Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sucheta Narang, Founder, Accessible World, Creator, Access Trader https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-02-27-2026/ In this insightful episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams welcomes Sucheta Narang, founder of Accessible World and creator of Access Trader, an accessible, screen-reader-compatible trading assistant, into a wide-ranging conversation about independence, inclusion, and financial empowerment. Born blind in a traditional North Indian family, Sucheta describes learning early that "waiting for a fix" wasn't an option, then charts a path through mainstream education, international disability work in India and the UK, and corporate roles where she embedded accessibility at scale, including work with Wipro, Google (Chrome team), and Adobe. Sucheta explains that losing her job became the unexpected catalyst for building Access Trader: when she tried to diversify her investments, advisors turned her away, and the trading world's dashboards and charts proved overwhelmingly visual, forcing her to confront how much "financial independence" still relies on sighted assistance. She shares how she used AI to translate visual market data into structured descriptions her screen reader could interpret, turning a personal workaround into a platform designed "by and for" blind users, with benefits even for sighted beginners who feel overwhelmed by dense trading interfaces. Dr. Adams, drawing on his own background as a former securities broker, highlights the privacy and dignity at stake, and Sucheta closes with an invitation to sign up for early access and see Access Trader's next steps, including a planned CSUN presentation. TRANSCRIPT: Advertisement: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. Advertisement: I can't see it. Advertisement: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of podcasts with Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have a really interesting and amazing guest. Sucheta Narang is here. She's the founder of Accessible World and creator of Access Trader, which is the first accessible screen reader compatible trader trading assistant. So we're talking about securities and trading securities here. So say say hello. Sucheta. Sucheta Narang: Hi. Sucheta Narang: Everyone. And thank you Doctor Adams, for inviting me here. It's a pleasure to meet you. Before I actually could you. How do I address you? Is it like Doctor Adams or Doctor Kirk? Dr. Kirk Adams: Kirk. That's fine. Sucheta Narang: Okay. Thanks. Kirk. Yeah. Nice to meet you. Dr. Kirk Adams: The doctor title comes in handy in certain circumstances, but Sucheta Narang: Sure. I didn't want to offend you. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a blind person. Have been since age five. My retinas detached, went to a school for blind kids. First, second and third grade. Then on through elementary. Middle school. High school. Undergrad. Master's, PhD. I was the only blind student in all of my in all of my schools. After I left the school for the blind. Sucheta Narang: Wow. Dr. Kirk Adams: But yeah, but for the first ten years out of college, I was actually a licensed securities broker. I worked for a small local brokerage firm here in Seattle that mostly underwrote tax free municipal bonds. So I was involved in underwriting new issues of tax free municipal bonds. But I also had a series seven securities license, and I did sell other securities, but I was certainly not a trader. I was a buy and holder, but I have I have been a little bit in that world. And so when I met you, I was just so, so interested in what you're doing and what your journey has been. So would really I'd love to hear from you. Your Sucheta Narang: Sure. Dr. Kirk Adams: Experience with with visual impairment yourself and what motivated you and what your background is. And we want to learn everything about you in the next half hour. Sucheta Narang: Thank you. Thank you for you know, your kind words. So, like, probably like Kirk did describe my name is Sucheta. I am a blind. I'm blind from birth. And I was born in a North Indian traditional North Indian family. I have bilateral cataracts and microphthalmia, which meant the surgery isn't you know, straightforward or guaranteed. So very early on, I understood that waiting for a fix isn't an option. So I built my life around independence. Just like you did. You all probably do. And so today I am here because I started Accessible World last year, and I built an accessible, screen reader compatible trading assistant for blind and low vision users. And it's equally powerful for anyone who is new to investing. Dr. Kirk Adams: So what's your background? How you don't just build something like that? No. Sucheta Narang: No. Dr. Kirk Adams: What is your background that led you to the point where you had the capabilities to develop something like this? Sucheta Narang: So early on, like, you know I did studied in the mainstream schools. But obviously there was no parallel systems waiting for me, so I had to go through textbooks, exams expectations, social dynamics, and especially being in India, you know, you have to fight the stereotypes as well. And then you know, what I, what I was what I was finding was like, I was often the only blind person in a room, and that forces you to be more resourceful. So after completing my education, I did my studies in economics and political science and then moved into international development sector, where I worked with you know, disability organizations, employment public health. Dr. Kirk Adams: This was while you were living in India? Sucheta Narang: Yeah. Sucheta Narang: So I started with international organizations like Handicap International, which is now called as Humanity and Inclusion. And then moved to the UK as well. Where I worked with Leonard Cheshire Disability, which is the largest disability organization in UK. My work has largely been on disability, employment, public health policies, education and inclusion overall. One thing that I realized that was so common is like the people, cultures and countries across have the same pattern, which means, you know, there is universal talent, but the infrastructure is not there. So community communities weren't it wasn't like communities are not prepared. Communities were there, but the infrastructure the systems didn't support. So, you know for us to live like a blind and especially like, you know, with a low vision you're basically in between. So after doing work for good ten years the realization was like, I don't want to advocate for the disability inclusion from outside. I wanted to redesign the infrastructure. So that led me to the corporate where, you know, the where scale lives, basically. So I worked with Wipro embedded in inclusion in all their hire to retire policies. Dr. Kirk Adams: And what was that? What was the name of that company? Sucheta Narang: Wipro technologies. Okay. That's a global IT services company headquartered in India. But they also have their offices all over the place. So I worked for them in, in the US as well. So I designed their hire to retire processes inclusive. And Wipro did received zero project award back in 2017 when I was working with them for innovative employment policies. And then you know, then I worked at Google with Chrome team, where I did realize that one design can affect millions of people. And similarly, you know, when I moved to Adobe, I integrated accessibility into procurement And product life cycles. So in all of these roles, what throughout my journey, one thing that stood out was accessibility if done systems, if it's accessibility is embedded in the system, it there's possibility of independence. But if it isn't, if you retrofit it, then it does not it then it's it's barriers. So yeah, I mean, throughout my life, I've been fixing broken systems, including inclusion in everything I did from disability, employment, public health education policies to product and accessible procurement life cycles. So you were also mentioning about, you know, you were in securities earlier on like so tell me what what you did because I, I really since I built Access Trader, I was very I would say I thought that there would be people who might be interested in trading, but but the way I saw that was like, oh, the systems itself are not accessible. So how some of us were able to, you know get through to it. How people do the investing is something that is really interesting for me. Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, it was a long time ago, so it was very analog. So it was sales was it was talking on

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mike Calvo, CEO, Pneuma Solutions https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-02-19-2026/ In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with accessibility entrepreneur Mike Calvo, co-founder of Pneuma Solutions, for a wide-ranging conversation that blends personal journey with big-picture systems change. Calvo shares how he navigated vision loss, a nontraditional education and work path, and early tech experimentation to become a longtime "for us, by us" builder in the blindness tech ecosystem, connecting the dots from early assistive tech days to his groundbreaking work at Serotek (including pioneering web-based access tools) and ultimately to launching Pneuma. The heart of the episode centers on the urgent, practical stakes of ADA Title II digital accessibility: what the rule means for public entities, why inaccessible PDFs and online records still block equal access, and how the coming compliance deadlines are forcing agencies to confront massive backlogs. Calvo explains why traditional document remediation is slow and expensive, then describes how Pneuma's tools, including Scribe for Documents and AI-assisted "augmented" workflows, aim to remediate content at scale, fast enough to meet real-world demand. Along the way, Adams and Calvo trade grounded optimism (and healthy skepticism) about AI's accelerating impact for blind users, and they close with a call for advocacy and practical action, pushing listeners to use the law, ask hard questions, and insist that access be treated as a right, not a favor. TRANSCRIPT: Advertisement: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. Advertisement: I can't see it. Advertisement: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of podcast by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington, and talking to an incredible guest who I am really enjoying getting to know who is about as far away in the United States as he could get. Mike Calvo. Hi, Mike. Mike Calvo: Hello there from sunny Miami. Don't get mad. Dr. Kirk Adams: There you go. There you go. And Mike is co-founder of Pneuma Solutions, which is a company that's really leading the way, producing accessible digital content. We'll we'll get into that in a in a moment. For those of you who don't know me again, I'm Kirk Adams. I am a blind person, have been since age five, and my retina is detached and became blind very suddenly. Went to a school for blind children for first, second and third grade and got my blindness skills down solid like a rock and sink or swim into public school. Then all the way on through was the only blind student in all the schools I attended. After the Oregon State School for the blind, I got a degree in economics, spent ten years in banking and finance. I moved into the nonprofit sector went back to school, got a master's in not for profit leadership. And after lots of twists and turns was fortunate to become the president and CEO of The Lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle, where I worked alongside 250 other blind and deaf blind people in a variety of businesses, including aerospace, manufacturing, making parts for all the Boeing aircraft, and then was recruited to join the board of the American Foundation for the blind, Helen Keller's organization. And again, had had the terrific honor of being the president and CEO of AFB. And you know, when we moved to New York City in May of 2016, if I, if I was having a rough day and needed a shot of inspiration, I could walk down the hall and sit at Helen Keller's desk and play with her typewriter, which was an awesome feeling. Dr. Kirk Adams: Very cool. And yeah, for the past three and a half years, I have been the manager managing director of my consulting practice, Innovative Impact LLC, where I say I just look for fun, innovative, high impact projects that will make the world a more inclusive place for people who are blind and people with significant disabilities. And I'm really interested in employment and creating career pathways into meaningful work. I do have a PhD in leadership and change, and my dissertation was called Journeys Through Rough Country. My dissertation, an ethnographic study of blind adults employed in large American corporations. So I interviewed a bunch of blind people working at a lot of companies whose names we all know, and learning about what led to their successes and the challenges they faced. The the, the consistent theme of disappointment and how challenging things were in order to thrive in those workplaces. And, you know, one of the nine success factors that people talked about was accessibility and that they couldn't do their jobs if the materials productivity tools, information systems that they were needing to, to use for their jobs were not accessible, they could not be successful. And I know, Mike, you have devoted your life and have a burning passion for making the world a more accessible place. You've been at it for a long time, and I applaud you for everything you've done and are doing and will do. But you know, we'd love to hear your story, your your journey. What what led you to the place you are now? And I'm going to hand you the microphone. Mike Calvo: Doctor Adams, I have never heard that story. About your upbringing. It is extremely interesting to me at how similar our paths are. I also have detached retinas. Mine detached. Well, mine were detached. I was born with them detached, and then they kept getting more and more detached. And I kept losing my sight. Lost it by the time I was 18. Different than you, though. I went to Michigan school for the blind. I'm. I'm a son of Cuban immigrants, and I was raised in Miami, Florida. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and of which it's funny because I don't sound Cuban. I don't sound like I'm from Georgia, but, hey but my folks took me up to Michigan School for the blind, where I got my training there. And I was mainstreamed in the third grade. Okay. And it was so different than your than your than your journey. It really was mine was Miami Street's craziness. Parents, you know, immigrant parents trying to trying to make a living, trying to, you know, deal with the system. That was I mean, what? 504 was in 1973, I think it was. And I was born in 67. So you can imagine my my parents, my Cuban parents you know, blue collar folks third, you know, fourth grade education kind of between them and raised in the revolution, you know, in the Cuban Revolution and got here and had a blind kid and didn't really understand how to advocate and it was just a very interesting upbringing, but I found it intriguing at how we started, very similar in that, you know, our visual impairment, our education. Yeah. And, and went through so many different weird paths. That is that is super cool. And it just goes to show I, I trained blind people for, for a couple of years. And back in 1989, I found myself working at a bank and, and you know, and got trained on how to use their systems because I'd been doing music for years and years. And Dr. Kirk Adams: Don't skip over that. Mike Calvo: No. Well, I was raised, I was raised in Miami, and at 11, I started doing radio public access radio. My voice hadn't changed yet, and the public access radio station thought it would be cool to have this blind kid on there, and I did that. I I started working at a skating center when I was 13 and and deejaying there, and all of a sudden realized that they liked watching the little blind kid deejay. So I started getting invited to adult clubs because of the performers act and started in music there and just kind of got very, very involved in the Miami nightlife in the 80s. Craziness. That Miami had to offer of pharmaceuticals, entertainment. Dr. Kirk Adams: Miami Vice. Mike Calvo: Oh. You know, I tell people Miami Vice was a team version of Miami. Okay, back in the day, it really was. And we I mean, Miami, I, I just recently moved back to Miami in in 2001, I moved away from Miami to raise my kids. Didn't want them to be raised in this environment here. And then my wife my wife and I just moved here because it was better for her business back to Miami. And, you know, it's interesting. Miami is a lot more involved in the United States than it used to be. When I grew up, we didn't here. Washington was way over there, you know? And we just we're here, dude, you know, type of thing. And it wasn't so it wasn't easy. Now you're hearing me in Miami. So it was. It was, you know, that was that was just kind of how I was raised. I dealt with just trying to make it. Trying to get out there. Didn't understand bureaucracy

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mark Miller, Founder, CEO, Inclusion Impact Accessiblity https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-02-12-2026/ In this mission-driven episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Mark Miller, Founder and CEO of Inclusion Impact Accessibility, for a wide-ranging conversation on what it takes to move accessibility from a one-time "fix" to a durable organizational capability. Mark shares his 13-year path into digital accessibility, from a technology career to learning the craft under early industry pioneers, before helping build the field through work on accessibility maturity models and large-scale consulting, then returning to a "boutique" approach with his own firm so he can meet clients where they are and build pragmatic, customized roadmaps. Together, they unpack two core ideas leaders can act on immediately: accessibility maturity models (the step-by-step way organizations embed accessibility into policy, process, and the software development lifecycle so accessibility doesn't "fade" as websites and apps change) and "shift left" (building accessibility into requirements, design, and development, where it's cheaper and less risky, rather than scrambling after problems hit production). They also explore where AI could genuinely help (e.g., making content discovery easier for blind users and improving developer workflows) and where it can mislead, especially if organizations overtrust automation and skip the essential human testing that catches real-world barriers. TRANSCRIPT: Adverisement: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. Advertisement: I can't see it. Adverisement: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: And welcome everybody to another episode of podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in sunny Seattle, Washington. Today my guest is Mark Miller, founder and CEO of Inclusion Impact accessibility. Hello, Mark. Mark Miller: Hello, Kirk. Dr. Kirk Adams: Nice to have you here. Mark and I met in person at the CSUN conference last March and had several really productive conversations, and I'm starting to get to know one another. And we have have a lot of similar philosophies and passions around inclusion and impact and accessibility. So for those of you who don't know me, I am the immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the blind. Prior to that, I was honored to have those same roles at the Lighthouse for the blind, Inc. here in Seattle. I am a blind person. My retina is detached. When I was in kindergarten. Became totally blind overnight. To a school for blind kids. First, second and third grade and got my blindness skills down. Rock solid braille cane travel. Today it'd be keyboarding, but then it was typing. So I learned how to type on a typewriter so I could go into public school and did that sink or swim into public school? Starting in fourth grade, I had a ten year career in banking and finance and then into the nonprofit sector. I do have a PhD in leadership and change from Antioch University. And my my professional academic careers have been devoted to creating opportunities for people who are blind and have other significant disabilities to thrive. And I was pleased to meet Mark and intersect with Mark, and had asked him to come on the podcast and talk about his his journey, how he how he got involved in accessibility and disability inclusion, his journey, up to this point and the founding of his company, Inclusion Impact Accessibility, where he's at now and his vision for the future. So, Mark, I'll hand the talking stick to you. I as as host of the podcast, I will reserve the right to pop in with questions as they. Mark Miller: Oh, please do. Dr. Kirk Adams: Occur to me. So let's have a let's have a conversation. And glad to have you here. Mark Miller: Yeah. Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here. I really appreciate you inviting me onto the podcast, and I appreciate your, your listeners who are joining us today and thank them for for hanging out with us to have this conversation. I you know, I've been in accessibility for about 13 years now. And prior to that, I was working in technology. And I had a friend who got a job in this niche space called accessibility. And when I learned what that was about, I thought, you know, that's what I need to do because I really I love technology, but putting another Cisco switch or firewall into an organization isn't really that satisfying. And then further, I had had a friend who was deaf. I learned American Sign Language through her, just socially put some effort into it. But I mainly learned it socially through through her and through her friends. And I myself have Add and dyslexia. So I understood a lot of the challenges that people face just based on the challenges that I had growing up in the 80s and going through the academic system in the, in the 80s. And that's something we can get into. But in a in a small way, it it helped me relate. Late, so I spent about three years after learning about this, this great space of digital accessibility through a friend of mine who who started working in the space. I spent about three years trying to get into it. And finally one day he called me up and he said, hey, I interviewed with this company and I've decided not to take the position because things changed where I am, and I want to stay there. Mark Miller: But I think you'd be perfect for it. And he had a similar conversation with the owner of that company. And ultimately brought the two of us together. That company was interactive accessibility. And that person was Kathy Walden, who? If there's anybody that's been around accessibility for a while, I'm sure that they'll remember that name. But she was just one of the innovators and one of the leaders in accessibility. And I always say there was only a handful. If you go back ten, 20 years, Kirk, you probably remember there was only a handful of people, right? Like it was a new industry. It came out of academia. Somewhere around the late 90s. And people were doing it just because they thought it should be done. And this notion of a business really didn't start to percolate until early 2000. You know. Yeah. So when I walked into it with Kathy, it was about, you know, it was a little way. It was a little, little ways into what you know, where businesses had been truly established at that time. And I, you know, I knew what I was getting into, but I had no idea what I was getting into. But I knew within my first few days of working at Interactive Accessibility that this was the place that I was going to be, and it was going to be my final place in my career. Dr. Kirk Adams: That's a nice feeling, is it not? Mark Miller: It was. It's it's an incredible feeling and as stressful as the workday can be. As much as you can forget, because we're always in the middle of our workday, right? Trying to trying to do work stuff. So sometimes the mission, it gets kind of, you know, fades off into the background a little bit. Yeah. But it's just really nice to go to bed at night knowing that you're doing something that's not just not just helpful to your family and finances and all that, but that it's helpful to a much broader audience, you know? Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Mark Miller: So I learned a lot from Kathy. She was she was an incredible accessibility professional and really, really knew a lot. And we worked together. At one point, there were three of us in interactive accessibility. Five years later, I don't know the exact numbers, but say it was around 15 people and we sold the company to Vespero and emerged with the Paciello group. So if we're talking about legends. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Mark Miller: Mike Paciello is another one. Right. And we had been friendly. What I would call a friendly competitor helping each other back and forth with with that with the Paciello group anyways. And so we merged under them and it was sort of the second phase of my learning, you know I really had gotten an incredible foundation from Kathy, and then just being exposed to this wider group of accessibility professionals, I just continued to learn I had been involved in creating accessibility maturity models. We created one at Interactive Accessibility called Pax, the Proactive Accessibility Conformance Model. It kind of blended with what with what the Paciello Group was doing when we merged with them. So that name faded off. But I continued to work there on that and enjoyed another if I can do my math, eight years five, eight, five, six, five, eight plus five is 13. At the at what became TPG. Right. So TPG, the Paciello group and I was the I in interact

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sheryl Green, Author, Speaker, Boundary Expert https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-02-05-2026/ In this thought-provoking episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with author, speaker, and boundary expert Sheryl Green for a wide-ranging and deeply human conversation about why boundaries matter, and why so many of us struggle to set them. Green shares her personal journey from forensic psychology and years of animal rescue work to a moment of burnout that became a turning point in her life. That experience led her to study, teach, and ultimately write about boundaries as a practical, compassionate tool for protecting our time, energy, relationships, and sense of self. Together, they unpack concepts like "yes-vomiting," people-pleasing, and the hidden costs of failing to say no, especially when it comes to emotional and time boundaries. The conversation takes on added depth as Dr. Adams connects Green's boundary framework to the lived experience of disability. Drawing from his own life as a blind leader, he explores how people with disabilities routinely face boundary violations, ranging from intrusive questions to unwanted physical "help", and how understanding boundaries can be empowering rather than isolating. Green reflects on the difference between impairment and disability, acknowledges the role of "aggressive helpfulness," and emphasizes that setting boundaries is not about shutting people out, but about creating healthier, more respectful interactions. The episode closes with a shared call to action: building a more inclusive, empathetic world, one boundary at a time. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. Podcast Commentator: I can't see it. Podcast Commentator: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. And I am that Doctor Kirk Adams speaking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have a guest on. I'm really excited to to engage in some deep conversation. Author, speaker and boundary expert Sheryl Greene is with us today. Hi, Sheryl. Sheryl Green: Hi. Thank you so much for having me on here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, absolutely. And my first experience with Sheryl was being interviewed by her for a book she's writing. She's written a series of books, and I've signed up for her newsletter. And just very interesting food for thought. And her area of interest and focus is, is boundaries. And she is not necessarily as immersed in disability world and lived or learned experience around disability as most of my guests have been. So I'm, I'm super interested in talking with you about boundaries. What led you to focus, what your interest is, how how you think about boundaries, how you assist people in living better lives by knowing how to set boundaries. And then I'd really like to talk to you a little bit about some of my thoughts around disability and boundaries and get your take on that. So I love it. Before we get into that, for anyone who doesn't know me, I am a Kirk Adams. I'm a blind person, am I? That's that's that's my primary identity. I am also a a father, a scholar, a grandfather, now, a husband for 40 years. My retina is detached. When I was five years old became totally blind overnight. Went to a school for blind kids for second, third grade. Learned my braille, my cane, travel my typing in the public school, on on up through college. Dr. Kirk Adams: Corporate America, Banking and Finance for ten years, then into the nonprofit sector led the American Foundation for the blind, most recently Helen Keller's organization prior to that same leadership roles at the Lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle. And now I have a consulting practice called Innovative Impact, LLC. I do whatever I want that I think will be fun and innovative and high impact and will make a difference and make the world a more inclusive place for people with disabilities. I primarily focus on employment, creating career pathways for people with disabilities. I also advise a handful of disability tech startups. I work with some nonprofits to help them scale past the founder stage and increase their impact. And I have a podcast and do some writing and living the life here in here in Seattle. So, Sheryl Want to hand the microphone to you. And I'm always curious how people come to their avocation or their passion or their purpose. And your purpose is to help people understand boundaries and understand what boundaries the dynamics of boundaries in people's lives and how people can live better lives by understanding setting. And, you know, I've been reading your newsletter with great interest. So would love, love, love to hear your story for sure. Sheryl Green: So yeah, I like to say my mission is to make the world a better place. One boundary at a time. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Sheryl Green: So my story is a little circuitous, if you will. I actually went to a graduate school for forensic psychology. I was goth back in the day, and I wanted to hunt down serial killers for a living. Thankfully, that didn't pan out. But it kind of led to an interesting decade and a half, almost two of really searching for my purpose and my reason for my reason for being here. Sheryl Green: I think the the closest that I came before this was animal rescue. I'm a huge, huge animal advocate. And when I was going through my divorce, animals are pretty much what saved me. Between my own dog and volunteering and getting involved, it just completely set my life on a different path. And I did animal rescue for 12 years. I worked in multiple capacities. I was a volunteer. I was a board member. I worked part time at one point, and then during Covid I went full time. I had been running my own content writing business for a little while, and when when Covid hit and the world shut down like many businesses, mine evaporated overnight. People were not so worried about getting blogs out there when they didn't know if they were going to live to see the next week. So I, you know, pivoted and I went full time at the rescue and threw myself into you know, into taking care of the animals. But I was I was on the, the marketing and the communications side of it. So I called myself the director of communication and cuddling which is a very important job. Thank you very much. So so I did that for you know, probably about a year that I was full time. And if you've ever worked in nonprofit, I know you have. You know, full time is not eight hours a day. It's you know, ten, 12, sometimes 14 hours a day. And it's, you know, no one really goes into nonprofit to get rich. So each, each month, I saw my savings account going down, and I wasn't necessarily making enough money to to keep a roof over my head and. And kibble in the dog's bowl. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Sheryl Green: So when my clients started coming back, I. I wanted to take them, of course, but more importantly, I had to. And And it was, you know, it was okay for a little while, I would work my ten, 12 hour days, and then I would come home and and work on client projects in the evening. And then, of course, we have, you know, life is life is still lifing. So my parents were getting older and they were needing more and more of my help. My stepmom had been sick for about 20 years at that point. And I'm still volunteering for everything because I never met a board I said no to. Okay. Dr. Kirk Adams: And we share that weakness. Sheryl Green: Yeah. Sheryl Green: I have a good book for you to read. Sheryl Green: So, you know, it got to the. Sheryl Green: Point where I was overwhelmed. I was having having trouble sleeping, but having trouble staying awake. I was really short with people. My normally pretty positive and pleasant demeanor turned into me snapping at people. And I'm not proud of the amount of times that I said I just can't effing do this anymore. So things were getting rough, and what really, really hit me the most was this feeling of resentment that was building up. I felt like every request was this unreasonable demands on my time, and I was starting to resent the people that I loved, and even to some degree, the animals. And it it all kind of hit hit rock bottom, I guess. It's probably about October of that year, and I was running an errand. Dr. Kirk Adams: Is this the first year of the pandemic or. Sheryl Green: This is 2022, I think. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Sheryl Green: Yeah. Somewhere. Somewhere around there. Dr. Kirk Adams: Gotcha. Sheryl Green: And I had or 2021. Dr. Kirk Adams: Excuse me. Okay. Sheryl Green: And I was, you know, I'm out running an errand for the rescue. It's it'

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Samuel Levine, Professor of Law & Director, Jewish Law Institute, Touro Law Center https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-02-03-2026/ In this thought-provoking episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk sits down with Professor Samuel J. Levine, law professor at Touro Law Center, Director of the Jewish Law Institute, and founder of Touro's Disability Rights and Inclusion Project, to explore why advancing disability inclusion requires more than "laws on the books." Levine shares how his work blends legal analysis with broader cultural and human elements, compassion, storytelling, religion, the arts, and lived experience, because, as he and Kirk discuss, you can't "legislate compassion." Levine also describes the personal and scholarly path that led him to write Was Yosef on the Spectrum, viewing the biblical Joseph story through the lens of autism, and explains how community connections and shared purpose have helped the conference grow organically through relationships and advocacy. The conversation then turns to Levine's third annual Disability Rights and Inclusion Conference, happening March 12-13 at Touro Law Center in Central Islip (Long Island), with both in-person and free online options. Levine previews major highlights, including keynote speakers John Elder Robison (Look Me in the Eye) and Justice Richard Bernstein of the Michigan Supreme Court, and he emphasizes the conference's welcoming, solutions-focused tone. Kirk and Levine also dig into practical advocacy, especially in education, underscoring that families should know their rights (like IEP/FAPE protections) and seek experienced support when schools or employers try to "avoid" their legal obligations. Levine closes by inviting listeners to register through the Touro conference page (search "Touro Disability Rights and Inclusion") and to connect with him via email or LinkedIn, while Kirk shares his plan to participate virtually. TRANSCRIPT: ADVERTISEMENT: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. ADVERTISEMENT: I can't see it. ADVERTISEMENT: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Hello again, everybody, and welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have a guest that I connected with via LinkedIn as Professor Samuel Levine, a professor of law and a director of the Jewish Law Institute at the Touro Law Center, and he is founder of the Disability Rights and Inclusion Conference, the third annual conference coming up March 12th and 13th. We're going to be talking a lot about that. Welcome, Samuel. Samuel J. Levine: Thank you so much, Kirk. It's great to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: For those of you tuning in for the first time, just very briefly Doctor Kirk Adams, as I said immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the blind AFB, which was Helen Keller's organization prior to that, privileged to have the same leadership roles at the lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle. I am a blind person. My retina is detached. When I was five years old in kindergarten, went to Oregon State School for the blind and got my my braille skills and my strong internal locus of control, and then on to public school and fourth grade on through into some banking and finance experience and then into the nonprofit sector. Currently my consulting practice, Innovative Impact LLC, focuses on fun, innovative, high impact projects that will accelerate inclusion of people with disabilities with a particular focus on employment. So I'm happy to welcome Professor Levine today. Disability rights and inclusion, near and dear to my heart. And from the aspects of of the law, the legal aspects of super interesting and something I don't know enough about. So we'd love to hear from you, Professor Levine, about the genesis of the A conference and your your background and what what motivates you and energizes you around disability rights and inclusion. Then, of course, we'd love to hear what's coming up on March 12th and 13th. Samuel J. Levine: Okay. Thanks so much. Thank you for that question. Thank you for the opportunity for me to share this information. And as importantly, Kirk, thank you. It's an honor for me to be able to contribute to your work, your important work, and your leadership in this area. So my day job, as I sometimes call it, is I'm a law professor, as you mentioned, at Touro Law Center. T o r o that's the law school of Touro University. The New York the law center is actually located in or on Long Island. And I teach criminal law, I teach ethics, I teach Jewish law as part of my work as director of the Jewish Law Institute, which compares Jewish law and American law now a number of years ago, based on and drawing from my own personal interests, my own personal connections, experiences in the areas of disability, personal and professional work I've done in the area. I wrote a book called Was Yosef on the Spectrum Viewing the biblical story of Joseph in Genesis, son of Jacob through the lens of autism. And with that, I also launched the Disability Rights and Inclusion Project at Touro at the law school. And the project is dedicated to promoting disability rights awareness, acceptance and inclusion. Over the first few years of the program, we had webinars we had in-person events, we had workshops, we produced some scholarly publications. And just a couple of years ago, we decided to host our first conference on this topic. Samuel J. Levine: The first conference, which we referred to as Disability rights and inclusion. Colon, a multidisciplinary conference. And the reason it's so important to me to emphasize that multidisciplinary nature of our work. Goes to your point about the law. Because the law. I'm a law professor. I was a prosecutor. I know the importance of the law. I know the potential of the law. But as lawyers, we are particularly sensitive to the limits of the law. And it's my philosophy that if we're truly going to promote disability rights and inclusion, that topic near and dear to your heart and your leadership, your groundbreaking work in this area as you know, we have to go beyond the law because there's only so much our legal system can accomplish. You can have laws on the books, you can have the Ada you can have when it comes to education idea, All kinds of statutes, all kinds of rules. But the reality is that in order to implement the law beyond what's on the books, you have to advocate. You have to bring the lawsuits, you have to pass legislation, but you also have to affect those changes in society. And so the multidisciplinary nature of our project and of our conferences incorporates a variety of disciplines, a variety of perspectives, speakers who tell their own stories, which are so important to get out there to help our audience understand what we're talking about in terms of disability rights and inclusion. Last year. Dr. Kirk Adams: I've done a lot of public policy work in my day, and the a phrase just rang into my mind that I heard somewhere, somewhere in the hall, those marble halls of the congressional buildings is you can't legislate compassion. So I'm just curious and you can get to it whenever, whenever it fits, but that you, you talked about your role in examining aspects of American law and Jewish law, and I'm just wondering about things like compassion and care. And when you talk about the multidisciplinary aspect of the conference and the different perspectives and voices, in addition to thoughts and scholars looking at things from a legal standpoint, what are some of the other viewpoints and voices that you bring into the conference? Samuel J. Levine: Great question and great point. Great quotation, by the way. I don't know if that was something you coined or you heard around. Dr. Kirk Adams: Oh, I heard it somewhere. I borrowed it. Samuel J. Levine: So. So I'd like to borrow it from you or from me either. I think it's I think it is so important. And that's something that to me speaks to the importance of bringing in, whether it's humanities, whether it's religion. We have speakers talking about society, cultural concepts and those do all go to this broader societal attitude and the compassion that the law, you know, it requires that people do things. But unfortunately, I think this is just, I guess, human nature. Sometimes the law imposes duties, for example, not to discriminate, which should be an obvious reality to us. But the way people are, it's not so obvious. And if people follow the law, sometimes they resent it. They'll do it if need be or if they're forced to do so. And it sounds very much along the lines of that quote th

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with John B. Grimes, Survivor Inspiring Resilience, Author, Destiny is Debatable https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-01-29-2026/ In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams talks with John B. Grimes about the life-altering night in 1998 when, as a 19-year-old Texas Tech student, Grimes contracted meningococcal disease and woke up in the hospital days later blind, disoriented, and relearning basic functions, walking, talking, swallowing, while also navigating lasting neurological impacts. Grimes explains why he once called himself "ambiguously blind," describes the role the Texas Commission for the Blind played in reopening his world (from accessible coursework to practical support), and reflects on the fear and grief he initially resisted, until later counseling helped him begin processing the change. The conversation also centers on Grimes' forthcoming memoir, Destiny Is Debatable, releasing February 7, 2026, chosen to mark the anniversary of the day he entered the hospital, and the core message behind the title: that life's trajectory isn't fixed, and waiting rarely makes hard things easier. He shares how he built a career in the family insurance business (and how remote work became a major accessibility advantage), sprinkles in a few "college-kid" stories, and looks ahead to deeper work in meningitis advocacy, including the foundation he helped launch, Shots for Meningitis. Dr. Adams closes by encouraging listeners to connect, follow Grimes online, and pick up the book. TRANSCRIPT: Advertisement: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. Advertisement: I can't see it. Advertisement: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have the pleasure of talking with a person I've gotten to know fairly well from a distance and very very inspired by by what he's doing with, with his life. And I'd like to welcome John B Grimes. He is the author of the forthcoming memoir Destiny Is debatable. Coming out soon and available. Available to all of you very soon. And, John, welcome. John B. Grimes: Howdy. Kirk. Great to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Is that the Texas? The howdy. John B. Grimes: That's it. You got it. Yeah. Dr. Kirk Adams: Good, good. Well John B. Grimes: Well, my wife's an Aggie, so that kind of. Oh, yeah, I guess it. That's what they say. Whether right or wrong, I just kind of adopted it as my own. I'm not an Aggie myself, so. Well, you can hold all the jokes back, but. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, well, we talked about that because my wife grew up in a tiny town named Caldwell, Texas, that if you're driving from Austin to College Station drive through it. And we were there for Thanksgiving and we stayed at we stayed in College Station. So we got a lot a lot of Aggie vibe there around Thanksgiving time. John B. Grimes: Oh boy. There's a lot of Aggie vibe down there. Yeah. It's strong, it's strong. Dr. Kirk Adams: It is. So for those of you who don't know me, just very briefly again, I'm Kirk Adams. I'm the immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the blind AFB, which was Helen Keller's organization. And I did get to go sit at her desk whenever I needed inspiration. When we moved to New York and worked in those offices. And prior to that, I was the president and CEO of the Lighthouse for the blind, Inc. here in Seattle, which employs many hundreds of blind and deaf blind people in businesses, including aerospace manufacturing for all the Boeing Boeing aircraft. So very interesting organization for the last three and a half years, I have been operating under Innovative Impact LLC as Managing Director. It's a consulting practice that focuses on disability inclusion, primarily in employment and helping nonprofits serving people who are blind to scale. And in advising start up companies in the disability inclusion space. So I get to do whatever I want to do, whatever I think will will be interesting and impactful and help people. And through the course of the last three and a half years, I was connected with John. He mentioned that he was thinking about writing a book. And then he told me he had begun writing the book. Dr. Kirk Adams: And he said he's planning to launch the book. So destiny is debatable. It's the title. And John would just love to hear about your journey as a as a person person with a visual impairment. And what? What? What year? Everyone. All of our all of our pathways are different. You know, my my retina is detached. When I was five years old in kindergarten, and I became totally blind overnight. And, you know, there was no question I needed to learn Braille and learn to use a cane and type on a typewriter so I could go into public school when I was ready, which I did it and did it in fourth grade. And you know, some of us are totally blind. Some of us have different visual conditions. Some many of us have changing visual conditions. So I'd love to hear about that journey. And what led you, what inspired you to put in the time and effort to write the book? And then, of course, we'd love to hear about the book and then any thoughts you have on, on on a future state for John B Grimes. Where are you headed? So microphone is yours. John B. Grimes: Wow. Those are all great questions. So we did. Our paths crossed several years ago. And you were on my podcast, actually, which which at the time was called Ambiguously Blind, which I thought of as you were. You were talking there because you say all of our paths are different, and sight can be so different for so many people. And that's why I call myself ambiguously blind, because it's really unclear. And just even the name is kind of confusing, which is intentional because sight can be confusing, particularly sight loss. You know, in my experience, I'm sure you well, you have more experience than I do. But in my my experience personally, I just thought, you know, if you're blind, you're Stevie Wonder. If you're not, then you get glasses. And there really wasn't anything in between. But I found myself in between. Kirk. So the my my path to sight loss was overnight as well. Basically. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. John B. Grimes: In 1998, I was a 19 year old sophomore student. I went to Texas Tech University. Actually, just a little north and west of Texas A&M. And I was, like most 19 year olds, felt like I was ten feet tall and bulletproof. You know, nothing could stop me. I was living my best life, and I felt like I was getting the flu or something. And so I took some medicine and went to bed. Eight days later, I woke up in the hospital. Dr. Kirk Adams: Oh. John B. Grimes: Blind disoriented and more than lucky to be alive. Miraculously my fraternity brother found me unconscious on the floor in my bedroom. Now, I'm definitely not the only guy that's got a story about being found unconscious by their fraternity brother during college. Right. But in my case, it was due to a nasty bout with what is known as meningococcal disease. Which is more commonly known as meningitis or bacterial meningitis. Yeah. And so it's been it's now been 28 years since. And in addition to sight loss. So I have I've lost all the sight in my right eye, so totally blind. And I have about 2300 in my left eye. Okay. Which it's not straight on. It's not, it's not a, there's not a it's not it's not stargardt's where it's out and in or in or out. Mine is again, hard to explain at all. So it's not straight on. It's not. It's hard to explain. It's not good. Dr. Kirk Adams: And I don't want to get into medical detail too much, but I, I don't know that I've talked to anyone other than yourself who has become visually impaired because of meningitis. And so it is a bacteria. So did it impact your retinas or your optic nerves or optic nerves? What was the optic nerves? John B. Grimes: Okay, so meningitis is the inflammation. Start over so we can sure cut that part out. Meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges and the meninges the lining of the brain cavity and spinal cavity. So our our spines and brains have a lining in them. And it gets infected. And there's more than one way it can become infected. In my case, it was bacterial. And not to get too much in the weeds of medicine here either. But there's five types of bacteria that can cause it. And I got one of those five. And it's an airborne thing where anybody really, at any time could be carrying the bacteria in the back of your throat or in your nasal passage, and it just happens. You're at the right place at the right time for that, that to seep into your into the

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jerred Mace, Founder & CEO, OnceCourt https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-01-21-2025/ In this inspiring episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams talks with Jerred Mace of OneCourt about how haptic technology can make live sports dramatically more accessible for blind and low-vision fans. Adams shares his own "hands-on" encounters with the OneCourt device, feeling the raised layout of a basketball court and the vibrations of a synced, fast-moving play, and later experiencing baseball through touch by sensing pitch location, ball flight, and baserunners in real time alongside the radio broadcast. Jerred traces OneCourt's origin to his University of Washington days, inspired by a video of a blind fan following a soccer match through touch and shaped by his personal experience growing up in a family where disability was "the norm." He describes early prototyping, building a multidisciplinary team, and the company's momentum jump after receiving a Microsoft AI for Accessibility grant in June 2023. The conversation also looks ahead: OneCourt is expanding team and league partnerships while designing a direct-to-consumer version, built to be more affordable and paired with sport "packages" like a streaming model, and invites listeners to join the newsletter and waitlist via OneCourt's website (onecourt dot io). TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of podcast by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington, which is sunny Seattle this afternoon. And I have a guest with me today who is also from the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Jerred Mace, one of the principals of the fabulous company. OneCourt and say. Say hey, Jerred. Jerred Mace: Hey, everybody. Super excited to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Great. So I would like to to give a little bit of my history with one court. I first encountered one court over on the Microsoft Redmond campus in the reactor building at a gathering called Seattle Disability Connect. And there are about 120, 140 people there interested in disability inclusion, assistive technology accessibility. And there were a couple of startups demonstrating their products. And Jerred was there with the one court team, and I had no idea what it was. And I put my hands on a flat surface, probably about the size of an iPad with kind of a rubbery surface. And I was exploring it. And on it were the was the raised outlines of a basketball court, and I was born when my parents were in college at Western Washington University, and my dad was a basketball player there. He held the the single game rebound record for many years at 29. And he became a high school basketball coach. And I spent many, many hours in the gym and went to many hundreds of high school basketball games. And as I got older and went to work and had some disposable income, I always had a season ticket package to see the Seattle SuperSonics. So I've spent a lot of time around basketball, so I was pretty excited to see the outlines of a basketball court through my hands. Dr. Kirk Adams: My palms flat. And then what happened was there was a play synchronized with a radio broadcast. Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns getting a rebound, the ball moving down the court rapidly side to side passing and Kevin Durant scoring, and I could feel that happening with vibrations under my hands. So I was very excited and have kept in touch with with Jerred as one court has progressed in the spring of 2024, I went out to the University of Washington, home of the Huskies, and sat with one court and team and some other blind people from the community and put my hands on the one court tablet again. And this time it was a baseball diamond, and there was a grid of small squares in a rectangle shape and that line of the baseball diamond and turned the radio on. It was the Seattle Mariners against the Tampa Rays playing in Tampa. And when the first pitch was thrown, I could feel where the pitch entered the strike zone. It was low and away. I could tell that. And the next one was high. And inside I can tell that. Dr. Kirk Adams: And then the ball was struck and I could follow the path of the ball out into the outfield where it was caught. And then later on, when there are runners on base, there was vibrating indicators at the base to show me where the base runners were. So I didn't have to memorize that and keep that in my mind like I usually did when I listen to a game. So I'm a big fan, big fan of one caught and privileged to be involved with the company. And pleased to have Jerred here today and just would really love Jerred to hear the origin story. How how did you get started? You're you're you're young folks strong affiliation with the University of Washington. Making the world of sports more accessible for us who are blind and low vision. And like I said, like I like I said before we started recording, I'd love to hear where you've been, where you are now, where you're planning to go. What's working well, for you any challenges you you may be having and how can people get involved? And I'll I'll I'll hand you the talking stick, and I'll reserve the right as the host to pop in with a question now and then. Jerred Mace: Yes. Please do. Well, thank you, Doctor Kirk, for that introduction to our work and of course, your close relationship with us. It's pretty special to see, man, how long you've been involved and how much has happened since then. So yeah, thank you for for going through that. I was I was amazed to hear you remembered some of those those match ups in particular. So that's awesome. I also didn't know that story about your dad. That's very cool. At Western. So you're happy to give a little bit of a background on one court and who I am and what our company is set out to do. Basically it was 2021 when we got started. And of course, that was, you know, well into the Covid years. And I was a junior at the University of Washington. So I was studying industrial design there. And I came across this video of a blind person at a soccer match, and they were sitting in the stands with a woman who was watching the game, and at the same time moving his hands across a game board to represent the action. And that really stood out to me, you know, as a designer who was interested in user experience and fan experience, but also as someone who grew up in a household where disability was very much the norm, you know? So both of my parents have disabilities, and my vision experience has changed quite a bit over time. You know, when I was a kid, for example, with surgeries and other things, like I had to find a way to adapt to sports and of course everything else is, as I think many listeners will appreciate, like adaptation is kind of the name of the game and you know, that translated to the world of sports for me. Jerred Mace: So it was gravitating towards sports like wrestling where touch was primary or, you know, sitting really close to the TV to kind of pick out player positions and details like that. So I think I've always had an understanding of of what it meant to experience the world a little bit differently than some of my peers. And I think this light bulb moment of, wow, here is someone truly experiencing and accessing the game in a new way that that I had not thought about. And I just started considering, like, how can we bring that experience to everybody? You know, because it's one thing to rely on a friend or family member to describe the game or to, in this case, manually, you know, move their hands across a board. It's another to experience the game independently and to form your own Own interpretations. And, and I think there's a lot of power that comes with that and a lot of joy as well. So it's been an amazing journey so far. But but our original hypothesis was simply, how can we create sports that are accessible through touch? And it's where we got started. So yeah. Any anything come to mind off of that? Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, yeah. So you had the concept of making sports more accessible through through touch. But then what what happens. Do you design a prototype? Do you make it a school project? How does it go from a thought to a thing? Jerred Mace: Yeah, it's a great question. We started, I should say I started I worked for about six months by myself, and that was kind of a mistake. But I was researching. I was learning about this looking at other work that had been done. There were some, like, really interesting off hand projects and also work that was similarly situated that I thought could inform this concept. But I it was about six months into it that I presented it publicly at school for the first time. It was at the UW Science and Technology Showcase. And I remember going into that event, it was it was kind of a research poster style event where, you know, you you put together a poster and present it to a group and different people, you know, ask you questions and whatnot. And I didn't expect much of it, but I was really excited to be there and just kind of share this with the world. And to my surprise, it went really well. People were really excited. Dr. Kirk Adams: And so this was a concept. You hadn't built anything? Jerred Mace: Yeah. No, I had done some like basically rough sort of behind the curtain prototyping of, you know, taking existing vibration motors, for example, and just trying to understand, like vibration a little bit more deeply than I had at that time. S

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sheldon Guy, Director, Women's Athletics, Improve Her Game https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-12-18-2025/ In this deeply moving episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams speaks with Sheldon Guy, Director of Women's Athletics with Improve Her Game and, by his account, one of the only blind basketball coaches, about the sudden, life-altering loss of his vision and the raw, real-time process of rebuilding a life. Sheldon recounts how quickly his world shifted, the heartbreak of what that meant for his son, and the moment he reached a breaking point, only to find a reason to keep going through messages of love and belief from his son and the players he coached. From there, he made a conscious decision to "pivot," return to the gym, and keep his commitments, launching a story of resilience that later drew major media attention and led to documentary coverage of his journey. The conversation expands beyond personal triumph into advocacy and systems change. Sheldon shares how he's pushed major organizations to improve accessibility (including voice-enabled options that reduce barriers for blind customers) and how his guiding philosophy, "see something, say something", turns everyday friction into concrete progress. He also speaks candidly about the added reality of navigating disability as a Black man, including harassment and safety concerns, while continuing to pursue hard goals, speaking to schools, inspiring young people, and taking on athletic challenges like obstacle races as a fully blind competitor. Together, Dr. Adams and Sheldon explore the evolving question of purpose, and how vulnerability, community, and relentless forward motion can become a lifeline, and a platform for change. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am, said Doctor Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in rainy Seattle, Washington. And today I have a really interesting guest, Sheldon Guy. He's director of women's athletics with Improve Her Game and as far as I know, he's the first and only blind basketball coach that I am aware of. And Sheldon, say hi. Hello. Thanks. We'll be back to you. So I, I was born when my parents were in college, attending Western Washington college at that point in Bellingham. And my dad was a basketball player, college basketball player, highly competitive. He held a single game rebound record at Western for over 40 years. 29 rebounds in one game. Sheldon. Wow. And then my dad was a high school basketball coach. For for his career. He's he's passed away four years ago, but I I spent a lot of time at the gym. I spent a lot of time at basketball games. I, I had a I always had a hoop in our driveway, and I shot lots and lots of free throws and I was totally blind since age five, so my dad rigged up. It was actually like a light weight chain that you would use to chain for a dog, and he attached it to the bracket and the back of the back of the basket. Dr. Kirk Adams: And then I would hold one into my hand and tug on it so it would make a noise so I could know where the hoop was, and I'd release it and I'd shoot. And I owe many, many thousands of baskets as a kid. So I read about you in access Information news. And for those who aren't aware, that's a weekly publication that talks about what it sounds like new news about accessibility, disability inclusion. And I'm a sponsor. My consulting company is called Innovative Impact, LLC. And I'm a I'm a sponsor of Access Information News. And I read it weekly, and I read about a blind basketball coach who happens to live just north of Surrey, B.C., British Columbia. And so I reached out to Sheldon via LinkedIn and said, just read about you in Access Information news. I want to get to know you. So we had a call and chatted a little bit and invited Sheldon onto the podcast and really want to hand the microphone over to you. Sheldon would love to hear about your journey. Looking at your LinkedIn profile, it looks like you've been a sales sales executive. Very successful. You talk about public speaking, you talk, you use the word pivot. Which of course is also a basketball term, but just would would love to love to hear your story. Sheldon Guy: Well, thank you Mr. Adams, and thanks for having me on your podcast. I really appreciate it. I'm not a I'm not as polished as maybe some of your your other guests may have been on your podcast. And the reason I. Dr. Kirk Adams: We look for authenticity. Sheldon. Sheldon Guy: Yeah, well, I think. Dr. Kirk Adams: You're. Sheldon Guy: I think you're you're going to get it today because my story is real. It's raw, it's authentic, and it's mine. Three years ago. Let's just go. Three and a half years ago I was at my dining room table putting together all of my player packs for my team, meaning backpacks, hoodies, pants, socks, all that sort of stuff. As I just finished tryouts and I just selected my team. I then started to notice something, but didn't pay too much attention to it because I was more focused in on getting into Into the season, so I didn't pay much attention to really anything other than basketball like he mentioned, because I spend a ton of hours at the gym. I was able to drive around, do what I needed to do to get prepared for the for the season. A few, a few weeks went on and I flew up to a city called Kelowna. It's north of me for some meetings with some customers. And I rented a vehicle and we were driving from Kelowna down to Penticton to see some product and a customer and all that sort of stuff. And I noticed that I couldn't really see the passenger beside me or the road. And so I just kept rubbing my eyes and thinking, okay, you know, maybe there's something in my eyes I didn't really understand, but I could see, I could still see. Sheldon Guy: I was still fine, but just I would I'd have to turn my head to look over instead of seeing her in my peripheral. So that was very scary. And I think that's what prompted me to go and see my ophthalmologist. And so I went in and saw my ophthalmologist when I got back. So I flew back the next day, and then I went in and saw my ophthalmologist and she, she did some tests. And then, you know, she got very concerned telling me that my optic nerve was inflamed and that I needed to go see I'm trying to remember the the the series of doctors, but it was an ophthalmologist. And then I went and saw an no, I saw an optometrist. Then I saw an ophthalmologist. Yeah. And then I moved on to a couple other people and ended up seeing a neurologist. And so you know, that's when stuff started to go really sideways. And the neurologist wanted to admit me into the hospital, and I just didn't want to go in the hospital. So he's like, okay, you know, take these prednisones. See if we can bring down the inflammation. And things are happening very, very quickly. This is in a span of three weeks. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Sheldon Guy: And so it was so I, so I took the prednisone. I felt really bad because at the time, I was out for dinner and I drove to dinner and you know, they gave me all these, I don't know, it's 30 tablets that I had to take three times a day. And there is a steroid to bring down the inflammation or stop the inflammation. So I'm at the dinner table in this restaurant. I'm counting out 30 pills on a table. I kind of felt like it felt felt like, oh my gosh, people are gonna look at me like a drug dealer or something like that. But it wasn't the case. I was. Those were legal drugs that I was, I was on, so I took the prednisone and that didn't work. And so after that process it was a Saturday morning, I woke up and I went to make my bed, and I, I couldn't see my bed. And so, like, I could see, but I couldn't see. And I knew something was happening. Like something was going on. So I went down to my laptop, emailed the neurologist and said, hey, listen, like I think I got to go in because I think something's happening. I think we got to act pretty quickly. And so he emailed me back right away and said, yep, I've got you on the list. Go, go now. Like go today. I said, okay, I just obviously had to get some stuff together. And I'm a single father of a son, so my son was with me at the time. Sheldon Guy: He had to work that day and he didn't really know what was going on either. It was just a regular Saturday. He got up, I made him breakfast, we hung out and he was getting ready. He had to work that evening and I didn't want anything to happen until he actually left for work. So I waited the day called for a ride to to go to the hospital, but told them to keep it, you know, to themselves and under wraps and packed my bag the best way I could to go to the hospital. Didn't really know what I was packing, but just packed it just in case they were going to admit me and then ended up going downstairs. Just before Jayden was and my son's name, Jayden. And just before he left we were standing. I live in a townhouse, so I live, I have one flight, two flights, three flights, four flights of stairs. And I was on the main level at the stair, and he was at the top level of the stair going down. And he looked at me with this concerned look. He's like, is everything okay? And I said, everything will be fine, buddy. I'm just going to go to the hospital. And something's happening with my vision. And he started to joke, and we just joke back and forth, and he came back with with a rebuttal. He's like, I love you, and I hope everything's good. And

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Alyssa Dver, Founding CEO, Speaker, Educator, Motivator, Spokesperson, ERG Leadership Alliance https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-12-04-2025/ In this insightful episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with Alyssa Dver, Founder and CEO of the ERG Leadership Alliance, to explore how employee resource groups (ERGs) can drive both inclusion and business performance. Alyssa breaks down what ERGs are, why they're different from social clubs, and how volunteer leaders navigate the paradox of doing "extra" work that still has to align with business goals. She and Dr. Adams discuss the current backlash against DEI, the recent U.S. executive order that both constrains and reinforces the importance of inclusive ERGs, and why organizations that were already committed to DEI are now doubling down on ERGs as engines of belonging, innovation, and retention. Throughout the conversation, they connect ERGs directly to disability inclusion, emphasizing that disability crosses all demographics and that every ERG can and should be disability-ready. Alyssa also shares her personal journey, from a traditional marketing career to brain-science-based confidence research sparked by her son's neurological disability, and explains how belonging and psychological safety are literally "hardwired" performance factors in the brain. She and Dr. Adams connect this science to everyday workplace realities: when people feel safe and included, they think more clearly, collaborate better, and are more likely to raise tough issues or innovative ideas. Alyssa describes how the ERG Leadership Alliance supports organizations at every stage, starting, restarting, or optimizing ERGs, through research, training, tooling, and a global network of more than 100 million ERG participants. Dr. Adams closes by urging listeners, especially disability advocates and employers, to leverage ERGs as a powerful, practical mechanism to build truly inclusive workplaces and accelerate disability employment. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everyone, to another episode of podcast by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I have with me today a remarkable person that I'm getting to know better and better who's doing great things in the world. Alyssa Dver. She's founder and CEO of the Leadership Alliance. Alyssa. Alyssa Dver: Remarkable. That's one of my favorite words. I would use that to describe you too. Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, there we go. Well, I I'll. In full disclosure, Alyssa and I had a conversation about employee resource. Resource groups and the Leadership Alliance several weeks back, and the recording disappeared. So we're doing it again. But I'm going to call it a blessing in disguise, because so much has happened in the last last six weeks as our our topsy turvy world continues to turn. And so I wanted to touch on a couple of recent insights and get your take on it. Alyssa. Yeah, yeah. Before we do that, just to let people know I am Doctor Kirk Adams. I am the immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the blind. Prior to that, the same roles at the Lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle. I have a consulting practice called Innovative Impact. Focus on fun, innovative, high impact projects that will lead to greater inclusion of people with disabilities. I have a PhD in leadership and change. My doctoral work was an ethnographic study of blind adults employed in large American corporations and ergs. Employee resource groups came up quite often in my ethnographic interviews of blind people working in big companies. And in a in an appendix of my dissertation is called Journeys Through Rough Country, by the way, and you can find it by searching Journeys Through Rough Country by Kirk Adams. And in an appendix, I, I have a fictitious scenario when I'm talking, when I'm talking to parents of a young blind child who are very fearful about their child's future and very uncertain because like my parents, my my retinas detached when I was five. Dr. Kirk Adams: They had never met a blind person before. They didn't have any experience in that area. And most parents of blind kids don't. And so I, I focus on employment. So I this fictitious scenario is talking about employment and the things they would need to do in order to prepare their child to be successful in the world of employment and be independent and to be able to thrive in the way that that they want wanted to thrive. And we talked about developmental stages and having kids. Do the blind kids do the same stuff other kids do? You know, for four year olds playing on the playground and playing in the sandbox, and the blind kid should be in there, you know, fighting over the toys with the sighted kids and, you know, the 12, 12, 13 year old kids going to meet their friends you know, at the mall or wherever. The kid needs to have the orientation, mobility, skills and the confidence to be able to go and independently join them. And you know, we talked about early work experience, and then we talked about the expanded core curriculum, which is the great news that blind kids get to hear in school, which says you have to learn all the things the sighted kid learn, sighted kids learn. Dr. Kirk Adams: And these nine other things like orientation, mobility skills and use of assistive technology and self-advocacy skills and you know, work, workplace and career awareness and development. And then we talked about the workplace, and I talked about you know, some of the things to look for when you're when your child is going to be looking for work. Is disability inclusion formally stated at a leadership level by, by the company? Do they have a centralized accommodations process and budget? And do they do they have a employee resource group focused on disability inclusion? And that is one of the signs of a potentially good workplace for a person with a disability is to have that erg. So ergs. Ergs have been present in my mind as an important piece of the employment picture. And as most of you listening probably are aware, only 35% of us with significant disabilities are in the workforce. We're in a much narrower band of occupations. We tend to stick closer to the bottom of the org chart. A majority of us work for non-profits or government where awesome places to work, salaries and incomes are limited there. And so when I encountered Alyssa and had an opportunity to to talk about ERGs in a larger context and to talk about how intersectional intersectionality plays a part, that disability knows no demographic boundaries and covers all demographic characteristics. Dr. Kirk Adams: And how can we make all employee resource groups inclusive of people with disabilities? Just really started to unpeel an onion here. And then in the last last week there was a study that came out about Gen Z people in the workforce and the very dim view they have of their future in the workplace. Compared to past generations, as far as their what their opportunities are going to look like. And then disability in came out with a study just this week that showed that using data drawn from LinkedIn that in order to advance in careers, people with disabilities need to change employers more often than people without disabilities in order to have upward mobility. So all kinds of factors and dynamics and I'll just say the the full frontal assault on diversity, equity, equity and inclusion. And I know when we spoke last, Alyssa, you said that in response to that, there seems to be more interest than ever and more engagement and more momentum and traction around ergs than ever before. So with, with with that blast of words from me, I'd like to just turn it over to you, Alyssa, to, to ask if you could tell us a little bit about your journey and how you became defined found the ERG leadership Alliance. And what you're doing, what you're seeing. Any reflections on on any of those things I've said and anything else you want to share? Alyssa Dver: Oh, wow. Well, thank you for that. Well, let's first ERG for anyone who's listening that doesn't know what an ERG is. Employee resource group is what it represents, and there's at least 40 or 50 names. I've lost track that they go by that are not erg. It could be ERG nrg erg. We've seen associate resource group and inclusion resource group and you name it business resource group of course is very popular. But there's also employee networks, which is very popular in the UK as the moniker. So, you know, they are groups, associations as we say traditionally set up like any kind of an association where you have volunteer leaders. The difference between what these are is that they are within a bigger entity. And the entity could be a for profit, non-profit, academic government entity. They do get funding from that entity, some funding. They are governed. In other words, they have rules and directions and plans and things that they live by and operate by. And then they're also accountable to the entity in terms of, well, I gave you X number of dollars, what did I get in return? And that's the difference between an ERG or any kind of employee group versus a club. There's another type of group called affinity group that sometimes can be either a club or an erg. It's very confusing. And sometimes companies have a little bit of each, but an ERG by definition as an association comes with some interesting characteristics. I mentioned that the v

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Ssanyu Birigwa, M.S., Co-Founder, Narrative Bridge https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-11-05-2025/ In this illuminating episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk shares how a stressful season leading the American Foundation for the Blind and pursuing his PhD led him to the healing work of guest Ssanyu Birigwa. He recalls powerful half-day sessions in New York that began with reflective writing and moved into energy practices like the hara seven-minute meditation, creating "energy bodies" with the hands, and chakra work. Those tools, which he still uses most mornings, helped him re-center, move from heaviness to lightness, and live with greater intention and body awareness. Birigwa, co-founder of Narrative Bridge, weaves her lineage as an 80th-generation Ugandan bone healer with her roles in narrative medicine at Columbia University and research on clinician well-being. She explains her Pause Three method, gratitude, intention, forgiveness, which downshifts the nervous system in under three minutes, then shows how story, slow reflection, and deep listening build trust inside teams. The conversation connects personal healing to organizational change, reframing "wealth" as health, relationships, spirit, and material capacity leaders can actually hold. Listeners leave with a palpable invitation to pause, tell truer stories, and align values with daily practice at work. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have the most special guest I've had so far, a very important person in my life named Sonya Gregoire. And Ssanyu is co-founder and CEO of Narrative Bridge. She is an architect of systemic transformation frameworks that enable organizations to operate with authentic alignment between their stated values and their daily practices. And the more organizations who can do that, the better for all of us. Ssanyu, if you just could say hi, then I'll talk a little bit about how awesome you are. I'll turn it back over to you. Ssanyu Birigwa: Thank you. Kirk. Hello everyone. It is a deep pleasure to be here with you and your audience. Just having the opportunity to connect is really important, especially during times of such change that we are all feeling, you know, beyond what I think we can describe with words. Thank you for having me. Ssanyu Birigwa: All right. Dr. Kirk Adams: So as many of you may know, I am a totally blind person. Have been since age five, when my retina is detached and had a lot of surgeries, unsuccessful, painful surgeries, a lot of hospitalization between age five and 12, which, of course, I didn't think of it as childhood trauma at the time. But now now I know I experience some significant childhood trauma. Went to a school for blind kids for second and third grade and then into public school where it was sink or swim. I was always the only blind student. And I had a family that really did some great things for me, including holding high expectations for me and treating me on an equal footing with my sighted siblings. Didn't didn't attend to a lot of psychosocial elements of having a significant disability and weren't equipped to do that, but made my way through school and got an academic scholarship and went to college. And then you know, had a lot of challenges around finding meaningful employment, as so many of us do, with only 35% of us in with significant disabilities in the workforce. But but made my way and with a lot of support from a lot of great people with a big investment by the lighthouse for the blind, Inc. here in Seattle and my professional development, I was was able to become the president and CEO of of that organization here in Seattle. Dr. Kirk Adams: And then I was hired by the American Foundation for the Blind AFB, Helen Keller's organization, to take on those same roles for AFB and lead them through a financial turnaround and an organizational transformation which involves strategic planning and restructuring and doing lots of hard things like eliminating positions and closing programs and the hard things that needed to be done. So in the midst of all that, I, before I was hired by FBI, started a PhD program, a PhD in leadership and change through Antioch University. So I was in the middle of that dissertation process. My wife, Roz, and I moved from Seattle to New York City and lived in a tiny apartment in Park Slope in Brooklyn. I learned how to take the F train to the A train up Penn Station, up to the office at two Penn Plaza. And we lived there about a year and a half. Our strategic plan led us to relocate our headquarters to the Washington, D.C. area. So we moved again to Arlington, Virginia, and was working there. Culture shock for a person born and lived always in the Pacific Northwest and a weather shock, the hot, humid summers and Virginia in particular, and the very cold winters. We did not own enough clothes, but I was attending to implementing the strategic plan very assiduously. Dr. Kirk Adams: I was working on my PhD work, and I would get up every morning and kind of prepare for the day. And I got in the habit of listening to podcasts when I when I was getting ready. I use a great app that's very accessible for people who are blind called eye catcher. And I would just put in a keyword in the search engine and kind of go down the list of what popped up and just tap on something that kind of resonated with me that that morning. And I honestly don't remember the podcast, but the guest was Ssanyu. Gregoire and the host had spent some time with you, Ssanyu, and had had had some experiences with the healing work that you do. And she said, after my session with you, I could just feel all. I was just cleared of all the mucky muck. I remember that phrase, and I said, that's what I need because I feel like I am in quicksand. So I emailed the host and said, I'd like to talk to you, Ssanyu. And she can she emailed you and said, this dude, this dude reached out and he wants to talk to you. So you kindly set up a phone appointment, and we talked for about half an hour, and we determined that it would would be a good fit for us to work together. Dr. Kirk Adams: So I remember having an experience with you at the Four Points by Sheraton and Chelsea on 25th, and we spent about four hours together. And you started out by reading a poem to me and asking me to write a reflection. And I read you my reflection, and that led us into a deep conversation. And then, you know, you took it from there. And we had several of those kind of half day sessions in person. And so one of one of the greatest memories I have is you know, you didn't touch me with your hands, but you were you were moving stuff around. I can feel it in my body. I could feel things opening and loosening, and I could feel energy flowing like it hadn't in a long, long while. And then you and I had a regular virtual series of virtual sessions, and you taught me a number of things. I the horror meditation, the seven minute meditation. I did it this morning. Lit the palo santo, did the meditation. I probably do that five out of seven days a week. And you taught me how to create energy bodies with my hands and move that energy into my chakras, which I, I remember the first time you taught me how to do that. I said, that's trippy. Yes. I said something like, it's real. Ssanyu Birigwa: Yeah. Dr. Kirk Adams: We're not making this stuff up. Yeah. So, you know, you really had a huge impact on the way I live as far as thoughtfulness and intention and paying attention to energy and paying attention to my body and using some of the techniques that you taught me. And now a blessing to the world. You are taking this knowledge and wisdom. Your cultural heritage, what you've learned academically, what you've learned from experience and others. And you're taking it into what I would call the organizational development world. And I would just love to hand the microphone over to you. I'd love to hear, hear about your journey. I learned I learned some bits and pieces along our our time together, but we'd love to just have you recount to the people listening the journey that's brought you to the place you are now and how what what is the present like for you and and your vision of of the future? And what what's working well for you? And if there are any challenges. I would love to have you tell people how they can get in touch with you, so I will I will hand you the talking stick. I will reserve the right as a host to pop in with the question from from time to time. But please, please tell tell. Tell us the the legend of Sonja. Ssanyu Birigwa: Kirk. Thank you. I have to say, you are a great storyteller. And listening to your reflections, listening to the ways in which. The offerings that were placed between us has continued to be truly of support. And I'd even say service to your own well-being, which I know has expanded out to the people that you love and care about, work with, connect with. And that's that, that's that's that. That is what I hope to be able to infuse in the world as my passion is to create healthier communities. And we can't do that until we've actually taken a good look at the eye, our personal self, and to listen to you in your journey. Just made me smile and made me laugh. It brought me back to those moments in person with you. And I loved how you said she wasn't to

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Vanessa Abraham, Speech Language Pathologist https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-10-23-2025/ In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with speech-language pathologist, author, and ICU survivor Vanessa Abraham to trace her extraordinary arc from clinician to patient and back again. Abraham recounts the rare Guillain-Barré variant that left her paralyzed and voiceless, the disorientation and aftermath of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome, and the painstaking work of reclaiming speech, swallowing, mobility, and identity. She explains why she wrote Speechless, to humanize the critical-care experience, and makes a compelling case that communication access in the ICU is a basic right, not a luxury. The conversation moves from story to strategy: how lived experience reshaped her practice, how she founded A Neu Healing Therapy to bring neuro-rehabilitation innovations to survivors, and what clinicians, hospital leaders, and families can do now, build trauma-informed teams, ensure reliable ways for non-speaking patients to be heard, and measure recovery by dignity as well as function. Throughout, Dr. Adams draws out practical takeaways and a wider systems lens, leaving listeners with both hope and a concrete roadmap for more humane, effective care. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. And I am said Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I have a I say amazing guest today, Vanessa Abraham, who's a speech pathologist who's not only practiced speech pathology but has experienced the need for speech therapy herself, and I'll let her tell her story. I did want to acknowledge Mai Ling Chan, who is the source for me knowing Vanessa. Mai Ling is a an amazing disability advocate and she has created a platform called Exceptional Leaders Network ELN and it's a very small monthly subscription fee to be amongst some amazing people and get to spend some, some focused time with Mai Ling as well. So I, I met I met Vanessa through the ELN and she has brought her talent, skills and passions to the world to help support individuals who need support in their in their speech and articulation. And she's developed some amazing new technologies. And I was just speaking to the disability ERG at Russell Investments here in Seattle yesterday. And we talked about the fact that anyone can join us as disabled citizens at any time and people can become disabled and non-disabled, and it's very fluid. Dr. Kirk Adams: And we talked about the difference between impairment and disability. For instance, I have a visual impairment. I'm blind, I can't see, but if I have my Jaws screen reading software, my Refreshable Braille display, and my computer with the tools I have, I'm not in a disabling situation. If you take those things away and I just have a regular computer with no screen reading technology and a monitor, I am in a disabling situation. So Vanessa, I just want to turn it over to you. I know you were working with students in public schools for quite some time, and then something, something really transformational happened in 2019. And if you could take, take us, take us through your journey. Where? Where have you been? And where are you at now? Where? Where do you hope to take things? Where are you planning to take things and what? What's what's working well for you? And are there any any challenges you'd like us to know about? Vanessa Abraham: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me here today. And you're right. My journey began in 2019. So a little over six years ago as you mentioned, I am a school based speech pathologist. I work with school aged kids with communication challenges. So anyone from using things like text to speech or eye gaze, augmentative communication devices to students that may be working on stuttering and producing smooth speech or articulation. So that's kind of where my world has been for the past 15 or so years, just working as a school based speech pathologist until one day 2019, when I became the patient in the bed receiving speech therapy. And that's really when my world got turned upside down, where I realized what it was like to have a communication impairment not only a communication impairment, but a voice and swallowing impairment, too. And I required extensive speech therapy. How it all began. I talked extensively about this in my book, speechless, that I launched about ten months ago. Launched in January. It began just as a virus. And this virus slowly paralyzed my brainstem and spinal cord. As you said, it can happen overnight. It's very fluid. You just never know what tomorrow will bring. And for me, within a week's time, I was intubated and in my. Or on my way to ICU you at UCSD, San Diego where my life completely turned upside down. And as I said, I became the patient in the bed. Never imagined when I was in grad school that I would be the one sitting in the chair having a barium swallow study. And eventually I was to. Dr. Kirk Adams: What is. What is that? Vanessa Abraham: So the barium swallow study is a study that you do in the ICU or in the acute setting that looks at your swallowing muscles. How? And it tests your swallowing. Are you safe to swallow? Are you safe to be eating orally? For me, due to the nature of this virus that was paralyzing my brainstem, spinal cord, it paralyzed all the muscles in my neck that are used for voice and swallowing. So I was no longer able to swallow food safely. My vocal cords experienced significant atrophy, so they weren't working quite as well as they should be. My upper body was paralyzed. I was not able to move my right arm to right, to point, to do much of anything. And this all happened within days or a week. I was fine. I was out, like I said, I was. I talk about this in my book. I was out camping with my family, and then all of a sudden I woke up and I thought, I've got a cold. I need to go home. Well, that cold quickly progressed into this upper body. It's called what I have is the pharyngeal cervical brachial variant of Guillain-Barré. So most people with Guillain-Barre, their feet have extensive paralysis. My feet were fine. I was actually able to walk. I just couldn't move my upper body or swallow foods. So, again, I was the patient in the bed. I had to learn to talk again. I used I gaze, I used text to speech. I had to write my words down and eventually I used this thing called a passy-muir valve. Dr. Kirk Adams: Vanessa, I'm I'm pretty immersed in the in the blindness world, and I, I've spent a lot of time with the deaf blind community, but the the speech and communication challenges are, are not as familiar to me. So you mentioned eye gaze. You mentioned text to speech. You mentioned, I think augmentative communication devices. Could you, could you just spend a few minutes talking about the various technologies? Vanessa Abraham: Yeah, absolutely. So eye gaze. I was not able to communicate verbally. I was also not able to use my fingers to point to gesture. I was pretty locked in, so the only way I could communicate was by looking at a word on a piece of paper or looking at a letter like Y for yes, N for no, or the word yes and for no. And my family had to track my eyes. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Vanessa Abraham: They would ask me a question like, are you in pain? And I had to look at the word yes. And they would track my eyes to see because I wasn't able to point to the word yes. And I progressed from using eye gaze to being able to point to letters on a piece of paper. When my fingers were able to move a little bit better, I was able to point to letters for like, yes, or you know, when I had a burning question what's happening to me? I could type in every letter for a sentence. It was a very slow process to communicate that way, and very frustrating. However, it was a modality of communication for me, which was very important. I progressed from using the the little letter board to writing on a whiteboard, and eventually I was able to use my phone. And being a speech pathologist, I knew that there was greater technology out there than just writing things on a piece of paper. So that was a point where I decided to ask for my phone. I asked my family and give me my phone. I want to download a text to speech app, which I did. I got a free app and I just was able to type very fast questions on my phone and ask questions, and after that I was they gave me the speech pathologist there, gave me a passy-muir valve to trial. That's a valve that goes on your tracheostomy that allows you to vocalize. So that was the point that I was able to communicate with the tracheostomy. And that was a very, very hard, scary period of my life, learning just to go up again and hear my voice again. That was something I'll never forget, honestly. Dr. Kirk Adams: How long was that process from waking up intubated and paralyzed to being able to use the the valve? Vanessa Abraham: Close to a month, three weeks or so. Dr. Kirk Adams: Three weeks of hard work, I imagine. Vanessa Abraham: Oh, extremely hard work. Extremely hard work. And eventually that was removed, and I was able to vocalize without any type of assistive technology. But that's when I also had to experience a lot of speech therapy for voice. So I did that, and I did a lot of swallowing therapy, probably for about, oh, let's see, three, four months of swallowing therapy before my peg tube was removed and I was able to swallo

Here Dr. Kirk Adams frames disability inclusion as a hiring advantage powered by one national door and local execution. He spotlights CSAVR's National Employment Team (NET), led by Kathleen West-Evans, as a single gateway into every state and territorial public VR agency, with TAP (the Talent Acquisition Portal) and on-the-ground VR specialists turning postings into interviews, OJT, accommodations, and retention. The article walks leaders through why inclusion breaks at the national-to-local seam, how the NET's "one company" model fixes it, and where the ROI shows up—shorter time-to-fill, stronger 90/180-day retention, and reduced compliance risk. Case patterns from Hyatt (1,000+ trainees), Microsoft (dozens of hires), CVS Health (hundreds of hires), and Kwik Trip (300+ hires across 600+ stores) demonstrate repeatable designs: employer-built curricula, alternative assessments, role redesign, and national agreements executed locally. He closes with a six-step playbook (name a national sponsor, execute a NET agreement, activate state POCs, instrument training/OJT, pre-plan retention, measure and scale), rebuts common objections ("we already have job boards," "accommodations are costly," "multi-state is messy"), and shows how to integrate the NET into ATS, accessibility roadmaps, workforce pipelines, and governance. Compliance is the floor; performance is the flywheel. The invitation: join the September 25 LinkedIn Live with West-Evans, bring one stubborn multi-state requisition and a draft KPI set, and leave with a 90-day plan to pilot the NET in two regions—because inclusion isn't charity; it's recruiting math at enterprise scale. TRANSCRIPT Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Hello, everybody. This is Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in sunny Seattle, Washington. And this is my monthly live streamed webinar, which I call Supercharge Your Bottom Line through Disability Inclusion. And today we have an expert in the area of disability inclusion and employment, Kathy West-Evans, my dear, dear, long time friend and colleague. Say, say. Say. Hi, Kathy. I'll be back to you in a minute. Kathy West-Evans: Okay. Hi, this is Kathy West-Evans, and I'm joining you from east of Seattle. A long time partner of Kirkson. Thank you for having the conversation today, Kirk. We both know that this we we supercharge the bottom line working as a team. So thank you. Dr. Kirk Adams: That's right. So I just wanted to reflect a little bit. So Kathy is involved in the vocational rehabilitation system which is a powerful engine for disability inclusion and employment. She'll be talking to us about how the vocational rehabilitation system works and how they work with employers and all of the resources they can bring to the table to assist people with disabilities and and their employers make successful employment outcomes. But I when I was at the American Foundation for the blind. So I am the immediate past president of AFB, and I was privileged to hold those roles in the same roles at the Lighthouse for the blind, Inc., here in Seattle, where we employed hundreds of blind and deaf blind people in various business activities, including aerospace manufacturing, which was a lot of fun making parts for all the Boeing aircraft. But when I was at AFB, when we did our strategic plan, you know, we wanted to support blind children in education. We wanted to support older people who are visually impaired. Most people who are legally blind have become so as part of the aging process, not not lived their lives as a blind person as I have. But we really decided we wanted to focus on employment because only 35% of us with significant disabilities are in the workforce, and that's that's compared to 70% of the general population. Dr. Kirk Adams: So as far as working age people in our country, about 70% are working. And in the folks with significant disabilities, only about 35% of us. So half. And for the official unemployment rate, people seeking work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics if it's 4% for the general population, it will be 8% for us who are actively seeking work. So how you slice it, our outcomes and employment are half as good or twice as bad as the general population. But in preparation for designing our employment related strategies, we did a literature review. We hired a brilliant blind researcher named Doctor Ariel Silverman. She did her doctoral work here in Seattle at the University of Washington, and now she is a head of research at AFB. But we we asked Ariel to do a literature review on employment, Unemployment, and she synthesized probably 120 different peer reviewed research based articles on employment and one. One statistic that really stood out for me that among those employers who formerly say some sort of statement that they are inclusive of hiring people with disabilities or proactively seeking to hire more people with disabilities, less than 10% were connected with our vocational rehabilitation system. It was 9.2% of the employers that said they want to hire disabilities were actually connected to our greatest resource for employing people with disabilities, which is our vocational rehabilitation system. Dr. Kirk Adams: So I really want to turn turn the microphone over to Kathy and really ask you, Kathy, to talk about three things. And I'll I'll pop in with questions as they as they arise, as they occur to me. But I'd love it if you could tell our listeners and viewers describe the vocational rehabilitation system, how how it works, how funding works, how how federal funds flow to the states. We'd like you to talk about all of the resources that vocational rehabilitation can bring to the table in working with individuals with disabilities, seeking employment, and working with employers who want to successfully employ people with disabilities. So paint paint is the general VR picture. And then we'd love for you to talk about the national employment team. Was was happily joined you all in your two day summit over on the Microsoft campus earlier this month. So the national employment team is very fresh and current in my mind. And then the the talent acquisition portal, which is another powerful tool that people can use. So I'm going to I'm going to turn it over to you, Kathy. I'll pop. I'll pop back in with a question or two from time to time. Kathy West-Evans: Good. Keep me on track, Kirk, because, you know, I get excited about this, this work and the work that we've done together. Yeah. So the Rehabilitation Act, which funds public vocational rehab. The acronym is VR. And no, it's not virtual reality. It's vocational rehabilitation. Who was funded in initially in 1920 because people recognized that disability happens. You could be born with a disability. You can acquire a disability at any time during your life, but your goals are the same employment, independence, living in your communities. And so that act was built around the person thinking about the whole person. So as Kirk well knows, Kirk and I work together supporting the employment of people who are deaf blind here in our Seattle community. You know, you've got to think of things like, if someone doesn't drive, how do they get to and from work? It seems simple to us in the field, but not always. Not always simple transportation systems, navigating everything. We work hard to do that. So it's thinking about the whole person. What are their goals? What are their skill sets, what are their career aspirations? And then looking and working with business to understand their their needs for talent as well as their needs to retain talent. Kathy West-Evans: So this system is a federal, state funded system, roughly 80% federal, 20% state. It's 2070 8.7 and 21.3 state. So I'm not going to get into those details, but the program is decided, the structure of the program is decided at the state level. Understanding the states know their resources and know how to best support the success of the individual and the business. So we have 78 agencies. We're in every state, the territories and District of Columbia. And in some states, like here in Washington, we have two states because the state has decided to have a general agency, but also an agency that specializes in serving people who are blind or have vision loss. And that may be, again, in independent living, it could be in that career track. And there's also a program for individuals who are older, blind. Like Kirk says, we have an aging workforce and an aging population. And vision and hearing are two of the sensory functions that tend to be impacted by aging. So really looking at two things. Dr. Kirk Adams: So you mentioned in our state we have two vocational rehabilitation agencies, one that focuses specifically on people who are blind and the other that addresses people with, with other disabilities. Now, some states only have one agency. I think it's something like 30 states have two and 20 have one, something like that. Yes. Kathy West-Evans: Something like that. Dr. Kirk Adams: Correct. Yeah. Kathy West-Evans: Yeah. And again it's decided at the state level understanding how they're structured. So like for example in California we have a combined agency okay. Dr. Kirk Adams: And then the other thing I don't know if it was if it was at your summit or somewhere else, but I just recently heard the statistic that the fastest growing age group entering employment, people over 75. Kathy West-Evans: Yes. So it's not just entering employment, Kirk, but I think staying employed. Okay. Right. Dr. Kirk Adams:

In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Elizabeth Whitaker and Rachel Buchanan of Vispero to explore how AI and JAWS' 30-year legacy are converging to expand employment and independence for people who are blind or low vision. After Kirk shares a personal JAWS origin story from 1995, Liz and Rachel trace their own paths through VR and training, then introduce Freedom Scientific's new "Learn AI" series: live, first-Thursday-at-noon ET webinars that begin with fundamentals (terminology, prompting, hands-on practice) and progress to specific tools, ChatGPT in October, then Gemini and Copilot in November. Each session is archived with step-by-step exercises and resources, and early interest is strong with 900+ registrants for the kickoff. They also preview FS Companion AI, built into JAWS/ZoomText 2025, which delivers up-to-date, task-level answers for JAWS, ZoomText, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and web navigation. The trio candidly addresses AI's fallibility and bias, underscoring the need for accurate, representative training data, while swapping pragmatic tips (e.g., using an iPhone's Action button for instant Voice Mode) and hinting at forthcoming features to streamline interaction with web pages and apps. The conversation closes with a shared commitment to evolve the series and tools so blind users can turn AI into a practical, competitive advantage at work. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am Doctor Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I don't use the doctor title too often, but I use it sometimes. And it's because I have a PhD in leadership and change from Antioch University and my dissertation is called Journeys Through Rough Country, an ethnographic study of blind adults successfully employed in large American corporations. So I talked to lots of cool blind people working at lots of companies that we all know and found out what their elements of success, were. First I asked them, why do you how do you identify success? What what what do you use as your criteria to say I am successful, employed, and everybody said money in one form or another, to have enough income to have economic independence and freedom and to be able to make decisions about how to spend the money they earned. Looking at the success factors, everyone talked about family and friends support. Many of them, talked about working on a team like a sports team or a choir when they were younger. Many of them talked about having a strong internal locus of control, a real sense that they could overcome obstacles, solve problems.   Dr. Kirk Adams: And many of them attributed that to some experiences when they were young, usually in the teen years, and often to do with outdoor experiences like horseback riding and rock climbing and downhill skiing and things like that. And before I get to the next success factor, I will say that they all expressed disappointment that things were so difficult still, that they were perhaps the only blind person who'd reached their level in their company, that they didn't see role models in the C-suite or on the board who were blind that they continually had to battle for accessibility and accommodations, and many cited instances in which their employers would make changes to systems without considering accessibility, rendering them unable to do their jobs. And another factor everybody talked about was accessibility, the need to master assistive technology and to be able to access systems. Which leads us to today's guests. And we have Rachel Buchanan and Elizabeth Whittaker with us today from Vispero. And say you say hi, Rachel and Elizabeth. Hi.   Elizabeth Whitaker: Hello. And thank you for having us.   Rachel Buchanan: Yeah, we're so happy to be here.   Dr. Kirk Adams: So for those who don't connect Vispero with JAWS. Vispero provides us with Job Access With Speech, JAWS, screen reading software. This is year 30. I am a proud, proud to say that I use JAWS version one.   Rachel Buchanan: Oh, wow.   Elizabeth Whitaker: Right.   Dr. Kirk Adams: And what would that be? 1995. And.   Rachel Buchanan: Yeah.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Working for the Seattle Public Library Foundation. And I had a refreshable braille display and JAWS. And I was able to do my job access systems, and and it's been it's been my constant daily companion ever since then. I have a daughter named Rachel who's 35, and she grew up she was born in 1990. So she's she's her, her, her JAWS as she grew up. And she told a story of she moved to the Bay area and she walked in to to connect with a friend of mine who was executive director of the World Institute on Disability. Nita. Aaron. And when she walked into the office, she heard JAWS. She said she went running in and said, I feel like I'm at home. I hear JAWS.   Elizabeth Whitaker: So she knew what that was. She recognized it right off.   Dr. Kirk Adams: That's how important it is to our our family.   Rachel Buchanan: But yeah.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I'm really, really excited today to hear about your AI learning training series. So I'm going to hand the microphone over to the two of you. I will reserve the right as podcast host to pop in with a question or two if you if you what you're most likely to do, say something that's over my head. Technically, I may have to ask for some clarification, but yeah.   Elizabeth Whitaker: As many questions as you want. Yes.   Dr. Kirk Adams: In any case, the floor is yours.   Elizabeth Whitaker: All right, well, thank you for having us here. And I just wanted to mention something that you said that was really important, talking about success and how people view success. And I think that, you know, what we're able to do in our training department because that's, you know, we we create a lot of training events and training content. And what we're able to do in our training department is provide people with the skills and the tools that they need to be successful. And so it's great to be a part of that.   Rachel Buchanan: It definitely is. And this initiative kind of to look into AI and add to our training webinar series is because we already do our regular monthly training webinar was born because we just wanted to look at the way AI is going to impact the employment space for people who are blind and low vision, negatively or positively. Just because, you know, we all hear like, oh, it's going to take jobs. And in some cases it is, but also in other cases it's just going to change them. Right. So we want to dive into what that means. We've looked at a bunch of research from AFB. Thank goodness. They've they've already, you know, gotten into that space somewhat and turned over a few stones and done some research, but we've looked at a lot of that and landed on. You know, learning skills and embracing AI as a tool as part of that solution.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Before we dive into that, let's let's hear a little bit about the two of you. And how did you come to be involved in accessibility and disability inclusion and doing the work you do?   Elizabeth Whitaker: Sure. Okay. So I wasn't sure who was going to go first. So I'm Liz and I actually after graduating from college, I was looking for ways to learn more about technology because I knew, I mean, I'd been using it for quite some time, but I knew it was going to be very important in my career, whatever I did. And I also knew that it was really important to keep up with technology. So I started out by working in vocational rehabilitation in Arkansas, and after number a number of years working there as the Director of technology, I was able to come to Vispero, where I was able to create training on a more global level. So it was very exciting in that aspect.   Dr. Kirk Adams: And are you are you a at user yourself?   Elizabeth Whitaker: Yes, I sure am. I use JAWS, I use Braille and all different types of technology because, you know, it's all about using the tools that we have available to us, and there are many tools out there. So I am definitely a longtime Jaws user and Braille user.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Cool. Me too.   Rachel Buchanan: And me as well. And I'm older than you are. Rachel by a handful of years and have been using JAWS for a good long time, but got into the blindness rehabilitation space and just love technology. So that was kind of where I fit best and just love to see people kind of rehabilitate after the vision loss process and get back to work. And so that I worked in that space for 15 years, almost before I came to Vispero. And now I'm here. I've been here since 2018.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Great. So we're all JAWS users?   Multiple Speakers: Yes, yes. Good.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Back to you. I just need to know a little bit about you, too.   Rachel Buchanan: Well, that was good. It was good. I kind of forgot that piece. So I said a little bit about background about the series. Liz, do you want to tell a little bit about what it is?   Elizabeth Whitaker: Absolutely. So one of the things that we talked about when creating this AI series, we do a lot of webinars. We do one a month. Well actually now two including this. But you know, since AI is constantly evolving, we wanted to create a series that we were going to be able to evolve with, and it was going to be something that was ongoing. And so when putting together the, you know, thinking about the webinars and the different topics we were going to cover, we thought, well, this is more than just webinars. This is going to be creating tools,

In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Paolo Gaudiano, Founder & Chief Scientist at Aleria to unpack how measuring day-to-day workplace experiences, rather than headcounts or vague culture scores, translates inclusion into business outcomes. Gaudiano traces his path from computational neuroscience and complexity modeling to a 2015 "lightbulb moment" that led him to build simulations and tools showing how inclusion lifts productivity and retention, and how focusing on diversity alone can spark backlash. He outlines the premise of his 2024 book Measuring Inclusion: Higher Profits and Happier People, Without Guesswork or Backlash, and makes the practical case for aligning inclusion with financial performance rather than sentiment. Together they dig into method and evidence: an anonymous platform that captures specific incidents interfering with success, tagged by experience categories (e.g., respect, advancement, compensation) and sources (policy, leadership, managers, peers, clients), then linked to satisfaction, productivity, and attrition, quantified with an "impact calculator." They explore turnover and productivity costs (from months of salary at entry level to years at senior ranks), human-factor risks in cybersecurity, and simple fixes (structured reviews, better meetings) that benefit everyone, often disproportionately helping disabled employees and women. Adams adds historical data points (DuPont; Walgreens) and closes with ways to engage Gaudiano's work (Aleria, LinkedIn, TED talk), a limited-time $0.99 Kindle promotion for the book, and a promise to reconvene for a part two on building true meritocracies. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to Supercharge Your Bottom Line through Disability Inclusion, which is my live streamed webinar that I joyfully host every month. I am Doctor Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle. And really, the premise of this monthly session is how can organizations become better, stronger, more aligned with their missions and their values and their objectives by being intentionally inclusive of people with disabilities in their workforce, which falls under the umbrella of inclusion writ large. And today I am thrilled. I'll use that word thrilled to have Paolo Gaudiano with us. He's the chief scientist for Illyria. I became aware of Illyria when I was in my role as president and CEO at the American Foundation for the blind, and a blind friend and colleague, Sara Minkara, invited me to attend a virtual event that Illyria was hosting. And I signed up for the newsletter. And I've read faithfully ever since. And what what Paolo focuses on is measuring inclusion and creating true meritocracy. And I've been thinking a lot about meritocracy this year. Really catalyzed early in the year with the terrible mid-air collision between the military helicopter and a domestic airline flight over the Potomac. And some statements by President Trump in the immediate aftermath, really linking the accident to the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration was intentionally inclusive of people with disabilities in their applicant pool and making a pretty, pretty jarring connection between disability and incompetence. And the conversations I often have with employers center around how people develop strengths. And we develop strengths as human beings by overcoming challenges and living every day with a with an impairment or impairments which places a disabling situations allows us a blind person such as myself, a person with a significant disability to develop some really unique strengths in areas that are are great assets and a wonderful characteristics that people with disabilities can bring to an organization through being employed.   Dr. Kirk Adams: So when I read the Aleria newsletter and I read about creating true meritocracies and how to measure the impacts of inclusion there's a lot of resonance with me. And I had a chance to get on a call with Powell earlier in the year and, and talk to him about some of his, his prescient thinking several years ago about the, current backlash attack on Di, which which he saw coming, and the way that Paolo and Aleria are approaching, creating inclusive environments for the betterment of all, for the betterment of society. So I'm just I'm thrilled to have you with us, Paolo. I'd really like to hand you the talking stick, and you can take this conversation wherever, wherever it may lead you. And I happily chime in with a question or two as they arise to me, and then we'll give folks who are have joined us live an opportunity to ask questions, and then we'll, we'll let those who are viewing the recording know how best to get in touch with both of us toward the end. So, Paolo, I'm so glad you're with us here today. I've been anxiously awaiting this opportunity to learn from you.   Paolo Gaudiano: Thank you. Kirk. It's first of all, it's a real pleasure and honor to be here on the show with you. I I wish that I could say that I'd known you for all these years. I only found out about your work recently and found it to be quite amazing and inspiring. I am grateful to Sarah. Sarah is an amazing person. I attended one event that she did. That really the way that she talks about disability, the way that she essentially lives out what it means to be a person with a disability and yet to be able to be contributing to society in amazing ways was was quite an inspiration. So I'm particularly grateful that you made that connection through her. And I just want to start out by again, thank you, first of all, for an amazing introduction. It was it was quite, you know, quite heartwarming to hear all these wonderful, very positive comments from you. And I hope that I live up to that expectation now. I kind of feel like maybe I should just stop here and say goodbye and, you know, let your you know, your introduction work as a kind of the core of the show. But I do like to start out. I always like to acknowledge for those of you that are only listening, or for those of you that are not able to see me, I am a white man. I'm in my 60s. I like to joke that I look like I'm in my 30s, but I'm, you know, white hair. Well, let's call it gray hair and.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I call mine silver.   Paolo Gaudiano: But there you go. Mine. Mine is maybe slightly less silver than yours, but very cool. Thank you. And the I always like to point that out because I often when I, when I give presentations, I start by jokingly referring to myself as the white elephant in the room. And I have not only my white and male, but I happen to be cisgender heterosexual. I do not have any permanent disabilities. And I, you know, people wonder, what am I doing in diversity, equity and inclusion? And I'd like to briefly tell about the history of how I came into this space, which is a space that I've now been working in for ten years or so. Since 2015. I had actually been interested in Dei on the personal level, and I first became aware of some of the what I thought were very strange things in the United States when I first came here as a teenager, and I was from Italy, my native Italy, and I was exposed to some situations that made me realize that there was some very odd ways that people in this country behaved when it came to racial if you will, tensions. And so I was always interested in that. I was intrigued by the fact that there were people that were being mistreated because of their gender, their race, their sexual orientation, their disabilities.   Paolo Gaudiano: I always felt that that was wrong. And I felt that, you know, intuitively, it seemed wrong to me. But I always felt like, you know, what can I do? I'm not an activist. I'm just a white dude. And I would go to conference sessions on, you know, how do you get more people with disabilities into leadership roles or how do you, you know, create greater employment opportunities? Or how do you get more women into into more, you know, higher managerial roles? And I was always kind of struck by the difference between the individual experiences that people shared of things that happened to them because of their personal characteristics, and when it came to solutions They were talking about very vague, general things that we talk about things like, you know, how do we dismantle systemic racism? You know, how do we change the hearts and minds of corporate America? And one day in 2015, as I was sitting there literally thinking, you know, how can somebody close that gap between the individual level experiences and what happens at the organizational level? I had a light bulb moment where I realized that the work that I had been doing for virtually my entire career had been focused on exactly that, on quantifying the link between individual elements in a system and what happens to the system as a whole.   Paolo Gaudiano: And that actually began as an undergraduate, and then later in my in my master's degree and my PhD, I studied the brain. I studied computational neuroscience, among other things, which was really about building computer simulations that would help us understand how circuits in the brain can somehow collectively combine the power of individual neurons, which by themselves are not particularly powerful devices. And yet when you combine them, you can do amazing things like speaking and hearing and learning and moving. And so I learned how to connect the individual to the collective in a quantitative way. And then later I was a professor for almost ten years. Then I becam

In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Rich and Brittany Palmer — Managing Partners of Adaptation Ventures — to trace the personal and entrepreneurial paths that led them to launch an angel, member-based fund focused on disability innovation. Brittany, a bilateral below-elbow amputee, shares how early prosthetics, supportive parents, and careers spanning environmental law and global consulting shaped her founder lens; when she built Beyonder, a live virtual-tour startup for people with limited mobility, she ran into investors who mislabeled the opportunity as "niche," a pattern she later saw across disability-tech. Rich recounts a winding route from RPI to Wall Street to startups, a life-threatening brain aneurysm at 28, and a reset at Babson that culminated in building and exiting an AI-for-philanthropy company — followed by leading one of the nation's largest angel groups and testifying to Congress about early-stage capital. Together they explain how Adaptation Ventures aims to be "first money in" at pre-seed and seed, typically leading ~$250K checks and targeting four investments per quarter, with a low barrier to member participation and optional fee-free, carry-free co-invest alongside the fund. Rejecting concessionary mindsets, they argue that disability markets deliver venture-scale returns — citing outsized economic multipliers for both angel dollars and assistive technology — and emphasize bottoms-up validation, universal design's "curb-cut effect," and aging demographics as powerful demand signals. They preview their first member meeting in mid-October/early November 2025 and invite founders and prospective members to connect via adaptation.vc, while Adams underscores how inclusive products expand total addressable markets and how entrepreneurship can be a natural fit for disabled innovators.   TRANSCRIPT:   Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am Doctor Kirk Adams, and I am doctor by way of my PhD in Leadership and change through Antioch University, I did an ethnographic study of blind adults employed in large American corporations. So I interviewed a lot of cool people working for a lot of cool companies. And I'm a blind person myself. My retinas detached when I was five years old in kindergarten. I became totally blind very quickly, and I went to a school for blind kids, Oregon State School for second third grade. Learn my blindness skills and my confidence and how to love myself as a blind kid. And then a long and winding road. Fourth grade on. I was the only blind student in any school I attended through my several graduate schools and the doctorate. So have had the experience of being a frustrated job seeker with a disability and a successful blind employee in corporate America and leader of a couple non-profits. I'm the immediate past president of the American Foundation for the blind. So I've had the privilege of employing it and and helping create career paths for for hundreds of blind and deaf blind people. I set up a consulting practice about three years ago, and I'm talking to you from my office in Seattle. I work with companies to help them accelerate inclusion of people with disabilities in their workforce.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I work with several nonprofits to help them scale past the founder stage. And kind of unexpectedly, I have been contacted by a pretty big handful of startups in the disability tech space. Innovative people who are striving to use technology to make the world a more inclusive place for people with disabilities, and to create more opportunities for us to thrive whatever way we choose. And in doing so, I've been learning a lot about startups and incubators and angel investors and venture capital. My my fundraising history is is long and and positive, but it's primarily been in philanthropy. So raising money for non non-profit causes. So I, I'm privileged to have met Rich Palmer. We had one conversation and I'm just meeting Brittany Palmer today for the first time. Rich and Rich and Brittany are co-founders of Adaptation Ventures. And I have invited them to join us today to talk about their their journey. Hopefully you'll go way, way back. And I would love to hear I want to hear the the love story, too, of of how you met and what brought you to create adaptation ventures and and what, what your strategically what what your initiative is focused on now. So so Brittany and Rich, I'm handing you the talking stick.   Brittany Palmer: Thank you so much, Doctor Kirk. We appreciate it. And we will give. Well, we will go way, way back. And we'll also talk a little bit about how we met to. So thank you first for inviting us on the podcast. We are so appreciative to be here and talking about our story and adaptation ventures. I I'll start at the, at the beginning of sort of my story. So I am a from birth, a bilateral below elbow amputee. So I'm missing both arms from a little bit below the elbow down. And so I at the time, a long time ago I was one of the youngest children to ever be fitted with my bioelectric prosthetics. And so those are prosthetics that actually move. A hand open and closed. And they've gotten a lot better today. But I wore prosthetics a little bit when I was younger, but mostly adapted to the world around me. Without them, and eventually stopped wearing them altogether. I had really amazing parents who pushed me to be as independent as my potential to be was, which is pretty much completely independent. And I'm super grateful for that. So things that people still ask me today, how do you write? How do you type? How do you drive? I do all of that without assistance. And And so again, like, it's just been a world of adapting and making things work for me.   Brittany Palmer: And I know a lot of other people with disabilities, you know, the world is not necessarily built for them, and we're always adapting to our situations. And so I grew up you know, doing sports, and I had an interest in science and went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For my undergrad in biology and management and and then went to law school. I really loved environmental law. And I got my J.D. and certificate from Pace Law School. And I started my career doing a clerkship at the Mine Safety and Health Review Commission in D.C. and and worked at the EPA as well. And then did international consulting as a principal and in-house counsel at a, at a firm in Boston. And and I really developed a love for, for travel there. I got to meet and work with tons of people all over the world and really enjoyed it. But really wanted to develop something and work in sort of the disability space. And Rich will sort of share his story in connecting and connecting those dots. But Rich and I met at the at the end of my law school time and and you know, and he moved down to Washington, D.C.. When I had my clerkship there. And excuse me.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I said he followed you.   Brittany Palmer: He did.   Brittany Palmer: He work was really It was tough to come.   Brittany Palmer: By when I.   Brittany Palmer: Graduated.   Brittany Palmer: And I was very lucky to have that job.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Good.   Brittany Palmer: And so I I started a company called Beyonder. That was live and interactive virtual tours by guides around the world.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Oh, wow.   Brittany Palmer: For, you know, people that had limited mobility or other conditions that prevented or inhibited them from travel. And, you know, at the time, there was a lot of companies focused around wheelchair accessibility and travel and which is great. It's definitely super needed. But I really wanted to create something that everyone could enjoy. To, to the maximum extent possible with, with the virtual tours. And so when I was raising money for that, I thought, this market is huge. I'm, you know, hopefully this is something that a lot of people will want to invest in. And when I started talking to venture capitalists, I got responses like, oh, this is a niche market or this market's not big enough, or we don't believe this market is big enough. Even though I provided them with all the statistics and everything like that.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Right.   Brittany Palmer: And gave examples and it was angel investors who really you know, understood my, my company and what I wanted to do. I understood that seniors were a part of that, and a lot of them have limited mobility as well. And, and so when I continued on my journey and advising companies and talking to founders, I heard the same thing from them. Venture capitalists, like, they don't understand the space. They think it's niche. They you know, they just really don't understand the opportunity. They don't know how to evaluate my company. And and they really needed first money in. And there's some other VCs in this space, which is wonderful. But they focus on, like, particular areas in the disability community or our later stage investors. Yeah, right. So we really wanted to to put something together that could be that first money and, and and sort of jumpstart these companies that were doing amazing things. And so before I talk more about adaptation, I'll let Rich kind of tell his story.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. And I'd like to just emphasize a couple things before. Before. Yeah. Go back to Rich. So you touched on the fact that living with a disability gives us ample opportunity to face challenges and overcome challenges and be creative and be problem solvers and be innovative. Yeah. So I'm really finding

In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Meghan Connolly Haupt, founder of the New York - based nonprofit consultancy Inclusive Saratoga. Reuniting after their days in the Lighthouse for the Blind network, the pair trace Meghan's winding road from Carnegie Hall intern and Jesuit Volunteer Corps case manager on L.A.'s Skid Row to corporate-social-responsibility pioneer (she launched the CSRwire news service 23 years ago), craft-beer marketer, and now disability-inclusion entrepreneur. Launched in February 2025, Inclusive Saratoga helps hospitality venues, music halls, breweries, and museums turn accessibility into a competitive edge, offering everything from staff training and sensory kits to service-animal protocols — while an in-house line of "inclusive" apparel underwrites the mission.   Meghan credits her sense of "relentless forward progress" to two powerful forces: parents who modeled community service and a second daughter, Tatum, who survived a 24-week birth and now navigates multiple disabilities. Those experiences, she tells Adams, taught her that togetherness is the core of healthy societies and that businesses prosper when they welcome everyone through the door. The conversation brims with optimism—citing data that disability-inclusive companies outpace peers by 30 percent on the bottom line—and closes with a call for partners who want to warm up their workplaces for both customers and future employees with disabilities.   TRANSCRIPT:   Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Hello, everybody, and welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. And I am that Doctor Kirk Adams. I'm talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I have a special guest here today. Meghan Connolly helped. And Meghan and I met several decades ago when she was involved in resource development fundraising at the San Francisco Lighthouse for the blind. I was working for the Seattle Lighthouse for the blind. I started working there because I was hired as the first development director. So we have that resource development background in common. Hi, Meghan.   Meghan Connolly Haupt: Hi. How are you?   Dr. Kirk Adams: I'm great and so cool to reconnect. I'm so glad you reached out. And Meghan is the founder of Inclusive Saratoga at Saratoga in New York State. And I think Saratoga Springs, Saratoga, Saratoga Springs there, there's horse racing there. And I think potato chips were invented there. That's what.   Meghan Connolly Haupt: I. Yes, yes that's true.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Springs.   Meghan Connolly Haupt: So if you go on jeopardy, if you go on jeopardy, that's going to be that's going to be your million dollar answer right there. Saratoga Springs and the home of the birthplace of of potato chips.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. I'll hope they ask that question. Well, here we are. For those who don't know me, I am the managing director of my consulting practice, which is called Innovative Impact, LLC, and I am the immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the blind AFI, which was Helen Keller's organization. And prior to that, I held that those same roles, leadership roles at the Lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle, which is a nonprofit social enterprise employing blind and deaf blind people in a variety of businesses, most notably aerospace manufacturing, making parts for all the Boeing Wing aircraft, which is a really cool thing to see 120 blind and deaf blind machinists making parts with very sophisticated computer numerically controlled equipment, but equipped with jaws and zoom text and braille display and all the assistive technologies we use. I am a blind person myself. I retinas detached when I was in kindergarten, and I went to school for blind children for first, second and third grade. Got got my blindness skills down rock solid and then sink, sink or swim into public school after that and was always the only blind student in my schooling from fourth grade through my through my doctoral program and after graduating from college, had the experiences that so many of us have with challenges to finding employment wound up in the securities industry, selling tax free municipal bonds over the phone for ten years, and then pivoted to the nonprofit sector.   Dr. Kirk Adams: And through a twisting, winding road became a resource development person and a certified fundraising executive and was hired by the lighthouse here and then Those Things unfurled was invited to join the board of the American Foundation for the blind and then given the opportunity to lead that organization, and in 2016 moved to New York City and then DC and back home during the pandemic, led AFB remotely for some time and then just decided rather than move back to the DC area wanted to stay in Seattle for family reasons, 2 to 2 of which our little grandchildren live about a mile away. So that that's our great joy. My wife Roz and I met in college. We'll be married 40 years next month.   Meghan Connolly Haupt: So congratulations.   Dr. Kirk Adams: A bit about me. Yeah, but I really want to talk about. Talk to you, Meghan, because I read your LinkedIn profile again this morning, and and and. Wow. Special events. Craft brewery. Craft brewing, which I'm very interested in personally. And fundraising, inclusion, disability advocacy. Just a very unique folio of experiences you have.   Meghan Connolly Haupt: Yes, that's a kind way to say it.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, but I love to hear about your. Yeah, I'd love to hear about your journey and how all of these various things came together and how you're getting them together.   Meghan Connolly Haupt: Right.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Right. That's just fascinating to me because I, I don't often see I don't often see individuals or organizations that focus on marketing and, and campaigns and social media and festivals and associations with disability inclusion woven throughout. So I'd love to hear about it.   Meghan Connolly Haupt: Yeah. Thank you so much for inviting me to have this conversation with you today. There's not enough positive stories about inclusion, and that is really our focus at Inclusive Saratoga. You open the paper, you open social media, and there's plenty of stories that that really kind of make your heart sink about individuals with any, any number of disabilities who are excluded from participating in society. And our whole mission is sharing the positive stories of what is possible. We are founded on the belief that people are good, and the belief that togetherness is a core, core element of our humanity and and is truly the biggest indicator of a healthy society. And that's not just our core belief at inclusive Saratoga that is backed up by Unicef research. And so, yeah, I have a I have a unique A career path, but there is a common thread that runs through. From my very first, I'll say professional role at Carnegie Hall. Actually, as an intern at Fordham University all the way through to today. As the as the founder of a nonprofit that brings people together. And that thread is community. And I think that I think community is so. At the core of my being because of who my parents are. So my mother is a nonprofit executive director. She was my entire life.   Meghan Connolly Haupt: Growing up where she was with Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, and then she was with the Epilepsy Association, and then she was with the Albany Medical College Alumni Association. My father is a business teacher and and a coach, a track coach. And I think I kind of got the best of both worlds through their career choices. And, you know, I didn't know this. I wasn't cognizant of this at at a young age of 21 where I set out on my career path. But but kind of looking back, I think that I had both of my parents as key influences for me. I knew at a young age that I had business acumen. I was the kid who didn't just have a lemonade stand. I had a lemonade franchise where I had the kids in the neighborhood working for me at doing their own lemonade stands, and we'd pool the the funds and I would pay them right. I was the entrepreneur and Girl Scout selling 311 boxes of Girl Scout cookies door to door at the time. Right. This is before social media, where kids put the videos on before the parents were selling in the offices. This was, you know, feet on the ground selling these boxes of cookies so I could get two free weeks of summer camp as an aid.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I always buy two boxes of Thin Mints. Ever given the opportunity?   Meghan Connolly Haupt: Well, I will pass that along to to to the girls who do that now. That is far in my rearview mirror, but. So I always had this acumen, this business acumen. And and so at one point in my life, I was a case manager and a social worker, and it was amazing. It was rewarding, but I felt like there were there was a whole set of skills that I possessed that were dormant.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Can you can you can I I'm really I don't know why, but I feel really centered when I know where people are. So you're you're at Fordham, which is in New York. Yeah. When you ended up in San Francisco. So that's when we met. Now you're now you're in Saratoga Springs. So when you're doing your you're a case management. Where were you?   Meghan Connolly Haupt: I was in Los Angeles. Because. Yes, because out of Fordham, I participated in a program similar to a one year domestic peace corps. It's called the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, still in existence. And I was stationed in Los Angeles, and I worked with homeless drug addicted, mentally ill adults in Skid Row. A

In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with disability advocate, outdoor enthusiast, and "The Blind Chick" podcast host Penn Street. Penn recounts the dramatic origins of her blindness—two rattlesnake bites at age nine triggered Stevens-Johnson syndrome, leaving her with severe burns, lasting eye damage, and years of surgeries. Growing up as the ninth of ten siblings, she credits a rugged childhood, supportive teachers, and the Lion s Clubs with building her resilience. A move to Colorado opened doors to better medical care and the mountains she loves; later, climber Erik Weihenmayer's example convinced her she could still scale rock walls, raft the Grand Canyon, and teach adaptive outdoor skills to other blind adventurers. The conversation pivots to Penn's current role as Development and Outreach Director for After Sight, the Colorado nonprofit that delivers daily audio editions of state newspapers and produces a family of blind-led podcasts — including her own lively show rebranded from "Community Conversations." She and Dr. Adams explore the mental-health dimensions of vision loss, Penn's embrace of full-contact self-defense after a violent assault, and the power of therapy, nature, and community to heal trauma. Penn invites listeners to join her annual Maya's Gulch hike this September and to reach out — whether for a trail guide, a podcast idea, or simply a reminder that blindness need not define anyone's limits.   TRANSCRIPT:   Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Hello, everybody, and welcome to Podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am Doctor Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I have an amazing guest with me today. Her name is Penn Street, and I met her through Dave Epstein or Sedona Dave. Who developed the all terrain cane. In 2019, when I was at the American Foundation for the blind. I had the privilege of going to Sedona and being in a group of 8 or 9 blind people and hiking trails around Sedona, Arizona, and I was able to do that independently, really, for the first time, I my retinas detached when I was five years old. I became totally blind. I went to a school for blind kids in Oregon, and they were very experiential school. They took us backpacking in the three Soul Three Sisters Wilderness area every summer, and I can remember hiking those trails with my backpack on and using a using sighted guide. Having my hand on the sleeping bag rolled up at the bottom of the backpack in front of me. And then when I was 19 years old, I had the opportunity to climb Mount Rainier. Which was a great event multi disabled climbing team. And again, a lot, a lot of sighted guide. So to use the all terrain cane and to walk swiftly and confidently across a rugged mountain trail, it's pretty cool. And then fast forward a bit and Dave said there's a really cool person you need to meet. Her name was Penn. So? So here she is.   Podcast Commentator: So   Dr. Kirk Adams: And then if you want to talk a little bit about you.   Penn Street: Sure. Hi, Kirk. It's good to good to be here. And thanks to Sedona. Dave. I'm actually trying to remember how I got connected with Dave. I think he actually reached out to me because of the the cane, and he knew that I knew Eric Waimea and And that. Yeah, it's a lot of us people think all blind people know each other and. Right, right.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I've had I've had that experience. I was in Ketchikan, Alaska. My wife. Salmon fishing. Oh, we're getting in the boat. And someone walked down the down the dock with a cane. And, yeah, they assumed you probably know them. Said, no, I probably don't know them.   Penn Street: Yeah, my husband does that to me when we travel. Is there's a person with a blind person, you know, you know, who's blind, who has a cane or a guide dog. You need to go meet them. And I was like maybe, maybe not. Right. But yeah, but yeah. So yeah, it's when people say, so tell me a little bit about yourself. It's like, well, where do you, where do you.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I'd like to know about the blindness. I like to know about the blindness journey.   Penn Street: Yeah.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Every every story is different as far as that goes.   Penn Street: Oh, isn't that the truth? Yeah. I've always wanted to, like, write a book or something about all the ways you can go blind because they it's it's just numerous. When I was nine, I was bit by a rattlesnake a western diamondback rattlesnake, actually and it made me twice and all the anti-venom and all the fun stuff they give you, especially as a kid to, you know, save your life from being bitten by a venomous snake. Triggered a syndrome called Stevens-Johnson syndrome. And it's it's a pretty nasty syndrome, especially the onset. They treat you in a burn unit. It's just like you've been in a fire. So, yeah, 75% of my body was covered in second and third degree burns. They did not believe I'd ever be able to breathe on my own or you know. You know, eat without, you know, assistance through a feeding tube. They definitely thought I was going to be blind and deaf. Because if you think when you're in a fire, you're nothing but soft tissue. Right. So. Right. So even after the scars, you know, heal it's those that scar tissue creates a lot of issues inside the body and out. But I. You know, I'm a tomboy. I'm the ninth of ten kids, so I have seven older brothers. So I sort of had to come out.   Dr. Kirk Adams: You'd been you'd been pretty toughened up.   Penn Street: I did, and really. And the doctors told my parents that. They said it was really great that she came from such a strong baseline, not just physically, but mentally that it set her up to not only to survive, but to strive afterwards. And so it was definitely touch and go for a long, long time, and I guess probably still is. But but yeah, so I it, I think it was harder on my parents and, and family and even friends than it was on me because I went from this incredibly vibrant, healthy kid to basically overnight not knowing if I was going to survive. And if I did, what was that life going to be like? And we were in rural Arkansas when this happened. So not a ton of blind resources and services and stuff. But the the first people that really stepped up were the Lions Clubs. Yeah. Yeah. They basically showed up at my parent's door when I was, you know, it was months and months before I was allowed to go home. And they said, what? What is your. You know, we heard your daughter's blind cause, you know, made the news. This was so rare. And Yeah. And so they they're the ones.   Dr. Kirk Adams: That are totally pin.   Penn Street: No. In my right eye, I I actually have a prosthetic eye. My left eye. I still have a little peripheral out of my left, but it's it's pretty fuzzy. It's. Gotcha. I try not to rely on it. It usually gets me into trouble if I do.   Dr. Kirk Adams: The lion's clubs are good for that. I mean, I, I lived in little teeny town Silverton, Oregon. We moved down there so I could go to the school for the blind for first, second and third grade. And the lions built our fun house at the school.   Penn Street: Exactly right.   Dr. Kirk Adams: When I was 14, they sent me to. There was an organization called Blind Outdoor Leisure Development. And they paid my way to go to Aspen, Colorado, to go down a bunch of other blind people. So. Yeah. Thank you. Lions.   Penn Street: Yes, Lions. Big, big shout out to you. So but yeah, I. And then like a lot of us, we really paid attention to, like our teachers and our mentors growing up. And I don't know about you, but there weren't a lot of well, actually, I was the only blind kid in the school all through high school. Yeah.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Fourth grade, through my doctorate. Yeah, after third grade.   Penn Street: And it's crazy. Where are we? There's a lot of us. Where are we? And but I, I really knew and appreciated how much my teachers helped. Not not just, you know. Oh, we'll pass you in English because we know you can't see the book, but they really went above and beyond to find accessibility where they could. And back then I'm 57. So back then there wasn't all the digital stuff that's now. Right, right. Things like that. And so even getting me access to Braille Rail was, you know, this crazy, crazy amount of energy had to go into that. But my parents did end up deciding to move to Colorado, which. Thank you. And part of that was there was, you know, the Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado, was actually internationally known. And and I needed a lot of medical help to keep going forward. And, and also just accessibility. You know, like teachers that actually knew how to teach blankets and stuff. So. So we moved out to Colorado and fell in love with the mountains and being outside and yeah. And I and I grew up at school came easy to me. I, I have no clue why. It's not that I'm super smart or anything. I am a puzzle solver. So I felt like school was a puzzle. And so if you kept the pieces together and you did them in a timely fashion, you got good grades and they moved you on. So it was it was really easy. And but I knew I wanted to become a teacher of some sort. Or a journalist like to write about people with disabilities. Like, this was especially after I got to Colorado. And even though there were no blind children in my school my teacher, she was one teacher, and she. I don't know how many schools she covered, but there was a lot of them. Well, like once a month, she would get us all together to go bowling or horseback riding or something.   Dr. Kirk Adams:

In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Seattle-based runner and social-impact professional Ixchel Lemus Bromley. The conversation traces her journey from Costa Rica to Pennsylvania and on to the Pacific Northwest, culminating in a college-age diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa that reshaped her sense of identity and mobility. Bromley explains how guided running restored the "true freedom" she once felt on solo runs, using hand- or waist-tethers and vivid verbal cues to replace anxiety with trust and exhilaration. Determined to share that liberation with others, she founded Free 2 Fly, a Sunday-morning adaptive running club now evolving into a nonprofit that pairs blind and low-vision athletes with sighted guides and is gearing up for its first 5 K event.   Beyond the track, Bromley leads the social-responsibility team at Brooks Running, where she safeguards worker rights across the brand's global supply chain—an extension of her passion for equitable access and inclusion. She and Adams trade stories of childhood athletics, the mechanics of safe pacing, and the broader message that alternative techniques can unlock performance and belonging for people with vision loss. The episode closes with Adams pledging his support and inviting listeners to volunteer as guides or runners, underscoring their shared conviction that partnership is the engine of empowerment.   TRANSCRIPT:   Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to Podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am Doctor Kirk Adams, speaking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I have a fellow Seattle person with me today, Ixchel Lemus Bromley and Ixchel, if you want to say hi.   Ixchel Lemus Bromley: Yeah. Hi, this is Ixchel. Thanks for having me.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Great. Awesome. So I'll just speak a little bit about myself for those who are listening, who might not know me. And then. Then I'd really like to hand hand you the, the talking stick Ixchel, and have you tell us about yourself. But I again, I'm Doctor Kirk Adams. I'm a totally blind person. I have been since age five, when my retinas both detached. So Ixchel and and I have had quite different journeys in visual impairment and blindness. I became totally blind very quickly. And I went to a school for blind kids for second and third grade, and there was no question that I needed to learn blindness skills. So I was taught braille as a six year old and how to travel confidently and gracefully with a long white cane, and then how to type on a typewriter so I could start into public school when I was ready. And that was fourth grade. And then I went all the way through, lived in small rural towns in Oregon and Washington. I was always the only blind student in all of my schools from fourth grade through my my doctoral program. But I entered the nonprofit sector about ten years after college, after spending ten years in banking and finance, entered the sector through becoming a professional fundraising person, was hired by the lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle to start their foundation and their fundraising program.   Dr. Kirk Adams: And thanks to their investments in me and my development, my professional development, I was privileged to become the president and CEO at the Lighthouse here in Seattle, which is a social enterprise employing blind and deaf blind people in a variety of businesses, most notably aerospace manufacturing, making parts for all the Boeing aircraft. I was recruited to join the board of the American Foundation for the blind. Afp. Which is Helen Keller's organization and one I had been familiar with since being a first grader at a school for the blind. As we had materials in the classroom developed by American Foundation for the blind, and I was given the opportunity and the privilege to become the president and CEO of the American Foundation for the blind. In 2016 moved from Seattle to New York City and then to the Washington, D.C. area and then back home during the pandemic and after managing AFB remotely for a time, I decided it was time for a change, and I stepped away from that great organization and wonderful role and started a consulting practice.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I call it Innovative Impact, LLC. I'm just three, three years in, and I mostly work with companies to help them accelerate inclusion of people who are blind in their workforce and getting a lot of traction in the cybersecurity industry, which is exciting and new. I am not a cybersecurity expert, but I am a blindness employment expert. So I've partnered with a cybersecurity company called Nova Coast, and we've developed the Apex program, which you can find at the Apex Apex program. And it's a virtual training and certification program to launch blind people into cybersecurity careers. And I'm very proud of it. So I, I, I mentioned it a lot. So yeah, with that, I'm let's see, married to my college sweetheart. We'll, we'll hit the 40 year anniversary mark next month. We have two grown children, one of whom is in Seattle, our son, who has blessed us with two amazing grandchildren. And our daughter lives in Los Angeles, and she'll be coming up Friday for her annual summer visit. So that's a that's a little about me. And now for the star of the show. You shall welcome. And we'd love to hear about your journey. As a blind person.   Ixchel Lemus Bromley: Yeah.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Thank you so much. We're we're where you're currently at and what you're working on. You're doing some amazing things in the community.   Ixchel Lemus Bromley: Thank you. Yeah. It's it's awesome to be talking with you today. And I'm always. Yeah, so, so amazed by all that you've done. So I feel very lucky to be here talking to you today. And thank you for everything that you've done for the community. It's it's truly amazing and so impactful. Thank you. Yeah. So I'm Estelle. I was born in San Jose, Costa Rica. I lived there for six years. My my dad is Guatemalan and my mom is American. So was born there. I lived there for six years and then moved to the United States when I was six. Grew up in the Pennsylvania area outside of Philadelphia. And when I was very little, there was some Someone noticed noticed that I had some visual issues. And, you know, I quickly went to the eye doctor when I was around 3 or 4 years old to understand what was going on. I got a pair of glasses. I remember my first pair were pink and Barbie themed, and I loved them. And I remember just being able to see through them and it was really amazing the, the sight that I had at the time and, and that transition I went through from like, really not being able to see much to having some clarity there. Then when I was six and I lived in Pennsylvania, Sylvania. I went to my annual eye doctor appointment, and my eye doctor at the time noticed that my pupils reacted a little strangely and abnormally to light.   Ixchel Lemus Bromley: And he he said that I was likely night blind. But that it wouldn't really be an issue unless I wanted to enlist. Those were the words that he told me. And so my mom and I were like, okay, well, that's what we were told. So let's let's just move on. And I was sick. So no plans to enlist at that time. And we moved on with it. But later on in my life when I was in middle school and then early high school, a lot of my hobbies were around dance and theater. And with dance and theater, you're backstage a lot, and the lighting is very, very dim. Or there's no light to help with that. And I noticed my my night vision was really not great. And I would tell everybody, you know, I'm night blind. That's what I've been told. I need a little bit more support at backstage. At that time. Then the night vision was a struggle, but it wasn't fully gone. So it just seemed like I had a little bit a harder time than most people, but I could still see a little bit and so was able to navigate a bit myself. As time went on, I got my driver's license and then I would drive even at night. Wow. Yep.   Dr. Kirk Adams: So. So in my experience something really significant in my life is I, I lived in these rural towns, and we lived out of town. And when I, when, when I turned 16, we lived in Silverton, Oregon. We lived out on Silver Silver Creek Falls Road, a couple of miles out of town. And when kids turned 16 they all got driver's licenses and they all got some sort of part time job or paid something. Yeah. And so that was super isolating for me and super psycho socially really, really hard. So I was pretty I was pretty sad about that. And, you know, the social scene shifted to car culture, and everyone drove everywhere and met, you know, by driving and so that that that was a tough time. So I am glad for you that you had the cool experience of driving.   Ixchel Lemus Bromley: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I can't I can't imagine that time, you know, in in your shoes. I think for me, what was interesting was I got my license, I was told I could drive, and I started driving at night and realized I shouldn't be driving. But it was this hard realization. And as a 16 year old, to make that decision when you know there's no one telling you you can't. All your friends are doing it and you know. Yeah. You become so independent and you want to join your friends. You want to feel like you are growing and you know, maturing in the same level. And you really sense that you shouldn't be driving at night. And so it ended up actually coming back to me. And I said, I've had some close calls. I shouldn't be driving at night. I think that there is a bigger

In this engaging episode, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Margaux Joffe, a board-certified cognitive specialist, accessibility champion and founder of Minds of All Kinds, to trace her journey from a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis at 29 to becoming a leading voice for neurodiversity in tech and beyond. Joffe recounts how learning she was neurodivergent reframed earlier struggles, inspired the women-focused Kaleidoscope Society project, and ultimately propelled her to create Yahoo's first Neurodiversity Employee Resource Group, which blossomed into a 35-office global network before she moved full-time into the company's storied accessibility team. Along the way she underscores the importance of dismantling invisible workplace barriers, from overwhelming procurement paperwork to inaccessible technologies, and credits mentors like accessibility luminaries Larry Goldberg and Mike Banach for sharpening her advocacy lens. The conversation then pivots to Joffe's entrepreneurial leap: launching Minds of All Kinds as an LLC dedicated to "learn, connect and lead" programming for neurodivergent professionals. Flagship offering ADHD Navigators has already graduated more than a hundred participants across fifteen cohorts, pairing evidence-based coaching with peer community to combat burnout and build strength-based career strategies. Joffe and Adams explore the ripple effects, parents modeling self-regulation for their children, companies re-thinking cognitive accessibility, and a broader "generational healing" that turns lived experience into systemic change. Their dialogue leaves listeners with a clear takeaway: inclusive design and empowered storytelling are not just accommodations, they're pathways to flourishing workplaces and lives. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am, said Doctor Kirk Adams. And today I have a fabulous guest who I have had the pleasure of knowing for quite a number of years now. Margaux Joffe is here. She is the founder of a nonprofit called Minds of All Kinds. So say hi, Margaux.   Margaux Joffe: Hi. Hi. Kirk. Hi everyone listening. Let me just say. Oh, Doctor Kirk. My Bad.   Dr. Kirk Adams: There you go. One time.   Margaux Joffe: Doctor Kirk.   Dr. Kirk Adams: We'll go doctor one time. But yeah, I, I and I come by that. For those who don't know me, I have a PhD in leadership and Change from Antioch University, which I completed about six years ago. And my dissertation it's called Journeys Through Rough Country, an ethnographic study of blind adults employed in large American corporations. So I interviewed a lot of really cool blind people working at brand name companies that we all know and found out to. To what did they attribute their success? What were their challenges and ongoing challenges and what are their disappointments? That was a bit of a surprise that I wanted people who would self-describe as successfully employed, and they all did. And they, they very clearly tied that success to compensation and economic freedom, and they all expressed a pretty strong degree of disappointment that they were the only person who was blind who'd reach that level in the org chart, that they didn't see anyone in leadership with the disability, that people who were junior to them and they felt less qualified were promoted beyond them, that they needed to constantly battle for accommodations that their employer would, for instance, decide to implement a new technology system and not take accessibility into account.   Dr. Kirk Adams: They would walk in one day to do their job and couldn't do it. So they had had had to continually, continually battle and really disappointed really, really a high level of disappointment that they were the exception rather than. And anyway, it's called Journeys Through Rough Country by Doctor Kirk Adams. You can find it with a search engine. And I'm proud of it. The doctoral work was really, really enlightening, talking to all these fellow blind individuals. And I'm blind myself. Have been since age five, when my retinas detached and I became totally blind very suddenly. And I went to a residential school for blind kids. State of Oregon, Oregon State School for the blind for first, second, and third grade. And I was given three gifts there. I was given really strong blindness skills. I had to learn how to read braille, travel with a cane, and type on a typewriter. So I could go to public school. When I was ready, I was given the blindness skills I was given the gift of high expectations. Not all kids with disabilities live in environments where people expect much of them. And sometimes those low expectations become internalized.   Dr. Kirk Adams: So I had high expectations from my family and my school, and then I then I was given that strong internal locus of control, and that that's something that everyone I interviewed for my dissertation talked about, that they had some set of experiences that gave them that belief deep in their bones that they could overcome. They could solve problems. They could carve their own path as, as opposed to a strong external locus of control where you think things, things are happening to me, and I can't really do much about that. So that, so that so that's a that's just a little bit about me. But we're really here to learn about you, Margaux. So I would love to hear about your journey as a person. With a disability. And what brought you to the point where you founded minds of all kinds and what you're currently doing, what the scope of activity is on your vision of the future because I know you have one. So I'll turn it over to you and I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll reserve the right to pop in and ask you a question from time to time. But really, here's the talking stick. I'm handing it to you.   Margaux Joffe: Okay. Thank you. I'm taking the talking stick. Thank you for having me on your podcast. It's so fun to do this after. I think we met in person maybe eight years ago or so when I was working at Yahoo. Yeah.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Brand new. Yeah. Just starting.   Margaux Joffe: I was just starting on the Yahoo accessibility team, and I believe you came maybe, maybe my first couple weeks in that role. So. Yeah, it's what a full circle moment. But yeah. So thank you for the introduction. I am proud to be a neurodivergent woman. I am a board certified cognitive specialist and the founder of Minds of All Kinds, which is an LLC platform for neurodivergent individuals to learn, connect and lead. And we also do training for companies to help them learn how to be more inclusive for minds of all kinds. And it's funny because I didn't always do this work, and I didn't always know that I was even neurodivergent. I have a background in the creative field, so I'm a former producer. About I spent about ten years producing everything from public health campaigns for the city of Boston to advertising campaigns for big brands in New York City and then tech campaigns in Silicon Valley. And that's how I where I started making my transition into accessibility. And really the turning point for me came when I was 29 and I was diagnosed with ADHD. That was really a life changing experience. That shifted how I understood myself, how I understood the world and LED to me creating a platform for women with ADHD, which ultimately led into my broader neurodiversity and accessibility work.   Dr. Kirk Adams: But a little bit more about that, and I think I misspoke when I said you founded a nonprofit. I think you just said you're an LLC.   Margaux Joffe: Yes. I just wanted to make that connection. And I think it's funny because one of the reasons I chose an LLC structure is because when it comes to running a business, when it comes to working, when it comes to just adulting and surviving in the world, there's so much paperwork. There's a term called administrative burden. And for people with cognitive disabilities, for people who are neurodivergent, sometimes it's the paperwork that can get in the way of our greatness. And I was literally just talking to somebody earlier this morning who is this incredible public speaker and futurist technologist who travels around the world working with big companies. And she was literally just telling me that she hasn't gotten a payment for one of her projects because she hasn't done the paperwork to get into their procurement system. And that's the blocker. And she's really struggling. And so that that's the thing that's one of the things for people to understand is that. There's so many invisible barriers. Yeah. That many other people don't understand why is this a big deal? You know, just like fill out this procurement paperwork.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Right?   Margaux Joffe: But things are not always cognitively accessible, and that keeps people out. And that keeps people out of financial opportunities. So I'm now I'm now I'm on my cognitive accessibility soapbox. But to answer your question.   Dr. Kirk Adams: I wanted to I also wanted to hear about to diagnosis. So you said the turning point came at 29 when you were diagnosed with ADHD. And, you know, I'm aware that people receive that diagnosis as adults. And what led you to the point where you were in a situation where you were being diagnosed or being treated, or what was the situation that led to you understanding that ADHD is one of your characteristics?   Margaux Joffe: Yeah. So it's interesting because when we're born with a certain type of brain, we don't know anything different. And that's how it was for

In this 30-minute episode, Dr. Kirk Adams speaks with John Robinson, quadruple-amputee entrepreneur and CEO of Our Ability, about the journeys that led them from navigating New York's subway and Amtrak to building tech that removes barriers for people with disabilities. Robinson recounts his path from NBC ad-sales to launching Our Ability, explaining how collaboration with Syracuse University students and successive IBM Watson and Microsoft Azure grants birthed the Jobs Ability AI engine. Today that platform draws around 15,000 monthly visitors and has matched more than 10,000 job-seekers with roles at companies such as CVS and Pfizer, proving that inclusive technology can scale. The conversation pivots to a new frontier: adapting that same AI core to connect disability-owned businesses with corporate procurement opportunities. Prompted by a Fortune-500 client, Robinson is gauging community demand through a concise six-question survey sent to DOBEs, already yielding a 9 percent response rate with overwhelming support. Adams underscores the larger vision, closing the procurement gap, expanding entrepreneurial possibility, and demonstrating that inclusion is a strategic advantage, before urging listeners to complete the survey, share it widely, and join a follow-up discussion in six months when the beta marketplace goes live.   TRANSCRIPT:   Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody. This is Doctor Kirk Adams, and you are listening to the very cleverly titled podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. And my guest today is John Robinson, who is founder and owner of Our ability. And I've known John, I think it was 2016 when I was Recruited to lead the American Foundation for the blind. As president and CEO. And left that that same role at the lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle and moved to New York City, lived in Brooklyn, worked at two Penn Plaza, which was right next door to Madison Square Garden in the heart of the Big Apple. And as a totally blind person my greatest orientation and mobility accomplishment was to learn how to take the F train from Park Slope to J Street Metro Tech and transfer to the A, and then take the A into Penn Station and up to 34th and into the office. So took took some leaps of faith. I know, I know, native New Yorkers, blind people who grew up there. It's not a thing. But but for me, I had to I had to screw my courage to the sticking point on that one. But anyway, I met I met John very soon after I, I it might have been because I had been very, very involved with disability in here in Washington state, and I think I was trying to connect with whoever was doing something locally.   Dr. Kirk Adams: And someone said, I should talk to John, and I called John, and you you graciously made the trip into Manhattan, came came to the office at AFB. We had a good talk and we we were very closely aligned on a number of things. Yes. As people with disabilities and entrepreneurs and innovators and leaders, I'll, I'll venture to say. And we've we've had a an ongoing dialogue since then. I really appreciate what John has done with our ability as far as creating a platform for people with disabilities and employers to connect. And now there's an exciting new venture, which I'll ask John to tell you about, which will also support the thriving of people with disabilities in business. But, John, I usually let my guests do most of the talking, so I probably just said about 90% of the words I'm going to say. So I would love to have you tell folks about yourself, your journey so far, how you became so passionate in advocacy and activism. What our ability is doing. How did our ability come to be? What's it doing now and where do you see it going?   John Robinson: Well, there's a lot there. Doctor Kirk Adams, I remember that meeting very well. You're exactly right. That's how it started. So if you were navigating the F train and God bless you for doing that. I was navigating the Acela train from Albany, actually, Rensselaer, down into Penn Station. And so that means, for me, navigating a lot of stairs, navigating elevators that don't work, navigating, carrying my backpack around so that I can use the washroom. I'm a quadruple amputee. I'm three foot eight. Limited extension of my arms and my legs. So our disabilities are different, but the the challenge of journey is is a challenge, and that's part of it. Similar. And so I remember the train trips very well to New York City. I very much try to avoid it as much as I possibly can. Mainly because it's just easier for me to jump in my truck with my hand controls and drive somewhere. But excuse me, new York is not easy to drive around, and it's not easy to park. So I do avoid New York as much as I can, but if I have to be there, it's it's navigating the train and the elevators. And so I empathize with what you were saying because.   Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, now now that I've heard this, it's even even more meaningful that you made that trek. So I really appreciate you coming in to see me.   John Robinson: We were at the time I was three years into this organization. We we have a s corp, so we have a corporation, and we had a nonprofit as well. The nonprofit was the one that was running the disability in New York entity, then NY, before the name change. We were happy to do it. It was something that we wanted to do. We had some businesses that supported us with some donations and businesses interested in what disability N was doing. Price Chopper Market 32, KeyBank, MT Bank among among those.   Dr. Kirk Adams: On for those for those who might not be familiar, I'll just give a really quick overview. So the disability in is disability. I in as an all in lean in disability in.org. It started out as the US Business Leadership Network. It was an initiative of the US Chamber of Commerce in the very early 2000. And it is a group of major corporations. 70 of the fortune 100 publicly traded large companies that have made a commitment to accelerate disability inclusion, really in three ways to employ more people with disabilities, to include people with disabilities, and design and marketing of products and services, and to do business with disability owned businesses. There is not a supplier diversity designation for disability owned business other than service disabled veterans like there are for women owned in eight A and a.m. Hubzone. So Disability In has created a certified disability owned business enterprise designation themselves, and the companies who are members have all agreed to count spend toward those certified disability owned businesses toward their supplier diversity goals. They have 20 plus local chapters, and they have a large annual international gathering. And they do some great things, particularly particularly in that sphere of very large, very large, publicly traded companies. So bless them for what they do.   John Robinson: Yes. And that's all exactly right. And at the time they were growing, we were growing. We had taken on the challenge of being the, the NY or disability in New York. But as we grew, we really wanted to focus more on technology and technology as a catalyst for opportunity. So we we started thinking about using our jobs board, which we had up mainly because of those businesses that were members they wanted. They had wanted to post jobs on our website and recruit. And so we realized that was a better opportunity for us to utilize technology. And so somewhere around 2018, we started having conversations with Syracuse University. Syracuse has a big information technology school. I'm a graduate of Syracuse. I still at the time had been on their alumni board. They came to us and asked us if they could use a capstone project in their grad school program to do something meaningful in the disability space. And what what could we use? And so that was a lot to unpack. And I realized what I really wanted to do is to see if we could use technology to do a better job in matching people to employment.   John Robinson: We, you know, we we in the disability space have lived and know about the unemployment or underemployment rate of, of our community. And so that's always been in the back of my mind. So we took the students we started working with IBM Watson. We quickly transitioned to Microsoft Azure. And Microsoft then gave us after many conversations, gave us an AI for good grant and then a second round of it, really to see if we could use gen AI to understand job descriptions and understand people. You know, now you think about where we are with ChatGPT and OpenAI, and it's also easy. Well, it wasn't easy five years ago as we were starting to build this. So we did. We built it, we broke it, built it again. And so now where we are today is if you upload the a resume PDF of your resume you or PDF for a LinkedIn profile, which is actually easier. You are the you have the beginnings of your profile. You answer a few questions, and then we pretty much instantly match you to jobs that are in our system. So this is what we've been working on.   Dr. Kirk Adams: You know, and that's a that's uploading to our ability.   John Robinson: Yeah. It's our ability. You can find the the login button and our, our ability jobs. It's at the top of the screen if you're navigating our system is also built by someone who's 100% blind. So it better be accessible inside. I laugh because I know it is and we care very deeply about it being functional and usable and that the job recommendations do the right thing and that you to jobs. So this is what we've be