AT Banter Podcast

Recorded on World Braille Day, the AT Banter Gang sits down with a full house of Braille advocate superstars, including Riane LaPaire from National Network for Equitable Library Service, Adam Wilton and Jen Jesso from Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired, and Charmaine Co from Centre for Equitable Library Access. We dive into the importance of World Braille Day, some of the Braille...

It’s the first show of a brand new year and we couldn’t be more excited to start things off with a bang as Ryan and Rob welcome social media superstar and author, advocate, and musician Heather Hutchison to the show. We talk about how she began her career as a content creator, what it’s like material that is both entertaining as well as educating,  her passion for music and her albums, and much mu...

It’s hard to believe, but it’s that time of season once again! The trees have been decorated, the lights put up and once again we have gathered a collection of friends of the show together to celebrate the holiday season! Joining Rob, Ryan, Steve and Lis this year is Shawn Marsolais of the Limitless Podcast, Riane LaPaire from the National Network for Equitable Library Services, and Melissa Hope f...

This week the entire AT Banter gang reunites in order to welcome Ean Price, Peer Team Lead at Technology for Living and Founder of ICAN Resource Group to the show. They discuss his role at Technology for Living and the work they do around Assistive Technology and how he came to found ICAN as well as the importance of open source AT and accessible travel. Show Transcript https://atbanter.files.word...

This week Rob and Ryan welcome  Riane LaPaire and Leah Brochu from the National Network for Equitable Library Services and Sarah Smith-Eivemark from Penguin Random House Canada to discuss their recent partnership to provide braille editions of two new books from cooking legend Jamie Oliver. They discuss the books, how the partnership came about, the funding that allowed the partnership to happen a...

When Kari Brown-John sat down to try to book passage on a new ferry service between Nanaimo and Vancouver last summer, she was in for a big surprise. As it turns out, their policy was not to allow power wheelchairs on board. What started as a routine trip ended up splashed in the local media, and this week Kari sits down with Rob, Ryan, and Lis to tell her story and talk about the other various st...

We’re doing it at 300 BPM this week (if you’re a bass player you will get that joke) as we welcome Ciara Moser, a professional bassist who has also been blind since birth and has just released a new album called, “Blind, So What?”. We talk to her about her passion for music and where it all started, her podcast, how advocacy and education is incorporated into her music and brand, and much much mor...

It’s that time of year again, when the pumpkins are placed on the doorsteps and witches and ghouls gather for tricks or treats! It’s also that time when the hosts of AT Banter gather together, drinks in hand, to engage in a little Halloween fun and nonsense, and this year is no different! Come join us as we welcome Shawn Marsolais and Keisha Anderson from the Limitless Podcast to help us ring in t...

In July of 2023, Scott Rees swam more than 30 kilometres across the Strait of Georgia, from Vancouver to Nanaimo, in just under 11 hours as part of a fundraiser for Canadian Guide Dogs. Join us this week as we sit down with Scott to talk about his vision journey with retinitis pigmentosa, his own experience getting his Guide Dog Caleb, what prompted him to start up this ambitious fundraiser, and w...

Prepare to have your funny bone tickled this week (or if you’re Lis, your hand stabbed) as we welcome Steven Verdile, founder and Editor-in-Chief of the disability satire site, The Squeaky Wheel. We learn about how the site came to be and some of the challenges surrounding a satire site that centers on disability, as well as using humor to shine a spotlight on ableism and invoke social change. Sho...

It’s something a little different this week as Ryan, Rob, and Lis welcome back Shawn Marsolais, founder of Blind Beginnings and host of the Limitless Podcast back once again for a freeform, roundtable discussion about advocacy. We discuss everything from advocacy burnout to whether or not it’s fair that the community has to feel like they need to advocate and educate all the time. So what are you...

Better late than never! We didn’t get around to our Anniversary show in May due to scheduling conflicts, so we’re doing it in September (mainly because we never squander an opportunity to drink, celebrate ourselves, and be silly) to celebrate our 8 1/3 year Anniversary. The gang gathers together along with very special guest Shawn Marsolais of Blind Beginnings and the Limitless Podcast for some an...

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Daniel Lubiner and Matthew Bullis from The TouchPad Pro Foundation to talk about their innovative braille teaching tool, The Braille Doodle. They discuss The Braille Doodle’s origin, how it works, and the importance of Braille literacy world-wide. Show Transcript https://atbanter.files.wordpress.com/2023/09/at-banter-podcast-episode-350-the-braille-doodle-and-touchpa...

This week Rob and Ryan sit down with Ross Linnett, CEO of Recite Me, makers of a cloud-based assistive toolbar and online accessibility checker. They discuss Recite Me’s origins in advocacy, what differentiates it from other players in the toolbar and overlay space, and touch on some of the controversy surrounding the industry and what changes need to be made. Show Transcript https://atbanter.file...

This week the show returns to its Assistive Technology roots and gives Rob and Ryan a chance to geek out once again with fellow AT specialists Cory Ballard and Luke Scriven, hosts of the YouTube channel Vision Forward's Tech Connect. They discuss the organization the work for and the services it provides, how the YouTube channel got its start and its main purpose, the challenges of AT training and...

Back to our regular programming this week as Rob, Ryan, Lis, and Steve welcome singer/songwriter, author, motivational speaker, and reality show star Mario Bonds to the show to discuss everything from his journey through vision loss at age 9, through to his love of assistive technology, music, and how he almost got beat up on the set of the reality show, The Glee Project. It’s an open and earnest...

Ever wonder what happens at the AT Banter Podcast before the guest arrives or the show gets started? Ever wonder what topical and hard hitting subjects they may bring up and debate while they patiently wait for their guest to arrive? If this has been keeping you up at night, then this episode is what you’ve been waiting for, dear listener. Dubbed our “pre-podcast show” or the “podcast before the p...

This week Ryan, Rob, and Lis are visited by YouTube content creator and podcaster Carrie Morales of Carrie On Accessibility! We discuss her channel and its content, how she developed such an interest in technology and accessibility at an early age, her creation process, what upcoming assistive technology devices she’s excited about, and much much more! Show Transcript https://atbanter.files.wordpr...

It’s that time again dear listeners! With all the news coming out these days of the bad variety, we thought it was high time to take a break from our regularly scheduled programming and host another one of our famous (or infamous) Good News Shows! Not a whit of bad news in this episode, we cover everything from emancipated lab monkeys to sawfish mating scars and a whole bunch of other great news t...

Set the table and get your Pepto Bismo ready, this week the gang in headed into the kitchen – The Blind Kitchen to be exact! Rob, Ryan and Steve sit down with Debra Erickson, executive chef and founder of The Blind Kitchen, an organization that brings adaptive tools, helpful strategies, and specialized knowledge to blind and vision-impaired people who want to cook safely, confidently, and independ...

This week we go back to our Assistive Technology roots as Mike Calvo and Matt Campbell from Pneuma Solutions (formerly Serotek) stop by to give us an update on their new cloud based assistive technology products, and discuss everything from pricing to the importance of developing accessible software from the ground up. Show Transcript https://atbanter.files.wordpress.com/2023/07/at-banter-podcast-...

The gang is back together again just in time to welcome Michiel Janssen, founder of Ayes to the show to talk about their AI-driven app called OKO, a navigation solution for the blind and visually impaired that uses AI and a smartphone's back camera to recognize pedestrian signals and provides audio and haptic feedback to the user. Show Transcript https://atbanter.files.wordpress.com/2023/07/podcas...

Rob, Steve and Ryan sit down this week with Peter Field from the Triple Vision Podcast to get an update on their podcast which was created to recount the past, present, and future of blindness in Canada from a lived experience perspective. Show Transcript https://atbanter.files.wordpress.com/2023/06/at-banter-podcast-episode-341-triple-vision-returns.pdf Show Notes Triple Vision Podcast https://tr...

It’s a huge show this week as Rob, Ryan, Steve and Lis are honored to welcome Associate Professor at Stony Brook University, two-time author, politician, disability advocate, and official honorary Canadian, Brooke Ellison to talk about her journey through disability, her new book, “Look Both Ways”, and so much more. It’s not often that a guest can leave Lis speechless with her accomplishments, so...

This week Ryan and Rob welcome audio description writer Darla Biccum from Descriptive Video Works to the show to give us an inside look at the writing process and how effective and impactful descriptions are produced before discussing the future of Audio Description and whether AI may have a place in the process at some point (Spoilers … nope). Show Transcript https://atbanter.files.wordpress.com/...