Real People, Real Stories: A Podcast on Accessibility by TPGi: Recent Episodes
TPGI
Bringing you the interesting and diverse stories of individuals working to make the world a more inclusive place.
Host Mark Miller speaks with Brandon Briggs, CEO of XR Navigation, about his experiences and advocacy. Learn about:
- His work as an entrepreneur, researcher, inclusive designer, and developer.
- Map accessibility.
- The impact of XR Navigation.
- How Audium, the world's more inclusive digital map viewer and editor, is changing lives.
Host Mark Miller speaks with Ben Breen (Sightless Kombat), Accessible Gaming Officer for Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), about his experiences and advocacy. Learn about:
- His work as an accessibility consultant for video games
- His activism and awareness for accessibility in video games.
- His experience as a blind gamer
Host Mark Miller speaks with father and son duo Dan and Samuel Habib about their experiences as filmmakers, their advocacy, and their passions. Learn about:
- Their film "The Ride Ahead."
- Their experience developing, creating, and co-directing the film.
- Challenges they faced during the film.
- Communication device technology.
- Activism and disability justice.
Host, Mark Miller, speaks with Pat Pound about her life experiences, her advocacy, and her hobbies. Learn about:
- Her unique journey.
- Her staying active in retirement.
- Her experience fencing.
- Her work in the community.
- Exchanging knowledge between different age groups
Host, Mark Miller, speaks with Dustin Giannelli about his life experiences, his advocacy, and his work as a public speaker and successful business professional. Learn about:
- His unique journey.
- His experience at Michael Jordan's basketball camp.
- His motto "Be on offense."
- Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)
- Meeting Stevie Wonder at CES
- His advocacy and mission
Host, Mark Miller, speaks with Shani Dhanda about her life experiences, her advocacy, and her work as a social entrepreneur and influential figure. Learn about:
- Her intersectional activism
- Her influence in the community.
- Her work as a Disability Inclusion & Accessibility Specialist.
- Her commitment to being a leader and positive force for others.
- Her numerous awards and accolades.
Mark Miller, host, and Dara Golding, co-host, speak with Phyllida Swift about her life experiences, being a CEO, and her appearance and social justice activism. Learn about:
- Face Equality International.
- Her advocacy for the facial difference community.
- Her efforts to change stigmas and stereotypes around facial differences.
- Her history working in the face equality space.
- How she is making global connections through her work.
Mark Miller, host, and Dara Golding, co-host, speak with Welby Broaddus about his education, life experiences, and how he gained more confidence in himself and his abilities. Learn about:
- His constant willingness to try.
- His advocacy and desire to raise awareness for people with disabilities.
- The benefits of hiring individuals who are blind and visually impaired.
- His consulting firm, Broaddus Business Solutions.
- His book Leading Blind Without Vision.
Mark Miller, host, and Cori Perlander, co-host, speak with Kristy Viers about her YouTube channel and commitment to raising awareness about accessible technology. Learn about:
- How she built a following on social media
- Her informative and educational video tutorials
- How the visually impaired community utilizes accessible technology
- How the braille display improves experiences on iOS devices
- How challenging technology can be when it is inaccessible
Mark Miller, host, and Dara Golding, producer, speak with Heather Pressman, Director of Learning & Engagement for the Molly Brown House Museum, and Danielle Schulz, Senior Manager of Lifelong Learning and Accessibility at the Denver Art Museum.
Today, they talk about writing The Art of Access: A Practical Guide for Museum Accessibility together and how accessibility changes museums. Learn about:
- How tactile plaster model of an artwork changed Heather’s perspective on accessibility
- How a community arts center started Danielle on her accessibility journey
- How Sensory Friendly Mornings at the Denver Art Museum brings in new visitors
- How self-guided tours at the Molly Brown House are accessible
- How there are accessibility methods for all, from organizations with very little money to those with a lot
- And why Heather sent Danielle an email with the subject line, “It’s Okay to Say No”
Mark Miller, host, and Dara Golding, producer, speak with Christina King, an ocularist at the Center for Ocular Prosthetics in Portland.
Today, they talk about the unexpected paths Christina’s career has taken as she always seeks to improve her skills. And how she came to create both fantastical “fun eyes” and realistic eye prosthetics. Learn about:
- How she made her first fun eye (a prosthetic with a gold iris!) for Rachel Mackenzlee and how this led to going viral
- How she and Rachel started a fund to help people pay for fun eyes
- The medical and artistic sides of creating eye prosthetics
- Why Christina will soon be sitting between two giant eye sculptures at a conference
- What Hollywood gets wrong about prosthetic eyes
- And how painting tricks can make painted pupils look like they’re expanding and contracting!
Mark Miller speaks with Brandon Cole (aka superblindman on Twitch). Brandon Cole is a man of many hats, including streamer, blogger, voice actor, podcaster, and more.
Today, he and Mark talk about their mutual love of video games and dive into what makes a video game accessible. Learn about:
- The navigational assist accessibility feature in games like God of War: Ragnorok
- Why Brandon started a Twitch channel
- How, when he was a kid, Brandon memorized and could recite all of the movie Aladdin
- The enduring impact of Brandon’s work on The Last of Us 2
- And hear Brandon do an ogre and demon voice!
In this episode, Mark Miller, the host, and colleague Mike Mooney speak with Alycia Anderson, motivational speaker, DEI consultant, and accessibility coach. Alycia talks about confronting ableism, her TEDx talk, and how having a disability in one area more often than not leads to an advantage in another.
In this episode, Mark Miller, the host, and his producer Marissa speak with Charlotte Dales, co-founder of Inclusively, a professional network connecting employers with people with disabilities, and Aubrey Northam, her software developer. Charlotte talks about how her cousin Cameron inspired her to start Inclusively after Cameron became the first licensed aesthetician in the state of Florida with Down syndrome. Aubrey shares how she became interested in accessible programming, then they all talk about Inclusively’s challenges and successes.
Mark Miller, the host, and his producer Marissa speak with Alvaro Silberstein, co-founder of the accessible travel agency, Wheel the World. In Alvaro’s own words, “We make people with disabilities travel the world. That's pretty much what we do.” The three discuss Alvaro’s lifelong dream of visiting Torres del Paine, which, for a long time he believed would never come true due to his confinement to a wheelchair. However, he ultimately decided to make it happen with the help of a few friends, which sparked the idea for Wheel the World.
Alvaro regales Mark and Marissa with stories of people his company has helped travel to places they never dreamed they’d go, and what goes into planning such extensive trips around the world.
Mark Miller, the host, speaks with Anthony Ferraro, a blind Paralympic athlete, musician, and motivational speaker. Anthony currently competes in judo, but he explains that before he learned judo, he was a high school wrestler. Anthony’s brother started to make a film about Anthony’s wrestling journey and the trailer went viral, which attracted the attention of the U.S. Paralympic Committee. The Committee asked if Anthony would compete in judo (the Paralympic sport closest to wrestling).
Mark Miller, the host, his producer Marissa, and marketing intern Dara, speak with Elsa Sjunneson, self-described “Deafblind hurricane in a vintage dress” and professor, historian, media critic, author, sensitivity reader, and editor. She is also the first deafblind woman to win a Hugo.
Elsa first discusses her approach as an editor: prioritize diverse voices and then “get out of the author’s way.” She then emphasizes the importance of adaptive aids, describing them as an extension of a person’s body rather than a "nice to have." Elsa goes on to explain the purpose of a white cane and points out that media rarely shows characters using one correctly. She then shares her thoughts on how a writer without a disability should conduct research in order to create a realistic character with a disability. At the end of the podcast, Elsa talks about her love of fencing and how societal bias can affect writing and real life.
Mark Miller, the host, his producer Marissa, and marketing intern Dara, speak with Isaac Shapiro, co-founder and CEO of the beauty brand Cleanlogic. Every product at Cleanlogic has Braille packaging and Isaac shares that his mother, who is blind, motivated this decision. Isaac goes on to describe how the Braille packaging creates a conversation around blind and visual impairment and how most people don’t know that blind or visually impaired people could do certain things. Isaac also introduces the nonprofit he founded, the Inspiration Foundation. At the end of the podcast, Isaac explains the importance of being a “social enterprise” and doing good as a business.
In this episode: Mark Miller, the host, his producer Marissa, and marketing intern Dara, speak with Angie Ause, a LPGA golf pro and instructor who teaches adults and kids who are blind or have low vision how to golf. Angie shares a memory from her childhood of a man with low vision who played golf and how that influenced her current activities. She discusses the various accommodations at Blind Golf Association Tournaments, like guides and grip molds. Finally, Angie reveals that when she first played golf, she hated it and only came to love the sport later.
In this episode, Mark Miller, the host, and his producer, Marissa Sapega, speak with Preston Radtke, a web accessibility specialist and part-time instructor for a course in IT and web accessibility at Rutgers University. Radtke explains how he teaches about web accessibility and why it is an important subject. Topics covered include: the disability etiquette/customer service and testing/web development modules of the class, how Radtke feels that, as he is legally blind himself, working in digital accessibility is a way to give back to the community, the experience of being a professor with a disability, the curb cut effect and how accessible solutions are often adopted by the wider population as convenience, how the Google search engine is like a “blind user,” the growing need for web accessibility, and the frustration of using screen readers.
In this episode, Mark Miller, the host, and his producer, Marissa Sapega, speak with Cara Conway, the Public Relations Coordinator of Paws with a Cause. Paws with a Cause is a nonprofit organization that custom trains assistance dogs for people with a wide variety of disabilities. Conway explains about assistance dogs in general and about the work of Paws with a Cause in particular. Topics covered include: the various jobs of a hearing dog, how assistance dogs can help children with autism, what happens when a dog and person aren't a good fit, assistance dog retirement, and how Paws with a Cause began.
In this episode, Mark Miller, the host, and his producer, Marissa Sapega, speak with Shirley Ruch, the founder of South Fork Bakery as well as Sarah and Scott, employees at South Fork Bakery. South Fork Bakery is a nonprofit bakery that employs people with disabilities. Ruch shares why she founded the bakery and Sarah and Scott explain the bakery’s current day-to-day operations. Topics covered include: the therapeutic value of baking, the social aspect of selling food at a farmer’s market, the importance of workplace accommodations for employees with disabilities, possibilities for replicating the South Fork Bakery model, and the confidence working at the bakery gives employees.