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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

Auteur(s): Dr. Kirk Adams PhD
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 Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams is a compelling podcast series that brings listeners into the world of accessibility, leadership, and social change through the lens of one of the most influential voices in blindness advocacy. Dr. Kirk Adams, former President and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind and a lifelong champion for the rights of people with visual impairments, hosts this insightful and inspiring program.2024 Politique Économie
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  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sucheta Narang, Founder, Accessible World, Creator, Access Trader

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sucheta Narang, Founder, Accessible World, Creator, Access Trader
    Feb 27 2026
    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Sucheta Narang, Founder, Accessible World, Creator, Access Trader https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-02-27-2026/ In this insightful episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams welcomes Sucheta Narang, founder of Accessible World and creator of Access Trader, an accessible, screen-reader-compatible trading assistant, into a wide-ranging conversation about independence, inclusion, and financial empowerment. Born blind in a traditional North Indian family, Sucheta describes learning early that "waiting for a fix" wasn't an option, then charts a path through mainstream education, international disability work in India and the UK, and corporate roles where she embedded accessibility at scale, including work with Wipro, Google (Chrome team), and Adobe. Sucheta explains that losing her job became the unexpected catalyst for building Access Trader: when she tried to diversify her investments, advisors turned her away, and the trading world's dashboards and charts proved overwhelmingly visual, forcing her to confront how much "financial independence" still relies on sighted assistance. She shares how she used AI to translate visual market data into structured descriptions her screen reader could interpret, turning a personal workaround into a platform designed "by and for" blind users, with benefits even for sighted beginners who feel overwhelmed by dense trading interfaces. Dr. Adams, drawing on his own background as a former securities broker, highlights the privacy and dignity at stake, and Sucheta closes with an invitation to sign up for early access and see Access Trader's next steps, including a planned CSUN presentation. TRANSCRIPT: Advertisement: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. Advertisement: I can't see it. Advertisement: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of podcasts with Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today I have a really interesting and amazing guest. Sucheta Narang is here. She's the founder of Accessible World and creator of Access Trader, which is the first accessible screen reader compatible trader trading assistant. So we're talking about securities and trading securities here. So say say hello. Sucheta. Sucheta Narang: Hi. Sucheta Narang: Everyone. And thank you Doctor Adams, for inviting me here. It's a pleasure to meet you. Before I actually could you. How do I address you? Is it like Doctor Adams or Doctor Kirk? Dr. Kirk Adams: Kirk. That's fine. Sucheta Narang: Okay. Thanks. Kirk. Yeah. Nice to meet you. Dr. Kirk Adams: The doctor title comes in handy in certain circumstances, but Sucheta Narang: Sure. I didn't want to offend you. Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a blind person. Have been since age five. My retinas detached, went to a school for blind kids. First, second and third grade. Then on through elementary. Middle school. High school. Undergrad. Master's, PhD. I was the only blind student in all of my in all of my schools. After I left the school for the blind. Sucheta Narang: Wow. Dr. Kirk Adams: But yeah, but for the first ten years out of college, I was actually a licensed securities broker. I worked for a small local brokerage firm here in Seattle that mostly underwrote tax free municipal bonds. So I was involved in underwriting new issues of tax free municipal bonds. But I also had a series seven securities license, and I did sell other securities, but I was certainly not a trader. I was a buy and holder, but I have I have been a little bit in that world. And so when I met you, I was just so, so interested in ...
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    34 min
  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mike Calvo, CEO, Pneuma Solutions

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mike Calvo, CEO, Pneuma Solutions
    Feb 19 2026
    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mike Calvo, CEO, Pneuma Solutions https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-02-19-2026/ In this candid episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams sits down with accessibility entrepreneur Mike Calvo, co-founder of Pneuma Solutions, for a wide-ranging conversation that blends personal journey with big-picture systems change. Calvo shares how he navigated vision loss, a nontraditional education and work path, and early tech experimentation to become a longtime "for us, by us" builder in the blindness tech ecosystem, connecting the dots from early assistive tech days to his groundbreaking work at Serotek (including pioneering web-based access tools) and ultimately to launching Pneuma. The heart of the episode centers on the urgent, practical stakes of ADA Title II digital accessibility: what the rule means for public entities, why inaccessible PDFs and online records still block equal access, and how the coming compliance deadlines are forcing agencies to confront massive backlogs. Calvo explains why traditional document remediation is slow and expensive, then describes how Pneuma's tools, including Scribe for Documents and AI-assisted "augmented" workflows, aim to remediate content at scale, fast enough to meet real-world demand. Along the way, Adams and Calvo trade grounded optimism (and healthy skepticism) about AI's accelerating impact for blind users, and they close with a call for advocacy and practical action, pushing listeners to use the law, ask hard questions, and insist that access be treated as a right, not a favor. TRANSCRIPT: Advertisement: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. Advertisement: I can't see it. Advertisement: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of podcast by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington, and talking to an incredible guest who I am really enjoying getting to know who is about as far away in the United States as he could get. Mike Calvo. Hi, Mike. Mike Calvo: Hello there from sunny Miami. Don't get mad. Dr. Kirk Adams: There you go. There you go. And Mike is co-founder of Pneuma Solutions, which is a company that's really leading the way, producing accessible digital content. We'll we'll get into that in a in a moment. For those of you who don't know me again, I'm Kirk Adams. I am a blind person, have been since age five, and my retina is detached and became blind very suddenly. Went to a school for blind children for first, second and third grade and got my blindness skills down solid like a rock and sink or swim into public school. Then all the way on through was the only blind student in all the schools I attended. After the Oregon State School for the blind, I got a degree in economics, spent ten years in banking and finance. I moved into the nonprofit sector went back to school, got a master's in not for profit leadership. And after lots of twists and turns was fortunate to become the president and CEO of The Lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle, where I worked alongside 250 other blind and deaf blind people in a variety of businesses, including aerospace, manufacturing, making parts for all the Boeing aircraft, and then was recruited to join the board of the American Foundation for the blind, Helen Keller's organization. And again, had had the terrific honor of being the president and CEO of AFB. And you know, when we moved to New York City in May of 2016, if I, if I was having a rough day and needed a shot of inspiration, I could walk down the hall and sit at Helen Keller's desk and play with her typewriter, which was an awesome feeling. Dr. Kirk ...
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    52 min
  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mark Miller, Founder, CEO, Inclusion Impact Accessibility

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mark Miller, Founder, CEO, Inclusion Impact Accessibility
    Feb 12 2026
    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Mark Miller, Founder, CEO, Inclusion Impact Accessiblity https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-02-12-2026/ In this mission-driven episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Kirk Adams sits down with Mark Miller, Founder and CEO of Inclusion Impact Accessibility, for a wide-ranging conversation on what it takes to move accessibility from a one-time "fix" to a durable organizational capability. Mark shares his 13-year path into digital accessibility, from a technology career to learning the craft under early industry pioneers, before helping build the field through work on accessibility maturity models and large-scale consulting, then returning to a "boutique" approach with his own firm so he can meet clients where they are and build pragmatic, customized roadmaps. Together, they unpack two core ideas leaders can act on immediately: accessibility maturity models (the step-by-step way organizations embed accessibility into policy, process, and the software development lifecycle so accessibility doesn't "fade" as websites and apps change) and "shift left" (building accessibility into requirements, design, and development, where it's cheaper and less risky, rather than scrambling after problems hit production). They also explore where AI could genuinely help (e.g., making content discovery easier for blind users and improving developer workflows) and where it can mislead, especially if organizations overtrust automation and skip the essential human testing that catches real-world barriers. TRANSCRIPT: Adverisement: This podcast brought to you by Pneuma Solutions. Advertisement: I can't see it. Adverisement: ADA Title II has a real compliance deadline. April 2026. Public entities are required to make their digital content accessible, including websites, PDFs, reports, applications, and public records. If a document cannot be read with a screen reader, it is not compliant and if it is not compliant, blind people are still being denied equal access. For a clear explanation of what the rule requires, visit www.title2.info. It's one of the leading resources explaining what agencies must do and when. This message is brought to you by Pneuma Solutions, we have remediated hundreds of thousands of pages in days, not months or years, aligned with WCAG 2 AA guidelines at a fraction of traditional costs. Accessibility isn't a privilege, it's a right. Now that you know, ask your agencies a simple question, are your documents actually accessible? Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: And welcome everybody to another episode of podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in sunny Seattle, Washington. Today my guest is Mark Miller, founder and CEO of Inclusion Impact accessibility. Hello, Mark. Mark Miller: Hello, Kirk. Dr. Kirk Adams: Nice to have you here. Mark and I met in person at the CSUN conference last March and had several really productive conversations, and I'm starting to get to know one another. And we have have a lot of similar philosophies and passions around inclusion and impact and accessibility. So for those of you who don't know me, I am the immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the blind. Prior to that, I was honored to have those same roles at the Lighthouse for the blind, Inc. here in Seattle. I am a blind person. My retina is detached. When I was in kindergarten. Became totally blind overnight. To a school for blind kids. First, second and third grade and got my blindness skills down. Rock solid braille cane travel. Today it'd be keyboarding, but then it was typing. So I learned how to type on a typewriter so I could go into public school and did that sink or swim into public school? Starting in fourth grade, I had a ten year career in banking and finance and then into the nonprofit sector. I do have a PhD in leadership and change from Antioch University. And my my professional academic careers have been devoted to creating opportunities for people who are blind and have other significant disabilities to thrive. And I was pleased to meet Mark and intersect with Mark, and had asked him to come on the podcast and talk about his his journey, how he how he got involved in accessibility and disability inclusion, his journey, up to this point and the founding of his company, Inclusion Impact Accessibility, where he's at now and his vision for the future. So, Mark, I'll hand the talking stick to you. I as as host of the podcast, I will reserve the right to pop in ...
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    41 min
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