Welcome to another episode of the Inform & Connect Podcast, a production of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). In this episode, AFB’s Melody Goodspeed and Tony Stephens catch up with Spectrum’s Petr Kucheryavyy, who provides a breakdown of what’s new with SpectrumAccess and exciting news on the horizon for consumers of audio described con…

https://www.andrewleland.orgIn this episode of the Inform & Connect podcast, Melody and Tony welcome Andrew Leland, author of the recently released book The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight, available through Penguin/Random House. Leland’s book, which is part memoir and part cultural breakdown of blindness throughout history, shar…

In this episode of AFB’s Inform & Connect, Melody and Tony talk with Jordan Thomas, who runs the Twisted Tomato pizzeria in Del Ray Beach, Florida. Jordan shares his experience of going blind after serving ten years as a fire fighter in northeast Pennsylvania, and how his plot twist of loosing his sight would eventually lead him to the sunshine sta…

Welcome to the latest episode of the Inform & Connect podcast, a production of the American Foundation for the Blind. In this episode, we talk with new AFB Trustee Victoria Watts. Victoria is a mother of four children, her youngest a seven-year-old boy who is blind. Victoria shares her journey with her son, and the mission that followed to make the…

Welcome to another episode of the Inform & Connect podcast, a production of the American Foundation for the Blind. In this episode, our host Melody Goodspeed is joined by AFB’s Tony Stephens as they have a sit-down conversation with AFB’s new President & CEO Eric Bridges. Eric shares his personal experience with vision loss as a child, the paths in…

Welcome back to a new season of the Inform & Connect podcast. In this episode, AFB’s Melody Goodspeed speaks with Timothy Breitenfeldt, who is nearly completely blind. Timothy graduated with his Bachelors in Computer Science in 2019. He has been working at JPMorgan Chase for 2 years as a software engineer, and helps manage applications that support…

Jim Stovall has been a National Olympic weightlifting champion, a successful investment broker, president of the Emmy Award-winning Narrative Television Network, and a highly sought-after author and platform speaker. He is the author of more than 50 books, including the bestseller, The Ultimate Gift, also a major motion picture from 20th Century Fo…

Ishan is the founder and CEO of VIP World Services, where they design innovative accessible solutions for corporates to cater to the needs of Visually Impaired People (VIP). He is a Service Designer with 10+ years of experiences in multi-national companies, healthcare organizations, government bodies, and startups, leveraging professional, creative…

This episode of Inform & Connect features Clarke Reynolds, a UK-based visual artist who uses sound and touch to bring his art to life for people who are blind or visually impaired. Clarke knew from a young age that his calling was to be an artist. At age four, he started losing sight in his right eye, and hospital treatments did little to help. He …

Inform & Connect continues with Nefertiti Matos Olivares, a fervent advocate for accessible culture, transit, tech, and personal fitness. Nefertiti currently works as an Assistive Technology Trainer for the New York Public Library’s Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, where she provides one-on-one technology coaching, creates programm…

Ron Brooks is totally blind and a writer, speaker, entrepreneur and evangelist for the transformation of mobility for people with disabilities. In this episode, Ron discusses employment and transportation barriers, as well as his own entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he’s learned along the way. A graduate of the School of Public and Environme…

Neva has over 20 years of professional experience in the field of vision loss and a lifetime of experience living with low vision. She was diagnosed at an early age with Cone Rod Degeneration, a rare genetic eye condition. Neva is a vital part of AFB's Aging Initiative team, which involves the research and public policy needs of people experiencing…

Season 3 of Inform & Connect continues with Paul Schroeder, Vice President, Government and Community Affairs, American Printing House for the Blind. In his role, Paul serves as a key advisor on matters pertaining to all government activities at APH, including educating U.S. Congress members by raising awareness of the unique learning needs of peopl…

Season 3 of Inform & Connect kicks off with a conversation with Carl Augusto, President Emeritus of AFB. Carl served as president and CEO of AFB for 25 years—one quarter of the organization’s 100-year history. Under Carl’s leadership, AFB forged numerous strategic partnerships and alliances within the vision loss community and beyond to address cri…

In this episode of Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community, Melody speaks with Ron Brooks. Episode Transcript

Inform & Connect returns featuring a duo who share a drive for taking their love for their heritage and natural curiosity to make powerful and beautiful change in the world: ESAS Founders Amanda Sichon and Seda Bilgner. After working in the corporate beauty industry for a combination of over 25 years, Amanda and Seda set out to create a sustainable…

Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s live group conversation and podcast created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics, returns with an episode featuring siblings Brian and Kerry Kijewski. Brian and Kerry are both blind…

In this episode of Inform & Connect, Melody speaks with Scott Tennant, CEO and Founder of Senergy Medical Group, a holistic wellness company. Scott is also a generous philanthropist, seeing philanthropy and giving back as a huge part of his life and work. His generosity and passion to raise awareness of critical issues and drive positive change is …

In this episode of Inform & Connect, Melody speaks with Sherry Pablo who recently graduated from the inaugural cohort of the AFB Blind Leaders Development Program. Transcript

This episode of Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s podcast, features Marty Schultz, cofounder and president of ObjectiveEd, an education technology company that provides digital curricula for children with disabilities. Full transcript available on our website.

Melody's guest on this episode of Inform & Connect is Sara Minkara, founder and board member of Empowerment Through Integration and “Discovery in the Dark” series creator. Leveraging all aspects of her identity—as a blind, Muslim, Arab-American woman—Sara uses blindfolds as a tool to encourage guests to embrace their own and others’ multiple identi…

This episode of Inform & Connect features Sylvia Stinson-Perez, director of the Vision Specialist graduate certificate program and the Independent Living Services at the Older Individuals who are Blind Technical Assistance Center (OIB-TAC) at the National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision at Mississippi State University. The …

Richard Hunter is a four-time Boston Marathon finisher and has completed 22 marathons, three 50-mile endurance runs, and was the second visually impaired runner in the nation to complete a 100-mile run. Richard was also the second visually impaired triathlete to complete Ironman in less than 12 hours, and the third to complete a Half-Ironman in und…

Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day (#GAAD)! We are excited to have Sarah Herrlinger of Apple and Christopher Patnoe of Google on Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s podcast. Both Sarah and Christopher sit on AFB’s Board of Trustees. The conversation, led by AFB Major Gifts Specialist Melody Goodspeed, focuses on AFB’s ce…

At the age of seven, brothers Bradford and Bryan Manning were told they would go blind. Instead of letting their diagnosis set them back, it became their mission to help others. In May 2016, they launched a clothing brand, Two Blind Brothers, which makes ultra-soft clothing and donates 100% of the profits to research to cure blindness. Their "Trust…

This Inform & Connect episode features a duo who share a true passion for music and advocacy in the blindness community: Victoria Claire, professional artist in contemporary sculpture as well as published singer/songwriter; and Thomas Reid, creator and producer of the Reid My Mind podcast. Transcript…

This episode of Inform & Connect—the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics—features a duo who work in the technical aspects of sound creation in film and television: Jeff Ross, Soun…

Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics, is back with a duo who share a true passion for quality audio description work in film and television: Roy Samuelson, au…

In this episode of Inform & Connect, Melody Goodspeed chats with Gabby Mendonca, blindness advocate and student. Gabby is a senior at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, studying communications in digital media. Growing up, she didn’t have anyone in the blind community to look up too for guidance. With this in mind, she started her own YouTube channel…

This episode of Inform & Connect features a duo who share a true passion for bringing accessible entertainment to the blind and visually impaired community as well as the hearing impaired community through iOS devices. John Sweet and Petr Kucheryavyy of Charter Communications will discuss their work on Spectrum Access, a free app designed to provid…

This episode of Inform & Connect will feature Helen Selsdon, who manages the Helen Keller Archive and serves as a grant writer and spokesperson for AFB’s historical collections. Helen will discuss the enormous project that was the digitization of the Helen Keller Archival Collection – the world’s largest repository of letters, speeches, pres…

Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s live group conversation and podcast created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics, returns December 9th. The episode will feature special guests Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum, AFB Director …

Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics, returns with guest Jeff Heck, owner of NaJor Productions. Jeff founded NaJor Productions in 1996 as an outlet for his pa…

Inform and Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics, features special guest Thomas Reid, creator of the Reid My Mind podcast. Thomas’s podcast contains stories and profile…

In this episode of AFB's Inform & Connect podcast, Melody speaks with Gena Harper, Senior Vice President, Investing with Impact Director, Senior Investment Management Consultant at Morgan Stanley. Gena will share the story of her personal and professional journey, and setting the example of a life lived with no limits. Having joined AFB’s board of …

Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics, returns July 8th featuring special guest Becky Andrews, owner and clinical director of Resilient Solutions, Inc. Becky i…

This week on Inform & Connect, Melody speaks with C. Scott Hansen, Sr. Director, Guest Technology, Global Operations Marriott International, Inc. In our current times, we are moving back to the world of travel. We can all agree this looks very different from what we were used to. Scott not only has a vast amount of knowledge in the hospitality indu…

We have a special edition episode of Inform & Connect featuring the American Foundation for the Blind’s Director of Research Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum. Dr. Rosenblum will be discussing the Flatten Inaccessibility research report, the culmination of survey findings from 1,921 U.S. participants who are blind (65%) or have low vision (35%). The survey in…

Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, and interesting topics. Today's guest is Alexa Jovanovic, designer and founder of Aille Design. The company works alongside a diverse team o…

Inform & Connect, the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics. Today, Melody's guest is Catherine Harrison, a professional commercial print and fitness model. Catherine was a Register…

Inform & Connect, AFB’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics. This week, Melody Goodspeed speaks with guest Libby Thaw, founder of the Checkered Eye Project. Audiences will learn firsthand of the creation and mission…

In this episode of Inform & Connect, Melody speaks with guest Jasmine Glass, founder of Spktrm Beauty. Listeners will learn firsthand of the creation of the world's first beauty brand to ban model re-touching entirely. With this focus on natural beauty, Jasmine will share the story behind her desire to help reshape the industry by making it more in…

On Episode 4 of AFB's Inform & Connect, Melody interviews filmmaker, Juan Alcazar. Juan has been making films and videos for a few years now. He graduated with a BA in Cinema from San Francisco State University. He has screen a number of his films at a few festivals and now is showing his work on his YouTube channel. A complete transcript of their …

Episode Transcript The third episode of the American Foundation for the Blind’s (AFB) Inform & Connect series focuses on the journey of the creator of digital lifestyle magazine Bold Blind Beauty, Stephanae “Steph” McCoy. This week’s special guests are Bold Blind Beauty Founder Steph McCoy and Nasreen Bhutta, the magazine’s Chief Communications Off…

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is pleased to announce the second episode of its Inform and Connect series focusing on the journey of Dave Steele, the Blind Poet, and how he took his fight with RP to create an expressive art form of captivating poetry. “Originally scheduled to emcee our Helen Keller Achievement Awards, I got to meet Dav…

Roy Samuelson has narrated audio description for over 500 films and shows, including NCIS, Star Trek: Picard, SONY's Spider-Man: Far From Home and Bloodshot, and Universal's 1917, to name just a few. He brings his decades of experience, training, and resources to this art form. He is passionate in informing, inspiring, and aligning with organizatio…