Podcast appearances and mentions of greg stilson

From the 2023 NFB Convention in Houston Texas, Blind Abilities podcast host Simon Bonenfant spoke with Greg Stilson, Head of Global Innovation at American Printing House for the Blind (APH). Greg first takes listeners through the new Monarch Tactile Display. This braille display is a partnership between APH, Humanware, and the NFB. Greg also gives an overview of APH's other offerings such as the Mantis and Chameleon braille displays, and the low-vision magnification devices such as the Juno and Jupiter  as well as the Matt Connect Android Tablet.   Additionally, Greg discusses the recently released Code Jumper, and Road to Code a set of tools designed to help blind people learn how to code. Greg closes the interview by talking about his personal journey through blindness and technology and how his experience is an asset to his current work at APH.   Read More

On this episode of Change Makers, we are learning more about the Monarch. APH's Anne Durham and Greg Stilson, and Humanware's Andrew Flatres talk about the Monarch's recent reception at CSUN, the technology that operates the Monarch, and what is next.Podcast Guests (In Order of Appearance)Sara Brown, APH Public Relations ManagerAnne Durham, APH Vice President, Strategy and InnovationGreg Stilson, APH Head of Global InnovationAndrew Flatres, Braille Product Manager for HumanWare TechnologiesAdditional LinksMeet the MonarchSign up for the DTD AnnouncementsThe eBRF RevolutionContact your local representative

Thaw Di Gras took place this past weekend. Kim Hovey, our Community Reporter in Dawson City, Yukon tells us all about it (0:00). The American Printing House for the Blind has a hot new product aimed at empowering blind students in the classroom. We learn more about this Greg Stilson and Anne Durham of APH (12:35). What are some top reasons for recent employee turnover? We Discuss this with Michael French from Robert Half (27:16).

Greg Stilson, Karen Anderson and Peter Tucic give us the inside scoop about the Monarch. This innovative tactile device aims to modernize and advance the ways we can access braille and tactile graphics.   For more info from the American Printing House visit: https://www.aph.org/the-ebrf-revolution/ https://www.aph.org/dtd-fact-sheet/   Karen Anderson's Article:  https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr41/4/fr410414.htm

Episode Description On this episode of the ACB Advocacy Update, Clark is joined by Greg Stilson, Head of Global Technology Innovation, American Printing House for the Blind, regarding his and APH's experience at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show. We discuss Greg's impression of CES and experience as an exhibiter showcasing technology for APH. Also, they discuss the Accessibility Leaders Roundtable hosted by the Consumer Technology Association Foundation in which ACB and APH participated. To learn more about the American Printing House for the Blind, please visit www.aph.org. Find out more at https://acb-advocacy-update.pinecast.co

We're celebrating Braille Literacy Month and taking a look back at how braille came to be. We will also hear more from Anne Durham and Greg Stilson as they continue their discussion about the Monarch.  After that, we will hear from someone who got the chance to try out the Monarch.On this Podcast (In Order of Appearance)Sara Brown, APH Public Relations ManagerMicheal Hudson, APH Museum DirectorAnne Durham,  APH Vice President/Chief Officer, Innovation and StrategyGreg Stilson, APH Head of Global Technology InnovationKaren Anderson, National Federation of the Blind Education Programs CoordinatorAdditional LinksThe Dynamic Tactile Device: A New Solution to an Old ProblemFreeList/Dynamic Tactile DisplayFreeList/eBRFThe Next Stop on the Holy Braille Highway: 2022 and BeyondAPH Partners with DAISY Consortium on New Digital Braille Standard2022 Abacus BeeEmail LinksDTD@aph.org Additional Braille Product LinksAPH Light-Touch Perkins Brailler®Classroom Calendar Kit, English EditionClassroom Calendar Kit, Spanish EditionJanus Interline Braille Slate with Saddle-Shaped StylusMiniBook Slate with StylusesPocket Braille Slate (Pins Up), Clear Plastic with Large Handle Stylus BANA Code books, Also Available in Braille Braille Formats: Principles of Print-to-Braille Transcription, 2016 - Print Guidelines and Standards for Tactile Graphics, 2010, Print EditionBraille Code for Chemical Notation, 1997: Print Music Braille Code, 2015, Print 

It's a continuation celebration for our 100th episode, as we present you with The Clip Show Part Two.   This episode starts off at the beginning of 2021, as we welcome our good friend Allison Meloy full time to the podcast. Allison was a regular guest on iAccessVO and joined us here regularly starting with episode 14.   Our next few guests included Greg Stilson from The American Printing House for the Blind, Steve Ewell from The Consumer Technology Association, and Shaun Eli  comedian friend of Brian's who worked very hard to make his website fully accessible. It was Episode 17, wow, not sure what was going on with our audio on this episode, as it was absolute crap. Episode 17 was also the beginning of Brian introducing all those fun movie clips that 95% of the listeners enjoy. We did get one email from a listener who absolutely hates them.   Episode 18 brought Jayme Schwartz from Aftershockz to the show. Episode 19 was back to our Trailblazers series with Ricky Enter and friend of the show Joe SteinKamp. Episode 21 was the web developer of Ottoneu Fantasy sports, Nav shah.   It was episode 22 that saw friend of the podcast Dr. Bryan Wolynski make his first appearance on the podcast. Episode 23 brought us Virginia Jack, CEO of the Miami Lighthouse for a conversation about web accessibility.   Episode 25 brought us our first fun with an April fools episode, as blind Olympian Henry McKeller joined the show.   Episode 26 brought over the man you have to blame if you hate Brian's editing of movie clips, Derek Lane. And staying on our sound trip, Episode 27 brought us Jim Reekes the original creator of the Mac start up chime and the iPhone camera click sound.   Episode 28 brought us Comedian friend Stacey Prussman who at the time was running for Mayor of New York City. She did not win, but that was not our fault.   To contact That Real Blind Tech Show, you can email us at ThatRealBlindTechShow@gmail.com, join our Facebook Group That Real Blind Tech Show, join us on the Twitter @BlindTechShow , or leave us an old school phone message at 929-367-1005.

2228 Graphical Braille Display and eBRF (Jul. 13, 2022) Show Notes Wouldn't it be nice to have an affordable, 2-D, refreshable Braille display? Soon that may not be just a dream. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Greg Stilson and William Freeman from the American Printing House about the new technology behind the combined … Continue reading 2228 Graphical Braille Display and eBRF (Jul. 13, 2022) →

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. People who are blind or visually impaired know all too well the challenges of living in a sighted world. But today, the capabilities of computer vision and other tech are converging with the needs of people who are blind and low-vision and may help level the playing field for young people with all different sensory abilities. These tools can pave the way for children's active participation and collaboration in school, in social situations, and eventually, in the workplace, facilitating the important contributions they will make to our world in their adult lives. Access to educational materials is a consistent challenge for students and adults who are blind, but Greg Stilson, the head of Global Innovation at American Printing House for the Blind (APH), is trying to change that. Together with partner organizations Dot Inc. and Humanware, APH is on the verge of being able to deliver the “Holy Braille” of braille readers, a dynamic tactile device that delivers both Braille and tactile graphics in an instant, poised to fill a much-needed gap in the Braille textbook market. Extensive user testing means the device is as useful for people who are blind as possible. Greg sees a future in which more inclusively designed and accessible video games, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) will help children who are blind learn with greater ease, and better engage with their sighted peers. Enter Dr. Cecily Morrison, principal researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. Based on extensive research and co-designing with people who are blind, she and her team developed PeopleLens, smart glasses worn on the forehead that can identify the person whom the user is facing, giving the user a spatial map in their mind of where classmates (as one example) are in space. PeopleLens helps children who are blind overcome social inhibitions and engage with classmates and peers, a skill that will be crucial to their development, and in their lives, as they move into the cooperative workspaces of the future.   The Big Takeaways: Robin Akselrud, an occupational therapist and assistant professor at Long Island University in Brooklyn, author of MY OT Journey Planner and The My OT Journey Podcast, explains how a baby who is born blind becomes inhibited from their first developmental milestones. She explains the stressors that these children might face upon attending school and describes the kinds of interventions that occupational therapy offers. Bryce Weiler, disability consultant, sports enthusiast, and co-founder of the Beautiful Lives Project, emphasizes how important it is for children who are blind or low-vision to have rich sensory experiences — and life experiences — which give them a chance to flourish and socialize with peers. Beautiful Lives Project offers opportunities to do that. Greg Stilson, Director of Global Innovation at American Printing House for the Blind, and his team are developing a dynamic tactile device (DTD) that can switch seamlessly between Braille and tactile graphics — the “Holy Braille” of braille devices. The DTD is made possible by developments in pin technology by Dot Inc, and APH. Humanware developed the software for the device. No longer using the piezoelectric effect to move pins has reduced the cost of the device significantly, and APH can funnel federal funds to reduce the price further, making the DTD a potential, viable option for institutions. Cecily Morrison, principal researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge UK, and her team developed PeopleLens, a head-worn pair of smart glasses that lets the wearer know who is in their immediate vicinity. Dr. Morrison and her team tested it in classrooms for school-age children who are blind or visually impaired and found that PeopleLens reduces students' cognitive load and helps young people overcome social anxiety and inhibitions that Robin Akselrud described at the top of the show. Wearers of PeopleLens learn to develop mental models of where people are in a room, and gain the confidence to engage others, or not, as they choose. Once social skills are built, students no longer have to wear the device but are set up for more successful social interactions at school and in their lives to come.   Tweetables: If they have a visual impairment, it really impacts them from early on, from that first development milestone. — Robin Akselrud, occupational therapist and assistant professor at Long Island University in Brooklyn, author of MY OT Journey Planner and The My OT Journey Podcast For children, just giving them that foundation of making friendships as they're growing up, and the opportunity to be a part of something, sport can allow them to do that, and it also gives them the chance to do things that their peers are taking part in. —Bryce Weiler, disability consultant, sports enthusiast, and co-founder of the Beautiful Lives Project This was what the field regards as the “Holy Braille” right? Having both [Braille and tactile graphics] on the same surface. —Greg Stilson, Director of Global Innovation at American Printing House for the Blind With the advancements of virtual reality and augmented reality, … along with the idea of making experiences and video games and things like that more inclusive, it's going to create a more inclusive way for blind kids to engage with their sighted peers. — Greg Stilson, Director of Global Innovation at American Printing House for the Blind We found that “people” was the thing that was most interesting to people. And that doesn't surprise us. We are people, and we like other people. — Dr. Cecily Morrison, principal researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge UK They can go out and find someone that they want to play with. They can choose not to talk to somebody by turning their head away from them, and the moment that they understand the agency they have in those situations is when we see a significant change in their ability to place people and to engage with them. — Dr. Cecily Morrison, principal researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge UK When we look at the workplaces of today, they're often very collaborative places. So you can be the best mathematician in the world, but if you struggle to collaborate, you're not building the AI technologies of tomorrow. By helping kids ensure that they have a strong foundation in these attentional skills, we're giving them a significant lift. — Dr. Cecily Morrison, principal researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge UK   Contact Us: Contact us at podcasts@lighthouseguild.org with your innovative new technology ideas for people with vision loss.   Pertinent Links: Lighthouse Guild Robin Akselrud Bryce Weiler Greg Stilson Dr. Cecily Morrison

We began our 2022 CSUN coverage with a discussion about some of the upcoming initiatives from APH. But hearing about the Dynamic Tactile Device Project over Zoom wasn t enough for J.J. s curiosity. That s why he managed to brave the conference labyrinth and find Greg Stilson, Director of Global Innovation for APH, and lay his hands upon the DTD himself. In this demo you will learn more about the current prototype unit while J.J. navigates through images, floor plans and other examples. Greg then goes on to explain more about EBRF, how the unit differs from the DotPad and why he is optimistic about how the DTD will bring a whole new layer of context when it comes to reading textbooks in the classroom. To learn more about the project, and to see if there will be a demonstration coming to your area, visit the Dynamic Tactile Device Project site Blind Bargains Virtual Exhibit Hall coverage is Brought to you by AFB AccessWorld. For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings, access technology book reviews, and mobile apps, and how they can enhance entertainment, education and employment, log on to AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free, monthly, online technology magazine. Visit https://www.afb.org/aw

Joe and Patrick take the wheel this week as J.J. is off to CSUNATC22. In another headphones recommended show, Joe takes us on a tour of three apps that he came across in 2021. Swerve through obstacles in Space Wave Race, become a short order cook with Blinded Chef and transform into a swashbuckling adventurer as you explore the mysteries of the Sonar islands. It really is all fun and games this week on episode 224 of the BBQ. Space Wave Race 2:35 From the Apple App Store page "Only the true heroes of space can become champions of Space Wave Race: the intergalactic championship that will take you to challenge the best pilots in the galaxy! LISTEN, MOVE AND SHOOT TO BEAT YOUR ENEMIES IN THE GREAT SPACE RACE Fly through a myriad solar systems, space ruins, unknown engineering structures, asteroids and incandescent stars to win the battle. Be the first in this intrepid running race fighting your enemies. Prove what galactic material you are made of! UNLOCK DIFFERENT TYPES OF SPACESHIPS Enjoy the experience playing with different spaceships designed for battle. Unlock more spaceships by playing the game. PLAY CHALLENGING GAME MODES Includes several game modes with different complexities and gameplay: Championship Mode, Single Race Mode, Endless Galactic Mode. DESIGNED TO BE accessable Space Wave Race has been developed to be fully accessible, including modes for players with reduced mobility, visual and/or hearing impairment and dyslexia. Expressly created to enjoy the experience without losing a single detail in all conditions." > This game is also available on PC/Mac [via the Steam service. And you can see what others have said about the game at this Apple Vis page. Blinded Chef 14:50 Taken from the Google Play Store page "Take control of a chef and lead him from a street hot dog vendor to a head chef in a restaurant. Test your hearing, reaction and memory! Play, cook, find new dishes and earn achievements. For those who find the game too easy, there is a hardcore mode inside. Inside you will find: 6 dishes normal and hardcore modes random trial achievements leaderboard Rules: Listen and remember which ingredients you need to make a dish, swipe in the appropriate direction to select the required ingredient and confirm your choice with a swipe up. All ingredients are in different groups and the more complex the dish, the more groups and ingredients. For example: A client asks you to cook burger of pork meat, lettuce, tomato and mushrooms. Use the following combination: Swipe right to choose pork meat, swipe up to confirm, swipe right to choose lettuce, swipe up to confirm, swipe down to choose tomato, swipe up to confirm, swipe left to choose mushrooms, swipe up to confirm. You can also find this game by visiting the Apple App Store and you can hear "Friend Of the Show" Jessie Anderson's YouTube review at IllegallySighted Sonar Islands 21:44 Noted from the game's developer Mental Home website "Sonar Islands is a MULTIPLAYER ONLINE game, where all relevant events happen in your ears. On various islands you explore and discover, seek hidden TREASURES and conquer OBSTACLES. Every new island has a special atmosphere and a different gameplay. Do your best to fortify your islands and be clever enough to take the gold from your opponents. Visit the ancient TEMPLE island, the ancestors built, where snakes are biting and down falling parts may block your way. Take a trip to the JUNGLE island, watch abandoned lions on your way, but be aware of the tree traps, set up by the natives. You can go up, but there is no coming down. The FUN FAIR island is a happy place to be. You can shoot toys coming towards you. Some carry a treasure, some carry a bomb, that's the risk. The VOLCANO island is a chilly place, for some too hot, especially if you step near the lava flows. Ash and stone rain down due to the eruptions of terraforming, raise your shield to protect you. In the MACHINE HALL you will meet the friendly robots from Feer, but this time you carry a stun gun to short-circuit their brains, at least for a while, till their self-repair is complete. On PING island you will get a sonar device for orientation, send out a tone and the echo tells you, where to go. That s good, because you may discover, this island is a labyrinth. High up on the TREETOP island you have to deal with wind and mosquitos. The wind is really disorientating, leaves are rustling, while the mosquitos chase you. And don't fall, while balancing on the twigs. On the ELECTRO island you face the invisible power of ELECTRICITY. Tesla coils sparkle round their high voltage, better shoot some metal confetti to divert the current. The nice thing here are catapult plates, they make you fly all over the island. A pity, that you don t know where you will end up. Happy vacation!" > Nab the game either from Google Play or Apple's App Store. Up next, no kidding, actual in person for reals with two people in front of one microphone interviews recorded at CSUN 2022! And if you haven't heard it yet, or read the transcript, Greg Stilson gave us an amazing update with all the goings on over at APH

Greg Stilson, long time friend of the show, has not appeared in front of the BBQ microphones since November 2020. So, he had a lot to cover with J.J. in this look at what is happening at the American printing House. The pair catch us up with updates on Mantis Q40, Chameleon 20 and Code Jumper. Then the party really starts with the duo delving into products like Juno, the upcoming Poly and a deep dive into what it takes to bring the Dynamic Tactile Device Project from development to purchasable product. Learn what EBRF is and why it is important to the future of multi-line Braille Displays in this interview. To learn more about the products mentioned, or to inquire about the regional user s groups Greg mentioned, listen to the file or read the transcript below. You can also find out more about products, manuals and accessories by visiting the APH website Sponsor: American Printing House for the Blind Since 1858, APH has operated in Louisville, Kentucky, empowering people who are blind or visually impaired by providing accessible and innovative products, materials, and services for lifelong success. APH's vision is for an accessible world, with opportunity for everyone. Visit APH.org to learn more about their products and services.

On this episode of Change Makers, we're talking to GoodMaps officials. We'll learn the latest on their new app, what projects they're working on in the U.K. and what's next for the accessibility app. This podcast is moderated by Greg Stilson.Participants (In Order of Appearance)Sara Brown, APH Public Relations ManagerGreg Stilson, APH Head of Global InnovationJose Gaztambide, GoodMaps CEOMike May, GoodMaps Chief EvangelistNeil Barnfarther, MBE, GoodMaps Europe, Vice PresidentSteve Ewell, Consumer Technology Association Foundation Executive DirectorAdditional Linkshttp://www.CTAFoundation.tech/https://www.CES.techEmail Addressesinfo@goodmaps.com

In late January the BBQ Crew reconvened in Clubhouse to talk about some of the trends they experienced in 2021. JJ, Joe, Patrick, Ricky and Shelly rolled through the year that was, before taking on the daunting task of their 2022 predictions. Tune in to find out if you agree with the viewpoints of the BBQ Crew. And sound off with your own insights in the comments section below or tweet us @blindbargains on Twitter. Note: The iOS Braille bugs mentioned in this program were finally addressed in a recent 15.3.1 patch. It is too soon to tell if this will resolve the issues mentioned in the podcast, however, the sentiment that there should have been a patch sooner in the iOS 15 release cycle still remains. For those who rely on Braille for their primary form of using the device, this was a devastating problem, not a mild nuisance that could be easily ignored. So, the remarks made are still valid for future iOS releases, and we hope this whole debacle results in stronger and tighter testing results before a future release to the general public. 3:30 COVID The group talked about their experiences when accessing the sign up pages for vaccines and boosters. Regional differences vastly impacted the Crew as there was no uniformity amongst the various rollouts from the local providers. Test kits were another topic discussed with the group noting the lack of access on that front as well. Visual interpreter services are helpful, but there is no direct way to read your test results privately at this time. 16:31 Supply Chain Issues Everywhere JJ tells tales of woe on what it has been like to stock, ship and work with his partners over the last year at our sister site A.T. Guys. Ricky noted the trouble Humanware had with comments on social media regarding meeting demand after the launch of their new BI-x Braille Displays. Joe echoed that Google ran into the same problem with the debut of the new Pixel 6 line. And sometimes the product might be in stock, yet the Amazon shipping time might be longer than you'd expect. Patrick stated that it was not just an electronics issue because he waited a few months for a specialized part made out of plastic. Shelly relayed that having an alternate choice in mind is crucial when making a big ticket purchase, like appliances, as the most popular option may take a few days after forever to arrive. She adds that luck and research may help when making those kinds of purchases. 22:20 NLS Braille Display Beta How are Braille Displays and Girl Scout Cookies alike? Well, it turns out that the model of display offered to you depends on your location in the U.S. This is kind of like the naming convention for a famous flavor of delectable cookie. We will not declare whether Zoomax or Humanware is a Samoa though. The conversation then turned to the reasons why someone would still buy a Braille Display in the commercial market if they already have an NLS badged model. Upsell features, like notetaking options and quieter operation, may still allow other models to stand out. Joe said that having familiarity with Braille gives someone better justification for moving up to a 40, or even an 80, cell model to complete tasks in education or at a work setting. JJ pondered if an open model approach may drive up commercial prices of displays as it has in some international territories. We then move on to a discussion about self-contained devices like the HIMS BrailleSense 6 and the APH Mantis. Ricky says that the idea of using a self-voicing all in one Braille notetaker is still a popular choice for some types of jobs and for students. The easy exporting of materials, along with wireless connections to the internet or a smartphone, are powerful tools to have on hand. Not to mention that having a backup display is incredibly helpful as well when it comes to using another display over the NLS model. 34:50 iOS Issues Patrick and Ricky go into depth about the problems they have been encountering for months with iOS 15 and Braille Displays. In some cases, the issues are severe enough to freeze or hard reset their iPhones. Joe noted that touch targets have been problematic too as he said that visually placing your finger on a button did not always correspond to Voiceover recognizing the correct focus point. Screen recognition was not a work around method either for interacting with explore by touch navigation. JJ added that it seemed like QA and the core development teams are not catching these things prior to release. 40:00 Windows 11 The Crew admit to who is running the shiny new OS from Microsoft. JJ submitted that there was no real urgency to take on 11, that Windows 10 still has some life left and Shelly mentioned that Microsoft has been signaling that through their upgrade statements so far. Ricky said that her 4 year old system was not compatible and that she was not going to lose sleep about it. Joe, who is crazy enough to have it on 4 computers, felt like there was not a compelling feature that was a must have at launch. But he did say that the OS was a work in progress and new features would be arriving in waves outside the traditional service pack delivery method. 47:40 Accessible Gaming On The Rise In 2020 Ricky finished her first Playstation game when she beat The Last Of Us 2 . Last year she completed her first Xbox game when she knocked out all the achievements in The Vale". JJ has been playing Harthstone and Wordle through the use of accessible mods. These games join a growing list of mainstream titles that are becoming more accessible by design or by a third party modification. People are playing the Jack Box games with screen readers on multiple platforms. Joe was thrilled that Microsoft was providing audio description in their gaming announcements, and he pointed out that their was a Most Accessible Game category at the Game Awards for the past two years. Sadly, Nintendo is the only mainstream videogame console on the market that does not have speech on board natively. Yet the most remarkable thing in gaming came from iOS and the incredible support the community provided to the developer of SwordyQuest. It has been seven months since the game launched and there are new features being added as a result of a dedicated, and very vocal, fanbase. A well-deserved Golden Apple from Apple Vis was an acknowledgment of not only the amazing efforts of a developer, but a tribute to a community who rallied around that developer when gamer toxicity emerged early on in the game s life cycle. Finally, both Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass seem to have no screen reader friendly titles to offer those looking for mobile all you can play gaming. 55:10 The Future Here are the group s predictions for 2022. Joe: a flood of new dongles but none will be accessible Ricky: Resurgence of fewer touch screen-driven devices; people will rethink things and return to more tactile operations Patrick: parts shortage may affect accessibility and future designs Shelly: augmented reality/virtual reality/mixed reality products; very expensive and prototypy, not likely accessible J.J.: A graphics tablet from a new source JJ is heading off to CSUN in March. And the BBQ will keep playing around with platforms like Clubhouse for listener engagement. But you might find that our little show may take on new topics from time to time. The truth is that the landscape is changing rapidly, but Assistive Technology is consolidating so much that there is not really a wealth of news to cover in the way we used to provide that to you in the past. Therefore, we are going to take the road less traveled and explore stories and things that interest the BBQ Team. We are not giving up our in person event coverage, and the mandatory Apple/Google/Microsoft event thingies, but we want to talk about things beyond our original tech focus. We hope you will find these subjects as interesting as we do and, as always, we appreciate your feedback along the way as we conquer new avenues of information and entertainment content. Related Links At-Home Coronavirus Tests Are Inaccessible to Blind People - New York Times (subscription required) Why many blind people can't take an at-home COVID-19 test - Texas Standard Sight Tech Global Returns for Year Two - AccessWorld The Holy Braille : The development of a new tactile display combining Braille and graphics in one experience - Sight Tech Global featuring Greg Stilson of APH and Andrew Flattres of HumanWare

On this podcast, we’re talking to the developers of GoodMaps Explore, the popular accessible indoor-outdoor navigation app. We’ll learn more about the GoodMaps app, their recent award and what else the company is working on. Then, we’ll celebrate Black History Month with our final interview with our special guest, Mr. Louis Tutt.Guests (in order of appearance)Greg Stilson, APH Head of Global InnovationJose Gaztambide, GoodMaps CEOMike May, GoodMaps Chief EvangelistPaul Ferrara, Communications Accessibility EditorDavid Tobin, Founder and CEO of AudioJackMr. Louis Tutt, former EOTLinksGoodMapsFor more information or to inquire about getting GoodMaps technology in your space, email info@goodmaps.com AudioJack HomepageAudioJack ContestBlack History Month Links to Awards - Links are directly to the images https://www.aph.org/aph-awards-plaques/https://www.aph.org/wings-of-freedom-award-plaque-2014-2018/https://www.aph.org/wings-of-freedom-award-overview-plaque/https://www.aph.org/from-the-field-awards-plaques/https://www.aph.org/overview-of-william-english-leadership-award-plaque/https://www.aph.org/william-english-leadership-award-plaque-1991-2002/https://www.aph.org/wall-of-tribute/

Join Brian and Ed as they welcome in Greg Stilson for a conversation about American Printing House for The Blind’s experience at this year’s virtual Consumer electronics Show. Greg offers his thoughts on Virtual Reality and the accessible possibilities. Greg then walks us through the products APH was showing off at this year’s CES, and how the company has changed its approach during the pandemic. Greg  walks us through APH as a resource for the blind and low vision. We are then introduced  to the Hive, APH’s new learning portal.    You can reach out to That Real Blind Tech Show with an email at ThatRealBlindTechShow@gmail.com, join us on Facebook at That Real Blind Tech Show, follow us on Twitter @BlindTechShow, or leave us a message at 929-367-1005. 

In order to be more environmentally friendly, we at the BBQ decided to combine our October and November Apple event wrap up shows. It is the podcasting equivalent of removing the charger plug from the box. Okay, seriously, we changed things up a bit and invited Greg Stilson on to talk about the new Macs and iPhones. Greg has launched a few products over the years, and we thought he could speak at longer length about what it takes to do that than J.J. and Joe could. Plus, he brings along the bonus of saying a bunch of new stuff that you have not heard from us on the many hours of wrap up shows we have done in the past. And to borrow an Apple turn of phrase, we think you re going to love it . Discussion Topic: Apple s One More Thing Event Here s a whole lot of links that we touched upon during our conversation. Picking Apart Apple's "One More Thing" Announcements Here's how to rewatch Apple's 'One More Thing' event Here s everything Apple didn t announce at its November Mac event Love or hate Apple silicon, this is just the beginning The Inside Story of Apple's M1 Chip How Intel lost Apple Here's what you need to know about the first three Apple silicon Macs Apple announces its first new laptop with its own chip instead of Intel s The biggest difference between the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is a fan Apple M1 Chip Revolution: Apple Silicon for MacBooks and Mac Mini Reasons to switch to Apple silicon right now and why you might want to wait How Apple Silicon on a M1 Mac changes monitor support and what you can connect New MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Still Have 720p Camera, But Apple Promises Better Quality From M1 Apple Silicon M1 Emulating x86 is Still Faster Than Every Other Mac in Single Core Benchmark Parallels, VMWare confirm Apple M1 support amid silence from other virtualization companies Microsoft: Office will be about 20 seconds slower initially on Apple Silicon, Rosetta 2 All the apps and games Apple promises for Arm-based Macs There s a question mark hanging over Apple s Arm Macs Sorry, but the new MacBook Air is not faster than 98% of PC laptops iOS apps will run on Apple Silicon Macs, but major developers have already opted out of the Mac App Store The New Features, Changes, Improvements, and Bugs in macOS 11 Big Sur for Blind and Low Vision Users What's new in MacOS Big Sur in under 3 minutes macOS 11.0 Big Sur: The Ars Technica review macOS Big Sur: The MacStories Review macOS Big Sur 11 top features the Mac gets a new UI, Control Center, 4K YouTube, & more 11 Things You Can Do in macOS Big Sur That You Couldn't Do Before Don't bother trying to update to Big Sur if you have a 128GB Mac macOS Big Sur launch appears to cause temporary slowdown in even non-Big Sur Macs Does Apple really log every app you run? A technical look Apple Responds to macOS Privacy Concerns, Explains Why Apps Were Slow to Launch Update Apple explains and addresses Recent server outage reveals potential Mac privacy concerns macOS Big Sur update is bricking some older MacBook Pros Native Instruments warns macOS Big Sur can damage its music hardware Big sur and recovery mode problem What happened during the troubled Big Sur launch, and why Apple can't let it happen again Your Computer Isn't Yours Apple's remaking Mac computers, and it's taking control to do it How to run Aperture, iPhoto, and older versions of iTunes on macOS Big Sur Hands on: iPhone 12 Pro Max in the real world The iPhone 12 Pro Max Is Entirely Too Much Phone, but It's So Good iPhone 12 Pro Max It's all about that camera iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro Max hands-on: How they compare with the 12 and 12 Pro Hands-on: iPhone 12 mini versus iPhone 12 Pro Max design First Impressions From New iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max Owners The iPhone 12 Pro: Why It Felt the Right Choice for Me, and Early Impressions iPhone 12 - Unboxing and First Impressions Review: The iPhone 12 mini is a lot of iPhone in a tiny package iFixit shares first part of its small-bodied iPhone 12 mini teardown iPhone 12 mini teardown shows what Apple shrank to make a tiny flagship Apple Says Hearing Aid Sound Issues With iPhone 12 Models Will Be Fixed in Future Software Update Fix coming for iPhone 12 MFi hearing aid static issues Apple confirms iPhone 12 MagSafe problem what you need to know iPhone 12 mini owners report unresponsive lock screens Group SMS issues plague iPhone 12 upgraders See what lidar can do on the iPhone 12 with this 3D-scanning app Apple Adding Customizable People Detection Capability to LiDAR-Equipped iPhones and iPad Pro with Upcoming Releases of iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 How to tell which aspect of 5G you've connected to on iPhone 12 How to manually manage 5G to optimize for speed or battery life on iOS How to force restart your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro YouTubers can't stop destroying the iPhone 12 Brazil has by far the most expensive iPhone 12 in the world, at least for now Apple TV app is now available for download on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 Side note We were deeply saddened to learn that friend of the show, Tom Dekker recently passed away from cancer. Tom s views on training and technology came from his ability to be kind and compassionate. And that is something that is in short supply these days. Here is our interview with Tom from 2015 s ACB Summer Convention coverage. Also, we mourn the loss of Jeopardy host Alex Trebek who ended his bout with Pancreatic Cancer earlier this month. As J.J. notes during this episode, Jeopardy is one of the more Blind friendly game shows on T.V. today. Moreover, it was recently announced that the Contestant application process has been made more accessible to those who would like to test themselves against the Big Board .

Michael Serazio of Boston College on sports activism. Titan Alon of Univ of California San Diego on women and unemployment. Kate Herndon and Greg Stilson, of American Printing House for the Blind on braille bricks. Sam Payne from BYUradio's Apple Seed. Yazmín García Trejo of US Census Bureau on census women. James Smoliga, High Point Univ, on hot dog eating limits. Aria Campbell-Danesh and Seth Gillihan, clinical psychologists and authors of "A Mindful Year," on being mindful.

Between given names, nicknames, and any number of adjectives used to describe yourself, language will always be an important part of how people identify themselves. In this episode we bring in our resident linguist Doug Bigham to discuss some context of person first versus identity first language and how it has been used in marginalized communities. We will also share perspectives from past interviews with Adam Wilton, Neva Fairchild, and Greg Stilson to discuss how educators and people with visual impairments are using person first or identity first language to describe themselves and the people in the communities they serve. 

Greg Stilson, Head of Global Innovation at American Printing House (APH) joins Satauna Howery and Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities studio to talk about 2 new Refreshable Braille devices now available from APH on the web at APH.org. Greg talks in detail the thought process behind the new Mantis and Chameleon refreshable braille devices. How APH is listening to the students and Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI). With a 40 cell and a 20 cell option and the partnership with Humanware, these new devices add to the APH product line of Braille devices with refreshable Braille. Learn all about the Mantis and the Chameleon and how you can get yours today. Greg also touches base with Access Academy, the webinars done in partnership with Paths to Literacy. Same time every day, different and new topics for students during these challenging time. You can find out and learn more about what APH is doing to enhance the opportunities for students on the web at APH.org. Thanks for listening! Contact You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org and search the directory for your agency. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired. and the Facebook group That Blind Tech Show.

Greg Stilson joins the podcast to discuss his journey as a blind programmer in the private sector and how APH is positioning themselves as a global innovator in the field of assistive technology. 

We noted in our end of year wrap up show that Humanware's convention appearances were very popular with our listeners. Additionally, we noted in that same show, APH had an amazing 2019 with multiple stories working their way into our news lineups. One of those stories outlined that APH would be working on fostering future partnerships for growing their product lines on various platforms. In this interview Andrew Flatres, Braille Product Manager for Humanware, and newly minted APH member Greg Stilson, Director of Product Innovation, sit down with Joe to talk about two new Braille products and one new software announcement. Listen in, or read below, to learn more about the importance of the Educational market and how these new products can provide a solid steppingstone for those needing simple to use devices and software in the classroom environment. To learn more about the new products and partnerships at the American Printing House for the Blind, visit the APH website. And to learn more about the new software mentioned by Andrew, as well as other product news, visit the Humanware website ATIA 2020 coverage is Brought to you by AFB AccessWorld. For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings, access technology book reviews, and mobile apps, and how they can enhance entertainment, education and employment, log on to AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free, monthly, online technology magazine. Visit www.afb.org/aw.

Explorer Call, December, 2019   Our last Explorer Call of 2019 is packed with goodness. Emily Hill joins us to talk shopping promo and other things from the land of Aira Agents. Greg Stilson and Paul Schroeder update us on happenings at Aira as we move quickly toward 2020. Greg also asks for your input on Siri Shortcuts.   Listen to the podcast here:   Or in your favorite podcasting app.   For more about airA, visit our web site, www.aira.io Or call us at 1.800.835.1934

Airacast Episode 21 Wide Angle Partnerships   You may have read that Aira now works with the multi-camera systems for the iPhone but did you know exactly what a cool thing that is?  Find out in this episode as we speak with Greg Stilson, Vice President of Product. Then Amy Bernal focuses on different types of partnerships that ultimately give you a better Aira experience.  

Airacast Episode 18 It’s Cool to Be Blind   October is a time to celebrate! In this episode we take a look at Disability Employment Awareness with Explorer Paul Merrell . Greg Stilson, Vice President for Product and Danielle Toby, Product Designer here at Aira tell us about two exciting new features, integration with Blind Square and our Invite A Friend program. The Agent spotlight shines this time around on Mark Lawrence.

Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs. Show Notes: Greg Stilson – Vice President of Product for Aira www.aira.io info@aira.io support@aira.io Youtube: aira visual assistance ——————————If you have an AT question, leave us […] The post ATU436 – Aira Part 2 with Greg Stilson appeared first on Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads.

Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs. Show Notes: Greg Stilson – Vice President of Product for Aira www.aira.io info@aira.io support@aira.io Youtube: aira visual assistance Alexa Show Story: http://bit.ly/2ndnLtX Sensory Bags Story: http://bit.ly/2n4SF7t ——————————If you […] The post ATU435 – Aira with Greg Stilson appeared first on Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads.

The BBQ Crew returns with news, an interview and that gut-wrenching "Last Word" just like the good 'ol' days of yore. In other words, we've run out of summer convention coverage and now it is back to work. Tune in to hear Greg Stilson speak about the free AIRA plan and we think this week's tip will help you live your life online to the max. Fire up the grill and BBQ with BBQ 189. In The News: NVDA 2019.2 is now available Two August JAWS Updates Fix Slack, Skype, Windows 10 Start Menu Bugs Cracking down on crackers CBS All Access offering some shows with audio description Google Pixel Users can Now Toggle TalkBack by Voice Google Docs 'live edits' feature helps the visually impaired The internet's accessibility reckoning It's Back: WebAIM's Screen Reader Survey Number 8 Can Help Shape Industry Best Practices Oops, this would have been our "Survey of the Week" but it is now closed, Boston Museum of Science is looking for opinions about accessible services Lego Providing Accessible Instructions for Some of its Sets Interview: Greg from AIRA Greg Stilson, Director of Product Development, is no stranger to our microphones. And he has told us about various free AIRA free promotions before. Except, here's the thing, he has not come on the show to discuss how AIRA is now free for everyone. No kidding. Joe gets the scoop from Greg about the new 5 free minute calls news announced by AIRA in August. Listen in as the pair cover some common questions regarding limitations, frequency of calls and how easy it is to use these new free minutes. Tip: Maximize your life and your Windows It might seem like a silly thing to say, but maximizing your active windows is just as important to troubleshooting as the classic "have you tried turning it off and on again?". You can make sure that browser, and other windows, open in their screen-filling goodness by doing these steps. Find the icon, or file location, where the desired program resides. Hit the Alt key and Enter at the same time, or right click with the mouse, to get to the Properties box. Once there, find a combo box labeled "Run". Make sure that it says Maximized instead or Normal or Minimized. Then click OK to save any changes. Also, remember to go back and check the status of these changes after Windows, or that particular program, updates as the program may shift back to the previous mode after the update. Sound Off: Here are a couple of tweets that caught our ears when prepping for this episode. RT @JesseTregarthen @blindbargains Thanks J.J. You also convinced me to buy tiles. Pro tip, don't put one in your wallet and then put your wallet in your back pocket. You'd be amazed how easy it is to accidentally double push that button and ring your phone. RT @reevesman @blindbargains Do you have the interviews for the 2020 conventions up yet? Patiently waiting. Last Word: The summer may be over; however, the Last Word remains constant with its offering s year round. The audience is listening... in 3d audio Planters Cheez Balls Is Giving Away Shakers Full of That Orange Dust And from Hai, Behold: The Blooper Burger. Your Arteries Will Clog Just Thinking About It We aren't sure what is in store for episode 190. 191, well that looks like it will cover the recently announced Apple event on September 10th. Because, as everyone knows, the trees turn a lovely shade of rose gold each fall around early September.

Airacasts Episode 16 Aira Is Free!   Did you hear the news? Aira is FREE! In this episode we’ll hear all about that journey from Aira’s Communication Manager Marc Da Motta and VP of Products, Greg Stilson. We’ll also have an Agent Profile with Carla Cane. Do you have questions about the new free service? We probably have the answers so come join us.

This Explorer Call features Amy Bernal and Paul Schroder talking about Aira Smart Cities. Greg Stilson brings us info on updates to Horizon, iOS and Android apps, plus Explorer feedback.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is coming up and Paul Schroeder tells us all about it. Explorer Vince Morvillo gives some suggestions of how to get more Aira Access locations in your city. Then it’s time for updates and Greg Stilson brings us a lot of them, for iOS, Android and the Horizon controller. You can use the hash tags #GAAD19 and #EverydayAccess to tell us about your Aira adventures this week. You can also reach your host, Jenine Stanley, jenine.stanley@aira.io. 

We transport you virtually to Anaheim and the recent CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, for Aira's Explorer Stories presentation. Chaired by Amy Bernal, this presentation features Jonathan Mosen and Greg Stilson, as well as some contributions from agents and members of the audience.   And on Jonathan's last Airacast episode, he introduces the new Airacast host, Jenine Stanley, who begins her role as Aira's Brand Ambassador on May 6.

Greg Stilson, Aira's Director of Product Management, speaks with Jonathan Mosen about Aira's partnership with Bose. Greg describes Bose Frames, how and why you might use them, and what the future holds for Bose and Aira. Learn more about Bose Frames on the Bose website.   Australia and New Zealand now have the full range of Aira pricing plans and our Horizon hardware. Learn more on our Australia page or our New Zealand page. There's now a subgroup of Aira's official discussion group, hosted on Groups.io, for Australia and New Zealand Explorers. First, join the main Aira discussion group, then to join the new Down Under subgroup, send a blank email to downunder+subscribe@aira.groups.io   There's an agent profile in this episode. We meet Aira agent Amanda Nuckoles, who describes being an Aira agent is her dream job. In listener comments, we hear feedback from a couple of Australian Airacast listeners.  

We hear some listener comments, Jonathan shares some recent Aira experiences, and we learn about Aira's presentations at CSUN 2019. If you're going to CSUN, do look us up and say hi.   Our featured interview is with Greg Stilson, Aira's Director of Product Management. Greg tells us a bit about himself and describes his role. He talks about what's involved in keeping Aira evolving, and talks Aira on Android, the agent dashboard, the future of Horizon, Aira's acquisition of Sendero's mobile products and more. If you're interested in what makes Aira tick and what the future might hold, this is one you won't want to miss.   We would really appreciate a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast app of choice. Thank you.

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.

Introducing Liz Bottner: AT Specialist, Self Advocate, Blind Hockey Player and Aira User Full Transcript Below. Jeff Thompson sits down for a conversation with Liz bottner. Liz is a dynamic individual who works for the VA as an Assistive Technology (AT) specialist, teaching blinded Veterans about computer technology. Listen as Jeff and Liz delve into her early childhood and schooling, a strong TVI who positively influenced her approach towards self-advocacy throughout her life, and her progress through college and her MBA studies. Learn how Liz actively found work and the round-about road to her current position with the Veteran’s Administration (VA). As we said, Liz is a dynamic person: a fearless goalie on a blind hockey team, a strong advocate for the blindness community and an Aira Explorer who tackles each and every opportunity in life as if it is a challenge to be overcome. Join Jeff Thompson as he engages this fascinating guest as only Jeff can, with insightful questions and inimitable style! Thanks 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 App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store   Full Transcript: Pete Lane: Meet Liz Bottner. Liz Bottner: I am a computer access technology specialist, so I teach access technology to veterans who are blind or who have low vision. Pete Lane: Blind since birth, Liz learned the power of self-advocacy throughout her schooling. Liz Bottner: It's important to have good skills in terms of being able to advocate for yourself to get things done that you need done, when you're not getting what you need from the disability services offices. Pete Lane: All the way through her MBA studies. Liz Bottner: You're your own best advocate. It might be easy to have your TVI do things and help prepare materials for you, but ask about how to do that yourself, because there's most likely going to come a time when you're going to have to have those skills. Pete Lane: Fearless in so many ways. Liz Bottner: I'm not one to turn away a challenge. Pete Lane: In the workplace. Liz Bottner: Don't give up, despite employers having unrealistic expectations of what you can do as a blind person. Pete Lane: In her leisure time and athletic endeavors. Liz Bottner: I did really, and still very, very much enjoy being a goalie. The puck is made of steel. It's three times the size of a standard National Hockey League puck, and it has ball bearings inside of it. It's okay. The equipment works. We're fine. Pete Lane: Throughout her life. Liz Bottner: Drive is realizing that you have a passion for something and just keep pushing and keep doing that thing. When you put yourself out there and keep putting yourself out there, the right experience will come, and you'll be where you're supposed to be. Pete Lane: You can find more podcasts from a blindness perspective on the web at www.blindabilities.com. We're on Facebook and on Twitter, and be sure to download our free apps in the App Store and the Google Play Store. And now, without further ado, let's join Jeff Thompson and Liz Bottner. Liz Bottner: Challenge accepted. Let's do this.   Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities. I'm Jeff Thompson, and today we're talking to Liz Bottner. She is a hockey goalie in a blind league. She's been to college, master's degree, she works for the VA, she's got all sorts of technology stuff, has a lot of experience getting jobs, and she's here to share her story. Liz, welcome to Blind Abilities. Liz Bottner: Thank you, Jeff. Thank you for having me. Hello, everyone. I am Liz Bottner, originally from Delaware, currently living in Connecticut. I do work at the VA. I am a computer access technology specialist, so I teach access technology to veterans who are blind or who have low vision, and I very much enjoy my job. As Jeff said, I am a blind hockey player. I play the position of goalie for the Hartford Braillers, instead of the Hartford Whalers. They do not exist anymore as a hockey team, but Connecticut does have the Hartford Braillers.   Jeff Thompson: That's a good point. You've had quite the journey, being born blind, you've had all the education from working with probably your school district, then into vocational rehab, then into multiple disability services. Liz Bottner: Yes, and some of them were friendly, and some of them weren't. That's why it's important to have good skills, in terms of being able to advocate for yourself to get things done that you need done, when you're not getting what you need from the disability services offices.   Jeff Thompson: You found that out, probably, the hard way, right? Liz Bottner: I did. There were many a night where I would stay up and have to scan page by page books or articles and things like that, so yes.   Jeff Thompson: I've been there. I used to have a big old flatbed scanner. You spend three, four hours just trying to get to your material before you even start doing homework. Liz Bottner: Yeah, and then when you do scan it, you still have to sometimes go back and edit it, which is hard, not being able to necessarily see the printed material. So okay, what is it supposed to say? You don't even have a reference, so you kind of have to guess.   Jeff Thompson: Exactly. What do you do for your job? Liz Bottner: I teach veterans who are blind or who have low vision how to use access technology. I also am able to teach living skills, which both are important areas. My passion, though, is truly access technology. Whatever they have the goals to do, be it sending email to their friends and family or learning about how to be more portable with technology and have a way to consolidate a lot of the devices they're carrying around, be them magnifiers, talking book player, things like that, have that all in one device, which may warrant issuance and training on an iPhone or an iPad.   Jeff Thompson: That's really neat. So you're mostly working with people who are 20 and above. Liz Bottner: It's 60 and above. These are veterans, so their age is generally up there.   Jeff Thompson: Oh, wow. Liz Bottner: A lot of the younger veterans, if they're discharged or if they come back and have blindness, a lot of times it's related to combat, and that's actually their secondary injury to them, and so they're usually seen for their primary injuries, and then at their home station or at some other area of the country that can better serve their missing limb or something like that, and then they get blind rehab later.   Jeff Thompson: So when they come to you they're kind of new into the iPhone itself? Liz Bottner: Yes, many of them, not all. Some do have previous experience, but many of them don't. Many of them have no technology experience, and so it's just starting from scratch.   Jeff Thompson: You're basically iPhone 101 with voice over. Liz Bottner: Yes, or even technology 101. This is an email address. With an email address, you have to have a password.   Jeff Thompson: So you have to be ready for everything? Liz Bottner: Oh yeah, which honestly is to me a very, very positive challenge. I much rather be ready for everything than have a situation where I'm constantly doing the same thing over and over again. That way, I would get bored, and myself and bored do not mix well.   Jeff Thompson: Now, you are an Aira user. Liz Bottner: I am an Aira user, yes.   Jeff Thompson: And the veterans have just jumped on board with Aira. Liz Bottner: Yes, after a full assessment has been conducted, as long as there are goals that support issuance and training, it definitely can be issued to them.   Jeff Thompson: What is that program with Aira? How does it work with the VA? Liz Bottner: They're given an assessment. If it's determined that it's something that would be useful to them and deemed appropriate to train on, then they can receive training. With that, the VA will pay for actual glasses, and then, much like when the VA issues an iPhone, the VA provides the device, and it's up to the veteran or student at that point to then supplement that device with purchasing the plan. The plan that they can purchase is a different plan than those available to non-veteran users, so it's a different price point, but they are responsible, though, for the monthly cost of that plan.   Jeff Thompson: Do you do any of that training? Liz Bottner: I have not yet done Aira training. It's just recently been deemed that it can be issued, but I have not yet.   Jeff Thompson: Well, that's great, the opportunity for them. Liz Bottner: Absolutely. It bridges many different skill areas, from basic living skills to technology to even orientation and mobility in specific cases where it's deemed by the orientation and mobility specialist that that's an appropriate and feasible goal for them. It's all based on goals. It's not just, oh I want this or give me that, it's what are your goals? What devices, if any, can help meet those goals? And then all training, in whatever skill area, is based on that.   Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah. Just like the RSA, everything has to be based off employment goals, education, employment to the workplace and all that. It's great that they do have goals, so they're just not throwing money away on whimsical type of ideas and stuff. When you're 60 and you lose ... you know, macular degeneration or something else, age-onset blindness, I think it's a great tool at that point for different reasons than someone who might be 12. Liz Bottner: Absolutely, especially with the new equipment that Aira has now. It's even simpler to use, and you don't need your own smartphone, which is a problem for some of the students that I work with, because they may not be smartphone candidates for various reasons. But now they are still able to use it, because with the new equipment that Aira has, you don't need to have to have your own smartphone to use it.   Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). They have a blocked-up device that is ... it's a Android device, isn't it? Liz Bottner: Yes.   Jeff Thompson: Yeah, so you have the AT&T device, and it just waves to the glasses? Liz Bottner: I call it the Aira phone, myself, in summer.   Jeff Thompson: The Aira phone. Liz Bottner: Called it the Aira phones.   Jeff Thompson: There we go. Liz Bottner: Yes, the Aira phone.   Jeff Thompson: Turn it on, and you're basically connected. Liz Bottner: Yes.   Jeff Thompson: That's with the Horizon glasses. Liz Bottner: Yes.   Jeff Thompson: With a wider field of view. As a Aira explorer, tell me a little bit how you utilize that on your job or in your daily life. Liz Bottner: In my daily life, I have used Aira for many things. Most recently, and in my mind very much impressively, I was out of town at a conference and had to navigate from the hotel to an Apple Store, because my phone was just being completely ridiculous and not working.   Jeff Thompson: That's when I met you. You were at the point of taking off. Liz Bottner: Yes. When you and I met, that's when I was like, "Well, I'm going to have to go to the Apple Store." So I was able to use Aira to help navigate me from the hotel ... well, actually, I was working the Aira booth at the time. I was volunteering with them. I navigated using Aira from the Aira booth to the front of the hotel. Luckily, I had forethought to link my Lyft account to Aira, because I was getting very, very limited use of my touchscreen at that point on my phone. Before I even kind of planned out my journey, I was thinking, "Oh, great, I'm going to have to have a taxi and pay cash. That's not good." Luckily, though, I was able to use Aira. I called a Lyft. See, this is one of the only times where I will say that I was actually grateful to Siri on the iPhone. 99.9% of the time, it doesn't work, and you have to end up doing what you want to do manually. Liz Bottner: But I was able to ask Siri where the closest Apple Store was. She told me, and I was able to give that address to the Aira agent, who was able to call Lyft and track it for me. My guide dog and I hopped into the Lyft vehicle, we hopped out, I prayed to the universe that my touchscreen would work again, as I'm standing there in front of the mall, wearing my Aira-Google Glass, my guide dog and my smartphone at the entrance to this mall where I've never been before.   Jeff Thompson: Had never been to. Liz Bottner: In no time at all, I was able to, without a hitch, get into the mall and navigate to the Apple Store and do what I needed to do, just like any other person. Could I have done it without Aira? Absolutely.   Jeff Thompson: Just gave you more independence, more information that enhanced the opportunity that you had to get there. Liz Bottner: Yes.   Jeff Thompson: Plus, you were limping with a broken phone. Liz Bottner: Right.   Jeff Thompson: I mean, you came in there, barely dragging in there. I mean, I know what it's like. Hey, if you don't have your phone, what a weird feeling it is when your phone's not working. Liz Bottner: Absolutely.   Jeff Thompson: Some people talk about, you know, there's some really big things. Some people ran the Boston Marathon. Some people put something from Ikea ... Greg Stilson put together a hammock. Is it always something big, or is it the small things? Liz Bottner: It is not always something big. It could be something very small, and for me, I have had those experiences when I have needed to match an outfit for a banquet, in packing things in my suitcase. Or even identifying the temperature on my thermostat, because while adjusting the thermostat is accessible with buttons and a remote control, the display is visual. Could I use TapTapSee and take 20-some pictures potentially? Yeah, I could do that, and it might tell me, "Your thermostat's set at such-and-such a temperature," but I could use the Aira service, and in two seconds flat have my answer. Liz Bottner: Sometimes, though, it is big things. For me, I must say that my absolute 120% favorite way of getting around an airport now is using Aira. It's so much more fluid. I can get access to things, whether it be information or location of somewhere, when I want, on my schedule, and not have to wait for airport staff, which in some cases can take a very long time and cause anxiety, especially if you're potentially missing your flight.   Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah, I've been corralled by assistants, and "Sit here and wait." You just wait, and time's ticking, and you just always ... And then someone comes up with a wheelchair or a cart or, you know, it's something. They have no clue, you know.   Jeff Thompson: Now, you're pretty versatile in your tools. You're not just locked into a PC? Liz Bottner: No.   Jeff Thompson: Tell us what you use on a daily basis. Liz Bottner: I personally use a Mac, and then at work, I use a PC. I like both for different reasons. I think it's imperative to know both. I prefer Mac for some things, and I also knew I had to learn it, so I just decided okay, I need to just learn this. Instead of buying a new Windows machine at the time, was fortunate enough to be awarded a scholarship, with which I purchased a Mac. It was during the semester, and I kind of gave myself, at the end of the semester, once I had everything done, I would really dive in and learn it when I was in grad school. But also realizing that on the employment side, where I work, it's a Windows-based environment, so I have to keep my Windows skills up. Liz Bottner: Each person is going to have different preferences for tools, but definitely as someone who is in the teaching field, I feel like it is my duty to show people as many tools as might be appropriate in certain situations, or not even in certain situations. It's here are the tools that we have on the table. Here's one that might be appropriate, but you're actually going to make that decision for yourself, as to when to use which tools, because not everyone has the same preference for tool in a certain situation.   Jeff Thompson: In the PC world, what screen reader do you utilize? Liz Bottner: JAWS mainly for work, but I also make use of Narrator in Windows 10, as well as NVDA. In some instances, Narrator does better than JAWS does, in terms of reading some aspects of the computer.   Jeff Thompson: And that's improving all the time. Liz Bottner: It is.   Jeff Thompson: And as for your smartphone device? Liz Bottner: I use an iPhone. That's my device of choice.   Jeff Thompson: Yeah, that's quite the tool. I can't believe how much I use the iPhone to kind of replace a lot of the stuff that I used to do on the computers, mostly social stuff, keeping up on your emails and calendars, everything. And it seems like it just transfers real well to the Mac, back and forth, and yeah, I feel really connected. If I miss a meeting, it's my own fault. Liz Bottner: Exactly.   Jeff Thompson: All that you do for work, all that technology and all that, how did you get there? Let's start with college. How did you transition from high school to college? Liz Bottner: I had two teachers of visually impaired growing up, one of whom I had for most of my high school career, and the other one I had for the last two years or so. But my first TVI, Neil, was truly, truly instrumental in providing me the foundation of here are the basics, and it's up to you to kind of figure out the rest, and really giving me the drive to do that and explore things on my own and advocate for myself, because no one else knew how to do that better than I did. I mean, that still holds true today. With guidance from Neil, I was able to kind of go into college feeling ready for being able to advocate for myself and even teaching a lot of other people. Even the disability services office, sometimes they might not understand how to use a certain piece of equipment or what was going on, and so I was able to help them with things. Liz Bottner: When I was at Ithaca College, my first two years of undergraduate degree, I did a work-study in the disabilities office, and so that was kind of cool. And being provided with the basics from my TVI and just having the drive to just run with it and teach myself a lot of the other things, with technology mainly. And I would teach others as well, which helped me gain more skills.   Jeff Thompson: Let's go back to a word that you used, and I really like this word: "drive". Can you explain that to the listeners? Liz Bottner: Drive is realizing that you have a passion for something, or that you're invested in something, and taking that investment and realizing that's something you need to keep doing, and just keep pushing and keep doing that thing, because it gives you great fulfillment to be able to do whatever it might be.   Jeff Thompson: And overcome any roadblock or hurdle in the way. Liz Bottner: Yes. And not let those roadblocks or hurdles stand in the way, because of that drive that you have to pursue whatever it might be.   Jeff Thompson: Poof, gone. Liz Bottner: Yep.   Jeff Thompson: Not always poof, gone, but it takes some time. Liz Bottner: It's also good, in using technology, to know when applicable or appropriate the non-tech skills for doing things. I mean, I'm also of the very strong opinion that if you're a user of Braille, that you better have a Perkins Brailler somewhere around your area, be that at a workplace or home environment, because there might be times when you're going to have to use that. Technology fails, the Perkins does not.   Jeff Thompson: Right. Liz Bottner: At least, the old metal ones. I'm not a huge fan of the plastic new ones at all, but the metal ones are tried and true, yes, I work all the time. Exactly.   Jeff Thompson: I had mine within three feet. That's why I could do that. Liz Bottner: Nice.   Jeff Thompson: Talking about basic skills and all that, how did you learn your basic skills growing up? Liz Bottner: When I was in preschool, I would say about three or so, it was when I believe I started both with the long cane, just basic cane skills, and Braille. I mean, by the time I was five, I was reading basic chapter books, I believe. Not anything major, but children's books. So from a very, very young age, and also, my mom was and still is a very, very strong advocate for myself, as well as my sisters. In my learning Braille when I was younger, she would just put Braille labels on different things around the house. I mean, when you're sighted, you have print all around you. As a child who was blind, especially as one who doesn't have any vision, as I myself do not, I did not have opportunity to look around and see things. And so she would put Braille on the toilet or the refrigerator, whatever it might be. That way, I would be able to associate the word with the object.   Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah, that's pretty good of her to have done that, to label stuff and get you used to it. Liz Bottner: Yes.   Jeff Thompson: And make it purposeful. Liz Bottner: Absolutely, and give me that immersion, as Braille isn't readily available in society as print is, I otherwise do not think I would able to get as readily.   Jeff Thompson: The first time you went over for a sleepover somewhere, did you ask the parents there? There's no Braille. Liz Bottner: No, I don't know.   Jeff Thompson: When you went into college, what was your experience like for the disability services office? Liz Bottner: I think at college, this is the first college I went to in undergrad, they were great. They were more than willing to accommodate me, and they respected that I knew what I needed and was able to advocate for myself, which sometimes isn't the case. They were great people, and I was really very fortunate.   Jeff Thompson: You went to a couple different colleges, right? Liz Bottner: Yes, I ended up transferring halfway through my undergrad degree to University of Delaware. Unfortunately, while financially it was definitely a lot more feasible, academically and just every other area, it was not the experience that I wanted it to be. And I'm truly glad that I had the experience and the foundation of all the classes and the college experience in general that I got at Ithaca, because that better prepared me for being able to deal with, in my opinion, the subpar experience that was my attending the University of Delaware.   Jeff Thompson: Now, when you're talking about subpar, are you saying that the teachers didn't challenge you? Liz Bottner: Yeah, I was not challenged. Some of the professors just did not want to accommodate me, despite my attempting multiple times to say, "This needs to happen." There was a lot of pushback. Unfortunately, I ended up dropping one of my majors, because it was just too stressful for me to keep going, because of all the back and forth. I at that point just wanted to graduate. When I was in Ithaca, I was a double major in computer science and philosophy and religion, which was awesome. I was very much happy with how things were going and totally would have continued there and gotten those majors, but as I said, financially, it was more feasible for me to transfer. But in that, the computer science did not end up happening for various reasons, and so I ended up dropping it. They did not have a philosophy and religion double major, so I ended up graduating with a philosophy major and then minoring in religious studies.   Jeff Thompson: Upon graduation, you started your employment search. Liz Bottner: Yes, and that was very unfruitful, to be completely honest. In terms of working with the state vocational rehabilitation agency, I just was not having luck. They were not helpful to me, and luckily, in part I'm sure to my awesome TVI that I mentioned earlier, Neil Anzilli and me, if people aren't helping you, you need to go out and get it yourself, as long as you know what you want. I was able on my own, pretty much, to look for job leads and apply, and I had some interviews and some leads, but nothing really ever panned out. So for about two years, after about that point, I said okay, something needs to happen. I can't keep doing this. Then I decided that I really wanted to go back ... My whole reasoning for getting the computer science degree, assistive technology was and is a very big interest of mine, and so I wanted to in some way get into that, whether it was in developing things or whatever it might be. I still had that kind of in the back of my mind. Liz Bottner: When I graduated with my bachelor's, I pretty much knew that that wasn't going to get me where I wanted to go, just because of the nature of those degrees. I didn't want to become a professor or anything like that. I knew that, but at the time I just wanted to graduate and be done, just because of the experience at University of Delaware.   Jeff Thompson: How disheartening was that to realize you had the degrees, though, to go out there and look for work, and yet for two years, were getting turned down? Liz Bottner: Absolutely heartbreaking. Sometimes I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere.   Jeff Thompson: Do you relate it to blindness? Liz Bottner: Yes, and it's very hard in that line of experience not to think, okay, it's me, it's definitely got to be me. There's something wrong with me, because I mean, I'm going on these interviews, and they're not calling me back, or they're not getting in touch with me at all, so obviously, there's something that I'm doing or not doing. But in all actuality, I felt a lot of the times, it isn't you as the person seeking employment, it's the employer not knowing how to deal, or not wanting to deal. Liz Bottner: In my case, in wanting to go back in to do something with technology, I really felt passionate about teaching it, and so in looking at jobs, a lot of them required a master's degree. Even before then, even before I started undergrad, I had every intention of going and getting a possible master's degree, with the caveat that I wouldn't pay for it, because I didn't want to be in any more debt than I already was with my undergraduate loans. Liz Bottner: Lo and behold, I, on an email listserv one day, came across a posting for a tuition-free graduate school experience halfway across the country at Northern Illinois University, which is near Chicago. I reached out to the director of the program and took my GRE, and then I luckily was able to go to NIU and successfully earn my master's degree, which then opened up a lot more doors for me in terms of employment.   Jeff Thompson: And what was it like after you received that degree, to search for employment? Liz Bottner: Then it was a lot easier, because I had more certification, more qualifications than I did before. In fact, I had done my internship at the VA where I currently work now. In getting my degree, I spent four months there completing an internship, and they at the time did not have any positions open. And so I, again, on an email list saw the position in Atlanta, of all places, for an assistive technology instructor, and I, honest to gosh, on a whim I threw out my resume, thinking this is just going to be experience. I don't know that I really want to go there. I know no one there. But whatever, it'll be experience, and I'll at least have that interview under my belt, and that experience will be good. Liz Bottner: We did a phone interview, and then from that point on, I ended up landing a job there and was there for about a year. You never know where the next opportunity's going to come, and you just kind of have to take things as they come. And even if it's something that you're like, what? No way. Nothing's going to come of it, I'm just going to throw my resume out there, and they're not going to do anything with it, or it'll just be interview experience. I have no desire to go there, in terms of location. Be careful what you say, because you actually may end up there. And it might be, as it was for me, a very, very good experience. I was able to take away a lot of good things from it, good contacts, good networking, good experiences in terms of location. Living in a city has its perks, definitely. It was definitely bittersweet purchasing that one-way ticket when I was moving out there. I'm like, well, usually you purchase tickets, and it's like okay, round trip. I'm like, wait a minute, no, this is not round trip, I'm moving here.   Jeff Thompson: One way, wow. Liz Bottner: I think that was the most surreal thing of the whole experience for me.   Jeff Thompson: But then, after a year, you purchased a one-way ticket again. Liz Bottner: Yes, technically. A car was involved. I was not driving it, however. Since it was moving all of my stuff, I relocated then. I had several months in between jobs, actually, from when I left Atlanta and when I started in Connecticut.   Jeff Thompson: Building networks and all that stuff, that paid off, and then you landed the job at the VA, where you are today. Liz Bottner: Yes, there was a position open. They asked me if I wanted to apply. I said absolutely, and now here I am.   Jeff Thompson: Hobbies. You have a particular hobby that I don't think a lot of people have heard about, but you were telling me about blind hockey. Liz Bottner: Yes, blind hockey is a relatively new sport, but it definitely is a USA Hockey-sanctioned sport now, and there are several teams across the country. The team that I am a goalie for is the Hartford Braillers in Connecticut. Instead of the Hartford Whalers, we're the Hartford Braillers.   Jeff Thompson: I like it. What got you interested in that? Liz Bottner: A friend of mine mentioned to me that I should try blind hockey. I had skated before when I was very young. It had been some time. This is about three years ago. He said that since I had no vision, I would primarily be best suited as a goalie, and so I'm like, well, all right, sign me up. I will at least try it. I did really, and still very, very much enjoy being a goalie. I've never tried any other position and don't want to.   Jeff Thompson: Describe the puck to everybody. Liz Bottner: The puck is made of steel. It's three times the size of a standard National Hockey League puck, and it has ball bearings inside of it.   Jeff Thompson: And you are trying to put your body in front of that thing? Liz Bottner: Yes. And the nets that are used are a foot shorter than the regular NHL, National Hockey League nets, so it's easier to keep the puck lower to the ground, and you don't have to worry about high shots as much.   Jeff Thompson: As much? Liz Bottner: Yes. That has happened. I am witness to that. But that's why they make equipment, so whenever that happens, I'm like, "It's okay, the equipment works. We're fine."   Jeff Thompson: Well, that's good. That's good. So you got the chest protector, you got the shoulder guards, the waffle, the glove, the helmet, the throat protection? Liz Bottner: The leg pads. Yep.   Jeff Thompson: Everything. Liz Bottner: Everything.   Jeff Thompson: Awesome. It's a fun sport, it's really fun. Liz Bottner: It's definitely fun. I would encourage anyone, if you have the opportunity to try it, definitely do it.   Jeff Thompson: All the rules are the same? Liz Bottner: One of the rules that's different is that before a shot is attempted, you have to pass the puck. That way, the goalie can better track it. Other than that, to my knowledge, all the other rules apply.   Jeff Thompson: You mean pass the puck once you're in the blue line? Liz Bottner: Once you're in scoring range, that puck has to get passed once, and then you can shoot.   Jeff Thompson: Okay. So you can't just break away? Liz Bottner: No.   Jeff Thompson: Interesting. So how's your team do? Liz Bottner: Our team is awesome. I am of the very, very strong opinion that we have the best team in blind hockey.   Jeff Thompson: And now that they're sanctioned, they'll be able to do the Olympics, won't they? Paralympics? Liz Bottner: Not yet. We're still waiting on a few other countries for that. We do, though, have this year for the first time ever a US National Team, of which I am very, very hopeful that some of my fellow Braillers will be represented on that team. We'll find out later in August who actually makes the final team roster, but two of my fellow teammates were selected in the first round of tryouts, and so we'll find out if they make the team. But in October, at a USA Hockey event to be held in Pittsburgh, there will be a US versus Canada series that'll be played that weekend, which is the 12th through the 14th of October. That's when the USA Blind Hockey Summit takes place.   Jeff Thompson: That's awesome. Go Braillers. Liz Bottner: Yes, go Braillers, for sure.   Jeff Thompson: Now, you also like snowboarding. Liz Bottner: Yes, I for two years have attended the United States Association of Blind Athletes ski/snowboard event in Breckenridge, Colorado. I had skied once when I was very, very young, and the first year I went, I was kind of debating back and forth with myself, do I try skiing or do I do snowboarding? It had been a while since I had skied. I really didn't have the memory of what that felt like, but I ultimately decided, after being told that snowboarding was a lot more challenging, I said, "Okay, sign me up." I'm not one to turn away a challenge. I said, "Challenge accepted. Let's do this." I ultimately fell in love with it.   Jeff Thompson: I like that, "Challenge accepted." It's that drive again. Liz Bottner: Exactly.   Jeff Thompson: For someone who is transitioning from high school to college, what advice would you give that person? Liz Bottner: You're your own best advocate. It might be easy to have your TVI do things and help prepare materials for you, but ask about how to do that yourself, because there's most likely going to come a time where you're going to have to have those skills. It may not be easy, and you may not want to, but in the end it's going to be of benefit to you in the long run, not only in college, but also in your adult working life.   Jeff Thompson: What advice would you have for someone who has gone through college and is just now embarking on a career that they want? What would you tell them? Liz Bottner: Don't give up, despite employers having unrealistic expectations of what you can do as a blind person. Be true to yourself. Realize that yes, you do have these skills, and keep putting yourself out there. It might take a while, and it definitely is frustrating at times. I speak from experience, but as hard as it is to just want to give up and say forget it, don't do that, because when you put yourself out there and keep putting yourself out there, the right experience will come, and you'll be where you're supposed to be. Versus if you don't put yourself out there, it's at your disservice, because you're not going to get where you need to be.   Jeff Thompson: Excellent. We've been speaking to Liz Bottner. She's from Delaware, works at the VA, and she's heavily into tech. And she's a hockey goalie. So Liz, I really want to thank you for coming on the Blind Abilities, sharing your stories, sharing your experiences. Great advice, and good luck with that hockey career. Liz Bottner: Thank you. My pleasure.   Jeff Thompson: Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Liz Bottner: You're welcome. My pleasure.   Jeff Thompson: Bye-bye. Liz Bottner: Bye. Pete Lane: This concludes our conversation with Liz Bottner. We'd like to thank Liz for taking the time to chat with Jeff on Blind Abilities. Once again, you can find more podcasts with a blindness perspective on our website at www.blindabilities.com or on our free apps in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. We'd like to thank Chee Chau for the fantastic music. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great day.   [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.    

Technology Podcast Episode 74: July 2018Lucy Greco is with Stuart to talk about the recent release of Dictation Bridge, a solution offering a free link between your screen reader and the Microsoft Speech Recognition, or Dragon Naturally Speaking systems.We have follow-up information regarding the availability of the FlickType app, which Dave Nason told us about last month.Stuart tells us about the Freedom Scientific seminar and huge giveaways, taking place at NCBI on July 13th.Rebecca Curtis from NCBI's Library and Media service joins us to talk about the library's production of Twin Vision books.Greg Stilson, product manager with Aira is here to tell us all about the service and explains how people in Ireland can now get involved in an exciting pilot test.Finally, NCBI's Fionnuala Murphy is with Stuart to announce the winner of our podcast competition, which we launched in June.Support the show (https://www.ncbi.ie/supporting-us/donate-now/)

An Aira Update: With Greg Stilson, Aira Agents, Leadership and Explorers    blind Abilities presents an update on all things Aira. Join Jeff and Pete with their guest, Greg Stilson, Director, Aira Product Management, as he joins the podcast once again, this time to share his thoughts around his recent career change to Aira. Hear Greg’s story of how he first learned of Aira, and how that grew into a passion for the product, and eventually his decision to come on board. Greg is joined by a cast of contributors who also share their ideas and opinions about Aira, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, as Aira unveils their new Horizon glasses which should appear in the hands of Explorers later this year. Set a few minutes aside as Blind Abilities offers an update on Aira, the product, the agents, the Leadership and, most importantly, the Aira Explorers who offer their live comments from the Aira Explorers What’s App platform!    The following participants contributed their comments to this podcast:   * Aira Team Members:  Greg Stilson, Director Product Management Amy Bernal, Vice President, Customer Experience Emily Hill, Agent Analyst Patrick Lane, Agent Analyst  Carlos Duarte, Aira Customer Care Agent   * Scott Brockman, CEO, Memphis International Airport    * Aira Explorers: Brooklyn Rodden  Stacy Fuehrer  Celeste Whelk Robert Stigile  Hope Paulos Blaine Deutscher  Cheela Daniele Robles  Juanita Herrera  Cheryl spencer  Aleeha Dudley   Tiffany Manosh Veronica Martinez    Check out more on Aira, and subscribe   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 App on the App Store.

You're Invited... To a virtual Super Bowl party with Aira on Sunday, Feb 4th from 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EST. Listen in as Aira agents Patrick and Emily provide the best-in-class live description of the game to Greg Stilson, football fan and Aira Explorer, who is attending the big game in Minneapolis, MN. Greg will use Aira to get play-by-play visual descriptions of all the exciting action on the field, the commercials, and the half-time show. Aira agents will provide vivid audio narration as Greg sees the field for the first time, shops for souvenirs, navigates the stadium, and experiences the energy of the crowd. The best part: you can listen to the entire experience live. While most of us will be watching from home, Aira intends to make it easier to get a little closer to the big game. Ways to Listen You don’t need to be a current Aira Explorer to listen in -- anyone can join the party starting at 6:00 p.m. ET by doing any of the following: 1Call 1-877-568-4108 and enter 536565714 2Listen to the Webcast 3Listen on YouTube 4Listen on Facebook Live  Don't Forget to Share Tweet us @airaio on gameday using #airabowl. Tell us about your favorite commercials, comment on the halftime show, and of course let us know who you’re rooting for! Have Questions or Need Help? Contact support@aira.io.   A Heads Up The Aira Virtual Super Bowl party is part of a live stream of Greg's experience at the big game in Minneapolis. If you are also watching the game on television, following on social media, or listening on the radio, be advised that there may be a delay. What is Aira? Ever spoken with an Aira Agent? Aira agents are trained and certified professionals that provide vivid descriptions and live information to people who are blind or low vision to greatly enhance an experience or to accomplish any task. From stopping for morning coffee, to making that dream journey around the globe, or experiencing an iconic sporting event; as Aira Explorers have said: “Aira agents provide audio description of life” Advanced wearable technology with wireless access to a distributed network of trained human professionals unlocks the potential for Aira explorers to efficiently accomplish any task, big or small. Learn more about Aira at 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 App on the App Store.

Greg Stilson, senior Product Manager at HumanWare, talks about the new Brailliant BI14 Braille display and how it is a perfect fit for the mobile iPhone user.  Greg talks about his Aira explorer experiences and gives us an overview of his nearly 11 years at HumanWare. Join Greg and Jeff Thompson of the Blind Abilities team and learn about the latest from HumanWare, their parent company, Greg’s virtual navigational journeys with Aira and what’s this about a Hammock? You can find out more about HumanWare products on the web. And read all about the Brailliant below   Quick Overview of the Brailliant BI14 •Rugged design built for the user on the go •Very light: 285 G 0.63 lbs. •Ergonomic traditional 8-dot braille input keys •Comfortable typing experience with a note taker style spacebar •14 high quality braille cells with unique touch sensor routers •HumanWare signature thumb keys •Built-in intelligence allows for increased productivity anywhere •Pair up to 5 Bluetooth devices at once Plus one USB connection •Brailliant Sync ensures notes taken on the BI14 are available everywhere! •15 - 20 hours of battery life •Size: 166x100x23 [mm] •Weight: 285 grams, 0.63 lbs   Smart things come in small packages  In today’s fast-paced world, vision-impaired professionals and students need a device that lets them stay connected and stay productive on the go. Our latest innovation? The smart and compact Brailliant BI14. Our smallest braille display yet, it’s designed for ultimate efficiency without sacrificing ergonomics or comfort. So you can stay on track anytime, anywhere.    Stay on track when you’re on the go  Designed to boost productivity whether you’re at the office or out and about, the Brailliant BI14 boasts cutting-edge intelligence and innovative features made with the mobile professional in mind. •Rugged design made for mobility •Stable connectivity across multiple devices •Small and light to fit easily into your jacket or bag •Compact design with maximum comfort—type easily for hours on the ergonomic braille keyboard •Features 14 high quality braille cells with cursor routers (the same used on both our Brailliant and BrailleNote devices) •Reduced wrist fatigue thanks to our signature thumb keys—pan and navigate the display without taking your fingers off the braille display •Navigation joystick that makes it easier than ever to use your paired Apple device—simply flick the joystick to mimic touchscreen swiping •Micro USB for charging and connection to PC •Up to 20 hours of battery life   Connect to your favorite devices in seconds From daily commutes to business trips, staying connected when you’re on the move is more important than ever. That’s why we’ve designed the Brailliant BI14 to pair instantly with iOS devices, so you never have to miss an email, deadline or conference call again.  You can connect your BI14 with up to five iOS devices at once with Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) pairing. Simply unlock your iPhone or laptop and VoiceOver will instantly notify your BI14, translating all of your data into braille in real time.  Your BI14 even comes with a USB connection so you can stay charged on the go and keep braille at your fingertips anytime, anywhere.   Stay in sync •The Brailliant BI14 internal notes app makes it easier than ever to take notes in your meetings—in contracted or uncontracted braille. •To sync your notes with your other devices, simply download the Brailliant Sync app from the Apple App Store and set up your email account. •Next time you pair your BI14 with another device, your notes will be automatically synchronized. •Access them in your iPhone Notes app or your Outlook Notes folder, along with any other device you have connected to your email account. •If you want to take notes on another device, just make sure you’re connected to your email account and they will be automatically synched with your BI14.   Internal intelligence  The Brailliant BI14 was designed to be as user friendly as it is intelligent. A simple switch on the back of the device lets you know whether you’re using the Brailliant’s internal applications or if you have the device set to control other paired devices such as your iOS device.  With or without a pairing to an iOS device, the BI14 makes it easier than ever to: •Take notes in a meeting or class with the internal notes application •Keep track of time thanks to the internal clock •Time how long tasks take with the stopwatch application •And much more.   Mobility made easy With its innovative and comprehensive family of braille display devices, HumanWare is changing the way people who are blind communicate, study and work. Now with the launch of the compact and affordable Brailliant BI14, you can experience cutting-edge braille technology that keeps you connected like never  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 App on the App Store.

This is Episode2 of Braillecast. Thank you for listening! Our host Dave Williams discusses the BrailleNote Touch, interviewing several teaching assistants at schools in the UK where the Touch is used. He talks to Greg Stilson from Humanware about the product. In Braille News As of the Windows 10 Creators Update, Braille support is now ... Read more...

1642 BrailleNote Touch Tablet (Oct. 12, 2016) Show Notes The BrailleNote Touch combines an Android-based tablet with a Braille display and detachable Braille keyboard to form a powerful note taker. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey speak with Greg Stilson, Blindness Products Manager from HumanWare about this new device and how it has been enhanced with … Continue reading 1642 BrailleNote Touch Tablet (Oct. 12, 2016) →

Greg Stilson from HumanWare talks about the latest update 4.7.2 and how to get your favorite podcasts to automatically download onto your Victor Stream. Be sure to get the latest update and enjoy getting your morning paper auto-magically, as Greg puts it. Join Jeff Thompson and Greg Stilson as they converse about the retro feel yet the tech of today found in the Victor Stream. You can find more about HumanWare and their products on the web at www.HumanWare.com Follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities Pete Lane @Lane7625 Cheryl @MoeLucie Jeff Thompson @JThompson6835 Get the Free Blind Abilities App from the App Store@MoeLucie.  

In this episode of the Mystic Access Podcast, we are joined by Greg Stilson, Blindness Products Manager at Humanware.  Greg is excited to tell us about the new BrailleNote Touch.  This is the next generation BrailleNote tablet.  It has the familiarity of both Keysoft and mainstream Android applications.  Yes, you can install and use third party Android apps on the BrailleNote Touch. Greg explains all.  What makes the Touch so innovative?  Why would you want one if you already own an Android device and a braille display?  Find out during this comprehensive interview. Mystic Access also has a big surprise somewhere in this episode that we're very excited to share with you!

In this episode of the Mystic Access Podcast, we are joined by Greg Stilson, Blindness Products Manager at Humanware.  Greg is excited to tell us about the new BrailleNote Touch.  This is the next generation BrailleNote tablet.  It has the familiarity of

In this episode of the Mystic Access Podcast, we are joined by Greg Stilson, Blindness Products Manager at Humanware.  Greg is excited to tell us about the new BrailleNote Touch.  This is the next generation BrailleNote tablet.  It has the familiarity of both Keysoft and mainstream Android applications.  Yes, you can install and use third party Android apps on the BrailleNote Touch. Greg explains all.  What makes the Touch so innovative?  Why would you want one if you already own an Android device and a braille display?  Find out during this comprehensive interview. Mystic Access also has a big surprise somewhere in this episode that we're very excited to share with you!

In this episode of the Mystic Access Podcast, we are joined by Greg Stilson, Blindness Products Manager at Humanware.  Greg is excited to tell us about the new BrailleNote Touch.  This is the next generation BrailleNote tablet.  It has the familiarity of both Keysoft and mainstream Android applications.  Yes, you can install and use third party Android apps on the BrailleNote Touch. Greg explains all.  What makes the Touch so innovative?  Why would you want one if you already own an Android device and a braille display?  Find out during this comprehensive interview. Mystic Access also has a big surprise somewhere in this episode that we're very excited to share with you!

Features On MainMenu For May 29 2015 include: Greg Stilson from Humanware introduces us to the new internet radio feature in the latest BrailleNote Apex Keysoft upgrade. MainMenu staff member David Woodbridge continues his new Apple Watch tutorial: Takes us on a tour of the Apple Watch home screen. Shows us how to set the accessibility shortcut on the Apple Watch. Shows us VoiceOver gestures for use on the Apple Watch. And, shows us how to change the VoiceOver settings on the Apple Watch.

MainMenu Features For May 22 2015: Descriptive Video Update: The latest on how ACB is working to advocate for descriptive video with NetFlix and others. Plus some ideas for how you too can advocate for descriptive video in many different ways. Humanware Releases Keysoft version 9.5 for BrailleNote Apex: The new release became available from the Humanware website on May 20th and Greg Stilson from Humanware demonstrates the new feature which allows entering math expressions on your Apex in UEB Braille. Apple Watch is one of the hottest new technologies today: MainMenu staff member David Woodbridge gives us a comprehensive look at how you can use the Apple iOS app for Apple Watch to setup and control your new Apple Watch. Be watching for a MainMenu special broadcast all about the Apple Watch in the near future. HIMS Inc has announced some new and exciting products: And, ACB Radio Assistant Managing Director Jeff Bishop interviews a representative from HIMS about the latest new blindness products from HIMS Inc. MainMenu will also be airing more coverage in June on the soon to be released Windows 10. You will not want to miss it.

Here we begin with David Tanner who interviews Greg Stilson at CSun 2015 about new products and updates coming from Humanware. We also listen to David Woodbridge as he demonstrates the playlist interface in ITunes 12.

This week, MainMenu Host David Tanner interviews Greg Stilson from Humanware about all the great new features in the latest BrailleNote/VoiceNote firmware release, Keysoft version 9.4.1. Thanks to the fine folks at Blind Bargains we present their interview with a representative from Envision America recorded at the recent CSUN Technology and Persons With Disabilities conference held in March 2014. Envision America announces talking perscriptions are now available from another large Drug Store chain. And thanks again to Blind Bargains we present their interview with Abisee about the latest products to make your life easier. Remember that MainMenu will be bringing you additional coverage from the CSUN conference over the coming weeks. So do not miss our coverage of CSUN 2014 here on MainMenu.

We bring you the most up-to-date information on iOS and BrailleNote new software releases here on Main Menu this week to keep you current and completely informed. MainMenu staff member David Woodbridge introduces us to the new features in the new iOS 7.1 release for your iDevice. And, Greg Stilson, Blindness Product Manager for Humanware, brings us three presentations about the new KeyMaps application in the new 9.4.1 upgrade for the BrailleNote Apex. We thank the fine folks at Humanware for allowing us to air these presentations on MainMenu. They are also available for download at the Humanware website. Keeping you up-to-date with the very latest news and information on technologies that enrich the lives of blind and visually impaired persons is our business here at MainMenu.

On MainMenu this week David Tanner interviews Greg Stilson from Humanware about the latest things going on at Humanware, including new products, new upgrades, and much more. Then David Woodbridge from visionaustralia.org joins us for a demonstration of the Skype Out function and shows us how to retrieve voicemail and take notes with this great feature for Mac and Windows. You will not want to miss the information and interesting content in this show for this week. So join us and be a part of what is going on on MainMenu.