Blind Abilities

Kimberly Arcand, Visualization Scientist Emerging Technology Lead for NASA's Chandra Observatory at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard and Smithsonian, has been working with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt, from the  Talk Description to Me  Podcasts, describing imagery created from data gathered by a variety of telescopes. Kimberly's work in visualization has connected her up with Christine and JJ to...

Today Jeff and Raqi are joined in the studio by Brandon Biggs, inclusive designer and Engineer with The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute (SKI), the foremost organization for vision research in the U. s. Brandon is involved in three major projects at SKI, including the development of the Cam IO app, which allows blind and visually impaired individuals to digitally annotate and navigate objec...

Tanja Milojevic had a passion for audio since her childhood and has followed her dream of becoming a voice artist and now creates, participates and collaborates with many other creatives in the field of voice artistry. From voice overs, audio description, and her favorite pastime, Audio Dramas. Tanja joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities studio to talk about how Tanja arrived at being a Voice...

Blind Abilities adds to their iPhone 101 demonstrations series with a review of two simple but time saving tips found in your keyboard settings. Just go to your iOS settings app, flick down to general, go to keyboard and there you will find these two convenient shortcuts: The Period Shortcut, and the Auto Capitalization features. These two features are often overlooked and will save you valuable t...

Jeff Thompson goes through the set up process on a couple of AirTags using his iPhone. The process is nearly automatic and in no time you won't be losing a thing. Kind of. If you have an iPhone 11 or 12 running iOS 14.5, you are good to go. Although, the iPhone SE, released in 2020, does not sport the A1 Nero Chip Near Field Communication (NFC) is not part of the SE features. You can find AirTags...

Blind Abilities brings you another episode in the iPhone 101 demonstrations and reviews series which will add to your arsenal of Keyboard shortcuts in the Text Replacement section of your Keyboard Settings. This one will show you just how easy it is to add emojis to your library of readily available shortcuts.  Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com o...

RaqiG, Serina and Jeff join together to talk tech, smack and some week old Spring Loaded news. Marlon storms back and joins Jeff in the creatives corner to add some news relief. Air Tags are selling fast and iOS 14.5 is out and you can keep that mask on, if you sport an Apple Watch that is. Serina orders a new  LG Gram laptop , graduates from AFB Leadership 2021 program, gives us a tease about the...

Matt Ater, Vice President at Vispero, joined Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities studio to talk about Vispero and what he and his team is doing to enhance the user experience and opportunities to learn about the products we have all come to know, such as the ever so popular screen reader, Jaws. Matt talks about the importance of the user experience and how the Vispero team is reaching out to list...

Jeff Thompson and Pete Lane are joined in the Blind Abilities studio by Sandhya Rao. They recently met Sandhya a few weeks ago along with Michael McCulloch as they discussed the amazing organization called, I Blind User's Group, (iBug). You can listen to the  iBugToday episode on Blind Abilities In this episode, they shift the focus to Sandhya, the person. Sandhya is currently employed as an Attor...

Dr. Ashley Tuan, Vice President of Medical Devices at Mojo Vision, joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities studio about the development of a new and innovative product for low vision individuals called Mojo Lens.  Dr. Tuan discusses the fascinating and impressive capabilities of these high-tech contact lenses, which are placed on the white part of the user's eye, called the Sclera.  With the he...

In this episode of  Blind Abilities we feature the iBlind Users Group, aka iBUGToday , a nonprofit organization located in Houston, Texas, but which operates a variety of virtual training and social activities for individuals around the country using the Zoom platform.    The mission of iBUG , is to promote the individual independence, social integration and educational development of the blind an...

introducing a new braille book for Teachers of the Blind/Visually Impaired, TBVI), parents and others who wish to instruct Blind students in learning Unified English Braille, (UEB). The book was written by one of our guests, Roberta Becker. She joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities studio along with her colleague, Lori Scharff. Roberta and Lori chat about a variety of topics, ranging from the...

Bree Klauser, Spencer Frankeberger, Juan Alcazar and Jeff Thompson got together in the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about the Easterseal Disability Film Challenge that they participated in and want you to check out their films and "like" them as the Awareness campaign is ending soon.  Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leav...

In the Blind Abilities Studio, we welcome Jagadish K. Mahendran, Artificial Intelligence Developer and Engineer,and Hema Chamraj, director, Technology Advocacy and AI4Good at Intel Raqi joins Jeff in the studio to learn and find out more about this great initiative that may one day enhance the  navigating experience while Blind. Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@Bl...

The crew is feisty on Fridays but hey it's Monday, Raqi. From the release of Audio Description on HBO Max to Flicktype bolstering some Apples, we seem to get into a lot about what we want in the Clubhouse arena. What is it with Ringtones anyways? The real thing here is this, have you heard the Home Pod Minis in Stereo? Wowie Wow Wow is all I got on that. Read more Send us an email at info@BlindAbi...

our guest on Blind Abilities today is Sheila  Koenig, Transition Services Coordinator for State Services for the Blind of Minnesota (SSB). Sheila talks about a variety of opportunities available to Transition Age students. Learn about the programs such as the Summer Transition Program (STP), Chill and Chat, Peer Educators, Blind and Socially Savvy and the Learning Ally College Success Program. The...

Transitioning from High School to College is a major step towards self-determination and independence. Career choices are made and Colleges and Universities are explored to best fit one's needs. A group of high school students ask a panel of college students questions to help them understand the challenges and gain from the experience the college students share. When leaving the high school and th...

Blind Abilities welcomes Tony Gebhard back into the studio. he first appeared on Blind Abilities in the summer of 2019, when Geoff and Pete chatted with him at the NFB National Convention in Orlando, Florida. You can find that interview here,  A Morning with Tony Gebhard… The focus then was on his musical journey, This time back in the studio, the focus of this interview, is Toni's life, his recen...

Japricia shares her experience from Elementary school with discipline, race, and her Individual Education Plan (IEP) that inspired the goals she has for college. In this interview, Beau RaRa a staff attorney for the Youth Law Project and Minnesota Disability Law Center, sits down with Japricia, a recent high school graduate, to talk about the experiences of racial disparities in school discipline...

Jeff and Pete are in the studio again, this time to chat with Javier Pita, founder and CEO of NaviLens Corp., and their remarkable product, NaviLens.  NaviLens is a new and enhanced kind of QR code, but unlike existing QR codes that can only be read from a short distance, the NaviLens tag can be detected by your smart phone camera up to 60 feet away with a 160 degree wide-angle range. This means t...

Laura Allen joins Raqi and Jeff in the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about new developments in Google's accessibility and disability inclusion. Laura Allen is Head of strategy for Accessibility and Disability Inclusion, bringing together the Google network of teams to bring awareness to accessibility and disability inclusion within the entire google corporation. Laura uses a mix of accessibility...

Blind Abilities welcomes back to the podcast, Beth Gustin, licensed professional counselor, a nationally certified mental health counselor, to speak about the impact that the prolonged pandemic is having on our mental health. Beth was a guest on the Job Insights podcast show back in October 2018 where she spoke about mental health and job searching with Jeff and Serina. Read more we would love to...

Feather Chelle has just published her first book,  Stranded , in December and soon her second book, a picture book, will be available as well. Feather Chelle, aka Heather, is a young mother of five and home schools her kids and leads a Girl Scout Troop as well. Heather lost her sight by age 3 due to cancer and adopted her late friends daughter while having 4 kids of her own. She is from a large fa...

Blind Abilities Teen Correspondent, Simon Bonenfant, chats with Cheryl Cummings and Ruth Kahn, representing an after school and career exploration program in Boston for middle and high school students who are blind or low vision. the Our Space Our Place program takes advantage of a variety of activities to promote social interaction and networking among the students, including the arts, theatre, d...

Dr. Natalina Martiniello completed her Doctorate in the study of Aging on Braille Literacy from the University of Montreal in December of 2021 and has a vast and robust knowledge of all things diversity, accessibility and related issues facing the Blind and Visually Impaired. Inclusion in the classrooms, inclusion in the curriculum building in Universities and the importance of learning Braille at...