how to access a website or a software application at all parallels. That's a commonsensical thing for we as blind people to consider in STEM professions, because that's the essence of what STEM professionals do. We problem solve. We figure stuff out. The more people that have experience figuring stuff out, the better off our STEM workforce is going to be.   Simon Bonenfant:       Right, you're the blind person that figures out the solutions for other blind people.   Cary Supalo:    That's right.   Simon Bonenfant: That's very good.   Cary Supalo:    Yeah. To make something out of nothing or to do something that's never been done before, that's the beauty of being a scientist. No two days of work are ever alike. There's always the chance you're going to discover something really significant on any given day that could change the world. Most days aren't like that, but man, when it does happen, it's pretty exciting.   Simon Bonenfant: Now, I know that NFB has had a very great impact on you. How did you come to connecting with NFB? Who are some of your role models that you connected with through this organization?   Cary Supalo: Well, in my early years, going on NFB National Convention, seeing employment panels and other blind students just doing things that you didn't know was possible was very inspiring to me as a young blind person not knowing where my path was going to be in life. Looking up to blind people, successfully employed blind people, people like Curtis Chong who is sort of the ultimate assist tech guru that I've ever met.   Simon Bonenfant:       Wow.   Cary Supalo:    There are many others, but he is at the top of my list to blind lawyers, and blind engineers, and other blind teachers and such.   Simon Bonenfant:       Seeing what you've accomplished in your life and in things that you've been able to do, it really echoes the message of the blind can do what we want. We can do what we want, live life as we want, and pursue our goals, pursue our dreams.   Cary Supalo:    Yeah, that's right. Push it to the limit. Live life to the fullest.   Simon Bonenfant:       Oh, yeah.   Cary Supalo:    That's what I say.   Simon Bonenfant:       Oh, yeah. Have you been to a lot of place ... a lot of travel, a lot of places?   Cary Supalo:    Too many to count. Too many to count. When I was an undergraduate college, I went to Purdue University and my freshman chemistry course, we had a professor and he would say to us, "The nice thing about becoming a chemistry professor is you get to travel all over the world, other people pay for it, you get to do`lots of really cool things, and people think you're smart." I said, "I want to do that."   Simon Bonenfant:       Have you ever encountered any inaccessible barriers that you've had to work through or educate people in your travels?       Cary Supalo:    Oh, all the time, from misconceptions about abilities to misconceptions about blind people being able to walk up and down steps to unwillingness to read restaurant menus, whatever. You just problem solve and work through it. I mean, there are times to pick your battles, and there are times to fight, and there are times when you just got to do workarounds to get what you need.   Simon Bonenfant:       Advocating for what you need, that's very important.   Cary Supalo:    Yes.   Simon Bonenfant:       Our final question is, what advice would you give to someone who is either high school, or transitioning to college, or transitioning to the workplace?   Cary Supalo:    You really need to have good blindness skills. You have to be confident in your ability to get from Point A to Point B on your own. If some of you out there get sighted guide a lot or ask for directions a lot, I mean, that's okay while you're learning, but you have to get to the point when you can do practically if not all of it on your own. It's not saying that you have to do it, but you have to have the skillset to do it in case you need to do it yourself.   Simon Bonenfant:       Right.   Cary Supalo:    I love to travel all over the world and I do it without any second thought, but I know a lot of young blind people today are hesitant to use canes because they don't want to look different, or maybe they're in a place in their own lives where they're not accepting of their visual impairment. That's okay because until you accept it, I'm not sure how much you're truly going to get there. So, take your time. Everybody comes to this realization at their own pace. To be a successful blind science person, the cane travel skills are critical for job interviewing, for performing the work, to getting to the work. Also, the other skill that I think is critical is the braille, literacy.   Simon Bonenfant:       Oh yeah, definitely.   Cary Supalo:    You've got to know how to read math braille, and preferably in the Nemeth Code, because Doctor Nemeth was a brilliant mathematician and a blind person. A lot of people don't know that. He designed the Nemeth Code to optimize minimal cells in braille space, a very efficient braille system to read. Since it was invented by a mathematician and a scientist, it's really [inaudible] what we need to do. Knowing how to read braille on the fly, I read braille with eight fingers, some people read it with six, some people only ready it with one or two. If you're one of the people that's one or two fingers, I would encourage you the more fingers you train yourself to read braille with, the faster you're going to be.   Cary Supalo:    When I lecture, I used hard copy braille when I gave lectures when I was teaching at university. I also used roll ... like braille lists of my students. So, I'd call out names of students when I'm looking for people to answer questions or taking attendance. I mean, the braille is a critical skill not only for learning the science but just for classroom management and keeping track of notes and research ideas.   Simon Bonenfant:       Yeah, a very valuable tool.   Cary Supalo:    Doctor Nemeth told me a story years ago about an experience he had when he had the opportunity to travel over to the Soviet Union. He was asked to visit Moscow and he was giving a lecture, I don't remember the name of the university over there, and he was giving a technical lecture on some advanced concept of quantum mechanics. Doctor Nemeth could hand write, because his parents taught him that it was very important for him to understand what the visual print symbology was in addition to the braille symbology. So, he could write mathematical equations on a chalkboard and he could space out the letters of numbers and symbols very nicely that were very legible.   Cary Supalo:    Well, he would do this complicated math work, and he had all of his equations written out on three by five index braille cards in braille in his suit jacket pocket. So, he had one hand in the suit jacket pocket, the other hand writing on the chalkboard while he was talking about each step of this complicated series of equations. All these kids in Russia thought he was the smartest man they'd ever seen, because they thought he was speaking off of the top of his head. They didn't know that he had everything written out in braille index cards in his suit jacket.   Simon Bonenfant:       Oh, wow. That is-   Cary Supalo:    So, reading braille can give people a real positive impression of you if you're using it right.         Simon Bonenfant:       Oh, yeah. Now, I'll flip this around a little bit and I'll say, what advice would you give teachers who are in the scientific area and who have to teach blind students? What advice would you be able to find information or resources in that area?   Cary Supalo:    Well, your local search engine is a very valuable tool. Using that to search for terms like blind science, chemistry access, things of that ... accessible mathematics, you're going to get a number of hits. It's going to take a little effort on your part to conduct some research. Maybe do a little self professional development, if you will. A willingness to do that and do a little bit of research can go a long way in the life of your student with the visual impairment, for the minutes you invest on the front end will pay many, many dividends on the back end for your student. It's worth every moment of it.   Simon Bonenfant:       I say if you have a drive, you have a willingness, if there's a will, there's a way.   Cary Supalo:    Yep. Don't be afraid to think outside the box and try something new if the students gamed and willing. If they're not, well then rethink what you want to do. I think more times than not they're going to want to do more than that.   Simon Bonenfant:       Well, thank you, Cary, for coming on the program and podcast. Very nice speaking with you.   Cary Supalo:    Likewise. Thank you, Simon.     [Music] [Transition noise] When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes...   [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]   ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.   Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with the blindness perspective: Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.comOn Twitter @BlindAbilities Download our app from the App store:  'Blind Abilities'; that's two words, Blind Abilities. Or send us an e-mail at: info@BlindAbilities.com Thanks for listening.

Show Summary: (full transcript below)   With the holidays upon us the deals and bargains are taunting our wallets and curiosities. Do you look for others or just shop for yourself? I make a list of items I am interested in and approach Black Friday from that perspective. Otherwise I am overwhelmed and miss out because there is too much going on. That is just me, so I am joined by Serina and Andy as we contemplate the mad rush, and I’m not talking about busyness, but the rush you get when you find your dazzling treasure. Yes, it may be a gift for someone else, but like most of us, it is something we really want. Now, I did not say need, I said want. Check out the TGI Black FridayApp Serina spills upon us. It is accessible and works great when you’re searching for that special deal. We hope all of you enjoy your Black Friday rush and we wish all of you a wonderful start to the holiday season. Contact: You can follow Tech Abilities on twitter @AbilitiesTech Tech Abilities is part of the Blind Abilities Network and be sure to check out all of our shows and podcasts. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Full Transcript: Tech Abilities: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and a Visit with Squirt’s Dad, Crush! Serena Gilbert: I am also looking for the Nest products. Jeff Thompson: Then we have Cyber Monday coming up, after that. Serena Gilbert: First, I was like "Whoa" then I was like "Whoa." Jeff Thompson: Pretty cool that it's... Andy Munoz: Yeah, Santa can't afford me. I can barely afford me. Jeff Thompson: What's on your list? Andy Munoz: What isn't? Jeff Thompson: Just simplifies a lot of things, especially when you're going to that checkout. Boom boom boom, done. Andy Munoz: Yeah, my Apple pay is a beautiful thing. Serena Gilbert: I love Venmo, 'cause you can literally send a text to somebody and pay them. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, there's gonna be some football on. I'll be watching to see how we all did; how much damage was done. When you get that thing in your hand, you're like "Got it!" Serena Gilbert: I got it! But Jeff, the home pod's gonna be $100 off at Best Buy. Andy Munoz: I know when they're talking about Mt. Wannahockaloogie. Serena Gilbert: Did you say boutique stores? Jeff Thompson: Thank you Serena, you're a real friend. Serena Gilbert: I'm their only true friend. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Tech Abilities. I'm Jeff Thompson and with me are co-hosts Serena Gilbert, how are you doing? Serena Gilbert: I am doing great Jeff, how are ya? Jeff Thompson: I'm doing great. Glad to hear your voice again and we also have Andy Munoz. How you doing? Andy Munoz: Doing awesome, how about you? Jeff Thompson: Ah, just awesome myself and kind of excited here, as Black Friday rolls around here, I've been bombarded by emails and stuff in the mail. Black Friday stuff. Are you guys excited about Black Friday? Serena Gilbert: I love Black Friday, it's my favorite shopping day of the year. I used to, when I was younger and before I had a kid, we used to get up really early in the morning and be the ones standing in front of the stores at like four in the morning, trying to chase down a TV or computer or something. But now, more internet based now. Jeff Thompson: Well now, if you bring the kid with, they would get an extra coupon. Serena Gilbert: Or be the ticket that you need to get in. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's right. How about you Andy? Andy Munoz: I'm kind of so-so on it. Obviously, I like to see what kind of deals are out there. I've not been as brave as Serena. I've never gone and done the whole "Let's get up at o-dark-thirty and go be in line at the stores." I'm not a crowd person. I think it's certainly interesting to kinda see what's out there. I'm always looking, even if it isn't Black Friday. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. I'm that way too, but this year I'm taking a different approach to it. I'm kind of thinking of the stuff that I really want to get, that I kinda need or come on, right down to it ... I just want it. So, I'm looking for the Nest product line, the Nest thermostat, the Nest Protect. I already have one, but I wanna put some more downstairs. They interconnect, it's a really neat idea. So, I'm gonna key on that. How about you guys, anything you're focusing on? Serena Gilbert: I am also looking for the Nest products. We want to get ... I don't know if it's the Nest Protect, but it's like the alarm system that Nest makes along with the- Jeff Thompson: Yeah, the Nest Protect is for a smoke alarm or CO, carbon monoxide detection and for home security they have the Nest Secure. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, we were just watching YouTube videos like last weekend about it and we were trying to decide between the Ring Alarm System and the Nest, 'cause there's pros and cons of all of them. Ring's a little bit less expensive, but Nest has cooler things and is more expandable. Serena Gilbert: It seems like, to me, it's gonna be a little bit more accessible with the demos, 'cause there's a lot of audible tones when you arm and disarm. You can voice command it a lot. That's what we're looking forward to as well as a robotic vacuum. I am dying to have one with three dogs in the house to just help with getting some of the hair off the wood floor. Jeff Thompson: Oh, I tell ya ours ... you open that thing up and you pull out like two gerbils at one time. It's easy. I was against it in a sense. I didn't voice my opinion because she wanted it and about three months later ... I love this little, I even clean up every once in a while just to make it shine. I like it. Especially when you have like, we have a yellow lab. It picks up lots of hair. Andy Munoz: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: What'd you name him? The Rumba? Jeff Thompson: I just call it Robot but others in the household call it Clyde. How about you Andy? Sounds like you might be interested into these vacuum robots. Andy Munoz: You know, I think they're pretty cool. We haven't bought one, we're still with our Shark. Certainly, when you have kids who don't do their chores, like they're supposed to, having one of those would certainly be a benefit. Serena Gilbert: Well one of the ones that we're looking at getting, because Kohls has a fantastic deal on it, but I don't know if I have to be at the store, or if I can get it online. I believe it's the Shark, the latest model of the robot version of it. I think it was like $199. It was either $199 or $229, something really close to that, plus you get $60 in Kohls cash with it. Jeff Thompson: Right, I wish they sent out those mystery stickers that you pull off. That would be neat. Serena Gilbert: Like a mystery discount? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Andy Munoz: But even the Kohls cash is still a benefit. Serena Gilbert: I just use it to buy the gifts for the people on my Christmas list. That's a lot of money. Jeff Thompson: It is. That's when I went to Kohls, that's when we got the Rumba. They had one of those deals and everything just piles into discounts. I don't think Kohls ever sold one item at their store, at full price. Serena Gilbert: If you've paid full price at Kohls, you are doing something massively wrong. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Andy Munoz: Yeah. You were there on June 13th, that one day. 'Cause we're always getting deals, getting Kohls cash. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, it's a good deal. I think Black Friday is one of those times where, you just try and find all these deals, but I don't want to get lost in it, because I've gone through, just like when Amazon had their big day, you just start scrolling through all this stuff and you get nowhere real fast. That's why I'm trying to think of stuff in advance, or certain stores or certain boutique stores that I'm interested in and I'm gonna hound those first and see what's up. Serena Gilbert: Did you say, "Boutique stores?" Are you going clothing shopping? Jeff Thompson: No, specialty stores like Bows. A specific store not like Fleet Farm or Home Depot. Serena Gilbert: Gotcha. Jeff Thompson: Is my metro-sexual side coming out? Serena Gilbert: I wasn't gonna say anything, but ... talking about boutiques over there. Jeff Thompson: Andy's shaking his head yes. So what's your game plan Andy? Andy Munoz: You know, I have a tendency to kind of watch things all year. So, I have certain things that I'm gonna be looking for. Part of it is, there's so much out there. Then it kinda becomes ... like you said, you get lost or you just want freaking everything. I have this small list, short list of "This is really what I'm looking for." And if something else jumps out and I think it's worth it, then I'll explore that or jump on it, whatever the case might be. I usually have just a short list and I usually narrow it down all year. Andy Munoz: I used to be a very big impulse buyer, now I've kinda had to tailor that back. I have eight kids and a wife, so you can't just do that. I kinda take that list and look and see "Okay, is anything on this list potentially gonna be a sale on Black Friday?" Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Andy Munoz: That's why we don't let our spouses listen to this podcast. Serena Gilbert: But Jeff, the home pod's gonna be $100 off at Best Buy. Jeff Thompson: I know. That's the best deal so far that I've seen out there. Serena Gilbert: Target has an iPad I believe, it's gonna be either $199 or $229. It's a really good deal. Jeff Thompson: Oh for real? Andy Munoz: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: What model? Serena Gilbert: I don't know 'cause I don't need an iPad ... 'cause I have a Black Friday app that we'll share in the show notes that is totally accessible and searchable. Jeff Thompson: Nice. Serena Gilbert: Very much so usable. I saw it in there 'cause it was one of the top deals. I was like ... if somebody needs an iPad, it's a great deal. Jeff Thompson: So if you go to the app store, look up TGI Black Friday. Speaker 4:           TGI Black Friday 2017 [inaudible 00:07:39]. Jeff Thompson: You may notice that the name still has 2017 on there, but they do address this. Speaker 4:           **Updated for 2018 despite the odd name**you can make a shopping list, get coupons, price compare, plus buy Black Friday deals from your phone. Get instant alerts for new Black Friday ads and never miss a deal. Check out frequently for new ads from your favorite stores such as Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Sears and many more. Search "Sort and Compare" 10,000+ deals in stores. Create the shopping list and mark items as you buy them. Share your list or deals with yourself or others. Compare prices online and confirm you are getting the best deal. Cyber Monday sales and coupons. Jeff Thompson: So let's check it out. Speaker 4:           Open button. Two days until Black Friday. Padding selected, popular deals button. Newest ads button. Coupons button. Jeff Thompson: Here's some of the featured Black Friday ads. Speaker 4:           iRobot vacuuming robot, Sam's Club. iPod 6th generation Target $329.99 $249.99 Apple watch series 3 Target $279.99 $199.99 HP 15T Laptop double use/intel core I7CPU HP $1,239.99 $499.99 Samsung Chrome Book 311.6 intel seller on Walmart $199 $99 Element 55 Smart UHD TV Target $379.99 $199.99 Google Home Hub Chalk Walmart $149 $99 Toshiba 434 KUHD TV W/HBR Fire TV Best Buy $329.99 $129.99 Dell Inspirn 15.6 touchscreen laptop double use/core I5CPU Best Buy $599.99 $399.99 iPad 9.7 tablet up to $100 off Best Buy. Jeff Thompson: Those five tabs at the bottom. Speaker 4:           Selected featured tab one of five. Stores tab two of five Categories tab three of five. Search tab four of five my list tab five of five. Jeff Thompson: Let's see what stores are in Black Friday deals. Speaker 4:           Stores tab two of five. Stores padding Walmart, 290 deals. Kohls 702 deals. Target 322 deals. Best Buy 547 deals. JC Penny, Macy's, Old Navy, Dell, Costco, Dick's Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shops, Big Lots. Jeff Thompson: And when you tap on one of the ads... Speaker 4:           Black Friday Google Home Hub Chalk $149 $99. Walmart opens 6:00 PM Thurs. Jeff Thompson: You have three choices. Speaker 4:           Shop now button. Add to list button. Share deal button. Jeff Thompson: Great tip Serena. That's the TGI Black Friday app. Andy Munoz: Sweet, that'll be nice. An iPad was kind of on my short list. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, there's gonna be some really good deals. I would check out Target and Best Buy for the iPad. The other thing that some of our listeners may or may not know is that Apple, every Black Friday does ... it's either 10 or 15% off usually, just on Black Friday. It's never advertised in advance, it just kinda pops up. Andy Munoz: That's actually funny because I never even knew that working for them. Serena Gilbert: That's funny. Andy Munoz: I mean for real, I'd get customers calling in "Do you know if you're gonna have a Black Friday sale?" Not to my knowledge. So, that's good info ... I didn't even know that. Jeff Thompson: Sometimes they throw on where you get $100 gift certificate to be used later. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Usually that's when you buy the top dollar things, like the Mac Books. I believe when they did their back to school, which honestly in my opinion's a better sale than the Black Friday sale. Weren't they giving away free Beats headphones when you bought a Mac Book? Andy Munoz: Yeah, I believe that is correct. Serena Gilbert: That's a pretty good deal, especially if you're gonna buy one anyway. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. You make a good point, especially if you're gonna buy one anyway. That's the angle I take a look at this stuff. Then, we have Cyber Monday coming up after that where everything goes crazy on the internet. That's where I start really snooping around, because it's kinda "I didn't spend much here, so it's like I saved money to use here." Jeff Thompson: I really watch it, because sometimes I think a lot of these stores want to clear out their inventory, so they're taking last year's model. That's why when you ask, "Which iPad is it?" Is it their stock, like "Hey, we got to move these refrigerators, we gotta get rid of some stuff.”? Jeff Thompson: That's where somebody else comes in. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Walmart is particularly notorious for that. 'Cause we are also in the market for a new TV, so Walmart has all these fantastic deals on their TVs. There's some that are only like $200, like ginormous TVs. But then you look into the specs and they're horrible refresh rates and things like that. Not that most of our blind and visually impaired community cares about that, but if you have a sighted spouse, they're gonna care about that. When you're buying that big of a TV, you want it to be quality. So look at that too. Andy Munoz: Or even if you're low vision like me. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Andy Munoz: You could still appreciate some of that. I'm one especially, because I'm a techy, I look into that stuff. There's even certain brands that I'll shy away from just because I don't know anything about them, and I don't know their reputation. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Andy Munoz: Even if they have the specs that I'm kinda looking for, I'll shy away from it, just because it's like eh, I don't know their reputation. Jeff Thompson: You really want to check out HDMI. How many are there? It used to be "Hey, it has HDMI, that's cool." But now, everything hooks up HDMI. So, as soon as you start hooking up ... oh let's see... Serena Gilbert: A cable box. Andy Munoz: Well just for example, I use Dish Network, so I've got a wireless Joey that's downstairs in my family room. That hooks up to an HDMI. MY son's got his Xbox that's connected to it, Apple TV. Serena Gilbert: Yup, a streaming box. Andy Munoz: Yeah, so we've got different apparatuses that are connected. So yeah, you definitely want to make sure you have those ports. Jeff Thompson: At least three. I think three is the standard right now. Andy Munoz: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: And then, having Smart TV where it actually connects up to the internet itself is pretty sweet too. Andy Munoz: It's nice too to have even ... my Vizio's will do Chrome cast. Jeff Thompson: But I get it Serena, you're saying that you used to go in, because of those special TV deals. Each store stocks up about 10 or 20 of these devices or the PlayStation, all these other things. Yeah, people are camping out the day before. It's kind of neat, kind of exciting. Serena Gilbert: And it's hard to get ... you think "Oh, I'll just price match it" or whatever. But it will be the same TV at Walmart and Best Buy, but they'll change the model number by like one letter at the end, so they're like "No, this one's on sale there, but this one's a totally different TV. Even though it's clearly identical, you know? It's kind of annoying. Serena Gilbert: But a lot of the things, you'd be surprised, you can get online. What we usually do is, Thanksgiving night, depending on the store, which for the record, I believe Target is one of the stores that's opening at like 5:00 on Thanksgiving, which I think is absolutely horrible. That means that you can probably, especially if you have a red card or a red debit card from there, you can get their sales the day before, so on Wednesday. Jeff Thompson: I have one. Serena Gilbert: But most of the deals, you can get them online starting at midnight, the night before. And that's midnight Eastern, usually. So log on, when it's midnight Eastern to see what you can get. What we do is, for the big things, we try to catch it online, but then it's a really good day to buy movies too. 'Cause you can usually get Blu rays with the digital copies for like $% on Amazon, Walmart and Target. Andy Munoz: I haven't picked up a disc in a long time. Serena Gilbert: But it's cheaper than buying them on like iTunes. Jeff Thompson: That's true. Serena Gilbert: I mean they're on sale every once in a while, but... Jeff Thompson: iTunes, $19, $14. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jeff Thompson: Rent ‘em. Serena Gilbert: Yup. Andy Munoz: I think I sprung for like $19 a couple weeks back to buy The Lion King, 'cause my youngest has never seen it. Jeff Thompson: I was in the car yesterday and Lori's son Justin was playing Lion King at about 90% the volume. Serena Gilbert: Nice. You gotta tell our listeners. How old is Justin? Jeff Thompson: He's 19, he's gonna be 20. Yeah so, but it was kinda cool you know, Scar comes on "I'm gonna be king." It was fun. I remember when my kids were little, would turn that up in the morning and have The Lion King just belting out and that's one of the best movies I think there is in that type of realm. Andy Munoz: Yes, I would agree with that. Serena Gilbert: What? Better than Finding Nemo? Andy Munoz: Actually yes, I like Lion King better than Finding Nemo. Jeff Thompson: It is good. Serena Gilbert: Oh, Finding Nemo is my favorite. Andy Munoz: Yeah. We won't deviate too much from our topic 'cause yeah, that could be a debate. Jeff Thompson: For movies that have a toilet in them, yes. Serena Gilbert: What? Oh my goodness. Jeff Thompson: Isn't that how they got back? Isn't that how they escaped? Serena Gilbert: No. You haven't seen it! Jeff Thompson: Yeah, I have. Serena Gilbert: They fall off the counter and roll across the road and then they're in this bag and they're like right by the ocean, but then they're still stuck in the bag, so- Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Serena Gilbert: Nemo does go down the toilet, but all the other fish are like- Jeff Thompson: Hello, Hello. Serena Gilbert: In their gallon size bag. Jeff Thompson: See, I was finding Nemo. My favorite part of that movie though, is when they're talking about Mt. Wannahockaloogie. Serena Gilbert: When they're chanting it? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. What's funny is, my niece back in the day, she's the one that picked up on that, so I use that phrase a lot now. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my favorite is the turtle. "First I was like whoa, then I was like whoa." Anyways, we are so digressing. Jeff Thompson: We didn't even talk about Makuna Matata. Serena Gilbert: It's, Hakuna Matata. Jeff Thompson: Oh. Me and Justin will have to go for a ride again. Serena Gilbert: I'm pretty sure it's with an H. Alright, tie-breaker Andy. Andy Munoz: Yeah, I think it is an H. Jeff Thompson: It's Hakuna Matata? Serena Gilbert: What a wonderful phrase. Jeff Thompson: I've been singing it wrong for a long time, wow. Serena Gilbert: Gosh, that movie came out in like what, 92, 93? You've been singing it wrong for like ... 20 something years now? Jeff Thompson: And I've been calling these people friends that been surrounding me, not correcting. Thank you Serina, you're a real friend. Serena Gilbert: I'm the only true friend. Justin:            excuse me, this is Justin, straight from the car, your resident Lion King expert in this situation. I would like to point out that it is indeed Hakuna Matata. Serena, you're right. Jeff, you're wrong. Jeff Thompson: There you go. But with Cyber Monday, we got Black Friday coming up, Thanksgiving. It really kicks off that holiday ... you're gonna hear Christmas music on the sidewalks downtown. It gets you going towards Christmas. Do any of you ... I know we're kind of selfish ... do you treat Black Friday itself as gifts for other people or is it yourself? Serena Gilbert: For me, it's more about things that we've just wanted throughout the year, kinda like how Andy said. Things that have been on our list that we're just like ... let's wait till we ... 'cause it's not anything we need. We're all spoiled and it's only just what we want. Andy Munoz: Yeah, yeah. Well for my wife and I, what we do is we kinda start early. And I'm not talking like July or August, we start kind of at the beginning of November. Kind of start to get all the small gifts for all the nieces and nephews and obviously, for our own kids, they give us kinda their top choices, then we go from there as far as what our budget is. So yeah, Black Friday if I'm looking, it's pretty much just for stuff that I want. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, that's the way I look at it. If I gotta do all the internet searching and all that, or if I'm gonna go to the store. My sisters are the ones who do ... like Serena you said, they got it all mapped out, they got it precisely planned. What is the best door to go in. Serena Gilbert: I actually kinda miss that. I would go with my mom and my sister and they both live in Texas now, but I really do miss, 'cause it's like a rush that you get when you're like "Oh, I got it" like right there in your hand, you know? Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Serena Gilbert: I know it's so silly. But it's the only time that you can be at a store at like four in the morning and get free Chick-Fil-Et while you're standing in line. Jeff Thompson: My nephew, two years ago, went into Kohls with my sister and he got the $500 one, where you pull the thing off. Serena Gilbert: I haven't been to Kohls in so long, like for Black Friday. Kohls gets crazy on Black Friday. Andy Munoz: What store doesn't though? Serena Gilbert: Kohls and Best Buy are like the two worst ... Best Buy is worse. Our Best Buy, I'm not sure if you guys in Minnesota have people doing this, 'cause it's probably -3 outside, we will literally have people in tents outside of our Best Buy by like noon on Thanksgiving. Jeff Thompson: Well, the headquarters for Best Buy is in Minnesota. Serena Gilbert: So they're really camping out. Jeff Thompson: Are they ice fishing? Oh, they're waiting for the store to open up. Serena Gilbert: And it's for like five TVs. They usually have five TVs at that super cheap price and you're camped out there. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. And that's the thing, as you get older a little bit, you already have a TV, you already have some stuff. That's why I was saying the boutique stores or specialty stores 'cause I want to kind of narrow it down to see what certain companies I'm looking at. That's what I'm doing, I'm scouring and making a list and checking it twice. Serena Gilbert: What is on your guys' list for what you want Santa to bring you? Jeff Thompson: Oh, for Santa? Honestly, Lori and I have been talking about ... at our club, they have these spin bicycles, it's more like an apparatus for spinning or pedaling. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative), okay. Jeff Thompson: Yourself. Serena Gilbert: If someone bought me air pods, I'd be happy. Oh, I don't know if you guys saw on Facebook what I shared today. There are jackets and I'm sure I'm like the last person to learn about these, that are heated with a little battery pack in the pocket. They will heat you up till it's like 100 degrees for up to eight hours. Andy Munoz: I'm laughing. A heated jacket, seriously? Serena Gilbert: It's literally a heated jacket that's battery powered, and you could use the battery to charge your cellphone. Andy Munoz: Wow, I have not heard of this, but I'm laughing- Serena Gilbert: I want one. Andy Munoz: ...because I'm sitting here thinking- Serena Gilbert: 'Cause you've already heard of these, huh? Andy Munoz: It's kind of ridiculous, but at the same point, with my job and having to- Serena Gilbert: It's totally needed. Andy Munoz: Having to travel and stuff. Serena Gilbert: You'd love it. That's what I was thinking of it for. For the days where I have to go up to Denver and I'm waiting for the bus. Jeff Thompson: You guys are not snow shoeing and cross country skiing out there to get places. Serena Gilbert: It's uncomfortable outside. We're not all used to -39 degrees Jeff. Jeff Thompson: That's reality over here. Serena Gilbert: So yod really like the heated jacket. Jeff Thompson: I'm really kind of getting back to reality because for the last eight years, prior to working at EBR, I worked from home, so I didn't have to go nowhere. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative). They do have some stuff they make. I'm laughing because they were Jimmy Shoe or Jimmy Chu, I don't know, however you say it. They were $1,700. Jeff Thompson: Oh my God. Serena Gilbert: And those were heated boots. Jeff Thompson: I'll wear extra socks. Forget that mess. Serena Gilbert: The coat I think was worth it though, it was $139. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, that's still not bad for a coat. Serena Gilbert: No. It wasn't like a big, thick winter coat, it's pretty thin. But the fact that it's got the heating apparatus and stuff and it says you get free customer service. I would totally invest in that. Jeff Thompson: That's pretty cool. Andy Munoz: Santa can't afford me. I can barely afford me. Jeff Thompson: What's on your list? Andy Munoz: What isn't? Couple things that I'm kind looking at. I'm looking at a Chromebook. I want to play with that and check out the accessibility on it and have a little bit of knowledge of something new. Serena Gilbert: Those are pretty affordable. Andy Munoz: Yeah, they are. Serena Gilbert: I bet you could find one for like under $100 on Black Friday. Andy Munoz: Yeah, 'cause even right now, I looked, I found one that was just a little over 100 and it's not even Black Friday. Imagine when that day comes, lunch hour that day, I'll be looking. Jeff Thompson: November 23rd, right? Andy Munoz: Yes sir. Jeff Thompson: Like you were saying Serena, it starts at midnight Eastern time? Serena Gilbert: A lot of the sales, like Best Buy I know does. Walmart does. It's usually midnight Eastern, is when you can usually get on the sales. Amazon, I've never gotten a Black Friday deal on Amazon. Amazon is really weird the way they release them. They release them like ... so these deals come out at eight Eastern. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah, yeah. Serena Gilbert: These ones come out at nine. It's just too much to keep up with, so I usually don't even bother with Amazon. Maybe they'll do it differently this year. Jeff Thompson: One thing I've done this year, is I switched over to Apple pay. Serena Gilbert: I love ApplePay. Jeff Thompson: I know. It just simplifies a lot of things, especially when you're going through that checkout. Boom boom boom, done. Serena Gilbert: Yup. Even on your phone it works. Even if you're checking out in Safari, it does it. Andy Munoz: It works on your watch. Jeff Thompson: I just had to set something up, I got the Amazon credit card, Prime I think it's called. Serena Gilbert: Now that'll really get ya. I love it, but then it's disgusting how much rewards you get. Jeff Thompson: It is, but I just paid it. I bought something and then I paid it and I had $10. Serena Gilbert: You have to pay that one off, yeah. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. I think it's 16% interest or something. Serena Gilbert: When you first open it, I believe they give you $70 just right out the gate to you. Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah, yeah. It's really cool how those points add up. Serena Gilbert: You don't even want to know how many ... well put it this way, last year we had enough points, and we didn't get the card until February or March. In December, we were able to buy a cordless Dyson with the points. So that tells you how much that was. It was like, I don't know a couple $300. Then, right now we have enough, where if we were to buy the Shark, we'd only have to pay maybe like $100 for it. Jeff Thompson: It's a good deal, especially what comes with Amazon though is, if you get a product and you don't care for it, you got that 30 day window. Serena Gilbert: Some of it's 90. It just depends on the product. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, you can return it and it's just like that. Snap your fingers, it's almost gone and your credited back. Serena Gilbert: They credit it back as soon as they scan it at the UPS store. Jeff Thompson: Exactly. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: It's not like, if I return something at Home Depot, it might be about four or five days before something happens. But I can get rid of my money a lot faster now that I have Apple pay because it's just boom boom. Jeff Thompson: Or PayPal works pretty good for some situations, especially when you're talking about smaller companies. They usually will have PayPal and that works out, it's pretty smooth. Few more clicks. Serena Gilbert: That's a really good tip, 'cause Best Buy is one even that accepts PayPal. A lot of bigger companies accept PayPal now and I prefer to do that then to type in my credit card number or try to figure out where I saved it. Jeff Thompson: Right. Andy Munoz: Oh, I've just got mine memorized. Serena Gilbert: I used to a long time ago and then I switched banks and I was like "Screw this, I don't feel like memorizing this one." So I never did. Jeff Thompson: I swear I've gone through three cards over the last year or two, because some of these breaches that happen here and there and you just don't know where, but all a sudden you get a new card and it's like "Okay, I used to memorize it." Now with Apple pay, it's locked in, it's ... I don't need to. Andy Munoz: Yeah. My Apply pay is a beautiful thing. Jeff Thompson: It is and there's other companies too. I saw Serena, you posted something about another type of paying format on Facebook. Serena Gilbert: I did. I use Venmo. Jeff Thompson: That's it, is that good? Serena Gilbert: I love Venmo 'cause you could literally send a text to somebody and pay them. Andy Munoz: Well, and you can actually do the same thing if the person has Apple pay, as long as you have your two factor authentication enabled, you can actually use Apple pay to do the same thing. Serena Gilbert: I don't have my two factor authentication turned on 'cause it kept annoying me and it still let me Apple pay someone via text, just over the weekend, yeah. Andy Munoz: Good to know, didn't know that. Serena Gilbert: I did have to authenticate it with Face ID. I didn't have to do the PIN number thing and all that. Jeff Thompson: What do you guys think about the early Black Friday deals? They say "Oh, early Black Friday" I think that's where they're cleaning up inventory. Serena Gilbert: When we're this close to Black Friday, I don't buy anything that's on my list within a month of Black Friday. Andy Munoz: You wait it out. Jeff Thompson: And then how long after Cyber Monday and then those weeks like "Oh, you missed it. You'll never get that deal again." Serena Gilbert: It's not true. They always have great deals. Jeff Thompson: They got inventory, they gotta move it. Serena Gilbert: And the markup on stuff ... electronics, it's not as much, but clothing and things like that, the markup is so high, they can do some massive discounts and still clear tons of profit. Jeff Thompson: I'm looking forward to it. I get excited, I don't try and let Lori know how excited I am, but she even said we should be looking for a refrigerator and I'm wondering it's like ... gosh I never looked for a refrigerator on Black Friday, but I'm sure some of those appliance places want to attract you. Serena Gilbert: They deeply discount that stuff on Black Friday too. You might not think ... 'cause I have some friends that bought the new washer and dryer on Black Friday and it was a really good deal. You won't have to fight people for it 'cause ... there's gonna be people at Lowe's and Home Depot, but they're fighting over some of the Christmas decorations and Christmas trees. They're not looking at refrigerators. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Andy Munoz: That's actually a really good idea. We were actually looking to replace ours. Thanks for the tip on that. I think I'm gonna definitely be looking for that. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, the only thing I don't think they do discount is cars on Black Friday. The salesmen are all bored on Black Friday. Jeff Thompson: All black cars are on sale. Well, we're gonna put some links if we find some good stuff, we'll put them in the show notes here. My favorite spot to go is right to the website and get a lowdown. I don't have too many apps for stores, but I do have Target, Walmart, Macy's, Amazon as well. They'll talk about when their sales are coming up. So pay attention to that. We're gonna put Black Friday app that Serena found, that's accessible, right? Serena Gilbert: It is. It just looks really funny on the larger phone screens, but it still works. Jeff Thompson: It stretches. Serena Gilbert: It just doesn't fill the whole screen. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's kinda cool. It's kinda like when you watch those old movies on a big, large- Serena Gilbert: It's retro. Jeff Thompson: Well, everybody out there, Happy Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas shopping and stuff. What are you guys doing for the holidays? Big plans? Serena Gilbert: Turkey. We're smoking a turkey. Jeff Thompson: Really? Well you do live in Colorado. Serena Gilbert: Not that kind of smoking, oh my goodness. Jeff Thompson: You're smoking a turkey, so you have a smoker? Serena Gilbert: Yeah, the smoker. We did it last year, it's so good in the smoker. Jeff Thompson: How many hours does that take? Serena Gilbert: It doesn't take that long. I think, maybe three or four hours. I don't remember. It wasn't nearly as long as you would think though, because it's poultry, so it cooks a little bit faster. Jeff Thompson: Oh, cool. Andy, yourself? Staying in town? Andy Munoz: Yeah, we are. We always get together with my wife's family on Thanksgiving so, we'll be going to my sister in laws. I was considering making my own turkey this year but I just don't have enough freezer space right now. Jeff Thompson: Here in Minnesota, there was a big thing for a while, where you deep fry a turkey. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative), those are delicious too. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Lori's mom's coming up and we're hosting Thanksgiving here, so I'll let the gals have the kitchen and the guys will probably find the television. Serena Gilbert: That's usually how it ends up. Andy Munoz: There's gonna be some football on. I'll be watching. Jeff Thompson: We have Detroit playing Chicago and the Cowboys and the Redskins. Cowboys and Indians for Thanksgiving. Serena Gilbert: I think there's a golf tournament on Friday too between Tiger Woods and Phil Nicholson. It's like on paper view thing. Andy Munoz: One on one? Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Andy Munoz: Wow. Jeff Thompson: Oh wow, that's interesting. Andy Munoz: I'm just excited that I don't actually have to work on a holiday. Serena Gilbert: I can't believe they had you working on Thanksgiving. Andy Munoz: Oh yeah. We were 24/7 365. Serena Gilbert: Were people calling on Thanksgiving? Andy Munoz: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Geez. Jeff Thompson: Well, that's the way it is. I would just announce that they're 24/7 every day of the year, so even on the holidays. Andy Munoz: Yep. World never stops. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: Well you guys, good luck with your shopping. We'll get back together and see how we all did; how much damage was done. It's nice when you get a good deal. Like Serena said, when you get that thing in your hand, you're like "Got it!" Serena Gilbert: Oh, I got it! Jeff Thompson: It's a good feeling. Andy Munoz: Aint no waiting till Christmas on that. Jeff Thompson: Then, the next few days when the UPS truck starts pulling up, one after the other. Serena Gilbert: Dang it, it's just the dog food. Jeff Thompson: Well all of you, hope you get some good stuff and you all have a happy Thanksgiving. Best wishes to you and your families. Andy Munoz: Same to you. Serena Gilbert: Enjoy your shopping Jeff and Andy. Jeff Thompson: Well thank you all listening. This has been another Tech Abilities podcast and you can follow us on Twitter @Abilities tech. Thank you Serena, thank you Andy. Once again, want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye-bye. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a Blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com on Twitter @BlindAbilities. Download our app from the app store, Blind Abilities that's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com thanks for listening.

show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) Greg Stilson, Director of Product Management at Aira, joins Pete and Jeff in the Blind Abilities studio and talks about the new plans and opportunities available to everyone. From the Guest plan, where anyone downloading the Aira App, can use the Aira Access at a growing number of sites in the Aira Access Network. To the Intro plan, where you can get 30 minutes a month for $29 a month. And the Standard plan, which I like myself, you get 120 minutes for $99 per month. And if you want the Horizon Kit, it will be $124 per month as the $600 Horizon Kit is divided up over a 2-year period. The advance Plan gives you 300 minutes per month for $199 and $224 respectively if you want the Horizon Kit acvantage. Join Greg, Pete and Jeff in this informative cast and learn about all the new Aira Access points and opportunities created by the Aira team. Seems like the value keeps growing and growing as their team and recognition keeps growing as well. Hear about the latest news and the Time Magazine recognition for Ara being one of the best 50 inventions in 2018. You can find out more about Aira on the web at www.Aira.io   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Full Transcript: Aira Director of Product Management, Greg Stilson, Broadens the Horizon on New Aira Access and Plans Greg Stilson: It's a testament to our Explorers as well, right? I mean the product wouldn't be where it is today without the great and constant feedback that we get from our Explorers. Jeff Thompson: Aira, your life, your schedule right now. Greg Stilson: We're so excited to have our Intro Plan. That's $29 a month, 30 minutes a month. Jeff Thompson: Greg Stilson, Director of Product Management at Aira. Greg Stilson: Almost 10,000 Walgreens in the U.S. now are Aira Access locations. The most exciting option, which is our Aira guest program, and that is that you don't even have to be a subscriber of Aira to use the service. Jeff Thompson: Checkout Aira on the web at aira.io. Greg Stilson: We are now on the GSA Schedule for federal government. If you a federal employee, you can get Aira purchased as an accommodation from your employer. If you're a veteran, any VA can purchase the product. Jeff Thompson: For more Podcasts with a Blindness Perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the App Store and the Google Play Store. That's two words, Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: Are you done for the year, Greg? Greg Stilson: No. No, we're not done for the year. Not at all. Jeff Thompson: You guys are open? Greg Stilson: 24/7 baby. 24/7 Jeff Thompson: There we go. Welcome to Blind Abilities, I'm Jeff Thompson. Today we're talking about a company that's been around for a little over three years, but it seems like they got something new all the time. Time Magazine 2018, one of The 50 Best Inventions of 2018, and that's Aira. Today we're going to Greg Stilson coming on and talk about their Horizon product, their pricing, and what Aira is today. It's evolved and I agree with Time Magazine, it is a new invention for 2018 because it's changed so much. With me today is Pete Lane. How you doing, Pete? Pete Lane: I'm great, Jeffrey. It's been awhile. How you been doing? Jeff Thompson: Really good. You are an Aira Explorer yourself. Pete Lane: I am. I'm coming up on my two year anniversary in December of this year. I joined as an Aira Explorer in December of 2016. So yeah, a long time. One of the early ones, not one of the original ones, but a long time Explorer. Jeff Thompson: Well, we've been covering Aira for it seems like three years when we first talked to Suman. Pete Lane: Yeah. It was right after NFP Convention in 2016 when we interviewed Suman. Yeah. Jeff Thompson: Back then when you first came onboard with Aira, tell us about the configuration, the form factor that they used? Pete Lane: Well, Aira, which has evolved big time since then, originally started with the use of your smartphone kind of as a controlling unit that would either be the iPhone or the Android. I think they had both the iPhone and the Android from the get-go, but their original glasses was a wireless glass called Google Glass. Now that Google Glass had been around for about three or four years prior to the time that Aira actually incorporated it into their configuration, but Google Glass was a technological kind of anomaly when Google introduced it back in probably 2012, maybe 2013, but it was a wireless connection that connected to your smartphone. Essentially it was the same basic configuration. Pete Lane: You would tap on the Aira app in your smartphone, connect to an agent, and then the wireless connection would bring in the Google Glass and the agent would have access to the video camera on board on the Google Glass. Now since then, they've evolved even further. They developed a second kind of a form factor of their glasses, which was called Austria. It was a little bit more technologically advanced, but it was a still wireless solution. It's a little lighter weight, maybe a little bit more appealing as far as the aesthetics go. The Google Glass, if anybody has seen it, was clearly a tech device. Pete Lane: Everything about it looked tech. It was kind of heavy. Had no lenses and kind of odd. It was noticeable when people would wear it. The Austria Glasses evolved a little bit. Had the lenses on there and looked a little bit more like a seamless pair of sunglasses. But then most recently back at the beginning of May, Aira introduced their current configuration, which is the Horizon Kit. The Horizon Kit is now a wired solution, but it actually incorporates the use of a separate controlling unit, which is the Samsung J7 Android phone, which is a dedicated phone equipped with all of the Aira configuration. It's tethered to the Horizon Glasses through actually a very hardy, braided, heavy-duty cable. Pete Lane: Not heavy in terms of weight, but durable. It provides for a much more stable and reliable connection. Jeff Thompson: Right. If I may, when we did the Super Bowl with Greg- Pete Lane: Right. Jeff Thompson: ... where we did the podcast before and after, little did people know that he was actually testing the Horizon format that is being used today. Pete Lane: That's actually correct. As a matter of fact, Jeffrey, you may recall my son Patrick and I traveled to Dallas where we had the opportunity to watch a Cowboys game with Emmitt Smith serving as the agent for the game. I was testing those same glasses at that point. That was in October of 2017 I believe. Yeah. Jeff Thompson: That glass actually adds to the agent's use a wide angle lens so they can cover more, like a 120 degrees I believe, of what the Explorer is looking at. Now they have a bigger picture. They can see more. They can take in more and give you more feedback of what is in front of you. Pete Lane: Right. Right. Plus, the quality of the ... I don't know if it's a pixel count, but the quality of the video feed is considerably better than the older glasses. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, and without being tethered. Pete Lane: Right. Jeff Thompson: Always improving. Here in the Blind Abilities studio today to talk about the new opportunities and improvements and plans that they've created at Aira is Greg Stilson. How you doing, Greg? Greg Stilson: Good, Jeff. How are you? Jeff Thompson: Great. Pete Lane's with us too. Pete Lane: Hey, Greg, how are you? Greg Stilson: Great, Pete. Thanks for having me on, guys. Pete Lane: It's been a while. We haven't spoken with you since post Super Bowl back in February. Greg Stilson: Yeah, it's coming up again. Jeff Thompson: There we go. We won't mention The Packers or The Vikings this time. Pete Lane: Or The Jags. Yeah. Jeff Thompson: Or The Jaguars. Yeah. Greg Stilson: Or The Jags. Yeah. All three of our teams are not exactly tearing the cover off the ball here. Pete Lane: Mm-hmm (negative). Jeff Thompson: But you guys seem to be tearing the cover off Time Magazine. I just saw that 2018, Aira, one of The Top 50 Best Inventions of 2018. Congratulations. Greg Stilson: Hey, man. Thank you. It was a surprise and a tremendous honor for us. I was involved in sort of the representation of Aira working with a few of our other team members when we were talking with Time Magazine. It was one of those things where we were nominated and we're like, "All right. Well, we'll do this. That's great." I mean it's an honor just to be nominated in the first place, and then to actually have won it and to be named as one of the top inventions is just a tremendous honor for us. Jeff Thompson: I've been calling my friend saying, "I know this guy. I know this guy." Greg Stilson: Well, then it's one of those things is it's a testament to our Explorers as well, right? I mean the product wouldn't be where it is today without the great and constant feedback that we get from our Explorers. I mean this honor is as much yours as it is ours because you guys have helped make the product what it is. Just to be recognized as a company that is doing the things that we're doing and helping the people that we are is really awesome, especially from a mainstream magazine like Time. Jeff Thompson: Exactly. Very mainstream there. Greg Stilson: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Jeff Thompson: I think that's one of the biggest crossovers that's been happening over the last years. You got the attention from AT&T. You got the attention from Time Magazine. Because all your agents are sighted, so you're bridging the gap between the sighted world and the blind community. Greg Stilson: Yeah, and I think it's also just in general regardless of the community that we're working with. It's a really awesome blending of human and technology, right? But we're doing something that hasn't really been done in this capacity before in that we have really highly trained agents working with really high technology. Smart glasses and AI and dashboard all blending into one solution that just works and it works to really change people's live and benefit people's lives. In addition to being a service that works as well as it does, it's an easy and awesome story to tell the mainstream so that they can see that this is a solution that is beneficial to everyone. Jeff Thompson: Greg, we've been following Aira for well over since 2016, somewhere around there, and all the advances they have been making. Can you give some of our listeners who may not be as familiar what is the Aira package? Greg Stilson: Absolutely, yeah. The Aira package, man, it's funny you mentioned that you've been following it since 2016. I've been with this company ... It'll be coming up on a year now. Just to see the way the company has evolved in a year, let alone two to three years since you guys have been following, is crazy. The company started out strictly as a smart glass option. In order to use the service, you had to have a pair of smart glasses. You had to have it connected to your app on your phone via a MiFi, and that was really way that you could use it. Today, when you look at the way that it's used today, it's used in so many different capacities. Greg Stilson: I mean we still are a smart glass company, so we designed our own Horizon Smart Glasses that can be added to any package or any service plan that you want to get. But in addition now, we have just the service only options, which are to be able to use the app just on your smartphone using the smartphone camera as the video source. We've simplified sort of our plans and things like that. The plans are now real simple. We're so excited to have a low entry point plan, which we call our Intro Plan. That's $29 a month, 30 minutes a month, that you can use with your smartphone. Greg Stilson: That's really to get a taste of the service, to start using it, see how it fits into your life and see if a higher tier plan is something that's going to benefit you. Then we have what we call our Standard Plan, which is the plan that we're really excited about because it covers ... Based on the data that we've collected, it covers the highest population of our users and that's $99 a month for 120 minutes. That's service only plan, but you can add the Horizon Glasses to that if you feel that the hands-free option would benefit you. Those Horizon Glasses can be added for either rent to own for $25 a month or you can buy them outright for $600 right off the bat if you want to. Greg Stilson: Then we have our Advanced Plan, which is $199 for 300 minutes a month, and then you also the option of adding the Horizon Glasses to that as well. The biggest thing that I think has changed over the years is that we started out as sort of a subscription option. Today, that is so far from the limits of what you can do. We started at the end of last year I want to say, maybe even earlier than that, offering this concept of Aira Access. Aira Access is a way for businesses to offer Aira as an accommodation to their locations or their products or their services for those who are blind and low vision. Greg Stilson: What is really cool about this is it's a way to offer Aira to more people and it's also a way if you are a subscriber for your minutes to go further. For example, the whole Aira Access journey started with airports. Airports are traditionally one of the most challenging places for a blind person. Not just a blind person, but anybody to get around. We started out getting a lot of interest from airports as an accommodation to the blind and low vision passengers because not only did it allow them to get to their gates and things like that much easier, but it actually allows a blind person ... I'm living proof of this. I'd spent a year pretty much traveling the last year only with Aira in airports. Greg Stilson: It really makes a blind person a real patron of an airport. If I wanted to go get a bite to eat or something to drink or go shopping or find a restroom, I could do that on my own, whereas before you would either need to ask somebody for help, try to get somebody to escort you to those locations, or just try to find constant directions that may or may not be correct. Today, we have over 35 airports now that are Aira Access locations. Jeff, Minneapolis, St. Paul is obviously one of the first ones that we signed up. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. I want to thank you for that because now I sit with the bags while my wife goes voyages around getting food, coming back. Thanks, Aira. Greg Stilson: Anyway that we can help, Jeff. Anyway. That's really where the Aira Access journey started, but the Aira Access journey kind of exploded from there. We signed up the Wegmans grocery store chain I think it was a couple months ago now. It's a grocery store chain of almost a hundred grocery stores in the northeast. Just this week we announced our largest partnership, which was Walgreens. Almost 10,000 Walgreens in the U.S. now are Aira Access locations. If you need to just go fill a prescription or just go buy something for the holidays or whatever, you walk in to any of these Walgreen stores and you'll get a notification on your phone that says that this is an Aira Access location and all usage is free. Pete Lane: Yeah, that's huge. Greg Stilson: Sponsored by Walgreens. Jeff Thompson: Wow. Greg Stilson: Really where you look at the benefit is yes, if you are a subscriber, now your minutes go further because you're not using your own minutes in these locations, but then we also created what I think is the most exciting option, which is our Aira Guest program. That is that you don't even have to be a subscriber of Aira to use the service. If you download the app, we have a button there that says sign in as a guest. You just give us your phone number and your email address and you instantly are signed in as a guest. When you sign in as a guest, you can use the service in any Aira Access location, any airport, any Walgreens, any AT&T stores. Greg Stilson: We have almost 5,500 AT&T stores now that are live, and you can also, if you're signed in a guest, use what we call the Aira Access products and promotions. The last thing I'll comment on. It's a long-winded way of saying what are our packages, but there's a lot of different ways that you can use Aira. The last way that I'll say is using our partnerships with companies who are supporting us by offering Aira as a service to support their products or their promotions. We partnered with Intuit QuickBooks to support any blind person who is a small business owner or contractor who really works in their own small business. Greg Stilson: Anything that you're doing related to your small business, you can sign in as a guest and there's a button on the bottom of the app that says "call Aira with an offer" and you can choose one of the offers, being the small business offer. If the agent verifies that you're going to be doing something related to your small business, those minutes will be sponsored by Intuit QuickBooks so you don't need to even be in a location now to make a free call as long as you're doing something related to your small business. That could be scanning receipts. That could be filling out an expense report. That could be picking out paint for your office, your home office, if it wants to be. Jeff Thompson: Greg? Greg Stilson: Yeah? Jeff Thompson: Could you tell our listeners what Intuit is exactly? I know QuickBooks. It's business management software. Plus, they do a lot more. Greg Stilson: Yeah, they do a lot. Intuit is the company that really created TurboTax is really what their claim to fame is. QuickBooks and business management software, any of that, their big promotion here is to help the employment of blind people. They want to make sure that blind people ... We always talk about the really high unemployment rate and things like that. This is a way that they can help the employment rate of bling people is providing Aira as an accommodation to supporting their small business. As I said, any task related to your small business. Greg Stilson: If you choose the Intuit small business offer, there's a text box right in the app that says that you can inform the agent on what you're doing. At that point when you call, the agent will actually get a notice on their dashboard that this is what this person wants to do. If you even explain in your note to the agent that, "Hey, I'm doing an expense report for my business," you know, that's already validated and away you go. You don't even have to be an Aira subscriber. You can sign in as a guest and just use it right off the bat. Then the last one I want to mention is our partnership with Vispero. Greg Stilson: If you're a JAWS user, a ZoomText user and something isn't acting right with your software, let's say that JAWS isn't speaking or there's a window that blocking JAWS from being able to do what it needs to do, you can actually call in to Aira for free, sponsored by Vispero, and get a sense of visually of what's going on the screen. The agent even have the capability ... A lot of people don't know this, but agents actually have the capability to remote into your computer, with your permission, and actually close the window that maybe causing the problem or shut down the program that could be causing issues, or maybe it's just as simple as restarting JAWS. Greg Stilson: Even though you can do that with some commands and things like that, maybe the JAWS application isn't restarting for whatever reason. Well, the agent can actually manually do that with the mouse by remoting in. Just so many various offers that are available to really get a taste of Aira, to compliment your minutes so that your minutes will go further, and then try it out as a guest. Pete Lane: Greg, I wanted to amplify a little bit that the TeamViewer or Zoom connectivity feature where you just spoke about agents being able to remote into your computer, I've used that several times. Not just on clogging something that's not working with the computer, but actually going into online websites, things like that, assisting me with purchasing items. They can actually use your credentials, and of course, they're a very trusted secure agents. It's a really good feature. Greg Stilson: It's something that I think is not widely known, but it's a really powerful thing. Especially when you think of the amount of unfortunately still inaccessible web content that's out there, there's a lot of thing ... I'll give you one example. We have a lot of users who go on and use Airbnb. Agents will actually do descriptions of what the photos of the Airbnb location looks like. Unfortunately, those photos don't have the most robust descriptions attached to them, so using an agent in that capacity to understand how the Airbnb looks, what amenities do you see in the picture. Because something written in text can look very different than what it is in a photo. Greg Stilson: Just getting that level of explanation on a website that doesn't always have the most robust description of their photos. Pete Lane: Greg, another development that Aira announced just this week as well is Sendero. They've actually signed over access to the Sendero GPS technology to Aira and Mike May has joined the Aira team. Talk a little bit about that. Greg Stilson: Yeah, this one is really exciting to me. I've been a user of Sendero's GPS technology for a long, long time. Probably since 2002-2003. I remember using it on my BrailleNote Classic. Pete Lane: Yeah. Greg Stilson: I remember the feeling that I had when I first used Sendero, which was when I did that point of interest search to be able to hear all the places around me. Just completely opened my eyes to information that I never had before. GPS has become significantly mainstream now with Google Maps and Waze and Apple Maps and everything else in the iPhone. There's a ton of GPS apps for the blind to really cater to the way that a blind person travels. One of the things that we wanted to look into is what solutions are we looking to really build into AI to compliment our agents. GPS navigation is the obvious one, right? We have Explorers today using agents in conjunction with this app, with the Sendero Seeing Eye navigation app. Greg Stilson: We said, "Well, that makes total sense because you're getting automated directions and then if you need to call an agent later on, you can." Because remember, GPS doesn't get you to the door. It just gets you close to your destination, right? A lot of people refer to it as the last 50 feet, right? It'll say, "Hey, you've arrived at your destination." Now how do you actually find the entrance to the door? How do you find the entrance of the building that you're looking for? Sometimes those entrances are very different than where your GPS says that you've arrived. What's always then sort of our dream is to make this beautiful synergy between autonomous GPS and sort of the human-in-the-loop type of assistance. Greg Stilson: That's really where Sendero came in. Sendero on top of being one of the most trusted GPS names in the industry, I've always heard it called The Cadillac of GPS. It's almost been the most robust information source from a GPS that I've ever seen for blind people, but on top of that, what they do is they have different than several of the other GPS apps that were out there for blind people, they have their own routing engine that they use. You can within the same app use their routing engine to get you from point A to point B, getting turn by turn directions, whereas a lot of the other apps would ask you to leave that app and go into Google Maps or go into Apple Maps and use their routing engine. Greg Stilson: The difference there is that their routing engines in those other apps aren't designed for a blind pedestrian. That's really what really attracted us so much to the Sendero solution is Sendero provides some of the robust descriptions of intersections and directions as you're walking. It's very verbose and it gives you very clear pedestrian instructions. For a blind person, the pedestrian side is the most important. That combined with just the amount of information and things like that. What we've acquired from Sendero and we're still retaining much of the Sendero staff, their software developers during this transition period to make sure that we're keeping the apps updated. Greg Stilson: But most importantly, if you are an owner of the Seeing Eye GPS or the RNIB Navigator or the Guide Dogs GPS in Australia, nothing changes right now. Those apps will continue to be updated. Aira and the Sendero developers are working together to update these apps. We already have a feature list from Sendero of the most requested features from the users. Most importantly, I want to say nothing is going to change right now. At this point, just expect that those apps ... Actually we have update pending here that's going to be released relatively shortly that I've been working on with the team. Most importantly, nothing is going to change with your apps today. That's something that we want to make sure nobody is concerned about. Greg Stilson: Going forward, a lot of people asked me what are we going to be using this for. In my view, this directly impacts our AI offering with Chloe. To be able to take what Mike and the team over at Sendero have done and to be able to add that in with today's sort of modern Google-oriented GPS technology, if we can sort of blend all of that into an AI solution that is sort of synergistic with the human-in-a-loop offering, it's going to be a pretty darn good solution for somebody who's navigating. We have people walking for 20-25 minutes with agents at time. If you can do the majority of your route with an autonomous GPS and maybe you only need the agent for the final 50 feet or the last step, maybe that's a better solution for you. Jeff Thompson: You know, when you take Mike May, Anirudh Koul, your team with Chloe, I can only imagine what's around the corner for everyone. Greg Stilson: We're pretty excited. It's a really fun time to be looking at the future of Aira. Especially with Aira Access and with the offerings, there's a lot of potential with indoor navigation. There's a lot of potential with AI object and facial recognition and all that kind of stuff that's out there. But for us, I wanted to start with sort of the basics. The basics were that we were definitely missing a straight up, really high reliability GPS navigation tool. To be able to have that built into Aira down the road is something that I think everybody can be really excited about. Jeff Thompson: Well, that's really neat because I remember when Mike May first started in 1993. With all that experience coming into Aira now, as I mentioned Anirudh Koul with the Seeing AI, the developer of that, coming into Aira, it just seems like you're still growing. Greg Stilson: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: You're still a new kid on the block in a sense. It's very interesting times. Greg Stilson: I can't speak for Anirudh, but the fact that he wanted to join Aira I think speaks very highly of our CEO and the vision that we have. Anirudh I'm assuming saw a significant potential here. It's exciting. It's a really fun place to be. I was talking to my wife last night and we were kind of just talking about the Time Magazine. Then I stopped for a second. I looked at the things that we've accomplished this week. This week. We launched 10,000 Walgreens stores in partnership. We did a technology transfer of Sendero GPS. We were named one of the Top 50 Inventions of the Year in 2018, and then we also launched AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, as another sight access location. Greg Stilson: That's a pretty good month for some companies, so for us to do that in a week ... She said, "Why do you seem so tired?" I said that's it. It's been a week. Jeff Thompson: Are you done for the year, Greg? Greg Stilson: No. No, we're not done for the year. Jeff Thompson: Okay. Greg Stilson: Not at all. Not at all, but it's one of these things where it's fast-paced and it's exciting, but this is all really awesome stuff that's going to benefit a lot of people. If you think about the amount of people that shop at Walgreens, just to get their prescriptions filled or just to buy one or two things, and to not need to always go up to the counter and pull somebody away from the register to go help you or to wait in line to find somebody to help you, now you can just walk in with your phone as a guest or if you have a glasses as an Explorer and just walk around. That is super, super empowering. Jeff Thompson: Just to add to that, or the people who waited in the car because why walk in sometimes. Now they can go in and explore. Greg Stilson: Exactly. I love what you say there, Jeff, because I can't tell you the number of times I've gone shopping with sighted people and you just choose to wait in the car while they go buy something. Jeff Thompson: Exactly. Greg Stilson: There's so much out there that you can learn and just to be able to walk in not worry about how many minutes you're taking or anything like that, just go in and explore and see what's on sale or see maybe there's a new beverage or food that they have that you didn't even know existed. While somebody else is shopping for something that they want, you can actually be exploring as well. That's something that is really, really exciting. Jeff Thompson: Why shouldn't you be able to walk out of the store and say, "I went in there to spend 10 bucks and I come out spending 30." Pete Lane: Exactly. I don't want to beat this dead horse, but the guest account is huge, Greg. Anybody listening to this podcast who is not an Aira subscriber can download the free Aira app, create a free, free, free guest account, and walk in and use their smartphone camera and do everything we're talking about. It's incredible. Greg Stilson: It is. It doesn't hurt to leave that app even on your phone because the reality is that we're adding ... I mean we're adding new access locations on a weekly to biweekly basis. If there's not a place near you right now, there most likely will be soon. The reality is that we're looking at not just one-off locations like this airport and that airport, but as you see with Walgreens, big chains that are global or national, where they're going to be everywhere. That's one of the most exciting things about Walgreens is it's the first chain, that and AT&T, are the first chains that are pretty much everywhere in the U.S., that you can go everywhere and find a Walgreens or an AT&T store. Pete Lane: And Wegmans groceries, while it's not nationwide, it covers a great geographical area up in the northeast in the Eastern seaboard. Over a hundred stores. Greg Stilson: Exactly. Just having the app on your phone, having signed in as a guest one time, it doesn't hurt to leave it on there. I don't even know how many megabytes, but it's not that many. What that means is that when you walk into one of these locations, it will just notify you that, "Hey, you're entering an Aira Access location." Now we have a searching capability where you can search. If you go to the more tab of the app, you can actually search for where Aira Access locations are. If you ever are in a location that you want to figure out, you can contact one of our agents as well and they can even do the search right on their dashboard and tell you where some of the access locations are as well. Jeff Thompson: Now, Greg, I believe here in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities area, the YMCAs are a part of the Aira Access network. Greg Stilson: Yup. I believe it's the YMCAs that are there. Jeff Thompson: That's great for people to go in, explore the place. At least enter the door like we were talking about Walgreens. Go in. Explore. Greg Stilson: One of the things that I would say is a little bit daunting as a blind person when you walk into a gym that you've never been in ... I travel all over the country and globally and stuff like that. One of the things that is often a deterrent for me going to a motel or a hotel gym is I don't know how to use the machines, right? I've got a treadmill at my home gym and I've got a stair stepper that I've learned how to use, but having an agent there to orient you to where the buttons are, just telling them, "Hey, I want to start this type or run," or they could tell you what option there are, one of the things ... There's so many fancy treadmills now with built in TVs and stuff like that. Greg Stilson: Maybe you just want to watch TV while you're running. You know what I'm saying? Being able to work those type of touchscreen devices and things like that are never accessible. So to be able to have an agent actually get you started, get you on the channel, show you what the buttons do or generally where they're located, it's a pretty powerful thing. Maybe we'll get a few people we'll say less apprehensive to go the gym because you're concerned about not knowing how the things work. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. 15 minutes later they could come back on and say, "Greg, keep going. Keep going, Greg." Greg Stilson: There you go. Jeff Thompson: Encouragements. Pete Lane: Motivation. Jeff Thompson: I think that is a big thing because there is so many situations where you don't even try. You don't even take that step. You don't walk out the door or go into some place, travel at the airport. I remember when you're talking about running through an airport to make a connecting flight. Greg Stilson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yup. To have the freedom to be able to run like that with nobody at your side and just have the agent letting you know, "All right. Off to your right. Off to your left," now granted I informed them ahead of time that I was going to be running, but just to have that type of freedom and not have to wait for somebody. I'm a super impatient person in general, so to be able to have that freedom is pretty powerful. Jeff Thompson: You know, one last thing that I want to bring up is, probably not the last, but with the Veterans, Suman announced at the NFP Convention last summer that the Veterans signed on to Aira. Greg Stilson: Yeah. Yup. This is really big. I covered so much of the packages and things like that that are available. All I've touched on there are the regular like everyday subscription packages or the Aira Access Guest packages. The way that you can use it as a guest, but you're right. What I didn't touch on is the federal government, the VA. One of the things that we didn't have much of a presence in at all last year or the year before is the federal government. Some of the really exciting stuff that we've done this year is we are now on the GSA Schedule for federal government. If you are a federal employee, you can get Aira purchased as an accommodation from your employer off the GSA Schedule. In addition, we are officially approved by the VA. Greg Stilson: Any VA can purchase the product. If you're a veteran, you can ask your Dist. coordinator or your bros or whoever you're working with and ask them. We do have VA pricing that's available. Jeff Thompson: Which is very appealing from what I've heard too. Greg Stilson: It is. It's great option for the VA. Then lastly, I want to say that one of the things that we struggled for a long time early on was getting approved as a vendor in States for Voc. Rehab. We heard Dan Frye earlier this year who's really an experienced person in the vocational rehabilitation services. He's done a great job helping us get on those list in different states. But what we've learned is that even if Aira is not an approved vendor in your state, you can still get the product purchased for you. We do have voc rehab pricing available, but you do have to write a justification letter. Greg Stilson: We're more than happy to help write any of those letters for you if you are looking to have voc rehab purchase Aira for you. We have annual pricing for voc rehab that fits into their purchasing schedule in the way that they purchase things. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's great. Like I said to other people, I said, "You know, the prices really haven't changed that much since they started, but the value added just multiplied over and over again." Greg Stilson: Yeah. It's 100% true, Jeff, and you're only going to see that increasing as our AI options continue and things like that. What I think I'm the most excited about with regard to the changes in prices and things like that is the lower entry point price. This was something that we've been asked for by all of the consumer groups out there, NFP, ACB. That was the number one request that we got from everyone is how do I ... If I'm not able to afford the $99 a month, can I get a little bit of Aira for a lower price? That's something that we're really excited about is at $29, you can get 30 minutes a month and use it for those things that maybe you don't think you need. Greg Stilson: You're not going to need 60 minute session or something like that, but maybe it's one or two minute task. I can give you one clear one that I use every single week. I have a two year old. I go to take her to school or to her daycare in the morning. On the way back, if we're low on her milk, I'll stop off at the convenience store in the corner, which they have milk there, and I'll run in and grab her a new gallon of whole milk. When I walk in, I could try to use one of the four OCR apps that I have on my phone to try to read the type of milk and the expiration date, but that rarely works. Greg Stilson: In 90 seconds, I can have an agent direct to where the whole milk is and check all of the expiration dates going back ... I learned very early from my mother that you always pick from the back. We always start from the back and check the expiration date. Jeff Thompson: Shout out to mom. Greg Stilson: Exactly. But it's one of things where what I could do in probably five to 10 minutes using various apps and solutions and maybe eventually just getting frustrated and going up and finding somebody to help me, I can do in less than 90 seconds with Aira. That's just one example of 30 minutes you have potential tasks that will be made a heck of a lot easier, even if it's just sorting through mail every few days. You can sort through mail in five minutes with Aira and do the amount of mail that would probably take you 30 to 45 minutes if you were using various apps or other solutions. Greg Stilson: All I'm going to say is that we're super excited to have this sort of low entry point option that allows you to really get a taste of Aira, see if it fits in your life, and you can go from there. Remember, if you are living near an access location, 30 minutes can get you pretty far if you live near an access location that you frequent regularity. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert asked the question, "Hi, Greg. I'm just wondering. I'm from Colorado. I work at a vocational rehab center. What is the response to the changes that you've just made from the community?" Greg Stilson: As you can imagine, the responses is mixed. I'm a straight shooter. I always have been. Anytime you change prices, I don't care what business you're in, Jeff, the response is going to be mixed. There's going to be people that love the changes. There's going to be people that don't like change in general. Jeff Thompson: As a rule, yeah. Greg Stilson: As a rule, right? We knew that going into it, but the reality and what I will say is there are certain things that had to be changed. One of the things we modified was the unlimited plan. It was not sustainable as a business. If you want Aira to be here in 12 months, the pricing and the plans that were there were just flat out not sustainable. I urge everybody to kind of look at that and say, "This company is growing. We are expanding. We are doing everything we can to really transfer the onus of minutes from the subscriber more towards businesses and more towards access solutions. But for us to do that, we have to be a sustainable business." That's where I would say that those changes had to be made. Greg Stilson: In the process, what is most exciting is, as I said, the low entry point offering, the low $29 plan so people can try it out. But I would say also we were able to reduce the cost per minute for our consumers on our most popular plan, which is the Standard Plan. We went from $.89 a minute down to $.83 a minute. You're getting 120 minutes now for $99 as opposed to 100 minutes for $89. When we looked at our consumption numbers, we learned that the vast majority of people were falling within that 30 to 120 minutes. How could we make it the most affordable possible for our most common customers to be able to use Aira on a monthly basis. That's really where I'm really excited that we were able to do that. So yeah. Jeff Thompson: 24/7 too. Greg Stilson: Yeah, and that's the other side is that we're increasing our costs by going 24/7. That's been another very sought after request from our customers is having the time with no agents was not an acceptable solution for people. We accommodated that as well this year. This is something that needed to happen in order for Aira to grow and expand and continue to change the way that we're able to do business. I think you're going to see significant improvement. Remember, we're always evolving as well. All of these changes came from listening to our Explorers and listening to the community. We're always listening as well. Keep that feedback coming. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Greg, I know Suman will probably tell you today or tomorrow, but what about next week? Greg Stilson: Next week's Thanksgiving, man. Pete Lane: There you go. Greg Stilson: Next week I'm eating a lot. That's my plans for next week. Jeff Thompson: You guys are open. People can use the service during Thanksgiving and- Greg Stilson: We are. Jeff Thompson: ... Christmas, New Years. Greg Stilson: 24/7 baby. 24/7. Jeff Thompson: There we go. Pete Lane: Greg, I wanted to add a question that I've been getting from my various communication platforms that I participate with Aira. Greg Stilson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Pete Lane: There's been some concern over the last several months about the quality and responsiveness of Aira tech support and customer care. I know that Suman himself came out with an email to all Explorers a few months ago explaining that he was aware of it and that they're putting a great deal of effort into improvement. Can you talk a little bit about what's improved with customer care, tech support, and what our Aira Explorers might expect if they make a contact? Greg Stilson: Absolutely. Customer care, as we're a growing company, first off, the number of customers has exploded and how many customers that we're serving. Making sure that we were able to accommodate and support those customers when things weren't working or when you had issues with your billing or when you had issues with your glasses or whatever else. We recognized that our support was not where it needed to be. As a startup company, this is a constant learning phase for us. We took a huge initiative. Suman took that very personally and made that one of the highest priorities internally. We implemented several changes. Greg Stilson: First off, we did ramp up our support hiring to make sure that we had enough specialists to answer your calls, but we also implemented an operator system. This is something that I think is really great is there's two ways of getting connected to a support agent now. Whenever you call in, you're going to get our operator. Our operator's job, if it's a simple problem, the operator can even solve the problem for you. If it's not simple, we have a number of different now care teams that specialize in various questions or issues that you maybe having. Whether your issue is related to hardware, to glasses, to billing, to the app, to your account, there's different teams that support those. Greg Stilson: Different connection points that the operator can get you to. If one of those team members is free, they'll do a direct transfer right then and there for you and you'll be able to work with that teammate to rectify your problem. If they're not, what we're doing is basically doing a scheduling a callback situation where you don't have to sit on hold anymore. You don't want to wait. Our agent will call you back at the specified time that you want to be called back in or a suggested time that works for the agent and yourself. This is something that we took very, very seriously. We're also significantly ramping up on our email communication. Making sure that within 24 hours you get an email communication back. Greg Stilson: It's something that, as I said, we took seriously and we're continuing to improve. Keep that feedback coming. If you're not getting the support that you feel you should be, make sure you let us know. It's support@aira.io. Make sure to let us know you are seeing the changes if they are improving or if they're not. That's the best way that we can learn. Jeff Thompson: The Explorers can now leave feedback for the agents. That there's certain things in the app that you have been improving so that you can get feedback to the agents better. If you're going to use a product or something, you can save time and your minutes by directly connecting up and they know what they're there for. Greg Stilson: Exactly. Yup. There's been a lot of changes to the app. We've always taken the feedback to the agents very seriously. You can rate an agent as good or poor, and then you can always leave comments. We urge everybody do that. It's the way that our agent analyst can help improve things if they're not going well or can give people a congratulatory pat on the back if they're doing something great too. It's a great way for us to understand how things are going for you. Then your comment, Jeff, about the access offers, that is a big change that we made in the app is to be able to initiate the access offer yourself rather than needing the agent to initiate it on their end. Greg Stilson: To be able to do that and actually call with an offer, you can actually call for free with one of those Aira Access offers so that you start that call using the sponsor's minutes rather than yours. As I said, you just use the button ... Not the big call button in the middle, but a button just below it called call with an access offer and that's where you can choose the small business offer, you can call using the Intuit QuickBooks product, or you can call using the Vispero product as well. We hope to add many, many more products and companies as time progresses. Jeff Thompson: My wife uses Chloe a lot at work because she has paperwork and stuff like that and she really likes that feature. Just the OCR just to be able to read it at will when she wants. Greg Stilson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yup. I'm excited to say that we're very close to releasing an update to the Horizon system. It's been a really fantastic year with Horizon. It's been super exciting and just the response that we're hearing from Explorers on the significant improvement in their agent experience. We're going to be releasing an update to Horizon and to Chloe very shortly, which will significantly improve the reading capability. Then in addition, we're also going to be offering a document capture capability very similar to that of KNFB Reader and Seeing AI and that kind of stuff to be able to actually capture a full sheet and have it read to you. Greg Stilson: I think that's really just the beginning of what we're going to be doing with reading. Jeff Thompson: That sounds great. Greg Stilson: Yes. There's that. In addition, we're bringing a lot of the Aira Access offers piece up to sort of parity with the iOS and Android app where you actually can say to Chloe, "Hey, make an access call," and she'll actually ask you, "Okay. Do you want this to be a Vispero product call, an Intuit QuickBooks call," so you can now initiate just by using your voice any of these access calls as well, and even to the point where you can ask Chloe, "Hey, where's my nearest access location?" She'll actually do a quick search and tell you, "Hey, you've got a Walgreens right down the street." Pete Lane: Cool. Jeff Thompson: I just want to compliment you guys. We went to England and my wife took all these pictures with her Aira Glasses and stuff. One of the big things is they label them. Greg Stilson: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: She didn't need someone else to help her with Facebook or something or posting it here or there. It was done. It just rounded out her vacation. That's what you do on vacations. You take pictures and you send them out, and she did it while walking along. You know? It was really quite an experience. Greg Stilson: I can tell you, as a blind person who cannot see pictures, it's one of the most sort of powerful and yet underappreciated features is the labeling capability. For those of you who don't know, the agent can take pictures either with your glasses or your phone. We have so many Explorers who literally work with agents just to get that perfect selfie. They can label those images for you. What's really cool about that is that is that the label will actually go into the photo, it's part of the meta data in the photo, and it's read by VoiceOver. They'll send that picture to your app on your phone. Greg Stilson: Even if you take the photo with your Horizon Glasses, even though you're not using your smartphone at the time, the photo will go to your smartphone's app and you can add that photo directly to your camera roll or to your photos on your phone, or even share with something like Google Photos or Dropbox or anything like that for later on. But the nice part about that is the description that the agent put in will stay with that photo. Whatever screen reader you're using, whether it's Voiceover or Talkback or JAWS on a computer or in VDA, it'll read to you as touch that photo or go over the top of that photo. That's super powerful both in a social setting, but also we have so many students who will ... Greg Stilson: Let's say that they don't have a professors who's really verbose in reading the board or a PowerPoint slide or something like that, I had professors like that all the time, we have some students who will ask an agent to take a photo of the board and just label or write down the information into the photo label of what that is so that they can go back, either connect it to a Braille display later on. Just when they're in their dorm room studying- Jeff Thompson: That's amazing. Greg Stilson: ... they can listen to the content. Jeff Thompson: Fantastic. Pete Lane: That's awesome. Jeff Thompson: Greg, I really want to thank you for coming on the Blind Abilities here and talking to our listeners and telling us all the new opportunities people have with Aira. Pete, is there anything you want to add? Pete Lane: No. I just wanted to thank Greg as well. We've been speaking with Greg Stilson. Greg is the Director of Product Management for Aira. He's a regular guest here on Blind Abilities. It's always good to hear from you and chat with you, Greg. Thanks for the updates. Greg Stilson: Thanks for having me on, guys. It's always a pleasure and have a great holiday next week. All the listeners have a fantastic holiday. Keep that feedback coming. We're always growing and evolving and you guys are the reason why this product is what it is. Jeff Thompson: Thank you, Greg. Pete Lane: Thanks, Greg. Jeff Thompson: Such a great time talking to Greg Stilson once again. Be sure to check out Aira on the web at aira.io. I want to thank Pete Lane for coming back in the studios and a big thank you goes out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music. You can find Chee Chau on Twitter @LCheeChau. Chee Chau. Chee Chau. Once again, I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye, bye. [Music]  [Transition noise]   -When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes... [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence] ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter at Blind Abilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

Full Transcript Below Show Summary: In partnership with State Services for the Blind of Minnesota we are proud to present, PACER Center - Champions for Children with Disabilities: Self-Advocacy, Self-Awareness and the ADA - A Visit with PACER Center’s Transition Coordinator Deborah Leuchovius   Deborah sits down with Jeff Thompson of Blind Abilities in the fifth of a series of podcasts in partnership with PACER Center and State Services for the Blind. Be sure to check out all of the PACER series of podcasts.   Deborah talks about preparing youth for the responsibilities of adulthood and the protections of the ADA. How self-advocacy and self-awareness can help one self determine and understand their accommodation needs.   Join Deborah and Jeff in this informative podcast covering the history of the ADA, examples and the impact of the ADA and where you can learn more about the ADA and it’s importance during the transition years.   From the web: PACER Center enhances the quality of life and expands opportunities for children, youth, and young adults with all disabilities and their families, so each person can reach his or her highest potential. PACER operates on the principles of parents helping parents, supporting families, promoting a safe environment for all children, and working in collaboration with others. With assistance to individual families, workshops, materials for parents and professionals, and leadership in securing a free and appropriate public education for all children, PACER's work affects and encourages families in Minnesota and across the nation.   Contacts: You can find out more about PACER Center on the web at www.pacer.org You can reach pACER Center by phone at 952-838-9000   You can find out more about State Services for the Blind on the web at www.MN.Gov/Deed/SSB And by calling 651-539-2300 Live Learn Work and Play   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.   Full Transcript: Self-Advocacy, Self-Awareness and the ADA - A Visit with PACER Center’s Transition Coordinator Deborah Leuchovius Jeff Thompson: State Services for the Blind in Minnesota presents PACER Center, Champions for Children with Disabilities.   Deborah L: The purpose of the ADA is: (1) to end discrimination based on disability and (2) to promote integration or inclusion of people with disabilities into society.   Jeff Thompson: On this episode, we'll be covering the American Disabilities Act and how it relates to transition-age students.   Deborah L: There are no ADA police. It's up to us to bring lack of accessibility or discrimination to the attention of the people that may not realize that they are being discriminatory.   Jeff Thompson: With us today is Deborah Leuchovius, she's a transition coordinator at PACER's National Parent Center on Transition and Employment.   Deborah L: The Americans with Disabilities Act is that it is not an entitlement program. It is a civil rights law.   Jeff Thompson: The importance of self-advocacy and self-awareness.   Deborah L: If there's things that parents can do to prepare their youth for the responsibilities of adulthood and the protections of the ADA, it's to know what their accommodation needs are and be able to express them.   Jeff Thompson: And you can find out more about the PACER National Parents Center on the web at pacer.org/transition.   Deborah L: PACER's National Parent Center on Transition and Employment, just called 9528389000.   Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities. I'm Jeff Thompson and I'm at the PACER Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. And I'm talking to transition coordinator, Deborah Leuchovius. How are you doing?   Deborah L: Just fine, Jeff. Thanks.   Jeff Thompson: Deborah. What is your role here at PACER Center?   Deborah L: I'm a transition coordinator. I work primarily on two projects, but we all do a number of things. All my projects are related to transition that is working with families around issues important to youth in transitioning from their school years into young adulthood, independent living, post-secondary education and employment. I work on PACER's National Parent Center on Transition and Employment and also on Minnesota's Disability Employment Initiative, DEI project.   Jeff Thompson: So the Americans Disabilities Act. Can you explain the importance of that with regards to the transition and transition students?   Deborah L: Sure. The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 and most of its provisions took effect in 1992. ADA impacts the lives of youth with disabilities and even younger youth and in many areas of our daily life we may not be aware of and we may take for granted anything that happens outside of the school setting. Anytime that you're out in the community. Again, I look pre-ADA, Mall of America is one of the most accessible places that I have been to. It really changed the way that shopping looks. If you go to the Mall of America there, it's full of people with disabilities in a way that it wasn't before the law was passed. So anytime you're out in the community, you'll see the impact of the ADA. Anytime that you want to join a camp that is not specifically for youth with disabilities. Anytime that you participate in recreation, that is not specifically for youth with disabilities.   Deborah L: If you want to investigate employment programs outside the scope of State Services for the Blind or vocational rehabilitation. And you walk into a workforce center serving individuals in inclusive settings as opposed to segregated settings is happening all across America for people with disabilities because of the Americans with Disabilities Act.   Jeff Thompson: Especially in those transition years.   Deborah L: The transition years are exactly that, moving into adulthood, so it's important for young adults to learn about the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As they leave the school system and the entitlement and services of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA that they have received in high school because things change pretty differently as they leave that K12 system.   Jeff Thompson: Deborah, can you explain I-D-E-A, IDEA to the listeners.   Deborah L: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is responsible for the provision of special education services to students with disabilities. From now, it's preschool through graduation. But for some students with disabilities that may be after their senior year, they may go onto an 18 to 21-year-old transition program. But at that point they leave the special education service system and go on to the adult world, at which point the provisions of the ADA will have a tremendous effect on what they do.   Jeff Thompson: The word inclusive seems like the new thing right now.   Deborah L: Oh, I don't think it's a new thing at all. Inclusive is the ... Purposes of the ADA is: (1) to end discrimination based on disability and (2) to promote integration or inclusion of people with disabilities into society.   Jeff Thompson: I mean, businesses are out there using that word. It seems like the new word that's more prevalent today, like you'll see it in pamphlet, you'll see it on commercials. You'll see it on social media inclusion.   Deborah L: Yes. I think that ... And that inclusion, it is meant in a really broad sense, not just to include people with disabilities but to include people from diverse cultures and a variety of backgrounds. But it's important to say that initially diversity efforts of Corporate America primarily focused on integrating employees of more diverse backgrounds. And diversity efforts are also include integrating the work place with people with disabilities as well.   Jeff Thompson: While I was in college we had a diversity department, and they didn't include people with disabilities. `It was kind of separated. We fought to kind of be included in that, and I believe now today it is.   Deborah L: Well, I think there've been a lot of efforts along the way that we ... Well I can say that there are some things that we'd like to see change, and sometimes we've seen setbacks, we have seen a lot of progress since the Americans with Disabilities Act was implemented. It does not mean that we've completed the task of being completely accessible or completely inclusive, but we're coming along way and we're still making progress.   Jeff Thompson: Great. I lost my eyesight 21 years ago and ADA was just a word. It didn't mean anything. And then I started realizing reasonable accommodations, curb cuts, a few other things that, you know door widenings and accessibility steps, ramps and all that stuff. But what happens when someone is out there, and they run into a wall?   Deborah L: Well, if you are encountering inaccessibility, either in the community or in an employment setting or in a post-secondary setting, there are ways to file a complaint. But the most important first step is for you to bring your complaint to the attention of the business owner or the employer or the school and let it be known that you're not happy with the accommodation or the lack of accommodation. So that you can work out a solution and ideally that's where you would be able to find the solution. There are provisions in place for filing complaints and I think especially small business owners, that would be one backlash against the ADA is the concern about having to lose space in their stores for display. Or something if they were to have to widen the aisles or make things more accessible. But you can work that out or you can file a complaint and the complaint process, I think it would best be described by the folks at the Great Lakes ADA Center. Because depending on whether you're making a complaint about an employment situation or a post-secondary school or out in the community, the complaint process differs.   Deborah L: And again that number is 18009494232, but especially in the employment settings and in post-secondary settings, they should have internal people identified ADA coordinators or human resource coordinators that you would go to with your complaint. And that would be where you would start. The business owner is the person that you would first approach in a community setting.   Jeff Thompson: You mentioned this earlier when we were talking, you said there are no ADA police.   Deborah L: Yes, there are no ADA police. It's up to us to bring lack of accessibility or discrimination to the attention of the people that may not realize that they are being discriminatory. Explain how that process works. Most accommodations they say in employment settings costs nothing, and the same is true oftentimes in post-secondary settings. It's not an expense one can you modify a procedure or the way that things typically have been done, which is sometimes hard for faculty members or academics to get their head around changing the way the things is typically have done. But it's not something that is an expense. So you become responsible for education yourself, about the Americans with Disabilities Act and about how to accommodate people with disabilities.   Jeff Thompson: Now, just I think it was a couple of days ago, I read an article that in Minnesota it might be a first that's someone filed something using the ADA against a hospital that their website wasn't in compliance with the ADA. And they said it was the first one in Minnesota, but lately there's been a lot of frivolous suits going around the nation. And they've to some administration trying to take some action against it. Has that impacted corporations, companies, how they view the ADA?   Deborah L: I suppose it is. I see a lot of the reaction in the small business community where it's less easy to make an accommodation where small expenses are a bigger portion of the budget. And sort of in that title three world, title three of the ADA has to do with public accommodations, but web accessibility is huge because of course web accessibility changes at an astonishing rate these days. In fact, that's another area where although the US Department of Justice has made clear that corporations are responsible for making their websites accessible. They are again, in a recent letter indicated that they're willing to grant a certain amount of latitude in how they do that rather than trying to come up with specific standards which could be outdated in a number of years as technology changes.   Jeff Thompson: It's hard to keep up with everything, isn't it? And how do parents and even the transition-age student get educated on the ADA?   Deborah L: Well, we hope some of this is taking place in the schools, especially with regard to training transition-age students about self-advocacy. PACER has a lot of information on its website that was developed through projects that were funded several years ago, when the ADA was first being implemented. And so we have a number of information articles available to parents that they can educate themselves. We also incorporated into the trainings that we provide. I will tell you that when parents come to parent workshops here at PACER for younger youth, there will not be the emphasis on the Americans with Disabilities Act that it is until you get to the transition years will start to spend some years on the importance of learning about that. Great place to learn about the Americans with Disabilities Act are Centers for Independent Living, and also there's in our area the Great Lakes ADA Center, which you can get to through its website and also by calling with individual questions at 18009494, ADA. That's 4232.   Jeff Thompson: That's great. What is probably the single most important thing that someone should take from learning about the ADA as they're transitioning to college and to the workplace?   Deborah L: Well, I think the single most important thing is the need for self-advocacy. In the special education system, schools are charged with identifying students with disabilities and going out. They actually have the term, "Child Find," where they will find individuals with disabilities and identify them, then assess their needs and then they're responsible for meeting those needs in an educational system. The huge difference with the Americans with Disabilities Act is that it is not an entitlement program. It is a civil rights law, so you are protected from discrimination. But you have to know what your rights are because there is no one out there finding you and identifying your needs and then is automatically responsible for meeting those needs. You are responsible for advocating for yourself in order to get your needs met. So that also means one huge thing for young adults and for parents preparing their youth for adulthood is that they really need to cultivate self-awareness and self-advocacy skills on the part of their youth so that they can compete in this world where the rules change [inaudible 00:12:48] services.   Jeff Thompson: With the ADA being implemented and here we are coming up on 30 years. What is one of the most threatened areas of the ADA? Surprise question. I'm sorry. I mean, sometimes it seems like the ADA is being challenged a little bit or it's not being implemented, or it's not even being addressed, or people aren't aware of it. Do you find any challenges with it?   Deborah L: Well, there are always challenges with implementation. A movement that was very exciting for disability rights advocates that was based on the ADA was the Olmstead decision being applied to employment setting. So the Olmstead decision was a Supreme Court decision based on the ADA. It said that services provided by government should be provided in the most integrated setting possible. And at first that was mostly applied to residential settings, serving individuals with disabilities in community settings as opposed to segregated residential settings. But a couple of years ago there was a direction from the US Department of Justice under the Obama administration, which indicated that that was equally applied to employment settings. Not just the way that it had been interpreted in terms of providing housing for individuals with disabilities and community services for individuals with disabilities. But there's been some step back from that under the current Department of Justice and the current administration. So they've taken back that letter. I'm not sure if that's exactly how I would phrase it, but they have indicated that they're less willing to interpret the Olmstead in terms of employment settings.   Jeff Thompson: And that's probably the biggest thing that depending on who's in charge, the interpretation gets changed from one administration to the other.   Deborah L: Yeah, very much so. So that is a cause for concern and some disappointments among us advocates. And I have to say that I approached the Americans with Disabilities Act from an advocate's position. I am not a lawyer and I am not interpreting the law in a legal way, so I don't want to give your listeners the impression that I'm speaking from that space. But despite those disappointments, I would rather focus on the ways that the ADA has been implied. It's become and, in many ways, a way of life for us now, especially thinking just very obviously about how it affects the young people with disabilities. With vision impairments is things like Metro Mobility came into effect or into law across the nation as required by the Americans with Disability Acts. Likewise, protections about bringing your guide dog or service animals into places of public accommodation is also a protection that is provided under the Americans with Disabilities Act.   Deborah L: So there are many, many ways that it's changed the face. Now granted you will find people that will tell you, you still can't bring your dog in, but by and large it's much more accepted, normal way of doing things in our society.   Jeff Thompson: I remember when the ADA was implemented and when I lost my eyesight, two words popped out that was kind of like, no matter where I saw it, it was like, "Reasonable accommodation." Who determines the reasonable part of that?   Deborah L: Well, it's a joint effort. So it will always be determined by the setting that you're in and between the person with the disability and what accommodation they are requesting that they need in order to perform some job function or some academic assignment. So between the person with a disability and who knows what they need in order to be successful and then making that request to whoever they are working for or working with. So that is the employer and/or the School Faculty Disability Services office at a post-secondary situation. It's always an individual decision based on individual circumstances.   Jeff Thompson: It kind of a collaborative effort though, and that's where self-advocacy probably comes into play when you're in that situation.   Deborah L: Not only self-advocacy. I really want to stress self-awareness is that if there's things that parents can do to prepare their youth for the responsibilities of adulthood and the protections of the ADA, it's to know what their accommodation needs are. So that and be able to express them. So, (1) is self-awareness, (2) is self-advocacy. You have to ... Sometimes things are done for young people without them even asking. And one example that I had from when my son was very little, and he used to wheelchair, when we switched from a manual chair to a power chair, I realized that I had automatically just been steering my son towards the curb cuts without him realizing that there was such a thing as a curb cut. He just thought you drove off the edge of the sidewalk into the street because that was how he experienced it.   Deborah L: So there's some many things that we do for our young people that we don't even realize we're doing that. They don't realize they're doing, so building that consciousness of the kinds of accommodations that we make on a daily basis that are what is needed to be successful is an important part of growing up with a disability in our society.   Jeff Thompson: So, transitioning from high school to college is one thing, but also transitioning into being your own advocate and creating your own self-determination, breaking away from the parents. I don't want to say grip, but their involvement you've got to start making decisions yourself too.   Deborah L: Yes. I have been asked one of the things that, what can parents do to prepare their children for adult responsibilities? And that is to gradually wean them off of your own taking responsibility for them and of course it's age appropriate. And of course there may be differences for young people with disabilities and for young people without disabilities, but that's a good measure. What I do for my kid without a disability, what I am doing for my son or daughter with a disability, and try, and promote independence. At here at PACER by independence, we don't mean totally letting go. We know that parents are going to be involved in the lives of their children well into adulthood, as is the case in other families. But it's really important that you begin to give your children the opportunity to make decisions for themselves and also to fail and learn from their failure along the way. That's really important part of building resiliency and growing up and also learning what makes them successful.   Deborah L: Again, relating back to the Americans with Disabilities Act and knowing what kinds of supports do you need in order to be successful in different settings, academic, employment, community.   Jeff Thompson: Deborah, can you talk about Project Launch?   Deborah L: Sure. Project Launch is a PACER Project that works primarily with families of youth that are older, making the transition into employment, into post-secondary education. The majority of our advocates here at PACER work with transition-age students who are still in school but are planning the transition to out of school. Project Launch works with that age group where they have either just made the transition into adulthood or are into their 20s as they are managing the transition to employment and independent living in post-secondary education settings.   Jeff Thompson: Right. So how can a parent or a transition-age student find out more about the ADA and what you do here at PACER Center?   Deborah L: Well, I would encourage people to go to our website for the National Parent Center on Transition and Employment and the website is www.pacer.org/transition and we have a number of resources there. Particularly if you go to our learning center under our employment section or if you go into our learning center under laws, it will give you information on the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you have specific issues that you would like to discuss with families, you can either get connected to PACER's Project Launch or to one of the advocates that work with our National Parents Center on Transition and Employment. And just called 9528389000, our general number and ask to speak to someone about adult services or adult transition. You can specifically ask for Project Launch. You can specifically ask for the National Parent Center on Transition, but pretty much once you give the age of student that you're working with and letting them know whether they're still in school or out of school, you'll be able to talk to an advocate about any individual issues that you might have.   Jeff Thompson: Deborah, what advice would you have for a parent or a student as they're approaching transition?   Deborah L: Well, other than what I have said earlier about self-awareness and self-advocacy, I would encourage them to learn as much as possible about their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I would encourage them to investigate Centers for Independent Living and what training opportunities and there are that exists through those organizations. Once the ADA was passed and in its early implementation days, PACER rarely has trainings that focus specifically on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Instead we kind of roll the content about the protections of the ADA and the importance of knowing the protections of the ADA into our regular transition trainings or into our trainings about particular topics. So I suspect that the Centers for Independent Living have more direct training for learning about the Americans with Disabilities Act other than just self-study.   Jeff Thompson: That seems like a nice way to do it because it's encompassing. It covers everything. And as for training here, you have the Simon Technology Center. You have a lot of different projects, departments here that someone could find on the website as well.   Deborah L: Absolutely.   Jeff Thompson: We've been talking to Deborah Leuchovius, a transition coordinator at PACER Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. Deborah, I want to thank you from State Services for the Blind for coming on to Blind Abilities and sharing with us about the American Disabilities Act and how it relates to transition-age students. And I want to thank you and PACER Center for all that you do for parents of children with disabilities.   Deborah L: You're very welcome Jeff.   Jeff Thompson: Be sure to check out PACER Center champions for Children with Disabilities on the web at www.pacer.org, checkout State Services for the Blind in Minnesota at wwwmn.gov/d/ssb. Live, Learn, work, and play. And a big thank you goes out the [inaudible 00:22:52], for his beautiful music and you can find [inaudible 00:22:54] on Twitter at [inaudible 00:22:56]. And from PACER Center, State Services for the Blind and Blind Abilities thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed it. And until next time, bye, bye.   [Music]  [Transition noise] When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes...   [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]   ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.     Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

Show Summary:   Rakeb Max returns to the Blind Abilities studio to share what she has learned since entering her first year of college. On her previous podcast, Rakeb talked about her college transition plans and the steps she was taking to ensure she chose the right one. Rakeb did choose Providence college and talks about how the realities and expectations are not always the same and how she is adjusting to her new location. Rakeb wrote a letter to the editor about some of the questions she gets asked and basically broke it down for everyone to understand that she is just Rakeb, that girl with the long white cane. Join Rakeb Max in this brief and insightful interview and hear about what Rakeb is doing to make her presence known. Look out Providence College, Rakeb Max is on the campus.   Here is the link to Rakeb's letter to the editor. Be sure to check out Rakeb’s podcast on her transitioning from high school to collegeand how she went about preparing for her college education journey. You can find out more about State Services for the Blind on the web. Or call the main office at 651-539-2300. Outside of Minnesota? Check out the State Agency Directory on the American Foundation for the Blind web site at www.AFB.org Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

Show Summary: Tech Abilities is back in the studio and Serina, Andy and Jeff talk about Smart Devices. From Smart Switches, Smart Thermostats, Smart Smoke and Gas Detectors, Door Bell Cameras and the Google Hub. But is the Apple Home Kit App good enough? Check out this entertaining and informational look at the devices watching you and putting some convenience into your life. How did we get by without it? Hmmm. You can follow Tech Abilities on twitter @AbilitiesTech Contact: Tech Abilities is part of the Blind Abilities Network and be sure to check out all of our shows and podcasts. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.   Full Transcript: Tech Abilities: Hey Portal, You Watching Me? Smart Home Devices and the Smart Shadow Enters the Thought Bubble Serena Gilbert: It's called the Facebook Portal. Does anyone here trust Facebook? Andy Munoz: Other than the fact that we're tech nerds ... Serena Gilbert: Nope, I don't think I'm going to upgrade, and both of you did in a week. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, an accessible thought bubble. Serena Gilbert: Do you have a smart phonograph, Jeff? What the heck is that? Andy Munoz: Google's your friend, look it up. Serena Gilbert: So, you want a smart shadow. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Andy Munoz: Having these smart devices, they are truly game changers. Serena Gilbert: Silver. Andy Munoz: Space gray. Jeff Thompson: Gold. Andy Munoz: I smell smoke. Is your Nest going off, Jeff? Serena Gilbert: See what happens when you tell me I'm getting fat? Andy Munoz: I said you could grow into that Blind Abilities t-shirt. Jeff Thompson: Boom, music comes on and six sheets of toilet paper pop out. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. Serena Gilbert: All right, you guys ready? I'm not going to count down. I'm going to make you look for when we start [inaudible]. Good luck. Andy Munoz: Three, two- Serena Gilbert: No. Andy Munoz: One. Serena Gilbert: Nope. All right, I will count down. I'll be nice. Three, two, one. Welcome back to Tech Abilities. This is Serena Gilbert and I am, of course, joined with Jeff Thompson and Andy Munoz. Jeff, how are you? Jeff Thompson: Sorry. Serena Gilbert: Apparently, Jeff is choking. Jeff Thompson: I'm doing great, Serena. Glad to be back. Serena Gilbert: We haven't been around for a while now, but we are back and we've got a great episode. Andy, how are you? Andy Munoz: I'm good. I'm good. I'm actually glad to be back. Serena Gilbert: And, Andy's not choking for the record. Andy Munoz: Nope. No choking here. Jeff Thompson: Ouch. Serena Gilbert: Ouch. You'll be okay, Jeff. You're a big boy. Have you guys heard about the latest news about Facebook? Jeff Thompson: Oh, do tell. Do tell. Serena Gilbert: Apparently, they have a new smart device coming out called the Facebook Portal. Jeff Thompson: I'm got a feeling somebody's watching me. Serena Gilbert: Right? Andy Munoz: Cue the Michael Jackson song. There we go. Serena Gilbert: Perfect timing, Jeff, as usual. Everything about it is ironic from the name of it to all the press surrounding it. It's called the Facebook Portal so theoretically I know what they were going for there. It's like you're in the same room, but does anyone here trust Facebook? Jeff Thompson: How about you, Andy? Do you trust Facebook? Andy Munoz: You know, can you trust anything, honestly? Jeff Thompson: Right. Andy Munoz: Yet, we still use it. The way I look at it is I don't put something out there that I don't want somebody to know 'cause even with locking it down and doing all that stuff, there's people, they want it ... Where there's a will, there's a way. Don't put nothing out there that I don't want nobody to see. Serena Gilbert: The weird thing about Facebook is there's already a theory that we think Facebook listens to us when we're not in it. We've tested this. Start talking about childcare and all of a sudden, you're going to have every childcare center ad in your newsfeed that you ever wanted to see. Andy Munoz: Yep, yep. Serena Gilbert: There's something to it. I really do think that there's something that they're listening to. Imagine putting that in your living room where they're not only able to listen but see what you're doing. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, we could really paint this into a corner if we want to, but when you look at other companies such as Target and Home Depot and various other ones on the internet that have had hacks exposing people's identification and personal information, it's inevitable that stuff like this is going to happen, I imagine. It seems like when something like this happens to Facebook, it seems like it really gets a lot of attention. Andy Munoz: Usually, if you have a big name and something happens ... We've all got these high expectations so then they lose credibility, but it really can happen to anybody. Serena Gilbert: Well, let's hear about the specs on this Facebook Portal and then tell me what you guys think about it too. It's funny when you think about it. There's two different versions. There's the standard one. It will be $199. The Portal Plus, as they call it, is a much larger screen and then it's an HD. That will be $349. Both of them say that the camera essentially will follow you as you're talking to somebody or video chatting with them. Serena Gilbert: They initially said that no data was going to be stored and that everything was nice and secure. They then came back and said, "But, wait. We will the information to target ads to you." Yeah. So, the camera's following you in the room and they're targeting ads at you. Still like it? I don't know. Andy Munoz: Regardless of whether you like it or not, there's just no getting away from it because you get the ads even on Facebook itself. I can go right now and I can do a search on Amazon for smart home devices and I guarantee you as soon as I click into Facebook, it's going to show me what I last searched for. For me, it's more or less going to be about what all can it do? What are all the different features? What's going to sell it to me that's going to allow me to really overlook that targeting commercial stuff to me? Serena Gilbert: You're not taking it off your Christmas list yet? Andy Munoz: I wouldn't say I would take it off. It doesn't matter what you do, you're not going to get away from that stuff. As much as you'd like to, as much as I'd like to, it's there. At this point, again, it's going to go back to, what are the features? What's going to make me want to buy this thing that I can't do with another device? Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Jeff, you have this on your shopping list? Jeff Thompson: No, I don't have it on my Christmas list yet, but I should get that started. The thing is, with all these different devices and ecosystems out there, I'm starting to wonder if someone should start with one ecosystem and stick with just one such as yourself. What benefits does the Facebook Portal have over your Amazon Show? Serena Gilbert: I don't think it offers anything different because they both do the video chatting. The screen does appear to be a little bit larger on the Facebook Portal. I think that the entry-level price on it is cheaper because the Amazon Show is, I believe, $229 and the Facebook Portal would be starting at $199. There's a $30 difference there. Serena Gilbert: It's really funny because I saw the ad on Facebook, of course, and the comments ... I just had to read the comments 'cause they were so funny and everyone's like, "So, why can't I just FaceTime?" Jeff Thompson: Yeah, right? Serena Gilbert: You're offering me a speaker that you say I can make all these calls on, I can just do that on my phone already, so what's the point? 'Cause they're not boosting that it has this awesome sound quality, they're not advertising that it's smart. I guess it will have Alexa built into it. Sorry, guys. It will have the 'A' lady built into it, but why would you spend the money on a third-party device to have the 'A' lady when you can get that straight from Amazon anyway? Andy Munoz: The other part of it too is you can actually video chat via Facebook Messenger just depending upon what device you're using. If I'm sitting at my computer, I've already got a 19" HD display so why would I want to invest in something different other than the fact that we're tech nerds and we like to know these things and we never know when we're going to run across something where we're maybe going to have to maybe troubleshoot something like that. That would be maybe its sole purpose. Jeff Thompson: Well, I think that Facebook is coming late into the game in this. The newness of the new products coming out, everyone wanted to experiment or explore these new gidgets and gadgets and now we all have probably multiple ecosystems in our house. You might have a Google or Amazon or an Apple device going right now. Is it time right now to add one more to the mix that we have in our house? That sometimes I think it's not doing exactly what I thought it would. So, I think people are being desensitized from the thrill of it all, the newness of these types of gadgets and Facebook is just a little late into the game. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, it always makes you wonder, is there really room on my shelf for one more smart device? Where would I even put it? Jeff Thompson: I wonder what we're going to have to say to invoke the Facebook Portal, "Mr. Senator," or "Yo, Zucker." Serena Gilbert: You say, and does this sound at all familiar, "Hey, Portal." Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: Yeah, which those of us who are super lucky enough to have HomePods ... Jeff Thompson: Super lucky. Serena Gilbert: Super lucky. Jeff Thompson: Super. Serena Gilbert: Super- Jeff Thompson: Lucky. Serena Gilbert: ... lucky. We know what the wake word is for that. Very similar. Jeff Thompson: It'd be funny if it was Mr. Senator. Yes, Senator. Yes, Senator. Andy Munoz: What kind of responses does it give if you call it the wrong name? Jeff Thompson: I have no idea. It's not out until, what, November? Mid-November? Serena Gilbert: It says November. It doesn't even have a specific data, it just says November. I predict ... I think this is going to be a big, huge flop for Facebook. I think this is going to be a lot of lost money because who knows how many they've already produced. They'll probably sell maybe 100,000 which is nothing when there's how many billion users on Facebook? Jeff Thompson: Yeah, plus the fact when I looked it up. I think ten things came up when I did my search, nine of them were about, "Is this a good idea? Should they pull the plug now? Should they save their costs? Are the stocks falling on Facebook?" and, "Do you trust Facebook to secure this information that it's gathering?" I don't know. I don't think it's going to be on my Christmas list, Serena. Serena Gilbert: I know one thing that I keep trying to get you to add to the Christmas list, but I don't know if you will. Jeff Thompson: What's that? Serena Gilbert: Remember? I told my bestie that you wanted a HomePod. Jeff Thompson: Oh! And you want to go to CSUN. Serena Gilbert: You know it. Jeff Thompson: That's coming up. That's around the corner. Serena Gilbert: Better get to planning. Jeff Thompson: The more we talk, the closer it gets. Serena Gilbert: There's a really good Christmas gift right there. Andy can go too. Andy Munoz: Hey. Jeff Thompson: There you go. Serena Gilbert: We'll get in all kinds of trouble. It's in Anaheim this time. Jeff Thompson: Someone's got to run that Colorado show out there though. Serena Gilbert: We'll be okay. Andy Munoz: We'll survive. Jeff Thompson: A new device that's out from Google is the Google Home Hub ... Yeah, the Google Home Hub. Serena Gilbert: The need a better name for that one. Jeff Thompson: I was wondering if this was the answer to anybody out there that has collected a few devices, one for their Google Home that works on their ... One works on the Amazon Device. If this is the answer that will solve some of the problems of bringing everything together. Serena Gilbert: How does the Hub work? I don't fully understand it. Jeff Thompson: Okay. A hub is also known as a bridge and what it is is a central location device that actually can control all the different smart devices that you have located throughout your house. If you have smart plugs, smart switches, smart doorbells, smart thermostat, you can actually connect them up all to one spot, which is a hub and then access that. Jeff Thompson: Typically, what people do is access it through an iPad or something so they have one control. From there, you can set up groups, you can set up different modes for things to be on that come on at certain times, go off at certain times. You can group lights together, you can have full control over all these devices in one location rather than using the TP app, the WeMo app, and the Nest app and figure out everything else. You can actually tie them all together and that's what a hub/bridge does. Jeff Thompson: The HomeKit app, that app was put out, is something that was trying to become a bridge in your wi-fi system to tie all these together. Now, you've got to remember that everything has to be able to reach the wi-fi system. You might have a plug or a switch far enough away where your wi-fi isn't that great, so you'll have to do an extender. Whereas, you can get pretty elaborate. You can go into the Z-Wave system, which actually every device that's hooked up becomes a little transmitter too so it can chainlink all these together so it can reach a further distance. Jeff Thompson: Interesting stuff once you get interesting stuff once you get into the high-end of homes, but as for affordability and everything, I think Google Home Hub is an idea. It might be something that works good for you, but I think HomeKit really has the advantage here in wi-fi in the future. If you're just talking about adding some conveniences to your house and not really going into the major planning of a full day operation of automation going on. Jeff Thompson: Shades open. Lights on. Mood setting. Thermostat adjust and someday turn on stereo system. Play phonograph. Set the mood. The possibilities could be endless. You can do some of that with HomeKit, but yeah. Basically, that's was a hub/bridge does. It ties everything together under one physical device that you can access and control everything. Serena Gilbert: I'm just so distracted because I'm pretty sure you said phonograph. Andy Munoz: He did say phonograph. Serena Gilbert: What the heck is that? Andy Munoz: It's a record player. Serena Gilbert: Do you have a smart phonograph, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: I'm just saying, yeah, there probably is one. You can get one to skip and ... Andy Munoz: Yeah, you can get it to do some scratchin'. Scratchin'. You know? You know? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Yes, Jeff. You are definitely the old man right now. Andy Munoz: Well, it's funny because my kid's now into buying vinyls and I'm like, "Why are they even still making those," and come to find out yeah, they're making record players again. Jeff Thompson: I have two record players and I collected albums back in the day and I still have them. They're popular again. It's kind of neat. Andy Munoz: It's kind of interesting how technology's going full circle. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, for the young ones listening to our podcast, what's an album? You going to tell them that? No, I'm just kidding. Andy Munoz: Google's your friend, look it up. Serena Gilbert: On your smart speaker. Andy Munoz: Ask the 'A' lady, she'll tell you. Serena Gilbert: I am curious, because this is all about smart devices, if we could go around, I guess the virtual table and let's hear about what smart devices you have in your home right now and what you like, what you don't like, maybe, if you're on the market for a new one. We'll start with you, Andy. Andy Munoz: Okay. So, right now, I don't have any. I'm in the market. I've got a pretty archaic thermostat. The thing is huge, but the problem is I can see the numbers, but I can't see how it programs. I certainly want something that I have a little bit more that I can do with it then having to rely on somebody else to set it up. Jeff Thompson: What you're saying is you want to be the master of your own domain. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: There you go. Serena Gilbert: Seinfeld reference. Andy Munoz: Primarily, I'm just looking for a thermostat. Ceiling fans would be nice. Serena Gilbert: They make smart ceiling fans? Andy Munoz: Yeah, they make ... Serena Gilbert: I didn't know that. Andy Munoz: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Serena Gilbert: That would be really cool. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. They invented the ceiling fan right after the phonograph. When I was looking up the Google Home Hub, the GHH, they claim that it can connect up to 5,000 different devices. So, that probably includes the phonographs and let's see, what came out right after phonographs? Ceiling fans, Serena. Yeah, there's probably a smart gidget or gadget out there for pert near anything. Andy Munoz: Oh, yeah. When I was working with Apple, I got a guy that called in that was setting up a smart garage door opener. Serena Gilbert: Now, why do we need that? I really don't understand that. What does it recognize your car when you drive up to it? Jeff Thompson: Well, when you have your smart Amazon Drive in your car, you can then just say, "Open, sesame." Serena Gilbert: Oh, my God. Jeff Thompson: Lower the drawbridge. Serena Gilbert: Secret passcode, right? I really don't understand what a smart garage door would do that a regular garage door ... You push a button and it opens. What else do we need it to do? Jeff Thompson: You have to actually move your arm to push the button. Serena Gilbert: I get it because ... We laugh at how lazy this is making us 'cause we don't have to leave our couch to turn the light on or off or adjust the thermostat, but it truly does open up accessibility for tons and tons of people with disabilities that have mobility impairments or maybe even a cognitive impairment where it just makes a life a lot more independent and affordable. Before, doing something like this would be thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, now they can just get it right on the market. Andy Munoz: Or, even just the simple fact that you either make some sort of adjustment cosmetically or what have you so that it could be used or you stay reliant on somebody to help you with that. Having these smart devices, they are truly game changers. For the rest of us, yeah, it makes us lazy. Jeff Thompson: As long as your wi-fi doesn't get knocked down. Andy Munoz: Yeah, that too. Yeah. Serena Gilbert: I was just thinking that. I was just about to say, "Until somebody hacks it." Then, it will drive you crazy. Jeff Thompson: One of the concerns I would be looking into is if I was going to get the Canary or the HomeSafe alarm system that hooks up to your wi-fi and is a smart device, that, just like the bridge and the hub, are these connected to just your wi-fi or if someone cuts your wi-fi cable, will it give you an alert through cellular or run off the cellular? Andy Munoz: I believe that they do because actually my brother-in-law just made some changes. He gave up his business-class wi-fi and went back to residential and they bundled it all and got the security system. Yeah, if the wi-fi goes down it then does go to cellular. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's nice. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, 'cause we have a Honeywell Lyric. With got it for free from our home owner's insurance company and they gave us four of them. What it is is you put anywhere that there's water that could possibly leak and it's connected to wi-fi. It also puts this obnoxious, loud beeping sound A, when there is water that it detects and B, just when the battery is dying. Andy Munoz: Does it go onto the floor? Serena Gilbert: Well, you can do it two different ways. We have one on the hose of our washer and it's got this cord that you can wrap around it that if it detects the water then it will set off the alarm. Or, you can just set it on the floor and you don't need the cord then. As soon as it detects water it will start beeping and it will send a notification to your phone. Serena Gilbert: When we changed our wi-fi, we never put them back on the new wi-fi 'cause I frankly couldn't remember how to do it. When we changed our router out and had to get a new wi-fi network put up, it sent emails to me saying that they were offline. That's really cool because your hot water heater could be leaking for days and you'd never know. Ours is in the basement. We don't go down there but maybe once a month. Jeff Thompson: That's neat. That's less invasive. There's a more invasive one that actually goes right into your plumbing system. You cut the line and you put this device in there and it will notify you if the pressure drops. If you're on vacation, your lines should have no open valves so there should be a constant pressure and if that pressure drops significantly, then it will give you a signal and notify you that there's been a change, possibly a leak, that could really devastate your home. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, that could save a lot of money. Imagine if you came back from vacation and there were six feet of water in your basement. Jeff Thompson: Swimming pool, yeah. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Andy Munoz: Well, I was talking to somebody that they were out of town, but their son was there. He didn't realize it, but there had been a leak. So, their basement flooded and, on top of it, they ended up with a $5,000 water bill. That was in the course of three weeks. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my God. I would cry. Oh, my God. Andy Munoz: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Jeff Thompson: Oh, wow. I think a lot of these devices, like you're saying, for someone that has a speech impediment of some sort or something, that there's alternative devices now that through your wi-fi, making the home smarter. We just usually think about these devices that we're using today, but a lot of these switches and commands that we're using are pretty versatile and available to other people. Like you said, it used to be tens of thousands of dollars to make a home accessible for someone with a disability that it may help them open a door or turn on lights as you said, but now, these devices are stuff we buy off the shelf. Jeff Thompson: You can get the Hue lights and dim your lights and do other things and the switches and put everything on a timer. My driveway lights ... I have a WeMo light switch that my driveway lights come on when it gets dark, sunset, and goes off at a certain time. Then, I have some lamps in the living room that come on at the same time and go off at the same time. I have three switches working like that, plug in switches and one light switch. I like that automation because kind of get it. The lights come on. Oh, it's dark out, if you can sense that. If someone comes over, the house isn't just totally dark. Andy Munoz: Well, it's nice especially in today's society, you definitely want to have those lights on on the outside. You don't want people creeping up on your house. For me, I look at the negative side of that just because it is real. You definitely want to make sure that you have some light so your house can be seen, and I think it detracts from people wanting to do anything to it in a negative manner. Jeff Thompson: Plus, when you're away from home ... When I was in England, I could actually turn the lights off or on just from a flip on my phone, from the app. Andy Munoz: Right. Jeff Thompson: Something to remember about some of these home devices, it seems so great. Hey, just put a light switch in, but to put a light switch in with the WeMo and other ones, you do need all three wires there. You need your positive, your negative, and your neutral wire. Andy Munoz: Right. Jeff Thompson: Typically, a house that was built pre-90s, I believe, somewhere around there, switches were interrupters. So, they only ran the hot wire down to one side and to the other so when you switch is down, it breaks the connection. Lot of houses either had them drop down from the ceiling or they came up from the basement. The switches were not the place to run all the wires. They ran those to the lights above and just dropped down the ones. Jeff Thompson: That may be a problem if you want to add a light switch or a dimmer switch, but you will need to have all three there. If you don't, then you have to have an electrician come in and run a neutral wire up and facilitate it that way. So, that could get expensive. Andy Munoz: Right. It's good just to know that in general. Jeff Thompson: Oh, for sure. It also might justify spending the money for a smart light bulb where you can control that specific light bulb or a group of light bulbs with a command from an app or a voice command directed at one of your personal devices such as an Amazon, Google, Apple device, your smart speaker device. Jeff Thompson: Another device that I'm kind of interested is the Look or Nest makes a product, a couple other people make these products, they're cameras on your doorbell. When motion happens at the front door, you'll get a message on your phone that says, "Motion at front door," and that solves the problem of thinking, "Why do I need a camera at the front door?" Well, the camera does give the indication that there's motion, which then triggers the notification that you'll get, but these two need the existing wire that the previous doorbell used because they need a transformer. So, that's something you want to look into. Jeff Thompson: If you don't have a doorbell, then you'll have to install this pre-wiring beforehand. If you do have one, you have to make sure that it's 24 volts running to it because all these devices do need a power source to be running. Just beware, when you're thinking and considering and buying these products, read the small braille. Andy Munoz: Love it. Love it. Small braille. Serena Gilbert: Oh, man. Isn't all the braille small? Jeff Thompson: There is jumbo braille for people with neuropathy. Jeff Thompson: Serena, what kind of devices are you working with? Serena Gilbert: I have a WeMo plug. One thing I wanted to share with you guys is that, if you have Amazon Prime, there's been a few times just in the last few months where they sent out a deal where you can get a smart plug or a smart light bulb for only $10. We bought one when they did that and, sad to say, it's still sitting in the package because I need two and I've just been too cheap to buy the second one for my lamps downstairs. Serena Gilbert: It was summer when I bought them, so I was like, "Oh, we never need the lights on anyways." Now, it gets dark at like 6:15, 6:30 and it would be nice to just go on my phone and turn them on or use the Echo to turn them on. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, I noticed and that's how I've got ... I don't know why I'm coughing. Serena Gilbert: You're just getting too old over there. Jeff Thompson: Geez, you're sticking with this one. Serena Gilbert: See what happens when you tell me I'm getting fat? Jeff Thompson: I didn't say that. I know not to say stuff like that. Serena Gilbert: Would you like to share what you said? Jeff Thompson: I said you could grow into that Blind Abilities t-shirt. Serena Gilbert: No, you said I'm going to grow into it because of the shake that I had. Jeff Thompson: Why don't you tell the listeners what you put in your shake tonight? Serena Gilbert: Shameless plug for Five Guys Burgers and Fries. I had a shake and I added Oreo to it and Oreo cream and Double Stuff Oreo. I see nothing wrong with that. Jeff Thompson: Plus, some ice cream, right? Serena Gilbert: Milk, with sugar. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, so I'll repeat it. You'll probably grow into that t-shirt. Serena Gilbert: This is not helping you. You're going to get some hate mail from all the ladies out there. Jeff Thompson: If anybody else would like to grow into a Blind Abilities t-shirt, email us at info@blindabilities.com. Andy Munoz: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my goodness. Not very nice, Jeff. Andy Munoz: But, it is funny. Serena Gilbert: I'm telling my bestie on you. Jeff Thompson: You do have a HomePod, right? Serena Gilbert: I do. If anyone's ever listened to me on any podcast, they know I absolutely adore that HomePod. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, I hear it is good sound. So are the Sonos. The Sonos are pretty good and with the smart device built into those too. The thing is, with API on those since it's not a true Amazon device, you only get partial use of the full functionality of what you'll get out of an Amazon device like the Dot or the Echo. Sometimes you forget that you only get that limited usage out of them. I wonder how much the Facebook Portal will have? Serena Gilbert: It's probably the same API that they have on the Sonos because the Amazon's got to give you some reason to buy theirs. Why would you ever buy the Amazon one when the Sonos clearly sounds way better sound-wise. There has to be some incentive. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, just be aware when you're buying these devices what they connect up with. Some connect up with more than one platform. It might connect up to Amazon or it might connect up to Apple, but just check that out. Jeff Thompson: With the HomeKit app in your iOS device, that application is your hub, your bridge, and that might be the thing of the future, using your wi-fi. Whereas the hub, it just may be ... Serena Gilbert: I feel like it's another way for them to get you to spend- Jeff Thompson: More money. Serena Gilbert: $100. With me, 'cause I have the HomePod, I have the Amazon device, I'm trying to be smart about the devices that I choose since we don't have a smart home yet where either I can find some that work with both or depending on where the device that I'm buying is going to be, it works with whatever is closest to it. Andy Munoz: Definitely some strategy into it. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. One weird thing that I noticed when I did get the HomePod is, for some reason, and I don't know if it's the way that Apple's system is so locked down, but the devices that say they're compatible with HomeKit, they're never the ones ... They're always more expensive it seems. The ones that are compatible with the Amazon devices, there's so many of them that the price has come down on them. When you look at the ones that say HomeKit, it's like upwards of double the price for the same functionality. Andy Munoz: I'm guessing you're right that Apple is so locked down with everything that they do and you don't have a lot of choice as you do with Amazon or Google. A lot of the coding and development and stuff that goes into all that stuff is open source. Not to dog Google in any way, shape, or form by saying this, but their standards are more open than what you get with an Apple. I would venture to say that you're right on that. Jeff Thompson: When I first started down this path of adding smart switches and smart plugins, outlets to the house, I went with WeMo and I stuck with it. It seems to be doing good and just lately, I got an update and now the WeMo switches, the smart, mini WeMo switches, are able to work with the HomeKit, which is the native app in your iOS device titled, "Home," H-O-M-E. Jeff Thompson: The new ones that you get, they'll have a little code on them and you just scan it and it will register right into your application of your HomeKit and boom, there you go. That is very similar to my Nest Protect because all I did there was scan in the product and boom, it was connected up into my app, which just makes it very nice. Jeff Thompson: In the app, it does incorporate that these devices can now be synced up together. I have them synced up with my Amazon device, my google device, my iPhone. I can make my iPad, which stays at home basically, as the hub. By me invoking the HomeKit as my hub, do I really need a Google Home Hub? Do I really need a central device? I think I'm okay. Andy Munoz: I guess if you look at it from most people's perspective, we want it with generally a handheld device. Let's face it. There's times that we're not going to be in our home, when we want to be able to have that remote access, that remote control. I think that the hubs are a nice thought, but I don't know how realistic it is. Jeff Thompson: Serena, you had mentioned that you were considering a basement remodel. Have you thought about incorporating the smart home features? Serena Gilbert: It would be nice kind of thing, but yeah, we haven't officially done that. All I really want in the house right now is a smart thermostat because I really struggle with what temperature it is in the house. The house is only two years old. I meant the builder if they could put in a smart one for me and then I just spaced it. I regret that. Serena Gilbert: I really have to rethink it 'cause I know that my husband would like a doorbell camera at some point. It's like do we go with Ring; do we go with Nest because I'd like it to just all be the same brand just to make life easy. Jeff Thompson: I have a Nest Protect and that's a smoke alarm that mounts to the ceiling. If I buy another Nest Protect, they communicate with each other and announce their location. In a case of an emergency, you will know where the smoke is coming from. Speaker 4:           Emergency. There's smoke downstairs. Jeff Thompson: If I do get a Nest thermostat, that too will connect to the family of Nest products. If there is a fire, it will shut off the furnace so you don't have the air blowing around and flaming the fire ... Flaming? Wafting the flame. Serena Gilbert: Good job. Your old brain worked. Jeff Thompson: Oh, it may not be as quick as a Millennial, but it's wiser. Jeff Thompson: So, having items from the same family, the same Nest products in my situation pays off for me. I would also like to mention that the Nest Protect, the smoke alarm that's in the ceiling, has a glowing light on it and it comes on when it senses motion. So, in the middle of the night, if you walk past it, it will glow brighter. Serena Gilbert: That's cool. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, so that's a neat little feature that will help family members as well. Serena, you mentioned the doorbell with the camera. Now, some people may say, "Why do I need a camera when I can't see who's out there?" However, the camera senses motion and then it will send you a notification that there's motion at the front door. Serena Gilbert: That's very cool. Jeff Thompson: I see the benefits in that as well. Jeff Thompson: Now, a friend of mine, just to be fair, has the Honeywell thermostat. Serena Gilbert: Is the Honeywell app accessible? Jeff Thompson: He says it is, however, he doesn't use voice over but he tested it and he says it is. I haven't put it through the rigors, but it's $100 cheaper and Honeywell is a good product. It has high ratings on it as well. However, being in the same family and interconnecting as such, I think Nest makes a good line of product that really should be considered. Plus, Nest is owned by Google, right? Serena Gilbert: Is it? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: [inaudible] conspiracy. Andy Munoz: I have to say though, I'm with Jeff on the whole ... Usually, if I buy a brand, that's usually what I like to stick to and keep it consistent. A lot of it, I think, has to do for me about what the previous experiences have been. If I bought something like a Samsung TV and it's worked well for me, I'm going to be more inclined to go back out and buy that same brand just because I've had that good experience and I trust it. I think too, part of it too is if they can communicate with each other in some way, shape, or form, all the better. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, safety first. That brings up home security systems in your house that hooks up with wi-fi from doors to windows. I'm starting to wonder how many devices you can have connected up to your wi-fi system before it becomes over-weighted or strained. That's probably where a hub comes in because it would take that load. Until you get to that point, I think that's when you start wondering about a hub. Jeff Thompson: I just want to use the apps that each thing comes with. Set it up one time and move on. I don't want to have to pull that out all the time and say, "Honey, let's set the mood lighting for this movie," or have all my Christmas lights on my iPad so I can spell words or have special designs going across. That's not my bag. I just want these devices to work out of their own app. I just think the HomeKit, the home app, will suffice for most people that are venturing into the smart home devices. Andy Munoz: Well, because I think too we all have this thing where we generally know when we're going to be home and when we're not unless you have something where you're out of the norm, you have a function that you're going to go to or what have you. In my house, I generally know who's going to be home and when they're going to be home. To be able to say, "All right, yeah, let's have a heat come on at this time. Have it shut off at this time," that kind of stuff is super convenient. Andy Munoz: Because right now, it's one of those things where because I can't program it the way that I want and my wife isn't able to program it, she's [inaudible]. It's just an archaic thermostat. There's times she'll say 8:30 at night, "It's cold." I have to turn it up because yeah, it shut down when it really should have been on. There again, it would be nice to have something where definitely have that control and to be able to do that and know that it's going to be consistent. Jeff Thompson: Serena, do you want the Amazon Bathroom where you walk in and the lights come on, the toilet seat heats up, and boom, music comes on and six sheets of toilet paper pop out? Serena Gilbert: If you can find a way to heat my floor in my bathroom, I'd be happy. Jeff Thompson: Oh, they have that. Serena Gilbert: I don't know if I need the toilet seat heat. I'm okay. But, I was thinking about what you guys were talking about and I was just thinking of the cost savings with that. Just the heat alone to save it ... 'Cause right now, our heat's just either off or on. Then, we all know the theory behind how long it takes to raise the heat so many degrees. It's more expensive then to keep it steady. Serena Gilbert: Then, there's also the cost savings of if you own your house. Especially with the smoke detectors that you have, Jeff, I'm sure you're saving money on your home owner's insurance too. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, that's great, Serena, because if you contact your insurance company you can find out so much more about what you could be doing to your house for safety-wise that will ultimately save you money in the insurance policy premium. Serena Gilbert: It'd be totally worth it. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. You want to tell them you have a smoke alarm. Don't call them and tell them you don't have any. Serena Gilbert: What do you mean you didn't have one? Hold on a minute. We need to raise your premium a little bit. Jeff Thompson: Back pay. It's just really nice that there's devices out there that we can implement into our lives. Like you said, Andy, just make it more convenient and ... Especially the doorbell. I'm really intrigued about that, the camera. I was the one that would always say, "Why do I need a camera? I can't see blah, blah, blah," but that it alerts you, you know? Serena Gilbert: Some of them have it where you can speak to them. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Serena Gilbert: And, hear the sound. Jeff Thompson: That's a neat alert. You know someone's at the front door. Andy Munoz: Yes, I was just going to say, "And, they have no idea that you're not even home." Jeff Thompson: Right. I'm going to get one before trick-or-treaters come out. This will be fun. Serena Gilbert: Scare them. Oh, my goodness. Well, it will especially help during the holiday season when you're expecting your Amazon packages 'cause if there's sound with it too, there's pretty distinct noise when the UPS truck pulls up. Jeff Thompson: I think if you do it right ... We should appeal to all the truck drivers that deliver packages to wear little bells on their shoes so we know it's them. Serena Gilbert: It's like a code. That reminds me though. I was watching Shark Tank a few weeks ago and there was a business on there and they didn't get a deal, but it was a smart device that it was a box that the driver would scan the code on the package, it'd open up the box, they'd put the package in there, and then it would close back up again. They didn't get a deal for obvious reasons because, frankly, the UPS drivers probably aren't going to scan it. They're just going to sit the package on top of the box and keep going. Serena Gilbert: It did bring up an interesting thing though. If they could have licensed that to UPS or FedEx or USPS, made it part of their flow, that could really curb porch pirates. Jeff Thompson: I got a question for you guys. What device isn't out there yet, but you would like to have a smart device as? Serena Gilbert: Oh, you know what I'm going to say as my son always says when I ask him questions. I want my smart self-driving car. Jeff Thompson: That's coming. Serena Gilbert: But it's not accessible. There's too many laws. Jeff Thompson: They'll probably have a little screen to open the door and it will be like, "Everything's accessible except you can't get in the door." Serena Gilbert: Yeah. You have to put in this passcode that's on this touchscreen. Jeff Thompson: They'll have a Captcha. Serena Gilbert: God, I hate those things. Then, you try to listen to it. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Four seven three apple two orange W. Serena Gilbert: You're like, "Are you in a call center doing this?" I don't understand. Jeff Thompson: I know it's crazy. It's like, "Gosh, I had good hearing until I heard that." Andy Munoz: If you'd get you a tin can that would sound so perfect. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: I hate those things. Jeff Thompson: I was on a website today. I know this is off topic. I was on a website today. It was all about accessibility. It's supposed to be an educational accessibility thing and all this stuff. It was really interesting. I was actually intrigued with the layout and stuff and they had a Captcha that was inaccessible. It's like, "Really? You did all this and now that." Andy Munoz: Somebody did not think that through. Jeff Thompson: No. Serena Gilbert: #accesibilityFail. Jeff Thompson: They have accessibility in their name. Serena Gilbert: Did you send them an email? Jeff Thompson: No. Andy Munoz: Wow. Jeff Thompson: I got off of it and I just sat there for a minute thinking, "That's so stupid." Serena Gilbert: You didn't make your trademark noise? Andy, what's the smart device that you're hoping for? Andy Munoz: Wow. That could be plenty but something that would open up my dryer and pull out my laundry and hang it up. Serena Gilbert: Oh, so you want the robot from the Jetsons. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: That's be Judy wouldn't it? Serena Gilbert: Just your luck 'cause wasn't George always getting all this technology failing for him? Andy Munoz: Yeah, she malfunctioned one day and she did a bunch of different weird stuff that was all backwards. Jeff Thompson: I think for a device that I'm looking forward to and I hope they have it someday, is really a personal assistant, but not a physical one that would actually do things for me but you know how you think of to-do lists and you think of all this stuff? Something that follows your thought like that. When you wake up the next day, it's like, "Jeff, remember the garbage." Serena Gilbert: You want a chip implanted in your head. Jeff Thompson: Just call it the thought bubble or something. Serena Gilbert: Thought bubble. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, an accessible thought bubble. Just like, "Lori told me three things yesterday. What was that?" "Jeff, you weren't listening where you?" I want that companion, that thing that actually helps me move along. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, all you have to do is win the Powerball and then you can just pay someone to follow you around for the rest of your life. Jeff Thompson: But, I think this would help people. We're talking about old age, but people who have memory issues and stuff. That seems to be a prominent thing in today's world. Everyone knows someone that might be going through it or someone that is affected by it. Something that could shadow you, your shadow. If your shadow could talk, it would remember. Serena Gilbert: So, you want a smart shadow? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Do you guys think that's far off? Andy Munoz: Time wise maybe. I don't know. Technology's so rapid that anything's possible at any given point. I think, for me, it's even pointless half the time for me to put stuff even as reminders 'cause I just ignore them. Serena Gilbert: I'm the same way. Andy Munoz: For work and stuff, obviously, I pay attention to my calendar and that sort of thing, but outside of that, I'll say, "Yeah, I put it in my calendar. I'll do this, that, or the other." It's like it's there but nine times out of 10 I'm just going to blow it off and ignore it anyway. Serena Gilbert: I have a reminder on my phone right now that's 19 days old but I still didn't do it. Like, "Oh, I'll just ignore it and it will pop back up in a couple weeks." Jeff Thompson: Avoid shakes from Five Brothers. Serena Gilbert: Five Guys, get it right. Jeff Thompson: Avoid shakes from Five Guys. Serena Gilbert: You guys don't have Five Guys up in Minnesota? Jeff Thompson: No. We only got three guys. We're working on it. Serena Gilbert: You don't know what you're missing. You don't have Dutch Brothers. You don't have Five Guys. God, how do you live? Jeff Thompson: Well, you're in the fastest growing city in the United States right now. Serena Gilbert: It's 'cause we've got all these Millennials. They love it here. Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: That's why we're getting all these cool home deliver things. We just got Prime Now here. We can get Whole Food delivered in two hours for free. Jeff Thompson: That's awesome. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: How big is Cold Spring? Serena Gilbert: Old Spring? Jeff Thompson: Colorado Springs. How big is Colorado Springs? Andy Munoz: The general city is like 400,000, but then you've got the surrounding areas that make up more and we're probably closer to 650 to 700,000. Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: I think they said by ... Do you remember what year it was, Andy? Maybe it was like 2050, which sounds far away, but it really isn't if you think about it. We would actually be bigger than Denver technically. Andy Munoz: That's what they're saying. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Andy Munoz: It's ridiculous to think because when you go to Denver, you go to downtown Denver and you see all the big high rise buildings and stuff and then you come to Colorado Springs and you look at our downtown. It's like no comparison. I think the highest building we have is maybe 20 stories. Serena Gilbert: I don't even know if there's a 20-story one, honestly. If there is, then it's one of the hotels. Jeff Thompson: Which leads into is Colorado Springs going to be a smart city? Serena Gilbert: I don't think we will. Just politically, our city and then the other city, there's another small city that's in between Denver and Colorado Springs called Castle Rock, our two cities had the option to be part of the light rail system that's in Denver and they refused. Every time that it comes back up, they keep resisting and keep refusing because they don't want light rail here for some reason. I don't get it. Andy Munoz: Smart city means that you have to have some intelligence and Colorado Springs operates on the motto, "If it doesn't make sense, do it." Jeff Thompson: Yeah, it's really neat here because we do have the light rail running right through Fridley and it's neat. Even our buses and our light rails now have wi-fi while you're on them. Serena Gilbert: Very nice. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, we're not a bustling city anymore, but it's a big area. I think two-thirds of the population of Minnesota is located right in the twin cities, Saint Paul-Minneapolis and the seven-county area. It's nice that you get those little amenities like that but I always thought Colorado Springs was a ... Well, it's not Denver. It's a quaint little town. But, wow, number one in the United States for growth. Serena Gilbert: Real estate too. Andy Munoz: It's really been in just the last several years. It's just really kind of just took off. Serena Gilbert: Well, a lot of it is the people from Denver have moved down here so they're still making their Denver wages. So, they move down here and we're buying Colorado Springs waged houses and then that's driving it all up, but then they're still commuting to Denver for work. That's contributing to the traffic problems too. The commute's about an hour, hour and 10 if you go early enough. Andy Munoz: Yeah, if you go early enough. Jeff Thompson: They need to get that tunnel. Serena Gilbert: I still want my hyperloop. Jeff Thompson: That's ready to open up, isn't it? Serena Gilbert: No. There's a test track in L.A. it's either two minutes or two miles. It's probably the same difference, but they're going to open that up and let people actually be able to test run it. Like, regular people. Jeff Thompson: As opposed to the irregular people? Serena Gilbert: Hey. Jeff Thompson: No, I think it's really neat that smart cities are coming about. A lot of devices are happening. A lot of transportation things like you want the car and I think everyone's been thinking about that and dreaming about that and wondering. Now, we say it's right around the corner, but that's a long ways to that corner sometimes. Serena Gilbert: You know, it will be interesting though because you just told me the NFB conference next year is in Vegas. Vegas is testing a... Lyft is testing a whole fleet of driverless vehicles on the strip there. Jeff Thompson: So, beware. Serena Gilbert: That would be interesting. Andy Munoz: Stay off the sidewalks. Jeff Thompson: Tap widely. Serena Gilbert: But they're safer than human drivers you guys. The accidents they have are only when the human does something to it to cause it to happen. Jeff Thompson: Well, I think ideally it's all going to be safer when there's more and more of them because they'll be able to communicate with each other just like my Nest will be able to communicate with things. Those cars will communicate with the other cars so it will almost be like a light rail once you get a stream of them going in a sense. Serena Gilbert: The only thing I worry about is because obviously to get where you're going it's reliant on some sort of GPS. So, you know there's a couple things that go with that. When the network's down, what happens to the cars? Or, when you're like my house where you weren't on the GPS for two entire years, where does it go? Does it stop somewhere and say you're there when you're really not? Those are things they'd have to definitely fix. Jeff Thompson: From smart devices, smart houses, it will be interesting to learn more about smart cities and smart automobiles. Probably by next show we could get a smart host. Serena Gilbert: I guess I'm coming down off my sugar high. Andy Munoz: She's thinking, "I smell smoke. Is your Nest going off, Jeff?" Jeff Thompson: Maybe the wi-fi went down and the house is burning. Andy Munoz: Uh-oh. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my goodness. I could just see a comic right now where there's a drawing and there's clearly smoke and fire, but the person's just looking at their phone and it says they are like, "Nope. Smoke detectors say that there's no fire." Serena Gilbert: Well, I have had tons of fun talking with you guys. Hopefully, we've got some ideas for our Christmas list right, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm. CSUN. Serena Gilbert: Still haven't sold you on the HomePod have I? Jeff Thompson: Well, I'm going to be here to look under my tree or I'll just listen under my tree. Maybe it will tell her how to set it up too. Serena Gilbert: But, it's Apple. It just works, right? Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: I have to say that I sit amongst an orchard of Apples. Serena Gilbert: You've got every color Apple there is. Jeff Thompson: Oh, by the way, what color is your iPhone X? Serena Gilbert: Silver. Andy Munoz: Space gray. Jeff Thompson: Gold. Serena Gilbert: You got a pink one, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: No, I didn't get rose gold. I got gold. Serena Gilbert: Are you sure you didn't get rose gold? Jeff Thompson: Well, I don't know. I got the case on. I'll never know. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. I just find it so funny with the last podcast we did how much you guys specifically said, "Nope, I don't think I'm going to upgrade," and both of you did in like a week of each other. Jeff Thompson: I walked into the Apple store. That's what went wrong. Andy Munoz: Yeah, I walked into the Sprint store with my son and there we go. I have to run guys. I do have an errand that I need to run. Serena Gilbert: That sounds awful suspicious considering that it's like 10:00 at night. Andy Munoz: Got to go to the pharmacy. Serena Gilbert: I don't even want to know, Andy. Serena Gilbert: Anyway, I enjoyed talked with both you guys and I can't wait to record the next episode and until next time, bye. Andy Munoz: Peace. Jeff Thompson: Bye-bye. Serena Gilbert: Get off the phone. Andy Munoz: I want to thank you for listening. Be sure to follow Tech Abilities on Twitter. That's @AbilitiesTech. A big thank you to Jeff Thompson for the beautiful music. Once again, I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye-bye. [Music]  [Transition noise]  -When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes... [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence] ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) The Business Enterprise Program (BEP) is a great way for interested Blind/Visually Impaired clients of their State Agency/Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) to own their own business and be their own boss. Michael Colbrunn is a business owner in the BEP and joined Jeff Thompson of Blind Abilities in the studio to talk about the BEP and about his work at his campus location and his work on the State Rehabilitation Council for the Blind in Minnesota. Join Michael and Jeff in this brief interview packed with useful information. You can find out more about the BEP and more from Michael Colbrunn on a previous podcast: The Business Enterprise program: Business Ownership Opportunities and a Promising Career If you are interested in knowing more about the Business Enterprise Program, and live in Minnesota, email John Hulet If outside Minnesota, contact your State Servicesand ask about the Business Enterprise Program and how you can learn more about the opportunities available to you. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.  

In collaboration with Jack Chen, Blind Abilities presents ExcelAbility. A collection of podcasts from Jack Chen’s ExcelAbility Team. ExcelAbility, empowering excellence and success for people with disabilities.   Podcast summary In this episode we speak with CEO Jim Gibbons. Jim has served in an executive role at several prominent organizations including Good Will and National Industries for the Blind. Jim was the first student who was blind to graduate from the Harvard Business School. Join us to hear Jim’s attitudes, techniques, and practices that enabled him to achieve incredible success. Click here for a transcript of this episode. Key lessons Jim will show us that Leveraging technology to gain access to the world around him, Continuously exhibiting tenacity and sticktoitiveness, and Building influence with others by learning to trust them have led to his tremendous success. Connect Send us your comments, feedback, or tell us about your own story of success. We’d love to hear from you. Follow us on Twitter @TeamXLAbility Like Team Excelability on Facebook Visit Team ExcelAbility on the web for more resources   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

WWDC, World Wide Developers Convention, is Apple’s big day to highlight to the world what is cooking for the developers kitchen. Basically, Tim Cook and the crew at the Apple orchard talk about the tools developers will be able to utilize for apps and software on their devices. iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and the Mac are the big stars and this year, the Apple Watch took over part of the big stage. On this WWDC episode we brought on a few team members who usually hang back but if Apple can bring out the crew, will so can we! Serina Gilbert, Byron Lee and Nick Dambrosio share their thoughts and highlights from the big WWDC event. So, join us as we scream with delight, become perplexed and even vexed, an of course, one yawn included, too, as the WWDC news continues to make the Apple herd migrate to their TV’s, Apple Devices to hear what the Apple gods are tossing down from the Heavenly Orchard in the sky.   Thank you for listening. Contact the show by email Follow @BlindTechshowon Twitter   That Blind Tech Show is in part produced by Blind Abilities Network   You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store.

Episode 16 is really Sweet 16 as Allison and Jeff show their love while Brian remains an 80’s guy deep inside. But that’s as far as we want to go with that. General Electric’s Alexa controlled Air Conditioner gets a demo, as well as the new FaceBook Notifications Settings. We hear from across the pond and from the developers of FlickType and the upcoming release of the 3rd party keyboard is announced. How much fun can you have with a wireless memory stick? We tried, boy, did we. Remember to Back up your devices, computers and make it lazy proof without failure. WWDC is knocking and we crack the door open just a bit and expose our thought bubbles without risk to our integrity. Hmmm, protect that, eh? Coffee and Beer brewing machine, New ovens getting some smarts and Comcast spills the beans, again. And, how to save money on your modem. Don’t lease... Buy! This was to be a quick episode and you probably know how some of the best plans go astray? Well, our planned plan panned out without planning and we still hope you plan to listen as Allison, Brian and myself, Jeff roll out episode 16 with that chagrin smile we wear so well. We hope you get us into your listening playlist, into your pod catcher of choice and in your Amazon device with our Alexa Skill, Blind Abilities. So don’t be afraid to send us your feedback at ThatBlindTechShow@gmail.com and follow our vibe on Twitter @BlindTechShow. That Blind Tech Show is part of the Blind Abilities Network so be sure to check us out on Twitter @BlindAbilities and on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Here are the links from the show: Amazon $7000 for toilet paper Amazon Portable Battery for Alexa Smart Microwaves Coffee and Beer Brewing Machine Sandisk Wireless Stick   Thank you for listening. Contact the show by email Follow @BlindTechshowon Twitter   That Blind Tech Show is in part produced by Blind Abilities Network You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store.

Welcome back to another That Blind Tech Show, well, at least that is what the script says, now if Bryan can only untie his tongue. Allison and Jeff join Bryan for episode 14 and although Bryan had his foot in his mouth, he did manage to figure out how to converse without even thinking about removing his foot! From the Twitter API announcement, to FlickType storming back form it’s Flexsie beginning, reading hand written messages, working with developers and by the way, What floor are you on? Are you using RSS feeds for your news? Have you tried the Lire App? Did you hear about the new AFB Board member from Apple? Join the crew and have a chuckle on us as we take a stab at the news making headlines and the comments we probably should of edited. Ok, my bad. Become a Beta tester for FlickType at beta@FlickType.com Why is Twitter such a, such a, such a...? Will this kill Twitter #BreakingMyTwitter for you? Apple Granted patent to tell people what floor they are on! AFB welcomes Sarah Herrlinger to its board Apple hires Google Chief of AI Bone Conduction Sunglasses Zungle Thank you for listening! Send us Feedback via email Follow us on Twitter @BlindTechShow That Blind Tech Show is produced in part with Blind Abilities Network.   You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

Welcome back to another TBTS as Allison, Brian and Jeff dig into the news and happenings around the tools and gadgets with accessibility in mind. In Episode 12, Skype continues to Un-amuse the Blindness community with broken accessibility and mostly a usability that is failing fast. Delta Airlines enhances its policy on service dogs and basically gets it right. IOS 11.3 Beta brings us more feedback to the life of your battery and it’s shortening of life. Jeff’s battery has dropped 2 more points since the podcast was recorded. Hmm. We touch base with the Business Enterprise Program for the blind. Allison continues to bring us Home Pod news and AirPlay2 is coming to more devices soon. So grit your teeth and bare down as the That Blind Tech Show Episode 12 invades your privacy, and takes away your precious time but hey, it’s all about the moments we have together, the content, the unbelievable audio quality, the conciseness of delivery, the humor and lighter side the show brings and most of all, Bryan’s comedic attempts at being funny. I know, you are trying to recall a funny moment. I am with you. LOL. Bryan never reads show notes so hey, thanks for listening and have a great day. Be sure to follow the show on Twitter @BlindTechShow And send your feedback and suggestions to us via email. Thank you for listening!   that Blind Tech Show is produced in part with Blind Abilities Network.   You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

Allison Hartley and Jeff Thompson join Bryan Fischler on this 11th Episode of That Blind Tech Show. With some helpful demos and chat about how to improve your Facebook Timeline and experience, to Siri stepping up to the Home Pod expectations, to Smart Glasses getting more and more attention and stepping away from the Mac into PC, yes, Allison is doing it. Plus, a lot more in this episode 11 of That Blind Tech Show. Join Co-hosts,Allison Hartley Bryan Fischler and Jeff Thompson for some real virtual reality and check out all the That Blind Tech Show by subscribing to Blind Abilities podcast network. You can find That Blind Tech Show on twitter @BlindTechShow and contact Bryan and his team of co-host by email You can find Allison on Twitter @Hot4Technology Bryan Fischler on Twitter @BlindGator and Jeff Thompson on Twitter @KnownAsJeff Check out these links from the topics from the show: Facebook to radically change the way we view our News Feed Rolling Back to the old Skype The Robots of CES Thank you for listening!   That Blind Tech Show is produced in part by Blind Abilities Network.   You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

That Blind Tech Show Ep. 10 brings a vast array of topics and information from the Apple Watch experience, to the Talking Amazon TV, Amazon Echo waking you up in song or your favorite station, Turning off the Echo dot microphone, and a bit about using the app or the #FB SelectiveTwweets App in Facebook to post in both in one step. Bryan talks about the Air Pods and setting the volume on his new Apple watch. Allison talks about a new game coming out for the PC called A Hero’s Call from Out Of Sight Games. We sail through this episode covering more gidgets, gadgets and news stuff that you better wear a life jacket, or, knee high boots if you’re going to wade through all this. Check out the links below to some of the topics mentioned in Episode 10 of That Blind Tech show.   Amazon Prime Video arrives on Apple TVin over 100 countries Seeing AIGets money, handwriting, color recognition Amazon Echo can now wake you up to music Apple reportedly buys podcast search engine Apple Pay Cash now availto send money to friends Apple and indoor mappingnow avail at 34 airports and malls Apps We like Get Human App on IOS Twitterrific for the Mac Office 365 for the Mac Audible On IOS Thank you for listening!   Send us Feedback via email Follow us on Twitter @BlindTechShow That Blind Tech Show is produced in part by Blind Abilities Network.   You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

Allison Hartley and Jeff Thompson join Bryan Fischler on this 7th Episode of That Blind Tech Show. With the release of the iPhone 8 and the 8 Plus, a lot of people are interested in stepping up and shining their new apples. With the new iPhones came the release of the new iOS 11 and it’s all about the accessibility on this episode of That Blind Tech show. From Allison’s new Apple Watch Series 3, to the New High Sierra on Jeff’s iMac to Bryan’s Demonstration of NFB Newsline on Amazon’s Echo Dot, this episode brings out more than just Apples, yup, the entire orchard is coming out. Check out the related articles in the links below. South Park punks Amazon Echo owners Has your guide dog ever ordered anything from amazon? Amazon Alexa Coming to Glasses NFB Newsline Could be coming to the Amazon Echo. Currently they are looking for beta testers email them Is Bluetooth really off? You can find That Blind Tech Show on twitter @BlindTechShow and contact Bryan and his team of co-host by email You can find Allison on Twitter @Hot4Technology Bryan Fischler on Twitter @BlindGator and Jeff Thompson on Twitter @KnownAsJeff Thank you for listening!   That Blind Tech Show is produced in part by Blind Abilities Network.   You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

Bryan Fischler is joined by Allison Hartley and Jeff Thompson for coverage of the Fall Apple Event where the new iPhone 8, 8+ and the iPhone 10 were announced. The Apple Watch Series 3, Apple TV4K and iOS 11 are all just around the corner. You can check out apple.comfor all the latest order, pre-order, and delivery estimates. A big ThankYou to Drew Weber for his original music and you can find more of his music on the web at www.Weber-Air.com Follow Drew on Twitter @RadioDrew1 You can find That Blind Tech Show on twitter @BlindTechShow and contact Bryan and his team of co-host by email You can find Allison on Twitter @Hot4Technology Bryan Fischler on Twitter @BlindGator and Jeff Thompson on Twitter @KnownAsJeff Thank you for listening!   That Blind Tech Show is produced in part by Blind Abilities Network. You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

That Blind Tech Show Episode 5 with Bryan Fischler and Randy Rusnak. This episode is filled with tech news from a texting law suit to memories changing on Facebook. Check out the list below and the provided links to see what these two boys are up to in this episode of That Blind Tech Show. Judge throws out lawsuit of Apple being responsible for driving and texting accidents Facebook again making changes to your News Feed with memories First experiences with Aira NFB Newsline wants your feedback iOS and iPhone 8 expectations Has Apple lost touch with a price point of $1000 What are you excited for in the upcoming iOS 11 C. Anything you are looking forward to with the iPhone 8? Amazon Echo What Skills are you using? ESight Glasses What’s Pissing Off Brian Now An over reaction to Yahoo fantasy What’s Pissing off Randy?. Watcha Watching Whatcha Reading? Anything you have been watching and liking with described video or anything you have been reading. You can find That Blind Tech Show on Twitter @BlindTechShow Email us at ThatBlindTechShow@gmail.com   that Blind Tech Show is produced in part by Blind Abilities Network. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

That Blind Tech Show Episode 4 Co-Host Bryan Fischler along with guest Co-Host John Panarese from MacForTheBlind, talk the latest news from a Blindness perspective. From Alexa Siri, to disappearing Ubers, Nanos and Shuffles, to Artificial Intelligence on Artificial Intelligence, That Blind Tech Show covers it all and more. Did you hear about the rising Anker? And what about DickBars? Hmmm, Bryan commits and goes Aira! Listen in as Bryan and John talk the talk and take down Buffalo, sort of. See all the links below from the Episode 3 Show! You can follow TBTS on Twitter @BlindTechShow and drop us a line via email Facebook shuts down AI in Japan Woman named Alexa Siri in NJ Aira Expectation Credit card scanners for business Are you using one? PayPal and Square Anker presents the Eufy Genie with Alexa for $35 Bye Bye Home Button. Thoughts? Triple Click for VO. With the death of the iPod Nano and Shuffle is it time to whack iTunes? New ad blocker Unobstruct Declares war on dick bars! Whatcha Watching Whatcha Reading? Must be audio described for watching for reading must be from Bard or Book Share. Ok, Audible works, too. :)   Thank you for listening. Send us Feedback via email Follow us on Twitter @BlindTechShow That Blind Tech Show is produced in part by Blind Abilities Network.   You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

that Blind Tech Show Special: Seeing AI Developers Anirudh and Saqib Talk App Infancy and Money Recognition on the way! With the huge response from the Blindness community the Seeing AI app available in the App Store has spread like wild fire and people are excited about the possibilities coming from the Microsoft Accessibility teams. Bryan Fischler, host of the That Blind Tech Show and Jeff Thompson from Blind Abilities have a conversation with Anirudh Koul and Saqib Shaikh, two developers from the Microsoft Accessibility team working on the Seeing AI app. You will hear about the Hackathon where the seed was planted and how the team uses the users feedback to determine the changes and improvements that have been coming fast and steady. The Seeing AI app is a project and uses artificial intelligence is some of the featured channels. Short Text channel is like taking a glance at your mail. The built in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) picks up the text through the camera and begins reading instantly. The Document Channel does more traditional OCR work and has audio indicators to help assist centering the page content. The Product Channel has an audible signal to assist in location the bar code and the signal speeds up when closing in on the bar code with the iPhone’s camera. The picture is taken automatically and the database is searched and the data is read to the user. Instructions as well as ingredients are also read if available. The Person Channel allows the user to take pictures of individuals and tag them as the facial recognition feature will know and say that person’s name when using the camera and glancing around the area. This is where AI comes in. The Seeing AI app will also describe the person and guess the age. The Scene Beta Channel is a feature that will describe the photo taken such as a bench in a park, or a person walking a dog. Photos can be taken, or imported from the camera roll to have the app describe the image. They say this app in in it’s infancy and there is a lot more to come. One feature coming to the Seeing AI app that was disclosed is a Money Identifier. Yes, this is a Swiss Army Knife of an App. You can follow the Microsoft Accessibility team on Twitter @MSFTEnable The Seeing AI appis only available from the App Store. Thank you for listening! Follow That Blind Tech Show on Twitter @BlindTechShow Send That Blind Tech Show an email   That Blind Tech Show is produced in part with Blind Abilities Network. You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

Episode 2 of the That Blind Tech Show, I Don’t Like Span and I don’t Want It On My Phone! Brian Fischler is joined by Allison Hartley as they talk about the latest in Tech News as it relates to the Blindness Community. Here is a list of topics as they happened on the 2nd Episode of That Blind Tech Show. Would you use a Robot vacuum cleanerand what would your guide dog think? Laundry app for GE by 14 year old Is it about time Washer and Dryer’s have accessibility built in to them. Blind people do laundry, too. Spam phone call do not use your Mac until you call us! Adobe to kill off Flash by 2020 Using Flash through Google Chrome on the Mac My recent survey call and experience with Flash. Apple discontinues iPod Nano and Shuffle. Big deal or not? iOS 11: A. Notification center now Cover Sheet Apple New File Systemwill it make working with iCloud Drive less confusing? Xbox Accessibility Product Review: Plantronics Voyager 5200 bluetooth earpiece Whatcha watching, Whatcha reading: What’s Pissing off Brian: Fleksy is back. Worst company ever What’s pissing off Allison: Poorly written advocacy articles Be sure to follow the show on Twitter @BlindTechShow And send your feedback and suggestions to us via email. Thank you for listening! That Blind Tech Show is produced in part by Blind Abilities Network. You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

In collaboration with Jack Chen, Blind Abilities presents ExcelAbility. A collection of podcasts from Jack Chen’s ExcelAbility Team. ExcelAbility, empowering excellence and success for people with disabilities. To learn more about ExcelAbility and to connect with the team, check out ExcelAbility on the web at www.teamexcelability.com Jack Chen delivers talks and training for corporations and other organizations on empowering success for people with disabilities. Jack participates in Extreme Ultra Events, marathons, climbed Kilimanjaro, and was on the Sea To See Team in this year’s 2018 race Across America. ExcelAbility: Conversation with Peter Denman, UX Designer who happens to have Dyslexia and quadriplegia Podcast summary In this episode we speak with user experience designer Peter Denman. As a young man, Peter suffered a spinal chord injury which resulted in his quadriplegia. Peter has learned to leverage that experience, as well as his dyslexia, to work on the most incredible design projects. Peter assisted in the development of the computer interface used by the late Stephen Hawking. Join us to hear Peter’s attitudes, techniques, and practices that enabled him to achieve incredible success. Click here for a transcript of this episode. Key lessons Peter will show us that never giving up and pressing forward for the opportunity that will come, finding creative solutions to overcome challenges, and always saying yes, even if you are not sure you can do the thing you’ve been asked to do have led to his tremendous success. Connect Send us your comments, feedback, or tell us about your own story of success. We’d love to hear from you. Follow us on Twitter @TeamXLAbility Like Team Excelability on Facebook Visit Team ExcelAbility on the web for more resources   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

In collaboration with Jack Chen, Blind Abilities presents ExcelAbility. A collection of podcasts from Jack Chen’s ExcelAbility Team. ExcelAbility, empowering excellence and success for people with disabilities. to learn more about ExcelAbility and to connect with the team, check out ExcelAbility on the web at www.teamexcelability.com Jack Chen delivers talks and training for corporations and other organizations on empowering success for people with disabilities. Jack participates in Extreme Ultra Events, marathons, climbed Kilimanjaro, and was be on the Sea To See Team in this years 2018 race Across America.   ExcelAbility: Conversation With Dan Berlin, Rodelle Food Company founder and epoch adventurist who happens to be blind In this episode we speak with Dan Berlin, founder and owner of the RodelleFood Company. Rodelle produces fine baking products and spices, including vanilla bean and extracts. Rodelle’s vanilla products can be found in many of your local grocery stores in the U.S. Dan also regularly tackles epoch adventures such as hiking the Inca Trail in one day, running rim to rim to rim in the Grand Canyon, and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in the dark to raise awareness and funds for various international causes. Tune in to hear about how Dan turned the hard lessons of vision loss to make him a better business man, adventurist, and person. Click here for a transcript of this episode. Key lessons Dan will show us that Using his daily experiences as a person with a disability to make him a effective risk taker, Using the challenges of disability to catalyze his true strengths, and Working harder and smarter, have led to his tremendous success. Connect Send us your comments, feedback, or tell us about your own story of success. We’d love to hear from you. Follow us on Twitter @TeamXLAbility Like Team Excelability on Facebook Visit Team ExcelAbility on the web for more resources   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

Job Insights #6: What Does Humor, Self-Advocacy and Feeling Got to Do with Mental Health Strategies? Meet Beth Gustin, licensed Professional Counselor   Full Transcript Below On Job Insights Episode #6, Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson are joined by Beth Gustin, LPC. Beth has years of experience in which she shares with us in this discussion on Mental Health and offers us some strategies in dealing with the anxieties and stresses during the job search.   Beth talks about the necessity of having humor to make the journey less stressful. Having the skill of self-advocacy because no one knows what you’ll need, more than you do. And if you don’t feel, you don’t heal. And that’s where self-care comes into play.   This is just a brief look at Mental Health and addressing just a few topics and we are excited to say that Beth will be back to share some of her insights in our upcoming episodes. Beth has also suggested a web site where you can find out about looking into therapy or finding some help and services in your area if you ever want to check it out. Here is a link to the psychology Today website.   Beth Gustin can be reached by email. and she can help you find the resources that you may be looking for.   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store.   Full Transcript: Job Insights #6: What Does Humor, Self-Advocacy and Feeling Got to Do with Mental Health Strategies? Meet Beth Gustin, licensed Professional Counselor   Beth G.: Knowing what comforts you. So do you like hot tea? Do you like a warm bath? Do you like walking outside and getting some fresh air? Knowing what works, and being able to have that readily available to you can help with depression. Jeff Thompson: Job Insights, a podcast to help you carve out your career pathway and enhance the opportunities for gainful employment. Beth G.: If you don't feel, you don't heal. It just basically means if you don't have an outlet for your emotions, whatever they may be, I'm going to tell you right now that every emotion you have is normal and valid and it's okay. Jeff Thompson: To help you navigate the employment world and give you job insights and enhance the opportunities to choose the career you want. So there's not one out there called, pull up your boot straps, is there? Beth G.: Nope. Serena Gilbert: You can Google that, Jeff. See what you come up with. Jeff Thompson: You can find the Job Insights podcast on blindabilities.com, part of the Blind Abilities network with hosts Serena Gilbert and myself, Jeff Thompson. And you can contact us by email at jobinsights@blindabilities.com. Leave us some feedback or suggest some topics that we cover, on Twitter @jobinsightsvip. And check out the Job Insights support group on Facebook, where you can learn, share, advise and interact with the Job Insights community. Beth G.: If you have the right support system, which is a crucial key when it comes to self care and adjusting. If you have a good support system and you have some professionals involved to help, such as rehabilitation counselors or low vision specialists, things like that. That definitely helps remove some of those emotional or mental barriers that might come up when we're working towards adjusting. Jeff Thompson: Learn about resources for training, education and employment opportunities. Beth G.: It's also good practice, like you just said, to work with someone that we may not mesh with very well because it teaches us, it's a learning experience. Serena Gilbert: Exactly, right Jeff? Jeff Thompson: Huh. And now please welcome Serena Gilbert and Jeff Thompson, with Job Insights. Jeff Thompson: How you doing, Serena? Serena Gilbert: I'm doing great  Jeff, how are you? Jeff Thompson: I'm doing good. I'm getting this feeling that people want me to get older. Serena Gilbert: I wonder what special day is coming up for you? Jeff Thompson: I don't know, but I think I'll be eating cake soon. Serena Gilbert: Your present's in the mail, it's coming via dot Amazon net. Jeff Thompson: Blind matter, too right? Serena Gilbert: Yes, blind matter. Jeff Thompson: It's be here on my next birthday. Perfect, perfect. Serena Gilbert: If you don't get it this week, you know, don't worry. Jeff Thompson: Well, this week? Serena Gilbert: This week. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, this week, right? Serena Gilbert: This week. Jeff Thompson: We do have a guest on the show and we're going to be talking to Beth Gustin and she's a national certified counselor and she's from Colorado and so is Serena, and I'm from Minnesota. How you all doing? Serena Gilbert: I'm great. Welcome Beth, we are super excited to have you on the podcast today. Beth G.: Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Serena Gilbert: So today we are taking a break from our traditional topics with the Job Insights podcast. To touch a little on self care and how to take care of yourself, [inaudible] the job search and also in coping with blindness or visual impairment. One thing that many people that aren't really, really close to me don't realize is that I too, sometimes have some not so fun feelings about being visually impaired, and not being able to drive and things like that. And I think it's important for all of us to learn a little bit of techniques and to get some tips for working through that. Jeff Thompson: Beth, do you want to tell a little bit about your occupation and what you do? Beth G.: Sure. So I am a licensed professional counselor, mental health therapist, and I work in the community mental health field. I currently work with ages eight and up, prior to that I worked at another mental health agency, working with just adults. Before that I worked at the center for People with Disabilities, and I facilitated their low vision support groups and was the manager of their senior low vision program. I've also done Hospice volunteer work for about eight years, I no longer do that at this point in time, but I have done that. I've done some volunteer work at a homeless shelter and an adult day care as well. I have my master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education, which you have to have your master's degree in order to become a licensed professional counselor. Yeah. What else would you like to know? Serena Gilbert: That's a lot of stuff, Beth. So as you guys can tell, Beth has a lot of experience not only working with individual's disabilities but it sounds like young adults and adolescents as well, because you said you work with eight and up? Beth G.: I do, I've had this current job for about six months. That's a newer population to me. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative), tell me a little bit more about your experience working with the Center for People with Disabilities? Beth G.: It's an independent living center, we had a multitude of different programs but I happened to work with the Senior Low Vision program. So we worked with individuals, oh gosh, I believe it was ages 55 and up, and the average age when I was there was around 85 years of age. And so we would help them, individuals who were losing their sight, we would help them adjust to losing their sight, help them relearn or learn new ways of doing the same things they'd always done. Because as we lose our sight, as some of us know, we have to adapt and find new ways to do the same things we've always done. So, whether it was showing them how to mark their appliances so they could still do the laundry and cook and things like that, whether it was teaching them technology so they could learn to use iPhones or computers. Anything and everything to help them either individually or in a group setting to stay independent and maintain their quality of life. Serena Gilbert: So many of those individuals you're working with ... Was it a lot of individuals that acquired their low vision or blindness, a little bit later in life? Beth G.: Yes, the majority had macular degeneration or something along those lines. Serena Gilbert: So what were some of the common things that you saw working with that population, in regards to transitioning into losing their sight? Beth G.: Most of them had extremely positive attitudes, given if they had macular degeneration, they would never totally lose their sight. I think that helped some of them regain some of the confidence that can sometimes be lost, when we first lose our sight. I saw a lot of anxiety mainly, when I worked with them, just as far as learning how to, like I said before, continue to do the things they've always done, just learning how to do them differently. And so a lot of the work was just helping them regain their confidence, or maintain their confidence and work with the anxiety. Beth G.: There were some symptoms of depression initially when we first hear that we are diagnosed with vision loss of any kind, I think there's a little bit of, oh my gosh, what's this mean for me? How's my life going to look? And so people might tend to isolate at first, people might tend to have a sense of initial hopelessness or helplessness, but if you have the right support system which is a crucial key when it comes to self care and adjusting. If you have a good support system and you have some professionals involved to help such as rehabilitation counselors or low vision specialists, things like that. That definitely helps remove some of those emotional or mental barriers that might come up, that we're working towards adjusting. Jeff Thompson: Beth, do you feel that you being blind yourself acts as some sort of role model to the clients? Beth G.: They said it did, I think it definitely helped, because I could relate on a different level. I've been blind since birth and I've had light perception although I've lost almost all of that over the past three to five years. But I think still having been born blind gave me an understanding. It's very different being born blind versus losing your sight later in life, but we still have to adapt and find different ways of doing things. And so having those different ways of doing things already working for me it I think helped all of us relate on a similar level and gave us a common thread with which to work from. Serena Gilbert: I noticed that you had said that a lot of anxiety comes, more so stemming from, how am I going to do this now, something that I've always done visually and Jeff and I have talked about this a lot on our previous episodes in regards to making sure to taking advantage of those training opportunities, and partnerships and support systems like you mentioned, to be able to help support you. And being able to develop those new skills just doing the same thing you've always done differently. The only thing you might not be able to still do is actually physically drive a car until you get that self driving car going. But other than that I think you can do almost anything, just differently. Beth G.: Right. And you can drive, just not legally. But I wouldn't ... Serena Gilbert: We're not going there. Beth G.: You're right though, I mean I think it's just that fear of how am I going to do this, and one of the things I was told, working with the seniors back then, was your brain remembers. So if you can close your eyes and kind of let your hands and your brain sort of guide you through the motions it takes a lot of the pressure off yourself. Jeff Thompson: Now Beth, you mentioned three major points, and the first one was advocacy, self advocacy, I believe it was. Can you talk about that? Beth G.: Sure and I definitely think about this when we're talking about students transitioning from high school to college, or transitioning into the work force. Knowing what you need and knowing how to ask for it, so it's a hard skill to learn, I think especially for not outgoing by nature, or don't feel like we got a lot of confidence, to say, hey Mr Smith I'm going to be in your level 101 History class and it would be very helpful if you could read what you're saying as you write it on the board, because I cannot see the board. To kind of take that lead, I guess in your life. Beth G.: For me, I personally found it helpful to go down to the college campus and happened to go to grad school and under grad in the same campus which helped, but going early and trying to meet the professors and introducing myself and meeting with the Disability Student Services Center, letting them know who I was and what I would need ahead of time, before class started so that I would have a smoother transition into class. Similarly, when we're looking at employment opportunities being able to help an employer understand what accommodations you might need and explain to them, you know getting to my job is my problem, so transportation is my worry not yours, because some employers will ask about that. Helping them understand that, hey can we maybe throw some clear braille markers on the microwave if braille is something that we utilize so that we can heat up our lunch and not have to ask someone for that. Beth G.: Asking though specifically if you orient me to my surroundings can you please describe either with a clock face where things are located or letting me go touch items so that I can learn where things are. But just being very specific in asking for what you need. Serena Gilbert: And I think that you'll find if you're super specific and just ask, almost everyone is super willing to help you out especially in an employment site. I've never had anyone say like, no I don't have time for that, because the reality is that little bit of time that's invested at the beginning allows you to have that independence, for however long you chose to stay with that employer. Beth G.: I agree. Jeff Thompson: You know as I was listening here, I actually remember that the first thing you mentioned was keeping a sense of humor. Beth G.: Yes. Jeff Thompson: Can you talk about that one? Beth G.: I think it's extremely important to be able to laugh, whether it's at yourself, at the situations. Serena Gilbert: Well how many things have we tripped over or walls have we ran into, and just laugh it off and keep going, right? Beth G.: We have to go out to the lobby area to get our clients, and at my last job and this job, I've done it twice now, I go out and I call a client and they sound similar to my client, and they've got the same first names, so I'm walking back and I'm realizing, this is not my client. You both kind of go like, you're not my therapist, you're not my client, and we just apologize and laugh it off and go get your client. Serena Gilbert: Yes. Beth G.: But, you know, things like that can be really funny if you let them. Running into walls, I mean, it took me a little while to learn, well both buildings that I was in, I went to the wrong office a couple of times, that's embarrassing. Serena Gilbert: Did you sit down at the computer and everything? Jeff Thompson: It's harder to log in that way. Beth G.: Look, why isn't this talking to me, what's going on? Serena Gilbert: I have almost ... you guys will laugh at this, so our building has like a main lobby in the downstairs area because we're in a building that has a lot of different suites and there's chairs and tables down there. I have on multiple occasions almost sat on somebody, and they're like, oh hi and I'm like, thank God you said something because I would have sat on you. Beth G.: And that is something that I wish that we could help the public feel comfortable in doing. Speak up, you know, we don't know you're there necessarily if we can't see you. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Beth G.: It's much more helpful for everyone involved if you speak to us before we sit on your lap. Jeff Thompson: Yes. Unless it's santa clause, I mean that's about it. Beth G.: Right. Jeff Thompson: Yes, there's so many different times that there's ... even when you're alone or at a table setting and you stab into the mash potatoes, put it in your mouth and it's totally something else and it's like, you know there's a facial expression you give but you can't give it away sometimes, you've just got to swallow it. Serena Gilbert: Oh, I've had that happen before, I'm like, I though I'm about to eat a piece of corn and that is not corn, it's a whole piece of bread on my fork. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative) yes, but I like what you say about the public being aware of that, if they speak up just a little bit and not be afraid or shy away from an impending thing happening, especially like on the bus when you're ready to sit down, they wait until you almost make contact with them, you know, yes, so it does help. So if there's any sighted people out there, or councilors listening right now, just speak up sometimes and it really helps out the situation. Beth G.: And the same is true for if you're walking somewhere, and don't watch us run into the wall, I mean we have dogs and canes so hopefully we'll find it, but we're human and we don't always pay attention and we think about something else and it's okay to speak up and maybe say something, don't grab us or anything like that because that's not helpful. But definitely don't be afraid to speak up and ask, do you need some assistance or can I help you? Please don't say, over there or here or that way, those are not helpful phrases for us, the more verbal a person can be, the usually better off it is going to be for all of us. Jeff Thompson: Yes and that third item that you mentioned was ... Beth G.: It was, if you don't feel you don't heal. Which is a therapy phrase and it just basically means if you don't have an outlet for your emotions whatever they may be, I'm going to tell you right now that every emotion you have is normal and valid and it's okay. Where it becomes a challenge is if we don't have a way to express them. If we don't have someone we can talk to. If we don't have maybe physical ways to express our anger that are healthy, like punching pillows or mattresses or going to the gym. If we don't have way to express our sadness, maybe we don't have the words or we don't have the ability to speak at the moment but if we can do it through art or music or journaling, something like that. Again, you have to feel it before you can heal from it. Serena Gilbert: And I wanted to talk a little bit about that, so every one's super afraid of, you know the 'D' word, depression, but it happens. You know, we all experience it whether it's for an extended period of time and it's at a clinical level or, it's situational because you've got some not so fun things going on in your life, but I did want to touch upon that because I think that, that's more common in the blindness community than we all like to admit, because I see some posts in Facebook groups where we're not real happy about our situation right now and I want our listeners to understand that, that is a perfectly normal emotion, but it's also about, okay so you're depressed because you're not able to get where you want to when you want to get there. But there's some solutions we can do to that, how can we work through that and I think it'd be helpful to have a talk about a depression piece of things as well. Beth G.: Sure, and I also want to add to that a couple of things, I think anxiety, depression and anger are the three top emotions that I have observed in my work with clients, especially those with visual loss and employment challenges, and I also think it's important to allow yourself time to grieve and re-grieve. So, by re-grieving I mean, we may be very well adjusted to the fact that we are walking through the world with a visual disability, but it doesn't mean that myself or Serena or Jeff doesn't re-grieve, like oh, I wish I could drive, oh if only I could see my computer screen and not have to wait for somebody to come help me because my technology isn't co-operating, or whatever it is. We grieve and that can trigger depression or anger or anxiety, by anger, anxiety or depression, I'm not saying actual disorders, like not an actual anxiety disorder or a depressive disorder, I'm talking about symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety, but experiences like that can definitely lead to symptoms of depression or possibly depressive episode. Beth G.: I think the first thing is acknowledging, this is how I feel you know, are you finding yourself isolating more? Are you finding yourself crying more? Are you finding yourself more irritable? Do you find yourself sleeping more, are you not eating as much? I mean what are your symptoms, what are you doing differently that might make you stop and think, wow this is depression, and we don't have to like it, but that is what it is and so then how do we work with that and I'm a therapist, of course I'm going to say, go talk to your therapist if you have one, because I think that's one of the first things you can do to help yourself. Definitely rule out anything physical, any physical causes first because some vitamin imbalances, or hormone imbalances or heart conditions can mimic a lot of these symptoms of mental health, and so for sure rule out anything physical, but then definitely find someone you can talk to. Find a support group you can join, find an on-line support group you can join if you can't find one in person. Beth G.: Like I said, write it out, journaling is extremely helpful, I don't care if somebody writes, I've got not a thing to say, for five pages, that's okay you're still writing and something will come. Most times you're going to think you have nothing to say and you'll end up writing a lot of pages, because you have a lot to say. Music is a huge help with depression. You can find something uplifting that will change your mood, that can be helpful. Knowing what comforts you. So, do you like hot tea, do you like a warm bath, do you like walking outside and getting some fresh air? Knowing what works and being able to have that readily available to you can help with depression. And then lastly, I always encourage clients to keep, what I call a coping toolbox. So literally you get a box of any size that works for you and you put things in there that no matter what you pull out, it'll help you. Beth G.: And you can keep this by your bed, you can keep this in your living room. If you are someone who is [inaudible] you can keep one in your car, but anywhere that's easily accessible to you and you can put things in there like a scent or an aroma that is pleasing to you and makes you feel more calm and relaxed. You can put a CD if those even still exist for most of us, or some kind of MP3 player where you can listen to music and songs that you know are going to make you feel better. You can put in there, maybe a bag of your favorite coffee, or a couple of tea bags or whatever it's going to be. Anything that's going to help you feel better so there's no question asked, so it'll help. Jeff Thompson: Those are some really good points and I think one of the things that Serena struck on was that the 'D' word, society's expectations when you feel that they're looking upon you to admit that you have depression or to admit you have anxiety or it's just always expected that, I'm okay so I'm glad that you had all these suggestions for people to ... you know, I'm not going to carry around a Halloween trick or treat bag, that's not going to help me cope all the time. But, that makes sense because I find myself, I like, like a hot bath or a walk or something, or working out a little bit and it always helps. It always feels like I got an extra skip in my step, I guess. Serena Gilbert: And I was going to say for me, when I get like depressed about, I can't just get in the car and go do what I want to do, you know? For me it's singing in the shower, like it's, I can't sing in my car you know, and that always, always, always helps me out. Beth G.: And yes, depending on the severity of the depression, some people might be in this place where, those all sound nice but I just don't have motivation to do that, I don't have the energy, and so I think about things, such as, okay instead of looking at your to do list, can you make a list of things you accomplished that day and it may just say I got out of bed and had breakfast, that may be it for the day, but that's still better than just laying in bed and so it's finding baby steps that you can take to help yourself start to shift from that depression. Jeff Thompson: Beth, how important it is to recognize that you might be having anxiety or depression happening. Beth G.: To me it's extremely important because if we don't know what a person's experiencing, what their symptoms are, what they're feeling, what their thoughts are, what their emotions are, we aren't able to help as well and so if the person can recognize, you know, I don't know what's going on but here's what I'm experiencing, it allows us as the professionals to step in and say, okay well let's talk about what you've tried, or what used to work or let's try something new, or it allows loved ones, or those of us in support systems to say, hey, I've been there too here's what worked for me. Serena Gilbert: And I think it's great that you mentioned loved ones and support systems because I definitely want to touch a little bit on, what are some good self care tips for our family members or our loved ones, especially in a family where maybe it's a husband and wife, or even a mother and daughter where it's a sudden loss of vision, not something that's been dealt with over, you know, quite a few years or born with and things like that. Beth G.: My first suggestion would be to educate. Educate, educate, educate and learn as much as you can on both sides, whether you are the one with vision loss or you're the person living with someone with vision loss, but educate yourself on their cause of vision loss and what it might mean for them and keep the conversations open and it's important to open dialogue, roles might change temporarily or roles might change permanently, depending on how one's experience is with vision loss. So, definitely have good communication skills, be able to talk about the hard things, be able to talk about the fears that both of you have, from a husband and wife team, because the sighted individual is going to have some fears and anxieties as well and being able to just calmly openly talk about those things is, I think, one of the first steps to being, to successfully transitioning, for living with vision loss. Beth G.: I think it's also important to again, seek support. There's a lot of different support groups out there for a variety of things and just finding one that fits for you. Get to know other people who are in similar situations because maybe they're further ahead from where you are, you can learn from them, or maybe you can help someone else, because you're further ahead than they are in the process. Jeff Thompson: Wow. Serena Gilbert: I really like that you acknowledge that it's, it's perfectly normal for a family member to have those fears and anxieties as well, because I think sometimes when a family member gets diagnosed with a vision impairment or even just a life changing diagnosis of any kind, the person that has not had that diagnosis feels that they have to be the rock and the strong one, and not really show any of that emotion and just be there for the person that's going through it. So I love that, that's something that you brought to light here for us. Beth G.: Absolutely, I think it's crucial that both individual or how many individuals, even it's, you know, adult children or younger children but everyone needs to able to have a place to express their emotions and I think it's also helpful depending on type of vision loss and you know what the cause is, but if you know you're going to lose your sight more progressively, start to implement some non-visual strategies early on, so that when you do have less sight, your transition's easier and there's less anxiety. Definitely reach out to any professionals you can that can provide support and in a sense just so you can learn the skills that everyone is going to need. It can be very common that the sighted persons wants to begin doing everything for the person with vision loss and we don't want that, we still want to be independent, we still want to be productive and active members of the household and society so allowing us to struggle, allowing us to learn to do things differently and that could be painful to watch us struggle, but we don't learn if we don't do it. Serena Gilbert: Very well said. Jeff Thompson: Yes. That's true, when you said being the rock, when I taught woodworking the men would come and, oh yes they've done it, but they hadn't and they would just say it because that's expected of them and in my situation I had to be the strong guy, but I come from a family of rocks and it makes it tough to open up because everyone is very independent and everything so as the years go by, it's like an education process that just kind of evolves, and I think my friends catch on faster than my family did, if that makes sense. Serena Gilbert: At the risk of upsetting some people, it's interesting that you said that Jeff because you said like, you come from a family like, where the males are the rocks and I do think that there are differences between how males and females might cope with that, especially if it's later in life, like if you're from a really traditionally roled married and you always do the driving and you always do this and you always do that and that's taken away from you, I feel like that's, that's going to be a little bit different for a male versus a female. Beth G.: I want to speak to that as well, in regards to if anyone ever experienced this, but if you are traveling with a sighted person and you have brought along your mobility aid of choice, be it a cane or guide dog. We're not trying to minimize your role in helping us as a sighted person, but we need those aids to learn about our environment, to be more independent and to, as I've put it, rely on a sighted person more for the things we need help with versus the things we still can do on our own. So it's a balancing act I think, of letting somebody be a rock and at the same time keeping independence. Jeff Thompson: That's well put. So, Beth if someone may think that they, I don't know how to phrase this, but if someone's out there that may think that they're ... you know, you've mentioned what, I know it said ADA, Anxiety, Depression and Anger? Beth G.: Yes. Jeff Thompson: If someone may be questioning about those three things, what would you suggest for them to do, I mean or contact? Beth G.: Well, I mean I'm a firm believer in, it's okay to seek some professional help if need be, just to get through some of the tougher times. Now that can be a Mental Health Therapist, that could be your local Chapter for Blindness Organization, that could be an on-line support group, definitely seeking support in whatever way's comfortable for you in multiple ways, that are comfortable. But definitely seek support. Serena Gilbert: Do you have like, I know there's not a link that fits all, is there like a resource guide of some sort that maybe you can direct us in that, I just want something for our listeners, where if they do feel like they need help maybe there's like a National Organization they can reach out to that can help them locate a therapist somehow? Beth G.: There's a number of those. Serena Gilbert: Okay. Beth G.: So I'm thinking of like, the American Counseling Association I believe has a therapist directory. Serena Gilbert: Okay. Beth G.: Psychologytoday.com has a therapist directory. Serena Gilbert: I'm definitely using the Psychology Today one, I didn't even think about that, that one's great because it narrowed by insurance and things. Beth G.: And what you're looking for, for grief, for anxiety you can narrow it down by what you're experiencing. I can definitely put my email address [inaudible] if anyone wants to contact me directly, I can try to help link them to resources or answer any questions they might have. Serena Gilbert: Okay. Beth G.: I am willing to be a resource in that respect. Serena Gilbert: Well, that's awesome Beth, you might get a lot of emails. I think the most useful one would probably be that Psychology Today, because it's very accessible, not that the ACA one wouldn't be, but it also, just the way it let's you narrow your search down, I think that would be helpful. Beth G.: I agree with that. Jeff Thompson: So there's not one out there called, 'Pull Up Your Boot Straps', is there? Beth G.: Nope. Serena Gilbert: Google that Jeff, see what you come up with. Jeff Thompson: No, I had a father and a father-in-law that was their motto, tough it up you know, pull up your bootstraps, get on with it. Beth G.: Well sometimes it's not possible, I mean no matter how much the person would like to do that, that's where mental illness and your severe depression or severe anxiety can really keep us stuck, and so we'd love to pull ourselves up by the boot straps, but we need a little extra help to do that initially. Serena Gilbert: And I was going to say, that is really where you can see generational differences and their approach to mental health.  And I'm not trying to knock one generation or another but there are certain generations that don't really believe that counseling is something that's necessary or mental health or even medications for mental health in that regard, and that might be something that if you know that you do really want to move forward and have that independence that you'll have to kind of work through as well. Beth G.: Sure, and different cultures have different beliefs around the mental illness and things like that as well. Serena Gilbert: Yes. Beth G.: So, again you know it's finding what works for you, you don't have to go see a therapist but could you go to the gym and you know, work it out literally, because that can make you feel better. Can you find a friend you can talk to and what about religious involvement, like temple or a church or something? A synagogue, can you go there and find someone to talk to or if you're not religious but you have some spiritual practices, can you go locate someone that fits your beliefs spiritually, because that can be just as helpful. Serena Gilbert: The next thing that I wanted to chat about is something all three of us have gone through already, is the super fun job search and how sometimes it's not so fun because of the types of rejections and things that come through and I wanted to chat with you a little bit about how normal those rejections are unfortunately and maybe some coping mechanisms for that as well. Beth G.: Yelling and screaming works very well. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Serena Gilbert: I like it. Beth G.: Yes, it's a tough one and I will share, it took me, this is why I volunteered so much at those three places I mentioned earlier, it took me three years after grad school to get a job and it was a long stressful, semi sometimes depression filled three years, because it was just hard and so for me I threw myself into volunteer work. I had a couple of reasons for that, one is if you don't receive your 2 000 hours, and this may have changed I've been licensed since 2010, this may have changed, but back then if you didn't receive your 2 000 hours within five years, you retook the exam. And I was not going to do that and volunteer work counted. Beth G.: So for me I volunteered my behind off, because it gave me a purpose, it gave me something to do, it gave me a foot in the door, it gave me experience in the field, it gave me material for the resume. I found that to be helpful for me because volunteering in the fields that I wanted to work in as much as I could, to gain experience and get known, because it does also depend a lot on who we know not also just what we know, for doing the job. Jeff Thompson: Serena, as a councilor do you recommend providers or do you suggest a list or something of that nature coming from a state agency point of view? Serena Gilbert: What we usually look at is what type of health insurance the individual that we're working with has, many of our individuals don't have traditional insurance, like through an employer and I work with a lot of young adults so sometimes they have it through their parents, but many of my young adults have Medicaid, so we do have the ability to search the Medicaid providers and make recommendations. We do typically partner with our community mental health organization that's here, because they're really easy for our clients to get into because they have so many locations throughout this city, and then they have supplemental programs that they do with them that work alongside the therapy and medication. Serena Gilbert: Things like, they have a training program in culinary arts or in construction. They also do yoga and talk about nutrition and dietary needs, so they take a really holistic approach so it tends to work really well for the clients that I work with, but I don't typically make specific recommendations to you, you should go see this specific person, I usually give them a list. Jeff Thompson: That's good. Serena Gilbert: Let them kind of make their informed choice. Beth G.: Which I think is a much better way to handle that, because from a therapy stand point and for any professional that you're working with, it has to be a good fit and I tell my clients it's okay if you don't gel with me, it's okay if you don't like me or think I'm helpful to you, you know I ask to give me three sessions before you make that choice, but please speak up and ask for someone different if you're not comfortable this isn't going to help you, and so I think it's important to remember looking for professionals whether it's of vocational services, whether it's a specialist therapist, whomever it's going to be. Make sure it's a good fit. Serena Gilbert: That's a very, very good point because I think that a lot of our clients think well, especially with vocational rehabilitation and this may be the case sometimes, I'm going to put a disclaimer out there, sometimes you do have to work with somebody that maybe isn't your favorite person because that's the real world sometimes. Sometimes we don't get to make those choices but sometimes if there is a choice and it truly is impeding your ability to move forward, then it's okay to speak up, just like Beth said. I do agree with that. Beth G.: It's also good practice, like you just said to work with someone that you may not mesh with very well because it teaches us. It's a learning experience. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. Right Jeff? Jeff Thompson: Yes, experiences are good. I mean I actually went and saw a therapist years ago and some of that stuff sticks with me as coping mechanisms, as we talked about, and it's just a reminder to yourself that you know, we don't all have to be perfect and when you accept that you're not perfect and you accept the things you can change and the things you can't change, well it makes it a lot easier. A lot less stressful, the expectations you think others have of you and all that type of stuff. So, I like it and I like this conversation as I'm sitting here listening, I'm sitting back further and further in the chair just listening and it's really good stuff. Serena Gilbert: You were really processing, because when you listen back to this, when you edit you're going to notice that like I totally like dissed you there, and you didn't even notice because you were so deep in thought. Jeff Thompson: I'm focusing. So yes, I'm focusing. Beth G.: You're listening. Serena Gilbert: I think Beth caught it. Jeff Thompson: It is good information, it's good that it soaks in. I guess I must be really wanting it too, but like when you talked about writing and journaling I had a thought like, Stephen King, must really need some self help because he writes a lot. Serena Gilbert: Oh man. I don't even want to know what's going on in his brain right now. Those are the long books. Jeff Thompson: But I find myself doing that once in a while, is starting to write and also I write like three pages and I'm like, what's going on here? It's just spilling out and like you said to release that, to have someone to talk to, share stuff with, otherwise it's like a canister, it could just build up and build up and where's it going to go? Beth G.: We don't want the canister to explode so it's similar to having a medical, if you broke your leg, I hope to the powers that be, that you would go get help for that and it's the same with mental health. We all need a little help sometimes, whether it's the common cold or a sinus infection and you have to get antibiotics for that or it's, you know, a single defensive episode we actually get some help for that, if it's a life long illness go get some help for that, and I guess I'm going off on like the stigma around mental illness sometimes and the stigma around disability, but there's no shame in asking for help to get you through, and journaling is wonderful because if we can get it on paper it gets it out of our head. So we quit thinking about it. Serena Gilbert: You're making us just reflect so much, Beth. Jeff Thompson: I know. Serena Gilbert: Because I was just thinking like personally, things that, Jeff's going to laugh at this, but like hobbies help me a lot and it's hard for me, at least it was for me, to find a hobby that I can stick with consistently enough, and that was like helpful and accessible and all that great stuff and this podcast thing has really helped me. It's like something I look forward to every week and it's fun. Like I really look forward to it, I have fun sharing and I have fun helping people on it, certainly I think it's helped my mood, I don't know, I guess I'll just have to ask my husband. I think hobbies can play a big role in that mental health. Beth G.: There's a lot to be said around that, I'm glad you brought that up Serena because it makes me think of, your podcast helps others and so something I thought about I'd like to do my own podcast at some point as well because for me helping others makes me feel good, and does lift my mood and so if I have something hopefully worthy of others hearing that might help them move forward or help them see things differently or help them get a different perspective, I want to be able to do that. That makes me feel good when someone says, I never thought of it that way, or, that makes sense, or something like that. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, you have a new podcast perhaps. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Serena Gilbert: Let's add more. Jeff Thompson: Yes, this will be podcast 396, I believe it is, you'd think I'd be cured by now right, but you're absolutely right it does feel good when you capture moments and you can share it out there so other people can hear those moments and they're archived and you never know, like we'll get a message that someone listened to a podcast that was done a hundred ago, but it connected with them and that's what it's ... I just wish ... I don't know ... it's just interesting about podcasting. What it does for me and helping others. How you use it to teach and so tapping into all these people, and you yourself Beth, tapping into these people a little bit and hearing their stories and having them talk and all that, it's all ways of getting it out there and you know, you don't have to be on National News to get a story out. You can do it on podcasting and that's what I think we really like about that, even us, the little people we can get out there and make a difference. Beth G.: Absolutely. Jeff Thompson: I didn't say you were little, Serena. Serena Gilbert: Are you ... see that went right over my head if you were ... Jeff Thompson: Earlier, you mentioned you had the small Apple watch. Serena Gilbert: Ha ha ha. That was on a previous podcast, Beth. Jeff Thompson: Yes. Beth G.: I missed that one. Jeff Thompson: So Beth, I have a question for you. Beth G.: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jeff Thompson: What suggestion would you have for someone who is in that transitioning age, whether it's from high school to college to the work place, because you mentioned that earlier, what suggestions would you have for that person, just headed down that journey? Beth G.: I think no matter how frustrated you get, don't give up. As far as applying for jobs, that becomes your full time job, whether you're sighted or have a disability. It's still going to be your full time job and I think when we have a vision loss, it may take us a little longer. There's some great resources out there, if you need some support with making sure your resume is formatted, whatever you need to help yourself be ready for the interview process but don't give up. Keep applying. The rejection's going to happen and it's going to hurt but don't stop because eventually you'll get there. I wish I had a better suggestion than that one, and it goes back to your coping skills, what are your coping tools, what's going to help you most when you do get down? When you lose your self confidence, when you lose your self-esteem temporarily because you're getting rejected so many times. Serena Gilbert: So Jeff edit this part out. So Jeff edit this part out. So Jeff edit this part out. Beth, I swear you must be bugging Jeff and I because you are ... I cannot tell you how much you are mirroring the things that we've said on the last, maybe two or three episodes we've recorded but not actually released yet. I mean, I don't know the right word, but it's kind of nice to hear that we're at least somewhat on the right page with the things that we are are putting out there. Beth G.: I mean those of us who live it, get it. That sounds very cheesy, but it's true. Jeff Thompson: Hey, we like cheesy. We didn't know that before, but now we do. Beth G.: I think there's a common thread or a common bond with any individual who experiences life differently if you will, than the rest of the population. Whether it's vision loss, whether it's hearing loss, whether it's mental disability, whatever it is, when we have people who are similar to us or have experienced similar situations, there's a common bond. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jeff Thompson: Yes, and I think that bond is when someone sits down across the desk from you and realizes that you are blind, visually impaired, that commonality right there make a connection, just like when I had teachers, sighted teachers, but then when I found someone else that was visually impaired, or blind, you know, I didn't know anybody at the time, so it really helped bridge that connection, I could relate and I could listen and not that I gave more value to it, but it just drew me in fast. Serena Gilbert: And it's almost like the, well if they can do it, I can do it, kind of mentality. Not that there's, not to like demean anyone or anything, but it's someone who's done this pathway they've been successful at it, so surely I can do the same thing? Beth G.: Sure, and I've had clients tell me that, well if you can do it, I can do it. It's like, well my disability is different than yours, but that doesn't mean you can't do it. Serena Gilbert: Yes. Beth G.: I think everybody can do it if they're given the right tools and the right support. It may take some longer and some may have some different goals they wish to achieve. I'm a firm believer, if it's not your goal you're not going to achieve it. So, make sure your goals are your goals, not your parent's goals, not your spouse's goals, they're your goals and if you have the right tools and support, you can get there. Jeff Thompson: I have a friend, Jessica Cox said, it's not can I do it, it's how can I do it? Beth G.: Exactly. Jeff Thompson: So when you get to that point where you realize you have worth, you have value and all that other good stuff going, when the ball's rolling in the right direction then you can start thinking of the positives, like how can I do that? Beth G.: And you can start talking about, when I do this, not if I can do this? Because if and when are two very powerful different words with very different meanings. Serena Gilbert: Stop making us think, Beth. Jeff Thompson: You're focusing, aren't you Serena? Serena Gilbert: I am. Jeff Thompson: I just love the focus of this podcast, you know, this is really one of those ones that is kind of, hidden, it's not one of the obvious ones, like a resume, it's wrong, it's right. Mental health, your ability to cope and to deal with things is very important but we all don't wear it on our sleeves all the time. Beth G.: No, it's also as unique as each of us is because we all present differently. Our symptoms present differently. Our coping skills are different from one of us to the other. Serena Gilbert: And I don't feel like I looked at every blindness podcast that's out there, but I've yet to see anyone really write about this topic or cover it, and I'd like to have it be out there more so there's not so much stigma with it. Beth G.: Which is exactly why I want to start my own podcast, honestly. I'd love to get something off the ground, and there are a lot of directions to go with this as we talked about in previous conversations, but I really think it's a ... I've looked as well and I thought I found something, because it's untapped niche that needs to be heard. Serena Gilbert: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jeff Thompson: Well I would definitely listen, because I figure I just got my free session already, today. Serena Gilbert: We've got like three sessions, like we owe her so much money right now, Jeff. Jeff Thompson: Shh, shh. That's why I said one session, Serena. Beth G.: Once I can find some office space and then get the private practice going. Jeff Thompson: There you go. Serena Gilbert: We'll just Skype you, you know. Beth G.: This was a little challenging in the sense there's just so much content and I feel like I've just touched the surface on some of this. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Beth G.: But, I think that's a lot of podcasts that you can look at the surface and if they want to go deeper, they can. Serena Gilbert: So Beth, do you have any tips that you'd like to give some of our sighted listeners? Beth G.: Absolutely, one of them being, please believe us if we tell you we cannot see something, it's very difficult oftentimes, to explain what we can or cannot see, but if we cannot see it, we truly cannot see it and please accept that and move forward. And another one I think is helpful, if you're going to rearrange the office or the house, please tell us you've rearranged the furniture. Our shins really hate it when we come home and hit the coffee table we thought used to be there. Or you're going to sit on the couch but you're on the floor because the couch has mysteriously moved while you've been gone. It's just super helpful if you could let us know that you rearranged in our absence. Beth G.: And then lastly I think it's helpful if someone can say their name, before they speak to us so we can learn and match the voice with name. I don't know about anyone else, but it's not super fun going, is that Britney, is that Monica, is that Jo-anne, who is ... I know that person but I cannot place their name with their voice. Instead, you can say, hi Beth, it's John, then in time we can learn what your voice sounds like and lastly, it's a little embarrassing on our part if we end up talking to ourselves because we didn't see you walk out of it. So if you could sometimes announce that you're walking away, we don't talk to empty air that way. Beth G.: And those all may sound kind of silly or common sense but we don't always think in terms like that. So just a few things I wanted to add. Jeff Thompson: Well Beth, thank you so much for coming on The Job Insights, this has been a great podcast, great topics and can you give us some information if you want people to be able to contact you? Beth G.: Sure, it was my pleasure to be here and thank you so much for having me. I enjoyed talking about these topics as you can tell because I can talk all night. To contact me, I don't have a website up yet, it's coming soon so I'm working on a website, but until then, if anyone has any questions or would like to contact me, my email address is Bethg, as in golf, lpc, as in licensed professional councilor, @gmail.com. So Bethglpc@gmail.com is the best way to get a hold of me right now and hopefully the website will be coming soon. So that's me. Jeff Thompson: Well, Beth thank you so much. Beth G.: I enjoyed it, I really enjoyed being here and getting to know both of you more, and hopefully being able to help others in the process. Serena Gilbert: Thanks so much Beth. Beth G.: You're welcome. Thank you. Serena Gilbert: Bye Jeff. Jeff Thompson: And we'll see you next time Serena, on Job Insights, and you can follow Job Insights on twitter @jobinsightsvip send us an email jobinsights@blindabilities.com. We're part of the blind abilities network and you can find us on the web at www.blindabilities.com and thank you Chee Chau for the beautiful music, You can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @LCheeChau   Jeff Thompson: And as always we want to thank you for listening, we hope you enjoyed and until next time. Bye bye.   [Music]  [Transition noise]   When we share what we see through each other's eyes...   [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]   ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.   Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective: Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities Download our app from the App store: 'Blind Abilities'; that's two words. Or send us an e-mail at: info@blindabilities.com Thanks for listening.  

In collaboration with Jack Chen, Blind Abilities presents ExcelAbility. A collection of podcasts from Jack Chen’s ExcelAbility Team. ExcelAbility, empowering excellence and success for people with disabilities. to learn more about ExcelAbility and to connect with the team, check out WxcelAbility on the web at www.teamexcelability.com http://www.TeamExcelAbility.com Jack Chen delivers talks and training for corporations and other organizations on empowering success for people with disabilities. Jack participates in Extreme Ultra Events, marathons, climbed Kilimanjaro, and was on the Sea To See Team in this years 2018 race Across America.   ExcelAbility: Conversation With Sander Flaum, Marketing CEO And Best Selling Author Who Happens To Have A Stutter In this episode we speak with marketing executive Sander Flaum. Sander has run a number of pharmaceutical marketing firms, including bringing the firm of RSCG Becker to number two in the world and starting his own consultancy, Flaum Navigators. At one point in Sander’s career, he failed to receive a promotion to run Lederley Labs (now part of Pfiser) because members of the board thought that Sander’s stutter was a form of mental illness. Sander set out to be more successful than any of them. Join us to hear Sander’s attitudes, techniques, and practices that enabled him to achieve incredible success. Click here for a transcript of this episode. Key lessons Sander will show us that Hard work and demonstrating that you are better than the competition, Engaging quality mentors, Discussing your disability as a way to take the pressure off, and When discussing your disability, talking about how it has taught you to work harder and smarter than the next guy have led to his tremendous success. Connect Send us your comments, feedback, or tell us about your own story of success. We’d love to hear from you. Follow us on Twitter @TeamXLAbility Like Team Excelability on Facebook Visit Team ExcelAbility on the webfor more resources Be sure to tune in next month for another ExcelAbility Podcast. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store.

In collaboration with Jack Chen, Blind Abilities presents ExcelAbility. A collection of podcasts from Jack Chen’s ExcelAbility Team. ExcelAbility, empowering excellence and success for people with disabilities. to learn more about ExcelAbility and to connect with the team, check out ExcelAbility on the web at www.teamexcelability.com Jack Chen delivers talks and training for corporations and other organizations on empowering success for people with disabilities. Jack participates in Extreme Ultra Events, marathons, climbed Kilimanjaro, and was on the Sea To See Team in this years 2018 race Across America. ExcelAbility: Conversation With Blind Film Composer Steve Letnes In this episode we speak with film composer Steve Letnes. Pioneer and trail blazer, Steve is the only visually impaired film composer in the industry. Steve has scored dozens of films, including one from Sony Pictures called Santa’s Bootcamp. Tune in to hear about Steve’s journey through the seemingly impenetrable film industry as a blind composer and his journey to great success. Key lessons Steve will show us that: Not being afraid to ask for help when needed, Not shying away from doing the hardest thing first because then you know you can do anything, and Always saying yes to all the opportunities that come your way even if you’re not quite sure that you can do it have led to his tremendous success. Here is a link to Steve's page'. Contact Follow us on Twitter @TeamXLAbility Visit Team ExcelAbility on the webfor more resources Be sure to tune in next month for another ExcelAbility Podcast. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.

In collaboration with Jack Chen, Blind Abilities presents ExcelAbility. A collection of podcasts from Jack Chen’s ExcelAbility Team. ExcelAbility, empowering excellence and success for people with disabilities. to learn more about ExcelAbility and to connect with the team, check out WxcelAbility on the web at www.teamexcelability.com Jack Chen delivers talks and training for corporations and other organizations on empowering success for people with disabilities. Jack participates in Extreme Ultra Events, marathons, climbed Kilimanjaro, and was on the Sea To See Team in this years 2018 race Across America.   ExcelAbility: Conversation With Vint Cerf, Hearing Impaired, Father Of The Internet In this episode we speak with Vint Cerf, the father of the internet. Tune in to find out how Vint’s hearing impairment drove him to a career in computers and directed him to create the internet. Click here for a transcriptof this episode. Key lessons Vint will show us that Feeling comfortable with his disability, Asking for help when needed, Relying on technology to clear away obstacles, and, Leveraging his disability to drive his career direction have led to his tremendous success. Connect Send us your comments, feedback, or tell us about your own story of success. We’d love to hear from you. Follow us on Twitter @TeamXLAbility Like Team Excelability on Facebook Visit Team ExcelAbility on the webfor more resources Be sure to tune in next month for another ExcelAbility Podcast. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.