Full Transcript
Callie Gray:
This is Callie in Miami. In April of 2020, I lost the majority of my vision due to a retinal detachment. At that point, my Macbook Air became a paperweight on my desk, as I had no idea how to use voiceover. In search of answers I posted questions to the blindness community on Facebook and received varying responses. Some worked, some did not. One day I came across a post from Mac For The Blind, where John Panarese was offering four free online courses on Mac OS and voiceover—a basic starter kit. I immediately signed up. I enjoyed the courses, and gleaned so much information from John Panarese. He’s a patient teacher, and more importantly, he knows his stuff. He even provided free Dropbox links to the participants so that we could download and review the lessons at our own pace. This is a feature I greatly appreciated. Also, I went to the website and purchased several courses, one including “the finder,” as this is the meat and potatoes of the system, and I needed to know how to find my stuff and the basic layout of the system. I also purchased a course on signatures and mail OS, as I had no idea how to do it, and I could not wrap my brain around it. In fact, after purchasing the course, I had to email John a couple of questions, and his customer service is so great he immediately got back with me and answered my questions. I love Mac For The Blind, and I really appreciate the job that John is doing.
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. In the studio, we’ve got John Panarese, and he’s the creator of Mac For The Blind. You can find that at macfortheblind.com. Jonathan—well, I said Jonathan—John, how’re you doing?
John Panarese:
Alright! My dad used to call me Jonathan, so it’s kind of weird that you call me it.
Jeff:
How’s it going with Mac For The Blind?
John:
It’s going well, going very well. I’m trying out exploring new areas, with focusing specifically on just providing one-on-one or small group training sessions, but have now kind of opened up to doing some online courses, so that was a very successful little venture back in June or July, so I will be continuing that effort as the fall turns into the winter,
Jeff:
Now, Mac For The Blind has been around for quite a while—I think it dates back to 2011 or so? I’m not sure-
John:
Yes, yep, that’s exactly-
Jeff:
I nailed it!
John:
Yep, that’s when I came into existence. I was a vendor, I sold products for several years, from the mid-90s to 2009, 2010. I was actually planning to go do something else outside of the blindness industry, and sort of got sucked back in. A friend of mine—a sighted friend, actually, he’s the one who talked me into putting up Mac For The Blind, the website, with all of its informational stuff on the Mac and iOS at the time, and he kind of nudged me and said “Hey, why don’t you put something on there that you can do training?” And I said “What do you mean? I don’t really teach people,” and he’s like “Well, when you were selling your products and you got involved with Apple a few years ago, haven’t you trained people?” And I said “Well, unofficially, yeah.” So, he finally convinced me to do it, and I put a little blurb on the website, and lo and behold within a few weeks I got contacted by—I think it was three or four state agencies and at least a dozen different private clients who were looking for Mac or iOS training, and within a year I was sort of sitting back saying you know what, I can actually make this into a living and I’m really enjoying what I’m doing for a change, because selling products can be very stressful, and stocking products and keeping track of invoices and all that stuff—I mean, I enjoyed it, my dad had retired from the New York City Fire Department and was kind of like my business partner, we used to travel together, so that part of it was great, it was just all the other nonsense that kind of burned me out, so doing the training was so much easier because it’s just working with people, and you’re working either one on one or in a small group and you’re teaching them things they didn’t know before, and in a lot of instances it’s really providing a sense of independence and self-reliance for people who didn’t have that kind of access before. And for blind people technology is really underrated sometimes, it’s such an important aspect that we have, that we need, that’s a little bit different than the sighted world, because a lot of blind people tend to be on the isolated side, so when they have access to an iOS device or a computer, and they can get involved in social media and Facebook and Twitter and doing Zoom and things like that, it just opens up the world to them, and I’ve had so many great experiences over the last 10 years of really opening the doors, so to speak, for people to get into this world of—this crazy world of technology.
Jeff:
You know, John, I was talking to a friend of mine, Callie Gray, and it came up that she was looking for training on the Mac, and she found Mac For The Blind, and she was raving about it because it was exactly what she wanted. She tried other areas, and stuff, but when she found this she just raved about it, and I said “Oh wow, I thought he did this all the time,” but as you said, as we were talking before, that you started out doing small groups and now, with the pandemic going on, these larger webinar type of meetings just blew up.
John:
Absolutely, and it’s helped me—I mean, like I said I was talking to you earlier about how I didn’t think this was going to fly. I mean, I was saying to my girlfriend when I was kicking around the idea one time when we were out to dinner, and I said “Oh, you know, if I get 20, 25 people interested in doing this, it’ll be worth at least something for me,” and lo and behold, the Mac courses, I think I had said 145, somewheres around there signed up in total. And then the iOS was close to 100, so that just blew my mind, I did not expect that kind of an interest from everybody out there.
Jeff:
That’s neat!
John:
Yeah, and it’s got me motivated now to do more of this stuff, you know?
Jeff:
Oh, yeah, I’m excited. And you’ve got stuff coming up in the fall that you’re planning now?
John:
Yes, that’ll be on the website, I’ll send out an email to everybody who had signed up, so Callie will be getting an email with information. It’s going to be Mac and iOS, it’s going to be a mixture of free courses and there’s going to be some more directed courses that’ll have a small fee, maybe 10 or 15 dollars to sign up, and I’ll post a schedule, I’ve just got to figure out—it’s most likely going to be on Tuesday or Thursday afternoons, because I don’t want to conflict with—Matt Vollbrecht does a whole iOS thing on Mondays and Wednesdays, and he’s got a lot of people who’ll sign up for that, so I don’t want to overlap and try to compete with anybody, especially since he’s a very good friend of mine, so I’m going to either do Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, eastern time, and those people in the UK, in Australia, don’t worry, as I’ve done in the past, I will have recordings of the lessons available, I’ll set up a Dropbox link, and so nobody will be left out.
Jeff:
I like that, that it even says on your website, there’s other resources out there and you’re not trying to compete, it’s great that people have the access to getting some tutorials, some demonstrations, some—to learn the devices that they have, to better utilize them. I like that attitude that you have. Now, John, what is your demographic? Who are you aiming to join these tutorials, these meetings?
John:
I think it’s a combination of anybody, and it’s funny because I had people who are novice beginners, knew very little about this technology, and then I had very experienced, long-time users who were pioneers with me, learning the Mac back in 2005, and iOS in 2009, 2010, who took the courses just for a kind of refresher, or just to see if there was something that they didn’t know.
Jeff:
Oh, yeah.
John:
You know? And that’s why I say, you know, for me, my belief is, look, I don’t have an ego, I don’t believe I am the be-all, end-all of training, there are a lot of good people out there who are doing this, and you know I took the extra steps, I got the ACSP and the ACT from Apple directly, the training certification and all that stuff, but I am a firm believer that you should learn from other people, you should get multiple opinions of something, because somebody’s mentioned something that I didn’t think of, or that I didn’t see as being as important that might be important to you. So that’s why I always promote other people, and I have no problems—like on my Mac For The Blind list, anybody advertising their group thing, their courses, or whatever they’re doing, because to me it’s—we’re a community, and it’s really about helping each other. We’re small, we don’t always get the respect and the attention of a lot of the vendors, even Apple at times, so we’ve got to kind of stick together.
Jeff:
So you’re not the Apple almighty god, as Callie told me?
John:
No, no—I kind of get embarrassed, I’ve had a few people say that to me, and I have a few of my fans that, as my girlfriend likes to call it, my fanbase, that kind of embarrasses me about that stuff, so.
Jeff:
I’m just pulling your leg with Callie, she just spoke highly of it, and it’s really neat that someone found that solution, because when we get a device, I’d be one of those persons that join on, if I could find that one little trick, that one little hurdle to get me past something that takes me a little bit longer, that’s well worth it. Just those barricades, that sometimes you just reach a dead end, so—I think what Callie said, she just wanted that information right now, and that’s what she got. She got her answers, she got her fix.
John:
Good, I’m glad. I’m glad she got something out of it. That makes me feel good to hear, that other people have really benefited and are spreading the word to others, I mean, that to me is the greatest compliment.
Jeff:
Well, the other thing is, you know, I’ve heard of a demo on a podcast, somewhere, I’ve got to remember the podcast, which episode it was, then you’ve got to go hunt for it, but if they find out how to add that signature to their email in the Apple email environment, boom, they have it, they can listen to it when they have it, and relisten to it to get it down pat-
John:
Right, as many times as they want, just keep practicing with it. You know, when I do the lesson I really try to let you hear as I use the Mac or the iPhone-
Jeff:
Real time.
John:
Yes, so you should hear what I hear, you know what I’m saying? So I hope that gives that added little benefit.
Jeff:
If someone had questions, could they email you? If they took a course, is there some type of-
John:
Absolutely, absolutely! john@macfortheblind.com, J-O-H-N@macfortheblind.com, you can just go to the website, there’s a contact link on there as well if you can’t remember the email address. I get questions from people all the time, and try to direct people, and it’s like, would you ultimately like them to take lessons from you? Yeah, absolutely, but I don’t expect every person that comes to me, that they’re going to want to take lessons, you know, it’s just—if I can help somebody or at least point them in the right direction, that to me is at least getting them along.
Jeff:
I really like the fact about the lessons, and the Mac, it’s hard to find those. A lot of people will show you anything about the iOS devices, but the Mac is kind of a quiet area, I’m glad you’re doing this, but I don’t know what I don’t know, and I think I know a lot, but when I come across a, almost like I was talking, those little darlings, those little “Oh, that’s how you do that,” you know, that’s where I really like that, so I highly suggest people, you know, to take a course, see what it’s like, see what you learn from it, and you also have—something I saw was Apple Slices.
John:
Yes, yeah, Apple Slices are mini lessons, so I have the audio tutorial series for the Mac and iOS where I focus specifically on an application or a feature, so for example the Apple mail application or using Safari, or settings, but then I got this sort of inspiration one day of doing these mini lessons, maybe five, six minutes, where I take an app but I focus specifically on a feature that people might be really needing to do, like creating a signature in mail, or how to move files in Finder, things like that, and, you know, five bucks, and you know, Apple Slices just kind of hit me, and as I was telling you earlier, my audio engineer, Derek Lane does all the audio stuff for me, just loved it, just loved the idea of Apple Slices, and kind of ran with it with the intro and stuff like that, so they’re really neat. I’ve got to do more of them, I was really on a roll, and then I—when you’re a one-man show, unfortunately things pull you in multiple directions, and I have, you know, issues with—my mom is 86 and has got senile dementia, and I got a brother who’s ill, so it’s not—I’m always getting pulled in multiple directions, so that’s one of the problems too, here.
Jeff:
Well, hopefully you find good enough time to get the fall stuff rolling, because people are headed back to school, and now that—for some people, now that kids are back at school you might have time to take some lessons, so I like the fact that it’s available for anybody, just anybody—yeah.
John:
Yeah, anyone, anyone who’s interested, and like I said, you’re welcome to contact me with questions, and what I typically will do is I’ll offer specials, or discounts on the audio tutorials and I also usually will offer either a free lesson or a half-price one-on-one lesson if there’s something that you want help with, that comes directly from, you know, one of the courses.
Jeff:
Now you mentioned early on that even state agencies, vocational rehabs were contacting you for, you know, hey, what do you got?
John:
Yeah, I’m contracted with several states, you know, actively right now would be the state of Washington, New Mexico, North Carolina, New York, but I’ve had Vermont, New Hampshire’s done business, Mississippi, I’ve done probably I’d say 10 or 12 states over the years that I’ve done business with, and I’m always looking for in-roads into other places as well.
Jeff:
Well, that’s great, and you can find all this at macfortheblind.com, just scope it out. Check out the about page, I like that, I like reading a little bit of the history of when you started and how it grew and where you are today.
John:
It’s just a lot of people have helped along the way, some people don’t even realize that they kind of helped in one way or another, and that’s why I have the credits and acknowledgements page because, as I said, we’re a community, and in the beginning there was a small group of us pioneers that really kind of learned on our own before we had tutorials and all this material out there, so we kind of got to know each other simply by virtue of the fact that, you know, we were kind of helping each other out. They’ve always contributed in my mind to a lot of the material that has become sort of the building blocks that I use.
Jeff:
I like that, you know, there’s a resource page there where you can actually click on the Apple accessibility, other types of tutorials that are out there as well.
John:
Right, yeah—I mean, you’ve got the National Braille Press, and APH, and stuff, who have all kinds of great resources out there.
Jeff:
Oh, great. Well, Jonathan, is there anything else you want to capture on this?
John:
I think that’s really the major stuff, other than you know, like I said, I do one-on-one training. If you are receiving services from a specific state and you would like to look into receiving some specific training, I do the ACSP—in other words, soup to nuts, teach people, get them prepared for the Apple certification. I’ve been beta testing the ACSP exams for Apple, so contact your counselor. This is how I’ve ended up getting involved in a lot of state agencies, just through people who wanted my services, so there is an answer, is really what it comes down to.
Jeff:
What you’re saying is if someone wanted to be certified, you actually bring them through the ropes of that.
John:
Yes, yeah, it’s a long, lengthy—it’s something you’ve really got to be committed to. There’s a training guide, an Apple Pro training guide that you can purchase, and that will really give you all—you don’t need to go out and buy any of the crazy other stuff that’s online, you just need that Pro training guide. It’s 28 lessons, it’s about 900 pages. If you’re going to go for your certification, you really have to decide that that’s what you want to do, it’s not something that you take lightly, it’s not something that you can say “Oh, I’m going to take that next week,” you know, you’re talking three or four months of preparation, but once you get it you can use it in a lot of different ways.
Jeff:
If they have any questions they can just contact you at john@macfortheblind.com?
John:
Yes.
Jeff:
Great. Well, John, thank you so much for coming on here, thanks for what you’re doing, making this available to everybody out there, anybody out there that, you know, may want to step up their game with their iOS device or their Mac, I’m glad it’s available to them, so thank you very much.
John:
Well, thank you, thanks for having me.
Jeff:
And for more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and give us a call at 612-367-6093, leave us a message and let us know if we can put your voice on the next podcast. Drop us an email at info@blindabilities.com, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the app store and Google Play store. That’s two words, Blind Abilities. And from all of us here at Blind Abilities, through these challenging times, to you, your family, and friends, stay well, stay informed, and stay strong. I want to thank you for listening, hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye-bye.
[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:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities. Download our app from the app store Blind Abilities, that’s two words, or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.
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