American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults
Future Reflections Winter 2025 TECHNOLOGY
Access On: Expanding the Conversation about Accessible Technology with NFB’s Newest Podcast
Access On is the latest addition to the selection of podcasts from the National Federation of the Blind. Hosted by Jonathan Mosen, Executive Director for Accessibility Excellence, Access On reviews accessible apps and devices, interviews movers and shakers in the access tech world, and talks to blind people who are using technology in exciting new ways. Whether you’re a technology guru or a technophobe trying to make sense of it all, Access On has something for you.
“We tap into our extensive networks in the tech center and the experiences of our listeners to bring you technology news, reviews, and interviews,” Jonathan Mosen explains. “Even though we’ve only been up and running for a few months, already we’re seeing a lot of interaction with listeners. People write in with answers to tech questions, suggesting lots of tips and tricks. Young people are especially active and enthusiastic. We’ve even heard from students in junior high school! Kids very naturally understand the technology environment; they’re tech natives.”
Each week Access On presents a program in three segments. Recent programs cover the NFB’s Center for Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility, a review of the Meta Smart Glasses, and a tribute to Ed Potter; accessible shopping with InnoSearch AI, podcast apps for your phone, and organizing your travel with TripIt; and the Plaud NotePin, the most accessible way to learn a language, and smart glasses feedback. Topics in earlier podcasts ranged from funding for the purchase of access technology to what’s new in the Victor Stream, with a world of other tech topics in between. Each episode is segmented by chapter, making it easy to move between segments of the podcast if your player supports such navigation.
The voice of Jonathan Mosen, with its distinctive New Zealand accent, was familiar to blind people throughout the world long before the advent of Access On. With the help of a dedicated team of blind assistants, he created the podcast Living Blindfully, which reached listeners in 113 countries. At the 2024 NFB National Convention, Jonathan Mosen and Living Blindfully received a Jacob Bolotin Award for innovation and service to the blind community. “I interview a lot of movers and shakers for the podcast,” he explained as he accepted the award, “and I take a long time before each interview to do my research. I ask the questions that I think listeners want me to ask. I aim to be fair, but also fearless.”
Since the launch of Access On, no new episodes of Living Blindfully will be produced. However, the 305 existing episodes will be available on Spotify, YouTube, and other apps for the foreseeable future.
“When I was a teenager I had kind of an epiphany,” Mosen explained in an interview on The Nation’s Blind podcast. “[I realized] I was being held back by people telling me that I couldn’t pursue this career or that option. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it, it was because of people’s perception of blindness.” Opening up possibilities for blind people became Mosen’s life work. He studied the writings of Dr. Kenneth Jernigan and other NFB leaders, and he became the president of the blindness consumer organization in New Zealand. “I tried to pass along as much of Dr. Jernigan’s philosophy as I could,” he explained. “If you’d asked me what my dream job was, I would have said working in a capacity like this.”
He went on to explain, “Access On will sometimes challenge developers. The NFB needs to be there as AI and other new technologies appear. NFB has to be strong. We need to be at the table. I’m confident that Access On will be the definitive technology podcast in the blind community... It will be kind of like the Consumer Reports in blindness technology.”
“The whole tech world is advancing at a truly dizzying pace,” Mosen reflects. “For decades it always seemed that we in the blind community were trying to play catch-up. Today the NFB has built relationships with Apple and Microsoft and other leading tech companies. We have much better opportunities to make sure that accessibility is built into a new product, not just bolted on as a last-minute thought. When we get in on the ground floor, it’s much more likely that things will work well for us.”
Follow Access On to keep up with the latest developments, questions, and controversies in the world of access technology, and feel free to add your voice to the conversation.
You can learn more about the NFB’s Center for Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility at nfb.org/cena. You can listen to Access On on any of the following podcast clients: RSS feed, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, Podchaser, and more.