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Transcription Notes “Upili program”? Yes and it isn't even a misspelling. Our guest, Carla Birnberg will tell us all about Upili, where it comes from and what it is. Carla started life in Pittsburg, but nearly thirty years ago she ended up in Austin, TX. Prior to Austin she worked in North Carolina where she owned her own personal trainer business. She sold that company when she moved to Austin which was due to marriage. Carla has always been quite the storyteller. Her Bachelors degree was in English Literature, but her mom convinced her to go to graduate school where she earned a Master's degree in Educational Counseling. After her move to Austin she became a successful blogger and internet writer for a number of major brands. Four years ago she, as she would say, pivoted to working with the Next Step Foundation to help persons with disabilities in East Africa. We have quite the informative and interesting conversations about disabilities and how they are viewed in Kenya as opposed to the United States. Carla makes a strong case for why in reality the treatment of persons with disabilities between the two countries is not too different although in Kenya possibly the treatment of people with disabilities there is more visibly negative. Carla does say overall the views of us are pretty similar. While you may hear some things discussed that have come up in other episodes of Unstoppable Mindset I think you will discover in Carla a person with a wealth of knowledge. Among other things, she describes how in Kenya where the Upili program is used, counselors with disabilities are brough into schools and organizations so the people there see good models to enrich and inspire them. This was a fun and wonderful conversation. I hope you enjoy it. About the Guest: Carla has dedicated her professional journey to cultivating connections, whether between individuals, places, or concepts. As a passionate advocate for amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, she most recently wove together her gift for ethical storytelling, her passion for uplifting others, and her academic experience/Master's degree in Educational Counseling to create the Upili program. Upili, Kiswahili for secondary as in secondary schools, engages Counselors with Disabilities to provide group therapy for Students with Disabilities in Kenyan “special schools.” (In Kenya, Students with Disabilities are educated at “special schools” according to their disability, e.g., schools for the blind, schools for the deaf, etc.) Youth with Disabilities are 10 times more likely to suffer from depression, especially in East Africa where stigmatization, marginalization and discrimination are still prevalent. The lack of early intervention of essential psychosocial support creates additional barriers that keep Persons with Disabilities from being able to obtain and maintain meaningful employment. Next Step Foundation's Upili Program addresses this pervasive mental health challenge by providing support for secondary school Students with Disabilities, their families, and communities. By meeting the psychosocial needs of students, training teachers, staff and peers to serve as “psychological first responders,” and offering support to parents and caregivers the Upili Program instills self-confidence, improves academic performance and provides the tools to successfully navigate future discrimination so that Youth with Disabilities can achieve economic independence. In her recent role as the Chief Culture and Inclusion Officer at Stepwise Inc., Carla played a pivotal role in advancing impact sourcing initiatives. Stepwise, a frontrunner in the impact sourcing movement and the first B Corp certified company in East Africa, benefited from Carla's leadership in leveraging AI technology to empower marginalized groups, particularly individuals with disabilities and young women, enabling their full participation in the digital economy. Driven by a commitment to fostering a positive organizational culture, Carla has created initiatives aimed at enhancing employee retention amidst Stepwise's rapid growth. Her innovative approaches, including "stay interviews," upskilling opportunities, and mentorship programs, have infused the company's core values into daily operations, cultivating a workplace where employees are not only motivated to come to work but also eager to remain with the organization, even across vast distances. As a collaborative leader Carla has developed and implemented comprehensive training and support programs for cultural integration within organizations undergoing expansion through acquisitions. Her approach, which includes individual and group coaching as well as fostering cultural sensitivity, has proven instrumental in navigating organizational transitions. Carla's earlier career in marketing showcased her aptitude for connecting communities, influencers, and brands. With a track record of success in developing innovative branding and marketing campaigns, she has left an indelible mark on the industry. Her pioneering use of omni-channel media, blending lifestyle with product placement alongside esteemed personalities and leading brands such as Venus Williams, FILA, and Walt Disney World, made her a trailblazer in the realm we now simply refer to as 'influencers. Ways to connect with Carla: Next Step Foundation website https://nextstepfdn.org/ Upili Program website https://www.upili.org/ Upil Instagram https://www.instagram.com/upili_program? Upili Twitter https://twitter.com/upiliprogram? Carla Birnberg Substack https://carlabirnberg.substack.com/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hello, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Our guest today, my partner in conversation that is Carla Birnberg. Carla has a really interesting story to tell. She lives in Austin. And I don't know where else in the US she's live. But we'll find out because we'll drill down and, and get it out of her. But she spends her waking hours thinking of and assisting people, especially children with disabilities in Kenya, and helping them to become more accepted, which makes a lot of sense. And of course, needless to say, that's near and dear to my heart. And we will we will get to all that as we go through our discussions. But for now, Carla, I want to welcome you into unstoppable mindset. And thank you very much for being here. Thank   Carla Birnberg ** 02:14 you so much for having me. I know it took a beat for us to get the date together. And I'm so glad to be here.   Michael Hingson ** 02:21 Well, we made it happen, which is really good. There you go. Tell us about the early Carla growing up and stuff like that.   Carla Birnberg ** 02:29 The early Carla   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 Yeah, gotta hear about the early Carla.   Carla Birnberg ** 02:34 I laughed because I've been thinking a lot. You know, that question that career counselors and coaches ask you What did you dream of being when you were little? And I don't know. This will date me that book Harriet the Spy. You're a man you might not be familiar with more of The Girl type read. But Harriet walked around her neighborhood pretending she was a spy with a notebook writing everything down. And I kind of think that my current career as chief storyteller, I've achieved it. And there were some deviations along the way. But my whole life that's really been it, listening to stories and amplifying what other people are doing.   Michael Hingson ** 03:15 Carla the spy no doubt about it.   Carla Birnberg ** 03:17 I know maybe they can make it into a movie.   Michael Hingson ** 03:20 Well, why not? Now who played Harriet? I'm trying to remember was it?   03:27 I can't remember her. Donal, I think she was. I think it was Rosie O'Donnell.   Carla Birnberg ** 03:32 I think you're right. I'd forgotten. I don't know where   Michael Hingson ** 03:34 she was Harriet, or she was the mother but she was in there with the mom   Carla Birnberg ** 03:38 she was. And that was I mean, I can really remember walking down my street. It's a kid with that notebook and the pencil. And I hadn't thought until right now. So thank you about how far I've come and how not far.   Michael Hingson ** 03:54 So now no pencils, keyboards. I   Carla Birnberg ** 03:57 know keyboards, voice notes and our phone all of it.   Michael Hingson ** 04:01 So you, you absorb stories and all that and tell me a little bit more about you and growing up and all that.   Carla Birnberg ** 04:10 I was pretty theatrical. I did a lot of television work when I was younger. And I thought for about three minutes that I wanted to be on air talent and I interned at our CBS affiliate and then I quickly realized that wasn't my gift. Again, it goes back to I didn't want to be on the screen like you. I wanted to be more behind the scenes writing the stories ended up in college for English English literature, small liberal arts school in Ohio where there was not much else to do but read. And I kind of stayed on this books and storytelling and marketing path my whole life.   Michael Hingson ** 04:51 Now, where are you from? Originally?   Carla Birnberg ** 04:55 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shout out to the Steelers. Yes, I'm a Pittsburgh girl at heart, even though I've not lived there and maybe 30 years.   Michael Hingson ** 05:04 Oh, that's okay. There are people in New York who say the Dodgers will someday move back to Brooklyn and stinky white. Sure that's going to happen. Of course now with Shohei Otani, I don't think they can afford to move back to Brooklyn. So that's another story. But yeah, but you never know. It isn't gonna happen. They're gonna stay out here. But anyway, that's cool. So you, you, you love to be creative. I interviewed. Well, I keep saying that I shouldn't. I had a conversation with a gentleman yesterday. And his name is Wolf born, he changed his name to wolf born, his middle name was born. In honor of his father, Max Born who was a very famous physicist. He had the name of wolf. He was a nickname, his original name was Randall, Born ready for this? Newton John. He's, he's in Australia. So who do you think so? Who do you think his aunt was?   Carla Birnberg ** 06:11 Olivia? This thing now, I loved Olivia Newton John's talk   Michael Hingson ** 06:17 about a guy who comes from a really creative family. And he, he's, he's, he calls himself a corporate shaman, because he really wants to help organizations and people, people especially move closer to nature and understand that nature has a lot to it can do to guide us and teach us and, and so he really is heavily involved in that. But that   Carla Birnberg ** 06:43 is fascinating. And I'm, I'm with him in terms of, I'm not myself, this is why I don't move back to Pennsylvania. Because of the cold. I need to be immersed in nature every day, preferably barefoot in the grass. It helps me ground myself, so I can show up for other people. He   Michael Hingson ** 07:02 would say, though, that there is time to deal with cold as well, because we we race around so much that we're we way too hot. And so the result is that we don't really deal with nature. We don't tune into nature, which goes in cycles. And we ought to do more of that.   Carla Birnberg ** 07:20 Oh, I'm such a believer. And I just kind of emerged from wintering with Michael, I thought I invented but clearly I did not. When we fall back to we spring forward, I really tried to get still and plan for what's coming next both at work and personally.   Michael Hingson ** 07:41 Yeah, well, I, I learned a long time ago that I'm not going to worry about spring ahead and falling back. Frankly, what I do is go to bed an hour earlier when it is spring. And that way, I come right out adjusted to the time anyway. And as far as falling back, I won't stay up an hour later. I like to get the extra hour asleep. So I'm good. And   Carla Birnberg ** 08:11 you know, that is I think the Kenyan my team. That's the biggest that's the most challenging time of year when we fall back. I'm further so when I'm it's 8am. For me, they're done. It's 5pm for them. I like when we spring forward, because I get that extra hour where they're in the office, they have to adjust a lot to my USA schedule.   Michael Hingson ** 08:34 Yeah, well, I do a lot of work, of course, with excessive B. And the thing about excessive B is that they just switched yesterday night, I guess to daylight saving time. Oh. So they've so it's been a challenge because some of the scheduling hasn't always been coordinated very well. Microsoft hasn't really done some of the things that it was supposed to do.   Carla Birnberg ** 09:09 So I can guess that night before the Sunday before the first Monday after we sprung forward. I was like Carla, you've been doing this for years, but let's focus. Okay, so 8am Do we need to switch this out? Look didn't change the meeting time. Like you said, it's on us.   09:24 Yeah, literally cope. We did.   Carla Birnberg ** 09:28 That's because we're resilient and we're creative.   Michael Hingson ** 09:30 So what did you do once you left college? Well, I'm before you said your degree in college was what in right in writing English English literature. Yeah,   Carla Birnberg ** 09:42 you know, it seemed like a really good idea. I have a daughter who's 18 and my liberal arts degree has been great for cocktail conversation, and it's a lovely degree, but I wasn't really ready to do much after with it after graduation. So I as one does work In an outdoor store, I loved climbing and hiking, and I worked there probably for a year. And my mother, God bless her Jewish intellectual parents came into the store one day and said, Guess what? You're going to graduate school. Now, I'm not paying for this, but it's time to get doing something else. And so I got my master's degree in Educational Counseling. Okay, I use it every day. And I don't use it at all. It's one of those, it's been very helpful, but I've not used it in a traditional fashion.   Michael Hingson ** 10:31 Fair. I understand and empathize a lot, I got my bachelor's and master's degrees in physics. But wow, circumstances, ended up having me go in different directions. But I would never regret the times. And all that I learned in physics, the details, the kinds of things I learned some of the more basic life lessons like pay attention to details that are so important. And there's some examples of that in terms of why it's important in physics. But for me, I took it more to heart in a general way. And really work to pay attention to details, more of us ought to do that and observe what goes on around us, and learn to recognize what is working, what's not working, do really pay attention to the details to find out if the details are going the way we expect. And if they're not, why not? Because it might very well be that they have something to teach us. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 11:30 a really, phenomenally interesting takeaway from a physics degree I wouldn't have thought of. And you're right. That's a skill we all need. Because we need to know when to pivot when to change what we're doing. And if we're going too fast, we don't even notice. Right?   Michael Hingson ** 11:47 So you've got a master's in education. Yeah.   Carla Birnberg ** 11:53 And then what, and then I moved for a job, I was very excited, I packed up my car, I'm going to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a job, I get to Chapel Hill, and welcome, but there's no job anymore. So again, if it and this kind of took me, I don't really believe we get off our path because everything comes together. But I ended up becoming and if you knew me in my childhood, this shocks, everybody actually straight up through college, a personal trainer, and not athletic at all. And I ended up opening a personal training studio, but with that using them it was master's in education with an emphasis on counseling. So those counseling skills, yes, I did need the fitness knowledge. But the counseling skills really helped make me successful as a personal trainer. And then I sold my training studio moved to Austin, and became a big online, personal brand all sort of by accident.   Michael Hingson ** 12:56 Why personal trainer, what what got you to do that?   Carla Birnberg ** 13:02 Back then I probably would have said because I love paying my rent and my bills. And it seemed like something I could do to make some money. But I know myself and what comes easy to me, I'm not a good teacher of I could never have taught the clarinet came very easy to me. I could have taught math because I struggled with it. I'm not naturally someone who's very adept with fitness, terrible hand eye coordination. And yet I knew when I started lifting weights briefly in college, for women, leaving much more than men, it's where we can find our voice. It's where we can discover our power. And so after that happened for me, I kind of wanted to proselytize or evangelize and share that with girls, mostly University of Chapel Hill, undergrads and women in the area. I believe in it's so much teaching us to be strong and take up space and speak up. It's really where I found my voice.   Michael Hingson ** 14:05 Why didn't you stay with it, though? You sold it eventually and move to Austin,   Carla Birnberg ** 14:09 sold it and move to Austin and no more brick and mortar for me ever. I mean, I   Carla Birnberg ** 14:18 it was great. But   Carla Birnberg ** 14:22 I knew there was a way and I figured it out sort of with another with group of. We call ourselves the OG bloggers across the United States. How could we give away what we were passionate about what our knowledge was in what our skill set was really for free on the internet. So I was working at the Austin American Statesman by day writing features working in their education department, and a blogger by night until the blogging by night got so big that I left the statesman and made that full time.   Michael Hingson ** 14:55 Ended up getting out of the newspaper business. none   Carla Birnberg ** 14:58 too soon to my chagrin. I mean, I'm sad that it's kind of dying off. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 15:03 Yeah, I think it'll be a sad day if we lose newspapers. I   Carla Birnberg ** 15:10 absolutely agree. I mean, that's some of my best memories of being a family growing up this Sunday, New York Times the local Pittsburgh paper.   Michael Hingson ** 15:21 So, you, you really got into blogging and what were you blogging about? Or what were you doing?   Carla Birnberg ** 15:29 It's that master's degree. It was personal development and fitness, but not prescriptive, not go to the gym and lift this weight and do it this way. It was more, what's your language of encouragement? A few iterations back? What's your why? How do we get to the gym? How do we commit to fitness? How do we figure out why this is even important to us so we can achieve the goals that we've set for ourselves. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 15:55 well, going back even a little bit further and deeper. Why Austin? Ah, this   Carla Birnberg ** 16:01 marriage came down. Yes. And you know, it is I love the city. It's changed a lot. But I'm still not one of those. And there are many of them now. Just old Austin was better. And as we've grown, it's changed. And I love it just as much. I've been here 24 years. Long time. Hmm. Yes. And I have no plans to leave yet until unless they priced me out, then maybe?   Michael Hingson ** 16:26 Well, so. So you got into blogging and all that. And that's a good thing. But as you pointed out, needing incomes and so on, so how did all that work for you?   Carla Birnberg ** 16:44 So Well, I mean, I gratitude. There's I read somewhere once and I'm sure someone famous said it, and I should quote them, but I can't remember who if you woke up tomorrow with only what you were grateful for today. What would that look like? And I have such a gratitude practice kind of framed around that. And I was very lucky financially with the blogging got in at the beginning worked with some big big names Phila Birkenstock Wonderful Pistachios, Sears, who I think is no more worked with Venus Williams and really made it into a lucrative and enjoyable and impactful I could help people career until everyone became an influencer. And I read that landscape and thought it might be time to get out.   Michael Hingson ** 17:36 So the idea was, they were sort of sponsoring you, or they were paying you to write blogs for them. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 17:42 it, you know, they would come I mean, this was back in Paleozoic Era, like 2006. Let's say when I started, they would come with Okay, we have $35,000, what can you do for us? How many videos how many posts? Will you write, and we can put it on our website, Sears Venus Williams Birkenstock? Can you do print advertisement for us, though it was before everyone was an influencer? Where I get it. If I were the brand, I would think I'm going to pay 50 Different UT students $50 Each and see what I get versus these big paychecks to the original influencers? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 18:24 So you did that. And, and again, at some point, it sounds like you pivoted into what?   Carla Birnberg ** 18:34 Wow, let's go back to March 2020. It was before then that I read the landscape. You know, I had some podcasts that I hosted. So I know how hard you work. And I had written a book. And at that point, I was working with Venus. She blurbed, the cover of my book, and I thought, Where do I go from here? I was doing LIVESTRONG with a big website at the time, some content creation for them. And I was just in that moment of what should my next be when the world sort of started looking like it was changing. I had already been in conversations with a startup in Austin and Nairobi about doing some marketing for them, potentially just fractional short term CMO. And I thought I don't know what's happening here. COVID And I'm gonna do this because I don't think it's the time to work the gig economy even though I don't know what's happening. And I mean, again, gratitude said yes, took the leap had never done anything like this. I'd done the marketing I'd never worked globally and just thought, I'm gonna give this a shot. And I mean, it is no understatement to say it is the best Yes, I've ever said second to working with dentists. It's the best death I've ever said.   Michael Hingson ** 19:50 Why is that?   Carla Birnberg ** 19:54 It has changed my life. I mean, I traveled a lot as a child. My dad was a professor So he would take his sabbatical in. He did it twice in London. So I lived in Oxford and I've been exposed to the world but not, not in this consistent way. And the backdrop of my entire life I'm Jewish, but I'm not religious is Tikun Olam, which means repair the world. And really, it's we can't fix everything. So let's take our little tiny corner and try to fix it up as best we can. And I'd watched my parents do that. And I done some volunteering, but this global experience and given me an opportunity to really take my gifts and use them in a different way and meet so many different people. And it's just shifted my life perspective. And I'm so grateful.   Michael Hingson ** 20:48 Well, yeah, so tell me more about kind of what you did and what you're doing. Now. I'm assuming it's all related.   Carla Birnberg ** 20:57 It is the short version with the startup as with many startups, our whole goal was to eventually have the entire C suite team moved to Kenya, after about two and a half years. That's what happened. And I can tell you, I could have looked for a totally different job at that point, not gotten up at four in the morning. But gratitude spiritual practice, I just really felt that my work in Africa wasn't done. And I shifted to our foundation and became I was the head of culture and inclusion with the for profit startup, and moved kind of back to marketing on some level and became the chief storyteller, for next step Foundation.   Michael Hingson ** 21:44 And the next step foundation. Sounds pretty fascinating. Tell me more about that, if you would,   Carla Birnberg ** 21:49 we focus on helping the historically and it gets back to semantics, you and I had a really great pre interview chat about that the historically excluded I now do not love the word marginalized, mostly from my, my project persons with disabilities, but the whole foundation, it's women and youth and persons with disabilities by we recruit them, we assess what they need, we accommodate whatever their needs are. Maybe this is a young woman who has no digital skills, maybe this young man needs a screen reader. And then we train them. And unlike many nonprofits in the Global South, we don't just train, we then transition them into the job and support them in the job, after mentorship, kind of making sure that they have everything they need, so that they can be successful and feel successful. It's not all about the career. It's also about feeling really good about the work that they're doing.   Michael Hingson ** 22:55 So where does the next step foundation function primarily?   Carla Birnberg ** 22:59 It is mainly in Nairobi. So it's yes, it's been a big shift, when I was with the for profit entity, there are probably 17 of us in the States. Now there to go around noon, it can feel like a ghost town. I love my team, because they'll stay up late for me. But mostly in Nairobi, we have a small office here.   Michael Hingson ** 23:26 And so tell me a little bit more about about what you do. And we definitely can have the discussion here that we had ahead of time. And I'll let you kind of lead that as to where you'd like it to go. But tell me a little bit more about what what you actually do now and and kind of how all that works.   Carla Birnberg ** 23:46 I'm so it's such perfect timing for us to talk. You know, I started chief storyteller, this is great. I got to help with some marketing language. That was fun. And my favorite aspect of the job, which is not my new project is helping to create the impact narratives of our participants. Because I mean, it's almost like a puzzle where I interview them. And then I get snippets half of the time, it's in Swahili, so I pull in other team members to translate and kind of get that opportunity to weave it into a story. And our focus at the foundation is ethical storytelling. I have nothing to do with the story. My perspective doesn't matter. And in addition to that, and I know that the participants and people with whom I've worked at Next Step sort of chuckle, but we always ask for vigorous and consistent consent. So if I write a fantasy story, and he says, yep, here's my story. Yes, he's my picture. He approves everything. I put it on LinkedIn. And then I want to share it on Twitter. I'm going back to him, because it's really important to us as a foundation and me as chief storage Heller, at any time, a Fontas could say, You know what, I'm kind of over it. I don't want you to share my story anymore of going from x and acquiring my disability and then doing this and getting this job. And we would say, okay, so I love that facet of my job, the storyteller, and yet I had a little gap of time. And that's how this new project was created. The one that you and I have spoken about. And can I transition into that? Yes, you are excited. Okay. It's, I'm so thrilled we just finished our pilot program. It's called oo p li, which means secondary and key Swahili.   Michael Hingson ** 25:39 And how do you spell that? Up?   Carla Birnberg ** 25:41 i Li. Okay, great. I know I actually had on my appealing necklace. And then I've no idea why I thought I would be a grown up and take it off. Because I'd like to wear it in the community. So people say, hey, Carla, actually, I have a keychain. They'll say, hey, Carla, what is your necklace? What is your pili? And then I whip out my keychain, Michael with the QR code on the back. And I'm like, Thank you for asking, here's the website and how you can give me money. very appealing means secondary. And we thought I thought, wouldn't it be amazing if we went into these special schools in Kenya, which is their way of defining the schools that are created only for persons with disabilities, typically, very segregated schools for the blind schools for the deaf, there are some which are for all disabilities. And there are some which they also call integrated, which means for people who do not have a disability and those with disabilities, the plan was to go into these schools and meet material needs, build perimeter walls, give them new desks, supply hot water heaters, things that are very important and that I thought, this is the answer we went to visit. And I suddenly it dawned on the entire team. This is great, giving physical items. But this is all for something many, many NGOs are already doing. They'll come in, every Oprah gets a new desk, they'll come in, we will paint and build new hospitals, what we would call dormitories. So I met with our team who went to joy town, this is where we did our pilot there all the antics, persons with disabilities and said, Okay, a lot of people are meeting this need for the physical items. What else is in need? That is even more pressing. And this is when the conversation began around what I was aware of, I thought through doing the impact storytelling, I was not aware of the deep degree. And we started talking about the stigma around being a person with a disability and Kenya, the stigma from childhood, the discrimination as they grew older, and the more we talk as a team, the more we realized, it's therapy. It's counselors with disabilities going into these special schools, and doing group therapy with students with disabilities to give them that psychosocial support needed, filling the gaps with what they might already be getting at school. So they build their self confidence. So when they graduate, and finally graduate, I know I'm excited, an equal rate as their non disabled peers, they can thrive, they can get their jobs because they process this past trauma.   Michael Hingson ** 28:50 So in general, how our disability is treated in Kenya, as opposed to in the US or in East Africa in general, how are how are they treated differently? Or are they treated differently? Or do you think that there are a lot of similarities? I   Carla Birnberg ** 29:06 would be the first to say that I am not. I'm, as not evidenced in this moment. I'm a listener more than a talker. So I've had an interesting conversation about this with friends with disabilities in the States. I would still say that the stigma is tremendous. We've come a little bit further here. I've written the stories of a lot of my team members and the pressure on their parents after they were born to leave the baby at the hospital to euthanize the baby. Because there's still that fear in the villages not so much in Nairobi, that the child has a curse. The family is now curse. They hide the children away frequently. I remember one student was talking about how her mother had tried to To kill her, and the assumption I came from was, Oh, that's very sad, you know, she was a baby, and she was probably 13 or 14, no, this had happened last spring break from school, there's so much shame and fear that I just don't see here.   Michael Hingson ** 30:21 Or at least hear, it may be covered up more, but there's still a lot of it. We still hear of, oh, say blind parents who want to who have a child, and the courts want to take them the child away, or their ballot battles around that, or parents who just shelter their children with disabilities and don't let them explore. So I had to write, I think, I think it may be that, that the hiding is more sophisticated in some ways. But I think to a very large degree, it's still there. And I think that it is because of what you said, it's the fear. And what we don't realize collectively, as a society, is that disability shouldn't mean a lack of ability, as, as I tell people, and then they say, well, but disability starts with dis. And I said, Yeah, and so does disciple, and so does discern. So what are you saying? You know, the the fact is that dis isn't the issue. It's the perception, it's the fear. It's the prejudice, that we all need to overcome, and get to the point where we truly recognize that what disability is, is a characteristic that every single person has, except that it manifests itself differently for different people.   Carla Birnberg ** 31:53 Yes, I mean, my past four and a half years have been like a PhD, and I don't know what it would be, but I have been so educated by my team. And what you said made me think of a couple of things. One is my go to I couldn't do anything without her. Mariam and degla. She's my up Lee everything campus liaison. She has said repeatedly, you know, my parents she has cerebral palsy hadn't just been her mother and her grandmother, go, you're like any other child? No, we're not going to make accommodations for you, she said always says to me, I would not have come as far as they didn't shelter me. And that she credits that to her success in life.   Michael Hingson ** 32:38 Yeah, and actually, there are differences between accommodations. And yes, you're right sheltering. But I know what you're saying. And the reality is that we we make accommodations for sighted people all the time, right? We have lights in our buildings so that people can see where to walk, we have your right, we have a coffee machine so that people can get coffee or tea or hot chocolate or something, even though it's touchscreen nowadays, so it's not even accessible for everyone. We have so many different things that we offer. But we like it to be more one sided. We don't recognize that those are just as much accommodations as providing a screen reader for providing a ramp.   Carla Birnberg ** 33:27 And curb cut effect I had not heard of until four years ago. We use them all the time, the captions, all of it. And yet we avail ourselves of things that aren't created for us.   Michael Hingson ** 33:42 Right? The reality is that we all have gifts, and we all have things that we don't do as well as other people. And it is it is so unfortunate that we haven't even in this country taken the leap to really understand that.   Carla Birnberg ** 34:04 No, and I think I see that much more clearly. Now, I see that much more clearly not doing the work in East Africa. I do. You know, I think and I was thinking about this earlier, and I almost reached out to you by email, and then I thought now you're such a brilliant man, I'm gonna corner you And wouldn't you think that our therapists so we always use counselors with disabilities, first of all, so that the students see the counselor and think that's pretty amazing. I could do that. I had never I didn't dream that was possible. But also they have shared lived experience. If we'd had a counselor, even Kenyan go into his run this group therapy group who didn't have a disability, they would waste two or three sessions trying to explain to him or her, this is what it's like being me in Kenya. So he went in and thought okay, we are going to To practice affirmations using a mirror, this is going to be very interesting, the students might need some help bolstering their self esteem and coming up with the affirmations. I'm on it. She was surprised. And again, woman with a disability, that most of the students in therapy groups were completely unable to look in the mirror, because they had kind of integrated all of the negativity that had come at them from their families from the village. They couldn't even look at themselves in the mirror. And even she was shocked by that. And I'm really curious, your thoughts on is that unique to Kenya and that vast amount of negativity and stigma around having a disability? Or do you think that might be paralleled in the USA?   Michael Hingson ** 35:47 Well, I think there is a fair amount of it in the USA. I've not heard of anybody who said that they can't look at themselves in the middle. Except for vampires, but. But I do seriously think that there are a lot of similarities. So I've told the story a few times on unstoppable mindset. But I did a talk a few years ago, it was a hybrid talk. And I talked about disabilities. And I talked about the fact that for blind people. In reality, the term visually impaired is one of the most disgusting things that people can say to describe us, even though it's what the so called experts in the field created years ago, but visually impaired is a problem for a couple of reasons. One, visually, we're not different simply because we're blind to lose your eyesight, it doesn't mean that you're visually different. So that's a problem. But the bigger issue is impaired. Why am I being at all compared with person with eyesight? Why is it that I have to be considered impaired simply because I don't see if you want to talk about vision? I think I got lots of vision, I just don't see good. Like, I'd love to tell people. Don't I talk? Well, anyway. So I think that the term visually impaired is a problem. And I mentioned that in my talk. And I also said, the better terminology is blind and low vision. A lot of people hate blind, but you know what, that's what I am. And I happen to be physically blind. And there are a lot of idiots out there who are mentally blind, and we won't go there.   Carla Birnberg ** 37:30 We won't go encountered a lot.   Michael Hingson ** 37:32 But But anyway, so the the issue with the talk is I gave this talk. And then I opened it for questions. And people could in the audience, ask questions, or people could call in and this one woman called in, and she said, I am visually impaired. And that's all there is to it. And I said, No, you're not, you're blind. No, I have I just I have some eyesight, then you're low vision. No, I'm visually impaired. See, the problem is all too often we buy into it. And we don't understand how that kind of language continuing to be promulgated around, contributes to the view that people have about us. I love that phrase buy   Carla Birnberg ** 38:18 into it. That's it, I   Michael Hingson ** 38:20 am not impaired. And if I'm going to talk about being impaired, even though your disability is covered up so much, because you have access to electric lights, just have a power failure and see what you do, you immediately look for a smartphone or a flashlight so that you can get light back, because Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb for you. You like dependent people. But the bottom line is it still is only covering up your disability. Disability is a characteristic that we all have every single person on the planet. And it only manifests itself differently depending on what your gifts are and what your gifts are not.   Carla Birnberg ** 39:03 Okay, super interesting. And well, I'm sure I should have thought about this. But 54 and a half, I hadn't really thought about it much because I've never broken anything. And I'm just getting to this point. But again, Mary and my right hand woman will frequently say, in high school, I advocated for youth students with disabilities and people who had temporary disabilities. And that's a pretty big refrain from her. And the more she said it the more I've thought, oh, yeah, everyone is going to experience some sort of something, whether it's breaking your leg, whether it's becoming low vision, better phrase,   Michael Hingson ** 39:44 or, or whether you suddenly lose power and you can't see what you're doing. And that's my point. Yeah, no, that's my point is that the reality is the disability is there anyway. Yeah, but we do work. And right At least so to offset disabilities that limit us like a lack of light, it's okay, I have no problem with the fact that we have light bulbs, we have so many different mechanisms and ways of producing light for people. But be honest with yourself, it still is a disability, because the time can come when you don't have access to it, the time can come that a person who happens to be blind, might be somewhere and not have access to information that we would like to have access to and ought to have access to. Yeah, and only over more time, will society recognize that it has to provide information to us in in ways that work for everyone, I have a favorite example, I'm not gonna really not be able to describe this very well. But I'm going to try. There's a TV commercial that goes on out here. And the commercial starts out with this woman saying, you know, dad had this. And I don't want you to get it either. You have to really take care of yourself and take care of this right now. Because if you don't, it is going to run your life. And I know that you're one of these, you don't really like anyone telling you what to do. Well, that's the end of the commercial. And I don't know what goes on. There is absolutely nothing. And I don't know whether you've seen that commercial earlier. But there is nothing that says what that commercial is about. Now, someone this morning, I talked with someone who told me that it has to do with some sort of medical thing. And but But even she couldn't remember exactly what it was because there is not a single verbal cue in that commercial telling you what it's about. Much less making it accessible to be Yeah, yeah. And the reality is that, as we all know, many times people don't sit in front of their TV during commercials, they look away or they get up and they go to the bathroom or whatever. It is such a poorly designed commercial because of that. And, and it's unfortunate. But somebody figured, well, we don't need to worry about it other than people being able to see it, and they'll see it and they'll get it. No, they won't. Because it's all too often that people don't watch the screen. And as I said this morning, the person I asked who I regard as an extremely observant person couldn't even tell me what company that commercial was about.   Carla Birnberg ** 42:45 Oh, interesting. And you're right, the world's not, it's not set up accessively. In many instances, it's   Michael Hingson ** 42:53 not set up. Well, accessively or inclusively, we are much less inclusive than we ought to be that commercial could have been created in a much different way to provide information to everyone. But they didn't. And it's so unfortunate. So it shows in some senses, although I think we've made progress in this country. It also shows how far we have not come because that kind of thing still exists.   43:26 Yes. Yes.   Carla Birnberg ** 43:29 I mean, I've thought so much about this, since we set the date for the podcast and just every day at work that my perspective doesn't matter. It's been interesting to me to see. There's a feels like there's a big differential as far as the trauma, outgrowth of being a person with disability. But other than that, that's really the only major difference. And that's what made us think, okay, we need to focus on mitigating this trauma so that the students can be successful.   Michael Hingson ** 44:00 Well, there's a lot of merit to having role models. And when you bring people in, who are true role models, it makes a lot of sense to do that. And I think there's a lot of precedent for that. So having counselors having people who come from the same kind of environment that they come from, is very relevant. I spoke in Japan, back in 2012. Well, it was the publisher of thunder dog. My book in Japanese brought me over for two weeks. And one of the things that I learned there was that if you are a blind person, I don't know if it's changed since then. But if you're a blind person, you are not allowed to sign a contract. Period. You can't see a contract period. How am I asked this Someone who was in the insurance industry why? And his response essentially was was it should be very obvious because you could be cheated. And I said, Oh, so you're telling me that no sighted people in Japan are ever cheated when it comes to signing contracts? Oh, exactly. Even though today, there is technology that allows me to fully read contracts. Right? All right, with that time, the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the mobile KNFB. Reader Mobile, although it hadn't come out in Japanese yet, but it has since. But the reality is, again, it's the prejudice. For many years, the Gallup polling organization and surveying people's fears, said that one of the top five fears that people had was going blind, not even disabilities, but losing eyesight, because that's for her that because that's what we emphasize eyesight. But it's not the way it ought to be. Over time, it will change. And I firmly believe that we will see a day when television commercials like the one I described earlier will be not tolerated. But I think we're not anywhere near there yet. Somebody once said to me, I look forward to the day when we don't have to even use the word accessible, because it's just such an automatic thing, that everything is included for everyone.   46:33 That's it.   Carla Birnberg ** 46:34 That's it. And I don't know if you know who Judy human is. I've been okay. But we both became really far. In her lifetime. And I don't know, I'm curious, your thoughts? Will we get there? I mean, I know we're trying to in Kenya, where companies hire these, again, like which they are persons with disabilities, they're trained, they're brilliant, they're ready to go, and they just start work and everything they need isn't an accommodation. It's just the way the office is. And I hope we get there here.   Michael Hingson ** 47:15 Yeah, I think we will. But I do think that the way the world is now we have to legislate it, because attitude only we're not there. You know, one of the big discussions in the world has been the internet. And many people have not made their websites accessible. Yeah, hence the need for companies like excessive be. Yeah, but but people have said, well, but we we don't need to do it because the internet came along, after the ADA. So the ADA covers physical things, but it doesn't cover the internet, because it's just the way it is. Well, yeah. The reality is is not what the ADEA says it doesn't talk about specifically and only physical places of business. And finally, in 2022, the Department of Justice, II dicted, if you will, that the internet is covered under Title, two of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and website should be made, accessible and inclusive. Yeah, but even so   Michael Hingson ** 48:30 a lot of well, most website owners don't pay attention to it, they think it's too expensive. But again, hence companies like accessibility and what access to be brings. But also, the the other aspect of it is that most people just don't even know they don't think about it. It doesn't need to be expensive to make the internet or your website accessible or inclusive. But it's also the right thing to do, because it covers more than just blindness. And the fact is that there's so many different kinds of disabilities that are affected by not having full access to the internet. And it's easy enough to do. And there are procedures and guidelines that describe exactly what needs to be done and how to do it. If people would just do it. That's it   Carla Birnberg ** 49:24 and people don't. Five years ago, I was people like and it's no better do better. I sent to a big social media person the other day. I love your I don't know, we're calling them exes, your tweets, but you never use alt text on your picture. And he said, I don't even know what that is. Yeah. And so I thought it's what you said that sometimes people are lazy websites and as people think it'd be too expensive. Sometimes they just don't think   Michael Hingson ** 49:54 some people just don't know. Yes, it we don't teach it In computer science schools very much like we should. I'm involved with an organization that is creating its website. And they went out and got bids from two local places to make the website up and running to get it up and running and operational. And I said, as as part of a discussion, and what are they doing regarding accessibility? Oh, they say that they know how to do that. And I said, Tell me more about that. Well, one of the companies said, Well, the fact is that it isn't the website design that has to be addressed. The person with a screen reader has to make the accommodations and make the modifications to work on the website.   50:47 Oh, that's not what we want to hear. Well, oh, that is so wrong. Oh, my God, and so neither ms on them.   Michael Hingson ** 50:55 Yeah. And so accessible is going to be the the product that they use, rightly so because the company, the website owner doesn't have a lot of money. But it will be possible to make the website accessible. And we found another company that will do the job for the same price or less than any of the other companies. And it will include accessibility. And they will actually use accessibility, because it's such a great product to use for making this kind of thing happen. But the reality is, the the original people who were looking at getting the website quotes, also were clueless. And they were ready to buy into well, it's got to be the sky with the screen reader just got to fix it. Until they learned, we don't teach it yet. We don't teach real inclusion yet, as a part of what we do, and it's something that we really need to look at. We'll get there. You're   Carla Birnberg ** 51:57 right, you're right. And it's people like me who I'm not doing any sort of web design. But I launched a substack. I was late to that party, and I wanted to make it accessible. So I always have a voiceover. And a bunch of readers have said to me, that super me that you read it. I'm like, well, it is super neat, but it's for accessibility. And like, oh, I don't even think about that. So I think it's the lay people, we need to start spreading the word. And I don't know how we do that, except for leading by example, practice living   Michael Hingson ** 52:27 by example, writing more articles, including disabilities in the conversation. And all too often we don't do that.   Carla Birnberg ** 52:35 And that's why one of the biggest reasons why I love where I work, I'm taking the backseat. And when it was the for profit, I had a whole team of persons with disabilities who told me what was what and how things should be and what language to use. And I listened. And now same thing, I will look to marry him or Daniel or Terry or Becky, what do we need here? Why do we need it all make it happen? But you tell me I don't have the lived experience?   53:04 Yeah. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 53:07 as I said, I think the most important thing we need to do is to really push the conversation to always involve disabilities. When you talk about diversity, you know, what is there? What is diversity to you?   Carla Birnberg ** 53:19 And, you know, I think I would have answered differently 10 years ago, but now it's always inclusion. It's well,   Michael Hingson ** 53:27 but that's, that's not diversity. Tell me what diversity is. And use your answer from 10 years ago. Okay.   Carla Birnberg ** 53:34 10 years ago, I would have thought it's bringing persons of color into the conversation and not having everybody looked the same   Michael Hingson ** 53:43 race, gender, sexual orientation,   Carla Birnberg ** 53:46 and maybe not even sexual orientation, because I think I would have been 10 years ago. Yeah, would have been,   Michael Hingson ** 53:52 but three and four years ago, yeah. But today, race, gender, sexual orientation. Diversity is about difference. And we don't include disabilities. We don't include persons with disabilities or or   Carla Birnberg ** 54:11 we do with the foundation. And when you what are your thoughts on that? Well, I think   Michael Hingson ** 54:16 the issue is that that's why I gave a speech entitled, moving from diversity to inclusion. You can't be inclusive, if you are not bringing disabilities into it, like as part of the population. But but we're, we're inclusive of color and so on, but you're not inclusive. You can't get away with it if we don't allow it. So we're not going to let inclusion be screwed up, if you will, like we have allowed diversity to be screwed up and not including disabilities. And that's what what we really need to do is to take that step of recognizing that we're all part of the same planet And we all need to recognize that and it's important to do that.   Carla Birnberg ** 55:06 And I know I mean, that's kind of where my project fits into the greater umbrella of the foundation is. The youth with disabilities, students with disabilities weren't graduating. And so the office landscapes weren't inclusive or reflecting the true population. And we need to help the students graduate so that the foundation can step in and train them and job place them so that we're inclusive. And the makeup of the officers look like the real makeup of society.   Michael Hingson ** 55:41 So what motivates you to get up in those, do those early morning or stay up for those late night phone calls?   Carla Birnberg ** 55:47 Oh, my gosh, thank goodness, I think this all the time, even if I didn't get up early. I'm not late night. So thank goodness, I don't work for a foundation in India. You know, I'm passionate, somewhat my Nespresso, which I love. But I've mentioned Mary Ann's name a million times, Beth, what do goo I love my team. And I think when the alarm goes off at four, it's noon, or it's one o'clock, what's going on? I just love it. It's, I don't know, it's my why it's that notion of, I'm not making huge difference in the world, somebody in the middle of Iowa has no idea who I am. But I'm making a tiny little impact, and I'm loving what I'm learning, and I'm loving every minute of it.   Michael Hingson ** 56:37 And that's the important thing. You love it. You know, you love it. And you're gonna continue to do it. If people want to reach out and learn more about the next step Foundation, or maybe become involved in some way, how can they do that?   Carla Birnberg ** 56:52 I would love it, I am up for a zoom anytime the best way to find me would be going to LinkedIn. And it's U P I L I Upili. message us, I would love to chat. We're always looking for insights for mental health professionals in the United States. Clearly, we're always looking for donors, but just conversations around what we're doing. And I'm always curious what other people are doing as well how they are making an impact.   Michael Hingson ** 57:23 So just search for U p i l i on LinkedIn. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 57:28 right Upili, we have a website, it's upili.org. But either of those two ways. You can find me. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 57:35 and that's and that's all connected to the next step foundation.   Carla Birnberg ** 57:38 Yep, we're a project underneath them. Cool.   Michael Hingson ** 57:41 Well, I hope people will reach out. I know that they've heard me say some of these same things before a number of times. But it's great to hear the progress that you're making and the things that you're doing. And I really hope that we're able to contribute to bringing progress, both in East Africa and that we through this conversation, we'll get more people talking about it here in the US as well.   Carla Birnberg ** 58:10 Yes, and I always loved listening to you and talking to you. Because it gets me thinking in a different way to   Michael Hingson ** 58:15 well, we should do more of it than total, we can both learned to to get different perspectives. Well, I want to thank you for being here. And I want to thank all of you for and I want to thank you all for listening. We really appreciate it or watching if you're on YouTube. But wherever you're experiencing the podcast, we would really appreciate it if you'd give us a five star rating. We love those and we love your reviews. So please do that. If you'd like to reach out to me and have any questions or want to chat further about this, please feel free. You can reach me at Michaelhi at accessibe.com That's m i c h a e l h i at accessiBe  A C C E S S I B E.com. Or you can go to our podcast page, which is www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast. And Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com/podcasts. So we'd love to hear from you. And if any of you, including you, Carla, have a thought of anyone who else we ought to have on as a guest love to hear from you. We are always looking for people who want to come on and tell stories and talk about interesting things. And even if we talk about some of the same things we've talked about before on the podcast, I don't think it gets boring. And the more we do it, the more people will gain an understanding of it. So we sure look forward to hearing from you with ideas of guests and other people who want to be part of the podcast. So thank you very much and really appreciate your your involvement in that. But again, Carla, I want to thank you for being here and for taking the time to be with us today. Thank you so much for having me. It was so fun   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:07 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

The gang is back together once again in the That Real Blind Tech Show virtual lair.   We start off talking about a possible Y2K Part two on the news that the chrome and Firefox browsers may stop working with some websites as they hit version 100.? Then it is on to Brian's latest favorite story of the year, about a man who shut down his town's internet while trying to curb his kids screen time.   Facebook continues to rebrand and they have changed the name of the News Feed to, well, you will never guess what! And blow the dust off the app, but we actually have some KNFB news.   If you have an old PC or Mac lying around as a paper weight then you may want to think about turning it in to a chrome book using the new Google Chrome flex. But of course, is the process accessible?   We then talk a little medical science and if we have ever been approached about a cure for our blindness. This leads us to the disturbind story of Second Sight and Argus the second. On a some what related note, are carriers shutting down 3G networks too soon? And on the heals of 3G going bye bye, Wifi 7 is coming, but wait didn't Wifi 6 just get here?   With inflation rocketing up we decided to discuss a little prep work for making sure those finances are secure. We then dive in to how much each of us is worth, and you might be surprised by this! We then discuss the rising cost of Amazon Prime and Netflix.    CSUN is coming up in March, but has the conference Jumped the Shark?AxeCon is coming this March 15th to the 17th, you can sign up to virtually attend here.   We have emails. If you tell them the email address ThatRealBlindTechShow@gmail.com they will come!   It's a new segment, Tweet of the week.   Then it is more of What's Pissing Off Brian Now, and Watcha Streaming, Watcha Reading.     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.

Thank you for joining us on Episode 11. In this episode, we touched a little bit more on Android 12, especially on the fact that, the two-finger hold-down to enable accessibility upon booting up the phone has been removed, leaving only the two-volume key hold-down. This is a review of android 12 after using for 2 days. We were also delighted to report that Eloquence still works on the Android 12 Developer Preview 1 and all the apps that I, Warren has on my phone, including KNFB reader, surprisingly work. We also touched on the fact that in Android 12, for those who rely on magnification, there is now an option to only magnify portions of the screen or a given area on the screen. We then did a short demo of KNFB reader which surprisingly works on android 12 dp1. KNFB reader can be found at. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sensotec.knfbreader&hl=en_IN&gl=US Then for the app of the week section, we did a demo about National Park Service App Which can be found at. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.nps.mobileapp this app is only useful for people in the USA. About magnification, our guest, Pete Torking from the UK, demonstrated Keypass, a password management app and in the process, mentioned other password management apps, including sites that would let you know if one of your passwords have been compromised. These apps are: Keypass from: https://keepassxc.org/+ Keepass2:++ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=keepass2android.keepass2android "Syncthing:" https://syncthing.net/ when Pete did a demonstration of keypass and other apps, you will not hear talkback as he uses magnification. But he has given a detailed step by step description of what you should do. We will do a demo of these apps with talkback shortly. The conversation also touched on data breach sites that would let you know if your email is out there with your passwords and those sites are: "Have I Been Pwned" from: https://haveibeenpwned.com/ "Breach Directory" from: https://breachdirectory.tk/ Pete then proceeded to tell us about his Android Journey story. It was a joy having Pete and as always, we would love for you guys to come on live or via a recording and tell us your Android Journey stories. For questions, suggestions or comments, send us mail at: contactus@blindandroidusers.com To join our mailing list, send those "join requests" to: blindandroidusers_subscribe@groups.io If you have a recorded Android Journey story and want to share that with our listeners, then send those stories to: myandroidjourney@blindandroidusers.com You may follow us on twitter using our handle: @BlindDroidUsers We do have a Telegram group that you can join and share stories or whatever with our members at: https://t.me/ANATAD

In this podcast i am talking about KNFB reader .how do I use it how does it help me to be independent and do I recommend it ?

While the podcast is an hour, I know that I want to do more with the tech podcast in all kinds of tech not just the security landscape. In this podcast, I think I have covered a bit, even talking about some stuff in a different light unlike the Security Box. Here are the show notes. Welcome to podcast 353 of the technology podcast. NCSAM is out now, its the month of October and its definitely going to be an interesting month. Our first segment talks about the fact that identity theft may be more of a problem now more than ever. blog post KNFB reader was intigrated in to newsline. People were griping about it on Apple Vis, and may have been in social media as well. I looked at the app one day, and I find it quite interesting but still easy to use. They griped because they had to reverify their info, otherwise known as reauthenticate. KNFB Reader lite works well, and I am glad I have choices. blog post Michael in Tennessee taught me about Google and pairing to bluetooth devices. While I told my phone to forget the device, I had to go back in to google and get it repaired as I tried to demo how I got it to work. Be that as it may, this was kind of cool. Thanks Michael for this! On a prior podcast, we covered SSL and what is happening with threat actors today. I intend to write a blog post with my thoughts, but the Security Box definitely covered this. Podcast 12 of the box covers this in a talk show format, but I figure it should be covered here for those who don't want the longer program. Tell me what you think. The full program lasts an hour, so I hope you'll enjoy it. Thanks for listening! See you on another edition of the program.

The boys got anxious while Serina was out saving the world, so Lori Thompson jumped into the studio and kept an eye on these boys and kept them to task. Brian and Jeff along with Lori skip on through the latest news, apps and updates along with sharing their experiences with Aira, OCR, Bose Frames, Soundscape, Airport Tipping and a lot of stuff in between. What gadgets did you get this last year? Well, Brian brings his top Gadgets front and center and Jeff and Lori just ask him to clean up before he leaves. No, it’s not like that at all, but Brian has the Gidgets and Gadgets from floor to ceiling and even in the closet. Join us in this intellectual, stimulating and thought provoking conversation… Oh wat, that’s another studio, oops. Join us as we enjoy ourselves at your listening pleasure or whatever we are all doing here. Hopefully, we got some insight and information that you can put in your pocket and use, share and gain from. Honestly, that is why Brian and I listen to Lori. (insert the LOL Emoji here) Thanks for putting up with us and thanks for listening. Contact Thank you for listening. Send us Feedback via email Follow us on Twitter @BlindTechShow That Blind Tech Show is produced in part with Blind Abilities Network You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impairedand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

The boys got anxious while Serina was out saving the world, so Lori Thompson jumped into the studio and kept an eye on these boys and kept them to task. Brian and Jeff along with Lori skip on through the latest news, apps and updates along with sharing their experiences with Aira, OCR, Bose Frames, Soundscape, Airport Tipping and a lot of stuff in between. What gadgets did you get this last year? Well, Brian brings his top Gadgets front and center and Jeff and Lori just ask him to clean up before he leaves. No, it’s not like that at all, but Brian has the Gidgets and Gadgets from floor to ceiling and even in the closet. Join us in this intellectual, stimulating and thought provoking conversation… Oh wat, that’s another studio, oops. Join us as we enjoy ourselves at your listening pleasure or whatever we are all doing here. Hopefully, we got some insight and information that you can put in your pocket and use, share and gain from. Honestly, that is why Brian and I listen to Lori. (insert the LOL Emoji here) Thanks for putting up with us and thanks for listening. Contact Thank you for listening. Send us Feedback via email Follow us on Twitter @BlindTechShow That Blind Tech Show is produced in part with Blind Abilities Network You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impairedand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

(Full Transcript Below) Welcome to TechAbilities, the AccessAbility podcast from the Blind Abilities Network With Serina, Jeff and Andy. On this episode we are speculating about the upcoming Sept. 12 Apple event. We may be way off or right on but the excitement is always high when Apple announces the new toys and Christmas comes early to all and to all a good buy. :) You can find TechAbilities on the Blind Abilities Network.   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: TechAbilities Is Here With Apple Speculation Hype and Some Advice on the Upcoming Big Apple Event Sept 12 Serena Gilbert: There's not even a blue iPhone, but there might be. Jeff Thompson: It's got a white case on it. Serena Gilbert: Oh my goodness, you guys. Jeff Thompson: I don't get it. I don't get what the colors really mean. Serena Gilbert: Stop it,   Jeff. Jeff Thompson: Oh, do you have the rose gold? Serena Gilbert: There's no rose gold 10. God, get with it. Jeff Thompson: I like these people and they say, "I just got the 10." It's like, "What do you mean, just?" Serena Gilbert: Yeah. This is the worst time of the year to buy a phone. Wait until after the announcement, and if you still want the 10, they have 100 bucks. Andy, you know that, right? Andy Munoz: Oh, yeah, unless you're new to this game. This is what Apple people live for. Jeff Thompson: It's the most wonderful time- Andy Munoz: Of the year. Serena Gilbert: I need you guys to make sure that's in our intro when we start talking about it. Andy Munoz: We're waiting for you to kick it in. Serena Gilbert: I can't know. You knew I wasn't going to. All right. Let's try this again. Welcome to the Blind Abilities Network. I'm Serena Gilbert. Guess what guys? We have a brand new tech show that we're bringing to the Blind Abilities Network and I'm super excited to introduce it to you. The title is ... Drum roll please. Drum roll please. Welcome to the Access Abilities Podcast. I have with me two, very special co-hosts. I have Jeff Thompson and Andy Munoz. How are you doing, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: I'm doing great, Serena. Serena Gilbert: Andy is brand-new to Blind Abilities Network. How are you Andy? Andy Munoz: Doing well, thank you. Serena Gilbert: Do you want to share a little bit with our audience about your background and why you love tech so much? Andy Munoz: Certainly. I'll try to be as brief as I can with this. I've got roughly 20 years of tech experience and most recently I actually worked for Apple in their accessibility cue, and then now I work for the division of rehab in the state of Colorado. My passion at this point is certainly working with folks who have disabilities, primarily blind and low vision, and that's a little bit about me. Serena Gilbert: Andy, I have a question for you. Andy Munoz: Certainly. Serena Gilbert: You are literally one of the Apple geniuses. Andy Munoz: I wouldn't say I'm an Apple genius. That's actually a store term. Jeff Thompson: But can we call you the Apple genius? Serena Gilbert: Yeah. We'll call you that. Andy Munoz: I guess you can call me whatever you want. I feel pretty confident in my knowledge of the Apple product so- Jeff Thompson: We'll just stick with AG. Serena Gilbert: Apple Genius. Unless you've been living under a rock, certainly you know that September 12 is going to be a big huge day for us Apple nerds out there. Jeff, do you know what September 12 is? Jeff Thompson: The most wonderful time of the year. Serena Gilbert: No backup from Andy. Jeff Thompson: It's the most wonderful of the year. Andy Munoz: Most wonderful time of the year. Jeff Thompson: Oh, you're going for the last chorus? It is the most wonderful time of the year. I'm excited about it. Serena Gilbert: It is the best time of year. I look forward to this day even more than Christmas because I'm just the biggest Apple nerd there is probably and hopefully we haven't lost you with our super fun and amazing singing that we had there. But next we'd like to talk a little bit about what the rumors are and maybe make some predictions and- Jeff Thompson: It's all speculation anyways. Serena Gilbert: But it's fun to talk about it. Although I will say a few years ago before there were leaks left and right, it was a little bit more fun because you really didn't know what was coming and you had to really pay attention and now we're like, "Oh, there might be this and that and let's see if they were right." 90% of the time they're completely on point with it. Traditionally in this temporary event Apple announces new iPhone models and this year they're rumored to not only announce new iPhone models, but also Apple Watch and I believe their new wireless charging pad. Serena Gilbert: Let's start with the iPhones. According to nine to five Mac, there's at least two versions of the new iPhone 10S coming out which are rumored to be called the 10 S. There will be two different sizes, a 6.5 inch and the traditional 5.1 inch which is what the 10 is right now. What do you guys think of those? Are you looking forward to an even bigger iPhone 10? Jeff Thompson: I kind of am. I've seen the pluses before. I never owned a plus so I was thinking about it. I thought it was going to be called XS. Serena Gilbert: We have had this argument so many times, Jeff. Jeff Thompson: It just sounds excessive, doesn't it? Andy Munoz: You can go either way with it. Even being a former Apple employee, I think we even referred to it in both ways, either the iPhone 10 or the iPhone X. I think it goes either way. Jeff Thompson: I'm excited. I am excited because my phone's two years old. It works fine. It works fine, so I don't have to make a decision. But if I'm going to pull the trigger on something, I think I'm going to go with a plus. Serena Gilbert: Well, it seems like there's not going to be a plus. It's just going to be the 10 S and just come in two different sizes. It looks like they're going to completely take away the models that have the home button. Andy Munoz: I think the one thing I saw too is I think the smaller of the two is actually going to be an LCD display as opposed to what it is now. Pardon me, I don't have the terminology on it off the top of my head. But I think the smaller one is going to be an LCD display, so that's going to be a little bit different. Serena Gilbert: Are you referring to the rumored SE? The new [inaudible] SE? Andy Munoz: No. I was seeing something where they were talking about the two models and I thought they said that the smaller of the two iPhone 10S was going to be an LCD. I was trying to find that source right off the top and I can't. One of my former colleagues, Zach, I shared an article in a group text that we have and- Serena Gilbert: That would be really odd if they did that because the smaller version is going to have the same form factor of the 10, which has the OLED screen so that Coast-to-Coast screen with no bezels. If they did decide to do that, that could be a way to cut the price down to maybe get more people to upgrade who aren't willing to pay the 900 to $1,200 dollars for a new phone. Andy Munoz: I'm thinking that's kind of what they're going for. Jeff Thompson: They're looking around that 699, 799. Someone even said the lowest 600. The speculation ... That's what makes it fun though. We're anticipating what's in Santa's sack, right? Serena Gilbert: It's also rumored to have some new colors the silver and the traditional space gray, but this time they're also going to have the rose gold. Either one of you looking forward to a nice pink phone. I know you guys are super comfortable on your masculinity to be able to have a pink phone. Andy Munoz: I know my oldest son. He was wanting me to let him upgrade to the 10 initially, but I'm sure come September 12th if he sees the 10X or XS if I can learn how to talk, would be in rose gold. I'm sure he'll be hitting me up that, "Hey, can I upgrade to that?" We'll address that I guess as it comes near. Jeff Thompson: I really don't have a preference for color, really doesn't do much for me because first thing I do is I put a case on it and that's it. Serena Gilbert: Funny story about cases. This is totally like me having a squirrel moment, but I think you guys will find this humorous. Every once in a while, I'm like, "I'm tired of my case." I'm going to try to take it off and I have an iPhone 10. I try to take it off, guess what happens as I'm taking the case off? Jeff Thompson: You drop it. Serena Gilbert: It goes flying across the laundry room and hits the wall. It mostly survived. There is a crack on the back of it right above the camera though now. That'll show me. Jeff Thompson: Wow. Serena Gilbert: The case was just on there that good. Jeff Thompson: Well, that's the thing. I have two cases. I have a leather case and that comes from Apple and you can get that for I believe 50 bucks or something of that nature and I really like it. I've had it for three, four years. The leather style works fine for me, but Lori bought me a charging case and that's where I have to take the leather one off and slide it in so it charges while I have it. I like that but it is always a moment when I take it apart and pull it apart because it's naked. When you pull that out, that's when the vulnerability happens. Andy Munoz: Phones are so slick. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah, especially the rose gold ones. Serena Gilbert: Well, and when the whole entire phone is literally made of glass. That's what cause it to go flying across the room. Jeff Thompson: Now, what kind of backing is on the 10? That is glass, isn't it? Serena Gilbert: It's glass, which is why it's cracked above the camera right now. Jeff Thompson: But once you put the case back on? Serena Gilbert: Oh, you can't even tell. Jeff Thompson: Right. And it still works? Serena Gilbert: Yeah, but I'm afraid I won't be able to upgrade this year because I'm on that upgrade every year plan with Apple and I don't know how it works when you have damage to the phone if you want to upgrade. But I'm not usually one that wants to upgrade on the S cycle of everything because it's usually the same form factor. I usually like to wait till every other year to get like a new form factor. Jeff Thompson: That's what I'm doing. I'm on the two years. When my one year came up and the eight came out, I was not in the mood to do it. It's just cost. I didn't want to be stuck with the eight for two years knowing that 10 is lurking or it was out but the next iteration of wherever it's going on. Andy Munoz: Really the eight was really no different than the seven other than the fact that it had the capability of wireless charging. Serena Gilbert: It's so true. It was basically this- Andy Munoz: Honestly, if they hadn't come out with the 10, I think last year Apple would have shot themselves in the foot by just coming out with the eight because it wasn't anything exciting. That was just kinda one of those throw ins I guess. I mean, they would have been better off just calling it the 7Sis my thought process on that. Serena Gilbert: I do understand it had quite the speed boost. I will tell you that because I had some people upgrade from the seven to the eight for whatever reason, I don't know. But they said it was massively fast. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. They got a bigger chip in there and processor in there. I heard the speakers are better. Everything has a little bit better. The cameras are better especially on the 10. Have you noticed anything about OCR? Is the 10 better using Seeing AI than a seven? Serena Gilbert: I never had a seven because when I ... I had a six. Andy Munoz: Wow. Serena Gilbert: The dinosaurs- Andy Munoz: The big leap. Serena Gilbert: I'm not sure that as far as OCR goes, it's any better, but it is faster. If I'm using ... Because my work phone is still an iPhone 6 and then I have my iPhone 10. That's my personal phone. If I use Seeing AI on my work phone, it takes way longer. Not like it's minutes longer, but it's definitely longer before it starts by humanizing things. Andy Munoz: Obviously, that's going to be just because of the chip that's in that six as opposed to what's in the 10. But honestly, my work phone is an eight and then I have the seven. I honestly don't see any difference between the two. I mean, like I said, the only thing really significant to me it'd be the wireless charging. Other than that, even the sound quality and whatnot, I've not noticed anything that really would have made me jump out and spring for that. Now the 10 obviously, the camera aspect of it because I do take pictures and take videos. For me, that would certainly be a seller. Just wasn't sure that I wanted to spring for the 900 or 1,200 bucks depending upon the amount of storage I wanted, just wasn't sure I wanted to pull that trigger. Serena Gilbert: Well, and that brings up a really sort of related point to what I was thinking about. If you recall last year, the eight and the eight plus released, Gosh, I don't know, third or fourth of September, but then the iPhone tends didn't release until November. I wonder if that's going to impact people's even ability to upgrade this round because of the fact that you didn't get your phone until November or December this time as opposed to September or October. Jeff Thompson: Well, I think one of the things too to think about is again, coming up if they're going to release more phones. Let's say they're going to release the iPhone 10S or XS whatever we want to call it, and then let's say they decide they're going to throw in maybe an updated version of the SE. It's going to be dependent I think on how they decide to release it because I think purposely they did the 10 last year because they wanted that holiday push. I think on that part they knew what they were going to get more sales closer to the holidays. Are they going to release it in October or are they going to hold out till November? Andy Munoz: Well, it seems like there'd been holding out on the charging pad that they talk about. I think it's been so long. I've forgotten the name of it. Jeff Thompson: Because I'm pretty sure they talked about it at the keynote last year. Andy Munoz: Well, it's going to be here this year because they've talked about the case coming out for the Air Pods that's going to be waterproof and be able to just set it right down to charge it right on the flat pad. That's why I believe everything's coming out this year and I heard a rumor that next year, you're going to get the next iteration of the Air Pods in 2019. Serena Gilbert: Maybe this is just me being ignorant to what people do with it, but are the Air Pods going to be waterproof or just the case? Andy Munoz: I believe it's the case because that's the new form factor that they're coming out with is the case. Jeff Thompson: I guess the question I'm going to ask on that too, because there's two different terms, waterproof and then water resistant. The newer phones are water resistant, they're not waterproof. I was kinda thinking the same thing. I mean, what would be the point? I mean, I guess maybe have like your Apple Watch and then you have your Air Pods so that you could listen to music while you're swimming. That certainly could be a use for it, but I was kinda thinking that same thing. What would be the point? Andy Munoz: I think if you have it in your pocket and it goes through a wash or it goes to something that it adds another layer of defense for that or if you just drop the case. Some people drop things into the toilet or into the sink or whatever that could happen. It's supposed to prevent just that instantaneous dunking of something. I've heard Air Pods go through the washer and dryer and they still work fine. I wouldn't recommend trying that or testing it and emailing me and saying, "Hey, it didn't work." Serena Gilbert: Insert disclaimer here. Andy Munoz: I think the idea that they're doing is just for those instantaneous things that ... not instantaneous, just those- Jeff Thompson: Just those accidents, those freak accidents that happen. That makes sense. Serena Gilbert: I guess I'm just the oddball that I've never ... I mean, I say this now and then I'll probably be like on the next show I'll be like, "So yeah, I dropped my iPhone in the toilet." But I've just never had that happen to me. I know that it happens, I know people who've dropped in bodies of water and things like that, but with the Air Pods in particular, I guess I could see how it could happen, but it's like- Jeff Thompson: I think it really happens to people who put the phone into their back pocket. I don't want to go through any description here, but that's my guess. I don't know. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, this has happened to you then? Jeff Thompson: No. I'm with you. I've never done it, but I don't want to jinx myself, Andy Munoz: For me personally, I've always been, "No way. I'm not putting the phone in my back pocket," because I worked through the time when band gate happened, we got a lot of those calls. I put it in my back pocket and it bent well. Serena Gilbert: Or you sat on it. Andy Munoz: I see people do it and I cringe. I'm just like, "No, don't do that." Jeff Thompson: I don't do that and I don't put my wallet in my back pocket. It's just something that I have never done it and I usually don't carry anything in my back pockets. Serena Gilbert: For those of you who want to pick pocket Jeff, don't waste your time. Jeff Thompson: It's really interesting in the fashion and everything. They talk about wearables and everything and how we use their device. I don't even put my phone in my front pockets because when you pull it out, anything else can come out with it. I like having it in my shirt pocket. A lot of my shirts now have pockets in them, so I like that. Andy Munoz: I put mine in my pocket but I usually it's dedicated so nothing else actually goes in that pocket but my phone. Of course now trying to juggle two phones, that's a trick. But anyway, another story. Serena Gilbert: You can get your man bag. Andy Munoz: No, thanks. Serena Gilbert: Jeff has a man bag. Jeff Thompson: Yes I do. I actually call it like a recording bag or a man. Yeah, it's a man bag. I don't care. It's a purse. Serena Gilbert: Just embrace it. It's a purse. Jeff Thompson: It's a purse. I got it in England and I'm going back there so I get to bring it back. It's like going home. My man bag is going home. Serena Gilbert: Now that you say you put your phone in your pocket because the 10 is surprisingly heavy. Jeff Thompson: Oh, really. Serena Gilbert: It's the difference between ... Do you guys remember the four to the 4S and how the 4S just felt like a really nice expensive phone and how it was a little bit heavier. That's how the 10 is compared to when you hold an eight. Just feels BNC Jeff Thompson: I'm always scared to like put it in my front pocket, like in my shirt pocket because I just, I'm always doing something. For me, I feel like it's safer in my front pocket. Like I said, I just dedicate, that'll put nothing else in there. To each their own whatever you're comfortable with, but at least for me it's ... Serena, how do you carry your phone? Serena Gilbert: Well, I'm a girl so I have these little teeny tiny pockets in all my pants. I don't have like the two feet pockets that you guys have. It's usually in my purse. Andy Munoz: They should come up with something and they should come up with something. It's- Serena Gilbert: Well, they have like the belt clips and stuff like that but they're not convenient. Andy Munoz: I hate anything attached. When iPhones were really brand new, had that leather thing, you put it on your belt, so I went and got one. I thought that was really cool until you go through a doorway and it takes it right off and just kaboom. It's like- Jeff Thompson: For whatever reason my hip always catches a corner. Give you an example. My son busted a screen on his iPhone 7, ended up going and didn't have the Apple Care, which I told him to buy, didn't do it anyway. Ended up having to pay like 180 bucks to get its screen fixed, Serena Gilbert: Which is about how much Apple Care costs because it's usually like 200? Jeff Thompson: it is for the 10 or for the X, whatever we want to call it. For the older models it's roughly 100 was 129 after taxes, something like that wasn't too bad. I mean, for what you got for it, you get the two accidental damage claims and then of course then you get the screen replacement or repair at a lesser cost. I mean, certainly can't beat that. Andy Munoz: I brought my seven end because in the Betas they had a battery Beta where you can go in there and we'll say how much juice it's still has that's worn down to its potential. Mine was at like 82% possibility and so I brought it in there and I said, "I think I just want to get a brand new battery." They looked at it and they said, "Okay. Yeah." Because when it gets to 80, that's when they like to replace them. They said, "What we'll do, we'll just waive it, we'll just do it for you. I thought that was really cool because I had Apple Care and it was nice. Jeff Thompson: Of course, some of that store dependent from other stores might want to charge you because I've worked with folks that actually did time in different stores and so you got different feel for it. But either way I'm glad it worked out. Andy Munoz: If you're looking for a new phone and these phones that they're going to spring upon us. I heard there's going to be three of them that when you do go for your purchase plans, that's a big thing to consider. Do you want to do it through your phone company or do you want to do it on a yearly basis where you pay? I don't know, anywhere from 40 to $50 depending on tens or little higher, right Serena? Serena Gilbert: Yeah, I pay like 49. The extra cost is actually just because you're paying for Apple Care. Then I have the option to upgrade this year if I want to and trade in the old one or if I keep paying on it Then I just own the phone after the two years. Andy Munoz: It just continues on another two years, right? Serena Gilbert: Well, yeah, I'll just own it outright after the two years. Andy Munoz: That's what I did. I actually paid mine off early just for that. I was just getting tired of mine was like $36 or something because of the seven. It's a different feeling because this is the first time actually outright own my phone actually outright paid for it. It's always been on those plans. Like with Verizon a two year plan every two years you get a new phone. Serena Gilbert: I miss those plans. I miss being able to pay 199 99 or 299 99 because I've been at the same phone carrier for ever. The fact that I'm on a two year agreement doesn't bother me, I'd rather save the $800. Andy Munoz: Exactly. Exactly. Apple's got a racket, but I still got to pay my phone company. Wait a second. There's that $800 you're talking about, right? Serena Gilbert: It was when I bought my six, was the last year that they did that. You paid 199 or 299 depending on the model you got. The phone company subsidize the rest of it, so Apple was still getting all their money, but since you signed a two year agreement with let's say AT&T or Verizon, then that phone company thought it was worth it to them. Then all of a sudden, one company decided that they weren't going to do it anymore. All of the others followed suit. Andy Munoz: Lori is still on that plan. Serena Gilbert: She's lucky. If she ever needs a new phone, she's going to pay out right now. That's part of why I didn't upgrade because I used to upgrade like clockwork every other year and one year AT&T messed up my upgrades. I got to upgrade two years in a row. I was like, "Sweet." If they still had that plan where your phone was essentially subsidized, I probably would have gotten the seven and then the 10 I guess. But instead, I waited years and years to get a new one. I think a lot of people are doing that now. I think I've seen some people that still have 5Ss want to pay for the upgrades. Jeff Thompson: I think part of it ... I mean, even for me, I just finished up a lease. I'm still kind of in that limbo motive, what am I going to do? I'm actually on an extended lease, but it's like I can do one or two things. I can either pay 200 bucks now and have my phone own it outright or I can upgrade and continue paying X amount of dollars on a phone bill. It's like, "Okay, do I want to lessen my phone bill and maybe have that for a while and then kind of decide where am going to go?" Now obviously part of this is now that we have these new models coming out, once I see what those features look like, is it going to be something that's going to sell me that says, "Hey, go ahead and pull the trigger on the upgrade." Or, am I going to hold off again? Will pay that by year, but I think that's part of it. Obviously, if you can save a couple bucks on your phone bill, why not? Serena Gilbert: See? That's where those leases really almost irritate me because then when you get to the end of the lease, you're going to pay $200 for a felon that came out like three years ago. That just seems ridiculous. Jeff Thompson: The lease was 18 months, so I got it. The phone had only been out maybe two months. It wasn't a big deal. When you do the math, you're spending a little extra. It's like 32 a month, which basically came out to like 576. They're making a little bit extra money just based on the fact, you pay that extra 175 or 200 bucks, whatever it is to pay it off outright because you could actually buy that phone for I think ... What was it? 649 plus tax. They're making a little bit but not too bad. Andy Munoz: I think you know how you go about it, you're going to be paying at least anywhere from $40 to $50, 55 nowadays probably. And or you're going to be paying it straight up. There is no really wiggle room around it. It's just something that for the rest of our lives, we're going to be paying 50 bucks a month to have a phone. Serena Gilbert: As much as it costs us and it's super irritating, I can never imagine not having this device. Not because I'm spoiled and obsessed with technology, but because it is an accessibility tool now where even if you say, "Okay, this is $1,000 dollars." Well, even five years ago $1,000 would have maybe bought a portable magnifier, maybe. I remember my first KNFB reader, the portable one that was like the PTA and the digital camera attached to each other. Jeff Thompson: They give that care? Serena Gilbert: Yeah. That thing was $2,200 and that device served one purpose. As much as we like to be like, "Oh my God, it's so expensive." If you really put your perspective, given what we use it for, the accessibility factor, it's actually a bargain. Andy Munoz: They got to stop calling it a phone. I think it's more of a personal. It's more of a PDA than PDAs were. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, remember when you were trying to make a phone call to me and you ... so funny. I called Jeff and the call wouldn't go through and it kept dropping. Then he finally just ... What is it? WhatsApped me, I don't know. We finally used WhatsApp and he goes, "Well, how did you call me?" I was like, "I used the phone." Jeff Thompson: By the way. It is a phone. Andy Munoz: Oh, the thing is these devices are seriously game changers and it really didn't occur to me until two and a half years ago when I jumped into the accessibility role. I started learning how folks were using their devices and I was just completely blown away. Then obviously now that I use them on a daily basis, it's like, "Yeah, I use it for so much." Technology, it's never going to be cheating. Jeff Thompson: No. Andy Munoz: That's just the nature of the beast with it. It doesn't matter what it is, it's never going to be cheap and we just have to realize that, "Hey, we want to continue having our sense of independence and whatnot," and even for those that don't use it for the accessibility features, I mean those that use it for just everyday stuff, we've all become super dependent on technology in some form of fashion. Jeff Thompson: Well, it's access to information that you're readily on the go. You can't carry a wall calendar around with you. So many gidgets and gadgets that you would have to load up your backpack with that, you can do pretty much all of this on the phone. We're talking about putting it in pockets. I think this year I'm going to do the extra costs and have it surgically embedded so I don't have to lose it, dropped it. Serena Gilbert: Maybe sometime. Jeff Thompson: We've been talking about the phone and the plants and all that, but there's some other devices that they've been real bring up out. I heard something about it could be the 13 inch air coming out or it could be an iteration of the 13 inch MacBook. Serena Gilbert: So they're finally maybe going to refresh that? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. What has been 2014. Serena Gilbert: I don't know because I have a MacBook Air and I got it like three years ago and it said it was like from the year before. I don't know if that just means that's when it was manufactured or the last time that it was refreshed. Jeff Thompson: Probably 2014, but don't believe me. This is just speculation. I've heard a lot of people talk about the Air and some people has claimed that it's the best Mac that they've made. Serena Gilbert: Oh, it's my favorite, for sure. So fun. Jeff Thompson: Is it really? Serena Gilbert: Yeah, because it's thinner than the pros or even the regular MacBook, the one that's the 12 inches. I can fit it into my purse, believe it or not. Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah, that's really convenient and that's why I have a new iPad just because I do a lot of meetings and a lot of council stuff. It's so easy to carry that and just open it up and I got the Filo case where the keyboard is right there and I can take notes on a plane. I don't use it at home as much because I got my computer but when I'm out and about, I can just throw it in my backpack or throw it in my man purse, if I may. Serena Gilbert: I don't know why you're calling it a backpack. Jeff Thompson: Good one. Serena Gilbert: Well, we talked a little bit about the wireless charging pad too. We barely touched on that, but if they actually come out with that, which gosh, I'd probably be like a couple hundred dollars because nothing an Apple of sheet. But would that be something you would consider, especially if you updated your phone too? Jeff Thompson: If I got the phone then I would have to consider that when you pull that trigger and you go in and buy one. I don't know if you do it online or if you ordered it online and I'll send you realize you need that. You get off the phone, you went into it thinking it's going to be 899, then it's going to be $900. Then you get off the phone and you're sitting there at $1,499 because, "Okay, I wanted 256 gig, I wanted the pad, and I wanted the case and I wanted the Apple Care. So beware, buyer beware. Andy Munoz: Oh, I know personally for me, I'm one of those that I won't just buy a bare bones model. I've never felt good about like with Microsoft and stuff when they've done that where they just give you a bare bones, "Oh yeah, your machine will run just fine on this negative." I've never had good success with that. Because of that, I've always bought extra. You definitely come out of there spending more than you initially intended. Jeff Thompson: 16 gigabyte in a small phone was really impressive back in the day. Serena Gilbert: Oh, man. I did buy the entry level model of the 10 because the bare bones model was still 64 gigs, which is plenty of space for me. Andy Munoz: Well, in that case. I mean, even I did go 32 gig on my seven. That for me has been good. I mean, I still have about 18 gigs of space available. Jeff Thompson: You got very short videos. Andy Munoz: I mean, I don't take a whole ... My videos are super long. If I'm not using an app, I get rid of it. I'm always a space saver and even like my text messages. I have my text messages set to delete after 30 days. 32 was fine on that, but I was more or less talking from the computer side of things. I mean, they'll do all right, but eventually they're going to slow down the more you start using them and things like that. Let's face it, most folks don't do the maintenance that they're supposed to, so you're going to end up putting stuff on there that you didn't want. It's just going to slow it down. For me personally, it says minimum requirement for gigs. I'm going at least go six or eight as far as RAM is concerned. If I can get a faster processor in it, I'm going faster processor. Jeff Thompson: I think that's what people are looking at today. I heard someone that had 64 gigabyte RAM. I was thinking to myself, "Wow." Serena Gilbert: That was a new MacBook that just came out. The one that was like, will we price it out at like $6,000 or something? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Yeah. You can build that sucker up to ... Oh, can I say sucker? You can build those things up very high and it's just fun. Once you get into that page, you start clicking on this stuff and the surface book two. I went in and checked it out and I started clicking on the 13 inch and bang I was up to $3,000 and that was for a 16 gigabyte I7 processor and a terabyte $3,000 Boom. Serena Gilbert: For a windows computer. Jeff Thompson: That's one thing that I'm really concerned about and we're talking about Apple stuff here, but Apple products, they say they're expensive. You saw the price tags on some of those things that we're just talking about. But even the surface pros, the surface stuff that's coming out, it's not cheap, Serena Gilbert: I get that the Apple computers are expensive, but I have a PC downstairs in our office and I have my MacBook Air The PC gives me way more trouble. My MacBook has never had one thing ever wrong with it. It's never slowed down. It still works like it's brand new and I've had it for like five years almost. Jeff Thompson: You want to know what the biggest seller for me was when it comes to Mac and PC? The fact that Mac has far superior accessibility built into it because obviously you have voiceover. Of course, that's nice because if you have a track pad, you can use some of the same voiceover gestures that you use with your iPhone or your iPad. Then of course, it has screen magnification. You have the ability to do dictation. You have all of these things already prebuilt in. The counterpart, Microsoft, has some of those things. They're just not to the same quality at least in my opinion, but then of course then if you don't use those then you're having to go out and you're having to spend ... What is it? $1,400 or something for jaws or $500 for zoom text. If you use a screen magnification and then of course whatever it is for fusion, if you decide to go with both. Andy Munoz: Well, you can get those third party stuff, but the thing that sold me on the Apple is when my PC fried. This is back when seven was coming out in the windows jaws and all that stuff. Jeff Thompson: It was seven. It was right after XP second edition. But anyways, when it fried I decided to go Mac and I really liked the part that they make the equipment. They make the software, it's one house, one company making everything. It just works fit for so many years. Today, I don't know if they use that as much, it just works, but I do like that. It's neat to see that Microsoft is coming out with their own surface line of computers and it just like ... I had to cock my head to turn and look. I had to give them some attention because that was interesting. When I priced it out, they're no cheaper than an Apple product. Serena Gilbert: There's some other rumors of what might come out as well. Do either one of you have an Apple Watch? Jeff Thompson: Yes, I do. I have the two. Serena Gilbert: I believe mine is a two as well. Do you have one, Andy? Andy Munoz: I do not. I've toyed with the idea. I was wanting the three, but- Jeff Thompson: Serena, he doesn't have a watch and you brought them on the show? Serena Gilbert: Hey. Andy Munoz: She- Serena Gilbert: Who did the screening? Andy Munoz: She noticed I really do want the watch. I'm actually curious as to the new series four that's coming out because what I was reading on that, especially as it's supposed to give more screen surface- Serena Gilbert: I was going to say you might really Andy Munoz: ... small bezels yeah. Serena Gilbert: The way that they displayed it, I think it had next year, like three complications on it, which normally there's four I believe. Maybe it was next year four, but either way there was one- Andy Munoz: I think next four because the analog face said it could hold up to eight complications. Serena Gilbert: That's double. Jeff Thompson: Complicated. Serena Gilbert: Somebody said that on the picture that got leaked of the series four not that this is a useful feature, but whatever. Because we don't live in places like this. It's called the UV Index. It could read if it was safe to go out in the sun. Andy Munoz: Oh, really? Serena Gilbert: Yeah. There's that trademark. Andy Munoz: It makes you wonder this stuff that it's capable of doing. Serena Gilbert: I wonder because I haven't seen the series three, so I don't know. Is it thinner than the two do we know or is this the same form factor? Andy Munoz: I believe it's the same. They didn't change the size. There's 42 and 38. Serena Gilbert: I'd like to see it get a little bit thinner, honestly. Andy Munoz: I have to agree with that. I remember bulky watches especially on a girl's wrist. I see the problem right there, bang. It's like, "Hello." I was really wondering because the 38 is not really a compromise. There's still both big. Serena, you want a thinner? Serena Gilbert: Yeah. I want the actual form factor to be a little bit thinner to make it just look a little sleeker. Andy Munoz: Any of you ever done archery or something? They use those wrist pads that cover so the string doesn't. I wonder if there's ever going to switch to the phone or to the watch, be more oblong. Give you more surface. Why can't you have a come up here? It's a little bit further. Serena Gilbert: I'm sure that they've done some weird Apple study and found that people would just turn like that. You know how Apple is? Andy Munoz: That's so 2024. Serena Gilbert: We are already in 2052. Jeff Thompson: We're just not there yet. But I'm really excited. I've heard rumors about the Mac Mini getting a refresh, but these are just people. They got to put so much ink on the paper, so we don't know what's really coming out. I've heard the Mac Mini. I've also heard Apple TV that they're going to do something. If you get on Google long enough you'll find everything. Serena Gilbert: What they haven't ... Or at least, I haven't read anything about any sort of rumor about. I know they're not going to refresh this, but I have a HomePod and I know that I have to refresh the actual form factor or anything. But there has been absolutely no talk about what IOS 12 will bring to the HomePod at all. Andy Munoz: Didn't you just get your AirPlay 2? Serena Gilbert: Yeah, but that's weird. I don't have two HomePods. I don't really care. It is nice that from my phone I can tell it to play on the HomePod that's kind of convenient. But as far as actual features and Siri actually being smart on the HomePod, it's super disappointing. Andy Munoz: You can tell your phone to play music while Siri is built into the HomePod and you could just tell Siri. Serena Gilbert: If you're upstairs doing laundry or picking up your phone from the floor. Andy Munoz: Is that where you kept all the time doing laundry? Your phone breaks same day, you're playing music from the laundry? Serena Gilbert: That's usually where I listened to the Blind Abilities Podcasts. Andy Munoz: Serena- Jeff Thompson: Then you got to hope Siri understands what you're saying? Andy Munoz: Yeah. That's always- Serena Gilbert: I just don't understand why Siri is so lacking. They need to show her some love this year. Andy Munoz: They have. They've been trying to create shortcuts. If you look into the Betas or on your phone right now ... I believe if you're running the Beta, which I am, you can see the shortcuts and it's just redundant to things that you've already done. Serena Gilbert: I am looking forward to the series shortcuts being able to be more integrated with third party apps. It would be really nice for me to be able to tell Siri to play a specific station on Pandora. That is something that I don't understand never could do that in the first place, but it will be nice for those things to be able to open up a little bit. But I also feel like this is almost like a lazy way the Apple took of making Siri smarter by just opening it up a little bit differently to third party developers and then being make it do all these things that it should have already been able to do. Jeff Thompson: It's a workflow. Serena Gilbert: Which is what they purchased a couple of years ago. Jeff Thompson: I mean, I've gone into the workflow and I sat there for a little bit and it's like, "Okay." After about 15 minutes, I just closed it up and go, Andy Munoz: I don't know. To me there's just no excuse. I mean, when you've got a counterpart in Alexa who's fairly useful, at least from the things that I've done and heard from other folks, you would think that that would be something that Apple would bump up. Serena Gilbert: Especially since they were the first ones to even have the digital assistant. That's what makes it even more ... And I get when you're the first, somebody always makes it better, but I feel like they always say every year when they release the new IOS, Siri can do all these other things. Every time that they say all the things that Siri can do now I find myself thinking, "Oh my gosh, you already could do that. So okay, awesome." I have no faith in it now. I'm like, "Yeah." Jeff Thompson: Well, it was something that I've always thought about. It's like okay, you come out with a new phone every year or you come out with maybe a new model iPad, you're adding Siri to the Mac. But at some point, these products just become products. You've got to do something else that makes them stand out even more so than your competition. You give that an upgrade and you make it comparable to an Alexa. It's definitely going to make it a bigger seller. You're already one of the largest companies in the world as it is, but still as in anything, there's always room for improvement and I think even in the accessibility side of it, I mean, granted it's great. I'm not going to knock it, but really there are still some things I think even with some dictation on the Mac side of things, make it somewhat similar to dragon where you can create a voice file because it definitely has some nice things built in. Jeff Thompson: I mean, you can certainly do some text editing and do some different things like that, but there's certain things that it still can't do. If you start focusing on those areas, you're just going to enhance your product that much more. Andy Munoz: Well, with all of the voiceover stuff that we have, we got it on the watch. We have three heads Siri on the watch. We have all these ... It can tell your heartbeat, it can tell you, "Jeff breath, Jeff stand," and all that stuff. I want it to get to the point where I pick up a piece of fried chicken, it says, "Jeff, hey dude, dude, dude let's talk. Let's talk." I want that type of interaction where ... I'm serious. I mean, I want something that's smart. They're talking about artificial intelligence. To me, it's just database driven information. You go to the Amazon devices and stuff and they got 10,000 different skills that you can do. Give me 20,000, I'll use it just as less. Their stuff is games. Andy Munoz: There's other things, informational stuff, but I want the thing to actually be smart. Not just a resource, a dictionary or encyclopedia or a Google search, I want it to be intuitive, smart. I see the shortcuts, it sees that it's remembering things that I've done. I wonder if that's going to build a database so it will be able to predict my tendencies, but, "Hey, let's talk Siri. Let's talk." Serena Gilbert: I just want something incredibly simple that they released in IOS 11 with voiceover. I just want it to actually recognize pictures. We've got this great feature that you released last year and I find it completely useless, honestly. I find it easier to take a screenshot and send it through Seeing AI than to even attempt even just the simple gesture because it's just so unreliable in my opinion. Andy Munoz: Well, that new feature in Seeing AI where it will actually label the pictures? Serena Gilbert: Yes. That is ingenious. Why couldn't Apple have built that in? Andy Munoz: That's amazing because you can't even go into your camera or your photos and you can actually label the photo. But as soon as you take the next pitcher and it moves. So I don't even know if it can do that. But it was a silly thing because I spent about two hours, one time labeling like 30 pictures and also I took a picture and it all shifted and it all went away. Serena Gilbert: You can still label them and that shifting must have gone away because I labeled a ton when I first got my new iPhone and I was like, "I'm going to label every picture that I take," because I was naive and so I started labeling them as I took them and they did keep the labels, but it's just so tedious. It's easier ... Even what I want to share a picture now I just go into Seeing AI because they do have that share button in there where you can push it out to whatever you want when you know for sure that's really the picture that I wanted to just send out. Jeff Thompson: It's coming a long ways and I think what they're announcing I'm going to be riveted to this. I'll be in England at the time, so it'll be 6:00 PM for me and Central Time I believe it's 12 because it comes on it what time? Ten o'clock in California? Andy Munoz: 10:00 Pacific. Jeff Thompson: 11:00 Time Mountain we got to get Colorado in there and- Serena Gilbert: [inaudible]. Jeff Thompson: I don't want to lack this- Serena Gilbert: At 2,000 podcasts here, Jeff. Jeff Thompson: I know. Hey, I'm looking up to you guys, my Ohio, right? Serena Gilbert: Goodness. All of the jokes. Jeff Thompson: I just think they put on a great show. I mean, they come out and it's the same old, same old. Now we're going to call out and the guy comes out or the girls over there and she's flicking on the phone and doing all this stuff. It's exciting. What do you guys predict is going to be the thing that we're overlooking? Do you think there's going to be a surprise? Serena Gilbert: You mean the ... But wait, there's more moment like there always is. Every year. Jeff Thompson: Drum roll. Serena Gilbert: I think that ... But wait, there's more. It's going to be the refreshed I see. Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: Because people still like the smaller form factors and there's still a niche for that. Andy Munoz: Well- Jeff Thompson: 6.1 is not the small form factor? Serena Gilbert: No, a lot of people don't like that, Andy Munoz: In speaking with a lot of ... Obviously being in that support role for the last several years, I've found that a lot of our blind and visually impaired customers did like that smaller phone. I personally, I could go either way. I'm not so much a big fan of the plus just because it just doesn't feel right in my hand even using an iPad. If I'm going to use it, it's got to either be on a flat surface or it's got to have a case that's got a stand where I can use a keyboard and navigate it that way because for me it just feels awkward. I guess it's all in who you are and what you feel comfortable with. Andy Munoz: But I've found that a lot of folks that have the SE or have a 5S and would like to get an SE but just didn't want to get the current one because again, as we all know, their lifespan is only so long and they'll only take so many updates. That was a question I got all the time is, do you know if they're going to make a new SE? I was like, "Well, you just never can tell." I mean, if Apple holds true to form at some point, yeah. I thought it was going to be this last year and it wasn't. We'll have to wait and see what turns up. Jeff Thompson: I'm excited for the SE for people if it does come up because I understand the real SE and you're right about the iPad. I don't like using it just as an iPad, I use it as a keyboard input type of device in meetings. It's portability, everything like that. There's a reason to have certain pieces of equipment. I'm just excited to ... I keep saying the plus but is it the 10S? I said you guys's style, the XS. Isn't that going to be as big as a plus though. Serena Gilbert: What they're saying is that the ... because you know how they just call the iPad, the iPod now. They don't call it ... Because I do know that they have the iPad Pro but they have two sizes of the iPad Pro, but they don't call them something different. They're saying they're just going to bring the whole iPhone 10 under one name and then you're just either getting the 10S 5.1 inch or whatever it is or the 10S inch. I forget what the measurements are. That's the- Jeff Thompson: XS, 6.5. Serena Gilbert: Then the first one is what the original form factor is and then there's going to be one that I guess will have the same screen real SE as the pluses currently have, but it will actually be a smaller form factor because of the Bezel being gone. Jeff Thompson: That makes sense. We're all going to be surprised maybe what's coming out and if you're in line for a certain product, hopefully, this is your time to pull the trigger. I know I always get tempted, but lately you said, Andy, when the eight came out and I'm sitting there on a seven, there was no reason to make any big changes, so the thing that I will be moving into is probably something that I'll be charging on a flat surface, hopefully, if that ever comes out. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, if you get the 10, I can send you Me-mojis. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's right. Awesome. Serena Gilbert: I haven't seen it that's accessible yet. Andy Munoz: But isn't that the one where you can take the different emojis like an animal or something and you can actually do the recording? Serena Gilbert: That's like the Animoji but then IOS 12 you can actually make a Memoji. Andy Munoz: Oh, okay. Serena Gilbert: This is a very important feature you guys, seriously. It can tell if you stick your tongue out or if you wink. Andy Munoz: Oh, wow. Serena Gilbert: It's very important because you want to be as expressive as possible, right? Jeff Thompson: Of course, yeah. I mean, hey. It's all about being expressive. Serena Gilbert: This is why you should upgrade to the 10, but you're completely forgetting about a piece though too, is if you're not impressed with the 10S or whatever they're going to call it, you can always just get the 10 and save a little bit of money but have a really solid phone. Andy Munoz: I think they should call it the XSF. That way, it would be totally excessive. Serena Gilbert: Oh. Jeff Thompson: I always like when you do that because it saves me a sound effect. Andy Munoz: One last thing, I can't remember where I saw this. I almost want to say that I saw something that even the iPads are going to soon be ... the home buttons are going to soon be gone. Serena Gilbert: I totally forgot about that. I have read that too. They traditionally have an event in October. Usually, they refresh the Mac Books and stuff in October. But they already did that, so I bet it'd be refreshing some brand new iPad. Jeff Thompson: I heard that the new phone is not going to be equipped for the pencil either. Serena Gilbert: Does anybody use the pencil? Andy Munoz: With me, no. I mean- Serena Gilbert: I mean, I know that in certain education environments and things like that and obviously maybe graphic design and stuff like that. But I wonder if the everyday person uses that. What is it a $200 add on? Jeff Thompson: It's $100 add on, isn't it? I have no use for it. It's just one of those things that are out there just like the color of the new phones. Serena Gilbert: Oh my goodness, you guys. I have one final question for you guys and we'll check back to see how, if we're right or not. How many times do you think that Tim Cook or ... What was the other guy's name? Phil, whatever his name is [crosstalk 00:47:07] all the Apple nerds, how many times do you think they're going to say, "No, isn't that fantastic?" What is the word they like the most and- Jeff Thompson: If you can actually count that and be accurate ... I know I'm not going to try it but if you could come up with that number, I'd be impressed. Serena Gilbert: If one of our listeners can count how many times they say, "Fantastic," or, "Innovative," Blind Abilities' T-shirt. Jeff Thompson: There you go. There you go. We got to come up with a number. Serena Gilbert: I mean, if you played a drinking game to that, you would just be absolutely on the floor. Jeff Thompson: How is your Gatorade by the way? Serena Gilbert: It's all gone. Jeff Thompson: We guess it was a Gatorade? Serena Gilbert: It was definitely Gatorade. Jeff Thompson: Well, I'll be watching from England. I'll be tuning into it 6:00 PM in England. Andy Munoz: By the way, I was off on my price of the Apple Pencil. It's 99 bucks. Jeff Thompson: Jeff, you were right. Andy Munoz: Jeff is on the money with it. Serena Gilbert: Add that to your two times that you can write. Jeff Thompson: Well, three times is right is the left, isn't it? Serena Gilbert: I confused. You just made my head hurt. Well, I've enjoyed chatting with you guys and I can't wait for us to do a recap of this special event next week. We will somehow catch Jeff in the middle of the night, I hope so. We shall figure out the logistics, but we will definitely be back to recap everything that you hear from the special [inaudible] and thanks for listening to you the brand new Access Abilities Podcast on the Blind Abilities Network. We look forward to hearing from you and we will talk to you next time. [Music]  [Transition noise]  -When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes... [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence] ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter at Blind Abilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

If you haven't yet got the KNFB reader, then this is a great free alternative. #accessibility #reading #visualimpairment

KNFB Reader on mobile devices has proven itself to be one of the most reliable and convenient ways of reading printed text.  With a easy to use user interface specifically designed for use by the visually impaired and fast document processing, the promise of truely  useful Optical Character Recognition was finally delivered. Now, KNFB Reader has come to Windows 10 but with Windows 10s shaky start when it comes to accessibility can KNFB Reader stand proud with it's iOS and Android cousins?  Lets find out. This audio was originally created for the RNIB Tech Talk show on RNIB Connect Radio.  If you enjoy it why not check out the Tech Talk show.  Search for RNIB Tech Talk in your favourite podcast app. Episode Links: KNFB Reader RNIB Tech Talk  Audioboom Page Download or Play

Voor diegenen bij wie het niet zo goed lukt om teksten in te scannen met de Knfb reader is de standscan wellicht een oplossing. De standscan is licht en draagbaar en zorgt ervoor dat zowel je smartphone als het document onbeweeglijk blijven zodat er een goeie scan gemaakt kan worden. We kregen er meer info […] Het bericht Ziezo Vlaanderen 2015, de Standscan: een houder voor het scannen van documenten met de Knfb reader verscheen eerst op Tech Touch Podcast.

In questo podcast, Simone Dal Maso spiega dettagliatamente le funzioni principali di KNFB reader, app utilizzata per convertire in formato elettronico documenti cartacei e leggerli a voce. Il successore del già famoso KNFB reader per Symbian.