Transcription
Alvaro Gutierrez: Hello and welcome to Project Access for All. Today we have Albert, who is the president and CEO of My Blind Spot. Thank you, Albert Rizzi, for being with us.
Albert Rizzi: Thank you for having me today, Alvaro. How are you doing?
Alvaro Gutierrez: Very well my friend.
Albert Rizzi: And Mr. McGoo is doing well, too.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Mr. McGoo, for the listeners, is my cane, is doing very well thank you so much.
Albert Rizzi: Good.
Alvaro Gutierrez: For the listeners who don’t know about you, can you tell us a little bit about your life?
Albert Rizzi: Sure. Well, I grew up in New York on Long Island and about 9 years ago I was diagnosed with what was supposed to be a sinus infection and it turned out to be meningitis and at that time I became very ill, I was in the hospital for 2 months, and wound up waking from those 2 months in the hospital completely blind, so I started living my life as a blind person in January of 2006. And, I have an interesting perspective on sight and vision, from both sides of the fence so to speak. And it has been an interesting journey. I find that it has been a significant blessing in so many ways and have come to appreciate this new way that I see, and I still believe that I see and I have never seen more clearly in my entire life than I have as a blind person. It always amazes me to think that when growing up I would tell my father “Oh, I could do that with my eyes closed!” (chuckle). You know that is how we would define if we were successful at one of our tasks or projects. Then when we look to a higher power, whether you believe in God or forces of nature, we believe that they exist blindly so they call that blind faith. And then when we want to find that one person to spend the rest of our life with in sickness and in health ’til death do us part we want to trust them blindly. That’s called blind trust and then when the proverbial stuff hits the fans and we are expected to go to the courts to have justice doled out, Lady Justice is wearing a blindfold, hence “blind justice.” So seeing is not believing; believing is seeing. We see the truth with all of our other senses but not our sight, so being able to do things with my eyes closed having blind faith, having blind trust and always looking for blind justice has helped me to really embrace and appreciate my blindness and the way I see so I don’t understand why so many sighted people are so afraid of it or so traumatized by it, but while it is not for the faint of heart, it is not that bad.
Alvaro Gutierrez: That’s the message to our listeners. And would you like to tell when in time you decided to create My Blind Spot?
Albert Rizzi: Well, as many people from the community will attest, it is bad enough to run into the physical walls as a blind person when you can’t see them but when I lost my eyesight I started running into virtual walls. Websites and software programs that I was able to use with my eyesight were now blocked to me and closed off; basically they were disabled, not me. I was still very able bodied and still very desirous of wanting to access the same level of usability and functionality in the programs and the websites that I had visited but couldn’t. So wanting to get back to work and understanding some of the websites did not allow me to use my screen reader to apply for jobs, I started seeing a consistent theme that was blocking the forward progression and employment opportunities for our community. So My Blind Spot was born out of frustration and a passion to right this tremendous injustice as I see it and from there—that was in 2008, 2009 so just two and a half years, three years into being blind—I started to become a champion for accessibility and an advocate for equal access and at My Blind Spot we believed access to the right tools promotes ability and restores infinite possibilities and that is a universal truth. Alvaro, if we all have access to the tools we need to succeed, anything is possible. So from that impetus, I set out to develop a team of people and right now we have 12 people we work with across the United States, 12 different entities, some of them are contracted companies and we’ve worked internationally from India to London with colleagues and our network to promote accessibility. And one of the things we focused on immediately was working to make QuickBooks accessible. QuickBooks is the premier leading accounting software program in the country and is used very much in Canada and in the UK as well. So, you know, I can’t be a successful business owner without managing our finances, and in the States here a lot of the councilors and the commissions for the blind and the departments for the blind and the centers tend to suggest or drive the blind community and disabled community overall into their own small businesses but the blind and visually impaired community were at a serious disadvantage for there were no accounting software programs that were accessible or useable to us and I’ve said I feel strongly about you can’t succeed in business unless you manage the financial integrity of your organization. So we’ve done that and for the past 3 to 4 years we’ve been looking into it and refining and testing some of the scripting solutions that we need to use to bridge the digital divide that still exists in this 23-year-old dinosaur that was basically custom-built pre-MSA, pre-Microsoft, pre-ADA and we’ve had wonderful successes and we’ve got hundreds of people using the program. We are now partnering with the Columbia Lighthouse in D.C. to do some training programs in QuickBooks and are in dialogue with colleagues and different departments in California, state of California, to try and put together trainings that will help people learn how to use QuickBooks so that they can pursue carriers in accounting, bookkeeping or manage their own small businesses. Very exciting.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Very exciting indeed. And this software used is now Windows PC? Tell us about.
Albert Rizzi: Right now My Blind Spot is working with the PC. 80% of the market, the corporate America, still uses the PC. We can speak very directly to the usability and accessibility that we’ve been able to introduce into the desktop program and anybody interested in learning more about the direction that Intuit is taking their other product lines, namely QuickBooks, online which is a cloud based program, quick and mint.com TurboTax, can write to me, albert@myblindspot.org or you can visit our website which is www.myblindspot.org and we can put you in charge of our contacts and our people at Intuit to help you get the answers to the questions that you are looking for.
Alvaro Gutierrez: This program works with something like text?
Albert Rizzi: No, it well, well, when you say text, the program itself QuickBooks, interfaces with all of the streams that are on the market right now. It worked with jaws and MVDA and now we are working very closely with AI-squared to make sure that windows eyes is able to interface as well, and currently people who have window eyes and Microsoft—I think it is Microsoft 10 or better—are able to access the scripting solutions that are built into the program for window eyes but anybody wanting to use jaws would have to contact us at My Blind Spot to secure the scripts that we have which are included in the user’s guide that we provide that are all blind centric and for people who use screen reader as well as a suite of virtual lessons that we have developed and have been designed by our in-house QuickBooks guru, Richard Kelly, who is also blind and has also been using QuickBooks since 1989 with some degree of success due to a significant number of workarounds. So Richard has seen the progression from inaccessibility to really seriously improved functionality that has impressed him and has given him new hopes and insights to what’s possible into accounting again.
Alvaro Gutierrez: That is very exciting if I am grateful listeners I think I heard something related to context working with Windows Eyes like Jaws something like that.
Albert Rizzi: Say that again? You’re saying it works with…? I’m sorry.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Some techs were working with Windows Eyes.
Albert Rizzi: Oh yes, we, we are, we, we QuickBooks does work with Windows Eyes and we are doing… We are currently testing some of the solutions that were created by the team at AI-squared and will probably have some really impressive functionality improvements with the way Windows Eyes works with QuickBooks in the next couple of months
Alvaro Gutierrez: Very, very interesting. And for our listeners, when you go to myblindspot.org you will be inspired right away. By the way everything is written about the importance of acceptance something.
Albert Rizzi: You flatter me. Thank you so much; for coming from you, with the audience you have, that, that means a lot to me.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Well it is stronger and I want to ask you why for our listeners is so important to fight against discrimination, against thinking that we don’t deserve access to all. I’ve never been in before. I would much prefer to rely on a GPS in those instances than turn to somebody who I hope is understanding what I’m asking and pointing me in the right direction rather than assuming I want to go to the CVS or some bank as opposed to the hotel lobby. I happen to be a proponent of GPSs but I use them infrequently.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Finally, Albert, how can people get in touch with you?
Albert Rizzi: They can call you, cause you are much the best conduit to get in touch with me (laughter). Now your phone is going to be ringing off the hook. No, you can write to me at albert@myblindspot.org and visit our website myblindspot.org and sign up for our newsletters. Please keep an eye on what we’re doing. If it is anything My Blind Spot can do better or different and it is going to positively impact the community, we’re here not only to educate but we’re also here to learn so, please feel free to write us and they’ll be other things coming down the pike and we’re excited about the opportunity to open doors to our community and I thank you so much, Alvaro, for letting me speak with your audience today.
Alvaro Gutierrez: My pleasure, Albert. When you go to Facebook you can like our page, projectaccessforall. You can follow us on Twitter at project access for all; you can visit our website www.Projectaccessforall.org and you can email us to podcast.projectaccessforall.org. So Alvaro from ABS and Project Access for All, thank you so much for listening to this wonderful interview and have a wonderful day.
Albert Rizzi: Thank you for having me today, Alvaro. How are you doing?
Alvaro Gutierrez: Very well my friend.
Albert Rizzi: And Mr. McGoo is doing well, too.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Mr. McGoo, for the listeners, is my cane, is doing very well thank you so much.
Albert Rizzi: Good.
Alvaro Gutierrez: For the listeners who don’t know about you, can you tell us a little bit about your life?
Albert Rizzi: Sure. Well, I grew up in New York on Long Island and about 9 years ago I was diagnosed with what was supposed to be a sinus infection and it turned out to be meningitis and at that time I became very ill, I was in the hospital for 2 months, and wound up waking from those 2 months in the hospital completely blind, so I started living my life as a blind person in January of 2006. And, I have an interesting perspective on sight and vision, from both sides of the fence so to speak. And it has been an interesting journey. I find that it has been a significant blessing in so many ways and have come to appreciate this new way that I see, and I still believe that I see and I have never seen more clearly in my entire life than I have as a blind person. It always amazes me to think that when growing up I would tell my father “Oh, I could do that with my eyes closed!” (chuckle). You know that is how we would define if we were successful at one of our tasks or projects. Then when we look to a higher power, whether you believe in God or forces of nature, we believe that they exist blindly so they call that blind faith. And then when we want to find that one person to spend the rest of our life with in sickness and in health ’til death do us part we want to trust them blindly. That’s called blind trust and then when the proverbial stuff hits the fans and we are expected to go to the courts to have justice doled out, Lady Justice is wearing a blindfold, hence “blind justice.” So seeing is not believing; believing is seeing. We see the truth with all of our other senses but not our sight, so being able to do things with my eyes closed having blind faith, having blind trust and always looking for blind justice has helped me to really embrace and appreciate my blindness and the way I see so I don’t understand why so many sighted people are so afraid of it or so traumatized by it, but while it is not for the faint of heart, it is not that bad.
Alvaro Gutierrez: That’s the message to our listeners. And would you like to tell when in time you decided to create My Blind Spot?
Albert Rizzi: Well, as many people from the community will attest, it is bad enough to run into the physical walls as a blind person when you can’t see them but when I lost my eyesight I started running into virtual walls. Websites and software programs that I was able to use with my eyesight were now blocked to me and closed off; basically they were disabled, not me. I was still very able bodied and still very desirous of wanting to access the same level of usability and functionality in the programs and the websites that I had visited but couldn’t. So wanting to get back to work and understanding some of the websites did not allow me to use my screen reader to apply for jobs, I started seeing a consistent theme that was blocking the forward progression and employment opportunities for our community. So My Blind Spot was born out of frustration and a passion to right this tremendous injustice as I see it and from there—that was in 2008, 2009 so just two and a half years, three years into being blind—I started to become a champion for accessibility and an advocate for equal access and at My Blind Spot we believed access to the right tools promotes ability and restores infinite possibilities and that is a universal truth. Alvaro, if we all have access to the tools we need to succeed, anything is possible. So from that impetus, I set out to develop a team of people and right now we have 12 people we work with across the United States, 12 different entities, some of them are contracted companies and we’ve worked internationally from India to London with colleagues and our network to promote accessibility. And one of the things we focused on immediately was working to make QuickBooks accessible. QuickBooks is the premier leading accounting software program in the country and is used very much in Canada and in the UK as well. So, you know, I can’t be a successful business owner without managing our finances, and in the States here a lot of the councilors and the commissions for the blind and the departments for the blind and the centers tend to suggest or drive the blind community and disabled community overall into their own small businesses but the blind and visually impaired community were at a serious disadvantage for there were no accounting software programs that were accessible or useable to us and I’ve said I feel strongly about you can’t succeed in business unless you manage the financial integrity of your organization. So we’ve done that and for the past 3 to 4 years we’ve been looking into it and refining and testing some of the scripting solutions that we need to use to bridge the digital divide that still exists in this 23-year-old dinosaur that was basically custom-built pre-MSA, pre-Microsoft, pre-ADA and we’ve had wonderful successes and we’ve got hundreds of people using the program. We are now partnering with the Columbia Lighthouse in D.C. to do some training programs in QuickBooks and are in dialogue with colleagues and different departments in California, state of California, to try and put together trainings that will help people learn how to use QuickBooks so that they can pursue carriers in accounting, bookkeeping or manage their own small businesses. Very exciting.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Very exciting indeed. And this software used is now Windows PC? Tell us about.
Albert Rizzi: Right now My Blind Spot is working with the PC. 80% of the market, the corporate America, still uses the PC. We can speak very directly to the usability and accessibility that we’ve been able to introduce into the desktop program and anybody interested in learning more about the direction that Intuit is taking their other product lines, namely QuickBooks, online which is a cloud based program, quick and mint.com TurboTax, can write to me, albert@myblindspot.org or you can visit our website which is www.myblindspot.org and we can put you in charge of our contacts and our people at Intuit to help you get the answers to the questions that you are looking for.
Alvaro Gutierrez: This program works with something like text?
Albert Rizzi: No, it well, well, when you say text, the program itself QuickBooks, interfaces with all of the streams that are on the market right now. It worked with jaws and MVDA and now we are working very closely with AI-squared to make sure that windows eyes is able to interface as well, and currently people who have window eyes and Microsoft—I think it is Microsoft 10 or better—are able to access the scripting solutions that are built into the program for window eyes but anybody wanting to use jaws would have to contact us at My Blind Spot to secure the scripts that we have which are included in the user’s guide that we provide that are all blind centric and for people who use screen reader as well as a suite of virtual lessons that we have developed and have been designed by our in-house QuickBooks guru, Richard Kelly, who is also blind and has also been using QuickBooks since 1989 with some degree of success due to a significant number of workarounds. So Richard has seen the progression from inaccessibility to really seriously improved functionality that has impressed him and has given him new hopes and insights to what’s possible into accounting again.
Alvaro Gutierrez: That is very exciting if I am grateful listeners I think I heard something related to context working with Windows Eyes like Jaws something like that.
Albert Rizzi: Say that again? You’re saying it works with…? I’m sorry.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Some techs were working with Windows Eyes.
Albert Rizzi: Oh yes, we, we are, we, we QuickBooks does work with Windows Eyes and we are doing… We are currently testing some of the solutions that were created by the team at AI-squared and will probably have some really impressive functionality improvements with the way Windows Eyes works with QuickBooks in the next couple of months
Alvaro Gutierrez: Very, very interesting. And for our listeners, when you go to myblindspot.org you will be inspired right away. By the way everything is written about the importance of acceptance something.
Albert Rizzi: You flatter me. Thank you so much; for coming from you, with the audience you have, that, that means a lot to me.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Well it is stronger and I want to ask you why for our listeners is so important to fight against discrimination, against thinking that we don’t deserve access to all. I’ve never been in before. I would much prefer to rely on a GPS in those instances than turn to somebody who I hope is understanding what I’m asking and pointing me in the right direction rather than assuming I want to go to the CVS or some bank as opposed to the hotel lobby. I happen to be a proponent of GPSs but I use them infrequently.
Alvaro Gutierrez: Finally, Albert, how can people get in touch with you?
Albert Rizzi: They can call you, cause you are much the best conduit to get in touch with me (laughter). Now your phone is going to be ringing off the hook. No, you can write to me at albert@myblindspot.org and visit our website myblindspot.org and sign up for our newsletters. Please keep an eye on what we’re doing. If it is anything My Blind Spot can do better or different and it is going to positively impact the community, we’re here not only to educate but we’re also here to learn so, please feel free to write us and they’ll be other things coming down the pike and we’re excited about the opportunity to open doors to our community and I thank you so much, Alvaro, for letting me speak with your audience today.
Alvaro Gutierrez: My pleasure, Albert. When you go to Facebook you can like our page, projectaccessforall. You can follow us on Twitter at project access for all; you can visit our website www.Projectaccessforall.org and you can email us to podcast.projectaccessforall.org. So Alvaro from ABS and Project Access for All, thank you so much for listening to this wonderful interview and have a wonderful day.
Hello and welcome to Project Access for All. Today we have Albert, who is the president and CEO of My Blind Spot.