Full Transcript
Sree:
One of the things I did ask my employer was to give me an illuminated keyboard. I made some changes to my computer to get the mouse cursor to be as large as it can be.
Pete:
Sree Roy, an engineer at the peak of his employment.
Sree:
Everything that I did is mostly GUI, which stands for graphical user interface, and it would not read the information. It would just say “image” or it wouldn’t even read an image. It would just hover over it, and I would sit there and help design it, but the build-out would be someone else.
Pete:
Established in life.
Sree:
I didn’t want to be in a situation where my frustration would override the passion to be at work.
Pete:
Let’s get back to your brother and sister. How much sooner did they experience sight loss?
Pete:
Married with a teenage daughter, he had to choose.
Sree:
Stage four of my life would be where I’ve got into volunteering.
Sree:
Hello everyone! Welcome to the 80th episode of iBUG Today’s iBUG Cafe, I am your host…
Pete:
Sree Roy chose to share his knowledge, to give back.
Sree:
And I’m thinking to myself, okay. All of these people are telling me they don’t know how to use it. I’m sure there’s some value to what I can do.
Pete:
To give of his time.
Sree:
I’ve got this opportunity where I really don’t need to work because I have this thing that I’m very blessed to get from my employer. I think it’s time for me to give some time back.
Pete:
And his energy.
Sree:
That’s what our role in life is. That’s a calling. The final stage of my life is what’s going to be determined. It will be interesting to see the chapters that lay in front of me as I go through this journey.
Pete:
Hi folks, Pete Lane. Welcome to Blind Abilities. We have a special guest with us today. Sree Roy hails from Washington, DC. Sree has an interesting story to share with us. Sree, first of all, welcome to Blind Abilities.
Sree:
Well, thank you, Pete. Appreciate you allowing me to be here.
Pete:
Everybody’s sight loss journey is different. Some are born blind, some lose their vision in early childhood, some later in life. And in your case, your vision loss began while you were in your late 30s, gainfully employed having completed your education as an engineer, married with a teenage daughter. So how would you characterize yourself and your vision loss journey?
Sree:
I would consider myself in four stages of my life. The first stage of my life started when I came to the United States in 1976. and it kind of ended, that first stage, when my oldest sister passed away 1985. When she passed away, we found out that she was also blind, but we didn’t know what the cause was. So, and the next stage of my life, I would say, is when my older sister and my older brother also started losing their sight to RP. And what it allowed me to do is kind of watch them go through this process of losing their sight in the ‘80s and ‘90s. And then stage three would be, I would say, my college years of the ‘80s and ‘90s. This is where I met my future wife, Rita. This is where I got all my work experience working in information technology. I was a systems engineer focused on telecommunication, but I think these different companies that I worked at doing telecommunication helped me to be where I am today. I also became a dad during the ‘90s. We have a beautiful daughter, Jasmine. And then, you know, my only hope during that time was that I would be able to see until at least after high school or learn how to drive so that it would be some independence for her. And my stage four of my life would be where I really got involved away from my professional life and got into volunteering. And I volunteered with multiple different organizations here in Northern Virginia, which I’ll be glad to talk about more in detail. And during that time, what really helped me was the fact that my wife was able to work from home, which allowed us to take care of Jasmine. It allowed us to do things because she was working from home. And that is when I also started teaching iOS, the slide organization in Washington, DC. And I would say the final stage of my life is what’s going to be determined. It’ll be interesting to see what chapters that lay in front of me as I go through this journey. That would be kind of about who I am right now.
Pete:
Well, that’s very well articulated. I appreciate that, Sree. You lost your vision to RP during your late 30s. And at that point you were employed in the IT industry. Specifically, you were a telecom engineer. Talk a little bit about that transition into when you first started noticing your loss of vision and how it impacted you and your job assignments.
Sree:
When I first graduated from college, I got to work at the USAID. Why that was a little bit important to me was I got to work on disaster, some major disaster in the US. I ended up getting from USAID to FEMA, they allowed me to work on Hugo. Then I got to work on the Mississippi flood and the Northridge earthquake. Why that is kind of important, is it taught me how to prepare for a disaster. And it allowed me to learn to be prepared, learn things that you don’t predict might happen. And how do you prepare for it? And I took that knowledge to working for a company called US Inspect where I was a systems engineer, but the company was doing home inspection and what that allowed me to do is also take what I learned about disaster preparedness and apply it to the business side of building an infrastructure, not what would go right every day, but what might go wrong and how do you prepare for it? And I took that to the next company that I worked for, which was Simplexity, which was on a larger scale. And what this really allowed me is being prepared for the unknown, because when you prepare for everything that works well, you don’t really think too much about it, but you really do have to be prepared for things that you don’t know. And for me, when I was diagnosed with RP, the first thing I took is how do I prepare for it? What do I need to do to make sure that the next stage in my life, I’ll be prepared? And that is what I really took from my employment, is the fact that not only that I got to be a systems engineer, and planning and building a system for telecommunications, answering to an 800-seat call center and supporting five different buildings with over 300 employees, but also prepare for things that might not happen. And guess what? Lots of things happened that was unpredicted, but because I prepared for it, it allowed to be a valuable employee. And I took that experience to the next stage of my life as I was losing my sight.
Pete:
So you having been through those first couple of jobs, were able to react calmly, logically, you were probably more able to act and prepare rather than react and panic.
Sree:
That’s absolutely true. It’s really interesting you said it that way because when I came into US Inspect and Simplexity, I built disaster relief through the cloud. When I came into Simplexity, they didn’t even know I could do something like this. I worked with the carriers to say that if my system goes down, I want to push a button and send all the traffic to the cloud. So whenever we had an outage, my call center never had an outage because I always had a backup plan for it. And because I prepared for it, when things happened, I would be very calm, like people would come to me, what do you do? I said, I’m already done. Traffic has already moved. And that’s what I took in the stage of losing my sight. It’s like, what are the things that I need to do so I don’t get the gotchas, not that I was able to come through all of the gotchas, but when you prepare for these things- and I was very fortunate, even though I have RP, it gave me time to learn and be prepared. I started learning when I had sight and I didn’t wait till my sight was gone. I started right away.
Pete:
You had an advanced notice, so it gave you time to prepare.
Sree:
Yeah. And that was probably the best advice that I got from my brother when he was losing his sight, is don’t do what I did. Learn when you have sight, especially learn the technology side of it. And that’s what I did. I didn’t look back. I said, okay, you know, I had a conversation with my wife and said, this is the plan. I’m going to go ahead and start learning as much as I can when I have sight. Even my cane training, I learned it when I had sight, just so that, you know, my brain can start figuring things out.
Pete:
It gives you a good point of reference when it actually happens.
Sree:
Yes. Now it’s like, I don’t need to see the screen, but I have a very good idea what that screen looks like, because I’ve seen it and learned from it.
Pete:
Switching back to your brother and sister, how much sooner did they experience sight loss than the time you actually got into it? How much advance notice did you have and what specifically did they do to help you prepare for it?
Sree:
So my sister was losing her sight in the mid-80s. When we found out, it was kind of like the same story with my brother, my sister, they both were involved in a car accident, a minor car accident. And when my sister lost her sight, that was very challenging for us because we really didn’t know much about RP. We didn’t really know anything about technology. It was just, we went to the doctor and the doctor says, well, you have RP. You’re going to lose your sight. I remember Greg and my sister talking to the doctor and asking, well, what about kids? And the doctor basically said, well, you know, Greg doesn’t have it, you have it, so the chances of your kids going blind are pretty slim. You know that process was very, very tough on my sister because obviously she didn’t want to pass these eye conditions to her kids, but we’re grateful that so far they don’t have any of this. And my sister was basically the type of person who was very conscious about her appearance. So when she was losing her sight, she did not want to use a cane. She was basically being guided by my brother-in-law Greg. And when I observed her, I knew she was blind, but she behaved like she wasn’t blind. Like it wasn’t a showstopper for her, and that was one of the things that I really appreciated observing my sister was that, you know, I am blind, but things that I do around the house, I’m going to do it just like I could see. She was very independent. She didn’t want anyone to help her. She would just figure things out and basically show me that, hey, being blind, I’m able to raise three kids and do normal things. And from my brother, he started losing his sight probably more in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. And at that time, my brother had sight, you know, he was still able to do things, but as he was losing his sight, he had started a software company and basically built an application that is very GUI, which stands for graphical user interface. He built this, basically a software from scratch, that allowed these scientists to be on these planes that go through hurricanes. He built a software that gathers all the data, so the scientists don’t have to be on the plane. They can be on the ground and gather real-time data. But what really impressed me about my brother was he knew the software so well that when he lost his sight, he hired someone and just verbally told them how to fix things. And so that kind of got me going, is to say, okay, even if you don’t have sight, if you start learning and get a good foundation of the steps to learn something, it can be something that you can tell and show other people that it can be done. The funniest thing about my brother, is my brother is very smart. In college he did really well, in high school he really did well. And then, you know, when we were talking about what I was doing, he was very amazed about how I was able to teach iPhone. And then, you know, we were talking about, this is what I’m thinking about doing, you know, going out to my community and be able to teach this is kind of what led me to where I am today.
Pete:
Did your sister’s reluctance or refusal to use her cane- by the way, does she use her cane now, or has she still refrained from that to a great extent?
Sree:
There’s a funny story behind this. So when I told my sister I was losing my sight in 2012, we had a family meeting at my sister’s house in California, it’s when I told my parents. At that time, my parents didn’t know I was losing my sight. We had a get-together and I told my parents as well as my sister. And at that time, my sister, like I said, refused to use a cane. So I get back to DC. And within like three days, I got a call from Columbia Lighthouse in Maryland and they said, okay, we are ready to start your cane training and I’m going, my cane training, what are you talking about? Well, Tara called us to say that you are going to be needing to learn how to use the cane. And I’m going to myself, I’m asking myself, I go, my sister who refuses to use the cane is telling me to use the cane. And so I thought that was kind of funny. But now my sister is using the cane, and she does travel by herself. And that was one of the other things that my brother did. He was an early adopter of the cane. So I watched him use the cane and I realized the day that I decided to take the cane out, I knew that I was stepping into a new part of my journey in life.
Pete:
Well, that was my question, was her reluctance to use the cane an influence on how quickly you embraced the cane training?
Sree:
My brother and I are very close. I pretty much shared my sight loss to my brother prior to my sister and my parents. His story to me was, like I said before, is to learn as much as you can when you had sight. So I did start my cane training at 2013. But I probably didn’t officially start taking my cane out publicly every time, probably about a year later when I got more familiar with using the cane.
Pete:
Yeah. Many of us have hesitation or some apprehension about pulling out the white stick because it shows our vulnerability to our friends and family. Sree, you’re at work now, you’re with Simplexity and you’re doing telecom, which is telecommunication call center support, plus a lot more. Talk about how your sight loss began and how you started seeing it influence your job assignments.
Sree:
My method of working is reacting really fast, get things done really quick. That’s what made me very vital to the organization. I was able to react and do things very quickly. If there was an outage I’m able to go to my system, make all the necessary changes and so forth. So as I was losing my sight, one of the things I did ask my employer was to give me an illuminated keyboard, which took some time, but they eventually gave me a keyboard. But what I’ve noticed when I was working is I was able to move around really quick within my computer, you know, click here, click there and move my mouse, all of this, very quickly, you know, being able to be very efficient. And as my eyesight got worse, I had to start moving the mouse to my top left or bottom left corner to start my starting point, because I could not find the mouse. I had to place the mouse in a point where I could actually see, obviously I made some changes to my computer, to get the mouse cursor to be as large as it can be, dark black, with the trailer following it so that I could follow the mouse as I’m clicking things around. And those were my early stages of where I knew I needed some assistance here. Then I noticed that getting to these things became harder and harder, you know, because I had these spots that I couldn’t see. So I would lose the mouse, and then I would start all over again, go into the left corner or the top corner and slowly start moving the mouse. Then it came to really, that I had to move my mouse speed really slow, because I would lose track. That’s when I started thinking, okay. And I had some conversations with my director, and I said, at some point I’m going to have to quit because I’m not going to be able to do the tasks that I’m hired to do, and paid to do in a very efficient manner, because to me, that’s what kept me as a vital employee, is being able to do these things in a manner that was not only vital to the organization, but that I found that I’m being productive. Because I knew when I wasn’t going to be productive. I was just going to be frustrated and I didn’t want to be in a situation where, you know, my frustration would override the passion to be at work.
Pete:
Right. So, were any other reasonable accommodations, different types of assistive technology considered? You mentioned to me earlier that neither you nor your employer were really up on that type of thing, you had not experienced, they had not experienced disabled employees before, so they were not really aware of what was out there, if anything, to accommodate you and allow you to perform your job skills back at a level that you were used to.
Sree:
That’s right. I did have my conversation with my director and he was actually asking me, and I told him I don’t know, at my home I was using NVDA. I tried it with the applications I use, because everything that I did is mostly GUI and it would not read the information, you know, it would just say “image” or it wouldn’t even read an image, it would just kind of hover over it. So I knew that this part, which is what I was mostly doing in a nine to five base every day, is building these call center solutions. You know, these routing schematics of IVRs, which are interactive voice responses, building IVRs, recording IVRs, routing IVRs to an ACD, which is the automatic call distribution, to send it to the proper agents. All of these things are just, you know, connecting these elements together to run a flow, and I would have to pass some of these things to my colleagues and I would help design it, but the build-out would be someone else. I was starting to lose passion too, ‘cause I knew that I’m not the value, or the productive person that I used to be.
Pete:
So there was a level of pride involved.
Sree:
Definitely pride. When I was hired, I was hired as a critical employee, you know, I actually signed a waiver that I’d be available 24/7. It was one of those crazy things that I had a job that I would work about 12 hours a day. And I loved it. It was one of those things that I got the perfect job because I was valuable and I enjoyed what I was doing. I enjoyed the benefits of being employed like that. But when I knew that I couldn’t do it, I was getting frustrated. It was an unhappy to go to work kind of a mood.
Pete:
So what eventually happened? When did the decision come to go in a different direction, and what was that direction?
Sree:
So basically what happened was I had a meeting with my director and I said, you know, probably by next year I have to quit. What happened prior to that was, you know, being in the call center, I really understand our sales, because I could see the volume of sales, and the volume of sales was going down, here I am being paid to do a task, and some type of layoff was going to be coming. I knew it was coming and I approached my HR. And I said, if there was going to be some type of layoff, maybe it’d be best if I just try and see if I can get my long-term disability with the employer, and HR agreed. They suggested that path. So I took that path and took a long-term disability with Simplexity.
Pete:
So roughly a year later, you actually separated from Simplexity. What did you do initially?
Sree:
Initially I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do, but I knew that I had to get myself trained. That was my disaster kind of a thing, that my goal is I have to figure out what I need to do. And when I actually left my employer, I was not associated with anything in Washington, DC as it relates to being blind. I knew nothing. All I had was the cane training that Columbia Lighthouse gave me. And then what happened was I got connected with my state agency, the DBVI, which is our Department of Blind and Visually Impaired. They basically gave me some information. First they gave me a little bit more cane training. They came to my house, gave me some indoor training, but what they didn’t do was give me any technical training from an IT perspective. I had been using Windows and Android and they basically told me, you know, you need to go to Apple, you need to go in that direction. And I didn’t have an Apple at the time. I was told we don’t really do any Android training, so I just assumed if I got an Apple, they would give me iPhone training. So I went and got my first iPhone. I told them, okay, I have my iPhone. They just gave me very high-level accessibility, like you have voiceover, you go there, and you’re going to need to figure out how to use it. I was like okay, well, I was hoping that I would get a little bit more training, so I didn’t get it from them. So I went and called Apple and Apple told me that there was Apple Accessibility, and they told me that I could go to the Apple store and get some training. So I did that and I realized that the training that I was getting from a sighted person, I didn’t really get. He was training me as he could see and telling me how to guide, versus really describing how voiceover works and guide that to navigate. And so I was really frustrated with that. And then I ended up meeting a lady named DaVita, and she was basically head of the FFB in Northern Virginia. And I actually went to her house. And then she gave me this information about the Rustin VIP, which is the Rustin Visually Impaired People.
Pete:
Rustin being a city in northern Virginia.
Sree:
Yes. It’s relatively close to where I live. And just kind of like said hey, you know, you might want to check this place out. You know, here I am, you know, I haven’t met anybody who’s blind except DaVita, and she’s telling me to go to this organization. My wife and I went over there and I sat and I just listened. This was a much older group, the majority of them were older than me, but they had shared the same story, that they didn’t know how to use the iPhone. And I’m thinking to myself, okay. All of these people are telling me that they don’t know how to use it. I’m sure there’s some value to what I can do. And at that time I wasn’t even ready for iPhone because I didn’t really know anything about it, and one of the co-hosts, Dan, at the Rustin VIP gave me a bunch of video links to Hadley, for using the iPhone.
Pete:
Hadley Institute?
Sree:
Yes. Hadley Institute. I spent about two weeks learning everything about gestures and navigating on the iPhone. And I came back and I told them, I said, I really appreciate what you gave me, because that was what got me started, those Hadley videos, and learning just the basic navigating, using the phone, understanding voiceover. And I thought to myself, you know, if I can learn this, wouldn’t it be great that I could teach someone. I really thought to myself, you know, I’ve got this opportunity where I really don’t need to work because I have this thing that I’m very blessed to get from my employer. I think it’s time for me to give some time back and what really put the exclamation to this point was at that time, my daughter received a full ride scholarship to the university, and I told myself for the next four years, I’m definitely going to give back, you know, I’m going to give back my time, because that is what I had to give, was my time. And if I just learn this particular device, I know I can give back to my community.
Pete:
That brings me to another question that you actually alluded to in your introduction of yourself, and that was part three of your life, to hope that you would at least be able to see Jasmine make it through high school before your sight was totally gone. Did you actually accomplish that or pretty close to it?
Sree:
Pretty close.
Pete:
Yeah, it sounded like it.
Sree:
You know, I was praying to God, just let me get through till she’s in high school, because the hardest thing, being a dad, is taking your kid around. Obviously I wasn’t able to take her around, I wasn’t driving, but I could still be there like a dad who had some sight. One of the goals that Rita and I had was that we would always be at all of our daughter’s games, and we were able to do that. And because I was able to continue living somewhat productive till she was in high school and I was still able to help her with doing things around the house, you know, for school, so I was very grateful and very fortunate that I had some sight till she got into college.
Pete:
Great. How would she characterize her childhood being raised by two loving parents, one of whom lost his vision over that course of time, if I were to ask her?
Sree:
Well, our daughter graduated from college last summer. She’s currently studying for MCAT and working. I would say I am so blessed to have this amazing child, and I’m not just saying it because it’s my kid. When I was in the process of losing my sight, she was very supportive. You know, sometimes you think, Dad, I don’t want to hang out with you because you are a disabled person. She is the kind of person, Dad, you come with me. We’re going to go together. It doesn’t matter if anyone thinks anything differently, but she treated me just as a normal dad who was hanging with their kid. And it’s funny when we go shopping, you know, she’s guiding me and telling me, hey, this is what’s on this rack. It’s like this, this color. And you know, I cannot ask for, I don’t even have the words to tell you how proud I am of her, as well as my wife, my journey cannot be what it is today without both of them, my parents, my brother and my sister, my friends, other family members, and the blind community is so amazing that a simple person starts something, and it can be what it is today. I have no shame of getting my cane out, proud to be a blind person, always got my chin up, not looking down, and living life. I would encourage anyone who is going through this journey, be proud of who you are. There is nothing wrong with being blind. It’s just another thing that you have, that it can make it a positive thing in your life. And that’s an example of it, my family is an example of it. And there’s many of you guys who are an example of it and I’m thankful for everything that’s out there. There’s so much things that I’ve learned that I didn’t think a blind person would be doing. I got to sail a boat. I didn’t think I’d be able to do that. I’m gonna hit some golf balls soon, hopefully, and do a little bit of indoor skydiving, tandem bike riding in DC. Just things that I wasn’t picturing in my mind being able to do. It’s gonna happen.
Pete:
So you’re back to the point where you’ve made the decision that you want to give back. How did that materialize?
Sree:
So I basically spent the two weeks learning Hadley Institute. You know, I would go to Rustin VIP and I would sit in and, you know, people would ask questions and I would start giving some answers. As I was working with that organization, you know, one of the other co-founders, Sandy, sends me an email asking me, hey, DC public library is interested in seeking volunteers to teach JAWS. At that time, I knew nothing about JAWS, but I responded back to the gentleman that asked, I said, hey, look, I don’t know anything about JAWS, but I want to help, is there something that I can do? And so Patrick, who runs the DC public library accessibility invited me to come over and just sit in on a couple of the training classes that was going on in the library. I sat in one of the JAWS classes and we talked afterwards and I said, you know, I think I’m interested in teaching iOS. And he said, well, you know, every Monday night I have an iOS tech talk at the library, would you be interested? I said, sure. So I went in and sat on the first tech talk the following week, and I just sat and just, you know, people came in and asked questions and I would sit there and give answers. And these were, you know, just entry-level voiceover questions that I picked up through Hadley, and I was able to answer it and I’d go, oh, this is good. You know, they’re asking me questions that I know how to answer. And I said, I think we should teach a class. And he says, well, would you be interested in leading it? I said, sure. And so what I did was I was sitting in one of the classes and there was a professor from South Carolina who was also blind, who was just coming here during the summer. So he and I ended up sitting together and just chatting, and since he was a professor I said, hey, I’m thinking about starting a class here at the library. Would you help me get it started, like, give me the curriculum, like how should a teacher teach a class? I knew how to answer questions, but I didn’t really understand how to build a curriculum and present it to the library. He and I sat and talked and we wrote an outline, okay, this is how you should teach a class. So I took that information and built a curriculum for teaching iOS at the library in 2018. So as I was teaching at the public library and I’m attending Rustin VIP, I got introduced to the Vienna VIP-
Pete:
Another town nearby?
Sree:
Another town! I got introduced to them, and they were hungry. They wanted to know how to use the iPhone. More than I got from Rustin. The hosts, Ann and John, asked me, hey, would you be interested in teaching iOS? And because we were in the pandemic, would you be interested in doing in Zoom? And I said, sure, I would love to. Every Monday, we had about anywhere from nine to 15 people joining on Zoom, where I would teach the physical device, like the exterior of the device, go through all the gestures, everything that’s in voiceover and accessibility, and I taught like the four or five different major applications that are on the phone, such as the phone, the email, the messages, Safari, and most importantly, also text editing. I took the curriculum that I was teaching at the public library and brought it over to the Vienna VIP.
Sree (recording):
-I’m going to go ahead and start with first looking at the settings, making sure we’ve got our mail set and configured, and keep in mind the mail app is on the iPhone, the iPad, and on the Mac it’s just a front end app that pulls the mail from your…
Sree:
Now I’m doing the library, I’m going to Rustin, I’m going to Vienna. I got associated with the American Council of the Blind. I got introduced to one of them! So I’m sitting in there and they go, but wouldn’t it be great if you come and be part of ACB? And I said, sure! You know, I got time. I’m there for about six months. And then they asked me to be on the board of directors. So I serve on the board of directors for ACB for the state of Virginia, now, and it’s been an amazing experience for me being in DC, going to visit the House as well as the Senate and lobbying for the things that ACB is trying to get implemented, you know, these were all fun things that I wouldn’t have done, you know, if I didn’t get any of this. And I’m working at the library and then Patrick comes to me and goes, there’s an organization in Houston called iBUG Today. You might want to check them out. So in November of 2018, I checked them out. Now I am there, volunteering my time, helping with the iOS. Once a month, I host their cafe session where we take a deep dive look at iOS.
Sree (recording):
…and at the end, we also have a view-all where we can see all the channels inside of that particular category. And that is how we navigate within the Sirius XM app, and this applies to also those default channels that I covered previously. Now I’m going to take a look at the default categories that are available to you within these default channels. I’m not going to go over the layout, since I covered it previously…
Sree:
I also am involved in a mentoring program where we do one-on-one classes of iOS, and I also do that here in Northern Virginia. I have three students that I go one-on-one with them and I teach how to use the iPhone.
Pete:
Yeah, you’ve got your hands in a bunch of different pies there. So this teaching obviously surrounds a considerable degree of passion for sharing and helping others. Did you have any evidence of this early on in any of your jobs? Where do you think that stemmed from?
Sree:
I can give you two stories and these are very important stories. I think it kind of molded who I am today. First one is at my work, I did do sessions, like I would teach how to use Outlook, I would do presentations on how we do our call center, so the floor supervisors, they knew how the platform works. So that was one means of doing it. The second one, I feel bad I did it this way. You know, being a senior systems engineer means that your knowledge is higher than just an engineer. And I had an engineer who wanted to learn what I knew, and being me at that moment in my life, I didn’t want to teach, because I thought that if I give up my skill, I become less valuable. So I would never push or train him to become a senior engineer. I remember I had a conversation with my director and he told me, Sree, what do you think I’m going to do if you taught someone else? You think I’m just going to fire you because you give up some of your skill? But he told me, Sree, you become more valuable when you give up your skill and you learn a new skill. That’s when you become valuable. I didn’t really take it to heart when he said that, but I did take it to heart when I became blind. You know, I ended up meeting him after he left and I left, and I took him out to dinner and I apologized, and I told him how sorry I was that I didn’t help him grow. It was a really good conversation. I know what I did was wrong. I should’ve been a mentor helping you. And I kind of failed at that. And then after I met him, I actually met my director and had dinner with him. I told them that I ended up meeting him and I apologized and I appreciate what you taught me. And that’s what I took back. I said, I’m never going to do that. When somebody needs help, and I have the skillset, I’m going to definitely help teach it. You know, I hear so many stories. I have an iPhone, I don’t know how to use it. I will tell them, I’ll teach you. I really took that to heart. That’s what our role in life is, you know, when somebody needs assistance, we should help. If you have the skillset, whether you have it or not, but you’re willing to, you should try it. If what you can teach others makes a difference, then that’s a calling. And I could have definitely done that. I was probably selfish. You know, I feel bad in saying that today, but I know that when I met him face to face, I apologized sincerely. And I told him this was completely wrong. I shouldn’t have done that. Hopefully, you know, what I’m doing now? It didn’t make amends at that moment with him, but hopefully it’s making amends with people that I touch now. If somebody asks for help now, I am helping, because I’m very fortunate to have some time, but it also helps me learn. When you’re helping others it also encourages you to learn the system better, and my goal is number one, to learn something new every day, and number two, try and perfect what you’re teaching to the next person. So you get better as you go through this process.
Pete:
Yeah. You told me that you have made it a point, and you’re continuing with this, to learn at least one more new thing every day, relating to the iPhone. You holding that bargain up?
Sree:
Absolutely. Every day, I will try and learn something very simple. It doesn’t have to be like something wow factor, it’s just something that I did not know that I can do on the iPhone. Sometimes there are very simple things, I mean, this iPhone has so much that it can do. Sometimes you gotta play around with it to find out. And I will tell you, you know, when I first lost my sight and I got my first iPhone, Blind Abilities was the first blind app I installed on the phone because when I checked it out, I said, there’s a lot of stuff here that I could learn. And I still listen to your iPhone 101 every time it gets posted, because even though I might know something, you might do something that I didn’t know. And that’s the great thing about learning is, you know, you might know a way to do something on the iPhone, but there are multiple ways to do it. Maybe some other way is better or more efficient.
Pete:
And there are little, sometimes hidden features. When I put together an iPhone 101 presentation, there are times that I’ll find out that I overlooked something or that I got something off, or did not consider another way of accomplishing the same task. There’s so many little features, you really have to be careful, and you could research one facet of an iPhone and think you’ve got it all covered and then someone else points out, well, I do it this way. It’s remarkable. But Sree, we are very thankful that you have, I think, the three components that make teaching so valuable. Number one, you have the passion because you can’t do it unless you’ve got an interest in it and the passion. Number two, you’ve got the skills, the knowledge to convey through teaching, and then you actually do the hard work. Those three things don’t always come together and converge in what turns out to be a successful teaching operation. And we are thankful that you had them and that you pursued it, and I’m sure the iBUG group out of Houston and iBUG Today is actually where we met. We’ve heard presentations, in fact, you continue to do your iBUG Cafe once a month via Zoom, where people can ask questions. In fact, we’ve got some excerpts from some of your iBUG Cafe presentations, the most recent of which Sree was relating to using Zoom from an iPhone perspective. That was just two days ago.
Sree:
Yeah. So last Sunday, we did the Cafe where we took a deep dive look at using the Zoom app, just with your iPhone. Cause you know, sometimes we use our Zoom app with maybe a computer or an iPhone or an iPad. So this time I thought it’d be good to see what all we can do just with the iPhone…
Sree (recording):
…I’d like to say on behalf of the leadership team and myself, to all those presenters, thank you very much. [Applause] I’ve got an icebreaker question. The question is, if you have a password that is 11 characters long, but you only use numbers, no letters and no symbols, but if it’s 11 characters long, how long will it take a hacker to hack into your password?
Julie:
Julie, from Iowa, I will say two minutes.
Sree (recording):
Two minutes, Okay.
Sandy:
This is Sandy, I feel like we’re on The Price is Right. I’m going to say 10 minutes.
Sree (recording):
10 minutes, okay.
Michael:
Michael, in Houston, a dollar.
Sree (recording):
A dollar. Okay. Well, I’m going to tell you later on, so stay tuned.
Julie:
Aww, that’s not fair!
Sree (recording):
I can also tell you, this is probably the most important…
Sree:
We had about 37 people join, covered the organization and how much Zoom has grown. I mean, when it first launched, they had about 20 million minutes used on their platform. Now they’re over 3.3 trillion minutes annually. So you could see how much they’ve grown.
Pete:
Wow.
Sree:
We talked about the front end of the app, as well as the participant, as well as how a host would use an iPhone to manage a meeting. I definitely learned a lot from that, because I’m a very basic Zoom user and I got to see a lot of good features.
Pete:
Yeah. That’s very interesting information in this day and age, ever since the pandemic, it has skyrocketed, as your numbers just demonstrated. Now that is available on the iBUG Today website, which is ibugtoday.com, and there’s a link there for podcasts and you’ll catch all of the podcasts in a very concise layout. Sree, if you’re talking to a transition age student, say someone in their high school years, who’s facing a huge transition of either moving on to college and advanced education, or perhaps moving out into the job market. What advice would you give that person?
Sree:
I would say, a good question, I would say the only roadblock that’s in front of you is a roadblock that you don’t want to cross, because you think you can’t, but I’m telling you, you can cross it. Whatever you think you can’t do, try first before you say you can’t, because I guarantee you, if you give it a try, there’s a good chance you’ll succeed. I’ve lived through the example of, I didn’t know what my journey was going to be like, but I know that talking to other people who might be at the stage that you’re at, I’ve seen some very successful students who become great college students to great employment to our community. They’re doing things, they’re inspiring me. I would just say, don’t let people tell you you can’t, because you can. I think Nike has a good slogan. You just do it. Don’t let people tell you can’t.
Pete:
And beyond that, you’ll never know if you can or can’t unless you do try.
Sree:
hat’s right. I mean, things that I thought I couldn’t do, just simple things, it’s putting things together, you know, you think as a blind person you can’t, but you’d be surprised what your fingers can tell you just by doing things. I will give you an example, this is when I could see. There was a math problem that my sister was doing. I was writing on a piece of paper, all these equations, and she was doing it just on her bare fingers, using all 10 fingers to calculate it. And the funny part is she got it before we did, just because, you know, she didn’t say she couldn’t, she just did it. I hope that answered the question.
Pete:
That’s true. I appreciate that, and I’m sure our listeners do as well. We’ve been speaking with Sree Roy, Sree, once again, we really thank you for doing this and commend you for your passion and your perseverance. Anything else you’d like to share with our audience?
Sree:
I just, like I said, I really appreciate the time you’ve given me here. Pete, when I first started losing my sight, I mentioned about the first app being Blind Abilities. Now the fact that you’ve given me the opportunity to speak to you guys in person, I am overwhelmed. I’m going to check this on my bucket list, so I appreciate it.
Pete:
Cool. We appreciate the kind words. Well, Sree, it’s been a pleasure. We will catch up with you again, I’m sure. Thanks a million for chatting with us today and have a great day.
Sree:
Alright, thank you, Pete.
Pete:
You’re welcome.
Pete:
I want to thank Sree Roy for joining me today in the Blind Abilities studio. We’ll have links in our show notes to the groups that Sree referenced, the Rustin and Vienna VIP organizations, as well as the ibugtoday.com website and that wonderful organization. Special thanks to Chee Chau for his beautiful music. And for now, from the Blind Abilities studio, I’m Pete Lane. Thanks so much for listening and have a great day.
[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.
For more podcasts with a 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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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.
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