Full Transcript
Kiran:
I lead the accessibility program for search, assistant and news products at Google. With my team’s help, we make sure that people with disabilities are able to use these products effectively.
Jeff:
Please welcome Google’s accessibility lead, Kiran Kaja.
Kiran:
I’m originally from India. They did not have the infrastructure to support blind children, so my parents and the parents of a few other blind people had to get together to convince a school to actually take us in.
Jeff:
Living out a passion in a career that he chose.
Kiran:
You know what, technology has changed my life, made me more independent – it has made me seek information. This is something that I believe should be possible for everyone.
Jeff:
Ensuring that accessibility is baked into the entire Google product line.
Kiran:
All the smart speakers from Google are now under the Nest brand, so there’s the Nest Mini, which is the cheapest of them and the smallest, the Nest Audio, and then the Max, which is the premium sound.
Jeff:
And his passion helps so many.
Kiran:
I can make a difference in making sure that other blind people, or people with disabilities have the technology that they need to be independent, and be successful. It’s always been my passion.
Jeff:
Kiran shares his journey, and gives great advice for those seeking out their own career.
Kiran:
It’s really important to choose a field of study or a career that you’re passionate about. That could be accessibility, that could be law, that could be something else, music, it doesn’t matter. What you need to do is make sure that that’s what gets you excited.
Jeff:
Now please welcome Kiran Kaja. We hope you enjoy. Welcome to Blind Abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. Today in the studio, we have Kiran Kaja, and he’s the Accessibility Lead for Search, News, and Assistant at Google, making accessibility available to everyone using assistive technology. Kiran, welcome to Blind Abilities.
Kiran:
Thank you, Jeff. It’s great to be here, and thanks for talking to me today.
Jeff:
Well, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule, and I’d like to introduce you to our listeners. Why don’t you just tell them what you do at Google?
Kiran:
Yeah, sure. As you said, I lead the accessibility program for search, assistant and news products at Google. What that really means is with my team’s help, we work closely with all of these product teams to make sure that people with disabilities are able to use these products effectively. So, our mission is to make sure that search, assistant and news products work well for people with disabilities and are actually helpful. We provide technical consulting and support for these teams, we explain what they need to do to make these products helpful for users, we advocate with senior leadership to make sure that they prioritize accessibility in everything that we do, and then we work closely with these teams to make sure that accessibility is part of core design and development. The other thing that we also do, quite a bit, is talk about accessibility features in our products. You may have probably seen me at conferences like CSUN and other venues, talking about some of the features that we’ve built into Google Assistant, the Google News app on iPhone and Androids, and also some of the work that we’ve been doing on making sure that Google Search itself is easy to use for, you know, screen reader users, for example. We also produce tutorials or instructional videos in a series on YouTube called Assistant Accessibility Video Series, where we kind of talk about how the Google Assistant is helpful for people with disabilities. We have about- I think about 10 to 11 videos, and basically trying to figure out what we can do to make sure that these products are actually helpful for users with disabilities. There’s a team that does user research, so we taught the users with disabilities and use our accessibility trusted tester program to ask users about what they expect from some of these technologies, so it’s a very user experience-focused role with some technical work, as well as, you know, program management around it, so.
Jeff:
Well, that’s great. I’m really interested in those videos, because I was watching some of them and I already got my Google Home, now, teaching me Spanish just by invoking, by asking it to be my Spanish interpreter. Hey, Google, be my Spanish interpreter.
Google:
Alright, let’s start.
Jeff:
It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood today.
Google:
Hoy es un dia maravilloso en el barrio.
Jeff:
Hey Google.
Google:
Okay, Google.
Jeff:
My friend and I want to take a trip to Rhode Island.
Google:
Mi amigo y yo queremos hacer un viaje a Rhode Island.
Jeff:
I like this.
Google:
Me gusta esto.
Jeff:
Thank you.
Google:
Gracias.
Jeff:
De nada.
Google:
No problem.
Jeff:
And that was from you when you’re saying some of the educational pieces that the Google Devices assistant can do for a person, so thank you for that.
Kiran:
That particular series came about because we found out that users had some really interesting questions about what would the Google Home be able to do for me, or is Google Assistant accessible to blind people? And so we thought you know what? Actually, these are really valid questions, there’s a lot of information out there, we need to make sure that we provide information that’s relevant for these users, and I think we have over a million views for those videos now, and it’s a great way to send a message across to users as well as, you know, friends and family members who may come across these videos and tell their, you know, family member who has a disability that, you know, hey, Google Home is helpful. There are a lot for features for us to highlight, so I hope to add to that series in the future.
Jeff:
Mm-hm. I like the continued conversation as well, because it’s like you don’t have to say the name every time to invoke it, you just carry on and it’s just like you’re having a conversation with a person, it’s an assistant, yes, I know, but it’s [unintelligible] and I just say “Thank you” and it just says “Okay.” So it’s kind of cool.
Kiran:
I think the great thing about some of these digital assistants, like the Google Assistant, conversational nature of it, the way I look at it is that it takes away the complexity in interacting with technology. Let’s just say that you could ask Google to tell you what’s on your calendar, for example, it’s very conversational, you can just ask Google Assistant to read out what your calendar entry is. Otherwise, you have to get your phone, unlock it, you had to learn how to use the Google Calendar app, or any other calendar app, use the screen reader gestures to access the app, so there’s this complexity involved in using technology. I think that’s where I am really excited about some of the voice-based assistance technology, is it takes away some of that complexity in interacting with technology.
Jeff:
Yeah, for example, getting ready this morning, I was getting breakfast and I just said, “Good morning, Google.” And it’s started giving me the weather and everything, and then it went into my calendar and it said, “Kiran’s in the studio at noon,” you know? So I was like, oh! And then it started going into the news, and I can set that up in my app as well, some of that stuff, and that’s nice that it’s so accessible that you can just scroll through there and see how you want to get it to work best for you.
Kiran:
Yeah, we’ve been putting a lot of effort in making sure that apps and the ecosystem around the assistant is accessible. I think, in a way, this technology is game-changing, but there is routines. The other thing that I like a lot about it is being able to control some smart home devices, so I can just ask my Google Assistant to set the temperature to 74 degrees, because I have the Nest smart thermostat. You can also do things like- and when we moved into this home, I was lucky that they actually had an oven that could connect to WiFi, and I could control it with the Google Assistant. So, it had a touchscreen, and it was a capacity of touchscreen, which means that as soon as you touch something it just starts doing stuff. So, I can try putting bump-ons, but as soon as you touch something it starts to work. And now I can say- I don’t want to say the term that starts Google in your place, but you can just say “Preheat oven to 350 degrees,” and it does it. So, I think that being able to control some of these smart home devices is also another- with voice, again, takes away the complexity in interacting with technology. We recently also announced a partnership- this is not very specific to blind users, but it’s a company called Tobii Dynavox that makes communication products for people with cerebral palsy and other complex disabilities that they use these eye tracking devices for communication. And we built the Assistant to their software so that using eye tracking technology, these users are able to control their environment, and gain a little more independence, because otherwise, they had to ask their parents or caregivers to turn on things like the light or the AC, so when you see these products giving people a bit more independence, it’s kind of rewarding to see that. Doing a little bit to help people be more independent.
Jeff:
Absolutely. I mean, just before we started this podcast I turned and invoked my Google device to- I have a Nest thermostat as well, and I had it turn the temperature down, because I didn’t want the furnace fan to start blowing, and that would have made some background noise, so maybe I’m just lazy, I could have got up and walked over to it, but it’s so nice just to be able to invoke it. Hey Google, what’s the hallway temperature.
Google:
It’s currently 72 degrees.
Jeff:
Set hallway temperature to 68 degrees.
Google:
Okay, setting hallway to 68 degrees.
Jeff:
Thank you.
Google:
You got it!
Jeff:
And you’re done, it becomes part of your routine in the day, just things to do like that, I like that. I mean, I got the lights- hey, Google. Power on living room lights.
Google:
Okay, turning two lights on.
Jeff:
Power off living room.
Google:
Got it, turning two lights off.
Jeff:
Thank you.
Google:
Happy to help!
Jeff:
So it’s just a- sometimes I don’t even have to tell them to turn off because they’re on a timer as well, so it just becomes something like we used to think about a few years back, wow, we could do this, we could, but we’re doing it today, and it just works out that it goes unnoticed, it’s just seamless. I like that. I do.
Kiran:
Yeah, the really interesting thing about the Nest thermostats is before we had this, you know, those, any other thermostats, you always had to guess, is it warm enough or is it cold enough, you know. Now you can just say “I want it at 74” and be done with it, you know, so it makes certain things that were not very accessible to be accessible. That’s an interesting part of it as well.
Jeff:
Oh, it was a long time coming. I mean, there was other products out there for a while, but there was nothing consistent and now, since I put this one in, and what’s really nice is I have a garage that has a heater in it too, and that one’s accessible, so I got the wire and I got the device, I’ve just got to hook it up now, and that would be nice, that I can be in the house, preheat the garage, and then go out there, I’m living life pretty good right now, I guess.
Kiran:
Yeah.
Jeff:
Well, Kiran, I want to thank you for all that you do for accessibility, because I’m using Google Search on a daily basis when I need to find references, facts, and everything like that, you know, through the assistant, or on the web, it just works, you know? Even the news, you know, if I want something that, like, the- I was listening today, and I was like “Why do I want to listen to this?” But hey, this is interesting, so it was going on, but you’ve had quite a journey on getting to where you are, you’ve been in it for 15, 20 years now, can you tell people a little bit about your journey to Google, and where you are today?
Kiran:
Sure. Starting at the very beginning I’ve been blind since birth. I have a rare form of Retinitis Pigmentosa, which in most people, they start losing their sight in their late teens, early 20s, but in my case it was from the very beginning. So I’m originally from India, grew up in a city called Hyderabad in the southern part of India. It was one of those cities where they did not have the infrastructure to support blind children, so my parents and the parents of a few other blind people had to get together to convince a school to actually take us in, and I started learning Braille when I was young, actually my mother learned Braille and she taught me, and until, say, it was high school I was using a Braille slate and stylus to write my notes, and during all that we didn’t even have access to a Perkins Brailler, for example. That was quite interesting, because it kind of made me yearn for information, because I didn’t really read anything other than my textbooks, until I was in my late teens, because we didn’t really have access to talking books, or books in Braille at the time, so I think the first full book I listened to on tape was when I was 17, actually. All of a sudden, after high school, someone told my parents that you know what? I’ve seen blind people use computers. One of my uncles who was working in Australia at the time had an accountant who was also blind, and then he told me about screen reading software, and sent me a copy of JAWS. It pretty much changed my world, I guess, this was I think 1999.
Jeff:
Oh, wow.
Kiran:
My parents got me a computer, and that kind of opened the world up for me, and having access to the internet- all of a sudden I had tons of information. I think I am still, even after 20 years or so, I’m still catching up on reading to be honest. And ever since I moved to the US, I have been making use of NLS, BARD, and Share A Lot, I read at least two or three books a day. Then I got interested in technology, and what it could do, because it helped me, so I got a scanner, and I was now able to scan my books and read them, and pretty soon I realized that you know what, technology has changed my life, made me more independent, it has made me seek information. This is something that I believe should be possible for everyone. So I’m really interesting in making sure that our work on technology that would benefit people with disabilities, and blind people in particular. So, I finished. I got my Bachelor’s degree in Business, and then, even though I got my Bachelor’s degree in Business, I was more interested in writing code and programming, so my first job, real job, was actually for a small company called Code Factory, I don’t know-
Jeff:
I remember them!
Kiran:
-listeners may not remember this company, but they, Code Factory used to do screen reading software for Nokias and Series 60 phones, and Windows Mobile devices. I was involved in writing that Windows Mobile screen reader back then. It was pretty exciting times.
Jeff:
It was! It actually was, when you had one of them phones that could talk.
Kiran:
Yeah, exactly, so, I was lucky enough to work from India for this company, I worked there for one year. Then someone told my parents that, you know what, your son needs to get into a bigger company for his career, and my parents at that time were like “Oh, you need to apply for a bigger company,” so SAP, which is a business software company, they make Enterprise software, HR and supply-chain management. They were looking for somebody with accessibility experience in their Bangalore office, so I joined them, and when I left them in 2009 I was leading their accessibility testing team. Then I worked for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, RNIB, in the UK, because I moved to the UK in 2009 for 16 months, because I thought, I’ll look at the nonprofit sector to see if that’s something that I like, but I found out that the nonprofit sector is a little bit challenging in the sense that it’s very slow, and decision making is not as fast as I would like it to be, so I then in the UK started working for Adobe Systems, and mainly around developing accessibility standards for European public procurement standards, so it’s an interesting experience in that I was part of the other side of actually setting the rules and guidelines that companies need to follow to be able to create accessible software. Then after that, 2015 I started working for Google in London, I started on the text-to-speech team, and ever since 2016 I moved to the Bay Area. I’ve been leading the accessibility program for search and assistant. So I’ve always had interest in working on technology that would help solve problems or make people more independent, so I’ve been lucky in that my passion for this field has gotten me into that career. There were times, I would say, when I thought hmm, maybe, when I was much younger, I should do non-accessibility stuff, but always I come back to this point of view, where I can make a difference in making sure that other blind people or people with disabilities have the technology that they need to be independent and be successful. It’s always been my passion, so that’s- in broad strokes, that’s my career so far.
Jeff:
Wow, that’s really interesting. It’s really neat to see that, you know, you were starved for information, you didn’t read a book until 17, your full book, I mean, you had a hunger, though, because you kept on going with it and now you’re helping feed all of us some accessibility stuff, so it just goes back to…I’m glad your mom was an advocate for you, to help learn Braille, to teach you Braille, to keep you going. Your parents were probably part of you striving and thriving to gain access, and now you’re helping so many other people do it. Kiran, tell us a typical day in the life for you, you know, pre-COVID, COVID you’re probably doing stuff from home and stuff, but what’s a typical day being Accessibility Lead at Google?
Kiran:
That’s an interesting question. It changes, depending on what projects we are on. As I said, these days I’m in a more of a leadership situation, and I have a team that I work with, so typically, pre-COVID, it would be like getting up and taking the shuttle to the office, but now it has changed because all of us are working from home. I typically spend the first half an hour, one hour, going through my list of current projects, making sure that they are on track. I also use this time to kind of check in with my team, and make sure that if they need anything from me, or if they are blocked on anything, so it’s just catching up on existing projects. The next couple of hours would be meetings with product teams, or leadership, or even sometimes, like, external partners, as I said, Tobii Dynavox was a partnership that we announced recently. So, I do end up having a couple hours of meetings where we develop strategy for the team, we develop roadmaps for different teams, it could be what we call office hours, where teams that have accessibility technical challenges come up to us and say hey, this is not working, what do we need to do to have, say, custom actions on iOS working on the Google News app for example. So, they can book office hours and I always like to help solve technical problems, so I always want to [unintelligible] for office hours, because you can then control or help the experience better for everyone. It goes there, then I try and take an hour or so before lunch for catching up on what I did, writing my notes down, and also doing work. We are currently preparing for an online presentation for the ATIA conference in February, but they want us to record them now, so we are preparing our slide decks and presentations for that. So I kind of take that time out of meetings for working on these things. Then I have a quick lunch, and then a few more meetings before getting back to my normal work. I also sometimes do, because I have a team that’s spread out, we have folks in the Bay Area, in Tokyo, and also Bangalore, so some days I can stop working slightly earlier, say, 3:30 or so, 3, 3:30 in the afternoon, and then do a little more, a couple of hours of work after, in the late evening, around 8 to 10 pm. It depends, again, some of the days we have to do presentations to teams, so I then move my meetings around, but it’s mostly working with my team or working with teams across the company, essentially helping them create accessible products or convincing them to improve their accessibility, and you know, before COVID, I used to travel quite a bit to events and conferences that would be a different day, but we also conduct training programs, so we train engineers and product managers on accessibility. It’s a combination of project management, technical consulting, and advocacy essentially.
Jeff:
I think it’s really neat that Google has such an environment where accessibility is in every corner, bringing together products to the public that has, built into them, that you and your team have assessed them for functionality, usability, and stuff like that. So that’s, you know, that’s a big plus for Google products.
Kiran:
We’ve been doing a lot of work, especially, you know, making sure that all our products go through accessibility testing, and focusing on the user experience. For me, that’s really key. You want to make sure that these products are helpful for users with disabilities, and as I mentioned earlier, we do work closely with the user community, we have an accessibility trusted tester program at Google, where we work with users with disabilities and have them help us test features and products for accessibility. And folks from this group also help us with user research, so actually this is a call-out to folks, if you’re interested in becoming an accessibility trusted tester, I think we still have a few spots open, and you’re really welcome to join and help us make more accessible products.
Jeff:
Well, that’s great. How can people get ahold of your support team?
Kiran:
So, there’s multiple ways. The best way to find information about Google Accessibility is to go to google.com/accessibility. For the disability support desk, the URL is goo.gle/disabilitysupport.
Jeff:
Great, we’ll put those links in the show notes as well. Kiran, I like hearing your story, how you started out slate and stylus, and then moving forward and just growing and growing with technology, what advice would you give to someone who is a transition age student, you know, 14 to 21, and looking towards their future.
Kiran:
The first thing I would say is there is a bright future out there. We are in a time where technology is ubiquitous, solving problems, there’s a bright future for students. What I would say- I would say a couple of things, is it’s important to find out what interests you the most, or what you’re passionate about. You need to find out what makes you wake up in the morning and feel excited about. That’s the field you want to be in, or that’s the career you want for yourself. There might be people who might try to pigeonhole you into a particular career because of your disability, and that’s possible, you might come across that, but the most important thing to know is most jobs can be done by people with disabilities, people who are blind. You may have to find a different way of doing it, you may have to find an accessible alternative for yourself. So, it’s really important to choose a field of study or a career that you’re passionate about. That could be accessibility, that could be law, that could be something else, music, it doesn’t matter. What you need to do is make sure that that’s what gets you excited. The second thing is concentrate on your basics, concentrate on your school, and college, make sure that you go through those years on your basics, and ask for help. When you’re struggling with something, it’s okay to reach out to folks, you know? “Hey, I’m having this problem, what is the alternative? Is there anything that could help me?” Ask and learn is what I would say. I would also say that sometimes you might find out that what you thought excited you doesn’t excite you anymore. At some point you might say “You know what? I thought this career would be great for me, but it didn’t turn out that way.” And that’s okay too, you can always recalibrate. I studied business for my undergrad, but then I figured out that, you know what, programming and technology interested me more, so I had to pivot. And that happens sometimes too. And that’s okay, you just have to make sure that you know what you want, and seek the assistance or support you need. I think that’s the most important thing, you should be doing what you like the most.
Jeff:
That’s great advice. I’ve got a message from Anna, from the Republic of Georgia. I did an interview with her, she was a FLEX student, a Future Leaders Exchange Student, she came to Minnesota for a year, and she says that she uses Google Classroom, Google products because of the accessibility, and because you have her language available, which some others don’t, so all the way from Georgia, the Republic of Georgia, so she was excited to hear that I was going to be talking to you.
Kiran:
To hear- I know that we put in a lot of effort to support languages, even from a text-to-speech on Android or Chrome OS, we heard from a lot of folks in Asia, for example, where we support quite a few languages, and people use the text-to-speech to read their books in their languages as well. I’m glad that the Google Classroom team puts in a lot of effort to make sure that G-Suite, what’s now called Google Workspace products are accessible. Yeah, I’m glad to hear that.
Jeff:
Oh, yeah. I had to relay that message. Kiran, what are some of your daily drivers? Like, stuff you carry in your pocket, that you- stuff you use on a daily basis, some tools. I know everybody likes to hear about apps people are using, or devices they’re using, are you using something for Braille? You’re not still using the slate and stylus on a daily basis, are you?
Kiran:
Not anymore, but oh boy, the list goes on. There’s a long list, how much time have you got? I have a slate and stylus, still, I actually still have the one that I used in school, it’s like, battered. Now I have a refreshable [unintelligible] style Braille display that I use. Well, let’s see, so, the first…I have Google Home devices pretty much all over the house, Nest Minis these days, those are the newer mini speakers that we have. So I use them for my alarm. The first thing that I do is in the morning- I am a news junkie also, I use the Google News app to catch up on what’s happening around the world, a lot of COVID news lately, unfortunately. And I use, as I said, I have the smart devices at home that I control with Google Assistant, such as the lights, the thermostat. I also have the Nest Hello Video Doorbell, which tells me who is at the door, assign names to faces, so- or, I can also know if there is a package that’s been dropped off, so that’s quite handy. I use Be My Eyes quite a bit, because my wife and I are blind, so we sometimes use Be My Eyes app to help. I also have a number of computers. My primary work computer is Windows with NVDA and Chrome browser. I also have a Mac, which I mainly use for programming and rewriting code. I use various other tools, like I have a talking measuring tape for example, because one of my hobbies is to build a model railroad layout M/N scale. We have a garage in this house, there’s no cars in this house, so the garage is [unintelligible] a model railroad layout. I love public transport and trains, because it gives me more independence. I always loved trains, so-
Jeff:
And the N scale is really small, that’s smaller than the H/O scale.
Kiran:
N scale is, yeah, really small. It’s like half of H/O.
Jeff:
So you can have big mountains, big tunnels, you can do a lot. That’s cool.
Kiran:
Yeah, the reason for N scale is because I love Japanese trains, and they don’t do much in H/O scale. I use- the talking measuring tape is kind of important, I also, from an apps perspective, I use BARD mobile, which is a NLS talking book service, if you haven’t subscribed to it I strongly suggest you do, because that’s my primary source of reading material. I listen to a lot of podcasts, Google Podcast app, one of our accessible apps that we work on, is a great way to listen to podcasts. I am also trying to learn to play the piano, so I have a piano in the office- well, electronic keyboard in the office, that I’m trying to play and learn. Some of the other things is more for work, I rely quite a bit on some of the development tools, like No-Tap Pro and text editors that are great for writing code, but these days it’s mostly I use Chrome and NVDS, my productivity device. Yeah, that’s about it. That’s my arsenal.
Jeff:
That’s quite a bit. I like that you’re using a talking tape measure, I use a click ruler myself, because I do woodworking, so it’s another tool for measuring. It’s just so neat when you can have a hobby of sorts where you can go out and do something. It’s cool that we don’t drive, I mean, it opens up a whole new area for me, too, I have the same situation, where I took the garage door off, so that’s why I’m putting the Nest out there now, to keep the temperature- when I want to go out there, I can adjust it from inside and preempt, so.
Kiran:
Yeah, I have a Nest speaker in the garage as well, and I have a little fan with a smart plug that I can actually turn on before I go, so I can actually just ask Google Assistant to turn on the garage fan.
Jeff:
You’re out there where it’s warm, I’m up here in Minnesota. We turn on the furnace, you turn on the fans. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about the new Nest speakers?
Kiran:
So, the Google Home was the first smart speaker that we announced that had the Google Assistant in. Recently we announced quite a few Nest speakers, so all the smart speakers are now under the Google Nest brand, and the most recent one is called the Nest Audio, it’s going to sell for $99.00, and it’s the upgrade to the Google Home. It’s the midrange speaker. There’s also the Nest Mini, which is a small, I would say like donut-shaped speaker without the hole in the middle, obviously, for the donut. But even that’s got really good sound quality even for a speaker of a small size. Then there’s also the Google Home Max, which is the high-end speaker with premium quality sound. Then there’s also a couple of devices like the Nest Hub, and Nest Hub Max, which are smart speakers but which also have a 7-inch display and a 10-inch display. They work like smart speakers, but they also have a touchscreen display that shows additional information. All of the Google Home or the smart speakers from Google are now under the Nest brand, so there’s the Nest Mini, which is the cheapest of them and the smallest, the Nest Audio, and then the Max, which is the premium sound. They all essentially do the same thing, it’s just the quality of sound is different. They all have the Google Assistant built in, all the things that are possible on the Max are also possible on the Nest Mini. They would connect to your WiFi network, when one’s set up you can just ask them questions, or ask them to do things for you, set reminders, play music, listen to radio stations, even make phone calls in the US and the UK. You can just ask it to call Domino’s Pizza, for example.
Jeff:
Oh, wow.
Kiran:
Or any other pizza company, for example.
Jeff:
Mm-hm. Well, Kiran, I just want to thank you for coming onto Blind Abilities and you know, doing all that you and your team at Google, and what Google is doing for accessibility, reaching around the world, as you know from Anna telling us about her experience with Google. Yeah, thanks for what you’re doing and keep up the good work!
Kiran:
Thank you! I’m glad to hear that people are finding our products helpful, I think we want to make sure that we continue to create accessible products, and thanks for having me, it’s great to talk to you.
Jeff:
Alright, well, thanks Kiran!
Kiran:
Thank you!
Jeff:
Such a great time talking to Kiran Kaja. Be sure to check out the links in the show notes, and find out more about Google Accessibility, Google Support, and all the great products available from Google. For more podcasts with the blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the app store and Google Play store, that’s two words, Blind Abilities. And if you want to leave some feedback, give us some suggestions, give us a call at 612-367-6093. We’d love to hear from you. Be sure to contact your state services for the blind, your VOC-rehab, and find out what they can do for you. Live, work, read, succeed. A big shout out to Chee Chau for his beautiful music, you can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @lcheechau. 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
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[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.
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
Contact:
You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
Send us an email
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Storeand Google Play Store.
Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, and the Career Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired group