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. 4d ago

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Anthony Corona, Host and Executive Producer, Sunday Edition with Anthony Corona

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Anthony Corona, Host and Executive Producer, Sunday Edition with Anthony Corona https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-10-14-2026/ In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Kirk Adams welcomes Anthony Corona, founder of Anthony Corona Media and Sunday Edition, who was connected to Kirk by Jeremy Grandstaff and recently joined the Persons with Disabilities Media Co-op. Anthony describes his life before blindness and after blindness: he was the East Coast entertainment editor for The Associated Press when shingles in the tissues of his brain, eyes and ears left him completely blind at 40, and he says he is now 10 years in. He talks about teaching himself VoiceOver, mobility training, guide dog school, his first American Council of the Blind convention in Rochester, New York, in 2019, the internship that led to Sunday Edition, and his work at Open Doors Organization, where he was asked to head communications. Anthony explains how Sunday Edition grew from ACB's weekly news magazine show into an independent family of eight podcasts, with 10 expected by the end of the year, plus Corona FM, its 24-hour streaming channel, and how he mentors contributors to host their own shows, including Sylvia Stinson-Perez, whose Treading the Waters of Life is going solo in January. Kirk and Anthony discuss intersectionality, Anthony's role as vice president of Blind Pride and why it left the American Council of the Blind, and Anthony's focus on sponsorships, short video content and the Double Tap Live network. Kirk closes by describing the Community Coalition for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion, an online membership community on the Circle platform. Listeners can find Anthony at https://anthonycorona.com and Kirk at https://drkirkadams.com. 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 very same Dr. Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today, I have a guest who I'm a little bit intimidated because Anthony is a very experienced podcast host himself. So we'll see how I do, Anthony. You can give me a grade at the end. Anthony Corona: [laughs] Dr. Kirk Adams: But it's Anthony, Anthony Corona, founder of Anthony Corona Media and Sunday Edition. Say hello, Anthony. Anthony Corona: Hello, everyone. I'm really glad to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Glad you're here with us. And I was connected to Anthony by Jeremy Grandstaff, another fellow blind guy who I have known and worked with for eight or nine years now. And Anthony attended the virtual launch of the Community Coalition for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion on September 1st, which I'll talk a little more about later. Dr. Kirk Adams: But Anthony is out there doing great work in making the world a more inclusive place for people, and in particular people who are blind. And he has put together a number of really exciting initiatives, and we're happily joining forces in a couple of ways. One is Anthony recently joined the Persons with Disabilities Media Co-op, which is a group of us who share our social media platforms. So between all of us, we have social media platforms with over 200,000 followers. And through the management and direction of Aaron Di Blasi of Mind Vault Solutions, anyone in the media co-op can get a message out to all of those social media platforms at the low, low cost of $25 per message. Dr. Kirk Adams: So if anyone listening is interested in learning more about the Persons with Disabilities Media Co-op, I'll tell you how to get in touch at the end of the podcast. So Anthony, I'm gonna hand you the microphone and ask you to tell us your life story in about 40 minutes. Anthony Corona: [laughs] Dr. Kirk Adams: [laughs] Where have you been? What's been the journey to get you to this point? What are things looking like now, and what's your vision for the future? What's working well for you? Any challenges that we can help with? So the floor is yours. Anthony Corona: Well, I kinda say that there's Anthony and/or Anthony 2.0, or BB and AB, which, you know, before blindness and after blindness. I was sighted until I was 40 years old. Dr. Kirk Adams: Oh, wow, okay. Anthony Corona: Yeah, so I'm 10 years in. March 24th is that anniversary. And I threw myself a virtual party. [laughs] But— Dr. Kirk Adams: So it was an event then? It wasn't a gradual degenerative situation? Anthony Corona: No. I am one of those very rare statistical persons who had shingles in the tissues in my brain, in my eyes, in my ears. Had a medically induced coma, woke up three days later and was completely blind. They had to drill a hole in my skull to relieve the pressure. And yeah, the world completely... I was 40 years old, and the world completely changed access. It felt like north was south and south was north, and I had no idea how life was going to exist [laughs] moving forward. Anthony Corona: Before that, I was the East Coast entertainment editor for The Associated Press, but I lived a bunch of lives in 40 years. Played baseball, a year of minor league ball all through high school, college. Worked in retail, worked in restaurants. My degree was in recreational therapy, so I worked in the autism community for a couple years doing early intervention, home-based services as well as ABA, behavioral analysis modification, things like that. Anthony Corona: None of these jobs were high-flying career-paying jobs until I got to The Associated Press. And even then, I mean, the salary was great, but the perks of travel and things like that made life incredible. And then, in the space of three days, I— Dr. Kirk Adams: So how do you move into a job like that? Anthony Corona: I actually had always been writing. And I took a per diem job with The Village Voice, a famous newspaper on the West Coast in New York. A headhunter actually contacted me and said that The Associated Press is interested. Their arts and culture division is going through some changes, would you be in... You have managerial experience as well. Would you be interested in taking a sort of half editor, half managerial position? And I really didn't think I would get the job, so I kinda threw everything I wanted in a job at them, and they gave me everything. Anthony Corona: And seven months later, they asked me to actually take over the entertainment division for a year or so, and clean it up and transition. Media was really changing at that point. When I first walked into that department, we had 17 support staff through researchers, secretaries and such, and there were barely four by the time this happened. And I never left. I loved it. I loved the job, I loved the fast pace, the energy, traveling around the world, meeting incredible people. There were some trade-offs, life-wise. Work/life balance was always hard, and I have a very demanding family. But I loved it. The only thing I joke about is towards the end I was getting really burned out typing the name Kardashian, and major news events in the entertainment industry would happen, and for a month straight you'd just be typing the same things over and over again, recycling the same material. Dr. Kirk Adams: [laughs] Anthony Corona: That part of it became a little frustrating towards the end, but I had no plans to leave or anything like that. Dr. Kirk Adams: So were you in that role when the shingles occurred? Anthony Corona: I was. Dr. Kirk Adams: Oh, wow. Anthony Corona: Folks who listen to Sunday Edition, my father passed away. It was happening all at the same time. I didn't know what it was. I was seeing flashes, getting these migraines. By the time I got to the hospital, they rushed me actually to a eye and ear specialty hospital. And that's the last time I drove, I drove myself to the emergency room. And three days later woke up in Manhattan. I was living in Staten Island, New York at the time. Anthony Corona: And after that, I don't really remember a lot about the first year. I think the brain protects you from the harsh parts. I mean, if I sit and focus I can really bring up memories, but they're not part of the kind of fabric of my life. It kind of jumps over until guide dog and becoming involved in the organizations, and life started to pick back up and I knew I wanted to figure out how to find a way to take the skills that I had and turn them into a viable career as a blind person. We all know that— Dr. Kirk Adams: So what was step... My retinas detached when I was five years old, so I've been blind since first grade and I went to school for blind kids, and there was just no question I needed to learn braille, how to use a long white cane. I needed to learn how to type on a typewriter so I could go to public school. So my path was pretty clear-cut. For you at age 40, the first year you say is a bit of a blur, but what was kind of the first coherent strategic thing that you did to move into living as a blind person? Anthony Corona: And this is something we advocate for, the first couple of months I didn't get any real information, and maybe there was a little bit of it, but my brain is, there's so much going on. And honestly, they thought they could save some of the sight, so I did a couple of surgeries with scar tissue and such. Anthony Corona: So by the time that all settled in I realized, okay, I'm gonna have to start figuring out how to live like this. I'd already figured out a few hacks and I wasn't even using a cane yet. And so I reache

  2. Oct 1

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Zhou Fang, Founder and Principal Practitioner, Intersectional Group

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Zhou Fang, Founder and Principal Practitioner, Intersectional Group https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-10-01-2026/ In this thoughtful episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Kirk Adams talks with Zhou Fang, an intersectionality practitioner and abundance mindset teacher whose podcast he discovered when it popped up in his iCatcher app. Zhou explains that her intersectionality work begins with her own experience as a Chinese immigrant who is not a citizen, from graduate school in Manhattan, Kansas, to her life in Portland, Oregon, and she compares Midwest hospitality with Pacific Northwest politeness, which she says can cost people the honest conversations that build real relationships. Kirk shares his own culture shift from "Seattle nice" to New York City, and Zhou describes how she uses intersectionality and the "yes, and" approach to help leaders become better, more thoughtful communicators. Zhou says she learned about abundance because of scarcity: about three years ago, she says, illness forced her to stop working, and she found abundance in the people who cared for her and in nature, from the smell of fresh rain to Oregon's waterfalls. She walks through her coaching process, which begins with reclaiming time, rest, space and the ability to dream, and explains the solidarity economy, while Kirk brings in Tricia Hersey's Nap Ministry and his reading of the Dao. The conversation closes with Kirk's invitation to the Community Coalition for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion and with where to find Zhou at https://abundancewithzhou.com and Kirk at https://drkirkadams.com. 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 very same Dr. Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, and today I'm thrilled to have a guest that I discovered by listening to a podcast. Zhou Fang is here today. Zhou is an intersectionality practitioner and an abundance mindset teacher, two things I am very interested in myself. So welcome, Zhou. Zhou Fang: Thank you so much, Dr. Kirk, for having me on your program. When you told me you listen to my podcast, [laughs] I felt so honored. I rarely have people talk and tell me, say, "Hey, I listen to your podcast." Every time I hear something like that, for some reason, I just feel so nicely surprised and also honored. So when I saw your message, it made my day. So thank you very much. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. So I'm a totally blind person, and I use various types of technology, screen-reading software. I use one called Job Access With Speech, JAWS, on my desktop, and then on the iPhone there's a built-in screen reader called VoiceOver. And I have an app called iCatcher, which is very accessible and works well with VoiceOver, and it's for listening to podcasts. And when I get ready for the day and set my intentions and kinda write a little vision of what I want the day to look like, what I want the shape of the day, the focus of the day, I typically listen to a podcast while I'm kinda getting organized. And I'll just put in a keyword, just whatever floats to the surface. I might have put in intersectionality. I might have put in abundance. But your podcast popped up, and I tapped on it, and I was just so engaged by what you had to say. So I'm so glad you're here today. Dr. Kirk Adams: I do want to make listeners aware of something that's very important in my life, and that is the launch of the Community Coalition for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion. I'm serving as executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion, and we have launched a community coalition that's a monthly membership model. And if you are interested in diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, belonging, and gathering together with other like-minded individuals to take collective action to make the world a more socially just, fair, and a place where human dignity can flourish, I would invite you to check out the Community Coalition. Dr. Kirk Adams: So, Zhou, intersectionality is something I talk about a lot in the work that I do, especially when I'm talking to companies about employing people with disabilities. And I say that if you do a good job of including people with disabilities, you're going to be doing a good job of including everybody because disability knows no demographic boundaries, so people of all races, genders, affectional orientations, economic backgrounds, education, rural, urban, there's a certain percentage of us that have or will have disabilities. So intersectionality is something we share. And then the abundance mindset, I know I've read the work of Carol Dweck, and she talks about that. And I loved what you had to say when I listened to your podcast, so I just want to hand the microphone to you and ask you to tell us about your journey, which I heard a little bit on the podcast interview I listened to. But would love to, like I say, where have you been, Zhou? Where are you now? Where do you see things heading? What's working well for you? Any challenges? So the floor is yours. Zhou Fang: [laughs] Such big questions. Thank you, Dr. Kirk. I just wanna say really quickly that I am curious about your Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion organization, so I would love to learn more of that as well. Dr. Kirk Adams: I will send you information. Zhou Fang: Yes. I would love to participate. And for me, intersectionality and abundance mindset, they are really interconnected. When I first entered kind of the consulting space, during the pandemic pretty much, what I started with intersectionality, and for me, that's where I was, is intersectionality really opened my mind about how our world, especially in the US, works. As you mentioned, right, people with disability and with different kind of intersectional identities, different backgrounds, somehow we are all here together and trying to figure this out. And for some of us, more able-bodied people, right, we don't see the challenges people with disabilities, and sometimes visible, sometimes invisible. And just from that perspective, from the intersectionality lens, is that if we can all develop a sense of empathy and also being able to understand and think from different perspective, then we have the opportunity to serve each other better. Zhou Fang: And I think that's the power of intersectionality. 'Cause like you mentioned, Dr. Kirk, is that at some point in our lives, a lot of us will at least become temporarily disabled or having limited ability, and for a lot of us, that condition may be permanent or long-term. So if we have that kind of mindset, disability is not, it's not that unique. It's actually, it can happen to anyone. And having that idea can really make us more empathetic, just as a society and as community. And of course, apply intersectionality to other areas, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and even your citizenship status, right? 'Cause I'm a immigrant, so I'm actually— Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, let's hear a little bit about your lived experience, your life journey. Not everyone follows a path that leads them to a space of thinking about empathy [laughs] and serving others. Some of the things you've mentioned. So what is your life experience that brought you to these spaces? Zhou Fang: Yeah, for me, my intersectionality experience starts with my immigrant experience. Is not being a citizen, and that is invisible identity. And oftentimes also visible because I am, for folks who are listening to this podcast or who heard my name, Zhou Fang, may be able to guess that I am Chinese. So I moved to the US from China as a young adult. So for a lot of people, the way I look will— Dr. Kirk Adams: And what brought you, your education or work? Zhou Fang: Yeah, education. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, okay. Zhou Fang: Yeah, yeah. Grad school. So I went to grad school in Kansas, actually. A lot of people probably wouldn't guess that either. So the way I look is, people will by default assume that I am an immigrant to begin with, right? Which I am. At the same time, it's like there are so many Asian Americans here, and we are always seen as immigrant. So that intersectionality to me is part of my experience here, and also, because I'm not a citizen, and some people don't know that. So a lot of the benefits that a citizen has, I don't have, right? For example, voting. I'm not able to vote, and a lot of us take that for granted, the right to vote, the ability to vote. So every time I mention myself as an example is, we don't take things for granted, and a lot of the things that we just assume that's readily available may not be for a lot of people, for example. And so that is my very personal experience with intersectionality. And— Dr. Kirk Adams: So some of your identities, obviously you've got Chinese, immigrant, female. Zhou Fang: Yes. Chinese— Dr. Kirk Adams: Not a citizen. So you've got [laughs] a number of intersecting identities. And you live in the Pacific Northwest now. Zhou Fang: I do, yeah. I'm in Portland, Oregon. Which we have a larger Asian population compared to Kansas probably. And still we are a relatively small group of people here, and very diverse as well. So I can also observe a lot of intersectionality within the Asian and Asian American communities, from just personal life and through my professional work as well. So really it's like my lived experience as an immigrant, as Chinese, as woman, as someone who lived

  3. Sep 17

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Stephanie Sanders, Owner and CEO, Walk In Thought Productions, LLC

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Stephanie Sanders, Owner and CEO, Walk In Thought Productions, LLCE https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-09-17-2026/ In this warm episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk welcomes Stephanie D. Sanders, a transformational motivational speaker and performer from Lakeland, Florida, who first wrote to him years ago when he was president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, and who later met him in person at the National Federation of the Blind convention in Orlando. Stephanie tells her story from the beginning: legally blind in one eye since birth but undiagnosed until kindergarten, treated through the University of Florida, and raised as the youngest of three by a mother who did not yet know why her daughter kept giving the wrong answer. She describes refusing to let her vision define her, the sports and cheerleading years, the basketball injury that ended her track-and-field and Olympic hopes, and the pivot that followed into sports announcing, a mass communications degree in radio, television and film production, and a career in entertainment. From there the conversation follows her from a Seattle radio station in the early 1990s to Los Angeles, where an improv workshop at the Hollywood Black Film Festival drew unexpected praise from actress Cee Cee Michaela and convinced her to make the move. She talks about her CD, book and audiobook One More Day, sings a few lines of her song Hold On Tight on air, and joins Kirk in a candid exchange about intersectionality, privilege and disclosure, in which he recounts negotiating a car by telephone as Dr. Kirk Adams and then losing interviews the moment he walked in with a long white cane. Both return repeatedly to faith, resilience and the value of community, and the episode closes with how to reach Stephanie and with Kirk's invitation to join the Community Coalition at the Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion. 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 guest that I've known for quite some years now. It's Stephanie D. Sanders. Stephanie hails from Florida, born and raised. She is a transformational motivational speaker and performer. And say hello, Stephanie. Stephanie D. Sanders: Hello, everybody. Dr. Kirk Adams: Great. We'll be back to you shortly. So for those of you who don't know me, I'm the immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. And I'm a blind person. My retinas detached when I was five years old. And in 2016, I was president and CEO of the Lighthouse for the Blind here in Seattle, and I was given the opportunity to move to New York and then to Washington, DC, and lead the American Foundation for the Blind through a turnaround process. The organization was founded in 1921. Helen Keller was their global ambassador from 1924 until she passed away in 1968. And at the time I was given the opportunity to lead the iconic AFB, they were in a severe financial downward spiral. And I spent six years working with a great team of staff, board members. And we did some difficult but necessary things to put AFB back on track. And during that time, I received contact from Stephanie, who said, I admire what American Foundation for the Blind is doing, and I would love to become part of the organization. I am a motivational speaker. I'm a performer. I think I could lend my talents to the good work. And unfortunately, we were eliminating positions and laying people off in order to cut expenses. So the timing didn't work out well for that. But Stephanie and I had a few conversations. I learned she lived in Orlando, and I was headed to Orlando for the National Federation of the Blind conference, and we arranged to meet. And we met in the conference hotel and had a great conversation, and we've kept in touch since. Stephanie is a very inspirational person, a very talented person. I am honored to be considered her friend. And it's great to have you here on the podcast, Stephanie. I want to just hand the microphone to you and ask you to tell listeners your story. And I guess, where have you been? What brought you to where you are now, and how are things now, and where do you see things going? What's your vision for the future? What are you working to accomplish? And then we'll let people know how they can get in touch with you. I'll, as the host, I will sit here and listen. And if a question occurs to me, I will interrupt you and ask you questions. So be — I don't know what they'll be, because I don't know what you're going to say. But here we are, Stephanie. It's a pleasure to have you. The floor is yours. Stephanie D. Sanders: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate it very, very much, for the opportunity to actually be here, just hanging out with you and talking to the people. Yes, I am Stephanie D. Sanders. And I always say, now don't forget the D. That is my middle initial, but it makes a difference when you put me in Google. But I am originally here from Central Florida, and I'm actually from Lakeland, Florida, but I'm very, very close to Orlando, right in between actually Orlando and Tampa. And like Mr. Adams said, I had the opportunity to connect with him years ago when I wanted to start to get more involved with the visually impaired and blind community, because I grew up actually as a legally blind child in one eye, but they didn't find out until I went to kindergarten. And so just imagine those first five years, and your mother's a teacher, and she's trying to teach you things before you go to school, and you're saying the wrong answer. That didn't go over too well for a while. And she actually apologized to me later when I was an adult. She was like, I'm so sorry, I was tough on you. I did not know that I had a visual impairment at that time. So it's actually been since birth. And went to University of Florida for some research for several months, I believe it was, as they tried to help me out in making my vision at least better in one eye. Yeah, they tried both, but it only turned out to be in one eye that they could help me more to have some vision. So then I kind of moved on and transitioned into teenage years and growing up. And I tell you, even though I had and still have a visual impairment, I absolutely, positively never let that deter me, discourage me in any way, shape or form. And I know that had to be God just instilling something, just that self motivation within myself, to not even pigeonhole myself at times into only being a visually impaired person. People saw me, they saw that I would wear glasses one day. Another day I would wear a patch, another day I would wear contacts, lost them several times. So mom was like — mom and dad are like, no, that is way too expensive. Yeah. And at that time, you were only getting one contact a year. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Let me — a couple things. So visual impairment, blindness, legal blindness means a lot of different things. Like I'm totally blind. I have been since I was five, when my retinas detached. Most people who are legally blind or visually impaired have some level of vision, usable vision. Some people can see shapes, some people can tell the difference between light and dark. Some people's vision change. Some people have night blindness. They kind of see okay during the day, but not at night. Some people day to day, like sometimes their vision is pretty good, sometimes it's not very good. And then there's progressive conditions like retinitis pigmentosa. I know lots of people with RP who don't really know they have a visual impairment till maybe they're eight, nine, ten, 15, 20 years old, and then they discover they have retinitis pigmentosa, starting with usually difficulty seeing at night, and progressively lose the peripheral vision until people are just looking through a tunnel. Then there's macular, where people lose the central vision. They can only see out of the sides. So it's a one size does not fit all. Stephanie D. Sanders: So it— Dr. Kirk Adams: Really does. Your experience and my experience with visual impairment is obviously very different. You grew up in Florida. I grew up in little towns in Washington and Oregon. So definitely different backgrounds. But tell me about your family. Were there brothers and sisters too? Stephanie D. Sanders: Yes, actually, I have one brother and one sister, and they're both older, so I'm the baby of the family. And I played my role. I accepted that role as the baby in the family. I didn't abuse it, though. I didn't abuse it. I just had to watch my siblings and how things were going for them and mistakes they might have made here and there. And I'm like, oh, I'm not going to do that. Dr. Kirk Adams: I have one younger brother and one sister who's quite a bit younger, and she's definitely the baby in some ways. We still kid her, because my dad's famous line was, I don't care what's going on, I just don't want to hear her cry. Stephanie D. Sanders: Right. I was a bit of a tomboy. I was like a rough and tough, and just into anything and everything that was going on around me and in the neighborhood. We had kids in the neighborhood, so it was a really good time. Dr. Kirk Adams: City, country? What kind of neighborhood? Stephanie D. Sanders: Ours was in the city. It wasn't like city city, but it wasn't country either. We were kind of like

  4. Sep 16

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jeff Wissel, Vice-President, Accessibility, Aira

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jeff Wissel, Vice-President, Accessibility, Aira https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-09-16-2026/ In this warm and candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk welcomes Jeff Wissel, Vice President, Accessibility at Aira, a friend he first met in a Washington, D.C. hotel hallway when the Secret Service cleared a banquet room for Secretary Elaine Chao. Kirk opens with his own decade as an Aira subscriber: a demonstration at AFB's New York offices from founder Suman Kanuganti, and the airport navigation that became his most valuable use case. Jeff then traces his own arc, retinitis pigmentosa noticed around age seven, a 28-year career at Fidelity Investments that began before the internet, giving up driving at 34, and years spent covering a non-apparent disability because he had no blind role model and believed he was the only one. The turning point was meeting Alicia, a blind vice president at Fidelity, who pushed him to start an employee resource group, it now has 8,000 members, and in his own 3,000-person phone center he found nine other people with RP who had each thought they were alone. That led to Fidelity's Office of Customer Accessibility, then four years and eight months as Chief Accessibility Officer at Disability:IN, and now Aira, where he is two months in. Kirk tells his own Disability:IN story along the way, meeting Northrop Grumman's Bob Vetere, pitching CEO Wes Bush on the Seattle Lighthouse's blind and DeafBlind machinists, and winning ITAR certification and a place in the defense supply chain. Both men close on community: Jeff on Aira Explorers and the stigma that disappears when accessibility sits in the accommodations catalog, Kirk on ISDI's new Community Coalition. 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 very same Dr. Kirk Adams, speaking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I have with me today — I'd say it's long enough to say a long time friend and colleague — Jeff Wissel, who's Vice President, Accessibility at Aira. Hello, Jeff. Jeff Wissel: Hey, Dr. Kirk, how are you? Dr. Kirk Adams: I'm good. And this is really interesting to me, because two really interesting parts of my life are intersecting here today. When I first was hired by the American Foundation for the Blind to lead that iconic organization, Helen Keller's organization, I moved to New York City from Seattle. And among other things, learned how to travel the subway system using the long white cane, which is an orientation and mobility personal highlight for me. And I got a call very early on from a gentleman named Suman Kanuganti, who said he was developing a system for blind people to connect with human beings who could offer sighted assistance. And he wanted to show it to me. So he and another gentleman whose name escapes me, who I never encountered again, came into the offices at AFB, and we sat in the conference room and I put on a pair of Google glasses, and I downloaded an app onto my iPhone and I connected with an agent who described the room to me. What was on the walls? The view out the window down onto Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. There was a bust of M.C. Migel, the founder of AFB. She described that. After about five minutes of that, it was enough of a wow factor that I was pretty much an Aira fan from then on. Dr. Kirk Adams: And I've been a subscriber since then — I guess ten years, coming up on ten years. And wow. And Aira has gone through many different steps and evolutions and advancements and improvements. And probably the most intense situations I've used Aira to support me is in airports. Even the Uber driver — you say Alaska Airlines, they drop you off in front of an airport and you're going in, and where's the Alaska Airlines desk? And in the past, you would kind of wait till you heard a friendly sounding set of footsteps: excuse me, can you direct me to the Alaska desk? And sometimes that worked well and sometimes it didn't. But with Aira, you say, can you help me? I need to locate the Alaska desk. And they say, hold your camera up. Turn it a little left. Hold up your phone. Turn a little left, a little right. Okay, there it is. Turn 20 degrees to your left. Walk about 25 feet. Now turn ten degrees to your right. Go about ten more steps, a little left. There you are. You're in line. So it's like magic. For me, as someone who has traveled a lot for business travel, that's probably my most interesting use case. I've also done, many times, I'm in this hotel room and it is really hot and I cannot figure out this climate control. Dr. Kirk Adams: And which of these buttons does which? How do I — where's the fan? How do I turn it on? My suitcase is locked. These four little rotors need to all be turned to zero. Can you help me get them adjusted so I can unlock my suitcase? So obviously, for me, a lot of travel stuff. But then at some point, not long after, I was at a conference. It was in the DC area. It might have been after I moved to Arlington, Virginia. Honestly, I attended so many conferences representing the American Foundation for the Blind, I don't recall exactly what it was. But I was by myself. I was at a table with other folks, but I was the only person from AFB there. And they said, everybody clear the room. Secretary Elaine Chao was coming to speak, and the Secret Service needs to make sure the room is safe. So everybody get up and go into the hall. And as I merged into the traffic in the hallway, I encountered another gentleman with a long white cane. And it was Jeff Wissel, there with the team from Fidelity. And we stood there and got to talking for about 15, 20 minutes while the Secret Service did their thing. And they cordially invited me to join them at their table, which I did. Dr. Kirk Adams: And so Jeff and I have been in pretty regular contact since then, as both of us have turned various pages and chapters in our career paths. And so I'm just so pleased to have Jeff here. I'm so excited that the Aira part of my life and the Jeff Wissel part of my life have now aligned. So it's a good thing for everybody in our community. And Jeff, I really just want to hand the microphone to you. I know our experiences with blindness are so very different. I became totally blind very quickly as a five year old when my retinas detached. I know the arc of your becoming a blind guy, it's quite different than mine. And so I would love to hear your reflections on that journey. Hear about your career path, any thoughts you might have for especially young blind people out there wanting to make their way in the world of work. And then really the excitement about Aira — what your role is there, and what you've discovered so far in the short time you've been there, where you see things. What's the current state of the union at Aira, and where you are a visionary. So where do you see things going? So I'm handing you the talking stick. Jeff Wissel: Awesome. Thanks, Dr. Kirk. And I'm honored to call you my mentor and friend. And as you were describing how we first met, I was remembering it vividly. It was an honor to meet you also, because you're a legend in our space. And when you and I first met, I was pretty new on my accessibility leadership journey, and you really took me under your wing. And I'm forever grateful for that. So for the audience, I'm Jeff Wissel. This month, actually, I'll be turning a young 59 years of age. And the reason I lead with my age is, for me, my personal journey with sight loss started — I have retinitis pigmentosa, or RP. And when I first noticed symptoms, I'll say I was seven years old, somewhere in there. And one experience, I was riding my bike with a friend of mine on our school parking lot near our house. It's dusk time and we're riding and I start pulling ahead of my friend and I'm like, wow, I must be really fast. But what I didn't realize is I was getting ready to run into a rusty chain separating the parking lots, that my friend saw from way behind. Fortunately, the way it hit the tire, the fender, the handlebar had flipped right over me and I didn't get a scratch. And I just ran through this metal chain, and it was like one of the worst experiences I can remember. Jeff Wissel: And for many in the audience who have retinitis pigmentosa, our journey is probably very similar. Night blindness, one of the key symptoms. For me, I still have sight to lose. I became a late in life runner, so it drives my wife crazy. But when the conditions are light and it's safe enough, I can run. In that same environment at night time, if I didn't have my white cane or my guide dog, Gabe, you would swear I was a drunk man walking, because I can't navigate the sidewalk, just stepping into the grass and everything. But throughout my life, it is a degenerative eye disease. So different things. I started out driving and playing softball, just an alumni league after high school, and I remember being in the outfield and saying, I got it, and ball's hit and I got it. All of a sudden it's like, I don't got it. And ball dropped 20 feet from me. Do that a couple of times and it's like, all right, I kind of have to get rid of that sport. Gave up driving when I was 34. And for many folks, when I tell them that, they're like, oh my gosh. And I reverse it and I say, no, it was really thank gosh. That last year and a half of driving, nothing happened. Jeff Wissel: But it was so stressful. It's always, to this

  5. Sep 15

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Rachel Antoine, Senior Director of International Operations, Braille Institute

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Rachel Antoine, Senior Director of International Operations, Braille Institute https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-09-15-2026/ In this warm and wide-ranging episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk welcomes Rachel Antoine, Senior Director of International Operations at Braille Institute, for a conversation about Braille literacy and the programs that sustain it. Kirk opens with his own Braille history, losing his sight at five, learning to read and write Braille from Mrs. Summers at the Oregon State School for the Blind, and depending on Braille books through long hospital stays, then traces his three encounters with Braille Challenge: a regional in Tampa, a 2019 keynote at the Braille Challenge gala, and a return visit in 2026 where he met Rachel. Rachel explains that Braille Challenge has grown from one Southern California regional in 2000 to over 80 regionals worldwide, reaching around 2,200 students a year and over 26,000 since it began, with the competition as the vehicle and Braille literacy as the mission. The second half covers the documentary Brailled It, filmed at the 2024 Braille Challenge Finals with GoPros worn by competitors Salome, Isaiah and Christopher Morgan and now touring US cinemas; the program's first African regional in Kenya, where more than 1,000 students took part and many competed with slate and stylus because there were not enough Braillers to go round; and plans to build an East Africa model spanning Uganda and Tanzania, with three Kenyan students due at the 2027 Finals. Rachel also describes the free, non-competitive foundational category any parent, teacher or grandparent can order year-round, and Cane Quest, Braille Institute's orientation and mobility program, whose SoCal regional runs October 3rd at the Los Angeles Zoo. 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 very excited today, because we're going to be talking a lot about Braille. I have Rachel Antoine here with me from the Braille Institute. Say hey, Rachel. Rachel Antoine: Hello. So happy to be here. Thank you, Dr. Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: And Rachel, what's your title at Braille? Rachel Antoine: Yeah. So I am Senior Director of International Operations at Braille Institute. My role is really about connecting programs, people and possibilities around the world. I lead our international work, expanding programs like Braille Challenge and Cane Quest, and building partnerships with organizations, schools, and educators in other countries. Dr. Kirk Adams: That sounds like a fun job to me. Rachel Antoine: It is. Dr. Kirk Adams: So my history with Braille — I think many of you know I'm a blind person. My retinas detached when I was five years old. I was in kindergarten in Lynnwood, Washington, north of Seattle. My parents — I was born when they were in college, so they were in their mid-20s when my retinas detached. They had never met a blind person before. Before I became one very quickly. And they were told that I wasn't going to be allowed to come back to the neighborhood school, that I needed to go to the school for blind children. At that time, the model was, I think, most blind and deaf kids went to a state school. My parents visited the Washington State school. They did not like what they saw as far as the level of academic activity. My retinal surgeon was in Oregon, and someone there at University of Oregon Medical Hospital said the Oregon State School for the Blind is awesome. So I remember visiting there, and they agreed that it was awesome. And they quit their jobs and moved the family down to Oregon so I could go to the Oregon State School. And I had a teacher named Mrs. Summers for first, second and third grade. May she rest in peace. And whenever I'm in a setting where they say, name the person who had the most influence on your life, I say, Mrs. Summers, because she taught me how to read and write Braille. Dr. Kirk Adams: I was hospitalized a lot. I had quite a number of eye surgeries that were painful and unsuccessful, and I would spend 10 to 14 days after each surgery in the hospital with my head in a clamp, so I couldn't move my head to disrupt the surgery they'd done. So Braille was really my lifeline. And my mom would go to the Braille library of the National Library Service library in Salem and load up the station wagon with boxes of books and bring them to the hospital. And I read and read and read. So Braille has been super important to me. I learned about the Braille Challenge, gosh, ten, 12, 14 years ago. I was aware of it. At the time, I was the CEO of the Lighthouse for the Blind here in Seattle. And we had a mentor-protegé relationship with the Lighthouse for the Blind in Port Richey, Florida, which is near Tarpon Springs, the sponge capital of the United States, which is fairly near Tampa. And the Tampa Lighthouse was having the regional Braille Challenge the week that I was there. So my wife, Ros, and I went, and I got to meet the kids and see the activities they were doing. It was a Harry Potter theme, so it must have been when the Harry Potter books were so popular. And I had a chance to talk to the parents while the kids were doing their activities. Dr. Kirk Adams: And like my parents, most of them had never met a blind person before. They had a blind child. So they had a lot of questions about how to raise a child successfully who is blind. So we talked about being developmentally appropriate, and talked about creating a Braille-rich environment — that your sighted child is surrounded by print all the time. The cereal box, the magazine on the table, the street signs you drive by. And you have to be very intentional with the young blind child to have lots of Braille around. And I said, order some Braille magazines from the National Library Service, and let them play with those and tear them up, chew on them and do what little kids do with board books. And put Braille on everything, label everything with Braille. And then, if your four-year-old sighted child is out playing in the sandbox and tussling with other kids over the toys, you want your blind child out on that playground with their cane doing the same thing. If your 12- or 13-year-old sighted child is taking the bus or getting themselves downtown to meet friends, to do things, go to movies, you need to make sure your blind child is learning how to use public transportation and has orientation and mobility skills, so they can do those same things. Dr. Kirk Adams: And we talked about the school-to-work transition. You have sighted kids doing chores. Blind kids need to do chores, and you need to figure out different approaches to do things. But you want blind kids doing the same thing sighted kids do, using the alternative techniques of blindness. And literacy is so important. Braille is so important. For me, there was no question — I was totally blind. So in first grade, I learned Braille. Blindness comes in so many variations. Many people who are legally blind have some usable vision. Sometimes there's questions whether or not kids need to learn Braille. And I always say, if the visually impaired child cannot read at the same speed and comprehension as a sighted child, if they're trying to use magnification, they need to learn Braille. Braille is literacy. I say, if listening to materials is sufficient, then why do sighted people still read? So we need to read too. So anyway, I did the Braille Challenge regional in Tampa, and I was given a certificate of Braille wizardry, which I still have, with the Harry Potter theme. And then, my gosh, five, six years later, I became the president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. And I was visiting partners around the country, and I made a stop at the Braille Institute and sat with — that was before your time, Rachel. Dr. Kirk Adams: 2016, 2017. Yeah. And got to know folks. And then I got a call in early 2019 asking if I would come and give the keynote talk at the Braille Challenge gala. So again, my wife, Ros, and I flew out and met the kids. And they — [unclear 00:08:13] Rachel will tell you all about this — but they fly in the winners from the regions, and they gather on the USC campus. And [I] remember the Trojan, the hated Trojan marching band — I'm a Husky fan — marched the kids across the campus playing the USC fight song. And they had their competitions, and then the awards gala. And I got to talk about how important Braille is to me, and said a lot of the things I've said so far on this podcast, in a more organized and elegant fashion. But I talked about the importance of Braille and how meaningful it was to be there. They had an alumni who's become a really good friend of mine, a young lady named Caitlin Hernandez, who's totally blind. She lives in San Francisco, and she's a public school teacher. And she gave the alumni speech, and it was just such a moving experience. Dr. Kirk Adams: And then fast forward to this year, 2026. I was talking to Dimitri Kales, who's now the CEO of Braille Institute, and we were just catching up and comparing notes on a few things. And he said, well, next time you're going to be in the Los Angeles area, let me know. I said, I'm going to be there next week, because my wife and I are visiting our daughter Rachel, who lives in Highland Park. We're coming to visit her. And he said,

  6. Aug 20

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Tom Babinszki, Owner, Even Grounds

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Tom Bobinszki, Owner, Even Grounds https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-08-20-2026/ Here, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Tom Babinszki, owner of Even Grounds and a travel and tourism accessibility consultant, whom he first met across an exhibit table at a Kennedy Center LEAD Conference, where, as Kirk tells it, "what to my wondering hands should appear" was a 3D model of the White House, pillars and porticos and all. Babinszki was born completely blind in 1970s Hungary, where a close family member advised his parents not to take him out on the street because it would be embarrassing, and suggested that one day he might watch the geese at the end of the village. His parents decided instead that their son would have exactly the education everyone else had. A scholarship year at the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia followed, then Trinity College in Hartford, then George Mason, three years directing the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Hadley School for the Blind, and some twenty-five years in digital accessibility, including teaching thousands of people at IBM. Even Grounds grew out of a failure. A lifelong traveler, "my favorite smell is jet fuel," and a coin collector who bought building replicas in museum gift shops just to understand where he was standing, Babinszki hired a designer and a 3D printing company and produced models of Washington landmarks, only to find his blind friends admired them and had no wish to own fifty large buildings. Museums and schools did. The company he founded in 2023 now pairs holistic accessibility consulting with tactile 3D work for the Toledo Zoo, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Opera, a Kenyan school for the blind through Clovernook, and a Braille map from the 1800s remade so it could finally be touched. One small tactile map of a public restroom drew thirteen hundred LinkedIn likes against his usual fifty. His advice to listeners is the whole argument in four words: don't ever accept that something is not accessible. 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 Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have a guest who's doing some very interesting things to make the world more accessible for us who are blind and visually impaired. Today I have Tom Babinszki. He's the owner of Even Grounds. He's a travel and tourism accessibility consultant. Say hey, Tom. Tom Babinszki: Hi, Kirk. Thank you for your invitation. I'm glad to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, absolutely. So several summers ago I attended a conference here in Seattle that was sponsored by the Kennedy Center for the Arts. It's called the LEAD Conference, and it's about leadership and accessibility of the arts. And one of the exhibitors there was Tom. And [I] visited his room, his booth, his table — and what to my wondering hands should appear, but 3D models of buildings and architectural wonders that I had never seen and had no concept of what they looked like. I lost my sight at five when my retinas detached. I cannot remember anything visual at all. I cannot conjure up a visual image in my mind. I cannot recall colors. If you say blue, in my mind I see the Braille characters. Tom Babinszki: Blue — I'm the same way. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. But I remember having in my hands a 3D model of the White House, and I was so surprised by the pillars and the porticos and the verandas. And it was not a symmetrical situation. It had a lot going on. And it was very interesting. And I spent quite some time with the 3D model. And Tom and I recently reconnected, and he is creating accessibility for museums and various sites, points of interest. One thing he is doing that I applaud so heartily [is] 3D maps of [unclear 00:02:49] public restrooms. How many times have I searched for the paper towels? How many times have I decided, no, I'm not going to wash my hands, because I'm going to pick up more germs trying to find the faucet and the soap that I'm going to lose. So Tom's doing some really cool stuff. We just want to hand it over to you and have you talk a little bit about your experience with blindness, your personal lived experience — and then you've had such a long and varied career in accessibility, I know 20, 25 years at least. So I would love to hear the summary of that, and how you came to start Even Grounds, what the history has been so far, where you're at, what you're doing now, and then what do you see for the future? So Tom, it's over to you. Tom Babinszki: Thank you. Kirk, if you don't mind, let me start from the very beginning, from where I was born. Because I think that's pretty relevant to where I am today. I was born in the '70s in Hungary, and that was one of those socialist countries in Eastern Europe. So education for blind people was rather limited. There was a school for the blind. But what started everything was that when I was born, there was a close family member who said that my parents shouldn't take me out on the street because it's embarrassing. And then she said, well, maybe when he grows up, maybe he can watch the geese at the end of the village. Now, mind you, I think watching the geese at the end of the village was going to be much more difficult than my two master's degrees, but I didn't know what she had in mind. But that was the point where my parents said that, regardless of how — they had no idea how to do it — but this kid is going to have the same education that everybody else [has]. And that's when I was a baby. Dr. Kirk Adams: So did your parents — were there other brothers and sisters already, or were you the first? Tom Babinszki: I was the first at that point, and later I had a brother two and a half years [younger?] 00:05:03. So we're pretty close, growing up. Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, so high five to your parents. Good for them. Tom Babinszki: Thank you. I'll tell them. Because it was incredible what they did. And they took me to — where they found a school for the blind, they took me there. I studied there and then went to high school. But then I had to advocate a lot for myself, because there really wasn't too much advocacy. So I had to fight for every single thing. All I heard is that you cannot do it because you are blind, and blind people can't write. So I heard it enough. And I'm very thankful to every one of those people, because — Dr. Kirk Adams: Did you get blindness skills instruction? Were you [taught?] 00:05:56 Braille and cane travel? Tom Babinszki: [Taught?] 00:05:59, actually. So when I was 16, I got a scholarship. It was an international scholarship at the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia. And I spent there a year, and I got lots of mobility instruction there and other skills. Actually, I just came back from the LEAD Conference last week, which was in Philadelphia. It was amazing to be back after 30 years and wander the same streets. Dr. Kirk Adams: Cool. Tom Babinszki: But then, in the meantime, life was difficult, because my parents gave me the education, but what they couldn't give me is, they couldn't stop the discrimination. Every time I looked for a job, they either told me you can't do it because you're blind, or somehow they started convincing me that I need a car and the driver's license, in a city where public transportation is amazing. Tom Babinszki: And then I got a scholarship to the US, and I came here and I finished my master's degree, and I got a job. And — Dr. Kirk Adams: Where did you go to school? Tom Babinszki: At that point, I went to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. And later, when I moved to Washington, DC, and I was working in accessibility, I went to George Mason. Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Tom Babinszki: So this country welcomed me. They didn't ask me what is it you cannot do. They told me that you're welcome to help us with anything that you would like to, and do what you can, and we'll support you. I get so much support from people that I didn't even know, because they never looked at me as a blind person. They looked at me as an accessibility consultant. And sure, I know we still have problems, and we do, and that's why I'm still doing what I'm doing. But at least I was able to succeed. And so I started working for accessibility consulting companies. And I'm not going to keep it too long here, but at some point, for three years, I was at the Hadley School for the Blind, where I was the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. Dr. Kirk Adams: Oh, I did not know that. Tom Babinszki: Yeah. I built that program. George Abbott started building it, and then under his leadership, basically I got the whole thing, and they told me build it from scratch. And that was a ton of fun. But what's most important here is that the travel bug bit me when I was young, very young. And I love traveling. You know, my favorite smell is jet fuel. Tom Babinszki: And every time I have a chance, I go. And I hardly ever had — other than during Covid time — in my life when I didn't have an upcoming airline ticket to be used. But that interest in travel gave me something, that it wasn't just enough to be there. I wanted to experience so much. And some of the things that I really wanted to experience was buildings. Every time I went somewhere like a more famous building, I always started out at the gift shop, because some of the places have building replicas. Tom Babinszki: And when they ha

  7. Aug 18

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Cazerny Bussey, Founder, Even Though I'm Blind Foundation

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Cazerny Bussey, Founder, Even Though I'm Blind Foundation https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-08-18-2026/ Here Dr. Kirk Adams welcomes Cazerny Bussey, founder of the Even Though I'm Blind Foundation, for a first conversation between two blind leaders who arrived at the same work from opposite directions. Kirk lost his sight at five in small farming towns in Oregon and Washington, where he was the only blind kid in every school after fourth grade. Bussey grew up in Brooklyn with low vision, active and surrounded by a large family, and lost his sight at fifteen, a sophomore at a performing-arts high school, already recording music, after a second retinal surgery took the optic nerve. He describes the moment in the exam room as a decision he had to make on the spot, and the years that followed as a run of doors opening: two and three shows a week, work alongside Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J and Chuck D, and the persistent fact that he was the only blind person in every room he entered. That isolation is what became an organization. A love song Bussey wrote called "Even Though I'm Blind" gave the foundation its name, and research he did afterward gave it its purpose, blind college students, blind chefs, blind skiers, blind pageant winners, an entire world he had not known was there. Today the foundation runs a radio station carrying roughly forty-five independent blind artists, a podcast built on community members telling their own stories, and a curated directory of blind-owned businesses, alongside an artist showcase staged at the NFB convention in Texas. Bussey has just joined the Persons with Disabilities Media Co-op as a sponsor of Access Information News. Kirk and Bussey trade New York geography, blindness-skills philosophy, and a shared conviction that visibility is the work, and agree to meet in New York in February. 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, in my office in Seattle, Washington on a beautiful sunny August day. Best time of the year here. I lived in New York, I lived in Virginia. I don't miss August in either of those places. So I'm a Northwest guy. My guest today is a new acquaintance. I don't know how I've missed you so far, but my guest today is Cazerny Bussey, founder of Even Though I'm Blind Foundation. Say hello. Cazerny Bussey: Hello, everybody. Dr. Kirk Adams: And Cazerny is out there making waves, getting things done. And we just became acquainted. We've had one conversation just to get to know each other a little bit, and immediately knew I wanted you on the podcast. Because, Cazerny — so for those who don't know me, I'm a blind person. Have been since I was five years old. I was born a sighted kid and became a blind kid when I was five. Both my retinas detached. I was totally blind very quickly. And so there was really no question that I needed to learn Braille. I needed to learn how to travel confidently and safely with a white cane. At that time, I needed to learn how to type [on] a typewriter so I could go to public school and type assignments and papers and things for my sighted teachers who didn't know Braille. So I went to Oregon State School for the Blind — first, second, third grade — then on into public school. And very interested to have you [unclear 00:02:17]. Our — I think our experiences as blind people are so different. I grew up in little farming communities in the Pacific Northwest. Silverton, Oregon; graduated from high school in Snohomish, Washington. One was known for strawberries, one was known for dairy farming and football. Dr. Kirk Adams: I was always the only blind kid in any school I went to after fourth grade. And the little towns I grew up in — when kids turned 16, they got driver's licenses and they got some sort of job, and I didn't get either. So I lived a fairly isolated, pretty tough time in high school, and then on to college where things got better. I graduated with a degree in economics and went into banking and finance for ten years, then into the nonprofit sector, became the president and CEO of The Lighthouse for the Blind here in Seattle. The American Foundation for the Blind — moved to New York for that. But knowing the little bit I know about you, you became a blind person later in life than I did. You grew up in a very different environment than I did. And you have, like I said, you've been doing stuff, making things happen. So we'd really just like to hand you the microphone here. Your story, how you came to be part of the community. What inspired you to start your foundation? What's the journey been like so far, and where are you taking things? Cazerny Bussey: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I first would like to just thank you for allowing me on your platform. I did come across you because, as I was doing my due diligence and my research, it was hard to not bump into Kirk Adams, because you done made so many great things happen in your lifetime. And I really do commend you, and I honor that. And yeah, looking forward to doing things as big as you done it someday, when I get there. But yeah, I lost my eyesight at the age of 15 years old due to retinal detachment as well. Cazerny Bussey: Yeah. So we have that in common. So — yeah, around five years old. Wow. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. So it is a lot different than your environment. Dr. Kirk Adams: I will tell you that I lived in Brooklyn when I went to work in 2016 to lead the American Foundation for the Blind. The offices were at Two Penn Plaza, right above Penn Station, next to Madison Square Garden. But my wife and I lived in Park Slope at Eighth Avenue and Eighth Street. And my greatest orientation and mobility triumph is learning to take the F train, to transfer to the A at Jay Street–MetroTech, to go into Penn Station and up to 34th Avenue and into the office. And for a kid who grew up in little teeny towns — my first experience was staying in corporate housing on 43rd, between Eighth and Ninth, pretty near the Port Authority. And I had an O&M instructor, and she asked me, "How's your experience walking on heavily trafficked sidewalks?" I said, "Yeah, pretty good." And then when I turned the corner from 43rd to Seventh Avenue to walk down to 33rd, after about half a block, I stopped and said, "I had no idea." So. Cazerny Bussey: You're right. Yeah. That's the heart of New York, you know. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. Cazerny Bussey: That is literally where everything happened. Although I feel like a lot of parts of New York is pretty hectic. Park Slope is a pretty nice neighborhood. Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, I like Manhattan because if you can count, you know where you are. Things are numbered. Things are nice 90-degree angles, nice rectangular blocks. So that's a good part. And then you got the open hatchways in the sidewalk and the scaffolding and all that. Right. All right. So you're 15. So you were in high school, I assume. Cazerny Bussey: Yeah, I was. Okay. Dr. Kirk Adams: I was fully sighted until then. Cazerny Bussey: Yeah. I wouldn't say fully sighted. Okay. Yeah. I have low vision, but I was really active. Like I was going to tell you, at five years old, I think where I was from, we was outside in the street throwing footballs and throwing basketballs in the hoop. We actually went outside then. I'm not that old, but — right. It wasn't like internet-based. We was actually in our neighborhoods. I had a really awesome childhood growing up. Had a large family and very supportive. And it was a lot of us boys, so we challenged each other like a pack of lions. So we wrestle and just play sports, and we was competitive. And we chased the girls, all kind of stuff. Young. Right. So by 12 years old, before I get to 15, my father — he was very heavy into music. He was actually a part of the old school rap group Stetsasonic. And yeah, them guys did some great things. So he had me around music. I wasn't really, per se, wanting to do music, but I did like it. Cazerny Bussey: Maybe I loved it. But at that time, I probably would have wanted to go outside or play my — at the time, what was it, a Dreamcast, Nintendo 64 — play with my friends. But he recognized that gift and he really had me in professional recording environments. So I recorded my first song at the age of 12 years old. Song I actually wrote. And that was big for me, because that kind of changed the way I viewed the studio. Instead of being there seeing them guys, I was able to partake in the festivities, you know? Yeah. So, long story short, I go to high school. I auditioned in junior high school to Frank Sinatra School of Performing Arts, which was — yeah, it was [founded?] 00:09:01 by the late, great Tony Bennett. And I got in. I auditioned. Academically, I was able to reach — it was a special school at the time. I think the school only was open two years prior to me getting in it. It was a very new school. Dr. Kirk Adams: Is it located in Brooklyn? Cazerny Bussey: It's actually located in Long Island — it was located in Long Island City at the time. Okay. They didn't even have their own building. We were sharing one of the campuses with LaGuardia College. Okay. Yeah, the C building. So we was — yeah, but loved it. Freshman year, met all my friends. And it was a very artsy school, about 500 students. So I was really fortunate to be able to get in. Great music teachers — Miss [Bess?] 00:10:02, Mr. [Sandri?] 00:10:0

  8. Aug 11

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jeremy Grandstaff, Executive Director, The Inspiration Foundation

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jeremy Grandstaff, Executive Director, The Inspiration Foundation https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-08-11-2026/ In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk welcomes Jeremy Grandstaff, six months into a newly created role as executive director of the Inspiration Foundation, the nonprofit founded by Cleanlogic co-CEO Isaac Shapiro in honour of his blind mother, Bea. Kirk, who introduced the two, traces their friendship from a bench at a National Federation of the Blind conference through Jeremy's consulting work at the American Foundation for the Blind. Jeremy tells his own story: a county assessor who advised institutionalising him at age two and the father who gave the man two minutes to leave the property; school for the blind through fifth grade; a 12-year-old cold-calling publishers for accessible books in 1988; Bowling Green State University, IBM, and a master's in organization development. He is frank about two employers who told him he would never be as competent as a sighted person, and that he could always "just go on disability", the moment that made him say yes to this job. The conversation then turns practical. Jeremy lays out the Foundation's two-sided strategy, grants that strengthen the pipeline of candidates, and the emerging Inspiration Seal that builds a pipeline of employers ready to hire and promote them, alongside a goal of raising the disability employment rate by 10% in five years. Kirk raises the contested ground of disability simulation, recalling the "hand grenade" a proposed dining-in-the-dark event threw into an AFB staff meeting and the research that resolved it, and Jeremy explains how the Foundation has rebuilt the format as a Dining in the Dark and Executive Roundtable with education on both sides of the meal. They close on executive presence, Jeremy insisting on walking to the podium with his cane rather than being escorted, because the walk is the argument. 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: And welcome, everybody, to another episode of the cleverly titled Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. I am Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in sunny, breezy Seattle, Washington, on a beautiful summer's day. And today my guest is a dear — I'll say a dear friend, and becoming a long-time colleague. Jeremy Grandstaff. Hi, Jeremy. Jeremy Grandstaff: Well, hi, Kirk. That was a beautiful introduction. I hope that you're having better weather in Seattle than the melting pot that is D.C., where I live, with humidity. But thank you so much for having me on. It's really good to be with you. And I absolutely would consider you a long-time friend and colleague as well. So I'm honored by that. Dr. Kirk Adams: Wonderful. Well, Jeremy stepped into a new and exciting role about six months ago. He is executive director of the Inspiration Foundation. And Jeremy, when we did most of our work together, it was in that sticky melting pot of Arlington, Virginia. And it is August, and I do not miss living there one single bit. I bet it's 76, no humidity, and a breeze here in Seattle today. So in any case, I met Jeremy at a National Federation of the Blind conference when I was fairly new in my role as president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind — my great honor to have an opportunity to lead that fine organization, Helen Keller's organization. And Jeremy and I sat on a bench together, and he talked to me about the consulting work he did, the organizational development work that he greatly enjoyed. Asked me to consider bringing him on as a resource should I need [unclear 00:02:32] strategic planning, executive coaching help. And I did engage Jeremy, and we accomplished some wonderful things together. And fast-forwarding, four years ago I left the American Foundation for the Blind. Jeremy and I have kept in good cadence of contact. And I had the opportunity to introduce him to a gentleman named Isaac Shapiro. Isaac is a partner in a company called Cleanlogic, which Jeremy can tell us more about. But Isaac's an excited dude. His mom is blind. He grew up with a blind mother, and he is an entrepreneurial cat. He started a company importing body care products with a distribution center near Philadelphia. And last I knew, he employed over 30 blind individuals in that warehouse and distribution setting. He's onshoring his manufacturing from China, has a goal of hiring 90 more people with disabilities. So he is one of those people who is out there doing things and not just talking about supercharging your bottom line through disability inclusion, but actually doing it — hiring people with disabilities and changing lives. And in honor and inspiration from his mother, he created the Inspiration Foundation. And I've been involved for several years with the foundation, in that they give grants to nonprofits in the blindness field who traditionally have been members of an organization called VisionServe Alliance. But in any case, they're nonprofits serving people who are blind. And Isaac and I share a passion for creating employment opportunities for people who are blind. So his grantmaking has focused around supporting the use of technology by these nonprofits in supporting their employment-driven programs. So we have lots of intersections in life. Isaac came to see me maybe in the first month or two when I was at the American Foundation for the Blind, came to the New York offices. He'd had a history with AFB previously, introduced himself, gave me some of his products with Braille labeling, which of course warmed my heart toward Isaac. Anyone who hands me a consumer product with Braille on it gets a star in their chart with me. And then we've also kept in touch, as I said. I've been a little bit involved in supporting the foundation by being on the grant review committee. And then when I see where two and two can make five or more, I love to make those connections. So when Isaac was seeking an executive director, I was pleased to suggest that he talk to Jeremy Grandstaff and consider him for that role. And so here we are. I'm pretty much done talking now. I would like, Jeremy, if you could talk to us a little bit about your lived experience with blindness, why this work is so meaningful to you, where the organization was at when you stepped into your leadership role. And it's a newly created role, too, so you have a wonderful lifetime opportunity to shape your own role, which is cool. And where — as our mutual dear friend Sean Callagy would say, from UNBLINDED — he would say: where have you been? Where are you now? Where are you going? What's working for you? What are your challenges? So there you have it. Jeremy Grandstaff: Well, what a tee-up. First of all, thank you for that, Kirk. As I said before, it's really an honor to be with you. I have admired your work. Actually, you didn't know this, but back when you worked for the Lighthouses, I was kind of following you there. And then you went into AFB, and I thought, here's my chance, right, to build a relationship with you. So it's been really exciting. I think we've known each other for maybe seven or eight years now. So, yeah, very good to know you. I'll start with me, right, and kind of talking about some of my lived experience. I grew up in a little town called Marengo, Ohio. I was the first of four kids. Three of us cannot see; the other, my sister, can. And when I was first born — I think I was like two years old — my parents were told they needed someone from the county to come out and assess me. And so that person came out, Kirk, at the age of two, and told my parents that I would probably be best served by being put into an institution. And I'm so fortunate that my father — God rest his soul, he just died four months ago — the way the story was told to me, he basically gave them two minutes to get off his property and never come back. Right? You gotta kind of love that. And so there was this attitude that my parents had that was: nothing is off limits. You're going to have to figure out how to do it. No is never an answer that is acceptable, and we'll give you feedback, but you're going to have to solve your own problems. And what I find fascinating about that is that's exactly what we want to see from our workforce, right? Is that they are problem solving and that they are bringing ingenuity and creative problem solving into any teams that we develop. And so I didn't know that at the time, right, that I was being taught those skills. I remember getting very frustrated one time and slamming down a pitchfork because I didn't — you know, like my dad telling me, figure it out. And I distinctly remember him saying, well, you can keep slamming that pitchfork down and make me have to buy another one, or you can figure out how to solve the problem. Right? And so I was the first to come back to my school. At the time they called it mainstreaming; I think they call it integrated schooling now. Dr. Kirk Adams: So did you go to school for blind children or not? Jeremy Grandstaff: So I went to the school for the blind until I was in fifth grade. Dr. Kirk Adams: Fifth. Okay. Jeremy Grandstaff: Yep. I even had a teacher — never forget you, Mrs. Murphy — who said I'd never make it in a public school. Sent her a graduation card, by the way, when I graduated. But I came back up to public school, and I remember being in sixth grade and coming home from school on the bus and calling up the publishing companies because I d

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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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