Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

Dr. Kirk Adams, PhD
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams is a compelling podcast series that brings listeners into the world of accessibility, leadership, and social change through the lens of one of the most influential voices in blindness advocacy. Dr. Kirk Adams, former President and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind and a lifelong champion for the rights of people with visual impairments, hosts this insightful and inspiring program.

  1. Jul 8

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Daria Marmer, Founder, Cookie Voice Recipes

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Daria Marmer, Founder, Cookie Voice Recipes https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-07-08-2026/ In this warm episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk, a lifelong, enthusiastic blind cook, talks with Daria Marmer, founder of Cookie Voice Recipes, a hands-free, voice-first cooking app built with blind and low-vision cooks in mind. A product manager and Cordon Bleu-trained cook, Daria explains how the app began as a fix for her own annoyance, dirty hands, no way to check the recipe, and, after she showed a prototype to the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts, became something far bigger. She built it herself using AI coding tools (Codex and Claude). Users pull any recipe into a clean, ad-free view and simply ask "Cookie" questions out loud, how much sugar, read the ingredients, what's step three, even "I ran out of sour cream, what can I use instead?", with AI answers grounded in the actual recipe. Kirk, who brailles out recipes on a Perkins Brailler and clips Braille pages from Cook's Illustrated, connects the app to two audiences: older people losing vision to conditions like diabetic retinopathy, and young blind people setting up their first kitchens. Daria shares favorite feedback (a woman who no longer has to eat Stouffer's every night), the roadmap (Android next; partner-provided recipes for people brand-new to blind cooking, via the Carroll Center), pricing (a free tier plus a $3.99/month or $30/year AI tier), and where to find it, the App Store (iOS), chef@cookievoicerecipes.com, and @cookievoiceapp on Instagram. Kirk asks her back in six months. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. I am that Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have a guest that I share a passion with, and that is for cooking and eating. And today I have Daria Marmer, who is founder of Cookie Voice Recipes. Hi, Daria. Daria Marmer: Hi. How are you? Dr. Kirk Adams: I'm very, very well. I'm very excited to talk about your project — the app that helps people who are blind and visually impaired cook efficiently and happily and seamlessly in their kitchens. I cook a lot. I'm a Braille reader. I have a notebook full of recipes that I brailled out on a Perkins Brailler. I have Braille pages cut out of Cook's Illustrated and Better Homes and Gardens magazines, which I get in Braille free from the National Library Service. And it's a big, untidy mess. And as I search through recipes and don't have them well organized, the favorites are all covered with remnants of cooking. So I'm very excited to start using the app. For those of you who don't know me, I am a blind person. My retina is detached. When I was five years old, I went to a school for blind children for second and third grade — learned my Braille skills, blindness skills: reading, writing Braille, using the long white cane, typing on a typewriter, so I could go to public school when I was ready, which was fourth grade, when I was nine. I'm the oldest of three siblings. When we turned ten, my mom told us we were responsible for making dinner for the family one night per week, and she would help us understand what we wanted to cook, and get the ingredients, and help us cook it. So I've been in the kitchen as a totally blind person for a long time. I will throw my brother under the bus to say that he made hot dogs and baked beans out of the can every week — he did not vary his menus. I was much more adventurous, and I cook a lot. My wife and I love, love to enjoy good food together. And I met Daria, and when I found out about your project — just so exciting. Want to share it with everybody who either loves to be in the kitchen as a blind person, or would like to be. And, Daria, I'm just going to turn it over to you and just ask you: where did the idea come from? What was the genesis? How have you developed it? Where is the app at today? And where do you see things going? So I'll hand you the talking stick. I'll reserve the right as host to pop in with random questions as they occur to me. So, it's all you. Daria Marmer: Thanks, Kirk. So, I come at this from the cooking and tech side of things. I went to culinary school a long, long, long time ago, and then have had a really wonderful career in technology. And a couple months ago I had this problem, which is: I would hate reaching for my cell phone when I was cooking, because my hands were all dirty. And so I would ask my family in the kitchen just to tell me what the next step was in the recipe, or how much of a certain ingredient I needed. Because the way recipes are written, they say 'add the sugar,' 'add the flour,' 'add the salt.' And then you're like, well, can you remind me how much sugar was that? So I used to ask my family those questions when I was cooking in the kitchen, and I realized, hey, why don't I solve this problem for myself? I prototyped a quick app on my laptop, and that was kind of going to be the end of it, until I had this thought, and I said, wait — not looking at my phone, that's kind of an annoyance for me. I am sighted. But for people who are blind and visually impaired, this could be a real game-changer. And so then I started doing a lot of research. I partnered with the Carroll Center in Newton, Massachusetts, and kind of showed them the prototype, and I said, hey, is this— would this be interesting? Should I go forward with this? And they were like, oh my gosh, yes, absolutely. And it was born. Dr. Kirk Adams: So, I was the president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, which was Helen Keller's organization. It was an honor to have the opportunity to lead the organization. But we're pretty publicly known, so I got contacted so often by big-hearted, lovely, well-intended sighted people who thought they had come up with a great solution to make the lives of blind people easier, without ever talking to a blind person, getting any feedback. And oftentimes it was, 'That's already a free app,' 'That's already taken care of,' or, 'We don't really need that.' So I just wanted to highlight the fact that you contacted a very reputable organization — the Carroll Center for the Blind, named for Father Carroll, in Newton, Massachusetts — and you got feedback, you got input. So, hats off to you on that. Daria Marmer: Yeah. I mean, it was so interesting. In my life, I've gone to hundreds of cooking classes now. And, as part of developing this app, I went to a cooking class that was specifically for people who had lost their vision. And I had never done a blind cooking class before. And it was really interesting and fascinating — just, I got to see firsthand some of the challenges that were involved in that. Because, you know, you have a Braille recipe next to you, you're completely dirty, you're going to completely mess that page up, it's going to become hard to read. So, for all of the reasons, I thought, this is really interesting. And then, yes, the teacher of that class saw the prototype, and she said, 'Yes, we should definitely— this app should exist.' And then that's when I said, okay, cool, I'll build it. Dr. Kirk Adams: Nice, nice. So, do you have the technical skills? Did you develop it yourself, or did you bring in app developers? Or what is the process of having an idea and doing something on your laptop, and then now it's an app that we can download on our phones? Daria Marmer: Yeah. So, I am a product manager by training. And so that means that I've been building software with the help of engineers for many years now. But I didn't really do a lot by myself — I didn't code a lot by myself. And recently, in the whole universe, this idea of vibe coding and AI agentic coding has come up, and I decided that I was going to do it myself and really use those tools to get this product out the door. And I've been proudly using both Codex and Claude to make this a reality. And I have done it myself. Dr. Kirk Adams: Amazing. And so, tell us about the app. What's the user experience like? What can I accomplish in the kitchen using it? Daria Marmer: Sure. So, the first thing that I have to dispel — people are like, 'I don't want to just cook cookies.' Yes, I know. This is not an app— just a cookbook. This is not a bunch of cookie recipes. Okay? So the idea is, you can pull basically any recipe that you have into the app. You can do that through our share extension, you can do that through copy-pasting the text, you can do that by finding the URL and then putting in the URL, or using the baked-in search that is in the app already — selecting the recipe that you want, and then it'll pull it into a really nice recipe view. And in this recipe view, you've gotten rid of all of the ads and junk that often clutter recipe pages. So it's really, really simple. So that's just the first thing that is amazing about it. And then, once you have that, then you can start asking any questions that you want, out loud. And you can say, 'Cookie, how much sugar do I need?' 'Cookie, read me all of the ingredients.' Or, 'Cookie, what's step three?' And it will give you answers based on everything that's in the recipe. And one of the things that I think is really cool is, you can actually stretch it further, and you can say, 'Cookie, I just ran out of sour cream. What can I use instead?' And it will send that to AI and get an answer that is based on the recipe that you

  2. Jul 7

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Brandy Schantz, Author, Living Chronic

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Brandy Schantz, Author, Living Chronic https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-07-07-2026/ In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk welcomes back Brandy Schantz, possibly the show's very first guest, to talk about her forthcoming book, Living Chronic: Conversations That Changed Me, Lessons That Saved Me (Koehler Books, out August 24, 2026). A former U.S. Army intelligence officer turned consultant, Brandy recounts how a severe case of Crohn's disease, and then drug-induced lupus from the Humira treating it, cascaded into generalized dysautonomia (small fiber neuropathy, POTS, orthostatic hypotension) that cost her the ability to walk and, for a time, her identity as a lifelong athlete. She describes years of self-advocacy, cold-calling studies, reading medical journals, learning that the medical system rarely delivers a quick diagnosis, and how launching her Living Chronic podcast turned her guests' hard-won lessons into a lifeline. The book distills those lessons, each chapter built around a podcast conversation: "there is no Superman," you have to be the architect of your own care, and you must grieve your former self. Kirk connects it to his own experience of disability and the "spoon theory," and the two discuss caregiving (Brandy devotes a chapter to what her husband gave up) and the surge in disability since COVID. Now running again, she did the 50th Marine Corps Marathon, Brandy points listeners to the book on Amazon, through Koehler Books, or via brandyschantz.com, and to her rebranded podcast, Living Chronic: Ability at Work. Kirk notes his own forthcoming book, The Disability Dividend. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. I am that Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have a repeat guest, Brandy. You may have been the first-ever guest on the podcast, so welcome back. Today we have Brandy Schantz. Brandy is author of a book that's coming out on August 24th. It's called Living Chronic: Conversations That Changed Me, Lessons That Saved Me. And it's available for pre-order now. And we're going to be digging into it, Brandy, and hearing all about the book. So, welcome. Brandy Schantz: Oh, thank you so much for having me again. I'm excited to learn. I might have been the first person on this podcast — I do remember when you were starting it. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, I think that's right. And Brandy and I met via LinkedIn, where I spend some quality time every day, and have for 18 years or so. She's one of 30,000 fabulous connections on my LinkedIn who care about accessibility, disability inclusion, assistive technology, human rights, social justice, and all those good things. So, great to have Brandy here. As for me, if you don't know me, I'm the immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. I currently have a couple of official hats. I'm the managing director of my consulting practice, which is called Innovative Impact, LLC. I am also executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion, and we'll be launching our Community Coalition for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion on August 3rd. So, a couple of big dates in August — one for each of us. And I have had a number of really in-depth conversations with Brandy since we've met, and I knew she was working on a book. She would mention it from time to time, but it's here, it's coming — so, available for pre-order. So, Brandy, I'd just like to hand it over to you, if you could, for the listeners who didn't tune in to that first episode: if you could tell us a little bit about your life journey and what brought you to the work that you do. And then we'll dig into hearing all about the book, Living Chronic. So, it's all you. All right? Brandy Schantz: Yeah, certainly. So, I came into this world, as it were, like so many of us do — quite suddenly. I was an Army officer. I served as an intelligence officer in the Army. And then, like most of us, I went on to work in consulting. And while I was working in consulting, I was suddenly diagnosed with a very severe form of Crohn's disease. And it really prevented me from getting to work. And, of course, the job I did was very classified — pretty much everything I did was top secret, most of it compartmented, and many other things. So there was nothing I could do from home. And this was before 2020, so we weren't really talking about work-from-home that often. And I was faced with a situation where I needed to figure out what I was supposed to do, because bills don't pay themselves, and I made a career change to accommodate my Crohn's disease. During that time frame, I started having some severe symptoms, and we just didn't know what it was. And over 19 months, I slowly deteriorated until I lost my ability to walk. Dr. Kirk Adams: What were some of the early manifestations? You said you started experiencing symptoms — can you talk a bit? Brandy Schantz: Well, for me, it was— I kept describing it at first as overtraining syndrome, because I was an athlete. I've always been an athlete, and I had been training for Ironman Chattanooga 70.3. So I thought, oh, here I am in overtraining syndrome again. I get myself in trouble a lot, I love to overdo things, I'm well known for that. So I wouldn't have been surprised, except that I was not getting any better. I still was having difficulty running. I wasn't recovering. I started getting a lot of shortness of breath, some chest pains. And at that point in time, when this started, it was 2020. So I kept going — you know, I got in that long car line that we all got into so I could get my nose swabbed for COVID, thinking, oh, maybe it's COVID, but I never tested positive. And I was doing what I was supposed to as a Crohn's patient. I was immunocompromised, so I stayed at home like I was supposed to, and just couldn't figure out why I kept getting shortness of breath, chest pains. I was also getting rashes, and couldn't run, which was unusual for me. I've been a runner my whole life. So this sudden inability to run, I couldn't quite understand. And in 2021, things just significantly got worse, and the rashes became worse. I couldn't go outside because the sun would give me a really terrible rash. I started getting severe mood swings and couldn't really think properly. At one point my husband said it felt as if my entire personality had changed. Dr. Kirk Adams: Oh, wow. Brandy Schantz: And as everything kept worsening— the not being able to run became not being able to walk. My ability to move, my mobility, was continually deteriorating, and my muscles and joints were so severely tight, inflamed, that I would try to go get a massage and they couldn't massage the knots out of my muscles at all. And my joints were just so inflamed, I could scream at any moment and cry. It was terrible. So I finally lost my ability to walk. And I had kept going to doctors and finally said, 'Hey, guys, this is just not normal. I can't walk, I'm laying on a couch here.' And a friend of mine recognized some of the symptoms and sent me to her neurologist. And he was nice enough to get me in very quickly. And that's where I learned I was suffering from drug-induced lupus, due to the Humira I was taking for my Crohn's disease. So once I got off of that, I did get my ability to walk back pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get back to my athletics, which for me was a big problem, because it's something I love. It's how I deal with stress and anxiety and just everyday life. It's what makes me happy. In addition, I was having trouble with fatigue, and I couldn't think clearly — a lot of brain fog. Doctors kept telling me it would just take a while for the Humira to get all out of my system: give it six months. But I gave it six months. I was patient, and I just was not getting better. And I kept dealing with the same symptoms: shortness of breath, a lot of dizziness. I was getting vertigo. I couldn't run. It made no sense to me. And I worked very hard over that time period, constantly. I was cold-calling different studies that were looking at people who had similar symptoms to my own. I was calling doctors all over, asking for different tests. I was reading medical journal articles, which is not my favorite. I did not study science, I studied business. So, unless you're talking exercise science, I typically don't really care. But at that moment in time, I cared a lot. And as I was going through it, I was just so depressed. I didn't know how to get out of bed in the morning, because I'd lost my entire life as I once knew it, and I just couldn't recognize my life. And I just couldn't seem to find anybody to help me and pick me up. And I thought, well, maybe what I should do now is start a podcast, and see if maybe I can help some people just like me. And maybe that'll help me to better understand how I can get up in the morning and keep pushing forward. You know, at that time— Dr. Kirk Adams: When did you start your podcast, Brandy? Brandy Schantz: I think I started that in— I think late 2022. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. And it's called Living— Living Chronic? Brandy Schantz: And I learned so much from my guests. As I was going through this journey, it kept pushing me, and I'm learning, and I kept figuring out how to really advocate for myself at the doctor — who to call, what to do. And I did finally g

  3. Jul 2

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Joel Snyder, Founder & President, Audio Description Associates, LLC and Founding Director Emeritus, ACB's Audio Description Project

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Joel Snyder, Founder & President, Audio Description Associates, LLC and Founding Director Emeritus, ACB's Audio Description Project https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-07-02-2026/ In this wide-ranging episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk welcomes Joel Snyder, founder and president of Audio Description Associates, LLC, and founding director emeritus of the ACB's Audio Description Project, for a history and status check on audio description. Snyder traces the field from its 1980 origins at Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage (where he helped Dr. Margaret Pfanstiehl and Chet Avery invent the technique, premiering it in 1981 with George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara) through WGBH's Descriptive Video Service, the Secondary Audio Program, VHS and DVD, and the 2010 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, up to today's streaming era. He demonstrates description live with a segment from the Iranian film The Color of Paradise and walks through the ACB Audio Description Project's resources, its annual conference, training institutes, the BADIE youth contest, and the nearly 15,000-title database at https://adp.acb.org. The conversation then turns to AI, where Snyder argues that while AI text-to-speech narration has its place, nothing matches a trained, often blind, human voice talent for dramas and feature films. He proves it by playing two versions of a Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 description he wrote, one voiced by ElevenLabs, one voiced by himself, and Kirk immediately prefers the human take. Snyder closes on the economics (~$5,000 to describe a film that cost $50 million to make) and points listeners to https://audiodescribe.com and https://adp.acb.org. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. I am that Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today, a guest I've known for quite some time. Today we have Joel Snyder with us. He's founder and president of Audio Description Associates, LLC, and he is founding director emeritus of ACB's — the American Council of the Blind's — Audio Description Project. So, hello, Joel. Joel Snyder: Hello, Kirk. It's great to be with you. Dr. Kirk Adams: So, so glad you're here. So it was interesting, because the ACB's Audio Description Project came up about two hours ago. Oh, my. I was interviewing David Grabias, who's the producer of a documentary called Braille [Brailled It], about the Braille Challenge. Joel Snyder: Wonderful. Dr. Kirk Adams: And one of the participants and directors is a Braille Challenge winner named Christopher Morgan. And we were talking about the documentary and where it's showing, and they said, 'We'll be doing a special showing at the upcoming ACB conference, in conjunction with their Audio Description Project.' Joel Snyder: There you go. Sure. Dr. Kirk Adams: There you go. So I've known about Joel for about as long as I've known about audio description, and I can't remember when I first experienced it, but I remember being really excited about the whole concept. And I know, for many years, it was kind of hard to find recorded materials — films, television programs, documentaries — that had audio description. Becoming more common now, which is a wonderful thing. I was across the lake here on the Microsoft Redmond campus last fall with a group called the Pacific Northwest Accessibility Professionals. And we went to the Microsoft disability lab, and they were showing a short film piece about Microsoft's disability efforts. And I heard a voice doing audio description. My wife and I— Ros said, 'That's Joel.' So everywhere I go, there you are. Joel Snyder: There you are. You can't get away from me. Dr. Kirk Adams: That's right. So, so pleased that you gave us some time today. You've been involved in audio description since the very beginning, so we'd love to hear a little bit of a history lesson about how it's developed and evolved and, of course, your personal journey. And then, really, where we're at today. What are the opportunities to expand and enhance access for people who are blind and visually impaired to media and entertainment? Of course, the dynamics around artificial intelligence and how that fits into the picture. And then, where do you see things going? So I'm just going to hand it over to you. I will reserve the right as host to jump in with the random questions as they pop into my mind. Joel Snyder: Of course. Dr. Kirk Adams: It's all yours. Joel Snyder: It's your show, Kirk. Well, it's great to be with you, and I'm glad you mentioned being out on the Microsoft campus, because Microsoft — and VITAC, owned now by a company called Verbit — are really one of my largest clients. I mentioned that to offer a tip of the hat to Satya Nadella and Microsoft, because they, as an obviously major, huge corporation, have a real commitment to accessibility. People may not know that they produce thousands of short videos every year — promotional videos, educational videos for their staff, commercials, that sort of thing. And they are committed to making every piece of media that they produce accessible. Captioned. They're all audio described. And that's— not too many corporations make that commitment — but it's increasing. We're seeing more description in the private sector like that. And that's a good thing. Dr. Kirk Adams: For those listening who may not be familiar with audio description, could you give just a brief explanation of what it is, and maybe some examples of it — or people can hear it, or do a little demonstration? Yeah, let's do that. Joel Snyder: Audio description. My tagline, my own company, is The Visual Made Verbal, really. And that's the title of my book ACB published in 2014: The Visual Made Verbal, a comprehensive training manual and guide to the history and applications of audio description. And I'm pleased to mention that it's in Braille. It's available for free on BARD. It is in two different audiobook versions, and printed now in seven languages. So it's gotten out and about. And it all kind of stems from work that I did in the '70s. I've always been involved in theater and acting and voice work. And in the early '70s, I remember reading textbooks for a blind student at the University of Maryland. And that went very well. I enjoyed that a lot. That led to recording talking books for the Library of Congress here in Washington, D.C. And that led to my finding out about a radio station here — the Metropolitan Washington Ear. And there's — oh, golly, Kirk, you know better than I do — perhaps two dozen of these closed-circuit radio stations that broadcast on a subcarrier of a public radio, perhaps. And they provide readings of the daily newspaper, of novels, short stories, magazine articles. And I thought that was a wonderful way to use my voice and get some good experience. So I auditioned to be a voice talent volunteer for the Washington Ear. And they must have had a weak moment or something, and they— Dr. Kirk Adams: That I didn't know about you. So I was involved with the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library here. They had the Evergreen Radio Reading Service. There you— Joel Snyder: Go. Exactly. And so I did that for a good ten years. I was the voice of the Washington Post on Sundays on the Washington Ear. And even in the '70s, I remember wondering about — gee, there are all kinds of images in a newspaper. There are graphics, there are illustrations, there are photos. What do we do when we get to those? Sometimes there's a caption, sometimes not. We could certainly read the caption, but what is it? How is the photo really put together? What's it look like? And we just sort of — we kind of ad-libbed a little something about it. But there was no such thing as audio description until 1980, when the founder of the Ear, Dr. Margaret Pfanstiehl, a blind woman, and a good friend of mine, Chet Avery, a blind man who had worked at the Department of Education — they were on a committee, an access committee for Arena Stage here in Washington, a very well-known regional theater. And if you think about that: 1980, having an accessibility committee — nobody was doing that. More common now, perhaps. And they were at a meeting, and Arena was all excited because they had just installed an assisted listening system. And again, that's ubiquitous — everybody has a system that boosts sound for folks with hearing loss, and you wear a headset and you hear the movie or the production a little more clearly, a little more loudly. And of course, Chet and Margaret are on the committee, and they thought, this is wonderful — but what have you got for us? We're blind. We can hear. And they figured, if it's just a microphone on the stage, couldn't you have a second channel? Someone holding a microphone offstage, letting us know what's going on — maybe using the pauses between bits and pieces of dialogue, or critical sound elements. And Arena said, gee, we've never heard of that before. And Margaret said, yeah, we've never heard of it before either. It didn't exist. But they knew that Margaret had access to a studio. And, well — Margaret, why don't you think about it, and we'll give it a go if you can figure out how we would do such a thing. And so she came back to the Ear. She grabbed me — I was an actor and voice talent and an English teacher — and we had a couple of others. And we sat down an

  4. Jul 1

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with David Grabias, Documentary Filmmaker, Writer / Director & Producer of Brailled It and Christopher Morgan, Braille Challenge Champion and Co-Director of Brailled It

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with David Grabias, Documentary Filmmaker, Writer / Director & Producer of Brailled It, Founder of Artifact, LA and Christopher Morgan, Braille Challenge Champion and Co-Director of Brailled It, USA National-Team Goalball Athlete https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-07-01-2026/ In this energizing episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk, fresh from the Braille Challenge gala at Braille Institute in Los Angeles, talks with documentary filmmaker David Grabias and 18-year-old Christopher Morgan about Brailled It, a film about the Braille Challenge made largely by the blind kids who compete in it. Grabias recounts how, on a whim, he wandered into the Braille Institute near his LA office, discovered the Braille Challenge, and realized the participants themselves should be the filmmakers; his company, Artifact, handed small chest-mounted action cameras to about nine kids, and the footage from three of them, Christopher, Salome, and Isaiah, became the film. Christopher describes forgetting the camera was even on, the rarity and joy of being in a room full of blind peers, and how the young directors shaped what made the cut. The conversation ranges into Christopher's athletic journey, from an 11-year-old who told Kirk he'd be the first blind NBA player to a member of the USA men's national goalball prospect pool, and he gives a vivid primer on goalball, the only sport designed specifically for blind athletes. Grabias then lays out where Brailled It is headed: a Slamdance world premiere behind it, upcoming screenings at the NFB and ACB conventions and the Cincinnati Art Museum, a fall festival run and a multi-city accessible theatrical tour, and a still-secret collaboration with the Library of Congress and NLS. Details live at brailledit.com. They close on the film's motto, "Three, two, one, we brailled it." TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. I am that Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. We just slid from a gloomy, cloudy June to a gloomy, cloudy July here in Seattle. But we're not complaining, because we know many of our friends on the other side of the country are experiencing some serious heat issues, so we wish everyone the best. So, today, super excited. There's a documentary film made by blind kids called Brailled It, and it is about the Braille Challenge. And I was just at the Braille Challenge gala dinner at Braille Institute on the USC campus, Los Angeles, Saturday night. So the Braille Challenge is fresh — the energy is coursing through my veins from the evening. And we have with us right now David Grabias, who's one of the producers of the documentary Brailled It. Say hey, David. David Grabias: Hi, Kirk. It's so nice to be here. Thanks for having me. Dr. Kirk Adams: And we hope to be joined by Christopher Morgan, who is a Braille Challenge winner. He won a first-place award on Saturday. He is on the men's national goalball team. I met him when I had the privilege of keynoting the Braille Challenge in 2019, so I haven't talked to Christopher for seven years, so I hope he joins us. I'd love to catch up. And there he is. Christopher, I was just talking about you. This is Kirk Adams. We've started the podcast. I just mentioned that you would be joining us. I mentioned that you are a Braille Challenge champion. I was actually in the room Saturday night when you received your award. You're a director of the documentary film Brailled It. Yes. You are a member of the men's national goalball team. And I met you and your mom seven years ago, in 2019, the last time I was at the Braille Challenge. So, looking forward to catching up with you. So, just a couple of minutes: the Braille Challenge is 26 years old now. It is a program of Braille Institute of America, which is based in Los Angeles. And it is now an international competition — the US, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and now Kenya. And it allows blind kids, K-12, to embrace Braille, sharpen and hone their Braille skills, stay excited about Braille. My retina is detached. When I was five years old, I went to a school for blind kids, the Oregon State School, for first, second, and third grade. Thank you, Mrs. Summers — may you rest in peace. You taught me how to read and write Braille. I have an 80-character Braille display in front of me, a refreshable Braille tablet on my lap, a Perkins brailler to my left, slate and stylus in my drawer. So I'm all about Braille, and the Braille Challenge is super cool. Kids get to go to regional competitions and be scored on their reading comprehension and spelling and their reading and writing. And then those who advance beyond the regionals all gather together on the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles and have further competitions and skill-building. And it's all capped off with a gala banquet that my wife and daughter and I attended Saturday night. As I mentioned earlier, Christopher received an award, and I love the Braille Challenge. And other people love it too. And I guess six months ago, I learned about a documentary film that was created by some of the blind kids who were in the competition. And they did the filming and editing and created this thing with the guidance of some experienced filmmakers, like David, and Christopher, who's one of the more experienced Braille Challenge participants, helped to shape the documentary as a director. They showed a clip at the beginning of the banquet featuring an enthusiastic young blind hockey player from Canada named Isaiah. I was seated at the table with his family. There was another young lady we met right when we entered the banquet on Saturday, named Salome. And she told me, all I care about is the food and winning. And, of course, she did win again. So it was a joyful, joyous time. And I just want to turn the microphone over to you, David, and you, Chris, and let you talk about the project — how it began, how the journey has gone so far, where you're at with it. And I know you have some really impactful visions for the future. So I'm going to turn it over to you. I will reserve the right as host to pop in with the random questions as they occur to me. So, it's all yours. David Grabias: Awesome. Yeah. And if you want, Christopher, I'll start off and then I'll throw to you as we get to the actual filming process, so you can talk about that. But yeah — obviously the Braille Challenge is an incredible event, and I've had the privilege of going and just observing and being there, gosh, about five or six years ago, I think, as you mentioned. And I walked away just so impressed with the event, with the kids who were competing, with the energy, with the community that was formed there, where people were reconnected. It goes without saying that one of the more powerful aspects of it is the opportunity for all these kids to be in a room with each other, and to meet each other, and to socialize, to network, to be in a group of their peers — which, for many folks, and Christopher, I'm sure, is no exception, is a real rarity and a pleasure. So, I'm a filmmaker by trade, a documentary filmmaker. I'm based here in Los Angeles. And so I observed, and I was so taken aback, and so I reached out to the organizers and proposed that we make a film. And over the course of about a year or so, we— Dr. Kirk Adams: Can I ask — what took you initially to the Braille Challenge? David Grabias: It's a funny story. I used to have an office around the corner here in Los Angeles, on Melrose — literally around the corner from where the Braille Institute offices are. And I would walk to lunch nearby on Vermont, which, again, is where the Braille Institute offices are. And they have this incredible— their buildings are these 1970s cement, kind of— it almost looks like a temple, or, I don't know. And I was just really curious: what goes on inside this incredible building? I see the sign — and I'm sighted, just for full disclosure — and, Braille Institute, gosh, I don't know much about Braille. And so, on a whim, just out of curiosity, I wandered into the lobby one day and started chatting with a staff person at the desk. And they were just talking about what they do and some of the activities. And they said, 'Oh yeah, and we've got this thing called Braille Challenge, which is happening in a month. You should come check it out.' Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. David Grabias: And again, kind of on a whim and out of curiosity — and, again, I'm sure the filmmaker part of me sensed that there might be some opportunity there. I reached out to the staff, and they were kind enough to get me a pass and get me invited. And so I spent two days just hanging out and watching and interacting and meeting the kids and the families, the TVIs and the organizers. And it was really — and I say this with all humility — it was a life-changing experience, to see the community come together, and to witness the energy, the enthusiasm, the excitement, the drama, you know? Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, yeah, yeah. David Grabias: All of it. Dr. Kirk Adams: Hurray for appreciative inquiry. So glad — glad you walked into the lobby. David Grabias: Exactly. It was just chance — really, fate. Having the office nearby, and having the curiosity to wander in. And, anyways, long story short: two years ago, it was the 25th anniversary of the Braille Challenge, and the folks at the Braille Institut

  5. Jun 24

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Lauren DeVillier, CEO, Exceptional Minds

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Lauren DeVillier, CEO, Exceptional Minds https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-06-24-2026/ In this warm and practical episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk welcomes Lauren DeVillier, Chief Executive Officer of Exceptional Minds, the Los Angeles nonprofit academy and working studios that train young adults on the autism spectrum for careers in animation, visual effects, and a newly launching game-arts program. DeVillier traces her path from property manager on Bill Nye the Science Guy through Microsoft, Yahoo, and Disney to her first year leading Exceptional Minds, and lays out how the organization works: a three-to-four-year vocational academy (mirrored online nationwide), two revenue-generating studios doing VFX and animation for major studios like Marvel, Sony, Disney, and Blumhouse, and a blended funding model of tuition, California self-determination/regional-center funds, earned studio income, and $1.5–2M a year in fundraising. The conversation's through-line is DeVillier's strategic pivot from developing talent to developing workplaces, employer training and a new career-and-student-services center to place graduates into neuro-inclusive jobs, framed by her conviction that accommodations are "low-hanging fruit" that benefit everyone, not a "nice-to-have." She shares the PATH Water Autism Acceptance Month bottle designed by Exceptional Minds artist Benny, reflects on how the work has deepened her relationship with her own neurodivergent daughter, and points listeners to https://exceptional-minds.org. Kirk closes by half-jokingly recruiting Starbucks for a design partnership and promising to "break bread" with DeVillier in Southern California soon. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. I am that Dr. Kirk Adams, speaking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today my special, wonderful guest is Lauren DeVillier. Lauren is the Chief Executive Officer of Exceptional Minds. Say hey, Lauren. Lauren DeVillier: Hey there. Hello. So happy to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Good. Well, we'll be back to you momentarily. So for those of you who don't know me, just super briefly: I am Dr. Kirk Adams, immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller's organization. I had the honor of serving in those same leadership roles at the Lighthouse for the Blind here in Seattle. I am a blind person. My retina is detached. When I was in kindergarten, I went to a wonderful school, the Oregon State School for the Blind, for first, second, and third grade. Thank you, Mrs. Summers, for teaching me how to read Braille. And thank you, Mr. Pearson, for teaching me how to use the long white cane. And off into public school after that. College, career in banking and finance, moved into the nonprofit sector. First nonprofit job was development officer for the Seattle Public Library Foundation, raising money for the statewide Talking Book and Braille Library. Later pursued and earned a master's degree in nonprofit leadership, and later on a PhD in Leadership and Change from Antioch. So I guess I go back to school every 15 years or so. And I met Lauren because a classmate of mine from Whitman College, who was also an econ major, named Vivian Ho, and I reconnected. Vivian lives in the Bay Area. She is a trustee of the University of Washington Board of Regents. And she reached out to me, said, 'I met this really interesting person named Lauren, and she's working on a fantastic project that involves young artists with disabilities, and I think you two should know one another.' So Lauren and I talked about the project she was working on with the Kennedy Center, and we touched base every once in a while. And then, fast forward — I don't know, six, nine months since we connected — and lo and behold, she is the executive director of a nonprofit called Exceptional Minds, doing some fabulous things. I know it started in Southern California, but it's really a national and growing scope. And rather than try to tell you about Exceptional Minds myself, I will let Lauren do that. We'd love to have you talk to us, Lauren, about some of your background, some of your experiences, what led you to be involved with Exceptional Minds, the history of the organization, and where are you now and where are you taking things? Lauren DeVillier: Sounds fantastic. I would love to. So thank you so much again for having me on your podcast. I'm so excited to be here with you today. And my career actually started in Seattle. I worked on Bill Nye the Science Guy at the very beginning of that show. And I— Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay, here's where I jump in to say: when my children were little, we'd watch Bill Nye the Science Guy on channel nine, KCTS, our public broadcasting station. We remember one wonderful day where he showed an experiment where you could take a plastic garbage bag and put a hairdryer underneath it and fill it with hot air, and it would rise up to the ceiling. So we did that. And science — that's Bill Nye. Lauren DeVillier: Science. Science rules. Yes. I want to say that was the Lift episode. That was one of our very first episodes. I was the property manager, so I found all the props for the show, all the background for his experiments, all of those things. It was an incredible experience and really started my career in TV for kids. And so I was with the show for four of the five years. And then I would freelance at Microsoft when we would go on hiatus. I was working on a lot of projects for Microsoft that were kids-related. And then, after the show ended, I ended up joining Microsoft. I was at Microsoft for about five years, and then was recruited to Yahoo, which was the thing that brought me to LA. Because I did love Seattle, but as soon as I got down to the sunny weather of LA, I was like, 'I'm sold.' And so, joined Yahoo, was there for a couple of years. And then I worked on the lifestyles portfolio, and one of them was overseeing the kids group. And so I was out trying to do deals with some of the studios while I was in LA. And I ended up talking to Disney a lot. And they offered me a position to oversee digital strategy for the three kids networks. So it was Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior. And that was a phenomenal experience for me, because I had worked on a TV show, then I went into technology, and then I went to Disney. And Disney really taught me about IP and branding, and really how to meld together digital with storytelling. And so, I was at Disney for quite some time, and then went off to Discovery, went back to Disney, had a startup, and then I was consulting. And my daughter went to a school, a local school here for 2e kids — and 2e is twice exceptional. So the child identifies as gifted, but they have a learning difference. And so somebody from this school reached out to me and said, 'There is this opportunity, and you sound like you'd be a perfect fit for it.' And they sent me the overview, the job description, for Exceptional Minds. And I read the job description, I was like, 'This is a perfect fit for me.' It is in the entertainment industry — kind of a little adjacent to it, not right in a studio. And I have a daughter who is neurodivergent. And I thought, well, not only can I do the business side of this job and the passion side of this job, but as a parent, I understand how you have to navigate with a child who is on the autism spectrum or is neurodivergent. And so I wrote a very passionate letter and said, 'This is why you need to hire me.' And I got hired. And so here I am at Exceptional Minds. And yesterday was actually my one-year anniversary. Dr. Kirk Adams: Congratulations. Lauren DeVillier: Thank you very much. And now I'll tell you a little bit about Exceptional Minds. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Tell us about how kids and young people and neurodiversity and entertainment all come together with Exceptional Minds. Lauren DeVillier: So Exceptional Minds was started in 2009, so we're in our 15th, almost 16th year. It was started in 2009 by a handful of parents who were in the entertainment industry, who had young adults who were on the autism spectrum that wanted to also get into the entertainment industry. And so they started this nonprofit. And in 2011, they opened their first academy. So we are a three-year vocational academy teaching young adults on the spectrum. So you have to be 18 and over and have a high school diploma or GED and a diagnosis of autism. We teach young adults animation, VFX. We're just launching a game arts program. So both of those programs are three-year programs. Our game arts program is a four-year program. And then we have two working studios. So we have an animation studio and a VFX studio, and those were launched in 2014, and in 2016 our VFX studio was launched. Dr. Kirk Adams: Just to make sure — I assume VFX is virtual effects. Lauren DeVillier: No, visual. Visual. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay, yes. Lauren DeVillier: When you see — let's say there's a glare in Brad Pitt's glasses — we remove that glare. Dr. Kirk Adams: Or if there's somebody— Lauren DeVillier: —with a boom mic standing there, we remove the boom mic. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Lauren DeVillier: So yeah, we started doing work for most of the major studios, because the founders had a lot of connections. And so we started doing work for Marvel and Sony and Disney — pretty much all. We still, to

  6. Jun 23

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jerred Mace, Founder and CEO, OneCourt

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jerred Mace, Founder and CEO, OneCourt https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-06-23-2026/ In this energized episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, his first-ever return guest, Kirk reunites with Jerred Mace, founder and CEO of Seattle assistive-tech startup OneCourt, fresh off attending a FIFA US–Australia match in Seattle where he used OneCourt's tactile broadcast at a live sold-out stadium for the first time. Kirk narrates the experience in vivid detail: feeling the ball travel across the pitch under his hands, sensing shots go wide, and syncing to the crowd's roar while seated beside a blind high-school student also using the device. Mace recaps OneCourt's origin story, inspired as a UW industrial-design junior by videos of blind fans following matches through a companion's tactile signing, and explains how the tablet-sized device translates official league tracking data into trackable vibrations on interchangeable silicone overlays, about a half-second behind live play. The conversation covers how the technology works (a shift from in-ball sensors toward optical, computer-vision tracking with millimeter accuracy), OneCourt's growing in-venue footprint (ten NBA teams last season, the Arizona Diamondbacks in MLB, plus soccer activations), and the new at-home preorder that lets fans stream NBA, NFL, and MLB games to their own OneCourt tablet. Mace looks ahead to OneCourt becoming a "need-to-have" accommodation at every venue, plus future use cases in gaming and blind-athlete training, and points listeners to onecourt.io/preorder. Kirk, now formally a OneCourt advisor, even pitches a strap so standing soccer fans can hold the device vertically. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. This is that Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I think this is my first return-guest podcast. So today we welcome again Jerred Mace, founder and CEO of OneCourt. Hey, Jerred. Jerred Mace: Hey, Dr. Kirk. Thanks again for having me back. Super excited to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Absolutely. And I am on fire about OneCourt. Because last week, on Wednesday, I got a text from Jerred that said, 'Hey, did you see the invitation to the World Cup match?' And I had not seen that, but I quickly searched my email, and there it was — an opportunity from FIFA to go see the US play Australia here in Seattle, and to experience OneCourt firsthand at a live sporting event. Now, I first met Jerred at an event at Microsoft — oh gosh, almost two years ago — called Seattle Disability Connect. And I had an opportunity to put my hands on OneCourt and experience tactilely a baseball game on the radio, the Mariners and Tampa. But I had not attended a live sporting event before. So I grabbed my wife, and I grabbed the Uber down to the Pioneer Square area of Seattle, and enjoyed walking through the very jovial, excited, enthusiastic crowd — quite a few Australian accents. And then we went to the guest services desk, where I encountered a blind friend named Jacob who works for both the sports stadiums here. And we checked out a OneCourt device. We were seated next to a blind high school student named Ethan. He was there with his mother, and Ethan and I sat shoulder to shoulder, both with our hands on the OneCourt devices. Of course, being several generations separated, I did have to ask Ethan for a little technical support — he showed me where the volume button was for the audio. But it was truly amazing to sit there and be so synced up with the energy of the crowd, in particular as my hands were on the device and I could feel the ball travel from one end of the pitch to the other. And as it neared the Australian goal, as the US was attempting to score — the increasing volume and excitement of the crowd as they cheered and yelled, and then the shot, and the collective groan as I could feel the ball go wide of the goal. In one particularly rousing scene, there was a shot on goal that went right over the net. The crowd moaned in despair, and I could feel the ball skip right over the goal and out of bounds. And then, of course, when the US scored our two goals, the excitement of that — the change in tone and tempo of the chanting of the crowd as the ball would change hands, as Australia might be driving toward a scoring opportunity, and then the ball would turn over and the US would be moving down the field the opposite way. And just to feel that ebb and flow under my hands while listening to the crowd and feeling the energy. And there was lots of energy in that sold-out, 66,925-capacity crowd at the Seattle Stadium. So I want to express my gratitude toward you, Jerred, and your team for giving me that opportunity. I call that a once-in-a-lifetime. And just really glad to have you back. I know the company has taken great strides since last time we talked. I put in my preorder for my device to use here at home. But for those who didn't listen to episode one of our conversation, if you could give a little recap on the origin story of OneCourt, the path you've traveled so far, where you're at now with OneCourt — where are you going? Jerred Mace: Absolutely. And thank you for that kind introduction, and also breakdown of your experience. I can't wait to talk more. I mean, this is the first time I'm hearing those notes from your experience last week. And it was an electric atmosphere, I think, all over Seattle, but none more impressive than in that venue. So I can't imagine how special that was for everybody. And to be engaging with it in a new way is all the more interesting and fun. So yeah, I definitely have all my questions for you, to hear more about that. But for listeners that haven't heard of OneCourt before, I'd love to just share and preview that. So OneCourt is a sports technology startup here in Seattle. We invented a tactile broadcast that allows fans who are blind or have low vision to experience and watch sports through their fingertips, as Dr. Kirk described in his experience. And what's powerful about this is that it works both in venue and at home. So no matter where you are, you can always access the game. And the origin story dates back a few years now. I was a junior at the University of Washington. I was studying industrial design, and I came across a video of a blind person at a soccer match, and he was sitting in the stands with a woman who was watching the game, and at the same time moving his hands across a game board to represent the action. So it was tactile signing. It was experiencing the game in a totally different format than the ones, I think, that are popularly described. And in doing some research, we kind of found, oh my gosh, these instances of accessibility are popping up around the world, where people are just helping other people experience the game. There was another similar video out of Brazil — same thing, but this one was at a cafe where fans were cheering, and two fans were sitting across from each other and helping watch the game through tactile signing. And I think the insight from that was really, how do we scale that experience to everyone using this emerging data and haptic technology? And that's what our company has been focused on since then. So we banded together as a group of students from the UW and formed this company called OneCourt. So we've been on a major journey, I would say, of development and community building. And now we're getting to this interesting part of scaling the work that we've built. So yeah, I would love to talk more about any and all of that. Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, let's talk about the actual device itself. It was so fascinating to me to spend that much time at it. You've definitely made changes, improvements since the last time I had my hands on OneCourt, which was well over a year ago. But it seemed lighter. Jerred Mace: Yeah. Dr. Kirk Adams: I had never had my hands on the rubber overlay that depicts the pitch of the soccer field. But I did notice that the goal itself was very, very small, but then there was a larger representation of the space representing the goal. So I could tell where the shot went in. Good score. Jerred Mace: Yeah, exactly. We have been playing around with what we call multi-view concepts, where we're able to show different views of the game, not just a single plane or top-down view of the action. And to give a brief description of the device — it's about the size of a laptop. And to your point, it has actually gotten a lot lighter, which is good. It's also getting thinner, which I'm excited about. You can think of it like a thicker laptop that you place on your lap or on a tabletop in front of you. And on the surface, there's a silicone mat that features the tactile graphic of whatever court or field you might be interested in. So in the case of soccer, of course, it features the goal line and the enlarged goal and the center line and the penalty box — everything. You can imagine that for different sports as well. And then what you're feeling underneath actually are vibrations that correspond to the gameplay that's happening live. So we work with the teams and leagues who are collecting this data around where the players are, where the ball is, and we translate that data in real time into trackable vibrations. So you can literally feel the ball stream across the field. Dr. Kirk Adams: Right. Jerred Mace: About a half second after it's happ

  7. Jun 16

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Robert Annis, Co-Founder, NEURO

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Robert Annis, Co-Founder, NEURO https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-06-16-2026/ In this candid episode of Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams welcomes Robert Annis, a London-based coach and organizational psychologist, and founder of NEURO, an inclusive charity built to make neuroinclusion a competitive advantage rather than a matter of ethics alone. Annis speaks openly about his own "late diagnosis" at 45 (he's now 47) as profoundly autistic, with co-occurring ADHD, prosopagnosia (face blindness), aphantasia, alexithymia, an absence of interoception, and severely deficient autobiographical memory, a lifetime of "masking" that finally had names. He explains why he founded NEURO after growing frustrated with charities focused on awareness alone: he wanted real social change, so he deliberately built NEURO to look and operate like a business consultancy, meeting leaders in the language of innovation, adaptability, and talent rather than moral obligation. It's a thesis Dr. Adams shares in his forthcoming book, The Disability Dividend: Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion, that the resilience and cognitive diversity forged by overcoming barriers are exactly what organizations need to thrive. The conversation then turns to how NEURO actually drives change: the NEURO Standard, an accreditation spanning five organizational pillars and three tiers that lets employers and universities prove they are continuously investing in inclusion, and, in turn, attract the roughly one in six people who are neurodivergent, plus everyone who loves them. Annis shares early wins, a Great Britain Olympic rugby player who rebuilt her youth-coaching approach for neurodivergent kids, and final-year students in London and Manchester who used the NEURO Standard to audit their own universities as their capstone project, alongside fast traction for a charity registered only about two months earlier: three university partners (two UK, one Australian), local-council ties reaching some 26 high schools, a charity-of-the-year award, volunteers across three continents, and a first major client in a large energy provider. He closes with a borderless five-year vision, licensing the model to "commercial delivery partners" worldwide, growing a free NEURO Library of practical resources, and recruiting volunteers in a way that deliberately advances each volunteer's own career. TRANSCRIPT: Announcer: Welcome to Podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington — one of the sites for the World Cup. We had Egypt and Belgium yesterday, down the street from me, and on Friday it's the US and Australia, so football has taken over our city. And, coincidentally, I'm speaking today with someone from the United Kingdom: Robert Annis, who's based in London. Robert is the founder of NEURO, an inclusive charity seeking to make inclusion a competitive benefit to society — which aligns very closely with the work I do. Good morning to me, and good afternoon to you, Robert. Robert Annis: Thank you, Kirk — it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. Dr. Kirk Adams: I'm glad you're here. I met Robert fairly recently through my good friend LinkedIn. As I said, Robert is the founder of NEURO, really focusing on working with organizations — companies, NGOs, governmental agencies — to help them understand that being inclusive of people with neurodiversity is a competitive advantage. I have a forthcoming business book that should be out soon; it's going into formatting right now, and it's called The Disability Dividend: Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion. So Robert and I have very similar views on the impacts of being truly inclusive of people with impairments — whether sight, hearing, neurological, or physical — and I'm really pleased to have Robert here today. We'll turn the microphone over to you; I'd love to hear the story. What's the journey that's brought you to where you are today with NEURO, and where are you going to take things? Robert Annis: Well, thank you, Kirk — that's a lovely introduction; I really appreciate it. It's really nice to be here. Getting to do something like a podcast is always a real pleasure, and it's always fascinating — you never know who's going to reach out afterwards and where it might lead, so I'm excited to see where this takes us. I think it's a really interesting topic you mentioned, around your book, my experience, and what we're doing with NEURO. The concept of being disabled is often seen as a negative, and I would never be the one to say it's a superpower — that's for sure. But there is an interesting point of view to be had: if someone can overcome the difficulties that society, and their own abilities, may put in front of them, then they develop a level of resilience and ability that can be very useful in organizations. It can create people who have exactly the sorts of skills organizations really need. However, we tend to have a bit of a lens over our view of people, so, quite traditionally, leaders will not look for people who are different — they look for people who are the same. Dr. Kirk Adams: Can we dig into the comment about the skills that employers need? Because that's certainly a conversation I— Robert Annis: I thought it might. Dr. Kirk Adams: I have a lot — and rather than lead with what I say about it, I'd love to hear what you say. You're talking to organizations about those skills. Robert Annis: I always try to think of it as a real-world example for them. A good one would be Covid, or artificial intelligence — massive, changing things that occur. Organizations, whether a school, a business, or an NGO, need to learn to survive through that, adapt, and ideally thrive. When you're going through those times, organizations need to be adaptable and flexible, and to do that, they need to be able to innovate and problem-solve. That is really fed by having multiple different mindsets and experiences — which can come from people of different age groups, different races, or different backgrounds of social mobility, but also different abilities, such as neurodivergence. So what we're helping organizations see is not to fear difference but to actually value it — to see that it brings things into your organization that can make you more successful. Critically, this means we're not going to organizations and leading with an ethical or moral argument; we're leading with a competitive one: that these people, like anybody, may have certain areas where they need help, but they also bring something rather special to the table, and that could be a huge differentiator for the organization. Dr. Kirk Adams: And what brought you to this work — your focus on neuro-difference? Robert Annis: Unsurprisingly, I was diagnosed as very neurodivergent indeed. I'm autistic — somewhere close to the edge of how autistic you can be. They were quite shocked when they did the tests; I think they said they hadn't seen a number that high, which I'm not sure is a compliment or not, but nonetheless. Dr. Kirk Adams: What age were you? Robert Annis: Yeah, I mean— Dr. Kirk Adams: How old were you? Robert Annis: It was about two years ago, so I'd have been 45. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay, so recently. Robert Annis: Oh, yeah — very recently. 'Late diagnosis' is the correct term here, and that takes you on a certain journey. A lot of people who have differences, particularly in the brain — mainly because it's so complex that if there are differences, they have large-scale impacts — have comorbidity, meaning they have other things going on. So I have autism and ADHD, as I said, but also prosopagnosia, which is face blindness, so I don't remember faces or recognize people most of the time. I have aphantasia, so I don't have a mind's eye — I can't picture things, and I don't really dream. I have alexithymia, which means I struggle to comprehend emotions, both in myself and in others. I lack interoception, which is the ability to understand what's happening in your body, so I don't get hungry — I get ravenous: I'm fine, I'm fine, and then all of a sudden I'm eating the table, so that's entertaining. And I also have severely deficient autobiographical memory, or SDAM, which means I don't remember the past much. So all of these things come together, and they do make life quite tricky. Dr. Kirk Adams: Being diagnosed — given names for these things — when you're 45: does that explain a lot of your life experience before then? Robert Annis: Of course it does. I think the most fascinating thing about that, Kirk, is this: if you're unable to walk and so you need a wheelchair, it's very apparent — you're not surprised by it. But when it's something in your head, you're not aware of it, because as humans, growing up from children into adulthood, we're always just making sure we fit in and trying to understand the world around us and how we operate within it. So I knew I struggled with my memory and couldn't remember people, but that's not the kind of thing you vocalize and tell people, so I just put it to one side and tried to carry on. I became very good at what we call masking — using skills to effectively hide where I'm struggling. I would always let other people lead the conversation, and I'd try to avoid any topics about previous interactions. And I didn't alway

  8. Jun 15

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jack Walters, Founder & CEO, Hapware

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jack Walters, Founder & CEO, Hapware https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-06-15-2026/ In this illuminating episode of Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with Jack Walters, co-founder and CEO of HapWare, to explore ALEYE, a haptic wristband built to give blind and low-vision people access to the visual, nonverbal layer of communication that makes up the majority of human interaction. Walters explains how the system pairs with Meta smart glasses to capture a live video stream, classifies gestures, facial expressions, and body language through the company's custom algorithms, and translates them into intuitive vibrations on the wrist, a handshake, a smile, a wave, someone walking away across the room, all in under a quarter of a second. He traces HapWare's journey from a research project at the Colorado School of Mines, where he met his blind co-founder Bryan Duarte (one of roughly twenty blind people worldwide with a PhD in computer science), through candid lessons about early prototypes that delivered real value but were bulky and uncomfortable, to a ground-up redesign led by industrial designers recruited from Hydro Flask, Tesla, and Rivian, the goal being a wearable people are genuinely proud to wear, not another device that lands on a shelf after a year. Dr. Adams and Walters then turn to the road ahead: HapWare plans to ship its first units at the end of 2026 and roughly a thousand through 2027, with a waitlist, pre-orders, and regional demonstration centers already taking shape. Walters describes a striking resonance with the deaf-blind community, the company's independently developed haptics map closely to pro-tactile communication, and HapWare is now working with the Helen Keller National Center and the FCC on the iCanConnect program, and lays out a roadmap toward emotional-intelligence cues and a broader vision of ALEYE as a "universal communication device." Drawing on his own experience with pro-tactile interpreting during his years leading the Seattle Lighthouse, Dr. Adams reflects on how haptics can deliver this information without crowding the audio channel that blind travelers rely on, and the two close with HapWare's current funding round (backed by Adaptation Ventures, where Dr. Adams is a limited partner) and the company's open, equity-bearing roles for people eager to help bring the technology to market. TRANSCRIPT: Announcer: Welcome to Podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams, talking to you from my office in sunny Seattle at the beginning of World Cup week here in Seattle — Belgium and Egypt are playing right down the street from me right now. My guest today is someone I met in person for the first time at CES, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: Jack Walters, the founder of HapWare, an exciting new technology that will make the lives of blind people such as myself richer, deeper, and more vibrant. Say hey, Jack. Jack Walters: Hello. Thank you so much for having me. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, absolutely. I first heard of HapWare from Thomas Panek, the CEO of the Lighthouse Guild in New York. He and I have been colleagues and friends for many years, going back to our National Industries for the Blind days, and he was very excited telling me about it. We touched on the fact that a large majority of communication, when people are talking, is nonverbal — it's visual, it's body language and facial cues and those types of things. And blind people have to contend with the fact that, traditionally, we haven't been able to incorporate that visual information into our communications. Thomas was very excited about it. Then I was at the Consumer Electronics Show, and my wife and I were wandering ballroom G, where most of the assistive technology companies were clustered, and we came across HapWare — a wearable that gives us information about the person we're talking to. I met Jack and some of the team. Later on — I'm a limited partner in an angel investing group called Adaptation Ventures, which specifically does early-stage investing in disability tech, and we have sessions where startups come and pitch their company to us — there was Jack, making the case for the Adaptation Ventures angel group to invest in HapWare, which we did. So there are quite a few roads leading me to Jack. I'm really just grateful for your time and for the opportunity to learn even more about the company. Could you tell us a little about the journey — your background, how you got involved, where things are now, and where you see them going? Jack Walters: Definitely — and I appreciate the introduction. This is a tight-knit community, so it's always great when you have all these serendipitous moments, whether it's meeting colleagues or meeting at a random trade show in person and then ending up pitching a couple of weeks later. One of the most enjoyable parts of working in this community is just how tight-knit it is, how fast things travel, and how everyone is a quick introduction away. People are very willing to have conversations and introduce us to other folks in the industry, and that's been extremely valuable when it comes to the learnings. As for a little background on how HapWare started: it began when my co-founder, Bryan — who is part of the blind and low-vision community — and I met on a research project at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. We met because we were both really interested in haptics and in building technology that creates capability and impact, and Bryan had a lot of lived experience with a variety of things that could be useful. Dr. Kirk Adams: And you were both formally affiliated with the Colorado School of Mines? Jack Walters: That's where I got my undergrad and master's degrees — my undergrad in mechanical engineering and my master's in engineering and technology management. Bryan was affiliated mainly through his work sponsoring research projects; he would sponsor these projects for students like myself to be on, and he would help mentor them. He's got his PhD in computer science and technology, so that was his affiliation. Mine was that I was a student. Dr. Kirk Adams: Not a lot of blind guys with PhDs in computer science — so hats off to you in absentia, Bryan. Jack Walters: Yes. The unofficial-official stat we've heard from some people in the community is that there are about 20 people in the world who are blind and hold a PhD in computer science — so it's a handful, but a PhD in computer science specifically, and Bryan fits that criteria. We met through a research project — building haptics, building wearables, wanting to create impact, bringing a lot of lived experience, and wanting to do something for the blind and low-vision community, but also the greater disability community, since there's so much lagging technology. The classic stat is that over 70% of assistive technology ends up on the shelf after a year — although there's a really high ROI when it does work — and there isn't a lot of evolution in the assistive technology realm: it tends to be low-tech at high price points. So we really wanted to bend that mold and build technology that evolves with you, so you don't have the problem of most of it landing on the shelf after a year, and that's both high-tech and affordable. Instead of high-tech and extremely expensive, or low-tech and extremely expensive — which is often the case — we wanted the best of both worlds: evolution, financial accessibility, and continuous value. Jack Walters: That was really our thesis for how we wanted to build. From there, it was just talking to people, and one of the common things we heard from the community was — like you mentioned — that visual communication, which is the majority of communication, is inaccessible for people who are blind or low-vision. With those insights in mind, we started to develop wearables that would communicate that visual information: someone reaching out to shake your hand, smiling, walking away from you, or waving across the room. We built different haptic sensations into what is essentially a wristband, about the size of a watch, that would tell you those things. From our early prototypes, we got incredible feedback, with people highlighting how valuable this information is, how it restores communication, and how in-depth it is in the ways you want it to be. We never stopped iterating, which is why we're at an exciting point now: we're planning to ship our first batch of units at the end of this year and then fulfill the rest of our orders over the next 12 to 24 months, into early 2027. Dr. Kirk Adams: I experienced the output of the wristband — the haptic sensations that indicate, like you say, gestures and facial expressions. Talk to us about the whole system, including the input. Jack Walters: It's a multi-system device. The main piece is the haptic output on your wrist — the ALEYE wristband, as we call it, which has haptic actuators, or motors, around it. It's just like when your phone vibrates and a certain vibration tells you it's a phone call. For the different gestures, body language, and expressions, the sensations are meant to be intuitive. The way you get the visual information right now is by integrating with the Meta glasses: the Meta glasses pick up the video stream — they're the camera — and that's sent to our companion mobile app on the phone, which determines what the different cu

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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams is a compelling podcast series that brings listeners into the world of accessibility, leadership, and social change through the lens of one of the most influential voices in blindness advocacy. Dr. Kirk Adams, former President and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind and a lifelong champion for the rights of people with visual impairments, hosts this insightful and inspiring program.

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