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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Happy 200th Episode of Assistive Technology Update!
Today, Danny Wayne Beemer, on-air personality, interviews Wade Wingler about the first 200 episodes of Assistive Technology Update
Links referenced in the show:
ATU008: John Williams interview, http://buff.ly/1Cd2deM
ATU011: Mongolia’s Assistive Technology Pioneers, http://buff.ly/1uif5tM
ATU050 – Bob Heil (part 1) http://buff.ly/1Cd27nu
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Listen 24/7 at www.AssistiveTechnologyRadio.com
If you have an AT question, leave us a voice mail at: 317-721-7124 or email tech@eastersealscrossroads.org
Check out our web site: https://www.eastersealstech.com
Follow us on Twitter: @INDATAproject
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——-transcript follows ——
DANNY WAYNE: Hi, this is Danny Wayne, program manager of the Low Vision Program at the Wabash Independent Living and Learning Center in Terre Haute
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Wade Wingler, I’m the director of assistive technology at Easter Seals Crossroads and the host of Assistive Technology Update, and I guess this is episode 200 of Assistive Technology Update.
Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals crossroads in Indiana with your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Welcome to a very special episode of Assistive Technology Update. We are celebrating 200 episodes today. It’s scheduled to be released on March 27 of 2015. I’m going to get out of the way today. I’m going to get out from behind the microphone, move around to the other side of the table and sit down with my dear friend and colleague Danny Wayne. Today I’m going to be the guest on the show. Danny is going to be the host. Next week we will get back to our regular format of news and interviews and apps and all that kind of stuff, but for now, Dan, don’t push — here I go!
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DANNY WAYNE: This is your 200th episode of your Assistive Technology Update. My name is Danny Wayne Beemer. I work for the Wabash Independent living and Learning Center in Terre Haute, Indiana. Also I’m an air personality with Midwest Communications in Terre Haute, Indiana. I’ve been on the radio for about 24 years. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about different things. Today we are going to look back at an egg shell that turned into the 200th episode of your Assistive Technology Update.
Wade Wingler has been the host, but had slipped behind the microphone to kind of go back to hundred episodes. We are going to do it in the next few minutes. Wade, good morning.
WADE WINGLER: Hey, Danny, how are you?
DANNY WAYNE: Good. It’s kind of interesting to be on the other side because you and I sat down and started talking about doing this several years ago. We actually had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. When you pitch this idea to me, the first thing I thought of — at this time he was still very much alive, but I thought here ago, the Casey Kasum of assistive technology. You really have delved into this. You listen to a lot of radio. Being in the Indianapolis area, you’ve heard a lot of voices on the radio growing up, don’t you?
WADE WINGLER: I did. I was a child of the 70s and the 80s, and my mom and dad owned the local video arcade, and it had a jukebox. When your name is Wade, those are call letters, WADE Radio, so I spent a lot of time as a kid in my room with an eight track recorder and a bunch of 45s wishing I could be a disc jockey. As I grew up, I fell in love with public radio and the talk format and I’ve been a big fan of people like Diane Ream and Terry Gross and some of those national voices.
DANNY WAYNE: Those natural deliveries. You and I had talked at one time, and I said I want you to think back about a guy by the name of Paul Harvey. One thing about Paul Harvey was his inflection of his voice. We are going to listen to some of your shows over the next few minutes and are going to talk a little bit about inflection and how you made the impact. Because you have to be the kindest person to present interviews in so many different ways with so many different types of people. The people you talk to — we’re going to talk for a minute or two about behind the scenes think that we don’t get to hear about, and you’re going to hear some audio bloopers today as well. Yes, it’s kind of a roast really. It’s the 200th episode, but we’re really going to roast Wade Wingler.
WADE WINGLER: Can’t wait.
DANNY WAYNE: You know, Wade, I talk to you but your very beginning, but what do you say we go back. I want to ask you, we’re going to take you listen to your first show here in a couple of minutes, but before you started this, has it envisioned what you wanted to be as we work on the 200th episode?
WADE WINGLER: I have to say it’s more. I originally sat at my desk with an inexpensive set up and said I wonder if I could do it through a four minute show every week that just talks about the news in the field of assistive technology. I never envisioned interviews and worldwide distribution and all that kind of stuff. It’s going to do something much more.
DANNY WAYNE: I remember you opened the trunk of your car and said I got this really cool mixer, and you pulled it out of the trunk of the car and I thought, who carries something like that around in a car with them? Let’s do this. We’re going to take you back to episode number one with Wade Wingler.
***
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana, and this is your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
First off, have you ever wished that your iPhone had a larger screen, larger buttons, or other large print features for low vision? Welcome iPad Islan is planning to release a new application designed to convert your iPad into an iPhone. This app is reported to allow you to make voice calls, in FaceTime calls, SMS messages, and more. Although a jailbreak is required, and this may prove to be a very promising telephony tool for people who are visually impaired.
Ever wish you didn’t have to physically handle credit cards? Google has just announced a new service called Google wallet that’s going to take advantage of near field communication technology. That means that you will be able to pay for your gas, your groceries, and gadgets with your cell phone. For some people with physical challenges, this may open up a new way to independently pay for everyday goods and services.
Speaking of money, did you ever wonder how people with limited vision can tell a one dollar bill from a five dollar bill or a vanilla bill without sighted assistance? Well, there is a new iPhone application that does just that. For $1.09, you can download the money reader application that will quickly and accurately tell you if you’re holding a one dollar bill right 20. According to the company, this is just the first product in their plans. Imagine an application that you can use at the food court at the mall to determine the location of a Starbucks, a Burger King, or a Taco Bell. Object recognition is an up and coming technology, and we look forward to more developments in this area.
Want more? Finally saw this great new technology and check out our blog at www.eastersealstech.com, or follow us on Twitter at INDATA Project. Until next time, this is been your Assistive Technology Update.
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DANNY WAYNE: Well, there it is, Wade. That is your first broadcast. You look back on that three minute segment. You had to be thinking, will I make it to 200 segments?
WADE WINGLER: I just had a lot of energy.
DANNY WAYNE: You really did. You are kind of high-pitched on that. Over all of the interviews that you have been a part of and some international, some right around the corner, these are some that really stand out to you where you felt pretty good when you came away with the completion of the interview?
WADE WINGLER: There are a handful that I really think back on. Maybe the first one that I like to think fondly of. I interviewed a guy named John Williams who has been a writer for the Washington Post for many years. He is the person who coined the term assistive technology in the late 1980s. He told me the story about how that happened. It was called to talk to the guy who made of the world that is now our industry.
DANNY WAYNE: He has done a lot of writing to support that over the years.
***
WADE WINGLER: And here’s a quick clip from that John Williams interview.
***
WADE WINGLER: That’s an amazing start into the industry, and we are glad you been showing the news. Somewhere in there in the early 80s, the term assistive technology came to be?
JOHN WILLIAMS: Right. I was writing a story for the Washington Post about a blind man using a parking terminal. I was trying to describe what the terminal provided him. For 90 minutes, I played around with all kinds of words. Finally I said, it really assists him. Then it’s an assistive technology. At that time, the word assistive wasn’t even in the dictionary. It just wasn’t on the market. I wrote the story. I use the term. They got to the editor at the Post, which shocked me. I used it again and again, and now it’s become a worldwide household word.
WADE WINGLER: That’s amazing. It’s amazing because I have heard the term assistive technology. I’ve heard the term adaptive technology, but not until I got a chance to visit with you little bit did I know where that came from. That’s fascinating.
***
DANNY WAYNE: John Williams. What about the next two?
WADE WINGLER: I guess I was fascinated with one of my earlier interviews. I had a group of visitors here from Mongolia. They’re basically from what the Mongolian equivalent of the National Federation of the Blind over there. I called them Mongolia’s assistive technology pioneers. They are people who are really figuring out can we get Brill over there. They had just a handful of screenreader computers in the whole country. They were trying to pioneer the efforts over there. It was interesting to get their perspective. Plus there was a translator which made it interesting as well.
***
WADE WINGLER: Tell me a little bit about how you became involved in assistive technology.
>> Assistive technology is very important for blind people. For example, for me, I just started to use the computer with JAWS in the year 2007. Of course, before that I was studying at the University, but during my study I didn’t have any assistive technology. That’s why my study was very difficult for me. But when I have this computer, I realized the computer brought many changes in my life. This is a time I realized that I have some assistive technology, I can do everything independently. That’s why we are giving the concentration and development on assistive technology in Mongolia, because now I am working for the Mongolian National Federation of the Blind. So I am seeing many Mongolian blind people who don’t have any assistive technology, who don’t have any knowledge about assistive technology, so that’s why our organization is focusing on developing assistive technology in Mongolia.
For example, now in Mongolia, there are 26 students studying at the University. Maybe only half of them are using the computer with JAWS. Also maybe three or four of them are using [Inaudible]. Other students just use the tape recorder for the studying, but they don’t have enough braille paper. Braille slides in something. It’s a challenge for them studying in this situation.
***
DANNY WAYNE: I do remember that show. They were actually at the Easter Seals Crossroads facility, is that right?
WADE WINGLER: That’s right. There are right here in Indianapolis at Easter Seals Crossroads. They came for a tour and I said let me poke this microphone at you.
DANNY WAYNE: That’s what’s happened so much. We’ve had a lot of international reach. We love to hear from you if you are listening to this. If you would share this with five of your friends when we do the 400th show, we really hope to have a true global audience. Those people may be back again.
We’ve done two, international as well as John. It or someone else that sent out to the you’ve had a chance to share with the Assistive Technology Update?
WADE WINGLER: I guess one of my very favorite interviews was with a gentleman named Bob Heil who is one of the only nonmusicians who was ever inducted into the rock ‘n roll Hall of Fame, and that’s because he created some of the early sound effects in the 70s. He invented quadraphonea, for example, and that quadraphonic stadium sound. He’s got a personal interest in helping kids with disabilities become ham operators with adaptive equipment. We started talking about that, but then he told me about how he’s done sound for Stevie Wonder and some very big name rock ‘n roll celebrities. It was mostly about assistive technology, but just one of those really cool conversations.
DANNY WAYNE: I remember when you interviewed him, he talked about going to Ronnie Millsap’s home. Of course, Ronnie was a ham operator as well, and he had everything wired and labeled in the back. Ronnie was really proud of what he had done.
***
WADE WINGLER: Here’s a quick clip of Bob Heil talking about his experience with Ronnie Millsap as a ham operator.
***
BOB HEIL: Ronnie Millsap, W4 KCG, great ham radio operator, a great country Western entertainer and celebrity. He’s a ham. I visited him one time. We have these little plugs that microphone plugged into in front of our radios. I was in his home and we were in this beautiful shack, oh my gosh, he had these beautiful cabinets and all the pretty radios. All the wires were run behind it and laced down properly. I needed to solder this connector, and is a small pins. It’s about three-quarter-inch in diameter and has eight pins in it. He pulled out a vice out of the drawer and clamped it to his desk and he got a soldering iron and plug it in, and I could see he was feeling were decided in the holder. Reached over and got the solder. I kind of reached up and said do you want me to help you. He looked up at me and said I bet you didn’t think I could solder this, did you? Well, I just want to help you. He said I can do it. Wade, he soldered that microphone connector, and I have hundreds and hundreds of people through the years to me can you solder this connector if I send it into? I can’t solder these little pins. Ronnie Millsap cannot see, and he did the most beautiful job of soldering, and he did it in such a cool way. I was just amazed because he always knew where the iron was hot because he would take his other hand and would know where the tip was, and he just held it on long enough. He just knew what was going to happen to the solder.
***
DANNY WAYNE: Didn’t Bob recently win another award of some kind?
WADE WINGLER: He was just presented with an honorary doctorate from the University in St. Louis. I don’t exactly know the school. He is now Dr. Heil.
DANNY WAYNE: Dr. Heil. When we hear the show got the assistive technology podcast got a lot of behind the scenes effort is done. Can you talk about the people behind the scenes? We don’t hear their names every day. Who supports what you do?
WADE WINGLER: It kind of takes a village as you might imagine. I’m the person behind the microphone all the time copy but we kind of created a culture here where everybody is constantly watching out for content. People that you know like Brian Norton and Nicole Prieto and Laura Metcalf and Annie Long and many of the other folks here in our program are constantly looking out for an interesting story or a cool new thing. So they are constantly throwing content throughout the week and to this virtual bucket that we have. And then we make some selections about what you’re going to talk about in the show goes on from there. It takes a little bit of everybody.
DANNY WAYNE: And as it disseminates, it’s a lot of great information. It’s quick and to the point, but then you move into the interview.
We are talking with Wade Wingler. This is the 200th episode of your Assistive Technology Update. Wade, when you’ve done this, as you look back – and you and I have talked about statistical information. We are reaching not just Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Kokomo, Indiana, Fort Wayne, Evansville, Jeffersonville. We are reaching people all over the country with your message and your information.
WADE WINGLER: We really are, and the show started off as a service to people in Indiana, but when you’re a web-based program or an Internet-based program, anybody can listen to it. Interestingly enough, we have listeners and 152 countries the last time I checked. Indiana is still in the top five of the states that listen to the program, but is not numbers one, two, or three. We have listeners all over the US and all around the world.
DANNY WAYNE: We want to keep this going strong. The 200th episode is what we are in the middle of right now. We kind of looked back a little bit about the very beginning with your first podcast; three outstanding interviews have all been excellent interviews and content. If they’re interested in having a suggested interview, how do they get in touch with you?
WADE WINGLER: We are always looking for subjects or just to have on the show. We get though sometimes. You can send them to us via Twitter @INDATAProject or you can go to our website which is www.eastersealstech.com. There is a Contact Us button there. Or you can even call our listener line. The number is 317-721-7124. You can leave it was not there and might even show up on the show.
DANNY WAYNE: Is very talking about that you one episode, a couple of things that come to mind is in Indianapolis, Indiana, 200 laps around Indianapolis motor Speedway certainly can get you a checkered flag. The 200 Billboard has the top 200 albums each week. Also the game Monopoly, do you remember playing Monopoly as a kid growing up? Maybe you still played with her kids today.
WADE WINGLER: Monopoly, that’s free entertainment. We like to do that.
DANNY WAYNE: Anything free. When you pass Go, that’s $200. It’s the 200th episode of the officer did not update. It wouldn’t be possible without great folks like you.
What we want to do in this next segment, we want to pick a little bit. We want to open up the INDATA or the assistive technology hard drive and find some little radio bloopers.
***
WADE WINGLER: This is a quick excerpt from one of our fun times when we did a holiday show, and it includes Nicole Prieto and Scott Fogo.
NICOLE PRIETO: Oh, no, I like the original.
SCOTT FOGO: Can I say fudge?
WADE WINGLER: Sure.
SCOTT FOGO: Did you hear that they are thinking about —
NICOLE PRIETO: Just make sure I’m not [popping sound] popping anything.
SCOTT FOGO: Peeler.
NICOLE PRIETO: I’m going to make a whole rap about that peeler.
SCOTT FOGO: Puh-Puh-Puh-Peeler, dealing with the peeler.
NICOLE PRIETO: This has gone off the — I wish I’d taken off all next week.
WADE WINGLER: All right, here we go. This thing allows you to have a watch that you wear on your wrist, and it’s connected through the —
SCOTT FOGO: — I have no idea.
NICOLE PRIETO: Magic! It’s Christmas magic. It only works this time of year.
[Laughter]SCOTT FOGO: And do you want me to lede you back into that? It’s connected byyyyy
NICOLE PRIETO: Are we playing charades now?
SCOTT FOGO: Is it a wire? Is it a wire that connects it?
***
DANNY WAYNE: Wade, as we look back on some of those little audio snippets, it really was people having a lot of fun.
WADE WINGLER: We mostly due news here, and we are talking about a topic that always is about increasing independence of folks with disabilities, but we do get a little goofy. We have some fun especially with our holiday shows and some of our special episodes. We are having a lot of fun.
DANNY WAYNE: That’s what it’s all about. It’s entertainment, but yes you almost have to put that news hat on and say this is the news. Now I’m going to talk to the folks from Disney.
The show is available online www.eastersealstech.com.
When you talk about something, you kind of tease us to go to the website to get more information. The three shows that we mentioned that were highlight shows, do you think we could drop those back and in case someone missed those and wants to go back and expect them?
WADE WINGLER: Absolutely. I’ll put some things in the show notes so that the folks want to hear the Bob Heil interview or the Dan Williams interview or the Mongolian interview, they’ll all be in the show notes.
DANNY WAYNE: And as well, there is a lot of great information each week that you do. This is a weekly podcast. We are working on the 200th show. Wade, we have talked a lot about how the show got started, the interviews, the technology. As we sit in an immaculate room of resources to you, there is Internet, control boards, think a lot of people don’t see. Maybe they’ve seen some online pictures, but to keep this going cat there are some people behind the scenes that really had made this important. We are talking about Easter Seals Crossroads here in Indianapolis. When you went to them before gratuitous episode, I’m sure there was some conversation, but can we talk about them?
WADE WINGLER: Absolutely. I’d had to say and spell it a little bit because I know a lot of Internet radio podcast folks are working on less than a full studio. I’m fortunate. We are in a room that is dedicated to this. We have a control board. We have four chairs where people can set. We have baffles on the wall to help with the sound of it. There’s a lot of investment. I had to say I’m appreciative to the administered of folks at Easter Seals Crossroads. Jim Venta who was our CEO when this started. Patrick Sandy is our CEO now. They’ve all been very supportive. We’ve also benefited from the federal grant money that comes from the AT act that helps underwrite the cost. It’s nice to work in a place where there’s so much support.
DANNY WAYNE: And there really is. I had to tell just a quick story. This goes back to 1992. You came to one of the radio stations that I was working at. They were changing the technology and they had gone to touch screens with computer systems. This radio station in Terre Haute was run by touchscreen. Do you remember the story?
WADE WINGLER: I do. We are going to talk about your nose, aren’t we?
DANNY WAYNE: We are. What happened was I was on the air, and this was live at the time. I could not see what was coming up next. Every time I would lean up to the screen, my nose would hit the screen and fire the next element off. A wonderful guy at the time, Bill Cain, came in at the time and goes Dan, this is not going to work. We can’t keep doing this. I went, okay, okay. I thought well, why don’t I call Easter Seals Crossroads. They do a lot of technology things. Lo and behold, you came down to the radio station. I remember we talked about this, and you said I got an idea. What you think about putting some enlargement software on there? This is a DOS program. The registration people were like, we can’t do that right in the middle of being on air. Is that going to work. We can’t do that. So then you said you were going to do. We’re going to install the software. I’m going to come back on a Friday at the night. At 12:01 am, we’re going to launch the software with this registration. I can’t tell you what song played —
WADE WINGLER: It was In A Gadda Davida.
DANNY WAYNE: The 27 minute version. It was a rainy Friday night, midnight, we are standing there and we are looking out on Highway 41, all these people are driving up and down the highway and I’m thinking, I really hope this works. This is my career.
WADE WINGLER: The other thing is there was a power strip that had a broken prong or something on it, and they said if we are going to unplug and reboot the computer, but this new power strip and while you are at it because we haven’t rebooted this computer in two years or something.
DANNY WAYNE: When you do your presentations, and you do a lot of those across the state of Indiana, when you do your presentations, talk about sometimes less than $500 can move forward your vision for assistive technology. We hope that that message carries through with all of this podcast, the Assistive Technology Update. We are carrying the message. It’s up to you as an individual to do what you can do to make other individuals’ lives better.
WADE WINGLER: I can’t help but want to drive that point home. I think that’s one of the things we do here, just try to raise awareness. People need to hear about assistive technology at certain points in their lives. It is not relevant — people aren’t usually paying attention to this topic a whole lot. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard if I only knew about this stuff when it came up. That’s one of the goals we have here, to make sure that we had consistent, regular, updated content so that when people do reach out and try to find this information, they are getting it. It intersects their lives when they need it.
DANNY WAYNE: Wade Wingler, we look back at the 200 episodes of the Assistive Technology Update. Wait, thank you so much. We will see you again at 400.
WADE WINGLER: Danny, before you close out, I’m going to interrupt you and say thank you so much for making the trip a couple of hours here by car and spending some time with us. Thanks for knocking me out of my host chair and putting me in the guest chair and putting me in a different place and get this opportunity to reflect and visit with you. Have appreciated your friendship over the years, and I appreciate your taking the time to be here today.
DANNY WAYNE: The passion is here. Thank you very much. It’s the 200th episode of the Assistive Technology Update, have a good day.
WADE WINGLER: Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? Call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Looking for show notes from today’s show? Head on over to EasterSealstech.com. Shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject, or check us out on Facebook. That was your Assistance Technology Update. I’m Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana.