AT Banter Podcast

The Guitar Dungeon is awash with excitement this week as Ryan, Rob, Steve, and special in-studio guest Grant welcome back Alexis Hillyard, creator of the YouTube cooking channel Stump Kitchen to the show. We discuss her advocacy work as well as how the Stump Kitchen channel has evolved before launching into an extended discussion on how advocacy and content creation can work together. You don’t wa...

Steve makes his somewhat triumphant return to the show for the first show of the Fall season where we discuss a new Audible accessibility feature that is under fire from publishers before we welcome David Errington, President and CEO of Accessible Media Inc into the Guitar Dungeon. Show Notes Major book publishers sue Amazon’s Audible over new speech-to-text feature https://www.theverge.com/2019/8...

It’s the last show of the summer and we celebrate by welcoming in Derek Featherstone, Chief Experience Officer at Level Access and Accessibility Rock Star, into the Guitar Dungeon for an extended discussion of Digital Accessibility. We discuss everything from how the industry has changed to the new Accessible Canada Act and what needs to happen to drive Accessibility forward. Show Notes Watch Dere...

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Paul Ruvolo, creator of the indoor navigation app Clew, to the Guitar Dungeon. He walks us through how this innovative app uses Augmented Reality to provide a virtual breadcrumb trail and some of the challenges that were faced in development. Show Notes Aira Goes Free https://aira.io/aira-is-free Get Clew on the App Store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clew/id12680778...

We’re back from vacation (again) and go full steam ahead on discussing a few recent news stories surround accessibility. From Lyft horror stories to self-service kiosks, Rob and Ryan cover a wide range of topics before welcoming back Karthik Kannan from Envision AI to announce some big promotional news.   Show Notes Wheelchair users say even accessible taxis will refuse rides in Vancouver https://...

This week we delve back into the always-hot topic of Accessible spaces as Rob and Ryan talk with Jessica Hipp, Chief Operating Officer of WayAround, an innovative Audio Tagging system that could help revolutionize public, home, and office settings. Show Notes WayAround https://www.wayaround.com/ Contact Jessica connect@wayaround.com New law requires pharmacies to provide “prescription readers” to...

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Amy Silverman, author of “My Heart Can’t Even Believe It” into the Guitar Dungeon this week where the three discuss a variety of topics including the language of disability, advocacy, and raising a daughter with Down’s Syndrome. Show Notes My Heart Can't Even Believe It: A Story of Science, Love, and Down Syndrome https://www.amazon.ca/My-Heart-Cant-Even-Believe/dp/1...

Every shop at Old Navy and wish you could purchase a t-shirt that could regulate temperature or monitor your vital signs? Well, you may be in luck soon. This week we talk with Jess Jur, Associate Professor of Textile Engineering, Chemistry & Science at NC State University's College of Textiles who gives us an overview of the notion of Smart Textiles and helps us breakdown what the implications are...

The show returns from a week long break as Rob and Ryan welcome friend of the show Colleen Connor back into the Guitar Dungeon, where they discuss everything you want to know (and likely a few things you don’t) about the current state of Audio Described content and where they see things (hopefully) going in the future. Show Notes BlindInspirationCast http://www.blindinspirationcast.com/ Audio Desc...

Ready to do some button mashing?? We take a deep dive into the history and future of Accessible Gaming with this week’s guest, Mike Feir, who is a regular contributor on AMI as well as author of several books. Mike’s experience with Accessible Gaming goes all the way back to the 90s, and he discusses what it was like back then and where he sees gaming going these days. Show Notes Audio Games http:...

This week it’s all about Apple as we welcome Tyler Stephen from AppleVis into the Guitar Dungeon to give us a rundown of the major Accessibility announcements that were made at Apple’s annual Developer’s Conference.   Show Notes Ali Stroker Makes History as First Wheelchair User to Win a Tony https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/09/theater/ali-stroker-oklahoma-tony-awards.html WWDC 2019 as it happened:...

A very special episode this week as we spend the entire hour talking with Kelly Goto, respected presence in the UX, Service Design and CX communities and Founder of Goto Media. We discuss the often mysterious world of design, and get an inside view of some of the most important design elements of the past 20 years before diving into the importance of universal design.    Show Notes Goto Research /...

Rob and Ryan fly solo this week while Steve is out and welcome Amanda Tolson and Jenna Reed from En-Vision America to the show.  We discuss En-Vision’s long standing presence in the Assistive Technology community, dive into everything we wanted to know about bar code scanning, and the importance of Accessible Prescription labeling solutions. Show Notes AODA Alliance More Details on Amendments to A...

This week Rob, Ryan, and Steve welcome local photographer, accessibility advocate, and one of the busiest people we know, Cathy Browne into the Guitar Dungeon to talk about her photography, some of her advocacy work and the importance of accessible environments. Show Notes Google Unveils Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/google-glass-enterprise-edition-2-2/ Cat...

Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day! It’s been a week since Google I/O, Google’s big annual developer’s conference, and we welcome have three of the Google Accessibility Team to talk about some of the Accessibility announcements that were made at the event. Show Notes New Microsoft Patent Reveals Plans for Braille Controller https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/05/06/new-microsoft-patent-reveals...

It’s back to business as usual this week as we pick up the pieces from the 150th episode and welcome Dr. Amy Kavanagh to the Guitar Dungeon, all the way from across the pond! Rob and Ryan explain what happened to Episode 150 and cover a bit of news before chatting with Dr. Kavanagh about her Twitter campaign of #JustAskDontGrab and the origins behind it. Show Notes Lego Creates Braille Building Bl...

Rob, Ryan, and Steve cover a few news stories of the week and then are joined by Noah Callan, CEO and founder of the website Disability Tek.  Noah discusses his excitement about assistive technology, what impact it’s had on his life, and the state of Apple Accessibility. Show Notes Intuitive Limbs: The New Era In Prosthetic Technology https://www.forbes.com/video/6000038875001/#192bb3472c57 Toront...

This week we’re joined by Sam Seavey from the popular YouTube Channel The Blind Life.  We discuss the state of Assistive Technology, what kind of AT he uses in his daily life, and the trials and tribulations of being a YouTube Content Creator.  Show Notes The Blind Life YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNbzN3eHbLKPzltSB560DkA Blind Shell Accessible Mobile Phone https://www.blindshe...

This week Rob, Ryan and Steve welcome Karthik Kannan, co-Founder and Chief Engineer at Envision Technologies, into the Guitar Dungeon all the way from the Netherlands! We discuss the details of the Envision app, which assists blind or partially sighted users and the power of AI and machine learning that drives it.   Show Notes Envision AI https://www.letsenvision.com/ Download Envision AI for Andr...

This week we’ve got a very important show – if you only listen to one episode of AT Banter this year, this is the one! Renowned disability advocate David Lepofsky joins us to talk all about C-81, the proposed Accessible Canada Act and details some of the shortcomings of the Act which he and many other disability advocates hope will be rectified before the Act passes into law. Listen in and find ou...

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Nancy Thorogood, Research Associate from the Rick Hansen Institute into the Guitar Dungeon to talk about the Institute and the work that they do on Spinal Cord Injury research, all the while trying not to ask stupid questions (and sometimes succeeding). Show Notes Rick Hansen Institute http://rickhanseninstitute.org/ RHI and Stem Cell Research http://rickhanseninstit...

Assistive Technology geeks, rejoice! This week it’s all about gadgets and shiny objects as the boys are joined by Albert Ruel and Kim Kilpatrick from Get Together With Technology to talk about the recent CSUN Conference. Albert, Kim, and Steve tell us all about the highlights from the conference and the new technology that was on display as well as some of the Conference's surprises and standout e...

This week we’re visited by local visually impaired artist, advocate, motivational speaker and self-proclaimed Renaissance Man, Richard Harlow. Richard tells us how he was first diagnosed with the rare condition LHON, how it impacted his life, and how it eventually saw him begin a life of advocacy that resulted in the city of Nanaimo adopting a new Accessibility icon. Show Notes Delta Air Lines ban...

This week we’re excited to welcome back Shawn Marsolais, Founder and Executive Director of Blind Beginnings to the Guitar Dungeon. We catch up with what Blind Beginnings has been up to for the past year and discuss some of the issues that visually impaired people face on a day to day basis and what solutions and programs Blind Beginnings is actively working on. Show Notes Walmart Is Phasing Out 'G...

Recently, a small Braille and Tactile Graphics company in Windsor, Ontario was awarded a licensing deal that allows them to produce a series of Braille and Tactile Graphic activity books for children. This week we’re joined by Rebecca Blaevoet, accountant and marketer for Tactile Vision Graphics, who gives us some insight on what it was like to be awarded this huge licensing deal, its implications...