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. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. Aug 6

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mindy Kolin, Director of Development & Industry Partnerships at Teach Access, and Kate Sonka, Executive Director

    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mindy Kolin, Director of Development & Industry Partnerships at Teach Access, and Kate Sonka, Executive Director https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-08-06-2026/ In this warm anniversary episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk opens from a smoke-covered Seattle with wishes for friends in eastern Washington, then welcomes Kate Sonka, executive director of Teach Access, and Mindy Kolin, who leads its fundraising, partnerships and communications. Kirk traces his own first encounter with the organization: a visit to Yahoo's accessibility team early in his AFB tenure, where Darren Burton and Mike Shebanek showed him a whiteboard tally of how many incoming computer science graduates had ever heard of accessibility, a lopsided count that became the case for Teach Access. Kate, who grew up at the Wisconsin School for the Blind where both her parents taught, recounts the April 2016 kickoff at Yahoo with Shebanek, Larry Goldberg and Jeff Wieland; Mindy recalls starting her career at the New York employment agency Eleanor Roosevelt and Orin Lehman founded, and finding Teach Access on Indeed 25 years later. The heart of the conversation is strategy. Teach Access concentrates on educators rather than students directly, the multiplier being that one trained faculty member reaches 50 to 100 students a semester, and on "small teaching": folding accessibility into classes people already teach rather than fighting the years-long approval path for a new course. Kate walks through the Fellowship, the four-week Summer Institute, and the openly licensed Curriculum Repository; Mindy reports the headline result, a goal set in 2020 to reach 1 million students by 2030 that passed 1.5 million in 2025, five years early. They close on funding, on contract work with industry partners that keeps educator resources free, and on Teach Access Europe, where enforcement of the European Accessibility Act has made this a promising moment to expand. 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 smoky Seattle, Washington. Our heartfelt wishes for strength and safety go out to our friends east of the mountains in eastern Washington, the Spokane area particularly hit hard. I have spent a lot of time in Spokane, as we established the Inland Northwest Lighthouse for the Blind and [unclear 00:01:07] about 50 blind people in that community. So our thoughts and prayers to folks in eastern Washington. Today on the podcast, we have Kate Sonka and Mindy Kolin, and they are with a forward-thinking, impactful organization that I love called Teach Access. So hello, Kate. Hello, Mindy. Kate Sonka: Hi, Kirk. Good to be here. Mindy Kolin: Hi, Kirk. Thanks for having us. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. So my little history with Teach Access — which Kate and Mindy will tell you more — but my understanding is that it encourages universities to include accessibility in their core curriculum for computer science programs. And when I first was hired to be president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, when I stepped out of that same role here at the Lighthouse in Seattle to New York City, and after a couple of months getting oriented, turning over all the jigsaw puzzle pieces, took a trip to the Bay Area, because AFB had such great partnerships with the good people at Google and Apple and Genentech and Yahoo. And I went to visit Yahoo, and a former AFB employee, a blind gentleman named Darren Burton, was working there in our accessibility department. And I spent a couple hours with their team. And Mike Shebanek was there at that time. And they told me about a tally board. They had a whiteboard in their conference room. And when Yahoo was hiring new engineers, interviewing with the accessibility team was part of the interview process, and they kept a tally of how many of the young computer science graduates they were sent to interview — how many of them knew about accessibility and how many did not. And I can't quote the numbers exactly, but it was something like 764 had never heard of accessibility, didn't know what it was, and 27 at least knew what it was. So that's when Mike told me about Teach Access, and the long-term systems change model to bring accessibility into the mainstream of computer science curriculums, and to generate a whole new pipeline of people who would be working on technology for the good of all, who understood accessibility and could bake it in from the beginning. Shortly thereafter, I met Kate at one of the many, many blindness-related conferences where we crossed paths. And recently I was very pleased to receive an invitation in the mail to join Kate and some of her team at a dinner here in Seattle with some other leaders in accessibility and disability in the community. So we reconnected. She gave us some very exciting updates, said more people need to know about this. So how about come on the podcast? So here we are, and I am grateful for what Teach Access is doing. I'm very impressed with the intentional, very strategic way you're going about things. So I'd really love to hand it over to you, Kate, you, Mindy, to hear the story of how you got involved, the steps that have been taken so far, where the organization is at, where do you see things going? Kate Sonka: Yeah, this is Kate. Thank you so much, Kirk. I really actually really love that whiteboard story. I've never heard that specific story, so I'm excited to kind of add that to my repertoire of stories, to kind of talk about our origins, which I'll share in a moment. But just want to thank you, the team, for having us on the pod today, and being able to share about our work for your audience. So thank you to everyone who's listening in. So I'll do a really quick just who I am and where I've come from, and then Mindy as well, and then we'll get into the work that we do. So, my name again, Kate Sonka, I'm the executive director here at Teach Access. You know, I could spend a long time talking about my winding backstory, but I won't. I want to be able to talk about our organization. But one of the things — you know, sometimes the universe has a good sense of humor, right? And so growing up, my parents were both educators at the Wisconsin School for the Blind. And so as I grew up, that was the family business, right? So my mom was an orientation and mobility instructor, and my dad was a teacher for physical education, and he taught and coached all of the sports there. And I think, Kirk, you maybe crossed paths with some of the folks from that school too over the years. Is that right? Dr. Kirk Adams: Yes, absolutely. Kate Sonka: Yeah. So, you know, at the time it was wonderful. It gave me great insight into what is inclusive education, what does that look like, and what sorts of learning environments are we creating for students and teachers, and how do we do that? Of course, as a child I wasn't really thinking about it that way. It was more, yay, it's my birthday and my dad's going to let me have my birthday party, you know, in the gym or the swimming pool or something like that. But gave me a really good grounding in that work. And then over time, you know, my background is actually in linguistics and language acquisition, and for a time was really intentional, or thought I would be working with language learners in the classroom at the higher education level. And then through a series of things ended up working at a couple of different universities in the academic technology offices. And so really looking at, what is the tech that faculty are using for teaching? And of course, how is that accessible? Is the technology accessible? And more importantly, are the materials and some of the teaching practices or pedagogy accessible for disabled students in the class, and really thinking about what that looks like. So I didn't necessarily enter accessibility thinking, yes, this is what my parents did, this is what I'm going to do. It was sort of a windy path, and all of a sudden — I guess it's been more 12-ish years now — everything kind of came together and it made sense. I'm here for inclusive teaching and learning, whether that is about disability and accessibility, whether that's about language learners in our classrooms. And what is it that faculty and educators need to be able to create these environments? And so that's kind of the backstory. But ultimately, through my work at Michigan State University, working in the academic tech office in one of the colleges there, started to hear about Teach Access. And this was ten years ago, where it's now 2026, which is our 10th anniversary year. And I'll talk a little bit more about who we are and what that looks like, but I'll turn it to Mindy so she can introduce herself as well. Dr. Kirk Adams: Great. Mindy Kolin: Hi. Yeah. Thanks so much, Kate. This is Mindy speaking. So nice to be here, Kirk. I have been with Teach Access for four years now, and I've spent the better part of 30 years in the nonprofit sector. Well, my very first job out of college was working for an employment agency for people with disabilities that was based in New York City, that was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, Orin Lehman, and a bunch of other really cool people. It no longer exists. But as Kate mentioned, the universe — you know, 25 years later, I was looking for a job, and on Indeed I saw this job description for an organization called Teach Access,

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

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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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