Blind Abilities

Raqi, Angie and Jeff gather before the start of the Holiday Season to talk tech and Jeff gets schooled a bit on how to listen to women, or at least these 2 techies from out West. From the Find My demo, to Apple's 15% break for the little developers, to 5G settings on the iPhone 12 series, we go, go, go in this Tech Abilities show. Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@...

Serina, Raqi, Angie and Jeff stay socially distanced and still sound great in the Blind Abilities Studio! Who invited Marlon again? Anyways, Serina and Raqi go at it in the Mac Fight of the season. Actually, they state their cases and Angie and Jeff keeps the show running with some tidbits and demos showing the People Detection feature on the iPhone 12 Pros series of iPhones. Big Sir has a new mem...

Brittany Montgomery and Riley Robinson join Jeff in the Blind Abilities studio to share their mission to bring blind cricket to the U.S.  They describe the passion for this hugely popular sport that has energized people in other countries and believe that if they can generate an awareness and familiarity in the states, then that passion would grow here as well. Listen as they show their sheer enth...

In this 22nd episode in our series, we hear from Sammie Shipman in California, who fills in those details for us. Sammie Shipman is a college student living in the San Francisco bay area in northern California, in the US. Sammie shares her routine as a student living and active lifestyle that ranges from her daily 3-hour commute to school, to her walks around the local marina with her guide dog, f...

Raqi, Angie and Jeff are in the studio while Serina gets some well deserved time off. She  told me to write that, yes she did. Marlon pops in with a few One More Things and We are talking Apples, Plans, Accessible Rowing Machine, Audio USB Mixer, New Mic from Shure and notta thing about that election! Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us...

Kiran Kaja is the Accessibility Lead for Search, Assistant and News at Google. Kiran joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio for a conversation about Kiran's journey from a bleak outlook for education to his jobs that led him around the world and to Google. It is not by chance that Kiran made it to where he is today, he followed his passion and is excited each day that he gets to make po...

Tech Abilities is back in the saddle or should I say Stagecoach? We got a full studio with Serina, Raqi, Jeff and guest, Angie Fisher. Yes, a full house and a full episode of Breaking News, Insights on the iPhone 12 Pro, HBO and Audio Description, Google Nest Speakers, Halos Tactile Icons, the MagSafe connection from Apple and just a delightful dish being served up in this episode of Tech Abilitie...

Simon Bonenfant sat down with Laura Cornwell and Robert Hänggi  from the NVDACon Planning Committee to talk about the upcoming December 5 and 6 on-line NVDA Conference. They explained how you can contribute your ideas and suggestions up until the November 14 deadline. Laura and Robert fills us in on what to expect at this year's NVDACon. Laura explains what the NVDA Screen Reader is and how you ca...

our guest on Episode 21 is Gerardo Corripio who comes to us from Mexico. Gerardo, Gera, immediately points out how important it is to first understand an overview of the political and geographic make up of his country. Mexico is comprised of 32 states, 10 of which are controlled by one of Mexico's political parties, PAN and the others which are controlled by the Morena party, of which Mexico's Pre...

Lois Strachan is a multi-talented artist and has just published her new book, "A Different Way of Seeing (Second Edition): A Blind Woman's Journey of Living an Ordinary Life in an Extraordinary Way." Lois returns to the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about her decision to author a 2 nd  edition and what led her to take a 2 nd  look at "A Different Way of Seeing". Read more we would love to hear fr...

The gang is all here and by gosh, where are the Action Figures? Serina, Raqi and Jeff give their thoughts about the Apple Event and that Amazon Prime thing that came and went. Although, Raqi scored another set of Air Pod Pros for her ever growing stable of Air pods. Serina ordered her Pacific Blue iPhone 12 Pro and is absolutely stumped on her next case since the Apple MagSafe cases are not on Ama...

Ana Sikhashvili spent a year in Minnesota attending the  Minnesota State Academy for the Blind (MSAB) through a student exchange program called, Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX). Ana is definitely a leader and her future is looking very bright as she is now attending University in the Republic of Georgia. Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give u...

In the 20th episode in our series, Around the World with Covid-19 from a Blindness Perspective, we welcome back Nick D'Ambrosio, from Montreal Canada, with a special  follow-up report. We first heard from Nick in Episode 5 in which he shared his perspective on life as an essential worker in his Drug Store in Montreal. Now Nick returns with a clean and fresh outlook on handling Corona, now, in Octo...

In our first episode of the Organizations of the Blind and Visually Impaired series,  Harriet Go, President of the Keystone Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania, joins Simon Bonenfant in the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about the Keystone Chapter, the NFB Philosophy and share the news of an upcoming event for all to participate. Read more we would love to hear from you...

GoodMaps CEO, Jose Gaztambide, and Chief  evangelist, Mike May, joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about the new app GoodMaps Explorer. An indoor and outdoor navigation application on iOS and soon to be on Android. With outdoor navigation being available through various GPS apps and Map apps, American Printing House for the Blind formed GoodMaps in an effort to take on the c...

Rita Howells joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to tell us about her new Recumbent Exercise Bike, why a recumbent and how she gained access to the manual, the Electronic Screen and much more. Rita produces a column called, Rita's iDevice Advice, and monitors a Tech Group e-mail list called, iDevices... Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities...

Kristy Viers joined Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio and talked about her  YouTube Channel Kristy Viers , her College Experience, Beta Testing Apps and Braille Screen Input on her iPhone. Kristy had a YouTube video go viral with nearly 30,000 people listening. Kristy had to shut down her notifications as every device was going off for a few days. Kristy is doing more videos with instruc...

Gabby Mendonca joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about her inspiring YouTube Channel  @GabriellaMendonca , her educational journey, white and pink canes and her upcoming guide dog adventure. Listen in as Gabby explains how living in New York during the pandemic has effected her home life, education and social interaction. With a Guide Dog in her future plans, Gabby tells us...

Our guest today is Manique Gunaratne, who  comes to us from Sri Lanka.  Manique's story speaks of the situation that she and other disabled citizens    of Sri Lanka experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic this year. This in itself is not unusual. All of our guests have described their experiences in this way. What makes this report different is the contrast of the successful handling of the Coron...

Full Transcript Hilda Dunford is a mom with 3 children and with the distance learning being the virtual reality that it is, Hilda is fining more and more time to be with her children, learning, caring and growing together. I met Hilda through her @ OurBlindSide  Instagram account. Her Blog-like content gave me a peek into the life of Hilda, her family and her son who happens to be Blind/Low Vision...

3 is company and we were feeling Pretty, Pretty Good once we got the iOS14 downloaded and up and running on our various versions of the iPhone. Raqi and Jeff virtually High-5 each other and Serina just shrugs. With the new iOS full of features that extend beyond the reach of the iPhone 10, there was a lot to talk about and the Time Flies event was nearly the opposite. Kind of a lack luster event u...

Justin and Cindy from the Minnesota Disability Law Center joined Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities studio for a discussion on voting rights for youth with disabilities. We also get to talk to Nate and Nikki, 2 young adults, about their experiences voting accessibly using the Auto-Mark device and completing an absentee ballot. Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@Bl...

In this 18th episode in our series, we hear from Paul Mugambi in Kenya, Africa. A first-hand report from Paul with his unique perspective on how the coronavirus has affected him, his family and disabled persons in general  in Kenya. Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Brigitte Lablache is an articulate woman with talents, drive, initiative and overall life experiences which have allowed her to rise to a position of leadership in the blindness community in Seychelles. This episode focusses largely on Brigitte's lifestyle, and how Covid-19 has affected it, despite its relatively moderate overall impact on the Seychelles as a nation.  Read more we would love to he...

Full Transcription John Panarese, Director and founder of Mac for the Blind, joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities studio to talk about what Mac for the Blind is and what services are provided. John gives a bit of background on how Mac for the Blind got started and how this year has boomed with the group sessions and more sessions for the Mac and iOS to come this fall. Read more we would love...