Blind Abilities

FocusOnFitness is a series of basic exercises you can do in your house, in the dorm or during a short break. Using the natural surrounding without having to find the right equipment, the best gym or the perfect time to do a little workout. Focus on Fitness is all about doing it when you can and hey, why not? Maria Johnson, aka Girl Gone Blind, joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to F...

FocusOnFitness is a series of basic exercises you can do in your house, in the dorm or during a short break. Using the natural surrounding without having to find the right equipment, the best gym or the perfect time to do a little workout. Focus on Fitness is all about doing it when you can and hey, why not? Maria Johnson, aka Girl Gone Blind, joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to F...

In this tenth episode of  Wellness Wednesday , Beth Gustin, LPC and Robin Ennis, LCSW, CPC, finish up on their talk of depression with a bit on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SADS) and  elaborate on what they think about making New Year's Resolutions. Keeping the resolutions attainable, limited and focused on goals such as professional, themes such as acts of kindness and less on personal challenges...

FocusOnFitness is a series of basic exercises you can do in your house, in the dorm or during a short break. Using the natural surrounding without having to find the right equipment, the best gym or the perfect time to do a little workout. Focus on Fitness is all about doing it when you can and hey, why not? Maria Johnson, aka Girl Gone Blind, joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to F...

Greetings from Blind Abilities , Thank you all for listening and thank you to all the wonderful hosts on the Blind Abilities Network. You all make us what we are and I am so fortunate to be able to work with all of you, I am blessed. Serina, Callie, Seyoon, Robin, Beth, Sarlie, Dacia, Jesse, Serena Olsen, Simon and Chee Chau and Marlon. And all the others who have made an impact to the shows, than...

Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired . held the 3rd Annual Sight Tech Global 2022, Virtual and in-person event.  Kevin Chao attended virtually for the first 2 days and Being just 20 minutes away, Kevin attended the first in-person event put on by  the Vista Center and documented his experience. You can find Kevin's Sight Tech Global 2022 document below. It was a pleasure to have Kevin...

Apple introduced a new feature called Sing when iOS 16.2 was released. You can now drop the volume level of the vocals in a song on Apple Music so you can take over the vocals of millions of songs. Apple has created some Sing playlist in many categories and genres so you can find plenty of songs to sing along with. The one caveat is that you have to be a subscriber to Apple Music, and have one of...

In this 9th episode of Wellness Wednesday, Beth Gustin, LPC and Robin Ennis, LCSW, CPC, describe a variety of types of depression, the symptoms and ways one may cope with depression. They stress contacting a therapist for diagnosis if one feels some symptoms coming on. Depression is wide-spread and a lot of depression is undiagnosed. learn about the different types of depression and some coping ti...

Our guest today is Dave Epstein, founder of AwareWolf Gear, the home of the All-Terrain Cane . Dave shares the origin of the ATC including all of the steps he took to create the cane, from borrowing tools and pieces from the local hiking store, to adding parts from other traditional canes, through developing three completed prototypes, finally landing on the final version of the All-Terrain Cane t...

Serina is back with Callie and Jeff in the Blind Abilities Studio bringing you this lushes Tech Abilities show. Seyoon is hard at the December Grind of College so we let him be and flipped on the microphones and hit the "On the Air" light outside the studio door. Here are just some of the planned items and topics however, in between the Tidbits are little nuggets of priceless wisdom and jewels pla...

When speaking to businesses ,adding Accessibility to Diversity Equity and Inclusion, an IDEA worth Spreading.is what John Samuel is all about. As CEO of ABLR Works , John talks about a new program that they have developed to teach Blind and Visually Impaired students to become Digital Accessibility Testers. ABLR Works has teamed up with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' ...

Shane DeSantis, Transition Coordinator at State Services for the Blind, hosts the College101 Webinar with 3 unique college students giving their unique perspective on how they are succeeding and succeeded in their college journey. learn from their experiences and suggestions as they respond to questions submitted from high school students, college students and teachers. Are you interested in atten...

Program Director, Alicia Smith and Training and Program Specialist, Brian Switzer, join Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities studio to talk about the latest offerings at Perkins Career Launch at Perkins is currently offering week-long Tech Bootcamp sessions to help adults use access technology to work effectively and efficiently with the tools most commonly used in the workplace: Google Workspace...

Menus4All Vice president of Marketing, Stephany Jones, returns to the blind Abilities studio to announce the launch of their new app, Menus4All . The largest and most accessible menu for the Blind and Visually Impaired. With over 750,000 unique menus from United States and Canada, this well organized and accessible app is the cat's meow. From the voiceover accessibility, headings, near me list pop...

Jenine Stanley joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about the upcoming changes happening to the retail and community plans at Aira. With the changing economy and needs of explorers, Aira has made adjustments to forge forward into the upcoming years to provide the great service that we all have become accustomed to and use when we need that instant access to information. You ca...

In this eighth  episode of  Wellness Wednesday , Beth Gustin, LPC and Robin Ennis, LCSW, CPC, explore how they think about gratitude and ways to express gratitude. It's not just the big things, the little things matter, too. Check out all the Wellness Wednesday episodes. Full Transcript Show Hosts:             Robin Ennis on the web at www.robinennislcsw.com             Beth Gustin, LPC, NCC, EMDR...

The crew minus one is back again and filled with gratitude and news from around the community, industry and all parts involved. Callie, Seyoon and Jeff take a dive into the latest news and tech tidbits and give a lot of their personal experience with everything mentioned. We hope you enjoy and here are some useful links from this episode:   Registration has opened for the annual Braille Readers Ar...

Apple just released the Emergency SOS by Satellite feature for all the iPhone 14 series owners. In the settings, one can go to Emergency SOS and at the bottom of the screen is a "Try Demo" button. In this iPhone101 demo, Jeff Thompson dives in and goes off the grid to give you an overview of this incredible feature. It is important that one considers setting up their Medical I.D. in the Health App...

In this episode of Job Insights Serina Gilbert, Sarlie Drakos, Dacia Vanalstine and Jeff Thompson talk about your presence on Social Media platforms and how your profile, your presence can influence job recruiters, potential employers, and decision makers during the job interview process. How to clean up your past and build a purposeful and positive presence on social media that may help you land...

Blind Abilities welcomes Shane DeSantis, Transition Coordinator at State Services for the Blind of Minnesota, to the studio to talk about an upcoming College 101 webinar.   Are you interested in attending college to gain education and training needed to meet your employment goals? Do you have questions about what the transition to college will look like and what skills are needed to be successful...

In this seventh episode of  Wellness Wednesday , Beth Gustin, LPC and Robin Ennis, LCSW, CPC, address a listener's question about what one can do as a blind or visually impaired person if they should find themself in an active shooter situation. Beth and Robin share their agency training experience, thoughts and ideas  Full Transcript Be sure to  check out all the Wellness Wednesday episodes and s...

A Big salute to the entire Accessibility Experience Team formally at Twitter. As part of the takeover at Twitter and all the layoffs, the entire Accessibility Experience Team at Twitter has been laid off. Accessibility Experience Team Manager, Gerard Koen, released a twitter thread acknowledging the members of the Accessibility Experience Team, the work they did and is looking forward to working o...

Jeff and Pete welcome mat Carson into the Blind Abilities studio today. Matt is a Teacher of the Visually Impaired, a musician, a singer songwriter who is proud to write and perform sad songs that fit neatly into the country music genre. Matt has written, performed, recorded and produced dozens of songs, most of which he produced himself in his home studio. Matt released his first full length albu...

In this sixth episode of  Wellness Wednesday , Beth Gustin, LPC and Robin Ennis, LCSW, CPC, continue the conversation on Bullying and move it to the workplace. How it may look and what you can do to help your situation or another's situation if need be. Check out all the Wellness Wednesday episodes.   Show Hosts:             Robin Ennis on the web at www.robinennislcsw.com             Beth Gustin,...

Serina, Callie, Seyoon and Jeff chill out in the Blind Abilities Studio to bring you the Tech Abilities Show. From Avatars getting legs, Apple's new Savings plan, Air Tag battery replacement, new iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max for Seyoon and jeff, to Air Friers being Accessible, new Apple TVs, iPads new and the massive iPad Pro with the M2 chip. Wow factor gets tested. But, is this too much iPad? With...