Episode 10
Technology Is a Lifestyle Companion That Should Fully Support People Who Are Blind
David Schleppenbach, Tactile Solutions, President
David Schleppenbach produces a braille computer for people who need tactile or haptic input. He gives a quick tour of the product and manufacturing facility. As an instructor at Purdue University, he began supporting blind students by creating a better learning environment. This led to participating in the tech entrepreneurship program at Purdue and the start of his accessibility company.
Mentioned in this episode:
Info about Accessibility at Blink
Transcript
(dramatic music)
Speaker:- Hello, this is Digital Accessibility,
Speaker:The People Behind the Progress.
Speaker:I'm Joe Wilinski, the Creator and Host of this series,
Speaker:and as an accessibility professional myself,
Speaker:I find it very interesting as to how others
Speaker:have found their way into this profession.
Speaker:So let's meet one of those people right now
Speaker:and hear about their journey.
Speaker:(dramatic music resumes)
Speaker:All right, well, here we go with another episode,
Speaker:where I have the great opportunity
Speaker:to meet with an accessibility professional,
Speaker:and today, I am talking with David Schleppenbach.
Speaker:Hello, David, how are you today?
Speaker:- Doing great, Joe.
Speaker:Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today.
Speaker:- Yeah, it's good to have a chance to chat with you.
Speaker:I'm located in my home office of Vashon Island,
Speaker:which is near Blink's Seattle headquarters.
Speaker:Where are you talking to us from?
Speaker:- I'm coming today from Lafayette, Indiana,
Speaker:at our corporate headquarters and factory
Speaker:near Purdue University.
Speaker:- All right, well, I've been there,
Speaker:been to campus.
Speaker:It's West Lafayette for the campus, right?
Speaker:- That's right, yeah,
Speaker:the two are separated by the Wabash River.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:Well, yeah, it's good to have a chance to chat with you,
Speaker:and probably the best place to start
Speaker:is if you'd talk a little bit about
Speaker:what you're involved with today.
Speaker:- No problem, and I appreciate that.
Speaker:My project that I'm working on right now
Speaker:involves a braille tablet computer
Speaker:for blind and visually impaired people,
Speaker:as well as people with other types
Speaker:of specialized disabilities
Speaker:that need tactile or haptic input.
Speaker:And, this is sort of an extension
Speaker:of work I've been doing for the past 25 to 30 years or so,
Speaker:to try to help teach people with disabilities
Speaker:topics like science and math
Speaker:and other advanced technical topics.
Speaker:- And so,
Speaker:with that type of work,
Speaker:can you talk a little bit
Speaker:about the technology that's involved
Speaker:and maybe something about what a day in the life
Speaker:or a week in the life is like for you?
Speaker:- Sure, no problem.
Speaker:To talk about the technology,
Speaker:probably the simplest thing I can do
Speaker:is just very quickly demonstrate it.
Speaker:So I'm just gonna flip my view here,
Speaker:and what you'll be seeing on my screen
Speaker:is the computer code that we have written
Speaker:to control the technology,
Speaker:and then here I have an example of the tablet product.
Speaker:And what we have here
Speaker:are actually four separate small tablets.
Speaker:These are each about the size and shape of an iPhone,
Speaker:and they connect together by Bluetooth to do various things.
Speaker:And in this case,
Speaker:I'm actually navigating through some menus, picking things,
Speaker:and I'll just pick a simple illustration,
Speaker:which is a screensaver,
Speaker:and this is a tactile bouncing ball screensaver,
Speaker:which just is the same thing as a screensaver would be
Speaker:for a TV or a phone.
Speaker:The idea is that we have thousands of pins
Speaker:that move up and down and make a tactile feeling
Speaker:that a user can feel with their fingers,
Speaker:and each one is like a pixel would be
Speaker:on a regular phone or tablet computer.
Speaker:So in a nutshell, that's exactly what we're doing.
Speaker:The reason that this is so difficult is,
Speaker:to make a dense object,
Speaker:that has all of these pixels that a blind person could feel,
Speaker:requires pushing the boundaries of physics,
Speaker:and manufacturing, and computer science.
Speaker:And we've had to really innovate in a lotta different areas
Speaker:to get to the point that we're located at,
Speaker:including building a high tech automated assembly factory,
Speaker:which I happen to be standing in right now.
Speaker:And if it's okay with you,
Speaker:I could very quickly show what that looks like.
Speaker:- Yeah, definitely, please do that.
Speaker:- All right, again, I'll flip the camera.
Speaker:And so, this is just an example
Speaker:of various pieces of equipment we have in our facility.
Speaker:And as an example of how this works,
Speaker:each of these individual components
Speaker:that go into this tablet device are small modules.
Speaker:Each module has the equivalent of 32 pixels,
Speaker:and these are assembled using a high tech assembly system,
Speaker:which is a series of robots
Speaker:that do automated robotic assembly.
Speaker:I'm showing a table now where this assembly is done.
Speaker:So the individual components are manufactured
Speaker:throughout the state of Indiana largely.
Speaker:95% of our components are either manufactured
Speaker:here in this facility or in our supply chain,
Speaker:which is spread throughout the state of Indiana.
Speaker:We have a few other US-based providers
Speaker:for the remaining parts.
Speaker:These individual components are then put together
Speaker:to create this tablet that I showed.
Speaker:And as an example,
Speaker:these modules basically snap onto a circuit board,
Speaker:and then from this circuit board,
Speaker:we have the ability to control
Speaker:how these pins move up and down,
Speaker:and that's what the user actually feels.
Speaker:So this is all done,
Speaker:from the modular assembly,
Speaker:all the way to the product assembly,
Speaker:for the end user.
Speaker:The reason we went this route is,
Speaker:when we came up with the basic idea,
Speaker:which dates back, interestingly enough,
Speaker:to over 25 years ago,
Speaker:the base technology wasn't there to do a project like this.
Speaker:So in addition to developing that base technology,
Speaker:we had to develop everything from that point forward.
Speaker:So we came up with the idea,
Speaker:then we had to develop the parts to make the thing work.
Speaker:We had to develop the robots to make the parts,
Speaker:the procedures to run the robots,
Speaker:then we had to develop the software
Speaker:to run the device, everything.
Speaker:So this has been a real odyssey, a real challenge,
Speaker:and I've been in the assistive technology field now
Speaker:for around 25 years,
Speaker:and this is by far the most technically challenging project
Speaker:I've ever been involved with.
Speaker:- Well, it's really good to be able to see
Speaker:the inner workings there.
Speaker:With most of the guests on the program,
Speaker:we talk about digital accessibility, but ultimately,
Speaker:all of that digital accessibility work
Speaker:is all about being able to
Speaker:have devices like yours
Speaker:lock into that and be able to interpret that information.
Speaker:So it's great to,
Speaker:see some of that from your end.
Speaker:And then, also when I go to conferences, like CSUN,
Speaker:walk around the exhibit area and look at it,
Speaker:it's just amazing the breadth and variety
Speaker:of assistive technologies that are available.
Speaker:- Yeah, that's absolutely right.
Speaker:I'm a big believer in application of mainstream technology
Speaker:to help people with disabilities.
Speaker:We all work, as assistive technology professionals,
Speaker:with the concept of Universal Design for Learning,
Speaker:which is to design things from the ground up
Speaker:to have accessibility features built in,
Speaker:and in assistive technology,
Speaker:one challenge is that we tend to make products
Speaker:for smaller market niches
Speaker:than the consumer electronics world.
Speaker:For example, if you're marketing a product
Speaker:for mobility impairment or learning disability
Speaker:or visual impairment,
Speaker:you may be reaching a fraction of the population
Speaker:that normally would purchase a particular device,
Speaker:and that's a challenge for startup companies in this space,
Speaker:because acquiring funding,
Speaker:convincing financial institutions to back you,
Speaker:making sure that you can scale your production facilities,
Speaker:those are all things that would be much easier
Speaker:if you had a larger volume.
Speaker:So when you can piggyback those two things,
Speaker:when you can utilize mainstream tech in a new way
Speaker:or put together in new ways,
Speaker:to benefit a person with disabilities,
Speaker:suddenly the economy of scale benefits you as well,
Speaker:and then this whole process gets easier.
Speaker:And that was a key focus when we started this.
Speaker:We decided that we were gonna go with mainstream, high tech,
Speaker:automated assembly manufacturing techniques.
Speaker:We're gonna work with top level technicians and scientists.
Speaker:My background is in science.
Speaker:We were gonna use mainstream programming techniques.
Speaker:Everything we did would be done,
Speaker:as if we were operating as a company like Apple
Speaker:and making a mainstream consumer product,
Speaker:and that would result
Speaker:in the best quality product for the user,
Speaker:as well as the lowest possible cost.
Speaker:And I was very fortunate and blessed to have partners,
Speaker:that agreed to go into this journey with me and help me,
Speaker:together with institutional investment
Speaker:and supportive organizations,
Speaker:like Purdue and the state of Indiana to get to this point.
Speaker:- Well, I definitely wanna ask you a few more questions
Speaker:about your work and your product,
Speaker:but one of the things
Speaker:that we always like to do in this program
Speaker:is to find out how people made their way
Speaker:to where they are today,
Speaker:different circuitous, serendipitous paths.
Speaker:So, what was it for you?
Speaker:Maybe go back in time and talk about some of the milestones
Speaker:that started to move you to where you are today.
Speaker:- Very good.
Speaker:It's interesting, when you talk to people in this field,
Speaker:I'm sure you come up with this all the time,
Speaker:you'll find that there are so many people
Speaker:that have a personal connection,
Speaker:which drew them in to help people with disabilities.
Speaker:I think we all have a story somewhere in our life,
Speaker:and I have a number of those.
Speaker:I've been very fortunate over the years
Speaker:to work with thousands of blind and visually impaired people
Speaker:and hundreds of people with other types of disabilities.
Speaker:And, I could tell so many anecdotes,
Speaker:but to go back to the start of this,
Speaker:I actually came to Purdue University for graduate school,
Speaker:in what was called the Chemical Physics Program,
Speaker:so I was in a very technical field.
Speaker:And I had some exposure to disabilities.
Speaker:My first wife, who passed from cancer in the 2010s,
Speaker:was visually impaired and was a braille reader.
Speaker:So when I came to Purdue, I was teaching chemistry,
Speaker:and if you know anything about large universities,
Speaker:General Chemistry for freshmen and sophomores,
Speaker:there were literally 5,000 students in the class, okay.
Speaker:- No, don't even get me.
Speaker:I went to university of Illinois, that was one of the worst.
Speaker:Those large classes were one of my worst experiences ever.
Speaker:- That's right, so 5,000 students in the class,
Speaker:I was assigned to teach some of them.
Speaker:And as it turned out,
Speaker:we had three blind students
Speaker:enrolled in that chemistry class,
Speaker:which was really sort of a first for Purdue.
Speaker:And as I discovered later, this is in the 1990s,
Speaker:it was really sort of a first for the country.
Speaker:I mean, there weren't a lot of blind students
Speaker:pursuing those technical fields.
Speaker:So I got assigned to teach those blind students chemistry,
Speaker:because I was the guy that knew something,
Speaker:because I knew one slight notch more than everybody else.
Speaker:So I started to do research in the area and said,
Speaker:okay, well, there must be some program
Speaker:or technology or techniques, and what I discovered is,
Speaker:there really wasn't a lot of such technology or techniques,
Speaker:and we had to develop some on our own.
Speaker:So I ended up starting a research program at Purdue,
Speaker:which was called the Visions Lab.
Speaker:We developed a lot of techniques and methods
Speaker:for helping teach science and math
Speaker:to students with disabilities, primarily visual impairment,
Speaker:and along the way,
Speaker:I sort of drifted from going into
Speaker:academic research in the sciences as a career,
Speaker:into assistive technology as a career,
Speaker:because I just found the problem so interesting,
Speaker:so challenging, so much detail, and a very human touch.
Speaker:When I was studying the mysteries of the universe,
Speaker:so to speak, it was helpful to humanity,
Speaker:but we didn't really impact anyone's life directly.
Speaker:I was doing laser spectroscopy, computational chemistry,
Speaker:things that are pretty esoteric, quantum mechanics.
Speaker:Whereas when I would give a blind student a braille book,
Speaker:or I would help them learn how to use a computer,
Speaker:I would see their life change right in front of me,
Speaker:and that was hard to pass up on.
Speaker:So as it turns out, the President of Purdue,
Speaker:Dr. Jischke at the time,
Speaker:started a Tech Transfer and Entrepreneurship Program,
Speaker:and he approached me and said,
Speaker:"Hey, I think you might be good at being an entrepreneur.
Speaker:"How would you like to do that?"
Speaker:Well, I thought, how hard could it be (laughs)?
Speaker:If I only knew then what I know now.
Speaker:So, I went through their Accelerator and Incubator Program.
Speaker:Purdue had one of the
Speaker:first such programs in the country,
Speaker:which are now commonplace at universities.
Speaker:And my initial company that I started, around the year 2000,
Speaker:I had three different ideas,
Speaker:that I presented to my investors,
Speaker:one of which had to do with accessibility,
Speaker:and that's the one they liked the most.
Speaker:I was funded by a group of farmers,
Speaker:who had actually sold their grain elevators
Speaker:to a larger company and were looking to invest in tech,
Speaker:and they thought that helping disabled people
Speaker:was really cool.
Speaker:I was very lucky to meet them.
Speaker:So they funded our company with a small investment
Speaker:and away we went,
Speaker:and since then I have been a serial entrepreneur,
Speaker:so to speak,
Speaker:which probably means I know
Speaker:where the bodies are buried, right,
Speaker:and I've been in the assistive technology field ever since.
Speaker:- And,
Speaker:so, in the time that you went from university
Speaker:to being involved
Speaker:in all of your business enterprise activities,
Speaker:were there,
Speaker:did you discover accessibility,
Speaker:as being a profession,
Speaker:or was it just because you were enmeshed in it,
Speaker:sometimes, you don't see the broader things going.
Speaker:- Yeah. - Going around.
Speaker:What was that experience like for you?
Speaker:- Well, there's a lot of pitfalls,
Speaker:I think I would say, in transitioning,
Speaker:and it was really two factors.
Speaker:One is transitioning from being an academic
Speaker:to being in business.
Speaker:I was very fortunate to have a lot of good advisors.
Speaker:Purdue provided a lot of these folks,
Speaker:some of which I still use as advisors and mentors today,
Speaker:still work with me today.
Speaker:And they sort of helped guide me to understand
Speaker:how different the business world is than the academic world,
Speaker:completely different pace, different priorities,
Speaker:different resources and funding mechanisms.
Speaker:And I actually, in turn,
Speaker:tried to help mentor academics,
Speaker:who want to transition into business.
Speaker:And then more specifically, with assistive technology,
Speaker:when I dove into this in the '90s,
Speaker:there were people doing this,
Speaker:but it was largely done by nonprofit organizations,
Speaker:NGOs and foundations, government agencies.
Speaker:There were some businesses, of course,
Speaker:but at the time,
Speaker:there wasn't even really a formal industry association.
Speaker:I was one of the founding board members
Speaker:of the Assistive Technology Industry Association,
Speaker:which started with just a very small group of companies,
Speaker:and now today,
Speaker:is quite a big organization, has a conference annually.
Speaker:And there are people that come together
Speaker:to talk about assistive technology as a field.
Speaker:As you know from your work,
Speaker:the idea of an assistive technology professional,
Speaker:having certifications and certificates
Speaker:and being able to demonstrate competencies,
Speaker:that's all stuff that's relatively new for our industry.
Speaker:It maybe dates back 10 years, 15 years at the most.
Speaker:And not something like, if you went into manufacturing,
Speaker:or if you went into information technology,
Speaker:where this has been an established field,
Speaker:where there's a lot of money and attention.
Speaker:So I'm very glad to have seen
Speaker:the industry develop to where it is now.
Speaker:I've recently worked with some younger academics,
Speaker:who are wanting to transition
Speaker:into the assistive technology business space,
Speaker:and hearing their stories and listening to them,
Speaker:I can say, "Here is a possibility
Speaker:"for where you can get some funding.
Speaker:"Here are some people that can give you advice
Speaker:"about your legal or financial matters.
Speaker:"Here are some business consulting that you can draw from.
Speaker:"Here are industry resources in the AT field
Speaker:"that you can draw from
Speaker:"for statistics, data, market research."
Speaker:None of that existed
Speaker:before these various groups came together
Speaker:and helped create that.
Speaker:And I have to say,
Speaker:I'm kinda proud of our industry for doing it,
Speaker:because what it's done
Speaker:is it's made the field more professional
Speaker:and given all of us collectively,
Speaker:a better ability to help people with disabilities
Speaker:in a professional way.
Speaker:And the work that was done prior to this,
Speaker:with the nonprofits and the governments was fantastic,
Speaker:but nothing takes the place
Speaker:of high tech companies producing products
Speaker:directly to consumers and getting that feedback,
Speaker:that they can iterate on quickly
Speaker:to make those products better and better.
Speaker:I said at the beginning,
Speaker:we wanted to emulate a company,
Speaker:like an Apple or a Microsoft or a Google,
Speaker:and try to accomplish our goal that way,
Speaker:and I still believe very much in that model,
Speaker:as long as it's tempered with the understanding,
Speaker:that whatever the company is doing,
Speaker:it must always be done for social good.
Speaker:And that means you have to be selective
Speaker:with your investment.
Speaker:If you just go to a bank and ask for traditional financing,
Speaker:they're not gonna understand what you're doing,
Speaker:so collecting investment,
Speaker:setting up your business structure,
Speaker:those are things that are a little bit different
Speaker:in the assistive technology space,
Speaker:still done professionally,
Speaker:but done with people who are like-minded
Speaker:and not just in this to make money.
Speaker:- Well,
Speaker:one of the things I've enjoyed about
Speaker:being involved in accessibility
Speaker:is it's a great community of practitioners,
Speaker:openly sharing information.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:the building of our knowledge base,
Speaker:just continues every day.
Speaker:People are so generous with their time to add to that,
Speaker:so we really have a great repository of content.
Speaker:And as you mentioned, the certification opportunities.
Speaker:I constantly see more and more people
Speaker:with that appended to their LinkedIn profile,
Speaker:that they have one certification or another,
Speaker:and it's great to see all of that.
Speaker:For me personally, I got involved early on,
Speaker:when the Web Accessibility Initiative was just beginning,
Speaker:with the WCCC,
Speaker:and today, those of us involved in digital accessibility,
Speaker:essentially, we look to the WCAG
Speaker:as our recipe book of recommendations.
Speaker:So theoretically,
Speaker:if you follow along with these things,
Speaker:the idea is that assistive devices
Speaker:will be able to be successful.
Speaker:But what's it like from your end,
Speaker:where you're an organization
Speaker:developing assistive technologies,
Speaker:and you're relying on that to be built in?
Speaker:Kind of an open ended question,
Speaker:but how do you feel about where things are today with that?
Speaker:- Well, it's a great question.
Speaker:I spend a lot of time on standards bodies and committees
Speaker:myself over the years, and you're right.
Speaker:In terms of the source content, so to speak,
Speaker:we have some pretty good specifications now
Speaker:from WCCC and other standards bodies that say,
Speaker:"Okay, here is how a publisher should create content,
Speaker:"so that it's available
Speaker:"for the assistive technology products to hook onto."
Speaker:However, what I've seen is,
Speaker:unfortunately, we don't have quite as robust
Speaker:specifications or standards on the actual product side,
Speaker:but there's many that are in development.
Speaker:We have some from the mainstream that we borrow,
Speaker:for example, hardware products would have FCC certification,
Speaker:UL or CE, RoHS, Bluetooth, and USB, et cetera.
Speaker:So those are helpful,
Speaker:but those are really just talking about
Speaker:how the device as a whole interoperates
Speaker:with general technology.
Speaker:We don't have a very good and robust specification
Speaker:for something like a product UI or UX.
Speaker:How should a hardware device be featured,
Speaker:so that it has the appropriate buttons, dials, knobs,
Speaker:whatever you want to call it, for a user.
Speaker:There's a lot of that stuff
Speaker:is home brewed by individual companies,
Speaker:and I think it's a bit of a shame,
Speaker:because we could all benefit
Speaker:from collective knowledge and wisdom in that area.
Speaker:If I'm a user, and I move from one device to another,
Speaker:I would sure appreciate a common interface,
Speaker:so there's not so much of a learning curve.
Speaker:And likewise,
Speaker:the method by which the data
Speaker:from a publisher repository and so forth
Speaker:is intaked into the device
Speaker:and converted into some output format.
Speaker:There's still a few gaps, I think, in that,
Speaker:I'll call it the pipeline, of how that actually happens.
Speaker:As an example,
Speaker:if you follow the appropriate WCAG standards on a website,
Speaker:have your ARIA role attributes set and so forth,
Speaker:all the details taken care of,
Speaker:it's still a little bit open-ended
Speaker:how an assistive technology software product
Speaker:or hardware device would render that to the user.
Speaker:Maybe we need more robust and direct
Speaker:and clearer specifications on how rendering should happen.
Speaker:Maybe it's okay to let it be something
Speaker:where the user can decide.
Speaker:Maybe the user should decide within a range of parameters.
Speaker:I don't know the answer.
Speaker:I just think it's worth talkin' about as a community.
Speaker:And if you look at the mainstream browser world,
Speaker:for example, there are some general guidelines,
Speaker:that browser manufacturers
Speaker:really sorta have to stay within.
Speaker:They've left room for them to be creative,
Speaker:so that a Microsoft Edge has certain features
Speaker:different than say Chrome, right, but at the same time,
Speaker:it's understood or expected,
Speaker:that users will generally have a similar experience,
Speaker:if they're using one browser or another.
Speaker:And so I think some tightening of the specs
Speaker:could be a benefit in that area
Speaker:to the actual product manufacturers.
Speaker:- Well, looking at where you're at with your product
Speaker:and what you see in the industry,
Speaker:what are your thoughts or hopes about moving forward?
Speaker:Are there any areas that you're passionate about
Speaker:in exploring for the future?
Speaker:Any things you can give us
Speaker:to maybe look forward to that we haven't thought about?
Speaker:- Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:The biggest thing for me is thinking about
Speaker:changing the life of someone
Speaker:with a visual impairment directly.
Speaker:And when you think about
Speaker:how technology works for all of us nowadays,
Speaker:it's a lifestyle companion.
Speaker:We don't just use our technology
Speaker:to sit at a desk and do work,
Speaker:we carry it with us everywhere.
Speaker:It's ubiquitous, and it affects every aspect of our life.
Speaker:And I know from my own personal experience,
Speaker:when you're a blind individual,
Speaker:you don't just set aside all of your blindness, so to speak,
Speaker:when you're done with your job or your school,
Speaker:you carry it with you everywhere.
Speaker:You have a need that permeates your life,
Speaker:and we wanna help benefit that.
Speaker:And I think of specific examples,
Speaker:a blind person can struggle using appliances,
Speaker:like a washing machine or a microwave,
Speaker:because they're flat touch screens
Speaker:with buttons that are hard to feel,
Speaker:and you can't see the information on the screen.
Speaker:Why shouldn't your device be a personal information hub
Speaker:that connects to that and helps you with that?
Speaker:All the appliances now
Speaker:are Internet of things enabled anyway.
Speaker:Another example would be going to a store,
Speaker:and trying to differentiate products on a shelf,
Speaker:picking out your clothing for the day,
Speaker:and making sure that your colored coordination
Speaker:is where you want it to be.
Speaker:Being able to read a book while you're waiting for the bus,
Speaker:which you're probably taking,
Speaker:because you rely on public transportation,
Speaker:navigating a map to get on that bus, get on the right bus,
Speaker:make the transfer to the correct bus,
Speaker:get to your place of employment,
Speaker:or wherever it is that you were trying to go,
Speaker:going to a doctor's office or a hospital,
Speaker:trying to navigate your medical records,
Speaker:trying to read the disclaimers
Speaker:on the medications that you're taking,
Speaker:so that you have informed consent
Speaker:for whatever procedures that you need to have,
Speaker:trying to watch a movie on Netflix,
Speaker:trying to listen to a baseball game.
Speaker:If you're a senior citizen and your vision is failing,
Speaker:being able to read a newspaper to your grandchild or a book.
Speaker:What about being able to play tic-tac-toe,
Speaker:as a parent of a blind child, with your child?
Speaker:All of these are things,
Speaker:that we wanna enable with this
Speaker:pocket size, portable life companion.
Speaker:It's not just about building another braille display,
Speaker:that helps you access text on a computer,
Speaker:it's about changing your life.
Speaker:And one of the things,
Speaker:that I think is so amazing about our industry,
Speaker:when I go to these conferences you mentioned,
Speaker:like the CSUN Conference, or ATIA, or Closing the Gap,
Speaker:or all the other ones that are out there,
Speaker:you see these variety of products,
Speaker:that really are designed to change someone's lifestyle,
Speaker:and I think consumer electronics
Speaker:could take a bit of a clue from us, right.
Speaker:Sometimes we live our lives
Speaker:in spite of our consumer technology,
Speaker:instead of our consumer technology enabling our lifestyle,
Speaker:and that's where we're headed with what we're doing,
Speaker:is it's not just about
Speaker:the piece of hardware you carry with you,
Speaker:it's about what you can do with that.
Speaker:- Well, you just went through so many great examples.
Speaker:It's clear that you're
Speaker:just always thinking about these new opportunities
Speaker:and gives me a lot of things personally to think about
Speaker:that I hadn't considered before.
Speaker:So I appreciate that,
Speaker:and I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me
Speaker:in this conversation.
Speaker:I think we covered quite a lotta things
Speaker:in a short amount of time, but I really enjoyed it.
Speaker:And I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us about it.
Speaker:- It's no problem, I appreciate being here.
Speaker:And I would just like to offer on a side note,
Speaker:if any of your listeners
Speaker:are new to the assistive technology field,
Speaker:or have questions,
Speaker:or would like to learn a little bit more
Speaker:about what it might take to be an entrepreneur in this area,
Speaker:I would be happy to have them reach out to me offline,
Speaker:and maybe I can answer some of their questions.
Speaker:I was very, very fortunate and blessed
Speaker:to have so many advisors give of their time to me,
Speaker:as I was learning,
Speaker:and I really believe in paying that forward.
Speaker:It's a small enough industry as it is,
Speaker:we should all help each other.
Speaker:- And we do end up including show notes along with this,
Speaker:so I'll make sure we get any relevant links
Speaker:and things from you attached to that as well.
Speaker:- Very good.
Speaker:- All right, thanks a lot, David.
Speaker:It was nice to chat with you.
Speaker:Hopefully, we can meet
Speaker:at one of those physical events that we talked about.
Speaker:- I would love to see you there.
Speaker:Thank you so much and goodbye to all the listeners.
