Full Transcript
Speaker 1:
If you’re blind or have low vision …
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Specialized help …
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… video customer service …
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… on Android …
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… or iOS.
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Join the community …
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Today.
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Today.
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On the web at www.bemyeyes.com.
Jeff Thompson:
Brian, what is the square root of 91?
Brian:
I was told there’d be no math.
Brian:
If they saw you standing around looking clueless, like I often was, they were there to walk right up to you and say, “Hey, can I assist you getting you anywhere,” which was really fantastic.
Brian:
The thing I was interested in was Roku because I have never used Roku and I did not know how accessible it was and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Roku is quite accessible.
Brian:
Very impressive, all these companies. Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, Verizon Media, Yahoo, Google, Android, all of them are just doing very impressive things. The Sony Xperia, and that’s X-P-E-R-I-A, I had to look it up, Ear Duo and the interesting thing about these, they’re earbuds that rest kind of on the lower ear, so they keep the ear canals open.
Brian:
The thing about this conference, obviously you’re there to maybe learn something from the sessions, you’re there to check out some new pieces of technology in the exhibit hall, but it’s also about networking. It’s about meeting people, pressing palms.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to That Blind Tech Show Special and this is the CSUN recap because our host, Brian Fischler, was out at CSUN. How are you doing Brian?
Brian:
I’m doing great, Jeff, and I know what a lot of our listeners are probably thinking. Wasn’t CSUN close to two weeks ago and by the time this comes out maybe six weeks ago? I have an excuse. You had a granddaughter so it’s all your fault.
Jeff Thompson:
I don’t want to break it to you, but it was a grandson.
Brian:
Jeff, have we not established that I can never get everything correct on this podcast? Congratulations on your grandson being born and that must have been a very happy time for you and your family.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, it was quite exciting, Brian, and I think there was also another factor, conference, recovery time. How is the recovery from the conference going, Brian?
Brian:
Yeah, I lost my voice, Jeff. When you’re at a conference like this, you’re just talking nonstop.
Jeff Thompson:
Can you imagine what the lost and found looked like? All them voices.
Brian:
Jeff, I’m blind. I have no clue what the lost and found looks like.
Jeff Thompson:
But it sure is a loud place.
Brian:
It is. It probably is. Which would be great for blind people. So maybe next year I’ll put that on my list of things to check out at CSUN. But no, CSUN was really fantastic, and then after CSUN I was actually in Los Angeles for about a week, which is also why we’re even further delayed because even though CSUN was go, go, go, Los Angeles for me was lots of meetings and go, go, go. I’ll give you one really funny story that happened to us in Los Angeles.
Brian:
A buddy of mine and I were having dinner in a place called Saddle Ranch on the sunset strip and we’re eating at the bar and all of a sudden everybody around us, we start hearing “Jack? Jack? Is that Jack?” And my buddy whispers in my ear, “We think Jack Nicholson is sitting three seats over.” Obviously I couldn’t see what he looks like, but it did sound like him cause he got his drink and he went outside and ends up; you’re hearing people speaking in French and I don’t know what they were saying, but in the middle of the French he heard, “Jack Nicholson.” So nobody was 100% certain if it was Jack Nicholson. But it may have been, but you want to know the capper, Jeff?
Brian:
The capper is, three nights later I was having dinner at the same place with the different buddy and I asked the bartender, I said, “Hey, where you working on the other night? I think it was Sunday night.” She said, “Yeah.” I said, “Do we ever know if that was really Jack Nicholson?” She says, “It’s pretty funny because nobody was 100% sure, but when we checked the credit card slip, it said Jack Nicklaus,” so I’m pretty sure I was hanging out two seats from Jack Nicholson, which is pretty cool isn’t it, Jeff?
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, that is pretty cool. But Brian, let’s get back to CSUN.
Brian:
Oh, that’s what people want to hear.
Jeff Thompson:
Let’s get back to Anaheim, and this was the first time it’s been in Anaheim instead of San Diego.
Brian:
Yeah. You know, for me, being a first timer, a rookie, it was no big deal because I didn’t know what to expect from the hotel. But from a lot of the guests that had been there previously, you know, they were so accustomed to the layout and design of the hotel that this was new to them.
Jeff Thompson:
There you go, leveling the playing field for everybody. Love it.
Brian:
One of the things that the Anaheim Marriott had, which scared me at first when I heard about it, because one thing you want to do is know how to work those elevators. They had a unique system where you actually had to touch a button then enter your floor and I’m like, oh great, this is going to be inaccessible. But amazingly it wasn’t that bad and it was perfectly accessible. Once you knew where the button was, the bottom button was a speak button and it announced voice mode and then you would just press the floor to what floor you were going to, which was great because you didn’t have to enter anything in the elevator and you knew you were getting to your destination.
Brian:
Another thing I do want to say about the Marriott, they had so many employees at this conference that were there. If they saw you standing around looking clueless like I often was, they were there to walk right up to you and say, “Hey, can I assist you getting you anywhere,” which was really fantastic.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, people have said that about you on this podcast as well, kind of clueless, so it seems fitting.
Brian:
They do. To quote a movie, how odd that fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, but something tells me I’m following, I guess not following, that advice and everything. Although not as fat anymore from walking around all those days at CSUN.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, okay, the elevator. You navigated the elevator. That’s usually a big hurdle for people. Were there big lines at it? And what else about the layout there for someone that’s thinking about going to Anaheim because it’s going to be there for the next few years.
Brian:
They have a contract I believe with the CSUN conference for the next five years. If you’re thinking about going, this is the part of the show you’re going to want to listen to you because this will help you in the future. One thing that I know was real popular with former CSUN guests was the sessions layout. I guess in San Diego the sessions were kind of all over the place so you could be going to one session, then you’d have to run to the other side of the hotel to get to your next session, and if you’re not there when the session starts, they ain’t letting you in. The sessions were all in the same area. My buddy who can see a little, described it as a square layout and it was just rooms one to 10. Microsoft had their room, Google had their room, and I believe all their individual sessions were in those rooms. It was really easy. You could even chill out and talk to people before the next sessions because everything was right there. That was something that was a big hit.
Brian:
The exhibit hall, however, I don’t think for former CSUN goers was a big hit. They actually had to exhibit halls. They were right across from each other, but it was extremely hard to navigate. It was kind of like utter chaos and everything where just the layout was illogical. I was walking down one aisle and I thought I was looping around to the next aisle and sure enough, I ended up back at the Aira booth, which I was leaving from. I have no idea how that happened.
Jeff Thompson:
That must’ve been interesting running from session to session because it just makes me wonder if the world’s fastest marathon runner, Erich Manser from IBM. Was he at the sessions first each time?
Brian:
I don’t think so because I kind of blew off some sessions. I am the world’s slowest man and I was able to get to some of the sessions, because I had an hour to kill and I was standing right at the front of the door to get there. But I did run into Erich, not physically. It was great to finally meet Erich in person. We’ve had him on the show before. He’s a phenomenal guy doing some very exciting things. He helped me lose more weight because I skipped lunch to talk to him during the lunch hour one day and it was great catching up with Erich, hearing everything that he was working on.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that’s great. Yeah, we did the IBM podcast with him for CSUN that we just put out a week ago.
Brian:
Yeah, we did. One thing that was easy to find in the hotel, they had a huge market because every time you walk past it, you could smell the Starbucks coffee. They actually do have a built in Starbucks at the hotel, which in the morning was the most popular place. In fact, I’d go down there about 10 minutes before my session would start. I had absolutely no shot at getting coffee because it was an absolute zoo. That was something I did learn. You’ve got to get up there a little early if you want to get your coffee before the sessions. It’s also the reason I didn’t make it to as many sessions as I would’ve liked because finally I was like, I’ve got to get some coffee if I’m going to stay awake.
Jeff Thompson:
If you would have got down there and ordered like 20 coffees and then set up a booth right outside that line and double the price, hey, could have paid for CSUN.
Brian:
That’s why I needed you at the conference, the man with the brains. I’ve got the humor, you’ve got the brains, which is why we could take on DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince maybe.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, there you go. Well, some people actually thought we were all at the conference because we were releasing those podcasts from CSUN.
Brian:
Yeah, you were just as busy as me. We have some great content, talking to people at the conference, talking to some other people that couldn’t make the conference due to some other reasons. Not to pat ourselves on the back too much, but we did have a lot of great content come out. If you haven’t checked that out yet, definitely check it out through the Blind Abilities podcast feed or That Blind Tech Show podcast feed.
Jeff Thompson:
I would say we knocked it out of the Anaheim Stadium there.
Brian:
Well, they are looking for a new stadium in Anaheim, so we may be able to do that again next year.
Jeff Thompson:
There we go.
Brian:
One of the things that you could have helped me with, with your smarts though, was to figure out if you’re not going to get up at the crack of dawn to get your coffee, they do have something called room service in these hotels, which didn’t occur to me until the last day there. It would have been nice. You could have pre-ordered your coffee the night before, have it delivered right before you were getting ready to leave, and that’s one way to speed up this morning coffee. Now, the advantage of going to Starbucks in the afternoon, it was wide open because I was drinking an awful lot of coffee at this conference. They also had a slice pizza place in the market, which I did not take advantage of because even though there’s no relation, there is a slice pizza place here in Astoria, New York and it’s kind of the worst pizza I’ve ever had, so I wasn’t going to test that and everything.
Brian:
But the hotel was fantastic. I would suggest if you are going next year, the Wednesday morning, the conference kind of kicked off on Tuesday in the afternoon, but the Wednesday morning real early, they do offer a hotel tour that someone puts on. A buddy of mine went on it and he knew how to get around the hotel real quickly and everything, so that’s something I would suggest people do take advantage of.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, great. With all the people there with vision impairments, there had been a lot of canes, but also Nash was on one of his last trips with you, celebrating Anaheim with you.
Brian:
Yeah. You know there were an awful lot of guide dogs there and one thing I was kind of surprised by, and this is something, I’m kind of a laid back guide dog user. I was really amazed though, how many people at the conference did to ask me, “Hey, is it okay if I pet your guide dog?” They always did ask first, but I know some people that do use guide dogs don’t even like to be asked. So if that’s something you don’t like, I don’t know, it might not be the conference for you because even though it is a blind tech, assistive technology conference, not all these people are familiar with guide dog etiquette and I was asked a lot. I don’t particularly mind, so I didn’t have an issue with it.
Brian:
Amazingly the two and a half, three days I was there, the whole time I only heard one guide dog bark and boy was that handler embarrassed, but it was outside the hotel. The whole time with all those dogs there, all the dogs were on their best behavior. I can’t say all the blind people were on their best behavior. I did ask one employee at the Marriott, “How bad have we been?” They say, “Well, the good news is the drunkest person at the conference is actually staying at the hotel across the street.” That was interesting to hear.
Jeff Thompson:
Was it mostly educated college grads, business people, or was there a lot of kids, young people? What kind of demographic was it?
Brian:
That’s the interesting thing about this conference and something I did notice. Great question, by the way. It was so wide ranging from men and women to age. I mean there were teenagers there. There were college students there. There were older people there. And I noticed most of the people fairly intelligent, although there were some odd people there, which you’re going to get at any event, but it really … And people from all over the world. I actually met a gentleman from Australia who runs his own, he’s sighted, he runs his own web testing website in Australia where they’re testing websites for accessibility. So of course, my first question after meeting him was, “Oh, you’re from Australia,” because I assume everybody from Australia knows David Woodbridge. I said, “You must know David Woodbridge.” And of course he knew David quite well and everything. It was just very wide ranging people from all kinds of backgrounds. And that was something that was quite fascinating to me.
Jeff Thompson:
Brian, something happened to you out there that is kind of a nightmare for someone, anyone, to have happen. Why don’t you share that with us?
Brian:
Yeah. I actually had the worst possible experience that anybody that loves technology and is blind could actually go through. I went out to dinner with my good buddy Alan the first night of the conference and it was great. That’s one of the other things. You don’t have to eat at the hotel. We took a cab for about $7 to the Cheesecake Factory. If you don’t mind the screaming kids, you’ll love it. There’s tons of great restaurants not too far, which are obviously much cheaper than the hotel food and better than the hotel food.
Brian:
We went out to dinner, had a nice dinner and got into another cab to come back to the hotel. We get to the hotel and I sit down and say, “Where’s my cell phone?” You know, you’re patting, all the pockets. You’re like, wait a minute. Because it was cold in Anaheim. That’s one thing. They did have a windstorm, so expect that the next few years. It was not warm during the conference. I’m checking all my pockets going, “This isn’t good. This isn’t good.” And then I come to the realization that I do not have my iPhone on me.
Brian:
Then panic sets in. The sweats set in. I’m like, “What am I going to do? Oh, my god.” I wasn’t afraid that my information was going to be lost because I have so many devices that it has everything. But at a conference like this, you like to have your handy iPhone on you. My buddy Alan was calling my iPhone and nobody’s answering it and it occurred to me, I figured it fell out of my jacket pocket in the cab because I did have a foldable keyboard in my pocket so I could quickly respond to things and the pocket was a little packed.
Brian:
We called the Cheesecake Factory. It wasn’t at the booth. I knew it had to be in the cab. We kept calling the phone, nobody’s answering, and it finally occurs to me, I have Voiceover turned on. If the phone rings and a sighted person sees it, they’re going to be tapping with one finger. I’m not even sure it’s going to answer the phone. So I had Alan send a text message to the phone because a text message will always stay on the screen and odds are if somebody hits the home button, if you still have one like me with the power button, that text message is going to pop up. So we put Alan’s phone number in there and just as we were going to give up and go to bed, I was really depressed because I thought the next day I’ve got to go find an AT&T store because there was no Apple store near the hotel. I’ve got to have an iPhone while I’m in California.
Brian:
As soon as we got to the elevators, Alan’s phone rang. It was the cab driver. Somebody in the back seat found the iPhone, handed it to the cab driver. I told him immediately, this is something you might want to do, if you bring the phone back, there will be a nice reward for you. And he obviously had to drop this fare off, but within about 45 minutes he came back to the hotel. I had my iPhone again. Of course, I called Jeff as soon as I had it, and then I went off to the, instead of going to bed, I went to the hotel bar to celebrate. It could have been a nightmare, but it turned out to be a great thing. Really great cab driver.
Jeff Thompson:
Hey, 2:30 a.m., it was great news. Thank you, Brian.
Brian:
I figured you’re always awake working on the podcast because we know this is a 24/7 production.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh yeah, it is. It is. It is. And the quality shows it. When you did mention the petting of Nash, how did Nash feel about it?
Brian:
Nash loves the attention. He’s almost too social to be a guide dog, but it’s because, believe it or not, we joke about it that I’m on the couch all the time. I’m not on the couch. I’m actually out and about quite a lot. There’s a lot of people in New York and across the country that know Nash. Matter of fact, in Los Angeles I ran into a bunch of comics, more at my level and a little higher, so you’re not going to know their names, but they were so excited. These are people I’ve known for 10 years. They’ve no Nash for a long time. We were hanging out at the Comedy Store and Nash of course was one, the most popular guy there, two, I was at the Mondrian Hotel. They had a huge pool party and of course Nash was the sexiest and most popular guy at that pool party and it was absolutely packed because it was the first pool party of the city.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that’s awesome. Now, Nash will be retiring this spring.
Brian:
He is. In fact, we’re going to have to have a couple of lengthy conversations and it’s something I still keep changing my mind. He is going to, like most New Yorkers, retire from New York to Florida and move in with my parents. There’s a lot of positives about it because of the stairs here, everything’s flat there. But the emotional adjustment for me, and this is a dog that as soon as I pick up the shoes, he’s ready to go outside, so I don’t know how he’s going … He still gets mad at me when I leave him home just to take the garbage out.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, now maybe he can pick up your dad’s shoes and maybe your dad will be excited to go outside.
Brian:
Just like me though, my dad lives on the couch. That’s never going to happen. It’s a family trait.
Jeff Thompson:
So Brian, you did go down there a day early. You got adjusted to the place a little bit and then Wednesday started. Tell us a little bit about the sessions that you attended.
Brian:
Sure. Just like you and Allison told me, and I learned very quickly, you’re not going to get to go to everything. In fact, I had looked at all the sessions. I spent about three weeks picking out seven, eight sessions a day I wanted to go to, you’ve got one every hour. They run about 40 minutes and almost everyone did end on time. And like I said, with the layout, it was very easy to get to the next session. The first thing I went to on the first day was the accessibility of streaming media players because if you listen to this show, you do know I love my pop culture, my movie references. Some of you love them, some of you hate them. I can’t help myself. It’s the way I talk in everyday life. Anyway, they showed the Apple TV, which I have, along with Amazon Firestick, but the thing I was interested in was Roku because I have never used Roku and I did not know how accessible it was and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Roku is quite accessible.
Brian:
But when I asked the question, because the one thing that drives me bonkers about more so the Apple TV than the Fire TV, I asked, “Well, what about here in the United States, the cable network apps, how is the design and the accessibility of those on the Roku?” And of course I stumped the people giving the presentation. They said, “We only really tested Netflix and everything.” One of the funny things to hear though about the Fire TV and the Roku was, their apps seem to work great on iOS, but not as well on Android. I say under my breath, “No surprise there.”
Jeff Thompson:
And there goes our other Android listener.
Brian:
Interestingly enough, that the next session I went to was what’s new in accessibility on Android because even though I am an Apple fanboy, I am listening. Android, just like Microsoft with Mac Voiceover, Android and TalkBack has closed the gap. They’re doing some exciting things. I’ve always been a fan of Victor Varnado, and hopefully I’m not butchering Victor’s last name, but I am a fan of the work he does. He’s a brilliant man. I’ll tell you what, they were showing off, I believe it was the Pixel 3, and TalkBack sounded much snappier. In fact, I keep saying to myself, if I get one of those emails from AT&T that allows me to get a second line and it’s cheap, I may make the dive back into Android, especially with on the Pixel device, them just announcing that Lookout has finally launched. It sounds like it’s similar to Seeing AI, but Android is doing some exciting things and obviously being close minded doesn’t really help anybody because I do obviously work on this show and I’m constantly talking about technology for the blind, so I do have to keep my mind open.
Jeff Thompson:
I’m not surprised that you would be looking at that because I’ve been hearing some good things about the TalkBack coming along. There’s the Samsung version of it. I think TalkBack is probably where it’ll be in the long run because that covers every Android device out there.
Brian:
And you just had a great interview with Google and Be My Eyes where I was like, “Hey, if learning the new TalkBack operating system where I don’t have to think about anything I do on the iPhone, which is good for me because I often don’t think before I talk or think before I flick, but using Android would be new to me and using TalkBack would be new to me, and if I get stuck or confused, now I could just use Be My Eyes and call Google for their assistive technology help, which would be pretty cool for somebody that’s diving into Android and Google for the first time.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, just a tap of a button, the specialized services, you bring right into the Google or you could go into the Microsoft specialized services.
Brian:
And before we get onto Microsoft now, would it be weird in any way using your iPhone and Be My Eyes to call Google to look at your Pixel phone? Is that strange or is that just how we do things nowadays?
Jeff Thompson:
Reminds me of a song by The Beatles back in the 60s. It’s called Come Together.
Brian:
I like that, Jeff. I like that. Hey, maybe later today on the Apple announcement, they’ll open with Come Together.
Jeff Thompson:
That was on the Apple label. It seems so fitting.
Brian:
It does. What about Give Peace a Chance, man? Yeah. Yeah. Getting groovy here. We’re taking you back. We’ve lost all of our younger Millennial listeners by now, but moving on, jumping into the other part of Be My Eyes and specialized help that you could get. Went to Narrator 201 by Jeff Bishop. Jeff is a friend. I don’t know, is Jeff a friend or an acquaintance? We don’t hang out or talk all the time, but I’m going to call him a friend. Where do you come down on this, is he a friend, acquaintance, or business associate?
Jeff Thompson:
Well, if we were castaways on an island, it’d be like someone I knew.
Brian:
Okay.
Jeff Thompson:
I know Jeff. I’ve done a couple shows with him. You have too. He’s been around, he’s with Microsoft, so it’s really nice too. He’s an acquaintance.
Brian:
If you were on the island of Lost with Jeff Bishop, would he be in your camp or the others’ camp?
Jeff Thompson:
Well, it depends on if we would have internet. Maybe not then, maybe not, but seeing eye, you know, I don’t know.
Brian:
That’s true. That’s true. But now Jeff had a great, talking about all the exciting things coming out of Microsoft. And it was funny because there was a guy by the name of Chris Walker also presenting with Microsoft and I recently got a Facebook friend requests from a blind gentleman named Chris Walker. So of course after the presentation, what’s coming out with Narrator in the improvements and enhancements and the entire Microsoft accessibility team is working very hard. When you consider where they were a year ago or even two years ago, it’s quite impressive. I went up to introduce myself to my Facebook friend, Chris Walker. Ends up, Chris Walker’s a pretty common name because he was not my Facebook friend, Chris Walker, but he was very nice regardless and he did say we could be friends and he did give me his email address.
Jeff Thompson:
So there’s still a chance.
Brian:
We were possibly coming together, you know. It’s the continuing theory on our CSUN recap show.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s something that I’ve noticed out there. I know we’ll get to the exhibits and stuff like that, but it seems more and more things are coming together like under one roof or two roofs instead of like 700 different things. How we used to have to parse things together and stuff like that.
Brian:
They are.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.
Brian:
One of the other things I did want to mention was, I went to see, of course, Amazon because just like Apple, I am an Amazon fanboy. They had a presentation about accessible movies and devices. I’m well aware of the devices. They obviously have been coming out with their original content with described video. Also Peter Korn was presenting, who I know you interviewed at NFB last year, so I wanted to introduce myself to Peter. Well, when Peter was wrapping up, they did do a Q and A and I asked a question, wait for it, that got a rousing, a bunch of applause from the crowd. My question was directed at Peter and I was just curious. I said, “Peter, why is it if you buy a movie on a DVD on Amazon, it will have described video track, yet if Amazon releases it on Amazon Prime, it won’t necessarily have the described video track?”
Brian:
Obviously I wasn’t the only one thinking that. So Peter was great about it and he answered the way I thought he probably was. It has nothing to do with Amazon. This has to do with the licensing and certain things are licensed one way for the physical DVD compared to streaming media. But this is something that Jeff and I also talked about with Roy Samuelson on our great interview. He’s the narrator for Lethal Weapon as well as a ton of other television shows and movies, is something that we were perplexed by, but that gives you your question. There is a lot of legalities behind this but it is something that Amazon and I would assume that Apple is working on as well. And afterwards I went up to say hello to Peter and introduce myself. Now, you do have to remember, these people are being dragged in a million different directions.
Brian:
I’m going to give some people some advice that may go to the conference next year because the woman in front of me asked five questions, Jeff, and I’m sitting there just biting my tongue thinking, “Okay,” and he keeps saying to her, “I really have to run. I really have to run.” So, unfortunately I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with him. But I mentioned of course, Mr. Jeff Thompson, who he knew immediately mentioned That Blind Tech Show and he knew who we were, which was really great. And something I didn’t know about Peter, and I believe I’m quoting this correctly, he actually may have designed the first screen reader for the Macintosh in the 80s, I believe, which was quite fascinating. So this is a guy that has just always done fascinating stuff in the field of accessibility.
Jeff Thompson:
He’s not there by accident.
Brian:
He didn’t just stumble into that job. They actually looked at his resume and said, “Peter Korn, you are qualified to work here at Amazon.”
Jeff Thompson:
And he’s done a great job. They have a lot of products coming out. It’s great to see all these different companies. These are some of the names that we weren’t talking about five years ago.
Brian:
Yeah, I mean, the Kindle. It all started with that and the government contract that Amazon lost and they have completely reversed course and we’ll get into it later, but I went by their booth and it was just very impressive at all these companies. Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, Verizon Media, Yahoo, Google, Android, all of them are just doing very impressive things and if something’s not working today, they now have teams in place. They want to hear from us. So reach out, do a Google search, whatever company you’re looking to reach for. They all have accessibility teams and if you can’t find it, hey, try doing accessibility@apple.com or just throw that in there, see if it bounces back to you. But they all have accessibility teams in place so if something’s broken or not working right for you, reach out to them because that was a message that they would say in every session, “We want to hear from you.”
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great. That’s great. And even for audio description, if you really like audio description, reach out to that producer of those movies. Find the link, just send an send a tweet and just say, “Hey, love the audio description.” People want to hear that.
Brian:
Don’t always make it negative. Be Professional, be polite. If they don’t get back to you, then you can strap. But give it more than one try. Approached them. These are people that are working very hard and if something’s working great for you, everybody likes a compliment. Hey, I stayed at two hotels. I’ve gotten 17 emails to leave reviews about my stay at those hotels.
Jeff Thompson:
There you go.
Brian:
People want feedback nowadays.
Jeff Thompson:
Now, wait a second. Apple was at CSUN, correct?
Brian:
They were. Sarah Herrlinger, hopefully, I’m not butchering that name. I got your sex of your grandchild wrong, I don’t want to get too many things wrong.
Jeff Thompson:
You didn’t attend?
Brian:
I did not. We all know I’m the Apple fanboy, but as I’ve already said, you can’t go to everything like you guys told me. And at the same exact time was the Android session and my friend, Lainey Feingold, was presenting as well and Apple all at the same time. And really, what’s Apple going to tell me that I don’t know already about them? I know those devices inside and out. Maybe they were talking about their quarterly revenues, but honestly, if they made $1 or $1 billion, I don’t care. It doesn’t affect me. I have no stock in the company. I didn’t think there was anything I’d really get from that and I was more interested to learn because I don’t know that much about Androids. To that writer who once wrote in, “Hey, you never talk about Android,” I went to the Android session over the Apple session.
Jeff Thompson:
I thought you would attend the Apple thing because they might be taking castings. You’ve could have been a star.
Brian:
I told you, you’re the smart guy. Maybe if you would’ve told me that before the conference, because I wouldn’t mind being in something with Jennifer Aniston, which I think we’re going to hear an announcement about later today. Uh, yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
In something with Jennifer, you mean in a movie, right?
Brian:
Yeah, we’re PG on this show. So, yes, in a movie or a television show. Heck, I would even do an infomercial with Jennifer Aniston. I just want to be around her.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, Brian, I think that line for Jennifer’s a lot longer than that Starbucks line was.
Brian:
You see that Jennifer, you lost Brad Pitt, but you can have me. Consolation prize.
Jeff Thompson:
You’re not a consolation prize.
Brian:
I have an ab somewhere. Not a six pack.
Jeff Thompson:
It’s just insulated a little bit.
Brian:
It’s getting lower, lower. I’m seeing a formation there and I was in a gym once, I think it was 1986, but I understand to have abs you have to go into a gym more than once every 35 years or something.
Jeff Thompson:
Brian, you have been known as the Human Koozie?
Brian:
I have.
Jeff Thompson:
Okay. You told us a little bit about the exhibit hall, that they should redesign it. What was so frustrating about it? I know you actually even became a booth almost.
Brian:
That is very well phrased. Yeah. This is the only place I really dropped the ball. I don’t know what I was thinking, but some advice for you first timers, if you go next year. I looked and spent hours going over every session reading every description. Well, if I would have looked at the website, the link to the right of it was exhibit hall. Take a look at that because there’s hundreds of exhibitors, I would assume. The exhibit hall is quite chaotic and have a plan. That’s something that you guys should have told me about the exhibit hall. I’m blaming you and Allison. Maybe you did tell me but I wasn’t listening. We know that I don’t always listen.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, yeah, that could’ve been. That could’ve been.
Brian:
Yeah. If I could defer blame to some other people rather than myself, I’ll take a shot at it, but I failed. But have a plan because it is chaotic. I believe on the exhibit hall when it lists the exhibitors, it does also lists their booth number, so just jot those down in notes on your Apple device or whatever the equivalent is on the Android. That way, when you go, there are some sighted volunteers when you enter the exhibit hall that will help you and ask what booth number do you want to go because, believe it or not, they don’t know the booth numbers off hands and they don’t want to spend time. Because a couple of times I walked into the exhibit hall, obviously the sighted volunteers that were there were already helping other people, so I just meandered wanderously around it and amazingly the first booth that I went to was Google, so that was pretty cool and I checked out. I kind of liked the Pixel phones. They had them on display.
Brian:
Something that did surprise me about the exhibit hall and a lot of the booths I went to, they weren’t selling the products. They were just there for you to kind of get a feel for. I don’t know if it’s frowned upon selling things at CSUN, but that was something that kind of caught me off guard because I had a nice lunch with a gentleman whose girlfriend worked at Sony. He wasn’t even at the conference. He invited me to sit down at his table and we got to talking. Ends up, his girlfriend was there showing off the Sony Xperia, and that’s X-P-E-R-I-A, I had to look it up, Ear Duo. And the interesting thing about these, when he described it to me, I was like, “Oh, I have to go check these out,” they’re earbuds that rest kind of on the lower ear, so they keep the ear canals open.
Brian:
You could hear him pretty good. You’re not going to get a great music listening, but if you want to do a route with Blind Square or use these with Aira, they’re pretty fantastic. I had to check that out. Now, the other funny thing at the Sony booth, they did show me a neck speaker that was kind of like a neck rest that would rest on your speaker and had a little bit too much bass for me. It was really loud, but then I said, “Well, how much is this?” It was like 299, but it can’t get it in the U.S. The only place to get this was in Japan. So when I figured it would probably cost what, $2,000 to fly to Japan, these things went a little out of my price range.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. Bose is coming out with a neck one I just saw and that’s up near the 300 mark. So, pretty expensive to have speakers strapped around your neck. Speaking of that though, you did bring the Bose Frames out there.
Brian:
I did. Before I jump into that, because the next booth I went to was Aira. It was funny, Aira had the booth that I ended up at a couple of times, and as soon as I walked up to the booth, I guess our podcast is being listened to because there was a-
Jeff Thompson:
What?
Brian:
Yeah. Andy at Aira, as soon as I came up to him he says, well, he saw my name tag and he recognized my name immediately and says, “Well, you left us,” because I talked about it on our podcast quite a long time ago. And he told me he was a big fan of the show, which was really cool. We got to talking and I said, “Well, I’m thinking about coming back in.” Aira was right next to Google, so it’s Kinda cool. You never know which booth is where, which is why you should look at the list of exhibitors to find out they are because you might not realize who you’re next to.
Brian:
And I had a great conversation with Aira. You know Jonathan Mosen was there, who I had a very nice conversation with him, and that was kind of cool because he mentioned our Bose Frames episode that you and I did the demo on, which was kind of cool to hear that everybody’s listening to us. We’re huge. We’re international. I can say we’re international because Jonathan Mosen’s in New Zealand. But it was great to finally meet Jonathan in person because I’ve interviewed him in the past. I know you’ve had some dealings with him and that’s the great thing about this conference and everything is, you finally get to meet some of these people that are doing amazing things and you get to meet him in person. Now, the question for me will be how many of these people that I’ve met in person will I actually hear from ever again?
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, that was a great Bose podcast. It’s true. Aira is partnering up with Bose to work with them because they’re using the special features that are in the glasses for navigation, the accelerometer, so that’s great that they’re working with them. But you were using that so people would recognize who you were. You were the blind guy with the guide dog and the Bose Frames.
Brian:
No. No, I’m not that egotistical. I was using them because at this conference it is kind of loud and it was great to just be able to have them on and hear Voiceover threw them and I have noticed, they say only three and a half hour battery life, but that’s for talking on the phone or listening to music. Voiceover would last all day and I’d still have 60% left. It was great. I’m just walking around the exhibit hall using the Bose Frames, listening to Voiceover and I went over to the OrCam booth because my good buddy who we had on the show, like you said, we’re just going to mention every episode we’ve ever done. Brian Wolynski, a great rep for Orcam. I was going over there to see him because OrCam did something quite fascinating. They were obviously showing off the OrCam device that clips on to your pair of glasses, but they had Dan Parker over there who has set the land speed record for fastest driving time, unassisted, I believe, 65 miles per hour and they also had his motorcycle there.
Brian:
That got people talking saying, “What’s this huge motorcycle doing in the middle of CSUN?” Obviously people wanted to go over there and it was really funny because people would walk over there and want to get their photo with Dan. He was taking photos right next … Great guy. And I walked up to Dan and said, “Dan, I could probably relate to you more than most people at this conference.” He says, “Oh yeah, how’s that?” I said, “Well, have you ever heard of a show called Top Gear?” And before I could get out of another word, he goes, “Wait a minute. Were you the blind guy that parallel parked on Top Gear?” I said, “Yes sir, I was.” So we had a good chuckle. He says, “I saw that before I went blind. That was amazing.” It was really cool. Dan and I hit it off right away, but as I was standing by the OrCam booth, people came over. I believe they were from the Netherlands and they asked if that was the Bose booth and somebody said to them, “I’m sorry, Bose doesn’t have a booth here,” and they said, “Oh. Well, we heard the Bose Frames were over here,” and they said, “You’re looking for him.”
Brian:
It was almost like I was the Bose representative at CSUN because I had at least 20 or 30 people come up to me asking about the Bose Frames. I let people try them on and test them out and I would then do a two finger flick up so they could hear a Voiceover. I’d play a podcast sometimes for them and Erich Manser, in fact, has already told me that he’s already ordered them. By now he’s probably got them, but the funniest thing about the whole Bose Frames, everybody that I showed them to absolutely love them. I don’t know if they were Aira users or not. It just works great with Voiceover. Of course, as soon as I get home to New York, I’m going through my email, a couple of things I hadn’t checked. I have an email from Bose that says, “Refer a friend and receive a $50 Amazon gift card for each person you refer.” Talk About, Jeff, things I could have used a week ago.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, you know Dan Parker, going back to him, we had him on blind abilities when he, just after he set that record. He actually went to the NFB convention and drove that, that’s the same guy, that drove that motorcycle onto the stage. He’s no stranger to the blindness world, but he’s down there in Georgia and now he’s teaching industrial arts in the metal shop down there. He’s a good guy. Look him up. Dan Parker, great guy. That’s great that OrCam brought him on.
Brian:
He’s a great guy, and guess what I turned Dan Parker on to? The Bose Frames. Dan and I would talking and he says, “I hear you got the Bose Frames. Can I try them on?” So I let them try them on and then he had people taking photos for him to send to his fiancé to make sure they look good. Pretty sure Dan Parker will pretty soon be a Bose Frames user and everything. One thing that I did notice about the exhibit hall, and I don’t know if this is looked at as sad or just the way things are heading. You’d go to some booths and they’d show you a piece of technology and unfortunately, you’re like, “Well, I could already do this on my iPhone.” I guess in a way the iPhone and Android and mainstream technology is making some of these devices a little obsolete.
Brian:
I was thinking, “Oh wow, you’re kind of 10 years too late to the prom or something,” and I mean, it’s great for me, but I do feel bad for those small business owners that have worked so hard to bring some of these products to the blindness community. I guess you have the positive side and the down side. But I’m sure there’s still a bunch of users that might not like using smart devices or mainstream technology, so there will probably always be at least part of the blindness community that’ll love having these devices. So hopefully these small business owners do continue to create these devices because there probably always will be at least part of the blindness community that will like using them.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, technology vegans. They don’t want to be part of the big five, the five major food groups in the making everything, so they’re just going to eat up the small ones.
Brian:
Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
You mentioned the sessions. It sounds like a long day because you said you were up early trying to get coffee, going to sessions, then there’s an exhibit hall. It’s probably just off the bed then, Huh?
Brian:
Oh, no, Jeff. Not … no, no, no. This is-
Jeff Thompson:
No?
Brian:
Alison did tell me it was going to be 6:00 to midnight. Well, Allison’s obviously not a late night person because the bars close at 2:00, so it was 6:00 till closing time and not every night, but two of the three nights. Yeah. I’ve been known to take in an adult beverage or two. But the thing about this conference, obviously you’re there to maybe learn something from the sessions. You’re there to check out some new pieces of technology in the exhibit hall. But it’s also about networking. It’s about meeting people, pressing palms and most of that is done in the bars and restaurants at night. The bar was an absolute zoo in the hotel. Get to know your bartender if you plan on spending a lot of time there. Tip well. I did that the first night. Every time I walked up there, bartender would come up to me right away, kind of through the crowd, “What can I get you, Brian?” And I was hanging with people from DQ Systems and everybody is very social.
Brian:
One of the things I did notice at this conference, first thing was, what’s your name? Next thing was, who do you work for? Everybody. Everybody’s very open. It’s very social. I love networking, I love talking to people. And one of the things that was really cool to me, and the conversation would start the same way every time about 20, 30 times was, “Your voice sounds really familiar.” And I’d start to chuckle. I say, “Well, do you listen to podcasts?” And they’d say, “Yeah.” And I’d say, “Oh. Well, do you listen to That Blind Tech Show or Blind Abilities?” And sure enough, “Oh, yeah.” And then of course it’s, “That’s Jeff Thompson,” never Brian Fischler.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, man.
Brian:
I dropped your name a lot. I mean, how do you think I got into all the secret VIP parties? I just said, “Oh, no, my name tag’s incorrect. My Name’s Jeff Thompson.” That’s how I got into all the secret VIP parties and areas and everything.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, there you go. So next year I got a lot of bills to pay when I go, right?
Brian:
I put everything on the Jeff Thompson account this year. Wait till you get the credit card bill next month. And by the way, one thing that you could get in trouble with is, put it to the room, because I got my bill and I didn’t check. I checked it like a few days later on my credit card and I’m like, wait a minute, that’s a little high for the room. Oh, yeah. I put stuff on the room a couple of times.
Jeff Thompson:
There you go.
Brian:
So expect that and everything. It’s not a cheap conference, but I had a complete blast. It was a ton of fun and I’m glad I went.
Jeff Thompson:
You know, Brian, when we did the podcast with Verizon, which includes Yahoo, they did a case study out there. Can you tell us a little bit? What can you tell us about that?
Brian:
I can’t go into a lot of details about that because you know, it’s stuff that they thought you might have issues with and they want to improve. But the one thing I can’t go into was just how impressed I am with the entire Yahoo/Verizon Media accessibility team. I think they had about eight people at the conference. They even had a lead developer there and it was just great. They wanted me to hear what I liked, what I didn’t like in certain things, but they also on Thursday as we mentioned on our interview with them, they had a private get together room where they just wanted anybody to come by and talk to them about, I think they own about, Yahoo, 240 or 50 apps and they wanted to hear about some of the things they’d like to see and hear about things they want to do.
Brian:
I mean, like we said earlier, these companies really want to hear from the community and I was just really impressed with every person I met. I was supposed to be there for a half hour. It turned into about two and a half hours. And the coolest thing about the Yahoo suite, because a lot of these companies have suites. Some of them are hotel rooms as I learned, others are in the lower lobby where Verizon Media suite was. I was walking up to the Verizon Media room and all of a sudden I thought the one time Nash was paying attention to another dog, he wasn’t. They had doggy water bowls out for the dogs, which was really cool when you got to the root because I did notice at this conference, Nash was drinking a ton of water, more than he ever drinks at home, because we’re constantly on the move. And also, he’s a Northern dog, not used to, although it was cool that California weather. Yahoo/Verizon Media also had doggy treats and everything. So that was really cool. They knew their audience and it was just great to spend time with their entire team talking about accessibility.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that’s what he went there for.
Brian:
That’s true. That’s true. But I didn’t expect though water and doggy treats.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah. I mean you said some with Nash, right?
Brian:
He got all the treats because the one time in our 10 years together, I was at a movie and actually I thought some popcorn had fallen on my tummy, my tummy was bigger at the time. So I picked it up and threw it in my mouth. Ends up it was one of his treats and they are the most disgusting, driest things that I’ve ever tasted, so I don’t eat the dog treats anymore.
Jeff Thompson:
Take your word for it, Brian. I’m not going to try them. Okay, Brian, there a lot of sessions, a lot of different companies represented at these sessions. There’s a lot of exhibitors. Who are the stars of CSUN this year?
Brian:
There are a lot of stars. You got to start off with Aira because with Aira it’s like the Godfather. I got rid of it a few years ago. I feel like Michael Corleone, every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in, because, Jeff, I’m now back with Aira. I got the Horizon Glasses. I’m interested to see, I’ve only used it a few times, but it has been great. In fact, I used it at the hotel, couldn’t find my Apple watch. I realized, day two, I wasn’t wearing my Apple watch and went up to the room. Why’s it not on the nightstand? I checked my phone, it was connected and I normally don’t lose things, so the fact that I’m misplacing things twice tells you how, go, go, go this conference is. I called up Aira, which was free to people at CSUN if you’re on the WiFi network at the hotel ends up the nightstand had two levels. I accidentally put my Apple watch on the lower level. Right there, there’s an example of how Aira does help.
Jeff Thompson:
An Aira access point. Yeah.
Brian:
Yeah. OrCam, huge hit. Their booth was constantly swamped with Dan and everybody had taken photos with him go. So they were a big hit. Oh, and one thing I’ll tell you is, because I know he went up to Dan, guess who was standing right behind me at the conference?
Jeff Thompson:
The Godfather saying, “Brian, you got to get the glasses.”
Brian:
Why do you sound like Jack Nicholson, man? That was Al Pacino in the Godfather. No, Stevie Wonder. So that tells you how big this conference is. Stevie Wonder, somebody says to me, “Stevie Wonder is standing right behind you.” He was there with about 30 people. I figured so many people were bothering him that I didn’t even bother, you know, but supposedly he was taking photos with people, but he was there to check everything out and see what might be helpful to him, which I thought was really cool. Of course, he didn’t have to fly to the conference, so it was no big deal for him to go. I had to flight across country.
Jeff Thompson:
Do you think one of the guys in the entourage said, “Hey, Stevie, right in front of you is Brian Fischler from That Blind Tech Show,” and Stevie probably said, “He’s being pulled in all sorts of … I’m just going to not bother him.”
Brian:
Yeah, I said earlier, you have the brains, I have the humor. You have the brains and the humor. Jeff, I don’t have to think about that. I know that was said to Stevie and I think at the time I was giving off that vibe that I was checking things out and didn’t want to be bothered myself and everything. I definitely think that was said. Without a doubt, the biggest winner of the conference wasn’t even there. It had to be the Bose Frames. And Bose, I know when they came out with these, they weren’t even thinking about the blindness community. They just came out with them for runners. I mean, who runs besides Erich Manser? They were a huge hit and it was from not just me, there were other people there with the Bose Frames talking about them. And like I said, somebody did ask where the Bose booth was. It’s a shame that I didn’t get that refer a friend offer because I could have used about $2,000 in Amazon gift cards. That would have paid for a good amount of other technology and everything.
Brian:
Another big smashing success at the conference would say was Blind Abilities. And Jeff, as I talked earlier, you were not there, but you are hard at work at home, putting out content, interviewing people at the conference. I did not conduct any interviews at the conference. It was my first time there and I just, I didn’t want to feel obligated to do anything and I wanted to be relaxed and really just enjoy as much as possible because it is overwhelming. But, I would have to say Blind Abilities was a huge success and it was great for all the people that were there that came up to me telling us how much they love, whether it’s the iPhone 101 series or That Blind Tech Show or any of the podcasts that you and Pete Lane have been putting out for much longer than I’ve been involved, or Serena or Allison or Nick. I’d say it was great to kind of just hear that feedback in person, which I know you’ve heard before, but this was the first time for me.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that’s great. It’s great that you were out there carrying the torch and it was Be My Eyes announcing their partnership with Google that we did a podcast with and that we put out. That was really neat. We do this stuff and it’s neat to have companies that are involved. I think it just goes to show you, we’ve got some good companies that wanted to be on Blind Abilities and took the time. So it’s great that you dropped our name and you dropped some names that I took advantage of getting on the show and it just works out really good.
Brian:
Honestly, I’m going to change my answer. I said Bose Frames, but I think after Bose Frames, obviously Blind Abilities. But overall the biggest winner of the conference, it’s the blindness community. I mean, every major tech company, except Facebook. But yeah, they’re having some issues now. They were all there and they were there to hear from us and they want to hear from us, not just at CSUN, they want to hear from us throughout the year. And the fact that Microsoft, Google, Verizon Media, Yahoo, Android, Apple, it’s just fascinating to me. Five years ago we didn’t know where we’d be, even a couple of years ago. So I really think the blindness community as a whole that are going to use these devices and you know, they’re a little cheaper than some mainstream blind tech products, but not only are we using their products, but it’s the minds and the talent and the brains behind these products. I guess minds and brains are the same thing, but they’re so smart. These are only going to benefit us in the short run and the long run. So I think the blindness community in the whole was the big winner at CSUN.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great. Brian, you’ve got to remember is that some brains don’t mind, so.
Brian:
And some minds don’t brain, so.
Jeff Thompson:
There you go.
Brian:
Does that make sense? Now, that’s why you need a brain.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah, because you said it. It could be a trendsetter.
Brian:
Maybe I’ll look up afterwards to see if mindbrain is taken on Twitter. I don’t know what it means, but I’ll take it.
Jeff Thompson:
Brian, you got this one under your belt. Will you go back next year or will you go back to Anaheim for the CSUN?
Brian:
Absolutely. I mean, as long as things are going well with me, because like I said, it is not cheap and I know some friends of mine could not attend because of the cost. I don’t know if there’s anything they could do to lower the cost. One thing I may do next year, I may not sign up for the sessions. I was a little disappointed from the sessions, but that’s because I’m constantly reading about all mainstream tech and blind tech news where this show, and it’s just my hobby outside of fantasy sports. So if you’re not constantly reading about technology, you’ll probably get much more from the sessions. There were some things I’d learned, but like I said, for me, the exhibit hall, checking out the latest developments in technology and more of the social aspect and talking to all the people there because you never know who you’re going to run in to. And that was a ton of fun for me to meet people I’ve known and to make some new friendships. And amazingly, I know everybody’s been waiting to hear, nobody punched me in the face, Jeff.
Jeff Thompson:
Really?
Brian:
Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
And a lot of them did listen to That Blind Tech Show.
Brian:
That’s true. That’s true. I don’t know if they tried and the fact that they were blind, that their aim might’ve been off and they just kept missing me and hitting air, but nobody punched me in the face. So I was very happy that something I said didn’t really annoy somebody to the point that they would go to violence. Actually, I really didn’t hear of any serious issues at the conference, but you know, everything seemed to flow very well. I think Anaheim did a great job. I can’t compare it to San Diego, but for a first timer, I had a complete blast. I’m glad I went. I was overwhelmed. Like I said, it’s great to finally have my voice back because I do talk a lot and, in comedy I kind of could have done a show at the Improv one night and I said, “No, let me get my voice fully under me.”
Brian:
I couldn’t have told you the last time I drank tea. I was drinking tea while I’m in L.A. to try and get my voice back with honey and lemon. It was actually pretty good. I might do that regularly. I would highly suggest if you’re on the bubble and you’re thinking about going next year, definitely do it. Start saving now. Put a little money away each month. That’s what I did starting last July was, I started preparing for it and I knew the expenses would be more than I’m used to for a month. So if you are able to put the money away, come next March, you know it’s coming in March, it’s going to be an Anaheim. The one thing I would tell you, do not take the Super Shuttle from the airport. I do have them. They’re one of the companies that emailed me. Leave a review. I had a disastrous experience with them. Everyone I knew that took them had a disastrous experience. Pay for the Uber. Uber is not that expensive in California.
Jeff Thompson:
Yeah.
Brian:
Costs you probably, if you fly into LAX, about 40, 45 bucks, but it’ll save you a ton of headaches. So that’s one of my biggest pieces of advice. It took me three hours to get on the Super Shuttle and get to the hotel.
Jeff Thompson:
Just to get on it.
Brian:
Yeah.
Jeff Thompson:
It is a big step on to that shuttle, though.
Brian:
It is.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, I really like the fact that you knew what you’re going to get into out there a little bit. You know some technology talking about accessibility, but the networking as you called it, pressing palms, shaking hands with people and meeting people, that will carry on further than the CSUN event itself. We’re going to be in NFB in Las Vegas. You’re going to be at ACB in Rochester, so we’re going to do this all over again from each side of the country and do it all again, Brian.
Brian:
Yeah. One last thing I will leave you with. I forgot about one more disappointment.
Jeff Thompson:
Now, could this be what’s pissing off Brian?
Brian:
Not really, but it could be. It could be. It’s a more humorous what’s pissing off Brian.
Jeff Thompson:
A what’s pissing off Brian-ette.
Brian:
Yes, ette. So, here’s this technology conference for assistive technology and how can we hold an assistive technology conference without the man that knows more than anybody in human history about technology, Donald Trump? I mean you would think he would want to be there.
Jeff Thompson:
If you think it was expensive now, if he was out there …
Brian:
And even though not at CSUN from New York City, we are out.
Jeff Thompson:
Download the Be My Eyes app from the Google play store or the iOS App Store and a big thank you goes out to Stephen Letnes from Able Artists Foundation for its beautiful music we used in the Promo for Be My Eyes. You can find out more about Stephen and the Able Artists Foundation on the web at, abelartists.org. I want to thank you all for listening. We hope you enjoyed and until next time, bye bye.
Jeff Thompson:
Enable the Blind Abilities scale on your Amazon device just by saying, “Enable Blind Abilities.”
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
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