{"id":8777,"date":"2026-03-02T17:31:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T17:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/?p=8777"},"modified":"2026-03-02T17:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T17:38:14","slug":"assistive-technology-and-everyday-independence-with-jule-ann-lieberman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/assistive-technology-and-everyday-independence-with-jule-ann-lieberman\/","title":{"rendered":"Assistive Technology and Everyday Independence with Jule Ann Lieberman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div id=\"fws_69f3386e69f7e\"  data-column-margin=\"default\" data-midnight=\"dark\"  class=\"wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_row\"  style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; \"><div class=\"row-bg-wrap\" data-bg-animation=\"none\" data-bg-animation-delay=\"\" data-bg-overlay=\"false\"><div class=\"inner-wrap row-bg-layer\" ><div class=\"row-bg viewport-desktop\"  style=\"\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row_col_wrap_12 col span_12 dark left\">\n\t<div  class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container vc_column_container col no-extra-padding inherit_tablet inherit_phone \"  data-padding-pos=\"all\" data-has-bg-color=\"false\" data-bg-color=\"\" data-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-animation=\"\" data-delay=\"0\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"vc_column-inner\" >\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"img-with-aniamtion-wrap center custom-size\" data-max-width=\"100%\" data-max-width-mobile=\"default\" data-shadow=\"none\" data-animation=\"none\" >\n      <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"hover-wrap\"> \n          <div class=\"hover-wrap-inner\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-with-animation skip-lazy\" data-delay=\"0\" height=\"300\" width=\"300\" data-animation=\"none\" src=\"https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-12x12.png 12w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-140x140.png 140w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-500x500.png 500w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-350x350.png 350w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-1000x1000.png 1000w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image-800x800.png 800w, https:\/\/prrf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOE_Episode-42-Jule-Ann-Lieberman-Cover-Image.png 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div><div class=\"img-with-aniamtion-wrap \" data-max-width=\"100%\" data-max-width-mobile=\"default\" data-shadow=\"none\" data-animation=\"none\" >\n      <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"hover-wrap\"> \n          <div class=\"hover-wrap-inner\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-with-animation skip-lazy\" data-delay=\"0\" height=\"100\" width=\"100\" data-animation=\"none\" src=\"\" alt=\"\"  \/>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div><div class=\"img-with-aniamtion-wrap \" data-max-width=\"100%\" data-max-width-mobile=\"default\" data-shadow=\"none\" data-animation=\"none\" >\n      <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"hover-wrap\"> \n          <div class=\"hover-wrap-inner\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-with-animation skip-lazy\" data-delay=\"0\" height=\"100\" width=\"100\" data-animation=\"none\" src=\"\" alt=\"\"  \/>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\n\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t<div class=\"sqs-html-content\">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">Season 3 | Episode 42<\/h2>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\">March 2, 2026<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jule Ann Lieberman\u2019s path into assistive technology grew out of curiosity, persistence, and a desire to stay independent. What began as an interest in learning more about technology evolved into graduate study, professional certification, and a career dedicated to helping blind and low vision individuals access the tools that support school, work, and daily life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this episode, Jule Ann shares her journey as both a low vision professional and someone living with vision loss. She reflects on teaching future specialists, supporting clients of all ages, navigating public transportation with a guide dog, and evaluating emerging tools like smart glasses and AI. This conversation centers on adjustment, advocacy, and the practical ways technology can strengthen confidence and independence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learn more about TechOWL here: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/techowlpa.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/techowlpa.org\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Join us April 17-19, 2026 for a powerful weekend that educates, inspires, and unites.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Saturday\u2019s Family Connection Conference brings education and resources to families affected by pediatric retinal diseases, while Sunday\u2019s Hope for Vision Walk brings together our community to fund critical research and programs. Participate in one or both events, either virtually or in person at Oakland University in Rochester, MI: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/prrf.org\/upcoming-events\/united-in-hope\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/prrf.org\/upcoming-events\/united-in-hope\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can find more episodes and ways to get involved with the Pediatric Retinal Research Foundation here: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/throughoureyespodcast\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/linktr.ee\/throughoureyespodcast<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"fws_69f3386e6a8d7\"  data-column-margin=\"default\" data-midnight=\"dark\"  class=\"wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_row\"  style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; \"><div class=\"row-bg-wrap\" data-bg-animation=\"none\" data-bg-animation-delay=\"\" data-bg-overlay=\"false\"><div class=\"inner-wrap row-bg-layer\" ><div class=\"row-bg viewport-desktop\"  style=\"\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row_col_wrap_12 col span_12 dark left\">\n\t<div  class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container vc_column_container col no-extra-padding inherit_tablet inherit_phone \"  data-padding-pos=\"all\" data-has-bg-color=\"false\" data-bg-color=\"\" data-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-animation=\"\" data-delay=\"0\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"vc_column-inner\" >\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t<div class=\"wpb_raw_code wpb_raw_html wpb_content_element\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/40282915\/height\/192\/theme\/modern\/size\/large\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/008080\/time-start\/00:00:00\/hide-playlist\/yes\/download\/yes\/font-color\/FFFFFF\" height=\"192\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"true\" mozallowfullscreen=\"true\" oallowfullscreen=\"true\" msallowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border: none;\"><\/iframe>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"fws_69f3386e6ab1f\"  data-column-margin=\"default\" data-midnight=\"dark\"  class=\"wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_row\"  style=\"padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; \"><div class=\"row-bg-wrap\" data-bg-animation=\"none\" data-bg-animation-delay=\"\" data-bg-overlay=\"false\"><div class=\"inner-wrap row-bg-layer\" ><div class=\"row-bg viewport-desktop\"  style=\"\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row_col_wrap_12 col span_12 dark left\">\n\t<div  class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column column_container vc_column_container col no-extra-padding inherit_tablet inherit_phone \"  data-padding-pos=\"all\" data-has-bg-color=\"false\" data-bg-color=\"\" data-bg-opacity=\"1\" data-animation=\"\" data-delay=\"0\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"vc_column-inner\" >\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"toggles \" data-br=\"none\" data-starting=\"default\" data-style=\"default\"><div class=\"toggle default\" data-inner-wrap=\"true\"><h3 class=\"toggle-title\"><a href=\"#\" role=\"button\" class=\"nectar-inherit-h3 toggle-heading\"><i role=\"presentation\" class=\"fa fa-plus-circle\"><\/i>Transcript<\/a><\/h3><div><div class=\"inner-toggle-wrap\">\n<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\n\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t<p><b>Luisa Recchia:<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:00:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to Through Our Eyes, the podcast where we explore the lived experiences, innovations, and real stories shaping the blind and low vision community. Today&#8217;s episode is a powerful blend of professional expertise and personal insight. Our guest Jule Ann earned her master of Science in Low Vision Therapy from Salus University and holds dual certification through A-C-B-R-E-P as a low vision therapist and assistive technology instructional specialist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She currently works as an assistive technology specialist for the blind and low vision at TechOWL, where she provides information demonstrations and public awareness about the technologies that are changing lives. She also serves as adjunct faculty at Salus University and has presented nationally at conferences such as A TIA and csun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we are also joined by Wallace Stuckey, a member of our <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:01:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Family Advisor Committee at the Pediatric Retinal Research Foundation, who is joining us from London as he studies for his master&#8217;s program. Wallace will be our guest interviewing our wonderful Jule Ann. Today we&#8217;re gonna talk about what adjustment really means, how assistive technology empowers independence, and what both families and professionals need to better understand about vision loss. Take it away, Wallace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So Jule Ann, I think it is quite a really interesting career you&#8217;ve had in working with, uh, all sorts of folks with visual impairments and assist technology. I guess a good place to start would be what kind of got you into it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, that, that&#8217;s, it&#8217;s an interesting question because someone else just asked me that recently, and it brought back memories. When I was a stay at home mom for a while, I have three children. Uh, they&#8217;re all adults now. In fact, I mentioned I&#8217;m also a grandmother of a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:02:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 1-year-old.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But at the time this is going back gosh several years, uh, my daughter was at that point a. First grader and, uh, my son was a middle schooler, my oldest son was a middle schooler. And of course, you know, a frantic every Sunday night, you know, the next day school you try to get everything ready for the kid helping get ready to get, make sure they&#8217;ve got their homework done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And my, uh, this was Sunday night and my son says to me, mom, I, I need an article about the environment. And I went it&#8217;s Sunday. I don&#8217;t have magazines. Unless we, look through the new newspaper. I don&#8217;t know how to, how we could get something. And then I said, you know, why don&#8217;t you try that internet thing?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And again, this is going back by the way, my son is a full adult at this point. And I said, I know we have that computer. Why don&#8217;t you try the internet? So needless to say, I got busy with the other two children getting them ready for bed, and I <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:03:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> caught up with my son and I said, oh, hey, you know, hey Jared, where did you find anything?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He goes, oh yeah. And I said, oh, he goes, yeah, it was about an article of an issue in, uh, one of the counties that surround us the Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I went, oh, really? That, that&#8217;s really interesting. Not only was it an environmental article, but it was an article, something of local interest. And I said, how long did it take you to find that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I dunno, 10 minutes. I said it would take us longer to get to the library than it would be to, to get that, find that material. So I thought, wow, access to information could be so quick and, you know, easily obtained. Um, and then at the same next day, my daughter come, came home from school and she said, mom, I wanna play my 101 Dalmatians game on the computer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But, okay, so we had a, um, uh, an Apple computer at the time, uh, and I said, I pushed the, uh, CD ROM drive and I said, here&#8217;s the cd. I said, this is about as far as I can go with <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:04:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this. And she put this, she goes, that&#8217;s okay, mom. She puts the CD in and there she is in like two seconds playing. And I said, okay, now I know I have both very bright children, but she&#8217;s six.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She&#8217;s operating this computer. How hard is this? Now, granted, I couldn&#8217;t see anything on the screen. So. I said, well, I, you know, I wanna learn more about this. And at the same time, again, my children were getting older, so I thought maybe time to go think about going back into the workforce. Growing up, that was always a, a goal of mine to be somewhat independent with my own finances.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so getting back to work was important to me, and I realized that computers were definitely part of the workplace. And so I looked into getting a, uh, course in assistive technology that was at one of the local associations for the blind. And so I ended up going, uh, and it was a 10 week course five days a week from nine to three.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:05:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I really enjoyed it. And a couple months after I took the course, I get a phone call from that particular agency and they said, we want you to talk to you about a job. I went, okay. I thought maybe they just need some, you know. Clerical work around the office or something. And I went in for the interview and, and you know, it was a nice interview, but finally they said, do you have any questions?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I said, yeah, what job are you talking about? You haven&#8217;t told me what the job is. Oh, we want you to teach, teach what the class you just took. So needless to say, I, I kind of throw into assistive technology, uh, by sort of accident. I&#8217;ve always been someone interested in again you know, any kind of, uh, good tools and gadgets as I like to say.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So for me it was, you know, a natural and even though I said I, I&#8217;m not a teacher, the visually impaired, I never had any good experience on that. They said, yeah, but this particular program, you really don&#8217;t need that. So that started the whole interest. And then I, you know, I built <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:06:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on that over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I even had my own nonprofit for a while, uh, where I would do consultation. Then one of the universities here in the greater Philadelphia area. It was originally the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. Uh, then it became Sal University, and now it is Blindness and Vision Studies at Drexel University.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They merged last year, uh, last July, and they, uh, a lot since I am a low vision person myself, I knew a fair amount of the professionals in the field and as a patient, and so they kept recruiting me to just take their classes. Uh, so I, I entered graduate school at the ripe old age of 52 and graduated in 2013 with a low vision therapy, uh, master&#8217;s.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then I continued on since this was my area, I love technology. I ended up getting the job at Temple University. And as they were looking for somebody that had a skillset <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:07:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that was different than what was already on staff, they had speech and language pathologists. They at that time did not have occupational therapist we do now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Uh, and so they thought, oh, this might be a good addition. Uh, so I advised all the agencies that we work with we have resource centers across the state eight, uh, altogether. And so I&#8217;ll advise that a lot on the vision technology. And I also you know, provide direct client services as well. And in 20, uh, 20, 21.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was contacted by again, it was Salus University at that time, and they said they wanted somebody to teach an intro to Assistive Technology course for those professionals in the curriculum that were studying as a teacher of the visually impaired or vision rehabilitation therapist or vision therapist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I thought, okay, why not? Uh, as I like to say, I have one and a half jobs, so I&#8217;m full-time at Temple University and I&#8217;m adjunct faculty at, um, now <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:08:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Drexel, uh, university. Uh, and I really enjoy teaching. I enjoyed it when I taught the class on computer technology way back when, uh, for, uh, the blind and low vision and, uh, but teaching the, preparing the professionals that ultimately are gonna be working with individuals long after I retire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I, I really find that fulfilling. To work with the individuals that are heading into this field. So I&#8217;m hoping to make ISA great assisted technology geeks outta these individuals. I have some success with us, but generally speaking again, it&#8217;s a, right now, uh, it is a, a three credit course, so it&#8217;s a, a fair amount of work, especially starting in the spring.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But I do enjoy it. So sometimes when the end, they say, uh, the job that you love is a job that you&#8217;re really not working. So when I did say that I do love teaching, that is true. Um, and so that&#8217;s kind of my story in a nutshell. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:09:00]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> A<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> lot of nuts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, I&#8217;m picking up That&#8217;s great though, but I&#8217;m picking up on a little bit of a trend that, multiple jobs that you&#8217;ve done came into being because people around you. Recognize your skills and it&#8217;s a great position to be in where mm-hmm. They&#8217;re calling you to ask about, uh, of a position or in fact like your, your teaching role now. Uh, it was a, it was a position which you got to have some role in creating and, and developing that course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, yeah. Um, that&#8217;s really neat. And I definitely also relate to, as a current master&#8217;s student. There you go. You never stop, have to, uh, having to find articles on a Sunday evening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oh yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> No matter what level you&#8217;re at.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What about a little bit of, uh, one of your different roles, uh, because you, you work with students in terms you in your faculty roles, uh, but also with kind of clients of all ages, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the Tech Owl <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:10:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Program, Pennsylvania. What, uh, maybe you could take it from this angle, um, in terms of te technology in that program, what&#8217;s kind of the, the hot topic right now? What is, what is, what are people really going for? What, what&#8217;s new and what&#8217;s exciting?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Smart glasses. Two words Meta, uh, the Meta glasses any of the, the wearables that provide instant recognition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that is the number one topic that I&#8217;ll get. In fact, I met with the local over, uh, office of Vocation Rehabilitation, came for a visit yesterday and I met with them. And what was the first thing they asked? How much do you know about these Meta glasses and how much do you know about what are the other alternatives?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because they have to look at, from, obviously a fiscal standpoint, what can they purchase? They said so many, now they&#8217;ve got approval that they can provide medical classes in their older blind program, not just in the, uh, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:11:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> vocational rehabilitation program. So I, you know, again, that was interesting. So I told them that I prepared uh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Conference presentation at the Assistive Technology Industry Association, um, which was held at the, uh, last couple days of January in Orlando. And I was planning on being there. Uh, and unfortunately, uh, mother Nature and American Airlines prohibited that &#8217;cause that kept canceling my flight. And so I couldn&#8217;t, I couldn&#8217;t get down there to present in person, but I am gonna be doing a recording.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they&#8217;re gonna upload it at their website so that people can, view the topic because they agreed that&#8217;s a topic that as at professionals they get a lot of questions about, especially from the blindness and low vision community. So if you&#8217;re gonna talk about one thing that seems to be a hot topic, especially with the older adults that might be a little bit of tech savvy, they wanna know about the smart glasses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Can it do something? And I, I, I believe you can share <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:12:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this experience, waiting to have someone help you with something is really kind of frustrating. I, you know, again, what is this? The major question, what is this I&#8217;m looking at right now? That kind of information, if you can get that information quickly from smart glasses rather than waiting till, uh, again, again, your spouse or your family member or your friend shows up to tell you what this is to me, uh, it&#8217;s a monumental jump.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In technology. And, but I always laugh and say it is still artificial intelligence. And even though those databases are getting very good they&#8217;re not perfect, and you will get some hallucinations. So you&#8217;ll get some things that aren&#8217;t quite what they&#8217;re supposed to be. So then you get them to try again, and a lot of times you get a better result.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So I always tell them it&#8217;s not perfect. It is not the answer to all your task needs, but it is a help. And so I, I reviewed the Meta glasses of the envision <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:13:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> AI glasses. I have the full version, not the ally version, which is the newer one out. And also the I&#8217;m just starting to experiment with the Echo Vision glasses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Uh, I am what they call a pioneer. I have their, almost their, uh. You know, the beta product right now and myself and several other people, uh, are participating in trying this out. So I&#8217;m doing a, a broad comparison of at least those three type of smart glasses devices. And they are, uh, again seems to be the number one question, especially of the adult and older adult population.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Um, kids, as you probably can guess, sometimes they&#8217;re reluctant, uh, to try something that. Is different than their peers. So a lot of times when I&#8217;m working with a family that has, um, a, a child with low vision, uh, especially, they don&#8217;t wanna look different. And so using some of these technology devices <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:14:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> especially if it&#8217;s a later onset a diagnosis, say middle school or high school, that&#8217;s when your own personal identity gets to be in conflict with what your reality is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s, it seems to be more advantageous to introduce the technology, any technology when they&#8217;re younger. &#8217;cause then they think it&#8217;s cool okay, that they get to do something, uh, on a device. Uh. The fact that so many mainstream devices, as I said, with the glasses and iPads and iPhones have so many accessible features on there and apps that you can use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s not all that much different than their peers are using. So it&#8217;s bridging that identity gap. Um, but there&#8217;s still some reluctance. Uh, had a student come in as a temple student now, and you know, he had a low vision ev evaluation and they recommended some devices for you, uh, in a classroom. And I asked him, you know, he said, no, I&#8217;m not <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:15:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> interested you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay. So we had to come up with an accommodation that he was using in high school, which I thought was really a, kind of a unique approach, uh, that during the classroom time, he would have the instructor set up a zoom, uh, link. Then he would just enlarge it on his laptop. So in other words, to follow the presentation using the distance camera, I thought that was really fascinating that he, that was the compromise, not the choice I would&#8217;ve made, but he said, no, I don&#8217;t wanna look like, I don&#8217;t, I want to look like everybody else with my laptop in the classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> well that&#8217;s what I did. Mm-hmm. When I was in middle school and high school, it, we did it through screen sharing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Uh, so it was on the iPad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And also iPads were a, a, a key part of too, because I started using one as a. Assistive technology tool,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Uhhuh<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in sixth grade. And then when I moved to seventh <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:16:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> grade, the school announced were trialing iPads for the seventh graders.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean, I never got the official, uh, credit that, uh, I started to trend. It worked well, but no complaints about that. Uh, and that they rolled it out to the middle school when I was in eighth grade. So, um,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> well, you, well, what&#8217;s funny about that, Wallace, is that, uh, not to interrupt you, but what you&#8217;re saying is, what I often tell people is that sometimes that a, uh, a, a technique or a device that was created for a certain population in this case, blindness and low vision, ends up being used wide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By the general pop, you know, population. So I always use the example, the audio books how many people are listening to Audible right now? I mean, come on. And yet talking books were created in World War ii for veterans returning from war. That, or, you know, lost their vision then and so that they could continue on in education.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Um, and so for me it&#8217;s like, wow, if something that started out maybe that was <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:17:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> dedicated for somebody, like in your case for your use as an assistive technology, it&#8217;s now it, everybody&#8217;s using it. You know, it&#8217;s, call it the wheelchair ramp effect. Uh, you know, the curb cuts and the, uh. You know, on our street corners now, uh, was created, originally designed for persons with wheelchair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How many people with baby strollers and delivery people use &#8217;em all the time. So it becomes universally accepted. Uh, so I&#8217;m, I&#8217;m glad to hear that, you know, you had that advantage of using that, uh, sixth grade and seventh grade. Hey, everybody&#8217;s using them, which is it&#8217;s a good experience,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, the sloped edges, everyone would be thrown off. Yeah. If we didn&#8217;t have those.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oh,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> yeah. Just catch me by surprise when I, when I&#8217;m walking down the street<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> mm-hmm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I, I don&#8217;t see them. Yeah. That&#8217;s, uh, all very good. Uh, what about, I mean, one more thing on the, the glasses though. Mm-hmm. Because I, I was just having this, uh, chat with a few friends of mine here in the program, and this, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:18:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the consensus on smart glasses for now, at least in, in, in the grad school cohort is that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They&#8217;re okay. Mm-hmm. And if something&#8217;s okay, I&#8217;m not rushing out to buy it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oh yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So what would you say is the best tool or approach for them? Where do you get the most benefit from them as someone with vision loss?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Again, I&#8217;m also an AT professional, so my first always response is, well, what is the task you&#8217;re trying to do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What&#8217;s your interest level? What&#8217;s your skill level? You know, when you keep those three things in mind then yeah, if all you wanna do is be able to recognize the items in your kitchen cabinet, they&#8217;re great. They&#8217;re great for object re recognition. Okay. Are you looking for to, uh, read a novel with them?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That would be tedious. Okay. So there are other technologies that you might wanna use that would provide you with the same audio ability, but you don&#8217;t have to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:19:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> scan in and take pictures of pages. Although I did see a demonstration of someone who was doing exactly that with the echo Vision glasses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I, I, sorry I&#8217;d rather listen to a book that&#8217;s been recorded rather than scanning it in. But again, as you know, not everything is available. So that would be a good alternative use for that. But generally speaking, you know, this spot reading I think identifying you know, objects in the environment, uh, I think to me is probably the biggest benefit of it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of using it at, pretty much at all ages. And again, I, I have not, I&#8217;m new to, uh, you know, all the chat bots right now, so I&#8217;m still in the, in the, I always say the. Tentative stages of asking Claude or asking ChatGPT to for information. &#8217;cause I wanna make sure that I can trust the information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So I&#8217;m still getting used to that. And, uh, so, who knows by next year, next <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:20:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> time, uh, if we ever talk again, I might be using, uh, AI while I&#8217;m talking to you. My<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> stance with the chat bots is that you must be like a lawyer questioning a witness. Yeah. And ask it a question you don&#8217;t already know the answer to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. Um, because yeah sometimes it will get a few basic things, things wrong and it does bring into question<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Using it for information, but there&#8217;s mm-hmm. Ways in which I love it. If I, if I ask it to reformat a document, I mean, that<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> oh yeah. Is a<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> great example of something that is very difficult to do visually, but you&#8217;re mm-hmm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Working smarter, uh, or I should say very difficult to do non visually, but you&#8217;re working smarter, not harder by using the, uh, device,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Mm-hmm. So that&#8217;s great. And I guess lastly on glasses, uh, the, the signs would be huge. Yeah. Use for me, because like today I was taking a few metro lines. I did a flight earlier today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay. Uh, so going through multiple airports and the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:21:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> signage, oh yeah. It&#8217;s really quickly, but, but when you&#8217;re not really looking for it, it&#8217;s hard to know where the signage is. And I would love it if there was a tool that would just as I walk by, announce signs. Even it&#8217;s not a hundred percent right in the middle of the frame of vision.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think that would be so useful. So I&#8217;m very interested to see, I&#8217;m glad you&#8217;re trying multiple &#8217;cause it&#8217;s gonna be really interesting how the market evolves. Oh yeah. And needed to be multiple competitors for that to, uh, happen<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and also bring the price down. &#8217;cause<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The first device that was of that ilk was the OrCam MyEye.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Um, and that was retailing for $5,900. They&#8217;re not producing them any longer from what I understand if you go to their website, you&#8217;re not gonna get information how to purchase it. So, okay. But you can still get them. Some, some people still have them in you know, some of the people that bought them, uh, as you know, low vision or you know, vision specialists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They&#8217;ll, they may have them so that they can you know, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:22:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> resell them, but they&#8217;re a little harder. And, you know, that&#8217;s the point I, I made, if that had limited functions, had some good functions, I thought the recognition was very good when it took a picture of of, you know, an article. It. Did the recognition quickly and very well, and they were pretty easy to use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, you know, I gave it all that, those good kudos, but I thought $5,900 for limited tasks. Whereas as the newer ones now have ways to connect with others. For example, um, Meta Now, uh, you can connect with Be My Eyes Agents. You can also connect with I believe Aira. It&#8217;s maybe a multi, uh, step to do that, but, you can have someone connect looking through the camera and to also give you that information when you&#8217;re at that airport. Okay? You&#8217;re you know, you turn in the direction where the sign probably is. Then they can tell you, you know, again. What the information on the, they <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:23:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> can read it to you live a real person.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So that&#8217;s the advantages of some of these kind of situations that you don&#8217;t have to wait to take a picture and then try and figure out. I, I always laugh and I, I call it the menu effect when you go to a restaurant and you do a, use a OCR to read the, um, menu. Okay. First off, the, it could be inaccurate anyway &#8217;cause there&#8217;s a lot of images on some menus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But also it&#8217;s like I don&#8217;t need to know everything. So having uh, someone who can see through the camera on these glasses is terrific. &#8217;cause then I can say, Hey, okay, I&#8217;m in the mood for a sandwich. I want a hot sandwich, you know, and I can give them that information. Narrows it down<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. It makes it so much more efficient to do that. And, you know, that&#8217;s good. Yeah. Those kind of, I think they&#8217;re. Daily living type of things That&#8217;s really helpful to use. But, you know, am I gonna have them write my term paper? No. Any in the chat box? No, thank <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:24:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you. But getting research information, I saw a great webinar just using Claude and the screen reader jaws for Windows.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I thought, oh, that was really neat how they organized all this information and provided them some links for, for further research. So it was, it was pretty effective. Use, uh, but again, not all of the chat bots are alike and some provide you more in-depth information and some provide you basically the, the cursory information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I use that as an example with de describing a scene, for example, or describing a photo built onto my iPhone already. I have the ability for the image that was sent by my daughter, uh, uh, with my, of my granddaughter to describe it to me, but, well, usually what it ends up saying is it&#8217;s a baby sitting in a chair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay. Alright, that&#8217;s true. But what makes it that picture important to me is the fact that the baby is a chocolate cake smeared over her face. Mm-hmm. You know? So, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:25:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> uh, it&#8217;s it&#8217;s still in its infancy, you know, machine learning. It&#8217;s still doesn&#8217;t have the emotional effect. That would be something that would be a response that would be related to an emotion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s funny to see that, baby with chocolate icing all over her face. But you know, that it wouldn&#8217;t understand that from the standpoint now it&#8217;s coming. Which in some ways kinda scares me. Sure. Absolutely. It&#8217;s gonna take over. Yeah. They&#8217;re all gonna take over the world and make decisions for me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don&#8217;t think I like that. But again, it, it, it again is, it is a useful tool in, in many ways, uh, but there are some limitations. Yeah. That wasn&#8217;t a great information that babysitting in a chair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, that&#8217;s what you learn when you are working on developing alternative text for images, for example, which is manually done, but that you have to include enough detail to convey what someone is going to see visually and what they&#8217;re gonna pick out without <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:26:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> absolute overloading the exactly the person with too much information that&#8217;s irrelevant to what the picture&#8217;s trying to get across.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. And I usually say, what&#8217;s, what&#8217;s the. What was the point? Why did you put this image here? Tell me why. I don&#8217;t need to know that she, that she&#8217;s wearing a pink blouse, if that&#8217;s not important, unless the pink blouse means something. You know, I always said tell what is the meaning of that image that you put in there?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So again, I I&#8217;m pretty dis definitive about alt text. And I always rewar warn people, please don&#8217;t rely on the autogenerated alt text because again, machine it&#8217;s really bad. Machine learning is still learning. I had an image in one of my presentations of what a bold lying tablet looks like.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay. Uh, &#8217;cause I just, you know, a whole variety of different images in there. And when the automatic autogenerated alt text was read aloud to me by the screen reader, it said it was an air conditioner. And I went, what? An air conditioner. I <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:27:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> thought that&#8217;s a stretch. And then my daughter pointed out to me, well, mom, look at it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It looks like that. It&#8217;s just lines. That would be almost like a vent. Oh, I guess you&#8217;re right. You know, I didn&#8217;t realize that it was paper, a paper tablet. So obviously I had to go in and edit the alt text in there in that regard. So again, it&#8217;s it&#8217;s artificial intelligence. It is artificial, it&#8217;s not, human intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We still are beating them. Even though we&#8217;re relying more and more on artificial intelligence, we&#8217;re still smarter than ai. I like to tell people that<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> we are, let&#8217;s enjoy it while we&#8217;ve got it. I actually think that that will be well we we&#8217;re the ones that have developed, uh, AI and mm-hmm. Will hopefully continue to shape it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. Don&#8217;t want to let it run away from us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For sure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. So a little bit about my, my, my traveling to work. I do take the, oh yeah, let&#8217;s do that. Yeah, I do. I&#8217;d love to hear<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I do take the regional rail <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:28:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> lines. He, this is my fourth guide dog that I use. And, um, I&#8217;ve been riding with him since last November.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prior to that, uh, in my time at working at Temple, I had two other dogs that had retired. So we take the train every day. Fortunately there, there is a stop at Temple University right there on the regional line. So, uh, I, I just stay on one train. I don&#8217;t have to switch trains, which is a very nice you know, again, like you said at the airport, trying to get to the right gate, trying to find the right platform sometimes can be a struggle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So for me, that&#8217;s very convenient. And I do have an about a four and a half block walk up to my office. Through the campus. So getting, you know, again, oriented to where I am at any point in time I have used some GPS apps, uh, talking GPS apps. And sometimes I just need to know where am I?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Uh, and I usually have a mental map that already, uh, but if you ask me on <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:29:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> any given day, what building is that, as I&#8217;m walking along, I don&#8217;t know unless I&#8217;ve had reason to be there, I have no idea what the building is. So<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you don&#8217;t know what you<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> don&#8217;t know. That&#8217;s very<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> fair.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. But I love, also love when traveling get to finish this conversation when I was down in Philadelphia, uh, one day on a Saturday morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I&#8217;m there with my guide dog, and uh, this car pulls up close to me and rolls down the window. Can you tell me how to get to it was, they were getting to the Kimmel Center and which is, uh, the Academy of Music building. And, uh, I was, happened to be on 10th Street and I said, okay yeah, well we&#8217;re on 10th Street.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You where we&#8217;re, where Waldo Street travels West. So you wanna take this street here, make a right and you wanna travel down? I said essentially it&#8217;s it&#8217;s four and a half blocks really, because there&#8217;s a small street that&#8217;s is a, not a numbered street that comes in, intersects there, but you wanna get to Broad Street, which is, you&#8217;ll know when you&#8217;re <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:30:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at Broad Street &#8217;cause it&#8217;s broad and then give away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It&#8217;s very wide. And I said, then you would make a left. And meanwhile the dr the other passenger, but she&#8217;s blind. But she&#8217;s blind, but she&#8217;s blind. And I. Yeah. But I know my way around it<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> means, you know, it better because you&#8217;ve committed it to memory. Yeah. Well people here, I mean, I take the train now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mm-hmm. Also every day to class. Um, I, I lived on campus in undergrad. Now I commute into grad school and Truist in London will ask me, oh yeah. You know, how do I get to Kensington? And I can&#8217;t actually tell them that on the underground because a lot of the network I, I just kind of know now. Yeah. And also the visual tip, all the lines sound different, or at least most of them do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, yes,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> absolutely. Yeah. I, I spent a semester in London when an undergrad, uh, so I, so if you would tell me, yeah. I can tell you how to get to South Kensington. On the green line, so I, you know. Exactly. And you know, so you get used to this and you get, uh, I had a friend that I was traveling with that didn&#8217;t have any vision <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:31:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> problems, and one day she got lost and I said, how could you have gotten lost on the underground?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And, she totally took the wrong train. And I was like, okay, you didn&#8217;t notice that you were on the wrong, a wrong, level &#8217;cause she ended up on the Piccadilly line. I was like, how did you get over there? It also<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> comes to South Kensington,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> also the Piccadilly<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> line in<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> South Kenton. Yeah, yeah, that&#8217;s right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">District. So, yeah. So it, again, it&#8217;s just what you develop as skills as a person that you know has poor vision. Is that a, a lot of which is good memory. And also you know, alternative strategies when I, I&#8217;m very involved with the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind as well, which is an affiliate of the American Council of Blind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I&#8217;ve said so many times &#8217;cause I head up the Vision loss resource team. Uh, and I&#8217;ve always said I learned more from blind people than I&#8217;ve learned in all my academic years. As far as how to live as a person with that vision loss. &#8217;cause they&#8217;re, to me, persons that are blind or low vision are probably the, the greatest problem <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:32:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> solvers that we have.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m glad you&#8217;re studying it, intelligence because clearly. You have to think outside the box. And so that&#8217;s what a person who&#8217;s blind or visually impaired does you know, for your, again, for your own survival. And, you have to be a creative problem solver. So I rely an awful lot if I like, okay, I&#8217;m encountering a situation, or I&#8217;ll bring up a subject, what would you do in this situation?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it&#8217;s really fascinating to hear how some people have come up with their own unique solutions to it. And, you know, maybe that would be a prophy, maybe not. But I always find it that what I say, if you put a blind person on the team, you have someone who actually has, can think outside the box and come with rad problem solving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, I always encourage the, in the employment industry to think about that, that, you know, don&#8217;t be afraid of hiring that blind person. If anything, they&#8217;re gonna be an asset. Especially if you&#8217;re working on any kind of development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, that is what this semester <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:33:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is really about, is we&#8217;ve gotten into the group presentation Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Section of grad school. And all three presentations are about proposing solutions to global conflicts. So, I, I&#8217;m hoping what you said there will come through. I think it will. Uh, but we&#8217;ll have to check in at the end of the semester. I&#8217;ll let you in. You can let me know. All I appreciate, I&#8217;ll let you know.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, good. Sounds good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Luisa Recchia:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> this has been so enlightening and interesting. Jule as a, educator for those that are listening that either just received a diagnosis on their mm-hmm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Infant. Mm-hmm. What is assistive technology?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It is any product I can give you the, the legal definition, any product or um, a device that has been modified or created or modified for the use of a person to, uh, with a disability. So it can be anything. And I say that because when, uh, I deal with people with physical disabilities something as simple as having you <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:34:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> know, put a washcloth on a, around a toothbrush holder makes it easier for him to grip.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guess what? That&#8217;s sort of technology. Okay. It&#8217;s an alternative, uh, use for something. So it can be an alternative, uh, use for a product. And that, uh, again, or it can be technology. Uh, again, this is the digital edge folks. Uh, I swear my granddaughter knows how to use the cell phone already.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she&#8217;s only one, well, she knows how to, she knows how to hang up on Nana, which is funny. She likes to push that red button on the hang, the hang up the call, which I find it very amusing. And, but again, you know, since we are a digital age, to me at this point thinking back, &#8217;cause I am six to eight years old, technology was, uh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the far horizon when I was in elementary school or uh, high school there were some, there was talking books and large print books that I used when I was in high school. I wasn&#8217;t diagnosed till I was, um, I guess I was <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:35:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 12. But I didn&#8217;t start asking for help till I was in high school when again, content was more demanding to read.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So with that said it was, it was in its infancy, a lot of this, and so, you know, I, I happened to be very excited for, uh, the opportunities that students with vision loss have now. That didn&#8217;t exist when I was a kid uh, I think it&#8217;s. And again, if you introduce it early enough, it&#8217;s cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They&#8217;re the cool kid using the device a different way. So I, again, I think it&#8217;s a good time introducing it. Uh, I, we joke around and say, not too much screen time, thank you. If indeed this is the way they access information, then by all means let &#8217;em have access. So it is a good time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, you know, rest assure parents that our goal as advocates for our children are to explain what this, the, as Wallace has done so well, to what your needs <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:36:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are, uh, and be able to advocate for that. I say advocate, not demand. Uh, a reason why I say that is &#8217;cause what, for example, at Temple University the Divi, the Disability Resource Centers is great.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Services is great but they can&#8217;t do everything like you did before. So you may have to learn a new skill in order to access the content, say, on the learning media platform, you know, canvas. With that said, there, it&#8217;s two ways. So you advocate for what you need and you also learn alternatives so that you can be flexible to meet their, uh, what they offer as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Luisa Recchia:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was wonderful. Thank you so much. What has vision loss unexpectedly given you?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> one of my favorite stories is when I had my first guide dog, um. A great big black lab. And, um, my older son again, I don&#8217;t need to be picking on him &#8217;cause he&#8217;s in the other room. He may not be happy, but he was 16 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:37:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and he was, he came home from school and he&#8217;s playing with my dog on the bed, rolling around, having a good time, tickling and all that stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And, a little while later he goes, mom, I lost my wallet. Okay, so what does the blind person usually say? When was the last time you had it? That&#8217;s what most people should say. Uh, well, I had it when I came out. Oh, you had it when you came home. Okay. So it must be somewhere in this house. Well, I looked everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay. And so, again, always these questions always come up when like, you&#8217;re doing the dishes or cooking dinner. So I, I thought, okay, you were up. I said, what were you doing? And he goes, oh, you know, I was playing with, with granite on the bed. And I went, oh, okay. So I go upstairs and I literally. Uh, put my hand between the footboard of the bed and the mattress and pulled out his wallet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So in some ways it makes us more resourceful. Okay. &#8217;cause I thought, okay, putting together what he was doing <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:38:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and what potentially that could have fallen in. Now it still means I do have struggle sometimes finding some things. I, in fact, I joke around saying, do you guys move things just to torture me?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I&#8217;m like, I put that there for a reason, is what I&#8217;ll say. You know, I need that. Don&#8217;t move it around. Especially things like my medication or something. Uh, you know, I keep it where it is. Thank you. So I can find it. You know, again, but most times I say as a person with, low vision you find sometimes you have some abilities that, uh, of thinking through things through instead of reacting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mm-hmm. So, uh, I think that helps me in some ways. With that whole problem solving, like as a good example of the following, the wa finding the wallet, I thought back, okay, what was he doing? Reached down and found it. It was a logical guess for me, uh, where it would be. Yeah. So yeah, in some ways that&#8217;s an advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, I always say to people that, you know, they&#8217;ll always say, oh, I guess your <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:39:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> hearing must be spectacular. Well, I&#8217;m 68. My hearing&#8217;s not as good as it used to be for one thing. But no, I listen carefully. So I&#8217;ll pick up things that others don&#8217;t pick up because I listen carefully. &#8217;cause that is my again, my means now for accessing information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, when, uh, sometimes when somebody&#8217;s talking really fast like I do in Philadelphia, I can pick it up or somebody else. What? Can you repeat that? So generally speaking, yes, I maybe in some way have an advantage &#8217;cause I&#8217;ve had to become an auditory learner. I did start out as a visual learner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ironically. I started out in undergrad as an art major. Um. Uh, so didn&#8217;t, that didn&#8217;t work out so well. So I ended up deciding to go into something else. But with that said, you know, it did turn me into a person that had to use my hearing more effectively. And again, I pay attention to it. Not that I hear anything better.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I, if it did an audiogram on me, it&#8217;s about the average <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:40:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> audiogram for somebody who&#8217;s 68. It&#8217;s not nothing spectacular on that. Uh, but I can identify smells. Sometimes I obviously it&#8217;s not good when you have dogs. You, well, and maybe it is good that, and when you have dogs, but, you know, on the train, for example, in the morning uh, one day I was, I just couldn&#8217;t stop it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was like, oh, what is that perfume they&#8217;re wearing? What is that perfume they&#8217;re wearing? I can, I recognize it, but I don&#8217;t know the name of it. And it took me a while and then all of a sudden, oh yes, that is, you know, that smell. &#8217;cause I remember it from, you know, uh, having. S smelled it before, you know, and someone told me what it was.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So again, sometimes it is you know, you do rely different on different skills. I tell people one of the ways I orient myself in a, in a neighborhood, uh, if I know there&#8217;s McDonald&#8217;s, I can find it because I could smell the french fries a mile away. I think. Likewise with d Dunkin Donuts, oh yeah, you wanna go to the corner where there&#8217;s Dunkin Donuts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:41:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tell it&#8217;s Dunkin Donuts. You can smell it, smell the donuts, &#8217;cause people don&#8217;t pay attention to it. But those kind of things that, you know, I, you know, obviously, uh, over the years I&#8217;ve come accustomed to doing and, um, for me, I find using these alternative strategies and alternative sense is very helpful.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don&#8217;t have the great sense of touch, so I don&#8217;t know Braille, um. Unfortunately, I was at the age when I was in school under, excuse me, back in elementary school. Oh, she&#8217;ll never lose all her vision. She&#8217;ll always be able to see whether we make it big enough. What crystal ball did they have? That was, it was inaccurate, but in fairness, they didn&#8217;t know as much about it as they do now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so learning it now with my age and I have some neuropathy not exactly a good option for me, I do try, but it, it&#8217;s not my sense that I rely on so sense of touch, not necessarily my go-to. But hearing and smell, you know? Yeah. That&#8217;s pretty and some vision that I have. I do rely on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That&#8217;s why I wear partly, that&#8217;s <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:42:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> why I wear glasses. People will always know why, if you&#8217;re blind, why are you wearing glasses? Well, there&#8217;s two reasons why I do have some remaining functional vision. And I was my optic as a kid to begin with. Uh, that, having the prescription lenses correct, at least the refractive area, which is what they call, uh, I know your medical doctors will know, Hey, she knows what refraction is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I do know what that means. Um, so it, uh, it, it did, you know, I corrected the refractive error and then I had cataract surgery, and so I was all excited. Oh, I won&#8217;t have to wear glasses anymore. Low vision doctor says to me, and how many times have you scratched your corneas? Oh. Because I&#8217;ll hold things close to see it and I might not see something.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so, yeah. I&#8217;ve scratched my cornea 14 times over my lifetime, so when people ask me why I wear glasses, it does correct a little bit of the, uh, the myopia that the cataracts didn&#8217;t correct. &#8217;cause I was stigmatism. But it also protects, they&#8217;re cuter than goggles, is what I tell people. They&#8217;re cuter than goggles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I&#8217;ll wear them the, the, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:43:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> i, again, it adds a sense of looking like your peers. So I, again, I, I do take advantage of wearing the glasses for that reason, mostly outta protection. Woo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Luisa Recchia:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Before we close, just real quickly, uh, what book are you reading right now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I know you love Crime podcasts and, oh, that<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">was<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> gonna be my question too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Luisa Recchia:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. Sorry. I stole it while<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Starting with the pri podcast today, I listened to Barry Bones which is it is the guy who was the, uh, detective that solved the Golden State murder. He&#8217;s, uh, he and, uh, is co-hosted by a a.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Crime writer. And she also is a, a professor at, I think in Austin. I can&#8217;t remember what university. Anyway, so they, they go through a, a, a crime, uh, usually an historical crime and using, uh, new forensic methods how this crime could be solved. Okay. And it, uh, to me, it&#8217;s. Fascinating. And that, that&#8217;s why and I joke with my husband <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:44:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> saying, yes, I learned more ways to kill you and get away with it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listen to these and reading these crime books I just find it interesting &#8217;cause I&#8217;m, again, going back to that whole problem solving. I, I, like to find out how, what the result would be. So, what was the last book? Well, one of the last books I really enjoyed was the book called, uh, that James Patterson wrote the, I thought it was James Patterson, or Grisham the Widow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really enjoyed that. And &#8217;cause Oh yeah, it was it, oh wait a minute. I see I got my authors mixed up. That was Michael Connely. &#8217;cause it was the Lincoln lawyer story lawyer story. So I, you know, I, I tried to mix them up with different authors. As you can tell, you know, some of my favorites are Michael Connely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">John Grisham. I mean, like, I&#8217;ll throw a Stephen King in there every once in a while too, just in case I wanna get creeped out or listen to one of those. But, uh, Patricia Cordal is probably one of my all-time favorites too. So she&#8217;s the a forensic anthropologist that solves crimes too. So you can tell there&#8217;s a theme in what I li <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:45:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> like to listen to, &#8217;cause it&#8217;s a nice break for me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But then I&#8217;ll go into a bi a biography too. Somebody that I&#8217;ve always been interested in learning about, uh, historical feature people to, so I think I&#8217;ve read a bunch about all the different presidents I&#8217;ve written read books about their life stories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean, I, again, I, I like people, uh, even the bad ones. So I just say even the bad ones, I like, did that answer your question or did I scare you? I tell people that I guess I&#8217;m scary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Luisa Recchia:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> No, I love it. I love it. Anything else? Wallace,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> what&#8217;s your favorite podcast, Wallace? Come<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on. I, that&#8217;s, so on podcasts actually interesting that we bring this up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There, I, the Thomas Ian Trust, which I just reached out to<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Uhhuh<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about there a a vision related organization in the UK that helps to link visually impaired students with That&#8217;s great employment. And they do assistive <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:46:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> technology training and all the work&#8217;s really good. They have a podcast that they started.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In December last year, or maybe it was December, 2024, there are a couple episodes into it. They just started it. Mm-hmm. Called Through Our Eyes, which I think imitation is the finest form of flattery. Louisa Sure. And Angeline. And anyway, I just think it&#8217;s hilarious that it&#8217;s the same name.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Really. Um, yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I also like hacks on tap<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Okay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> With, uh, David Axelrod and Mike Murphy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Uhhuh,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> two hacks from both sides of politics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Uh, and all they have good insights, so,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> yeah. Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wallace Stuckey:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Uh, I enjoy that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Jule Ann Lieberman:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. I think, uh, right now I started listening, uh, a podcast called Chameleon, and it&#8217;s really about people that are, I can&#8217;t come back at the crime, I guess. Fraud a lot of the stories are based on, you know, people they think they can get away with this kind of, crimes. And also one that&#8217;s called crime list is also another one. It&#8217;s stories <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:47:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about criminals that wait a minute, really like the stupid criminal joke, you know, that&#8217;s pretty much that all about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So again, it helps break up the exercises that when I&#8217;m on the treadmill I can&#8217;t listen to those and not have to pay attention to how long I&#8217;ve been on the, the treadmill, so. Mm-hmm. I do like that. So we could fly by. Yeah, it definitely, that&#8217;s would move out good. Uh, you know, it&#8217;s funny you mentioned the tech ones.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was a big one for listening to all the tech ones too, but since I&#8217;ve been so involved in all this for so long now, I. Again, I don&#8217;t tend to listen to them anymore. Not that I can&#8217;t learn, I learn all different ways with about the assistive technology, but sometimes I, I get impatient, um, with some of the podcasts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that, you know, when they start talking about the technology, either it&#8217;s way geeky or so, not again, I&#8217;m under weld, under weld or overwhelmed, uh, when I listen to some of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:48:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> &#8217;em. So, again, I have not been listening to them as of late. But once in a while I will, I&#8217;ll tap into one of those.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do it mostly for entertainment podcasts at this point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Luisa Recchia:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Jule Ann, thank you for sharing not only your expertise, but your heart and lived experience. Today&#8217;s conversation reminds us that adjustment is not about limitation. It&#8217;s about learning, adapting, and discovering new pathways to independence. Assistive technology isn&#8217;t just about devices, it&#8217;s about access.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dignity, confidence and possibility. Thank you Wallace for joining us and doing a fabulous job, with your questions and interview with Jule Ann.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If this topic resonates with you, we invite you to join us in person at the Family Connection Conference on April 18th, 2026 at Oakland University in Michigan. This year&#8217;s focus is assistive technology, and we&#8217;ll be diving even deeper into the tools, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[00:49:00]<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> resources, and real life strategies that support individuals and families navigating vision loss.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can learn more and register through the PRRF website. This will be a hybrid event, and we would love to see you there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you found this episode meaningful, please share it with a friend, educator, employer or family member who could benefit from understanding what&#8217;s possible. And as always, thank you for being a part of Through our eyes Where we elevate voices, expand, understanding, and continue learning together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Until next time, this is your host Luisa Recchia, with Through Our Eyes Podcast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Season 3 | Episode 42 March 2, 2026 &nbsp; Jule Ann Lieberman\u2019s path into assistive technology grew out of curiosity, persistence, and a desire to...","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":8781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-podcast"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8777"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8783,"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777\/revisions\/8783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prrf.org\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}