With this episode, Nancy and Peter Torpey complete their ninth year of hosting and producing Eyes On Success. Join them as they revisit clips from their first episode as well as interviews with blind people who practice martial arts, drive race cars, have run 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days, been attacked by pirates, gotten a hole in one playing golf, and more!
The unemployment rate for the visually impaired continues to be very high. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Rachel Carver from Outlook Business Solutions about a new approach being developed to address this problem. The program matches visually impaired consultants with specific skills to companies seeking these skills for their projects.
Jonathan Mosen is well known for his many contributions to the blindness community. A strong advocate for disability rights, he has also played major roles at ACB Radio, Humanware, Freedom Scientific, and Aira. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Jonathan about his journey as well as about his new role as CEO of Workbridge which connects the disabled with employers.
Have you ever dropped a tiny screw in the grass and tried to find it? In her latest book “31 Cool Things You Can Do With Your iPhone”, Judy Dixon explains how your iPhone can help. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Judy about this book and others she has written about using an iPhone with little or no vision, including one on getting sighted assistance.
NEWSREEL is a monthly audio magazine offering three hours of helpful information and inspiration in the voices of its members. Topics include technology, travel tips, books, recipes, personal experiences, sports and more. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with NEWSREEL's editor, Irwin Hott, about the magazine for and by the blind and its history.
Blind since birth, Kathy Melton became a medical transcriptionist over 40 years ago. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with her about how the tools, processes and accessibility have changed over the years and about her experiences in the field. She has since gone on to start a business training other blind people to be medical transcriptionists.
Bristol Braille is now shipping the Canute 360, a refreshable multi-line braille display with 360 characters. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Ed Rogers, founder and managing director of Bristol Braille, about how the device works and how the designers managed to make the Canute 360 at a price that makes it a viable option for braille users.
Ross McGregor is a blind music producer who has produced over 300 albums during his career. He was recently presented the Australian “Hands of Fame” award for his lifetime achievements. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Ross about what a music producer does and how the technologies and methods for music production have changed over the years.
First time parents have many questions. But what if one of the parents is blind? That is the case with Ron and Denise Miller who are raising 2 year old Russell. They talk with hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey who raised two sighted children with one parent being blind. They discuss a variety of topics including feeding, playing, reading, and driving.
NFB-NEWSLINE is a free service from the National Federation of the Blind that gives subscribers access to hundreds of national and local magazines and newspapers through a variety of delivery options. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Scott White, director of NFB-NEWSLINE, about how this service can now also be accessed using your smart home device.
Although the availability of accessible voting methods for people with disabilities has improved over the years, there is still a long way to go. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with attorney Scott LaBarre and technical specialist Curtis Chong about their work with the National Federation of the Blind and others to improve voting access for the blind.
HaptImage is a system that provides blind individuals with multi-sensory feedback so that they can explore images in real time. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey speak with co-founders Shruthi Suresh and Ting Zhang, both graduate students in engineering at Purdue University, about this novel technology, the motivation behind it, and how it works.
The Hadley New Venture competition is a forum for aspiring entrepreneurs to present their business plans and compete for cash prizes to help jump start promising ventures. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Colleen Wunderlich, who runs the program, along with last year’s winner, Lisa Smith, about the program and how it impacted Lisa’s company Forage Candle.
Katie McCoy is the Associate Director of Philanthropy at Southeastern Guide Dogs and a guide dog user herself. Learn about how getting a guide dog has changed her life. She’s also written a book about her journey with RP called “Retinitis Pigmentosa 101: How to Understand, Accept, and Live Your Best Life with Retinitis Pigmentosa”.
The Victor Reader products from Humanware are digital reading devices for print impaired individuals that come in handheld as well as desktop models. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with product manager Robert Panetta about the differences between the various models with a focus on what is special about Humanware’s most advanced model, the Victor Reader Trek.
Patty Fletcher operates Tell It to The World Marketing, a company that assists in outreach efforts for others. Edward Cohen’s company, EZ2See Products, makes and sells calendars for people with low vision. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Patty and Edward, both of whom are blind, about how they work together and Patty’s role in growing Edward’s business.
If you can’t see with your eyes, you need other ways of recognizing your environment in order to maneuver through it. Like bats, humans can also use echolocation. Hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey speak with Daniel Kish and J Steele-Louchart of World Access for the Blind about “Flash Sonar”, an echolocation technique they developed and teach worldwide.
NaviLens uses your smart phone’s camera to read preprinted tags in order to provide visually impaired individuals with information pertinent to their environment. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Borja Lopetegui, a Business Developer at NaviLens, about how this innovative technology works and how you can use it free for personal use.
Sprint offers a number of special promotions and plans for the visually impaired community and is trying to make this information more widely known. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Kelly Egan, visually impaired Customer Relations Manager for accessibility at Sprint, about Sprint offerings and how you might take advantage of them.
Kelly Egan was in her 40’s when she started losing her vision. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Kelly about how she adapted to her situation by attending a vocational rehabilitation program to acquire blindness life skills and went on to become a Customer Relations Manager at Sprint advocating for and providing programs and promotions for the disabled.
Jason Strother is a visually impaired freelance journalist. After reporting from South Korea for many years, his interests have recently turned to stories about how the disabled are impacted by climate change. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with him about accommodations he has made in his career as well as an incident in which his vision could have cost him his life.
In episode 1752 hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talked with Thomas Panek, President and CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, about a program they started to train guide dogs to serve as running companions for their handlers. This week we hear about how the program has evolved and Thomas’ experience running the New York City half marathon guided only by guide dogs.
Wild Blind Hockey is the companion team to the Minnesota Wild Hockey NHL team and consists of visually impaired skaters of all ages. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Lonny Evans, the team’s Director of Operations, about how the team came about, modifications used to make it possible to play with limited or no vision, and what it means to the players.
What does the future hold for Eyes On Success? Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey find out when they talk with Eden Kizer, a totally blind professional tarot card reader, about how she became a tarot card reader and turned it into a profitable business that she can do from the comfort of her own home.
Making mainstream apps accessible can have multiple benefits. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Winston Chen, founder and lead developer of the Voice Dream suite of apps for iOS devices including Reader, Writer, Scanner and Mail, about how he became interested in including accessibility features into his apps and how that worked out.
Have you ever considered jumping into the world of online dating? If so you'll want to read "Dating in the Digital Age" by Kim Loftis. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Kim about her book and discuss how the process works, what to expect, and some special considerations for blind individuals. She also talks about some of her own experiences.
Significant progress has been made in establishing everyday rights for the disabled, yet there is still much more to do. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Scott LaBarre, a blind disability rights attorney, about his experiences working for the NFB, running his own private law practice, and helping to negotiate the Marrakesh Treaty.
Many sighted people have a hard time imagining how they would tackle life if they couldn’t see. Losing your vision, however, doesn’t mean the end of the world. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk about how you can prepare for eventual vision loss by preparing your home, using adaptive aids, becoming aware of your other senses, accessible technology and more.
The visual appearance of documents that you create can have a big impact on how they are received by others. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with David Kingsbury, Assistive Technology Instructor at the Carroll Center for the Blind, about his new book that describes how Word can be used with a screen reader to format documents most effectively.
Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Jenine Stanley, Explorer Community Manager and Brand Ambassador for Aira, about how the service works, new ways to use Aira, and much more. Aira continues to expand its list of Access Locations where their highly-trained agents can provide free assistance to people with vision loss through the use of their smart phones.
Using shortcuts in Apple’s iOS devices can make many tasks more efficient and simple to perform. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Anna Dresner, author of “Getting the Job Done with Shortcuts: An Introduction for Blind Users”, about her book and how you can create and use your own custom shortcuts to easily perform routine tasks.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Janina Sajka, chair of the W3C’s Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group, about the W3C, its mission, and its work on accessibility.
People using screen readers rely on keyboard hotkeys in order to interact with their computers. But there is always more to learn! Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Dean Martineau about his new book that describes how you can use keyboard hotkeys in Windows more effectively, customize your work flow, and take these shortcuts to the next level.
Derek Riemer works at Google as a software engineer. He also has contributed to the development of the free NVDA screen reader and is coordinating this year’s NVDACon conference. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Derek about his experiences growing up and being educated as a blind youth as well as the hurdles he had to overcome in school, work and play.
Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Eve Andersson, Director of Accessibility Engineering at Google, about the accessibility of various Google products and services and how they can be used by people who are visually impaired. Learn about the Google Accessibility support team, the new Lookout app, as well as what is new with Google Docs, Android, and more.
Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Dan Parker who was fully sighted at the age of 41 when he was injured in a drag racing accident that left him totally blind. Despite his injuries Dan continues to build and race cars and motorcycles, went on to participate in acoustic target shooting, and also teaches machine shop to sighted high school students.
Meet Susan Bennett whose voice was used to create the original female English language Siri voice. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Susan about her experiences as a voice artist, actress, and musician, what it was like to create the voice for Siri, how she found out that she was the voice behind Siri, and how it changed her career.
Seeing AI is a free app from Microsoft for iOS devices. The app can be used to scan and read text, identify colors, scan product bar codes, perform facial recognition, and much more. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Saqib Shaikh, the totally blind initiator of and lead developer of the app, about how the app came to be and what makes it special.
Despite being totally blind and severely deaf without his hearing aids, Tony Giles has traveled solo for decades to over 100 countries. Sometimes he is accompanied by his girlfriend Tatiana Nisioti who is also totally blind. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Tony and Tatiana about their experiences and some of the places they’ve been.
Two Blind Brothers makes ultra-soft clothing from natural fibers for the sole purpose of funding blindness research and being part of finding a cure. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with brothers and founders Bryan and Bradford Manning, who are both blind, about how their company got started and what is special about their clothing line.
There are several different types of digital eyeglasses for those with little or no vision. But choosing the one that’s right for you can be a daunting process. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Dorrie Rush, chief content editor of Ophthalmic Edge Patients about the various options and features of several models to help you make the right decision.
What does it take to develop an accessible app? Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Scott Wilson-Billing, developer of the popular Weather Gods app for iOS, about how he became interested in accessibility and, with feedback from the blindness community, worked to make the very graphical Weather Gods app accessible for those using VoiceOver.
Have you ever wanted to become a computer programmer but didn’t know where to start? Well Code Jumper from the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) may be just what you are looking for! Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Dave Wilkinson, director of sales and customer service at the APH, about Code Jumper and how you can learn from it.
John Gardner was a professor of Physics when he had an eye operation that left him totally blind. Although he continued to teach he could no longer evaluate the data from his experiments. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with John and his son Dan about how this experience led to the development of the ViewPlus graphical braille embossers.
Chris Downey had been a practicing architect for 20 years when he suddenly lost all his vision. Undaunted, he has continued his work using his new understanding of how people with vision loss experience spaces. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with him about what is important in designing blind friendly buildings and how he does his work.
Barbara Spohn-Lillo is the owner and founder of Prosthetic Illusions which develops custom prostheses for various body parts including eyes. Both she and her daughter Chelsea Lillo, with whom she works, are anaplastologists and ocularists. Join hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey as they discuss how these prostheses are made and cared for.
Shopping from home has become more common over the past few years and can afford one with greater flexibility and independence. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Ricky Enger of the Hadley Institute about some of the available shopping and delivery services and how they work. Also learn about the new Hadley webinars that you can join in from home.
Modern access technologies make careers that rely on the use of computers particularly amenable to people with vision impairments. Still, there are challenges that one must overcome. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Florian Beijers, a blind software developer, about his training, his work, and how he dealt with various challenges as they arose.
Despite being totally blind, Joshua Loya engages in many extreme sports. This week hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Joshua, who is a US Sight Impaired Surfing Champion, about how he got into surfing, the mechanics of surfing as a blind individual, how he works with his sighted coach, and his passion for succeeding in such sports.
Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Larry Lewis about his new role as director of channel sales and strategic partnerships for the Paciello Group, after many years running Flying Blind. We talk about the importance of accessibility and learn about some of the tools and resources available from the Paciello Group to assist with creating accessible designs.
Debby Marchena is blind and uses a white cane to get around town. One evening, while crossing the street, she was struck by a car. The driver of the car had not seen the cane in the darkness. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Debby about her experience and her quest to develop and market a lighted cane to avoid such problems in the future.
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) provides free audio and Braille reading material to people with any reading disability. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Karen Keninger, director of the NLS, about the service, who qualifies, and what exciting changes patrons can expect in the next few years.
e-mail: hosts@EyesOnSuccess.net