AT Banter Podcast

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Kimberly Parsley, a blind podcaster from Kentucky, to the show to discusses her podcast "Demand and Disrupt," which focuses on disability issues beyond blindness. She shares her personal journey including her rare genetic disorder, Von Hippel-Lindau, which led to her blindness and loss of hand function and we talk about the need for continuous advocacy, the balance b...

Welcome to 2025! It’s the first episode of the new year and we are thrilled to once again celebrate World Braille Day (January 4th) with guests Jen Jesso from PRCVI (Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired) and Riane LaPaire from NNELS (National Network for Equitable Library Services). We discuss the importance of Braille literacy and the challenges in promoting it, including the high...

Get ready to jingle all the way with our festive holiday special! Join Rob, Steve, Lis, and Ryan as they unwrap a world of Christmas traditions, sip on their favorite holiday spirits,  reminisce about past yuletide episodes filled with laughter and cheer and even break out a new holiday song! Travel with us from the enchanting tale of Ukraine's Christmas spider to Iceland's mischievous Yule Cat an...

The Canada Disability Benefit is new monthly benefit that received royal assent on June 22, 2023 whose goal was to reduce poverty and support the financial security of working-age persons with disabilities. However, with the recent announcement that this Benefit will only provide a supplementary benefit of up to $200 a month, it has received pushback from the disability community. Rob and Ryan wel...

This week we dive into the topic of accessible travel as Rob, Ryan, Lis and Steve welcome Robin East, Vice Chair of Independent Living Canada and Co-Chair of the Transportation Committee at Council of Canadians with Disabilities to the show. We discuss a recent incident involving a deaf woman with a service dog being removed from a Porter Airlines flight and highlight systemic issues in airline tr...

This week Rob, Ryan and Steve welcome friend of the show and founder of Blind Beginnings, Shawn Marsolais, back to announce a very momentous milestone for the organization – after 10 years of being in a shared office space, Blind Beginnings is moving to their own larger space in Vancouver in January 2025. The organization aims to raise $25,000 through a Giving Tuesday and Year End campaign to set...

This week Rob, Ryan and Lis welcome Nicole Bergstrom, Hilton's Senior Director of Accessibility to the show to discuss Hilton’s partnership with Be My Eyes. Nicole explains the integration of Be My Eyes' support with Hilton employees, emphasizing the importance of choice and training for Hilton Customer Care representatives. The conversation highlights Hilton's efforts to enhance travel experience...

This week Rob and Ryan discuss the challenges and misconceptions surrounding invisible disabilities with Jess Stainbrook, Executive Director of the Invisible Disabilities Association. They explore the organization's efforts to raise awareness and advocate for people with invisible disabilities, including legislative initiatives to implement disability ID symbols on government IDs and training for...

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Scott Martin, a podcaster and soon-to-be author, who shares his journey becoming a quad amputee to coaching soccer, adopting children, and much more. Scott discusses his upcoming book, set for release on June 9, 2026, coinciding with the 2026 World Cup, his podcast entitled ‘Life Is A Road Trip’, and the importance of advocacy and the need for societal change. The co...

It’s that time of year again—spooky season is upon us! Join Rob, Ryan, Steve, and Lis for our annual Halloween episode, where things get delightfully weird. In this special edition, we summon the “Ghosts of Assistive Technology Past,” play a round of Mad Scientist to create ridiculous ‘FrankenAT’ inventions, and roast each other with some hilariously bad costume ideas. AT Banter is brought to you...

This week Rob, Lis and Ryan welcome Evan Starnes from Blind Level Tech, a podcast focused on assistive technology. Evan shares the origins and evolution of Blind Level Tech, emphasizing its goal to educate older listeners about technology before chatting about current AT trends, including AI's role in accessibility, real-time video description and AI-generated content. They also discuss the potent...

What do a mini-moon asteroid with a terrible name, romance at an Aldi and pickle-making in a hospital all have in common? No, they aren’t all various types of conspiracy theories, they are just three of many Good News story we are featuring on this week’s very special Good News episode of the show! Join Rob, Steve, Ryan, Lis, and special guests Casey and Cassandra from the Rare With Flair podcast...

This week, Rob and Ryan are joined by Lainie Ishbia, a TEDx speaker and disability lifestyle advocate. Lainie shares her experiences living with Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, her advocacy work, and her website, Trend-Able, which empowers people with disabilities to find stylish and functional clothing. During the conversation, Lainie highlights the significance of adaptive fashion and the urgent ne...

This week, Rob, Ryan, Lis, and Steve sit down with Jacob Shymanski, host of AMI Today, a live show on AMI-audio and YouTube that airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Eastern. Jacob provides an overview of the show’s format, which serves as a digest of various AMI-audio programs and includes in-depth interviews with prominent voices from the disability community. During the conversation, Jacob—who is visually...

This week, Rob, Ryan, and Steve are joined by returning guest Donna Jodhan, an advocate and author, to discuss her latest initiatives. Donna shares insights on her new focus—transition programs designed to help youth with disabilities prepare for the workforce, enhancing their value to employers. The conversation also revisits Donna’s landmark 2010 court case challenging the accessibility of Canad...

The summer is over and that means AT Banter returns to full strength as Rob, Ryan, Lis and Steve welcome Joshua Ang, host of the new AMI show Got Game to the show. They discuss the premise and origins of the show, which involves six youth with disabilities from all over the country coming together to a Board Game café to play accessible board games and discuss their respective lived experiences be...

Rob and Ryan welcome Penn Street, host of the Blind Chick Podcast, who shares her journey of losing her vision due to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. The three dive into a discussion of the importance of early intervention, mentorship, and community support as well as the need for better representation and accessibility in various aspects of life, including dating apps and government before talking abou...

Rob and Ryan gather together on a Friday night just in time to welcome Rocky Batzel and Chason Sordoni, founders of SnapSlide, an innovative child-resistant closure mechanism which is designed for easier accessibility for people with limited strength, arthritis, or those with one arm, or anyone who may struggle with traditional child resistant lids. They also get into a rousing discussion about un...

Rob, Lis, and Ryan take a break from practicing Olympic Breakdancing long enough to welcome Jonathan Price to the show to discuss his role at Colorado based non-profit that produces audio newspapers, magazines, and podcasts for the blind and low vision community as Podcast Producer. They discuss shared their experiences and insights on creating and growing a successful podcast, highlighting the im...

Rob, Ryan and Lis welcome Amy Amantea and her writing partner Rena Cohen to the show to talk about their new Radio Play Podcast entitled “Disability Tour Bus”. They talk all about the about how the play and how it came about, its themes, and why it is that the Arts can be such a successful platform for transmitting its of inclusion and disability.   Show Transcript https://atbanter.com/wp-content/...

Rob, Ryan and Steve rise early once again in order to welcome Luke Anderson, Executive Director of the StopGap Foundation back to the show to give us some updates on the organization which works to build portable ramps for businesses while highlighting the importance of accessibility and inclusion in public spaces. He also details Stop Gap’s recent innovative marketing campaign called, The Inacces...

Rob, Ryan, and Steve rise early once again in order to welcome Peter Tucic, Director of Strategic Partnerships for HumanWare to the show to talk about their innovative new multipurpose, multiline, tactile electronic Braille device, The Monarch. They discuss what makes The Monarch unique, the new technology that drives the device, and its potential to revolutionize the education space for students...

Rob, Ryan, Steve, and Lis gather together for a full house this week to welcome author LK Bowen to talk about her debut novel, “For Worse”. They discuss the novel’s origins, how the choice was made to make the protagonist share LK’s eye condition of retinitis pigmentosa, and the importance of representation and agency in literature and media.    Show Transcript https://atbanter.com/wp-content/uplo...

Summer is in full swing so it seems only fitting that this week’s episode is all about heading to Camp! Join us as Rob, Ryan and Lis welcome Alex Jurgenson and Matthew Alvarnez from the Camp Bowen Division of the Canadian Organization of the Blind and DeafBlind. They discuss Camp Bowen’s history as a longtime venue for campers who are blind or partially sighted, its current line-up of Summer Camps...

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Martijn van der Spek, app developer and founder of Sparkling Apps to the podcast to talk about his new revolutionary image and video description app, PiccyBot. They explore the latest developments in AI-powered speech recognition and description, highlighting their potential to revolutionize descriptions by offering personalized, conversational, and human-like intera...