Assistive Tech Breakthroughs for the Blind With Sam Seavey 

Sam Seavey

Sam Seavey is the Creator and Host of The Blind Life, a YouTube channel helping people with blindness and low vision live more independently through technology. With more than 85,000 subscribers and 1,000 videos, he shares assistive technology reviews, tutorials, and accessibility tips. Sam also serves as the Assistive Technology Program Manager at the Bluegrass Council of the Blind, providing training and support while drawing on more than 30 years of lived and professional experience with vision loss and adaptive technology.

apple
spotify
amazon-music

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • [1:04] Sam Seavey’s path into content creation and assistive technology
  • [7:20] How Sam learned to embrace vision loss and stop hiding his disability
  • [14:02] Building a career around accessibility, education, consulting, and speaking
  • [19:55] Why emerging treatments are creating new hope for people with inherited retinal diseases
  • [20:28] Sam’s perspective on choosing assistive technology based on individual needs
  • [22:24] The growing role of AI in helping people who are blind or low vision navigate everyday life
  • [26:41] What the future of assistive technology could look like with robotics and smarter mobility tools

In this episode…

Assistive technology is making everyday tasks more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision. As new tools make it easier to read, navigate, and access visual information, which innovations are making the biggest difference?

Assistive technology expert Sam Seavey says the answer starts with the task, not the diagnosis, because different challenges require different tools. AI-powered smart glasses are especially promising, offering real-time help with reading menus, identifying signs, navigating airports, and interpreting visual information. Sam also points to robotics and smarter mobility tools as the next wave of innovation, while stressing the importance of realistic expectations and choosing technology that fits an individual’s needs. Ultimately, the best assistive technology is the kind that solves a practical problem and helps someone move through daily life with more confidence and independence.

In this episode of Heard & Empowered, Dean Thompson talks with Sam Seavey, Creator and Host of The Blind Life, about breakthroughs in assistive technology for people who are blind or have low vision. Sam explores AI smart glasses, task-based tech choices, and emerging robotics. He also shares how adaptability, continuous learning, and embracing vision loss can create new opportunities.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Skills Spotlight:

Sam highlights five essential skills for navigating work and daily life with vision loss:

  • Technology Fluency: Becoming comfortable with assistive technology and using it as a practical tool for work and independence
  • Problem-Solving: Finding creative ways around barriers and developing solutions when standard approaches do not work
  • Systems Thinking: Creating repeatable routines and processes that reduce frustration and make tasks easier to manage
  • Self-Acceptance: “Leaning into” vision loss instead of spending energy trying to hide it, which Sam says opened new opportunities
  • Realistic Evaluation: Looking at both the pros and cons of assistive technology rather than expecting any tool to be perfect

Explore training programs designed to strengthen these skills at NSITE-U.

Quotable Moments:

  • “There was a weight lifted off my shoulders and life became easier, and opportunities started to open up.”
  • “For the first time in my life, I can say that there’s real hope.”
  • “I think AI will be one of those breakthroughs in assistive technology just because it’s so helpful in so many ways.”
  • “You know, there’s, there’s a tool for every situation.”
  • “I’m always learning. I’m always like, okay, looking at it, picking it apart, okay, I like this.”

Action Steps:

  1. Match assistive technology to the specific task: Understanding exactly what you need to accomplish makes it easier to choose tools that genuinely improve independence.
  2. Explore AI-powered accessibility tools: Smart glasses and similar devices can help you read signs, interpret menus, navigate spaces, and access visual information in real time.
  3. Build repeatable systems around daily challenges: Creating reliable routines and workflows can reduce frustration and make complex tasks more manageable.
  4. Embrace adaptability instead of hiding limitations: Leaning into the tools and strategies that help you can conserve energy and open new opportunities.
  5. Keep learning and improving your approach: Continually evaluating what works, what does not, and what can be better helps strengthen both personal and professional growth.

Sponsor for this episode:

This episode is sponsored by National Industries for the Blind (NIB), the nation’s largest employment resource for and employer of people who are blind, low vision, or visually impaired. NIB creates opportunities for people who are blind to become wage earners and taxpayers, reducing their reliance on government support and increasing engagement with their communities. Learn more about their impact at NIB.org.

This episode is also brought to you by NSITE, the premier organization dedicated to connecting professionals who are blind, low-vision, or visually impaired with career opportunities. Whether you’re an employer seeking talented individuals or a job seeker ready to take the next step, NSITE provides the resources and support to help you succeed. Learn more and explore opportunities at NSITE.org.

Powered by Rise25 Podcast Production Company

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:01

Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Heard & Empowered podcast, the podcast for the Working Blind, sponsored by the National Industries for the Blind. I’m your host, Dean Thompson. This podcast is about information. Hopefully you’ll get a lot from this and hopefully it’ll help.

Now our guest today is Sam Seavey. And usually at this point of the podcast, I ask the person where they work, but as I recall, Sam, you work for Sam Seavey, do you not?

Sam Seavey: 00:23

I do, yes.

Dean Thompson: 00:24

What do you do for him? You please.

Sam Seavey: 00:27

I do everything he’s a bit of a taskmaster, but so I am. Yeah, well, I do have an actual day job and we can talk about that. But my what I do most of the time is creating content online. I’m an assistive technology product reviewer, I guess would be the simplest way to describe me. And I’ve been creating content on social media for over a decade now.

Dean Thompson: 00:55

Oh, what brought you to that? I mean, I assume you’ve worked for other folks before you worked for yourself, what was the give me the process there.

Sam Seavey: 01:04

Yeah. Well, I, it kind of as most things, it really started out as just out of boredom. I didn’t have anything else to do. So let me try this. No, but I am 20 I’d say 2010 I was I had been a stay at home dad.

My wife and I, we had our daughter and decided that my wife works in the medical field. So she was, you know, had a way better job than I did at the time. And so she, we decided that I would be the stay at home dad and did that for many years until my daughter started to go to school. And then, you know, I found myself just sitting at home alone a lot and bored and wanting something to do, so I. Long story short, and I’m happy to go into more detail, but I got connected making videos for a YouTube channel based out of Texas, making videos about Android phones, Android tablets.

You your Android was. Smartphones were kind of new and really hot at the time. And so I was teaching people how to, quote unquote, hack their Android phones and unlock all the potential that Android has. And so during this time of making these videos for about 2 or 3 years, I grew the channel up to about ten 000 subscribers, which early days of YouTube. That was pretty good numbers.

And I never talked about being visually impaired, though, you know, that wasn’t the goal of the channel. So I never mentioned it. But every now and then I would make a video about some kind of adaptive app I was using on my phone or some setting I had set to make my phone easier to use, and I got a lot of positive feedback from people in the community based on those videos. And so it kind of got me thinking that maybe there was a need on YouTube for information about assistive technology or accessible apps, things like that. And then in 2013, I had wrapped up working for this company and was once again bored and decided to start my own channel based on a real quick search I did on YouTube for Stargardt’s Disease, which is what I have and did not find much information out there at all about that particular vision impairment or really living with low vision in general.

And so once again, I thought, well, maybe there’s, there’s a need or at least an area that I could kind of fit into. And so I created my own channel in 2013 and started making my own videos. And it’s kind of gone crazy ever since.

Dean Thompson: 03:47

How do folks find that channel? What’s the keywords?

Sam Seavey: 03:51

So currently the name is The Blind Life. That’s not what it was when I started, but it it has morphed over the years and it’s currently The Blind Life. And literally, if you Google The Blind Life, you’ll find me. That’s the benefit of being on social media for over a decade. You kind of saturate the market.

And so it’s super easy to find. But I’m on YouTube at The Blind Life, on YouTube at The Blind Life on TikTok, at The Blind Life Sam on Facebook, Instagram, all of those. And the, the, the website is theblindlife.net.

Dean Thompson: 04:27

Very cool. We’ll go into some of that a little bit later on. But tell us about Stargardt’s. How did you when did you find out you had Stargardt’s and what did it do and what does it mean to you now?

Sam Seavey: 04:37

Yeah, I was, I was 11 when I was diagnosed and I have a sister. My sister and I were the only two kids in the family, and she is about 2 or 3 years old or two and a half, three years older. And she was diagnosed first. So the after her diagnosis, which this was mid 80s, by the way, and in North Carolina, you know, knowing now what I know about stargardt’s and inherited retinal conditions just in general, surprising that we got a diagnosis of Stargardt’s at all way back then. And very quickly it seemed.

But once she was diagnosed, I think the doctors and the parents thought, well, let’s we better keep an eye on Sam because this, you know, has the potential to run in the family. And then sure enough, yeah, a couple years later, I was diagnosed at age 11. I don’t remember what prompted it. I’m sure like for most of us, it was seeing a little bit of the distortion when I was trying to read the chalkboard, or maybe even something popped up during a routine school eye examination, you know, in the cafeteria, like we would always do. But but yeah, I was diagnosed and I remember being very scared at the time, getting diagnosed and not really understanding what was going on.

Not like I was scared about the future and all this. I just didn’t understand why was I here? What you know, why was I, why am I sitting in this room in the dark with these painful drops in my eyes and doing all these tests? And you know, why? Why is the doctor doing this?

And why are my parents letting the doctor do this? A lot of confusion. And, you know, I think once again, it just goes back to this was the 80s. They, you know, the doctors definitely weren’t talking to the kids, explaining what was going on. They probably were barely explaining anything to the parents at the time.

Dean Thompson: 06:33

But then talk to adults. I know what you’re saying. Yes.

Sam Seavey: 06:37

Yeah, yeah yeah. And then and then growing up, you know, going through school, I was always, I didn’t really it didn’t really affect me that much in the fact that I was so oblivious. I, I really just wanted to go home and play, you know, get on my bike and play with my friends and, and go swimming in the pool. I really didn’t care about anything else that was going on in And if it wasn’t happening outside of my little tiny bubble. It really didn’t affect me.

And yeah, I just it wasn’t until much later. You know, in high school, that’s where it really kind of was, was difficult.

Dean Thompson: 07:11

When did you understand or accept that this a, it’s not going to get better. And this is with me for life. It’s going to affect me. When did that hit you?

Sam Seavey: 07:20

I, gosh, I was, I was probably in my early 30s before that finally sunk in because, you know, like most of us living with, with low vision, especially if, if we’re kind of riding that fence between, you know, we can pass for fully sighted, but we’re really not, we struggle, but we, we fake it and we pretend we mask. You know, we all do that, especially going through school. We don’t want to be different. We don’t want to stand out. We want to blend in.

So I fought it tooth and nail, you know, just just pretending, trying to pretend to be quote unquote normal like everyone else. And it wasn’t until. And I managed. But it wasn’t until I was dating my now wife and going out. And, you know, I’m, I’m, we’re like at a restaurant and I’m trying to read the menu and I’m using a magnifier to read the menu.

And I’m kind of looking around like, okay, nobody’s looking in my direction. Okay, okay, look. And then I try to read a couple lines on the menu with the magnifier, and then I put it down and I’m like, okay, nobody saw that. We’re good, we’re good, we’re all good. And then my wife was just like, or my girlfriend at the time was like, knock it off.

You are being ridiculous. She’s like, first of all, you’re not fooling anybody, all right? You’re not that good of an actor. And it’s just, it’s just ridiculous. And so, you know, based on that very tough love and I do appreciate the tough love.

It just, you know, finally just dawned on me that, yeah, I’m being ridiculous and I’m exerting all of this energy to pretend to be something I’m clearly not. And once I stopped doing that, and once I leaned into it as a good friend of mine, Matt Philipenko says, lean into it. There was a weight lifted off my shoulders and life became easier and opportunities started to open up. And it just all around was better.

Dean Thompson: 09:17

How many times have you heard the phrase but you don’t look blind?

Sam Seavey: 09:20

Oh yeah, yeah, but you don’t look blind. And it’s like, okay, what does blind look like? Or how many fingers am I holding up? That’s the other one, right?

Dean Thompson: 09:27

What was that?

Sam Seavey: 09:28

How many fingers am I holding up? That’s what everybody says.

Dean Thompson: 09:31

Oh, yeah, of course I love that. Yeah. So you stay at home, dad, you start doing videos. First off, tell us how a blind guy does videos, please.

Sam Seavey: 09:43

Well, a lot of trial and error, a lot of repetition, a lot of adaptive equipment, a lot of assistive technology, a lot of determination. Just like we do everything. I have a lot of I use a lot of equipment magnifiers. My phone. With the assistive technology built into my phone, the assistive technology built into my computer.

I am a Sony shooter and Sony is amazing because Sony cameras actually have accessibility built into them. They’re the only camera company putting accessibility into their cameras that I know of. I guess I disclaimer that I know of, but I have done the research. And so, you know, my, my Sony camera has a built in screen reader that can read the menu to me, it has AI built into it. So it can do auto framing.

So I don’t have to necessarily worry if I’m centered in the frame. The camera can do that for me. Just a ton of accessibility built in to the cameras. And then and then systems. I’ve created systems over the years that are repeatable and help mitigate the frustrations that we run into.

And I run into trying to create content.

Dean Thompson: 10:59

What did you train to do when you were younger? What did you want to be when you grew up? When you were, when you were a kid?

Sam Seavey: 11:04

Well, you know, growing up in the 80s, of course, I wanted to be an archaeologist like Indiana Jones. Okay. And then I, I then later on, I realized, okay, it’s not as exciting as he makes it look. For when I was really young, though, I wanted to be funny enough. I wanted to be a truck driver.

I wanted to be like a long haul truck driver. I thought that would be so cool. You know, I could just drive. And then when I get tired, I just pull over and I’ve got a bed right here. And, you know, based on the 80s movies, I could have a chimpanzee riding with me or an orangutan or, you know.

Yeah, like that looks awesome.

Dean Thompson: 11:42

Had you ever driven before with your in-laws?

Sam Seavey: 11:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, my my dad once. I’m originally from North Carolina and we went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My dad owned a Jeep and so we went out on the beach and he taught me how to drive a stick shift, and I almost burned out the clutch many, many times. And then I was now not legally, I should say, disclaimer, not legally. And, you know, don’t do as I do.

Do as I say. Don’t don’t try.

Dean Thompson: 12:14

Exactly.

Sam Seavey: 12:16

But I anytime somebody would let me drive, I’d be like, yeah, let me drive. I’d love to. And I was actually, the last time I really drove a car was with my now wife as my girlfriend. And I scared her to death. And it scared me.

And so I haven’t. I haven’t tried it since then.

Dean Thompson: 12:33

I keep having this vision of going to the salt flats someday, you know? Cutting loose, but I haven’t, I haven’t yet done that.

Sam Seavey: 12:39

Yeah, yeah. When I was, when I was a, my parents were awesome. My parents were always, you know, whatever, whatever we need to do for these kids, whatever they need, let’s do it. Which I’ve totally thanked them for. And it really made me a much more well-adjusted blind person as an adult.

But when I turned 16, I asked him if I could get a moped, because in North Carolina, you didn’t need a license to drive a moped under a certain CC engine level. And as long as you were 16. And they said, yeah, sure. And so I owned mopeds up until my early 20s. And so that really was my freedom.

I was all over the city on that moped. And once again, I created systems to get around dealing with like traffic lights. And I would take back roads and, you know, you only take right turns. So you’re never turning left against traffic. So but it was a lot of fun.

Dean Thompson: 13:35

How much vision do you have? Can you quantitatively tell what your level of sight is now at this age?

Sam Seavey: 13:41

Yeah, my acuity is the last time I had it checked. My acuity is 2400 in my left eye, which is my dominant eye and 2800 in my right. So not great.

Dean Thompson: 13:53

Not great indeed. Yeah. So working for Sam. How does Sam pay you? Is there a living in what you’re doing?

I guess the short, short version of the question.

Sam Seavey: 14:02

Yes. Yeah. If you’re on social media long enough, you, you you can start to earn earn some, some money. So I get money from YouTube creating, creating YouTube videos from Google actually. But the thing about being on social media, you can’t just rely on that.

You have to have multiple income streams. So I do sponsored content with companies. Usually assistive technology companies will will pay me to make videos. I sell merchandise through my YouTube channel. So selling on Amazon and Teespring, I also do consulting off the record consulting or you know, where I company will send me maybe, maybe a prototype of a device and I will test it, put it through its its paces, and then report back to them on my, my thoughts and my findings.

I do training so someone can hire me to do training, assistive technology training. And then probably the thing I’ve been doing the most lately is speaking, public speaking, presenting, traveling all over the country, all over the world, presenting. And so that’s been a lot of fun too.

Dean Thompson: 15:13

Very cool. But you said you also have a day job. Tell us about that, please.

Sam Seavey: 15:17

Yeah, yeah. So I actually, I practice what I preach. I’m an assistive technology program manager at a nonprofit. So I mostly working with seniors, losing vision later in life, helping them navigate those, those rocky waters of low vision when they know nothing about it. And so all the stuff I talk about on my YouTube channel and my social media content, I actually am working with clients two days a week.

I, I say I, I work two days a week in the office and the other seven days a week is creating content.

Dean Thompson: 15:54

Gotcha. It’s much more difficult for those folks losing their vision later in life, though. Don’t you agree?

Sam Seavey: 16:00

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, those of us who we either were born visually impaired or lost it early on, we have it much better, in my opinion. You know, it’s it’s kind of that old like, like the song. Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?

I think it would be much more difficult if I had had a whole life of full sight and driving and all of this, and then lose it later on. You know, the grieving process is much harder because they’ve lost much more. Plus, you know, kids, we just adapt a lot better. I think, you know, when you’re younger.

Dean Thompson: 16:40

The grieving process is a way of putting it. Have you. Do you ever grieve about the fact you don’t see as well as the average bear?

Sam Seavey: 16:47

No, I don’t grieve just because, like I said, I’m going on 49 years now. Being visually impaired. So no, I don’t grieve, but I absolutely have those bad I don’t have bad days. I have bad moments. You know, it’s it’s like when I’m I’m just rushing around and and I just want to read this, but oh, my magnifier is upstairs.

I gotta run all the way upstairs to get my magnifier just to read this stupid little thing, you know, and that’s, that’s the times I, I have a small little pity party. Like it’s not fair, it’s not fair. And then I’m like, okay, just go get your magnifier and move on, you know, deal with it.

Dean Thompson: 17:23

Totally identify me. I’ll drop a bottle cap the other day. Oh, it’s down there someplace. Begin to feel for it. And I know what you’re going through, I really do.

Sam Seavey: 17:30

Yeah.

Dean Thompson: 17:32

When did you realize, I guess I’ve asked this, haven’t I? Did you ever imagine it would get better? Did you think it’d be surgery? It would come along. Did you ever think that might be a possibility during your lifetime?

Sam Seavey: 17:44

Well, yes, because the problem was and I’ve I’ve spoken with many, many people who who can relate to this. The problem is that ever since diagnosis in the 80s, we were told, oh, don’t worry, there’s going to be a cure. There’s going to be a cure right around the corner. There’ll be a cure. Just wait and it get, you know, you hear that so long that you kind of get desensitized and you’re like, there’s there’s never going to be a cure.

It’s kind of like flying cars and hoverboards. You know, we were promised that back in the 80s and it’s like still waiting people. But. My channel for years and years and years, probably a decade was just about assistive technology was about adapting. It was about thriving with vision loss.

I was teaching people how to live their best blind life. I never talked about the clinical side, the medical side treatment. I never talked about it because that wasn’t even on my radar. Yeah. Because once again, you know, hearing that their whole our whole lives and getting jaded.

But I can say that over the last year, couple of years, I’ve been working very closely with the Foundation Fighting Blindness and I’ve been attending the conferences, and I partnered with the Foundation to put on the Stargardt’s summit with The Carroll Center for The Blind up in Boston the last two years in a row. And doing all of this and becoming more aware of what is actually going on with the clinical trials and treatments and all of that. It’s an exciting time. For the first time in my life, I can say that that there’s real hope. I mean, we have one proven FDA approved clinical treatment, excuse me, for inherited retinal disease.

And they say within, you know, the next ten years, we could have well over a dozen FDA approved treatments. There are 60 trials going on right now. It’s kind of incredible.

Dean Thompson: 19:42

It’s coming. In other words, yeah.

Sam Seavey: 19:44

Yeah.

Dean Thompson: 19:46

When you talk to okay, do you do much mentoring at all? Do you find people as young as you might have been when you first hit this? And do you talk to them and do you help them?

Sam Seavey: 19:55

I do. In a roundabout way, I’ve got plenty of videos about. I’ve got a video called What Comes Next? You know, it’s it’s you’ve just been diagnosed or your child has just been diagnosed. What comes next?

And I talk a lot about my experience. And I, you know, I, I try to mentor without officially being a mentor, if that makes sense.

Dean Thompson: 20:17

It does indeed. Let’s talk specifics. Can you recommend or suggest things in the accessibility world today that people listen to this might want to consider? They haven’t, haven’t, may not even heard about.

Sam Seavey: 20:28

Oh, absolutely. And that’s probably one of my the biggest questions I get. The problem I run into, because the question is always, I have X vision impairment, what’s going to work for me? And my answer is always, I have no idea. I have no idea.

You got to be specific. I need more specifics because assistive technology is very task dependent. You know what I use to read the newspaper is not going to work for watching television necessarily, or it’s not going to help me find the empty counter in the Starbucks. So we need specifics. You know, there’s, there’s a there’s a tool for every situation.

Now, some of these that have come out recently that tend to be Swiss Army knife devices that work really, really well for a lot of situations. I would say anything using AI, AI is kind of the hot new thing right now in the world, and it’s one of the best things that’s happened to assistive technology in a long time. I’ll, I’ll go on record and say that I think that when people look back at the history of assistive technology, there will be some milestones, there will be some breakthroughs. And, you know, like Louis Braille creating Braille, Kurzweil working on text to speech. But I think AI will be one of those breakthroughs in assistive technology just because it’s so helpful in so many ways.

It’s like endless how helpful it can be. And if somebody is wanting to get started in there, probably the hottest thing right now are the AI powered smart glasses in the blind community. You’ve got the meta glasses, you’ve got things like EchoVision and more coming out all the time.

Dean Thompson: 22:21

Do you use meta glasses or something like that?

Sam Seavey: 22:24

I do, yeah, yeah, I’ve got actually, I’ve got mine sitting on the desk right next to me here. I use I use them of course for training. I show them, demonstrate them quite a bit, but I use them a lot when I travel. Like I said, I travel all the time. And with Stargardt’s, you know, we don’t have central vision, we have peripherals.

So because we have peripheral, we’re pretty good at moving around in, in space. We’re navigating, we can we can follow the hallway. We’re not going to bump into things generally, but where we struggle is reading detail, vision. So reading signs. Reading the the plane ticket, reading the gate numbers, things like that.

And so Metta comes in very, very handy for that. Being able to read things like that when I’m traveling.

Dean Thompson: 23:10

Tell the audience about them. What do the glasses do for they talk to you. They send signals. They hum to you. What’s what’s the process?

Sam Seavey: 23:17

All of the above. Yes. So the glasses essentially they act as at their. At their core, they’re just Bluetooth headsets that connect to your phone. But they also have a camera built in.

And so that’s and then they have this meta AI. And I should say this is kind of the general for all of these different AI powered smart glasses, they all function basically the same, but they all have the AI built in, and they can use that camera to see what’s in front of you, and you can ask questions and get responses based on what the camera sees. So, and it’s all audio. It’s not non-visual, at least for these smart glasses. The the ones that we’re talking about here.

So I can say, all right, you know, what does this say. I’m holding something. What does it say? And it’ll say, oh it looks like you’re holding a menu. It looks like they have burgers and sandwiches.

And then I can ask specific questions. Okay. What kind of burgers do they have? Do they have any burgers with jalapenos? And it will answer that specific question.

If I’m in the airport and I’m standing back, this is a common issue that a lot of us face. I can tell that those two doors over there are bathrooms. I can hear the air dryer coming out, the toilets flushing. There’s people going in and out, but I can’t tell which is the men’s, which is the women’s is which.

Dean Thompson: 24:38

Yes.

Sam Seavey: 24:38

Yeah. So I can sit back and I could just ask the AI, is the men’s room on the left or the right? Oh, the men’s room is on the left. Boom. Thank you.

I’m out. You know.

Dean Thompson: 24:52

Whatever.

Sam Seavey: 24:53

Yeah, yeah. It just an endless ways that these days can help you. I’ve got a buddy who he said he went into a Starbucks once and there were several lines and he said, okay. He asked his glasses, which line should I get into? Which one do you think would be the fastest?

And the AI said, well, you know, based on the average time it takes for a line to move in a Starbucks and the number of people in each of these lines, I think you should get in the line on the left, just like it’s, it’s really up to your imagination on how these things can be helpful.

Dean Thompson: 25:27

It’s I’ve talked to a few accessibility experts in quotes. You’re either 100% for them or you hate them. The medical acid, you’re obviously a big proponent.

Sam Seavey: 25:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see, so we as any, anyone that works with assistive technology, especially if you review assistive technology like I do, I’ve been doing it so long that I, I can’t help but look at the pros and the cons. You know, some people get all excited about a new device and they kind of glaze over and they can’t see the negatives to it. But I cannot help to do that. But at the same time, you know, I have realistic expectations. Is it perfect?

No, of course not. The battery life is is pretty much garbage. You know, it might be difficult to hear in loud situations. The AI is not always correct. Correct.

Obviously, because maybe the lighting is too dark. It can’t see very well. Maybe you it’s usually user error. Maybe you didn’t take a good picture. So I understand that it’s not 100% perfect, but at the same time, it’s still one of the best things we have currently.

Dean Thompson: 26:37

What else is new? What else can you discuss or recommend?

Sam Seavey: 26:41

Well, if you are really into the new technology, you got to keep your eye on robotics. I think that is the next big thing in our world, we’re already seeing robot guide dogs like the glide from the company. Glidance. It’s essentially a robot guide dog that will help guide you through busy areas and navigate to where you’re going. We have smart canes that can detect obstacles in front of you and have AI built into them and can do turn by turn navigation and, and all of these types of things.

One of the things that’s really exciting me though, is the progress, the current progress of bipedal robot technology. So a lot of these companies are making these bipedal robots, robots that walk around humanoid robots that walk around, and many of them have designs on these being used in homes for cooking, cleaning, you know, managing household things. But some of them also have talked about using these robots in healthcare, helping take care as caregivers, taking care of people with Alzheimer’s, people with Parkinson’s. And so that, you know, of course, gets me thinking, what about robots for the blind? You know, instead of having a guide dog or having a cane, I have a robot that has some type of accessory attached where I could hold on to it and it guides me around.

And when you know, it can take me right up to the front door of the Starbucks, we go in, it can take me right to the counter. It can scan the menu for me. It know, maybe it even knows my favorite drinks and it can order for me. It can take me to the empty, empty chair and basically whatever I need, you drop that bottle cap, that robot can find it for you.

Dean Thompson: 28:44

Very cool, very cool. What are we not hitting on? You want to talk? You got a, hopefully a fairly decent sized audience. What do you want to say to folks who are listening to this and hearing you for the first time, Sam.

Sam Seavey: 28:54

Well, my. If anybody is interested in and wants to learn more, definitely look. Look me up, especially on YouTube. I have over a thousand videos. I think it’s over 1100 videos now, and I only make content for the blind community, all levels of vision impairment.

So if you are looking for anything having to do with vision loss, chances are very, very good that I have a video on that topic. And you can also, if you’re not into YouTube, a lot of people aren’t. I have a podcast also. The Blind Life podcast is available on most of your major podcast platforms.

Dean Thompson: 29:32

You strike me as a very skillful guy and skills and interesting word. What skills do you think you have? Do you know you have that helped you overcome this and become successful as a blind person?

Sam Seavey: 29:42

Well, I think probably the most important one, obviously, you know, being well versed with technology is kind of a given you in this day and age. You have to be comfortable with technology to some degree, but I, I think more importantly, the skill that we, anybody who’s lived with vision loss long enough just naturally develops is that determination to not let it stop you from doing what you want to do. And we, I mean, we run into that all the time being, being. Thinking outside of the box, you know, being adaptive, all of those, which incidentally, are fantastic traits that employers are looking for. And that’s why I think that we are the best because we do that on a daily basis, but never being satisfied.

That’s one thing. You know, people always say, and I’m very shattered and honored to hear this, but people always say, oh, you know, your content is so professional, it looks so good. And that’s simply because I’ve never I’m never satisfied with it. I’m always thinking, how can I make it better? You know, even knowing that and people have said this many times, you know, why do you worry about it?

Why do you care so much how your videos look? You’re making content for people that most likely can’t see it or can’t see it well enough to appreciate it. And it just goes back to because I’m because I know it can be better and I’m not satisfied with it, and I want to make it the absolute best it can be. So I’m always striving to do that. I’m always learning.

I’m always like, okay, looking at it, picking it apart, okay, I like this. I don’t like this. How can I make this better? And that has benefited me in everything I’ve done, all my different jobs, every, you know, every aspect of my career is just trying to make it better.

Dean Thompson: 31:49

That’s wonderful. Sam. One more time. Run down how we find you all your various platforms so folks maybe can take some notes.

Sam Seavey: 31:56

Absolutely. Well, once again, it’s as easy as googling The Blind Life. The Blind Life. You can also find everything from my website. So theblindlife.net and of course my main home is on YouTube. So youtube.com/@theblindlife.

Dean Thompson: 32:17

Very cool. Sam, this has been more than delightful and you are obviously a stellar member of the Working blind, and I appreciate your time today.

Sam Seavey: 32:24

Yeah. My pleasure Dean. Thanks.

Dean Thompson: 32:26

Thank you.

Ricky Howey: 32:28

Hey listeners, my name is Ricky Howey and I’m with NSITE. NSITE is a non-profit consultancy that helps to connect talented people who are blind, low vision, or visually impaired with career training and great jobs. In this episode, our guests discuss adapting to blindness, motivation, accessibility, and tech and tech tools. And guess what? NSITE offers trainings that complement skills like these.

So check out the following programs. Promote. Both teach how to navigate Microsoft Office using assistive technology. We also have various IT programs from the Google Professional certificates to virtual IT courses. Check us out at nsite.org.

That’s nsite.org. To take the next steps to the career of your dreams.

Outro: 33:28

Thank you for listening to the Heard & Empowered podcast. Please make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. For more information, visit. heardandempowered.org. That’s heardandempowered.org.

Join us again next time.

by