Thank you to the sponsors of the 2022 NFB National Convention. These organizations support the work of the Federation. This is the recorded session of the the 2022 National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind sponsor showcase virtual preview from Tuesday, June 28. Hear from each of the sponsors, what they offer, and how you can connect with them at the convention and beyond.
Transcript
MARK RICCOBONO: Okay. Good evening, everybody. I wasn't expecting that quick flip there.
So it's great to have everybody together this evening. Obviously I'm not in convention stride yet. But it is great to have everybody here for our National Federation of the Blind NFB '22 convention sponsor showcase. Really interested to hear people's feedback about this and to see if it's something we should continue in the future. Most importantly, I'm excited for us to be getting back together in person! Really looking forward to being in New Orleans less than a week from now when I'll be on the ground there and look forward to greeting folks who might be arriving on July 4th. Really excited. Especially because we haven't been in person in 3 years, but also because we have not been to New Orleans for our national convention since 1997, which was our largest in-person convention ever.
Most importantly, I'm really happy that we have the opportunity to renew our work together, and especially our partnerships with many of the sponsors you will hear from this evening. You know, our partners were really critical to the National Federation of the Blind in our work during the pandemic when many things were shut down, when we were working to get blind people services, our partners stepped up to make things happen. So I'm especially looking forward to greeting all of our sponsors at the convention and making sure that they have access to the thousands of members that are going to be coming to be part of this year's convention.
And thank you, not just for your support at this convention, but I do thank you for that, but for the support that you have given us over the last few years. It has really made quite a difference.
This is going to be a unique convention for many reasons, and especially because of still trying to manage the COVID situation. So I want to remind everybody that the Federation's convention has always been special and successful because of the work of runs of people who make the convention a welcoming, safe, empowering space. In that regard, I do want to call on each of you to be part of that process for this year. First of all, I know it's going to come up later, but I want to remind that you Crowd Compass will be your way to stay up-to-date for everything regarding the convention. So make sure you get the app and register.
Also we put in a number of things to deal with COVID, falling into two categories. One is testing. We do encourage everybody to take a COVID-19 test before coming to New Orleans, and we do ask you to produce for us that negative COVID test result. Take a picture of it, send it to us at [email protected] with your full name and state as you would have put it on your registration so we can match it to your registration.
Now, you can also test in advance if you have trouble accessing the test you might have, you can use IRA for free to take your test and actually have IRA send the test results directly to [email protected].
Of course you can go to a pharmacy or other testing service. You should submit your test no more than 72 hours before your check in at the hotel. Realizing that some are going to come enjoy New Orleans a day or two early. That's okay. It has to be within 72 hours of your check in at the hotel.
Now, if for some reason you can't test in advance -- and we do encourage you to do so, and by the way there are incentives for those who test in advance. We will enter you into some special drawings for gift cards and things like, that plus you won't have to wait in line. But if you can't test in advance, please show up anyway and we'll have testing available at the convention starting on July 4. Those times are in the agenda. You will need to get a test or have sent us test results via email, and you'll need to get an orange wristband before you can participate in convention activities. And that's really, again, so we set a baseline of safety throughout our convention.
The other thing that we're doing is asking people to use masks at the convention. And the testing experts that we've talked to say that masking is one of the best things we can collectively do, especially for those members of the Federation community who might have additional risk factors. So we do ask that in all areas of the convention, public areas, meetings, when you're not actively eating and drinking, to please mask.
Thank you for helping out with those two things. It's going to make a real difference in what's going to be a very, very exciting convention for many reasons.
Again, all of you, including our sponsors, are really key in making the convention a fun experience. We're looking forward to it being at a new hotel. Do want to let you know that GoodMaps has mapped our convention hotels, both the Marriott and Sheraton. So that is available to you. We're going to want feedback on this convention because we made a number of changes this year, including opening registration on July 5th, which is new for us. So just a quick call out that I would encourage you to fill out our post-convention survey when that comes up. You can always send us feedback in other ways. We continue to evolve the convention and make it dynamic because so many people give us valuable feedback.
So thank you to our sponsors. Looking forward to the showcase. So I'm going to flip it over to Patti Chang for the next part of the program.
PATTI CHANG: Thank you, Mr. President. I get to talk to you about logistics but I can't resist sharing with you a text I got today from David Meyer, an elderly gentleman in Illinois whose wife has cancer, so he can't attend in person, but he said to me, I have never seen as many new exhibitors and sponsors as I do this year, which is really telling. And he really appreciates the access even though he can't come in person. So what you're doing here means a lot to us in person, but it also means a lot to people who can't actually come in person.
And I think one of the things that we will take out of COVID is providing some type of access for people who can't come in person. I mean, there will always be people like Dave whose wife just can't do it.
So I'm supposed to talk to you about logistics. Couple things. One, you will all be muted until the Q&A section so that we can hear our presenters. And the way the Q&A will work is once we get -- you can always do Q&A in the chat, and Anna Adler, who works in outreach, will answer as many of those as she can.
If something needs to go to the presenter, she will make sure either it gets answered at the end if the presenter is still here or she will get an answer from the presenter and directly connect you to the presenter. So don't feel like your questions won't get answered.
I do want to encourage everyone also to tune in tomorrow night, because we will have a showcase of our exhibitors. And keep in mind that when you get to convention, the exhibit hall will be in Napoleon in the Sheraton.
That's what I have. We have a lot of presenters. The first three are Wells Fargo, Vispero, and Vanda.
SPEAKER: Okay. I think that I guess I'm the primary person here from Wells Fargo. My name is Ben. I'm addressing you with an American with a trio of disabilities first, and second as a Wells Fargo employee. Wells Fargo is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which includes our commitment to and advocacy for people living with disabilities just like you and me. I feel confident in Wells Fargo's commitment to providing outstanding services to ensure that everyone has access to an account, that everyone can pay a bill on the go, and that everyone can make an investment or manage a business if they would like.
Wells Fargo is a proud sponsor for the National Federation of the Blind's annual convention, and we wish that all conference attendees have a productive and educational time in New Orleans. Thank you.
SPEAKER: I think I'm up next. Eric with Vispero. Great to be with you all. Looking forward to returning to convention in person, and we look forward to seeing all of you. We are planning to connect with everyone both at the convention and also for those of you who are virtual, and I'm going to start off with our product specials and how you can participate. First, most hardware products are going to be 20% off. Some, like the Ruby, will be on sale for $250, the Pearl for $200. And in order to take advantage of these specials, call customer service at 800-444-4443. Mention the NFB convention and place your order. They'll get you the discount appropriate.
For those of you with software products, if you have a software maintenance agreement or a home annual license, you want to get an upgrade on that, if you have a ILM license and want to get an upgrade on that or get the SMA, contact customer service at the same 800-444-4443 number, and let them know you're calling around the conference. Or you can go to our home page and look for the SMA and upgrades check your serial number, put in your code, and it will automatically apply the discount on your S MA.
There are two highlights at the convention. For those of you attending in person, I want to point out, first, I will be doing a presentation on the 5th of July at 8:30. This is my typical presentation preconference, and I look forward to seeing a lot of you there. Galleria 6 in the Marriott. And we'll have a special handout for everyone that attends. And we'll have a lot of special guests there with us. We have a lot of people coming this year. Everybody wanted to get back.
And lastly, we have an accessible escape room. If you're interested in participating in that, you can do so if you have a group of four people, or if you're an individual, sign up and we will help connect you with a team of other individuals and you can put a team together. You can learn more about the accessible escape room if you go to blog.freedomscientific.com and you can get all the info there. You can stop at the exhibit hall, tables D4-13. And while you're there, pick up a free T-shirt while supplies last and check out the brand new product introduction from enhanced vision that we'll have at the booth for the first time. Thank you.
SPEAKER: Hi there, I'm Shawna, one of the nurse educators that will be in attendance along with Maggie. We look forward to educating each of you on the disorder non-24 which affects mainly individuals who are totally blind, but you can have some light perception and still develop this very rare chronic disorder. The three main symptoms are difficulty falling asleep at night, difficulty getting a full night sleep, and/or difficulty staying awake during the day.
You don't have to have all three of these symptoms, and they may come and go.
Come visit us at our booth, connect with us virtually. We're there to help answer any questions that you have. Many of you may be familiar with non-24. So you have questions, if you're hearing about it for the first time, please come by and visit us. We would like to share more information with you. If you're struggling with chronic sleep, there is help out there for you.
Also, if you are affiliated with one of our local chapters and have not had us present or it's been quite a while, we have educators across the country who would be more than happy to come out and present and provide a full educational presentation on non-24. I'm also local to Louisiana. If you have any questions, come visit our booth. More than happy to offer suggestions and very much looking forward to be in person again. Thank you.
PATTI CHANG: Appreciate Vanda. I am one of the sufferers of non-24.
Next will be UPS, Microsoft, and Meta.
ANNA ADLER: I think Meta is going to go.
SPEAKER: Hello, everyone. This is Kiran from Meta, formerly known as Facebook Incorporated. Some of you may have heard of us.
I am a technical program manager. I lead the accessibility program for Instagram, which is one of the family of apps that Meta has, including Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
Meta's mission is to give people the power to build a community. We have over 3 billion users around the world. People share ideas, connect with friends and family, and I am excited to be attending the NFB convention in person after 3 years. And looking forward to meeting you all. I will be presenting a session on Saturday, July 9, at 12:45 p.m. on what's new at Instagram and Facebook family of apps. Please come is a hello, and I will be talking more about some of the improvements that we've been making on Instagram. Thank you.
PATTI CHANG: We have Google, eSSENTIAL Accessibility, and Target.
ANNA ADLER: Tom, you can go next.
PATTI CHANG: Let's come back. I think we lost him.
ANNA ADLER: Tom from eSSENTIAL Accessibility, go ahead.
SPEAKER: Yes. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Tom. For those of you who are not familiar with us yet, we provide accessibility as a service solution on our platform. We provide manual and automated testing as well as our remediation support. We also provide legal risk management and help you respond to demand letters and prevent lawsuits.
We also provide accessibility training, accessibility statements, and VPAT services. You can contact us at essentialaccessibility.com, or visit us at the career fair, or we have two presentations we'll talk about state of digital accessibility in I think studio 10 on Tuesday at 10:00, and we are also going to talk about digital accessibility barriers on Wednesday at 10:00. We have very much looking forward to attending the convention and very much looking forward to meeting all of you.
PATTI CHANG: Very good to have you.
Target, Oracle, and Amazon.
SPEAKER: Good evening. I am Steve, senior accessibility manager at Target. The digital accessibility team at Target aims to ensure our experiences online and in stores are accessible to all Target guests, regardless of disability or what assistive technologies we use.
We could not do this work without the valuable partnership of the National Federation of the Blind, and we're proud once again to serve as a sponsor this year. We also help to make Target an accessible and inclusive place to work for employees or team members with disabilities.
So the digital accessibility team is really integrated into Target's digital product teams to make sure our apps are accessible. We know, though, that accessibility is a journey and not a destination. To that end, we welcome your feedback and your questions. And the best way to reach us is by emailing us at [email protected]. Our team, myself included, reads and answers these emails personally.
I also want to invite you and everyone to meet us on Tuesday the 5th at 10:00 a.m. in galleria 5. That's from 10:00-12:00. No need to stay the entire time. It's designed to be a very informal presentation and Q&A and feedback. So bring questions and share your feedback, and get to know several members of our team.
And also for a more formal presentation on our work for both guests and team members, please join us on Zoom on Tuesday July 19 from 2:00-3:30 Central Time. Thank you and see you all in New Orleans.
PATTI CHANG: I will say that Target has a number of key employees.
Oracle, Amazon, Pearson. Do we have Oracle?
SPEAKER: Yes. My name is Kent, and I'm the senior director of the accessibility program office at Oracle. Oracle is committed to creating accessible technologies, products, and enhance overall workplace environment and contribute to the productivity of our employees or customers and our customers' customers.
Our business is information, how we manage it, use it, share it, protect it. Our commitment is to create products that simplify and standardize and automated and extends to all users. We've had the pleasure of sponsoring and providing STEM scholarships for the NFB convention for over the last 6 years. I will be attending the 2022 convention in New Orleans in person. If you need to contact me, you can email me directly at [email protected] or go to our website. Thank you.
PATTI CHANG: Thank you.
SPEAKER: Hi, folks. My name is Josh. I am a principal accessibility researcher at Amazon. I am so excited to be joining you all in New Orleans in a couple of weeks. And Amazon is thrilled to be a sponsor of NFB again. This is one of the most important communities we engage with in our work as accessibility leaders, and really the things that we're going to be doing at the convention are what we always do. We're going to be in the exhibit hall, we're going to have plenty of cool Amazon devices such as tablets, Alexa devices, all the newest coolest Alexa devices, Fire TVs, and we'll be demonstrating how to read Kindles, use Alexa to automate your home, etc.
We'll also be giving a presentation on Friday. I think it's in studio 2 but you can always look at your convention calendar to figure out where we're going to be, but it's I think at 12:15, talking about all sorts of accessibility stuff at Amazon and taking your questions. And of course giving away cool Amazon products as well.
The thing that we're going to be doing I think the most at the convention, which I'm the most excited about, is bringing a lot of Amazonians to the convention, folks who have not had an opportunity before to really hang with the NFB crowd and listen to the voices of the blind customers that we have. And the idea of just bringing lots of people and giving them an opportunity to listen and learn about what blind customers need from our products and services is the most important thing that we're doing. We're really excited to be telling you about what we're up to, but we're super excited to be learning from the entire NFB membership about what we need to be doing. And looking forward to being there in person, catching up with lots of my old friends and new friends, and of course maybe there will be a couple of oysters there for me. Thanks.
PATTI CHANG: Isn't that one of the best things we do is give you access to the community, right?
Pearson?
SPEAKER: Hello, everyone. This is Cory with Pearson. We are excited to be a sponsor again this year at the 2022 National Federation of the Blind. You can visit us at booth B26. We have a lot happening this year. We would love to have you participate. There are two studies happening at the convention between July 5 and July 10. And one is happening in the fall from September-December.
At the convention, we'll be looking for participants to provide feedback on accessible equation prototypes and also to advise us on best practices for providing hard copy Braille science materials. We value feedback from NFB members. I look forward to partnering with you on these projects. We provide compensation for all participants with Amazon gift cards. If you would like to participate in any studies, please visit our website, at accessibility.pearson.com/research/2022studies. See you in New Orleans at booth B26.
PATTI CHANG: Thank you. Market Development Group and then iSenpai.
SPEAKER: Hello, everyone. I'm John with Market Development Group, based in Washington, D.C. We provide fundraising counsel and direct mail services to nonprofit clients. In the 44 years since our founding, we have helped more than 500 organizations meet their fundraising and membership marketing goals. Some of these organizations are large, with budgets exceeding $100 million, but we also work with small community-based clients with just a handful of employees.
These organizations located across the United States and around the world perform good work in nearly every philanthropic sector. We take great pride in their success and helping each of them advance their missions.
It has been our honor and privilege to sponsor and serve the needs of the National Federation of the Blind since 1988. You can reach me at [email protected].
PATTI CHANG: I think your company might be the longest standing sponsor who has also attended convention every year. Correct me if I'm wrong.
That takes us to another sponsor that's really special this year, HumanWare.
SPEAKER: I know I heard them before.
SPEAKER: Sorry. I thought there was one more person between John and myself.
PATTI CHANG: Oh, you're right. It should have been iSenpai. Go ahead.
SPEAKER: Sorry, everyone. I'm Peter. The director of strategic partnerships here at HumanWare. And HumanWare is also certainly a longstanding sponsor and partner of both the NFB convention and National Federation of the Blind as a whole. So we are absolutely thrilled, leaving Vegas in 2019 I did not think that we would not be giving anyone in-person attention for now 3 years at this point. And we are so glad to be back.
I would like to talk briefly about a couple of things we are doing. The first is of course our special. So several HumanWare products will be discounted at a 10% discount, including extremely popular products. You can redeem that online at HumanWare.com or can you call us at customer service and we can help you order your products.
The other piece is, we will be in person at booth B1-4. We would love to see you. Please come by. We will be talking about some very, very unique partnerships at the convention, and we know that that will be exciting to many of you. So I'm sure you will all hear about some very neat fruits that are about to be beared through us and some unique partnerships. And I also want to mention our user groups that we will traditionally be having. This year will be on July 5 from 1:00-4:00. That will be in galleria 6.
Again, we are absolutely thrilled to be back in person. I am so excited to see all of you, so please, please, please, come say hi and ask lots of questions. We will always have good products on display and be looking forward to chatting with everybody and hopefully seeing everybody at various events. So thank you very, very much for the opportunity to talk tonight.
PATTI CHANG: We'll go to iSenpai, another really special sponsor.
SPEAKER: Can you hear me? Aloha. I'm Tabatha Mitchell from Hawaii, representing iSenpai, a woman-based small business out of D.C. We actually got our start when we lived there in Virginia, where we were raising our young daughter who was basically losing her vision since I guess she was diagnosed when she was 3. And so that was actually one of those life changing moments that spurred us to actually try something different. So we threw our hat in the ring with government contracting, and we have built iSenpai as a kind of mom and pop. It's me and my husband. We have built this business basically for two reasons: One, to be able to fund vision research; and two, to be able to fund programs that support blind kids. That's why we started and that's why we do what we do. And so we are very excited to say that in 2021 we placed at 2,879. And in the Mid-Atlantic regional list in 2021 we ranked 33. So very excited to kind of share those numbers. Don't really know how COVID is going to make it shake out in 2022-2023.
We are a very proud supporters of the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children, and one of the things we do with them, I serve on the board personally, but one of the things we do as a company with the NOPBC, we support their fund. I encourage you to go to the NOPBC.org/meghan and learn about the blind tech fund. We raise money through the convention and throughout the year, NOPBC, and sell angel pins in memorial to Mehgan, who was an NFB member who lost her life at 22. And she was very avid in the tech scene. And she was my kid that I watched because she wanted to major and go into a career in cyber. And so iSenpai got our start in the DIA, defense intelligence agency, so we work in the intel community and the DoD community. That's really where we started. Then we moved into the office of the President, and then we've moved through different agencies. And basically we provide cybersecurity services and agile development. And so that's kind of our story, and that's how we try to support all of the blind kids that are coming in and trying to get tech in their hands, and build the Federation by bringing blind tech to the kids and getting the parents involved in the NFB.
PATTI CHANG: Love the fact that you are into tech and parents.
Our next sponsor also sponsors the blind driver challenge. So I'm going to call on Cruise.
SPEAKER: Hi, good evening, everyone. I'm Michele. I work at Cruise, an all-electric self-driving car service based in San Francisco currently but hoping to expand. Our mission is to connect people with the things, experiences, and places they care about. And leadership here at Cruise at the highest levels is committed to accessible, equitable transportation. And that's why as a person with a disability myself, I so many proud to work here. For far too long, as we all know, accessible transportation options have been seriously, seriously lacking. Not a lot of options out there that are accessible.
At Cruise, we see a future where self-driving cars can remove those barriers, and we are continuously working with a range of organizations like NFB here, and we're proud to do so, to inform, improve, and always expand for more accessible transportation options in this space. And Cruise is a very proud sponsor. This will be my first time attending the convention. I'm super excited. Don't remember the last time I've been to a convention, so this is cool. And we're going to be bringing some fun goodies to our table, so come and find us and meet us, and look forward to telling you more about our services. But in the meantime, if you want to learn some more, if you want to connect with me, I'm on Twitter at Michele@cruise. Come find us on Twitter. Talk soon.
PATTI CHANG: Next we have AT&T. We've had some very interesting partnerships with AT&T.
SPEAKER: Thank you for having us at your convention. My name is Susan. I work in global public policy for AT&T. We believe in connection and community. If anything has shown us over the last 2 years, access to high speed internet is critical to work, to play, to life. So we are so proud to work with an organization like the National Federation of the Blind, and its members, to learn from you and to develop solutions through this quest that we're on to make sure that our world is accessible and inclusive.
So thank you very much for this partnership and thank you very much for all that you do to ensure that accessibility leads to inclusion. If you need more information about what's happening at AT&T, you can go to ATT.com/accessibility, or you can contact me on Twitter or at [email protected]. Thanks.
PATTI CHANG: Looking forward to seeing you in New Orleans, Susan.
Vital Source Technologies and then Tusk Philanthropies.
ANNA ADLER: APH ConnectCenter, do you want to go next?
SPEAKER: Sure. Hi, everybody. I am Olaya. I am so excited. This will be my first NFB convention. I'm so excited to be involved with NFB. We're really looking forward to being there and seeing you guys in New Orleans.
The ConnectCenter, the website is aphconnectcenter.org. We are made up of websites and an information and referral line. And the information and referral line phone number is 1-800-232-5463. And we exist to connect people with information, connect families, connect job seekers, connect people who are new to low vision and blindness. And our number, the information and referral line, is available five days a week, and it is staffed from 8:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and you will actually speak with live individuals who will answer the phone and answer your questions. I don't know about you, but I hate talking to the computers. Oh, my gosh, I want to talk to a person! And if for some reason they're busy on the line with someone else, you can leave your information and they will call you back.
You can also email at aphconnectcenter.com, and you'll be able to get ahold of us that way as well. And I will put that information in the chat so that everybody gets that.
So our APH ConnectCenter, like I said, it exists of websites for families of children with blindness and low vision, for adults with low vision and blindness, or adults now low vision and blindness. And of course we have for job seekers, for individuals with blindness or low vision, and so with that, we have information for families, blogs, articles, information with personal stories, about advocacy, how you advocate for your kiddos. So we have webinars that are specifically dealing with advocacy and IEPs, so please make sure and visit our website for that.
For adults new to vision loss or adults who have low vision or who are blind, we have the getting started guide. It is on our website and it is free, PDF download. You can also call us and we can send you a large print version as well if you would like that.
In addition we also have blogs and articles and webinars about vision loss, about particular eye conditions, about living with diabetes and vision loss. So that's also part of what we have.
And then for job seekers, we have the job seekers tool kit which is just recently being put into a learning management system with our partnership with Insight. We also have the transition hub, so that has a listing of transition activities, of transition agencies, from across the country. And so if you go to the transition hub and you don't see your agency there, please let us know so that we can make sure that we add your information to the transition hub.
And I think I've covered it all in a minute. As much as I could anyway, right?
PATTI CHANG: Good job.
SPEAKER: Looking forward to seeing you there. Our booth is D29, so come visit us for some neat give aways and some handheld fans because you're going to need them in New Orleans.
PATTI CHANG: Yeah, I'm coming by just for the fan. Vital Source Technologies, please, and then Tusk Philanthropies.
ANNA ADLER: Go ahead, Jocelyn.
SPEAKER: Thank you. And thank you to NFB for hosting this preview. I really appreciate the invitation. We are so excited to be a part of the national convention again in 2022.
My name is Jocelyn. I'm the director of mobile voting with Tusk Philanthropies, a nonprofit dedicated to the fight to expand voting options to include mobile voting to make voting easier and more accessible and increased participation in all elections.
We are very proud of the work we've been doing with the NFB to support efforts to pilot mobile voting for voters with disabilities and to make technology for mobile voting more accessible and secure.
We've also supported efforts with some of the state affiliates, perhaps even on this call, to support legislation to enable voters with disabilities to return a ballot electronically and to use mobile voting in the future.
We will be at the conference on Saturday and offering you all the chance to test vote on new mobile voting technology that our grandees are currently developing. We are so excited for you to get a chance to have a sneak preview of new tech and to give our developers working with the companies that we have provided grant funding to, giving them direct feedback on how the technology works.
I look forward to seeing you next week. Please stop by studio 10 on Saturday at lunch time. We'll be there. And also around dinner time. So from about 12:00-1:45 on Saturday, and then from 5:15-7:00 if you are interested in checking out this new technology. We would love to see you. You can email us at [email protected] with any questions, and thank you so much. We look forward it seeing you next week.
PATTI CHANG: I think that takes us to Spectrum.
ANNA ADLER: I think we're going to skip ahead a few. Could we skip ahead to Educational Testing Service?
PATTI CHANG: Sure.
SPEAKER: Hello. Hi, everyone. My name is Morgan and I work at Educational Testing Service, ETS. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing research, assessments, and learning opportunities for individuals worldwide. I oversee the office of disability policy, which implements policies and procedures for test takers requesting accommodations for the GRE, the test of English as a second language as a foreign language, I'm sorry, the praxis, and teacher licensure test.
We collaborate closely within ETS with the accessibility standards and inclusive technology group, which provides a range of accessibility research, engineering, advisory, and testing services across ETS.
Once again, we are thrilled to be a sponsor of the annual convention and looking forward to attending all of the upcoming events in New Orleans. If anyone has any questions about testing accommodations or accessibility of our assessments, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. My colleague and I will be attending the NABS meeting I believe the evening of Wednesday, July 6, so I'm hoping to be able to leave copies of my contact information at the registration table located at the entrance doors. Thank you. Looking forward to interacting with all of you.
PATTI CHANG: Thank you.
Anna, did Chris Park make it?
ANNA ADLER: I don't see him on. The.
PATTI CHANG: Okay. American Printing House.
SPEAKER: We are here. Thank you very much. We're going to be in booth D1-3, and I am Paul, by the way. It's good to be with all of you. We're going to be showing the latest and greatest in our Braille technology and our low vision solutions, things like the new Juneau handheld magnifier and refreshable Braille displays. We have text to speech that's been added as a new update. If you haven't seen that or want to know more about it, stop by the booth and check those out.
You also heard from the connect center. We're going to have representatives there at the booth at different times as well. And maybe most important of all, we're going to have different sessions and focus groups available for folks highlighting our partnership with NFB and others on the development of what we're calling the dynamic tactile device. That's a groundbreaking multiline Braille and tactile graphics display. You may have heard about it, you may have read about it. We want to get feedback from you about it. Give you opportunities to just learn more and maybe get some more information to us about features you would like for it to have. We can't wait to hear from you. Again, it's D1-3. And we look forward to meeting as many of you as we can. So thank you very much.
PATTI CHANG: You're welcome.
Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld, did they make it?
ANNA ADLER: Don't see them here.
PATTI CHANG: Then I think we have NIB. National Industries for the Blind.
SPEAKER: Yes, thank you. I am Jonathan, Executive Director of NIB social enterprise insight. So NIB is the nation's largest employment resource for people who are blind, and we are very happy a year and a half ago to start Nsite. Our goal is for exceptional talent within the blind community, through a series of training programs, to develop the 21st century skills people need in order to succeed in the workforce. We provide DEI training to corporations. We provide onboarding services to corporations. And talent recruitment as well.
We look forward to next week and all the great things that are going to happen at the NFB conference. But I want to let everyone know that if you're looking to hire blind talent, we are the nation's number one resource for that. You can reach us on Twitter and LinkedIn and on our website nsite.org. On there you'll have access to a link to our job board called N site connect. And you can also learn about all of our training initiatives and everything from IT to sourcing to promote which is our mastery of office technology training. And again, we have a great group of individuals who are looking for work right now. Very talented, dedicated, and we are here to help any employer who wants to strengthen DEI programs.
So thanks for having us. We look forward to a great conference and great rest of this evening.
PATTI CHANG: Me too.
Next is Lyft. Thank you to Lyft for providing coupons for the convention. They'll be followed by Leader Dogs for the Blind and Independence Science Tactile Engineering.
SPEAKER: Hi, everyone. I'm calling from Oakland, California. I'm the accessibility specialist for Lyft. I can't believe it's been 3 years. We did our autonomous vehicle experience last year. This year it will be just me attending. But I'm looking forward to hearing our riders' stories and talk about the accessibility upgrades and things in the apps, our ridesharing app in the U.S. and Canada.
Also, I'll be at the booth and I'll be giving walk throughs of our accessibility features. I want to hear your stories and your feedback. And of course we'll be giving out the coupon code. $15 off two rides each. That's $30 total. Using the NFB2022 ride code.
And yeah, checkout help.lyft.com and check out the accessibility section there. We've built the site to be accessible. You have all the ways to give us feedback. And all of my walk throughs are developed to make sure we all have independent mobility. And all of our rides are safe and accessible for everyone.
Thank you.
PATTI CHANG: You're welcome. I'm going to date myself but I got a Leader Dog way back in 1983. So you're next.
SPEAKER: Yes. Hi, everybody. My name is Christina, representing Leader Dogs for the Blind. We are located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. We offer free guide dog training, free orientation and mobility, and a teen summer camp. And these programs are completely free, including room, board, and airfare. And all of the meals. And along with these three programs, we recently during the pandemic created a virtual learning resource on our website, where you can learn more about guide dog readiness, what is O&M, frequently asked questions, and there's so much more on there as well. That can be found on our website at leaderdog.org under the resources tab.
We have a new podcast called Taking the Lead. On that podcast we share stories and experiences from clients, team members, volunteers, and we just learn more about the blindness community and leader dog and stories from our clients. You can find that podcast wherever podcasts stream. Again, it's Taking the Lead by Leader Dogs for the Blind. If you have any questions about our free services, go to leaderdog.org. Thank you so much.
PATTI CHANG: You're welcome. Independence Science Tactile Engineering and then IKE Smart City.
ANNA ADLER: I think we're going to skip to Envision, Inc.
PATTI CHANG: That works for me.
SPEAKER: Good evening, everybody. I'm Mike from Envision. Glad to be getting back to an in-person convention after 2019 in Las Vegas. I feel like this year we're getting the benefits of both worlds, of having a preview like this and still having the tools like the CrowdCompass which I would encourage everybody to download and get to know where you good et to New Orleans.
But we're excited to be attending in person in New Orleans, talking about some of our new programs that fall under Envision. Envision is based in Dallas, Texas, and Wichita, Kansas, but we have a number of programs that extend out nationwide. One of them is the college success program, which provides resources and young mentors for college students who are blind. And the program is free for students. It's funded through grants and VR funding and the like. But it's a very easy sign up process. In fact, they had us test it. You can sign up in under 5 minutes. And we'll have a couple of the mentors from that program actually working at the booth. So if you have questions about it or want to kind of really get a feel for what it's like, we'll have Desmond and Brianna at our booth.
We'll also be talking about our workforce innovation center programs, which help both employers and employees in terms of acquiring knowledge-based jobs. And one of the newest things there is a cybersecurity program training program that we're working with a cybersecurity company on called NovaCodes, a virtual program that can be completed in about 10 weeks give or take, again, all virtual. And we'll have a podcast up shortly with an interview with David Mane, kind of the brain child of the program. So we'll be loading all these documents into Crowd Compass and we'll have them at the booth along with some give aways and Amazon gift card drawing. So we look forward to both seeing you in person, and then within a few days if you want to check us out on Crowd Compass, we'll have a lot of the resources there as well.
But great being here tonight, and looking forward to being in New Orleans shortly.
PATTI CHANG: Thanks for the shoutout. I would encourage all of our sponsors to take full advantage of Crowd Compass. There are lots of options. You can put all your materials out there as long as they're accessible, and you will get a lot more information, I think.
Do we have En-Vision America?
ANNA ADLER: Nope. Next we've got D2L.
SPEAKER: There you go. Hello, everyone. I'm Sambhavi at D2L Corporation from Ontario, Canada. We serve over 40 countries and 6 continents. With our global reach, our mission is to transform the way the world learns by including every single learner. We work with people with disabilities at every stage of our inclusive product process from research to the end. In 2021 we won an award for best learning platform for learners with special needs.
Our partnership with NFB is deep and strong. We are the only member of NFB's SNAP program. We are proud to sponsor NFB's convention this year again. We will be in booth A6. You can reach us from wherever you are because we'll be online. Please visit us to know more about D2L. You can email us any time at [email protected].
Thank you very much, everyone. Good night.
PATTI CHANG: Thank you.
Anna, do we have Clusiv with us?
ANNA ADLER: Yep.
SPEAKER: Hi, I'm Martha with the Chicago Lighthouse, a world renowned social service organization who serves persons who are blind, low visioned, disabled, and veteran communities. We're recognized as a pioneer in innovation. We were established back in 1906. Basically we provide vision rehabilitation services, education, employment opportunities, and assistive technology for people of all ages.
I will say we are a proud sponsor of this year's NFB convention, and we're looking forward to being with you again in person in New Orleans. Please visit our booth at C22. There we will have one of our representatives from our employment program who will talk specifically about how we use our social business enterprises to provide jobs but also to fund some of our social service opportunities.
And in addition, if you would like to visit our website, it's Chicagolighthouse.org. We would be glad to talk with you at the convention, but also virtually. We will be participating in providing a seminar on employment. We will also be at the employment fair talking about the job opportunities we have available. So please visit us. And thank you.
PATTI CHANG: Thanks to the Chicago Lighthouse. We partner with them on our BELL program too. The Chicago iteration of BELL is taking place at the Lighthouse for, I don't know, maybe the 5th or 6th year? So thank you so much.
I have a couple of wrap up points unless I missed someone.
ANNA ADLER: Yep. We have Clusiv last but certainly not least.
PATTI CHANG: Oh, yeah. Sorry.
SPEAKER: Awesome. My name is Lukas from Clusiv, the world's first E-learning platform built for and by people who are blind and low vision. We're really excited to be announcing that at the NFB convention we will be providing access directly to you, the users and students and people who want to learn via Clusiv. Typically we are sold only through state agencies, but at the conference, come visit us at booth A7 and we'll be starting a pilot program to see what we can give direct access to exactly. And so that does it for us, and thank you for having us on. The.
PATTI CHANG: A7. Clusiv. Very good.
So couple of wrap up reminders. And then I want to take Q&As first, I think. Does anybody have questions that we have not been able to answer yet, Anna?
ANNA ADLER: I have actually been able to answer all of the questions directly in the chat. So we're good.
PATTI CHANG: Awesome. Okay. So well on time. This is good.
Couple of wrap ups. Please join us tomorrow for our exhibitor showcase. It will have roughly the same format. Thank you to all of our sponsors before I head off. We really do appreciate this event. When you want to do this in person, it's in Napoleon ballroom at the Sheraton.
And that's what I have, unless someone else has something that needs to be said or wants to add. We have time.
ANNA ADLER: Thanks, everyone.
PATTI CHANG: Thank you. Have a good night.
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