Podcasts about louisiana center

In this episode of the Nation's Blind Podcast, Melissa and Anil are joined by Pam Allen, executive director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, and Jordyn Castor. They provide advice on how blind people can travel with confidence to the National Convention, conferences, vacation, and more. They are also joined by Carlin Thomas who provides audio descriptions for vacations, live performances and events. 

Today, Hunter spoke with Kristen Rome the Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights. Last fall, Hunter spoke with another member of LCCR about the policies pursued by Governor Jeff Landry to make it easier for the state to criminalize young people. Sadly, today's episode is on the same topic. Up for a vote on March 29th, Louisiana's Amendment Three is a Constitutional Amendment that would give the legislature nearly unlimited power to get young people prosecuted in the adult legal system. Kristen joins the show to help explain what the amendment is, how it got on the ballot, and why people should vote no!   Guest Kristen Rome, Executive Director, Louisiana Center for Children's Rights   Resources:   Find LCCR's Work Here https://lakidsrights.org/ https://www.facebook.com/lakidsrights https://x.com/LAKidsRights https://www.instagram.com/LAKidsRights Vote No On Three https://www.noon3la.org/ Laws Targeting Mostly Black Parishes https://apnews.com/article/juvenile-records-louisiana-e95896fcc0ca3e1a8d92409a345ad706     Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home  

In this episode of the Nation's Blind Podcast, Anil and Melissa are joined by Cameron Loehr, a blind Chef and instructor at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. They're also joined by Elizabeth Rouse, a former student of the Louisiana Center, and Delfina Rodriguez, an instructor at the Colorado Center for the Blind. They discuss how they became successful in cooking and preparing meals for over forty people.

In Episode 122 of White Canes Connect, listeners revisit the 2024 NFB of Pennsylvania State Convention in Erie, featuring Danielle Lubiner's insightful presentation, "Braille: The Language of the Blind." Danielle, an accomplished educator and advocate, shared her journey from special education teaching to becoming a Braille expert, emphasizing the vital role of early intervention and daily Braille instruction. Drawing on her experiences at Louisiana Tech University and the Louisiana Center for the Blind, Danielle highlighted the need for high expectations, collaboration among educators, and a Braille-rich environment at home and school. Her approach includes teaching Braille using natural contractions and integrating literacy skills into students' daily routines. She stressed that Braille literacy starts at home, supported by tactile learning, family involvement, and evidence-based strategies. Danielle also addressed systemic challenges, advocating for inclusive practices, ongoing professional development, and equitable resources for blind students. Her presentation inspired attendees to champion Braille literacy and foster success for blind individuals in education and beyond. Mark your calendars for the 2025 NFB of Pennsylvania State Convention in Harrisburg, November 13–16, and stay connected with White Canes Connect for updates and opportunities. Show notes at https://www.whitecanesconnect.com/122  An Easy Way to Help the NFB of PA Support the NFB of PA with every purchase at White Cane Coffee Company by going to https://www.whitecanecoffee.com/ref/nfbp. When you use that link to purchase from White Cane Coffee, the NFB of PA earns a 10% commission! Share the link with your family and friends! Listen to Erin and Bob Willman from White Cane Coffee on episode 072 of White Canes Connect. Donate to the NFB of PA If you want to donate to the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania, visit https://www.NFBofPA.org/give/. We Want to Hear Your Story Reach out with questions and comments, or share ideas! We want to hear from you. Call us at (267) 338-4495 or at whitecanesconnect@gmail.com. Follow White Canes Connect Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/white-canes-connect/id1592248709  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1YDQSJqpoteGb1UMPwRSuI  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@pablindpodcast 

 609. Part 2 of our visit with author David Armond. Armand is the 2022 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. He is the twenty-third recipient of the prestigious award presented to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana's literary and intellectual life exemplified by a contemporary Louisiana writer's body of work. He is a prolific writer in several genres: memoir, novels, and poetry. His memoirs are titled, My Mother's House, and Mirrors.  He has published four novels, The Pugilist's Wife, Harlow, The Gorge, and The Lord's Acre. He has also published three collections of poems, The Deep Woods, Debt, and The Evangelist. From 2017-2019, he served as Writer-in-Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he is currently assistant professor of creative writing. His latest book, a collection of essays called Mirrors, was published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press.  Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 220 years. Order your copy today! This week in Louisiana history. January 18, 1803. President Thomas Jefferson requests $2,500 to finance Lewis and Clark's west exploration. A week earlier, congress had approved $9,375,000 to purchase land near the French-held New Orleans - a move that led to the Louisiana Purchase. This week in New Orleans history. The New Orleans Public Library first opened its doors to the public on January 18, 1897.  The system began in 1896 as the Fisk Free and Public Library in a building on Lafayette Square. Abijah Fisk was a merchant who, over fifty years earlier, had left his house—at the corner of Iberville and Bourbon Streets—to the city for use as a library. Subsequent donations had resulted in libraries and collections not completely free and open to the citizenry. An 1896 city ordinance proposed by Mayor John Fitzpatrick combined the Fisk collection with a newer municipal library. It eventually became known as the New Orleans Public Library. This week in Louisiana.  The Krewe of Majestic Parade 11:00 am, January 25, 2025 Peter Atkins Park Parade Route Here Covington, LA      On January 25, 2025, the Krewe of Majestic will roll for the first time in Covington. The group was founded in 2021 as a social club that enjoyed tailgating at parades. From there it grew to become a year-round club, fundraising for school groups and other community organizations. It wasn't long before a member of the Covington City Council suggested they start a parade. The rest is Carnival history.      The theme of their first parade is “Majestic Gras.” Their signature throw will be sunglasses that look like the face of a lion, in keeping with the krewe's logo. Their specialty throw will change each year to coincide with their theme. Year founded: 2021 Membership: Co-ed Number of floats: 10 floats Postcards from Louisiana. Phillip Manuel sings with Michael Pellera Trio play at Snug Harbor on Frenchmen St. in New Orleans. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

608. Part 1 of our 2nd interview with David Armond, winner of the 2022 Louisiana Writer Award. He has written the memoir titles: My Mother's House & Mirrors.  He has published four novels, The Pugilist's Wife, Harlow, The Gorge, and The Lord's Acre. He has also published three collections of poems, The Deep Woods, Debt, and The Evangelist. From 2017-2019, he served as Writer-in-Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he is currently assistant professor of creative writing. His latest book, a collection of essays called Mirrors, was published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press. Armand is the 2022 recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award, presented annually by the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana. He is the twenty-third recipient of the prestigious award presented to recognize outstanding contributions to Louisiana's literary and intellectual life exemplified by a contemporary Louisiana writer's body of work." Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 220 years. Order your copy today! This week in Louisiana history. January 11. 2016. John Bel Edwards becomes 56th Governor of Louisiana.  This week in New Orleans history. On January 11, 1803, Monroe & Livingston sailed for Paris to buy New Orleans; they buy Louisiana and more. This week in Louisiana. Krewe of Chewbacchus February 1, 2025.   7:00 pm    The Krewe of Chewbacchus starts at Franklin and St. Claude, lining up on Franklin between St. Claude and the river.    Proceeds down St. Claude (river side) and turns left on Elysian Fields Ave.   It parades down Elysian Fields Ave and then turns right on Decatur St.   The parade will continue on Decatur St. where it ends at Conti St.    The Chewbacchanal will be held at The Fillmore starting at 9 p.m.       The 2,800-member Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus is a Sci-Fi themed Mardi Gras parade, as well as a self-described satirical space cult. Chewbacchus consists of over 150 distinct subkrewes, each of which pays loving (and sometimes satirical) homage to the full spectrum of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and everything in between. Chewbacchus is a model of creative collaboration and has grown into a self-sustaining tradition. Postcards from Louisiana. The Medicare String Band plays in Natchitoches. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

Today, Hunter is joined by Hannah Van De Car to discuss the recent “tough on crime” policies that Louisiana Jeff Landry is pursuing in the Youth Justice space. From a repeal of raise the age to increased future punishment for children in possession of firearms, Governor Landry is taking an already punitive state and making it into one of the most pro carceral places on Earth.   Guests: Hannah Van De Car, Deputy Legal Director, Louisiana Center for Children's Rights   Resources:   Contact Hannah https://lakidsrights.org/about-us/staff/hannah-van-de-car/ Check out the work of LCCR https://lakidsrights.org/ https://www.facebook.com/lakidsrights https://x.com/LAKidsRights https://lakidsrights.org/we-advocate/youth-in-the-adult-system/ https://lakidsrights.org/we-advocate/youth-in-the-juvenile-system/   Reading about the Raise the Age Change https://www.propublica.org/article/louisiana-teens-prosecution-reverse-raise-the-age   Contact Hunter Parnell:                                 Publicdefenseless@gmail.com  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN Trying to find a specific part of an episode? Use this link to search transcripts of every episode of the show! https://app.reduct.video/o/eca54fbf9f/p/d543070e6a/share/c34e85194394723d4131/home  

There was a moment at the 2024 Democratic National Convention when Oprah took the stage — and the crowd went wild. She spoke boldly about Kamala Harris and her place in a long line of strong Black women who have paved the way. At one point she veered into the story of Tessie Prevost Williams, who recently passed away,  and the New Orleans Four.November 14, 1960 — Four six-year-old girls— Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost and Ruby Bridges—flanked by Federal Marshals, walked through screaming crowds and policemen on horseback as they approached their new schools for the first time. Leona Tate thought it must be Mardi Gras. Gail thought they were going to kill her. Tessie Prevost's mother was scared to death handing over her daughter to a Federal Marshal for protection from the mob.Four years after the Supreme Court ruled to desegregate schools in Brown v. Board of Education, schools in the South were dragging their feet. Finally, in 1960, the NAACP and a daring judge selected two schools in New Orleans to push forward with integration — McDonogh No.19 Elementary and William Frantz.An application was put in the paper. From 135 families, four girls were selected. They were given psychological tests. Their families were prepared. Members of the Louisiana Legislature took out paid advertisements in the local paper encouraging parents to boycott the schools. There were threats of violence.When the girls going to McDonogh No.19 arrived in their classroom, the white children began to disappear. One by one their parents took them out of school. For a year and a half the girls were the only children in the school. Guarded night and day, they were not allowed to play outdoors. The windows were covered with brown paper.Since this story first aired in 2017, The Leona Tate Foundation for Social Change has created the TEP Interpretive Center (Tate, Etienne and Prevost Center) in the former McDonogh No. 19 school where the three girls broke the color barrier in 1960. Its mission is to engage visitors in the history of civil rights in New Orleans. Find out more at tepcenter.orgSpecial thanks to: The New Orleans Four: Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, Tessie Prevost Williams and Ruby Bridges. Retired Deputy US Marshalls Charlie Burke, Herschel Garner, and Al Butler. Tulane University. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Louisiana Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice, The US Marshals Museum.We are especially grateful to Keith Plessy and Phoebe Fergusson for introducing us to this story, and to Brenda Square and Amistad Research Center History Department.   The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We're part of the Radiotopia Network from PRX.

Show Notes: In this community partnership episode, we dive into the topic of school safety and gain important insights from Louisiana Center for Safe Schools Director, Trevis Thompson. Trevis explores the strategies, practices and programs that support school communities and their safety partners. Learn how communities can use these programs to ensure every student has the opportunity to learn and grow in a secure setting. Then in our Mental Health Moment we discuss tips for supporting the unique ways each person grieves and then, honor donor hero Kimberly Hawkins.

Join us on Blind Abilities as we talk with Gina Martin, founder of Diverse Abilities. Diagnosed with Progressive Cone Dystrophy in 1992, Gina's journey to embrace her blindness began in 2015. After an intensive 9-month rehabilitation at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, Gina transformed her life and career, focusing on disability awareness and empowerment. Since founding Diverse Abilities in 2019, she has delivered impactful workshops promoting inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and language (IDEAL). we hope you enjoy Gina's inspiring story and insights on creating more inclusive environments. You can find out more about Gina and Diverse Abilities on the web. Read More

A bill that would expand execution methods in Louisiana is making its way through the legislature this week, as part of Governor Jeff Landry's special session on crime. One of the key groups fighting the bill is the Capital Appeals Project. Politics reporter Molly Ryan spoke to executive director, Cecelia Kappel, for more.   Plus, Charlotte Claiborne, executive director of the Bridge Center in Baton Rouge, joins us to discuss the organization's recent 3rd anniversary. She shares an update on statewide mental health and the future of crisis receiving centers in Louisiana.    Later, the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana is celebrating Black History Month with a virtual presentation featuring New Orleans native and former Louisiana Poet Laureate Mona Lisa Saloy. Her books of poetry focus on Black Creole culture.    Saloy's presentation, titled Some History of the 7th Ward, shines a spotlight on this historic Black neighborhood in New Orleans. It debuts Monday on the Louisiana Book festival's YouTube and Facebook pages .   Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Matt Bloom and our assistant producer is Aubry Procell. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.   You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:00 pm. It's available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts.    Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you're at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you'd like to listen to.   Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the latest iCantCU episode, I peel back the curtain on a whirlwind week! Dive into the highs and lows of the "Believe You Can!" talent show, and get swept away by the heart and dedication of every performer. With Ziggy facing health challenges, I shed light on his journey and what's next. Plus, I grapple with global events that left me reeling, and share an intimate chat with Eliz about our uniquely Jewish surname. In Just Listen, you'll be serenaded by NFB of PA's Angelina's breathtaking renditions of O Canada and the Star-Spangled Banner—just in time for White Cane Awareness Day.  Show notes at https://www.iCantCU.com/247  Links Mentioned Angelina's Youtube Channel: http://www.angelinasings.us   That Real Blind Tech Show Episode 140: https://thatrealblindtechshow.libsyn.com/episode-140-were-sorry-but-farts-are-funny  HostGator affiliate link: https://partners.hostgator.com/c/2754730/1772880/3094  My new host is SiteGround (affiliate link): https://www.siteground.com/index.htm?afcode=f59e91b9cbc71a3ef625daed6c2c5810.  Learn More About Descript The transcript from this episode is done using Descript. Squadcast is now part of Descript, and I'm excited to try it when recording an interview. Try out Descript for free at https://www.descript.com/?lmref=Yw2dhQ. This is an affiliate link, so I'll earn a commission if you pay for the app. Thanks! Support iCantCU When shopping at Amazon, I would appreciate it if you clicked on this link to make your purchases: https://www.iCantCU.com/amazon. I participate in the Amazon Associate Program and earn commissions on qualifying purchases. The best part is, you don't pay extra for doing this! White Canes Connect Podcast Episode 086 In episode 086, Lisa and David speak with NFB 1st Vice President Pam Allen and NFB of PA President Lynn Heitz about the upcoming NFB of PA State Convention in Harrisburg. Pam, who also serves as the Director of the Louisiana Center, is the National Representative for the convention.  Find the podcast on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/white-canes-connect/id1592248709  Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1YDQSJqpoteGb1UMPwRSuI IHeartRadio https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-white-canes-connect-89603482/ YouTube Https://www.youtube.com/@pablindpodcast White Canes Connect On Twitter Https://www.twitter.com/PABlindPodcast My Podcast Gear Here is all my gear and links to it on Amazon. I participate in the Amazon Associates Program and earn a commission on qualifying purchases. Zoom Podtrak P4: https://amzn.to/33Ymjkt Zoom ZDM Mic & Headphone Pack: https://amzn.to/33vLn2s Zoom H1n Recorder: https://amzn.to/3zBxJ9O  Gator Frameworks Desk Mounted Boom Arm: https://amzn.to/3AjJuBK Shure SM58 S Mic: https://amzn.to/3JOzofg  Sennheiser Headset (1st 162 episodes): https://amzn.to/3fM0Hu0  Follow iCantCU on your favorite podcast directory! Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/icantcu-podcast/id1445801370/  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3nck2D5HgD9ckSaUQaWwW2  Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/iCantCU-Podcast-Podcast/B08JJM26BT  Heart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-icantcu-podcast-31157111/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/davidbenj  Reach out on social media Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/davidbenj Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidbenj Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidbenj LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbenj Are You or Do You Know A Blind Boss? If you or someone you know is crushing it in their field and is also blind, I want to hear from you! Call me at (646) 926-6350 and leave a message. Please include your name and town, and tell me who the Blind Boss is and why I need to have them on an upcoming episode. You can also email the show at iCantCUPodcast@gmail.com.    

In this episode of White Canes Connect, we've got more NFB of PA State Convention coverage in the run-up to the convention in Harrisburg from November 9 through 12. Lisa and David speak to convention national Representative Pam Allen and National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania President Lynn Heitz about what we can expect. Lynn tells us of several people from Nigeria who are traveling to the convention. Pam talks about a presentation she'll participate in on helping people talk through some of their blindness issues while offering resources. Of course, she'll also give the keynote address at the banquet on Saturday night. Pam wears many hats in the NFB. She is the First Vice President of the national organization. Since 2002, she has served as the Director of the Louisiana Center. And, if that's not enough, she serves as the President of the NFB of Louisiana. Pam tells us of her NFB journey and her connection to Philadelphia while in college. Show notes at https://www.whitecanesconnect.com/086 2023 State Convention in Harrisburg Links Learn about the convention: https://www.nfbofpa.org/state-convention  Register as an attendee: https://nfbofpa.org/2023-state-convention-registration/ Register as an exhibitor: https://nfbofpa.org/2023-exhibit-hall-registration/?preview=true Read the preliminary agenda: https://nfbofpa.org/2023-agenda/ Auction Items for Convention We all love the auction at the convention. What makes it great are the items that are donated for it. Please consider donating items for the auction that cost $25 or more. Think themed gift baskets, electronics, sports memorabilia, gift cards, baked goods, etc. Contact Denice Brown for more information.  Door Prizes Needed for Convention Door prizes are needed for the convention. Typical door prizes are gift cards, cash, scented candles, etc., with a value of up to $30. Bring the item to the convention and inform us at registration that you have a door prize. Crowne Plaza Hotel in Harrisburg Make your reservations by calling the hotel directly at (717) 234-5021. Tell them you are attending the NFB of PA State Convention. Learn more about the hotel at https://nfbofpa.org/reservations-for-crowne-plaza-hotel/. Getting to the Convention If you are taking the train to Harrisburg from Philadelphia, use code V819 when you book your trip. Call Amtrak at (800) USA-RAIL or (800) 872-7245 numerically. Questions About State Convention If you have questions about the convention, Contact Emily Gindlesperger via email at vp2@nfbp.org. If you need help registering on the website, contact David Goldstein via email at iCantCUPodcast@gmail.com. Support the NFB of PA & White Cane Coffee Support the NFB of PA with every purchase at White Cane Coffee Company by going to https://www.whitecanecoffee.com/ref/nfbp. When you use that link to purchase from White Cane Coffee, the NFB of PA earns a 10% commission! Share the link with your family and friends! Listen to Erin and Bob Willman from White Cane Coffee on episode 072 of White Canes Connect. Give Us A Call We'd love to hear from you! We've got a phone number for you to call, ask us questions, give us feedback, or say, "Hi!" Call us at (267) 338-4495. You have up to three minutes for your message, and we might use it on an upcoming episode. Please leave your name and town as part of your message.  Follow White Canes Connect Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube Connect With Us If you've got questions, comments, or ideas, reach out on Twitter. We are @PABlindPodcast. You can also email us at WhiteCanesConnect@gmail.com.

This week, we are talking about social media for community justice. Our guest today is SJ Walker, Communications Manager at Conway Strategic. Prior to joining Conway Strategic in 2022, SJ worked as the digital communications manager and social media manager at the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, content coordinator at PERK social media, and as a social media specialist here at Online Optimism. Learn more about the Online Optimism podcast at https://www.onlineoptimism.com/podcast/

*** Please note the special day for this event -- the call falls on Sunday, instead of our usual Saturday time.  When Zachary Shore was a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, he called his parents to tell them he was dropping out. Legally blind by age 16, his vision had continued to deteriorate, and he found himself socially isolated, fearful, and debilitated by eye strain. After an encounter on campus with a fellow blind student who had just returned from a solo excursion with seeming ease, Zach had a moment of awakening: “My problem wasn’t my blindness. It was my lack of skills and confidence.” He would indeed come to find a remarkable set of skills and confidence — eventually earning a doctorate from Oxford University, becoming a distinguished scholar of international conflict and an author of six books, and traveling to more than 30 countries, many of them as solo journeys. Zach credits his strong sense of self to the nurturance of his parents. But his ability to move freely about the world came through a rigorous and demanding training program at the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB) — where he made his way after his moment of awakening in college — whose requirements for graduation would challenge even the best of sighted students. Shop, prepare, and cook a meal for 40 people, all by yourself, and don’t forget the entire cleanup. Accomplish a “drop route”; that is, find your way back to the LCB after being dropped in an unfamiliar location, without asking anyone, using only environmental clues like the direction of the sun. And take a solo trip to a city you’ve never visited before, with an assigned checklist of to-dos. Armed with solid skills and having confronted many of his fears, Zach returned to finish his studies at U. Penn. He went on to receive a master's in history, a doctorate in modern European history, a postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard, and a Fulbright Award, among other distinctions. His books, which have hard-hitting names like What Hitler Knew, A Sense of the Enemy, and Breeding Bin Ladens, examine themes like morality in war and “strategic empathy,” focusing on understanding the enemy. As a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Northern California, he is “doing his best to give back to the community by helping military leaders and others think more deeply about the choices they make and the causes of war.” Zach’s hard-hitting academic interests belie his gentle and modest demeanor. He has been described as “a historian of great humanity and insight” with analyses that are “penetrating yet sensitive.” He often shares stories of his personal failures and lessons learned, that “it is okay to fail as long as I try again.” Most recently, he has “tried again” and brought forth another book, This is Not Who We Are: America's Struggle Between Vengeance and Virtue. According to the esteemed historian Adam Hochschild, Zach “spotlights the moral quandaries that plagued Americans as their wartime thirst for vengeance wrestled with their loftier ideals.” As to whether his blindness sparked his broader interest in human judgment, Zach reflects, “I don’t think so… but being unable to read body language or facial expressions has certainly led me to think about how we read other people. I’m also obsessed with the general question of why people shoot themselves in the foot.” For more than three decades, he has been an advocate of improving opportunities for the blind. He has also written on why smart people make bad decisions and how to succeed in graduate school. Through his company UpWords, he serves as a writing coach for authors, professionals, and students. Please join Adam Hochschild and Rahul Brown in conversation with this insightful historian and courageous citizen of the world.

The 18th Annual Louisiana Book Festival is coming to Baton Rouge on Saturday, October 29th. Louisiana Center for the Book Assistant Director Robert Wilson tells us about the more than 200 authors headed to the fest – which ranges from Pulitzer Prize winners to the newest members of the state's literary community. Title IX was signed into law just over 50 years ago, and now multiple institutions are asking just how far they've come in advancing opportunities for women in education and athletics.  Louisiana Considered's Alana Schreiber speaks with Lisa Stockton, head coach of Tulane Women's Basketball, and Tess Belt, Tulane's Director of Education at the Center for Sport, just ahead of the university's symposium on the advancement of women in the sports industry. But first, Louisiana voters will soon weigh in on a constitutional amendment that rewrites the banning of slavery and limits involuntary servitude. Capitol Access reporter Paul Braun tells us why this effort faces an unlikely opponent – the same lawmaker who got that question put on the ballot in the first place. Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman, Aubry Procell, and Thomas Walsh.  You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. It's available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts.  Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you're at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you'd like to listen to. Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The recent war between Russia and Ukraine has stoked fears that the situation could escalate into an all-out nuclear war. This has many wondering, what would a large-scale modern nuclear war look like? We know about radiation. But how would a conflict affect the weather, agriculture, and even the climate in the long-term? Cheryl Harrison, Assistant Professor with the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences at LSU, was asking herself the same question. She and other researchers ran multiple computer simulations on the environmental impacts of potential nuclear war. She joins us today with their conclusions.  And, last week, the National Federation of the Blind met in New Orleans for its 2022 convention. Not only is the annual meeting the largest gathering of blind people in the world, but it also serves as a space for training, support, and decision-making for the blind community.  Last Friday, we learned of a documentary screening about a team of blind cyclists tackling the world's toughest bike race. Today, we dive deeper into the mission behind the National Federation of the Blind Convention, as Louisiana Considered's Alana Schreiber speaks with Pam Allen, President of NFB-Louisiana and Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman, Aubry Procell, and Thomas Walsh.  You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. It's available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts.  Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you're at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you'd like to listen to. Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of "Macro Social Work Your Way." I had the esteemed honor to chat with Oluremi (Remi) Abiodun, Esq., MSW, who serves as the current Staff Attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow with the Louisiana Center for Children's Rights (LCCR) on the Juvenile Life Without Parole Team. Attorney Abiodun shares with me how her personal experiences drove her to pursue a Joint Juris Doctor and Master of Social Work (JD/MSW) degree. To work on behalf of incarcerated individuals in her home state Louisiana which she explains is known "as one of the incarceration capitals of the world." Listen in as she explains her career path to making change her way! Attorney Abiodun's LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oluremi-abiodun-b36326168 --- To learn more about macro social work careers, click the link and enroll in my free e-course #MicroToMacro™: bit.ly/3wQo0gd I have helped over 70 social workers transition into macro social work positions using their case management experience. Do you want to be next? If so, check out some of the amazing success stories from my #MicroToMacro™ Career Accelerator Program. It is a 6-week intensive career coaching program designed to help social workers transition in their careers to earn higher salaries, have more autonomy in their work, and challenge the status quo for the populations they are most passionate about. Learn more about me and my work here, and be sure to connect with me on the following social media platforms: Instagram @the_mswcoach LinkedIn Marthea Pitts Facebook The MSW Coach TikTok @the_mswcoach Happy macro career planning, Marthea

Talk about someone who really gets it when it comes to blindness, accessibility and inclusion, meet Ollie Cantos. It took some time, but Ollie made his way through school, college and then law school. Ollie has been an extremely and unstoppable lawyer spending now many years in government service in the United States.   Ollie will tell you his life story in this episode. He then will go on to discuss a truly positive life dedicated to proving that blindness is not the myth we believe. I know you will be enthralled by Ollie and what he has to say. Some directories do not show full show notes. For the complete transcription please visit https://michaelhingson.com/podcast About the Guest: Olegario “Ollie” D. Cantos VII, Esq., has served in various senior roles under both Republican and Democratic administrations. He has worked in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education since 2013. Past leadership roles include Staff Attorney and Director of Outreach and Education at the Disability Rights Legal Center in California, General Counsel and Director of Programs for the American Association of People with Disabilities, Special Assistant and later Special Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, Vice Chair of the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, and Associate Director for Domestic Policy at the White House. He is Chairman of the Board of RespectAbility, a national nonprofit nonpartisan cross-disability advocacy organization. He is also immediate past Vice President of the Virginia Organization of parents of Blind Children, affiliated with the National Federation of the Blind.   Prior leadership posts include Vice President of the Virginia Organization of Parents of Blind Children, Legal Officer for the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Vice President of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Chairman of the Board for Scholarships for Eagles, President of the California Association of Blind Students and the National Association of Blind Students, and member of the boards of directors of the ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia, the Blind Children's Center, Community Lodgings, the California Association to Promote the Use of Braille, the National Federation of the Blind of California, Loyola Marymount University Alumni Association, and Loyola Law School Alumni Association.   Ollie's life story, along with how he adopted three blind triplet boys, was covered by national media outlets including National Public Radio, People Magazine, The Washingtonian Magazine, and ABC's World News Tonight with David Muir in 2017 and in 2020.   Just a few weeks ago, he received the Marc Gold Employment Award by TASH, a National disability advocacy organization, for his years of leadership to promote internship, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities for people with all types of disabilities.    To connect with Ollie on social media, those in the United States may text “Ollie” to 313131. 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  01:23 Welcome to another edition of the unstoppable mindset podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. And our guest today Ollie cantos is a little of all of those, especially the unexpected, as I think you'll see, Ollie is a fascinating soul who's been around for a while has a lot of interesting stories to tell. And, and on top of everything else. He's a lawyer is scary. At least he has a law degree but but he hasn't tried to sue me yet. So I think we're in good shape, but only Welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Ollie Cantos  01:58 Thank you, Mike. It's a pleasure to be here.   Michael Hingson  02:00 So I should say from the outset and talking about only that he is he is also blind as I we've known each other for quite a while. And we've been trying to get him on unstoppable mindset for quite a while, but his schedule is incredibly rigorous. So it has been a little bit of a challenge. But he confessed that he has actually been on vacation for a week. And so now we are able to get him and have him here. So I'd love you to talk a little bit about you and tell me a little bit about your life growing up as a as a blind person and anything that you'd like people to know about that.   Ollie Cantos  02:37 Sure my Well, I was born two months premature. And as the result of medical complications, I was blind from birth from a condition called retinopathy of prematurity. And so in my particular case, I had that resulted in my being totally blind in my left eye, and having partial residual vision in my right. And until about two years ago, it was pretty stable until some things that ended up happening because of an accident, with being hit by a car. But that's a whole other story. But basically, when I was growing up, life was pretty intense, because I was victimized by bullying a lot. And my, my parents really urged me to do everything I could to make sure to work hard and to achieve high results. And at the time, when I was younger, I honestly didn't think that I could pretty much do much of anything. And I that's just being very transparent and honest with you. I just I just didn't think that there was much that was really possible because of having a limited vision. And so what ended up happening was, there was a struggle between what my parents believed I could do what I believed I could do. And so I tried to get out of chores, I tried to pretty much leverage my my visual impairment to the best extent possible, so I wouldn't have to do stuff but it didn't work. It didn't work. My My mom, she insisted that I do chores to the same degree of efficiency as kids who can see. And she also had me make sure to wash after my baby sister and clean up after her with stuff she leaves around, etc. And I really found it very just it was just a tough, tough existence. But not because my my parents were awful to me but more because I cried to just get out of stuff because I just didn't believe that it was really possible to do things to the same degree of efficiency. And as I grew up, it was quite a struggle because I read large print, and then when fourth grade hit, I ended up being in a position where the print got smaller than it was harder to read, and so forth. But because I wasn't taught Braille in school I just strained with what musical vision that I had. And that was a mistake, because it meant that I was far more far more inefficient in comparison to other kids. Because I wasn't taught Braille. And so growing up and, and working through all of my challenges I ended up doing, okay academically, but it was not without a cost. I hardly had any social life and so forth. But I did work to get involved eventually, with extracurricular activities and everything. But things were so much more of a struggle, because I didn't, I didn't know braille. And I, at the time had a very negative attitude about being thought of as, quote, blind, close quote, I felt that if I were thought of that way that I would be segregated, and I didn't want to look be different in, in comparison to everybody else. And I actually would say, well, at least I'm not one of those blind people. And I look back now and think about those attitudes. But that's the way that I was taught and, and that's what I came to believe, like, Well, hey, at least I'm not totally blind. So at least I have some vision. So at least, you know, I'm not one of them. And I don't have to use one of those canes. And yet, at the same time, it was tough, because, because I would feel like I was closeted all the time, where I tried to hide not being able to see well. And I was ashamed of who I was inside. And I always felt like I was hiding. And whenever I would get into some accident, I clip on something, or I would I would bump into something or bumping into someone, I'd say, oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention. And I just downplayed it. But the whole time, I just felt like oh my gosh, this is, you know, well, at least they don't know, because I'm not using a cane. And then later, after starting to, to get involved with with different organizations, I eventually   Ollie Cantos  06:57 came to know people in the National Federation of the Blind. And they're the ones who taught me very directly that it is respectable to be blind, that it's okay to use a cane. And because of that, I use a cane for the first time in my life. And eventually I, I learned braille as an adult, I'm not nearly as fast as as my children, which we'll get to later, but, but I still recognize the valuable importance of Braille. And I'm astonished Braille advocate. And I really believe that even if people have some residual vision, the key is to recognize if if Braille is more efficient than straining one's eye to reprint. And so because of my life and the way things are, to this day, I'm literally I am actually functionally illiterate. In that sense. I can't pick up a book and read it straight through, like my son's can, I'm not able to just read from a speech, I have to memorize things. So I continue to face those sorts of challenges because of, of how I learned braille as an adult, which meant that it's just hard for me to read as quickly. That doesn't mean it's impossible. But for me, that was an ongoing challenge. But in spite of all of that, I still eventually became an attorney. And I've been involved in the in the disability rights movement now for 30 years.   Michael Hingson  08:14 And tell me how old were you when you started to use a cane?   Ollie Cantos  08:20 I was 20 years old I was I was a sophomore, I was a junior in college, or between the summer between my sophomore and junior year is when I went to the National Convention. And so I left not using a cane I came back using one. So that was a that's, that's a whole series of stories in and of itself.   Michael Hingson  08:37 Sure. Did you go through any formal orientation training? Or did you kind of teach yourself or how did you really learn to be effective with it?   Ollie Cantos  08:46 Well, it took a while. And then I went to the Louisiana Center for the Blind in college and, and have between the end of my college years and the beginning of law school. So that's the time that I that I'm within that setting. And I learned of the blindness skills based on being put under sleep shade. And so everything I did cook, clean, read, walk, travel does anything any any very skills, I learned through the alternative text techniques of blindness. And it was the best thing because it really was a confidence builder. Because then after that I knew that I would still be able to function and that that it really is true that when refining alternative techniques, then we can be as as efficient or at least at a very minimum, far more efficient than we would have been if we just simply strangled what little we can see. If people want to be able to use a residual vision that's absolutely fine. Provided that is not at the cost of efficiency. And so that's that's what I've I've come to realize and that's why to this very day. I really push hard for for Braille for kids as well as adults. and because of the value of that, and of course, technology these days, has, has undergone such significant innovations. And concurrent with that, though, we still need to know the bit of the fundamentals of Braille, because it really can be a real a real booster of efficiency in the long run after after learning.   Michael Hingson  10:23 There's a general consensus that the literacy rate in terms of Braille for buying people has dropped. Why is that?   Ollie Cantos  10:32 Well, it's dropped, because historically, the 40s, the literacy rate among blind people was 99 0%. And that was when, when kids were in schools for the blind across the country. And then, with the advent of the new, newer special education laws over the more recent decades, kids started learning in school, alongside their their peers without disabilities, and that is an important and valuable historical step. The difficulty was that because of how spread out various of us work, there wasn't necessarily access to quality Braille instruction, because because we are what's called, we have what's called low incidence disability. And so as a result of that, there isn't necessarily a lot of people to meet the demand for Braille instruction or providing Braille education. And so even though the law to the state presumes that a blind person should a blind students shouldn't should learn braille. Having actual access is another story in many instances.   Michael Hingson  11:35 Well, of course, the other part of that is that the general attitude, and it's kind of self fulfilling, but the general attitude is, well, blind people don't need Braille, because their books recorded or other ways of doing it. And so the literacy rate has gone down. And now people use the argument. Well, very few people 10% read Braille. And so it clearly isn't the way to go. But the reality is that it does involve in part, the educational system, not learning that Braille is the true reading and writing method for blind people. Which gets back to the whole issue of attitudes about blindness in the educational world, much less elsewhere.   Ollie Cantos  12:17 Yeah, absolutely, Mike. And so if people will fundamentally believe that it is not either respectable to be blind, or that blindness somehow means that somebody has lower ability than, of course, at all costs, they will try to avoid anything associated with techniques that are utilized by people who are totally blind. That was literally my attitude for the first 20 years of my life. And, and I just, I remember, the very first day of first grade, they put Braille in my hands, but literally the next day it was gone. But that's the only time ever, ever that I had been exposed to Braille writer and so forth. And so it really does come down to attitudes about blindness. And it also it also means that we need to look at take an honest look at what we ourselves think about blinds, including people who are blind themselves. And they say, Well, you know, there's a difference between between totally blind and, and well, maybe I'm legally blind, you know, that sort of thing, at least, the way that I now believe, when it comes to blindness, it's just fine to use the word. I mean, it's not a matter of merely changing the word or trying to say some other word about it. But it's actually more a matter of what we think about it, or what we think about blindness. So if if, if the community can come to a place where they recognize that, regardless of the degree to which somebody cannot see that, they still will be able to compete on terms of equality, if given the proper training, basic skills and the opportunity to succeed, then that's what will be really of significant help with with not only expecting more of blind children, but also blind children expecting more of themselves blind parents expecting more of them, the educational system, expecting more of them. And ultimately, when they grow up them rising to those higher expectations, as opposed to when members of our community end up having lower expectations, they don't do as much so then therefore, it's self fulfilling prophecy. And because of that, they say, see, look at how most people these days who are blind don't read Braille, or their the unemployment rate is very, very high. And so we just have to look at there's always a societal aside a societal tension between the way things used to be and the way things are, and, and things can either get gradually worse or gradually better, but they're always these constant forces that that that come up against each other. And so from everything that I have seen in my life and from raising my kids, the key philosophically is to believe that our children can grow up to be whatever they want, and that whatever They do achieve things that are the source of inspiration would be that because they work hard and just like anybody else, but we have got to be careful about being inspired by people with disabilities who just do average things. So let's say for example, Mike, I don't know if this has happened to you probably has where, where I've crossed the street with my cane, you know, I cross at the green light. And then somebody literally comes up and says, Wow, the way you cross that street, you're so inspiring. Well, I mean, I'm, I'm a full fledged adult, you know, I don't know what is inspiring about crossing the street. Like if, if a person without a disability could do that, why is it inspiring for me to cross the street, but let's say for example, there's a fellow person with a disability, right? Like, like a gentleman in California, who just got a got the MacArthur Fellowship, I think it's like half a million dollars or something, he's totally blind. That totally inspires me, not because he's blind, but because doggone he, he just got a MacArthur Fellowship. He's a, he's a Mensa member, he has in his IQ and intelligence are off the charts. And he continues to do well, with with his life that inspires me whether he's blind or not, that inspires me. And that's the kind of thing that we have to be on the lookout for. Because what happens is, if we're not careful about that, then the message in finding blind people inspiring or any other person is really inspiring is that if the thing is, well, at least I don't have to go through that, or my life could be worse, or Wow, they made it in spite of how awful that disability is to have etc. As opposed to well, you know what, they work hard, they really busted their tail and they got it all done. That's inspiring, because anyone who works hard should be an inspiration to anybody, regardless of whether they have a disability or not.   Michael Hingson  16:44 That's right, exactly the way it should be in blind people who do the average sorts of things, do it daily, are good at it and are successful, to me are just as inspiring as sighted people who do it because of the fact that they have found an equilibrium and they are able to, to maintain and move forward. Tell me do you do you think overall, thinking back on the your parents had a positive attitude about blindness? They did.   Ollie Cantos  17:11 Because they didn't phrase it that way that they didn't want me originally to associate with with blindness, because they were afraid of what other people would think, because they originally didn't want me to use a cane. Because they said first of all, you can see a little bit. And second, if people think of you as blind they won't give you the kind of opportunities and they will expect of you what we expect to view. So so it was sort of a different take on a blindness philosophy thing. And then once I started using a cane, it was it really was met with some major resistance by my parents at first. And then when they realized how much more confident I became because I was taught by my mentors how to use a cane, then I was better and then then they accepted it and now it's nothing I mean, now it's it's a matter of course of course you're when you're blind, you use a cane. So they underwent an evolution of sorts themselves as as well.   Michael Hingson  18:04 And as you visit them of course, you still have to do the chores, right? Because now you're the son and you got to support them in the manner they want to become accustomed right?   Ollie Cantos  18:13 That's right, I still have to do the chores I still have to you know like like right now with this podcast that I'm with I'm this is all being recorded while I'm at my sister's house, but my parents and I are here with my shirt with my sister and her family as our house is being renovated and so it's just nice to be with them whenever we go back to our place because we've had that same house that I grew up in for 46 years we've had that house whenever I go back Zack only can you take out the trash clean the pool work on this do that clean this up it's the same you know because I'm always my we're all for all of us we're always our parents children when whether we're adults or not. And so I love the fact that that they stuck with me and that they they do demand high and the awesome thing is they demand they demand Hi of my children to   Michael Hingson  19:04 Mom, I can't clean the pool. It's frozen over California. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's true when you're in California, it's a different story. But you know, it's it's interesting to, to hear your stories, how similar in a lot of ways they are to mine, but in some ways different. My parents never cared about the fact that I was blind. They just said you can do whatever he wants. He's going to be able to do things like everyone else, and there was never a discussion about it. I actually got a guide dog before I got a cane, because there was nobody around teaching cane travel but we met someone who used a cane. You You've I think met her no of her sharing gold who lived near where we lived. movement right when I was growing up, and so I met guide dogs as it were through her and ended up getting a guide dog going into high school. But my parents actually initiated that recognizing that we needed to do something to and enhance my ability, as opposed to just walking to school or walking around a school. And being able to hear it in a in a much smaller environment than a high school would be. And it was the right time.   Ollie Cantos  20:21 Yeah, absolutely. Sharon gold was a force of nature. I still miss her to this day. And she spent 20 years of her life working full time building the National Federation of Vita, California, she has touched the lives of countless people who have gone on to touch the lives of others, because she, she basically built a leadership factory, and I continue to revere her to this day, even though she has left us, I strive always to to emulate the qualities of life of Sharon gold, that's for sure. And   Michael Hingson  20:51 you can't do better than that. Right? That's right. So what, um, you know, an interesting thought that that comes to mind is we've talked about people with disabilities and, and the fact that we need to educate people in society, what role whether you're a person with a disability or not, but if you're especially familiar with disabilities, what role should we have in dealing with people who are blind or have disabilities in society?   Ollie Cantos  21:23 Well, that's a really good question. Because the fact is that we all have a role to play when it comes to making a difference. The fact is that when it comes to the disability community, there are more than 61 million persons with disabilities, including children and adults in this country. And because of that, that means disability touches the lives of all of us. And because it touches the lives of each and every one of us, that means that we need to really be mindful, because 90% of all disabilities are invisible to the naked eye. People may have depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dyslexia, other forms of learning disability, as well as dysgraphia, dyscalculia. They can, they can have an intellectual disability, they just all sorts of things that you don't see, they can have epilepsy, etc. And so therefore, what is really important for all of us, is always to be open to what it means to have a disability. There are some of us who, let's say, you've had our disability our whole life, and to us, it's just a characteristic. And, and even even within that, there could be some changes, like in my case, I was used to what I could see as limited as limited as it was. And then when I was hit by a car, and then the lens detached and then now I see even less, I had to go through a major adjustment period, even as someone who lived with my blindness my whole life, and people say, Well blind, well, you can see, well, just to clarify, blindness is blindness, including people who have some residual vision, but my my degree of residual vision dramatically dropped. And it's, it's beyond repair at this point. And I had to go through, and I'm still going through some adjustments with that. And, and it's something that so when I'm talking about this, I'm saying that as not as a part of a theoretical construct, but as somebody who myself am going through a lot of changes that that that have occurred, because it's not that the disability is the problem. It's it's that this is this level is of disability was just something to which I wasn't not accustom. So it doesn't mean that that various of us who either acquire a disability or who acquire a disability to a greater degree of significance, can't live full and productive lives. But there is an adjustment period that's required. And there there are additional challenges with that, does that mean that we have lives of unhappiness and struggle and, and necessarily having loads of depression? No. But what it does mean is, is that we have got to recognize that we are all on this journey. There's actually Mike another example, where, as I mentioned earlier, I've been involved in this in the Civil Rights world within the disability and other contexts for for three decades, roughly about four or five years ago or so. The boys that I Leo, Nick and Steven, my sons, we spontaneously decided to take a trip to New York. And while we were up there, one morning, we were at breakfast, and then and then somebody, somebody dropped a utensil. And so I say well, hey guys, whichever one of you dropped, that you should pick it up, you know, and my thought was, hey, well, just because they're blind, they should leave it for other people to pick up. But here's the catch. What happened at once I said that somebody to the table to my right, sheepishly tapped my shoulder and said, Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt but actually That was not your one of your sons. That was me. So here I was thinking, Yeah, I know about civil rights and about equality of opportunity and how we have to really think well, people disabilities, what was it? What was my assumption? In all transparency, I assumed that it was one of my son's drama. I completely assumed so what I'm all for that, but it's, we all have growth to do.   Michael Hingson  25:22 Go back to your other example, though, you're crossing the street, you get to the other side, and somebody comes up to you and says, Oh, that you're just amazing. You cross that street all by yourself and how independent you are. What should your job be? Or how do you react? Or how do you think we should react? When that kind of thing happens?   Ollie Cantos  25:41 Well, I think it's an opportunity to be to educate people, if we get mad at them and get mad and say, What do you mean, you know, or if somebody offers offers help, and we say, I don't need help, I'm fine. You know, like that. I mean, then, then all they're gonna walk away is stuff think, dang, those people disabilities are pretty bitter, aren't they? And the thing is, by nature, all of us, we, we tend to, to, to judge, either people or classifications of people, based on the negative characteristic that sets that person apart as different from ourselves. So in this instance, if if they have that sort of negative interaction with us, they've never interacted with a blind person before they'll say one thing, you know, you're I'm trying to help somebody, and then they bite my head off. I'm just trying to help, you know. So I think that it's an opportunity for us to educate people about who we are and what we can do and say, Well, gosh, thank you for offering to help me cross the street, but I'm okay. But But how are you doing? You know, that focus on on that on them? Or if people say, Well, gosh, you know, you're so inspiring for, for what you did, and and then the stuff that I like to say is, well, you know, all of us are inspiring to each other. And to the extent that you optimize your life, you would inspire me. And then that's it. You know, because, because I'm sure everybody has a life story that can inspire me, you know, as the way we can inspire them, but it has nothing to do with disability.   Michael Hingson  27:04 No, one of the things I love to say to people, when they come up and do that is, you know, I gotta tell you that you inspire me all the more, because you are getting around without a guide dog or a cane, isn't that amazing?   Ollie Cantos  27:21 That's the best.   Michael Hingson  27:22 And then I then use that to go and say, I'm not trying to be sarcastic, or anything but but the reality is, it's just another way or we each have other ways of doing the same thing. And although there are more of you than there are of I and I understand and appreciate the inspiration, but the reality is, it's no different. And it would be so much nicer if people would recognize that, that just because I happen to be blind, and you're not the fact that we both can do the same thing. And that's what's really important. Sometimes you get into really good discussions about that. But yeah, I love I love to say that, well, I'm just amazed that you get around without a dog or a cane, and you do so well. But I but I do make sure I mitigate that immediately and say I'm not trying to be sarcastic. There's a reason I say that. Let me explain. And most people stay around and listen, which is which is pretty good.   Ollie Cantos  28:22 I absolutely love that. And you know, actually, this reminds me of another illustration where, you know, some people say, Well, why do we have to make our these businesses open to people who use wheelchairs? Or why do we have to, you know, like, sometimes businesses are other people, they say, Why do I have to spend this money to make places accessible, you know, like, they get all mad. And then I actually, this is borrowing from what a talk I I heard from the late Susan Daniels once where let's say for example, people say, hey, you know, we have to make all these places wheelchair accessible? Well, you know, whenever it think about how much the the world spends on chairs, chairs, literally, they're everywhere. They're chairs everywhere. But what the wheelchair users do they bring their own. Imagine how much money would be saved if businesses wouldn't have to pay for all of those chairs. Because imagine if more people use chairs in the business, he wouldn't have to pay for them because people brought their own. Well, what about another possibility? I love this what Susan said, as well, what about oh, actually, Dr. Jurgen said this where where you know if we really want it to be good, good with everything. Well, what about accommodating sighted people? Well, they say what do you mean? Well, if we instead with all of our office buildings and houses and everywhere, what if instead of having windows for people to see out? Why don't we just why don't we have no windows? Because it actually optimizes energy efficiency. It keeps the houses cool or warm or whichever, but instead to accommodate people who can see there are windows everywhere. That's it. People can look out they can feel the sun, all that kind of stuff for us, we're fine with this, if you know we're fine if there isn't any of that stuff. So it's all a matter of perspective for one person might, what might seem like, oh, well, you're accommodating their people. Well, what about them? You know, we accommodate them. There was literally a time in Moscow when the fire alarm went off, or no fire it was the power went off to in one of the buildings there. And I literally had somebody hold me by the shoulder, so I could guide them out, because I was fine with using my cane to walk out of the building. So I would say, Okay, put your hand on my shoulder, and I'll lead you out. And they were completely frank. They're like, I don't know how to get out of here. I'm like, well, I'll help you out. And so now all of a sudden things were turned because that's our world, right? Yeah.   Michael Hingson  30:48 Well, there's so many examples of that. And look, what, what is it? That's so different about providing coffee machines, in buildings for employees and accompany or electric lights? They're all reasonable accommodations. And one of the things I love to say, when I speak to, to audiences, is, let's really get the whole concept of reasonable accommodation down to the basics. Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb as a reasonable accommodation for light dependent people. And that's all it is. Yeah. And, you know, it, we we make a lot of accommodations for people. So why should it be different, just because some of us are in a legitimate minority. And the problem is, people haven't made the transition. And it is something that that we need to really address a lot more than we do as a society overall. And hopefully, we'll make some strides in that regard over time, but it is one of the biggest issues that we we face. I want to switch gears a little bit. You've talked about your sons, tell me about them. Tell us all about them?   Ollie Cantos  32:01 Well, I just absolutely love my sons, Leo, Nick, and Steven. They weren't originally my son's, though. I actually learned about them because a man, a fellow member of my faith community heard about them, because his coworker had a sister who worked as a school secretary at the elementary school where they were. And so he didn't know them, either. But he heard that there are these three blind troupe of boys. And he, he literally came to me and called me one day. And and he had this on his mind, but he kept putting it off putting it off. So one night, he woke me up, and he's like, Hey, Ollie, I need to I need to talk talk, oh, I just need to touch base with you. And I'm like, Oh, really? What's up? He said, Well, I haven't been able to sleep. And because he just woke me up. I said, Well, let me help you with that. Good night's talk to you tomorrow. He's like, don't hang up, don't hang up. And and so so he said, there are these boys that I've, I just feel like I need to introduce you to them. Because, you know, in light of your having worked at the White House and your being attorney, et cetera. I just feel like you'd be a good role model for them. And I don't know them. But I'm wondering if you would mind letting me set this up between you guys. And the family or whoever said that way, you could just be of support and mentoring them? I said, Yeah, sure what, I'll be happy to do that. And that's fine. And that's how it all started. But quickly, it became apparent that, that we we felt closer to one another than just mentor mentee. And they they just do we just had such a closeness. So a really long story short, I ended up adopting them as my own name and everything, you know, and they were, they were isolated. They were originally from Colombia. And then they came to this country. And he came to United States when they were three years old. And then they were isolated in their house from age three to 10, where they would only go outside to go to the church and go to school. That was it. They stayed in the house sat on the couch the rest of the time. Here I was I came along I got them out of the house, and got them to to expose be exposed to skills. But what happened was philosophically they went from being victims of bullying, to having no and and having little to no self esteem, to then really believing in themselves, getting involved with extracurricular activities, doing a lot, a lot of stuff with local nonprofits and eventually becoming Eagle Scouts. And so if they're the same kids, but the only difference was belief was poured into them along with a positive philosophy about blindness or disability more generally. And that positive belief is what carried the day. It did not create an over there was not an overnight success. That happened. It happened gradually. There were a lot of stops, stops and starts a lot of disappointing moments. But eventually they just they just kept Got it. And now they're, they're all in college and doing great. So I mean, I just love my sons. And we're the four of us. It's the four of us against the world, basically,   Michael Hingson  35:09 what happened? What happened to their parents? Well,   Ollie Cantos  35:13 the mother had a hard time taking care of them. And the father left to go back to Colombia and said he never came back. And so the abandonment issues with in that regard to, and ironically, after, you know, as the boys grew up, they dedicated their time, and we dedicate our family, we dedicate our time to talking about adoption, and also talking about how important it is for kids of all ages to be involved in their communities. From literally, when they were age 10 and 11 years old, we rang the bell up the you know, the goodwill Bell, you know, the bell, red, I think it's red, a red thing. I don't know what the container is where you put money. And we literally rang the bell there to raise money for Goodwill, which provided school supplies for kids from low income families. We did that because we wanted to make a difference. And then we just kept going from there just doing more and more stuff. And then now, they are just, they've continued to be active and involved. And they've they've touted the message of how we as people with disabilities of every age, we're an untapped resource. And we should be, we should really work hard. And so that's why they become even now they've all worked. They all work before age 18 for pay, and now Leo himself, he's been working for five years, he gets paid like, you know, he's young, but he gets paid 2257 An hour right now, and keeps keeps doing better, and keeps getting accolades from the very top of his company, and just lots of stuff. And Nick, Nick wants to go into real estate, and he's getting ready to take your real estate exam. Stephen is wanting to support organizations by writing grants to help build up resources. All of them have have done different things. And it's all because of the role of attitude and high expectations. And then now they're passing that along to other people. So it's just really fun to watch.   Michael Hingson  37:10 Well, I'm going to tell you right now, it will be necessary and helpful. I think if we do another podcast sometime in the relatively near future and bring them on with you. We have lots to talk about being an Eagle Scout myself and vigil in the Order of the Arrow. There's nothing   Ollie Cantos  37:25 like wow. Oh, wow. That is so cool.   Michael Hingson  37:30 We'll have to we'll have to come now. Did you do anything in scouting?   Ollie Cantos  37:33 I tried when I was in sixth grade, I asked to be involved with scouts and the Scoutmaster said, Hey, buddy, I know, I know you want to do this stuff, but it's kind of not safe. And we don't really know how we support and everything but thanks for wanting to be involved. And then that was it. I had   Michael Hingson  37:50 a Scoutmaster. I was in Cub Scout some, but really got involved when I went into the Boy Scouts. And I had a Scoutmaster and worked with a number of leaders who were really like my parents, I guess is the best way to put it, then care about being blind. I remember when I went to my first order of the arrow function, as you know, and started down that path. And part of the the thing is that you can't talk for 24 hours, you you follow directions, you do stuff but you don't talk. And it's a time of contemplation. But I remember one of the the leaders, the the actually the person who was coordinating that particular event, said, Come on, let's go talk. And I remember saying to him, but but I'm not supposed to talk he says okay, I'm giving you permission, but I remember Mr. Ness talking about the fact that it was great that I was was there, and they want to make sure that I get to participate in in every way and that it's going to be a learning experience for all of us. But he was really pleased that I stepped up and decided to try to join the Order of the Arrow and then eventually of course went off and and went through the whole program and became vigil and and got to know him all the way through and all number of our scout leaders were were the same and they all had that attitude, which was such a blessing. Wow, that they didn't put limitations.   Ollie Cantos  39:28 That's how it should be and and so that's the same with with my son to their scouting. I was tradition whenever it was a first of something I would go but after that, other than that they went on their own with with the leaders and they built their own friendships and everything and I got out of the way, you know, yeah, the thing as a parent as I did not want I'm still I'm not the type of parent to hover. I feel like they should make their mistakes. And they should learn and get guidance, of course, but if they make A mistake and it's a wrong mistake. And that leads to consequences. They have to feel that, you know, like, like they want. I bought one of them a cell phone, a brand new self iPhone, he lost it. So I'm like, Well, that's it. That's it, you're gonna have to find a way to earn the money to get that back. Yeah, you know, and then he had to find a way to work and he got it back eventually.   Michael Hingson  40:19 Well, and the point is that you are there. And I would intuit that. They know they can come and talk to you about anything and that you will be helpful and advice. But you don't. You don't hover a helicopter. Ah,   Ollie Cantos  40:36 the only time I like to hover is if I'm in a helicopter, which I love.   Michael Hingson  40:39 Oh, there you know, there there is. I have not I have flown an airplane but I've not flown a helicopter. Yeah. Oh, it's it's a whole different feeling. It's I've been in a helicopter, but I've never flown one.   Ollie Cantos  40:51 Oh, I I'm not planning on flying one myself. Oh, so okay.   Michael Hingson  40:55 Yeah, I don't know that. I want to do that. I have flown an airplane. I've been in a couple of different aircraft where I sat in the copilot seat. And the pilot said you want to try it? I said, Sure. You know, we're not near anymore.   Ollie Cantos  41:10 Yeah, one of my friends have been to that too. It's a blast. Oh, it's so much fun. But I didn't want to do it for long.   Michael Hingson  41:17 Yeah, well, we actually doubled the last time I did it. No, no, not the last time. The second time the last time I did it, we decided that we would try to imitate the aircraft they called the vomit comment where we got weightless and was a prop plane. So we couldn't go up nearly as high. But we actually did do a little bit of a parabola and parabola and had about 10 or 12 seconds of weightlessness. It was a lot of fun. And, and I actually did that and did it more by field than anything else. But we made sure we stayed way above the ground.   Ollie Cantos  41:48 Okay, well, that's that's good. And obviously, it turned out well, that we   Michael Hingson  41:51 were still here, which is, which is really good. You know, it's, it's important, I think, to talk about all this, that we're that we're dealing with about blindness and so on. It's, I think, extremely necessary for people to understand that we're people like everyone else. And I can tell you right now, I know we're not going to finish this today. And I'm going to definitely want you back to to continue the discussions. But what I would like to do a little bit, is get into some of the things that you've done, since you got your law degree, you've been involved in a number of government activities, and so on. Tell us a little bit about that. And some of the adventures, if you will, that you've had along the way. Well,   Ollie Cantos  42:33 I'm originally I had no intention of doing work in the disability rights world, I had other thoughts about what I wanted to do. I wanted to go into family law. But that was just too gut wrenching, and I just I went home crying every day. So I'm like, I just can't do this. And then eventually, I got involved with the disability rights world by working in California, at the Disability Rights Legal Center for three years and built a program there that drew the attention of folks in Washington and I got recruited to become general counsel and Director of Programs for the American Association of People with Disabilities that had a membership at the time of 70,000. And so Andy Imperato changed my life by bringing me there. And I directed what's called Disability Mentoring Day, and at the time that I took it over it, it had participation of 1600 students, within three years, with no funding increase, I increased it to 10,000 mentees and 10,000 mentors, and involved people of not only the United States, but in 19 foreign countries all around the world. And so that can some other attention. And then I eventually I became a next I became a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Department of Justice, and special counsel. And I also worked for work at the White House as Associate Director for domestic policy covering disability issues. That was a blast. Oh my gosh, it was so much fun, a lot of work a lot of fun. Then eventually I came back from that went back to Justice Department. And somewhere in between there. I also had appointments to the as Vice Chair of the President's Committee for people with intellectual disabilities, and then later I served as a member of the committee to and then I then went to the Department of Education. And I've been there as special assistant in the office of the assistant secretary for civil rights. So I've been around this all this for 17 years. And I've built relationships with with literally 1000s of nonprofit leaders across the country. And I've been literally by this point to 41 states or 42 states by this point and gotten to speak to more than 58,000 people all across the country and I just really have loved it. And that's in addition to the businesses that we have, as well as other things. So so we have a really, really, really full life with a lot going on.   Michael Hingson  44:59 How about decided to run for Congress yet? Hmm.   Ollie Cantos  45:03 running for office is coming.   Michael Hingson  45:06 That would be an interesting experience. It's, you know, Washington has its own challenge, of course, especially right now, what do you think? And I'm not talking about taking political sides. But in a sense, it's probably relevant to ask, given how people view disabilities and so on, but what, what do you think about the whole fact that there is such a schism and no room for discussion or really interaction anymore in the Washington in the whole political arena? And again, I don't it's not an issue of sides, but it's just all around us now.   Ollie Cantos  45:43 Yeah. And there's actually a phenomenon behind all that. It is the social media of what Facebook and Twitter or Facebook did is, they added the like button, I think it was back in 2009. And so what ended up happening is it started to, to, to drive people wanting to get likes. And so what ended up happening is it created over time, a polarization effect, where people would just start start taking positions in anybody who felt adverse to those positions, they would block them, etc. Something happened to me relatively recently, where I just stayed in opinion to try to be helpful, and somebody threatened to block me. And I just thought, well, heck, forget this, I'm just gonna just do it myself. If you're gonna throw acid on me, forget it, you know, yeah. And it's tough. And the thing is, I'm very bipartisan, and I, I really believe that that the secret secret to our power as a community is to really find ways truly to come together, not just in by talking about it, but by finding things that we can do in collaboration with one another. If we even focus just on that alone, that's more than enough work that we have lifetimes to get done. And if we were to focus on those areas of commonality, we really could find a way to move forward together. And I found that to be the case. And so, you know, I really choose to be not only bipartisan, but but very proudly. So where just because somebody has a political affiliation different from mine, doesn't mean that they're the enemy, or it doesn't mean that they're, they have all bad ideas or not. I mean, it's more of a whole comp, construct of how there's an idea, then there's another idea, then together dialectically, then it creates something brand new, then that's the becomes the new idea, and we just repeat the process. And I and collaboration has been at the heart of how I've operated my personal life, professional life every part of my life. And it's just been the biggest blessing to really just to respect people for whatever differences and not to attack them for having differences. And then to find ways that we could work together and to build on that   Michael Hingson  47:49 we, we just don't know the art of conversation anymore, which is a real challenge. And it's extremely unfortunate that we have forgotten or choose not to remember how to talk to other people and have respectful disagreements. I just before we started this podcast, I'm shifting gears, again, just a little bit as part of this discussion. But I had a conversation with the homeowners association where I live. And I called to say, your internet, your website is inaccessible. And what's one of the things that's occurring is that there is a move on a good one to purchase. The country club that the association with the Association does not own it, it's owned by a private company, but they want to sell it there outside concerns, who want to buy the property, and so on and tear it down and build more homes. They also get the water rights to Spring Valley lake where we live, which none of us want. And then there are a lot of us in the association who want the association to buy it. And the association is actually working toward that. They put out a website that has a survey that's been dealt with. And now there is a way that you can go on the website and solicit or request a a proxy ballot or a ballot to vote, and it's not accessible. So I called and talked to the general manager, and he said, Well, I'm going to have to call our attorney, because you said we're violating the law. And he said, What law are we violating? I said, you are familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act, aren't you? And he really isn't. But you're violating the law. I'm not talking about suing you. I'm just wanting you to make the website accessible. But even there, the defenses go up. And it's so very difficult to get anybody to communicate about anything. And it's not magical and the most logical and sensible thing in the world to want to make your website accessible. But the big defense that he used is I've been here 14 years. Nobody's ever complained about it before. What and I said, Why should that matter?   Ollie Cantos  50:10 Yeah, I've heard that before. Like businesses complaints, say, I've never had a wheelchair user try to come into my restaurant. Well, did it occur to them that because that accessible?   Michael Hingson  50:19 Yeah. Yeah. It's it's really unfortunate. But it's all part of the educational system. And we do need to be part of the solution. Not be part of the problem.   Ollie Cantos  50:32 Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And And that actually brings to mind all of these different efforts, that that the accessiBe has been engaging in the especially from everything that I've read and seen and from having a spent time with your with the team and everything. So many things are happening at a proactive level, I mean, the way that accessiBe makes its services available to nonprofits for free, the way that that companies have jumped on board with with really pushing for, for access, accessibility in a way that never has been done in mass, the way it's being done. Now, the partnership opportunities that are between accessibility and different stakeholders, and how there's always an effort to engage in dialogue. And though and the way that the company grows as as, as it learns, the community, and so forth, I mean, I just love that. I mean, that to me, whenever we look at efforts for all of us, as we grow, we just need to keep working on getting better and better and better and better every day, every day. If we ever think that we know it all that we don't that that's proof that we don't if ever, we ever think that. And so I really I just really think that the efforts of accessibility to continually to grow, just like is just as is true with other companies who strive to grow, that if there's always that commitment to ongoing improvement, then that's that's truly how the disability community will benefit. It's how businesses will benefit and how it's a win win for all of us. Speaking of unity, so we've been talking about that, because then everybody can gain better access. That means that people can purchase products and services that companies offer, it means that nonprofits can be more accessible to people who otherwise wouldn't have the same access to information, it means that it helps them to advance compliance with the law, but even beyond compliance, just the spirit of inclusion. And so I mean, this world is changing, and it's changing really fast. And in a good way, it seems,   Michael Hingson  52:33 you know, we could go on forever. But I'm going to go ahead and suggest that we stop because we have now been talking for an hour. But why would or can you believe it? No. But I would like to have you back on again soon. Because I'd like to continue exactly where we left off. And there's so much more to talk about, and so many stories to tell. So would you be willing to come back? Sure. I'd be happy to Great, then. But I will ask this though, if, if people want to reach out to you and communicate with you. How do they do that? Oh, thank   Ollie Cantos  53:08 you. If people in the United States send a text to 3131 31. And in the body of the put the message type in my nickname, Oli o l l IE and send it that'll be a way that you will have, you'll be able to reach me every way social media, telephone, email, and so forth. So I really would love to get to hear from you. And as your listeners reach out because of this podcast, I love for them to let me know that that they heard of that they're reaching out because of having heard of, of this conversation here. And and I just I will do whatever I can to be a support to whoever needs it.   Michael Hingson  53:49 Well, and of course that leads right into for those who are listening, we hope that you'll go to wherever you're getting the podcast, and rate us and give us a five star rating. And you will tell other people about it. We will have Ollie back on again soon. I promise. We'll work on schedules and see how quickly we can get it done since I know he's around for a little while before he leaves California. And he admitted he's on vacation. So you haven't heard the last of me in the next couple of days. But I want to thank everyone for listening to unstoppable mindset and clearly, only as is unstoppable as it gets. And I'm really also looking forward to meeting your three boys. I think that'll be a hoot. Oh, that'll   Ollie Cantos  54:33 be a blast. Thank you, Mike.   Michael Hingson  54:35 Well, thank you and hope, I hope Ollie, thank you very much for being here. Hope he's on my mind helped me whether there was another person we interviewed, you know, Hoby No, he's a blind chemist. Wow. And and, again, a really dynamic and incredibly powerful individual and a lot of good stories. But only thank you very much for being with us. Thank you all for listening and tune again next week for another edition of unstoppable mindset. And who knows if we get it done in time. Maybe it'll be early. Thank you all for listening   Michael Hingson  55:15 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.

Alma C. Stewart is the Founder and President of the Louisiana Center for Health Equity. Throughout her career, Alma has testified during countless legislative hearings, spearheaded numerous advocacy campaigns, and addressed social and political determinants of health in a manner that boldly places the needs of disparate populations at the forefront of Louisiana's political and social agenda. Alma's tireless civic engagement and uncanny ability to engage community stakeholders at the grassroots level have earned recognition on national, state, and local stages. One of her most noteworthy accomplishments was organizing and leading the Campaign for Healthcare for Everyone – Louisiana to advocate for Medicaid expansion closing the coverage gap for over 500,000 adults.

Patrick Madden hosted Monday's episode of Louisiana Considered.   Kaylee Poche of The Gambit reports on incidents of sexual misconduct and racism at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Read the full story here.   Amy Stelly, co-founder of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance, discusses the damage caused by the Claiborne Expressway and her commitment to fighting for the removal of the highway.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode I talk with executive director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind as well as vice president of the National Federation for the Blind Pam Allen. Check out the National Federation for the Blind website at www.nfb.org

Welcome to this edition of Michael's Weekly Perspective Podcast. In this episode, I'm first going to speak with my former O&M instructor Ms. nicky Pearl about her apprenticeship Program at the Louisiana Center for the Blind, then I'm going to play a small segment of the Banquet Speeches given by Dr. Kenneth Jernigan in 1993 about the History of NFB Cane. Here are the resources that I used for this podcast. 1. Click this link to listen to the full speech given by Dr. Jernigan in 1993. https://www.nfb.org/sites/www.nfb.org/files/images/nfb/audio/banqspeech/the_nature_of_independence.mp3 2. Press Enter on this link to learn and request a Free White Cane from NFB. Thank you for listen to this edition of Michael's Weekly Perspective and Happy White Cane Safety Day.

Evelyn lost her sight to Retinitis Pigmentosa over several years starting in her late teens. She struggled with not knowing what was happening to her sight at first, but ultimately attended the Louisiana Center for the Blind, and became a Logistics Management Specialist for the Department of Veterans Affairs. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/careersfortheblind/message

This episode of the Nation's Blind Podcast is the second of two episodes featuring a conversation about the joys and challenges of having children learning at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Eric Guillory, director of youth services at the Louisiana Center for the Blind and father of two, and Angela Wolf, teacher at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and mother of two, discuss the mental and emotional challenges of children being constantly at home during the pandemic and strategies for coping with them, as well as how to successfully work with school officials and others to make sure children's educational and social needs are being met.

This episode of the Nation's Blind Podcast is the first of two episodes featuring a conversation about the joys and challenges of having children learning at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Eric Guillory, director of youth services at the Louisiana Center for the Blind and father of two, and Angela Wolf, teacher at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and mother of two, discuss scheduling and enforcing instructional time and creating “teachable moments” unique to learning at home.

This Discover Lafayette podcast was taped on September 2019,prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and features a panel discussion on healthcare trends and disruptors led by Cian Robinson, Lafayette General Health Executive Director of Innovation, Research, and Real Estate Investment, at the September 2019 South Louisiana Community Health Summit organized by Beacon Community Connections. Panel members joining Robinson included Gwen Guillotte, V. P. of Payor Strategies at LHC Group; Dr. Gary Wiltz, CEO of Teche Action Clinics; Kevin Callison, Ph.D., Professor of Health Economics at Tulane University; and Dr. Yiad Ashkar, Director of the Louisiana Center for Health Innovation at UL-Lafayette. Focusing on the outside forces pushing the healthcare industry to switch from being reactive to proactive, Robinson asked a series of questions relating to "disruptors' which are turning the traditional model of healthcare delivery on its head. Historically, the medical profession has not experienced competition, but the healthcare market is evolving quickly as information technology, smart devices, and retailers have entered the arena. Cian Robinson began his career at Lafayette General Foundation (LGF) in August of 2014 as the Director of Development and Operations. In November of 2014, Cian was promoted to the position of Executive Director of the Foundation, and in 2018 was moved to the position of Executive Director of Innovation, Research and Real Estate Investments for Lafayette General Health System. In addition to his work at LGF, Cian is also an adjunct instructor at the B. I. Moody III College of Business Administration at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. While the traditional doctor's office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. when most people are at work, consumers are clamoring for convenient options for healthcare delivery. If they can have groceries, meals, and products delivered to their home, they also expect to be offered more convenient ways to receive treatment for health issues. Millennials are increasingly choosing urgent care centers in lieu of primary physicians, opting for more affordable and convenient access to medical treatment. Kevin Callison stated that "millennials will increasingly be the driving force where dollars are spent. The question is 'Will there be healthcare alternatives different than the traditional models that older generations have been used to?'" Kevin Callison, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. "Millennials will increasingly be the driving force where dollars are spent. The question is 'Will there be healthcare alternatives different than the traditional models that older generations have been used to?'" Dr. Gary Wiltz asked, "Do healthcare providers want to be "disrupted or disruptors? (Healthcare) markets who wait to adopt change will be replaced quickly by more agile technology." Wiltz reminisced about his medical training at Tulane University years ago when Dr. Albert Hyman predicted that "50 years from now we'll receive healthcare at Sears department store." While it seemed a bit outlandish then, things have certainly evolved to validate Hyman's prediction that medical care would have to change to meet the consumer where they are. Dr. Gary Wiltz reminisced about his medical training at Tulane University years ago when Dr. Albert Hyman predicted that "50 years from now we'll receive healthcare at Sears department store." While it seemed a bit outlandish then, things have certainly evolved to validate Hyman's prediction that medical care would have to change to meet the consumer where they are. Non-traditional healthcare is being delivered by huge retailers such as Amazon, CVS, Apple, and Walmart, who are saying they want to take on the treatment of chronic conditions. Artificial intelligence (AI) targets patients "where they are" and can gather data a...

Hello listener, Glad you can join me for this episode of Michael's Weekly Perspective. Today I'm glad to have Eric Guillory from the Louisiana Center for the Blind joined me in the Studio to talk about the Summer programs that are available for blind students to attend at LCB to increase their self confidence and many more. To send an email to Eric Guillory you can send it to eguillory@louisianacenter.org to hear the previous demonstration of the Manage key lable feature visit this link http://podcast.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/episodes/FSCast138-Software_Updates,Key_Labels,Eric_Damery_at_CSUN.mp3 To send an email with your listener comments send an email to munnmichael68@gmail.com I love to hear from you listeners. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This week's episode features the guest Will Pham, a licensed social worker who has been accumulating clinical hours to become a psychotherapist. When he was a child, he was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, which is a rare genetic condition that involves a breakdown and loss of cells in the retina. In short, his visions regress every year and it eventually leads to his blindness. Will comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience in mental health and the field of counseling and therapy. In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics, from the important role of family dynamics in one's development and achievement in life to the danger of social media.

Today Suzanne Hawley from Wichita State University talks with Doris Brown, Executive Director for the Center for Community Preparedness at the Louisiana Department of Health, about the skills needed for public health practitioners today, the importance of relationships, seeking mentorship, and how the Louisiana Center for Community Preparedness achieved a third place ranking. Visit our podcast webpage for more information, a transcript, and an evaluation. Thank you for joining us today. Special thanks to our guests, Shirley Orr, executive director of the Association for Public Health Nurses, Suzanne Hawley, Roger Hileman, Melissa Richlen, Hannah Shultz, and Laurie Walkner. Funding for this webinar is provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Theme music was composed and produced by Dave Hoing and Roger Hileman. Funding for this webinar is provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Braille Monitor - February 2019 Vol. 62, No. 2, February 2019 Illustration: NFBEQ Making a Difference for Young People A Message from Our President by Mark Riccobono Fifty Years After tenBroek: The Right to Live in the World Today and Tomorrow by Stacy Dubnow Three Out-Castes of American Society by Professor Jacobus tenBroek On Expectations: Average vs. Amazing by Lisa Ferris Dear Teachers, Please Assume Competence When You Work with My Child by Crystal Kostick Speaking Over Me Won’t Stop Me by Aaron Rupp Betty Capps Dies by Gary Wunder The Secret to Winning a National Federation of the Blind Scholarship by Cayte Mendez Leave a Legacy Bengsten Offers Insight into Living without Sight by Jake Doetkott Spaghetti with Chopsticks by Justin Salisbury The Eltrinex V12Pro Talking Digital Recorder by Curtis Chong Improvising Independence: Finding My Own Solutions for a Career in Music Therapy by Kaiti Shelton Braille Letters from Santa are a Little Christmas Magic How the Louisiana Center for the Blind Helped Prepare Me for College by Vejas Vasiliauskas Recipes Monitor Miniatures 

Job Insights Extra: Adjustment to Blindness - Meet Rob Hobson: College Prep and Success All in One. Transcript Provided Job Insights Extra brings you Rob Hobson, Cordinator for Professional Development and College prep at Blindness Learning In New Dimensions, Inc. Best known as Blind, Inc. located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rob tells his story how he overcame the challenges that nearly defeated him when entering his Masters program. He made a decision to improve his Blindness skills and this led him on the journey he continues today. From nearly bailing out to exceeding his own expectations by finishing his Masters degree ahead of time and landing a job in the career he wanted. Rob talks about his job details when he started as an Orientation and Mobility instructor to his duties today as Cordinator of Professional Development and the College Prep program. Join Rob Hobson and Jeff Thompson on this brief look into Rob’s Adjustment to Blindness and how he is helping others adjust to their Blindness today. You can find out more about Blind,Inc and Adjustment to Blindness on the web at www.BlindInc.org You can also contact Rob and Blind, Inc. via email You can find out more about State Services for the Blind on the web at www.MN.Gov/Deed/SSB And to find Services in your state check out the American Foundation for the Blind web site and enter your State’s name in the, “Find Local Services” section. Thank you for listening! You can follow Job Insights on Twitter @JobInsightsVIP Send the Job Insights Team and email and give us some feedback and suggest some topics you would like to see us cover. Job Insights is part of the 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.   Job Insights Extra: Adjustment to Blindness - Meet Rob Hobson: College Prep and Success All in One. Transcript Provided [Music] Rob: When I started that semester, I soon realized that the skills I used in college from my undergrad weren't gonna work in grad school. Jeff: That's the voice of Rob Hobson, Coordinator of Professional Development and College Prep at Blindness Learning in New Dimensions. Rob: Set up an interview and came up here in early December of 2008 and I was offered a position and I accepted. Jeff: Rob talks about the challenges that he faced when transitioning from college to his master's degree program, and how adjustment to blindness training gave him the skills and confidence to succeed. Rob: We use structure discovery which utilizes the environment as a teaching tool and if you only just know one specific route, that can be really debilitating because that's all you know. Jeff: And you can find the Job Insights podcast on blindabilities.com, part of the Blind Abilities Network with host Serina Gilbert and myself Jeff Thompson, and you can contact us by email at JobInsights@blindabilities.com, and join us on the job insight support group on Facebook, on Twitter at Job Insights VIP. Rob: Get that adjustment to blindness training because it is vital for you to be able to compete out there with your sighted peers. Keep an open mind because there is a lot of life after blindness. [Music] Jeff: I went down to South Minneapolis to the historic Pillsbury mansion, the home of Blind Incorporated and that's where we met up with Rob Hobson, we hope you enjoy! [Music] Welcome to Blind Abilities I'm Jeff Thompson and today we're down at Blind Incorporated in Minneapolis we're talking to Rob Hobson and he's the Coordinator for Professional Development and College Prep. How are you doing Rob? Rob: I'm doing well on yourself Jeff? Jeff: Doing good thanks, Rob thanks for taking the time to coming on the Blind Abilities and sharing a little bit about your journey through blindness and your job that you have. Rob: Oh thank you I'm happy to be here. Jeff: Well Rob, can you tell a little bit about what your job is like here? Rob: Well working here at Blind Incorporated, it's a lot of fun, we have a great team and we work together as a team to provide adjustment to blindness training to college-age students, to adults, to seniors, and we have transition programming, and we even have a buddy program which covers 9 to 13 year olds. Jeff: You cover the whole gauntlet? Rob: Yeah we do, it's, it's great, it's, it's a lot of fun. [Bass guitar sound effect] Jeff: Now you did not start out as a Program Coordinator? Rob: Well when I started at Blind Incorporated, I started in 2009, but I should go further back, actually, it's actually a little journey. In 2006 I started grad school at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale to get a master's degree in public administration, on paper that sounds great, when I started that semester I soon realized that the skills I used in college from my undergrad weren't gonna work in grad school. The bar was a lot higher, note takers were hard to get, because I utilized their services through disability services through the campus and I realized that my skills weren't up to par because I just couldn't keep up. Every time I thought I did great, I was still further behind. What really hit it for me was when I took this budgeting class and I thought I got all the points possible, and in that class it was zero to five, five was like the max of points you can get, so I thought hey, I might have gotten a four or five, and I got my grade and it was a 1.5, and the words that really changed my view was, well I felt bad, so I just gave you a 1.5. And that really hurt, it really set, threw me back a loop, you know, it's like wow, I've never had that happen to me before. I called some friends who are in the NFB and I talked to them about, you know, maybe it's time for me to get some adjustment to blindness training. I knew it would be a process because getting Illinois, because that's where I lived at the time, to pay for it was a process. I've heard horror stories that sometimes it could take two years but I was pretty confident that it wouldn't take that long. So in August of 2006 I met with a counselor, I convinced her to start the process and I had an O&M evaluation. I wrote a letter stating why I needed this training and what it was going to do for me, so I had an O&M evaluation, through the letter I was able to convince them to provide me the opportunity to go to the Louisiana Center for the blind in Ruston Louisiana. I started my program at the end of March of 2007, and that's when I started my journey in blindness training. Now to be fair, my goal was to get through the program, go back to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and complete my Master's in Public Administration Degree. Well while I was in the program, it was suggested to me that I should consider the Louisiana Tech O&M program and I considered it for about 1/2 a second and I thought no that's not me. As they say it, it put the seed there and throughout the summer of 2007 I realized that hey, you know I might actually like this. I started the process in the fall to go into Louisiana Tech, in the end of November I started my first classes as a Louisiana Tech student in grad school. Jeff: Now Rob, could it be that winter was coming and.... Rob: I'm not gonna lie, that was true, I thought that was a good benefit but really I was excited to start this program because I knew that, you know at the end of this program I would be able to get a job, and believe it or not, throughout that year it took me a year, end of November of 2007, and by November 19th of 2008 I walked away with a college degree, a graduate degree, from Louisiana Tech. It was a rough year, they say that a master's degree generally is a year and a half to two years, I did it in a year, it was probably the hardest year of my whole life at that time. Jeff: Congratulations! Rob: Thank you. I soon talked to Sean Mayo who was the Executive Director of Blind Incorporated, set up an interview and came up here in early December of 2008 and I was offered the position and I accepted. In January of 2009 I started as a Blind Incorporated employee, and to be fair, I only planned to be here year after about a month of working here because it was so cold, but I soon liked it, teaching cane travel was a lot of fun, it took me a while to get into my zone, you know because when you come to a new city you have to learn how to navigate the streets and learn the grid, the outline, you know all of the names of the roads, and I knew I had the skills to teach, it was a matter of learning the environment so I could teach and understand how to relate that information to my students. Jeff: So did you do a lot of exploring in your off time and just try and navigate the city and learn it? Rob: I did, I spent a lot of time learning south Minneapolis, I spent some time with Zach Ellingson who was the full-time cane travel instructor at the time, and we talked a lot, he really helped me gain the information necessary to teach. I spent some time observing him just to see how he taught because you know, when you're still a new teacher, you still like to get other teaching styles and I knew Zach was really successful at what he was doing and it was a good resource to work with. I spent a lot of time on weekends going out to other places in the city but at the time I really focused on south Minneapolis because I knew majority of my instruction was gonna be during that time. I later throughout the years, I gained knowledge in Northeast Minneapolis, Southeast Minneapolis, St. Paul, I know some of St. Paul, I don't know a lot of it but I know enough to to be able to teach it. Jeff: Now learning the areas that you did, it's pretty much transferable skills the way you teach here right? Rob: It is, the skills are transferable but you know it's like anything else, when you want to teach someone you have to still know what you're teaching, does that make sense? Because we also teach how to navigate the area via some of the names, so I needed to know those names so I can you know pass that information along, learn bus routes, I learned a lot of the bus routes, but yes, the skills I learned in Ruston Louisiana were transferable once I figured out the grid system and for an example, Hennepin Avenue is your divider between north and south Minneapolis, and the river, the Mississippi River divides southeast Minneapolis and northeast Minneapolis from north and south Minneapolis, and anything more than that you get a little complicated because it depends on where you are further south in the city, you actually have the river divider between St. Paul and Minneapolis. [Bass Guitar Sound Effect] Jeff: There's always been a debate about people sometimes teaching route travel compared to teaching skills that will allow you to explore other areas and use the same set of skills. Rob: That is true, in our format we use structure discovery which utilizes the environment as a teaching tool. We do start off with students in the beginning giving them simple route assignments so that they learn to gain that confidence and gain those problem-solving skills so that they're able to change those routes, make a diversion if need be, I mean because, well if you've walked in Minneapolis in the summer, you know that, maybe every, about every few blocks there's construction, or they tear up a sidewalk to put in a new one, or whatnot, you have to be able to problem solve in that and if you only just know one specific route, that can be really debilitating because that's all you know, and how are you gonna be able to get through that situation. Jeff: Yep I graduated from Blind Incorporated and I remember the whole thing, the only thing Zack always got upset was, I grew up here so, when he was trying to fool me or something, I'd hear a church bell. Rob: Oh, and that gave it away didn't it? Jeff: I could identify the church, so he would be more creative next time you know, just knowing that I had a few cues that other people didn't have so it was always interesting. Now in your new position, what do you do for Blind Incorporated? Rob: Currently I set up all of our activities, I coordinate from beginning to end. For an example last year we went camping for the first time in I don't know how many years, at least since I've been here we've never gone camping up to that point, and we actually went camping, we stayed in tents and that was a long process to put that together because there's a lot of details involved. It's not like we all just got in a van and drove up to Duluth area and pick the camping site and just went camping. There's a lot of details involved when you take 30 people, 30 of your closest friends and students up to, up to go camping. So there's logistics because you have to work on you know the amount of food, how many tents, how many people per tents, just a lot of logistics. I coordinate all of the logistics to make sure everything falls in line, all of our activities from camping to just going rock climbing at vertical endeavors. Starting last year we started putting together professional development for the staff and students, some of the highlights, we had Kevin O'Connor come in, who is a renowned professional speaker who came in and talked to our staff and students on basically just professional development, working with each other, and what does it mean to be professional, and covered all of those components. We also had somebody come in and do a multicultural training, we had somebody come in and talk about cognitive disabilities, we've done some first aid CPR, so we've done a lot of different programming, but we've done it before but not to this caliber, so we really have a professional development piece about every three months or so for the staff and we started incorporating the students in that as well because it's important I think for our students to be able to have that information, they can put it on their resume, and I think it makes them even more employable. [Music] Jeff: You also had a program called Blind and Socially Savvy, can you tell us a little bit about what that is? Rob: So Blind and Socially Savvy really covers the soft skills, starting in conversation with somebody, proper way to introduce somebody, etiquette, so they have an etiquette meal where they actually sit down, a full meal and they learn how to conduct themselves in a professional environment because I'm sure you know Jeff that there are always interviews, sometimes those interviews are sitting down with a meal with your future employer, so it's a great opportunity to be able to conduct yourself professionally, it makes it even more likely for you to get that job. Also it's good to be professional and to have that proper etiquette because you're going to be amongst peers, whether they're your fellow co-workers, or friends, family, maybe you volunteer in an organization, it's great to have that etiquette because it puts you even higher up on the bar of success. Jeff: I attended something very similar to that and I remember they said, your bread is not a mop and turn your phone off, and pay all your attention to the person, it's not about the food mostly, it's about the interview so to say, or the person that you're attending with. Rob: That is correct. Jeff: And then they went through, start from the, just like on the Titanic, start with the outside silver and wake work your way in, so there's a lot of information there that people are kind of expected to know, but if you haven't had the opportunity to learn it, Blind and Socially Savvy that you guys provide here, is awesome! Rob: Yeah and we didn't do it ourselves, we did it along with State Services for the Blind, we worked well with them and Sheila Koenig who's the coordinator for transition for SSB, she worked really well with Dan Wenzel the executive director here, and Michelle Get, who coordinates our transition programs. Jeff: And you do have a lot of programs here and opportunities that you mentioned early and it's really neat to see all the stuff that's happening from the summer to prep to like I said you cover the whole gauntlet here. Rob: Yep we also are starting a new program, it's our College Programming or I like to call it College Prep and what it is is students come in maybe they don't want to do a full six to nine month program but they want to come in and get some of those non-visual adjustment to blindness skills. So they'll come in for a summer, get that training, and if they're new to going to college we actually have a college class component that would start in the fall where they could take a class and still continue to get some adjustment to blindness skills, we would work with them on navigating a campus, and specifically that campus, and we would also work with them on study skills, note-taking skills, all of the the skills necessary to be successful in college. I know when I first started college I was absolutely terrified and I think even now with, with the technology being the way it is, back then you know if you had a computer you were lucky, but nowadays there's phones, there's Braille displays, there's lots of different technology out there that we would be able to work with students on so that they are fully competent and capable to be successful in college so that they can be employable in the future. Jeff: And being able to use that equipment on day one! Rob: Exactly, I mean that's, I think that's a really good point Jeff, you don't want to start, get your technology September first when you start at the class in late August and then have to learn how to use it while taking classes at the same time. We like to work with students early so that they have those skills when they start the college class, that they are able to know how to use their technology, take the best notes possible so that they can be self-sufficient. [Music] Jeff: Rob Hobson thank you very much for what Blind Incorporated does here in Minneapolis and across the nation because other students come from other states and you guys give them an opportunity to succeed, give them skills and the confidence to do so. What advice would you give to someone who has recently become blind visually impaired or has trouble reading the printed word, and what advice would you give them as they start that journey? Rob: I would say keep an open mind, blindness is probably the one of the most terrifying disabilities out there, and really it's because of the unknown, it's a sighted world out there, people perceive through what they see, but keep an open mind because there is a lot of life after blindness. I lost my vision I, I wasn't fully sighted but when I did have some vision I lost it pretty quickly due to a retinal detachment and, and that's a long journey itself, but I know what it's like, it's tough, but what I can tell you is working with State Services for the Blind, figure out your options, whether it's Blind Incorporated, VLR, or Duluth Lighthouse, get that adjustment to blindness training because it is vital for you to be able to compete out there with your sighted peers and really that adjustment to blindness training is what's going to put you on that same platform for success. Learn those skills, know how to cook, clean, learn to read Braille, technology, cane travel, because you got to be able to get there on your own. You can always use Uber and Lyft but I can tell you that stuff's expensive, I know I look at my bank account every month, not that I use it every day but I use it just for quick things, it's expensive, so you're not going to be able to do that all the time, so you've got to pick up those, you know learn those non-visual skills that you can travel independently. Remember that blindness is not a tragedy. I like to say blindness is what you make of it, you can look at it as a tragedy, or you can look at it as, you know what, this is a new challenge, and I'm here to overcome it. Jeff: So Rob, if someone want to get a hold of you or Blind Incorporated, do you have any contact information? Rob: Sure do, you can call our main number 612-872-0100, and ask for Jennifer Wenzels, she handles our intake. You can also ask for me, I'm happy to talk to you if you have any questions, my extension is 220, and Jennifer's extension is 251. We also if you like email, you can send an email to info@blindinc.org. Jeff: info@blindinc.org, well Rob thank you once again for taking the time, sharing your story, sharing your experience with the listeners and, really appreciate it. Rob: Oh you're welcome Jeff, it was a pleasure. [Music] Jeff: Yes it was a real pleasure talking to Rob Hobson, and if you want a contact Blind Incorporated, send them an email at info@blindinc.org, on the web at blindinc.org, and to find out more about State Services for the Blind check us out on the web at www.mn.gov/deed/ssb, and to find services in your state check out American Foundation for the Blind's website at AFB.org. And Thank You Chee Chau for the beautiful music and you can follow Chee Chau on Twitter at lcheechau. Once again, thank you for listening, we hope you enjoyed, and until next time bye-bye [Music] [Multiple voices] When we share what we see through each other's eyes, We can then begin to bridge the Gap between the limited expectations and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff: For more podcast with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on twitter at BlindAbilities, download our app from the app store, Blind Abilities, that's two words, or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com, thanks for listening.  

Eric Damery looks ahead to the CSUN conference, and discusses some new features and fixes in the March JAWS 2018 update. Jack Mendez, Director of Technology for the Louisiana Center for the Blind, talks with Jonathan Mosen about the importance of mastering your technology, and why JAWS best equips you for being on the job. Show Host: Jonathan Mosen FSCast Episode 151 - March 2018 JAWS Update, Jack Mendez from the Louisiana Center for the Blind

Join the Blind abilities Team of Pete Lane and Jeff Thompson as they talk to Dan Parker about his life changing racing accident and how he has set goals to overcome the challenges from losing his eye sight and more than anything, not losing his vision of racing again. Dan is the 2005 World Champion racer who now uses his skills and confidence to re-invent himself as the World’s Fastest Blind Man. Racing is a family tradition and getting back into the shop and building racing components for cars and motorcycles has given him success and accomplishments that he only dreamed about as he recovered from his near death racing accident in 2012. By 2013 he was racing across the Salt Flats and in 2014 he attended the Louisiana Center for the Blind to gain the skills and confidence he knew he needed to enhance his daily life skills and competency in his tech skills. With goals of becoming the World’s Fastest Blind Man and enjoying doing what he has done for years, Dan Parker is inspiring others and racing ahead with goals and dreams he now knows he can achieve. You can reach Dan Parker @QuestforTheSalt on Twitter and Facebook.You can also find YouTube Videos by searching for Dan Parker.

Joshua Perry, Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, discusses LCCR’s report calling for youth to be removed from adult jail, and problems with the juvenile justice system. Next, Alysia Savoy, Performing Arts Manager at the Contemporary Arts Center, promotes “How to Build a Forest,” a colorful, interactive eight-hour installation and performance inspired by recent environmental disasters impacting Louisiana woodlands and ecosystems. Then, Jessie Haynes, philanthropy director for the Helis Foundation, promotes opening of the Enrique Alférez Sculpture Garden in City Park, and discusses the sculptor’s life and work, and the foundation’s support of the arts. Finally, UNO’s Dr. Ed Chervenak joins Jeanne to preview the upcoming elections.

The Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights defends the right of every Louisiana child to fairness, dignity and opportunity. Their holistic defense helps young people achieve their legal and life goals. Ariel Test is an attorney for the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. Her and her team defends the vast majority of kids arrested in Orleans Parish.