Podcasts about national library service

Tips for Using your NLS eReader with JAWS – A Braille Literacy Month Special Join us for an insightful episode on maximizing the potential of your NLS eReader with JAWS, featuring special guest Tamara Rory from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS). Learn how to obtain and navigate NLS eReaders, understand their key features, and explore how they enhance access to Braille books, BARD, NFB Newsline, and Bookshare. Tamara also shares expert tips on connecting your eReader to JAWS for seamless computer use. Whether you're new to eReaders or looking to refine your skills, this episode is packed with valuable guidance to support your Braille reading journey.

The Fiction Old and New book group is thrilled to welcome guest host Sally Rosenthal on Friday, January 3, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. to discuss “Crow Lake” by Mary Lawson, DB 59867 (BARD annotation below). We hope that you can join us to discuss this compelling story. Here is the NLS annotation: Crow Lake DB 59867 Lawson, Mary. Reading time 7 hours, 39 minutes. Read by Martha Harmon Pardee. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Subjects: Family; Psychological Fiction Description: After their parents die, teens Matt and Luke Morrison give up their own university plans to raise two young sisters, Kate and Bo, in the northern Ontario badlands. Twenty years later, Kate, now a professor, returns to resolve past differences at a family reunion. Some strong language. 2002. This book can be found on Bookshare at this link: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/2325140?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPWNyb3clMkJsYWtl Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

(BARD annotation below). We hope that you can join us to discuss this compelling story. Here is the NLS annotation: Help wanted: a novel DB 121085 Waldman, Adelle. Reading time 9 hours, 27 minutes. Read by Katie Boothe. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Humor; Human Relations; General Description: “Every day at 3:55 a.m., members of Team Movement clock in for their shift at big-box store Town Square in a small upstate New York town. Under the eyes of a self-absorbed and barely competent boss, they empty the day’s truck of merchandise, stock the shelves, and scatter before the store opens and customers arrive. Their lives follow a familiar if grueling routine, but their real problem is that Town Square doesn’t schedule them for enough hours–most of them are barely getting by, even while working second or third jobs. When store manager Big Will announces he is leaving, the members of Movement spot an opportunity. If they play their cards right, one of them just might land a management job, with all the stability and possibility of advancement. The members of Team Movement–including a comedy-obsessed oddball who acts half his age, a young woman clinging on to her “cool kid” status from high school, and a college football hopeful trying to find a new path–band together to set a just-so-crazy-it-might-work plot in motion.” — Provided by publisher Strong language. This book can be found on Bookshare at this link: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5915534?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUhlbHAlMkJXYW50ZWQ Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Here is the NLS annotation I have some questions for you DB 112960 Makkai, Rebecca. Reading time 14 hours, 8 minutes. Read by Julia Whelan. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Suspense Fiction; Mystery and Detective Stories; Bestsellers; Psychological Fiction Description: “A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the 1995 murder of a classmate, Thalia Keith. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are the subject of intense fascination online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie. But when The Granby School invites her back to teach a two-week course, Bodie finds herself inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn't as much of an outsider at Granby as she'd thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. This book can be found on Bookshare at this link: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5195996?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUklMkJIYXZlJTJCU29tZSUyQlF1ZXN0aW9ucyUyQmZvciUyQllvdSUyQg Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Facilitator: Greg Topics:  Sleep apnea features with 18, can it be used on iPhone,  it's used conjunction with the Apple watch series 9 or later; Issues with Voice rotor, seems to be having a mind of its own, usually one I have to download, inconsistences while scrolling voices, results seems to not use the actual voice;  Regarding the National Library Service website, issues with filling out the form, no next confirmation after hitting done, on Bard, usually takes a few days; In Facebook Messenger, Where's the inbox?  The inbox is for regular messages;  Reasons why Calls on Messenger don't seem to ring, but will ring on another call;  depending on number of cell bars may determine battery drainage;  The phone switches to the watch you're wearing, When adding a new watch, the speech rate may not change on new one, may need to adjust on the app; Issues with watch will stop talking, maybe do soft reset;  issues with VoiceOver stops talking and freezing; When is it best time to use MagSafe to charge battery; Best way to backup and reset an old IPad; Issues with dictation adding the word No to end of sentence; Siri hearing wrong name to call; Can you stop her?; Anyone use the Vocal Shortcut feature, issues with Microphone in use message, may need to turn off in other apps; Use of Bluetooth keyboard commands for different options; Use of Brail Screen input on iPhone 16, hitting wrong keys, may help to callibrate; Issues with Siri using locations services; Using MetaVeiw; Possible presentation on Rayban; Using ringtones, hearing other sound beside the ringtones, iBUG BYTES:  Greg: How to Forward a text message

The NLS annotation follows: Stillhouse Lake DB88737 Caine, Rachel Reading time: 14 hours, 5 minutes. Carol Jacobanis A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Suspense Fiction Four years ago, Gina Royal discovered that her husband, Mel, was a serial killer. Since then Gina and their two children have been on the run, both from Mel’s fans and from those who believe she was complicit. Now copycat killings occur at her front door. Violence and strong language. 2017. You can find this book on Bookshare at the following website: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/2080253?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPXN0aWxsaG91c2UlMkJsYWtl Alan Lemly will facilitate the 9/25/24 meeting and Shelly Kane will be facilitating the other meetings until our regular facilitator Liz Lindsey returns. Shelly can be contacted by email at shellykane323@gmail.com.

We hope that you can join us to discuss this human relations and romance audiobook by best-selling Black author Kennedy Ryan. Here is the NLS annotation: Before I let go: a Skyland novel DB 111356 Ryan, Kennedy. Reading time 13 hours, 48 minutes. Read by Jakobi Diem Wesleigh Siobhan. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Psychological Fiction; Romance Description: “Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone couldn't solve or save everything. It couldn't save their marriage. Yasmen wasn't prepared for how her life fell apart, but she is finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they're always drawn back to each other, and now they're beginning to wonder if they're truly ready to let go of everything they once had. Soon, one stolen kiss leads to another…and then more. It’s hot. It’s illicit. It’s all good—until old wounds reopen. Is it too late for them to find forever? Or could they even be better, the second time around?” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. This book can be found on Bookshare at this link: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5810363?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUJlZm9yZSUyQkklMkJMZXQlMkJHbw Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

ACB Conference and Convention General Session Tuesday, July 9, 2024 Call to Order Pledge of Allegiance - JPMorgan Chase Leadership Fellows ACB Business; ACB Sponsor Recognitions - Corporate Sponsors Affiliate Roll Call, Denise Colley Presiding officer - David Trott, First Vice President, Talladega, AL International Guest – Kenneth Suratt, Executive Officer, Trinidad and Tobago Blind Welfare Association, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad Scholarship Presentations News from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) - Jason Yasner, Deputy Director, Washington, DC Talking Book Narrator – Mare Trevathan, Books to Life, Denver, CO Nominations and Candidate Speeches – ACB Nominations and elections Door Prizes and Announcements The full video of the July 9 General Session can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOoH8sUl9R0&list=PL8lZLvTN7ZUhCTZJok4LfxN7WqcpBev8j&index=4&t=10s Edited by Dennis Becker Find out more at https://acb-convention.pinecast.co

The NLS annotation follows: A noise downstairs: a novel DB92788 Barclay, Linwood Reading time: 9 hours, 11 minutes. George Newbern A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Suspense Fiction Mystery and Detective Stories Psychological Fiction When professor Paul Davis surprises a murderer disposing of two bodies, he nearly dies and is left with physical and mental issues. His wife brings home a vintage typewriter to encourage him to write. But Paul swears the typewriter is possessed and tied to the murders. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2018. You can find this book on Bookshare at the following website: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/3882839?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPWElMkJub2lzZSUyQmRvd25zdGFpcnM Shelly Kane will be facilitating the Mystery Book Discussion Group until our regular facilitator Liz Lindsey returns. Shelly can be contacted by email at shellykane323@gmail.com.

Join us on July 2, 2024, first Tuesday, to review another blockbuster and best seller by Robert Woodward , Fear: Trump in the White House DB91876 Duration: 12 hours 20 minutes. NLS Annotation Fear: Trump in the White House DB91876 Woodward, Bob Reading time: 12 hours, 22 minutes. Robert Petkoff A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Biography Government and Politics Bestsellers U.S. History Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist details the decision-making process for both foreign and domestic policy within the Trump administration. Draws on interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, diaries, files, and documents. Strong language. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller. 2018. Bookshare This book can be found at Bookshare at the following link: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/2686300?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUZlYXIlMjUzQSUyQlRydW1w

Hey there, book lovers and tech enthusiasts! Today's episode is a real eye-opener about how technology is revolutionizing reading for everyone, especially kids with learning differences. We kicked things off with Ayan Kishore from Benetech, who's doing amazing work with Bookshare. Imagine a free online library with over 1.3 million books, all accessible to kids who struggle with traditional reading. We're talking text-to-speech, customizable fonts, and even refreshable Braille displays. It's not just cool tech – it's life-changing stuff that's boosting reading comprehension for kids with dyslexia and other challenges. Next up, we chatted with Dr. Adeia Theodore about her heartwarming book "I Would Love You Still." She reminded us how crucial it is to show our kiddos unconditional love, even when they're driving us bonkers. Plus, she dropped some knowledge about the long-term benefits of reading to our little ones – better vocabularies, school readiness, you name it! Last but not least, Jason Broughton from the National Library Service blew our minds with what they're offering. We're talking free access to talking books, Braille materials, and even the world's largest Braille music collection. And get this – they're working on e-Braille devices that can display images through touch. The future is now, folks! Throughout the show, we hit on some big themes: the power of personalized learning, breaking down barriers to education, and using tech to level the playing field for all readers. Whether you're a parent, teacher, or just someone who loves a good book, this episode is packed with info on how we can make reading accessible and enjoyable for everyone. So, grab your favorite e-reader (or good old-fashioned book) and dive into this episode. Trust me, it'll change how you think about reading and technology! Click here to visit our website - www.readingwithyourkids.com  Follow us on social media - www.facebook.com/ReadingWithYourKids  @ReadingWithYourKids on Instagram @JedlieMagic on X

Guest Speaker: Jason Yasner, Deputy Director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS)Learn about the history and workings of the Talking Books Program, book selection, eligibility, enrollment, program updates, online resources, and additional services like the music programs.

The NLS annotation follows: Me before you DB76161 Moyes, Jojo Reading time: 12 hours, 58 minutes. Jill Fox A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Disability Bestsellers Romance Working-class English girl Louisa “Lou” Clark is hired as an aide to wealthy Will Traynor, a former mogul who has been paralyzed since a road accident. Lou tries to keep the embittered Will engaged with the world, while Will encourages Lou to expand her horizons. Some strong language. Bestseller. 2012. You can find this book on Bookshare at the following website: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5146164?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPU1lJTJCQmVmb3JlJTJCWW91

Young person typing braille by George Williams Why should blind children learn to read braille? Given the amazing rise of audio books and audio screen readers, is braille a technology of the past? Our guest Mike Tanner answers these questions with a resounding “No” and, in this week's program, makes the case for braille literacy. Most people gain literacy as children, which means parents have a strong role to play in researching their children's needs and advocating for them with their school district. But, braille isn't a total solution. Mike talks about the cost of hard copy braille and explains why it is so expensive. He reminds us that one way to negotiate these problems is to use the many resources of the National Library Service For The Blind And Print Disabled. What does the future of braille technology hold? Find out this week on Pushing Limits, KPFA's program by and about people with disabilities. Mike Tanner teaches visually impaired students in Southern California. He holds a BA degree in mathematics and a Masters Degree in Special Education. This program was hosted, edited and produced by Denny Daughters. Hands reading Braille by Vater_fotografo622_NSC_4787_bis_Braille– “la luce attraverso le dita” (light through the fingers) Resources: For more about the National Library Service For The Blind And Print Disabled, visit them at: https://www.loc.gov/nls/ The National Library Service is underutilized. For more about it, as well as the Braille And Talking Book Library in Sacramento, go here: https://kpfa.org/episode/pushing-limits-march-15-2024/ Photo Citations: Young person typing braille by George Williams from Flickr Hands reading Braille. by Vater_fotografo from Flickr Creative Commons License The post Braille Today – Pushing Limits – June 14, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

The frozen river: a novel DB 117781 Lawhon, Ariel. Reading time 15 hours, 8 minutes. Read by Ariel Lawhon Jane Oppenheimer. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Suspense Fiction; Historical Fiction; Mystery and Detective Stories Description: “Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town's most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own. Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

We hope that you can join us to discuss this historical fiction audiobook. Here is the NLS annotation: Loot DB 115153 James, Tania. Reading time 8 hours, 45 minutes. Read by Shawn K. Jain. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Historical Fiction Description: “Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate–and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create–will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe. Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.. Your facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

I want to introduce you to Jann Weeratunga from South Africa who is our guest on this episode. Jann was born and grew up in Lundon. After working as a highway maintenance engineer for 10 years she moved to Sri Lanka where she married and lived for several years. Her husband passed away after they were married for four and a half years, but Jann continued to work and live there until she got the moving urge and ended up living in South Africa.   Jann has always had a deep interest in the para-Olympics. In 2012, while watching the closing ceremony of the London Paralympic Games, Jann was deeply moved by Sir Philip Craven's speech which included The tale of a young boy reading a book and recognizing a man with an eye patch, a hook for a hand, a parrot on his shoulder, and a wooden leg as an Olympian. This imagery sparked a transformative idea within her. Anyone recognize the man as a pirate? Jann did and began to write what is now a series of 10 children's books about Polly the Parrot or Pirate. Jann will tell us Polly's story and how this bird helped to create the Piralympics. This series is all about pirates, all of whom have disabilities and who compete in the “piralympics”.   To date, Jann has written over 40 books for children, some poetry and even books for adults. As she says, writing is a muscle that needs to be developed and exercised daily. This conversation to me is certainly quite inspirational and insightful for all. I hope you enjoy it.   About the Guest:   Jann Weeratunga is an author who firmly believes in the importance of representation and diversity, particularly for the 15% of the population who are often overlooked— the disabled community. In 2012, while watching the closing ceremony of the London Paralympic Games, Jann was deeply moved by Sir Philip Craven's speech. The tale of a young boy reading a book and recognizing a man with an eye patch, a hook for a hand, a parrot on his shoulder, and a wooden leg as an Olympian sparked a transformative idea within her. This powerful moment gave birth to the unique concept and content of the Polly's Piralympics Series (Paralympics for Pirates). Through these books, Jann tackles important themes like disabilities, bullying, and cheating.   However, plagued by self-doubt, Jann's journey faced a roadblock until 2016, when a friend who pushed her to take a leap of faith, reminding her that she would never know unless she published her work. This encouragement marked the beginning of her real journey as an author and Polly's Piralympics was launched in South Africa.   Jann's flagship series, Polly's Piralympics, has garnered tremendous success and continues to thrive, with the tenth book currently in the works. In March 2018, she established the Schools Reading Road Show, a non-profit organization aimed at enhancing literacy among primary school students in South Africa. Alongside her fellow authors, she embarked on a mission to visit schools in various regions, sharing inspiring stories, delivering motivational talks on important topics like "anti-bullying" and "it's okay to be different," and encouraging young learners to explore their own storytelling abilities.   Beyond her writing, Jann founded the Schools Reading Road Show, an organization that promotes literacy and encourages young learners to embrace diversity. She has visited schools, delivered motivational talks, and empowered children to tell their own stories.   Jann's impactful work extends to addressing conferences, conducting workshops, and participating in panels, all aimed at emphasizing the importance of representation and inclusivity. She continues to write Best Seller stories for children, while exploring different creative avenues for adults under her pen name, JE Gallery.   Her works have received several awards and nominations across Africa.   Recognized for her invaluable contributions to the literary landscape, Jann has spoken at the prestigious Embrace Head Teachers Conference in 2018 and 2019. She has also conducted workshops on the significance of reading for young adult pupils, participated in panels at esteemed events such as the JBBF (Jozi Books and Blogs Festival), South African Children's Book Fair, and Kingsmead Book Fair.   In 2020 on the eve of Lockdown, she organised and ran the Bennies Book Fayre for Children. The largest Children's Book fair for children in South Africa. To Date in 2023 she has attended the Zintzomi Storytelling Book Fair and The Johannesburg Festival of Women Writers.   Even amidst the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Jann found solace in her writing during the period of isolation. This time allowed her to focus on her craft, resulting in the release of her latest series, Patch's Pirate Pals. The first two books in the series, "Bluebird's New Ship" and "Redhair's Snot Cannonballs," achieved the remarkable feat of becoming Amazon Best Sellers in June and July 2022. ** ** Ways to connect with Jann:   https://www.facebook.com/JannWeeratunga    www.linkedin.com/in/jann-weeratunga-4aa852137   https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jann-Weeratunga/author/B07RPGCF61       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 ** 01:21 Well, hi, thanks for listening here on unstoppable mindset. We're inclusion diversity in the unexpected meet. Today, we get to travel to South Africa to talk with Jann Weeratunga. I hope I pronounced that reasonably right. And absolutely perfectly. Oh, great. I like to I like to try. Jann is an author. She's created a series around what she calls the piralympics. And we're going to talk about that. But she has a lot of other things to bring into the discussion as well. So I think we're going to have a lot of fun today. So Jann, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here with us.   Jann Weeratunga ** 02:05 Thank you, Michael. We're really glad to join you.   Michael Hingson ** 02:07 Well, why don't we start at I love to do with kind of learning a little bit about the earlier Jann growing up and all that sort of stuff.   Jann Weeratunga ** 02:16 Okay. I was born in London. I grew up in London, schooled in London. I eventually got married and moved out to Sri Lanka, hence my very peculiar surname. And I was out there for about 10 years, my husband passed away. And from there, I moved into the Middle East. I taught for a year there and then came over to South Africa, and I've been here for 17 years now.   Michael Hingson ** 02:49 Wow. What? What made you decide to go to South Africa? Well,   Jann Weeratunga ** 02:55 I was hoping it seemed like a good idea at the time. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, it was after the tsunami I had. I'd spent two years working on the east coast of Sri Lanka, I set up my own NGO. And I met people from all over the world. And on one occasion, we'd actually been down the coast this way and driving back and the army stopped us and sort of said, Did you know that there's a tsunami warning? Why are you driving around and of course, where we had been, it had just been water and monkeys and us and that was about it. And in the car, there was myself, British, a friend who was from South Africa and another friend who was from Australia, and another friend who was from America. And it dawned on us, literally, as we were explaining who we were and where we were from, that we were four ladies from four different countries from four different continents. So yeah, it was it was a very different sort of thing. And from there I I made friends with them. And then one of them sort of said, Look, you know, would you like to come and visit South Africa? You know, I've I'm just finishing off here and my time is in Sri Lanka is finishing would you like to come visit? So I thought, Okay, why not? I've never been South Africa. And that's what brought me here.   Michael Hingson ** 04:28 Pretty, pretty interesting scenario all the way around on but you never thought that was going to happen. Did you   Jann Weeratunga ** 04:36 know I didn't. But, you know, life has a habit of sort of just taking you where it wants to. So yeah, it   Michael Hingson ** 04:44 was good. So we're in South Africa, are you?   Jann Weeratunga ** 04:48 I'm actually in Johannesburg. So yeah, so inland about 1000 kilometers from the in gold country as they call it. eaglet and So yeah, I live up in Johannesburg.   Michael Hingson ** 05:03 So you, you have definitely moved around in the world. Have you been to America before?   Jann Weeratunga ** 05:10 I actually haven't. I sort of came out of Britain and turned left instead of turning right. And I never got to the States or Canada is actually one country I would love to go to. It's on my bucket list, along with Iceland and a few others. But yeah, I sort of got as far as as far east as Sri Lanka and as far as South and South Africa. So you know, all the bits in between there?   Michael Hingson ** 05:39 Well, I hope you do get to come to America. It's a it's a large country. fairly large physically, but certainly a lot of different cultures and different kinds of ways of life, depending on what state you're in, and, and so on everything from relatively new in California, which became a state in 1850, compared to some of the other states like Massachusetts, in the other colonies much earlier. And I love to travel around America to see the various different kinds of pupils, the different cultures that have all assimilated into this one really great country, which is, which is a lot of fun to do. And it's really enjoyable to to see the different states and everyone's a little bit different.   Jann Weeratunga ** 06:25 Okay, okay. Yeah, no, it's very big. I sort of looked at Washington State and thought that was a place I'd really like to go to, because it looks very green, and lots and lots of trees. So, you know, I'd like to travel around America if I get the opportunity. So you never know, hey, hey,   Michael Hingson ** 06:42 you never know. Well, I'm actually going to be in Washington State next month. So it'll be it'll be kind of find I've been there before and love going up to Washington. I love California as well. But I've enjoyed going to all 50 states now and just found a lot of wonderful stuff to see and do in all of those various states. So I can't complain a bit. I find it to be rich and, and exciting. But I've been to a number of countries. I have not been to England, I've been to Ireland, and I've been to New Zealand. And of course, I've been to Canada, and to the Netherlands. And in Japan and Korea, but I haven't really been to South Africa. I'd love to come and speak there some time. If the opportunity ever arises. I think it would be fun to do. And I've been to Israel. I went to Israel in August because I was there to be with accessibly for a week. And so again, I love going to a variety of different countries and experiencing and getting the chance to be a part of other cultures. So it's great. Well, so you went to college in England?   Jann Weeratunga ** 07:57 I sort of Yeah, I was a bit of a dropout. Yeah, it some. I passed with straight A's. My first two years and then I just decided, I don't know, I don't know what I decided. But I got a job. And I moved up very, very quickly, and I got paid way too much money. So I just decided that I wasn't going to go back to college.   Michael Hingson ** 08:24 What was your job?   Jann Weeratunga ** 08:27 I was actually a highway maintenance engineer. I actually built roads.   Michael Hingson ** 08:31 Wow. That's an interesting and different job. No, you enjoyed it.   Jann Weeratunga ** 08:39 I did actually it was your same thing. Two days on the trot, which was lovely. And I like sort of variation. I don't like sort of being stuck in an office. That's not really me. So yeah, I really I actually did, I really enjoyed it. And I worked with a great bunch of people. All men, I was the only woman I was the first woman into the department. So that was a little challenging to begin with. But they got used to me and yeah, and then eventually I left there to get married and go out to Sri Lanka.   Michael Hingson ** 09:13 So how long did you have that job? 10 years. Wow. So you you obviously did enjoy it?   Jann Weeratunga ** 09:20 Yeah, no, it was good.   Michael Hingson ** 09:22 So what do you do as a highway maintenance engineer?   Jann Weeratunga ** 09:25 Well, you basically dig up the road and relay it in in sort of very much layman's terms. I actually was responsible for a section of the a 40 which is the sort of London to Oxford road. I was responsible for a section of that. And yeah, just making sure that everything on it was working well. It was supposed to it was kept clean. The lights were on. The Galley pots were cleaned out, there were no potholes. At one point we even managed to put a new footbridge across it which was They're different. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 10:02 that's definitely a different thing to do. But certainly I can understand why that would be part of your job. Yeah, yeah. Then what took you to Sri Lanka.   Jann Weeratunga ** 10:14 Um, my best friend from school was actually Sri Lankan. And we'd gone there when I was when I literally just finished my A levels. And we went out there for a trip. She came over to Ireland to see what Ireland was like. And I went over to Sri Lanka with her, you know, the parents thought it was good, sort of cultural exchanges for us. And I really liked the country. And then sort of 1010 odd years later, I hadn't taken any holiday, I still run a scout troop. So every weekend that I had free and my suppose it holidays, whereas he spent scouting. And I just I got to the point, I was very, very tired. And I needed a break. And her dad actually said, Well, why don't you go back to Sri Lanka? You know, lots of people out there still. You kept in touch go out there. And I did. And then I met my husband and six months of chewing and froing. And eventually, we he popped the question, and we got married, and I moved out there.   Michael Hingson ** 11:21 I'm assuming your parents were okay with that.   Jann Weeratunga ** 11:24 The Not really. She was the other side of the world as far as they were. Yeah. And it was way too far away. But he made sure that every year I actually went back to the UK for, you know, I actually chose your Christmas. Because that's a very family orientated time for us. And unfortunately, he passed away after we'd been married about four and a half years. But I continue to stay out there for another six. The tsunami hit during that time. I also worked as the club secretary for what was at the time, the only the third golf course in the country rated in the top 10 in Southeast Asia, which was the Victoria golf club sat on struggling. So for Duncan golf union, which is actually where I was in 911. Yeah, I was actually at a golf meeting. And somebody said, Excuse me, I think you should all come and see the television. And we watched the plane. The second plane hit. So yeah, it's for those ones. We know exactly where you were in what you were doing. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 12:41 most, most people do. Most people do remember that. And I've heard so many fascinating and interesting stories about where people were or why they ended up not being in the tower that day, although they were scheduled to be and even up on higher floors. It is one of those amazing things and there's so many different stories. And a lot of people have stories to tell about it, which is pretty interesting.   Jann Weeratunga ** 13:08 Yeah. So the world stop moments a little bit like, I suppose, the shooting of JFK and, and of course, COVID More recently, you know, I think everybody knows where they were and what they were doing during COVID. Yeah, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 13:26 we stayed home. My wife had rheumatoid arthritis. And so her immune system was suppressed and she took medication for it that helped the pain, but it did keep the immune system down. So we chose without any qualms at all to stay home, and basically locked down. We were blessed. We could could get things brought in through things like GrubHub and other things like that. And I did my shopping or an our shopping through a service called Instacart. That would bring things and it worked out really well. And we live very close to a country club here in Spring Valley lake in Victorville. And we joined a social members of the club. And although they didn't deliver food, they had food available that you could go down and get, but we were friends with the general manager. And he said, anytime you want food, just call him we'll bring it and they were. So we were we were blessed. That   Jann Weeratunga ** 14:21 sounds really, really good. It's actually something it changed shopping, and how we shop in South Africa. Prior to COVID, everybody used to just go to the supermarket or go to the shops. And we didn't have any delivery services. It didn't exist in South Africa. And it's actually created a whole industry of young men on motorbikes that deliver and I know in the UK, they had deliveries, but it sort of, after about a year it fizzled out and people got back to going shopping, you know, whereas here It is carried on, and people still get their shopping delivered from the local supermarket with these little guys. It's good dude outside your house. And there they are. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 15:11 we have their word delivery services prior to prior to COVID. But it certainly did pick up a lot in COVID. And after COVID. And you're right, it's changed a lot of things. And we can view that as a positive thing or not. But I think overall, people are starting to discover, even with working that there's no need to be in the office five days a week, eight or more hours a day that it's healthier, to let people do some work at home, and do some of their work outside of the office.   Jann Weeratunga ** 15:49 Absolutely, absolutely. But I must admit, I think I saw more dogs being walked around my blog than I had ever seen. People tend not to take the dogs out too much. Yeah. They were very, very big plots, and the dogs run around on those. But of course, that was the only excuse we had initially to actually be able to leave our properties. So all the dogs had their little walkies on a regular basis every day. So that was quite interesting as well.   Michael Hingson ** 16:18 I've been to places in Europe and also talk to to other people who live there. And I guess it was fairly common, even well before COVID, to walk dogs and even see dogs go into stores or restaurants and so on. And it was a common thing. But the difference between there and here and correct me if I'm wrong. But the difference is that most all of those dogs were well behaved and they were controlled by their people.   Michael Hingson ** 16:51 Generally, yes, generally. And   Michael Hingson ** 16:54 unfortunately, here, people just think they should be able to take their dogs, whether they're well behaved or not. And all too often, we see that dogs are not as well behaved as they should be. That creates a problem for those of us who use dogs like guide, like I use our my guide dog Alamo as a guide dog who's trained. And then they tried to put restrictions and has put some restrictions on us, because of those other people that they wouldn't really just deal with them appropriately. So it is it is a challenge. Yeah,   Jann Weeratunga ** 17:25 no, I know, from obviously the UK and Ireland, because my mum's from Ireland, that, you know, taking the dogs out for a walk is commonplace. I mean, dad would always take the dog for a walk around the block at night, just you know, before we went to bed. And it was my brother and my job to sort of walk the dog down to the park and give them a good run during the day. So I think you know, so walking dogs, it was it was it was good, actually, because it's a good form of exercise as well. And, you know, I mean, I would often sort of pop the dog into the car, drive up to the forest and go for a walk for two to three hours, you know, and then come back with a very tired dog. So yeah, well, that's   Michael Hingson ** 18:07 that's a good thing. Yeah. And sometimes attire, Jann, but but still, that's probably.   Jann Weeratunga ** 18:14 Yeah, I wasn't bad. In those days. It was bit younger. But the Yeah. Well, I   Michael Hingson ** 18:20 know one of the things about you is that you, you write you're an author, when did you start writing?   Jann Weeratunga ** 18:25 I think I've always had an interest in poetry, and sort of wrote little details here and that sort of thing. But it was more or less when I came to South Africa, we owned a restaurant down in Nisa, which is on the coast, in very beautiful part of the country is just above the sort of Jitsi, karma, forest area. And I actually lived in a wooden cabin in the forest, where I didn't spend much time there because I actually spent sort of like, six and a half days at the restaurant running it. But when I had spare time, I would actually just sort of sit on the deck. And just let my mind wander. And I started with the poetry. And then I started writing in seriously children's stories in 2012, which was the start of the Paralympics.   Michael Hingson ** 19:27 So love to hear more about that. What got you started doing that? And well, let me ask first, did you publish any of your poetry?   Jann Weeratunga ** 19:38 Would you believe I actually only published my poetry last year? And that was because some friends had basically seen some of the poems and sort of said, Why haven't you published the and I think it's the difference between being judged by your peers and being judged by children. So so most of them My writing is actually for children. But my poetry is obviously for adults. And funnily enough, I actually took a couple of books with me, I went back to the UK in May to see my family. And I took a couple of books, and gave them as gifts to friends. And they actually sort of said, well, would you read a couple of poems for us, and so I read a couple of them, and they were in tears. And I didn't think my poetry would have that much of an effect on people. So it was quite an eye opener for me. The other adult work I've done is I actually write adult short stories, dark stories, unfortunately. I know a couple of other authors that do the same. They write poetry, children's books, and dark, short stories. And I think it's a release from writing children's stuff all the time is to write sort of the dark adult stuff. But I've actually not that I'm not public, I've got two books ready to go. They've been sitting there for a couple of years. And, and yeah, and there's just a block there that the   Michael Hingson ** 21:10 public, are they going to be dark?   Jann Weeratunga ** 21:14 They are dark, all the short stories are very dark. And yes, but they're there. I mean, one of one of them is actually a monologue, for example of a character who has schizophrenia. And so they're obviously talking to themselves. And they're on a plane. They I say they because it was it's one person is on a plane, and the quieter voice of the two has actually arranged to be euthanized in Switzerland, which is legal. Without the other one, knowing what the other side of the venue knowing. And it's this, this monologue, and that's all it is, is this conversation the whole way through the story. And a few people that have read it have been, I think, quite shocked, because it's not the sort of usual happy clappy stuff that I wrote for kids. Yeah. And they were saying, Okay, well, when is it publishing? Have you got any more? And can we read it? So sorry about that thing? I can't stop that.   Michael Hingson ** 22:26 Look at JK Rowling. You know, she wrote the Harry Potter series, and now she's writing the Cormoran Strike series. And I don't know that I would say they're, they're darker, although I think the last Harry Potter book that she wrote was, was darker than the others. But she clearly throughout both series is a mystery writer. Because in one real sense, Harry Potter is all about mystery is being a mystery. Just the various things that go through it.   Jann Weeratunga ** 22:58 Yeah, I think the interesting thing with her work is the fact that it sort of it crossed genres. Yeah. And it was the first of all really strong, young adult series that came out really strong. And I think it defined it defined that that genre completely, you know, all those that don't know, young adult is basically stories that don't contain sex, or explicit violence as in blood, guts and gore type of thing. So So, and it's actually turned out to be a very popular genre, because a lot of people, they don't necessarily want that. But they want a good story, they will, you know, they don't want to read children's stories. They want to read adult stories, but they don't want that side of it. So it's quite interesting how it's developed.   Michael Hingson ** 23:58 Well, I will say any number of adults like them, too. I would love to, I would love to see more Harry Potter books. But there is a new series that's written by an American about one of his sons, James Potter, and five books have come out in that series, and they're pretty good. And again, there's some good mysteries in them. Well, so what got you started writing children's books and the pirate Olympics and so on. I'd love to hear that story.   Jann Weeratunga ** 24:30 Okay, I have always loved watching the Paralympics more than the Olympics. Right from a very young child. I was glued to the TV for the Paralympics. And 12 was the London Olympics, which I personally feel changed people's views towards disabilities in general. I think was a big leap forward for the disabled community at that particular point. But for me personally, it was, so Philip Craven, who's paraplegic himself was giving the closing speech. And he was chatting away and sort of saying, you know, there was this mother with her son, and they were reading a book. And in the book, there was a character and he had a patch over one eye, a hook for a hand, and a wooden leg. And the mother turned around and she said to the boy, my boy, who's this? And he said, Well, he's got one eye, one arm, one leg, he must be a Paralympian. And it was like one of those light bulb moments you get you know, you you don't think they exist. But it but actually it really did exist for me. And I suddenly thought, hang on a minute. Because he was talking about the pirates in Treasure Island. I thought pirates, Paralympics. Hang on a minute. There's something here. So I googled, and I Googled, and there was nothing, nobody had written anything. There was no parallel drawn between pirates and Paralympics. So I started. I spoke to a friend and they and I said, Well, there's nothing out there. Why is nobody written this story, you know? And they said, Well, why don't you write that story? So I did. And then I sat on it. Again, I think fear of failure as much as anything else fear of judgment. Being a bit dyslexic, it's sort of, I got really knocked by my English teacher at school. And so I lacked the confidence to actually pump in a publicize something. So or publish something. So I sat on it until 2016. And of course, the Olympics was round again. And the Paralympics were around again. And I found her and said, Come on your book. Enough now it's got to go out. And so I did I put the first one out and it was very well received and I had a couple of very very young readers that read it me young eight year old turned around to me and said, is Polly real? A Poly is a parrot that was born with one I stolen from her nest in Africa, ends up in Scotland where she's rescued by Captain hiker pirate and she learns to become a pirate. And and so I turned around, and it's a little bit like those sort of questions about you know, is Father Christmas or Santa Claus real. And you never burst a child's bubble. You never ever, in my, that's my rules. You never destroy childhood. You allow a child to be a child for as long as they need to be. And so I chatted to him and I said, How many parents are there in the world? And he said, Ah, auntie, there must be millions. I said yes, because over here they everyday call everybody Auntie's. If you go into a school, they'll call you and your listing they call your auntie, or uncle. And then I said, and do you think any of them are called Polly? He sat down for a moment, he said, I reckon there must be I said, Well, there you go. You've answered your own question, haven't you? So that was how Polly was created. And Polly creates the the Paralympics and they get up to all sorts of things, but they like made me realize Hang on. I mean, I need to actually do a little bit of a backstory here as to the story about Polly is the first one I wrote was just all about the sort of the actual games themselves you know, there's a master chef competition and there's a walk the plank and this time, the rigging gymnastics and what have you. And then I wrote the backstory, which was how they discovered the prosthetics. So my parents have blades and racing wheelchairs and prosthetic hands. And yeah, they they get up to all sorts of antics and lots of fun. So   Michael Hingson ** 29:26 you do you publish your own books, or do you have a publisher?   Jann Weeratunga ** 29:33 For these this set, I published my own books. I had a publisher for a book I wrote. I actually headed up during lockdown. I had it up nosology called locked down behind the mask. So I had a publisher that because for me, when everybody was wearing masks, it reminded me of when I lived in the Middle East and the burqa, and all you would see is the lady's eyes. So I had a publisher for that one. But otherwise I self published. So they all went up on Amazon. I'm on the 10th. One at the moment. The Halloween Paralympics is finished, but that won't be out until next year. So there'll be two others come out before that one, so, but there's seven on Amazon at the moment.   Michael Hingson ** 30:27 So you'll have a ghost pack, you'll have a ghost pirate.   Jann Weeratunga ** 30:31 There is a ghost pirates. Yes, they actually meet, they meet Captain Blackbeard and his ghostly crew. And they have to fight their way off his ship with the map, which is the map that takes them to the treasure, which, of course treasure is in the eye of the beholder. And that is their prosthetics.   Michael Hingson ** 30:50 That sounds like fun. Have you? Have you made sure that or have you done anything to make sure that the books are accessible? Like for blind people to be able to read? Are they? Are they put out in an accessible form like that at all? Do you know? At   Jann Weeratunga ** 31:09 the moment? No. I did have a gentleman that was with the Braille organization in Australia that wanted to actually have them, I suppose you call it translated it into Braille? And unfortunately, he never came back to me. So at the moment, no, I don't I don't have them on audio, audio is very expensive to do. And when I have so many books, because I'm actually up, I think I've been I've got over 40 children's books. So you know, when you're sort of producing a lot of books, it's sort of keeping up with them. And when you don't have a publisher, you have to do everything yourself. So you have to pay for the illustrations, you have to pay for the editing, you have to pay for the proofreading that cover everything that goes into a book, and it's quite costly. So the additional cost of an audiobook is not not something I've yet been able to manage. But I'm still hopeful. So yeah, I'll see what happens with that.   Michael Hingson ** 32:19 You might explore something like in this country, there's the National Library Service for   Michael Hingson ** 32:27 blinding and well print handicapped, essentially, Vegas, originally National Library Service of the blind, physically handicapped, but it goes beyond that. Anyway, they oftentimes will take books that they think people will read or that are popular, and they will produce them. And the reason they will do that is that they are protected under copyright law. So they are only available for people who have some sort of print disability. But still, that's a pretty good circulation. And what prompted me to ask the question was that I would think that people with disabilities could benefit from what you have to say as much as others do.   Jann Weeratunga ** 33:13 Yeah, I mean, for me, it's especially children. I went into a school here, recall, and they have, it's very, it's a mixed school. So they have children with physical disabilities. Unfortunately, not blind children simply because the layout of the school is too dangerous for the kids to be able to navigate. But juggle, there was one young girl, for example, had a prosthetic leg. And I remember going in, and I gave a number of books into the school, and I did a whole day chatting to the kids about disabilities. Because I believe very much about educating young people. And I think, I mean, chatting to you, for me is a real privilege. Because I think very often, by the time we're adults, we're too embarrassed or nervous to ask questions. And because we don't ask questions, we tend to avoid talking to somebody with a disability. And the children don't have that same barrier. You know, that they don't see color. They don't see disability. When I describe it a little bit like you know, being inside the box looking out as opposed to adults who are outside the box looking in. And I very much believe that if we can have young people able bodied as well as disabled reading books were characters have disabilities and I mean, as you my books are a complete flip in in many ways. So the norm because most of my characters have disabilities As Of course, they're pirates. So they've got something missing or they're blind, or they're deaf or whatever. So I've probably got about 80% of my characters that are actually disabled. Whereas most books may be, you might get 10% If you're lucky. So for me, it's important because young people, then able bodied and disabled can can read these books. And this particular young young lady I was talking to you about, I was invited back to the school about six weeks later. And she saw me across the car at the car park, and she came for flying over. And she flow her arms around me. And she said, auntie, auntie, thank you for writing that book for me. And I had this most enormous lump in my throat, that seems to be there for five minutes, I'm sure it was just only there for maybe five or 10 seconds before I could get, you know, regain my composure, because it had meant so much for her to be able to identify with other characters in the book, you know. So I think it's very important that these stories are available to young people, as I say, both able bodied and disabled, because I think it gives an understanding, I think it gives an empathy and an education to both.   Michael Hingson ** 36:29 You not only does it I absolutely agree it, it does. And that's again, one of the reasons I asked about audio or more another accessible version, I would, would think that   Michael Hingson ** 36:47 some people may shoot me for it. But with AI today, the so called artificial intelligence and the number of voices that are out there, that there ought to be some ways to convert the books relatively easily by comparison to even five years ago to audio, and then publish them. And   Jann Weeratunga ** 37:09 I did actually purchase a program that I can't remember the name of it now, because I'm not techie minded, but I was advised that that was the best fit at the time. But it's it sounds so mechanical. Yeah. It still didn't, it didn't flow and the emphasis wasn't on the words. Right, what I felt the emphasis should be if you know what I mean. So I do, I have actually recorded I'm very lucky, I do some work with a local school here, I actually scribe for for some of the boys. And they allow me to use their music rooms, which are all sort of, you know, soundproof. So I've actually recorded some myself, I've got one of the books is actually up on YouTube. That's the first of the poly books, and it's up in four sections. But the whole book is actually actually up there. And that's how Polly became a pirate. So I have actually sort of started this myself. And I've done it sort of through the YouTube roots. But yeah, there have   Michael Hingson ** 38:18 been so many great strides in voice technology. And so on that that even in six months, it might be a lot better. I don't know, I've seen some some discussions where I think there might be some some good voice, artificial voice things that are a lot better. But certainly if you can do it, that would make a lot more sense to do by any standard.   Jann Weeratunga ** 38:44 Yeah, yeah. Let's say and I quite enjoy reading my own stories as well to two kids. So it's, it's something I enjoy doing as well.   Michael Hingson ** 38:54 There are now some programs that can take your voice and create unlimited vocabulary speech. If it has enough of your voice to learn from how do we find your books? While you're one book on YouTube? Let me ask that.   Jann Weeratunga ** 39:14 Row. I think basically, you just go January Tonga, YouTube, and it will come up. Okay. How Polycom virus Yeah, I think I   Michael Hingson ** 39:23 look for it. I have to go look for it. I want to read about Polly   Jann Weeratunga ** 39:29 Okey doke. Good. So   Michael Hingson ** 39:31 is writing kind of full time job for you? Or do you have other work that you do to help income or what?   Jann Weeratunga ** 39:38 No writing is my full time job. That is what I do. I love writing for kids. It's a real I think it's a passion. You know, you either love it or you just don't go near it. And prior to COVID I used to be in schools two, three times a week. I was always is in a school somewhere up here. I even did a tour down on the Eastern Cape and took a couple of other authors with me. So, yeah, it's, it's become literally full time. And at the moment I'm putting out a book roughly one book a month? Well, I   Michael Hingson ** 40:19 think I think it's really important that your books, get out there and get visible. And so since it is your full time job, I'm assuming that you do write every day.   Jann Weeratunga ** 40:33 I pretty well write five days a week, I tried to just have a bit of time off at the weekends, sort of family time, but Monday to Friday. The house is quiet by six o'clock, everybody else's. So I actually sit then, and I write usually to that too. And then whatever sort of household bits and pieces need to be sorted out or shopping or whatever, whatever gets done in the afternoon, so but yeah, I put a good six hours in and it's a bit like people that do physical exercise, you know, you build up your muscles, and is a sort of, I believe it's like building up your mental muscles. You know, the more you write. I mean, I picked up, Polly, I haven't written Polly for quite a long time actually. I wrote a younger series, because a lot of people came to me and said, can't Can't you write a pirate series for younger children as well. So I had the patches pirate pals. And for a year, we literally put out a book a month, or 12 books out there on that series No, like on? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 41:44 Are those books, oh,   Jann Weeratunga ** 41:46 they're all short little 32, page eight by 10 inches by 10. But those ones, I've actually left the illustrations to be colored in by the kids because I feel, especially with boys, they tend to be a bit more than sort of reluctant readers and you hear coloring in it sort of attaches them to the book, and they gain a bit more of an interest in the book. And from that you gain an interest in the words and the story, etc, etc. So that whole series was like that. I've just produced one from my niece. She's three in two weeks time. And she actually was my my illustrating editor, he saw the pictures and either like them or didn't, which was quite interesting. So my poor illustrator had to redo a couple. And I'd given her a toy dinosaur Bronwyn, the dinosaur. And my sister said to me at one point, you can't see anything except purple because Bronwyn eating the phone. And that was because I've sent the picture of Bronwyn, for my niece to approve. And so she was actually using the dinosaur to kiss the phone to those he liked it. So yeah. So but that one's a mixture of color, color and drawing. And so there is a color picture. And an opposite is the same picture just as an outline. And the kids can either use the same colors or their own imaginations. And I believe very much in that as well. I think it's very important that young people use their imaginations, you know, things have changed from from when we were children. You know, when we were kids, we would play outside, we would, you know, almost have fights with brothers or sisters or mock fights or, you know, we played cowboys and Indians or whatever it was we were doing, we do it. And we maybe would watch television for an hour in the evening, sort of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Weekends was always sports. So that was dad's time type of thing. But today, it's changed. And we didn't have computers, we didn't have smart telephones, we didn't have any of those things. You know, we used to sit there and do this huge Jigsaw which was four foot by four foot square, on our dining room table, you know, every evening was in pieces in type of thing. But today, it's changed. And I think young kids are in a way missing out and missing out on the opportunity to expand their imaginations because so much is spoon fed to them. So much as you know, Google is wonderful. I fall down the rabbit hole with Google all the time when I'm researching my books. And some of the stuff I come I find is just absolutely mind blowing. But it gives you everything. And I think with young people, if they're given too much, they don't use their imaginations that so that's one of the reasons why I like to. I've, I've created I've actually created two journals. which a guided journal is for very young children to start journaling, you know, so it sort of helps them guide them through. And that's actually part of the practice part ELS series, which is really aimed at sort of four to seven year olds, they're very young ones, maybe up to nine, depending on, you know, ability levels. But it's getting them to use their imagination, to write their story, their poem, draw their drawing, or coloring with the colors that they want to use. And if they want to give somebody green hair, that's fine. They know what color hair is. But let them use their imagination. Let them be creative.   Michael Hingson ** 45:42 We don't do nearly enough of that. And I absolutely agree with you. The the problem with so much television is that everything is just for store, everything is there, there's no imagination. It didn't used to be that way. Even in television, of course, early in televisions era, there was, it was an issue where you had both television and radio. And so people were were used to helping individuals use their imagination. But the longer television has gone on, the more we just put everything out there and there's nothing left for a person's imagination. I collect old radio shows as a hobby, and I love listening to old shows, because they still make you use your imagination. And even now, there are new series. And again, people have to use their imagination and fill in a lot of blanks that are deliberately left and can't be there because there are no pictures to look at. So you've got to do it. And I think television should do more of that.   Jann Weeratunga ** 46:52 Yeah. And books as well. I mean, I think books are wonderful. You know, when I go into in schools, and I open the book, and I say to the children, right, what am I doing? And I'm literally I'm standing there and I'm opening a book, okay? And they say you're opening a book? And I say, Yes, but what else am I doing? And they look puzzled. And I said, I'm opening up the pages to your imagination. And then what is imagination? What is it? And I remember one youngster gave a wonderful definition that it's like dreaming, but your eyes are open. But the story is in your head, and you can see it like a film, attitude. And I thought that is exactly it. Because I know, when I write my books, when I'm writing about Polly, especially Polly, Polly has a very she's very special. Polly and my parents are very special. They, that's my comfortable place. Whenever I go back to Holly. And I can see her, I can hear she's almost talking in my ear. When I'm writing her. It's a weird sort of relationship that I think a writer has with their characters. But she's so real for me. It's almost like she's speaking. And I'm just using my hands to write the words if that makes any sense. Yeah. So it's, it's wonderful. From my point of view, because I can just let my imagination go all over the place, you know. And then when you actually are reading the story, and you watch the kids faces, it is so special. Because you can see, they can see it in their heads. They can take their imagination, they can see the pictures, like a little film, you know? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 49:05 Well and and that's the way imagination should be now, here's a question does skip and where Polly ended up does Polly have a Scottish accent? Sort of   Jann Weeratunga ** 49:17 weird actually. And he definitely has a Scottish accent. And all of his crew do. He has a cruiser quite there's nine crews and they each have quite definitive accent so the the Caribbean Jamaican crew has very Caribbean the turbaned Indians very much the cowboy Americans very much with an American lil. So each each crew I've actually given their own voice, which is important because it also brings diversity for the kids to understand the world is quite a big place that we live in. So we've got tattooed Maori And we've got Scandinavians, we've got Scots, we've got Zulus, we've got Greek goddesses, we, you know, we've got the the Japanese ninjas, you know, there's all these different crews that are very different. But they all belong to the fellowship of pirates, right?   Michael Hingson ** 50:21 That's really the issue, isn't it?   Jann Weeratunga ** 50:24 Yeah. Yeah. You know, what am I realize we're actually all the same, we all want the same things.   Michael Hingson ** 50:31 One of the things that I talked about, on the podcast, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it today, because people hear it enough. But you talked about able bodied and disabled people, I work to try to get people to understand that disability doesn't mean and I know you're saying somewhat the same thing. disability does not mean a lack of ability. Disability is a characteristic. And I would submit that everyone has a disability, everyone in the world. And for most of you, as I tell people, it's like dependents, you know, when the lights go out, and you don't have an iPhone, or a smartphone of any sort, or a flashlight nearby, you're in a world of hurt, because you can't see what you're doing. So I submit that we need to get away from making a distinction between so called Able bodied and persons with disabilities, because everyone has one. And what we really need to do is to recognize that disability is a characteristic, and it manifests itself in different ways. Yeah,   Jann Weeratunga ** 51:32 yeah. 100% 100%. I mean, it's even down to one, you might disagree with me on this. But if all you've ever wanted to do is ride a bicycle, and you have no sense of balance, and you cannot ride a bicycle, you are effectively disabled. You are disabled from being able to ride a bicycle. Now, people argument they know that that's not really a proper disability. Sure,   Michael Hingson ** 52:03 it is. It's a it's a characteristic.   Jann Weeratunga ** 52:06 Exactly. Exactly. And I think that's, I think you and I are very much on the same page for this. And I know we had a little chat for a few months about that back end. Back   Michael Hingson ** 52:17 in the day. Yeah, it's been a while.   Jann Weeratunga ** 52:21 Yeah, we touched on it. But But But I agree 100% I think we all have a disability. But one of the things I do say is disability does not mean inability, correct.   Michael Hingson ** 52:33 It does not mean a lack of ability, it just means you have something.   Jann Weeratunga ** 52:39 Yes. And I think each each gift is different. And it makes us see the world in a different way. So for example, because I have dyslexia, I have to work a little bit harder. With my writing. There's nothing wrong with my grammar, there's nothing wrong with the my my word order, or the words I use, until I try and type them and then very often they can come out backwards, or I mean to this day, if I type the word, the, I can guarantee guarantee 90% of the time, it comes out HTTP II. Okay, and that's, and my fingers know what they should be doing. To this date, they know what they should be doing. But   Michael Hingson ** 53:29 they know what you want them to do, but they have their mind of their own.   Jann Weeratunga ** 53:33 They do return. So bit of what I'm trying to say there is that, you know, disability, if you if you look at the figures as such, they say that between 20 and 25% of the world is disabled. Those are the disabilities that can be measured. The other 75% they also have disabilities, they just don't admit to it. Right, exactly right. And now the stigmas that are attached to disability. And again, that's why inside the box looking out outside the box looking in, which starts for me with children, because if you are a child inside the box with others use you just as I said earlier, kids don't see disability, they're just friends, right? They all get on with each other. And if somebody can't do something, they'll help them or if they won't help them, they'll believe them or whatever. But the kids will learn to stand up for themselves. And they will get through that   Michael Hingson ** 54:30 until adults until adults get in the way.   Jann Weeratunga ** 54:33 And so the adults get in the way Exactly. But But what I'm saying is when that group of children become adults, and that's where we haven't got that that's why I believe we haven't got to yet. We're getting there but it's not got there yet. When that group of children become adults, because they've grown up with a whole range of people, different races, different colors, different abilities. It's just normal, it's what's around them. Whereas at the moment, we're having to constantly play catch up. And we're having to put into companies and businesses, the the structures for people with disabilities to be able to go to work.   Michael Hingson ** 55:23 As long as those,   Jann Weeratunga ** 55:25 it will just automatically be there. Because those are going to be the new bosses,   Michael Hingson ** 55:30 as long as they don't forget. As long as they don't forget.   Jann Weeratunga ** 55:35 But that's if we don't interfere. Right.   Michael Hingson ** 55:41 So when is Polly going to be in a movie?   Jann Weeratunga ** 55:46 Oh, my goodness, the big question. Yes, I've actually finally sorted out my pitch. And that's taken a long time. And I've actually a gentleman called Steve Longley. He has been my fairy godfather. He produced Hacksaw Ridge, which is a slightly different type of movie to what we're probably going to be. But he's been a real mentor. And that's why I'm giving you a little bit of a shout out to him, because he doesn't have to help me. He doesn't know me from a bar. So I introduced myself on LinkedIn to him one day, which is, of course, how I met met Sheldon and through Sheldon, you. And he, he's given me so much confidence. So my pictures ready. I'm helping a friend launch their book tomorrow, which has taken up most of the last two weeks. And once that's done, I'm actually going to be going out to producers and directors to see if I will hook somebody that will actually produce it. Because to me, it's important. And I think whether it becomes a TV series or a movie, I don't mind, it probably lends itself more to animation, simply because so many of the characters have disabilities. And I think the insurance for that, in real life would would go through the roof on a movie set? I don't know, but I think so. But it leads me on also to something again, that we touched on before. And that was basically when we were talking about actors, disabled actors. And at the moment most most actors sort of literally have a wheel on reel off for a walk on walk off part. There are no real central characters based around disability or very, very few very emerge now. There's one or two sort of characters that are, you know, building up or what have you. But one of the things I've been advocating for is, why can't disabled actors do voiceovers and dubbing there's nothing stopping them to do those doing those things. We need   Michael Hingson ** 57:56 to we need to talk offline about some of that because there's an organization called Radio enthusiast of Puget Sound and a whole group of people who are blind. And the president of that organization also is the lead in a radio Well, internet radio stations called yesterday usa.net. And there's a red network in a blue network, like there is on a piece on NBC in the golden days of radio. And there actually is some work being done to try to create some programs to encourage blind people to go into doing more audio type stuff. So we should talk about that offline.   Jann Weeratunga ** 58:39 I think so. I think so. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 58:43 Speaking of Washington, that's what we're going to do next month is go up and do for radio show recreations. And I and some other blind people and non blind people are all going to be parts of the show. Now   Jann Weeratunga ** 58:54 that's so cool. It's so cool. I've got a friend here, Lois. And she's just done an art exhibition. And I found it. It was a concept that I found quite difficult to get my mind around, obviously. You know, how can somebody who's blind do an art exhibition, but she's actually working with a group of people down in Cape Town, a group of blind students found in Cape Town, and some have maybe 10% site up to they have just a little bit but not very much, you know, and they're doing amazing, amazing work and I and I think just bringing more of this it needs to be funded, it needs to be supported. I mean, South Africa there's no funding for anything. We don't have electricity most of the time internet sometimes and water when they feel like it. But, but but, you know, in Western countries where there is a little bit more money, I think these things need to be fun. Need more supported a lot more than they are? And I suppose, unless we started up and start shouting, it won't happen. And so that's one of the reasons why I want to see my pirates and poly made into either a film or set of films or a TV series. Again, because it's something that everybody can enjoy. Maybe   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:23 well, Todd, what can I do? Sorry? Maybe we also want to explore making it into an audio series. Hmm,   Jann Weeratunga ** 1:00:34 I think so. I think so. Yeah, definitely.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:37 How do we increase the conversation around disabilities and get people? I know, you've talked about one way as children grow up, but what else can we do as adults to break through some of those barriers and get the conversation? more a part of the mainstream?   Jann Weeratunga ** 1:00:59 Oh, gosh. Well, I think number one, we have to identify the problems. And I think the main problems are and I'm going to talk about disability disabled and able bodied, if you will, just sort of entertain me on that. The more able bodied, shall we say? folk out there feel awkward talking to people with disabilities, they will shun away from speaking to somebody with a disability, they will avoid going to help somebody with a disability. And I think it's just such a stigma. And it's not the disabled person. I don't think it's the individual. It's just the whole sphere of disabilities. And I, I've watched LinkedIn recently, and there's a lot more out there and a lot more stories coming out. And I think I think that's a really good thing. And I think things like I know, the Paralympics does focus on the physical, and the Disabilities is a lot more than that. I mean, people in wheelchairs are only 8% of those with disabilities. Yeah, what is the symbol that we use for the disabled? It's, it's a word character in a wheelchair. Right. Yeah. You know, so. And I know there is a movement towards possibly changing that. I don't know how why is that is, in the sense that I understand why, but at least is recognized as a symbol for disabled. You know, there's pros and cons around everything. Yeah. And I think I think we just have to talk more, I think there needs to be, I think, all right, I think people are frightened. It's like when I first spoke with Lois, because I think she was the first blind person I spoke with. And I said, Louis, can I ask you a question? Should you ask me anything? But I thought I had actually say, may I ask you the question? Because I felt awkward. I didn't want to cause offence. I didn't want to be rude. I didn't want to say something that will upset. And I think that's part of it. With a lot of people. And we have to get over it. We have and I think that's what Sheldon did that for me. Actually, he was wonderful. We had an hour long chit chat. And I was chatting to him about how to use some of the analytics in LinkedIn and stuff as well, you know, stuff he had, and been able to do, and what have you. And it was so nice, because I felt so much more comfortable at the end of the conversation than obviously, I had at the start of the conversation. And I think just the more able bodied people, a person is, they just need to get over it. They just need to start talking to people. But it's our and it's hard. And that's why I go back to kids because I think, you know, to a degree we have to start with young people and educate them and bring them through the system. But then what do we do with all of us old is sitting at the top end.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:20 But the awkwardness is more of a learned behavior than anything else. We we don't like to think that just because someone is different than us. They're necessarily at the same level we are. And we we grow up learning that which is in part why I said I hoped that children today don't forget as they grow up, because it's a learned behavior. And you're right. It's great to start with children, and the more children get to be involved in the conversation and carry on the conversation. and don't have the fear, the better it is, oh,   Jann Weeratunga ** 1:05:03 well, I'll give you an example on something. My niece, as I mentioned earlier is going to be three. One of the things my sister did with her, when for about six months on, she taught her how to sign. Now my niece isn't there. But there's a movement in the UK to teach babies to sign. Because they can sign I'm hungry, I'm full. I would like more. And, you know, I mean, there's obviously a lot more signs than those, I've just taken three, the very basic ones, they can do that six to eight months before they can speak up. So they can communicate on a level to express themselves, which also reduces frustration, and anger. And I'm actually trying to learn there's a guy called the Deaf chef on Instagram, and I'm following him. And every day, he comes out with a new sign. And I've been trying to learn some of those number one, so I can keep up with my knees and get better at styling than I am. But also, sign language actually just became 12 official language in South Africa. And I went to a restaurant one day, and there was a lady there. And I asked her a question, and then she sort of put her hand to it yet and said, you know, yeah, basically, you know, was was telling me she was deaf. So I wrote it down, because I couldn't sign. But the only thing I had looked say was, thank you. So at the end of the conversation, I actually just gave the sign of Thank you. And her face just lit up. It was the only thing I knew how to do. But have it made her day. You know? And and I just think that we we need to all make more of an effort, I suppose. And I think things like, Why can't say why can't we have sign language in schools? You know, over here, we have 11 languages, and they're all taught in school. So why can't we have some language taught and useful? The more we communicate, the more we talk to each other. The more I think barriers will come down. And we've got to get over this stigma of disability. And again, it's that word, isn't it? disability?   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:25 And only YouTube anytime we need to learn it doesn't mean Yeah, because it's not a lack of ability.   Jann Weeratunga ** 1:07:30 Exactly.   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:33 If people want to reach out to you and learn more about you, how do they do that?   Jann Weeratunga ** 1:07:38 Okay, so they can they can email me. And I've actually, I think I've given you some of my links. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:48 we'll go ahead and spell out email if you want to or whatever. Go ahead and say it here as well, please. Okay,   Jann Weeratunga ** 1:07:54 what is quite a complicated kind of fortunately, but it's, it's, well, I'll give you my easy one. I've got one which is Jann Weeratunga, which is? No, maybe that's not the easier one. I think they'll probably is. It's J a n S Jans, Pics P i C S. SA for South africa@gmail.com. Jan's pics SA for South Africa,   Michael Hingson ** 1:08:21 at Gmail. com. That's pretty easy. Great. Well, I want to thank you for being here. And we will be putting the book covers and all the other things up in the cover notes. And I hope people will reach out this has clearly been fun and fascinating. And I want to continue our discussions later offline. We got to do some

The Fiction Old and New book group is thrilled to welcome author Tracey Lange to our Friday, April 5, 2024 meeting at 8 p.m. She will be discussing her two family novels, “We are the Brennans”, DB 104795 and “The Connellys of County Down”, DB 116746. We hope you can join us for this amazing event. Here are the NLS annotations: 1. The Connellys of County Down DB 116746 Lange, Tracey. Reading time 9 hours, 23 minutes. Read by Barrie Kreinik. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Family; Women Description: “When Tara Connelly is released from prison after serving eighteen months on a drug charge, she knows rebuilding her life at thirty years old won't be easy. With no money and no prospects, she returns home to live with her siblings, who are both busy with their own problems. Her brother, a single dad, struggles with the ongoing effects of a brain injury he sustained years ago, and her sister's fragile facade of calm and order is cracking under the burden of big secrets. Life becomes even more complicated when the cop who put her in prison keeps showing up unannounced, leaving Tara to wonder what he wants from her now. While she works to build a new career and hold her family together, Tara finds a chance at love in a most unlikely place. But when the Connellys' secrets start to unravel and threaten her future, they all must face their worst fears and come clean, or risk losing each other forever.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2. We are the Brennans DB 104795 Lange, Tracey. Reading time 9 hours, 41 minutes. Read by Barrie Kreinik. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: General; Psychological Fiction Description: When twenty-nine-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. She deserted them all–and her high school sweetheart–five years before with little explanation, and they’ve got questions. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021. Here is the Bookshare link to The Connellys of County Down: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5496953?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPVRoZSUyQkNvbm5lbGx5cyUyQm9mJTJCQ291bnR5JTJCRG93bg Your facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Please join us on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at 8:00 PM Eastern to discuss America’s first daughter DB88020 by Stephanie Dray. NLS Annotation America’s first daughter DB88020 Dray, Stephanie Reading time: 21 hours, 53 minutes. Pilar Witherspoon A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Historical Fiction Patsy Jefferson, eldest daughter of Thomas, grows up during the tumult of the American Revolution. When her mother dies, she joins her father in France and is torn between love and filial duty when courted by an abolitionist. This conflict of desires follows her through life. Some violence. 2016. Bookshare This book can be found at Bookshare at the following link: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/1887909?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPWFtZXJpY2ElMjUyNiUyNTIzMzklMjUzQnMlMkJmaXJzdCUyQmRhdWdodGVy

Here is the NLS annotation: Land of milk and honey DB 116953 Zhang, C Pam. Reading time 8 hours, 7 minutes. Read by Eunice Wong. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Science and Technology; General; Women Description: “A smog has spread. Food crops are rapidly disappearing. A chef escapes her dying career in a dreary city to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world's troubles. There, the sky is clear again. Rare ingredients abound. Her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch, and her own body. In this atmosphere of hidden wonders and cool, seductive violence, the chef's boundaries undergo a thrilling erosion. Soon she is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bookshare Link to this book https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5834395?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPWxhbmQlMkJvZiUyQm1pbGslMkJhbmQlMkJob25leQ Your facilitator is Michelle Bernstein, (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

We hope that you can join us to discuss this psychological novel from acclaimed author Emma Cline. Here is the NLS annotation: The guest: a novel DB 114407 Cline, Emma. Reading time 8 hours, 39 minutes. Read by Carlotta Brentan. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Psychological Fiction Description: “Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome. A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Your facilitator is Michelle Bernstein, (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

The NLS annotation follows: If the creek don’t rise DB91901 Weiss, Leah Reading time: 9 hours, 32 minutes. Kate Forbes A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Historical Fiction Young Sadie Blue Tupkin was warned about marrying her husband Roy, but she’s illiterate and expecting a baby. The community provides her support, though her grandmother Gladys thinks Sadie Blue should handle the problem the way she did. Then a stranger arrives offering even more hope. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017. You can find this book on Bookshare at the following website: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5221043?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPWlmJTJCdGhlJTJCY3JlZWslMkJkb24lMjUyNiUyNTIzMzklMjUzQnQlMkJyaXNl

Here is the NLS annotation: We are the Brennans DB 104795 Lange, Tracey. Reading time 9 hours, 41 minutes. Read by Barrie Kreinik. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: General; Psychological Fiction Description: When twenty-nine-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. She deserted them all--and her high school sweetheart--five years before with little explanation, and they've got questions. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2021. Your facilitator is Michelle Bernstein, (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Our next month's book to discuss is the best seller “American Prometheus: the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” DB61087 by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, 699 pages. Because of its length, we will cover the growing up and transformation of the brilliant Oppenheimer and ultimate triumph in Chapters 1 through 23In our January 2nd meeting and the remainder of the book covering the outcome of his loss of security in our February 6th meeting. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Here's the NLS annotation: American Prometheus: the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer DB61087 Bird, Kai; Sherwin, Martin J Reading time: 27 hours, 34 minutes. Steven Carpenter A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Science and Technology Biography Biography of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)--"the father of the atomic bomb." Chronicles his New York City upbringing, marriage to Kitty Puening, work on the Manhattan Project, and life after the 1954 Atomic Energy Commission hearings which denied Oppenheimer his security clearance for questioning the ethics of nuclear weapons. Pulitzer Prize winner 2006. 2005. Here's the Bookshare link for this title: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/5599711?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPUthaSUyQkJpcmQlMkI

A new year will be with us by the time Tuesday Topics returns to ACB Media One at 7 PM on January 2 2024. As we suggested on our last presentation the topic this time is 2024. What will the year be like? How will it differ from 2023? How will it be the same? Are there particular things we are looking forward to seeing? As with our last presentation we will begin with the big picture and look at the country, the world and, if appropriate, beyond our planet. Then we will focus on blindness issues. AFB has just published a five year plan. What might that mean for the future? The National Library Service continues to change and may actually know about a potential new location. The American Council of the Blind has just hired a new person to handle legislative affairs and it is likely that we will have chosen our new Executive Director by the time we get to convention this summer. There is new technology promised this year. Will it happen? There was new tech promised last year that didn't materialize. Next year is a leap year, an election year, and a year that starts with several conflicts going on unabated! Can we find ways to step back from the abyss or will other flash points occur. What do you think? Join us and share your notion of what the next twelve months will bring! At the very least join us so you can argue with the conclusions we arrive at! Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

As we suggested on our last presentation the topic this time is 2024. What will the year be like? How will it differ from 2023? How will it be the same? Are there particular things we are looking forward to seeing? As with our last presentation we will begin with the big picture and look at the country, the world and, if appropriate, beyond our planet. Then we will focus on blindness issues. AFB has just published a five year plan. What might that mean for the future? The National Library Service continues to change and may actually know about a potential new location. The American Council of the Blind has just hired a new person to handle legislative affairs and it is likely that we will have chosen our new Executive Director by the time we get to convention this summer. There is new technology promised this year. Will it happen? There was new tech promised last year that didn't materialize. Next year is a leap year, an election year, and a year that starts with several conflicts going on unabated! Can we find ways to step back from the abyss or will other flash points occur. What do you think? Join us and share your notion of what the next twelve months will bring! At the very least join us so you can argue with the conclusions we arrive at! Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

The NLS annotation follows: They're watching DB71566 Hurwitz, Gregg Andrew Reading time: 14 hours, 6 minutes. Scott Brick A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Suspense Fiction Screenwriter Patrick Davis gets fired from his first film, is sued by an actor, and has problems in his marriage. But when he begins receiving threats and accepts an offer to fix things, he lands in a murder conspiracy. Strong language and some violence. Commercial audiobook. 2010. This title is not available on Bookshare.

A Journey through History will be discussing The Wager: a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder DB 113965 when we next meet on 11/7/23. When we met on 10/3/23, our November book was announced as Peril by Bob Woodward but on further review, we discovered we had already discussed this book at our 2/1/22 meeting. NLS annotation: The Wager: a tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder DB 113965 Grann, David. Reading time 8 hours, 32 minutes. Read by David Grann A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then … six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang. The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound." -- Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller Instead, We have a highly rated best seller .

The Fiction Old and New book group is honored to have guest host LeDon lead the discussion of Dennis Lehane's latest book, "Small Mercies'', DB 1 1 4 4 5 6 on Friday, November 3, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We hope that you can join us to discuss this compelling suspense audiobook. Here is the NLS annotation: Small mercies: a novel DB 114456 Lehane, Dennis. Reading time 10 hours, 27 minutes. Read by Robin Miles. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Suspense Fiction; Historical Fiction; Mystery and Detective Stories Description: "In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of "Southie," the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart. One night Mary Pat's teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn't come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don't take kindly to any threat to their business. Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city's desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write." -- Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

The NLS annotation follows: Be frank with me DB84263 Johnson, Julia Claiborne Reading time: 9 hours, 45 minutes. Celeste Lawson A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. Human Relations Alice Whitley works for a publisher who sends her to California to help reclusive author Mimi Banning deliver her long-awaited second novel. While Mimi locks herself in her office supposedly writing every day, Alice takes care of Frank, Mimi's ferociously intelligent but eccentric young son. 2016 You can find this book on Bookshare at the following website: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/3705109?returnPath=L3NlYXJjaD9tb2R1bGVOYW1lPXB1YmxpYyZrZXl3b3JkPWJlJTJCZnJhbmslMkJ3aXRoJTJCbWU

We hope that you can join us to discuss this entertaining audiobook. Here is the NLS annotation: Warrior girl unearthed DB 114761 Boulley, Angeline. Reading time 11 hours, 34 minutes. Read by Isabella Star LaBlanc. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Mystery and Detective Stories; Young Adult Description: "With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family's involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people's inheritance." -- Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. For senior high and older readers. Your facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Travis Michael is all of what the title says. As he says he “played jump rope his entire life over the Mason-Dixon line spending time between the mountains of Johnstown Pennsylvania, and the city bay life of Baltimore”. As I spoke with Travis during our initial call as well as during our episode he is an incredibly curious person who also wants to do good in the world.   He will tell us a great deal about his new app called “Bridgd” which you can learn about at www.bridgd.com.   In addition to app development, he and his company help other companies and nonprofits improve their efficiency by streamlining and enhancing what they do and how they do it.   Now, Travis is completing work on his book, “Honor Thy Father” which he expects to have published in the August 2023 timeframe.   I think you will enjoy Travis and his wisdom. I know I did.     About the Guest:   Founder of Trav Media Group, Travis Michael played jump rope his entire life over the Mason-Dixon line spending time between the mountains of Johnstown Pennsylvania and the city bay life of Baltimore Maryland before traveling the United States helping companies as their one-stop Chief Marketing Officer. In his spare time, he's spending time with his family and friends while donating time to his church and community.     Ways to connect with Travis:   Website - https://trav.media Email - travis@trav.media Bridg'd App - https://bridgdcom.com Instagram & TikTok - @travismichael.official @trav.media      About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Greetings, everyone, I am Michael Hingson. And you are listening to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Today we get to talk with Travis Michael. That's his pen name and what He wants us to use, which is great. And it's his pen name because Travis is about to come out with a new book. And we will definitely talk about that in the course of the next hour or so. But Travis, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here.   Travis Michael ** 01:50 Michael, it's a pleasure being here. We have had so many amazing conversations that I'm excited to see where this one goes.   Michael Hingson ** 01:59 Well, let's start. Let's start with something that I love to do, which is learn a little bit about you as a younger Travis, where you started from what you did, and and kind of how you got where you are. I know you talked about jumping rope over the Mason Dixon Line going from Pennsylvania to Baltimore. See, I know how to say that. Right? Yeah. And I lived there for six months. So And anyway, so tell us a little bit about Travis.   Travis Michael ** 02:32 Yeah. So you know, I, I love to like preface this with like book recommendations. There's a really good book. It's called outliers. And it's basically about people that have had access to unique things in their lives, right, you know, what really defined your childhood and what drove you. And I was fortunate to be able to go to what's called a magnet school. So magnet schools, they had a four big professional focuses. And that was environmental science, Applied Engineering, visual, graphic art, and mass communication. And so by sixth grade, you're taking a two period class with that specialty and you transition every quarter, by seventh grade, you narrowed it down to two. And by eighth grade, you're taking that specialty class the entire year through. And so, you know, people, you know, kids that go through those types of experiences and have access to more tools, as laid out in outliers. I Bill Gates, people realize that he worked at a college that had a supercomputer. So he he actually worked in the lab of the supercomputer to have access and access to it. And then he was able to understand the different problems because he was there, troubleshooting. He was there helpdesk, essentially. And, you know, he took that knowledge and that knowledge base and was able to expand upon it. So you know, I love talking to people and finding out like, what really drives them and being able to expand upon that as well. So yeah, that was kind of me growing up, right, you know, the I try to like take in as much as I could. From a media standpoint, my focus was visual graphic art that has really driven me and my helping take people's visions and use my skills to drive their visions as well.   Michael Hingson ** 04:45 But you talk about really wanting to help people interact with people and help them I'm not trying to put words in your mouth as such but become better than they are what what caused you to have that kind of a wide scope and wide view of what you wanted to do, because that's far beyond graphics?   Travis Michael ** 05:03 Well, you know, right as a kid, you know, you're like, I want to, I want to change, I want to, I want to make a change, there's something that's not right. There's something that's off. And I just, I needed to I wanted to, there's a lot of blocks in communication, right there in and how people communicate and the ability to communicate. You know, and I, in middle school, I was, I think it was in the early 90s, when American Sign Language came into play. And whenever I moved up to Pennsylvania, in eighth grade, I had access to a, there was a young young girl in my grade, that she, she was deaf, and they offer sign language classes, and I took some sign language classes. I know very little, I think I know, the ABCs up to like, G. And that's where it stops. But I also knew that like, obviously, there was there's a huge disconnect there. Right, Mike? You know, there's, there's having the ability that there's, there's some sort of even social block right, in being able to communicate,   Michael Hingson ** 06:23 and that's something that has fascinated you, and that you've wanted to kind of address and you do that primarily through dealing with graphic arts, or do you go beyond that?   Travis Michael ** 06:34 Well, I like to go beyond that, right. And I just just got back from Chicago, and I ended up there is a stop at the Wonder Museum, and I would highly recommend if you have the opportunity to go to Chicago, definitely check it out. But it offered experiences and, you know, anytime any type of social engagement is an experience, and I want to be able to help those that have communication blocks, be able to communicate, in general, you know, being able to not be a fly on the wall, not just, you know, a person in the back, doing their best to read lips. And so, whenever I was in Chicago, there, I'm, I think I'm very approachable, Mike. And next thing I know, I'm being a tourist, I'm taking videos and pictures. And this gentleman approaches me. And he starts is puts up one thing, he starts signing, and you could hear just in his voice is I'm deaf. Just like that's like all he was able to get out of his voice at a very low get Gatsby. And then I, I he was trying to show no sign to me. I said hold on one second. It just so happens that I'm developing an app for deaf people. And I pulled the app out. And it started transcribing my voice as I was talking. And I was able to communicate. And we had a wonderful conversation about it, even whenever we were kind of walking and talking. That I was I had my chin down. I was kind of, you know, looking down and talking. And he's like, he's like, Hey, I'm up here. I can't read your lips. If your chin is down.   Michael Hingson ** 08:54 And I was gonna ask how did he understand you? It wasn't mainly lip reading, or I definitely want to learn more about the app. But did he read your lips? Is that how you he understood you?   Travis Michael ** 09:04 Yes, that's how he understood me, you know, as his education revolved around, being able to read my lips, you know, being able to read lips, period, not just my lips, anyone's lips. And you know, they can hear low tones. Yeah. And it's, it's very interesting. I had a we really didn't miss a beat in our conversations as I was able to use the app. And if there was something that he was trying to communicate communicate with me that wasn't getting through. He could just use my phone and type in whatever you type it in, and then hit play and it played out the speaker.   Michael Hingson ** 09:53 I when I was in elementary school, and I don't remember what grade I was in In but it probably was third grade. Or earlier, I'm going to say the third grade. We were at a Halloween party at the school. And I ended up sitting across a table from a gentleman who was one of the janitors at the school. And we talked for a while. And occasionally I looked away. And he didn't necessarily respond. But then he volunteered that he had been deaf since Pearl Harbor. And that he communicated, he did not, his voice was as natural as someone who was a full hearing person. But he understood people by reading lips. And it's the first time I ever had exposure to that. And he was very kind and very generous with his time telling me about it, because I became, of course, very curious being blind. And we had a wonderful conversation than in several since when when I was still at that school, but it is it is fascinating. And he was as good as a body could be at reading lips, he certainly understood me.   Travis Michael ** 11:14 So he was able to speak back to   Michael Hingson ** 11:18 Yes, he absolutely could speak back to me. And I had no clue that he was death, because he served in the military. So this was like, What 1958 or so. And he had been in the military and served at Pearl Harbor, and which is when he became deaf, so he continued to be able to speak very well.   Travis Michael ** 11:40 Ah, gotcha. That makes a lot of sense. And I   Michael Hingson ** 11:43 had no idea that he was deaf or, or anything other than just a person who could talk to me and I could talk to him. And then he told me about being deaf. And that was, I'm sure, in a sense, brave of him. But for me, it was fascinating. And I haven't thought about him very much since then. But this brought it up. And just as fascinating that you're having success, how's the app doing?   Travis Michael ** 12:11 Oh, it's wonderful, we're getting ready to launch the new the new user interface, it's a lot brighter cleaner. And you know, from there, because that's going to be the base base design that we have, we're going to be pushing out a lot more demos and videos, because now this is okay, we've proved out the model, it works. We've got approval from Apple and Google for the model. And now we're getting ready to do a full launch with some really neat upgrades, including voice segmentation. So if you're interested, you can find that app over to read br idgd.com. So that's bridged with no E. It's no e.com. And you can download and be a test user right now, we're, we're really excited to roll out the next version with some really cool updates, and ultimately expand out into other markets, including translations. And so stay tuned for some really awesome upgrades that are going to be incremental in connecting people not only of speaking and non speaking and hearing and non hearing, but languages all across the globe, as we build this thing out. So head over to bridged.com with no E, and sign up as a test user, and where we're really super stoked about getting this thing out here, Mike,   Michael Hingson ** 14:02 when will the next upgrades and so on come out?   Travis Michael ** 14:06 Yeah. So we're ready, getting ready for phase one be new upgrades will be coming early fall. So I think August, we're going to be really pushing it out. But we were probably going to have some short term upgrades, including the new UI, maybe not with the full scope. But we're, we're really close to full implementation. I think we're, you know, just to keep this moving. I think there's just gonna be I think it's gonna be like dollar 99 a month, very minimal, just to be a being able to support the technology. So it's not a whole lot, but it's something that we can put into a humanitarian effort to be able to connect with Many people have many different languages Have you   Michael Hingson ** 15:05 have you tested it with VoiceOver and so on to see that it's accessible from that standpoint.   Travis Michael ** 15:13 Really, we're just focusing on the, in real life, engage engagements, you can customize what's really beautiful about this, this app is the ability to then speak back, there's a lot of platforms where you can just, it just transcribes. But then the user has the ability to, to then type in a quick reply, or selective select from a series of quick replies that are already loaded, kind of like your emojis that you pull up another, it's like another keyboard, and you can have, you can actually program your quick reply keyboard, based on, you know, maybe you have, you're going to the doctor's office, and you have some, quote, some questions that need to be answered. And rather than picking them on the fly, you can add them into the keyboard under your favorites, you tap it, if you add it to the keyboard, and then it plays through the phone speaker. And you can go down and you've talked to actually talk to your doctor about these things. And being able to maybe have questions for you, just in general, just being able to converse, you know, pick the conversation type, it's going to help them be able to communicate better.   Michael Hingson ** 16:45 Well, the question I was asking what I was getting at is that with like iPhones and with the Google Android phones, there are what are called screen readers, there are software packages that will that will verbalize whatever comes across the screen. And in this case, you're going deeper than that, because you're also dealing with providing input by other means. And my question really was, have you explored making sure that the app is accessible using screen readers, for people who may not be able to necessarily see everything that comes across the screen, but needs to hear it. And that's a little bit different set of gestures, it is all part of what Apple provides. And, and the Google Android phones do, although I think Apple still does a little bit better job of it. But what what VoiceOver is, is a software package that will verbalize whatever comes across the screen. It also means that if I needed to, I could type messages. If somebody isn't a lip reader, for example, I'm assuming that this is part of what the app would allow one to do would be for me to be able to type and then it would appear on the screen. And voiceover would allow me as a blind person to be able to do that. So my question really was, are you looking at accessibility for the product across the board?   Travis Michael ** 18:20 Oh, absolutely. I think that it's going to be critical for for those types of conversations. And you know, and being able to last time we talked being able to add that. Well, I've also had some very interesting conversations with with Google. And I look forward to having more about exactly that. Being able to provide accessibility in improve their accessibility, that   Michael Hingson ** 18:54 I will have to download the app and and experiment and can give you some feedback regarding that. Because a lot of app developers don't really understand what they can really do to make visual and non visual, well, visual apps more usable by people who may not see what's on the screen. And so Apple provides a lot of information about that, but there are no requirements for any of that. So a lot of people don't necessarily see it, or they may make their app work. And then the next time a new update comes out, something gets broken because it doesn't become part of their process to keep that going. But I'll be glad to download it and take a look at it and see what it looks like. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun to do.   Travis Michael ** 19:46 Yeah, yeah, that's, you know, and we're gonna be, you know, constantly working on improvements. This is a definitely a new space that we're looking to help people explore And upon, and being able to have the ability to remove social norms, where, where social norms aren't necessarily good, where Deaf people are not communicating, they're typically standing in the back and being a wallflower. And because you don't know, or most people in that contact group, don't have don't have don't have the ability to communicate, whether it be ASL, or what have you, soy, or even, you know, having someone there that that knows ASL that can translate. And then it's, there's still that barrier, there's still that extra person. Whereas, you know, now you can kind of have that freedom to go to the store, go walk down the street taught, you know, talk to someone randomly. And it really helps clear that that pathway, right, right.   Michael Hingson ** 21:10 What What got you started doing this app?   Travis Michael ** 21:14 Well, so the president of the company is deaf. So this is I'm doing this, I'm creating this app for my client. And his dad, and I had been working together. Now his dad's the CFO of the company. And his dad, Todd Trichur, pulled me aside after one of our meetings that we had been working together on his HFC, one quick question. Can you build apps? I see. Well, yeah, absolutely. You know, I just developed an app for client out of Los Angeles, like an Uber like app that people can just book trips to and from the airports just right from their website. I said, Yeah, sure. Got it. Got a team, you know, we're really starting to roll on some big projects. He says, Well, my son was born deaf. And I've always had in my head that when the technology was there, we would build this app together. And being able to help deaf people communicate in real time, using this technology. And he's, you know, done a lot of market research. And I think it's time to just start pulling the trigger on this and move forward. So we go through many conversations. I built I personally built the user interface user experience that I've laid out for my developers, wonderful team that put this put what we have to get put the kind of the, the engine behind the machine. Well, I kind of just had the, the brick and mortar, right. So it's, it's been a wonderful experience. And we're picking up steam, and some other really, really cool projects that we're looking to take some of these industries by storm, with our creativity, and how we have how we start building markets in a positive way.   Michael Hingson ** 23:38 What's the name of your company?   Travis Michael ** 23:39 So my company is travel Media Group. You can find me online at if you just type in travel dot media. There's no.com It's just https colon forward slash forward slash Trev. Tr AV dot media, I think if you look down here, yeah, right there. Under my Zoom picture here, you can see my my website. I work with companies doing you know, it's great, because I have the ability to flex. And you know, I can be doing these wonderful mobile apps. And then I can also kind of switch into for marketing training, and working with different teams. On You know, I'm able to kind of be more budget friendly for nonprofits, where I can instead of doing it, I can train people, and then they can kind of work the plan. So, but I'm also doing, I still enjoy doing logos. I still want to, you know, doing custom websites, I build a custom website for a client out of Georgia, that does. Jet parks for private jets, build a custom, ecommerce quoting system for their website. And there, it's been just steamrolling, or our SEO has been wonderful. The ability to add parts to their, to their quoting system is, is pretty seamless. And then they can just quote out the prod the product and get people into their, their funnel a lot quicker. So it's, you know, a lot of this is is just problem, problem versus solution, finding the solution to, you know, unique problems and identify the market. You know, again, I do my own market research and with search engine marketing, and I try to understand the entire funnel. And, you know, a comp a company may have different a few different demographics that they're partnering to. Right. You know, I could be working with marketers, you know, and I can also be working with CEOs, you know, so many different parts and understanding supply chain as well. That's a big help.   Michael Hingson ** 26:20 Yeah, yeah. There's, there's a lot to that, isn't there?   Travis Michael ** 26:23 Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 26:24 How long have you been doing this? How long has the company been around?   Travis Michael ** 26:28 Yeah, so I started traveling media in 2017. I was just out as bootstraps in a computer, right? And just just talking, I saw one of my first clients that they dealt and drones, they they actually built drones. That got me into some really cool spaces. Gave a handful of clients in the aviation sector, one of one of them, does the, the drone light shows. So you know, if you're in the aviation world, the trade show booths, done, you know, even like, instructional instructional design. So on the back of all those drones that for those light shows, I there's a sticker that they put on him. And that sticker just happens to be my designed, very kind of Honeycomb like, so it's really cool.   Michael Hingson ** 27:29 What did you do before you started travel media?   Travis Michael ** 27:33 So same kind of space? Like I, right out of college, I was doing animation boards and malls, and then they go, can you do business cards? Can you do logo design? And can you do brochures? Next, you know, I'm doing billboards, I'm animation for commercials. I was then, you know, really getting into animation with After Effects. And you have some 3d stuff. And then I might, I would give designs to web developers, and they were just butchering my designs. And I was like, stop it, stop, quit, quit screwing up my design, they already approved this, this design, and you're not giving them anything remotely close. So I went in started teaching myself CSS and HTML, and it kind of I, I can understand JavaScript and PHP, but I can't really write it. But But now with with Chet GPT. You know, I'm, I'm also building unique plugins for that. That helped me with my technology. So we, for instance, we have the we have the the website for the for the bridge app. And then we have the app, right? And so there are two different, different things, but how do you get them to communicate with one another. So anytime someone registers on the app, a signal is then sent back to the website that actually has a database that can house that information. So that's so we're reusing that they're developing a REST API that gives them the ability to communicate with each other. So that's been, you know, just the evolution of technology and   Michael Hingson ** 29:40 explain that just a little bit more for me. I'm not quite sure I follow what yeah, what that's doing.   Travis Michael ** 29:45 Absolutely. So it, basically it's handling the user registration. So if you when you register on the mobile app, right, so Michael Pinkston, at my I go hangsen.com. And it goes to all that information is then. So your your profile is then created on our website, in our in our database, right? That database doesn't necessarily have to be on the website, it can be on an entirely different shooter. But for the kind of being able to control the two, we're able to create that that communication gap worried. So the app can then talk to the website. Does that make sense?   Michael Hingson ** 30:44 Yeah, I think I, I follow it. So and so by the app talking to the website, it and obviously keeps the profile up to date. What does it do for the user, in terms of communicating with others and so on?   Travis Michael ** 31:00 Well, all it does is, you know, if you lost your password, maybe you switch apps. Okay. So that's all it really handles. Right? Got it.   Michael Hingson ** 31:11 Okay. What do you think about this whole discussion of AI Artificial Intelligence, which well, not widgets, but artificial intelligence products, like, chat, GPT, and so on, you know, they've become so sensational, sensationalized? What do you what do you think about all of the furor around all of that?   Travis Michael ** 31:33 Well, it was coming. It's I mean, we it's been, you know, we've been working with autocomplete now for how long? Right? So like, that was just a form of AI. Yeah. And now we know, it's expanding into more of a user interface where the end user can dictate what the outcome should be. And so you really have to be able to figure out, it's your best use cases, for what you need. Right. I, people are afraid of the maliciousness behind it. I'm sure that there's some sort of kill switch. There, there would have to be.   Michael Hingson ** 32:33 The other aspect of it is that we keep hearing about all this potentially bad stuff with it. But look, we haven't eliminated the dark web. And we have the internet and the internet is is a way to get a lot of information to people and has been since the early 1990s. So it's always going to be dependent on what we use it for and how we use it for and hopefully, we have enough fried people who will use it. And that will hopefully set some of the tone about don't do bad things with it, because that's not appropriate. But the other part of it is, if you said, a kill switch, or we will have to probably put some governors on it because too many people are going to misuse it. When they don't need to they're gonna go down a rabbit hole, they don't need to go down.   Travis Michael ** 33:28 But Potentially, yes, potentially, potentially, I, you know, I'm not the I'm not the all things on this. But, you know, my, my theory is, you know, use your powers for good. Yeah. And, you know, we're getting ready to our next version. With with working closely with Google, hopefully, we're gonna get an early release of their new language model, that also includes the includes AI. So being able to better provide a better trans transcription experience, your voice to text is actually going to be more accurate. And also working on being able to segment people's voices, and ultimately using that as a security model. So as we identify, this is Michael Hinkson speaking, and in the back end, it creates a digital thumbprint that every time you're you're now you're now speaking, that it actually authenticates that it's you. Right. And it will also provide security from Ai duplication. You know, that's a one of the big focuses that we Been looking at these different different programs duplicate, you know, Morgan Freeman, like, obviously it's not Morgan Freeman speaking, it was the AI speaking like Morgan Freeman. And that's what we want to, you know, basically safeguard. We want to safeguard your voice, there's been too many incidents that I've come across where voice has been captured, manipulated and used for malicious.   Michael Hingson ** 35:43 Although I've said to, to a few people, jokingly, I know I'll really have arrived when I can hear John Wayne read The Hobbit. You even imagine that? Yeah, but you know, and, and the reality is, it's ultimately going to come down to how we use it and how we treat it. And it's going to be up to us. And that all comes down to moral compasses, and so on. Here's a question regarding your app, have you thought of, or is the capability coming are there where a person who's deaf or hard of hearing can sign the phone can pick it up and translate that into text or to voice that is spoken out by the phone,   Travis Michael ** 36:34 there is technology, I have even seen gloves that have been developed. And, you know, a lot of that is, you know, they're already using some of that movement stuff with, with robots, you know, as they've been, you know, focusing on you know, wrote a hand robotic hand going in acting like a human hand, you know, maybe even like, creating bionic hands for people that maybe we've lost a hand and the transfer of energy and those types of things. So, that's a little bit further outside of our scope. For this, we really wanted to start small.   Michael Hingson ** 37:18 Sure, no, I appreciate that. But the reason I asked the question probably is reasonably obvious. If I'm communicating with a person who is deaf and who doesn't speak, I can't see their signing. And so the question is, how will I communicate with him now, there are some technologies, for example, there is a device that a person can type on, and it will produce Braille at the other end, and obviously, you can type on a computer. And with voice technology, it can be heard, but it just seemed like it would be intriguing and interesting to think about the concept of the app, being able to take advantage of the camera on a smartphone, to see the person signing and verbalize that, but I don't know, all the ins and outs of the pluses and minuses of how hard that would be. My first job out of college was actually working with Ray Kurzweil, the developer of Omni font OCR. And that's when I also first got introduced to artificial intelligence because his first machines would reprint and the more they read, the higher the competence they gained of being able to read material, especially when characters were somewhat degraded, and it actually learned. But it just seemed like an illogical interesting idea might be for this. If signing is uniform enough, where a software package could be taught to interpret signing, if that could be the case, it would be trivial to then output it to voice because the phones already have the ability to talk anyway.   Travis Michael ** 39:02 Is there anything that like, would you know, I'm thinking I'm thinking of like hardware is there is like a, like a Bluetooth. Maybe, like a Bluetooth device where maybe as it would be typing, or as it would play out of the phone speaker. It could also be like felt, you know?   Michael Hingson ** 39:29 Oh, yeah, I mean, there are ways that there are refreshable braille displays that I can connect to my iPhone so that I can turn the speech off completely and use just the Braille display, to read whatever's coming across the phone, but I'm thinking of the other end of it is the person inputting information. And so I was thinking that if a person who was deaf signed how II See, would it be for that signing to be interpreted? Because if you said, you know, A through G, well, if somebody signs an A, can the phone be taught to recognize that a? If it can, then it doesn't matter what the output is, it could be outputted directly to the phone speaker or it could go to a Braille display or whatever. It's the recognition of the sign. That's the issue. Yeah.   Travis Michael ** 40:28 I think that might be something we tackle. As we start looking down the line. Whatever we get, we won't really want to get into AR augmented reality, like the Google Glasses and those types of things. Yeah. Because then as the person is speaking, you can then do like real life closed captioning. You could also do what you're talking about. So if I'm, I can actually, you know, sign. And then the AR, could then close caption the sign language, essentially? Well,   Michael Hingson ** 41:07 yeah. Well, yeah, I could close caption it. But the idea is that if it recognize the signing, then the output part today is very straightforward. Yes, it could close caption it and put it on a screen. Or since it's recognized it, it could just as easily go through the voiceover screen reader on the phone to verbalize it. Yeah, none of that's the problem. The issue is recognizing what is being signed from the signer. And so as you said, og augmented reality, if that's the way to do it. But anyway, it's an intriguing idea. And it would open up some interesting vehicles for communication, which, which would be kind of cool. So in addition to developing apps you work with, with other companies, and I know you're kind of almost a global chief marketing officer in a lot of ways, aren't you?   Travis Michael ** 42:05 Yeah, absolutely. You know, the companies bring me in to kind of turn their brand around, and not just turn their brand around, but, you know, help them embrace technology for for operational purposes, you know, that there's like, for instance, this new website has kind of acted as they're another sales tool, they website doesn't take a day off, it's there, you know, so being a collection hub for the for that business, and, you know, finding unique problems, and you're getting them getting their teams to kind of cheerlead the path forward. So working, I'll typically come in, I'll work very closely with the president CEO, to understand where they're where their mindset and leadership is, and help them prepare for the next steps, what their teams can be expecting time that their teams need to be allocating to these different projects, right? It's not just me, I don't just come in and wave a wand, and tada, here it is, their teams, your things will change dynamics will shift, you know, how do a step that you once did, or maybe three steps that you once did, are now done in one step? Because something system was optimized. So that's where I come in, but I also have to make sure that, you know, you know, maybe they what was done, what was once done was was wasn't done in vain. Like it was there. It was it some things are grandfathered in, that maybe aren't necessary, and a new system can be put in place. So,   Michael Hingson ** 44:14 companies are are always looking for or should be looking for ways to improve their processes. And I've talked to a couple of people on unstoppable mindset who were very much involved in trying to help companies really reorganize their basically their way of doing business, their, their way of getting things done inside the company, and so on. And so I appreciate exactly what you're saying, which is it's all about trying to become more efficient, and trying to have the best processes possible.   Travis Michael ** 44:49 Yeah, and I've there's a really good John Maxwell book. He's John Maxwell. If you read anything of his you'll be better for reading it. He's just one of those guys that has a very, very deep message. And I just read his book as good Leaders Ask Great Questions. And you really have to start asking great questions, if you're in this in a position of leadership. And, you know, I ask questions to prepare my, the companies that I work with, I don't ask questions to be nosy, or judgmental, I ask questions because I need to understand what their starting points are, what have they done? Where are they at? And how can they move forward? And that's a lot. And then I provide training around different aspects around that model. And they've, they've been proven to be very helpful and healthy and business's understanding their why why are they doing this? Who are they talking to? And what is the message behind what they're doing? And I'll take all of that, run it through my marketing machines, my branding, machines, design, technology, audits, all of that. Understand your industry, and, you know, what your, what your end goal is. And some of the companies, you know, I work with companies that are our profit, nonprofit, and defense, and they they all have many different hats in many different industries. And one industry does this, this, but not this, and then another company will go, Oh, I do not this, this and this, but we work together, and it's their partnerships. And there's something to be said about partnerships. That can really be beneficial, especially when you find people that are moving in the same direction as you.   Michael Hingson ** 47:11 Well, and, you know, one of the most important things that we can do as human creatures is to ask questions, it's it is curiosity, it is trying to learn, and when you're asking questions of company leaders, to help focus them in is clearly also helping you.   Travis Michael ** 47:33 Yeah. You know, and one of the great questions is, what books are you reading? Yeah. What books are you reading? Because I need to know that, that they have, if there's a point that I'm trying to get across, it's going to be better if I can, if I have a client read a book, or read a chapter, and then he can go, Okay, I see what you're saying. Now, here's how they overcame that. And, for me, it's a wonderful thing. It's a, you know, diagnose prescribe model, that hell helps me from the, you know, just giving book recommendations as and that has even even reading for me has been a huge shift. That was never me. That was never me. I was Bye, bye. Your kids are my little cousin graduated the other day. And my grandma was like, Oh, my goodness, she's on the Dean's list or the you know, the high dean's list and you know, forgetting being on the Dean's list for so long. I was like, that's wonderful. And I just kind of snickered I got you know, that was never May.   Michael Hingson ** 48:57 I love to read a lot of fiction, which I do for relaxing. But I also do like to read nonfiction. One of my favorite books, and I quoted often in one way or another in speeches is The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, which is really, I think, the best short book that I found that describes what a good team should be and how to get there and I also love some of the Malcolm Gladwell books. I really enjoyed reading David and Goliath. Again, he puts a lot of things in perspective.   Travis Michael ** 49:35 Yeah. It's seeing the Go Giver. The Go Giver is wonderful. Yeah. Being able to get yourself into a, a mindset. And this person is struggling in sales. And he's like, there's this guy in the back that I swear I maybe see once every week and he's never We're here and all whenever he's here, he's just kind of feet up and kick back and everybody seems to love him. And if he's like, how does this guy do it? He's kind of getting the same sales. He's like, sales professional, he's, but he's, it's such like, what's the difference between sales and business development? Right. And so that was that's when things really changed and he was able to get understand mentorship. So if you're trying to understand mentorship, and that's a really good one as well. Let's see, Jocko willing and feel like Jocko is if I like I, my I I'm not I'm not really much of a reader, I audio books. I'm writing and I'm reading all day long. So by the end of the day, my eyes read Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 50:55 I love audiobooks. And they're becoming more prevalent. audio book sales continue to be on the rise, which is great. Even as print, sales have gone down some. And I think ebook sales are going up, but audio books are great. And even for people who are blind and so on the Library of Congress has a number of programs. And they're they're coming out with new programs to make access more easy and usable on things like smart speakers like the Echo, and so on, which is great. So I can turn a book on an echo now and listen to it while I'm either cooking or maybe not even doing anything else. But I can do it from any echo device in the house. Once the the app while the skill was activated, then every echo knows about it. So I can stop reading in one room and come back tomorrow and be in another room and tell it to pick up right where we left off. And it does, which is great. makes reading a lot more convenient.   Travis Michael ** 52:03 So for those who aren't familiar with how the echo work is it just you have like a main hub. And then like speakers in like multiple rooms,   Michael Hingson ** 52:11 no. Um, so the Echo is what they call a smart speaker. So there are echoes or echo dots. And Echo shows a lot of different ones, some have screens on them, and so on. But you connect it to your network. And then it communicates with, I assume the Amazon server that coordinates whatever goes on with echoes. And so you can have four or five echoes around the house. And I can go to one and I can say what's the temperature outside and it will tell me and so on. But there is the skill that actually the Library of Congress, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped is, is creating, it's called My Talking books. And it's a skill that runs on the echo. So I can tell an a device to open the app, my talking books, and then I can say, let's say I'm starting from scratch, I could say open or find the Go get the Go Giver. And assuming it's in the collection, which is not a given at all. But assuming it's in the collection, it will find it from my voice input. And then it can start reading it. So I can read for an hour and then quit and come back. And if I have several echo devices around the house, I can go to any one of them because they all communicate with the same Amazon server somewhere in the world. And I can pick up right where I left off. But I find the Echo to be a really handy device for a lot of different things, whether it's even just doing whether I use it to control my home security system. Even turning the lights on and off and making sure they're off because I don't see them. And when my wife was alive, she was used a wheelchair. So it was also a lot easier if she were on the bed to just tell the system to turn on light. So it's really handy.   Travis Michael ** 54:15 So do you typically walk around the house with the lights off? Or?   Michael Hingson ** 54:20 Yeah, mostly I do I don't need to have them on. So my wife has passed so I you know we have solar so it doesn't really matter a lot but   Travis Michael ** 54:28 but that helps you with your electricity bill. Hmm, yeah, it   Michael Hingson ** 54:31 does a lot anyway, but I but I don't turn the lights on at night. So far it hasn't bothered the dog or the cat a whole lot. So it's just the three of us. There we go. But if they're sighted people in the house, I do like to help my light dependent friends by turning the lights on for they   Travis Michael ** 54:51 defended friends. I love it. You know?   Michael Hingson ** 54:55 Well, light dependency is a disability. It's just that technology is covered it up by Thomas Edison. and inventing the electric light bulb, but it doesn't mean that it isn't there. Well, above it, tell us about your book that you're writing. Yeah. So   Travis Michael ** 55:10 writing a book that it's really kind of about my my background, and, you know, really challenging family dynamics and being able to help break generational curses, and the through some of the events that I've experienced, that have kind of shaped me into who I am as a person, and you know, how I've developed some understandings about myself and kind of some really funny, really crazy, very serious events, you know, and I really wanted to share this because it the show was that a lot of the struggles that I went through, I went through myself, because if they've they've challenged a lot of my trust issues. And so if I understood that I went through it myself, and I'm sure that many others out there are going through challenging family dynamics as well. And I want to be able to help them, give them my share my perspective, and maybe maybe it helps them to, you know, kind of get over the some of some of their hurdles that they're having. And, you know, I'll kind of leave leave it with this. It's, it's forgiveness isn't always about, you know, forgiving. Let, it's not, it's not for the other person. Yeah. Forgiveness is for you. Yes. And you have, it's also about building a forgiving heart. Because we're human. And if all we can just be better humans, and develop forgiving hearts, I feel like this, this world would be in such a better place, and being able to move forward, and even build, build boundaries, you know, sometimes you just because you forgive, doesn't mean, you know, it's I, sometimes it's, it's good to kind of create that, that space to allow yourself to grow. But, you know, but having those spaces and you're still holding on to that, that old junk. It's,   Michael Hingson ** 57:27 it haven't really forgiven yet. Haven't really forgiven yet. And I, one of the things I talk about a lot are dogs, needless to say, and I talk about the difference between dogs and people in the dogs do love unconditionally, I believe that I watched a 60 minutes show the other day that talked about the difference between dogs and wolves. And there are actually physiological genetic differences, that they've been able to pinpoint, basically, what they call the friendly gene and a dog, and then we'll stone house. But I think dogs love unconditionally, but they don't trust unconditionally, what they are, however, unless they are, had they've truly been overly traumatized by something. Dogs are open to trust. And that's the difference between them and us. We're always into what if what if this person really is not interested in gaining my trust? Or what if they're going to abuse, the trust and all that, and we, we have become so mistrustful that we tend not to recognize any more the value and being open to the idea of trust. Now, if somebody doesn't earn our trust, okay, then we recognize that and we move on. But if somebody can, and we're open to that, what a wonderful thing.   Travis Michael ** 58:48 Yeah, it's being able to, you know, create that kind of space for yourself. It's, you have to be able to, you know, trust yourself a that, that you've gotten this far. And, and being able to continue to push forward. And, and build, build things, create things, you know, in love you loving what you're doing. And if you're not loving what you're doing, then you need to take the time outside of what you're doing, and figure out what it is and push towards what you want to do.   Michael Hingson ** 59:26 Yeah. And recognize that there are probably lots of people out there who would be really happy to support you. You'd be shocked. Yeah, absolutely would be shocked at the number of people who, if they really understood we'd be willing to support you. Well, so what's the name of the new book and when can we see it?   59:47 So the new book is called Honor thy father's and it really pushes towards the you know, the father dynamics and push towards you know, mentorship and Understanding how important it is to seek mentorship and being a good mentee. And, you know, I first discovered mentorship in Toastmasters, and Toastmasters is a an international public speaking organization. Wherever you're at in the world, I'm sure there's one nearby you, if you're trying to get better at public speaking, and really shed, that skin that has kind of kept you in this box. You know, Toastmasters is a wonderful organization, to be able to stretch your speaking skills in front of a supportive group of people who are trying to achieve similar results. So within that group, I, you know, that's something that I had to really sink in it within that group. They gave me a mentor. And I didn't know what a mentor was. And, you know, at some points, I was probably not a really good mentee, if I'm being honest, because I was kind of in my own head doing my own thing. And I've graduated from that. And we're wonderful friends and hate you. So he, he's my public speaking mentor, well, he's not he's he's in he's, we've also done develop great relationships and in sales and talking to people in systems and in growth, and he has a wonderful mindset. And but then, then there's other things and I've learned about mentorship, and so many other places that have provided me wealth and growth. So the the book is, we're we're looking to come out with it in the fall. But we are going to launch the marketing for it on Father's Day, ironically, so you can catch Honor thy father's. And I'll be promoting that. You can follow travel media, online and travel media group on Facebook, travis media, or I think it's Travis dot media, on Instagram, on tick tock, travis media as well. So you   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:13 have a picture of the book cover.   Travis Michael ** 1:02:17 design that right now. So as soon as we we get that out, I'll be sending it over to Mike,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:23 please, because we will put that in the show notes, by all means.   Travis Michael ** 1:02:27 Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm sure. But I think by the time that we published this, I'll have the show. I'll have the graphic ready for you.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:35 Perfect. And any other pictures and other things that you want us to have? Well, I want to thank you, Travis once again for being with us today. This has been enjoyable and fun. We spend a lot of time talking about the app and I'm gonna have to go play with it and, and maybe give you some feedback, or at least learn a little bit myself, which will be kind of cool. Absolutely. Absolutely.   Travis Michael ** 1:02:58 Looking forward to hearing and hearing your feedback, Mike.   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:01 But I really enjoyed today and I hope you did as well. And I hope all of you listening did we appreciate you doing so? So, enjoy it and get a hold of Travis let him know but I would appreciate hearing from you as well. We would love a five star rating from you wherever you're listening to unstoppable mindset. Five Star Ratings are greatly appreciated. You can also email me at Michaelhi M I C H A E L H I at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. Love to hear any thoughts you have, as well as suggestions for others that you think we ought to have an unstoppable mindset. We're always looking to make new friends. You can also go to our podcast page www dot Michael hinkson.com/podcast Michael Hanson is m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com/podcast. We'd love for you to go there. And you can leave comments there as well. But either way, please keep us posted. Let us know and trap us likewise, if you know anyone who want to come on love to to get your thoughts and you know we'll have to do this again. Especially once the book is out and you start getting comments and all that we'd love to catch up with you again on this.   Travis Michael ** 1:04:13 Absolutely. Thank you for your time, Michael, I greatly appreciate it.   **Michael Hingson ** 1:04:21 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.

Here is the NLS annotation: How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water: a novel DB 110919 Cruz, Angie. Reading time 6 hours, 19 minutes. Read by Kimberly M. Wetherell Rossmery Almonte. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Family Description: "Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight." -- Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Kristen Fernekes is the Head of Communications and Outreach for National Library Service (NLS) for the Blind and Print Disabled.

2023 American Council of the Blind 62nd Annual Conference and Convention Renaissance Hotel and Conference Center, Schaumburg, IL and, via Zoom and ACB Media General Session, July 4, 2023, Schaumburg Ballroom Call to Order Pledge of Allegiance: Veterans (invited); Singing of America the Beautiful, led by Kolby Garrison, Development Officer, American Council of the Blind, Greensboro, NC ACB Sponsor Recognitions, Corporate Sponsors Sponsorship Presentation: Diamond sponsor: Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer, Microsoft, Redmond, WA ACB Angels Presentations: Dan Sippl, Eau Claire, WI; Terry Camardelle, Marrero, LA; Richard Bird, Cleveland, OH Affiliate Role Call Presiding Officer: Denise Colley, Secretary, Richmond, TX International Guest Martine Abel-Williamson, President, World Blind Union, Auckland, New Zealand Eric Bridges, Executive Director, American Foundation for the Blind, Arlington, VA Jason Yasner, Deputy Director, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled ACB Highlights Video Foundation Fighting Blindness, Steve Sroka, Associate Director of Events, Libertyville, IL Door Prizes and Announcements Video of the session can be viewed at 2023 ACB Conference & Convention: General Session July 4, 2023 - YouTube The full CART Transcript can be downloaded at Download the Tuesday, July 4: General Session CART file

Meet our guest this episode, Cori Fonville Foster. Cori is a market at heart although she didn't start out by founding her own company. However, after experiencing a rare eye disease she left a career in the medical industry and started her own marketing firm. Her story by any definition shows why I call her “unstoppable” and I think you will too. Cori had a wide variety of experiences while growing up since her mother was in the military and, like many, served in places around the world. Yes, Cori got to go along and experience many places and peoples. We have had a number of guests on Unstoppable Mindset who had a relationship with military parents. Pretty much all of them seem to want to learn and grow from their childhood experiences and often end up in fields where they get to serve others. Cori spends time discussing with me her story of losing most of her eyesight and how she came to discover that she was still as normal as anyone. I had no idea when I first met her on LinkedIn that Cori was blind, and again, blindness does not necessarily mean a complete lack of eyesight. Cori's story shows us all just how unstoppable she is. Near the end of this episode Cori and I discussed an organization called Bookshare. This is a nonprofit established to provide a method of providing any book to persons who cannot use print to read. Its services are covered under current copyright laws as you will learn if you visit www.bookshare.org. About the Guest: Cori Fonville Foster is the CEO of IROC Marketable Business Solutions, a small business marketing firm that supports coaches, consultants, speakers, and authors as they learn to unlock their full potential and monetize their passions. Cori has always had a desire for helping others, which led her to pursue a career in the medical field early on. However, after complications from a rare, disabling eye condition, Cori decided to pivot and start her own business. As an entrepreneur herself, Cori quickly realized the gaps in services and support for small business owners with great products and services, who lacked the knowledge and funds to scale like larger businesses. In response, she founded IROC MBS to help small business owners across the U.S. and Canada start, run, and scale their businesses. Through her work with IROC MBS, Cori has helped countless entrepreneurs feel empowered to live life on their own terms. Her expertise in marketing and business strategy, combined with her passion for helping others succeed, has made her a sought-after speaker and consultant. Whether she's delivering a keynote speech or working one-on-one with clients, Cori is dedicated to empowering others to achieve their full potential. Ways to connect with Cori: Website: https://www.irocmarketablebusinesssolutions.com/ https://www.tiktok.com/@iroc.mbs https://www.facebook.com/IROCMBS https://www.instagram.com/irocmbs/ https://twitter.com/Cori_Iroc88 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoH8-TfdC7rIkwCPjCUk3LQ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cori-fonville-foster-72750ba8/ 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 ** 01:21 Welcome once again to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. It's fun when we get to do all three of those in one podcast. You know, sometimes we have people who come on who happened to have a disability, which means we can deal with inclusion because a lot of times diversity doesn't. But of course diversity is relevant. And then the unexpected comes along, which is always fun. Today, Cori Fonville Foster our guest, I think can represent all three of those. She can make her own comments about that if she would like. So Cori, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 01:58 I am so excited to be here for our conversation today.   Michael Hingson ** 02:02 So it's okay to say that you represent all three of those. Yes. safe assumption. Cool. Well, why don't we start by you telling us a little bit about you, kind of where you were born your younger life and the the early quarry and we'll go from there. Oh, my God   Cori Fonville Foster ** 02:22 is the early quarry Well, I'm a native to Virginia. But I only stayed here till I was about seven. My mother was in the army. And so I was lucky enough to get to travel to Texas, we were stationed in Germany, Hawaii, and then back here to Virginia. So we just made a big circle. And I really enjoyed just traveling as a child and exploring other people's cultures and getting to know you know what people wanted to do in life, just hearing the different stories that individuals had. But I did go to high school here in Virginia. And then I went to Virginia Commonwealth University, where I thought I wanted to be a psych major, and then and then found out that was not for me. But even through all that I kind of figured that what I found to be a common theme throughout all of my years was this idea of like of wanting to help people. And so while didn't finish it, VCU, I did find kind of a new passion in the medical field with helping people in that way.   Michael Hingson ** 03:29 What was school like in other countries and so on? How did you cope with all that? Because it must have been a little bit of a challenge moving around.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 03:38 Actually, I really liked it. I was never afraid to be the new kid. Especially because I went to a lot of areas where there was a lot of military. So I was definitely not the only new kid there. Texas Killeen, Texas. People are familiar deep in the heart of Texas. Lots of military there. And the only thing I had to realize that I was I thought I was country being from Virginia, but I was very country. Once I left Texas, Germany, I went to school on base but I did have to take German classes and Hawaii we actually had to take Japanese classes and hula dancing classes. That was part of the curriculum, but all in all school to school. I did. I didn't really like going to school, but school was school. Do you   Michael Hingson ** 04:21 remember any of your Japanese   Cori Fonville Foster ** 04:23 and not not even   Michael Hingson ** 04:26 about hula dancing? Oh,   Cori Fonville Foster ** 04:29 yes, actually, I do remember a little bit of hula dancing. That was fun. But ya know, the language just kind of fell off. I have like a little bit of German last, but not much not even enough to have a whole conversation.   Michael Hingson ** 04:42 Yeah. If you don't use it, it does kind of go away. But I'll bet if you really got put back in that situation again, some of it would come back.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 04:51 Yeah, probably so.   Michael Hingson ** 04:54 So you went to college and tell us then about going into the medical profession.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 05:00 Yeah, so I went to college, like I said, trying to be a psych major. I don't know how I ended up. Getting in there. I was early decision, I knew exactly what I wanted to do got in there my first semester, and found out how long psychologists actually go to school. And I realized, that is not what I wanted to do, I didn't want to spend all this time in school. And so after a year and a half, I left, but I ended up kind of landing myself in a nursing home. As not not as a as a, as a person living there. But as a worker. And I really fell in love with, you know, helping individuals that needed more support that you know, physically needed more support, so needed people to help possibly feed them, help them move around, bathed them, that kind of stuff. I was like, Okay, this is cool, not so much mental concerns, but even physical needs, like everyday needs. And I found that that was a lot more rewarding for me.   Michael Hingson ** 05:54 Ah, so then what did you do with that? So you, you didn't stay in college? Did you go back to college ever? Or?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 06:01 Yeah, I did. I went back to school. I did. I did a lot of home health work for a while. And I realized that I wanted to have more education in the medical field. So I went back to school, I have a associate's degree as a medical assistant. And then I was actually in school to become a registered nurse when my condition flared up. And unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete that degree, I was three credits away from graduating as a registered nurse. But unfortunately, but I guess fortunately, too, I found my true calling after that. But I did have to leave school and leave work, and basically go out on disability. Very, very close to the finish line of becoming a registered nurse.   Michael Hingson ** 06:43 Well, what was the eye condition? What happened?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 06:46 Yeah, so I have a rare condition called UV itis, it's a inflammatory condition. It's very rare. And the kind I have is even more rare, because usually, they can find out like what makes you you know, have this condition. But in my case, they call it idiopathic, meaning they basically don't know why I have it, I just do. So they treat the symptoms. And so I actually got diagnosed in high school, and lost all the vision in my left eye, my first year in college, but then nothing else. It just like, got calm, I had no issues, until I was about 20 to 23, somewhere in there. And that's when it flared up again. And it was just so bad that the doctors couldn't kind of get ahead of it. And they basically sat me down and said that they thought I was gonna go completely blind. From the condition. I did not go completely blind. That's that's a little longer story. But I did have to, like I said, discontinue my studies, and leave the job that I had been working at for quite a while. What did   Michael Hingson ** 07:51 you then go and do them move. So as a result, you you weren't a nurse, you weren't going to be able to be a nurse, although you'd worked at that, but you obviously gained a lot of knowledge and so on. So what did you then go off and do?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 08:02 Yeah, so after I had to go out on disability for about six months, I actually did nothing. I had, I had no coping skills as as a person that was visually impaired. Because before the flare up, that flare up that sent me out, I had 2020 of my right eye. So I was still kind of living life as a very able to visually abled person. And so when my vision quickly dissipated, I didn't really know what to do. I didn't know how to read Braille, I didn't know how to use a cane. I didn't know anything. So I just kind of was sad and depressed for about six months didn't do anything. Didn't know that there was lots of support out there. Unfortunately, I didn't have really great doctors at the time. And now I do thankfully, but I didn't have I didn't know that I could reach out and ask for help and get resources. So I did nothing for six months. And then after the six months, I decided to start a business. Why not? Where you're in the in the pits of despair, I started a business because I wanted something to do. I didn't want to be in the house and I wanted to make income. And again, I didn't know that. At the time. I didn't know that people who couldn't see could work. Now I've learned a lot that we are just as capable as everyone else. But then I back then I didn't know so I started my first business it was called Iraq marketable. I'm sorry, Iraq, my buddy. And so that's what it was called. And I sold like handmade soaps and bath bombs and body butters and you know, just a lot of handmade things for women to take like bubble baths, basically. But it was a cool business and I got to talk to a lot of small business owners, which was really cool to hear all their amazing stories and that kind of led me into starting the business that I run now.   Michael Hingson ** 09:46 So how did you learn how to make soaps and, and all those sorts of things that was totally different than the kinds of things that you had been studying for?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 09:56 Yeah, it was definitely like a complete one ad I like to learn period, like, I just like to learn things. And I needed to find something that I could do with the vision that I had. And so I was just YouTubing different things. And I would see people make, you know, different little bars of soap or make their own body butter, which can be used like a lotion on their skin. I was like, that seems cool. Let me try that. And it wasn't a lot of money to invest, because I didn't have any because I was unemployed. And at that time, I hadn't gotten my first disability check. So I was like, Okay, this seems, you know, easy enough. And my mother was a crafter. So I knew that she knew about like vending events. And I was like, okay, I can do this, I can do it at my own pace, I can do it with the vision that I have. And I just a lot of trial and error. But I got real good at it. I made I made some good money doing it, though. So I'm kind of proud of myself. While it was a little business that kind of came out of nowhere. It definitely was a lucrative business, that game gave me a lot of confidence. Because like I said, before, that I didn't think that, like I had a future because I was like, I can't see, like, this is it for me that you know, I just, it was like the world came crashing down, I really felt like, there was nothing that I was going to be able to accomplish, because I couldn't see. And so that gave me just a little bit of confidence to say, Okay, you're not, you know, helpless, you can do something, you can be productive. And that kind of gave me the confidence also to advocate for myself, I ended up firing my doctors getting a new team of doctors that helped me finding that organizations were out there that can support me, I actually connected with your organization, someone who was completely blind, that was like, girl, you can work you can do different stuff. And I was like, Really, she was like, yeah, she had written a book. And it really opened my eyes that this was not something that was going to limit my capabilities.   Michael Hingson ** 11:47 So what did the doctors tell you? I should have asked that earlier, I suppose. But what did the doctors tell you when they decided that you weren't going to be able to see again,   Cori Fonville Foster ** 11:57 I'm telling you, I had a really bad doctor, she literally just sat me down, it was very matter of fact. And she said, your eyes are angry. That's the words you use. And she says there's nothing we can do about it, we can't do surgery, there's no drop, she said, You need to just go ahead and quit your job, go home and collect disability. That's what that's literally what she told me. And because I didn't know any better, I did believe that for a long while, like a good. I said six months to a year I thought okay, the only thing I have the choice I have was to go home and go blind. And that's it. But like, so once I got a little confidence, and I found new doctors, they told me that, you know, while there was no cure, they could fight. And if I was willing to fight, they would try to preserve the vision I had, and they got me connected with people that can teach me how to live in my new normal.   Michael Hingson ** 12:46 Yeah, and that's exactly what it is, is a new normal. You know, I had a similar experience with a doctor a number of years ago, in that I was dealing with a lot of eye pain, which turned out to be glaucoma, eye pressure, and so on. But the doctor, by the way, I had already secured many years before a master's degree in physics. So I had a little bit of knowledge about one thing or another. And this doctor would only say to me, your eyes are mad at you. They're angry. And, you know, I said, What do you mean, they're, my eyes are mad at me. But they are and there's nothing we can do. And I said, What do you mean by mad at me, he wouldn't deal with the issue. And he couldn't take eye pressure. Because being having been blind since birth, I didn't know anything about controlling my eyes and looking up and looking down. And when he was trying to take high pressure, he kept saying look up and I said, When are you going to understand, I don't know how to do that. You know, when I said if you're going to treat me this way, I'm leaving, I'm not going to pay you a sin. And I'm going to make sure other people know how you treat blind people. And, you know, and that's exactly what I did. My wife was in the room at the time and heard the whole thing. And she agreed. It was it was not a good experience. And there's no need for that. And it's unfortunate that the Optima logical world doesn't get some of the training that they need to recognize that they're not failures just because the person can't see. And that it is high time that we stop preaching here now talking about blind and visually impaired and equating us to vision. You know, blind and low vision is one thing, but when we hear things like visually impaired, why do I need to be creative, equated to how much vision I have or don't have. And blindness is a characteristic and low vision is a characteristic. But doctors don't learn those things and the schools don't teach them that which is so unfortunate.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 14:55 Yeah, I agree. And I've had so many instances where people don't get The condition and they don't, they don't treat us with care I ended up in where you say God call me triggered me. Because I remember I my pressure got really high one time. I mean, it was like at 40. It was crazy. I felt like a giant was squeezing my head.   Michael Hingson ** 15:13 I was 70 Once I know what it is. And yeah,   Cori Fonville Foster ** 15:17 and so for people listening who are not visually impaired, like right now I'm in like the single digits. So So you know, you're not supposed to be in the doubles. But yeah, I went to the emergency room. And the nurse practitioner on call, didn't know how to use the pressure machine, she sat next to me on the bed, I'm in tears. And she pulls out the instructions to the machine that she was about to poke in my eye. And she's like reading it. And I was like, Can you please go out the room, read what you got to read, get yourself together and come back confidently, because you're about to touch my eyeball, which is already in pain, I ended up having to have emergency surgery the next day to get my pressure lowered. And it's just like, that kind of stuff just drives me crazy. Because I again, I was on the other side of that I was in the medical field. I was you know, we're helping doctors see patients and I'm like, why would you do that when somebody is in such need, right? They need you to support them, calm them down, give them reassurance and instead, they make us more scared, or less confident in not only their abilities, but our outcomes. And it's just a horrible place to be because I've had several eye surgeries. Now I've gone through several doctors and different prognosis. And it's just, you know, you want people that at least believe that, you know, they're gonna give you the best care and the best options for you. And sometimes, oftentimes, that's not what we get.   Michael Hingson ** 16:37 Well, and you want people who believe that you're a person. And that eyesight isn't the only thing in town. And that's what's so unfortunate is that so much of our society thinks that without eyesight, you're not really a whole person at all. And that's just not true.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 16:54 Yeah, you're right.   Michael Hingson ** 16:56 And that's one of the reasons that I tend to, when I'm talking with people and hear the term get away from visually impaired, it's like deaf people who will tell you that they don't like the word hearing impaired because they don't want to be acquainted with or compared with its deaf or hard of hearing. And that's really the way it ought to be with blindness. It isn't all about eyesight. And unfortunately, there are too many people who have no vision anyway, that is to say, they may see really well, but they don't have any vision. And that's a different story. But we won't worry   Cori Fonville Foster ** 17:31 about that today. Just a bar right there. I like that one.   Michael Hingson ** 17:35 Yeah. And in my book center dog, one of the phrases is don't let your sight get in the way your vision and it happens all too often. Definitely, it is one one of the major things, it's an issue. So you, you are black women, women woman living with or working with a disability, which you obviously have learned to recognize is not really the disability at all. It's more what the public views it as but how does all that work in your business? And now that you've got IROC up and running, are you still doing Soper? What is IROC morphed into?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 18:14 Yes, IROC is no longer doing so we have grown up at there doing my first business, I found that there was a gap in the market for small business owners trying to market their businesses and get them out to the world. And so now I own IROC markable business solutions. We are a small business marketing, and coaching firm, where we've actually been able to help hundreds of entrepreneurs all over the US and into Canada, market their small businesses and get in front of their target audience. So it's been a definite big change. But like you said, I don't see my quote unquote, disability as a disability, I just consider myself to be differently abled, there are things that I do, and I just have to do them differently than quote unquote, the norm. But that doesn't mean I'm incapable. Very few things have stumped me. And usually, once I'm stumped, I go and find a way to get around it. But it's just like anybody else. Nobody's gonna be good at everything. Nobody's going to get something, you know, done amazingly, their first time through. And so I learned and even since my diagnosis, I've done makeup for people. I've done photos for people. Right before this podcast, I was editing video content for a client. I am not my disability. I really, I definitely use my story to inspire others, because I want people to realize that they're capable of doing amazing things, but I am not consumed or defined by my condition. It's just a part of, you know, the who I am. It's, it's just one little piece. It's not even a big piece. It's one little piece of who Cori is, but it doesn't stop the show.   Michael Hingson ** 19:56 And it shouldn't. On the other hand, Cory Let's get really serious here, Bed Bath and Beyond has just announced that they're going to be going bankrupt, there might be a great soap market out there.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 20:10 I don't know. I'm not gonna lie to you. Because I tried to go back and do it. It's a lot of hands on work. Our team now to help me, I don't want to go back to just being by myself. That's a lot.   Michael Hingson ** 20:23 Yeah, no, I understand. And, and so you're doing that all over the country? Well, tell us a little bit more about what you do.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 20:31 Yeah, so I always tell people, I got into business very untraditionally. Because like I said, I didn't know what I wanted to be, when I grew up at the time, I was just trying to kind of find myself in my new world of, of having this condition and finding a way to still help people because that's always been my mission in life, is to help people in some way. And so through that, and through the business, we're able to do coaching, right, we talk to individuals, and help them identify their goals, figure out who their clientele is, we also help them turn their passion into profit. Meaning that they find something that they're really good at really passionate about, and we help them monetize that thing. And then we offer them marketing services, like building their websites, working on email campaigns, working on their social media management, those types of things to kind of help them along. And I mentioned me being in the business, not traditionally, because that's our target audience, people who didn't come into business with a business degree or come into business with tons of investors and capital, there are people who really just genuinely want to help other people through the thing that is their gift. And so that's really the people that we really enjoy working with them. It has been just an amazing ride thus far.   Michael Hingson ** 21:51 Do you focus a lot on businesses with persons with disabilities? Is that an issue? Do you focus in more on the broad market or what?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 22:03 So we have had many individuals who identify as people with disabilities, seen and unseen. So we've had people with MS, we've had people that just have really bad anxiety, who have come from a lot of trauma, have physical conditions. I mean, the list goes on and on. But again, my disability is just one little aspect of me. So I don't go out searching for individuals that that identify as having disability, but we do definitely welcome them. And I feel that I am uniquely positioned in the fact that I understand there their worries, and their sometimes lack of confidence as they build up their business, because they're worried that people will see them as less than I know, I definitely did. When I started, I said, I used to not even tell people I was legally blind, I would say, you know, I'm just kind of keep going on unless they asked me, because I thought that they would be like, Well, how is she going to get this done? But now that I've been in business, and people have seen my work, I'm like, Look, this is who I am. And guess what, I'm going to be amazing. And I just happen to be legally blind as well. So yeah, don't go on my way looking for but we definitely do attract people who can can resonate with my story for sure.   Michael Hingson ** 23:22 So what specific kinds of things do you actually then do to help companies? Maybe a better way to put it is, what kind of problems do people bring to you? And how do you solve them.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 23:34 So the majority of people who come to us are really struggling with solidifying their marketing plan, they have an idea, they think it's going to work, or maybe they've even been doing it for people for free. Like I work with service based businesses, mostly. So these are coaches and consultants. That's why I said they like to help other people, because they are working with different target audiences trying to solve their problems. So they come to me, they say, Hey, I have this idea, or I've been doing this thing. And I really want to take it to the next level. So through our coaching program, we really work kind of hand in hand, I call it a white glove service. And we help them identify what their goals are, we put times behind it, we keep them accountable. And then we give them tools, techniques, guides, scripts, all the things they need to actually achieve that. So basically, we're a business coaching service, but then we also provide those tangible, practical elements they need to do the thing that is called business.   Michael Hingson ** 24:33 So do you oftentimes end up having to help people maybe even restructure their business, do things more efficiently change their operation to to become better at what they do?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 24:47 Absolutely. A lot of what we do is kind of go in and look at the systems or lack thereof with their systems. We do something called a brand audit, where we go in and kind of look like how are you doing this? How are you structuring it? Because usually a lot of new entrepreneurs are having issues with burnout. They're trying to do all the things themselves, and in the most tiresome ways, and so we teach them about outsourcing, we teach them about working with their CEO mindset. And then of course, building confidence to sell because that is something that a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with as well.   Michael Hingson ** 25:22 Yeah. And we're also afraid of failing, what do you what do you say to somebody who says I'm afraid of failing?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 25:30 That is, that's a great question only because I almost want to laugh. I talked to my clients about this all the time, who say they're afraid to fail, I always tell people, you're not afraid to fail. Because when you know that you have a gift, and that you have a talent or you have a product that people need, and you don't act on it, you're already failing, you're doing it every day that you don't work towards your goal, that you don't strive for greatness. And so you're not afraid to fail, because you're already doing it, what you're afraid of is success. Because if you weren't afraid of success, you wouldn't worry about the what ifs, you would just keep going until you hit that hit that success, and really make that mark that you're trying to make. So I always say people aren't really afraid of fit failure at all. They're definitely afraid of what success will look like on them.   Michael Hingson ** 26:16 Very good point. And the other part about it is that oftentimes people don't recognize that failure is in what they define as failure is probably one of the best learning experiences around because what does failure really means? Alright, something didn't work. So hopefully, you're smart enough to realize I won't do that again, and you start to think about other things to do that may make it more successful.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 26:43 Absolutely. They call it faultless. And failing forward, you take every failure as a learning experience, and you move forward.   Michael Hingson ** 26:51 Exactly what should happen. And all too often, we don't tend to teach people about that, you know, a very strange example of that is guide dogs. For years, even the guide dog schools would say that the dogs that didn't make it as guide dogs failed, and they just didn't measure up. And so they had to go do other things, they finally realized that that was the wrong terminology, because they weren't failures. The reality is that not every dog is meant to be a guide dog. And it's like with people, not everyone can do every particular job, which is what you said before. So the guide dog school started saying their career changed. Some of them have gone on to be cancer, detecting dogs or diabetic detecting dogs or in so insulin reactions and issues, seizure, detections, any number of different things. But they're not failures. And that's one of the things that we really need to get over is recognizing or not recognizing that a failure or our expectation of something that goes a particular way that doesn't go that way, is really the opportunity to explore something different. Absolutely. And you know, all too often, we really need to do some of that. Well, so for a person with a disability and putting it in air quotes, what are some of the challenges that you and others with disabilities have had in starting businesses and moving forward with them?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 28:27 I think for me, I struggled. One was confidence, because I didn't know how others were going to perceive me. Like I said, as someone who, I guess, in my eyes visibly looks like, there's something going on. I think some people don't know that like is like something's off with their face. I'm not sure what it what it is. Because people don't know what blindness looks like. And sometimes I and sometimes people actually will get mad at me because I didn't think I was legally blind. And they were to think I was making it up. And it's, it's been both ways. So I was kind of lost comp will not lost confidence. But I lacked confidence early on, and just that fear of what people were going to think. But then also the practical things of like how I was going to get things done, my eyes get really tired. I've had a lot of surgeries on my eyes and eyes are just like any other muscle where they get fatigued. And now I have really bad light sensitivity. And so I can't sit in front of the computer for a long time. I can't go outside a lot without shades and even with shaved, my eyes get really sensitive. And so I have to be really cautious about the types of activities I do the places I go. So that I can still work. I have to take lots of breaks. And so sometimes that impedes on work. And I have to find a way to make a schedule that allows for those breaks. And that's why one of the reasons why I actually stayed working for myself because I did later find out that yes, people who are blind can work and do work and are amazing workers. But because of my light sensitivity In my fatigue, I decided that it would be best for me and less frustrating if I work from home and work for myself so that I could take breaks and didn't have to worry about explaining myself to others because I'm the boss, and I take a break when I need to. And if my eyes get too much sun exposure, I can go lay down and close my eyes or put a mask over my eyes or whatever I need to do to take care of me. So some of the things I've had to learn a business are definitely how to do everything, how to what computer devices you use, what apps will help, some websites do not allow me to zoom in, it's the most stressful thing ever, different apps will allow me to zoom in. So I can't see how to do things I've had to learn how to do workarounds for that, when I have surgeries and can't see it all, I have to quickly figure out how to listen well, because they have a lot of apps out there that will talk to you. And my condition is a little different than some people who are consistently blind. And that I feel like they get the skills because they use it all the time. But I can go from being able to drive to not being able to see my face really quickly, like within three days time. And so I have to quickly pick up those skills of listening well, so I can use all those amazing apps to help me navigate the TV, my phone, the computer, all kinds of things. And luckily, there are amazing software's out there. But I have had those challenges and just navigating that as I build my business. And as I just live my day to day life.   Michael Hingson ** 31:34 Have you learned to use things like screen readers, such as JAWS, and so on to verbalize what comes across the computer? So you don't have to necessarily strain your eyes as much can I recognize that you can go from not seeing well to seeing fairly well. But have you thought about the concept of maybe using a screen reader regularly might ease some of the eye strain and and make for an easier process and use it to augment what you do get to be able to do when you can see.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 32:04 Yeah, I've been playing more with that lately, since I had a I had an emergency eye surgery a couple of months ago, and I've been trying to use the technology more, I'm just really, I'm really impatient. I'm not gonna lie to you, I am very impatient. And so sometimes I'm like, Ah, it takes forever because a lot of times it'll it'll read. So I've used apps where it'll read to me, like where a button is like when I pass over it. But then I have to hit the button like twice. And this is like ah, so oftentimes I get frustrated and take it off. But I have been getting better at trying out different apps and different software's and trying to use them more consistently. Even like using my walking cane, I try to remember to go back and use it more often. Because what tends to happen is when I really need it, I haven't used it in a month. And then I'm like, oh my god, I gotta learn this fast. And then I have all the anxiety around kind of getting back acclimated. So yeah, I have been trying to use them more consistently, because with consistency comes confidence and the tool. But like I said, I just I'm really impatient. So it's been a struggle, that is definitely something that I continue to struggle with.   Michael Hingson ** 33:12 Well, but the other side of it is that you, you may find that it helps another way. So for example is talking about using a cane. If you're using a cane, and you use it regularly. One of the things is that people will know you're blind, and that may or may not build barriers, but for a lot of people, hopefully it won't, because you're already doing what you do. And worst case had opens up the opportunity to have a conversation about it. Well, the same thing with different technologies you talked about when you find a button and you have to tap it twice. That's when you're using a touchscreen. But on the other hand with your computer, you can use a program such as JAWS, or NVDA, or Microsoft Narrator which is built into Windows and actually verbalize whatever comes across the screen and still use your keyboard the way you normally do. And then the point of doing that consistently, is that you use your your eyesight to complement and enhance what you get with a screen reader or using the technology as opposed to just using one or the other. Because you have the ability and the opportunity to use both. Does that make sense?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 34:23 Well, absolutely. And as I said, I'm just I'm just now trying to do it more often. But I definitely see the benefits and doing it for sure. And I said I I like to be really honest about the fact that I've had this condition now for many years. But over the last, I don't know, four or five years. I've had the harder time because I've had the biggest changes in my vision really fast. And so I've had to get over. People are looking at me and again what did the people think? And I had one lady who was helping me with my came and learning how to do that. And she was like, Why do you care so much? What people? What are people what people are thinking that are looking at you, you can't see them anyway. And I was like, Well, that's true. Because I just felt like they're looking at me. And she was like, but you can't see them. So don't worry about it. And I was like, well, she is right. So it's a it's an emotional and like a mental block that I'm I'm fighting to overcome. And I don't want people to think that, you know, none of us go through that, because I definitely do. Because I do care what people think, and I shouldn't. And that has definitely kind of guided some of the choices I've made in my accessibility. But like you said, it's kind of limiting me sometimes. And so I definitely, like I said, I'm coming to a place now more of acceptance. And now I am learning more and trying to utilize, like you said, all these different things that are available to me so that I can do even more and do it for longer, because they don't know how long I'll have vision and how much vision I'll have. So I definitely will probably forever be using these tools. And I need to get pretty good at them pretty quick really quickly.   Michael Hingson ** 36:11 Yeah, that's the of course major issue that, that especially if your eye condition, or any eye condition deteriorates more consistently, then you need to, or get to depending on how you want to view it utilize those technologies? And isn't it better to really become familiar with them, while you still have access to both worlds rather than waiting until suddenly now you're in a different position? It's it's adopting a different mindset. And you said something interesting when you worry about what people think it caused me to think about something that I hadn't ever really expressed or thought of and that is, should we worry about what people think or worry about what they know. And that's really the issue the problem with most people and what they think is, the reality is they don't know. And they're thinking based on erroneous information and wrong assumptions. And so, like it or not, we all get to be teachers. But that's really it right? It's matter of what they really know, not what they think. So I think your friend was right, it shouldn't really matter to you what they think it's more a matter of what they know. And you know, like you and me in and are and others, there are things that are acceptable in society to do, you don't wear two different colored shoes, or you're not supposed to anyway, or any number of things like that, and you develop develop techniques. So you don't have to do that. But those are our different issues, then you're using a cane to travel around, which should certainly be okay. And even if you do it every day consistently, you get more comfortable with it. But the other part about it is that other people start to recognize maybe it's not such a bad thing after all.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 38:12 Yeah, I agree. It definitely is a mindset shift. And I think most people go through some type of confidence hit when they are seeing or feel that they're different than I hate using the word normal, because nobody's normal, but then what people expect to be the normal thing. But like I said, I am every day, every day, and I'm excited because this is a different feeling. I'm everyday, getting more and more comfortable with me. Right? Like, I'm great at certain things already. Like I've known one amazing business person, I know my grades, I'm a great mom and a great wife. But being a visibly disabled person, I wasn't always the greatest at out of like I said, fear, you know, self doubt, whatever the case may be. And now I'm just like, hey, this is me, you like it or not. And I'm gonna do what I need to do to be amazing and everything. So I love that, you know, I'm getting to meet people like you and others who are out here rocking it, regardless of what people perceive as issues or you know, different things that make life tougher, everybody's life is gonna be different. And this is my life. And I'm excited that I now feel more capable of, you know, doing it on my own terms.   Michael Hingson ** 39:27 The biggest problem, I think, with blindness is that more people haven't tried it. Now, the problem with saying that is, you can't just put a blindfold on and suddenly you're an expert at being blind. You know, that's one of the reasons that a number of us don't like this concept that some organizations and restaurants have started dining in the dark. Because if you go into a restaurant, and it's totally dark, and they take you to a table and they sit you down, and you get your food and things fall off your fork and all that. What have you really learned you certainly haven't learned How to eat like a blind person. You haven't learned the techniques, it doesn't train you, which continues to reinforce misconceptions and the wrong stereotypes. And that's what we really need to get over somehow is dealing with those stereotypes. And so it is important that we all do work toward helping others recognize that blindness isn't what they think it is, and that in reality, it's just another characteristic, like being male or female or being left handed or anything like that.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 40:36 Yeah, definitely. Even though the left handed people are weirdos. Oh,   Michael Hingson ** 40:41 you tell them? Yeah, well, some of them are. But there are some pretty weirdo right handed people too. So I won't go there. But But I hear what you're I hear you know, it's an issue. And you know, that's an interesting question. If you're left handed, is your brain so different that you don't work in function in the world like the rest of us, and I'm not ready to go there. I don't buy that. But I hear what you're saying. And you're picking on your mom, that's what you're doing?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 41:10 Definitely. She's a lefty.   Michael Hingson ** 41:12 She's a lefty. Hey, there's some good lefty baseball pitchers. So be nice. Okay. Well, when you're doing your work, and you're you're working with businesses, and so on, what do you do in general to make sure that as they go forward, they tend to be more inclusive of people with disabilities. And so when do you educate them? Do you have the opportunity to educate them? Does that ever enter into what you do?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 41:43 Yeah, when I have the opportunity, I definitely do. So something that a lot of coaches have right now, our courses, like on demand courses, they're just the thing everybody wants, because it's great passive income. And I do talk to them about that, because people will have courses where there are, there's no way for people who have trouble hearing to access it. Like they're just they have a video with just them talking. So I'll say Well, hey, you know, maybe if you had the the the transcripts available as a form of the course that would be great because it can read it. And then also having maybe captions for those who need captions, making sure they're using technology that like I said, zoom for people like me who struggle to see that you people can zoom in some are more friendly than others. And then just thinking about in general people's learning styles, because again, I work with people who also have that are autistic, have ADD ADHD etc. And so I also talked about that, like making sure that you're thinking about how people learn, some people cannot sit for long periods of time. And so they need quick bites, some people lose focus easily. And so we talked about, just think about who your audience is, and what their needs are, oftentimes, as entrepreneurs, we think about ourselves and what we would like, but you really have to be cognizant of what your audience needs and what they like. And so we talk about accessibility from all the viewpoints, not just, oh, people can go like the most common ones people can't see or they can't hear. It's like, No, how do people think, how do they access information? How do they learn, and make sure that you are addressing those things as well. But we definitely have those conversations about just you know, different things, especially when it comes to websites, like how do people access your website? I'm still updating mine as I learn more things as well. So yeah, when the opportunity presents itself, we definitely have those conversations. But I'll be honest, I'm still learning as well. And I think that if people go into life in general, saying that they're open to learning and growing, that's just where we need to all be because nobody knows everything. Like you said, people go to that dinner and the document like, okay, now I know, but you don't. And it takes really being open to understand listening, and then adjusting as needed. And so I tell my clients just be open to changing and adjusting, just like I'm open to changing and adjusting as I grow as well.   Michael Hingson ** 44:12 One of the things that I've encouraged people to do is instead of doing things like dining in the dark, is get a white cane, and a pair of glasses, since that's part of the typical stereotype. But the whole point is for you to continue to be able to see what's going on around you and walk down the street using a cane and look at how people react to you. That's going to teach you more about the issues that we face as blind people rather than dealing with things that are going to continue to reinforce stereotypes because people will look at you weird people will move away from you and so on. And those are the barriers that we really need to address and deal with and in society and all of us who are born blind or my wife who was in a wheelchair for her whole life or other people in terms of things that they have that are so called disabilities when, especially when they're visible. You see firsthand how people react to you. And that is where the real story is.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 45:17 Yeah, definitely. That's what I said that was one of my biggest issues is like, yeah, people looking at you. Because when I was going through cane training, I could see I wasn't in a flare. And like I said, when people's when I first started, people's head would turn, like you said, they jump out the way or, or they will be mean and not get out the way. It's like, why would you do that? I told you, in our previous conversation about when I traveled by myself, I was treated so horribly, I was lost at the airport, the people forgot about me that were supposed to get me from point A to point B, people were making comments to each other about me, and it's just not nice. Like we should all strive to be good humans. And when in doubt, you don't know what to say Just don't say anything at all. Because we can hear like people will like ants can hear. I don't know why people think we can't. But it's like, Don't talk about me like I'm a child or less van. Because you see that I am moving throughout the world, definitely, then you might assume I should.   Michael Hingson ** 46:17 My wife and I and my inlaws went to Spain in 1992. And I remember, we got to Madrid, I think it was, and the people decided I had to sit somewhere special being blind, not even my wife, and I was separated from them, the rest of the family, and they wouldn't even tell the rest of the family where I was. And finally, we got connected again. But I can tell you that the airline personnel heard a great deal about it, from me and from other people, because it is inappropriate for them to make a lot of the assumptions that they do. And now, of course, part of the problem was that, it would have been a major challenge for me to go wander around and try to find them because even finding people who would speak English that I could communicate with to say, Help me find a lady in a wheelchair or whatever. That tends to be part of the issue. But the bottom line is that you're right, people just don't think. And again, they make assumptions. And so oftentimes, we do have to take stance, I would react differently today, if I were put in the same situation, because I wouldn't even allow us to get separated. And if people didn't like that, then fine. Let them call the police or whoever, and we'll have a discussion about it. But absolutely.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 47:50 And I think that's the thing, too. The more confidence you get, the more you're capable of advocating for yourself, because you're right stuff that happened in the beginning. Even like with doctors, I let them for years, treat me any kind of way. And now it's like, oh, Nah, you can quickly be fired. If you don't believe real easy. You're not gonna try for me good day. For sure, I will not be disrespected anymore.   Michael Hingson ** 48:15 Well, in addition to your business, you I think you do a lot of speaking.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 48:20 Yes, I do. I do a lot of speaking on building your confidence. Because I really think that that's a major cornerstone and being able to achieve anything that you want whether you want to be an entrepreneur, whether you want to be a writer, whether you want to be I don't know, Baker, whatever you want to do. Confidence plays a big role. And so I use something called the aarC framework when I talk and when I teach and train and work with my clients, and it's all about taking small actions to build your confidence now, I don't like people to get stuck in the mindset and the what is the woulda, coulda shoulda us of things. I say, You know what, figure out what your goal is and take action. And those actions will feed your confidence. Because if you never tried that you only are working around the assumption that you won't succeed, right? I was like, Oh, I can't have a business. I can't make money. I can't. I got there was so many things I thought I couldn't do and it wasn't until I started trying to do those things that I was like, okay, all right, I can't do this. And now I can do more. And I can do even more. And so when I do speaking engagements, I'm always talking about building confidence, basically to unlock your full potential as a person in general.   Michael Hingson ** 49:30 Yeah. And it's, it's, of course, still all about education more than anything else. So how do you how do you find speaking engagements and how does all that work for you?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 49:44 It's always a constant battle. Like I don't have a cool story like you do. I was like, Wow, man, your story's amazing. But I do I use my network. And I also pitch to different conferences and apply to different conferences and I also host my own events. I do a lot of podcasting. Like I'm on your podcast today. But I do a lot of podcasting. And I talk about some entrepreneur things. Some does mom things because I'm a mom, I'm a homeschooling mom, too. But like I said, the overall theme for me is always about confidence.   Michael Hingson ** 50:17 You have your own podcast,   Cori Fonville Foster ** 50:19 I do have my own podcast. Yes, it's called I run business with confidence, podcast, let's Sorry, no cute name. But I wanted people to understand the premise. It's about business owners building their confidence. And we have experts that come on weekly, and talk about their business journey hurdles, they've overcome their unique perspective. And then of course, giving people some real tangible things to implement in their business, to move them forward so that we can all have amazing businesses and rock them with confidence.   Michael Hingson ** 50:51 So as a speaker who's been out there, and who's been all over the place, what advice do you have for other speakers, much less other speakers with disabilities? What What kind of advice do you offer for people? Or would you suggest   Cori Fonville Foster ** 51:05 authentically you, I think for any speaker that identifies a have a disability or not, you seen a lot of times you fall into the trap of trying to imitate, or copy or duplicate somebody else's personality or their style, do you and do what you need to get the job done. I, I always worry about what I shouldn't say worried, but I'm always concerned about things like am I going to be able to see time clock since the end of stages and make eye contact or are a little like I'm making eye contact, I should say, with the audience and different things like that, guys, just be you show up people like my personality, I don't think they care if I'm actually looking at them or not. Which is great. Because that used to be a thing like, oh, you know, I have to do this and that, but no, I'm me. I show up as my goofy self. I tell my stories, I I laugh with everybody, you know, I make them feel something, I give them my strategies, my techniques, and then people go away with something that's amazing. And so I would just encourage anyone out there, if you're going to do speaking, be you use your stories, your frameworks and get your point across in your own very special way.   Michael Hingson ** 52:18 And I absolutely agree with you, the most important thing that we as speakers can do is be ourselves. I once was encouraged when I was first starting out, I was encouraged to write speeches and read them. And I didn't like that idea, because I didn't think that that was necessarily my style. But I tried it a couple of times, and then listen to myself and heard how horrible it really was. But more important. What I noticed is that when I talked with an audience that is, as a speaker, I don't talk to an audience, I want to talk with them, they may not be saying anything. But it is important that I connect with them. And that really means talking with them talking at whatever levels that they are at and trying to strike a chord by talking about things they want to hear about, in addition to the things that I would like them to understand. That's all part of being authentic. And that's what's really necessary for any speaker to be truly effective.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 53:23 Absolutely. And it's funny that you mentioned writing down I actually, I don't know if you've heard of Toastmasters, but I was in leadership with their organization for a while and they do a lot of public speaking. So I will work with a lot of new public speakers. And some people were very much like, I must write this down. And some people did bullets. And some people like to speak from the cuff. And I'll just say do what works for you try out different methods for sure. For all our listeners out there, try what works for you. I do have people that really cannot do speeches, if they don't write them down word for word, they won't read them in public, of course, but they really like they want to make sure that they hit all the words that they planned. And they prefer to kind of work off of that. And then I'm a bullet girl, I like to outline my speeches, and then just talk through them. Like I'm talking with the audience. And every time I do a speech, even if it's on the same topic, it's gonna always be a little differently different. Even if there's a like a slide deck that goes with it, I'm going to speak based on the topic, but then kind of change it depending on my mood for the day. And then I like I said, I have some clients that I've worked with who just off the cuff. They know how much time they have, and they just go and I more power to them. I would ramble on forever. And so I prefer to have a little bit of structure, but with a lot of freedom. Well, and   Michael Hingson ** 54:41 you can do that no matter how you speak and there's nothing wrong with that. I will use notes, especially when I'm speaking to an audience and I've interacted with the event sponsors and they talk about certain things they want in the messaging and so on. I will make sure I have notes of that I deal with those issues, but I also believe that again, a speech that is the most effective is one that you're truly having a conversation with the audience over. And so the notes are important. And there's nothing wrong with that. But reading a speech, I've heard some people do that it just doesn't really go over very well. Sounds really nice way to do. Yeah, well, have you written any books.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 55:28 So I haven't, but I'm in the process of writing a book, I'm super excited, it should launch depending on when this podcast comes out. It may or may not be out, but it's gonna be summer 2023. And it's about monetizing your passion with confidence. So same same lines as what I do, but I wanted it available for individuals who want it, to read it on their own and pass it in and you know, do like that first step before they went into like a course or a coaching program. So I'm really excited. My very first book, but it's been a long time coming. So it'll be on the shelves, summer 2023,   Michael Hingson ** 56:03 you have a publisher, are you publishing it yourself?   Cori Fonville Foster ** 56:07 I have a self publishing I am a do it yourself kind of girl. I'm actually trying to figure out how to do the audio part of the book myself. But we're still in the research phases of that, but it'll happen.   Michael Hingson ** 56:18 Well, an audible has a way to do that, where you can actually, if you choose to and can do it. Well, you can read your own book, but you can certainly go to audible and learn about how to do an audio version of your book. So there's a lot of value in doing that. And of course, having an audio copy of it makes it accessible for other people. And the other thing that you could consider Have you ever heard of bookshare.org? I have not Bookshare as there used to be a company called Napster. Are you familiar with Napster? So Napster was the thing where you could go off and share records and all that, and it got to the issue and the point where the problem was people were violating copyrights and so on. Well, Bookshare in a sense, is is the Napster of books for people who have a need to have alternative ways of getting books that are normally in print, the difference is that an organization like Bookshare is covered under the copyright laws. So doing it is legal. And you can take any book provide an electronic version of it, and they will put it out in their system. And it is something that's available, they can also even do on demand, converting it to Braille. So something to look at. But I would also suggest so that you can make some money, looking at if you want to read it or get someone else to read it. Look at doing that on Audible, because you may find that that's another revenue source.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 57:45 Absolutely. That's one of my main things I wanted to build on Audible, because that is how I read books. My eyes do not like trying to read paper books. And there are some there are many times I would say actually 50% of the time, if not more, where I cannot read the print and a book. So it's the only way that I can really enjoy book is through an audible audio version. And so I wanted to make sure that others can read listen to my book as well. I would hate to have a book out that I can't read that would be awful.   Michael Hingson ** 58:15 Have you have you learned any Braille? Or have you tried to do I have   Cori Fonville Foster ** 58:20 not? And it is not even on my to do list? Because yes, that is just it's an undertaking, maybe in the next five to 10 years, but right now I'm just like, I cannot put another thing on my plate. Just kind of be honest. I don't even read regular we'll just like I I get tired fast. So yeah, I'm like, it's definitely something that I know I will have to do eventually. Not yet.   Michael Hingson ** 58:47 Have you become a patron of using the Library of Congress National Library Service and getting books that way? Okay. Yeah, gotten that. That's, and by the way, although that isn't a revenue source, once your print book is out, that is something that you could submit, and they may or may not make that book available through National Library Service, but Audible is a better revenue source anyway.   Cori Fonville Foster ** 59:13 Yeah. And I didn't even know that that existed until I connected with the organization was like, oh, you know, are you able to read books? And I was like, No, I haven't read a book in a year. Like, I'm just sitting around, not doing anything. And they're like, hey, this, this is available, they'll send it to you for free. I was like, Really, I even had a newspaper. It was like a, like a radio station or newspaper that they gave us free echo dots. And so they would read the paper and everything in it that like opened up my world to because yeah, I just didn't have a lot of access. And I shouldn't know when all this was happening in the beginning. I definitely was in a different financial place. You guys can read through the line. So there wa

Here is the NLS annotation: The Lehman trilogy: a novel DB 101774 Massini, Stefano Dixon, Richard. Reading time 13 hours, 43 minutes. Read by Edoardo Ballerini. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Historical Fiction; Family Description: Henry Lehman leaves Bavaria for the United States to make a better life. He builds a textile dynasty in Alabama. Brothers Emanuel and Mayer expand the family's holdings. The generations of the Lehman family span one hundred fifty years. Translated from the original 2016 Italian edition. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020. Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Hosted by Tamara Rorie, representative of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, this episode features an interview with Jen Goulden, current Chair of BANA, who represents the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Jen talks about BANA's role, its member organizations, and gives a glimpse into what's in store for 2023-2024.

Jason Broughton and Dominick Spinelli are “living a librarian's dream” at the Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. Broughton is the director of the NLS after a long career in librarianship, education and workforce development. Spinelli serves as the head of the NLS' Collection Development Section, where he leads a team of librarians to build a catalog of accessible reading materials and support a nationwide network of nearly 100 partnering libraries and outreach centers. Broughton and Spinelli discuss how they leverage feedback from library patrons to help ensure that individuals across the nation, including people with disabilities and veterans, can obtain accessible print and reading materials that meet their needs. Additional Resources: Learn more about the Marrakesh Treaty.  NLS resources for Veterans.  Learn more about ⁠Learning Ally's Audiobook Solution⁠ program.    A complete transcript of this episode can be found here.

Show Notes: In this enlightening interview with Dr. Kirk Adams, we delve into the important topic of employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities and how parents can support their children in finding meaningful work. Dr. Adams provides valuable insights and addresses common concerns parents have regarding their disabled children's employability. He emphasizes that individuals with disabilities can indeed find employment and have successful careers. The key lies in developing disability-specific skills and creating a strong support network. Dr. Adams encourages parents to connect with organizations and associations dedicated to disability advocacy and support, which can provide guidance and resources in navigating the employment landscape. Dr. Adams highlights that while challenges may exist, there are numerous career opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Employers are increasingly recognizing the value of inclusive workplaces and the unique strengths that disabled workers bring. He stresses the importance of dispelling misconceptions around disability employment, such as the notion that having a disability automatically hinders one's ability to work effectively. Throughout the interview, Dr. Adams emphasizes the importance of self-advocacy, resilience, and skill development for individuals with disabilities, highlighting that disability employment is possible with the right support and mindset. For parents raising children with disabilities, Dr. Adams provides guidance on fostering independence, developing essential skills, and building a strong network of support. He encourages parents to connect with local chapters of disability organizations, seek mentorship opportunities, and leverage available resources to help their children navigate the path to employment. In summary, this interview with Dr. Kirk Adams sheds light on the possibilities of employment for individuals with disabilities and provides parents with valuable insights and actionable advice. It reinforces the importance of creating inclusive work environments, dispelling misconceptions, and supporting individuals with disabilities in their journey toward meaningful and fulfilling careers. Connect with Kirk: Email: kirkadams000[@]gmail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkadamsphd/      Connect with Us: https://linktr.ee/waterprairie Support this channel: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/waterprairie Resources mentioned during this episode: Disability:IN - https://disabilityin.org/ Family Connect- https://familyconnect.org/ National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled - https://www.loc.gov/nls/ CurbCutOS - https://www.curbcutos.com/ EyeCBetter - https://eyecbetter.com/ Music Used: “LazyDay” by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Today on the show, Steven and Shaun discuss more of the news coming out from the NFB and ACB conventions this week. They chat about the new features announced by Vispero that will be included in the new JAWS 2024 screen reader software, including camera view information, meaning JAWS can now give you important info about your camera status, whether you are centred on the screen and what's in the shot, as well as the new Braille split screen feature that lets you halve your display to see two applications at the same time. Also, Michael Babcock sends in more of his reports from the ACB convention in Chicago. He talks to the teams from the popular OKO app, Guide Dogs for the Blind in the U.S. and National Library Service in the U.S. Our special guest today is Stephanie Jones, who is the VP of Marketing for Menus4All, an app designed to make it easier for people who are blind to find accessible menus at various restaurants across the U.S. and Canada. Stephanie talks about the genesis of the app and how it has developed. More details here: https://www.menus4all.com/ Get in touch with the Double Tappers and join the conversation: Email: feedback@doubletaponair.com Call: 1-877-803-4567 (Canada and USA) / 0204 571 3354 (UK) Twitter: @BlindGuyTech / @ShaunShed / @DoubleTapOnAir Mastodon: @DoubleTap YouTube: DoubleTapOnAir

The first and only successful slave revolution in the Americas began in 1791 when thousands of brutally exploited slaves rose up against their masters on one of the most profitable colonies in the Atlantic world. Their success was devastating not only to their former masters but to colonial powers including the United States. We'll discuss this in the next meeting of A Journey through History on 6/6/23 with the book Avengers of the New World: the story of the Haitian Revolution DB60295. The NLS annotation follows: Avengers of the New World: the story of the Haitian Revolution DB60295 Dubois, Laurent Reading time: 14 hours, 45 minutes. Anne Flosnik A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress. World History and Affairs Professor analyzes the 1791-1803 revolution in the French Caribbean country of Haiti. Traces the history of Hispaniola and describes how slaves from Africa under Toussaint Louverture defeated France, Britain, and Spain and achieved emancipation at great economic and human cost. Violence. 2004.

Here is the NLS annotation: We all want impossible things: a novel DB 111246 Newman, Catherine. Reading time 6 hours, 58 minutes. Read by Jane Oppenheimer. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Friendship Fiction Description: "Edith and Ashley have been best friends for over forty-two years. They've shared the mundane and the momentous together: trick or treating and binge drinking; Gilligan's Island reruns and REM concerts; hickeys and heartbreak; surprise Scottish wakes; marriages, infertility, and children. As Ash says, "Edi's memory is like the back-up hard drive for mine." But now the unthinkable has happened. Edi is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days at a hospice near Ash, who stumbles into heartbreak surrounded by her daughters, ex(ish) husband, dear friends, a poorly chosen lover (or two), and a rotating cast of beautifully, fleetingly human hospice characters. As The Fiddler on the Roof soundtrack blasts all day long from the room next door, Edi and Ash reminisce, hold on, and try to let go. Meanwhile, Ash struggles with being an imperfect friend, wife, and parent--with life, in other words, distilled to its heartbreaking, joyful, and comedic essence." -- Provided by publisher. Unra Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Here is the NLS annotation: The displacements DB 109018 Holsinger, Bruce W. Reading time 13 hours, 38 minutes. Read by Austenne Grey. A production of National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress. Subjects: Suspense Fiction Description: "To all appearances, the Larsen-Hall family has everything: healthy children, a stable marriage, a lucrative career for Brantley, and the means for Daphne to pursue her art full-time. Their deluxe new Miami life has just clicked into place when Luna--the world's first category 6 hurricane--upends everything they have taken for granted. When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing, and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rush of evacuees from across the American South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will "normal" ever return? A suspenseful read plotted on a vast national tapestry, The Displacements thrillingly explores what happens when priv Our facilitator for this group is Michelle Bernstein (hamletsweetlady@gmail.com).

Jody Hudson was born in Michigan but has moved a number of times since graduating high school. She spent 15 years in the retail industry. She then spent five years being a stay-at-home mom before finding new employment in the nonprofit sector. Her story sounds somewhat typical, right? Not really. Jody has a much different story to tell which you will get to hear on this episode of Unstoppable Mindset. Jody is the penultimate unstoppable person. Jody's second child, Alex, was born in 1995. Alex was a very active child and worked hard at everything she did. While in the fifth grade, Alex began exhibiting physical symptoms which eventually lead to her no longer being able to be an athlete and active person. In high school, she began losing weight. No doctor could diagnose what was happening. It wasn't until college that happenstance lead Jody and Alex to a doctor who correctly diagnosed Alex's condition as Lyme's Disease. Listen as Jody tells hers and Alex's story. She will tell you about the book she wrote as well as about the Alex Hudson Lyme Foundation. This episode is very powerful, and Jody leaves us with strong advice we all can take to heart when we are presented with life challenges. About the Guest: Jody Hudson, Grants and Philanthropy Director for California CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), is a fundraising professional with over 15 years of nonprofit leadership experience. She is the CEO and founder of the Alex Hudson Lyme Foundation, an organization that seeks to increase research efforts and patient support for Lyme disease and MCAS. Before joining California CASA in 2021, she served as Vice President of Development and Communications for Girls Scouts of Central California South and, before that, led the Catholic Charities Diocese of Fresno as Director of Operations. In 2018, Jody was honored with the Marjaree Mason Center Top Ten Professional Women Award. Hudson is also an author and speaker. Her book, My Promise to Alex: Through Pain Comes Purpose, is a memoir about her daughter's journey with Lyme disease and her passing at the age of twenty-two on March 24, 2018. For more information on Alex's foundation, please visit www.alexhudsonlymefoundation.org 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 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 w w w dot Michael hinkson.com/podcast. Michael Hinkson is spelled mi ch AE 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 anyone or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hangsen.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 accessibility and is sponsored by accessibility. Please visit w w w dot excessive b.com excessively is spelled ACC e ss IBE. 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 ne Michael Hingson  00:00 Access cast and accessibly initiative presents unstoppable mindset, the podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet Hi, I'm Michael Hinkson, Chief mission officer for accessibility and the author of the number one New York Times best selling 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, and acceptance 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 accessibility, that's a cc e ss I, capital B II. Visit www.to. Access a b.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:20 Well, Hi, and welcome to unstoppable mindset. Today we get to interview Jody Hudson and Jody has got a very good and strong and compelling story to tell. She is a person who has worked in the world for a while. She is the Director of of grants right for California casa.   Jody Hudson  01:43 That's correct. The advanced philanthropy director,   Michael Hingson  01:46 advanced philanthropy director Wow. And, and, and again, but there's a lot more to Jodi than that. So we're gonna get to it. So Jodi, welcome to unstoppable mindset. Now, where are you? Exactly.   Jody Hudson  01:58 So I'm in Fresno, California. And we have just been getting hit with these recent rains. It's really sad to see what's going on out there. But in fact, before I jumped on, we just had another big downpour. So we're, we're right now good, but you never know when a next one is going to hit us.   Michael Hingson  02:18 Yeah, we don't get that level of rain in Victorville. I don't think it's rained here today. We had a little bit of rain Tuesday, but we just don't get that kind of rain here. And as I mentioned earlier, I heard on the news that there are a few places in the Sierras that have had something over 670 inches of snow, and they've gotten more snow this week. So how will this affect the drought it will, at least in the short term, but whether this is really going to have enough of an effect on the aquifers to really give us long term aid remains to be seen. But the way it's going, I think we're going to see more years of a lot of rain and other things happening. So we'll we'll kind of see how it goes.   Jody Hudson  03:05 I yeah, I agree. It was crazy. Last week, the 99 was shut down because of flooding. So you just never know what's going to happen. Right?   Michael Hingson  03:15 Go figure I know. Well, so let's start a little bit by you maybe telling us some of your background. As a younger God, what you did when going to school and all that give us all the highlights from an earlier time.   Jody Hudson  03:33 Oh my goodness. Okay, we could be here a long time because I'm not a young man. You know, I'm in my early 60s here now. But now I'm teasing.   Michael Hingson  03:41 So just talk about the early parts.   Jody Hudson  03:44 So I'm a Michigander born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, went to school at Central Michigan University where I graduated with a degree in retail. I've always loved fashion clothing. And so that's what I did for quite some time. Worked at Marshall Field's Lord and Taylor made my way west to Los Angeles. My claim to fame was that I was the manager of the Chanel boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. I felt like I had arrived, so to speak. Then got married and made my way to Fresno where I currently reside. Two children, Garrett and Alice, my son's 29 My daughter's 22 And I stayed at home for about five years just to be a stay at home mom. And then when I decided to get back into the work environment, I got into the nonprofit world which I absolutely love. I have a servant's heart and it really spoke to that worked at Catholic Charities for about 1314 years. I worked at Girl Scouts for a little bit until I couldn't eat any more cookies. It was not good for my waistline and at all. And then I've been with California, Casa for two years, and we oversee all of the 44 Casa programs throughout the state of California. I am a product of foster care, I was born to a single mother who put me up for adoption. So I was in the foster care system for the first six months of my life until I was adopted. So I've kind of come full circle in that whole realm. But so that's what I'm currently doing. And then we'll get more into my true purpose and mission, which is the Alex Hudson line foundation.   Michael Hingson  05:46 So Marshall Fields, so did you get good deals on Franco mints?   Jody Hudson  05:50 Oh, my gosh. I know, Chris, and at Christmas time, because I worked out in Chicago at State Street at their flagship store. And during Christmas time, they'd have like the big pyramids of frango mints and I just devoured those. Like there was no tomorrow I have a weakness for sweets. I could not have sweets in my home, because they will be gone. I don't have willpower. I don't know what the word means.   Michael Hingson  06:17 No. Have you ever had mint? Meltaways? Yes. Which do you like better? Franco mints? Yeah. I like them both. But I do have to admit that there is something about Franco mints.   Jody Hudson  06:29 Oh my gosh, that just brought me back. I love that brought me back in time for sure. Yeah, and I miss them. I do too. I do too. I love those Frank moments. So good. It's kind of like melt in your mouth.   Michael Hingson  06:42 Yeah, really tasty stuff.   Jody Hudson  06:44 I think that's probably why girls with the Girl Scout cookies, then men's is my favorite. Because I was born and raised with the kids go mess with men. Go into the cooking mode. Then minutes. So what's your favorite Girl Scout cookie?   Michael Hingson  07:00 And Miss? Then Miss? Yeah. Although I've also enjoyed venture foals, which is one of the newer Well,   Jody Hudson  07:06 that's yeah, that's one of the the newer ones.   Michael Hingson  07:09 A new one rasberry one that I haven't tried yet. Yeah, you   Jody Hudson  07:12 know what I'm not a big fan of of the data, kind of like to keep my my the fruit and the chocolate all separate love them both, but really like the the combination together, but anything with chocolate, mint, peanut butter, I'm down for all of that stuff.   Michael Hingson  07:31 So I bought a case of Thin Mints. Well, actually, last year, I guess, I bought a case of Thin Mints. But somebody misunderstood and they made the order for two cases. Oh, and so I accepted that and I took them all. But even with the one case, what I did with two would have been the same with one which is they all mostly get put away mostly in the freezer. And for me, especially out of sight out of mind. And so most of them are still there. And they will be eaten over time. Which makes it a little bit frustrating for the Girl Scouts every year because I don't buy a case every year. It'll take me three years sometimes to eat those two cases, as I said, out of sight out of mind. But I do know where they are now having thought about them. This may cause a open so   Jody Hudson  08:26 I think I know where you're going after this little conversation here.   Michael Hingson  08:31 Yeah, I promise I won't get up and go do that while we're talking. Okay, but still. So So you got into this whole idea of the nonprofit Well, I actually another memory going back to Chicago and Marshall Fields. Do you remember Robert Hall? I do. Where the values go up, up, up and the prices go down? Down? Down?   Jody Hudson  08:52 Yep, yep.   Michael Hingson  08:55 Ah, those were the days having been born in Chicago and live there for five years and been back occasionally. But still. Great stories, great stories.   Jody Hudson  09:05 Yeah, I just don't like Chicago when it's December, January. It's like 80 degrees below with the windchill factor and you're trying to make your way from where you live in Lincoln Park down to State Street a little bit.   Michael Hingson  09:18 A little bit tough. And even with the L it could be tough. Oh yeah.   Jody Hudson  09:23 Oh, yeah. But boy, I had good good times there. I just graduated from college. So I was making a little bit of money hanging out and living with my sorority sisters. So it was just like an extension of of college. But when you have a little bit of money, it's a little bit more fun. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  09:41 Well, you were you bring back memories for me also, a few years ago, I was in Chicago for a speech or I was there for a convention I don't recall which now, but they were doing the event where you Um, to raise money for something, they did the Polar Plunge so everybody would go and jump in Lake Michigan. And I think Rahm Emanuel was the mayor. And Jimmy Fallon was there and they decided they were going to go do the plunge. And I was watching it with my cousins on TV. And they went in the water. It was zero or colder. Oh, we were very happy to be in a heated house. And the reporter said, these guys are doing it all wrong, because they went in in their suits, you know. And as soon as you get out of the water, you can go into a tent that was warm, where you could dry off. But just before they got out, a woman got out who was just wearing a bathing suit. And the reporter said, How much smarter she is because it'll dry right off and she won't be cold very long. And they were right, you know, but Well, that's the difference between intelligent people and politicians sometimes, I guess. I don't know.   Jody Hudson  11:01 My gosh, when my dad had a summer camp in Grand Haven, Michigan, and that brings me back to those memories that summertime with like the Polar Bear Plunge, we had that with the kiddos getting up early in the morning, like at six o'clock and going down. And if you if you did it every day, then you got like a special award. But yeah, I never did it. I watched my campers go in. But I'm like, Yeah, that's too cool for me.   Michael Hingson  11:29 Yeah. But you know, it's part of our country. And it's always fun to go to, to different places. And of course, go into Chicago go always for me at least. There I'm sure better places. But I like to go to UNO's and get a nice good deep dish pizza to   Jody Hudson  11:46 deep dish pizza. And it's a fun place to be in Chicago on St. Patty's day too. So Oh, yeah. That's always a blast. Dine the river green and drinking green beer and all that good stuff. Yeah, Chicago. Chicago is a fun fun city.   Michael Hingson  12:02 Yeah. Memories will tell us about California casa a little bit. So you've been doing that for now? What two or three years? Yeah,   Jody Hudson  12:10 for two years. And as the grants and philanthropy director, I helped to raise money not only for California, casa, but for our network. So California, CASA is the the parent, the umbrella so to speak, over the 44 Casa programs throughout the state of California. And we our initiatives, our mission, our you know, philanthropy, everything is in support of foster children. And there's 80,000 foster kids in the state of California. And what a casa does is they are that one person that link to help these kiddos to navigate through the court systems to be that voice for them, to help them where maybe they don't have a mom, dad and adult anybody to help guide them through life. And it can be transformational for these children to have a casa appointed, watching over them, it really makes a big difference.   Michael Hingson  13:24 Do foster parents help with any of that? Or is this really kind of pre them or our in spite of them? Sometimes,   Jody Hudson  13:31 you know what I mean, it's kind of done in conjunction with them as well as a CASA is a volunteer, they go through a training which I went through a training as well, just to kind of better understand what a CASA volunteer does, it's about a 3040 hour training commitment. Once you go through, you actually get sworn in as a casa and the in the court system. And then you are assigned a child and you could be assigned a child for maybe a year, two years, some people have had classes for, you know, even greater longer periods of time. It just depends upon, you know, the the cases. But it really is such a great meaningful program. And we definitely, you know, right now, we have probably 12,000 classes, but as I said earlier, there's 80,000 foster kids, you know, in the state of California, so there's definitely a gap. And that's what we try and do is you know, raise money raise funds to recruit classes, to train them to help the local network, you know, really pouring into the hearts of these foster kids.   Michael Hingson  14:51 So are their centers that these people are based out of or how does it work?   Jody Hudson  14:55 The classes themselves? They Yeah, so There's, you know, like I said, 44 class of programs throughout the state of California. So there's like a casa in Kern County, there's a casa and Fresno County. It's all, you know, based upon that the counties, each county is really supposed to have a CASA program. And, you know, there's what 51 counties, I think, in the state of California, so, yeah, 58 So we're, we're missing obviously, a couple of Casa programs, but each CASA program is you know, their own 501 C three, they, you know, raise their own funds money, they have their own board, executive directors, own staff, and we come alongside them to support them, and to give them you know, additional training, additional resources, and help where we can, we were lucky enough California casa, to be working with a lobbyist team who petitioned and we did receive a state appropriation in Governor Newsom budget for $60 million. And that is, you know, going to be funneled out to our Casa programs. However, as we know, the state of California is a little messed up right now with with budgets, and we only received the first wave of that $60 million, we received $20 million, and we were able to pump out that money to our network. But the other two bases are in jeopardy right now. And we are petitioning and trying to get that money back. So we will see   Michael Hingson  16:39 is that because of the legislature in some way or what? Yeah,   Jody Hudson  16:45 we are very grateful for what we did receive, and that was a blessing, we didn't even think that we were going to get that. And it really is to help our, our programs with infrastructure, it's to help them with, you know, recruiting, it's to help them just really build upon their their programs. So yeah, we're hopeful though, the, you know, legislators and other government officials and senators and people in the Capitol, they were not happy that our funding was was cut, because they really have become aware of our programs and the impact on the foster children. So we do have some really good people in our corner. So we'll, we'll see what happens.   Michael Hingson  17:30 He cut it. Who cut the funding, if the governor had it in his budget, and so on what happened,   Jody Hudson  17:37 it was in the legislative portion of the budget. So I don't know all the details. Yeah, in our inner workings of how all that happens. And, you know, with politics, things can be moved around, things can be cut, because maybe they're negotiating and looking for something else. Who knows what goes into all of those discussions. But like I said, we've got a lot of good champions and people in our corner, and it wasn't just cost of that was cut, there was a lot that was cut. So yeah, we're just hoping that we're gonna get that back.   Michael Hingson  18:14 I remember. Now, a number of years ago, the national level, there was a major discussion about the government. And what it had been doing through what was called the Talking Book program, which later became the National Library Service of the Blind and Physically Handicapped. And they, the Congress decided that they wanted to cut a bunch of the funding. They said, we can get things from other ways. And one of the magazines that was produced under the program was playboy. And the Congress people's fee with a conservative said, Well, that's ridiculous to publish Playboy, that blind people can take advantage of all the pictures and stuff. And the answer to that was, that's correct. But go read Playboy read the articles, because there were there were many, well written articles. And mostly, they are really good articles in Playboy. The original story, the short story, the fly came out of Playboy among other things, and eventually it got dealt with, but people do get some very strange ideas about things from time to time, don't they?   Jody Hudson  19:26 They sure do. And, you know, I've never seen a playboy, but I did hear that. There are some really great, great articles in there. So but yeah, so you know, well, we'll just have to kind of wait it out. I mean, we're so full speed ahead. And we are, you know, implementing what we can with the the funding that was awarded to us in our in our programs and and we're grateful for that.   Michael Hingson  19:49 We are a 501 C three, right. So you do you obviously do a lot of soliciting outside of what the government provides.   Jody Hudson  19:55 Oh, absolutely. I mean, we have, you know, government money. We've got you no private funding. So, yes, we have different pockets that we definitely, you know, reach out to. But, you know, from the pandemic, it's it's tough. Yeah, for for fundraising for nonprofits, I mean, everyone, you know, that was was losing out because they weren't able to have fundraising events and other things. And people were really tightening up their belt. So, yeah, well, we'll have to see how how things work out. But the nonprofit world is definitely definitely hurting.   Michael Hingson  20:37 Yeah, and it's gonna be a process. Well, for you, though, what made you go into the whole idea of doing nonprofit stuff? So it's different than what you've done in the past?   Jody Hudson  20:49 Oh, absolutely. Retail and nonprofit, very, very different. But   Michael Hingson  20:54 although you, you can tribute it to the nonprofit of Marshall Field's with Franco mints, but that's okay.   Jody Hudson  21:00 That's right. So, so I had my son in 93, I had my daughter and 95. And then I stayed home for for five years. And then when I was deciding to you know, get back into the workforce, one of my girlfriends, became a development director over at Catholic Charities, and she called me up. And she said that she was going to be starting this position at Catholic Charities, and she was going to be forming a women's Guild and that she wanted me to be on it, there was gonna be about 12 of us that were going to, you know, be the the pioneers of this Guild, and a common, you know, take a tour of the facility and see what I think, see what I thought so sad to say, I mean, I'm Catholic, but I had never heard of Catholic Charities before. So got my car went and down and opened up the doors, took a tour, I saw the clientele, I saw the people there that were, you know, waiting for services. And I just had this aha moment where this was where I was supposed to be, I was supposed to be giving back. I was supposed to be helping those, you know, less fortunate. And I told my girlfriend Kelly at that time, I said, Yes, I go, I want to be part of this guild. But even more importantly, I want to see if there's employment here, I would love to work at Catholic Charities. And as luck would have it, there was a position open. And it was for in the food pantry overseeing the food pantry. And check this out, overseeing the thrift store. Well, I think with my degree in retail, and working on Chanel boutique, I qualified to oversee the Catholic Charities thrift store. So the joke was always, you know, hidden, here's Jody from Rodeo Drive to Fulton Street, where Catholic Charities was and yeah, the price tags are just, you know, a couple of zeros off, but hey, she's, she can handle those. So, I fell in love with it. And it was so good as my kids were getting older, you know, to bring them to these, like food drive events, and, you know, the the farmers market that we would have, and they would see what the face of poverty looked like. And they fell in love with it. And you know, they were always there supporting my fundraising efforts. And and, you know, just supporting, giving back. So it was it was wonderful. It was really good. It must   Michael Hingson  23:45 get pretty emotional. Because you see so many people who are facing challenges and so on. How are you able to just move forward and not take it so emotionally personal, if you will?   Jody Hudson  23:59 You know, that's an excellent question. And it was very hard for me in the beginning, I wanted to take home these children that I saw, I wanted to fix everything I wanted to be the Savior. I wanted to be the knight in shining armor and I realized that I couldn't do it right. I mean, there I was limited in what I could do, but I could go out and raise money so that the pantry would be full of food so these families could eat so these families could you know go into the thrift store and purchase clothing or be given clothing, clothing and hygiene every so often so I can I can do you know what I can do in my in my wheelhouse. But you're right, it was tough. The first six months, I took it home with me there was no separation of my work and my life. But it just became more of a driving force for me in my job, more motivation to really get out there. and get the community involved with our mission and what we were doing. And even though the names of Catholic Charities, we never asked what people's religion was, hey, if you have a need, then we're going to be there. And we're going to meet that need.   Michael Hingson  25:18 Yeah. And it's, it is a an issue and a challenge for, for I know a number of people to get beyond the being so emotionally involved that you can't separate it, while at the same time developing a greater empathy. And I in fact, I think it's, it makes sense to develop the empathy and the understanding. But you can't take it personally because you didn't cause it all. And all you can do is try to work to fix it.   Jody Hudson  25:45 Right? And, you know, I said about my children going down there and being exposed to that, to this day, my my son, he'll tell me, Mom, he goes, it's a blessing and a curse, this empathy that has been passed on to me because he wants to be now that fixer, and he wants to, you know, when people come to him and share their problems, I mean, he wants to, you know, help them and he's going through that process right now realizing that he can't fix everyone's problems, right? He can, he can only do so much. But yeah, it's definitely tough. What does he do? So he used to work at Merrill Lynch. He graduated from ASU in 2008. Teen got a job right out of college, I mean, super smart, young man. And he worked at Merrill Lynch for over a year. And that just wasn't him. Like I said, he has that empathy, that very sensitive heart. And we also had a, you know, family crisis during that time. And I'll get into that later. But he just really, and then we had, you know, the pandemic hits. So he left Arizona, came home to Fresno to try and figure out what it was that he wanted to do. And now he's been with his current job for over a year. And really, really excelling in it and doing well. And I think he has found his niche. And he works for this organization called behavioral stars. And they are assigned troubled children from the school system. And he meets with these kids one on one, he has about 12 kids right now in his caseload, and he really tries to work with them on behavior modification, trying to work with them on just, you know, being a positive influence in their lives, because so many of these kids come from such troubled homes that they don't have that. And so Garrett is kind of trying to fill that void. And he's done very, very well, just this morning, he sent me over a text and he had to present to his team on some like motivational, inspirational messages. And it was like a 2030 minute presentation. And I love the two YouTube clips that he shared, and one of them spoke about how, you know, you can't let your past you know, dictate what you're doing today. It's like the overcoming and, you know, we're all going to have challenges, but how it's how you rise above from it. And I love it, because as he is administering to these kids, and helping them with their life challenges is also healing for him.   Michael Hingson  28:44 And it's clear, you've passed on a wonderful legacy that that he is taking advantage of, and he'll he'll expand out and I suspect,   Jody Hudson  28:58 Oh, absolutely. And, you know, I wrote a book, and I keep telling my son, I go get, your story is going to be even far greater than mine. And I can't wait to read your book one of these days, because it's going to be so inspirational with everything that you have gone through. I mean, I'm just really, really proud of him for climbing Klein, and just, you know, making it happen.   Michael Hingson  29:25 Well, we've talked about Garrett, and we should get to Alex, I know you want to talk about all of that. So you said that Alex was born in 1995. Correct. And, and a lot of things have happened. So tell us a little bit about Alex, if you will.   Jody Hudson  29:42 Sure. So Alex was supposed to be a Christmas baby. Her original due date was December 25. But she came a little bit early and she was just a sweet, sweet baby. She and her first five years I mean just a very sweet, shy, innocent little girl. And then she discovered sports and the tomboy in her really came out along with the the big brother that was right by her side helping her. So she was very active. She played soccer, she played softball, she ran track, she did cheerleading, volleyball, you name it, and she was very, she was a very good scholar to her brother definitely had more of the smarts. But he didn't apply himself out, worked much, much harder for her grades, and did very well with that. And then in the fifth grade, she started developing joint pain, inflammation, and we thought it was all related to her sports. And that's what the doctors thought as well that she was just an overworked you know, athlete. And so she would suck it up. She would like tape up her legs, ankles, do the ibuprofen. Well, that went on for several years, and nothing really changed. In fact, it just kept getting worse. To the point where her freshman year in high school, she was playing basketball running on the court, and her knees ballooned up to be like the size of grapefruit. And she dropped to the ground. And she was carried off by her teammates and coach. And they ran some X rays. And they discovered that she needed to have knee surgery that she had some issues with with her knees. So she had one knee surgery done on her right knee and they said if that took and did well, and it was successful, then they would do the left knee. Well, it didn't help but it didn't change anything. So basically from her freshman year in high school on Chica never run again. She it was the beginning of the the end for her because she couldn't play sports any longer. Everything that she had identified with was gone. And in high school, that's especially hard when you lose your your peer group. And so she really went through a dark period for a while only had maybe a friend or two, started losing weight started developing digestive issues. Then we, you know, started thinking, well, maybe he's got anorexia or an eating disorder. I mean, we just really went through hell and back. And she graduated from high school went to a junior college because we were still trying to figure out what was going on with her health. And she did well at junior college and applied to several colleges and ended up getting a full ride at UCLA. But she wasn't able to carry that out because she was losing weight. And she was down to about 87 pounds. And we were going from doctor to doctor probably 40 Plus doctors, and Alex on her own just by going on the internet, found this doctor down in LA who specialized in digestive issues. And she said mom goes I think I found a doctor that might be able to help me. And at that point, I'm like, Sure. What's what's another doctor? I mean, we we've been, you know, striking out with all of our local doctors and everybody at this point, just that she and I both were crazy, right? Because they would run tests and they couldn't find anything wrong with her. So we got in the car went down to LA. And within a half hour of talking with this doctor, he asked me Mrs. Hudson, has anybody test tested Alex for Lyme disease. And I innocently said, What is Lyme disease. And then he told me what it was and this was in 2017. And I'd really had never heard about it. And here I am from Michigan, you know, thinking that maybe I would have heard about it growing up. But we consented to her getting tested for Lyme disease and a couple of weeks later, sure enough, came back with a diagnosis that she she had Lyme disease. So now test, what's the test the test. If you go to a regular doctor, most of them are still testing with an outdated western blot test, which will give you false reads on it. This doctor was smart enough to have outs tested through iGenex and iGenex is out San Jose area. And they are very detailed. I mean, it's everyone sends people to iGenex just to because they know that testing that's part of the problem with Lyme disease. testing can be so. So what's the word I'm looking for? Not not reliable, inaccurate, inaccurate? Yeah. So tested her with the iGenex. And that's what it came back with. So in that moment, you know, I had to first of all, as a parent, figure out what this diagnosis was. And then second of all, how do I treat it, because I'm disease, you just can't go to any doctors, so many of them don't know about Lyme disease and how to treat it. And therein lies the problem trying to find proper doctors that know about this disease. And also, you know, the the treatment, because it's not like cancer, where there's a tried and true path. With Lyme disease. It's almost like, here's your buffet, you can do antibiotics, you can do this, you can do that. Or maybe you can do a combination. And it's a trial and error. But Alex didn't have have time to go through a trial and error. You know, she was at 80 pounds and 2017, down to a handful of foods that she could eat without reacting. And I had to get her better quick, like,   Michael Hingson  36:17 do you before going on? Do you have any sense of how she got Lyme disease?   Jody Hudson  36:25 No. And that's the thing. 35% of people that get Lyme disease will have what's called the classic bullseye rash, where it's a circular little red ring on your body of the point of impact where people are a bit, the majority of people don't know they have Lyme disease, until maybe they've been sick for a while. And by then it's hard to treat, because it's you know, once it gets into your bloodstream, and in your system, it can wreak havoc on every part of your organ. I mean, people have died from Lyme disease, because of, of, you know, getting into their heart, people have died from it from, you know, getting into their brain. It's, it's really quite horrific. And I mean, that can be adopted at this point from everything that I had to get schooled on real quick like in 2017. Till she passed away in 2018. But yeah, the majority of people when when you first have Lyme symptoms, it's like a summer flu. So you, you know, might have just being you know, feeling lethargic, joint pain, inflammation. And it's not until other symptoms appear when it can really become quite critical, like an Alex's case where it affected her whole digestive system.   Michael Hingson  37:53 You How did you how did you end up handling it? What did you do, because you certainly had to do something in a hurry.   Jody Hudson  38:01 So what I did was, you know, social media can work for you or against you. And in this situation, it definitely worked for me two things happen once I got Alex's diagnosis. Interestingly enough, she was diagnosed in May, which may is Lyme Disease Awareness Month, and our local TV station, KC 24 had just done a episode a segment on Lyme disease. And I knew these people very well through all of my fundraising efforts at Catholic Charities. So I called them up and said, Hey, you guys just did a episode. You guys just did an episode on on Lyme disease. My daughter has just been diagnosed with Lyme disease. I need to know these three women that you spoke with because I need to find out how to treat my daughter. So that was number one. Number two, was I took to Facebook with Alex's consent. And I basically made a play saying, you know, my daughter has just been diagnosed with Lyme disease. I'm still trying to figure out what Lyme disease is. If anybody has any resources, know of any doctors locally, can put me in touch with people, please, you know, DM me, and you'd be surprised at how many people that I didn't realize had Lyme disease in the central valley that reached out to me. And Jessica Devine was one of them that lived right in Clovis, a couple of you know, Fresno, who had been diagnosed with Lyme disease had been battling it for a couple years. And she gave us the name of her doctor in Pismo Beach, and that's where we started. So it definitely helped by, you know, getting the message out there. And when you're a parent, parent and your child is struggling and you need answers, you do what it takes. aches. Right?   Michael Hingson  40:00 Right. So you reached out to that doctor.   Jody Hudson  40:04 So we reached out to that doctor. And then at the same time, we googled best Lyme facilities, best line treatment, because, you know, I'm a mama bear. I single mom at that time, Alex's dad wasn't in the picture at all, financially, emotionally, any of that. And I was working parents. And I thought, Okay, I need to tackle this, right. I'm going to roll up my sleeves, we've got a diagnosis, we're gonna get the doctor treatment, she's going to be better in a couple of months time, I was so naive. I had no idea what I was facing. And so we had this appointment with, you know, this doctor in Pismo in June. So Alex had been diagnosed in May that this appointment for June. But then I started researching best Lyme clinics. Sofia Health Institute was one, there was a couple others and I basically got on the phone. And I begged and pleaded to get into these facilities. And insurance doesn't cover a lot of this. In fact, it didn't cover most of it. In a year's time, I spent over $100,000 Trying to get Alex better, I sold cars. I had people give me money. I mean, it was crazy what I did. But again, any of us would do that in our situation with a sick child. So we went to the doctor in Pismo, we also went to Sofia Health Institute. And with every doctor that we saw, it was a whole new protocol. Everybody, you know, had their own opinions. And it was just, it was just really tough. Like I said, you know, with cancer, it's tried and true. These are the treatments that you go through. But with Lyme disease, because there's so many different co infections. You have to figure out who you know what symptoms are the most troublesome, you start there, and it's like, okay, eliminate that. So that symptom, and then let's move on to the next. And that's what we were trying to do with Alice. But at the same time, she kept losing weight, and she couldn't be strong and healthy enough with her treatments. Because she was so malnourished, so it was just, it was a mess.   Michael Hingson  42:35 And no matter what happened, nobody was able to come up with any solution that seemed to help.   Jody Hudson  42:41 We had a team of about 12 doctors we had, because as I said, once Lyme disease is in your blood system, which for Alex, it had been since. You know, if you go back when her symptoms first started, which we thought was just that overworked athletic body. It was in fifth grade. Now here she is in college, right? So I mean, it'd been 10 years that this had been living in her her system. So she had cardiologists she had a gastro doctor. She had, you know, a doctor, the doctor in Pismo that was kind of like the the lead on this. But we had so many other people that we had to bring onto the team. And then not to mention, just she was in and out of hospitals, just trying to get IVs and other stuff in her system to keep her healthy.   Michael Hingson  43:42 When did you get to the point where you realize that you weren't going to be able to fix her and how did you reconcile that?   Jody Hudson  43:52 So May of 2017 She got the diagnosis by December after going through a whirlwind of in and out of hospitals, different doctors. I knew in December that I was losing her she was we just we couldn't get a leg up. And from June until December, we literally had gone cross country Now mind you, I was still trying to hold down a job at this time, right? So I was just going back and forth and people were giving me their their sick time and vacation time. And I was just trying to uncover anything that I could to get her her better. But we realized that not only did she have Lyme disease, she had something else called mast cell activation syndrome, which she basically was allergic to almost every type of food she was down to like four or five safe foods. She could eat. And I detail all this in my book because I mean, it could take hours and days to go into all of this because it's just such a crazy, crazy disease. But   Michael Hingson  45:12 was that caused by the limes? Disease?   Jody Hudson  45:15 Correct? Yeah. When your immune system is compromised, it creates havoc in your in your system. And so everything gets Miss wired. And her histamine levels, everything we're, we're off. So you know, her treatments, she would try and have different types of treatments. And her supplements things that normally she could take before now, it was as if it was an enemy entering, you know, a danger zone here, she would try and swallow these supplements and take her, you know, treatment. And her histamine levels would just start attacking, thinking that was, you know, something bad that was coming into her system. Just horrific the pain that she was going through, but it was December. And I remember, you asked me, How did I reconcile with this, I remember getting in my car, and just driving. And I pulled over and I found it on the dashboard. And I had the serious conversation with God. And I was in tears. And I basically said, listen, here's the deal. Like I'm telling God what to do, right? I said, here's the deal. I go, you either take her right now, because I can't deal with this anymore, or you heal her. But this purgatory is not working for me, I cannot do this any longer. And that says, you know, and so that's what he did a couple of months later.   Michael Hingson  46:47 So you had so hard and I have some associations with Lyme disease in a different way. First of all, when I was living in New Jersey and the selling some products, I knew a couple guys who had accompany the turns out they they did have Lyme disease, it was apparently somewhat controlled, but they did have it. And I only know that because they told me but my fourth guide dog was bit by a tick relatively soon after we moved to New Jersey and we knew she was bitten we, we got the tick and we got it out of her and and the vet said there's nothing you know, we can do to analyze it or anything. And you know, as long as she's okay, she's okay. Well. One of the things I've learned about guide dogs is that they are and a lot of dogs, especially when there's a lot of love, and they want to please, they're incredibly stoic. We never detected any illness in her until May 1 of 1999 When I called her to dinner, and she didn't come and we found her on her bed, almost unresponsive. And through getting her to an emergency vet and then going elsewhere and so on. And finally meeting a woman who we regard as a very dear friend, although I haven't talked with her for a while Tracy Gillespie, who is in the University of Penn system. And working for emergency vet in Toms River, New Jersey, as I recall. She said Lynnae has glomerular nephritis. And it is morphed from Lyme disease. So she wouldn't keep the good stuff in her system, the kidneys would pass it out along with the bad stuff because the Lumeria went bad. So she had to retire. And we were able to keep her for three more years. But still, we we knew that there was was something there but it was just one of those things. So I appreciate all you are saying that's my closest brush, fortunately, or whatever with Lyme disease, but it's it is a very insidious thing.   Jody Hudson  49:04 It really is and you know, that's can be carriers of Lyme disease and, you know, with with the ticks and that's why I always when I'm you know talking make make sure that I recognize that it's not just humans. I'm glad that you shared that story. I mean, it is, you know, as we do tick checks from head to toe on our body, we need to do that as our animals come in from the outside because they are just as susceptible to it as as we are.   Michael Hingson  49:38 Well I'm being a guide dog. We kept a close eye on her so we found it right. Still it occurred. Well so. So Alex past, God listened to you and and did take her then what did you do?   Jody Hudson  49:57 So, what I did was yes, she she passed on March 24. In fact, tomorrow's her five year anniversary, I cannot believe. Yeah, I can't believe it's been five years and some aspects of it, I feel like it was just five, five minutes, five days and other times. So I feel like maybe it's been longer. But she and I were very close, we were just with everything that I'd gone through being divorced. And being a single mom, I mean, the mother daughter bond is very strong. To begin with, and ours was especially strong just with our our life experiences and challenges. And when Alex was, I mean, she was bedridden for for several months before she passed away. And she was always so positive. And she kept, you know, thinking that she was going to be this Lyme warrior, she was going to, you know, get to UCLA, finish that degree and start her own nine nonprofit. And when we knew that, God, you know, had other plans for her, I made a pact with her and said that I was going to basically carry her torch for her. And so after she passed, money started just flooding in. There was a GoFundMe account that someone had set up for me and I started receiving quite a bit of money. And I knew that was going to be my my seed money to start the outsets in line Foundation. And here again, I was working for a nonprofit, I was still working at Catholic Charities. And I thought, Okay, I'm gonna, you know, petition, I'll get someone to help me to, you know, see what that looks like. And, you know, people have told me, it's going to take about a year to get a nonprofit up and running. So that okay, good, that will give me time to adjust and make the transition. Well, I received status that I had been awarded 501, C, three for the outsets, in line foundation in 30 days. And in my classic CPA, comment, my CPA when I got the letter, I said, Okay, roll in, tell me that this is like a joke. Like, this isn't true, right? Like, I really didn't get this approved so quickly. And he said, God, sometimes the good Lord does things that there are no explanations for Congratulations. You have a 501 C three. Yeah. And so yeah, we were up and running in June, we started our first fundraiser, we were able to work with global Lyme Alliance and do a research grant with them, we were able to award some financial grants to lyme patients. So we, you know, we're doing everything according to Alex's wishes, and five years later, we're still doing that. So it definitely, like I said, before this mother daughter bond, I know I'm not doing it alone, I know that she, you know, is helping me every step of the way. And you wrote a book. And I wrote a book. And that was something that I did not expect at all, like I am a business woman, I write reports. I don't journal I don't write for fun. But this was something that was just laid on my heart. And I was a member of the Fresno State book club. And there was a gallon there who had just written a book, and I started talking to her. And I said, you know, I feel like I need to get this stuff out of my head and onto print. Because just as I'm chatting with you, there's so much that people didn't realize of the journey that Alex and I went on, especially that last year, even my closest group of friends, you know, when they read my book, they're like, God, God, we just didn't realize everything that you had gone through, we thought we did. And I said, No, I, I feel bad. I wasn't able to catch everybody up on this, I said that I was running so fast to get my daughter better, that I didn't have time to bring my team along with me. So this book was written for so many different reasons. Just to let people know how amazing my daughter was and what she went through, also to, you know, give people hope, inspiration. And also just to, you know, give validity to this horrible disease that so many people's still in the medical community don't recognize, or, you know, give it such a stigma. So the book came out. Last February, I self published it and Uh, you know, it's, it's done pretty well, I mean, I've received over 100 plus five star reviews on Amazon, which, to me, if I just, you know, was able to impact one or two people at that, wow, that would be great, you know, people would really understand what I'm trying to convey. But you know, just the, the impact, and what I'm getting back from it that people, you know, write to me or call me. It's just so overwhelming, you know, and for them to appreciate my daughter and love my daughter, with what she went through, it's pretty, pretty touching.   Michael Hingson  55:42 What a blessing. Well, tell me, what would you like people to take away from listening to you today.   Jody Hudson  55:51 So what I want people to take away from listening to meet today is, no matter what challenges you have going on in life, it's how you show up that people are going to remember. And for me, in that moment, when Alex passed away, it could have been so easy just to throw the covers over my head, and give up and be, you know, this grief girl, but I didn't want to be defined by that I wanted to, you know, have people look at me, and be that example, for others be that example for my son, be that example for my friends, that no matter what I had gone through, that I can still show up every day, and that there's still like to be lived. And to do that, also, you know, in honor of my daughter, right, with everything that she went through, how could I just lay it in bet. And I mean, she's suffered far greater than, than I did, and, and I just, I couldn't do that. So I needed to make some, you know, purpose out of what she went through. And that's what I'm I'm trying to do and I'm trying to accomplish?   Michael Hingson  57:05 Well, how can people reach out to you and communicate, correspond or learn more? And   Jody Hudson  57:11 yeah, so we have a website alexhudsonlymefoundation, website, www dot alexhudsonlymefoundation.org, there's ways that you can get a hold of me on the website, you can also go into Amazon, and look for my book, my promise to Alex written by me, Jody Hudson, I would love it if you know, people would, you know, by the, by the book, and, you know, support me through that, because all the proceeds from that book, go right back into the foundation. And, you know, if people are out there, struggling right now with, you know, medical mysteries, you know, check out Lyme disease, check out and see maybe if that's something that you might have in the doctors just haven't been able to diagnose. You know, be your own advocate, never, never give up. And that's one of the things that Alex and I never did, no matter how many times that door was slammed in our faces from the medical community. We still kept opening it up and trying to get to answers.   Michael Hingson  58:22 Never giving up is extremely important. We do it all too quickly. And we, we don't realize that we can do a lot more than we think we can.   Jody Hudson  58:33 Amen. Amen. You don't know you know how strong you need to be until you are in those moments where strength is all you got?   58:42 Well, I want to thank you, Jody, for being with us today. And for telling your story and having the courage to do it and to continue doing, what you're doing and anything that we can do to help through this podcast and so on, please let me know. And we met through accessibility, which I'm really happy about. And I appreciate your desire to help in dealing with inclusion and website accessibility but more important, anything that we can do to continue to promote what you're doing. We're in so I want to thank you for that. And I want to thank you for listening to us. We really appreciate it reach out to Alex through Jodi reach out to Jodi especially and Alex will know and we want to hear from you please email me at Michaelhi at accessibe.com. Accessibe is A C C E S S I B E.com. Or go to www dot Michael hingson h i n g s o n.com/podcast. Please give us a five star rating wherever you're listening and like especially if you're on iTunes, please give us a five star rating. Those tend to show up a lot and we appreciate it. But Jody most of all, once more. I want to thank you for being here and for not only inspiring us but I hope educating a lot of people about Lyme disease and just being stronger and more unstoppable than we think.   Jody Hudson  1:00:00 Thank you so much for having me and listening to my story and Alex's story It really means a lot to me   Michael Hingson  1:00:11

In Episode 100 of Book Talk, Etc. Tina and Renee celebrate their 100th

Join us as Claudette, and Kim engage with another special guest. In this episode they speak with Matt Geeza, Director of the Connecticut State Library for Accessible Books. Learn all about the services they provide and their partnership with the National Library Service for the Blind & Print Disabled.

We are taking a look back at three of our favorite moments on the #ReadingWithYourKids #Podcast from 2022. Jason Broughton, director of the National Library Service, tells us about the important mission of the library to serve folks who are blind or print disabled. This is a great resource for families with kids who are blind or who struggle with learning challenges like dyslexia. We also look back at our time with Ben Feller, former chief White House correspondent . He talks to us about helping our kids become more medis literate and how cool it is to fly on Airforce One. To close out the episode, and the year, we listen back to our chat with Hollywood superstar Jazmyn Simon who reminds us that we are all perfectly created and loved. Click here to visit the National library Service website - https://www.loc.gov/nls/ Click here to visit Ben's website - https://www.bigproblemslittleproblems.com/ Click here to visit Jazmyn's website - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675731/most-perfect-you-by-jazmyn-simon-illustrated-by-tamisha-anthony/?ref=PRH985D6B6981D2&aid=13008&linkid=PRH985D6B6981D2 Click here to visit our website - www.readingwithyourkids.com

20220703 ACB 2022 Conference and Convention General Session Originally Aired July 3, 2022, on ACB Media Sunday, July 3 o   Call to Order o   Pledge of Allegiance: JP Morgan Chase Leadership Fellows; Judy Brown, Shoreline, WA; Cecily Nipper, Covington, GA, Kristin Kelling, Grand Rapids, MI  o   ACB Business o   ACB Sponsor Recognitions, corporate and individual sponsors o   Credentials Committee Report: Ralph Smitherman o   Diamond Sponsor Presentation: Vanda: Jennifer Lyman and o   Vicki Preddy o   ACB Angels: Bernice Kandarian o   Presiding Officer: Deb Cook Lewis, First Vice President o   International Guest: Mark Workman, President, World Blind Union, Canada o   Scholarship Presentations o   News from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), Jason Broughton o   Nominations and candidate speeches, election information

Jason Broughton, the Director of the National Library Service For The Blind & Print Disabled, is on the #ReadingWithYourKids #Podcast to celebrate the many ways the library serves our nation. Our National Library Service (NLS) is a free braille and talking book library service for people with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical, perceptual, or reading disability that prevents them from using regular print materials. Jason is passionate about making sure that everyone has access to the reading materials that will enhance their lives. Click here toi visit the Nation Library Service website - https://www.loc.gov/nls/ Click here to visit our website - www.readingwithyourkids.com