Rob, Lis, and Ryan take a break from practicing Olympic Breakdancing long enough to welcome Jonathan Price to the show to discuss his role at Colorado based non-profit that produces audio newspapers, magazines, and podcasts for the blind and low vision community as Podcast Producer. They discuss shared their experiences and insights on creating and…

Rob, Ryan and Lis welcome Amy Amantea and her writing partner Rena Cohen to the show to talk about their new Radio Play Podcast entitled “Disability Tour Bus”. They talk all about the about how the play and how it came about, its themes, and why it is that the Arts can be such a successful platform for transmitting its of inclusion and disability. …

Rob, Ryan and Steve rise early once again in order to welcome Luke Anderson, Executive Director of the StopGap Foundation back to the show to give us some updates on the organization which works to build portable ramps for businesses while highlighting the importance of accessibility and inclusion in public spaces. He also details Stop Gap’s recent…

Rob, Ryan, and Steve rise early once again in order to welcome Peter Tucic, Director of Strategic Partnerships for HumanWare to the show to talk about their innovative new multipurpose, multiline, tactile electronic Braille device, The Monarch. They discuss what makes The Monarch unique, the new technology that drives the device, and its potential …

Rob, Ryan, Steve, and Lis gather together for a full house this week to welcome author LK Bowen to talk about her debut novel, “For Worse”. They discuss the novel’s origins, how the choice was made to make the protagonist share LK’s eye condition of retinitis pigmentosa, and the importance of representation and agency in literature and media. Show …

Summer is in full swing so it seems only fitting that this week’s episode is all about heading to Camp! Join us as Rob, Ryan and Lis welcome Alex Jurgenson and Matthew Alvarnez from the Camp Bowen Division of the Canadian Organization of the Blind and DeafBlind. They discuss Camp Bowen’s history as a longtime venue for campers who are blind or part…

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Martijn van der Spek, app developer and founder of Sparkling Apps to the podcast to talk about his new revolutionary image and video description app, PiccyBot. They explore the latest developments in AI-powered speech recognition and description, highlighting their potential to revolutionize descriptions by offering p…

Ryan and Rob turn on the mics on a Friday night for one of the biggest and most chaotic episodes ever as they welcome Terrin, Josselyn, LaKisha, and Carina from the “Babies Down Bottles Up” Podcast! They talk about the origins of the podcast and the challenges and importance of balancing authenticity and advocacy, their own lived experiences of bei…

Steve, Rob, Lis and Ryan dive into a bit of hockey talk this week before welcoming disability advocate and blogger Jody Yarborough to the show to discuss her blog, “Love Disabled Life”. They discuss a wide variety of topics including the importance of being vocal and taking action when it comes to self advocacy to the challenges of accessibility an…

It’s a very special episode this week as Keisha Anderson, co-host from the Blind Beginnings Podcast joins Rob and Ryan to welcome Lina Coral and Juna Gjata, hosts of the Blind Girl Chat podcast to the show. They discuss the show and its origins before diving into a discussion about everything from disability representation in media to misconception…

This week Rob, Ryan, and Lis welcome MLA for North Vancouver – Seymour and Parliamentary Secretary for Accessibility Susie Chant to talk about the BC Accessibility Act and the recent call for draft recommendations from the public regarding the development of accessibility standards. They talk about BC’s accessibility legislation and its importance …

Close your eyes and imagine in you mind, a green apple, sitting against a white background. What do you see? If the answer is nothing, then this week’s episode might be for you! Rob, Ryan, Lis and Steve welcome Anthony Gutierrez to the show to discuss Aphantasia, a condition he shares with 3% of the global population that is characterized by the in…

It was with great sadness that we here at AT Banter learned that Brooke Ellison, an incredible advocate and champion of disability rights for many years, passed away at the age of 45 on February 4, 2024. We were blessed here at the show to have been able to chat with her back in June of last year, and even though our time with her was limited, she …

This week Rob, Ryan, and Lis sit down to talk with Elizabeth Lalonde, advocate and founder of the Pacific Training Centre for the Blind, located in Victoria, BC. They discuss the origins of the Centre and its unique service model which includes a “non-custodial” approach to training in which blind teachers train blind students, before diving into a…

This week Rob, Ryan and Steve welcome Rabiah Dhaliwal, youth mental health activist, humanitarian, advocate and founder of Voice for Hope Foundation to the show to discuss her work in reducing the stigma around mental health and increasing access to mental health services, disability rights and inclusion, and the new Touchscapes Art Exhibit which b…

Rob, Ryan, Lis, and Steve get geeky about accessibility and nachos as they welcome back Tanner Gers to the show. In the years since Tanner last visited, he founded a company called AccessAbility Officer, which provides accessibility audits, technical accessibility certifications, and disability employment services. We discuss the growing demand for…

AT Banter heads to the movies this week as Rob, Steve, Ryan, and Lis welcome blogger, YouTuber and movie reviewer John Stark, also known as Mac The Movie Guy. They discuss John’s vision journey, what made him position himself as a visually impaired movie reviewer, and the importance of high quality audio description before diving into a spirited di…

Excitement and the smell of coffee is in the air this week as the gang gathers together (at 8am on a Monday morning no less) to welcome Casey Greer and Cassandra Mendez from the Rare With Flair podcast. They discuss the origins of the podcast, the importance of sharing their lived experiences with others with rare diseases, share their insights int…

This week Ryan, Steve, and Rob welcome Tom Frank and Christine Chaikin from the Council of Citizens with Low Vision International. CCLVI provides support, resources, education, and advocacy for those who are impacted by low vision and visual impairment. Tom and Christine tell us about CCLVI's origins, how it provides support, resources, and educati…

The air is buzzing with assistive technology excitement and geekery as Steve makes his triumphant return to the show in time to walk us through his report of all the things he saw at CSUN, the annual assistive technology conference in California. His list includes a host of cool new products, from lasers to new braille technology, wearables, artifi…

Love, exciting and new. Come aboard, we’re expecting you. No, we aren’t talking about love on a boat this week, we are talking love on a roll! Come join Rob, Ryan and Lis as they welcome podcaster and accessibility advocate Garrett Mayersohn to the show to talk about his podcast, Love On A Roll. We discuss dating with a disability, why he started t…

This week Colleen Connor returns for Part 2 of last week’s epic discussion of Audio Description including a scintillating discussion about describing “sensitive material” that made Ryan and Lis giggle and that you won’t want to miss! Show Transcript https://atbanter.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/at-banter-podcast-episode-373-colleen-connor-returns-pa…

This episode Rob and Ryan feel old as they realize that it’s been 5 years since they have had this week’s guest on the show. Making her triumphant return to the podcast is Colleen Connor, director and co-founder of Audio Description Training Retreats and fellow podcaster at Blind Inspiration Cast. We catch up with her to see what is new after 5 yea…

This week the gang reassembles to get a bit geeky about assistive technology as they welcome Courtney Cameron, Eastern Region Coordinator for Neil Squire Society’s innovative program Makers Making Change - an online platform providing a low-cost alternative to commercially available assistive technologies that involves pairing volunteer makers with…

This week we are diving back into the wonderful world of audio description as Ryan, Lis, and Rob welcome Tabitha Kenlon, Project Coordinator for The Audio Description Project. The ADP, founded by the American Council of the Blind, serves as a comprehensive resource for both consumers and providers of audio description services as well as a central …

There is much rejoicing on the show this week as the Banter gang heads to their favorite place to talk about their favorite subject .. and if you guessed “the kitchen” to talk about “food”, you are clearly a regular listener! The rest of you, get your minds out of the gutter and listen as Lis, Ryan, and Rob welcome Mary Mammoliti, host of AMI’s Dis…

This week Rob, Lis, and Ryan welcome Kevin Shaw, entrepreneur, broadcast media professional, digital accessibility specialist, musician and host of the AMI show “Mind Your Own Business” to the show! They discuss Kevin’s background, life as an entrepreneur, some of the common pitfalls faced by many starting out a new business, how technology has imp…

John Travolta is an angel who swears and smokes cigarettes and eats a lot of sugar and is the desire of every woman on the planet except for Andie MacDowell, who is too busy hiding her shameful secret about how she babysits dogs. This is a super weird, super goofy movie from the 90s that was much, much easier to watch than any movie Ryan has ever p…

What do you get when you combine the magic of professional audio description with the detailed and wonderous illustrations in children’s books? Join Rob, Ryan and Steve this week as they talk with The Audiobook Wizard himself, Richard Rieman and find out! From professional news radio talent to audio describer and author, Richard tells us all about …

This week the gang is very excited to welcome Virginia Vuleta, Director of Digital Content at Accessible Media Inc to the show to talk all about AMI’s brand new streaming digital streaming service AMI Plus. They discuss the benefits of this new streaming service, the challenges of implementing it, and future plans to roll it out to multiple devices…

Get ready to get a little geeky as Rob, Ryan, and Lis break down and discuss a few of the new assistive technology devices that were featured at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that happened in early January. They break down and discuss their impressions of Guidi, a haptic smart belt, Oorion, an app that features objection recogn…

This week Rob, Ryan, and Lis welcome Amos Miller, founder and CEO of Glidance, to the show to talk about their new self-guided mobility aid called Glide. They discuss its creation, how it fits in as an aid between a mobility cane and a guide dog, how it uses robotics and AI for objection detection and avoidance, and many of the use case scenarios f…

In a sense, this is the Citizen Kane of bad Christian movies. Also the world is going to end about forty years ago.

It’s been 57 years since we have had them on the show, so we figured it was high time to have the boys from Double Tap back on the show! This week the gang welcome Steven Scott and Shaun Preece, hosts of AMI’s Double Tap podcast Double Tap TV to talk about Assistive Technology, looking back at some of the highlights of 2023 as well as looking forwa…

Recorded on World Braille Day, the AT Banter Gang sits down with a full house of Braille advocate superstars, including Riane LaPaire from National Network for Equitable Library Service, Adam Wilton and Jen Jesso from Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired, and Charmaine Co from Centre for Equitable Library Access. We dive into the im…

It’s the first show of a brand new year and we couldn’t be more excited to start things off with a bang as Ryan and Rob welcome social media superstar and author, advocate, and musician Heather Hutchison to the show. We talk about how she began her career as a content creator, what it’s like material that is both entertaining as well as educating, …

What better way to start the new year off than with the latest and greatest from Donald James Parker? This week we watched Pickleball Princess, which turned out not to be a religious movie, except in the sense that pickkeball seems to be Donald's new religion. Pickleball is basically the Messiah in this movie. It can cure racism and build bridges, …

It’s hard to believe, but it’s that time of season once again! The trees have been decorated, the lights put up and once again we have gathered a collection of friends of the show together to celebrate the holiday season! Joining Rob, Ryan, Steve and Lis this year is Shawn Marsolais of the Limitless Podcast, Riane LaPaire from the National Network …

This week the entire AT Banter gang reunites in order to welcome Ean Price, Peer Team Lead at Technology for Living and Founder of ICAN Resource Group to the show. They discuss his role at Technology for Living and the work they do around Assistive Technology and how he came to found ICAN as well as the importance of open source AT and accessible t…

This week Rob and Ryan welcome Riane LaPaire and Leah Brochu from the National Network for Equitable Library Services and Sarah Smith-Eivemark from Penguin Random House Canada to discuss their recent partnership to provide braille editions of two new books from cooking legend Jamie Oliver. They discuss the books, how the partnership came about, the…

Jesus' diner has closed for business, so now he's vacationing in Thailand and making new friends. You know what that means - it's the hit sequel to The Encounter, only this time, Jesus is taken hostage. David A. R. White is here too, as the world's worst policeman, but he's tied to a chair for most of the movie. Thankfully, Jesus can break the tens…

When Kari Brown-John sat down to try to book passage on a new ferry service between Nanaimo and Vancouver last summer, she was in for a big surprise. As it turns out, their policy was not to allow power wheelchairs on board. What started as a routine trip ended up splashed in the local media, and this week Kari sits down with Rob, Ryan, and Lis to …

Kids these days, they're 29 and have major social media followings, am I right? Thankfully some parents out there still know how to raise their kids right, by waiting until their birthday, leaving the country, cutting them off, and forcing them into a life of poverty and homelessness until they can learn how to put God first. Dan, Alexa, and Ryan l…

We’re doing it at 300 BPM this week (if you’re a bass player you will get that joke) as we welcome Ciara Moser, a professional bassist who has also been blind since birth and has just released a new album called, “Blind, So What?”. We talk to her about her passion for music and where it all started, her podcast, how advocacy and education is incorp…

In which Ryan continues the saga of Harry Potter, very continuingly.

It's all very simple: Satan drives a semi-trailer truck, which he uses to kill a lady so that her infant daughter Sheri can someday grow up and be diagnosed with a terminal illness that leads her to become a Pentecostal superhero. With her newfound powers, Sheri stops middle-aged high school bullies, hypnotizes TV executives, and shuts down whole m…

A faith-based movie with F bombs! And murder! And angels that seem to be slacking off on their job of stopping terrible things from happening. This week, Dan, Alexa, and Ryan watch their first R-rated faith-based film, which comes with an important lesson about forgiveness. Or something. There's also a murder mystery that goes nowhere, a detective …

Imagine an episode of Pinky and the Brain where Brain feeds Pinky to a cat, and you have a basic idea of what this Christian cartoon is like. Nero is killing all the Christians in Rome, and that means it's time for some hilarious antics where four probably-orphans have to run for their lives to avoid being sold into slavery. And it's all very wacky…

It’s that time of year again, when the pumpkins are placed on the doorsteps and witches and ghouls gather for tricks or treats! It’s also that time when the hosts of AT Banter gather together, drinks in hand, to engage in a little Halloween fun and nonsense, and this year is no different! Come join us as we welcome Shawn Marsolais and Keisha Anders…

In July of 2023, Scott Rees swam more than 30 kilometres across the Strait of Georgia, from Vancouver to Nanaimo, in just under 11 hours as part of a fundraiser for Canadian Guide Dogs. Join us this week as we sit down with Scott to talk about his vision journey with retinitis pigmentosa, his own experience getting his Guide Dog Caleb, what prompte…