Full Transcript
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson and welcome to our CSUN coverage sponsored by Be My Eyes.
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Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson and in the studio from That Blind Tech Show is Brian Fischler. How you doing, Brian?
Brian Fischler:
I’m doing fantastic, Jeff, and I’m really excited to introduce a very interesting guest, Mike Shebanek from Verizon. How you doing today, Mike?
Mike Shebanek:
Oh, I’m doing great, great to be with you guys.
Brian Fischler:
Mike, you are going to be out at the CSUN conference and you will be presenting their I believe, what can the blindness community expect to hear from Verizon at this year’s CSUN?
Mike Shebanek:
Well, thanks, we’re super excited the be there. We wouldn’t miss it. It’s one of the highlights of our year. Verizon’s going to be there in full force so we are a sponsor. We’ve got seven presentation sessions and we’re going to have a reception at a sponsor room on Thursday and we invite everybody to come check it out.
Brian Fischler:
I’m noting that on my calendar now. Thursday night, I’ve got plans at CSUN and everything.
Jeff Thompson:
Mike, could you give us a little background history on Verizon and how they came to be what they are today.
Mike Shebanek:
Oh sure, sure. So many of you listeners may know us as Yahoo, that’s how I came to the company. In the last year Yahoo and AOL, actually both, have now become part of Verizon, so if you’re at the show and you notice people clapping about Verizon or there’s a Verizon area or there’s a presentation about Verizon, we are there to talk about capabilities in terms of apps. So, we’ll be talking about and showing and answering questions about all the apps you know and love like Yahoo Fantasy Sports and Yahoo Mail and Tumblr and AOL. But we’re now under the Verizon brand.
Brian Fischler:
And as a lot of our listeners know because we discuss Yahoo fantasy on our show a lot and I like to brag. I won the All Blind Fantasy Football League this year so I’m very proud to carry that title, yeah, yeah, got a lot of enjoyment out of that. Now, obviously you guys will have several people speaking at the conference, but what’s the message that Verizon would really like to get across to the blindness community.
Mike Shebanek:
Well, we really want people to be more aware of the apps that we’ve created particularly because they’re so accessible. And a lot of the times people may not think, “Hey, I could use that.” Or “That might help me.” Or, “I know my friends,” for example, “play Fantasy Sports, but that’s probably not accessible to me so I just won’t even try it.” And it turns out we’ve been working really hard on a lot of the apps we make to make sure that they are accessible.
Brian Fischler:
Yeah, and I can attest to that. You guys have been doing a great job with everything from no vision to low vision and that’s fantastic that you guys are that committed to it. Now, I understand that Verizon is going to be conducting a case study while at the conference, can you tell us a little bit about what the case study will entail?
Mike Shebanek:
Sure thing, so we’ve invited people that come and talk to us on Wednesday to get their perspective on how our apps work for them and so we always want to be listening. And we care deeply about what people have to tell us and what they would like in the future, what they love about the things that we make, so we can pour that all back into those product teams and we can make even better products going forward. So we’ll be asking people to give us comments on things like Yahoo News and Yahoo Play, a brand new app that we’ve just came out with and the other apps that we have.
Mike Shebanek:
So come talk to us, that’s why we have the sponsor room all day on Thursday opens at 10:00 AM, closes at 4:30 and we would love people to come by and check us out and they can ask us questions about the apps. They can ask us how they work. We can answer questions. We’re going to feature Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Fantasy app which was awesome, and I’ve gotten great feedback on it. And also talk about the disability collection, another project that we co-founded with the Getty Image Library and the national disability alliance, to change the way people with disabilities, including those that are blind or have low vision, are presented in media generally.
Mike Shebanek:
It’s just been an incredible project, [inaudible] people about that too, so come on by.
Jeff Thompson:
Mike I want to give you a little testimony for you and your team and a big thank you because it was Yahoo Fantasy Football app that got me back into playing fantasy football. It’s all about the accessibility. 21 years ago, I lost my eyesight and I always played fantasy football, but until Brian introduced me to the Yahoo Fantasy Football app, I was not a contender and now I can be a contender. And Mike, I made the playoffs the last two seasons in a row.
Mike Shebanek:
That’s cool.
Jeff Thompson:
Big thanks to you and your team, thank you.
Mike Shebanek:
Thank you. That’s really great and I’m so glad to hear that too because we’ve heard that from so many people who’ve asked us, “Why did you make fantasy football or fantasy sports accessible?” It’s not required. We didn’t even know it was a thing we could ask for and for us it’s just been super cool and delightful that for people to realize that we just did it ’cause we love it and we want more people to be part of it. And we know that people … it’s a social thing and so people talk about it on the weekends. They talk about it at work. They talk about it at thanks giving dinners and Christmas dinners and we wanted everybody to be able to enjoy that and take part in it.
Mike Shebanek:
And so the response we’ve gotten is really cool. I really appreciate you sharing your story.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, thank you guys very much.
Brian Fischler:
I’ve always found it funny that I love fantasy sports, yet I hate reality TV. There’s something very strange there and it’s funny ’cause CSUN is during my prime fantasy baseball drafting season so I’ve got to get a couple of my leagues to move their draft dates while I’m at CSUN ’cause obviously it’s go, go, go the whole time you’re there.
Mike Shebanek:
Are either one of you guys a commissioner of your own league? That’s something you can also do through accessibility.
Brian Fischler:
I am the commissioner of the … we call it the Blind Abilities Fantasy Football League, we just finished season three. And I do commission a couple of my baseball leagues. We actually had a baseball league that we played on another platform that was and still is completely inaccessible and probably about eight years ago I got all these guys I grew up with to move everything to Yahoo and now we just do everything on Yahoo. So, we’re grateful for … I’m especially grateful for the accessibility and I’m the only blind person in that league.
Brian Fischler:
It’s something that both blind people and sighted people and people with all kinds of disabilities can enjoy. One last thing and I don’t know how much you can tell me about this, what can you tell me about what the Yahoo Accessibility Labs are doing?
Mike Shebanek:
Oh, great question. We have actually three labs, not just one. We have a media lab that’s based in Boston. We have what’s called our Accessibility Lab in the New York Office and then we have one in the heart of Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale California, there original one. And we use these labs for all kinds of things, so we’re doing research, we do user studies, we do a lot of training especially for people who may not know someone’s who’s blind or know someone with a disability and aren’t acquainted with assisted technology. We can bring them to that lab and we have all of the most popular products that people use and we can give them access to those devices for testing or just to learn how it works or to get the perspective of someone who’s blind or low vision or any other disability. And understand what are the issues in using products with them.
Mike Shebanek:
So we can test and validate the things that we’re doing are actually working well and also explore how to maybe even take accessibility even further. So, there’s actually a presentation on this so if anybody’s interested to hear more about those labs they can check out the presentation by Samantha Soloway and Denise Olagy. They’re going to be doing this. It’s called Learn by Doing: Case Study of the Accessibility Labs of Verizon.
Mike Shebanek:
And we’ve heard from people that have come to visit that it’s really an extraordinary experience that they’ve never forgotten. So, we’re really happy to share with you the magic we’ve found in creating a space dedicated to doing this work. That’s awesome.
Brian Fischler:
I’m signed up to go. I know Samantha. I’ve actually visited with her here in the labs in New York city and I know they’re doing very impressive things, so looking forward to seeing it on the grand scale at CSUN.
Mike Shebanek:
Fantastic.
Brian Fischler:
Well, this was quite the treat, Mike. We really appreciate Verizon and yourself coming on, giving us some time to talk about all the exciting developments in continuation of Verizon’s commitment to accessibility.
Mike Shebanek:
Well, it’s great talking with you guys, thanks so much for having me on your show. And can’t wait to meet everybody, all your listeners as well, so come on by and can’t wait to shake your hand.
Jeff Thompson:
Thanks Mike, and thanks for what you’re doing with accessibility.
Mike Shebanek:
Thank you.
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