Podcast appearances and mentions of pete lane

In this episode of Blind Abilities, hosts Pete Lane and Jeff Thompson are joined by Sedona Dave and Bari Azman from AWarewolfGear to introduce the latest innovation in cane design, the Urban Xplorer Cane. They delve into the features and benefits of this new product, designed for enhanced urban navigation and all-terrain versatility. The conversation also touches on the predecessor, the All Terrain Cane', highlighting the evolution leading to the development of the Urban Xplorer Cane. Listen in as the story unfolds leading to the development of an entirely new design stemming from listener feedback and the needs of the users themselves. did I mention the different array of colors the cane tips come in? How about the AWarewolf Gear merch? Check it out! To find out more about the All Terrain Cane and the New Urban Zplorer Cane check out the AWareWolf Gear web site. Read More

 Hans Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes, and the new chief executive officer of Be My Eyes, Mike Buckley join Pete Lane in the blind Abilities Studio   to announce a brand new feature, currently in Beta form available on the Be My Eyes app entitled "the Virtual Assistant". The virtual assistant is a feature that incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI),  to provide not only superior visual identification using the phones camera, but also provides interpretive and extrapolating decisions recently made possible with the Open AI Chat GPT version 4 artificial intelligence software.  Mike and Hans discuss the capabilities of this new virtual assistant feature and describe the process for users to be added to a waiting list to become a Beta tester of this new feature. This is an exciting time for blind individuals as the open AI team has chosen the Be My Eyes team as one of their first collaborating partnerships  to explore real life applications for their artificial intelligence software.  Blind Abilities presents this follow up interview with Be My Eyes as they further demonstrate their commitment to presenting quality products and services to listeners. Listen in to this insightful look into one of the more popular and productive apps available for blind individuals, Be My Eyes.   *A big shoutout to Pete Lane for doing the heavy lifting on this interview as Jeff Thompson had an unexpected family commitment. At a boy, Pete!

Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane  once again welcome Bari Azman and Diane Ducharme, of the BlindShell USA company to the Blind Abilities studios to share an exciting announcement with our listeners! In this episode, Barry and Diane reveal a new app that has been recently added to the BlindShell Classic 2 app catalog. This is an app That they have been working hard to secure in their arsenal of available applications. It has also been the single most requested app from all BlindShell classic 2 users with whom they have come into contact, whether in blindness conventions, trade shows, emails or phone calls. Can you guess which new App this is?  Well you'll find out soon enough when you jump into the podcast - It's BARD Mobile! Go ahead and dive right into this short but informative podcast that will unveil this great new app to BlindShell Classic 2 users, or potential users.  This is just the kind of addition to the BlindShell Classic 2 accessible phone that will help you make up your mind to get this amazing device! Pete and Jeff conduct their typical in-depth interview with Barry and Diane, to completely cover all aspects of the BlindShell classic two phone and the brand new app! The folks at BlindShell have made it easy to get started with Bard. Just go to: www.BlindshellUSA/Bard  to find all the necessary links to get going. And for all things BlindShell, go to their web site at https://blindshellusa.com.   Thanks for Listening! Episode Web Site we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Our guest on Blind Abilities today is Michael Cleveland. Michael is a fiddler who specializes in bluegrass music, although his repertoire spans a variety of genres and multiple styles of music. he wows other Bluegrass musicians including the best in the business,  in fact, Michael may just be the best bluegrass fiddler ever, but what  elevates him into the rare echelon of unique talent is the diversity and range of his skill and technique. His bow speed and licks are amazing and should appeal, not just to bluegrass fans, but to everyone who has the good fortune to listen to him perform,  including you with this podcast! Join Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane as they chat with Michael about his music and his career, which began at a very early age, as well as his life with blindness. Michael is an engaging individual who openly shares his thoughts about managing as a blind musician and his opinions about music and creating fiddle music in today's age and with today's technology.   Read More   we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Blind Abilities presents another QuickByte offering some troubleshooting for a possible problem you may be having in the Safari app on your iDevice.  We think it's safe to assume many of us have experienced it… that distracting, irritating, downright annoying noise: what exactly would we call it? clicking? tapping… Pete Lane says “no," it's clearly ticking! And here is how to turn off that ticking sound: 1. go to settings, Accessibility, Voiceover, Audio, Sounds & Haptics, Sounds, and down to "Item Loading". Perform a single-finger double-tap and you'll hear Voiceover say: “On”. This is its current position, so do another double tap to turn it “off”. Voila! You should not be bothered again by the dreaded “ticking” sound! Episode Web Site we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

`Blind Abilities adds to the iPhone101 Series with this in depth, comprehensive review of blocking callers and senders of unwanted text messages and emails. Pete Lane takes us through a detailed journey covering the various processes for eliminating and reducing these unwelcome contacts in multiple Apps across iOS. From blocking unknown phone numbers in our Messages and Phone Apps, to blocking and unsubscribing from sales, spam and scam emails, collectively referred to as Robocalls, Pete demonstrates step by step techniques for getting these nagging senders out of our virtual hair.  He also provides some valuable background information on this issue including details from www.FCC.gov, the web site of the Federal Communications Commission. This is the agency in the US charged with monitoring, managing and enforcing the laws and regulations governing all such communications across the country. For a step by step break down and time line, Read More we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Blind Abilities expands its iPhone101 Series with a  follow up episode on a topic which they previously touched upon, but this time they do a "deeper dive”. In November of 2021, Pete Lane described the iOS Control Center, and in that review, touched on the iOS screen recording feature. This time, Pete has circled back to cover  this feature, but in far greater detail. In this episode: Pete takes a thorough approach toward discussing the entire process of iOS screen recording, beginning with an explanation of what screen recording is, and why we might want to use the iOS screen recording feature. Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Joining Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane in the Blind Abilities studio once again today is Dan Parker. This is Dan's third visit to the Blind Abilities studio, this time to share his ultimate achievement: winning the Guinness world land-speed record for a car with a blind folded driver. Dan tells his most recent, remarkable story about how he designed and built a state of the art race car which he took to Spaceport America, in southern New Mexico, at the end of March and proceeded to drive the vehicle at a World record speed averaging 211 mph.  Dan speaks of his numerous grueling hours, days and months raising attention, funding, and practicing for this event, learning to use a sophisticated audio guidance system to help him stay on track along the runway, his... Read more Check out Dan Parker's web site: www.TheBlindMachinist.com.

Blind Abilities presents another episode in their iPhone101 Series. Today, Pete Lane walks us through the process used to arrange our iOS Settings to allow for the “manual" updates of apps in the App Store. Why manual updates you might ask? Every once in a while, we encounter an update that present some kind of a problem, either with the way VoiceOver behaves, or something else proves to be unreliable  or unsteady. Updating your apps  manually gives you control over if and when apps are updated on your phone.   Here's how Pete's settings look in two primary areas:   App Store settings for automatic downloads, and Background App refresh:   Go to:   Settings, AppStore: Apps is off for me. App updates is off for me   Cellular Data Heading Automatic Downloads is off for me. App Downloads, I have mine set to “Always Ask” because it is Cellular on this setting. Video Autoplay is off for me. In-App Ratings & Reviews is on for me. Offload Unused Apps is on for me.   Read more  

Blind Abilities presents Micheal Hudson, Director of the Museum for the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). The APH Museum, located in Louisville, Kentucky, comprises more than 3,000 Square feet of space and multiple exhibits which present the history of blindness, and the role that the APH played in that history. Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane sit down with Micheal Hudson, an articulate and well-versed expert in anything and everything related to the museum. He takes us on a journey through a variety of topics, such as the Helen Keller archives, recently acquired from the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). Micheal also describes many of the old  machines currently housed in the museum, which opened in 1994. These include braille embossers and braille writers, hard vinyl disc presses, magnifiers, refreshable braille displays, typewriters, an impressive slate collection, cassette players, live Talking Book recording studios, an entire section dedicated to the history of Talking Books, Stevie Wonder's piano acquired from the Michigan School for the Blind and much much more. Join Jeff and Pete with their fascinating guest, Micheal Hudson as they delve into dozens of the machines, displays and other items. Micheal has a myriad of stories and is not hesitant to share many of them with the Blind Abilities team, so pull up a chair and settle-in for this outstanding podcast!  APH employs more than 300 employees. Check out job vacancies through the Job Portal on their web site:  at:  www.APH.Org where you can also nominate a candidate for admission into the APH Hall of Fame, Legends and Leaders in the Field of Blindness.  Check out the museum web site at: www.APHMuseum.Org They are also on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

The Tech Abilities crew gathered in the Blind Abilities Studio to cover news and tech tidbits from a Blindness perspective. Serina, Callie and Jeff are joined with Jesse and they cover a lot of topics from the new Gucci Bag for the Air Pod Max Headphones for only $980 Microsoft 11, Aira and the Puppy Bowl Webcast, getting a pet dog as a Blind person, Instagram and Accessibility and much more.  Marlon and Tre make a Toast Master thingy. Check out the links and timeline of topics below. Chapters Available You can listen using chapters if your player allows and jump to the topic of your choice. Links and Topics from the Episode Welcome. 00:00 Let's Get this Show Started. 00:41 Introducing the Team and Toast Master Skit. 01:29 9to5Mac, Deals: AirPods Max $100 off, 05:00 Don't like the AirPods Max Smart Case? Gucci has its own case for just $980.  Face ID with a Mask is way better than using your Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone 7:48 Connecticut man arrested after trying and failing to stalk someone with an AirTag. 09:07 February 13th - the Big Game and Puppy Bowl with Aira 10:53 Aira COVID Promotion revisited NFB Sponsors Initiative to Address Inaccessibility of Covid-19 At-home Testing Crafting an Accessible Instagram Feed. 15:06 Notifications Temporarily or Permanent. 18:58 Microsoft Windows 11 is downloaded and installed! 24:48 How accessible is your exercise equipment? 32:15 Peloton bike, Concept 2 Model 2 Rowing machine, Treadmill Blind Abilities Fantasy Football  winner Pete Lane. 34:10 Looking for more teams. Activision/Blizzard acquired by Microsoft, What does this mean for accessibility and usability? 34:10 Sony buys in as well! Callie Quest at Miami Lighthouse and Braille. 42:03 Can a Visually Impaired person get a pet dog? 45:28 Exercising differently. 53:27 Bye-Bye/Credits. 59:17 Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

In this iPhone101 Quickbyte, Pete Lane takes us through the Messages App and shows how to Pin a person or group to the top of the messages list. When using the iOS Messages App your list can become cluttered with individuals and groups which makes  it difficult to locate someone in your ever-growing list of recipients. A convenient way to prioritize this list is with the use of the “Pinning” feature which allows you to permanently place those people whom you contact frequently  at the top of your list, making them easier to find.     Let's walk through the steps to do this: Open Messages app, flick right with one finger until you arrive at the recipient whom you wish to Pin (the recipient can be an individual person or a group of recipients - check out the Quick Bytes episode on creating group recipients in the Messages App).  Flick up with one finger until you hear voiceover say, “Pin”. perform a Single-finger double-tap. Now the recipient has the “Pinned“  status, and you are ready to place him or her in a specific location among your other “Pinned “ recipients. Flick up with a single finger until you hear voice over say, “drag item“. Perform a single-finger double-tap. Flick left or right, up or down the list), of other pinned recipients until you hear the Voiceover cue for were .  you wish to place the newly pinned recipient - i.e. either before or after a particular recipient on the list. Perform a single-finger double-tap to drop them. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

In this iPhone101 Quickbyte, Pete Lane takes us through the Messages App and shows how to speed up a YouTube Video if you so desire.   Are you wondering why you can't speed up the playback speed of a YouTube video like you can with one of your audio books? Well you can, and it's simple and fast.    Here's how to do it:     Open the YouTube app. Flick to the search field, and type in your search command  for the video you wish to view. Perform a single-finger double-tap to play the video. Once in the video screen, flick to the right until you find the “more actions“ button. Perform a single finger double tap to open the list of menu options. Flick to the right with a single finger until you find the option that says, “playback speed“. Perform a single-finger double-tap. Flick through the choices until you find your desired playback speed , (i.e. from .25x to 2x). Perform a single-finger double-tap to select. Now you are back on the play screen. Flick to the right until you land on the Play button. Perform a single-finger double-tap to resume the video.  

Blind Abilities presents another installment in its iPhone 101 series with this review of several popular video and audio streaming Apps, in which we explore  ways to set up methods to reduce the amount of your cellular data you use while streaming or downloading their products. We already know that it is more cost effective to stream audio and video services while connected to your Home WiFi network as it's cost is generally lower than that of your cellular data plan, but we may not be aware of howe to take advantage of the app settings that will actually use less data. Pete Lane takes a look at the iOS Netflix app, as well as Amazon Prime Video, the native Apple Music and TV apps, Amazon music, Audible and the BARD Mobile app, and walks us through the specific settings which can be adjusted to take advantage of high efficiency streaming, lower video quality for streaming and downloading, and to set those processes to be active only while on WiFi.   These settings are not secrets nor are they hidden, but some of us may not have the time or the inclination to explore them. Keep in mind that you will be sacrificing some video quality in order to save data, but for blind or visually impaired folks, this may not be a significant issue. For those listeners with some usable vision, you may notice the lower video quality when streaming over a cellular connection. To give you an example of the data savings, in low-data mode, Netflix will only use around 1 GB of data for an hour of streaming, which is a small amount when compared with the data consumed while streaming in the higher quality 4K format. Settings demonstrated Netflix First, be sure your Netflix app is updated since your device may be running an old version. `          Ask Siri to open Netflix, or perform a single-finger double-tap on the Netflix app icon. Then single-finger double-tap on your profile. Be sure the “Home” tab is selected among the five tabs at the bottom of the next screen. Then flick right from the top of the screen and single-finger double-tap on “settings. Perform a single-finger double-tap to select “"Mobile Data Usage” located under the Video Playback section. If this setting is set to "Automatic.” Use a single-finger double-tap to deactivate it, then flick to the right and perform a single-finger double-tap to activate “Save Data”. Go back to the top of the screen and single-finger double-tap on the back button. On the previous screen. Flick right until you get to downloads, and single finger double tap. Flick right and be sure the button labeled ““Wi-Fi only,“” is selected. Flick right again and be sure the “video quality“ selection is set to “standard”. Continue flicking to the right, and be sure your "Download Next Episode” is off. This decision may depend on how regularly you view each episode of a series. Likewise, flick right and be sure your “Downloads for You” setting  is in the off position. To exit these settings, perform a single-finger double-tap on the “Back Arrow Left” button until you are back on the main Netflix screen.  You're done. Your app settings will automatically be saved. Amazon Prime Open your Amazon prime video app. Among the five tabs at the bottom of your screen, single finger double tap on “my stuff“. Flick to the right and single finger double tap on “settings,“ then flick right and select “streaming and downloads“. Be sure “streaming on Wi-Fi only“ is in the on position. Likewise, set ‘download on Wi-Fi only” to the on position. for streaming and download quality, be sure your settings are set to “good“. Go to the top of the screen and single finger double tap on the “back“ button. Flick right and select “1“ under auto downloads. * The next several streaming settings will be performed in the native iOS settings app, rather than an individual app such as Netflix or Amazon prime.  iOS Music app: Open iOS settings, and flick right until you reach music. Perform a single finger double tap. under the heading “allow Music to access“, do not select cellular data. Flick to the right until you reach audio streaming quality, and select “high-efficiency“. go to the top of the screen and single finger double tap on the “back“ button. Flick to the right and turn “download using cellular data“ to the off position. Likewise, turn “automatic downloads“ off. Under “Animated  cover art“ select “on Wi-Fi only“. flick left to the top of the screen and single finger double tap on the “back“ button. * Flick right to the TV App* Note: this will be the player app for any video streaming service you connect to it, such as Apple TV plus, CBS, ABC, etc. The connections are made in the Settings section of the separate TV app. For streaming, Turn off “use cellular data. “For “video quality,” select “fast downloads, and for downloads, turn off cellular data”. Flick left and single-finger double-tap on the “back” button. * Flick right to the Podcast settings. Under “allow podcasts to access,” turn off “cellular data,” and turn on “block download over cellular data”. Under episode downloads, set to “ask if over 200 mb”, and for automatic downloads, set to “when following”. Flick left and single-finger double-tap on the “back” button. Note: perform the same adjustments to the same settings in the Amazon music, Audible and BARD Mobile settings. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities presents a new iPhone101 series entitled: "Managing Mail Messages and Accounts in iOS - Adding, Retrieving and  Deleting, Oh My!” This new series provides various in depth demonstrations aimed at giving you the tools to effectively manage your email in an organized and efficient manner. Pete Lane walks us through each step of these processes with snappy and thorough presentations.  Part 6 Adding a brand new Gmail account to the iPhone, going into the Google.com web site, choosing an email address, and adding it to the phone. Enjoy this peppy and informative presentation in which Blind Abilities offers another educational gem in its iPhone 101 library of demonstrations.   Step-by-Step Process: Note: This process is very similar to the process presented in our previous episode for adding an existing Gmail account, except that you must choose the new email address you wish to use. If you are creating a new Gmail account, we suggest that you choose several potential new email addresses in case your favorites are already taken and therefore rejected by Google. This scenario is covered below in step 5. Ask Siri to open the “Settings” app, or perform a single-finger double-tap on the App icon. Flick down to “Mail” and perform a single-finger double-tap, then flick down and single-finger double-tap to select “Accounts. Flick down and perform a single-finger double-tap on “Add Account”. Select the email account service you wish to add by performing a Single-finger double-tap on that item in the list: iCloud, Exchange, Google / Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Outlook.com / Hotmail, or “Other”. If you choose to add a Gmail account, single-finger double-tap on Google. In this case iOS will immediately prompt you to go to Google.com to sign in and register the email account. Single-finger double-tap on “Continue” to proceed to the web site. Since you are creating a brand new Gmail account, swipe right, past the sign-in elements, skip the “next” button and single-finger double-tap on “create account button". Follow the prompts: type in your first and last name, birth date and gender, and then choose and type in the email address and login information requested. Since this is a new account, the address and password will be one you choose yourself, so think about this ahead of time. Also, you will be given a couple of email addresses to select if you so choose, but if you prefer using one of your own,  keep in mind that  many common addresses may no longer be available. Because someone else has already selected them.  In this case, Google will reject them so be ready to try another one. This may happen several times. You will now be prompted to provide your cellular phone number so Google can contact you when needed. Once you agree and type in your phone number, you will immediately be sent a six-digit security code via text message. Be ready for this as you are given a short, 30 second time frame to retrieve and enter it. Note: Dictation does not behave well in these text fields, so be prepared to type-in the information using your onscreen or bluetooth keyboard. After providing your phone number and entering the security code, you will be presented a “Save” button, single-finger double-tap. You will then move back to the previous screen showing your email accounts, including the newly added account. You can also return to your Mail App to verify that the new account is listed there as well. Congratulations, you have finished creating a new email address! Be sure to check out all the iPhone101/QuickByte demos on Blind Abilities. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities presents a new iPhone101 Series entitled: "Managing Mail Messages and Accounts in iOS - Adding, Retrieving and  Deleting, Oh My!”  This new series provides a series of in depth demonstrations aimed at giving you the tools to effectively manage your email in an organized and efficient manner. Pete Lane walks us through each step of these processes with snappy and thorough presentations.  Parts 4 and 5 introduction to the process of deleting an email account from an iOS device. Specifically, Part 4: Using his Gmail accounts as an example, going into the Settings App and deleting it. Part 5 Demonstrates how to add an existing email account to a device, using the previously deleted Gmail account as the example, adding it back to the iPhone and migrating over to the Google.com web site as is required when adding or creating a Gmail account.  Step by Step processes: Part 4 - Deleting an Email account from Your iDevice   . Open your Settings App with a single-finger double-tap, or ask Siri to "open Settings". Then flick right until you arrive at “Mail”, single-finger double-tap. Flick right until you arrive at Accounts, then flick right to the particular account you wish to delete from the list provided (Gmail, Outlook, iCloud…), single-finger double-tap to select. Flick right to “Delete Account”, single-finger double-tap. Note: iOS will alert you that deleting the account will also remove other items from your device, such as, mail, notes or Calendars. Single-finger double-tap to confirm. This completes the deletion of the account from your device. You can verify it by performing a single-finger double-tap on the “Back” button and flick through the remaining list of accounts shown on the previous screen. Note: you can also check by using your App Switcher to toggle over to your Mail app and scroll through the list of Mailboxes listed there. Activate your App Switcher by rotating two fingers, like twisting a bottle-cap, clockwise or counter-clockwise until you hear Voiceover say “Mail”, then perform a single-finger double-tap to open Mail”. Flick to the Mailboxes to verify if the account has been removed.  Part 5: Adding an existing Email Account onto your iDevice: Ask Siri to open the “Settings” app, or perform a single-finger double-tap on the App icon. Flick down to “Mail” and perform a single-finger double-tap, then select “Accounts at the top of the new screen. Flick right to “Add Account”, then perform a single-finger double-tap. Select the email account service you wish to add by performing a Single-finger double-tap on that item in the list: iCloud, Exchange, Google / Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Outlook.com / Hotmail, or “Other”. Note: If you choose to add a Gmail account, you should select Google. In this case iOS will refer you to Google.com to sign in and register the email account. Be ready with your email address and password, your name and gender, as Google will require this information during the process. Type in the email address and login information requested. Note: Dictation does not behave well with these text fields so be prepared to use the onscreen or a blue tooth keyboard. You will now be prompted to provide your cellular phone number so Google can contact you when needed. Once you do so, you will be sent a six-digit security code via text message. Be ready for this as you are given a 30 second time frame to retrieve and enter it quickly in the space provided. After providing your phone number and entering the security code, you will be presented a “Save” button, single-finger double-tap to do so. You will then move back to the previous screen showing your email accounts, including the newly added account. You can also return to your Mail App to verify that the new account is listed there as well. You are done! Congratulations! Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities presents a new iPhone101 Series entitled: "Managing Mail Messages and Accounts in iOS - Adding, Retrieving and  Deleting, Oh My!”  This new series provides five individual demonstrations aimed at giving you the tools to effectively manage your email in an organized and efficient manner. Pete Lane walks us through each step of these processes in a snappy and thorough presentation.  Part 3: The Mail Preview feature in iOS. The Mail Preview allows us to preview - read - a portion of an email while it is unopened in your Inbox. The portion of the email that can be previewed can range from none and up to five lines and is set by you in your Settings App. This can save you time in processing your emails and make you more efficient in using your Mail App. In fact, you may even be able to scroll through the majority of your Inbox without even having to open a single email.  In this short, iPhone 101 demonstration Pete Lane shows us not only where the Mail Preview settings reside on your iDevice, but how to adjust those settings for your optimal benefit.  The Process: Ask Siri to open Settings or Single finger double tap on the Settings icon. Single finger swipe right down to Mail and Single finger double tap. Swipe right to “Preview”, Single finger double tap. Select the Preview selection you want to us.  Your Mail app will now reflect this preview in all messages in all accounts. Merely swipe to a message and Voiceover will automatically read the preview lines to you.  As an alternative to waiting for Voiceover to read the preview lines, you can also perform a 3-finger single-tap anywhere on your screen once focused on the message in the mailbox, and Voiceover will read the preview immediately. This can be an effective tool for controlling the process of managing your email quickly and efficiently. Stay tuned for Parts 4, 5 and 6 of our series, "Managing Mail Messages and Accounts in iOS - Adding, Retrieving and  Deleting, Oh My!” as we demonstrate how to delete an entire email account, add that account back on to your iDevice and finally, how to add a brand new email account to your device. You can find Parts 1 and 2 of this iPhone101 Series and many more iPhone101 and QuickBytes here. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

This new iPhone101 series provides five individual demonstrations aimed at giving you the tools to effectively manage your email in an organized and efficient manner. Pete Lane walks us through each step of these processes in a snappy and thorough presentation.  Parts 1 and 2  An Introduction to various ways to delete individual emails, one at a time or in bulk quantities and then the process of retrieving deleted emails.             Process 1 - How to delete individual emails from your Mail App: Method 1: Open the Mail app by single finger double tapping on the Mail icon or ask Siri to, “Open Mail”. Single finger swipe left to right down to the email you want to delete. Flick up or down to the action item, “Delete”. Single finger double tap. Method 2: If you are reading an email and want to delete it, flick up or down to, “Trash”. Single finger double tap. You will then be placed in the next email message, opened and ready to read. Note: When deleting from an opened email, the app will open the next email automatically. You may or not want desire this action of auto-opening. You can also go back and delete from the email list as in the previous method above. How to delete multiple emails quickly: Open your Mail App with a single-finger double-tap, then flick right and select the account where you wish to delete emails, i.e. Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, etc. - single-finger double-tap. Then flick to the right and perform a single-finger double-tap on the Edit button. This will activate  a Select button. Single-finger double-tap on “Select All”, and proceed to step 3 below. If you do not wish to delete all of your mail messages, flick right and select  each email you wish to delete with a single-finger double-tap. Voiceover will say “selected” for each item you select..  At the bottom of the screen, single-finger double-tap on “Trash” or “Archive” to delete the selected messages. Retrieving Deleted email messages: After opening your Mail app with a single-finger double-tap, flick right until you reach your “Trash folder. This is where your deleted messages have been placed.  Flick right into the list of messages and select those which you wish to retrieve by performing a single-finger double-tap. When all have been selected, perform a 4-finger single-tap towards the bottom of your screen. Flick left with one finger until you reach “Move”, then single-finger double-tap. You will then be placed on the “back” button at the top of your screen. Flick right until you reach “Inbox”. Single-finger double-tap and the messages you have selected will be moved there.  You can verify this by flicking right into your list of messages in the “Inbox” to find they are no longer there.  Stay tuned for more installments in this new iPhone101 series, “Managing email Messages and Accounts”, when we explore how to delete entire accounts from your device,  and add both existing and new email accounts to your iDevice. We hope this will give you a more efficient approach towards managing and working in your Mail app in the future. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities adds to the iPhone101 Series with an in depth review of how to create a screen recording in iOS using Voiceover. Pete Lane shows us how to retrieve the screen recording element from  the Settings app  and place it in the desired location in your control center, but that's not all he covers in this  jam-packed episode!  Additionally: Shows us how to activate our microphone for use with the screen recording. Demonstrates how to ask Siri to take a Screen Shot (a photo of our iOS screen(; share both The screenshot and the screen recording directly with a friend hands-free. How to retrieve both from the Photos App. takes a quick jaunt through the Blind Abilities App as he uses it to help demonstrate the screen recording process Join Pete for this thorough demonstration of all of these features in this 12 minute podcast that is guaranteed to educate and entertain!  Now let's lay out each procedure in a step-by-step format so it's clear for everyone to follow: Securing and placing the screen recording element in the control center: We first need to have the screen recording element available in our control center. Here's how we do it! Flick to your settings app and perform a single finger double tap to open it. Flick about halfway down the screen until you reach control center. Perform a single finger double tap to open it. Flick down until you reach the Heading called: “Included Items.” Flick to the right until you reach the item labeled Screen Recording. A single finger double tap will automatically place this item in your control center, but you can first pinpoint the precise location where you want this feature to reside when it is there. To do this, perform a single finger double tap and hold on the button following the screen recording element, labelled: “Reorder Screen Recording, draggable button.” Then slide your finger up or down the screen until you hear voiceover say the location where you wish to place this element. Release your finger and this item will be placed in that slot in this list, as well as in a similar location in the Control Center.  . now we need to go to our control center. Place your finger at the very top of your screen. You should hear voiceover speak one of the elements in the status bar, I. E. Time, Wi-Fi, cellular Network, battery percentage, etc. Once there, slide your finger down the screen beginning in the upper right hand corner until you hear the second audible sound. Lift your finger and your control center will open. Alternatively,      you can swipe up with three fingers from the bottom of your screen until you hear the second audible click to accomplish this. Flick through the various items in the control center until you reach the screen recording element. Remember, it will be in the same place here as it was on the list in the Settings App. Note: Be prepared to decide on what you will want to record using the Screen Recording feature, as our next step will be to start the recording. Also, you may wish to turn on Do Not Disturb in order to avoid unwanted sounds while in screen recording mode. You can ask Siri to do this, and see our previous iPhone 101 episode on Do Not Disturb for more information. Making a Screen Recording: Now that we have our Screen Recording element in the Control Center, we are now able to begin recording. To do this: 1Perform a single-finger double-tap on the Screen Recording element. Voiceover will count down 3-2-1, at which point the recording will begin. To stop recording, merely return to the Control Center and do a single-finger double-tap to stop. How to activate your microphone with Screen Recording: Go to the Screen Recording element in the Control Center. Flick up with one finger and you will hear two options. Perform a single-finger double-tap on “Open Controls”. Single finger double-tap to select this. You will be presented a list of options.  Flick right until you reach “microphone”. This will  be in the off or on position. If off, single-finger double-tap to toggle it on. Now all sounds will be recorded, including your voice and other sounds within reach of the microphone. You can do a single-finger double-tap to begin recording, or exit the Control Center by sliding one finger up from the bottom of your screen until you hear the second audible click. If your iPhone has a Home button, press it  once to exit. How to ask Siri to take and Share a Screen Shot and Screen Recording: While a Screen recording is a recording of  all audio and video occurring on your phone, a Screen Shot is merely a still photo, or snap-shot of a single screen on your phone. It's easy and fast to grab one. Say “Hey Siri, take a Screen Shot.” Siri will take a photo of whatever screen you are on. You may also press and hold your Home button and say the same thing. You may hear a clicking sound like a camera shutter as this happens. Ask Siri to share the image. Merely ask Siri to share with the person by name. You can shorten this process to a singled command by asking Siri to send a Screen Shot to (name).  Note: since screen shots and recordings are visual in nature, you may wish to turn off your screen curtain before beginning the process so recipients with usable vision are able to view the image. You can do this by performing a 3-finger triple-tap.   Retrieving Screen Shots and Recordings From your Photos App:  Screen shots and recordings are photos and videos and are therefore deposited into your Photos App. To retrieve them, do the following: Flick to the Photos App on your Home screen, or ask Siri to open Photos App. Single-finger double-tap to open it. Flick down to the bottom of the opening screen and perform a single-finger double-tap on the Tab labeled “Albums”. You may use a 4-finger single-tap toward the bottom of the screen in lieu of flicking multiple times. From the top of this screen, flick right and go down to the button labeled “Recent”. Single-finger double-tap to open. Flick twice and do a single-finger double-tap on the button labeled “Select”. Flick down until you locate your desired image. . You may choose to swipe up with three fingers in lieu of flicking multiple times to move down your Recent list. These are labeled by “Screen Shot” or “Screen Recording” respectively. Perform a single-finger double-tap to select the item. You may now view the item, delete it or share it by selecting the Share button on the screen. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

 Have you ever spent time listening to music, only to run across a song where you just can't recall its title, or the artist who wrote or performed it?  Blind Abilities presents a demonstration of the music recognition feature in iOS which is a handy and really cool feature that allows you to quickly identify songs and artists that you  hear around you, and even songs that are playing on your own phone or tablet. in fact, there are a few quick and easy ways to find out this information, and that's exactly what we'll be reviewing today.   Picture yourself in a boat on a river, or out in the car listening to the radio, in a store hearing music from speakers in the ceiling, or listening to a  music streaming service or any other source of music where you hear a song playing.  In this demonstration, Pete Lane demonstrates how to use the Shazam app to capture and process the audio, and fill you in on its title, composer and performer. He  walks us through how to ask Siri to identify the information about music you might hear around you, or even on your own device. Finally, imagine you are scrolling through YouTube, Dropbox or another streaming app on your phone, and a random song plays that you are  unfamiliar with. here you can simply open your control center and tap on the music recognition widget and get the information you want.  how do I place a music widget in my control center you might ask? well it's easy.  Go to settings on your Home Screen and perform a single-finger double-tap. Flick down to control center and do another single-finger double tap. Flick to Music Recognition and double tap on “Insert Music recognition”. This will add it to the Control Center. There are two easy ways to open the Control Center to invoke Music Recognition or for any other reason. First, place your finger in the Status Bar which is the thin strip that runs across the top of each screen on your device. Then you can do either:  Run one finger down the screen from the top of the page until you hear the first of two audible clicks. You can do this anywhere on the screen but it may be easier to do so along the edge, using your phone case as a guide to keep your movement straight Perform a 3 finger swipe up from the bottom of the screen. In both cases you will hear Voiceover say “Control Center” as it opens.  Once your Control Center is open, simply navigate to your Music Recognition element and perform a single finger double tap and it will begin processing the song and tell you it's composer and performer. Be sure to join Pete as he demonstrates this cool feature that will never leave us high and dry for specifics about the music we love. Be sure to join Pete as he demonstrates this cool feature that will never leave us high and dry for specifics about the music we love. we want to thank the composers and artists who contributed to our musical line-up today:  Special thanks go out to: * Chee Chau -  Big Bang    * Jim Brinkman - Home Again * Marcus Roberts - Express Mail Delivery  * Jeff Thompson - On the Rebound, performed by Archie Anderson * Pete Lane - Greater Heights and Going Out Tonight  * We were able to demonstrate the Shazam app and other music recognition features with the help of these people and their songs without fear of copyright infringement issues. * Shazam is a free stand-alone app available in the App Store. Feel free to offer any feedback you might have, including suggestions for topics we might consider for our demonstrations or podcast interviews. We value your opinions and welcome your input! Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities adds to their iPhone101 Series with this brief and fast paced trip through the iOS Messages app. With this visit Pete Lane reviews how to send iMessages with special screen effects. with a minor change to your ”send” gesture, from a simple double tap to a double tap and hold. You can add animated visual and audio effects to a text message,  adding some entertainment and fun to an otherwise drab piece of text Pete describes how to generate a message with either full screen effects, of which there are eight available, or bubble effects which are a little less elaborate, but possess some flair as well. he also shows us how to add visual graphic images when replying to an incoming iMessage via  use of the react button in the messages app. all of these effects are simple to generate, but they can add so much to your text communications. Check out this quick romp through the messages app as Pete typically enlists the use of his own sound effects, music and humor to make these demonstrations more enjoyable! He also takes some liberties with his presentation to ensure we all hear the full audio sounds of each effect by eliminating the Voiceover description of the visual experience, showing us both the real iPhone effect as well as the stripped-down audio version only. All you need to do is set aside less than 10 minutes of your valuable time and become reacquainted with the special effects features in your native Apple messages app. You won't regret it! Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Is your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch big enough? Are you constantly worrying about not having enough space on your phone to upgrade to the latest iOS update, or even download that new app you want? If so, you may be experiencing “Small Device Storage Syndrome”. This is a potentially serious condition which is growing among smart phone users around the globe and you owe it to yourself to find out if you are afflicted by this ailment. Ask yourself the following questions: Did you spring for the 256 Gb model? Or maybe the 512 Gb model when you have only used 50 Gigs on your last three iPhones?  Have you already decided on the larger phone the next time you upgrade, even though you just bought the latest model? Will you justify buying the largest model available, even though it will cost $200 more than you are paying in rent?  Do you panic Whenever your available storage space dips under 200 Gigs? Do you instantly delete each and every message in your Messages app or What's App as soon as you read it? Answer key: if you answered yes to all of these questions, you may be suffering from an illness called “Small Device Storage Syndrome”. This bears the symptoms of always feeling like you just can't have enough iPhone storage, no matter how much available space you have.. It's like a constant hunger! Well, here at BlindAbilities, we provide urgent care attention to those who suffer, and we do not “judge”, regardless of your addictions or habits. Let this episode of the iPhone101 series  start the healing process and begin the journey back to normalcy. One way to start this process is to clear out some of those large, unneeded or unwanted files such as videos, photos, audio files or documents that are occupying large chunks of space. in this episode Pete Lane walks us through a couple of methods to do precisely that. Learn how to free up storage space on your device by clearing out large attachments received in your Messages app and more! Join Pete as he walks through the iPhone storage settings, describing how to identify which apps are using the most space on your device, which are your largest files,  and how to remove them. As usual, Pete describes in detail the step by step ways to do this And of course, he enlists the help of music and effects to make your listening experience entertaining and enjoyable along the way. Listen  in on this brief and fast-paced demonstration of deleting large attachments to free up that priceless space on your device,! Here are the steps for Storage Recommendations: Go to iPhone settings, Go to General, Go to iPhone Storage:  Go to Recommendations: Review the list of Large Attachments that you have received in your Messages app and decide whether or not you wish to save them or you can delete them. This list is provided for you in order of size so you will know how much storage space they are occupying. Review your apps which are also displayed in order of space occupied. This will help you know which are taking up the most space on your phone as you move forward.    Stay tuned as Blind Abilities continues to add to its growing library of iPhone 101 demonstrations aimed at teaching you about specific features or apps on your iDevice, or reacquainting you with some that have faded with time. Also, be sure to offer suggestions for additional topics that Jeff and Pete can cover in future episodes of this series. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

iPhone101: Script App  Demonstration and a conversation with Envision America's Director of Marketing, Jenna Reed   Blind Abilities adds to its growing library of iPhone 101 demonstrations with this in depth perusal of the ScripTalk app for iOS, coupled with an interview with Jenna Reed, Director of Marketing at Envision America. Envision America is a 25 year-old company who offers the Scriptability program, of which ScripTalk is a part.  Scriptability provides a variety of accessible labels for prescription medications, including  booklet-style, large print (known as ScriptView), dual language and Controlled Substance Safety Labels that attach securely to the medicine bottle. It also encompasses braille overlay labels, and talking labels (ScripTalk), which involve an RFID digital label affixed to the bottom of your pill bottle. In this iPhone 101 demonstration, Pete Lane focusses on using the free iOS ScripTalk app, also available for Android, which reads the RFID labels on the iPhone. Join Pete as he first chats with Jenna Reed from Envision America who relays to us the history of the company, from its inception when its primary product was ID Mate, a talking bar code scanner, a popular device for blind and visually impaired customers, but which has been recently retired and no longer available for purchase. Jenna assures owners that all warranties will be honored for repairs and maintenance, that spare parts are available, and that any and all efforts will be made to assist users with any problems they may encounter with ID Mate devices. Meanwhile, the company is focused on their accessible prescription labels which are a dynamic and useful product for more than 20,000 blind and visually impaired users. As an alternative, Envision America also provides a stand-alone device which will read the RFID label without having to use the smart phone app.  Once again Blind Abilities addresses the interests of their listeners with a detailed, yet quick review of an iOS app that is used across the blindness community. Listen as Pete shares his process of enrolling in the ScripTalk program following a potentially dangerous experience in which he mixed-up two different medications using his “tried and true” method of organizing his daily medications. While this method failed, it fortunately led to his decision to join the ScripTalk program which offers an almost foolproof process of identifying prescription medications reliably.. Pete walks through the features of the ScripTalk app, describing how to perform both the Quick Scan and Full Scan options, and delving into the other elements of the app, including the My Meds, Pharmacies and Help tabs, which provide considerable information to users.   As usual, Pete includes some humor and effects which provide for an interesting demonstration and an entertaining listening experience for you.   Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities adds to their iPhone101 Series with this short and sweet demo of how to quickly share your contact information or that of a friend or colleague with someone using the standard iOS share sheet. This feature is built into the individual Contact page and facilitates the simple sharing of a Contact Card for yourself, another individual, a business or organization. Pete Lane walks us through the process quickly and nimbly with concise and understandable guidance of each simple step along the way.  As an added bonus, Pete shows us how to eliminate or hide what is often a lengthy list of friends or colleagues with whom you can share links, articles, videos or yes, your Contact information within the standard Share Sheet found universally throughout iOS. For some of us, this list of names and apps can clutter our process for sharing our chosen information. Pete shows us a simple and quick setting to change that will eliminate this list. Pete adds sound effects to enhance the demonstration and ad some variety to the presentation. Set aside a handful of minutes now, and save valuable time and effort later. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities adds to their iPhone 101 demonstration series library with this short but informative walk through sending audio messages using the Messages app and iOS. Pete Lane guides us through this simple, yet time-saving process which involves confirming your settings, summoning Siri, using the raise to talk and raise to listen features to enhance simplicity, and a step-by-step demonstration of each button and element within the messages app. this feature can save some valuable time when you're on the run, or when you just don't feel like sending a text message to a family member, friend or colleague. Simply summons Siri, as described in our previous iPhone 101 episode, or go directly to the app and save time either way. Additionally, an audio message adds a personal touch to your communications. As usual, Pete attempts to include some entertainment,  but his  Ultimate success, of course, will be yours and yours alone to judge! So sit back, relax and enjoy this iPhone 101 demonstration. The podcast is brief, but it may pay dividends in the time and energy that it saves you down the road! Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities gets back to its iPhone 101 series with a comprehensive review of a multitude of tasks aimed at helping us better understand what Apples much-maligned personal assistant, none other than Siri, can do for us, and what he or she cannot do for us. Pete Lane takes us through dozens of task and commands, ranging from simple to complex, and demonstrates how many are truly convenient and easy to perform. Be aware that the phrase, Hey Siri, is used through out this episode; headphones recommended. Join Pete as he meticulously demonstrates each step of every command, beginning with Siri Settings, each press of a button or verbal command, each response and each adjustment needed to settings or apps to ensure Siri's actions are on target. When the dust settles, there are only a few tasks which cannot be completed by the Apple Personal Assistant. Sit back and listen closely as Pete moves quickly through actions like asking the time all over the world, setting alarms and reminders, performing math computations and measurement conversions, searching for text messages, composing What's App messages,  emails and audio messages, and much much more. Of course, a Blind Abilities podcast would not be complete without a full dose of music. Listen as Pete orders Siri to identify a song, play a song from a streaming service or his music  library, play a radio station, and more! Pete's recommendation is that, like using any kind of technology, we need to get used to using it. We may just find it is something we will find beneficial, and save us valuable tine in our daily routine. You can leave us some feedback at Info@BlindAbilities.com and leave a voice message at 612-367-9063. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-9063 we would love to hear from you! Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

In the first part of our Musicians Spotlight Series, we bring you John Kay from Steppenwolf Fame which brought us such great hits as Born to be Wild, Magic Carpet Ride, The Pusher and 50 years of John Kay music and his work with NGOs helping Elephants survive as they, too, were Born to be Wild. John Kay: from Rock Star to Elephants, We Were All Born To Be Wild #Steppenwolf to #MaueKayFoundation Show Summary (Full Text Transcript Below) John Kay reveals his journey from escaping the Iron Curtain, getting on with limited vision, his passion for music and his love and commitment for wildlife and especially elephants. Ironically, I first learned about John Kay being legally blind from Dan Gausman, a librarian at State Services for the Blind of Minnesota. A client requested to have the Communications Center record an audio copy of John Kay's 1994 autobiography, Magic Carpet Ride. This is a service provided to people who are blind, visually impaired, dyslexic or have difficulty in reading the printed word. Dan mentioned that John was legally blind. This I did not know. John Kay explains his vision and how it led him from behind the Iron Curtain to the freedoms of West Berlin, his adventures as a youth and his days at Sight Saving school in Toronto. Canada. Most importantly, John talks about feeding the fire, feeding his passion for music and for the protection of wildlife. John Kay is transforming from Rock Star to Wildlife Advocate as his touring days with John Kay and Steppenwolf come to a well-deserved rest after 50 years since the release of the first Steppenwolf album. John is ready to make this transition as he has been devoting his time and proceeds from his touring over the last 10 years towards John and his wife Jutta's Maue Kay Foundation, and NGOs, Non-Governmental Organization, similar to a Non-profit organization, that focus on the protection of wildlife. Image of Elephants provided by MKF Join Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane as they sit down with John Kay and learn about John's continuing soundtrack of his life, his experiences and his focus on the years to come. This podcast is over 80 minutes long and we suggest kicking back and enjoy this epic interview with one of the great social and political voices with us today. My son asked me while he drove us home from the John Kay and Steppenwolf concert September 29 in Prior Lake, MN, why don't today's bands make statements about causes anymore? I thought to myself and wondered… is John Kay one of the last? Maue Kay Foundation Logo Here are some links that will let you know more about his music and his foundation. I suggest starting here, Steppenwolf.comwhere you can dive in and find out about everything Steppenwolf, purchase their swag, read articles and more about John Kay. Be sure to get their latest release, a 3 CD set titled, John Kay and Steppenwolf-Steppenwolf at 50. Included in this 3-disk set is an entire CD of John Kay and Steppenwolf live. You will learn and enjoy this collection of hits, and somewhat over-looked songs from 1967 to 2017. That is where you will find all the music used in this podcast, John Kay and Steppenwolf-Steppenwolf at 50. Follow John Kay and Steppenwolf on Facebookand on Last.FM Be sure to check out John Kay's web site. Where you can find links to articles, interviews, his solo music, the elephant sanctuary and the Maue Kay Foundationand learn about the passion and selflessness that John and Jutta and others are doing to protect wildlife around the world. And an Elephant size Thank You to John Kay for taking time to conduct this interview and to Charlie Wolf for all that you do and whom I met at the concert in Prior Lake, Minnesota. Glad I could support the band and I love the T-Shirts. By the way, the concert was Great! Thanks for Listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Full Transcript John Kay: From Rock Star to Elephants, We Were All Born To Be Wild #Steppenwolf to #MaueKayFoundation John Kay: To become aware of how special they are. I'm a big elephant lover you might say. Jeff Thompson: Blind Abilities welcomes John Kay, wildlife activist. John Kay: My vision got me probably out of Communist East Germany and my vision very definitely kept me out of Vietnam. Jeff Thompson: Who happens to be a rockstar. John Kay: They were all telling her, “You got a legally blind, penniless musician, and that's your future? I think you can do better than that.” Jeff Thompson: John talks about his limited vision, his band, Steppenwolf, one's inner voice, and following your passion. John Kay: There's an old snide remark, what do you call a musician without a girlfriend? You call them homeless. Jeff Thompson: I would like to thank Dan Guzman of the Communication Center at State Services for the Blind of Minnesota, as Dan informed me that a client had requested the autobiography of John Kay to be converted into audio format. Dan also informed me that John Kay was legally blind, and this started the process that led me to the interview of John Kay. John Kay: Hey, we all got stuff to deal with, kid, just get on with it. You learn how to figure out workaround solutions for what you're dealing with. Jeff Thompson: Hello, John Kay. I'm Jeff Thompson, and with me is Pete Lane. Pete Lane: Good morning, John. It's an honor. I'm Pete Lane. I'm in Jacksonville, Florida. Jeff is in … Jeff Thompson: Minnesota, Pete. Pete Lane: Yeah, Minnesota. John Kay: I'm in Santa Barbara. Jeff Thompson: What's the tie to Tennessee then? John Kay: I lived there for 17 years. In '89 my wife and I were a little tired of Los Angeles beehive activity. We said, “If not here, then where?” To spare the other boring details, we wound up just south of Nashville, Tennessee. In our travels with Steppenwolf we had played there several times. We'd met a lot of friendly people. It's a beautiful area. Lots of music, obviously. We were out in the country, and lots of privacy, and had a recording studio and our tour bus. We just relocated what we called Wolf World out there. For the following 17 years that was home. It was a good period during our life to be a little bit away from large cities. Jeff Thompson: Great. Pete Lane: Do you have an elephant reserve, do you not, still in Tennessee? John Kay: I don't, but Tennessee certainly does. While we lived in Tennessee, we became aware of the elephant sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, which was about, I don't know, maybe 40 minutes drive from where we lived, which was near a little town called Franklin, Tennessee. John Kay: Anyway, one thing led to another. Eventually my wife got involved with the board of directors of the sanctuary, and then they're after our daughter, who's all about animals, so from childhood wound up becoming a caregiver to three large African elephants. She was there for several years. It was like the Peace Corps slogan, the toughest job you'll ever love. She did love it, but she's rather slender in build and developed arthritis. The doctors told her she should quit, which she had to do very reluctantly. John Kay: However, the sanctuary of course continues doing very well. It's a wonderful place for often abused, neglected, sick, old circus and zoo elephants to finally live amongst their own kind without any human intrusion. They have 2,700 acres of rolling hills and woods and waterholes for them to swim in. Once you get to know elephants, because our foundation is involved with African elephants-focused NGOs in Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania, and the like, once you get to spend a real amount of time with them out in the wild, in those places where they aren't traumatized by poaching, you become aware of how special they are. I'm a big elephant lover you might say. Pete Lane: I was reading on your website where you posted the awareness of the elephant sanctuary in Tennessee and how they live a lifestyle that they never get to live when they're held in captivity. John Kay: Exactly. It used to be this way, and I don't suppose that has changed, the number one killer of captive elephants was foot rot, because unlike in the wild, where they walk up to 50 miles on relatively soft, sandy soil, in captivity they are often forced to stand on a solid concrete floor, and that's not good for them, so eventually they … One of the rescues, Tina, which came from the Vancouver Zoo, when she arrived, they had to … I was gonna say, one of the sandal makers, I can't think of the name of the brand right now, they actually made a pair of very soft boots for her because she was suffering so badly. Unfortunately, she died a couple of days before those boots arrived. I saw the bottom of her feet, which were just terrible situation. John Kay: They don't belong in captivity unless you can have a relatively good number of elephants together in a large area where they can at least simulate the kind of life they would have in the wild. Pete Lane: 2,700 acres is a large area. Do you know how many animals are on the preserve? John Kay: I think at the moment they have somewhere in the neighborhood of close to a dozen Asian elephants. They fenced off a section of the 2,700 acres for the African elephants, which are much larger, and thank goodness in relatively good health. They're larger and younger and very active, so they keep them away from the Asians, that are older and more docile. I believe right now they have about four Africans, because the Nashville Zoo I think has two of them that are there at the sanctuary now. I don't know whether they will stay there long-term, but that's what's going on there right now. John Kay: It's quite an amazing place, and so much has been learned about how to look after these creatures, and from the standpoint of veterinarian care. The research, both in the wild and in places like the sanctuary, on elephants continues, because there's still much to be learned, even though people like Joyce Poole has been studying their communication skills and language and rumbles and all of that for over 40 years. They're still working on figuring out what goes on that's beyond the grasp of science right now. Jeff Thompson: We'll be sure to put a link in the show notes for that. John, your story is quite interesting. I'm doing some research, and I just came across Feed the Fire. I was wondering, hearing about that elephant sanctuary, your foundation, it seems like you stuck to your passions. John Kay: Yeah. That's quite observant and quite spot-on, because long ago as a child, the first time I became aware of something that is I suppose related to passion or rooted in passion is when I discovered the power of music. That oddly enough was … John Kay: My father had been killed in Russia a month before I was born. When the Russian Army advanced on the area where my mother and I lived, I was just a few months old, she took me, and we got on a train headed west, and wound up eventually in a little town that wound up behind the Iron Curtain, and hence we were living under Communism until I was five. When we escaped, my mother and I, by paying off some people and getting through the border, which was patrolled with soldiers and all of that, anyway, we made it. John Kay: The point is that I was about eight or nine years old, living in West Germany, under democracy and freedom, and my mother took me to hear, of all things, an all-male, a Russian choir, the Don Cossacks. This was in a church with great acoustics. It was just a concert. Some of these ancient, incredibly sad songs that these 15 guys with these amazing voices were singing reduced me to tears, even though I didn't understand a word of Russian. I still don't. In fact, my mother was somewhat concerned. It introduced me to the power of music when it connects with your internal core. John Kay: Oddly enough, less than maybe four years later, I had a similar but very opposite experience when I first heard on American Armed Force Radio Network the likes of Little Richard and Elvis and all the rest of the rock-and-roll pioneers. I just had goosebumps, chicken skin from head to toe. Once again, I didn't understand a word of what they were singing, but the music was so primal, so intense, so full of just joy of living I'd say. That was just something that I had to have more of. John Kay: I became obsessed with trying to find this music wherever I could, and of course at a certain point started to have the delusion that someday I could be on the other side of the ocean and learn how to speak English and get a guitar and do this sort of thing myself. Obviously conventional wisdom and the adults were saying, “Yeah, sure, kid. In the meantime, pay attention in school.” Jeff Thompson: It's quite obvious you didn't lose that glitter in your eye. John Kay: Yeah. That's I think very important. It's one thing that concerns me with regards to young people that are raised with constant sensory stimulation and having a virtual life through their little screens that they're attached to all the time. John Kay: I remember once talking to university students, and I asked them, “Be honest. How many of you fear silence?” A number of hands went up, because a lot of them, from the time they're toddlers, whether it's TV or the background music of the supermarket or wherever, whenever there's silence, it astounds them, and it concerns them. I finally said, “I'm here to tell you that unless you learn to find some quiet spots, you may never hear a voice that's in you that is trying to tell you there's more out there. In other words, if you don't hear that voice, you may live a totally external life all your life, instead of finding something that is … ” John Kay: That is the humbling experience that I've had, running into people who all their lives have not been seeking the spotlight, but have been from early on moved by a passion to work on behalf of something greater than themselves. I'm specifically talking about the various people that in the last 15 years, through our efforts in various parts of the world, we've had the great pleasure and honor even to rub shoulders with. It's a humbling thing to see people who are not about themselves, but on behalf of others. You learn from that sort of thing. John Kay: There are a lot of young people who have that capability also. I'm often wondering whether they aren't so barraged with constant Twittering and social media and whatever else is going on that they never have a quiet moment. That's not necessarily a good thing in my opinion. Jeff Thompson: I was talking to Pete earlier, and I was dissecting your song, but you just answered the question for me, that solitude is no sacrifice. John Kay: That's right. You picked up on that. That song has been used by a number of people who wanted to play something for their daughter or son that were about to leave home and go to university or go far afield to do something on distant shores. That's basically it. “Solitude's no sacrifice, to catch a glimpse of paradise.” Jeff Thompson: That's an awesome song. I really like that song. Pete, you've got some questions I'm sure. I've been jumping in here. Pete Lane: John, I'm just honored to be speaking with you. I'm in my late 60s and of course grew up with you and your music and of course Steppenwolf. Until recently I had no idea of how enduring you have been and how diverse you are in your view of the world and society. I just want to compliment you on that for starters. John Kay: Thank you. That's very kind of you and generous. I would hope and think that I will continue to be still in a lifelong learning process of clumsily following the footsteps left by others that have preceded me with their examples of how to nurture their humanity and how to have a purpose in life beyond just mindless consumption and amusing themselves, as the book once said, amusing ourselves to death. It's something that keeps the inner flame burning, and been very, very fortunate in many different ways, currently still healthy, thank goodness. Any day when you remain vertical is a good day. Pete Lane: Absolutely. John Kay: There are so many out there who lead with their example. I have met some of them who have been inspirational. Every so often, some young people come along, say, “Hey, I came across your music, and it has given me some stuff to listen to when I have to get over one of the speed bumps of life, and thank you for that.” It's a generational thing. I'm still focused on the ones ahead of me. There are younger ones that have found something in what we have to offer of a value that went beyond just musical wallpaper, but with no real substance that you can use for your own. John Kay: There's so many out there who have written songs and played music practically all their lives, which has given sustenance to the rest of us, or the listeners, and have had personal little anthems that we go to when we need to have a moment of rejuvenation through music. John Kay: I sometimes talk to people who say, “You're talking about all these other people doing great work, making music that gives great pleasure and joy to people. It's not a bad way to make a living either.” While I agree with that, music will continue to be something that I do on occasion, meaning once in a while I have a desire to write a song or two, irrespective of whether they will ever be recorded and commercially released. I've performed at fundraisers and things like that. Music continues very definitely to be part of my life. John Kay: By the same token, I am very much now focused on bringing the word to a lot of people, who once they know what we are losing, meaning wildlife, we've had this number of times, we're talking to people who are well-educated, quite engaged, very successful in what they do, and when we talked about that an elephant was being killed every 15 minutes for their tusks and that we, at this rate, 15 years from now, may no longer have any living in the wild, and the same holds for the rhinos and numerous other species, they're aghast. They're, “I didn't know that. This is terrible. Who's doing anything about it?” Then further to that, “Who can I trust with my money if I want to help?” John Kay: That's really what our little foundation is about. We have been supporting various entities. I think at this point we're at 16 different NGOs we support annually for about 15 years. We're the ones who are a little bridge between the boots on the ground who are fighting to preserve what remains, and those who are willing to help provide it, there's some assurance that their money will go to the boots on the ground. We're the ones who can vouch for a number of wonderful people at NGOs. Because we have born witness to the work they do, we're going to back to Africa next year to look in on several of the NGOs again. That's my role of both my wife and I. John Kay: In fact, this year's the last year that Steppenwolf will be performing. We have six more engagements to play, the last one October 14, and after that the wolf will go into hibernation, if you want to put it that way. My emphasis is now on … I assume both of you are familiar with TED Talks. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Pete Lane: Yes. John Kay: With that in mind, although the following is not a TED Talk per se, because those talks are limited to 18 minutes in length, mine is more like an hour and 15 minutes, but what it is, it's similar to a TED Talk, in the sense that I'm up on stage giving my story, while behind me on a screen there are many, many still images and short video clips and so on. The whole thing is called Born To Be Wild: From Rock Star To Wildlife Advocate, John Kay of Steppenwolf and His Journey of Transformation. John Kay: It basically starts with my early life and how I got out from behind the Iron Curtain and was enthralled with American rock-and-roll when I grew up as a teenager in West Germany and made it to Canada as an immigrant, got my first guitar, and then got into music more and more, and of course the story of Steppenwolf, and then how gradually over time we, my wife and I, through our travels, went to Cambodia, where we saw the killing fields, and we got involved with building a school there, which was the start of our foundation, and then Africa and so on down the line. John Kay: Basically at the end of this presentation, towards the end, after having shown what we do, where, and who is doing what in Africa and Asia and Borneo and so on, it's basically a pitch of saying, “Now that you know, if you didn't know already, you can use our website as a gateway to other NGOs or you can support what we do directly, but do it for your grandchildren's sake or do it to honor the 2,000, almost, African rangers that have been killed by poachers in the last 12 years, or do it simply because our fellow living beings have very little left to call their home, and they too have a right to exist.” Pete Lane: Unbelievable. Jeff Thompson: That's awesome. I love the way you talk about your passion that you even have today. Pete and I both met because we had a passion for recording. One story that really caught my attention is when you were in Toronto and you received your reel-to-reel, and I don't think you listened to the books as much as you wanted it for recording music. John Kay: You got that right. It was a scam from the get-go. I said, “I don't need talking books. I can read books, even though I gotta read them with my nose.” I said, “I could use it for something else.” I was just simply appalled at what came out of that dinky little speaker that was built into that Wollensak tape recorder, because when I tried my hand at recording my first efforts of playing guitar and singing, I said, “I don't sound like that, do I? This is terrible.” It was sheer ego that kept me going, said, “One way I can get better if I keep at it.” Hope springs eternal. Sometimes you simply have more luck than talent. Pete Lane: John let's talk a little bit more if you don't mind about your eye condition. Talk about that a little bit. Let's start if you don't mind a little bit in your early years and maybe focus in Toronto when you were moved into is it Deer Park, that Deer Park school? John Kay: Yeah, that was the sight-saving classes. It's a strange thing, with respect to my eyes. When I was still a baby, lying in one of these carriages that back in those days were typical, I think the English call them prams or whatever, living in this tiny little town in what was then East Germany, I would cry whenever the sun was in my eyes. John Kay: When I was older, my mother took me to an ophthalmologist, and he said, “He obviously has very, very poor vision and he's very light-sensitive.” The only thing he could think of at the time was that, “His condition might improve if he had a better diet,” because at that time we were on food rations, and because of where we were, we were eating herring morning, noon, and night, boiled, fried, stewed herring, coming out of the ears. I never touched a fish again after that until I was 40-something years old. John Kay: This is the important point about this. My mother took that as a, “Maybe the doctor's right.” It was that that caused her to take the risky chance of getting caught, imprisoned, or shot by, in the middle of the night, together with about half a dozen other people, getting smuggled by a couple of border guides that worked for the railroad and knew how to time the searchlights from the watchtowers and the dog patrols and everything else. John Kay: We got through, and then it turned out that, this was in Hanover, Germany, West Germany, and of course this was after the war, there were still schools in short supply, having been destroyed, and so there were classes 50 children large, two shifts, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. I was not doing well. It was my mother who was working as a seamstress who managed to get me into the Waldorf school, the private school, which was banned under Hitler because it was far too humanitarian, but which looked after me. There I blossomed, and the eyes didn't play as big a role. John Kay: It wasn't until I came to Toronto that I was back in public school. I didn't speak English yet and couldn't read what was on the blackboard. The school officials got in touch with the CNIB, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and they said, “We have these sight-saving classes in a, it's just one large schoolroom segmented into two or three different grades, at a public school called Deer Park School, in the northern part of Toronto.” That's where I went for about two years. John Kay: The primary benefit was that, yes, they had textbooks with extra-large print and all that, but I learned English during those years, not just in school, but because of my obsession with listening to the radio all the time, looking for music that connected, I was always having to try and make out what these speed-rapping DJs were saying, because they were yakking a mile a minute. Between radio and the Deer Park School, I got to the point where I got a handle on things. Of course during that period at that school, I was also given this tape recorder on loan. As I mentioned before, I immediately pressed that into service. Jeff Thompson: That's really impressive, just the journey. John Kay: One thing I should add, by the way, was that nobody really knew what was the matter with me. I went to a Toronto University I think, the medical department, ophthalmology I think it was. There I was treated like a guinea pig. They brought in all these medical students and take a look in my eyes and everything. They said, “Oh, you're totally colorblind. Let's see here.” John Kay: They had one of those books where every page is made out of these little mosaic little pebbles with different colors.” Embedded amongst them, so to speak, would be a combination of these colored tiles that spelled something, a letter or a number or something. At the beginning of the book, the contrast between the primary colors versus whatever the number or the letter was very stark. I said, “Yeah, that, it says six, okay.” As we went from page to page, the differences in terms of contrast became more and more subdued to the point where by page whatever, I don't see anything other than just one page of all these little mosaic tiles and pebbles. They would say, “No, actually there is a light yellow whatever something or other.” John Kay: They figured out later down the line that I was an achromat, achromatopsia, that as an additional bonus with that condition comes extreme light sensitivity. Then finally, I also have a congenital nystagmus, which is the eyes shaking all the time. You do the best you can with what you have. John Kay: Now in '63, and this has a point with respect to my vision, my vision got me probably out of Communist East Germany, and my vision also probably, in fact very definitely, kept me out of the U.S. Army and probably out of Vietnam, because when in '63 at age 19 my mother and stepdad, my mom had remarried, decided to move from Toronto to Buffalo, New York, because my stepdad had something going on business-wise, and I joined them there, the first letter that hit our mailbox was from the draft board. Of course I had to show up. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to the States. John Kay: Of course somebody once said that the military intelligence is an oxymoron. I'm not the judge on that, but I will tell you that I had something that made me scratch my head, namely when I was there and I was to have a complete physical, I tried to tell the man that I was legally blind, and of course he said, “We'll get to that, son.” After a very, very thorough, top to bottom, in and out physical examination, he said, “Now read those letters on that chart on the wall.” I said, “What chart?” He said, “You can't see the chart?” I walked a little closer, said, “I see it now.” “What do you see?” “If I can step a few steps closer … ” “Yeah, you can.” “Okay. I think there's a large capital A at the top, and the rest is guesswork.” He harrumphed about, “You could've said … Never mind.” My designation was 4F. I asked him, “What does that mean really?” He said, “Son, in your case it pretty well stands for women and children first, before you. Nobody's gonna put a rifle in your hands.” John Kay: It was one of those things where during those times, because in short order I went to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, to hear the greats, and I was amongst tens of thousands of young people my age, of course many of them, at least 50% or more, being young men. The draft in the Vietnam War was very much on everybody's mind. I could relate to their concerns about going off to a foreign land. This case, I would imagine my eye condition did me a service. Jeff Thompson: That was probably a baptism into the social issues of the United States coming from Toronto for you. John Kay: That's very true. That is very true. Sometimes you have the aha moment decades after it was already rather obvious. In certain ways, what makes up my musical background in terms of my self-taught things, is to some extent rooted in the early '60s folk music revival, in my visits to not just the 1964 but also the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. '65 of course I saw Dylan go electric. That is that I had already, because of my baptism with rock-and-roll, by the early '60s rock-and-roll had lost a lot of its punch and we had the pretty boy Philadelphia singer syndrome, like Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and the like. There wasn't much on the radio that I could really sink my teeth into. Here comes the folk music revival. John Kay: While living in Buffalo, a folkie says, “If you really want to know the roots of all this stuff, go down to the main library, they have a music department, which has all of the Library of Congress recording that John and Alan Lomax made in the field. You can listen to Appalachian Delta music. You can hear Delta blues, whatever.” I did that. They would let you take a few albums home every week and trade them out for other ones. I went through the entire thing and gave myself a bit of an education. John Kay: Then when I went to the Newport Folk Festival and saw some of those still alive, those recordings I'd heard, I didn't know that McKinley Morganfield, who was recorded in the Delta by the Lomaxes, was actually Muddy Waters. Here he was with his band playing at Newport, and all of those kind of things. John Kay: The blues, which as Muddy once said, “The blues had a baby and they called it rock-and-roll,” so the blues immediately spoke to me, particularly when I came across some of the lyrics of the chain gang songs and other things. There's a powerful song about … The lyrics go, “Why don't you go down ole Hannah.” Hannah was the name they gave to the sun, “And don't you arise no more, and if you rise in the morning, bring judgment day,” because these are guys, they hated her, because the sun came up, they were forced to work in the field, out of the prison, the chain gangs, and they didn't get any rest until the sun went down. I learned that the blues had a lot more to offer than just, “Woke up this morning, my chicken walked across my face,” and all the rest of the stuff they'd write. John Kay: The other thing was great, was that the likes of Dylan and numerous others of the times were following in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie and writing new songs about the here and now that was of interest to our own age group, because this was the time when the three civil rights workers were killed in Mississippi. I remember hearing, let's see, I can't think of his name right now, it'll come to me later, he was just like Dylan, a topical, as we called them, we never called them protest songs, topical songwriter. I remember he sang it, had just written it, about the killing of these three, at a topical song workshop in the afternoon. His name was Ochs, Phil Ochs. Jeff Thompson: Phil Ochs, yeah. Pete Lane: Phil Ochs, of course. John Kay: Suicide some years later. The refrain of the song was, “And here's to the land that you've torn the heart out of. Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of.” Jeff Thompson: That rings through with your Monster song. John Kay: Yeah, because the thing that became obvious to me was that songs can have content which is reflective of what's on people's minds. One of the first things we experienced as Steppenwolf was a baby band, when we went on our first cross-country tour and we were still approachable, so to speak, by long-haired kids in bellbottoms who wanted to say hello after the show, a lot of them said, “Those first two albums of yours we got, you're saying on our behalf some of the things that worry us or that we are concerned with.” John Kay: That's the first time we had positive reinforcement that what we were writing about was not just our own individual personal opinions, but it was reflective of what was on the minds of many of those in our own age group. Of course I had experienced that at Newport. It was a galvanizing experience to be amongst 20,000 young people, and they're listening to somebody like a Phil Ochs or a Bob Dylan, and others who were writing about what was going on in our country in the world. Like JFK once said, “And that's the role of the artist, to remind us of the potential we have yet to reach,” in terms of being a just society and all the rest. John Kay: When it came time for us to start writing our own songs, we had of course witnessed, in fact I'd played in a couple of the same coffeehouses as a journeyman folk musician solo act in Los Angeles with the likes of David Crosby and then still called Jim, later Roger, McGuinn and the rest, who formed of course The Byrds. Jeff Thompson: The Byrds. John Kay: Their first album was by and large electric versions of Bob Dylan songs. In fact I was at Ciro's nightclub when The Byrds played, when Dylan showed up and played harmonica with them. That was a photograph on the back of their first album. John Kay: The point is that I took from there, why couldn't even rock music have lyrics that go beyond “oowee baby” and the typical? That's why our first album had songs like The Pusher and The Ostrich and Take What You Need, which was really about the environment, and later, things like Don't Step On The Grass Sam and None of Your Doing, which was on the second album, which was about a Vietnam soldier coming home and nobody understands him and he can't deal with what he had witnessed. Then of course eventually came the Monster album. John Kay: The thing with the Monster album, which was very, very successful, popular on the college campuses, were all these demonstrations which were going on against the war in the campuses, and then of course the horrific Kent State shooting. These were things where what we had to say resonated with a lot of young people. John Kay: What I found interesting was that we after so many years were no longer playing that song as part of our show. Then came the Great Recession, 2007-08, and all of a sudden, a couple of things happened. I can't think of his name right now, he's been a stalwart writer for Rolling Stone for several decades, from the early days on, and he had posted a thing, something like, “I went back to listening to Steppenwolf's Monster album and I was astounded how appropriate it is in the here and now.” John Kay: That coincided shortly with getting more and more requests on our website via email primarily, “Please start playing Monster again.” From about 2009 onward, we've been playing it ever since. It's rare that that song does not get a standing ovation in the middle of the show. Of course it's aided and abetted by visuals that accompany our live performance, not every song, but many. In the case of Monster, it is a 10-minute film that illustrates pretty well what the song, line by line, lyrically is about. John Kay: I remember when we did it for the first time in 2009, our sound man, who's been with us now for over 30 years, and he said, “John, I had the most weird experience tonight, because there was this strange situation with Monster. It was like I was watching a movie that had a soundtrack that a live band was playing, and instead of a narrator telling me what the story was, you were simply singing the story. It was just a really intense experience.” It's been like that ever since. John Kay: Sometimes you write something, and it goes out there like a kid leaving home, and you have no idea what it's doing out there, and then all of a sudden it comes back and say, “I'm still here.” Jeff Thompson: The prodigal song. John Kay: It's been like that for the last 10 years. It's a song that seems to very much resonate about what we are dealing with right now. Pete Lane:         It's funny, John, Jeff and I, again, were speaking before you connected with us this afternoon, and I had prepared a question along those lines. As you did earlier in this interview, you've answered it. Let me ask you this question. It's a slight variation on what we just spoke of. For those of you who don't know, Monster is just a dynamite song. It chronicles the country, the United States from its inception to what was then modern-day U.S. back in 1970 I believe, '71, early '70s. John Kay: Correct. Pete Lane: My question is this. If you were to write that song today, would you title it anything different? John Kay: No, because in my opinion the Monster has almost taken human shape now. Donald Trump: The American Dream is dead. Richard Nixon: I'm not a crook. Donald Trump: We will make America great again! Richard Nixon: I'm not a crook. I'm not a crook. I'm not a crook. Pete Lane: Just a dynamite song. Jeff Thompson: There's another long big song. It was big on the album I bought. You had over I think it was 20-minute long, The Pusher. John Kay: Yeah, that thing. There's a story to be told about that, I'll tell you. You're referring to the so-called early Steppenwolf album, a vinyl album obviously, back in those days. One side was that 20-minute version of The Pusher. That whole thing came to be because it was really a performance done by the band The Sparrow, which I had joined. John Kay: When I was in the early '60s, like so many others, with a guitar, hitchhiking around, playing wherever they'd let me, in coffeehouses and the like, when I returned after a year of being in Los Angeles, hanging out at the Troubadour, doing various things, meeting Hoyt Axton, learning The Pusher from him, etc, and wound up in Toronto again, and York Village at that time, section of Toronto had exploded into this area of just coffeehouses and clubs, all sorts of things. While I played at a coffeehouse as a solo act, I bumped into this Canadian band called The Sparrows, with an S, plural at the time. We joined forces. I started to perform The Pusher with an electric band instead of just acoustically. John Kay: The Sparrows eventually left Canada, because in those days most people did, where there was Joni Mitchell and Neil Young or others, and wound up in the States. We played in New York for a while, got a record deal that went nowhere. I kept badgering them that having seen the formation of The Byrds in L.A., that we ought to go to California. That's what we did eventually, and wound up, through various reasons I won't take time to explain, in the Bay area. There we played on the weekends usually the Avalon Ballroom or the Fillmore Ballroom. During the week we would play different clubs. One of them was a permanently beached paddle wheeler ferry boat in Sausalito called The Ark. John Kay: We were now amongst all of these Bay area bands that liked to stretch out and experiment and jam and do different things. We said, “Hey, we can play songs that are longer than four or five minutes.” We started to do different things. One of them was this ad-libbed version of The Pusher, which was preceded by us doing different instrumental experiments. Steve Miller would come by and sit in and play all the different things. One of the things we'll always remember is that regularly the Hells Angels would come, drop acid, lie down on the dance floor, and stay all night listening. John Kay: We also played a club called The Matrix. Unbeknownst to us, the manager of the club had a couple of microphones suspended in the ceiling. When Steppenwolf later were moving forward into the '68 and '69, when we were quite successful with our first couple albums, we were being badgered to go back into the recording studio, because the label was always hungry for a new product. We had a couple record contracts that obligated us to deliver two albums a year, which was in hindsight ridiculous. John Kay: Anyway, the point is that the label said, “This young man, or this guy showed up, and he has these tapes that he recorded, unbeknownst to you, when you guys were still called The Sparrows, from a show you played at The Matrix in San Francisco. We would like to put it out as a collector's item called Early Steppenwolf.” We listened to it. Of course you can imagine that with a couple of microphones suspended from the ceiling, this was, yeah, a collector's item for those who must just for bragging rights have to have one of everything, to be able to say, “I got everything they ever did.” We hated that. We hated it then, but it bought us time. It bought us time in the studio, because when that thing was released, we got busy on writing and eventually recording what became the Monster album. That was a major step forward. Jeff Thompson: Yes, it was. Pete Lane: Fascinating story. Jeff Thompson: John, I want to go back to you told a story about how kids in school would bully you, but you took their names, you remembered, and you would get them back somehow. John Kay: It wasn't so much in school. What would happen is, like just about everywhere in the world, including the States these days, soccer, what they called football, every kid plays it. They play it barefoot in Africa. Whatever. We did too, meaning the kids in the street in West Germany when I was young. There was a vacant lot next to our little apartment building, and that's where we played. John Kay: During the day, with the sun in my eyes, even with my dark glasses, that wasn't so cool, but the moment the sun started going down, during twilight hours, I'm like a nocturnal creature that can make do with very little light. My eyes open up. I don't squint. I can see much better, not further, just more comfortably I can see things. John Kay: I would join the kids playing soccer. When they figured out that I couldn't always see what was going on, there's an 11-meter penalty kick that's part of the rules, and so when it was my turn to make that kick, some wise ass would put a half a brick in front of the ball, so I wouldn't see it. I'd come with just regular street shoes, no special athletic shoes, and take a run at shooting this ball, and of course, wham, would run my toes right into that brick- Jeff Thompson: Ouch. John Kay: … holding my foot and hopping around on one leg, doing a Daffy Duck, “Woo! Woo!” That did not go down well with me. I was fairly big for my size always, tall. They then of course saw that I was gonna come after them. They also knew that if they managed to run a certain distance, I could no longer find them. I had to learn to say, “This is not the time.” Two or three days would go by, and they would have forgotten about it, and whoever the instigator was would be doing something, and then I would go over there and deck them. They would be, “Oh man, what was that for, man? I didn't do … ” “Yes, you did, and I did not forget, but I hope you will remember this,” and they did. Jeff Thompson: I remember seeing your album covers. I collected albums. There was one of you leaning back, and you're very tall, the way the angle was on it. You wore the sunglasses. When I thought of artists, musicians, I go through Roy Orbison and other people that wore the sunglasses on stage and stuff, I never thought of you. When someone brought it to my attention, State Services for the Blind here, some client wants your book recorded, so they'll take volunteers, record chapter by chapter for the person to listen to. They contacted me, said, “Hey, John Kay, he's visually impaired.” I went, “Oh, that explains the sunglasses,” maybe for the lights on stage or something. John Kay: Absolutely the case. I had learned over time, since I wore dark glasses during the day, certainly outdoors, I got in the habit of keeping them on, because I went, “Spotlights and stage lights, they're pretty bright, and sometimes it's difficult for me to see the guitar fret board, where my fingers go and everything, and so I'll just keep the dark glasses on. Besides, some pretty cool people seem to be wearing them, and so that's just part of the persona.” Over time, meaning literally decades, I learned that I could avoid, provided the spotlights were mounted high enough with a downward angle, I could look under them in a sense, look at the audience rather than up into the bleachers. Gradually I was able to dispense with them on stage, although the moment we play outdoors they go right back on. In fact I have one pair that's damn near as dark as welding goggles when things get really super sunny, Africa's sun is very bright, or the snow is very reflective, that sort of thing. John Kay: Of course I remember one time, we were never the darlings of Rolling Stone, and so there was a negative review of one of our albums. The guy said, I'm paraphrasing, “As far as John Kay's jive sunglasses are concerned,” he went on about something else. Actually, one of our managers felt compelled to write them a letter and point out that those glasses have a purpose for being on my face. He's just like everyone else. John Kay: When I was a kid in West Germany when we first got there, I had a key around my neck, because my mother was a seamstress in other people's homes, so making a living until she remarried, and I had to learn how to get around, to get on this streetcar to get to there, because I was at a daycare center run by the Swedish Red Cross and I had to make my way back home and I couldn't read the street signs. You figure things out, there's this kind of a building on that corner, and markers that you imprint into your memory banks. John Kay: You have to remember, this is a time, post World War II, the Soviet Union alone lost 20 million people. In Hanover in 1949 and '50 and '51, there were tons of people, legs and arms missing and crutches and this and that, those who managed to survive the war in some semblance. It was basically a mindset of, “Hey, we all got stuff to deal with, kid. Just get on with it.” You learned how to figure out workaround solutions for what you're dealing with. I'm certainly one of millions who are having to make adjustments. John Kay: I remember we had a dear neighbor in Tennessee was a Vietnam veteran, Marine Corps, and he was in a wheelchair. He had to overcome his anger and started to meditate and do other things. He said to me, “Hey John, it's not the hand that's dealt you, it's how you play the hand that's dealt you.” He married, had a wonderful daughter. He became a cotton farmer and somehow got onto his tractor, and like so many out there, that okay, he's not perfect, but what are you gonna do with what you got? Jeff Thompson: John, regarding your visual impairment these days, do you use technology, computer, smartphone, anything along those lines? If so, do you use any kind of adaptive tools or screen enlargement features, anything like that? John Kay: I'm lucky enough in the sense that most standard issue devices have features that work just fine. I have a fairly large flat-panel monitor on my PC. Of course with the zoom feature and other things, I can make the font, what I'm reading, as well as what I may be writing, email and Word documents or whatever, whatever I want. The iOS, I have a phone, I have a iPad, they have a zoom feature that's just marvelous. I use that when needed. Some things with Siri or Chicano or something, in the PC world you can actually just ask for certain things to be brought to the screen. I'm learning how to do that more and more. It's a great convenience. John Kay: I really don't have any problems. I've flown all over the world to meet my band mates on my own. I've learned to do … That was a big deal for me, because of … One of you mentioned you had been to our foundation's website. There are a number of videos about the things that we support, and we have witnessed and the wildlife that we see and so on. All of that was shot by me, edited by me, and then narrated by me. Now granted my wife, who is a fine photographer and had no colorblindness like I do, I ask her sometimes, “What about this?” “We can tweak that a little, whatever.” Other than a little color assistance, I do all that myself. John Kay: The reason I can do it primarily is because there are several brands of prosumer or even professional camcorders that have up to 20x optical zoom lens, which gives you an incredible reach from where you are to get a closeup of whatever's in the distance, an elephant, whatever it may be. I use it like a pair of binoculars, because I remember one time we were in Africa and our guide was asking my wife, “He's constantly looking through that thing. Is he always shooting?” She says, “No no no. Instead of picking up a pair of binoculars, then finding something he wants to shoot, putting down-” Jeff Thompson: Good for you. John Kay: “… the binoculars, picking up his camera, he just uses that zoom lens of his like a pair of binoculars, and when he sees something, he just pulls the trigger and starts recording.” Jeff Thompson: That's great. That's neat. John Kay: That's my workaround solution for that. Jeff Thompson: John, there's so much information on your website. I was going through it. That's how I found out about the elephants and your foundation. I also was reading your question and answer, which any of the listeners who are out there, go to his website and check it out, the question and answer, because it answers so many questions. One of them was when someone mentions you are a legend, I loved your response to that. You would say it to if you met Chuck Berry or someone else or something. It was just such a humbling thing that you … Then I believe you met your wife in … John Kay: Toronto. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, in Toronto. Usually when you hear about rock stars and these legends, they've gone through wives, divorces. You're still together. John Kay: We are still together. I was a member of the aforementioned Canadian band in Toronto called The Sparrows. We were playing Downtown Toronto at a place. Between sets, our bass player said, “Hey, my girlfriend is here, sitting over there at that table, and she brought her girl friend. Why don't you join us for a drink or something?” I went over there, and I met this young woman by the name Jutta, spelled J-U-T-T-A. She was from Hamburg, Germany, where she had already as a teenager seen the band that later was to name itself the Beatles and numerous American rock-and-roll stars at The Star-Club in Hamburg. We had some things in common. I liked her a lot. I followed her home that night and moved in with her. We've been together ever since. Jeff Thompson: The longest one-night stand. John Kay: Yeah. The thing is that I, like so many others in the rock-and-roll world, being in our early 20s when we caught a wave as Steppenwolf and we were out there on the road, there's a degree of too much ego, testosterone, drugs, and temptations out there. When my wife sometimes, particularly women ask her, “Was it all roses and rainbows? You guys are still together. What's the secret to your marriage's longevity?” She'll look them straight in the eye and say, “The secret is not getting a divorce.” Jeff Thompson: Rocket science. John Kay: We're very much lifelong partners. We have much, much in common in terms of our interests and where we direct our energy and passion and time. The other hand, rather, she has certain intuitive traits that for whatever reason elude me, and I'm more analytical and more logical in some ways. We're a good fit. It's the yin and the yang together. We hope to remain like that until we are no longer vertical. Jeff Thompson: I have a question about this. When you met her, was your eyesight at the time, did you have to explain to her you won't be driving or something like that? John Kay: Yeah, you're right. Just like my thing that I mentioned earlier, when you're a 12-year-old and you're fantasizing about becoming a rock-and-roller on the other side of the ocean and being told, “Sure, kid,” when I moved in with her, she was a very young, desirable, good-looking woman, some of her friends, there's an old snide remark in the industry, which is, “What do you call a musician without a girlfriend? You call them homeless.” John Kay: When I went back to this other girl that I had been living with, to get some of my belongings to bring those over to Jutta's place, when I showed up at this other girl's place, there was another guy sitting there already, playing the guitar. I said, “Hello, who are you?” He says, “My name is Neil Young. I just came in from Winnipeg and I'm joining this band called The Mynah Birds.” I said, “Oh, cool. I just joined this band called The Sparrows.” In other words, all of us folkies were always looking for a kindhearted woman to put a roof over your head. John Kay: When I moved in with Jutta and we had been together for a while, they were all telling her, “You got a legally blind, penniless musician, and that's your future. I think you can do better than that.” Of course the conventional wisdom, they were absolutely right. The chances of all of this working out the way it did, you'd probably get better odds winning the lottery, if you go to Vegas, they would give you better odds for that, but like I said earlier, sometimes you just have more luck than good sense. It all worked out just fine. Jeff Thompson: That's great. How did you keep your focus? How did you, I keep going back to that song, but your eye on the chart, through all that has gone on with the early Steppenwolf to John Kay and Steppenwolf? What kept you focused? John Kay: That's an interesting story, question rather, because I've had to contemplate that before. I've never felt the need to go see a shrink. I seemed to always get over whatever emotional speed bumps there were. I suspect that the same deeply rooted passion for certain things, be it music, be it a sense of justice, being easily enraged by injustice, that I think is also the touchstone of other things where anger is the motivator and the engine. In the case of Steppenwolf, was very successful, we had various albums, some more commercially successful than others. It wasn't all roses and rainbows, but on the whole, it was a segment of my life that was pretty special, obviously. John Kay: Then came time when the obligations to the band, because of being its primary songwriter and lead singer and front man and all that, became such that I wanted time for the private me, which meant my family, our daughter, who was hardly ever seeing me. John Kay: When I pulled the plug on Steppenwolf in the late '70s, after a rejuvenating period in the mid-'70s on a different label, our little family went in our little family van all over the Southwest. We spent a lot of time in Hawaii, on Maui and stuff. That was quite nurturing and very good for me, but I was also, “Okay, I'm gonna do a solo album, this and that.” It was on pause to a certain extent. John Kay: Then the news reached Jerry Edmonton, the original drummer and co-founder of the band, and friend, that a couple of ex-members of the band were out there using the name Steppenwolf. Then all sorts of boring details as to lawsuits and other things involved, but the news that reached us was generally from fans, saying, “We went to see what was called Steppenwolf, and it was horrible. People were throwing stuff at them. They're trashing the name.” John Kay: We tried to put a stop to these activities, using the legal system, lawsuits and so on. Again, it would take too much time to go into the details. Let's just say that the results, I kept saying, “This legal system is limping along like a turtle with a wooden leg. We're not getting anywhere here with these lawsuits.” It was like whack-a-mole. You'd go after them in this state, they'd pop up in another state. John Kay: Finally, out of sheer desperation and anger, I had a number of musicians with whom I had been playing as the John Kay Band, I called Jerry and I said, “Man, I want to go out there as John Kay and Steppenwolf, because I want to resurrect the name and rebuild it. We'll work out something, so you participate financially.” He was already into his photographer and artist mode. That was fine. John Kay: In 1980 I went out there, driven by the outrage and anger of, “You guys are destroying something that you didn't build. I was the one who called everybody up to see if you wanted to what became Steppenwolf, and I'm going to go out there and compete with you guys on the same low-level clubs you guys have played the name down into, see who wins.” John Kay: We from 1980 on went out there 20 weeks at a time, five shows a week, overnight drives 500 miles, playing in the toilet circuit of bars, where some of them, you wouldn't want to enter those clubs without a whip and a chair. It was just horrible. John Kay: The mantra was, “Yeah, three years ago we were headlining in arenas. That's not the point. If there are 300 people here tonight at this club who are not above being here to hear us play, and we're certainly not above us playing for them, so the mission is every night we gotta send people home smiling and telling others, ‘You missed a really good show,' and all you can do is grit your teeth that that will eventually,” because we ran into, we distinctly remember, a club on the outskirts of Minneapolis, St. Paul. During the soundcheck time, relatively young guy came over and looked me straight in the face, said, “You're not John Kay. He wouldn't play a shit hole like this.” That was the level to which the name had been played down into. John Kay: That really got me aggravated. I said, “I'm gonna kick their butt, not by … The lawyers are still fighting over this and that, but in the meantime, we're getting great reviews and we're going town by town, state by state.” By 1984, after relentless touring in the States, also twice in Canada, by that time we had also released a couple new albums, twice in Europe, once in Australia, we in essence put what we called the bogus Steppenwolf bands out of business. John Kay: While we were at it, since we were somewhat damaged goods, we said, “Then we're gonna learn how to mind the store ourselves.” That's when we had our own music publishing company, our own recording studio, our own merchandise corporation, our own tour bus, huge truck with a triple sleeper, 105 cases of gear, and on and on. To give you an idea of how tight a bond was formed, our entire crew, all four members have been with me for over 30 years. Jeff Thompson: Oh wow. Pete Lane: Wow. John Kay: We took the reigns into our own hands and learned. I did not want to become a paralegal or para-accountant or any of those other things. Almost everybody in our 12-member organization, bus drivers, everybody, wore multiple hats, selling merchandise during the show or whatever. They were all quality people, and we learned how to fend for ourselves, and not just survive, but at a certain point, thrive. We knew exactly where the money was coming from and where it went. Nobody was running off with our loot to Ecuador. Jeff Thompson: What suggestions would you have for someone today who is interested in music like you were, driving your passion from Little Richard, Chuck Berry, all those people that inspired you to follow your passion? What suggestions in today's music world would you give to them? John Kay: Unfortunately, I wish I had some kind of a magic formula to impart to them, but obviously every situation is vastly different, is really I think in the end, I know people who are tremendously talented, vastly more talented than I am, who are not necessarily doing well. I've experienced in the early days where someone whose primary talent was to show up at every opportunity to pitch what they had to offer. It's one of those, “Did you go to that audition yesterday, this morning, or whatever?” “I had a really late-night last night. I'll go to the next one.” How many opportunities are gonna come your way? It's one of those. John Kay: The other thing is, do you have the fire in your belly to handle the ego-destroying rejections, because there are probably hundreds, if you were to take a poll of … Well-known singer-songwriter Nora Jones, that first album, which I love, was rejected I think by every label in town twice. There are stories like that all over the place. John Kay: How do you pick yourself up every morning after, “I'm sorry, it's just not radio-friendly,” or, “You don't really fit into our whatever.” You need to have a pretty intense flame of passion about what you are and what you have to offer. You need to be able to handle … John Kay: You may be the one that wins the lottery, where the first attempt reaches the right set of ears and you've got a partner in your career moving forward, but most likely you will be like so many of the baby acts these days, and some who have been around already for 10 years plus, which is you have to learn how to wear a lot of different hats, the social media stuff, the pitching your music on YouTube or whatever, to endlessly tour in clubs, to build a following, four of you sleeping in the van with the gear, whatever. It'll burn you out if you're not made of something that can handle those rigors. John Kay: Meantime, you have the temptations of, “I want to have a private life too,” depending on whether you're a female or male, an artist, “I met somebody I want to share my life with. At some point we want to have children. This band isn't getting me anywhere.” There are all these things that are strikes against your ability to prevail in this, unless you are one of those who's willing to take those beatings out there, in terms of the rejection and being often the response that you get from reviewers or whatever is not always positive, particularly if you're still in the process of really finding and tweaking who you are and what you have to offer. John Kay: If you're a singer doing other people's stuff, that's one thing. If you are a writer and you really have something to say, that may be an advantage in the sense that if it resonates, you may find what we found in the early days, which is, “Wow, you've become our musical spokesperson. When I play that song, it is my inner voice, having been give voice, by your voice.” If you're one of those who's able to put in words what moves you most, and there are lots of others out there that take your music as their personal soundtrack, then it may still be a long slog uphill, but usually that sort of thing spreads readily on social media. John Kay: We have the Wolf Pack. When we played our official 50th anniversary, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of the band, when we played that official concert to commemorate that at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee last August, and the Wolf Pack fan club was notified of that. We had over 300 Wolf Pack fan members coming from all over North America and at least close to 70 or 80 of them coming all the way from Europe. They all know each other. They're all like the Dead Heads. They have a passion that they share with others. John Kay: If you are able as an artist to reach people in that kind of way where what you have to offer becomes more than just sheer entertainment, then I think your chances of making a go of it are pretty good. Some of more or less my contemporaries that are still writing, still out there, still loved, John Prine, John Hiatt, if you are one of those, or you're aspiring to become one of those, I wish you a lot of good fortune. John Kay: Sarah McLachlan song Angel, it has moved millions to tears. One of the verses that basically I'm paraphrasing, about when you're always being told you're not good enough, you're basically having the door slammed in your face all the time, and the self-doubt creeps in and nobody seems to get what it is you have to offer, those kind of things, they're hard on you. John Kay: You wouldn't want to be a writer, artist, player, whatever, singer, if you didn't have some degree of ego that says, “Hey, I've got something to offer, something to say. I'm up here. Do you like what I got?” That's rooted to some extent in your ego. If you have that ego under co

Blind Abilities adds to the iPhone101 Catalogue with this short, but informative demonstration of how to navigate your way out of a long list. Have you ever found yourself way, way down in your mail Inbox, processing your email, but when finished, you can't get back to the top without having to flick through those endless emails, one at a time? How about the same scenario in your Messages app, or even worse, Facebook Dropbox or YouTube?  Pete Lane offers a couple of quick and easy tips on how to get back to the top of those screens - those dreaded lists, without having to spend your valuable time flicking backwards, or almost as time-consuming, scrolling up the screen using your 3-finger swipe down to go up the list. Join Pete as he shares these tips in a clear and understandable, and sometimes humorous demonstration. Eliminate with the tedious and inefficient flicking and swiping as you learn to use these new techniques. It will save you time in the long run! Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Blind Abilities adds to their iPhone 101 demonstrations series with a review of two simple but time saving tips found in your keyboard settings. Just go to your iOS settings app, flick down to general, go to keyboard and there you will find these two convenient shortcuts: The Period Shortcut, and the Auto Capitalization features. These two features are often overlooked and will save you valuable time by avoiding unnecessary taps in your on screen keyboard. These can be used in any text Field, weather in an email, message, Facebook post or other written communication. Pete Lane returns to the iPhone 101 demonstration series with this concise, and valuable review of these two time saving features. Take a few short minutes now to review these tips, and you will save time and increase productivity down the road with every one of your written communications, whether typing on your virtual keyboard, or using dictation. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane are joined in the Blind Abilities studio by Sandhya Rao. They recently met Sandhya a few weeks ago along with Michael McCulloch as they discussed the amazing organization called, I Blind User's Group, (iBug). You can listen to the iBugToday episode on Blind Abilities In this episode, they shift the focus to Sandhya, the person. Sandhya is currently employed as an Attorney in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, where she conducts legal research on constitutional issues and drafts judicial memoranda. Sandhya describes her life’s journey, not only with her blindness, but with Osteo Petrosis, the rare bone disease which brought about her blindness, along with a myriad of other serious effects. Listen as Sandhya outlines how this illness impacted her life, but not the goals and outcomes she set forth to achieve.  Sandhya completed four years at Rice University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. This was followed by completing law school at Stanford University.  Clearly Sandhya has not allowed her medical condition to deter her from achieving success at the highest levels in her field. Sandhya offers advice for students looking towards college and the workplace, her passions such as assistive technology, the law, playing classical piano, and her strong belief that braille has been a key to her successes in all endeavors. And of course, she talks about iBug with its numerous training sessions and social activities. Be sure to set aside a few short minutes to listen to this fascinating guest share her story in her own humble way, with modesty, integrity, a dedicated work ethic and above all, a strong love of family    You can read more about Sandhya's personal accomplishments in her bio on the iBugToday web site Find out more about iBug on their web site. Contact Your State Services If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group

Jeff Thompson talks with a fascinating guest in this, yet another feature interview on Blind Abilities. Joey Stuckey is many things, not the least of which is a talented musician, a sound engineer and owner of Shadow Sound Studio in Macon, Georgia. He is also an insightful, thoughtful and articulate guest who has so many interesting things to share.  Joey talks about everything from his blindness, which stemmed from a brain tumor in early childhood; his entry into the world of music and sound production and how he embraced it as a “calling" as a blind youth; and his advice to young folks, blind and sighted who are thinking of getting into the music business. He takes us through his studio, a high-tech and vibrant business in Macon, his experiences while touring with his bands out on the road, and numerous opinions about all things that you, as a Blind Abilities listener will enjoy. Pete Lane had the opportunity to work on Jeff’s interview with Joey, and said of the experience” “This was an absolute pleasure! Joey is articulate and funny and I wanted to listen more than anything. As usual, Jeff conducts a fabulous interview, identifying with many of the bands, albums, principles and recording concepts that Joey delved into. This podcast  offers something for everyone, ranging from in depth and thoughtful ideas about blindness, independence and the tools we use in our day to day lies, to “geeky” discussions about microphones, recording software and hardware.  Jeff also follows Joey on a walk down memory lane as he describes his band’s recording  session at the famous Sun Studio in Memphis, where so many iconic musicians, like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and so many more, spent time recording the soundtracks of our lives. Pete said he had a blast adding so much of Joey’s music into this podcast, so put on some good headphones or find a good speaker to listen to! Be sure to join Jeff and his special guest, Joey Stuckey for this 90 minute interview, it’s well worth the time!” Below are the sections of this podcast and their respective time slots that will allow you to focus on particular topics, if you don’t want to sit down for the whole 90 minutes. But again, find the time – it’s worth it! * The Introduction and opening comments run through about the 10-minute mark. - Songs in the introduction: Ain’t it Good to be in Love (live from the Joey Stuckey 2017 Alive Day Festival), and 10000 Miles. *  10:30 - 16:04- Joey talks about his music festival, Alive Day  * 16:04- Background of how he learned to love music and get into recording, from hearing his parents and listening to Rob Thomas on the radio, to his first job in the planetarium and recording garage bands with his Radio Shack microphones and mixer. * 22:03 - how the “Shadow” theme became so important to Joey, from a means for describing blindness, to its use as an effective marketing tool. Also Joey and Jeff chat about the joy of vinyl albums and a bit about Joey’s teaching of music at two local universities. - Songs in this section: Mr. Moony,   * 31:29 - Joey shares his views on blindness and how important it is not  to allow it to define us. - Songs in this section: Blind Man Driving, plus audio from a skit performed by Joey in the official music video for the song. * 38:13 - Jeff asks Joey about various songs he wrote and recorded and some of the musicians who played on those tracks. He speaks about growing up in Jacksonville Florida and moving to Macon, Ga. where he was exposed to Macon’s rich music heritage.  - Songs in this section: Troubles Come in Threes, and Bad Dreams, )both of which included Randall Bramlett on Hammond B-3 organ and Sax respectively), Lover’s Ride from the Six String Soldier album,    Take a Walk in the Shadows, and Ain’t It Good to be in Love, both a live and studio version. * 48:36 - Joey shares his advice for young musicians, blind and sighted, who are considering getting into the music business. He delves into the business end of music, touring as a professional musician and producing other musicians as the owner of a recording studio. He also discusses accessible recording software he uses and advice about how to work with developers to make them more accessible.   They chat about Pro Tools, Native Instruments and other software. * 62:33 - More about Pro Tools, and a discussion about hit records, Bob Dylan, Chris Stapleton and others.  - Songs in this section:  Live cover of Tennessee Whiskey, written by Chris Stapleton. *  69:35 - Jeff and Joey get into an in depth discussion of microphones, instruments,  Joey’s studio, Sun Studio and Sound City Studio, and the magic they brought to all of us. * 80:20 - Joey shares details about equipment he uses in his Shadow Sound Studio and how a variety of tools allow him to optimize the quality of recordings he offers his clients. * 85:48 - Closing, including Joey’s contact information. You can find all thins Joey Stuckey on the web. And tons of music and entertaining videos on the Joey Stuckey YouTube Channel. Contact: Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impairedand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

A Big Shout-Out to our listeners and contributors and the voices from many around the world sharing a common feeling of Joy, Happiness and comfort as we head on through the holiday season and into the New Year. As Pete Lane puts it, “The Year of Vision – 2020.” Yes, Pete Lane returns and is back in the saddle talking about the BooGininng , when Blind Abilities was a channel on the AudioBoo platform. We talk about previous guest interviews and what this podcasting adventure means to us, and so many others. Pete leaves us with a heartfelt message filled with love and hugs. Brian Fischler drops into the Blind Abilities Studio for some Nog and a few laughs as he heads off to being home for Christmas and the Holiday season. Safe travels to Brian and to all of you that will be traveling this time of year. I want to thank all of you listeners, contributors and supporters that encourage and help us do what we do. We got a great vision for 2020 and thanks to all of you, we are looking forward to bringing you more entertaining shows, quality content and useful information that will help enhance your journey and keep you informed as we all move forward and into this New Year. Happy Holidays and to all of you a wonderful New Year. See you on the other side. Links for the show will be posted after the elves, Santa, and the Reindeer clear out the wood shop and things settle back to a sense of normalcy. With Love and Peace, The Entire Blind Abilities Team  Contact: Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impairedand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Show Summary: Blind Abilities presents A Memorial for Mike Kelly, A Celebration of Friendship, a Celebration of Love, and a Celebration  of Life.  This podcast follows a previous interview with Mike Kelly published on www.BlindAbilities.com on January 3, 2019, in which Pete Lane delves into Mike’s life of blindness, constant challenges and his impressive musical talent and career.  By all means, check out that podcast! You can find it here: http://blindabilities.com/?p=4309 This follow-up podcast  is a special presentation of the wonderful legacy and memory of Mike Kelly, who passed away on March 26, 2019 after a three-year battle with cancer. Not only does he leave behind a widow, Brooklyn and a step-daughter, Holly Watson, but many, many loving friends, several of whom contribute to this podcast.  Those individuals are: Brooklyn Rodden-Kelly, Michael Gregory, Jimmy Morris, Jim Malone, Pat Olguen and Jenann Cesna. Mike also leaves behind a long career, a profound memory and legacy of music, from his years performing with the Michael Gregory Band, to the very recent composition and recording of his album, Audio wallpaper, under the title of The Mike Kelly Project. Mike convened a multitude of musicians in the Velvet Tones Studios in Sacramento, CA, literally in the final days and weeks prior to his passing.. Several of the songs on that album are featured in this podcast, along with the back-story and detail which you have grown to expect from Blind Abilities productions.  Listen as Mike, Brooklyn, his friends and fellow musicians provide detailed background behind each song and the time they spent in the studio during the recording sessions.  Gain a unique insight into mike’s talent, his perseverance and courage in writing and recording these amazing songs, and the recollections being shared by fellow musicians, his Sound Engineer and his friends and family. Enjoy the outstanding music, co-written by Michael Kelly and Jimmy Morris, and performed in the studio by so many of Mike’s close friends.  And as usual, this podcast is chock full of musical excerpts from all of Mike’s  music, including live  performances from the living room in Mike and Brooklyn’s home, and live music from performances by The Mercy Me Band, the Michael Gregory Band, and tracks from Jim Malone’s individual project titled Shoot for The Moon. This 44-minute recording is guaranteed to entertain inspire and move you as much as any we have previously presented. Finally, listen as we hear from family, friends and musicians as they speak and perform at the Mike Kelly Celebration of Life event held in late April 2019, and experience the love they shared for their unique and special husband, father, friend and fellow musician.    Currently, you can find and purchase Me and Mr. Miller and Hidden Treasure, the initial tracks released from the Audio wallpaper album on most popular music online and retail outlets like iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, etc... The band is called Mike Kelly Project, and the album is Audio  wallpaper: * For your referent, below are the song titles for all of the musical excerpts and their respective time locations at which they appear in this podcast,.  Note: Those song titles preceded with an asterisk “*”, are tracks appearing on Mike’s new Audio Wallpaper album. * Audio Wallpaper - Time: 00:00 Introduction  Note: Circuit Rider -  a song written by Michael Gregory and performed by the Michael Gregory Band is used in the background of the Introduction, as well as later in the podcast, at 10:27 and 10:44.  * 02:13 - Jamie  03:57 - "Cut Me To The Bone”, performed live at  Mike’s final appearance with The Michael Gregory Band (vocals by Mike Kelly). * 06:10 - Jamie * 09:34 - Jamie  * 14:50 - Audio wallpaper   Note: Jaden Dewall, one of Mike’s former students  performed on the bass with Mike on this song.  * 16:43 - Euphoria,  *18:49 - Euphoria  * 19:43 - * Antique Dream, vocals by Mike Kelly). * 21:47 - Touching Bases, dual bases by Mike and Jimmy Morris). * 22:18 - Audio Wallpaper  * 23:33 - Wondering Why    24:06 - Sooner Or Later, The Mercy Me Band (vocals by Jimmy Morris 24:29 - Shoot For The Moon, featuring Julie Morris on vocals, on Jim Malone’s CD Project  * 25:15 - Smile, written by Mike Kelly and Jim Morris, vocals by Jim Morris. Favorite album track of many of the musicians who performed on the album, as well as Brooklyn, who “...can’t listen to that song without crying.”)  30:20 - speech by Holly Watson, Mike’s step-daughter at the Celebration Of Life event. 31:39 - speech by Pat Olguen at the Celebration Of Life event  32:24 - musical ode to Mike by Jimmy Morris at the Celebration Of Life event 33:29 - musical performance of Killing Me Softly by The Mercy Me Band, with Julie Morris on vocals at the Celebration of Life event  * 35:48 - Me and Mr. Miller, one of the two initial songs from the Audio wallpaper album available for purchase at the time of release of this podcast * 36:44 - Hidden Treasure - second of two songs initially available for purchase at the time of release of this podcast * 38:07 - Smile, background for montage of closing comments from Mike’s loved ones  Contact: Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Job Insights Support Groupand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Show Summary: Our guest on this episode of Blind Abilities is Richard Turner, a world famous "card mechanic," also referred to as a card shark. Richard Turner is widely considered the best in the world in his field, if not the best who has ever lived.  So what exactly is a card mechanic? More than a mere magician, a card mechanic has the rare card skills that allow him to actually manipulate the course and outcome of a card game without being detected by players and observers mere inches away. Richard started losing his vision during childhood, and gained a passion for cards. At the same time, his brain began to actually rewire itself away from the visual cortex and into his tactile sensory neurons, giving Richard an uncanny sense of touch. This in turn gave him the unique ability to handle a deck of cards like no one else.  Listen as Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane evoke the fascinating details of Richard’s unique power with cards, and his amazing story of success in the magic community that is second to none. Listen as Richard describes his rebellion against blindness and his decades-long insistence on denying his vision loss to everyone except his family and close friends. Listen as Richard explains his talents, his ability to gauge the thickness of a single card, and how he developed this into a fruitful and long professional career in the magic community. Finally, listen as Richard describes his inevitable acceptance of blindness, and his adaptation to a new lifestyle of vision loss. Enjoy this 45 minute chat with an articulate, passionate and truly talented man, complete with audio clips of Richards many interviews and appearances on TV shows, speeches and card conventions which enhance the listening experience as only Blind Abilities can present. Also hear first-hand how Richard handles his cards, as we present audio description of several of Richard's card game manipulations, cuts, shuffles and “second card deals” courtesy of crystal-clear narration provided by Patrick Lane.  Be sure to check out all of Richard’s  information, including speaking engagements, card show appearances, merchandise and upcoming projects on his web site: www.RichardTurner52.com And check out dozens of his videos on his YouTube channel: www.Youtube.com/AsaT52 Contact: Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.

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

Show Summary:   (Full Transcript Below) Let’s board that Blind Abilities airlines jet and head back to the enchanted Hills Camp in Napa Valley, ca., where Jeff caught up with another student of the Woodworking for the Blind (WW4B) workshop. In this interview, we meet Trevor Astrope, a Computer Analyst who works for Morgan Stanley, as the Global Lead for their Private Cloud. Yes, he’s a computer Geek! but Trevor is so much more! [caption id="attachment_4024" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Trevor and Jeff sitting outside the Art Barn at EHC.[/caption] He shares his story of life, his education and his views on blindness. He also shares his passion for building his own guitars and how WW4B helped him achieve the skill-level needed to accomplish this.  Hear of his original plan to use only hand tools to craft his guitars, but how WW4B gave him the knowledge and confidence to incorporate power tools as well. Hear Trevor describe his guitar-building process, from his template to his tools, and listen as his passion shines through!   Be sure to set aside a few short minutes for this fascinating interview with an interesting guest, brought to you by Blind Abilities!   Contact   If you wish to reach out to Trevor, shoot him an email. If you want to learn more about WW4B check them out on the web at www.WW4B.org And you can find out more about Enchanted Hills Camphere on the web. Thanks for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Full Transcript: Meet Trevor Astrope: Computer Analyst, Woodworker and Guitar Builder, at WW4B and the Enchanted Hills Camp Pete Lane: Hi, folks. Pete Lane here. Welcome to Blind Abilities. Let's go out west again to the Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa Valley, California, sponsored by the San Francisco Lighthouse For The Blind. There, way way up on Veeder Mountain, is where Jeff Thompson connected with his old friend, George Wurtzel to teach a group of blind students the art of woodworking. Pete Lane: Jeff also connected with another one of his woodworking students, Trevor Astrope. Let's meet Trevor and hear about his blindness, his childhood and his passion for computers. Trevor: By six years old, I had optic neuritis, left me with about 10% of vision in one eye and about two percent in one eye. Then, when I was 12, in my good eye, I had the detached retina. My vision went from shadows to light perception to nothing, just over time. I had a teacher's aid group, grade nine, ten and eleven and then in grade twelve, they wanted me to be more independent, so they let her go. While I was in school, I was always into computers. When I went to university, I got a Unix account and taught myself how to use Unix. Unix is an operating system similar, but very different to say, Windows. Most internet servers are running some form of Unix. Pete Lane: And let's hear about Trevor's other passion. His passion for making guitars. Trevor: For me, I wanted to basically have my own custom made guitar. I didn't want a Gibson or Fender logo on it. I wanted my own logo and then I wanted it designed to my specifications. I realized, oh why don't I just try to do this myself because the only way it's gonna be the way I exactly want it, is if I do it. And that's kind of always been my philosophy in life like, if you want something done right, just do it yourself, right? I didn't think blind people could use industrial machinery or even hand tools. I like my fingers, I don't wanna lose them. I'm gonna do this all with hand tools. Trevor: One tool that is really helpful in guitar making is a handheld rotor. So I learned it here and that gave me the confidence to say, "Hey. Yeah, this is easy. I can do this." And it's much more precise and saves a lot of time. Pete Lane: Let's hear Trevor's advice for other members of the blindness community. Trevor: It's always hard starting because people will try to place barriers on you that you may not necessarily have. It's really important to be able prove yourself one way or another. You know that even if it's a short term position or maybe in volunteering, anything that you can sort of prove to people that, "Hey, I can do this." Pete Lane: And now, without further adieu, let's join Jeff Thompson and his guest, Trevor Astrope. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities, I'm Jeff Thompson. And we're up on top of Veeder Mountain at Enchanted Hills Camp and we're attending the, Woodworkers for the Blind annual event. I believe this is the seventh annual event and this is part of San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. I'm sitting outside on the deck of the workshop and we're visiting with Trevor Astrope and he's from Montreal. How are you doing, Trevor? Trevor: I'm doing great. Jeff Thompson: Great. Trevor, can you tell what your job duties are, what you do for a living? Trevor: So I work in IT. I work at Morgan Stanley and I work as the global lead for the level three operations team for their private cloud. Jeff Thompson: And you have an interest in woodworking, mostly centered around guitar building? Trevor: Right. So I'm an aspiring guitar builder. I work in my home, primarily in my kitchen/workshop and I'm building guitars primarily by hand with some power tools. So yeah, I come to these workshops to learn new skills that I can take back home with me and apply to my guitar building. Jeff Thompson: That's great. And how did you find about the WW4B Event out here in Enchanted Hills? Trevor: I found out first, by finding WW4B and then, subscribing to that mailing list and joining the group to get access to the website and the articles and then from there, I found out, hey there's a summer workshop. And even before WW4B, I was searching on the internet to find out if there was any kind of blind, woodworking workshops because I did see some YouTube videos where there were people showing videos about teaching blind people woodworking and George [inaudible 00:04:08] one of these people. And I'm like, "Well, how do I get there? How do I find that?" And I searched the internet, I didn't really find anything how to get to these places, but then, I found WW4B and then from there, that's where the workshop is organized through and advertised through and I said, "Ah. That's where I wanna be." Jeff Thompson: And you can find that at, WW4B, and that's the number four, WW4B, the number four, B.org on the web and you can look on there. And if you're interested in woodworking or finding out more about it, that's where you would go. Jeff Thompson: Trevor, you're blind, visually impaired? Trevor: Totally blind. Jeff Thompson: When did this all take place? Trevor: Well when I was six years old, I had optic neuritis, left me with about 10% of vision in one eye and maybe about two percent in one eye, which was just peripheral vision. And then, when I was 12, I had in my good eye, I had the detached retina, which was misdiagnosed and didn't go treated in time and then, my vision went from shadows to light perception to nothing, just over time. Jeff Thompson: So, how was your educational journey with accessibility, alternative techniques? Were you mainstreamed, what was that process like? Trevor: Yeah, so I grew up in a northern community in Canada. I read large print, was a low vision user all through school because I lost my sight when I was in the first grade and I managed pretty well. I had the CCTV enlarger and large print typewriter and that kind of thing because my handwriting was very messy, I was always told teachers couldn't read it. So they always wanted me to type, so I learned to type at a young age. When I was 12 and I lost my sight, I left this town and I moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba and I lived with my grandmother to go to school in the city because there was much more resources there and I can braille my work and then they would translate it. Trevor: And then I started using computers at that point. This is in 1980s around 1985, 1984, 1985 and I started using versabraille, an Apple II computer, then I started doing most of my work with those technologies. And when I eventually went to university, I took the same type of thing, except I had a PC by that point and the newer versabraille and at some point I got, what was the other thing that was called ... Braille and speak. I got a braille and speak for a while too. Jeff Thompson: Do you went to mainstream school through your educational process? Trevor: Right, right. It was all sort of facilitated through the Manitoba Department of Education. They had a special branch that they had consultants that liaison between the school and Manitoba education produced all their own materials. They had their own recording studio and did record books. So any books on the curriculum, they produced. And like I said, I could braille my work, it would ship there and then they'd have people that would translate it and write it all out, in between the braille lines, it would print out what it was and they'd send it back. And there was like maybe two or three day turnaround for that. Jeff Thompson: Oh that's awesome. So did you have a teacher for the visually impaired? Trevor: I had a teacher's aid once I got to high school that did a lot of that work that went back and forth. She learned how to read braille and then she would translate my stuff, she would do tactile drawings, she would do a lot of reading of materials that weren't available or articles or different materials that we had, that was sorta at hawk, she would do that. And she worked part time, so yeah, she worked with me during high school. Through grade nine, ten and eleven and then, grade twelve, they wanted me to be more independent, so they let her go and they wanted me to fend for myself because they knew I was going to university and I wouldn't have those kind of resources around. Jeff Thompson: You had to start advocating and doing it yourself? Trevor: They wanted me to learn to be more independent, so grade twelve I went solo. Jeff Thompson: When you were at university, did you have a student's disabilities office, of sorts? Trevor: Yes, there was. Well, they had a computer center which had PCs with, what was the voice program back then that we used, was it called flipper, something like that? Jeff Thompson: Oh, wow. Trevor: It'd be early 90s I guess. Like I said, I used the versabraille for a long time and then I got a PC. They had this computer room, which had the braille printer and they had a bunch of stuff in there. I went to write my exams there. So the teacher would give the exams, they would put them, usually, on a computer and then I would read them on the computer and answer them on the computer. Jeff Thompson: So, I have a feeling in the years that you were doing this, was it very acceptable or was it standard that people would be going to this computer science fields like you were? Trevor: No, it wasn't. When I first started university, there was a computer programming for the blind course and it was on mainframes. And my first year was the last year of this program because mainframes were being supplanted by PCs, right, and Unix type of systems. So they were a dying system and so, I think what they were finding is that the graduates of these programs were having a difficult time getting employment. I was interested. I used computers all through high school and I did have an aptitude for it, but it was just not something that was open for me because the university I went to ... This is sort of when the Mac and PC were challenging for supremacy and they put their money on the Mac. So all the computer science, computer labs were all Mac and the accessibility just wasn't there. They didn't have voice-over. What was the predecessor to voice-over? I can't remember. Trevor: But anyway, it wasn't something that was really gonna be accessible for me. I took an arts degree, general arts degree in sociology and political science, but meanwhile, while I was studying this, I did have a Unix account and access to the Unix system, which I would access via PC. Then I just taught myself how to use Unix because it just gave me so much more accessibility. Back then it was tell them that you [inaudible] into the library had an interface so I could go and I can search for all the books I needed for my essays and then I can reserve them and then I can just go there and pick them up and they'd have them all ready for me. Then I had a scanner with the [inaudible] software. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Trevor: Yeah. And I had that and then I would scan all my books and all my materials. When I first started with tape based stuff, but my first year in university, all my textbooks were, and I guess everybody can relate to this, they were all one edition behind because they would only re-record it if it was more than two editions out or something. So I'd go write a test and some of the times, the questions would be totally different because they rearranged the chapter numbers. And so, I always had to ask students, "What's ..." Because they'd say read chapters, what, two, four and eight, they'd skip around. [inaudible], "Can you tell me what the titles of those are?" And occasionally one of those chapters would just be totally missing. Jeff Thompson: Looking back at the amount of work that you kind of had to do, just before you can even start doing your homework, like scanning, collecting it, making it organized and getting it ready, then you could start reading it or read it as you go, however you did it. And now, you see people today with the handheld device such as the iPhone or the technology that they're utilizing today ... Trevor: It's totally different now. I thought it was amazing when I got access to Unix and I could go online and search books and find them and read newspaper articles online and find some information like that. I thought that was just totally revolutionary because before that, it was like I said, it was books on tape, that's what I was using and that was really archaic. And now, I see, I mean not only can they access books from ... They don't have to even go to a library, you can just download the books and read them. You just can't compare with available now to what was available then and even then, I thought what was available then was so much better than people before me, right, so it's always improving. Jeff Thompson: And that's kind of interesting because you got hooked up with Unix early on, which gave you access to a lot of stuff people were trying to get to that didn't know anything about Unix. You kind of had a jump start. Trevor: Yeah and I did it out of my own self-interest that this gave me access to information I didn't have access to otherwise. I couldn't read a newspaper and I couldn't get newspaper articles. Just day to day stuff, not just with school, I thought this was amazing. So yeah, I took to it and I learned it and it was great. And then when I graduated, I have a general arts degree, which wasn't very helpful for me finding a job, but it was right in the 90s when the internet was exploding and people who knew Unix were high in demand. So I just naturally found myself doing that kind of work, doing some consulting work in the beginning because it'd be small companies that people who you know, know somebody and they say, "Yeah, we wanna get into an internet. We don't know how. How do we get internet?" "Oh, well I know how to do that. I can get you on the internet, no problem. I could set up a mail. You want an email? Really, I'll set you up in a mail server." Trevor: And fax servers were huge in the 90s. I did a lot of work setting up fax servers for small businesses and stuff like that. And now, nobody uses faxes anymore, but that was a big thing then, too. That's what really helped me. Going to university, yeah I got a degree, which I'll say was a useless degree, but it wasn't useless because if I hadn't gone to university, I wouldn't have learned Unix. I would never would have learned that. Jeff Thompson: Can you explain Unix to the listeners? Trevor: So Unix is an operating system. Similar, but very different to say, Windows or macOS, but more similar to macOS because macOS is a graphical interface built on top of Unix. So it's underlined operating system and it's primarily the operating system that runs the internet. So most internet servers are running some form of Unix, most web servers are running on a form of Unix. Nowadays Linux is pretty much dominated the market and there's various different flavors of Linux, but it's all the same thing when it gets right down to it. It's just how it's packaged. Jeff Thompson: Still the Microsoft operating system, Apple operating standard are just interfaces that the general public uses to connect [crosstalk]? Trevor: It's better for the desktop, right? It's a user productivity tool that helps people access software and prevent nicer menus and more usable interfaces. Whereas Unix, you're not concerned about the interface, you're more concerned about the performance and it was just designed for a server architecture. Windows came from the desktop and then they made a server version from that, but Unix is the other way around. It started out as a server operating system and they made a desktop out of it. Jeff Thompson: What suggestions would you have for someone who is transitioning from high school to college to the workplace? What advice would you have for them? Trevor: For me, it was, like I said, I did a lot of consulting work. So if you have a skill and you have something that you can do, that was a good way to start like project base to say. In my field it was easy because it was sort of a task and, "Oh, okay. We wanna be on the internet, how do we do that?" "Okay. This is what you need. This is what you need." And set it up. But sometimes it's good just to ... You have to just get your foot in the door, right, and then you have to prove yourself and then once you have, then you can build upon that. So that's what I've found. It's always hard starting because people will try to place barriers on you that you may not necessarily have. It's really important to be able to prove yourself one way or another. You know that, even if it's a short term position or maybe even volunteering, anything that you can sort of prove to people that, "Hey. I can do this." Jeff Thompson: Great. Trevor, we both have an interest in music and it seems like it goes back to somewhat guitar style music from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and that was a common thing plus the woodworking and then you mentioned that you wanted to build guitar. What got your interest in manufacturing, building your own guitar? Trevor: I collect guitars and what really got me started is, you can buy guitars in China, which I'll say are generally counterfeits. They will make them as a copy of an existing guitar. But for me, I wanted to basically have my own custom made guitar. So, I didn't want a Gibson or Fender logo on it, I wanted my own logo and then, I wanted it designed to my specifications and it was kind of hit or miss. Well, I only bought two guitars. One was really great and one was ... I got a bit ambitious and I tried to really spec it out to a lot of details, but there was a big communication problem between someone who doesn't speak English very well and someone who doesn't speak Chinese at all, right? So, at that point I realized, "Why don't I just try to do this myself because the only way it's gonna be the way I exactly want it, is if I do it." And that's kind of always been my philosophy in life like, you want something done right, just do it yourself, right? Jeff Thompson: And if you can't afford it, you better be able to make it yourself. Trevor: That too, exactly. Jeff Thompson: So what was your first start? How do you get started? First of all, you're talking woodworking, I used to teach woodworking to students and it was like that's an expectation that shocked them like you're gonna operate machinery. Trevor: Right. I had that same thought, myself like I didn't think blind people could use industrial machinery or even hand tools. I thought, this is very dangerous, I like my fingers, I need them every day. I don't wanna lose them. So I thought, my approach in the beginning was, "I gonna do this all with hand tools. I'm doing it as a hobby, this is not an occupation for me. I'm making guitars for myself, not for anybody else. I have time. I don't have a deadline, so I'm gonna learn hand tools and I'm gonna build the guitars just using hand tools." Plus, I had limited space. So I live in an apartment and I work in my kitchen. I didn't wanna make a huge mess. Hand tools are less messy than power tools ... Jeff Thompson: Now, what you call an apartment is like a condo here, you own the space? Trevor: Sure. I got some ... A little more flexibility. Jeff Thompson: So you can choose what you do? Trevor: Yeah, sure. Jeff Thompson: There you go. Trevor: But it's still an apartment style building, it's apartment style layout. So yeah, so I started with the hand tools and I use nothing but hand tools. And I made a guitar body, not that I finished it, but I just wanted to get the experience. I just use cheap lumber. This is not gonna be my masterpiece, this is gonna be my learning, test piece. So I joined two pine, two by eights, I bought one from Home Depot and they cut it up for me and then, I sawed it by hand to the length I wanted. I glued the two pieces together to make it wide enough for a body. So I learned, okay, this is how you edged one, how to make a plane, I had to make each side to be plane straight, so you could join them together without a gap. So I learned these basic techniques that everybody woodworking needs to know. Of course you get machines to do that, I did it by hand. Trevor: And then I used a special saw, called the bow saw, which is not a bow saw you cut tree limbs because if you do an Amazon search that's what you'll get, but it's an old world tool before the band saw existed is what they used these tools for. So it can cut around. It has handles on the side and you can turn the blade to cut at any angle, any curve you want. And I can even cut 90 degrees with it. I had a guitar template. I bought the template, the shape of a guitar was like on a piece plywood that's quarter inch plywood, gives you the two dimensional shape of the guitar. Made another template of that. Using that template, I used a bow saw to cut another one out and then I placed the pine wood that I glued together, in between. So there was a template on the front and a template on the back. I had to use a drill and I drilled dowels to go through, so I can line the back template up with the front template. Then I used that saw to cut the guitar body. Trevor: And it's very rough because you can't go in a smooth motion when you can't see what you're doing. So I'd have to stop to make sure I didn't go too far out or I wasn't going too far in. So you get kind of a wavy pattern along the lines and then I used these small, little palm planes that are very fine and very small and can get into tight spots, just to clean up the edges and I got it all smooth. And I did the same on a guitar neck, I used a router plane, another hand tool, to cut the trust rod channel, a spokeshave for carving the neck. And that's as far as I got before I came here. Last year was my first, Woodworking for the Blind Workshop and that introduced me to tools. Again, I don't have the space for these big tools that hare here, but one tool that is really helpful in guitar making is a router, a handheld router. I had learned how to use that while I was here. I never would have bought it on my own because I wouldn't have known how to use it. Trevor: So I learned it here and then that gave me the confidence to say, "Hey, yeah this is easy. I can do this." So I've been working with that tool now to do a lot of the work cutting the cavities, cutting the shape and it's much more precise and saves a lot of time. And there's still a lot of room for the hand work and carving the neck using spokeshaves and planing to join wood. I use a combination of hand tools and power tools and as I learn more power tools, I'll probably incorporate more of them into my work. Jeff Thompson: That's really cool. Jeff Thompson: It's like you've had drive like whether it was to get more involved with Unix, gaining access to books and then when you wanna learn something, you go to the resource and you went to WW4B.org and ... Trevor: I've always been self-taught like I taught myself Unix and I taught myself woodworking with the hand tools, but there's a line. I wasn't gonna teach myself on tools that could injure myself that I wasn't confident in. That's what this workshop gives me that confidence to learn stuff and say, "Hey, yeah. This is doable and this is easy." There's a limit that I'll go to, I won't endanger myself in my pursuit of knowledge and skills. Otherwise, I like to learn stuff and I like to learn stuff on my own. Part of the discovery of it. Having people show you stuff is great, but to me, it's the discovery, right? Jeff Thompson: The experience is the best teacher, isn't it? Trevor: Yeah. Exactly. Jeff Thompson: We've been talking to, Trevor Astrope, from Montreal, Canada and he's down here at the WW4B annual sessions. You're attending both of them, there's a beginner's and an advance? Trevor: Yeah. I was in the beginner's last year and I still am a beginner, but I've learned some skills that go a little bit beyond the beginner. And I'm not quite advanced yet, but I would become advanced. So I'm gonna hang out with the advanced woodworkers to learn the skills and tips and tricks from them, so I can become an advanced woodworker. Jeff Thompson: Tap their brains? Trevor: Exactly. Jeff Thompson: And that's what it's all about. Getting experience, learning from others and getting a tool in your hand and doing something. So Trevor, if someone wanted to get ahold of you, yeah, how would they do that? Trevor: Probably the easier way is just send email, Trevor@Astrope, A-S-T-R-O-P-E, .C-A. Jeff Thompson: So, we hope you enjoyed this. We're gonna tune out from the top of Veeder Mountain, out here in Napa, California at the Enchanted Hills Camp. Thanks, Trevor. Trevor: Cool. Pete Lane: This concludes Jeff's conversation with Trevor Astrope. We'd like to thank Trevor for taking time out of his day at WW4B to chat with Jeff and we wish him all the luck in the world with his guitar building efforts. And for all of you out there, thanks so much for listening and have a great day. Pete Lane: For more podcasts with the Blindness Perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. Pete Lane: We're on Twitter. We're on Facebook. Pete Lane: And be sure to check out our free app, in the Apple app store and the Google play store.  

Show Summary (Full Text Transcript Below)   John Kay reveals his journey from escaping the Iron Curtain, getting on with limited vision, his passion for music and his love and commitment for wildlife and especially elephants. Ironically, I first learned about John Kay being legally blind from Dan Gausman, a librarian at State Services for the Blind of Minnesota. A client requested to have the Communications Center record an audio copy of John Kay’s 1994 autobiography, Magic Carpet Ride. This is a service provided to people who are blind, visually impaired, dyslexic or have difficulty in reading the printed word. Dan mentioned that John was legally blind. This I did not know.   John Kay explains his vision and how it led him from behind the Iron Curtain to the freedoms of West Berlin, his adventures as a youth and his days at Sight Saving school in Toronto. Canada. Most importantly, John talks about feeding the fire, feeding his passion for music and for the protection of wildlife. John Kay is transforming from Rock Star to Wildlife Advocate as his touring days with John Kay and Steppenwolf come to a well-deserved rest after 50 years since the release of the first Steppenwolf album. John is ready to make this transition as he has been devoting his time and proceeds from his touring over the last 10 years towards John and his wife Jutta’s Maue Kay Foundation, and NGOs, Non-Governmental Organization, similar to a Non-profit organization, that focus on the protection of wildlife. [caption id="attachment_4001" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Image of Elephants provided by MKF[/caption] Join Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane as they sit down with John Kay and learn about John’s continuing soundtrack of his life, his experiences and his focus on the years to come.   This podcast is over 80 minutes long and we suggest kicking back and enjoy this epic interview with one of the great social and political voices with us today. My son asked me while he drove us home from the John Kay and Steppenwolf concert September 29 in Prior Lake, MN, why don’t today’s bands make statements about causes anymore? I thought to myself and wondered… is John Kay one of the last? [caption id="attachment_4002" align="aligncenter" width="200"]Maue Kay Foundation Logo[/caption] Here are some links that will let you know more about his music and his foundation.   I suggest starting here, Steppenwolf.comwhere you can dive in and find out about everything Steppenwolf, purchase their swag, read articles and more about John Kay.   Be sure to get their latest release, a 3 CD set titled, John Kay and Steppenwolf-Steppenwolf at 50. Included in this 3-disk set is an entire CD of John Kay and Steppenwolf live. You will learn and enjoy this collection of hits, and somewhat over-looked songs from 1967 to 2017. That is where you will find all the music used in this podcast, John Kay and Steppenwolf-Steppenwolf at 50.   Follow John Kay and Steppenwolf on Facebookand on Last.FM   Be sure to check out John Kay’s web site. Where you can find links to articles, interviews, his solo music, the elephant sanctuary and the Maue Kay Foundationand learn about the passion and selflessness that John and Jutta and others are doing to protect wildlife around the world.   And an Elephant size Thank You to John Kay for taking time to conduct this interview and to Charlie Wolf for all that you do and whom I met at the concert in Prior Lake, Minnesota. Glad I could support the band and I love the T-Shirts. By the way, the concert was Great!   Thanks for Listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store   Full Transcript John Kay: From Rock Star to Elephants, We Were All Born To Be Wild #Steppenwolf to #MaueKayFoundation John Kay: To become aware of how special they are. I'm a big elephant lover you might say.   Jeff Thompson: Blind Abilities welcomes John Kay, wildlife activist.   John Kay: My vision got me probably out of Communist East Germany and my vision very definitely kept me out of Vietnam.   Jeff Thompson: Who happens to be a rockstar.   John Kay: They were all telling her, "You got a legally blind, penniless musician, and that's your future? I think you can do better than that."   Jeff Thompson: John talks about his limited vision, his band, Steppenwolf, one's inner voice, and following your passion.   John Kay: There's an old snide remark, what do you call a musician without a girlfriend? You call them homeless.   Jeff Thompson: I would like to thank Dan Guzman of the Communication Center at State Services for the Blind of Minnesota, as Dan informed me that a client had requested the autobiography of John Kay to be converted into audio format. Dan also informed me that John Kay was legally blind, and this started the process that led me to the interview of John Kay.   John Kay: Hey, we all got stuff to deal with, kid, just get on with it. You learn how to figure out workaround solutions for what you're dealing with.   Jeff Thompson: Hello, John Kay. I'm Jeff Thompson, and with me is Pete Lane.   Pete Lane: Good morning, John. It's an honor. I'm Pete Lane. I'm in Jacksonville, Florida. Jeff is in ...   Jeff Thompson: Minnesota, Pete.   Pete Lane: Yeah, Minnesota.   John Kay: I'm in Santa Barbara.   Jeff Thompson: What's the tie to Tennessee then?   John Kay: I lived there for 17 years. In '89 my wife and I were a little tired of Los Angeles beehive activity. We said, "If not here, then where?" To spare the other boring details, we wound up just south of Nashville, Tennessee. In our travels with Steppenwolf we had played there several times. We'd met a lot of friendly people. It's a beautiful area. Lots of music, obviously. We were out in the country, and lots of privacy, and had a recording studio and our tour bus. We just relocated what we called Wolf World out there. For the following 17 years that was home. It was a good period during our life to be a little bit away from large cities.   Jeff Thompson: Great.   Pete Lane: Do you have an elephant reserve, do you not, still in Tennessee?   John Kay: I don't, but Tennessee certainly does. While we lived in Tennessee, we became aware of the elephant sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, which was about, I don't know, maybe 40 minutes drive from where we lived, which was near a little town called Franklin, Tennessee.   John Kay: Anyway, one thing led to another. Eventually my wife got involved with the board of directors of the sanctuary, and then they're after our daughter, who's all about animals, so from childhood wound up becoming a caregiver to three large African elephants. She was there for several years. It was like the Peace Corps slogan, the toughest job you'll ever love. She did love it, but she's rather slender in build and developed arthritis. The doctors told her she should quit, which she had to do very reluctantly.   John Kay: However, the sanctuary of course continues doing very well. It's a wonderful place for often abused, neglected, sick, old circus and zoo elephants to finally live amongst their own kind without any human intrusion. They have 2,700 acres of rolling hills and woods and waterholes for them to swim in. Once you get to know elephants, because our foundation is involved with African elephants-focused NGOs in Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania, and the like, once you get to spend a real amount of time with them out in the wild, in those places where they aren't traumatized by poaching, you become aware of how special they are. I'm a big elephant lover you might say.   Pete Lane: I was reading on your website where you posted the awareness of the elephant sanctuary in Tennessee and how they live a lifestyle that they never get to live when they're held in captivity.   John Kay: Exactly. It used to be this way, and I don't suppose that has changed, the number one killer of captive elephants was foot rot, because unlike in the wild, where they walk up to 50 miles on relatively soft, sandy soil, in captivity they are often forced to stand on a solid concrete floor, and that's not good for them, so eventually they ... One of the rescues, Tina, which came from the Vancouver Zoo, when she arrived, they had to ... I was gonna say, one of the sandal makers, I can't think of the name of the brand right now, they actually made a pair of very soft boots for her because she was suffering so badly. Unfortunately, she died a couple of days before those boots arrived. I saw the bottom of her feet, which were just terrible situation.   John Kay: They don't belong in captivity unless you can have a relatively good number of elephants together in a large area where they can at least simulate the kind of life they would have in the wild.   Pete Lane: 2,700 acres is a large area. Do you know how many animals are on the preserve?   John Kay: I think at the moment they have somewhere in the neighborhood of close to a dozen Asian elephants. They fenced off a section of the 2,700 acres for the African elephants, which are much larger, and thank goodness in relatively good health. They're larger and younger and very active, so they keep them away from the Asians, that are older and more docile. I believe right now they have about four Africans, because the Nashville Zoo I think has two of them that are there at the sanctuary now. I don't know whether they will stay there long-term, but that's what's going on there right now.   John Kay: It's quite an amazing place, and so much has been learned about how to look after these creatures, and from the standpoint of veterinarian care. The research, both in the wild and in places like the sanctuary, on elephants continues, because there's still much to be learned, even though people like Joyce Poole has been studying their communication skills and language and rumbles and all of that for over 40 years. They're still working on figuring out what goes on that's beyond the grasp of science right now.   Jeff Thompson: We'll be sure to put a link in the show notes for that. John, your story is quite interesting. I'm doing some research, and I just came across Feed the Fire. I was wondering, hearing about that elephant sanctuary, your foundation, it seems like you stuck to your passions.   John Kay: Yeah. That's quite observant and quite spot-on, because long ago as a child, the first time I became aware of something that is I suppose related to passion or rooted in passion is when I discovered the power of music. That oddly enough was ...   John Kay: My father had been killed in Russia a month before I was born. When the Russian Army advanced on the area where my mother and I lived, I was just a few months old, she took me, and we got on a train headed west, and wound up eventually in a little town that wound up behind the Iron Curtain, and hence we were living under Communism until I was five. When we escaped, my mother and I, by paying off some people and getting through the border, which was patrolled with soldiers and all of that, anyway, we made it.   John Kay: The point is that I was about eight or nine years old, living in West Germany, under democracy and freedom, and my mother took me to hear, of all things, an all-male, a Russian choir, the Don Cossacks. This was in a church with great acoustics. It was just a concert. Some of these ancient, incredibly sad songs that these 15 guys with these amazing voices were singing reduced me to tears, even though I didn't understand a word of Russian. I still don't. In fact, my mother was somewhat concerned. It introduced me to the power of music when it connects with your internal core.   John Kay: Oddly enough, less than maybe four years later, I had a similar but very opposite experience when I first heard on American Armed Force Radio Network the likes of Little Richard and Elvis and all the rest of the rock-and-roll pioneers. I just had goosebumps, chicken skin from head to toe. Once again, I didn't understand a word of what they were singing, but the music was so primal, so intense, so full of just joy of living I'd say. That was just something that I had to have more of.   John Kay: I became obsessed with trying to find this music wherever I could, and of course at a certain point started to have the delusion that someday I could be on the other side of the ocean and learn how to speak English and get a guitar and do this sort of thing myself. Obviously conventional wisdom and the adults were saying, "Yeah, sure, kid. In the meantime, pay attention in school."   Jeff Thompson: It's quite obvious you didn't lose that glitter in your eye.   John Kay: Yeah. That's I think very important. It's one thing that concerns me with regards to young people that are raised with constant sensory stimulation and having a virtual life through their little screens that they're attached to all the time.   John Kay: I remember once talking to university students, and I asked them, "Be honest. How many of you fear silence?" A number of hands went up, because a lot of them, from the time they're toddlers, whether it's TV or the background music of the supermarket or wherever, whenever there's silence, it astounds them, and it concerns them. I finally said, "I'm here to tell you that unless you learn to find some quiet spots, you may never hear a voice that's in you that is trying to tell you there's more out there. In other words, if you don't hear that voice, you may live a totally external life all your life, instead of finding something that is ... "   John Kay: That is the humbling experience that I've had, running into people who all their lives have not been seeking the spotlight, but have been from early on moved by a passion to work on behalf of something greater than themselves. I'm specifically talking about the various people that in the last 15 years, through our efforts in various parts of the world, we've had the great pleasure and honor even to rub shoulders with. It's a humbling thing to see people who are not about themselves, but on behalf of others. You learn from that sort of thing.   John Kay: There are a lot of young people who have that capability also. I'm often wondering whether they aren't so barraged with constant Twittering and social media and whatever else is going on that they never have a quiet moment. That's not necessarily a good thing in my opinion.   Jeff Thompson: I was talking to Pete earlier, and I was dissecting your song, but you just answered the question for me, that solitude is no sacrifice.   John Kay: That's right. You picked up on that. That song has been used by a number of people who wanted to play something for their daughter or son that were about to leave home and go to university or go far afield to do something on distant shores. That's basically it. "Solitude's no sacrifice, to catch a glimpse of paradise."   Jeff Thompson: That's an awesome song. I really like that song. Pete, you've got some questions I'm sure. I've been jumping in here.       Pete Lane: John, I'm just honored to be speaking with you. I'm in my late 60s and of course grew up with you and your music and of course Steppenwolf. Until recently I had no idea of how enduring you have been and how diverse you are in your view of the world and society. I just want to compliment you on that for starters.   John Kay: Thank you. That's very kind of you and generous. I would hope and think that I will continue to be still in a lifelong learning process of clumsily following the footsteps left by others that have preceded me with their examples of how to nurture their humanity and how to have a purpose in life beyond just mindless consumption and amusing themselves, as the book once said, amusing ourselves to death. It's something that keeps the inner flame burning, and been very, very fortunate in many different ways, currently still healthy, thank goodness. Any day when you remain vertical is a good day.   Pete Lane: Absolutely.   John Kay: There are so many out there who lead with their example. I have met some of them who have been inspirational. Every so often, some young people come along, say, "Hey, I came across your music, and it has given me some stuff to listen to when I have to get over one of the speed bumps of life, and thank you for that." It's a generational thing. I'm still focused on the ones ahead of me. There are younger ones that have found something in what we have to offer of a value that went beyond just musical wallpaper, but with no real substance that you can use for your own.   John Kay: There's so many out there who have written songs and played music practically all their lives, which has given sustenance to the rest of us, or the listeners, and have had personal little anthems that we go to when we need to have a moment of rejuvenation through music.   John Kay: I sometimes talk to people who say, "You're talking about all these other people doing great work, making music that gives great pleasure and joy to people. It's not a bad way to make a living either." While I agree with that, music will continue to be something that I do on occasion, meaning once in a while I have a desire to write a song or two, irrespective of whether they will ever be recorded and commercially released. I've performed at fundraisers and things like that. Music continues very definitely to be part of my life.   John Kay: By the same token, I am very much now focused on bringing the word to a lot of people, who once they know what we are losing, meaning wildlife, we've had this number of times, we're talking to people who are well-educated, quite engaged, very successful in what they do, and when we talked about that an elephant was being killed every 15 minutes for their tusks and that we, at this rate, 15 years from now, may no longer have any living in the wild, and the same holds for the rhinos and numerous other species, they're aghast. They're, "I didn't know that. This is terrible. Who's doing anything about it?" Then further to that, "Who can I trust with my money if I want to help?"   John Kay: That's really what our little foundation is about. We have been supporting various entities. I think at this point we're at 16 different NGOs we support annually for about 15 years. We're the ones who are a little bridge between the boots on the ground who are fighting to preserve what remains, and those who are willing to help provide it, there's some assurance that their money will go to the boots on the ground. We're the ones who can vouch for a number of wonderful people at NGOs. Because we have born witness to the work they do, we're going to back to Africa next year to look in on several of the NGOs again. That's my role of both my wife and I.   John Kay: In fact, this year's the last year that Steppenwolf will be performing. We have six more engagements to play, the last one October 14, and after that the wolf will go into hibernation, if you want to put it that way. My emphasis is now on ... I assume both of you are familiar with TED Talks.   Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative).   Pete Lane: Yes.   John Kay: With that in mind, although the following is not a TED Talk per se, because those talks are limited to 18 minutes in length, mine is more like an hour and 15 minutes, but what it is, it's similar to a TED Talk, in the sense that I'm up on stage giving my story, while behind me on a screen there are many, many still images and short video clips and so on. The whole thing is called Born To Be Wild: From Rock Star To Wildlife Advocate, John Kay of Steppenwolf and His Journey of Transformation.   John Kay: It basically starts with my early life and how I got out from behind the Iron Curtain and was enthralled with American rock-and-roll when I grew up as a teenager in West Germany and made it to Canada as an immigrant, got my first guitar, and then got into music more and more, and of course the story of Steppenwolf, and then how gradually over time we, my wife and I, through our travels, went to Cambodia, where we saw the killing fields, and we got involved with building a school there, which was the start of our foundation, and then Africa and so on down the line.   John Kay: Basically at the end of this presentation, towards the end, after having shown what we do, where, and who is doing what in Africa and Asia and Borneo and so on, it's basically a pitch of saying, "Now that you know, if you didn't know already, you can use our website as a gateway to other NGOs or you can support what we do directly, but do it for your grandchildren's sake or do it to honor the 2,000, almost, African rangers that have been killed by poachers in the last 12 years, or do it simply because our fellow living beings have very little left to call their home, and they too have a right to exist."   Pete Lane: Unbelievable.   Jeff Thompson: That's awesome. I love the way you talk about your passion that you even have today. Pete and I both met because we had a passion for recording. One story that really caught my attention is when you were in Toronto and you received your reel-to-reel, and I don't think you listened to the books as much as you wanted it for recording music.   John Kay: You got that right. It was a scam from the get-go. I said, "I don't need talking books. I can read books, even though I gotta read them with my nose." I said, "I could use it for something else." I was just simply appalled at what came out of that dinky little speaker that was built into that Wollensak tape recorder, because when I tried my hand at recording my first efforts of playing guitar and singing, I said, "I don't sound like that, do I? This is terrible." It was sheer ego that kept me going, said, "One way I can get better if I keep at it." Hope springs eternal. Sometimes you simply have more luck than talent.   Pete Lane: John let's talk a little bit more if you don't mind about your eye condition. Talk about that a little bit. Let's start if you don't mind a little bit in your early years and maybe focus in Toronto when you were moved into is it Deer Park, that Deer Park school?   John Kay: Yeah, that was the sight-saving classes. It's a strange thing, with respect to my eyes. When I was still a baby, lying in one of these carriages that back in those days were typical, I think the English call them prams or whatever, living in this tiny little town in what was then East Germany, I would cry whenever the sun was in my eyes.   John Kay: When I was older, my mother took me to an ophthalmologist, and he said, "He obviously has very, very poor vision and he's very light-sensitive." The only thing he could think of at the time was that, "His condition might improve if he had a better diet," because at that time we were on food rations, and because of where we were, we were eating herring morning, noon, and night, boiled, fried, stewed herring, coming out of the ears. I never touched a fish again after that until I was 40-something years old.   John Kay: This is the important point about this. My mother took that as a, "Maybe the doctor's right." It was that that caused her to take the risky chance of getting caught, imprisoned, or shot by, in the middle of the night, together with about half a dozen other people, getting smuggled by a couple of border guides that worked for the railroad and knew how to time the searchlights from the watchtowers and the dog patrols and everything else.   John Kay: We got through, and then it turned out that, this was in Hanover, Germany, West Germany, and of course this was after the war, there were still schools in short supply, having been destroyed, and so there were classes 50 children large, two shifts, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. I was not doing well. It was my mother who was working as a seamstress who managed to get me into the Waldorf school, the private school, which was banned under Hitler because it was far too humanitarian, but which looked after me. There I blossomed, and the eyes didn't play as big a role.   John Kay: It wasn't until I came to Toronto that I was back in public school. I didn't speak English yet and couldn't read what was on the blackboard. The school officials got in touch with the CNIB, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, and they said, "We have these sight-saving classes in a, it's just one large schoolroom segmented into two or three different grades, at a public school called Deer Park School, in the northern part of Toronto." That's where I went for about two years.   John Kay: The primary benefit was that, yes, they had textbooks with extra-large print and all that, but I learned English during those years, not just in school, but because of my obsession with listening to the radio all the time, looking for music that connected, I was always having to try and make out what these speed-rapping DJs were saying, because they were yakking a mile a minute. Between radio and the Deer Park School, I got to the point where I got a handle on things. Of course during that period at that school, I was also given this tape recorder on loan. As I mentioned before, I immediately pressed that into service.   Jeff Thompson: That's really impressive, just the journey.   John Kay: One thing I should add, by the way, was that nobody really knew what was the matter with me. I went to a Toronto University I think, the medical department, ophthalmology I think it was. There I was treated like a guinea pig. They brought in all these medical students and take a look in my eyes and everything. They said, "Oh, you're totally colorblind. Let's see here."   John Kay: They had one of those books where every page is made out of these little mosaic little pebbles with different colors." Embedded amongst them, so to speak, would be a combination of these colored tiles that spelled something, a letter or a number or something. At the beginning of the book, the contrast between the primary colors versus whatever the number or the letter was very stark. I said, "Yeah, that, it says six, okay." As we went from page to page, the differences in terms of contrast became more and more subdued to the point where by page whatever, I don't see anything other than just one page of all these little mosaic tiles and pebbles. They would say, "No, actually there is a light yellow whatever something or other."   John Kay: They figured out later down the line that I was an achromat, achromatopsia, that as an additional bonus with that condition comes extreme light sensitivity. Then finally, I also have a congenital nystagmus, which is the eyes shaking all the time. You do the best you can with what you have.   John Kay: Now in '63, and this has a point with respect to my vision, my vision got me probably out of Communist East Germany, and my vision also probably, in fact very definitely, kept me out of the U.S. Army and probably out of Vietnam, because when in '63 at age 19 my mother and stepdad, my mom had remarried, decided to move from Toronto to Buffalo, New York, because my stepdad had something going on business-wise, and I joined them there, the first letter that hit our mailbox was from the draft board. Of course I had to show up.   Jeff Thompson: Welcome to the States.   John Kay: Of course somebody once said that the military intelligence is an oxymoron. I'm not the judge on that, but I will tell you that I had something that made me scratch my head, namely when I was there and I was to have a complete physical, I tried to tell the man that I was legally blind, and of course he said, "We'll get to that, son." After a very, very thorough, top to bottom, in and out physical examination, he said, "Now read those letters on that chart on the wall." I said, "What chart?" He said, "You can't see the chart?" I walked a little closer, said, "I see it now." "What do you see?" "If I can step a few steps closer ... " "Yeah, you can." "Okay. I think there's a large capital A at the top, and the rest is guesswork." He harrumphed about, "You could've said ... Never mind." My designation was 4F. I asked him, "What does that mean really?" He said, "Son, in your case it pretty well stands for women and children first, before you. Nobody's gonna put a rifle in your hands."   John Kay: It was one of those things where during those times, because in short order I went to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, to hear the greats, and I was amongst tens of thousands of young people my age, of course many of them, at least 50% or more, being young men. The draft in the Vietnam War was very much on everybody's mind. I could relate to their concerns about going off to a foreign land. This case, I would imagine my eye condition did me a service.   Jeff Thompson: That was probably a baptism into the social issues of the United States coming from Toronto for you.   John Kay: That's very true. That is very true. Sometimes you have the aha moment decades after it was already rather obvious. In certain ways, what makes up my musical background in terms of my self-taught things, is to some extent rooted in the early '60s folk music revival, in my visits to not just the 1964 but also the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. '65 of course I saw Dylan go electric. That is that I had already, because of my baptism with rock-and-roll, by the early '60s rock-and-roll had lost a lot of its punch and we had the pretty boy Philadelphia singer syndrome, like Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and the like. There wasn't much on the radio that I could really sink my teeth into. Here comes the folk music revival.   John Kay: While living in Buffalo, a folkie says, "If you really want to know the roots of all this stuff, go down to the main library, they have a music department, which has all of the Library of Congress recording that John and Alan Lomax made in the field. You can listen to Appalachian Delta music. You can hear Delta blues, whatever." I did that. They would let you take a few albums home every week and trade them out for other ones. I went through the entire thing and gave myself a bit of an education.   John Kay: Then when I went to the Newport Folk Festival and saw some of those still alive, those recordings I'd heard, I didn't know that McKinley Morganfield, who was recorded in the Delta by the Lomaxes, was actually Muddy Waters. Here he was with his band playing at Newport, and all of those kind of things.   John Kay: The blues, which as Muddy once said, "The blues had a baby and they called it rock-and-roll," so the blues immediately spoke to me, particularly when I came across some of the lyrics of the chain gang songs and other things. There's a powerful song about ... The lyrics go, "Why don't you go down ole Hannah." Hannah was the name they gave to the sun, "And don't you arise no more, and if you rise in the morning, bring judgment day," because these are guys, they hated her, because the sun came up, they were forced to work in the field, out of the prison, the chain gangs, and they didn't get any rest until the sun went down. I learned that the blues had a lot more to offer than just, "Woke up this morning, my chicken walked across my face," and all the rest of the stuff they'd write.   John Kay: The other thing was great, was that the likes of Dylan and numerous others of the times were following in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie and writing new songs about the here and now that was of interest to our own age group, because this was the time when the three civil rights workers were killed in Mississippi. I remember hearing, let's see, I can't think of his name right now, it'll come to me later, he was just like Dylan, a topical, as we called them, we never called them protest songs, topical songwriter. I remember he sang it, had just written it, about the killing of these three, at a topical song workshop in the afternoon. His name was Ochs, Phil Ochs.   Jeff Thompson: Phil Ochs, yeah.   Pete Lane: Phil Ochs, of course.   John Kay: Suicide some years later. The refrain of the song was, "And here's to the land that you've torn the heart out of. Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of."   Jeff Thompson: That rings through with your Monster song.   John Kay: Yeah, because the thing that became obvious to me was that songs can have content which is reflective of what's on people's minds. One of the first things we experienced as Steppenwolf was a baby band, when we went on our first cross-country tour and we were still approachable, so to speak, by long-haired kids in bellbottoms who wanted to say hello after the show, a lot of them said, "Those first two albums of yours we got, you're saying on our behalf some of the things that worry us or that we are concerned with."   John Kay: That's the first time we had positive reinforcement that what we were writing about was not just our own individual personal opinions, but it was reflective of what was on the minds of many of those in our own age group. Of course I had experienced that at Newport. It was a galvanizing experience to be amongst 20,000 young people, and they're listening to somebody like a Phil Ochs or a Bob Dylan, and others who were writing about what was going on in our country in the world. Like JFK once said, "And that's the role of the artist, to remind us of the potential we have yet to reach," in terms of being a just society and all the rest.   John Kay: When it came time for us to start writing our own songs, we had of course witnessed, in fact I'd played in a couple of the same coffeehouses as a journeyman folk musician solo act in Los Angeles with the likes of David Crosby and then still called Jim, later Roger, McGuinn and the rest, who formed of course The Byrds.   Jeff Thompson: The Byrds.   John Kay: Their first album was by and large electric versions of Bob Dylan songs. In fact I was at Ciro's nightclub when The Byrds played, when Dylan showed up and played harmonica with them. That was a photograph on the back of their first album.   John Kay: The point is that I took from there, why couldn't even rock music have lyrics that go beyond "oowee baby" and the typical? That's why our first album had songs like The Pusher and The Ostrich and Take What You Need, which was really about the environment, and later, things like Don't Step On The Grass Sam and None of Your Doing, which was on the second album, which was about a Vietnam soldier coming home and nobody understands him and he can't deal with what he had witnessed. Then of course eventually came the Monster album.   John Kay: The thing with the Monster album, which was very, very successful, popular on the college campuses, were all these demonstrations which were going on against the war in the campuses, and then of course the horrific Kent State shooting. These were things where what we had to say resonated with a lot of young people.   John Kay: What I found interesting was that we after so many years were no longer playing that song as part of our show. Then came the Great Recession, 2007-08, and all of a sudden, a couple of things happened. I can't think of his name right now, he's been a stalwart writer for Rolling Stone for several decades, from the early days on, and he had posted a thing, something like, "I went back to listening to Steppenwolf's Monster album and I was astounded how appropriate it is in the here and now."     John Kay: That coincided shortly with getting more and more requests on our website via email primarily, "Please start playing Monster again." From about 2009 onward, we've been playing it ever since. It's rare that that song does not get a standing ovation in the middle of the show. Of course it's aided and abetted by visuals that accompany our live performance, not every song, but many. In the case of Monster, it is a 10-minute film that illustrates pretty well what the song, line by line, lyrically is about.   John Kay: I remember when we did it for the first time in 2009, our sound man, who's been with us now for over 30 years, and he said, "John, I had the most weird experience tonight, because there was this strange situation with Monster. It was like I was watching a movie that had a soundtrack that a live band was playing, and instead of a narrator telling me what the story was, you were simply singing the story. It was just a really intense experience." It's been like that ever since.   John Kay: Sometimes you write something, and it goes out there like a kid leaving home, and you have no idea what it's doing out there, and then all of a sudden it comes back and say, "I'm still here."   Jeff Thompson: The prodigal song.   John Kay: It's been like that for the last 10 years. It's a song that seems to very much resonate about what we are dealing with right now.   Pete Lane:         It's funny, John, Jeff and I, again, were speaking before you connected with us this afternoon, and I had prepared a question along those lines. As you did earlier in this interview, you've answered it. Let me ask you this question. It's a slight variation on what we just spoke of. For those of you who don't know, Monster is just a dynamite song. It chronicles the country, the United States from its inception to what was then modern-day U.S. back in 1970 I believe, '71, early '70s.   John Kay: Correct.   Pete Lane: My question is this. If you were to write that song today, would you title it anything different?   John Kay: No, because in my opinion the Monster has almost taken human shape now.   Donald Trump: The American Dream is dead.   Richard Nixon: I'm not a crook.   Donald Trump: We will make America great again!   Richard Nixon: I'm not a crook. I'm not a crook. I'm not a crook.   Pete Lane: Just a dynamite song.   Jeff Thompson: There's another long big song. It was big on the album I bought. You had over I think it was 20-minute long, The Pusher.   John Kay: Yeah, that thing. There's a story to be told about that, I'll tell you. You're referring to the so-called early Steppenwolf album, a vinyl album obviously, back in those days. One side was that 20-minute version of The Pusher. That whole thing came to be because it was really a performance done by the band The Sparrow, which I had joined.   John Kay: When I was in the early '60s, like so many others, with a guitar, hitchhiking around, playing wherever they'd let me, in coffeehouses and the like, when I returned after a year of being in Los Angeles, hanging out at the Troubadour, doing various things, meeting Hoyt Axton, learning The Pusher from him, etc, and wound up in Toronto again, and York Village at that time, section of Toronto had exploded into this area of just coffeehouses and clubs, all sorts of things. While I played at a coffeehouse as a solo act, I bumped into this Canadian band called The Sparrows, with an S, plural at the time. We joined forces. I started to perform The Pusher with an electric band instead of just acoustically.   John Kay: The Sparrows eventually left Canada, because in those days most people did, where there was Joni Mitchell and Neil Young or others, and wound up in the States. We played in New York for a while, got a record deal that went nowhere. I kept badgering them that having seen the formation of The Byrds in L.A., that we ought to go to California. That's what we did eventually, and wound up, through various reasons I won't take time to explain, in the Bay area. There we played on the weekends usually the Avalon Ballroom or the Fillmore Ballroom. During the week we would play different clubs. One of them was a permanently beached paddle wheeler ferry boat in Sausalito called The Ark.   John Kay: We were now amongst all of these Bay area bands that liked to stretch out and experiment and jam and do different things. We said, "Hey, we can play songs that are longer than four or five minutes." We started to do different things. One of them was this ad-libbed version of The Pusher, which was preceded by us doing different instrumental experiments. Steve Miller would come by and sit in and play all the different things. One of the things we'll always remember is that regularly the Hells Angels would come, drop acid, lie down on the dance floor, and stay all night listening.   John Kay: We also played a club called The Matrix. Unbeknownst to us, the manager of the club had a couple of microphones suspended in the ceiling. When Steppenwolf later were moving forward into the '68 and '69, when we were quite successful with our first couple albums, we were being badgered to go back into the recording studio, because the label was always hungry for a new product. We had a couple record contracts that obligated us to deliver two albums a year, which was in hindsight ridiculous.   John Kay: Anyway, the point is that the label said, "This young man, or this guy showed up, and he has these tapes that he recorded, unbeknownst to you, when you guys were still called The Sparrows, from a show you played at The Matrix in San Francisco. We would like to put it out as a collector's item called Early Steppenwolf." We listened to it. Of course you can imagine that with a couple of microphones suspended from the ceiling, this was, yeah, a collector's item for those who must just for bragging rights have to have one of everything, to be able to say, "I got everything they ever did." We hated that. We hated it then, but it bought us time. It bought us time in the studio, because when that thing was released, we got busy on writing and eventually recording what became the Monster album. That was a major step forward.   Jeff Thompson: Yes, it was.   Pete Lane: Fascinating story.   Jeff Thompson: John, I want to go back to you told a story about how kids in school would bully you, but you took their names, you remembered, and you would get them back somehow.   John Kay: It wasn't so much in school. What would happen is, like just about everywhere in the world, including the States these days, soccer, what they called football, every kid plays it. They play it barefoot in Africa. Whatever. We did too, meaning the kids in the street in West Germany when I was young. There was a vacant lot next to our little apartment building, and that's where we played.   John Kay: During the day, with the sun in my eyes, even with my dark glasses, that wasn't so cool, but the moment the sun started going down, during twilight hours, I'm like a nocturnal creature that can make do with very little light. My eyes open up. I don't squint. I can see much better, not further, just more comfortably I can see things.   John Kay: I would join the kids playing soccer. When they figured out that I couldn't always see what was going on, there's an 11-meter penalty kick that's part of the rules, and so when it was my turn to make that kick, some wise ass would put a half a brick in front of the ball, so I wouldn't see it. I'd come with just regular street shoes, no special athletic shoes, and take a run at shooting this ball, and of course, wham, would run my toes right into that brick-   Jeff Thompson: Ouch.   John Kay: ... holding my foot and hopping around on one leg, doing a Daffy Duck, "Woo! Woo!" That did not go down well with me. I was fairly big for my size always, tall. They then of course saw that I was gonna come after them. They also knew that if they managed to run a certain distance, I could no longer find them. I had to learn to say, "This is not the time." Two or three days would go by, and they would have forgotten about it, and whoever the instigator was would be doing something, and then I would go over there and deck them. They would be, "Oh man, what was that for, man? I didn't do ... " "Yes, you did, and I did not forget, but I hope you will remember this," and they did.   Jeff Thompson: I remember seeing your album covers. I collected albums. There was one of you leaning back, and you're very tall, the way the angle was on it. You wore the sunglasses. When I thought of artists, musicians, I go through Roy Orbison and other people that wore the sunglasses on stage and stuff, I never thought of you. When someone brought it to my attention, State Services for the Blind here, some client wants your book recorded, so they'll take volunteers, record chapter by chapter for the person to listen to. They contacted me, said, "Hey, John Kay, he's visually impaired." I went, "Oh, that explains the sunglasses," maybe for the lights on stage or something.   John Kay: Absolutely the case. I had learned over time, since I wore dark glasses during the day, certainly outdoors, I got in the habit of keeping them on, because I went, "Spotlights and stage lights, they're pretty bright, and sometimes it's difficult for me to see the guitar fret board, where my fingers go and everything, and so I'll just keep the dark glasses on. Besides, some pretty cool people seem to be wearing them, and so that's just part of the persona." Over time, meaning literally decades, I learned that I could avoid, provided the spotlights were mounted high enough with a downward angle, I could look under them in a sense, look at the audience rather than up into the bleachers. Gradually I was able to dispense with them on stage, although the moment we play outdoors they go right back on. In fact I have one pair that's damn near as dark as welding goggles when things get really super sunny, Africa's sun is very bright, or the snow is very reflective, that sort of thing.   John Kay: Of course I remember one time, we were never the darlings of Rolling Stone, and so there was a negative review of one of our albums. The guy said, I'm paraphrasing, "As far as John Kay's jive sunglasses are concerned," he went on about something else. Actually, one of our managers felt compelled to write them a letter and point out that those glasses have a purpose for being on my face. He's just like everyone else.   John Kay: When I was a kid in West Germany when we first got there, I had a key around my neck, because my mother was a seamstress in other people's homes, so making a living until she remarried, and I had to learn how to get around, to get on this streetcar to get to there, because I was at a daycare center run by the Swedish Red Cross and I had to make my way back home and I couldn't read the street signs. You figure things out, there's this kind of a building on that corner, and markers that you imprint into your memory banks.   John Kay: You have to remember, this is a time, post World War II, the Soviet Union alone lost 20 million people. In Hanover in 1949 and '50 and '51, there were tons of people, legs and arms missing and crutches and this and that, those who managed to survive the war in some semblance. It was basically a mindset of, "Hey, we all got stuff to deal with, kid. Just get on with it." You learned how to figure out workaround solutions for what you're dealing with. I'm certainly one of millions who are having to make adjustments.   John Kay: I remember we had a dear neighbor in Tennessee was a Vietnam veteran, Marine Corps, and he was in a wheelchair. He had to overcome his anger and started to meditate and do other things. He said to me, "Hey John, it's not the hand that's dealt you, it's how you play the hand that's dealt you." He married, had a wonderful daughter. He became a cotton farmer and somehow got onto his tractor, and like so many out there, that okay, he's not perfect, but what are you gonna do with what you got?   Jeff Thompson: John, regarding your visual impairment these days, do you use technology, computer, smartphone, anything along those lines? If so, do you use any kind of adaptive tools or screen enlargement features, anything like that?   John Kay: I'm lucky enough in the sense that most standard issue devices have features that work just fine. I have a fairly large flat-panel monitor on my PC. Of course with the zoom feature and other things, I can make the font, what I'm reading, as well as what I may be writing, email and Word documents or whatever, whatever I want. The iOS, I have a phone, I have a iPad, they have a zoom feature that's just marvelous. I use that when needed. Some things with Siri or Chicano or something, in the PC world you can actually just ask for certain things to be brought to the screen. I'm learning how to do that more and more. It's a great convenience.   John Kay: I really don't have any problems. I've flown all over the world to meet my band mates on my own. I've learned to do ... That was a big deal for me, because of ... One of you mentioned you had been to our foundation's website. There are a number of videos about the things that we support, and we have witnessed and the wildlife that we see and so on. All of that was shot by me, edited by me, and then narrated by me. Now granted my wife, who is a fine photographer and had no colorblindness like I do, I ask her sometimes, "What about this?" "We can tweak that a little, whatever." Other than a little color assistance, I do all that myself.   John Kay: The reason I can do it primarily is because there are several brands of prosumer or even professional camcorders that have up to 20x optical zoom lens, which gives you an incredible reach from where you are to get a closeup of whatever's in the distance, an elephant, whatever it may be. I use it like a pair of binoculars, because I remember one time we were in Africa and our guide was asking my wife, "He's constantly looking through that thing. Is he always shooting?" She says, "No no no. Instead of picking up a pair of binoculars, then finding something he wants to shoot, putting down-"   Jeff Thompson: Good for you.   John Kay: "... the binoculars, picking up his camera, he just uses that zoom lens of his like a pair of binoculars, and when he sees something, he just pulls the trigger and starts recording."   Jeff Thompson: That's great. That's neat.   John Kay: That's my workaround solution for that.   Jeff Thompson: John, there's so much information on your website. I was going through it. That's how I found out about the elephants and your foundation. I also was reading your question and answer, which any of the listeners who are out there, go to his website and check it out, the question and answer, because it answers so many questions. One of them was when someone mentions you are a legend, I loved your response to that. You would say it to if you met Chuck Berry or someone else or something. It was just such a humbling thing that you ... Then I believe you met your wife in ...   John Kay: Toronto.   Jeff Thompson: Yeah, in Toronto. Usually when you hear about rock stars and these legends, they've gone through wives, divorces. You're still together.   John Kay: We are still together. I was a member of the aforementioned Canadian band in Toronto called The Sparrows. We were playing Downtown Toronto at a place. Between sets, our bass player said, "Hey, my girlfriend is here, sitting over there at that table, and she brought her girl friend. Why don't you join us for a drink or something?" I went over there, and I met this young woman by the name Jutta, spelled J-U-T-T-A. She was from Hamburg, Germany, where she had already as a teenager seen the band that later was to name itself the Beatles and numerous American rock-and-roll stars at The Star-Club in Hamburg. We had some things in common. I liked her a lot. I followed her home that night and moved in with her. We've been together ever since.   Jeff Thompson: The longest one-night stand.   John Kay: Yeah. The thing is that I, like so many others in the rock-and-roll world, being in our early 20s when we caught a wave as Steppenwolf and we were out there on the road, there's a degree of too much ego, testosterone, drugs, and temptations out there. When my wife sometimes, particularly women ask her, "Was it all roses and rainbows? You guys are still together. What's the secret to your marriage's longevity?" She'll look them straight in the eye and say, "The secret is not getting a divorce."   Jeff Thompson: Rocket science.   John Kay: We're very much lifelong partners. We have much, much in common in terms of our interests and where we direct our energy and passion and time. The other hand, rather, she has certain intuitive traits that for whatever reason elude me, and I'm more analytical and more logical in some ways. We're a good fit. It's the yin and the yang together. We hope to remain like that until we are no longer vertical.   Jeff Thompson: I have a question about this. When you met her, was your eyesight at the time, did you have to explain to her you won't be driving or something like that?   John Kay: Yeah, you're right. Just like my thing that I mentioned earlier, when you're a 12-year-old and you're fantasizing about becoming a rock-and-roller on the other side of the ocean and being told, "Sure, kid," when I moved in with her, she was a very young, desirable, good-looking woman, some of her friends, there's an old snide remark in the industry, which is, "What do you call a musician without a girlfriend? You call them homeless."   John Kay: When I went back to this other girl that I had been living with, to get some of my belongings to bring those over to Jutta's place, when I showed up at this other girl's place, there was another guy sitting there already, playing the guitar. I said, "Hello, who are you?" He says, "My name is Neil Young. I just came in from Winnipeg and I'm joining this band called The Mynah Birds." I said, "Oh, cool. I just joined this band called The Sparrows." In other words, all of us folkies were always looking for a kindhearted woman to put a roof over your head.   John Kay: When I moved in with Jutta and we had been together for a while, they were all telling her, "You got a legally blind, penniless musician, and that's your future. I think you can do better than that." Of course the conventional wisdom, they were absolutely right. The chances of all of this working out the way it did, you'd probably get better odds winning the lottery, if you go to Vegas, they would give you better odds for that, but like I said earlier, sometimes you just have more luck than good sense. It all worked out just fine.   Jeff Thompson: That's great. How did you keep your focus? How did you, I keep going back to that song, but your eye on the chart, through all that has gone on with the early Steppenwolf to John Kay and Steppenwolf? What kept you focused?   John Kay: That's an interesting story, question rather, because I've had to contemplate that before. I've never felt the need to go see a shrink. I seemed to always get over whatever emotional speed bumps there were. I suspect that the same deeply rooted passion for certain things, be it music, be it a sense of justice, being easily enraged by injustice, that I think is also the touchstone of other things where anger is the motivator and the engine. In the case of Steppenwolf, was very successful, we had various albums, some more commercially successful than others. It wasn't all roses and rainbows, but on the whole, it was a segment of my life that was pretty special, obviously.   John Kay: Then came time when the obligations to the band, because of being its primary songwriter and lead singer and front man and all that, became such that I wanted time for the private me, which meant my family, our daughter, who was hardly ever seeing me.   John Kay: When I pulled the plug on Steppenwolf in the late '70s, after a rejuvenating period in the mid-'70s on a different label, our little family went in our little family van all over the Southwest. We spent a lot of time in Hawaii, on Maui and stuff. That was quite nurturing and very good for me, but I was also, "Okay, I'm gonna do a solo album, this and that." It was on pause to a certain extent.   John Kay: Then the news reached Jerry Edmonton, the original drummer and co-founder of the band, and friend, that a couple of ex-members of the band were out there using the name Steppenwolf. Then all sorts of boring details as to lawsuits and other things involved, but the news that reached us was generally from fans, saying, "We went to see what was called Steppenwolf, and it was horrible. People were throwing stuff at them. They're trashing the name."   John Kay: We tried to put a stop to these activities, using the legal system, lawsuits and so on. Again, it would take too much time to go into the details. Let's just say that the results, I kept saying, "This legal system is limping along like a turtle with a wooden leg. We're not getting anywhere here with these lawsuits." It was like whack-a-mole. You'd go after them in this state, they'd pop up in another state.   John Kay: Finally, out of sheer desperation and anger, I had a number of musicians with whom I had been playing as the John Kay Band, I called Jerry and I said, "Man, I want to go out there as John Kay and Steppenwolf, because I want to resurrect the name and rebuild it. We'll work out something, so you participate financially." He was already into his photographer and artist mode. That was fine.   John Kay: In 1980 I went out there, driven by the outrage and anger of, "You guys are destroying something that you didn't build. I was the one who called everybody up to see if you wanted to what became Steppenwolf, and I'm going to go out there and compete with you guys on the same low-level clubs you guys have played the name down into, see who wins."   John Kay: We from 1980 on went out there 20 weeks at a time, five shows a week, overnight drives 500 miles, playing in the toilet circuit of bars, where some of them, you wouldn't want to enter those clubs without a whip and a chair. It was just horrible.   John Kay: The mantra was, "Yeah, three years ago we were headlining in arenas. That's not the point. If there are 300 people here tonight at this club who are not above being here to hear us play, and we're certainly not above us playing for them, so the mission is every night we gotta send people home smiling and telling others, 'You missed a really good show,' and all you can do is grit your teeth that that will eventually," because we ran into, we distinctly remember, a club on the outskirts of Minneapolis, St. Paul. During the soundcheck time, relatively young guy came over and looked me straight in the face, said, "You're not John Kay. He wouldn't play a shit hole like this." That was the level to which the name had been played down into.   John Kay: That really got me aggravated. I said, "I'm gonna kick their butt, not by ... The lawyers are still fighting over this and that, but in the meantime, we're getting great reviews and we're going town by town, state by state." By 1984, after relentless touring in the States, also twice in Canada, by that time we had also released a couple new albums, twice in Europe, once in Australia, we in essence put what we called the bogus Steppenwolf bands out of business.   John Kay: While we were at it, since we were somewhat damaged goods, we said, "Then we're gonna learn how to mind the store ourselves." That's when we had our own music publishing company, our own recording studio, our own merchandise corporation, our own tour bus, huge truck with a triple sleeper, 105 cases of gear, and on and on. To give you an idea of how tight a bond was formed, our entire crew, all four members have been with me for over 30 years.   Jeff Thompson: Oh wow.   Pete Lane: Wow.   John Kay: We took the reigns into our own hands and learned. I did not want to become a paralegal or para-accountant or any of those other things. Almost everybody in our 12-member organization, bus drivers, everybody, wore multiple hats, selling merchandise during the show or whatever. They were all quality people, and we learned how to fend for ourselves, and not just survive, but at a certain point, thrive. We knew exactly where the money was coming from and where it went. Nobody was running off with our loot to Ecuador.   Jeff Thompson: What suggestions would you have for someone today who is interested in music like you were, driving your passion from Little Richard, Chuck Berry, all those people that inspired you to follow your passion? What suggestions in today's music world would you give to them?   John Kay: Unfortunately, I wish I had some kind of a magic formula to impart to them, but obviously every situation is vastly different, is really I think in the end, I know people who are tremendously talented, vastly more talented than I am, who are not necessarily doing well. I've experienced in the early days where someone whose primary talent was to show up at every opportunity to pitch what they had to offer. It's one of those, "Did you go to that audition yesterday, this morning, or whatever?" "I had a really late-night last night. I'll go to the next one." How many opportunities are gonna come your way? It's one of those.   John Kay: The other thing is, do you have the fire in your belly to handle the ego-destroying rejections, because there are probably hundreds, if you were to take a poll of ... Well-known singer-songwriter Nora Jones, that first album, which I love, was rejected I think by every label in town twice. There are stories like that all over the place.   John Kay: How do you pick yourself up every morning after, "I'm sorry, it's just not radio-friendly," or, "You don't really fit into our whatever." You need to have a pretty intense flame of passion about what you are and what you have to offer. You need to be able to handle ...   John Kay: You may be the one that wins the lottery, where the first attempt reaches the right set of ears and you've got a partner in your career moving forward, but most likely you will be like so many of the baby acts these days, and some who have been around already for 10 years plus, which is you have to learn how to wear a lot of different hats, the social media stuff, the pitching your music on YouTube or whatever, to endlessly tour in clubs, to build a following, four of you sleeping in the van with the gear, whatever. It'll burn you out if you're not made of something that can handle those rigors.   John Kay: Meantime, you have the temptations of, "I want to have a private life too," depending on whether you're a female or male, an artist, "I met somebody I want to share my life with. At some point we want to have children. This band isn't getting me anywhere." There are all these things that are strikes against your ability to prevail in this, unless you are one of those who's willing to take those beatings out there, in terms of the rejection and being often the response that you get from reviewers or whatever is not always positive, particularly if you're still in the process of really finding and tweaking who you are and what you have to offer.   John Kay: If you're a singer doing other people's stuff, that's one thing. If you are a writer and you really have something to say, that may be an advantage in the sense that if it resonates, you may find what we found in the early days, which is, "Wow, you've become our musical spokesperson. When I play that song, it is my inner voice, having been give voice, by your voice." If you're one of those who's able to put in words what moves you most, and there are lots of others out there that take your music as their personal soundtrack, then it may still be a long slog uphill, but usually that sort of thing spreads readily on social media.   John Kay: We have the Wolf Pack. When we played our official 50th anniversary, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of the band, when we played that official concert to commemorate that at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee last August, and the Wolf Pack fan club was notified of that. We had over 300 Wolf Pack fan members coming from all over North America and at least close to 70 or 80 of them coming all the way from Europe. They all know each other. They're all like the Dead Heads. They have a passion that they share with others.   John Kay: If you are able as an artist to reach people in that kind of way where what you have to offer becomes more than just sheer entertainment, then I think your chances of making a go of it are pretty good. Some of more or less my contemporaries that are still writing, still out there, still loved, John Prine, John Hiatt, if you are one of those, or you're aspiring to become one of those, I wish you a lot of good fortune.   John Kay: Sarah McLachlan song Angel, it has moved millions to tears. One of the verses that basically I'm paraphrasing, about when you're always being told you're not good enough, you're basically having the door slammed in your face all the time, and the self-doubt creeps in and nobody seems to get what it is you have to offer, those kind of things, they're hard on you.   John Kay: You wouldn't want to be a writer, artist, player, whatever, singer, if you didn't have some degree of ego that says, "Hey, I've got something to offer, something to say. I'm up here. Do you like what I got?" That's rooted to some extent in your ego. If you have that ego under control, wonderful. The ego also gets damaged and gets hurt when they

Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) Fly along with Blind Abilities as we transport you “audibly” to the Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa California, and the WW4B woodworking workshop hosted by the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind. There, way up on Veeder Mountain, Jeff Thompson caught up with one of his woodworking students, Bob Geyer. bob is blind and had a passion for woodworking before he lost his vision. Jeff and Bob chat about Bob’s experience with the tools and projects he worked on during the class and shares his experiences in transitioning into blindness. He opens up about his decision to take charge of his blindness and learning cane travel; his views on the rapidly changing technology, and even throws a shameless “shout out” to his instructors, George, Brian and Jeff, and the Blind Abilities podcast team! Jump right into this brief, but entertaining and informative interview with Jeff and his guest, Bob Geyer! If you are interested in learning more about WW4B, check them out on the web at www.ww4b.organd sign up for their email forum. A lot of experience and a lot of tips are shared. If you are interested in Woodworking, contact your State Agency and find out what opportunities are available. Thanks for Listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Full Transcript: Meet Bob Geyer at Woodworking for the Blind, WW4B, and the Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa, California Pete Lane: Hi folks Pete Lane here, welcome to Blind Abilities. Let's go out west where Jeff Thompson spent a couple of weeks this summer. Pete Lane: Fly with me out to the Enchanted Hills Camp in Napa Valley, California, sponsored by the San Francisco Lighthouse for the blind. There way, way up on Veeder Mountain is where Jeff Thompson connected with is old friend George Wurtzel to teach a group of blind students the art of woodworking. One of those students is our guest today. Meet Bob Guyer. Bob Guyer: I've always been interested in woodworking when I had my full vision. I first found out about WW4B when I was looking for audio versions of woodworking magazines. I think the biggest thing is it improved my confidence in safety, in how to make sure that I am able to use my table saw again without cutting off a finger or anything. I think the most important thing I learned was not to wait to start using a cane. Pete Lane: Not only did Bob chat about his woodworking journey to Enchanted Hills, but he opened his life and his transition to blindness. Bob Guyer: What happened was I was walking down the sidewalk and a family was coming out of the library and I saw them, but I didn't see their little toddler because he was in my blind area. That night I went home and I talked to my wife and I said, "I need help, I need to figure how to use a cane." Pete Lane: His decision to take charge of his life. Bob Guyer: The thing that was nice about that is that I learned the mobility training in the environment that I was living in and working in every day, and that was a real, real big help. Pete Lane: His views on blindness. Bob Guyer: There's just so many things out there to help us from talking tools for woodworkers, to navigation aides to help folks get around these days. I think we're living in a great time with all the technology coming out for us. Pete Lane: And a bit more about his instructors. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities, I'm Jeff Thompson. Bob Guyer: I told my wife, I said, "That's Jeff Thompson, that's Jeff Thompson." And then I also heard George, the instructor here. Jeff Thompson: How are doing George? George Wurtzel: I'm doing pretty good. I'm here with the make-up people, and trying to get my hair right for this. And they want me to change shirts, they don't like the shirt I'm wearing this morning. Just a minute here let me get my ... Okay, yeah, okay. No I don't like the hairspray. Bob Guyer: I had heard his voice from the interviews that you had done with him on Blind Abilities. Pete Lane: Oh yes, yes. Bob Guyer: So I knew the voices and I said, "I'm home, I'm with the folks that I'm here to work with." Pete Lane: And yes, maybe even a shameless plug. Bob Guyer: I think you have like 429 episodes or something like that, that's why I just binge listen. A lot of people binge watch television programs, so I binge listen to Blind Abilities. Pete Lane: We've got two listeners now. So kick back with me on Veeder Mountain as we join Jeff and his guest Bob Guyer. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities, I'm Jeff Thomson. We're at Enchanted Hills Camp at the WW4B, that's ww4b.org on the website, Woodworkers for the Blind having their seventh annual up here on Veeder Mountain in San Francisco, part of the San Francisco Lighthouse for the blind and visually impaired. I'm with a fellow woodworker here Bob Guyer, how you doing? Bob Guyer: Hey Jeff, fine how are you? Jeff Thompson: I'm doing good thanks. So what brought you up here, other than the transport? Bob Guyer: Well, I first found out about WW4B when I was looking for audio versions of woodworking magazines, because I used to be able to read the magazines years ago. So I started searching around and I ran across WW4B, and then on their website they talked about their workshops that you all put together. You listed the summer workshop coming up at Veeder Mountain up here with Enchanted Hills, and so I had to sign up. Jeff Thompson: There you go. What got you interested in woodworking? Bob Guyer: Well, I've always been interested in woodworking. Mostly more carpentry type of woodworking, but I have made other small projects, furniture and that sort of thing, when I had my full vision. Since I lost my vision, I haven't been able to enjoy it like I once did. And I'm retired now, and so I wanted to be able and do a lot of woodworking projects, and so I figured I needed to learn how to do everything with no vision. Jeff Thompson: So now that you've got to experience your first WW4B, what do you think you gathered out of it the most? Bob Guyer: Well, first of all, just the comradery with everybody. It's a great group of folks up here, everybody was so helpful, and sharing ideas, and tips, and tricks, and how to do things better. I think the biggest thing is it improved my confidence in safety, and how to make sure that I'm able to use my table saw again without cutting off a finger or anything. So learning all the proper safety techniques. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, meeting people that are doing the same things, and they're doing the things a little differently, or they're learning, or they all got hobbies. It's a neat group of people that seem to always show up here. Bob Guyer: Yeah. It was fun because some folks ... some of the woodworkers brought different tools, or other project ideas, or things from home, so we were able to see some different tools. Like one of the woodworkers is a piano tuner, and so he works on repairing pianos. It was interesting learning from him how he made different jigs and things to assist him in working on the pianos. Jeff Thompson: So we worked on making the candy dispensers, and got around to some of the tools, but you decided to make another project too. Can you describe that? Bob Guyer: Right. Well, it was basically a simple box. It's a box to put over the top of a kleenex box, so you kind of hide the kleenex box. And fortunately George had a beautiful piece of walnut that he gave me to plane down and cut up to size and make the box out of. So it turned our really, really nice. So I was very, very pleased with both. The little candy machine, that project was fun. I enjoyed the production line aspects of everybody pitching in and doing different aspects of it, and then we finally each settled in on a particular machine that we sort of claimed as ours, and put it together. And we either rounded it or routed the corners different ways, and stained it, and polished it, and made it our own. Bob Guyer: Oh, one of the things I really, really learned and I never had the opportunity before, was to use a lathe. In the candy machine there's a wheel on the bottom, kind of like a turning tray if you will that brings the candy out of the jar. So those were all hand turned on the lathe, and that was my very first experience at ever using a lathe. The instructors were great at showing you how to use the lathe, and I was just floored at the little wheel as we call them, that I was able to produce. I was very excited about that. Jeff Thompson: You also when you went into making your kleenex box, you started out with a very thick piece of wood, and you planed it down, then you joined it ... then you ripped it to square it off, then you brought it to size. Bob Guyer: Yes. Jeff Thompson: So you went to the whole entire ... the gauntlet. Bob Guyer: Yes. That was fun to take a particular project that I wanted to make. Not that I didn't want to make the candy machine, but a personal project, and taking that from the raw wood all the way down to the finished product, and using all of the machines. The planer is just a fabulous, fabulous planer that they have here in the workshop, and then the large belt sander to run the wood through. And I learned different tricks on using the click rule to-- Jeff Thompson: The quarter inch? Bob Guyer: Yeah, the little quarter inch. Taking into account the little foot on the bottom of the click rule, and being able to put that up against a jig say and extending it so that you can measure more easily, instead of trying to just feel with your finger and trying to line it up on the edge of the board. Just being able to hook it over the edge of the board. And didn't think about adding that extra quarter of an inch to the board to make it work. Speaker 5:           Yeah, California baby Bill. Jeff Thompson: We just got power back on the dinner hall. We're sitting outside the dinner hall right by the lake here. Jeff Thompson: So what other hobbies do you have Bob? Bob Guyer: Well, I like to do an awful lot of hiking. So my wife and I every day, we're out on a hike and we probably do about 30, 35 miles a week. So that, and then we also work with the dog rescue organization. So we do an awful lot of work with fostering dogs and rescuing senior dogs, so that takes a lot of our time, but we really-- Jeff Thompson: Keeps you busy? Bob Guyer: Keeps us busy, yeah. Jeff Thompson: So Bob what recommendations would you have for someone who is walking in your own shoes with RP, as you've progressed from knowing you had it to the point where you are today? Bob Guyer: I think the most important thing I learned was not to wait to start using a cane. I waited way too long to begin using a cane, just out of male stubbornness, or embarrassment or something from using a cane. But once I came to the realization that I needed to use the cane, then went and got the mobility training, oh, my life has been so much easier being able to get around and feel safe that I'm not going to walk into anything, or into anybody. Jeff Thompson: So when you start to accept it? Bob Guyer: Yes. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Bob Guyer: Yeah. And not be embarrassed about it. One of the things I did is, I was still working when I came to the realization that I needed to use a cane. What happened was I was walking down the sidewalk and going around the corner of our public library, and a family was coming out of the library. And I saw them, but I didn't see their little toddler because he was in my blind area of my peripheral vision. And I walked right over the top of the little boy, he went down and his head hit the concrete, and he was crying and I started to cry, because I was so worried about him. Fortunately he was fine, nothing serious happened to him. But that night I went home and talked to my wife and I said, "I need help, I need to figure out how to use a cane." So that was the start of it. Bob Guyer: And I was still working at that time, and I sent an E-mail out to everybody in our entire organization, like 300 plus people. And told them about my eye disease and that they were going to see me with a trainer walking around the city, and in city facilities learning how to use a cane. And that I wasn't embarrassed about using the cane, and I felt comfortable if they wanted to come up and ask me a question, please come up and ask a question. I mentioned to them, "Don't be embarrassed for me". I just wanted everybody to know what had happened to me, or why the change. Because I know they would see me and just wonder, and so I just wanted to put everybody to ease right from the beginning. And I think that was a big help too. Jeff Thompson: Another thing that you're talking about when you mention that don't be afraid to use a cane. Start using it before you absolutely have to, so you get acclimated to it. Bob Guyer: Right. Jeff Thompson: You also mentioned that you're start thinking about voice screen readers and stuff. Bob Guyer: Yes. Well, since I've retired my RP has progressed even further. I've used zoom text for quite a while, but I keep upping the magnification all the time, and I'm getting to the point where there's just a few letters on the screen that I can read. And so I decided to start to learn Jaws, and so I put Jaws on my computer so I could learn that before I could no longer read with zoom text. Jeff Thompson: That's one of the things I find mostly, is people put it off, put it off, put it off, put it off, and then it's a crashing blow to them when they can't do either. Jeff Thompson: So you went to mobility training? Bob Guyer: Yes. Jeff Thompson: And did you get that through your state? Bob Guyer: I got that through the Vista Center for the Blind in Santa Cruz, California. Jeff Thompson: What was that like? Bob Guyer: Well, it was really nice because the instructor came to my house and met with my wife and I, and explained to both of us what was going to happen, and explained to her about being a sighted guide to help me when I needed it. But then we started right from there and started walking around my neighborhood, and through intersections, and learning how to navigate busy intersections with a cane. He also helped me ride the bus, since I wasn't able to drive I was riding the bus to work. So he rode on the bus with me, and had to get on and off the bus. He went to my place of work and walked all around the office. Spent the day with me and saw everything I did. I had to walk to a lot of different locations as part of my job, and so we walked to all of those locations with my cane. And he pointed out all the different little tips and tricks. Bob Guyer: So the thing that was nice about that, is that I learned the mobility training in the environment that I was living in and working in every day, and that was a real, real big help. We also went to a local shopping mall, so I was in a real crowded situation and learned how to get on and off escalators, and that sort of thing. Jeff Thompson: So it was a good experience getting some training? Bob Guyer: Yes, absolutely. It certainly boosts your confidence that you can do things, and you don't have to be isolated and stay home. And now a days with the technology, it's advancing so rapidly, there's just so many things out there to help us from talking tools for woodworkers, to navigation aids to help folks get around these days. We're living in a great time with all the technology coming out for us. Jeff Thompson: Not to toot my own horn, or Blind Abilities horn, but when we first met and you came in here and went down to the dining hall, you said something like, "I listen to 50 of your podcasts." And your wife says, "Yes, he has." Bob Guyer: Yeah. I had been listening to Blind Abilities once I found you, and then I found your website and found how I could download a whole bunch of your episodes. Well, no what I did was, I was able to sync my Victor Reader. That was the big thing is that I used Victor Reader. And I think you had mentioned on one of your shows about putting that into your podcast player, and so I put that into Victor Reader and bam it popped right up. I went through ... I think you have like 429 episodes or something like that, and I listened to the title of everyone of those, and some of them I would click and listen to the extra description on it. And then I started saying, "Okay, set that one for download, set that one for download, set that one for download." And before I knew it I had 54 of them downloaded. Bob Guyer: And so I just binge listening. A lot of people binge watch television programs, so I binge listened to 54 episodes of Blind Abilities. You guys do a fabulous job at Blind Abilities with all the podcasts that you put out. Jeff Thompson: We've got two listeners now? Bob Guyer: Well, we're dedicated listeners. Jeff Thompson: It is really fun to be up here. The group that was before you, the music group, and I was sitting next to someone and he said, "I know your voice." And I said, "I'm Jeff Thomson." And he goes, "You're blind abilities." It's a small world, and he worked up in Victoria, Canada, and they suggest it to their students. So it was just one of those things that you're up on a mountain, out in the middle of nowhere and these people ... It's a small world, but on this mountain there's a lot of great people. Bob Guyer: Right. Well was it-- Jeff Thompson: Always this fun. Bob Guyer: -- the same situation when we all first got together in the dining hall, the first day of woodworking. A little bit of orientation about the facility and what we were going to be doing and that sort of thing. But, while we were milling around, I heard your voice off in the distance and I told my wife, I said, "That's Jeff Thompson, that's Jeff Thompson." And then I also heard George, the main instructor here. I had heard his voice from the interviews that you had done with him on Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yes, yes. Bob Guyer: And also from the television commercial that George starred in, so I knew the voices and I said, "I'm home. I'm with the folks that I'm here to work with." Jeff Thompson: You binged and you're still hearing our voices. Bob Guyer: Yep, yep. I've enjoyed it all, it's been great. Jeff Thompson: Well, Bob Guyer thank you so much for coming on the Blind Abilities. I'm keeping you from dinner so that's not a good thing. Thanks a lot Bob. Bob Guyer: Well, thank you Jeff, and thank you to everybody with Blind Abilities. You all do a great job, your correspondence out at the conventions, and just all of you. Very, very thankful that you have the program for us. So thanks. Jeff Thompson: Alright. Pete Lane: This concludes our visit with Bob Guyer. We'd like to thank Bob for taking time out of his day to chat with Jeff. And for all of you out there, thanks so much for listening, and have a great day. Pete Lane: For more podcasts with a Blindness Perspective check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. We're on Twitter, we're on Facebook, and be sure to check out our free app in the Apple app store, and the Google Play store.  

Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) Blind Abilities presents another guest from the Sagebrush Convention for the Business Enterprise Program (BEP), held in Las Vegas a few months ago. Jeff Thompson caught up with Ardis Bazyn who has written several books on topics including a 3-part series called Building Blocks for Success, addressing how to create and manage a business, Church or organization, with inclusion and accessibility in mind, as well as a book with recipes, tips and tricks which she originally wrote for her daughters. Ardis is currently working on a book about herself in which she describes her journey into blindness in hopes that others might learn to cope with challenges and change. Ardis is an active public speaker, talking to small and large groups on change, entrepreneurship, and a variety of other topics. She also serves as a coach to individuals who take on new challenges, whether in dealing with blindness or undertaking a new business endeavor. You can find Ardis on the web at www.ardisbazyn.squarespace.com If you are interested in becoming your own boss and want to run your own business, contact your state services, your Devision of Vocational Rehabilitation and see what opportunities they have for you. You can find out more about RSVA on the web at www.randolph-sheppard.org Here is a podcast all about the BEP: The Business Enterprise program: Business Ownership Opportunities and a Promising Career   Thanks for Listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Full Transcript: Introducing Ardis Bazyn, Motivational Speaker, Author and Coach #SageBrush Pete Lane: Hi folks, this is Pete Lane. Welcome to Blind Abilities. Today, Jeff Thompson and I would like to introduce Ardis Bazyn. Pete Lane: Ardis is a multi-talented individual. Ardis Bazyn: I've written several books, one is a series, Building Block to Success. There's a lot of accessibility throughout it. Pete Lane: She is an author. Ardis Bazyn: I'm currently writing a book about myself. I started when I lost my sight to help people realize the various secrets there are to coping with challenges and change. Pete Lane: ... sharing her business acumen and her life experiences. Ardis Bazyn: I speak to all sizes of audience, I think the smallest group I've spoken to is about eight, and I've spoken for groups as large as 1500. Pete Lane: She's a motivational speaker, talking about coping with challenges and change. Ardis Bazyn: I do a lot of talking on entrepreneurship, what things people should think about before they consider entrepreneurship. Sometimes people hop into it and then aren't successful because they didn't really think of all the business aspects. Pete Lane: ... and entrepreneurship. Speaking from personal experience ... Ardis Bazyn: I was in the Randolph Sheppard program for 27 years. I had six different facilities. Pete Lane: ... and success. Ardis Bazyn: While I was in Iowa, I had gone to college and gotten my BA's in public relations and speech communications, and I also got my master's degree in education. Pete Lane: ... highly motivated. Ardis Bazyn: I feel it's important to continue your classes, even if you're in a job, even if you have a career. Check out the college disabilities services before you sign up for college. Make sure that you go to the one that's gonna help you the most. Pete Lane: And today, she shares her experiences with us. Ardis Bazyn: I keep pretty active, because I think it's important for blind people to show other blind people what they can do if they get out there, network with people. Pete Lane: Jeff had the pleasure of connecting with Ardis at the Sagebrush Convention for the Business Enterprise Program in Las Vegas just a few months ago. So take a few short minutes, sit back and relax, and meet Ardis Bazyn. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities, I'm Jeff Thompson, and I'm talking to Ardis Bazyn, and she is a speaker, author, coach. She's here with us today at the Sagebrush Convention here in Las Vegas. How are you doing, Ardis? Ardis Bazyn: Fine, nice to be talking to you. Jeff Thompson: Ardis, could you tell our listeners a little bit about the books you've written and the stuff you've been up to? Ardis Bazyn: Sure, no problem. I've written several books, one is a series, Building Blocks to Success. The first one is Does the Image of Your Church Attract Members. The second one is Does the Image of Your Organization Attract Members. And the third one is Does the Image of Your Business Attract Customers and Motivate Employees. Covering all the gamuts of each particular type of organization, everywhere from networking ... Ardis Bazyn: Well, the business one for example, it's everything from getting a database together, how to work with your community, how to do seminars and conferences, how to do a newsletter, PR, customer base, all the different aspects. Being open to all people. Ardis Bazyn: There's a lot of accessibility throughout it, like how to make sure you have an accessible newsletter, an accessible website, accessible activities, like if you have seminars, make sure you think about the people that might be coming and what the audience might need as far as accessibility goes. So all three of those books cover accessibility and involving everyone. Ardis Bazyn: A lot with the blindness perspective, but I also talk about other disability. Accessibility, like if you have a business, you wanna make sure your aisles are wide enough for wheelchairs. Make sure where hold meetings people don't have to climb steps, and that whole aspect. Different disability-related access, that kind of thing. Ardis Bazyn: And then I have a fourth one which is more of a fun book, it's my family favorite. I actually started it by doing it for my daughters, I wanted to know about all the recipes we used growing up, and then talked about healthy tips and tricks and also substitutions, that kind of thing. I started that as just for them, but then I decided, “Well, I might as well just offer it to other people too.” Ardis Bazyn: And then I'm currently writing a book about myself. I started it when I lost my sight, and go from there. Basically I'm writing that to help people to realize the various secrets there are to coping with challenges and change. Some people look at it as a tragedy, but I think there's positives too, because you can teach others how to change, how to do things differently, and how to just be active no matter what your disability. Jeff Thompson: And that's the book that you're working on now? Ardis Bazyn: Yes, mm-hmm (affirmative). Ardis Bazyn: I speak to all sizes of audience. I think the smallest group I've spoken to is about eight, and I've spoken for groups as large as 1500. My most requested speaking topic is Secrets to Coping With Challenge and Change, but a lot of them are on leadership, membership development for organizations, helping people to plan for a successful future, whether that's a career or just being successful in whatever the person does. Ardis Bazyn: I do a lot of talking on entrepreneurship, the value of entrepreneurship, how to get to be an entrepreneur, what things people should think about before they consider entrepreneurship. There's lots of different areas that people should think about. Sometimes people hop into it and then aren't successful because they didn't really think of all the business aspects before they jumped into it. Jeff Thompson: So, without being a spoiler, what are some of the secrets that you have in that talk? Ardis Bazyn: I ask people to think about their resources. If they have money tucked away that they can use for it, or if they know other people with money where they might be able to borrow some money to get started. Also, what other resources they might have, what is their background, what is their previous experience, have they worked at a job where they could use those skills in building a business? Ardis Bazyn: For example, if they worked for a computer tech company, well, maybe they could go on their own and either teach technology, or they could fix computers for people, or work with people on iPhones, etc. Or, perhaps they have a background in bookkeeping, they've worked for an accounting firm. Well, they might wanna go on their own to have their own accounting firm. Ardis Bazyn: So a lot of the skills they can look at, “Okay, what do I have to offer that I could create into a business?” There's also ready-made businesses, [inaudible], Mary Kay, work for a blindness company, selling JAWS, selling computer software access technology. You can look at those, those are already built in, and you just have to know how to be able to network with a lot of people to be able to sell the products, and also to train people under you to sell the products and services. Jeff Thompson: So you help them, before they make the leap, decide if they wanna take that step. Ardis Bazyn: That's correct. And a lot of retired people now want to have something to do once they retire. Let's say they worked for a company 25, 30 years, and they retire, but they're still young enough that they don't wanna just sit down in a rocking chair. So then they might be open to doing some of the things that they had done in their prior business. Ardis Bazyn: Perhaps they do a lot of background checks and stuff for a company. They wanna retire from that company, but they still wouldn't mind doing a little bit of that on the side. So I like to talk to younger people in transition, and then also older people that just wanna consider what they could do later on in life. Jeff Thompson: Older transitioning people. Ardis Bazyn: That's correct. Jeff Thompson: So what kind of businesses have you participated in throughout the years? Ardis Bazyn: I was in the Randolph Sheppard program for 27 years. I had six different facilities, I've had two cafeterias that I managed, one had up to 13 employees because it was the legislative building in Pierre, South Dakota, so it was the cafeteria for the capitol. The other one had five employees, [inaudible] data center in Ames, Iowa, and there I had also about 20 vending machines in another building. Ardis Bazyn: And then I had three different snack bars, I had one in Pierre, South Dakota, one in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and one in Dubuque, Iowa. That one also had a vending route with it. And then my last facility in food service was for the Cedar Rapids Post Office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There I had 57 vending machines in 13 different buildings at the highest point. Ardis Bazyn: But I moved to California in 1999, and to stay in that field I would have had to go through training all over again and start basically from scratch, because the Randolph Sheppard Program, each state agency has different rules, so you have to just go through the training again whenever you move from one state to another. And some states are more open to that, and sometimes will cut down your training, and other states aren't. It kinda depends. Ardis Bazyn: But while I was in my last location in Iowa, I had gone to college and gotten my BA's in public relations and speech communications, and I also got my master's degree in education. I had decided that I would like to make money. I had been doing a lot of speaking and coaching, but it was more just helping churches and so forth, so I wasn't charging fees. So I figured if I got my education, then I would have the qualifications to be able to actually charge a fee to speak and work with people. Jeff Thompson: We focus a lot on transition-age students that are going from high school to college to the workplace, and a lot of seniors who are, like you just mentioned, transitioning. What kind of tools for success did you use? Ardis Bazyn: I always tell people that it's important to learn as much as you can, and I am a lifetime learner, in fact just this last fall I completed a four-year program to receive an MBA certificate. I feel it's important to continue your classes, even if you're in a job, even if you have a career, because the more you learn, the more you can add to your knowledge base, and the more able you are to transition to something else if you get bored with what you're doing, or if you lose your job, etc. Ardis Bazyn: And I know I've talked to some transition groups for state agencies, and one of the keys I always tell people is be open to anything. Because if you limit yourself, then something might come along and you might decide that that might be the career you want. People sometimes say “Hey, I don't wanna go into that Randolph Sheppard program”, or “I don't wanna go to college”, or “I don't wanna go into technology”. Ardis Bazyn: But you should be open and check out everything, because you might change your mind once you start college and take a few courses. Or, if you decide to go to a technical school, you could start out take a few courses and then decide that that's not for you. So I think you need to just remain open and listen to people around you. Ardis Bazyn: Actually, it's a good idea to shadow somebody. If it's in a career that you think might be of interest, go to that business and follow them for a few days. And there's a lot of people that are in business and in companies that'd be more than happy to have you shadow them for a little while. Because they wanna make sure that any employee would have the right skills, and it's much better to do a shadow position, or do an internship, and then you can decide, “Hey, I really like this,” or “I don't like this.” Jeff Thompson: How about PC or Mac? Ardis Bazyn: I like PC. I do use an iPhone, I bought an iPhone a few years ago, and I've been using it a little bit more. But I still don't like the touch screen as well as I do the PC. Plus, I've noticed people have iPads, but you can't put a thumb drive in them. Ardis Bazyn: I use a BrailleSense, in fact I carry one with me at conferences, and I can take notes, and I like to use braille, and I'm a big friend of thumb drives. I plug in thumb drives and pop it over to my PC, and then I can rewrite, revise, etc. faster on my PC than I can on my BrailleSense. I just really enjoy PC, plus it holds so much more. I like it for that reason. Some people use both, but ... nah. Jeff Thompson: As an author, is there a certain software that you use to do your writing? Ardis Bazyn: I use Word for the most part. Now, I do ... On my note taker it's text for the most part, but then I transition over to Word I usually copy it into Word, because I'm more used to Word and I can search for stuff and check out how many words there are and so forth better in Word than I can some of the other. Ardis Bazyn: I'm an Excel user, I use Excel for different databases. I don't use the other ones too much. I'll read PowerPoint, but when I speak I don't use PowerPoint, I tend to like handouts better. Because I've found a lot of people misuse PowerPoint. They'll be reading everything off the PowerPoint. That's not the point of PowerPoint, the point is to have some key points. Jeff Thompson: Ardis, what advice would you give to someone who's in high school, looking forward to transitioning to college and the workplace? Ardis Bazyn: I would suggest, as far as going to college, make sure you check out the college disabilities service before you sign up for college. If you have three or four colleges you're looking at, make sure that you go to the one that's gonna help you the most. Ardis Bazyn: Some disabilities services are really good, and they'll help you to get your documents put in a format that you can read, they'll help you with testing, etc. And some disability services are not real good about ... They don't wanna be flexible in your schedule. If you're having to take afternoon and evening courses, for example, and you're working in the morning, you wanna make sure that that college can accommodate you. Ardis Bazyn: I did that when I went from community college for two years, and then I had to transition to a four-year, and then when I was checking them out I just wanted to make sure what courses I had in their different majors. Because I found out one of the colleges I was heavily considering for a public relations course, they wanted me to take layout and design, they wanted me to take photography, those kind of things, which, for a totally blind person, is really ridiculous. Ardis Bazyn: And they said, “Oh, we can have somebody help you.” Why would you wanna bother taking a course that you aren't gonna be able to use in the future? Whereas the other college I ended up going to, they gave me a list of courses, and I just had to take so many out of this particular list. They were much more flexible. So it's real important to check that out when you look at a college. Ardis Bazyn: The other thing is decide how far away you wanna be from your parents or your family, and think about all these things ahead of time, before you say, “Hey, I'd like that college, it sounds really great, they're offering this.” But you really need to check it out. Ardis Bazyn: I actually wrote a document for students looking at going to college, it's called A Guide to a Successful College Experience. And anyone that would like to get a hold of that, they can contact me and I'd be glad to send it to them. It covers all the different things you should look at when you're looking to go to a college. It's especially written for blind students, but a lot of the stuff would work for any disabled student. Jeff Thompson: So Ardis, how can someone find you on the web? Ardis Bazyn: I have two websites, one is bazyncommunications.com, B-A-Z-Y-N-communications, with an S, .com. And then under my name, ardisbazyn.com. And on the Ardis Bazyn one I have a blog, whereas the other one is more of a traditional website, and it has a majority of the links and then my Ardis Bazyn one links to that site. Jeff Thompson: So right at the end here you start talking about a blog. You just seem really busy with a lot of writing, you must really enjoy it. Ardis Bazyn: I don't blog as much as I should, I should do it every week or two, and sometimes it's once every couple of months. But I like to share tips and tricks for people of all ages. And I'm on several boards, I'm on American Business Women's Association, I'm active with Business Network International, BNI is for both men and women whereas ABWA is more for just women, although they allow men to join. Ardis Bazyn: Plus I'm real active in blindness organizations, American Council of the Blind, Randolph Sheppard Vendors of America, Independent Visually Impaired Entrepreneurs, as well as the California Council of the Blind and the State Independent Living Council in California. Ardis Bazyn: So I keep pretty active, because I think it's important for blind people to show other blind people what they can do if they get out there, network with people. Jeff Thompson: You're gonna need more than a business card to put all that on. Jeff Thompson: Well, Ardis, thank you very much for taking the time out of your day here at the convention and speaking to the listeners of Blind Abilities. Ardis Bazyn: Thank you for having me. Pete Lane: This concludes our chat with Ardis Bazyn. Jeff and I would like to thank Ardis for chatting with us. Special thanks to [inaudible] for his absolutely gorgeous music. And for all of you, thanks so much for listening, and have a great day. Pete Lane: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. We're on Twitter, we're on Facebook, and be sure to check out our free app in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) Blind Abilities presents this chat with Jo Fishwick, as Jeff Thompson caught up with her in Teignmouth, england. Joe is the Chairperson of VI Talk, a Charitable, Incorporated Organization (CIO). VI Talk is aimed at people with a visual impairment, anyone who knows someone with a visual impairment, or someone who has a connection with an organization or group that offers services or support to visually impaired people. VI Talk is on Facebook, with seven individual groups for your choosing and on twittersharing ideas, information and support. Jo shares her story of growing up in the UK with a visual impairment, her schooling, her journey into volunteerism and employment, her work at Cliffden Hotel in Teignmouth, and her challenges as a VI parent. Join Jeff Thompson as he chats with Jo, an old and dear friend, as only Blind Abilities can present. Thank you CheeChau for your beautiful music. You can follow CheeChau on Twitter. Thanks for Listening! Contact: You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Full Transcript: Meet Jo Fishwick: Charitable Pioneer, Assistive Technology Coordinator, Wife and Mother Pete Lane:           Welcome to Blind Abilities. This is Pete Lane. We'd like to introduce you to our guest, Jo Fishwick. Jo is visually impaired an assisted technology instructor, a wife, and a mother. Jo is also the chairperson of VI Talk, an ongoing charitable organization who's goal is to equip blind and visually impaired folks in the UK to not only manage their blindness, but to thrive. Speaker 2: Welcome to VI Talk. Sharing ideas, information, and support. Jo Fishwick: We started just as a Facebook group, as a voluntary group in January 2014. Then we got an Audioboom channel in March 2014. We started doing link days, which basically is an opportunity for blind or partially sighted people, or anybody who works in that field to get together. I had to transition from using print to braille and I was so glad I was prepared for that. Although it was still difficult, you know, it was great. So I run a braille support group on Facebook for anybody who's learning braille, or just wants a bit of extra help, drop me a message on Facebook, and I'll approve your request to join. The same with the VI Talk groups. We've got seven of those now. A glutton for punishment, us. Pete Lane: Jo is also a good friend of our own Jeff Thompson, who had a chance to catch up with Jo while he was visiting the UK. Jeff Thompson: Indian summer? Jo Fishwick: Yeah, it's lovely isn't it? Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Glad I'm here right now. Jo Fishwick: Yeah, you couldn't have picked better. Pete Lane: We're at the Clifton Hotel, which is in teignmouth. Jo Fishwick: Six or seven acres now, yeah. It was owned by Guide Dogs back in the day. Well, owned by Guide Dogs, but run by the RNIB. Pete Lane: Sharing her story. Jo Fishwick: It is lovely. I feel very lucky to live here. Been here for six and a half years now. Pete Lane: And her advice. Jo Fishwick: You've got to be patient with yourself. Don't expect everything to happen in a day. It is a grieving process. Losing your sight, it's a form of grief. Because you're losing something. It's very precious to you. Pete Lane: Now, let's join Jeff Thompson, and our guest, Jo Fishwick. Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities. I'm Jeff Thompson, and I'm in Teignmouth, England, and I'm sitting here with Jo Fishwick, and she is the ... what title would you call that for the VI Talk? Jo Fishwick: Chair of VI Talk, because it's a charity. A charitable incorporated organization, which is just a different form of charity. Jeff Thompson: And you got a big event coming up here this month. Jo Fishwick: We do. We started doing link days, which basically is an opportunity for blind and partially sighted people, or anybody who works in that field to get together during the day, at an event, and we're going to have speakers. So we've got one at Bradbury Fields, which is a local blind society up in the northwest of England, in Liverpool. So, we've got four speakers coming along. So we've got somebody talking about employment, and they're going to be offering opportunities for people in that area to get some employment, hopefully. Jo Fishwick: We've got somebody talking about sports and activities, hopefully motivate people to get involved with that kind of thing. And we got some technology, and we've got Bradbury Fields themselves talking about their services. Jeff Thompson: A big day? Jo Fishwick: Yeah, it's good. Then we've got another one in London in November. Similar kind of theme. Just a chance for people to get together, but with some social time as well. Because the feedback we get is people want to learn from each other. It's that kind of thing, isn't it? When somebody's done something and they pass that on. Someone thinks, "Well, if they can do it, maybe I could have a go?" Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah, experience is the best teacher. Jo Fishwick: Absolutely. Jeff Thompson: And you started this back in the Audioboom days? Jo Fishwick: I did. We started just as a Facebook group, just a voluntary group in January 2014. Then we got an Audioboom channel, well audio boo as it was then, in March 2014. It was actually you who kind of gave me the heads up on how to proceed with that. So, thank you very much for that. Then two years down the line, more or less, February 17th, 2016 we were granted charity status. The rest is history. Pete Lane: Welcome to VI Talk, sharing ideas, information and support. Jo Fishwick: Hi everyone, it's Jo, and I have with me Dawn. Dawn:                Hi. Jo Fishwick: It's a pleasure to introduce the first time on VI Talk, Ben, who I met at Sight Village, and he has a really interesting project to talk about. Hi Ben. Ben:                 Hello. Hi, thanks for having me. Jeff Thompson: Now Jo, a long time ago we talked about braille, and you gave this great talk about braille. Braille is very important to you. Jo Fishwick: It is, yeah. Very important. I learned braille when I was 12, and thank God for that, because I lost ... well, I kind of knew I was probably going to lose my sight, but nobody knew exactly when. They insisted I learned braille at 12, and I got a detached retina at 14. Smack bang in the middle of my O levels in CSE's for those who remember those days in Britain. So I had to transition from using print to braille, and I was so glad I was prepared for that. Although it was still difficult, it was great. Jo Fishwick: So I run a braille support group on Facebook. For anybody who's learning braille, or just wants a bit of extra help. Maybe they're changing from what we call standard English Braille, to UEB, which means that everybody's kind of together in braille, I guess. I love it, I love having notes in front of me. If I'm doing meetings, committee meetings for VI Talk, I just like to have notes in front of me, and braille just allows me to do that. Jeff Thompson: How can they find that Facebook page? Jo Fishwick: If you search braille support group, you'll find it. There's a couple of questions to ask you why you want to join, and if you're visually impaired, or work in the field of visual impairment. And just answer those questions. Or drop me a message on Facebook, and I'll approve your request to join. Jo Fishwick: The same with the VI Talk groups. We've got seven of those now. Glutton for punishment, us. So, we've got our main group. We've got the resources group, we've got sports travel, book club. Just recently we've opened a music one, and also arts and crafts. So people can share their idea of what they do for hobbies and things in the arts and crafts field. And hopefully encourage other people to have a go. Jo Fishwick: So there's people that already post about knitting, crocheting, sewing, all sorts of things. Jeff Thompson: You guys have got it all locked up? Jo Fishwick: Yeah, just if somebody comes to us and says, "What about this?" We'll think about it and we'll go. Yeah, we did get asked to open a dating group, but we kind of said no, it's a bit too complicated, the whole dating scene. Yeah, we thought the whole kind of safeguarding thing and you know. Jeff Thompson: It's where they can find people by other interests like knitting. Hey, go for it, you know? Jo Fishwick: Yeah, definitely. Sport, you know, get on the sport group or travel group. With travel it doesn't have to be that you've gone on some accessible travel or anything, it could be that you've gone mainstream, but you found it particularly useful, and helpful and that maybe staff at the hotel or something, or in a resort have been great. Come and tell everybody about it. Jeff Thompson: And you have a guide dog sitting next to you. Jo Fishwick: I do. I have Bruno. He's a golden retriever. He's a bit hot, it's very hot here today. So, he's a bit warm Jeff Thompson: Indian Summer? Jo Fishwick: Yes, lovely, isn't it? Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Glad I'm here right now. Jo Fishwick: Yeah, you couldn't have picked better. Jeff Thompson: We're at the Clifton Hotel, which is in Teignmouth. We're sitting down on the ground and some people are coming by, but we found a bench way down here. What is there, six acres, seven acres? Jo Fishwick: Six or seven acres now, yeah. It was owned by Guide Dogs back in the day. Well, owned by Guide Dogs but run by the RNIB. Now it's been bought by Starbud who are a company that holds some Holiday Inns, some [inaudible] hotels, and some Great Western, I think it is. They bought [inaudible] which is up in the late district in the northwest of England, and the Clifton, which is down here in lovely sunny, Devon. Jeff Thompson: This is my third time being here, and it's still a great place. Jo Fishwick: Yeah, it's lovely, it is lovely. I feel very lucky to live here, been here for six and a half years now. Jeff Thompson: What is unique about the Clifton Hotel if you are visually impaired? Jo Fishwick: So, the Clifton is, even though it's mainstream now, all the staff are trained in visual awareness. So if you come as blind or partially sighted person and you maybe need guiding around the hotel, you need to be shown the route to your room. They'll show you around the hotel. What they can't do is personal care, obviously that's a bit too much because they don't have the staff here to do that. But they have braille menus. There's braille on all the doors and large print as well. Large print menus. There are guide dog runs here. So your guide dog is catered for. Jo Fishwick: They can also order in dog food for you. So if you ring them in advance, rather than traveling on the train with a big bag of dog food, you can order it in from the hotel. They can also supply dog beds, dog bowls, and there's a grooming room here as well. There's even a dog shower. So if your dog's been on the beach, you can take your dog into the dog shower and give it a little wash down. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's sweet, and we're not that far from the beach at all. Jo Fishwick: We're not. You can walk through the grounds and there's a gate at the bottom of the gardens, and there's a code for that. You put in the code, and you're probably about no more than 100, 150 meters I'd say. Walk down this pretty safe path, really. Then you're on to the sea front. There's an outdoor café there so you can grab yourself a sandwich or a breakfast or something. Or just sit and have a coffee and listen to the sea. Jeff Thompson: That's about five minutes walk? Jo Fishwick: Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, no more than that really. Jeff Thompson: And Teignmouth is right on the English Channel? Jo Fishwick: Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah, it's near to Torquay and Exeter. We've just been to Plymouth today, haven't we? Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jo Fishwick: So that was nice. So, yeah, there's lots to do here. There's a zoo and there's other places of interest. There's a museum in Teignmouth, just a small museum that's quite interesting. Lots of pubs, and places to eat. Last night for example, there were 10 of us, went out for a meal weren't there, in one of the local pubs. Jeff Thompson: We even had some great musicians come in there. Jo Fishwick: We did, they were fab. You did a recording, didn't you? Jeff Thompson: Oh yeah, they were playing American folk music. Jo Fishwick: Yeah, and Lori got up and had a sing, didn't she? Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative), Crazy by- Jo Fishwick: Patsy Cline. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jo Fishwick: Yeah, yeah, it was really good. Speaker 7:           That's my wife from Minnesota. Speaker 8:           Thank you, that was the best one of the evening sweetheart. Better than this bloke down here, I'll tell you. Jeff Thompson: So, Jo, what was it like for you growing up and going to high school as you transitioned into your career and stuff? Jo Fishwick: So, I was born with a sight problem. So, they always knew that I would lose my sight. Although it wasn't kind of explained to me as a young child, because I guess it would be too scary I suppose. So I lost the sight in my right eye when I was about six or seven, although I don't really remember that now. When I got to 11, it was decided that my eyesight was deteriorating badly. So I was at school for partially sighted children. So I had to go to one that could teach me braille, teach me how to use a long cane. So I went to boarding school in Liverpool in the northwest of England, as I said before. Then I went to a residential college in Hereford, in England. Went there for three years, did lots of business studies. Audio typewriting, that kind of thing. Then I really struggled to find work afterwards. So I kind of just kept going and going back to college. Re-learning, getting new skills. I qualified as a complementary therapist. Qualified as a computer programmer, so jack of all trades, master of none. Jo Fishwick: That's where I met my husband in 1995, on a computer programming course. I just couldn't find work, just couldn't get a foot in the door really. So started VI Talk because I wanted to help people, but also I guess something to do, really. Then in 2016, there was a job going at the Clifton Hotel for an assistive technology coordinator as part of the RNIB online today project. It was a lottery funded project to help visually impaired people get online, to learn how to use mobile technology, and get started with that or advance further with it. Jo Fishwick: The then manager at the hotel said to me, "You should give that a go." I was like, "No, I'll never get it. I just won't get it." She said, "All joking apart, but you can do it with your eyes shut." So I went for it, and got the job. I was like, "Wow." I was in my forties and got my first job, first paid job and still doing that now. I'm contracted until the end of January next year. But I'm going out and about in different areas of Devon now, and Somerset, and Cromwell, so all southwest of England. Teaching other people how to do what I've been doing. So how to teach visually impaired people how to use technology and supporting local blind societies when they do events for blind and partially sighted people. So, helping with iPhones, Android, Alexa, all that kind of good stuff. Jeff Thompson: And you probably bring the VI Talk business card? Jo Fishwick: Well, you know, sometimes. In the process of braille and some of those at the moment. So you see, braille comes in again, so yeah. Jeff Thompson: Could you tell our listeners what it's like, because you're a mom. Jo Fishwick: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Jeff Thompson: What was it like raising a child as a visually impaired person? Jo Fishwick: Oh, wow, gosh. My daughter's 16 now. So she's gone off to college. It was interesting. My husband, Rob, was at home. He wasn't working at the time. So I guess I had help there. So we kind of worked as a team. Because we lived what for me was a struggle. We lived in a quite a rural village, in the northwest of England. And the transport links were pretty rubbish. So to get a daughter to nursery, or to get her to school was now an impossible for me to do. So Rob had to be around, really. I lost my mom before Jody was born, and so that was really a struggle for me. Because I obviously wanted her around for all her advice. So we were kind of a lot on our own. So it was just learning, just as you go. Jo Fishwick: I didn't have many VI friends, but then really I kind of left, not deliberately left I guess, but just dropped out of the blind community quite a lot. But I just think you just get on with it. I think you just get on with it. I think you've got to get stuck in. You just can't be afraid of it. You get all those silly questions. You'll be out and someone will find out you've got a child and they'll be like, "Oh, how do you feed a baby when you're blind?" And you'll be like, "Well, you try giving a baby Weetabix." You know, with your eyes shut. Jo Fishwick: I think you just have to be prepared. You have to be well equipped, you have extra cloths and water around to clean up mess and you just have to really just be determined I think, and just find work arounds, but you do. I think don't let anybody tell you that you can't be a mom or a dad. A dad as well. I've spoken to VI dads and you get ... on the school playground when you used to do pick up and some of the parents don't want to interact with you because they just don't know how. But it's the same old thing, isn't it? We all experience that at sometime in our lives. Whether we've got children or not. Which can make it a bit tricky because your child gets all the questions. "Oh, your mom's blind is she? What do you do? What can she do? How can she do things for you?" But I think your kids grow up really quickly, and they learn ... I mean, Jody's been able to guide since she was able to walk really. I used to be a hand on her shoulder and we'd go off and do things together. Jo Fishwick: Moving down here to Teignmouth has been the making of all of us I think. She's made so many good friends. She's sighted, but down here, and I think partly because of the hotel, everybody just takes it in their stride. Because they've all seen guide dogs and long cane users before. It's like, "Oh, it's just another guide dog. Oh, no, it's just another long cane user." And everyone's just really quite nice about it. There's not as much discrimination I don't think, in this area, luckily. Jeff Thompson: They get it. Jo Fishwick: They do get it, yeah, they really do. You go into a shop or a bar, or whatever and they're happy to help. And they're happy to carry drinks. I'm not saying that doesn't happen in other places, but I think they're just so used to it here. They just take it in their stride. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, like in Minneapolis we have two schools about a mile apart. So there's always about 20 or 30 students milling about, and interacting with society and stuff. So they get acclimated to it, and that really helps. Jo Fishwick: Yeah, I think it does. They just happy to go out of their way to just treat you like anybody else really, but to just give you that little helping hand if you need it. Jeff Thompson: So, Jo. What advice would you have for someone who is in the shoes you were in when you were younger? Or someone who is starting to have challenges with vision, or reading the printed word and stuff. What would you say to them? Jo Fishwick: I'd say give yourself time, it's little steps. I think you've got to be patient with yourself. Don't expect everything to happen in a day, and it is a grieving process. Losing your sight is a form of grief, because you're losing something that's very precious to you. So I think you've got to give yourself time. Don't be afraid to reach out to people to tell them how you're feeling, and to seek that help and support. There is support out there. Sometimes it takes a while to get that support. But tell your family, tell your friends. You may lose some friends along the way. People do, because they just don't know how to behave around you. But you'll also make some other friends along the way. And some probably good friends, and lifelong friends. Jo Fishwick: Persevere, but have patience with yourself. Just carry on, don't give up. You'll feel like it sometimes. I have moments when I lost my sight. I can remember being 14 and lying on my mom and dad's bed and telling them that I was not going back to school. I was not doing my O levels. I was jacking it, that was it, life was over, rubbish. My mom and dad were brilliant, and they just encouraged me. I went back and took my exams, and carried on. It is possible, things are possible, don't let people tell you. I mean, obviously there are things you're not going to be. Jo Fishwick: You're not going to be an airline pilot. And you might have to even, if you lose your sight later in life, you might have to change career. That's a challenge, and it is difficult. You may not find work, but there's voluntary work and there's a lot of things you can do to help other people as well. There's a lot of organizations, charities out there that you can get involved with. Jo Fishwick: I think just give yourself time, and don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help, and tell people what's happening. You'll get there, you will get there. Jeff Thompson: So Jo, here's a technical question. Since you're in the technology, iPhone, or Android? Jo Fishwick: iPhone for me, iPhone. That's a really tough one. I find Android quite tricky, I'm an apple girl. However, when I go out and do say Living With Sightloss courses that we have over here, I always take Android, Apple, and I also take a Synapptic phone as well. Which is something I don't know if you have in the US, but we have it here. If you've got limited vision, it kind of pairs everything down into one nice, neat menu. It's got really good contrast on it. Jo Fishwick: If you want a phone, or a tablet, just to do ... you don't want it singing or dancing, but you want to do things on it, Synapptic is quite good. So I do try and keep an open mind, but for me, it's iPhone all the way, I'm afraid. Jeff Thompson: So do you get a keyboard with it? Like a Bluetooth keyboard? Jo Fishwick: Yeah, I do. I have two Bluetooth keyboards. I have a full size one, and then I have a folding one, which is a tri fold, so it's almost full size when you unfold it. It's got an aluminum back, so it's quite sturdy if it gets a bit of a knock in your rucksack, or your bag. Yeah, I generally have a Bluetooth keyboard with me, because I'm a touch typist as well. So I can just chatter away on the keyboard. Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Now when you say touch typing, will you explain that do us? Jo Fishwick: Yeah, so touch typing is when you don't look at the keyboard. So I was taught to touch type when I was at primary school, which again, is one of the best things I've ever been taught. You know where all the keys are, so you know what finger does which key on a keyboard, typewriter, or a computer keyboard. So you can get up to really high speeds. It's great. If you've got sight, and maybe you're losing your sight and maybe you know that eventually it's going to go, then I would learn to touch type. Because I think it's a really, really useful skill. Jeff Thompson: Well, Jo Fishwick, thank you very much for coming on here, talking about VI Talk, talking about the changes that happened in your life, and all the paths that you traveled to get to where you are today. You've been successful at doing that. I really like what you're doing with your charity, VI Talk, and getting other people connected. Jo Fishwick: Thanks Jeff. Pete Lane: This concludes Jeff's chat, with Jo Fishwick. Thanks so much Jo, for joining us on Blind Abilities. Also, special thanks to Chi Choi for his beautiful music. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great day. Pete Lane: For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. We're on Twitter, we're on Facebook, and be sure to check out our free app, in the apple app store, and the Google Play store.

Show Summary: (Full Transcript Below) Jim Barbour is a dynamic guest who has a wonderful story to share with the Blind Abilities audience. Jim speaks of his blindness, his education and employment, his deeply felt views around independence and his belief in developing and maintaining strong blindness skills. Jim takes us through his high school and college years, where he became involved with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), to which he accredits his independent mindset, and his almost fearless approach towards life and its challenges. Jim shares his experience seeking new jobs and  divulging his blindness to prospective employers.   Jim has put his computer programming talents to worked with various tech companies including Qualcomm, google and Yahoo, recently completing an oversees assignment in Ireland.   He is an Aira user and describes how the service can work as a Reasonable Accommodation in the workplace, as well as helping him acclimate to a new country oversees.   Finally, listen as Jim shares his advice for blind students who are aspiring towards college and/or employment. Join Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane as they engage in a fascinating conversation with this tremendous guest, as only Blind Abilities can!   You can find Jim on Facebook, and reach out to him via email. Thanks for Listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store Full Transcript: A Conversation With Jim Barbour - Fiercely and Fearlessly Independent, and Well-Spoken Advocate Jeff Thompson: Welcome to Blind Abilities, I'm Jeff Thompson. Pete Lane: And I'm Pete Lane. Our guest this morning is Jim Barbour. We'll be talking with Jim today about a variety of topics ranging from his visual condition, his education, his transition to college and the workplace, and his views on blindness and independence. Jim Barbour: When I was high school, my dad an Apple III computer, and I was able to use it and get it to do what I wanted it to do. I decided that computers would probably be a fun way for me to make a living. In 1988, I took time off to be one of the first students of the Colorado Center for the Blind, which actually did an awful lot to kind of strengthen and tighten my own confidence in my belief in myself. I have had several jobs, including working for a company called Qualcomm, and I worked for Google for several years, and I worked for a couple years in a company call Yahoo. The transition was mostly just me needing to learn a lot about how to advocate for myself and manage my own resources a lot better. Jim Barbour: People need to learn to do this, and it's better to learn to do it early because when you go off and get a job somewhere, there aren't people waiting around to kind of take care of this stuff for you. The question that comes up a lot around looking for jobs is, when do you disclose about your blindness? The one thing that also happened there was that no one asked me anything about my blindness, and that really seemed like a bit of a red flag to me. Jim Barbour: I really kind of felt like, if they don't know anything about my blindness, it's gonna be really easy for them to just decide that it isn't work the risk. They understand the problem, but it's just such a hard problem to fight. The inertia will take you in inaccessible directions unless you fight it really hard. Don't let yourself go down this inaccessible road because you'll make it really hard to hire blind people in the future. Jim Barbour: I think that Ira's absolutely gonna be an invaluable tool for people in the workforce, and in fact, Aira knows that. Aira helped me quite a bit to get accommodated. I also took a couple weeks off and went traveling around Europe. Again, Aira was just very helpful in allowing to very quickly orient myself to a neighborhood. Aira is much more efficient at that than what I used to do, which is to just ask people for directions. Jim Barbour: The biggest advice I can give them is that a nobody's gonna look out for you but you. You need to decide that it is up to you to get the things that you need in this world. I think I am adventurous I enjoy that. I'm a very happy, very lucky blind person. Pete Lane: And now let's meet our guest, Jim Barbour. Pete Lane: Good morning, Jim, welcome to Blind Abilities. Jim Barbour: Good morning, Pete. Good morning, Jeff. Thank you for having me. Jeff Thompson: Good morning, Jim. Pete Lane: Our pleasure. Jim why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your visual condition? Jim Barbour: I was born with an underdeveloped optic nerve. I found out as a grown up that they called it optic nerve hypoplasia. I never spent a lot of time trying to figure out about a cure or anything like that. It was a condition I had. It left me with partial vision in both eyes. When I was growing up in the '70s, they actually did not teach me Braille. They got me how to read large prints and how to use a closed circuit TV even though they were sort of very fatiguing and very challenging for me. But that's how I did a lot of my schoolwork. When I got into high school, I started learning how to use readers, so that's kind of a little bit about my visual condition, and a little bit about what it's done for me. Jim Barbour: I graduated from high school in the early '80s, and went to the University of Colorado at Boulder where Marci Carpenter and a gentleman named Homer Page ran the Disability Student Services Office. They were actually very strong NFB folks who insisted that blind people manage their own readers, and in my case since I was in computer science, they actually insisted that I find my own readers because I needed to find people who could read the advanced math and the computer science that I needed. I would go and look for them and hire them, and on occasion fire them because either they weren't doing what I needed in a timely manner, or they actually didn't know how to read the material, or they wouldn't follow my instructions in reading the material. Jim Barbour: I was in college for actually a very long time. I did not follow the four year in and out program. I was struggling a bit to finish some classes, and had to take a few classes over again. In the middle of all that, in 1988, I took time off to go be one of the first students for the Colorado Center for the Blind's, which actually did an awful lot to kind of strengthen and tighten my own confidence in my belief in myself and my NFB philosophy. Jim Barbour: I did that for seven months. I left there and went back to school. Still didn't finish, but did a much better job of taking classes and stuff. Then a couple years later, I left there and started my career as an IT, Unix IT person, and I have had several jobs since then including working for a company called Qualcomm twice, and I worked for Google for several years in the middle. I worked for a couple years at a company called Yahoo!, which most of you probably heard of as well. Pete Lane: Jim, you studied computer science with a heavy emphasis on math courses. What drew you to computer science? Jim Barbour: When I was in high school my dad had an Apple III computer, and I was able to use it by putting the monitor really close to my face, and then later by using the original OutSPOKEN program for the Mac, but it was just a way that I got to play with a cool toy, and get it to do what I wanted it to do. It was certainly a lot of fun for me as a high school kid. I decided that computers would probably be a fun way for me to make a living. Jim Barbour: Later on in high school, I was part of a summer work program for blind people, and I got a job learning how to do basic Unix computer stuff at the University, again using large print, and having the monitor really close to my face. Nobody really understood about screen-reading technology for Unix systems at that time. I got to learn to do a lot of that. It was a lot of fun, and I had a lot of people around me who weren't really sure how I would do things as a blind person, but we kind of figured it out together. Jim Barbour: Later when I started going to NFB conventions, my first NFB convention was my senior year of high school. When I started going there, I met a bunch of other blind people who were into computer science, and who showed me a bunch of different technologies for accessing computers. I kind of got solidified on the idea that this was actually something I could do, and had spent a lot of time in college both doing work and coursework to kind of build up my skills, and decide this was a job I really enjoyed, and would do well at. Jeff Thompson: Jim, what was some of your first technology that you used? I know you used the early Mac, but once you decided to give up on the large print, what did you migrate into? Jim Barbour: I actually never did give up on large print. I still use large print for some things, but I also use Artic's Business Vision and progressed on to different screen readers, of course, eventually landing with JAWS, and then later, of course, when the iPhone came out, I used that with VoiceOver. Jim Barbour: What I have sort of decided to do is a lot of the work I do is just work I do in a terminal, in a command prompt, and so for work like that using large print works just fine for me. When I need to go visit busy complicated websites with different font sizes and where there's a lot of reading involved, then I will use a screen reader of one kind or another. Jim Barbour: One thing I actually never got particularly good at was using magnification technology, like zoom and so on. What I generally did is if I could tell the program to give me a bigger font size, I would do it because I found that to be a much better experience, and if not then I switched primarily to using a screen reader. Jeff Thompson: When you transitioned from high school and decided to go to college, how did you prepare for that? Jim Barbour: I didn't. College was a huge wake up call for me. High school had been a relatively easy time in my life where I had materials prepared for me, where things were either recorded for me or made readable for me in large print, and I didn't have to worry about a lot of that stuff. Then I moved onto college, whereas I said the Disabled Students Office had pretty high expectations of their blind students. They insisted that I get readers to do recording. Back then, of course, it was all recording onto cassettes, and also get readers to take diagrams and other things that needed to be made readable by me and draw them out, either using large pieces of paper, or often I'd sit with them, and they would draw them on a whiteboard. Jim Barbour: This combination of having things enlarged and having things recorded using different readers. But it was a big transition, not only in terms of needing to plan and make sure that all of my materials became accessible in a form I could read, but also just took me longer to study. I just had to allocate a lot more time to doing school work and getting things ready to use. Jim Barbour: The other thing I had to do in college that I didn't have to worry about in high school was arrange for test taking. I would have to go talk with the professor and say, "I won't be able to take the test in class because I'll need someone to read to me." And depending on the kind of test I needed to take my answers, and maybe do my work on a whiteboard. I would have to make arrangements to take the test outside of the class with a proctor from the professor. Jim Barbour: I know these days a lot of that work is done by offered services for disabled students, but at the time the Disabled Students Office I was at insisted that I go make those arrangements. If the professor insisted on talking with the office, the office would talk to them, but basically would say work it out with them. The transition was mostly just me needing to learn a lot about how to advocate for myself, and manage my own resources a lot better than I did in high school. Jeff Thompson: And that's a great thing to have because once you start advocating for yourself, that's a lifelong skill that you can bring with you because you can't bring the disability services with you when you go looking for a job. Jim Barbour: That is an excellent point, and it's true that people need to learn to do this. It's better to learn to do it early because when you go off and get a job somewhere there aren't people waiting around to kind of take care of this stuff for you. You need to know how to do it. Jim Barbour: I also think that you come off much more professionally, and much more competently if you're able to explain to people what you're going to need, and if you're able to explain to them that you'll take care of getting it done, right? If you just sort of show up and say, "Okay, someone's gonna have to take care of this, and someone's gonna have to take care of this, and someone's gonna have to take care of this." That doesn't sound anywhere near as professional as, "Okay, I'm gonna have to make sure this gets done, this gets done, this gets done." People feel much better if they know that you know what needs to happen. Jeff Thompson: Especially during a job interview. Jim Barbour: Yeah, that's right. Pete Lane: Jim, I'm curious, when you had to schedule proctors and administrators for your tests, was that similar in some ways to finding readers in your specialty field, where you had to find somebody who was familiar with the math and the science that you were testing on? Jim Barbour: Similar, but when I went to find readers, I just went and put up notices on bulletin boards in the computer science and math department, basically saying I was looking for somebody who was willing to read math and computer science textbooks out loud. I would train them how to do it, and they would get paid a little bit of money to do it. Getting paid was enough to recruit a bunch of people. I would then sit down with them and I would give them a sheet of special characters, and tell them how I wanted those characters read, and I also showed them some simple math equations and gave examples of how I wanted them to be read. Jim Barbour: I would have them look at it for a couple of minutes, and then I would give them some example reading, and I would sort of see how they would do with the reading. I could tell pretty anyway, even if they didn't get it perfect. I could tell pretty quickly who was gonna pick it up and who wasn't, so that was basically the job interview. Jim Barbour: When it came to taking tests, what I needed to do was to find somebody who could do that reading and writing, but also could be really efficient at it because I was in the middle of taking a test. I had favorite readers I liked to use for those things. Jim Barbour: The other thing is the professor had to be around. The professor and I would sort of negotiate what times would work for me taking the test, and then I would have to find a reader who could sort of meet those times. I would, of course, do everything I could to make sure that my favorite readers were administering the tests. Jim Barbour: I never really thought much about how you could sort of use a system like that to cheat, like I could bring my best friend in to just take the test for me. I never even really considered that that was a problem. I was a pretty upstanding young man, and I brought readers in to do reading, but I realize now that a system like that is a big candidate for abuse. Jim Barbour: Mostly taking place now is that universities kind of pick the readers, and that's a real problem because you don't have any way of vetting the reader, and making sure that they are efficient, and that you and them have a rapport about how you want things read to them. Pete Lane: I would think it's kind of like a dual edged sword where the professor's sitting right there. You really can't conceal your knowledge or lack thereof if he's listening to your interaction with the reader and the writer, if he's right there. Jim Barbour: Well, so generally if I had a reader doing the test, the professor wouldn't be right there. The professor would in another room doing his own thing. It did wind up being the case, on a surprisingly large number of occasions, where the professor would just give me the test. While I was okay with that because the professor knows the material and so I can usually get him to read things in a way that would make sense, it seems like a huge waste of the professor's time. Jim Barbour: The one thing that was often convenient about it was that I often didn't wind up actually having to take the test. The professor and I would sit and talk about the material. He would ask me how I would go about solving it, and I would sort of tell him I would set up the problem this way, and he would go, "Okay, I believe you." Pete Lane: Yeah, I did that a lot too. Jim Barbour: In some cases that's good, and in other cases I think that kind of gave me short shrift on whether I really knew the material or not, but that is often what happened. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, some of these skills that you're developing as you're transitioning from high school to college, how to contact your professor yourself, how to hire and fire your own readers. These are skills that you're gonna take with you. So when people are looking for a job, who have vision loss, are actually developing a lot of skills that employers are looking for. Do you see it that way? Jim Barbour: I do. Not only are you generally more able to kind of handle yourself, have a lot of responsibility, know how to handle responsibility particularly well, know how to manage other people, even if you're not a manager, knowing how to sort of give people work and check up on them. Those are just really good skills to have. Jim Barbour: The question that comes up a lot around looking for jobs is, when do you disclose about your blindness? For me, for most of my life it was a pretty easy question. I didn't disclose until I was in the room with them. I kind of felt like I could do a much better job of managing expectation if I was there, rather than if it was like on my resume, and they had to kind of think about it before they brought me in. Jeff Thompson: And that's a good time to sell yourself too. Jim Barbour: I think that's right. But what has happened a lot before you ever get in the room with somebody, you are asked to take an online exam, or do some other kinds of work that may or may not be accessible to you as a blind person. So, now you have a tougher choice to make. Am I gonna find a reader, and do this inaccessible work myself, or am I gonna let the employer know that I'm a blind person and I'm gonna need some alternate form of exam? Both of which have their good side and their down sides. It's now, I think, a much harder question, but I do think whenever possible, holding that information until you are in a room with the people interviewing you helps a lot. Pete Lane: Now you're transition into the workplace happened back in the late '90s as I understand it, where the internet was either in its infancy, or not even in existence yet. Talk about that and how that might parlay into today's students who are migrating into the workforce looking for jobs. Jim Barbour: The World Wide Web was in its infancy, it didn't really exist. I was actually working as a contractor for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, but I was getting bored there. And so I wanted to look for other work, but the web didn't exist yet, and so you couldn't just go to a job board and look for jobs. There were a couple of important board lists, but what mostly happened was that there were email lists. I got an email one day from a company called Qualcomm out in San Diego. I was in Colorado at the time. They were looking for someone to come and join their team. I thought that sounded like a great idea and a lot of fun. Jim Barbour: I replied back and I said I was interested. They, I think, sent me a couple of programming questions and said, "Can you write some example code, and show us your work?" I did that, and then they said, "Great, we would like to fly you out here, and give you a job interview." And so far blindness had not come up at all. The thing I remember most about that was they wanted to put me in a hotel several miles from the office and just have me rent a car. I think what I wound up doing was telling them I didn't drive, but that I would like to stay in this other hotel that's right nearby the office. They were readily agreeable to that. I don't know if that tipped them off or not. Jim Barbour: I flew out to San Diego, checked into the hotel, and I think I checked in on a Sunday night, and the interview was Monday morning. I, actually, on Sunday night asked the hotel for walking directions to the office, and walked it Sunday night, just so I would know exactly how to get there on Monday. And then I did, I walked over there Monday morning, and found the front door, let them know who I was, wound up talking with the HR person, talked about my blindness a little bit. Then I wound up interviewing, and the interviews all went really well. Jim Barbour: The one thing that also happened there was that no one asked me anything about my blindness. No one asked me how I was gonna do this or how I was gonna do that. And that really seemed like a bit of a red flag to me. I really kind of felt like, if they don't know anything about my blindness, or about me and my blindness, it's gonna be really easy for them to just decide that it isn't work the risk. At the end of the day I was talking with the person who was gonna be my hiring manager. I said, "Look, this is the time when you get to ask me about my blindness." He was like, "Oh, no, no. We were told we can't ask those kind of questions." Jim Barbour: I'm like, "I understand that this is the nature of things, but you need to know about me, and you need to know about my blindness, and so I'm giving you whatever permission you need to ask me any questions." He asked me a few questions that were pretty straightforward. How was I gonna get to work every day? What kind of assistive technology would I need? Some other things like that that I answered pretty readily. I think that that really helped get him over the hump. And he's just like, "Well, I don't know what else to ask, but I'm sure that you have the answers." And I'm like, "Yes. Yes, that's true." Jim Barbour: I wound up getting that job, and it was a great job. Qualcomm was never a problem for me in terms of getting me the equipment I needed, or the readers I needed, or whatever else I needed. They were very cooperative about that. Pete Lane: What type of work were you doing with Qualcomm, programming still? Jim Barbour: Programming. Basically, my life has been either as a programmer writing tools for systems administration, or then I moved into being an architect where I designed bigger platforms and stuff, and mentored other people in how to write programs. Even at Google, that's mostly what I did, was to write a lot of code for them. Pete Lane: Just to clarify, Jim, while you had some usable vision, obviously, you were a cane user were you not when you walked into that interview? Jim Barbour: Yes. So when I walked into the interview, they knew. I started using a cane in high school. At the time I lived in Boulder, Colorado, which at that time was a really small, sleepy little town. One of my biggest challenges with my cane was figuring out how I was gonna strap it to the bicycle I was riding at the time. I always look back at that, and I'm like, "I cannot believe I rode a bicycle." I quit doing that not too long after because I think I ran into something and really hurt myself, so I was like, "Okay, this is pretty stupid." Jim Barbour: I mean I had enough vision that I could sort of get away with riding a bicycle. I got talked into using a cane pretty early by the NFB. It actually turned out to be a very good way for me to solve a lot of problems I was having, not only around sort of tripping over things, and always looking down at the ground, but also just as a way of identifying myself as a blind person, not so much to other people, but to me. I really kind of was a little unclear about my status as a blind person, and carrying a cane allowed me to be a much better traveler, and to kind of identify myself as a blind person, both of which turned out to be very useful things. Jeff Thompson: It really helps, especially when you walk into a store, that the clerk sees the cane, they kind of get the idea too. So it lets you arrive a little bit early for some explanation. Jim Barbour: Exactly, yeah. Jeff Thompson: You talked about acquiring equipment through the company. Can you talk about reasonable accommodation? Jim Barbour: Sure. I have always felt like the company can and should, and generally will, meet any reasonable request I had. For sure, I needed a screen reader. I needed them to buy a JAWS for me. For sure, I needed readers, much more then than now, but back in the late '90s I needed people to read me journal articles, textbooks. I needed to learn how to do new things, and the way that you did that back then was by going and reading stuff off of print. Those were the two main things. Jim Barbour: The other accomondation I needed, which was also not a problem for them, was I needed a way to put the computer screen right next to my face. So I mean, literally, my face two or three inches away from the screen. We needed a way to do that that was ergonomically reasonable, so I wasn't bent over all the time hunching and squinting. We had somebody come up and built this stand to put my monitor on, and then we put the keyboard underneath of it. That actually worked out really well. Then, of course, later monitor arms came along. Jim Barbour: The other accommodations I needed, well they feel into two different categories. But there were two different types of tasks that were just really hard for me to do. One was if I would travel, filling out expense reports was just a very time consuming difficult process. Originally, it was on paper, and so I needed to get a reader and stuff to do all that, and then later it was online, but it was a very poorly designed inaccessible website. I just made arrangements for one of the secretaries to take care of that for me. Again, Qualcomm was like, "Sure, I mean, that's not a problem." That was one type of task. A task that doesn't happen very often that isn't very accessible, and so someone else would do it. Jim Barbour: Another task, or tasks, that were part of my daily life as a technologist, but were not easy for me to do, and they had to do with certain kinds of looking at graphs and looking at other kinds of very visual material. There were two ways that I would handle that. One way to handle it is to go in and fix the code so that it's giving you numbers and other kinds of text-based information that's useful to you. There were times when I did that, but there were other times when I just said, "This is a task that someone else needs to do. I am not gonna sit and interpret this data all the time, nor am I gonna go in and fix it so it gives me data I can use. Give me some more programming to do, or some more other kinds of things to do, and give somebody else this task." Jim Barbour: Again, Qualcomm did it for me. Again, I think that Qualcomm trusted me to make good decisions about what I could and couldn't do. Also, Qualcomm knew that I was bringing value to the company. They would make this decision, and they would understand the trade-offs, but they were totally fine with it. I think it would actually be a lot harder today to get started because of the fact that a lot of what I would've been doing if I had gotten hired is much more visual and much more inaccessible. I would've had to spend a lot more time interacting with Qualcomm and getting them to fix their websites, or fix their other things, so that I can actually do the work. Jim Barbour: I'm now at a place in my career where I am mostly doing planning work and other kinds of work that I know how to do, and then other people are doing the day to day technical work. But over time, Qualcomm like most companies, they've kind of grown, and their equipment has become less accessible. They understand the problem, but it's just such a hard problem to fight. The inertia will take you in inaccessible directions unless you fight it really hard. And that is something that the NFB and lots other places are kind of fighting for and advocating for. Don't let yourself go down this inaccessible road because you'll make it really hard to hire blind people in the future. Pete Lane: You make a good point there, Jim, about today versus then, and tasks that may or may not be negotiable, for lack of a better word, because reasonable accommodation, essentially, by definition is intended to allow you to perform essential job duties. If the employer deems that some of those tasks are not essential, then they shouldn't have any problem offloading those to a secretary or whomever as you described. But if they're essential duties then there may be a tough point to work with them on. Jim Barbour: The other thing is that these days there are also far fewer secretaries. I mean I am lucky that I kept track of a couple, but 20 years ago there were a lot more of them. Now a lot of people are expected to do their own secretarial work. Pete Lane: Right, it's overhead. Jim Barbour: It's hard to find people around who are available to sort of do one-off jobs for you like that, right? So, you wind up either hiring readers more or doing other things, but it's harder to find people who are just around who can do reading at the last minute, or fill out forms, or other kinds of things like that. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, times have changed, and so has the technology. Now with Aira, as a reasonable accomondation, I think some people could justify using the Aira technology, the smart glasses, to access stuff. Jim Barbour: I think that Aira is absolutely gonna be an invaluable tool for people in the workforce. In fact, Aira knows that. Aira has several programs in place right now to help people get jobs, and to help employers figure out how to pay for the service, and when the service is going to be valuable and when it's not. Jim Barbour: I have to say that I have lots of conflicting feelings about Aira. I have it and I use it, and I enjoy the service a lot. The way I tend to think about Aira is as a reader, where the definition of reader is sort of broadened a bit. Three were always tasks I felt like weren't good tasks for me to get a reader to do because basically the reader would be doing the work. So, for example, reading documents and filling out forms. There's really no reason for me to be involved in that process if the point is to get the forms filled out. Jim Barbour: That kind of feels like not something I wanna hire a reader for. That's something that the company should just sort of take care of. The reader is to get me information and sometimes for me to give other people information, but I should be involved in that process. How I feel about Aira in this case is that if Aira is giving me information that I need to do my job, I think that's great, but if Aira turns out to be the entity doing my job, then I think that that's gonna be a problem. Jim Barbour: I also wanna say that I think that Aira is also going to be an interesting tool for blind people to learn how to incorporate into their toolbox because I think that it's entirely possible that there will be people who won't learn the blindness skills I learned 20 years ago because they'll just start relying on Aira for that. I think that's going to be an interesting give and take about how we as blind people develop over the next 10 or 20 years, but I am hoping that we figure out a way to make sure that blind people still learn the blindness skills that have served me so well. Pete Lane: Well, you know Aira does insist that travelers who use their product use their cane or their dog, but I'm not sure that applies to any other tasks. Jim Barbour: That's right. I'm glad Aira does that. I just think it's something that came up early, and Aira put a policy in place, and I like that policy. Jeff Thompson: I'm just real glad that Aira actually went to the NFB, to the AFB, to all these associations, and got feedback how to make this product not an enabling device, something that someone would bypass, like even using Chloe the OCR. My wife uses Aira, and she said more and more she's using the OCR part because it's so quick and easy to use. I just meet them as an accommodation, not as a crutch or a one size fits all, this is all I use, no cane, no dog, no everything like that. I'm just saying like in the workforce it might be another tool with the changing of times. Jim Barbour: I agree with you 100%. I think that Aira is going to be very, very interesting to watch over the next decade or so. I also agree with you that it's good that Aira has embedded themselves with the organizations of the blind, like the NFB, to get some feedback and to get some idea about what's going to work and what isn't gonna work. Jim Barbour: Having said all that, I do also think that how blind people work and live are going to change because of Aira, and that's gonna be really interesting to see how that goes. I am looking forward to watching the evolution, for sure. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, we've seen changes come. You yourself, from when you went from high school to college to the workplace. You've seen technology come along, and it has been changing fast with the iPhone. It's moving so quick, and they always say like, "Now's a good time to be blind with all this technology," but I'm looking like, "What can happen in two more years?" It's moving fast. Pete Lane: The landscape will totally change. Jim Barbour: I always feel a little uncomfortable when I talk about how my life as a blind person has been enhanced by technology. I mean it certainly has. My iPhone died the other day and I was without it for 24 hours. I was just amazed at the number of things I rely on it for. That's just one example of technology. But I also know that if I didn't have any technology, I know that I could take my cane and go downstairs, and sort of problem solve my way through my day. I know I could do that. Jim Barbour: I am worried that this is becoming less and less true over time, and I have mixed feelings about it. I definitely think that problem solving skills, and the ability to kind of build a map of your world and other things, are skills that we need to have even if we have a lot of technology. Jeff Thompson: Well skills and confidence, the confidence to be able to apply the skills. I've known people that have two master's degree, but they don't have the confidence to apply them. Jim Barbour: That's right. A real belief in yourself as a blind person. I go back every so often, and I talk to the Colorado Center, which is where I got a lot of the .. The Colorado Center taught me how to cook food, and how clean, and how to paint. We did a lot of painting of buildings and stuff. They taught me a lot of skills, but really the thing they taught me was that my blindness is not gonna be the thing that stops me from doing whatever I need to do. That's not gonna be the thing. There might be other reasons. I might not be smart enough. I might not be rich enough. I might not be brave enough. But that my blindness is not gonna be the thing. Jim Barbour: I will figure out ways of dealing with my blindness, and that is the kind of confidence and belief in yourself that I think is really, really important for a blind person. The technology and all the other things, they will come and they will play a role, and they will be even important, but a real belief in yourself is really, I think, the most important thing. Jeff Thompson: I've always said that if a person has a drive, if they have something that's pushing them, then they can utilize a Colorado Center or a training center to help them go further, but the drive comes from within. The technology, as you said so well, enhances some areas, or assists. But when you get to the core of it, it's you, it's your determination. It's your self-determination that is gonna push you. Jim Barbour: I think that's right. I think that that's true for everybody. I think that in life how much you accomplish, what you do, is mostly determined by your drive, by how much you wanna push yourself, what you wanna accomplish, what's important to you. The sooner you can be aware of what those things are ... I'm really into this, or I think this is really important, or I wanna make sure that these things happen in my life. Whether it be being a parent, being really good at your job, or whatever it is, I think you're right that having a drive and really having a sense of goals, and a sense of what's important to you is very important. Pete Lane: Speaking of drive and independence. I'd like to segue over to your most recent assignment with Qualcomm over in Ireland. Talk a little bit about that Jim. Jim Barbour: That was amazing. I had recently moved to Berkeley, and was living there, and was realizing that I was having a lot of fun in Berkeley, but that I was kind of in a rut. I didn't have any family responsibilities to worry about. I went and talked with my boss, and I asked him if he had any expat opportunities, a way in which Qualcomm could send me to another country and pay for me to live there for a while because often we have offices in Europe and in India that need people from the headquarters office to go over there for a while. Jim Barbour: He said he had no expat opportunities at the moment, but that he was perfectly happy if I wanted to just pick an office, and go live there for a while. I would have to pay for my own housing and stuff, but he didn't really care where I was working from. Jim Barbour: I'd looked around. There was an office that we have in Cambridge, England, which is a little bit north of London, and there was an office that had in Cork, Ireland. I went and visited those for a week each, and decided I really wanted to go live in Cork. I spent some time making arrangements, and also talking with people about where to live and stuff like that. Jim Barbour: One really interesting piece of that was I could not find any blind people to talk to. I kept looking around on lists and in other places for blind people in Ireland, and I had a very hard time finding any blind folks to talk to. I mostly just wound up talking with people who could tell me which apartments were within walking distance from the office, and how the buses were and a bunch of other things. Jim Barbour: I did as much prep work as I could, and then in January of this year I flew over, and was met by the relocation folks who were helping me out. Remember, I'd been on a plane for 12 hours, and was pretty ragged out, but they took me to my apartment, and then they took me to a grocery store to get food, and sheets and some other basic things. The apartment was furnished, but we needed to get some stuff to put in it. Then I basically was on my own. I used my phone a lot to kind of figure out how to walk to my office. I learned how to get to the grocery store and some other things that were nearby. I started to learn how to use the buses. Jim Barbour: I sort of just had a really wonderful time, not only meeting my coworkers and a bunch of other friends I met in Ireland, but also just exploring a brand new place. I spent a lot of time explaining what I needed to other people in Ireland, who had never really seen a blind person. They were all very receptive. Again, if you know what you need, and can advocate for yourself, people are often willing to come on board. Everything from getting some markings put on my apartment mailbox, to getting help at the grocery store, to a lot of other things. Jim Barbour: Another real interesting thing about that was I had had the Aira service for quite a while before that, but hadn't really used it for much. I had used it on a couple of occasions to identify some objects, but really I hadn't used it for much. I really wasn't sure what I was gonna use Aira for. But one day, on a weekend, I had a bunch of time on my hands, and I needed to go grocery shopping. I really did not feel like dealing with the cultural friction of trying to explain to an Irish grocery store worker the things I was looking for, the names of things were just a little bit different. They aren't used to shopping generally at all. Generally, these are college kids or other people who haven't done a lot of grocery shopping, so I didn't want that friction. Jim Barbour: I decided to see how Aira would do at the grocery store, and I was frankly amazed at how well it went. I was like, "There is no way Aira is gonna be able to help me with this." The idea of scanning all these grocery store shelves was just really daunting to me. I thought it would never work, but I wanted to see. I was just amazed. They helped me to not only find the things I needed, produce and milk and eggs, and a bunch of other things, but they also just taught me a lot more about what was in the store, where things were, how things were laid out, what's down each aisle. Jim Barbour: I spent 90 minutes with them, which is more than I would normally spend on a shopping trip, but I learned so much about the store, and had such a good time doing it that I felt like it was an incredible experience, and one of the really cool ways in which I think Aira is very helpful. Jim Barbour: In future shopping trips, sometimes I would use Aira, and sometimes now that I kind of understood the layout of the store, I was able to go and find things on my own, or go get near what I needed, and call them up and say, "Okay, I'm looking for the low-fat milk rather than the whole milk," and they could pick that out for me. Jim Barbour: I used Aira for that. I used Aira for some exploring what all was in this mall, what all was in my neighborhood. The other thing that's really interesting about Cork, and about Europe cities in general, is that streets are not laid out on a grid at all. There's no way for you to sort of problem solve your way around how to get from here to there. You just have to kind of learn where all the streets are. Jim Barbour: In the beginning I would use Aira a lot to just say, "How can I get from here over to this other place?" And then say, "Oh, oh, I see. You have to go all the way over here." They were able to kind of look at maps, and kind of help me figure a lot of that stuff out. Aira helped me quite a bit to get accommodated. Jim Barbour: I also, when I was over there, took a couple weeks off and went traveling around Europe. I went to Edinburgh, Scotland and to Berlin, Germany, and down in Sardinia in Italy, and a couple of other places in the UK, as well spending quite a bit of time in Dublin and those few days in Belfast. Again, Aira was just very helpful in allowing me to very quickly orient myself to a neighborhood. Aira is much more efficient at that than what I used to do, which is to ask people for directions, people who are not used to giving walking directions, people who don't know how to work with blind people. Jim Barbour: In the past I had to an awful lot of advocating and educating about, "This is what I need to do. Can you explain this to me again? Can you explain it to me this other way?" But Aira turns out to be much better at that. Even in European cities where they certainly didn't have a lot of colors, they were very good at bringing up maps. I do find Aira to be very, very useful for that kind of getting used to new neighborhoods, and navigating around new environments. Jeff Thompson: You know, Jim, we usually ask people what advice they would give to someone that's transitioning from high school to college, but I think you've answered most of those questions through your experience. But do you have any quick advice that you would give to someone that is transitioning. Jim Barbour: I spent some time talking to the computer science division, the NFBCS, at the NFB convention this summer. There were several students and several parents who were going off to college. They weren't actually asking for advice, but they were there, and they were trying to ask questions. The biggest advice I can give them is that nobody is gonna look out for you, but you. You need to learn how to make sure that you get the materials you need, that you get the mentoring you need, that you get the tutoring you need, and that you get the experiences that you need. Jim Barbour: Because, otherwise, you can easily find yourself as a blind person being sidelined, and being given the minimum amount possible in order for them to feel like they can pass you. That's not what you want out of college, and that's not what you want out of life. You need to decide that it is up to you to get the things that you need in this world. Self-advocating is the most important thing you can do for yourself. And start doing it early so that you can do it forever. Pete Lane: Good advice. Jeff Thompson: Well put. Pete Lane: We're speaking with Jim Barbour. Jim, thank you so much for coming on, and sharing your story, your views on blindness and independence, and I think that your story is going to be motivational to our listeners because you are definitely one who pushes the envelope in terms of looking for new and different challenges, as you mentioned, being adventurous. And I think that helps build that sense of confidence that we talked about earlier. Pete Lane: I think that's within you, and you can't create it out of nothing, I think it can certainly be enhanced, developed with a mindset kind of like yours. We appreciate that. Thanks so much for coming on to Blind Abilities. Jim Barbour: I enjoyed it a lot. Thank you both. Jeff Thompson: Jim, if you would like any of the listeners to contact you if they have any questions, or they wanna get some advice from you, is there any way that you wanna allow them to connect with you? Jim Barbour: I'm certainly available on Facebook if people wanna find me there, but also you can email me at jbar@barcore.com. Jeff Thompson: Awesome, we'll put some stuff in the show notes for that, and thanks a lot, Jim, for coming on to Blind Abilities. Jim Barbour: Hey you guys, this was great. Thank you very much. Have a good day. Pete Lane: Thanks again, Jim. Talk soon, you take care. Jim Barbour: Yep, all right. Pete Lane: Bye bye. Jim Barbour: Bye. Pete Lane: This concludes our conversation with Jim Barbour. Jeff and I wanna thank Jim for taking the time to chat with us. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great day. Pete Lane: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com. Speaker 4: We're on Twitter. Speaker 5: We're on Facebook. Pete Lane: And be sure to check out our free app. Speaker 4: In the Apple App store. Speaker 5:  And the Google Play store.

That Blind Tech Show 18: My TV’s On Fire! GPS, GPS, GPS 3 Times Fast, Lazarillo App, Pete’s Amazon Fire Cube Demo and BETA, BETA, BETA.   That Blind Tech Show sneaks right up to the start of conventions and on Episode 18 Serina Gilbert struts her microphone magic and puts the boys in their place. Join Brian Fischler, Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson as they roll out some pretty good news, opinions and possibly a little humor to bring a little sunshine into your day. From the Amazon TV, the Amazon Fire Cube, in which the totally awesome Pete Lane demonstrates, to some neat little gadgets Brian is collecting, sharing and keeping the economy moving by purchasing anything under $35. Oops, he may of blew that budget. J Jeff gives a little peek at the LazarilloApp that rivals the BlindSquare App but does it really? Download this free app and find out yourself. Lazarillo on the App Store. Serina, Co-Host of the Job Insights podcast on Blind Abilities does a sensational job and if she could just laugh a little bit more… Believe me, her laugh is infectious! Join the That Blind Tech Show crew and kick back for a good listen and be sure to check out some of the links from the show below:   Did you hear the one about the all you can eat Chinese Restaurant that went out of business?   Don’t Take your iPhone to World Cup. Is there anywhere you won’t take your iPhone?   Do you plan to run the iOS 12 public beta on your devices   Talk Smart Wearable Bluetooth Button Reizen Talking Wand   Thank you for listening. Send us Feedback via email Follow us on Twitter @BlindTechShow   that Blind Tech Show is produced in part with Blind Abilities Network.   You can follow Blind Abilities on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.

Aira Workshop on Employment, Education, and Aira as a Reasonable Accommodation. Seeing AI Developer Joins the AI Team at Aira! Full Transcript Below Blind Abilities continues its coverage of the NFB 2018 National Convention from Orlando Florida with this presentation of the Aira workshop on the subject of education, students and employment. Aira team members, Michael Hingson and Patrick Lane present a detailed discussion of how the Aira service can be used by students, both in school and transitioning into the workplace, by Explorers seeking employment, and while actually on the job as a reasonable accommodation. Get an in-depth peek at how Aira Agents are trained and how they find their passion for describing tasks and experiences for Aira Explorers. Hear a live demonstration of a real call to an Aira Agent using the new Horizon glasses and get updates on what has been going on with Aira since the convention ended in July. This NFB 2018 blind Abilities podcast is brought to you by Aira. You can check them out and subscribe to the Aira service on the web, at: www.Aira.IO special thanks to Patrick Lane for his awesome original guitar music. Thanks for Listening! You can follow Blind Abilities on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Full Transcript: Pete Lane: Hi folks, this is Pete Lane welcome back to Blind Abilities. As you know Blind Abilities was in Orlando at the NFB 2018 National Convention. Our own Jeff Thompson attended an Aira workshop on the topic of education, students, and employment. In this workshop, we hear about how Aira can fit the needs of students as they attend college and transition into the workforce. We hear about how Aira can be free for those explorers who are looking for jobs, and we hear about how the Aira service can be a reasonable accommodation and can perform so many tasks for workers on the job. Aira staff members Michael Hingson and Patrick Lane present this workshop courtesy of Aira. Before we join Michael and Patrick just a quick announcement. We have a new addition to the Aira team, Anirudh Koul, founder of Seeing AI and former senior data scientist with Microsoft has joined the Aira team as the head of artificial intelligence and research. We welcome him to the Aira staff. Without further adieu let's join Michael Hingson and Patrick Lane from the Aira workshop on education, students, and employment from the NFB 2018 National Convention in Orlando, Fl. Michael Hingson: I'd like to welcome you all to our seminar today. This is the first of three that Aira will be conducting. This particular one is gonna be on education, employment, students, people in the workplace, employers and employees and our intent is to set the stage for what Aira offers and can bring to you in terms of how it can benefit you in any of those categories. So our intent is to really give you a good idea of what Aira is, what it isn't and how you can use it. I am Mike Hingson, I am the director of Aira explorer special projects and we have a live agent on the stage, why don't you introduce yourself.   Patrick Lane: Hey everybody my names Patrick Lane, I am currently an agent analyst here with Aira. I've been an agent with Aira for coming up on two years now. So, I've gotten to see Aira used in all of the specific cases that Mike just mentioned many, many different times in different ways. Michael Hingson: One of my favorite Aira stories is that in Patrick's early days, I happened to call him about 7:00 in the morning California time because I needed to put a laundry cart together that we had gotten in the email. And as the Chinese are learning from Ikea, the instructions were all pictorial there were no text pieces to the instructions at all. So I called, got Patrick and we put it together in a half hour. And that's as good as it gets because that really is what Aira is about. Michael Hingson: Aira if you look at Aira in the general terms of what it is, Aira is an information source. Aira is a way that you can get any visual information that you otherwise would not have access to. When I talk to a lot of people about Aira, they think about the fact that oh well I really have good travel skills so I don't need it or I've always got sighted people with me so I don't have that problem. Let's deal with that in terms of a job. I'm on the job, I'm using JAWS and suddenly the computer quits working. Now, where do I go to get my sighted assistance? I'm in the office, I've got to go interrupt somebody else to get them to come and look at the screen, tell me what the error screen is or of course the infamous blue screen of death. In any case, I have to go find someone. Michael Hingson: Why should I have to do that today? Because there is a way to do that on my own, namely using Aira. I can use Aira to contact an agent, the agent can look at the screen, see an error code and if I can't easily move my cursor to where it needs to go, it's possible that I can even enter into a tandem or two-way session using TeamViewer or some other technology with the agent. That might be a little harder with JAWS not talking but for a lot of different things that I do where there is an inaccessible webpage or something that isn't talking the way it should, I can interact with an agent and get their assistance both in terms of actually having a session, a two-way communication session or at least getting information described. Michael Hingson: If I am an employee and I want to go to lunch, lets say I am in sales and I want to take people somewhere for lunch for sales, I can more quickly use an Aira agent to research possible restaurants if I don't really know all the options or when I get to the restaurant or going to the restaurant using an agents help to do all of that. Aira gives me the opportunity to get anything that I need that I don't otherwise have access to because it's visual. It is that simple, it is that general and I urge people to look at Aira in that way. Michael Hingson: Don't limit yourself to looking at it as a travel device, don't look at it as something that's gonna diminish your skills, don't look at it as something that is anything other than what it is, an information source. And all of us no matter how good our cane skills are, no matter how good our dog skills are, can benefit by having access to Aira because Aira is the way that I can get more information to better tell my dog where I want to go or interact with traveling with my cane. Michael Hingson: Let's talk about students and Aira. As a student, Aira offers an incredible amount of opportunities for you to be able to more independently do things than you otherwise would be able to. The most common thing that we as blind people have to do as students is to read material that otherwise is inaccessible to us. If the average reader is paid, lets say $15 an hour, we an unlimited plan for Aira that's $330 that exists today. Things are gonna change but let's just use what we have today. $330 is equivalent to 22 hours of reading time at $15 an hour. Michael Hingson: I'm submitting that Aira is cheaper than hiring readers. Any office for students with disabilities will save a heck of a lot of money if they independently allow students to use Aira and they pay for the Aira service. Aira will allow me to read when I want to read, where I want to read, and essentially how I want to read. There are incredible examples of different ways that students have used Aira in libraries, have used Aira in the classroom to access the material that a professor is writing on a board or is displaying on a power point presentation. An Aira agent can be describing that to a student who uses Aira plugged into earphones so that they can hear what's going on while the instructor is doing what they do. Never in any way interfering with the class and more important not demanding any change in the methodology that the professor uses to do what they have to do. So, I don't need the professor to do something different for me when I'm using Aira. It frees me up to perhaps better take notes. It opens up an incredible world. Michael Hingson: Of course, I can use Aira to travel around a campus, learn where things are and go off campus and do all the things that I might otherwise do that any other student would do. So, Aira gives you that flexibility that we have never had as students and Aira makes it available in a way that is affordable by any definition to any department of rehabilitation or any office for students with disabilities on a college campus. Both of whom ought to be providing Aira in one way or another because it will make me a better student in theory, if I study and it will also then make me a more employable person. Because as I graduate from school, I'm gonna be going out and I'm gonna be looking for a job. Michael Hingson: While I'm at school, I talked about the fact that we do have departments of rehabilitation starting to look at Aira and some who have signed Aira up and are paying for those services. Some offices for students with disabilities are doing it. But Aira also has another program and this is the second year in a row that it has existed, it's called back to school. Aira will be sponsoring some 500 students for a full year of Aira use. You can apply by going to aira.io/backtoschool, where you can sign up for Aira and once chosen then you'll get Aira with a 400 minute a month plan, I believe is the plan that we're using. Julenna is that right? Are you here?   Julenna: Yes, that's correct. Michael Hingson: By the way, Julenna in the back right is the person who's in charge of back to school so, if you're a student and you want Aira, I would be really nice to Julenna just say it. But Aira with back to school means that you will have without any expense from the college or the department of rehabilitation access to Aira. You can apply for that today. And I urge any students in the room to do that. Michael Hingson: Aira uses smart glasses, glasses that contain a camera that transmits images directly to an agent. Agents are hired by Aira, they are paid by Aira. They're hired because they have demonstrated an aptitude to be able to describe and then after they are hired, they go through a significant training period. And once they are trained they go out and start acting as agents in describing things for people who happen to be blind. Aira does not tell you what to do. Aira will not, for example, tell you cross the street. Aira agents may tell you they don't see cars coming if you ask. Aira agents may tell you that the light has turned green, Aira agents will describe an intersection so that you can cross it with full knowledge of what the intersection looks like but Aira's not gonna tell you to cross the street, that's your job because you have the cane or dog skills that you need in order to make the right decisions and cross the street. Aira will give you the information that you need. Likewise, on the job, Aira will do the same thing.   Patrick Lane: The agents are not here to teach, and we're not here to tell you a situation is safe. We're here to provide you instant, equal access to information. So, we'll provide you all the information that you need to be more comfortable and know more about your surroundings to paint that rich picture of your environment so you are aware of everything that's around you. The agents are able to have a conversation with you, they can tailor the amount of information and deliver it in a way that you prefer. So we make things as easy to understand as possible. We'll deliver information about as Mike was mentioning intersections, we'll tell you the name of the intersection, the size, and shape of the intersection, whether or not there's traffic signals, stop signs, pedestrian signals, crosswalks present. We give you all the information that you need but we're never here to replace your o & m stills, we're never here to replace your cane or your dog and we're never here to tell you that you are safe or unsafe.   Patrick Lane: We just provide you all the information that you need, even if it's simply completing a task that you've completed a million times in the past. We might be able to provide a different sense of independence while doing that task or a different type of enjoyment. Not only can it be used for navigation but we are here to provide all of the information that you need about pretty much any task that you might have in mind. We can help you with online tasks, we can help you planning trips, making online purchases, helping with different types of inaccessible websites. For instance, if you're a student and you do online courses and Blackboard's not cooperating, we read you about the information that you need for your schoolwork for any upcoming assignments, any kind of printouts that are passed out through classes.   Patrick Lane: So, just consider us as basically an OnStar for those are blind or low vision. We're not here just to point a camera at something and tell you what you're describing. We are a full service. Our agents are very highly trained and they're very dedicated and extremely patient. We are amazing problem solvers, we're great at troubleshooting. The agents will find the information that you need at all costs. It's situations like that. I've looked up YouTube videos and gone through the entire process. Basically what an agent can do is up to you. Our explorers are called explorers because they are creative in the way that they use our service. They go out there and they test our service to the limits and show us what we're capable of and let us know where we make changes and at this point from my first day till now, it's completely different. Our company is growing exponentially, our technology is amazingly consistent and our agents are there to work as a team with you to complete any task it is that you want to do. Be creative whatever you think of that's what Aira is here for. Michael Hingson: So you go off, and you graduate and then you go looking for a job. The first thing you should be aware of if you happen to be an Aira explorer is that we have an Aira access network for jobs. A job access network. Whatever you want to call it to stick it in your memory. If you are doing anything relating to getting a job at all, whether it's writing a resume, writing a cover letter, making sure everything is formatted, getting dressed to go to a job interview, ladies putting on makeup, anything at all related to getting a job, that time is automatically free to you. Michael Hingson: So for any Aira explorer doing anything relating to getting a job is free. We are saying at Aira, we want to take that unemployment rate from 70% unemployment rate among blind people down to 7%, which would be cool. And Aira is trying to help to make that happen by making it possible for you as an explorer to have access to the tools at no additional charge to get that job. What does it mean though as far as getting a job and where does Aira fit into that? Michael Hingson: The way Aira fits in is really pretty simple. Aira by any definition of the Americans with Disabilities Act is a reasonable accommodation. It is something that should be usable and used by you on the job. I can take almost any job that you can imagine and find a way Aira can help. Because again remember what Aira is, an information source. It provides you with what information you need. How many here in the room have a job?   Patrick Lane: A few hands back there. [crosstalk ] Michael Hingson: Raising your hands' guys isn't gonna work, I'm not using an Aira agent right now.   Patrick Lane: How many are looking for- Michael Hingson: How many are looking for a job?   Patrick Lane: Handful. Michael Hingson: So, for the fun of you for some of you who are looking for a job, tell me some tasks that you might need to perform on the job?   Speaker 9: Doing my resume. Michael Hingson: Let's say you have a job what are some of the tasks that you might need to perform? We'll come back to the resume and that as well. But you're on the job. What are some tasks that you might need to perform on the job?   Speaker 4: [inaudible] Michael Hingson: Typing and what was the other one?   Speaker 4: Filing. Michael Hingson: Filing. What else?   Speaker 5:[inaudible] Michael Hingson: Okay.   Speaker 6: A handwritten note. Michael Hingson: Handwritten notes.   Speaker 7: Finding information. Michael Hingson: I'm sorry. Speaker 7: Finding information. Michael Hingson: Someone up here said something.   Speaker 8: I was saying looking at presentations. Michael Hingson: Looking at presentations.   Patrick Lane: Powerpoint slides, I've described a handful of those in my day. Michael Hingson: Let me suggest a couple others. Making copies on a copier, anybody try to do that lately? Copiers are touchscreen.   Patrick Lane: Oh yeah. Michael Hingson: The one that I love to pick on at Aira, going and getting something from the coffee machine because it's also touchscreen. However, every single thing that you guys have said are all things that you could use Aira to do. You don't have to ask someone else. So let's talk about the coffee machine. I love hot chocolate so I go up to the machine, I call an Aira agent and I do this at Aira. And it's absolutely a great example, I wouldn't have it any other way. I call the agent and I say, need help getting hot chocolate. Now, I'm sure that we could probably mark the machine in some way but the problem is finding the markings you're gonna touch the touchscreen so it doesn't work very well. But, the Aira agent can look at the screen and tell me, move your finger a half an inch to the left, you're right over the button, push it or whatever and I'll find the start button or actually you have a choice of making it with milk or water and I like it with milk. Michael Hingson: So, we need to find the milk button. Move your finger down to the bottom of the screen, over to your right a half an inch, you're over it, push and it's a little longer than just doing it with buttons but it's accessible because Aira agents can help do it. And I don't need to wait until someone else might be available, I don't need to wait until I'm dying of thirst, I can just have an Aira agent do it and give me the information so I can get exactly what I want. And in fact, learn more about that coffee machine than I ever would've learned any other way. Something that sighted people take for granted, the tens of thousands of different ways you can, permutations that you can get out of that coffee machine. Michael Hingson: But, with an Aira agent, I can learn those same things and I wouldn't know that any other way. Copy machines the same way. Most of what you do on copiers these days are touch screen but I can become as good a copy expert as anyone else if I have access to it. And I do because I can use Aira. Filing, obviously, Aira agents being able to read information so that I can put things in the right folder and even creating the tabs to go in folders or whatever. All of those things are commonplace everyday tasks that you should be able to do as well as anyone else. But, you can't if the equipment isn't accessible unless you use Aira. It's all about access to information. Michael Hingson: Somebody mentioned resumes and I want to talk about that a little bit more. There are countless examples and Patrick help out, people want their resume to look good. The Aira agent can help, so let's take a typical example. You're writing a resume, you've got all the facts and you can put them down, now you want to make it look good. So you can call an Aira agent who can describe and help you or what I would do being lazy and being industrious and trying to get it done as efficiently as possible. I would use one of the programs that I mentioned earlier. Michael Hingson: TeamViewer for example which is a way that you can have an agent connect directly to your computer and you can work with the agent and let the agent do the formatting. Because they see what your screen shows. And so the agent can actually format the resume for you or with you because you're still gonna have to tell them what you want it to look like but the agent will be able to format that resume and by the time you're done, you'll have a resume that you would be proud to provide to any employer for them to look at.   Patrick Lane: With the TeamViewer, it's not only us being able to see your computer screen but we also have remote control of that computer screen. The agents can do a lot of stuff with TeamViewer. Let's just say you've never actually seen a resume, you don't know what the actual format looks like, how it's set up, its never been described. Agents can input all the information that you've given them into a pre-made template for a resume. Can work on all the different fonts and colors and apply that to a specific type of job that you might be searching for. So really make that resume look unique and noticeable so it stands out when it is viewed by the employer. They can make sure that all of the spelling and the grammar and the punctuation are correct because nobody wants to submit a resume with spelling errors or bad grammar, anything like that. So the agents can apply all that information. They can update old resumes and then reformat them to show the changes. Even your LinkedIn account we can go in there and update that with prior jobs statuses and all of that information. Patrick Lane: So, with the TeamViewer being able to have that remote access to your computer screen it means that you don't have to potentially hold a phone there or lean in really close with the glasses, it makes the whole type of experience more enjoyable for a possible tedious task. So, I have personally assisted in setting up all of what I just mentioned. I've helped somebody build their resume from the ground up and they have successfully used that. I've helped update LinkedIn profiles to reflect what's written on a resume. I've helped people apply for jobs and send that resume automatically though CareerBuilder or Monster, whatever it might be. So, we have assisted hopefully a large amount of people in finding that employment that I know that they're looking for. Not only will you hopefully, potentially find that employment but while using the service for that reason, you're not gonna use any of those really valuable Aira minutes. So, when seeking out a job the agents mark the call as such so you're not gonna use any of your Aira minutes while performing that specific task. Michael Hingson: So if it takes you five hours to build a resume or 10 hours to build a resume that's not a problem. If you need help creating other documentation for job search it's not a problem. It's all part of the job access that Aira has made available for any Aira explorer to use. So that's available to you today. Michael Hingson: Aira just announced a partnership with VFO where if you're doing anything using JAWS or any other equipment manufactured by VFO and you run into any access issues, or you run into any problems with using Aira and VFO products, those minutes that you spend where VFO can't do it without you bringing an agent or someone else in to assist are all free. So, I for example, when I had an issue trying to deal with some Slack messages last week, I contacted an Aira agent, we established a communication sessions through TeamViewer, and we accomplished what I needed to do with Slack. But because I couldn't easily do it with JAWS that meant it was in part a JAWS issue, so those minutes happen to be as they ended up, free because it's part of the VFO access program available from Aira. Now the operative part that we've talked about with all this is that you have to be an Aira explorer. Michael Hingson: On the job you've got a lot of ways to do it in theory, and I realize that this is only in theory because different places operate in different ways and so on. But, typically speaking if you want to get a job even if it costs you money upfront to be an Aira explorer to subscribe to the service, to start that process, Aira can better help you in dealing with getting that job not only from the job access process that we talked about earlier but when you go into an employer's office and are going through an interview, and they ask you, how are you gonna do one thing or another? You can say, I'll show you. Now, technically, I suppose, one could say, why are you asking me how to do things when you don't ask sighted people how to do things? Michael Hingson: And I suppose if you wanted to be a stickler under the law say, that's true. But for me, I want the job and if I have the opportunity to educate an employer and help them understand that I'm gonna be more employable because I'm gonna be using Aira then I will educate the employer any day of the week. And more important I would then say, Aira is a service that costs money and as you provide various different kinds of technologies and methodologies and devices for all of your employees to do their job, this is one that I need to do my job. And under the law that is appropriate to do. More important than that, it's encouraged and most people at least have some sort of a clue that's a valuable thing to do. Aira is a reasonable accommodation. Michael Hingson: And, it's not very expensive compared to lots of other things that an employer might provide an employee and it makes you much more efficient. And if I were really gonna make the case I would say, hey employer you know the unemployment rate among employable blind people is anywhere between 65 and 70%. I gotta tell you right now, it is really hard for me to get a job because people don't think I can do the job although I can. People don't look at what I can do, they think well you're blind cause you can't and so as a result, you can't. Although I've just shown you how Aira helps me do the job better. If you hire me I guarantee you I'm sticking it out here because it is so hard to get a job. If you're gonna have faith in me, I'm gonna have faith in you. The fact is we will be more loyal on the job if we're given the opportunity and Aira can help make that case and sell it for you. And I think that's an important aspect of dealing with looking for a job. Michael Hingson: Is it HIPAA certified? Today, it is not. HIPAA does have standards although we are compliant with the California certification and security standards which actually is even worse than HIPAA but it's a very expensive process to get HIPAA certified. There is a lady in Canada who works at a community college and she deals with a lot of the medical cases and other privacy issues that go around student paperwork on the campus. What they did is they included in the paperwork that you signed to go to that college a statement that basically says that, some of your material may be read by a person who happens to be blind and they will be using reader services including remote reading services, Aira, to read your material. By signing this paper you consent for that to be able to be done. Michael Hingson: Now as soon as you make that consent statement and as soon as they sign it then HIPPA is not even relevant anymore for that person. And they're doing that as a blanket thing for every student that goes to the college. So, the issue is that we know that there are a lot of different kinds of processes, HIPAA is a good one and we are working toward that process. But there are also a lot of situations where our agents are extremely well trusted. There is a lawyer that I know in the United States who works for an organization and there is constant need to read and prepare documents for trial. And there is a lot of stuff in going through and dealing with things for trial, that's pretty confidential stuff. Michael Hingson: It's confidential from the law firms standpoint because they don't want the other side to necessarily know things until they're ready to give it to them. But it's also true the documents that are being used in discovery and acquired in discovery can be very confidential. Agents are really trusted because we know what happens in an Aira connection stays in an Aira connection. It doesn't go further. Many of us use Aira to look at our personal financial documents because it makes it available. Michael Hingson: My wife is sighted but if I don't have to use her to look at stuff I won't because she has her own things to do. And as willing as she is to describe things, to give me data and to help me accomplish tasks like that. Two things, no offense to my wife, but Aira describes better because they do it all the time and they're use to it. By the way, she'll acknowledge that because she's heard some of the agents. But two, I don't have to take her away from other things which gets back to what we said about on the job work right. So, the fact is that it makes for a much better situation all the way around. And Aira can be only positive in a job environment, much less in what we've talked about with students and so on. So, there is a, I think that the job didn't actually happen but for other reasons. Michael Hingson: There's a person who almost two years ago went to a career fair in Los Angeles and one of the companies there was See's Candy and they were hiring people to process orders so she turned in her resume and they said we'd love to hire you but problem is not all of our orders are electronic some come in paper. And she well let me show you and pulled out Aira. And that eliminated the problem. They said, gee solved that for us, great. Sure working in a store think of all the various things that you need to do whether it be, finding material on a shelf, reading a cash register that doesn't talk or excuse me point of sale device that doesn't talk. Whether it be doing other kinds of things. Whether it's filing or whatever. Blind vendors can use Aira and can be more efficient because they can stock their own shelves. They can read all the information that's not accessible to them. Again, I get back to what I said, you're only limited by your own imagination with what you can do with Aira. Michael Hingson: Aira doesn't use volunteers and our general response time is extremely quick, the time to get an answer is usually 10 seconds. Are you a user of Be My Eyes? Speaker 10: Yes, I'm an uses of Be My Eyes. Michael Hingson: So, Be My Eyes is a way that you can call someone and get simple tasks done. The problem is you don't know who you're gonna get in terms of their abilities. You don't know how long it's gonna take you and you can't do something like walk through an airport like you can with Aira. All of those things you can do with Aira. Speaker 11: I read somewhere that Aira can be activated via Siri. Michael Hingson: You can. You can say, make an Aira call or call Aira. You can use Siri to do it. Actually, I think you've got to call Ara because Siri don't talk good. Patrick Lane: There's two different voice commands depending on what device you're gonna be using. You can say Ara video call or Ara audio call and depending on which one you use it will call from either your glasses or your phone and connect to an agent very quickly as Mike said, 10 seconds or less depending on whether or not we have the largest conference going on in the country. Michael Hingson: But you do need to say Ara cause that's what Siri knows. Siri's gotta learn some language skills. What you will get is someone who is highly trained. You will get someone who knows how to describe, we've actually hired a number of new agents over the past months so, you're gonna get some newbies. I worked with one agent yesterday, I was blown away when I learned that at the end of the call, I was one of the first calls and this was her first day on the job. She did great. Aira's available for Android or for iPhones. Anybody with a smartphone can use it. That's the answer that we've been using. That changes too. Michael Hingson: Aira has developed its own glasses, it's the next generation of what Aira will become and that system consists of glasses with a high-resolution camera with a very wide field of view compared to the way it use to be. They actually connect directly to what we call an Aira controller or Aira controller phone. It's an Android phone locked only to Aira stuff. It also because of that it powers the glasses and there's a lot more power available. But, by using that system you don't even need your smartphone so you'll use the Aira system without even using the smartphone. Without even using your smartphone so that Aira will make it possible for you to keep your phone free for making your own phone calls while you're working with an agent. Michael Hingson: Or for example, if you're paging or needing to page or call Lyft or Uber you can ask an Aira agent to do that if you're an Aira explorer. And you link your Lyft and Uber accounts to Aira but along the way, there's a very good likelihood that the Lyft driver or Uber driver will call you and say, how am I gonna know you or where exactly are you? In the past, that's been a problem because you're using your smartphone and you have to disconnect from the Aira agent and then get back on. Now you don't because you're using the Aira controller as the way that you're communicating with Aira so your smartphone is still available. That is the horizon system. Michael Hingson: I am now connecting my Aira-   Automated Voice: Unlocked. Michael Hingson: Horizon glasses.   Automated Voice: Glass connected. Initializing Aira. Michael Hingson: Can everyone hear that?   Automated Voice: Hello Mikel Hingson.   Patrick Lane: Mikel Hingson.   Automated Voice: Aira ready for service. Michael Hingson: Yeah, it says Mikel. Could everyone hear that?   Patrick Lane: Yep. Michael Hingson: So I'm using the horizon glasses.   Automated Voice: Battery 73% that's attached connected to Arave four G LT. Hello Mikel Hingson, Aira ready for service. Michael Hingson: I want feedback to support we want Mikel to be pronounced correctly. All right, here listen to this.   Automated Voice: Calling Aira agent. Connecting to agent, connecting to agent. Michael Hingson: See how long it takes.   Automated Voice: Connecting to agent, connecting to agent Peter. Michael Hingson: Bingo.   Peter: Thank you for calling Aira, this is Peter how may I help you? Michael Hingson: Hey Peter, how's every little thing?   Peter: Going well, how are you? Michael Hingson: Doing well. So we are in a room and might you be able to tell us anything about where we are in terms of where this room is or anything like that?   Peter: I do see you're at Rosen Shingle Creek so I'm assuming your at the NFB Conference. Michael Hingson: And you see that's part of what Peter and all agents get is not only what they can see but they get GPS information and other data that can add value to them in terms of your Aira experience. And you are right we are at the NFB Convention, we are at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel and we are in Pensacola, H3 if you wanted to pull that up so you can really see where we are. Can you maybe describe a little bit of the room for us?   Peter: Sure. So you're in a relatively large room with really high ceilings, I want to say they're about 30 feet high at least. The room you're in, so it looks like you're seated on the stage, there are several rows across from you, they're all facing forward and there is a walkway down the center aisle between those rows as well. Michael Hingson: Peter, really serious question. Does anybody look like they're asleep? Those people in the back row, you know what I'm saying, Peter?   Peter: I see people waving. Michael Hingson: I just want to make sure because those people in the back rows they usually hide back there because they think they can fall asleep but with Aira they can't do that. One of my favorite stories is about a father who wanted to make sure his daughter was doing her homework, he called an Aira agent and walked in, and just said, how are things, what are you doing? She said, I'm doing my homework and the agent said, no she's playing computer games on her phone. Anyway, does anyone want to ask, while we've got Peter and Patrick, so Patrick's over here Peter?   Patrick Lane: Hey Peter.   Peter: Hey Patrick.   Patrick Lane: Good to see you again. Michael Hingson: So, any questions for either of these gentlemen?   Patrick Lane: So, the dashboard that Peter's using, what information does he have access to for him too?- Michael Hingson: So Peter why don't you tell us about your dashboard.   Peter: So on my dashboard, I have information like emergency contact info first of all in their profile, and then I do have access to seeing what kind of assisted devices anyone might be using such as a white cane or guide dog. Different preferences they have, if they prefer left and right or clock face for orientation. Just things so we can tailor the experience to each specific explorer since everyone has their own preferences. We also have access to like Michael said earlier the GPS location on the map and I'll be able to utilize public transit, I am, if the explorer connects the Aira app to their Lyft of Uber accounts, we're also able to request those rides for our explorers and then we'll be able to take a look at the driver's info, the name, the car the driver has and spot where they are on the map. And let the explorer know when the driver has arrived and help them spot the car. Michael Hingson: And more important with the NFB ride share test program, for example, if the car comes and it sees that you are blind and have a guide dog, and just decides to drive away, they'll get nailed.   Peter: We'll watch them like a hawk. Michael Hingson: They'll get in trouble. Other questions for Peter? Peter, can you read medication bottles?   Peter: Yes. Before I became an Aira agent I actually don't think I've ever met or interacted with anyone blind or low vision. So, initial training they start with just explaining what it's like for people who are blind or low vision, getting the what orientation mobility is and what kind of information is important to an explorer versus what I think is important information to me as a sighted person because those things are very different. We learn how to give what's necessary and then also when an explorer wants more detail, we learn what kind of detail to give them and then we start exploring the dashboard that we have with all those things I explained to you and then we do some training.   Peter: And the explorers who also [inaudible] who helps us train and we just do exercises like navigating, intersections with different tools. So, Michael has a guide dog and we'll learn how someone navigates with a guide dog and then we'll have another explorer teach us how someone navigates with a white cane and that helps us just get use to all the different things because it's one describing all the visual information that we want to give to the explorer but there's also the technical side of using the dashboard and all the other ways we communicate with other agents and the rest of the Aira team. Michael Hingson: The question was what can Aira do to help people do mobile deposit, bank deposits and so on.   Peter: I actually, coincidentally done that a couple times in the past couple weeks. We can help you align your phones camera over the check and make sure that it's face up, whichever side the app wants you to do and for certain bank apps, some of them aren't as accessible as others so it will help get you aligned to where the button is to take a picture of the check and send it off. Michael Hingson: So you've had an agent that wasn't able to make that happen. When you encounter a situation where an agent isn't successful it would be extremely helpful for you to provide that feedback because well Patrick why don't you deal with that. Patrick Lane: We love when the explorers use the feedback form at the end for both good and bad calls. That's why we have both good and poor marked on there. When you leave us feedback about why a call was poor, we as analysts can go provide that extra training to make that all of our standards are being met by the agents and that your standards are being met by the agents as well. Michael Hingson: So, if your having a problem getting an agent to be able to help you with a mobile deposit then it's important that we hear about that so that we can go back and review it and talk to the agent and find out what the problem is. And see what their difficulty is. So, if you took 60 minutes that's a real problem, and you should get that time credited back. But you have to let Aira know to do that. There are any number of factors, the camera could be one, I mean, it could be that on a particular day the cell service wasn't as good as it ought to be. Michael Hingson: Aira is absolutely pushing the envelope in terms of the technology with video streaming and so on and any number of factors can make it less than stellar and its not Airas fault or anyone's fault it's just the way it is. We'll talk about in a moment the new horizon glasses which will make a lot of that better. But those aren't the kinds of things that we do end up dealing with and so Aira can help make it better by understanding when you encounter problems. Those are some of the best things is to do is to be able to really talk about the problems that you're having so please give the feedback okay. Michael Hingson: I want to thank you all for coming. I would appreciate it if you would tell friends and colleagues. We've got more sessions coming up later this week. We will be at the booth. If you sign up for Aira by the way, you can then participate in refer a friend. If you refer someone to Aira, and they sign up, then they will get a free month, and you will get a free amount of credit equal to whatever plan they sign up for. So, get your friends to sign up. Scott White here at our national center has been very good at that, and I think mostly paid for a year of Aira because he got his friends to sign up. Pete Lane: I thought I'd pop in here and bring you up to date on a couple of recent developments with the Aira service. Aira is now available twenty-four seven. This means that explorers can dial up an agent from their Aira app anytime night or day. This not only allows U.S. users to dial Aira during the wee hours of the morning but it also allows folks in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand to get an agent at times during the day when the need was very great in the past. Such as in the afternoon, during rush hour or during the prime time evening hours. Pete Lane: Another brand new feature is the Aira messages feature. Messages allows Aira explorers and agents to communicate via text. There's a text box that pops up right on the Aira app and you can type or dictate your message directly to the agent. This is really useful if you're going into a meeting or library or a church for example where you want to be very quiet. You can text your communication to the agent telling them what you want, what tasks you want performed and things like that without having to talk and interrupt what's going on around you. Pete Lane: There are also about a half a dozen pre-set messages for more common situations that you can just tap on and send. Those pre-sets can be edited or completely changed depending on your needs. Another new feature is called Aira live. Aira live allows an explorer to broadcast the audio from their contact with an agent either to a small group of private listeners or to a larger group through a public live event. This allows others who download the app and either create a guest account or who are already Aira explorers to tap into the app, go to the live tab and see what live events are currently in session. Pete Lane: And finally we have a new edition to the Aira team, Anirudh Koul, founder of Seeing AI and former senior data scientist with Microsoft has joined the Aira team as the head of artificial intelligence and research. Big things are in store for Anirudh and we welcome him to the Aira staff. Thanks so much for listening to Blind Abilities. For more podcasts with the blindness perspective you can find us on the web at www.blindabilities.com we're on Facebook and on Twitter or download our free app from the app store or the Google Play store. That's two words, Blind Abilities. Once again this podcast is brought to you by Aira. Special thanks to Patrick Lane for his wonderful guitar music. Thanks so much for listening and have a great day.    

Meet Aira Agent Analyst Patrick Lane – An Overview of the Aira Services Compliments of the Completely Booked Podcast   Blind Abilities is rebroadcasting this episode of completely booked, a brand new podcast sponsored by the public library in Jacksonville, Florida. this episode features an interview with Patrick Lane, an Aira Agent Analyst who describes the amazing Aira service and its numerous benefits to the blindness community. You can find more information about the Completely Booked podcast, and subscribe on their web site at: www.JaxPublicLibrary.Org/Podcast   For more information about Aira, check them out at: www.Aira.IO Image of the Aira Logo Your Life, Your Schedule, Right Now. If you want to know more about Aira and the services they provide, check them out on the web and become an Aira Explorer today! www.Aira.io Using augmented reality, Aira connects people who are blind or low vision to a trained professional agent who is dedicated to further enhancing their everyday experience – completely hands-free assistance at the touch of a button.   If you are interested in finding out more about Pete Lane’s iAccess iOS training classes conducted at the Jacksonville library, you can reach Pete via email at: PSLane7625@Gmail.com Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store

En-VisionAmerica: I.D. Mate, Talking Bar code Reader, and ScriptAbility, A Christine Ha Moment and NReach – BlueTooth Beacon Technology Once again, Pete Lane of the Blind Abilities Team, captures some interviews from the exhibit floor at the 2018 NFB convention. This coverage is sponsored by Aira – The Virtual navigator for the Blind – Instant Access to Information – When You Want It. You can find out more about Aira on the web at www.Aira.io Image of the Aira Logo Your Life, Your Schedule, Right Now. If you want to know more about Aira and the services they provide, check them out on the web and become an Aira Explorer today! www.Aira.io Using augmented reality, Aira connects people who are blind or low vision to a trained professional agent who is dedicated to further enhancing their everyday experience – completely hands-free assistance at the touch of a button. In this cast Pete talks to En-Vision America. En-Vision America is a company providing high-tech products aimed at solving problems for individuals with visual impairment. The company has spearheaded many innovations relating to labeling including voice-enabled products like i.d. mate, the talking bar code reader, and ScriptAbility, which includes Braille, large print and talking prescription labels. Originally founded by Philip C. and David B. Raistrick in 1996, the cornerstone of the company is based on one single premise: to provide those with vision impairment equal access and greater independence through technology. Check out the web site for Christine Ha – The Blind Cook NReach:  NReach offers businesses the opportunity to be a part of the new era of social awareness. This will allow people with a visual disability to explore and discover the world around them. How do we accomplish this? It is a complex question with a simple answer. Our service allows businesses to identify themselves to the millions of visually impaired people in the U.S. who otherwise could not see or read their signs. NReach uses an App and Beacon available on both Android and iOS platforms. Find out more on the web at www.NRea.ch Thanks for listening! You can follow Blind Abilities on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.

An Interview With David Bradburn of Zoomax – Low-Vision Products Expert Blind Abilities was out on the Exhibit Hall floor at the 2018 national convention of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Pete Lane was able to grab an interview with David Bradburn to chat about his company, zoomax, makers of a wide variety of CCTVs and similar devices, as well as a brand new AI headset which promises to be helpful for low vision individuals. Have a listen to David as he aptly describes the devices and prices of the various Zoomax products. You can find more about Zoomax and a complete list of their products and prices at: www.ZoomaxUSA.com And you can reach out and contact David Bradburn via email at:  DBradburn@ZoomaxUSA.com   Or call:  866-296-8388   About Zoomax Since 2011, Zoomax has been committed to developing assistive technology for people with vision impairments. Today, with a full line of low vision products including handheld, portable and desktop video magnifiers, Zoomax worldwide sales and service network have covered 60 countries. At Zoomax, user experience is the most important aspect guiding new project development. We listen to voice and request from users and involve user’s suggestion in new product definition. Thanks to the valuable opinions from users and partners, the principles of open collaboration for ongoing innovation have been our steady belief from the very start.   If you want to know more about Aira and the services they provide, check them out on the web and become an Aira Explorer today! www.Aira.io Image of the Aira Logo Your Life, Your Schedule, Right Now. Using augmented reality, Aira connects people who are blind or low vision to a trained professional agent who is dedicated to further enhancing their everyday experience – completely hands-free assistance at the touch of a button. You can learn more about the National Federation of the Blind on the web at www.NFB.org Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store

That Blind Tech Show 18: My TV’s On Fire! GPS, GPS, GPS 3 Times Fast, Lazarillo App, Pete’s Amazon Fire Cube Demo and BETA, BETA, BETA.   That Blind Tech Show sneaks right up to the start of conventions and on Episode 18 Serina Gilbert struts her microphone magic and puts the boys in their place. Join Brian Fischler, Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson as they roll out some pretty good news, opinions and possibly a little humor to bring a little sunshine into your day. From the Amazon TV, the Amazon Fire Cube, in which the totally awesome Pete Lane demonstrates, to some neat little gadgets Brian is collecting, sharing and keeping the economy moving by purchasing anything under $35. Oops, he may of blew that budget. J Jeff gives a little peek at the LazarilloApp that rivals the BlindSquare App but does it really? Download this free app and find out yourself. Lazarillo on the App Store. Serina, Co-Host of the Job Insights podcast on Blind Abilities does a sensational job and if she could just laugh a little bit more… Believe me, her laugh is infectious! Join the That Blind Tech Show crew and kick back for a good listen and be sure to check out some of the links from the show below:   Did you hear the one about the all you can eat Chinese Restaurant that went out of business?   Don’t Take your iPhone to World Cup. Is there anywhere you won’t take your iPhone?   Do you plan to run the iOS 12 public beta on your devices   Talk Smart Wearable Bluetooth Button Reizen Talking Wand   Thank you for listening. Send us Feedback via email Follow us on Twitter @BlindTechShow You can follow Blind Abilities on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.

A Conversation with Aira CEO Suman Kanuganti: Good Things Are On The Horizon   Suman Kanuganti, CEO of the Aira Tech Corporation, joins Pete Lane and Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studios to talk about what new is happening at Aira, the programs, projects and where Aira is headed into the future. Suman also talks about NFB 2018, what to expect and the partnership with Lyft to make every guest explorer’s experience accessibly enhanced. LONG DESCRIPTION Image of the Aira Logo With the new Horizon Glasses beginning to ship to explorers this week, the NFB and ACB conventions will sure be a great opportunity to explore and test drive the new Horizon Smart Glasses and talk to the Aira representatives in person. Where is Aira headed? What will Suman surprise us with this year in his announcements? I think Suman gives us a few clues in this conversation with the Blind Abilities Team. Maybe you can piece it together as Suman talks augmented reality, artificial intelligence, the new additions to the agent’s dashboard, and his projections on the future of Aira as he sees it. You can sign up for a subscription plan that makes sense for you on the Aira web site at www.Aira.io Follow Aira on Twitter @Airaio And stop by the Aira booths at the NFB or ACB conventions. be sure to download the Aira App , IOSor Android, onto your iPhone and take advantage of the Aira Guest program starting when you land in Orlando, catch your Lyft ride and throughout the convention center. Through the partnership between Aira and Lyft, your minutes are Free so downloading the Lyft App, IOS or Android, would make great sense as well.   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store.  

Blind Abilities moves north of the US border and chats with Geoff Eden. Geoff has been a long time advocate in the Canadian blindness community, with his work for CNIB as a Manager, his procurement of early assistive technology and other adaptive equipment for CNIB clients. Geoff worked for the City of Toronto as an Accessibility Consultant, working with city planners and carving his notch in the city’s accessibility strategy. Listen as Geoff shares his story of working with the architects as they designed and built the original Air Canada Center, home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors, and his specific efforts to mold accessibility into the initial design plans. Geoff sits on multiple provincial and local planning committees, and has devoted many years of his life to Canada’s Radio reading Service and the creation of the nation’s Accessible Media Network, AMI.   Pete and Jeff first met Geoff on the Out-Of-Sight.Net online community, a wonderful platform for engaging with other BVI folks in a variety of activities. check them out at:   www.Out-Of-Sight.Net   Geoff is also a talented musician, and you’ll hear excerpts from his guitar and vocal work with several audio clips from ‘back in the day’!   Join Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane as they chat with this multi-talented and articulate advocate for the Canadian disability community, as they present Geoff Eden in the way that only the Blind Abilities Team can offer!   You can reach out to Geoff via email:   Eden.Geoff@Gmail.com   find Geoff on Skype: Geoff.Eden   You can find out more about AMI,  the Accessible Media Network at:   http://www.ami.ca/   Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store.  

In this weeks podcast, Corey & Joe welcome back Tank, as they break down the Pete & Lane centric episode, "Signal 30". Besides breaking down "The Fight" and "Dinner With The Campbell's" the boys discuss their favorite characters this season, learn where Cos Cob is located, and introduce a listener giveaway. And lets not forget the chewing gum on the pubis.