Access Information News, 1284 SOM Center Road, PMB 194, Mayfield Heights, OH (2025)

12/22/2025

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Alyssa Dver, Founding CEO, Speaker, Educator, Motivator, Spokesperson, ERG Leadership Alliance
https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-12-04-2025/

In this insightful episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with Alyssa Dver, Founder and CEO of the ERG Leadership Alliance, to explore how employee resource groups (ERGs) can drive both inclusion and business performance. Alyssa breaks down what ERGs are, why they're different from social clubs, and how volunteer leaders navigate the paradox of doing “extra” work that still has to align with business goals. She and Dr. Adams discuss the current backlash against DEI, the recent U.S. executive order that both constrains and reinforces the importance of inclusive ERGs, and why organizations that were already committed to DEI are now doubling down on ERGs as engines of belonging, innovation, and retention. Throughout the conversation, they connect ERGs directly to disability inclusion, emphasizing that disability crosses all demographics and that every ERG can and should be disability-ready.

Alyssa also shares her personal journey, from a traditional marketing career to brain-science-based confidence research sparked by her son's neurological disability, and explains how belonging and psychological safety are literally “hardwired” performance factors in the brain. She and Dr. Adams connect this science to everyday workplace realities: when people feel safe and included, they think more clearly, collaborate better, and are more likely to raise tough issues or innovative ideas. Alyssa describes how the ERG Leadership Alliance supports organizations at every stage, starting, restarting, or optimizing ERGs, through research, training, tooling, and a global network of more than 100 million ERG participants. Dr. Adams closes by urging listeners, especially disability advocates and employers, to leverage ERGs as a powerful, practical mechanism to build truly inclusive workplaces and accelerate disability employment.

12/22/2025

24/7 Support Without Burning Out Staff: A New AI Hotline for Nonprofits | Dr. Kirk Adams

Nonprofit leaders: if your phone line is becoming the bottleneck, you're not alone.

So many community-based organizations — especially smaller agencies — are juggling high call volume, limited staffing, and the reality that people need accurate information after hours.

That's why I'm excited to share a new resource from InnoSearch / Accessta: an AI-powered nonprofit hotline designed to help organizations provide reliable support 24/7, without burning out staff.

Each nonprofit gets its own dedicated line, and the AI can help:

✅ Provide resources and information around the clock.
✅ Register people for events or programs.
✅ Collect volunteer or intake details.
✅ Take donations or send secure payment links.

Answer FAQs, route urgent messages, and capture key data for staff follow-up

This is the kind of practical, scalable value-add that can free teams up to focus on the human work that only humans can do.

Introductory offer (limited):

✅ First 5 nonprofits receive 60 minutes free each month
➡️ After that, usage is $0.50/minute

Disclosure: I serve as a strategic advisor to InnoSearch AI and am a small shareholder.

If your organization (or one you support) could benefit from this — comment below or message me and I'll connect you. You can also reach Patrick Long directly at [email protected].

“Inclusion isn't just the right thing to do — it's a strategic advantage.”

12/22/2025

🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sheldon Guy, Director, Women's Athletics, Improve Her Game
https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-12-18-2025/

In this deeply moving episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams speaks with Sheldon Guy, Director of Women's Athletics with Improve Her Game and, by his account, one of the only blind basketball coaches, about the sudden, life-altering loss of his vision and the raw, real-time process of rebuilding a life. Sheldon recounts how quickly his world shifted, the heartbreak of what that meant for his son, and the moment he reached a breaking point, only to find a reason to keep going through messages of love and belief from his son and the players he coached. From there, he made a conscious decision to “pivot,” return to the gym, and keep his commitments, launching a story of resilience that later drew major media attention and led to documentary coverage of his journey.

The conversation expands beyond personal triumph into advocacy and systems change. Sheldon shares how he's pushed major organizations to improve accessibility (including voice-enabled options that reduce barriers for blind customers) and how his guiding philosophy, “see something, say something”, turns everyday friction into concrete progress. He also speaks candidly about the added reality of navigating disability as a Black man, including harassment and safety concerns, while continuing to pursue hard goals, speaking to schools, inspiring young people, and taking on athletic challenges like obstacle races as a fully blind competitor. Together, Dr. Adams and Sheldon explore the evolving question of purpose, and how vulnerability, community, and relentless forward motion can become a lifeline, and a platform for change.

12/22/2025

Part 2: My Experience Trying To Take the Apex Program's CompTIA Network+ Exam at a Pearson Vue Testing Center As A Blind Woman in Canada | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
Learn More: https://donnajodhan.com/apex-comptia-pearson-blind-testing-experience-2/
Sign the Petition: https://c.org/MZnTBDjCBK

Here, Donna J. Jodhan continues her account of trying to earn the CompTIA Network+ certification as a blind woman in Canada through the Apex Program and Pearson VUE. She recaps that a $7,500 USD “scholarship” from Apex turned out to be roughly 21 outdated Word documents, no LMS, and no meaningful human support, which she and her sighted business partner were forced to work around on their own. After a year of study and approved accommodations from Pearson, she still could not take the exam on October 1, 2025 because key questions relied on diagrams with no validated alt text for the reader to convey, prompting her to leave and publish Part 1 of her story. In this follow-up, she describes how Apex's response focused on brand damage and asking her to “pause” her article rather than solving the underlying access problem, how she refused to alter a truthful published account, and how she experienced their behavior as bullying, gaslighting, and psychological pressure.

Donna then details a later call with Pearson VUE, initiated only after Apex contacted them on her behalf. In a structured Q&A, she asks about alt descriptions for diagrams, why readers aren't given standardized descriptions, why her exam collapsed, and how she can retest; Pearson replies with boilerplate about readers “reading what's on the screen,” claims she simply chose to stop the exam, and tells her she can reschedule—without acknowledging the inaccessible diagrams that made the test unusable. Exhausted and unsure she even wants to re-study, Donna still refuses to walk away while the barrier remains in place. She asks readers to imagine this happening to their own blind family members, calls out the “indifference that defines accessibility today,” and urges the community to sign and share her Change.org petition so that Pearson, CompTIA, and programs like Apex are pressed to provide truly equal, accessible testing for all blind students.

12/22/2025

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #67: Interview with John Melville, VP Content Development and Operations, Accessible Media Inc. | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-12-11-2025/

In this insightful episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes longtime colleague and mentor John Melville for a candid conversation about how a career in radio, television, and sports broadcasting unexpectedly led him into accessibility leadership. John reflects on his early path, from studies at Carleton and Humber to behind-the-scenes roles in major Canadian media, and explains how “theater of the mind” in radio helped shape his understanding of what inclusive broadcasting really requires. Together, they revisit AMI's evolution from a niche service into a network striving to be “television that includes everyone,” and how Donna's own advocacy and on-air work intersected with that mission.

The discussion then digs into the practical “how”: why AMI made open described video the default, the policy and funding context behind it, and how the team later experimented with integrated described video to improve flow and reduce conflicts with dialogue. John also highlights AMI's efforts to push accessibility into fast-moving formats (including described Blue Jays broadcasts), the impact of shows like You Can't Ask That in breaking down stigma, and the growth of tech programming (like Access Tech Live) that spotlights tools, sometimes created “by accident”, that become life-changing for blind and low-vision users. Looking ahead, he outlines AMI's focus on higher-impact productions, wider distribution beyond traditional cable (including YouTube), and building a pipeline where creators with disabilities are increasingly in front of and behind the camera, a future he frames as both necessary and exciting, closing with warm mutual respect between him and Donna.

12/22/2025

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #66: Interview with Carol Trapani, Founder, ConnectAlt | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-12-08-2025/

In this uplifting episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan sits down with Carol Trapani to explore the “why” behind ConnectAlt, a community-driven, fully accessible hub designed to help blind and low-vision people quickly find events, programs, and resources in one place. Carol shares how the idea grew out of her family's lived experience as the mother of Lucy (born blind and determined to do everything), and the frustration of having to hunt across countless separate calendars and websites, an insight validated through extensive conversations with the community. She also describes the platform's early momentum, including its launch at the National Federation of the Blind convention in New Orleans, where strong sign-ups and real stories of connection underscored just how needed this kind of central resource is.

Donna then digs into what makes ConnectAlt practical and trustworthy: searchable listings by topic/date/location and virtual vs. in-person, streamlining tools like adding events directly to a user's personal calendar, and experiments (still in progress) around AI-driven assistance and voice workflows. Carol also walks through the realities of sustainability, keeping the service free to users while exploring sponsorship models that avoid clutter and distractions, and explains how the team prioritizes quality control by building direct relationships with organizations and updating listings on a reliable cadence. The conversation ends with an open invitation for listeners to sign up, contribute resources, and support the mission, plus a hopeful note about planning a future in-person meetup in Toronto.

12/22/2025

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #65: Interview with Jilla Bond, Life Coach | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-12-04-2025/

In this richly reflective episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes her longtime friend, mentor, and travel companion, Jilla Bond, for a conversation about a life lived as a “mosaic” of careers and caring. Jilla describes leaving school with little confidence and no clear path, then gradually building a portfolio of roles across politics, business, and design, from opening Margaret Thatcher's mail to directing a major international design conference in Montreal that transformed her understanding of design as something that can radically improve people's lives, like a child's wheelchair built to feel like a sports car. She explains how these experiences, along with later work in high-end Italian lighting and growing a company with very low staff turnover, shaped her people-first philosophy and her approach as a life coach: listening deeply, asking careful questions, and helping others find their own answers rather than imposing solutions.

Together, Donna and Jilla also unpack the heart of their friendship and shared travels, from law school graduation in London where Jilla guided Donna across the stage and Princess Anne personally congratulated her, to an emotional pilgrimage to the Normandy beaches and Canadian cemetery, to trips across Europe and Lourdes. Jilla talks about learning to “paint color into Donna's canvas” by narrating faces, spaces, menus, landscapes, and small details that many sighted people take for granted, as well as the humility and practical problem-solving involved in being a sighted guide: planning for assistance, asking strangers for help when needed, keeping social interactions to small groups, and building in quiet breaks so both travelers can recharge. She also shares her idea of “speaking dementia”, finding simple, respectful, and often musical ways to connect with people whose reality is shifting, and makes a broader plea to treat both young people and elders with genuine respect, doing with rather than to. The episode closes with Jilla's gentle challenge to listeners: if you're traveling with a blind or sight-impaired friend, don't be afraid, imagine what you would want in their place, stay curious, communicate openly, and you'll likely find the journey richer for both of you.

12/22/2025

Editorial: In Memory of John D. Panarese — One Year Later | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
https://barrierfreecanada.org/editorial-in-memory-of-john-d-panarese-one-year-later/

Here, Donna Jodhan reflects on the first anniversary of the death of her mentor, coach, and friend John D. Panarese, whose passing from cancer still feels immediate and deeply painful. She shares how, before he became too ill, the two were building a training and tutoring initiative to help people who are blind or vision impaired gain strong skills with the Mac, iOS devices, and Windows, an idea rooted in John's lifelong devotion to accessible technology and empowerment through knowledge, and consistent with his years leading MacForTheBlind.com for learners worldwide.

She then honors the personal impact John had on her, teaching her VoiceOver and the Mac operating system, and coaching her through her Apple Certified Support Professional exam, while emphasizing that his greatest lesson was selfless service. Calling him one of the most respected Apple accessibility trainers, Donna commits to carrying his torch forward and invites readers to visit VisionTechAcademy.com as a living tribute: a community space where tutors, trainers, and students collaborate around the principles John embodied, framing it as her memorial and a promise fulfilled.

12/22/2025

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #64: Interview with Alexander Barrasso, Policy Advisor | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-12-02-2025/

In this far-reaching episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes retired U.S. diplomat and six-time U.S. blind chess champion Alex Barrasso for a conversation that spans childhood, global diplomacy, disability rights, and the power of persistence. Alex traces his journey from growing up blind in a tight-knit Italian immigrant family in multicultural New York, complete with daring solo bike rides, to the moment a State Department recruiter convinced him that a life in the Foreign Service was possible. He recounts postings in countries including Colombia, Singapore, Thailand, the Czech Republic, Brunei, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, sharing stories of advocating for guide dog access in Singapore, connecting with schools for the blind abroad, helping secure a $13.1 billion defense sale that supported tens of thousands of U.S. jobs, and negotiating the release of a detained family in a foreign language on short notice. Along the way, he and Donna compare notes on inaccessible exams, the emotional toll of being told “no,” and the stubborn optimism it takes to keep pushing.

The discussion also dives into the less visible side of Alex's career: attitudinal and institutional barriers within his own government, being quietly passed over for assignments, and being barred from high-profile events like aircraft carrier visits simply because of blindness. He explains how he led by listening first and speaking last, inviting honest questions about disability, and using tools like JAWS, Braille displays, embossers, and full-time human assistance to do his job at the highest levels. As chair of the State Department's Disability Action Group, he helped advance accessible housing initiatives and championed the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program, training hundreds of staff to better support colleagues with non-apparent disabilities. Alex also shares how chess, learned at age 11 thanks to one inclusive coach, has shaped his decision-making, resilience, and sense of community, from embassy pizza-and-chess nights to mentoring blind students through the U.S. Blind Chess Association. He closes with a powerful message: don't be afraid to pursue ambitious goals, actively seek and lean on allies, take care of your physical and mental health, and be clear and assertive about the accommodations you need so that, like him and Donna, you can prove that a blind life in high-stakes leadership is not easy, but absolutely doable.

12/22/2025

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #63: Interview with Christopher Sutton, Accessibility Commissioner, Canadian Human Rights Commission | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-11-26-2025/

In this inspiring episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan sits down with Accessibility Commissioner Christopher Sutton to explore how his lived experience of deafness, foster care, isolation, and later receiving a cochlear implant has shaped his leadership and passion for system-wide change. He reflects on being told “no” throughout his childhood and how supportive parents, mentors, and his own determination pushed him to become a TV anchor, an entrepreneur, and a policy leader who now works to ensure that “other little Christophers and Donnas” grow up with fewer barriers and more role models. Drawing on his education at Gallaudet and the Ivey Business School, he explains how combining governance training, public policy expertise, and lived experience enables him to bridge communities, convene tough conversations, and embed human-centred accessibility into real-world decision-making.

Donna and Christopher also delve into his time leading Wavefront Centre through the early days of the pandemic, keeping essential interpreting, audiology, and deafblind services running while pushing governments and broadcasters to make public health information accessible with sign language, captions, and clear communication. He describes the Wavefront headquarters' Rick Hansen Foundation gold-certified design, where acoustics, lighting, wayfinding, hearing loops, and “deaf-friendly” open sightlines were co-created with people who have lived experience, an example he believes large federal entities can and must emulate. From unpacking the proactive, enforcement-focused mandate of the Accessibility Commissioner within the Canadian Human Rights Commission to his work on British Columbia's accessible service delivery standard and his advice to younger generations on self-advocacy, confidence, and getting involved, the conversation underscores that accessibility is not a “nice to have” but a shared responsibility and a fundamental condition for a barrier-free future.

12/22/2025

🎙️ Remarkable World Commentary Episode #62: Interview with Karoline Bourdeau and Chris Jonas, Blind Sailing | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
https://donnajodhan.com/rwc-11-20-2025/

In this inspiring episode of Remarkable World Commentary, Donna J. Jodhan welcomes blind sailors and leaders Karoline Bourdeau and Chris Jonas from Blind Sailing Canada to demystify what “blind sailing” really looks and feels like. Together they trace Karoline's journey from clinging nervously to the corner of a boat to becoming an avid racer, and Chris's perspective as both a competitive helm and long-time volunteer. They vividly describe the sensory world of sailing without sight, tracking the wind by how it hits your face and ears, listening for the changing sound of water on the hull, feeling heel through the tiller, and using the luffing of sails as an audio cue that something needs to be trimmed or adjusted. Along the way they dismantle the idea that sailing is only for the young or athletic, stressing that there's no real age limit so long as a person has enough strength and agility for the conditions at hand.

Donna then leads a deep dive into how Blind Sailing Canada keeps its seven-day-a-week season running safely and inclusively, from a custom scheduling app and vetted sighted volunteers, to mandatory PFDs, pre-departure safety checklists, and carefully guided first sails that prioritize comfort and confidence. Karoline and Chris explain the contrast between their two boats, the responsive Capri 22 “C-Breeze” with a tiller beloved by racers, and the roomier 27-foot cruiser “Catch the Wind,” and how each teaches different skills and experiences. They talk about teaching new sailors to board safely, offering as much or as little hands-on involvement as someone wants on day one, and why they actually use very little adaptive tech on board, preferring to sail “by feel” with clear verbal communication rather than constant electronic chatter. The conversation ends with an open invitation: anyone curious can join as a member, volunteer, or donor through blindsailing.ca, attend pub nights and dock parties, help with boat maintenance, and, most importantly, come out for that first sail and discover that there is truly nothing to be afraid of on the water.

12/22/2025

Access Information News for Monday, December 22, 2025 - Volume 1046
https://accessinformationnews.com/ain2025/12222025/

♿️ The Week's News in Access Information
A Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd. Publication

Access Information News. The world's #1 online resource for current news and trends in access information.

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