WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Do me a favor. Tell me your first, last name, 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:06.799 where you're located and the business you have 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:09.699 or speaking your last speaking that you spoke 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:14.000 at. OK, so I am known as the blind blogger. I'm 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:19.559 Max Ivy. I am from Houston, Texas. My last speaking 00:00:19.559 --> 00:00:22.280 engagement was 40 years of technology, of adaptive 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.550 technology. What does the future hold? at CSUN 00:00:25.550 --> 00:00:28.390 at California State University, Northridge, which 00:00:28.390 --> 00:00:30.390 is the biggest adaptive technology conference 00:00:30.390 --> 00:00:35.789 in North America, if not the world. That is awesome. 00:00:36.090 --> 00:00:39.469 Tell me a little bit more about that, Max. Well, 00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:43.850 I'm 59 years old, so I've been blessed or punished 00:00:43.850 --> 00:00:46.450 by seeing how technology has changed over my 00:00:46.450 --> 00:00:49.369 lifetime. So they felt I was the ideal person 00:00:49.369 --> 00:00:52.210 to talk about how technology has changed from 00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:56.929 pretty much nothing like what we have today where 00:00:56.929 --> 00:01:03.270 braille and large type and the very, very beginnings 00:01:03.270 --> 00:01:08.890 of optical character recognition when I was graduating 00:01:08.890 --> 00:01:11.590 from high school to now where you have all the 00:01:11.590 --> 00:01:15.390 advantages of the smartphone, the tablet, laptops 00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:18.530 and desktops with screen readers and other adaptive 00:01:18.530 --> 00:01:21.799 technology built in. Plus, they wanted to hear 00:01:21.799 --> 00:01:24.760 some of my personal experiences, the challenges. 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:28.099 Like, for example, at one point in my life, I 00:01:28.099 --> 00:01:31.420 was part of a traveling carnival, and I used 00:01:31.420 --> 00:01:33.920 to do the bookings for the show for the year, 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:36.920 which is how we made our living or didn't make 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:40.159 it, pretty much with a Perkins Braille writer 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:44.840 and either a handful of coins or an AT &T prepaid 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:49.620 card. Wow. Yeah, wow. And that's... How long 00:01:49.620 --> 00:01:54.120 did you do that for? I was in the family's carnival 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:58.400 business until 2007 when I started my website 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:01.500 to help people broker used amusement park and 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:04.500 carnival rides. And when I started that website 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:07.560 in 2007, accessibility was still non -existent 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:10.199 to the point that I had to teach myself to code 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:14.240 HTML just to get my first website online. And 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.020 I was one of the few people at that time that 00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:20.560 was open about my disability online most people 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:23.319 felt like if they disclosed their disability 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:27.280 in this new world of when i started that website 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:30.479 in 2007 i was one of the few people with a disability 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:34.319 online that was open about his disability most 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:36.539 people were hiding their disability because they 00:02:36.539 --> 00:02:39.240 felt there was still a stigma around being blind 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:44.939 or deaf or paraplegic etc and because i was so 00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:47.699 open people started referring to me as the blind 00:02:47.699 --> 00:02:49.939 blogger and when i wanted to start a second website 00:02:49.939 --> 00:02:52.939 to share more about being an entrepreneur who 00:02:52.939 --> 00:02:55.819 has a disability that was the obvious name to 00:02:55.819 --> 00:02:59.300 choose however when i did that i realized that 00:02:59.300 --> 00:03:01.560 i was going against the trend because sighted 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:04.479 people they were like max you're too good you're 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:06.580 too talented you're too good a storyteller you 00:03:06.580 --> 00:03:08.500 don't need to emphasize your vision loss to be 00:03:08.500 --> 00:03:12.300 successful and people with vision loss people 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:16.430 who are are are blind because they've lost enough 00:03:16.430 --> 00:03:19.689 vision um they were like max why do you have 00:03:19.689 --> 00:03:25.030 to play the quote blind card unquote so yes so 00:03:25.030 --> 00:03:27.689 going back over a decade i've been out here as 00:03:27.689 --> 00:03:31.189 the blind blogger not by choice but by accepting 00:03:31.189 --> 00:03:33.710 my role as somebody who could inspire others 00:03:33.710 --> 00:03:37.189 by doing the stuff everybody else has to do every 00:03:37.189 --> 00:03:40.169 day but doing it with the challenges of being 00:03:40.169 --> 00:03:42.210 blind and having to depend on a screen reader 00:03:42.830 --> 00:03:45.750 or on help from sighted people whether those 00:03:45.750 --> 00:03:49.030 be friends family or people that i met online 00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:52.990 what was your what was your goal what was your 00:03:52.990 --> 00:04:01.629 vision uh my goal was to you know i'm gonna i'm 00:04:01.629 --> 00:04:03.789 gonna share something here with with the people 00:04:03.789 --> 00:04:05.669 out there because i feel like it's just honest 00:04:05.669 --> 00:04:09.090 most of the things that have been my goals have 00:04:09.689 --> 00:04:12.389 not really been my goals initially. They've been 00:04:12.389 --> 00:04:15.949 either things I noticed or things other people 00:04:15.949 --> 00:04:19.209 pointed out to me, or they've been things that 00:04:19.209 --> 00:04:22.709 I was challenged to attempt or encouraged to. 00:04:22.829 --> 00:04:26.110 So I was brokering used rides and happy. And 00:04:26.110 --> 00:04:28.449 then people were like, you know, Max, because 00:04:28.449 --> 00:04:31.449 you have an excuse and don't use it, you are 00:04:31.449 --> 00:04:33.709 inspiring whether you know it or not. So the 00:04:33.709 --> 00:04:36.350 goal with the Blind Blogger was to share experiences. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:40.180 to teach the lessons that I had learned through 00:04:40.180 --> 00:04:43.980 many, you know, the school of hard knocks, as 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:48.120 they like to say, and try to encourage and entertain 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:51.579 people while helping them overcome some of the 00:04:51.579 --> 00:04:55.060 excuses in their life. So I did that. Unfortunately, 00:04:55.300 --> 00:04:59.019 people did not want to hire me as a coach. But 00:04:59.019 --> 00:05:03.079 at that time, I was doing a lot of podcast interviews. 00:05:03.339 --> 00:05:06.829 I love podcast interviews because. as a blind 00:05:06.829 --> 00:05:08.870 person living in the suburbs of houston where 00:05:08.870 --> 00:05:11.569 we have almost no mass transit it gave me the 00:05:11.569 --> 00:05:14.209 opportunity to meet thousands if not millions 00:05:14.209 --> 00:05:16.990 of people over the years without having to leave 00:05:16.990 --> 00:05:19.769 my house and it turned out people didn't want 00:05:19.769 --> 00:05:21.689 me as their coach they wanted me to help them 00:05:21.689 --> 00:05:26.110 get on podcasts so i pivoted to doing that and 00:05:26.110 --> 00:05:30.430 i did that for a while and then in 2021 alex 00:05:30.430 --> 00:05:33.449 san felipo who owns pod match he said you know 00:05:33.449 --> 00:05:36.819 max we've been friends through podfest which 00:05:36.819 --> 00:05:39.560 is a national conference for independent podcasters 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:42.319 and said i've started this new website i'd like 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:44.439 it to be accessible so people with disabilities 00:05:44.439 --> 00:05:47.800 have the same opportunity that you've found for 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:51.500 yourself by making podmatch .com accessible so 00:05:51.500 --> 00:05:54.160 i started first as a volunteer and then later 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:57.139 he hired me to be part of the team and recently 00:05:57.139 --> 00:05:59.819 elevated me to be part of the advisory board 00:05:59.819 --> 00:06:03.040 for his company in the area of digital accessibility 00:06:04.219 --> 00:06:08.939 In 2022, a company named Audio Eye reached out 00:06:08.939 --> 00:06:12.000 to me on LinkedIn. And after I tried to tell 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:13.939 them that I wasn't who they were looking for 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:16.839 four times, they convinced me and I became a 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:20.660 content contributor. Well, they understood that 00:06:20.660 --> 00:06:23.019 I'm a storyteller and that I'm a really good 00:06:23.019 --> 00:06:26.459 storyteller, whether it's writing, speaking or 00:06:26.459 --> 00:06:29.600 singing and songwriting. they brought me on as 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:31.899 a content contributor and then exposed me to 00:06:31.899 --> 00:06:34.699 doing quality assurance reviews of websites for 00:06:34.699 --> 00:06:38.199 accessibility and then last year they hired me 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:42.300 to host one of their podcasts and in the next 00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:45.360 few weeks they're going to be sponsoring an episode 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:47.699 a month of my podcast the accessibility advantage 00:06:47.699 --> 00:06:52.189 so I was not planning on being the accessibility 00:06:52.189 --> 00:06:55.069 expert, even though, as you know, I've been the 00:06:55.069 --> 00:06:58.089 expert going back to 2007 because I was doing 00:06:58.089 --> 00:07:01.490 this stuff every day and communicating my challenges 00:07:01.490 --> 00:07:03.389 with business owners in a way that they could 00:07:03.389 --> 00:07:05.829 understand. But more importantly, doing it in 00:07:05.829 --> 00:07:09.350 a positive, non -threatening manner where I didn't 00:07:09.350 --> 00:07:12.730 start off by trying to scare them with fears 00:07:12.730 --> 00:07:17.290 of regulations or lawsuits or public shaming. 00:07:17.949 --> 00:07:20.569 i was just let's have a conversation to see if 00:07:20.569 --> 00:07:22.790 there's a way i can use your software your product 00:07:22.790 --> 00:07:25.769 or your service because if i can't use yours 00:07:25.769 --> 00:07:27.410 to do what i'm going to do i'm going to have 00:07:27.410 --> 00:07:29.709 to go find somebody else's that i can use to 00:07:29.709 --> 00:07:33.250 do what i need to do and i find that having positive 00:07:33.250 --> 00:07:35.850 non -threatening conversations with business 00:07:35.850 --> 00:07:37.930 owners explaining to them why they should care 00:07:37.930 --> 00:07:41.939 why i need a particular accommodation goes a 00:07:41.939 --> 00:07:44.339 long way towards getting business owners to be 00:07:44.339 --> 00:07:46.300 more inclusive because the truth of the matter 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:49.060 is most business owners, they want my business. 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:52.279 They just don't know how to get it. Yes. You 00:07:52.279 --> 00:07:55.259 know, most business owners do not have a vendetta 00:07:55.259 --> 00:07:57.560 against blind people or other disabled people. 00:07:57.899 --> 00:08:00.379 They just don't think about it. They got so many 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:02.939 other things that they have to think about that 00:08:02.939 --> 00:08:05.459 are already on their list and they're on everybody's 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:08.480 list because for years people say, well, if you 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:10.000 want to start a business or if you want to start 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.129 an online business. these are all the things 00:08:12.129 --> 00:08:14.610 you have to do or have to have and accessibility 00:08:14.610 --> 00:08:18.329 hasn't yet made that list so i try to keep that 00:08:18.329 --> 00:08:20.269 in mind and i feel like all these years that 00:08:20.269 --> 00:08:22.569 i've been working online gives me empathy towards 00:08:22.569 --> 00:08:26.170 business owners whether they're small sole entrepreneurs 00:08:26.170 --> 00:08:29.629 or corporations because i understand just how 00:08:29.629 --> 00:08:31.810 challenging it can be and just how scary and 00:08:31.810 --> 00:08:35.110 overwhelming it can be and one of my jobs is 00:08:35.110 --> 00:08:38.090 to make them understand that it isn't as scary 00:08:38.090 --> 00:08:41.889 or daunting as they think it is What's your why 00:08:41.889 --> 00:08:46.669 now? Right. I feel like I was pushed or dragged 00:08:46.669 --> 00:08:50.929 kicking and screaming. I have a really good friend 00:08:50.929 --> 00:08:53.330 named Adrienne Smith who's been with me through 00:08:53.330 --> 00:08:57.309 all my incarnations online. And I refer to her 00:08:57.309 --> 00:08:59.509 as my blogging mama because she taught me about 00:08:59.509 --> 00:09:03.009 blog commenting and using blogging to build relationships 00:09:03.009 --> 00:09:05.809 back when blogging was the cool thing instead 00:09:05.809 --> 00:09:09.940 of podcasting. She told me a while back, she 00:09:09.940 --> 00:09:12.879 said, Max, the problem for you is you don't want 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:16.799 to be here, but you just need to get over it 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:21.139 because you are the expert. You are the person 00:09:21.139 --> 00:09:24.539 these people need to have because you have a 00:09:24.539 --> 00:09:28.039 unique take on the subject. You have an ability 00:09:28.039 --> 00:09:32.059 to communicate, to make people like you, to make 00:09:32.059 --> 00:09:34.399 people understand these things that are complicated. 00:09:35.629 --> 00:09:37.710 so yeah this is not where i planned on being 00:09:37.710 --> 00:09:41.950 however when i look back over the last five years 00:09:41.950 --> 00:09:46.190 i think yeah but i'm probably the person they 00:09:46.190 --> 00:09:49.690 need you know i mean there are very few people 00:09:49.690 --> 00:09:53.309 in this field who have my background or my approach 00:09:53.309 --> 00:09:57.330 or even my mindset towards accessibility so my 00:09:57.330 --> 00:10:01.990 that my my purpose my why today is that every 00:10:01.990 --> 00:10:06.350 time i help a business owner improve their website, 00:10:06.590 --> 00:10:09.070 their app, or their product or service, I can 00:10:09.070 --> 00:10:12.809 do two things. And I can do them to scale eventually. 00:10:13.110 --> 00:10:16.450 One is, and the most important for your audience 00:10:16.450 --> 00:10:18.950 is, I can help that business owner grow their 00:10:18.950 --> 00:10:23.450 business faster by improving accessibility, which 00:10:23.450 --> 00:10:26.370 improves overall user experience, raises search 00:10:26.370 --> 00:10:30.230 engine optimization, and opens up a huge, mostly 00:10:30.230 --> 00:10:33.009 untapped market of highly loyal consumers who 00:10:33.669 --> 00:10:35.889 will advocate for businesses and brands willing 00:10:35.889 --> 00:10:38.269 to make the effort. And you notice I said effort 00:10:38.269 --> 00:10:42.850 and not perfection. Yes. So that's one of the 00:10:42.850 --> 00:10:44.629 two things I can do. The other thing I can do 00:10:44.629 --> 00:10:48.509 is every time I improve an online platform, I 00:10:48.509 --> 00:10:51.429 can improve the lives of dozens, hundreds, thousands, 00:10:51.490 --> 00:10:53.490 or even millions of people with disabilities 00:10:53.490 --> 00:10:56.929 who may do business with that companies through 00:10:56.929 --> 00:11:00.370 their website or through their social media content, 00:11:00.570 --> 00:11:03.480 et cetera. And so I like to think every time 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:07.120 I improve one website, I can be touching who 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:11.620 knows how many lives. Yes, yes. And you're right. 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:15.559 You're right. It goes far beyond you. It's amazing 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:20.320 how podcasting became this thing now, you know, 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:23.940 that can go around the world. And so you're a 00:11:23.940 --> 00:11:28.299 host of a podcast as well? Yes. I started off 00:11:28.299 --> 00:11:31.240 in 2016 hosting one called What's Your Excuse, 00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:34.580 which is an inspirational show about people who 00:11:34.580 --> 00:11:38.220 have overcome adversity or life challenges. I 00:11:38.220 --> 00:11:41.240 paused it last year to start being the host of 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:44.500 Hearsay Shorts for AudioEye .com. And then last 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:46.620 year I started a new show of my own, which I 00:11:46.620 --> 00:11:49.059 think I'm up to seven episodes now, so I'm still 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:51.419 in the early stages, called The Accessibility 00:11:51.419 --> 00:11:54.669 Advantage, where I'm advocating for more. inclusion 00:11:54.669 --> 00:11:57.549 of and accessibility for people with disabilities 00:11:57.549 --> 00:12:00.830 through education, communication and collaboration 00:12:00.830 --> 00:12:05.830 instead of compliance, legal actions and shame. 00:12:06.350 --> 00:12:11.029 Wow. You do a lot. You do a lot. And you're also 00:12:11.029 --> 00:12:16.870 now coaching, right? I coach businesses on accessibility 00:12:16.870 --> 00:12:22.409 and I sometimes coach people who are having difficulty 00:12:22.409 --> 00:12:26.690 overcoming the roadblocks in their lives. I find 00:12:26.690 --> 00:12:28.909 most people don't want me to be their coach. 00:12:29.049 --> 00:12:34.250 And I find that surprising because in my lifetime, 00:12:34.429 --> 00:12:38.129 I've lived through vision loss from perfect vision 00:12:38.129 --> 00:12:41.490 to almost total blindness. I've been part of 00:12:41.490 --> 00:12:43.850 a traveling carnival. I've run a business. I 00:12:43.850 --> 00:12:47.169 lost a business. I started a new business. I've 00:12:47.169 --> 00:12:50.289 been a website builder, a blogger, a podcaster, 00:12:50.470 --> 00:12:54.429 a self -published author, a speaker. I sing and 00:12:54.429 --> 00:12:58.190 write songs. I've done so many things, most of 00:12:58.190 --> 00:13:00.889 it by just deciding that there had to be a way 00:13:00.889 --> 00:13:02.950 for me to do whatever it was I was trying to 00:13:02.950 --> 00:13:07.750 do at that moment. I like to lean on an expression 00:13:07.750 --> 00:13:11.769 of self -determination, which is, to me, that 00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:15.909 means that you decide to find solutions and implement 00:13:15.909 --> 00:13:19.059 them. even when you don't like them, instead 00:13:19.059 --> 00:13:23.320 of just making excuses. Absolutely. Hence the 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:27.659 podcast you were on. What's your excuse? Yeah, 00:13:27.779 --> 00:13:31.259 and I didn't choose that name. We actually struggled 00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:33.620 with three or four different names until I finally 00:13:33.620 --> 00:13:37.340 asked my community online what they would call 00:13:37.340 --> 00:13:39.460 it. And they said, you know, Max, we've been 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:41.840 saying for a long time that if Max can do it, 00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:45.480 what's my excuse? if you turn that around it 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:47.399 seems like the perfect name for you would be 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:49.980 what's your excuse and you know you mentioned 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:53.059 podcasting i've been to pod fest i wish i had 00:13:53.059 --> 00:13:56.220 been there last year now i feel even more disappointed 00:13:56.220 --> 00:13:58.159 because i didn't get to meet you along with the 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:00.980 other stuff i didn't get to do because i wasn't 00:14:00.980 --> 00:14:03.340 able to attend after i looked forward to it for 00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:06.899 several months um but i at one of the pod fest 00:14:06.899 --> 00:14:09.720 there was a 14 year old girl there with her dad 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:11.799 and she was doing a podcast she was actually 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:15.279 recording this podcast in the in the lobby of 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:19.320 the hotel. And she would sit you down and ask 00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:21.080 you a few questions. And then she would do a 00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:23.220 10 minute interview. And I don't know how many 00:14:23.220 --> 00:14:26.600 interviews, but this is in 2019. And she said, 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:28.059 what's the name of your podcast? I said, it's 00:14:28.059 --> 00:14:30.759 What's Your Excuse? And she said, no, no, no, 00:14:30.840 --> 00:14:33.419 you're wrong. I said, it's my podcast. How can 00:14:33.419 --> 00:14:35.080 I be wrong? She said, no, Max, it's not What's 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:37.940 Your Excuse? It's What's Your Excuse? And so. 00:14:40.009 --> 00:14:43.230 And so whenever I sit down to record for that 00:14:43.230 --> 00:14:45.450 show, I have to remind myself, I don't want Izzy 00:14:45.450 --> 00:14:50.090 to get mad at me. I got to say this right. But 00:14:50.090 --> 00:14:54.769 yeah, so I've been doing the podcast. I've been 00:14:54.769 --> 00:14:57.570 being a guest on podcasting since January of 00:14:57.570 --> 00:15:02.289 2013. So this being 25, I've been doing interviews 00:15:02.289 --> 00:15:05.769 for over 12 years, going back to a time when 00:15:05.769 --> 00:15:08.570 most interviews were audio only and recorded 00:15:08.570 --> 00:15:13.600 on. blog talk radio as opposed to video and audio 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:16.840 being recorded on platforms like zoom and stream 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:18.960 yard and all these others that can connect with 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.340 the social media platforms Thank you for being 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:23.279 here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:25.919 to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:28.960 your reactions as these episodes continue to 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:30.659 move forward. This is going to get more and more 00:15:30.659 --> 00:15:32.980 fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. 00:15:33.019 --> 00:15:34.919 We'll invite people to participate in the show. 00:15:35.059 --> 00:15:37.100 And thank you for giving us your time and attention. 00:15:37.379 --> 00:15:40.019 Have an excellent time building out your vision 00:15:40.019 --> 00:15:41.399 and becoming a vision pro yourself.