Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

By: Dr. Kirk Adams PhD
  • Summary

  • 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
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Episodes
  • Supercharge Your Bottom Line TDI: March 20, 2025: Aaron Di Blasi, Sr. PMP, Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd. | Subtitle: Blind and Low-Vision Workshop By Aaron Di Blasi and Dr. Kirk Adams: Copywriting With AI
    Mar 20 2025
    In this episode of Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion, Dr. Kirk Adams speaks with Aaron Di Blasi, Sr. PMP for Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd. (https://mvsltd.com) and Publisher for the Top Tech Tech Tidbits (https://toptechtidbits.com/), Access Information News (https://accessinformationnews.com), AI-Weekly (https://ai-weekly.ai) and Title II Today (https://title2.info) newsletters. Subtitle: Blind and Low-Vision Workshop By Aaron Di Blasi and Dr. Kirk Adams: Copywriting With AI. How To Generate Professional, High Quality, High Ranking, Accurate, Long Form Copy For Your Personal or Business Brand Using The Premium Versions of Foundational AI Models. 👉 Learn more today at: https://DrKirkAdams.com. 🧑 Aaron Di Blasi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondiblasi/ 🚀 Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd.: https://mvsltd.com/ ♿ Top Tech Tidbits: https://toptechtidbits.com/ ♿ Access Information News: https://accessinformationnews.com/ 🤖 AI-Weekly: https://ai-weekly.ai 🏛️ Title II Today: https://title2.info TRANSCRIPT: 00:00 Music. 00:09 Welcome to podcasts by Dr 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, Dr Kirk Adams, 00:38 Hello everybody. This is Dr Kirk Adams speaking to you from my home office in sunny Seattle, Washington. And this is a very special edition of my monthly live stream webinar, which I call super charge your bottom line through disability inclusion. And today I have a wonderful guest and a colleague and partner in crime. Aaron Di Blasi, as we work together to accelerate inclusion of people with disabilities in our society, it was with mindful solutions. And Aaron, if you could give me a quick headline of who you are, I will start back to you shortly for more. Hello, everyone. My name is Aaron Di Blasi. I am the Senior Project Management Professional for a digital marketing firm out of Cleveland, Ohio, by the name of Mind Vault Solutions Limited. I am also the publisher for the Top Tech Tidbits, Access Information News, AI weekly, excuse me, and now, Title Two Today, newsletters, if you're familiar with any of those. I also work closely with Dr Adams to do his digital marketing as well. 01:47 Thanks, Aaron. So I got, I became acquainted with Aaron and actually through the apex program, which is www dot the apex program.com which is a virtual training program to launch blind people into cyber security. And I had connected with Aaron around that, and he 02:14 helped us promote the program through his publications. And as our relationship deepened, Aaron said things like, you should start a podcast, you should have a YouTube channel. 02:27 Yeah, you should write blogs. You need a, you need a, yeah. The difference is, you listen. No one else listens. Though, you listened every time. Seriously, kudos. Really. You need a website that's more focused on your overall brand, yeah, and so, and he listens, yeah. We piece by piece, we've been building this web presence, and part of this is generating content. And for those who don't know me, just super brief again, I'm Dr Kirk Adams. I'm a blind person. Have been since age five. My retina is detached. I went to a school for blind kids, first second and third grade in the state of Oregon, learn how to read and write Braille, which I do constantly travel confidently, independently with a long white cane. Learned how to type on a typewriter so I could start public school in fourth grade and type my assignments and spelling tests and things for sighted teachers. And I also was given just this wonderful set of experiences, which gave me a great internal locus of control, just a belief that I could do whatever I wanted to do, and that was largely through outdoor experience. It was in Oregon, we backpacked and camped in the Three Sisters wilderness area, we 03:43 went up on Mount Hood and build, build big snow forts out of snowball huge snowballs. We went to the Oregon coast in the tide pools. And so I just had that sense of how to love my body as a little blind kid. And was 03:58 given some great gifts there at that school, was the only blind student in all of my classes, from fourth grade through my through my PhD. So also had experiences as a academically high achieving young college student, blind having the challenges of trying to find employment. So I've had those experience, frustrating experiences as a blind job seeker. I've I've also had the privilege of employing many, many hundreds of blind people as 04:31 the president, CEO of the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind, and American Foundation for the Blind. So employment is my jam and 04:42 and I've also ...
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    42 mins
  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: March 6, 2025: Interview with Tiffani Martin, Founder, VisioTech
    Mar 6 2025
    Tiffani Martin is an AI & Technology Strategy Leader, Social Tech Entrepreneur, and Accessibility Innovator who specializes in AI governance, responsible innovation, and technology strategy. With extensive expertise in AI ethics, compliance, automation, and digital transformation, she supports executives and organizations in scaling AI initiatives, optimizing operations, and mitigating risks, while ensuring equity and accessibility in technology adoption. As the Founder of VisioTech, Tiffani leads research and development efforts in accessible AI and emerging technology solutions, guiding companies in aligning with regulatory compliance, industry standards, and responsible AI practices. Her exceptional ability to bridge strategy, operations, and AI governance has garnered significant recognition, including: ✔ Black Enterprise's 40 Under 40 ✔ Dallas Business Journal's 40 Under 40 ✔ AI Innovator of the Year (Black AI Think Tank) ✔ Lex Frieden Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Presented by Governor Greg Abbott) Tiffani serves as an Executive Board Member and Director for Ambassadors for the North Texas Disability Chamber, contributing actively to accessibility and AI policy. Additionally, she collaborates with industry leaders, policymakers, and research institutions to shape frameworks that ensure equitable AI adoption and ethical decision-making within emerging technologies. How Tiffani Drives Impact: AI & Tech Strategy: Aligns AI-driven innovation with business objectives and compliance frameworks. Executive Advisory: Partners with C-suite leaders to advance AI governance, risk mitigation, and responsible AI adoption. Workforce Development: Builds inclusive AI talent pipelines through mentorship and strategic initiatives. Digital Transformation: Leads cross-functional teams in implementing scalable and ethical AI solutions. Operations & Governance: Designs strategic roadmaps, optimizes workflows, and enhances decision-making structures to support AI-driven business transformations. Thought Leadership & Industry Influence: Tiffani's insights on AI governance, accessibility, and business strategy have been featured in national business and academic publications. She frequently delivers keynote addresses at STEM, accessibility, and technology events, shaping critical conversations around responsible innovation, ethical AI, and inclusive technology. Furthermore, Tiffani develops industry frameworks, including the Accessible AI Quotient, which provides structured methodologies for inclusive AI development and ethical deployment. She also actively participates on advisory boards, task forces, and executive panels aimed at advancing responsible AI policies and best practices across various industries. TRANSCRIPT: 00:00 Music. Speaker 1 00:09 Welcome to podcasts by Dr 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, Dr Kirk Adams, Speaker 2 00:37 so welcome everybody to the cleverly named podcasts by Dr Kirk Adams, and today I have a guest a new friend, Tiffany Martin, and Tiffany was introduced to me by a mutual friend of ours, Dr froswa Booker DREW Thank you, froswa, for connecting Tiffany and I You're a master connector, and we appreciate you. And Tiffany is also a blind person like myself. For those of you who don't know me, again, it's Dr Kirk Adams. I am managing director of innovative impact LLC, which is my consulting practice. I am the immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. Prior to that, the same roles at the lighthouse for the blind Inc, here in Seattle, I have devoted my professional and academic careers to creating opportunities for other people with disabilities, particularly blind people, to thrive in our society. And my main focus has been employment. I think a good, meaningful, well paying career addresses lots of issues. So I've spent my time focusing on helping create conditions in which blind people can 01:55 be meaningfully employed. Speaker 2 01:57 And I was introduced to Tiffany and we share many of the same interests and values. So Tiffany, if you would like to introduce yourself to the vast podcast audience, or Speaker 3 02:14 as Dr Kirk mentioned, I am blind. I became blind at the age of 28 so I was sighted, I ended up getting diabetic retinopathy, and so I had to make a complete life change. But before then, 02:30 I lived a very Speaker 3 02:33 active lifestyle, traveling started. My background is in digital marketing, and so I was doing that for a global humanitarian service named United mega here. And then I went and took all, you know, my gifts, over into a ...
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    30 mins
  • Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion: February 27, 2025: Robyn Grable, Founder and CEO, Talents ASCEND
    Feb 27 2025
    In this episode of Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion, Dr. Kirk Adams speaks with Robyn Grable, Founder and CEO of Talents ASCEND (https://talentsascend.com/). 00:00 Music. Speaker 1 00:09 Welcome to podcasts by Dr 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, Dr Kirk Adams, Speaker 2 00:37 hello, everybody. This is Dr Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. Welcome to my monthly live streamed webinar. Supercharge your bottom line through disability inclusion and today, we have a marvelous guest who is out there doing great work. Robin Grable is here with us. If you want to say, Hi Robin. We'll get back to you in depth. Speaker 3 01:02 Hello everyone. Thank you. Dr Adams, appreciate you being here. Appreciate me being here. Yeah, and Speaker 2 01:06 you and your company is talents ascend. Talents ascend, which is a beautiful name, and mine is innovative impact LLC, so we've got talents ascending. We've got impact innovating at all kinds of good stuff happening here today, but we're going to talk about how employers can access unique, highly motivated, highly talented pools of potential employees, and that's something I focus on. For those of you who don't know me, I am a totally blind person. My retina is detached. When I was in kindergart, I went from being a sighted child to a blind child, really, overnight. And my parents were in their mid 20s at the time. They had never met a blind person in their lives before I became one, and no, they were told Kirk can't come back to school here at the neighborhood school. He needs to go to the State School for the Blind kids. And wound up going to the Oregon State School for the Blind for first, second and third grade, and had a marvelous launching pad. There some things that happened as a 678, year old I've only come to appreciate much later, and I can distinctly say that I was given three gifts during my my time. There one was my blindness skills as a totally blind kid, there was no question that I need to learn braille, that I need to learn how to use a cane, and only about 10% of us who are legally blind are totally blind. So a lot of kids, there's some question, can they use magnification nowadays? You know, could they just listen to everything? But I needed to learn braille, and I did. I use it every day, and I learned how to travel confidently with a white cane, and I learned how to type on a typewriter so I could start into public school and type my spelling test and type my papers and my tests and things. So I got those blindness skills, which we all, all of us who have an impairment of some kind, whether it's hearing, vision, mobility, cognitive, need to learn alternative techniques that other people don't necessarily need to know, but we do, and those skills are so important. 03:34 The second thing, Speaker 2 03:36 the second thing I was given was a strong internal locus of control, which just meant I felt in my bones that I could solve my problems, forge my own path, create, create a way forward. And they really did that through experiences. This was the 1960s I would I would say the school was run by some really cool hippies, and they took us backpacking in the Three Sisters wilderness area and horseback camping up on Mount Hood to build big snow forts, huge snowballs and in the tide pools and the Oregon coast, feeling around for starfish and sea anemones, I remember being at a cabin up at a mountain lake using a cross cut saw to cut firewood and just all kinds of experiential things that just gave me that strong internal locus of control or agency, as opposed to A strong external locus, which just gives you this feeling that things are happening to you, there's not what you can do about it. So I had the blindness skills, I had the strong internal locus of control, 04:53 and then I also had 04:57 Jeremy's note takers talking. I. Speaker 2 05:00 Um, I also had high expectations so my parents, my dad was a high school basketball coach. My parents didn't want to see anything less than an A on a report card. They expected me to do chores like my brother and sister, and a lot of kids with impairments don't have that because people like my parents weren't familiar with people with disabilities. Schools aren't used to working with people with disabilities, so oftentimes kids have to deal with low expectations from their family, their school, a lot of caretaking, a lot of kind of paternalism. So sometimes that stuff gets internalized. So again, I was given the blindness skills, the sense of agency and the high expectation, which...
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    59 mins

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