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John C. Morley: Well, Hey, everybody, welcome once again to the JMOR Tech Talk Show. It is great to be here on our first Friday, Marcus of March, where did that month of February, heck! Where did January go?
Marcus: It is like they never existed for the most part. And here we are almost a full year at the COVID also.
John C. Morley: And that's all changing and morphing. And pretty soon, people are going to be getting back into live events. But I think we're going to have more of a hybrid world where there's going to be people that are going to still be in the cocoon. Even though things are safe, they're going to be looking for an excuse to, it's not nice to say they don't want to go back to work. Because once things are safe, people are still making excuses, Marcus, and this is just so ridiculous.
Marcus: You got that right, John, whatever floats the boat for some people. You have called these things in the past. And that's why I call you prophet John.
John C. Morley: Well, you know, I have a little quick story, I'm not going to name the guilty parties, but they know who they are. So about a few days ago, this week, I was seen by a few million people on one of the networks. And I wasn't doing anything bad. I was giving my motivational Tip of the Day, which I do every single day, I pick a letter of the alphabet, and I give a tip of the day to improve the quality of your life. And lots of people liked it. But within a few days, it is like my third day of streaming, my streams went from 60 seconds to 30 seconds to then all the way down to 15 seconds. And then I couldn't stream past seven seconds. And pretty soon on Sunday, I couldn't even stream it all pass the second. It's like sorry, your camera can't record. I'm like, what? I tried different network connections as different phones. I said this is insane. And I first I thought it was maybe the network, the cable company and then I thought maybe it's just an issue with the platform I'm using, I'm not going to mention the name. And I said, you know, I’ll give it some time. But on Sunday, I could not stream my motivational tip. I said, Okay, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to record it, like I used to do. And I'm just going to upload it, seemed pretty smart, intelligent. Well, it worked. That night when I went home, and I started to click different things in this platform. Well, I couldn't click things, certain things were not allowing me to click. I figured I’ll reboot, check for updates, still no issues. And I said, this is just getting so crazy. There's nothing that says I did anything wrong. And then all of a sudden, I get this notice that I have possibly breached a community standard. A security community standard. And due to that reason, my account has been suspended. And I'm scratching my head, Marcus because I'm like, what did I do? And so they say it'll be about 30 days before they check this out, and that they want a copy of my passport and my social security number and I'm like, no, that ain't happening. So I also knew that nothing was going to happen unless I took some action. So I decided to figure out where the companies located. I knew where their headquarters were. And I filed a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau. And I did one better, I filed one with the Department of Attorney General's office in their state. I then went to see because they're publicly traded most of these social platforms are, I pulled any company that was over 2% of investment in their shares. I then call these people and I emailed them a copy of the actual complaint that I filed. And I just let them know hey, you know, you don't know me. But I just want to let you know that since you have x shares, and I literally broke it down for each company, you own 11.2% at 10 billion or whatever. And I was like, so I just want to let you know that you know you may be brought up if charges are placed on this company because the people that you invested in well, they didn't act in a very professional manner and I think they're just not being fair. It has nothing to do with free speech because I should have free speech. It has nothing to do with security, I should say. But yet they say it was security infraction because that's how they were able to block me. Because if it was free speech, they can't just take me off the air for that reason. So strange thing happened, Marcus, I went to bed, took me about four hours to do this. This happened actually on Tuesday of the week. So that Wednesday, I had finished everything, got everything off to them. And now I am realizing that that Wednesday morning, when I get up, I go to check this particular platform, and it says Welcome back. And I was like, that's interesting. And then I see all these things that they claim I did wrong, they just disappeared in a fraction of a second. So the moral of the story here, Marcus is you don't own social media. Now, I don't think these people are going to play with me or jerk my chain again, because I did tell them that if they do this again, I not only will mention them in a complaint, but I’ll mention them on a show that broadcasts out to quite a few people. And I’ll be sharing it to social media and letting people know exactly the type of company they really are. They hide behind the phone and don't answer it. And so I didn't get any response. But then I decided to be a gentleman. And that next day, I got on my phone, did my stream. And I said I want to thank everyone for you know, watching my motivational tips of the day. And I want to apologize to you for my two days of radio silence, and it was beyond my control. And I want to thank the two clowns, because that's who they were, they were two clowns I found out that actually reported my content as being a security threat. So I want to thank them for being jealous of my broadcast, and letting them know that you know, in the future, you need to grow up, and you know, raining on somebody else's parade, because you're jealous is not the way to play. It's not professional, and it's going to ruin your reputation. And I said the next time that this happens, and I find out that somebody has done this, and this was not because of some random action, because this wasn't happening because of a random action. I not only will file a complaint against that company, I will personally come after and sue you. Everyone got very quiet. They didn't want to comment on anything, I said they were just like, for a day or two, there was like this stillness, Marcus. But the moral of the story is that, you know, when you're right about something, you're really going to toot your horn, and make sure that people know, because why was I going to suddenly, you know, give into this, because maybe something wasn't to their standard. But it really was, somebody made a click that said, hey his content didn't comply. And their computer systems just said, Okay, we're not even going to check it, we're just going to go ahead and just suspend him. And it was only because I took these extra actions, Marcus that I was able to get back on. I said, you know, what I'm here to do is build a community. Isn't that why you guys were created? Or are you guys just concerned about revenue and dollars, and really don't care about people, or the private data you actually extort from them.
So that next day, I posted some things on a couple platforms. And I said, I want to take this opportunity to thank the platform, and especially all the investors, I'm not going to name them by name for their help. I know they didn't call me back, but I know that contacting you, obviously, got the needle to move in the right direction. And so I was very happy with my story. But the moral is, is that if you're right, you have to realize that you got to take action. I also did one of the thing Marcus, I published a story called, you don't own social media, the real cost of social media. And my story was the number one story in Silicon Valley the other day. All I did was just take a look. So one person can make a difference. But you have to do the right things and you have to address it with a professionalism and a respect. And also, you know, not an attitude toward them. But just looking at the facts. And I didn't get angry. I didn't get mad. I said this is what's going on. I just filed a complaint. I just wanted to make you aware of it. And I thought everyone else should know including everybody on my social channels because what they did already When I started filing the complaint before I called the investors, they said I was being suspended for posting something on a help board. Because I let the Help Board know what happened. And apparently that was a no no. And that next morning, even that violation disappeared, because they realize that I was right, and they were wrong. So if you're right about something, and you can look at the facts, address it, there is a really good shot, that you're going to be able to really win. Most people don't win in social media because they have an attitude. And because they try to attack the company. I didn't do that. I just filed a complaint, which anyone in United States has the right to do. So remember social media, ladies, and gentlemen, it doesn't belong to you. It doesn't belong to I, respect it just like you respect water and electricity. They are utilities that we use in our world. But it's the truth. So I had a good outcome I know a lot of people don't. When we talk about things happening now. Besides the media note, I’ve always been very interested in soccer. I'm not sure about you. But soccer has been something that always, you know, kind of fueled me I played soccer for a while. There is a company now, what's that?
Marcus: It's a very exciting sport.
John C. Morley: It definitely is, you know, you not only can you hit the ball with your leg, your knee, your back, your elbow, well, not your elbow, because that would be out of play, but your head that's still in play, and certain parts of your body you can hit it with. But I believe if you hit it with like your hands, or anything connected to like your extremities, you can use your legs, I believe you can even use your chest, but you can't use your hands or your arms. I think those are the only points that you're not allowed to use. You could use your feet, you can use your backside, you can use anything you want, but you just can't use your hands or your arms, or it's out of play. Well there's a company called VIO, I was really impressed by this. Soccer is really starting to change our world. And with this new sports technology, playing a more impactful role in coaching and analysis. And player development is something that is going to change the entire world for the soccer sport across the nation. This new revolutionary and you know what I'm going to say Marcus, AI, artificial intelligence powered camera, lets you record soccer without a camera man, that is pretty impressive. Just set it and start it and the new VIO does the rest, the 180 degree camera will record until you stop and save it and then automatically upload when connected to the internet. So they're getting a lot of requests about this. And, you know, receiving the recordings from the game as a panoramic view of the entire field is something that's now going to be not just a concept, but actually a reality. The AI software that detects the ball to present you the broadcast view that follows the play of the ball, very similar to what was happening, you know, in football, which they did a few years ago. And you have the option to mark your own highlights, download and share them with other players, coaches, families, and friends. And today 99% of all soccer matches don't get recorded. Did you know that?
Marcus: Yeah, that's pretty like the most fascinating thing about this. And I found that quite surprising because these matches like, they [13:50 inaudible] fandom across the globe.
John C. Morley: Yeah, they go for blood at these matches. Yeah, the soccer fans are more brutal than the football fans I’ve found. Especially when I watched some of these Italian games and I have Italian background from my mom's side. They really, they go for the jugular. You better not be in the goalposts because if you are, well, you're going to become a sandwich. And the soccer camera is going to be this complete solution they're saying for soccer recording coaching and analysis. So it's going to provide a lot of value to the game that's been missed. And I think the reason that it has been, let's say left out of the ballpark is because soccer is a very fast moving game, not the football isn't, but soccer moves a lot faster. Soccer's like ice hockey, and that moves really fast. So you can't have traditional cameras following the puck or following the soccer ball. I bet We're going to see this technology for ice hockey very soon.
Marcus: That is the perfect crossover, this will definitely work for that. And boy, people are going to be on their seats for this, you can imagine what that's going to be like and how that's going to improve, adjust strategy on the hockey field, and much, much more.
John C. Morley: But I think it's going to help people of all different ages, Marcus that maybe didn't understand the sport so well, but they're going to get an understanding of how to play the sport better, and be able to learn at all different ages. So I think that's going to be quite amazing. And, you know, AI, we said it's really shaping our world. And I think, yeah, there's a lot that's going to come to the table, but I'm still a little worried Marcus, you know what I'm going to say about artificial intelligence, and security. That's my biggest concern right now.
Marcus: Yeah, and I was talking with a gentleman the other day and the biggest stressor behind it is, it's just like, you know, a firearm, you give it to the wrong person, they are going to have wrong intentions with it. So as long as we, you know, are watching those bad actors and ensuring that we have things to combat those bad actors, when they get their hands on this type of technology, as it is more sensible, I think we can have a fighting chance against things going wrong with AI.
John C. Morley: Well, you know, speaking about the balls and things like that, let's talk about a new type of soccer ball that's recently come out, it's actually called, they call it dribble up. Now, this is amazing. This is a soccer ball that has artificial intelligence in it. Yeah, that's right, you heard me correctly. It's supposed to be the most fun you can have in your living room, I just hope you don't knock over the expense of China in the other room. So dribble up is this artificial intelligence ball that has lots of different things, it can figure out how many juggles which is basically when you're using the soccer ball, at the, between the toe, and like the metatarsal of your foot. And you're basically you're kind of like pushing it into like a circle. They call that a juggle, say that word a million times fast. So you're going to be able to, you know, look at the reps, you're going to be able to kick the ball. And recently they had a story about a famous athlete that actually was kicking the ball and having a competition with someone and they said, you know, I wouldn't want to play anybody in soccer. Or what he really should have said is I would play anybody in soccer, except this guy. Because he thought soccer was hard. But when he played this one, pro athlete with the ball, his world changed. And he's like, this person is intense. And so I think when you have artificial intelligence, and when you can learn about how it actually can make you a better player. I think that's the be all end all. But you know, speaking about sports, Marcus, an interesting sport is water skiing, ever water ski before?
Marcus: No, I can't even swim for that matter. So I don't think you know any water skis.
John C. Morley: Well, I'm actually a Pisces, and Pisces are supposed to love water. I do really enjoy water. I love to swim. And our next guest who's coming up in just a moment. He is a skier and he's an active member with the Pewaukee Lake water ski club. Hopefully, I’ve said that correctly. And he is a person that did something very remarkable. He actually figured out how to get people to waterski that have disabilities. And he is proud to be the US ambassador for the disability channel, which is also here on the transforming media network, another fellow podcaster with some other great people. And he is someone that is an engineer. He's very active in politics, but he just really wants to bring a level of education to people so that they can treat these people in the disability world, not differently, but give them the accommodations that they need. And I believe that's something that our world is definitely lacking. You know, you have to have a real level of patience to do that. And you have to also understand that this is a world that you're going to get a lot of resistance in. So it's not a very easy thing to do, but the way he took waterskiing and was able to transform and give people to have disabilities, a way to water ski, I think is just quite amazing. Please help me welcome tonight to the JMOR tech talk show, Kurt Roskopf.
John C. Morley: Well Hello, everyone. Welcome to the JMOR Tech Talk Show. I am pleased to have Kurt Roskopf with me today, another podcaster from the wonderful transform you media network. And he actually has one of his own shows the world of ability. And he's here to talk to us today about the world of disability, maybe things that we're not quite sure about. And Kurt, you know, I have to ask you, this has always been something that is passionate to me, because, you know, when someone gets hurt, and I broke my legs many years ago, and you don't realize what it's like when you break your leg, and then you can recover, and you can walk again. But there's other people, that things happen to them or they're born like this, and then they can't go back to another way. So I'm very grateful for being able to walk and for everything I'm able to do. But I know this is something that's important for us, as a world, as a country to embrace because I feel a lot of people are just, I don't want to say ignorant, maybe they're just too busy. So I have to ask you, Kurt, what actually got you so passionate in wanting to be involved with this type of program with doing the podcasting. Just give us a little rundown on that if you would?
Kurt Roskopf: Well, first, the devotion in disability advocacy is sparked from a friend of mine who is a self-advocate, a public speaker, and I came to know him, and I happen to be a water skier. And I do water ski shows and with the team. And what I did is I set up with some of our water skier buddies to have him ski, he's a power wheelchair users, [22:26 inaudible] cerebral palsy, and he would ski in a sit ski. Well, what happened was is he introduced us to another friend that's also has cerebral palsy power wheelchair user to sit and sit in the ski instead for a show. And when we were already with him to go, I was told no by the president of our club and another board member. And what this did is it just, you know, really created a self-inspection for me, because I started to think about you know, why is this that we have a sit ski, we have everything we need other buddies were ready to go with this. But leadership is telling me that this isn't going to happen. And so I really got in the middle of the barrier, it became very personal, because I love to water ski and I was all invited to share that, you know, to ski with a buddy and to say, Okay, I'm going to do cut and jump ski stand up, and my buddy is going to sit down and sit ski and we're going to ski together. And it's going to be out to show, which I’ve been loving to do for 35 years. And we've been waterskiing with people with disabilities for 30 years. And so with the podcasting, I connected to [23:41 inaudible], because like we're doing right now, I thought this type of conversation needs to be available to other people. So thank you for bringing me to your audience.
John C. Morley: It is my pleasure. I love what you're doing for the world. And you know, bringing this message through is just, you know, such a warm hearted thing to do. You know, when we think about disabilities, because a lot of the viewers tonight may not actually know, can you just give us a quick rundown of what are the types of disabilities that we're talking about from the general to as specific as you can, because I think education is probably one the most important things that we can bring our viewers here tonight.
Kurt Roskopf: Okay, well, I say the conversation starter is when we look at people with intellectual and developmental disabilities as people in disability services, say the IDD community. And then we have the deaf community, the blind community, and people with physical disabilities. So those are significant factions of the disability community. And from there we go to what we call intersectionality. You know, significant populations that have a good portion of people with disabilities in their communities. And so this would involve people living in chronic pain, people who may have a mental health diagnosis, and people who may be having a goal of substance use reduction. So what that means is the last three are about that, you know, in those communities, there may be people who have their own personal situation, their own personal profile is such that they actually are in that community with a disability. And in social services, health and human services, those things tend to be bundled, because an agency where they like to, you know, kind of look at it people disabilities are being served, you know, from maybe a more initial request, that then if the disability component is there, we can regularly do it. So those are the seven populations I get people thinking about as I carry forward the conversation.
John C. Morley: And that's a good way to introduce it is that it's really about understanding, from a very micro level as to, you know, what I don't want to say is wrong, but what is maybe different. And just because something's different, doesn't make that person, a bad person, a good person, it just makes them different. And it's no different than learning disabilities. One of our wisest person that came before our time, Einstein, and several others had learning disabilities. And I think, when we understand it from that perspective, you know, having this doesn't make the person bad, it just means that they learn differently, or that they need some accommodations that are needed, but they're very bright, intelligent people. And, you know, on July 26, 1990, was a very important date in history, wasn't it? The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law by President HW Bush. So what did that really mean, Kurt?
Kurt Roskopf: Well, what that meant is that, you know, we saw the 80s be a time, which I say is still the last three, I don't think we've gotten out of the time yet, we haven't evolved to a population where, you know, we're not relying on the veteran community, to make sure we're committing to this as the entire US population and an agency work in the business community and all these institutions of our country. We're not committed to it to the level to make it happen if it wasn't for the veteran community. So injured, wounded vets in the 80s is really what put us over the top that that law passed, if you really look at the politics, that were there, and still are there, we still are in a situation where we're really not giving the balance in American life, you know, in the hands or in the lives of people with disabilities to the extent that it should. We're losing human resource returns as a country because we're marginalizing, we're objectifying, and we're limiting people with disabilities on our side. So I agree with you that it's not a description of how limited Americans with disabilities are people in the world with disabilities are, it's the population of people like where I come from, you know, I came into this not identifying with a disability or not saying I was part of the disability community. And it was that incident that drew me in and I'm like, I'm going to commit to this because I realized my own flaws and my own faults that I was not operating the right paradigm myself. And when I had my aha moment, I started to feel responsibility to say, you know, in life, they say, what's it going to take an act of Congress. So that that's your point, John, is we felt in 1990 the reality that, yes, it does take an act of Congress on this topic, because people are building buildings, thinking of the 75% of the population of people that don't have a disability, and then saying, Okay, now what do we got to do for the people with disabilities? It's not an inherent thing that we do out of knowing and dedicating to Universal Design, and all these other things. So that's what ADA means is that we do need to be forced to do it as Americans or we're not, which is unfortunate.
John C. Morley: You're right, 100%. And when we say that someone needs ADA accommodations, obviously, we think of things like a ramp. We might think of things like a loudspeaker so people can see, we think of a strobe so that they can get out if maybe they're not able to hear a smoke alarm going off or a carbon monoxide alarm going off. What other types of accommodations are generally needed by the ADA populations that may not be so inherent to know about?
Kurt Roskopf: Well, you know, there's like as an example, you know, the colorblind community, you know, if somebody is colorblind when we have our visuals on screens or out in the environment, you know, people who are colorblind have their factor, that the environment or a computer screen, or on a device is not friendly for them. And, you know, it has different discomforts and pain elements, there's things like fragrances, you know, you wouldn't think of that, you know, if somebody has a chemical insensitivity, they're protected by ADA, because that could affect their inclusion, you know, any events or at the workplace, or in the medical environments, or in travel, you know, if we're using those fragrances and stuff like that. So, there may be, you know, companion, I don't say, companion animals or pets, they are not really wimpy pets then or they'd be service animals. And there might be emotional support animals and so forth. There's all these different things that, you know, enter into it. So yeah, for sure, the deaf community for sign language interpreters having things transcribed, like you've done for, you know, one of our world of ability shows you transcribe that for us and for the blind community, that if they're not benefiting from, you know, the visuals that we say, Oh, the JMOR logo, you know, is blue, it's got a little, you know, red, you know lining in the background, and, you know, and it just or to say, like, I'm wearing black glasses and stuff like this, so that people can, you know, kind of participate. But things are verbalized.
John C. Morley: It's like in a building where, you know, you're walking around, and you would see these bumps for Braille, so that blind people can actually find the numbers to a doctor's office to a location or something like that. So there's something else that's important. And ADA is not something that's just for getting around to hospitals or public buildings, but there's something called Ada in the workplace and reasonable accommodations, what does that refer to Kurt? Because I know a lot of employers don't want to do this. And it's not just making your doors accessible for wheelchairs, it's reasonable accommodations for someone with disability. So what does that really mean to an employer? Because it sounds a little confusing.
Kurt Roskopf: Well, everything is individualized for the employee, or the or the worker, could be an independent contractor, you know, whatever it means, say somebody is a member of the,
You know, community of people with autism or something like that. And, you know, there's a sensory challenge, you know, so an accommodation could be to make sure we're assigning somebody to work in a quiet place. It could be dexterity issues, like if somebody has mobility challenges to have like, trackball mouse or something like that, because there may be limited finger movement. It could be if somebody is blind, that we make sure all of our, you know, computer systems or all of our devices and everything work friendly with all that assistive technology that people in the blind community use to turn the visual stuff into Audible, you know, participation and vice versa. It could be if somebody is in the deaf community that we start to get resources in for a sign language interpreter in the transcription. You know, it could run the gamut. I mean, in the mental health community, you know, we could talk about Agoraphobia, you know, so to make sure that we're not formatting work that somebody is a part of a conference or something because their mental health diagnosis falls into that they get shut down if they're in rooms with a lot of people. So that's not their environment that way. So, it's a lot of things that could be so just to pay attention the individual and help them do the work that they're hired to do.
John C. Morley: And I think what you mentioned about people being in a room, especially like in a courtroom, a lot of times attorneys do this intentionally and it's wrong. And they're actually directly abusing the person because they're playing on their weakness. It's almost like you know, Superman. We don't talk about superheroes a lot but Superman actually in the cartoon is allergic to kryptonite. So it's like, we're putting the kryptonite of these people who have an ADA disability in front of them, which is really not fair. I have to divulge back to someone that I think was really great. So many of you may not know, I don't share it often, but I'm an Eagle Scout. And the reason I bring this up is when I was doing my Eagle Scout project, I wanted to do something that people would remember. And that wasn't going to be, you know, something that was just going to go away or to get a badge just because it was something for me. I wanted to do something that was going to be in people's lives forever and ever. And so I worked with a foundation called the Wayne handicap foundation. And this is what my eyes opened up. And there was a great gentleman, his name is Jean, God bless his soul, he's actually passed away many years ago, because I became an Eagle Scout, I believe it was a 1983, you had to make it, I believe, by your 19th birthday. And when I was doing this program, I said I want to do something for gene and for the center. And so I decided to do a holiday party, you could mention Christmas or Hanukkah, you had to keep it secular. So I did a holiday party. But that was a lot of work. Because not only did I have to get the people, get the Santa Claus, and get the companies to donate things like the perfumes etc. and have them wrapped. But there was something that was really interesting is that I needed to create more of a party environment, and you know, doing this, the money had to come out of my pocket or from donations. So I reached out to a company. And I usually don't mention companies on the show. But I really do want to say thank you to this company, and I can't thank them enough. The company is actually in Clifton, New Jersey, and they're called AGL welding supply company. They're at 600, us 46. Clifton, New Jersey, 07013-973-478-5000. And again, I don't mention companies. But the reason I want to do this is I called this company up, because I knew they did all types of gas, helium and all the things for the hospital. And so I reached out to them, and I asked them if they would be willing to donate some helium for my scout project. I said, it's for the Wayne handicap Foundation, we're doing a holiday party, and Secretary took my information. And the owner called me back and he says, we'd be happy to do that. We're definitely in support of that. And I said this is really nice of him. And so when I went out there, you know, I'm really grateful for what you're doing for me, for the Wayne handicap Foundation people, this is going to be a great party. He says, Well, you know, I think what you're doing is great. But I have to tell you, the reason that I'm helping you so much is because of my son has a disability. And I want to show you something and below his main floor, there is a sales floor, they had geared it for people with wheelchairs, his son was in a wheelchair. And he felt that a lot of people didn't give them a break or even give them a chance. And I thought this was so great that he hires people in wheelchairs, and he's really got his whole operation down there set up to work from wheelchairs, which you never hear this, they make things so that you can accommodate them. But they never really reworked the whole entire manufacturing. So his son had the disability. And I was just very grateful for what he did. He donated several containers of helium. But again, we don't hear about this every day, I wish there was some type of a board or consortium so that people that have this could come together. I don't know of any like that in New Jersey or even in the state does anything like that exists, Kurt?
Kurt Roskopf: Well, I mean, I’ll give an example of a city here local to me, they have the citizens with disabilities group that advises the, you know, the City Council, but it's not what you're talking about. So what I'm advocating for John is I'm looking at what I’ve heard as collective impact. And so that's kind of something you can Google or whatever and see kind of what's done out there and how I format it is I say we need to get faith leaders coming forward. And we need to get people in the service sector with these nonprofits that people name their few like you're talking about yours, you know, but Lions, [39:48 inaudible] Rotary optimist club, whatever, from the educational community because they're creating a situation that you know, when people get degreed, get their PhDs, get their master's degrees or whatever what they're going to go into the workforce to do. And then in government work, there's these advisory boards or governance committees or things like that, that we need to get this input there. And then in the business, chambers of commerce need to commit to this, you know, the happy neighborhood project that I'm promoting that we do something there. But to me when those five elements come together, faith community, service sector, educational community, people in politics, and right in the agency work doing that presently. And then then the business community and create, like, zoom meetings or whatever, where we can all come together and take, you know, a collective responsibility so that an individual can come to this, you know, collective group in the community, and then have the movers and shakers say, okay, we're going to help this individual get a better experience in our marketplace, because we take responsibility.
John C. Morley: It's almost Kurt like the Make A Wish Foundation. Now, that's a little bit different. They help grant children on their wishes in life, because they don't know how long they're going to live, maybe it's taking a trip to Disney, or going around the world, or having some unique once in a lifetime experience. And, or maybe it's even going to a football game or having prime seats, whatever it is something that a lot of people their age don't usually get. I think it's great organizations involved, you get government involved, there has to be a bench for.org, we actually have about us section. And [41:43 inaudible] in the fact that, you know, people can [41:46 inaudible] solution on our site, and for our chamber many years ago, and that basically states in English, that we will not discriminate for race, religion, sexual orientation, any type of disability, anything. And I think that's important. But I think a lot of people Kurt, they get scared, because, you know, when you say reasonable accommodation, they need more education. So if there's like a publication, where there's a guideline to what it's going to be, then that needs to be adopted by local government. And then when the local government or the county adopts it, everyone is more willing to buy in. Now that we've created this resolution, more and more businesses are willing to sign on with it because of what it means. A lot of times when somebody comes part of a cause, they get scared, because they don't know what the commitment is, or what they're putting themselves up for. If that makes any kind of sense.
Kurt Roskopf: It absolutely does. So when we talk about ADA, that to me was our 1990 accomplishment. So aside from that we have an updated ADA, there is, you know, the field of universal design, which took that 1990 accomplishment and kept going with it over the last 30 years. And so that can be found if you google universal design. And in work online, the worldwide community created what's called the WCAG 2.0 compliance. So basically, if people look to those standards, you know, that can help steer, you know, what's happening online. And then in terms of devices, like cell phones, or in facilities, like hearing loops and stuff like this, you know, there's a whole field of global public inclusive infrastructure, you know, so if people Google GPII for global public inclusive infrastructure can get a lot of exact details, you know, there and there's like a whole assistive technology field, you know, so people can get as specific as they want for sure.
John C. Morley: To paint a picture for people because a lot of people you know, we think in pictures, not in words. And to put some perspective on this for some people. Let's think about a key for example, and this is one example. And if there were too little holsters on the key, maybe someone has disabilities can't hold it with one finger. So they need a way to put it between the two fingers. So they could turn the key and have that fulcrum that someone else may not have. So I think that's important. Another thing let's talk about hot or cold water, this is one that I love. When the water is cold, well, we know it's cold, but someone that may not quite understand what that means they need a kick, a polite kick before they get burned. We always say when you touch the stove, you quick pull your hand away, you won't do that. Again, we don't really want to teach people to do that. But then we don't also want to scare people because now if they touch the water, and they burn themselves, they're going to think it's always going to be burning. So that's going to be a bad stimulus. So one cup came up with that was something which is remarkable. And I want to get them on as a guest sometime. They have a faucet that when you turn on the water is blue when it's cold, and when it's hot, it's red. So the hotter it is, it gets like bright. So I think that is just ingenious as to where it's going. And these are not terribly expensive accommodations, and there are things, I believe that should be part of any building structure. I know the building code, people would probably kill me. But it's something that I believe, is really not above a big price tag. I think the problem with a lot of ADA is everyone believes or at least back in the 90s people, including contractors were ripping others off for doing ADA. And I think that's unfair, it should be a reasonable combination, it costs a little more money, maybe an ADA switches and double, maybe it costs a little more money, but it shouldn't be double. I think that's the reason why people have stayed away from ADA, because it took their construction project from let's say, if it was $100,000, it made it $200,000 or $250,000. And that's just not fair. Is there anything being done Kurt to make sure that prices are not, you know, exploded, or extorted on people that are trying to do the right thing for the ADA community?
Kurt Roskopf: As far as I know, john, I think that still is by the natural forces of the marketplace and, you know, up to individuals and the parties involved to advocate for their particular situation and put some pressure on, you know, on a case by case basis. I mean, the laws are there. And so that's what we're talking about is just going to the law and see what we can do to force this fair market value, you know, situation, you know, but other than that, I would say that, you know, it's something that, you know, I think it's an all hands on deck initiative, you know, I think we need people to be involved. Someone were talking about before I was thinking about like, emfs, you know, electromagnetic fields, you know, there's a population of people out there that are very affected by, you know, our electromagnetic fields, our WIFI’s and our cellular towers and stuff like that. And if they're in a place where that's too concentrated for them, that can shut them down and have a severe medical, you know, impact. So, I think sports and Rec and hobbies, pastime, leisure activities, this whole realm of life, where we enjoy life, and who we do that with, you know, what we started with at the beginning of this where I tell my story about waterskiing. You know, I participate in something that brought 50 Sports rec disciplines together and give, you know, on a Saturday, you know, to guess, you know, an experience of actually doing that. And so what I’ve seen is that we get guests who are in the disability community to experience that. But I think if we look at the fun we have going to movies, you know, watching movies, or everything we do online, you know, if we keep thinking, are we including are we making it favorable to people with disabilities, I think it's an evolving process, because to your points, all these refining concerns, you know, are left two very isolated instances. So I think it's like, we need to have something that coalesces them into a more widespread position. So that it collects more numbers so that we can get stakeholders involved and put some more pressure to it. So it's not one person, you know, trying to, you know, fight hard for their own personal rights, and then [49:03 inaudible], you know, like, it'll never get done, and then they just kind of succumb to it.
John C. Morley: It's really about inclusion, I think is the magic bullet. And people have to kind of get behind that. But I believe the other challenge beside education that's keeping our world right now from let's say, jetting into the future with this initiative faster than it could be, is that there's a lot of people that need combinations. I know several of them. I do believe though there are some people that try to get accommodations that are not entitled to them. Now, that's not everybody. But I’ve seen that. And I think the challenge becomes if you're a business owner, or you're a homeowner, you know, who do I really need to give the accommodations to, do they really need them? Is there a certification card. I mean, it's not like we're calling them on the carpet, but we want some kind of proof. Like if you go to school, and you have a look learning disability, you need to have a test or show some proof that you need that extra accommodation, maybe it's an untimed test, maybe it's being able to, you know, record the lectures. But you have to give written proof. I think that's the missing link in the ADA community, that at least for businesses and associations, because there are people that are trying to fraud the system, which is not nice to say Kurt.
Kurt Roskopf: Yeah, there are those people, you know, the, you know, the apple that spoils the bunch, or, you know, or upsetting the apple cart type of thing. But, yeah, we definitely have to keep doing that, but we can't, or I advocate to not let those you know, Very small proportion of the instances drive this, I think we're really finding that it's more on the other side, that, you know, ignorance is bliss, or people just not following it, or it's just very tough to have these conversations, you know, to help build what this is all coming to, is to say, I used to be in the golf business, I used to have a golf course. And there's the standup and play foundation today. And they have pair mobile units. So like, from a golf industry standpoint, I wouldn't advocate that we need to require all golf courses to buy up these [51:30 inaudible]. But the stand up and play foundation is that 501C3 organization that gets the philanthropic community together to say let's fund this equipment. And let's make that available so that people with disabilities with, physical disabilities can go out to the golf courses, and enjoy the game of golf. So to me, it's a conversation of the legal community needs to get together with the philanthropic community, and the 501C3 groups need to rally in America to say let's, you know, let's build up these opportunities to help America overcome these financial barriers, because the IRS gives us these tax formats to do it.
John C. Morley: That's true. I think the part of the magic is that if we can get the standard changed in the building codes, which is not easy, and then say this is what's required. Now, this might cost an extra whatever, okay. And this is a mandated price set by a fair group. It says this is kind of like, you know, when you buy a diamond, or you go to buy, not a car, because they play games, but certain things have a book value, and then the list value and what they affair that they have to sell it around like online, there's certain organizations that if you sell it above that, you can lose your ability to resell that product. So I think something similar to that, that's kind of policed and audited. And then if they can't afford that extra, let's say, it's $20,000, or whatever it is, and they truly can't afford that, then, okay, we know you need to build this, we know what needs to be built this way. And I understand you can't, you know, pay the extra $20,000 or $10,000, or $50,000, we have three 501C3s that we work with, and they will usually pick up the cost of that, I think that's what has to happen. And then by people then saying, you know, we want to thank such and such 501C3 organization. Because of them, we were able to make this ADA compliant, because my partner and I didn't have an extra $50,000 in our budget, but we wanted to do the right thing. And we are so grateful for x, y, z, 501C3 or this one. And I think that's going to send a message home to people that hey, you know, when you give a donation to these charities, what's going on with it? Where's the money going? And when they see the money being used in their local communities? I mean, I know from our chamber when we go and sponsor a breakfast or a lunch for a hospital, we fed over 100, 200 people at a dinner I think it was [54:13 inaudible] at the Valley Hospital Medical Center. And people were like, well, that's great. We're a charity. So everything we do is all philanthropic. Our second goal is business. But the reason we're 501C3 is our first mission is doing things for others, [54:31 inaudible] philanthropy. So I believe it is education, I believe it is something we have to just keep, you know, chipping at. And eventually, more and more people will get it, but it has to start with Washington. It has to start with you know, updating the codes. I don't think this is something we can attack at a local level. I think this is something that has to be mandated from a federal level, and then filter down because there are just too many regulations. And there's too many different ways that you can Do something or not do something. My last question, Kurt for you, because we're almost running out of time is up in websites, there's something called ADA compliancy. So what do we mean we talk about a website having to be ADA compliant?
Kurt Roskopf: Websites being ADA compliant, you know, is looking at things as simple as the size of fonts we're using, the spacing in between the parts of the website, because again, if somebody has a dexterity issue, and you're creating too much of an intricate use of the mouse, you know, you're kind of ruling out a lot of computer users, again, for, you know, the colorblind community or, you know, in terms of assistive technology, you know, the ADA law is there to, to make sure that when we're building, you know, this field of websites, that people with disabilities can also access the website. So that's what ADA is describing is that, you know, friendliness, user friendliness for people with disabilities for whatever their circumstances may be. And so somebody is a deaf, you know, a person who's deaf then that they're getting the closed captioning, or you know, that you got the visual and the audio balance out there. And it's something that can be used by all people browsing the internet.
John C. Morley: What we started doing, my marketing company started doing a little while ago for some of these large corporations, is when they have a website, we allow them to change the font size. So they can pick what font size through a few popular ones that they can see that. And then what we do when it's someone, let's say this may be colorblind, is they have pages on the website that they can click on, and it will read the entire page. This is a picture, here is the caption. So I'm not saying every little thing can be done like that. But I think as long as the service that they're looking to access is available for them to understand and get enough information about it. I think that's really what ADA compliancy is. And it does take some planning, it does take some time. Because Google right now is not really rewarding people for being ADA compliant, maybe that'll change down the road. But they're not rewarding people. So I would think that if they decided to do that, more and more people would but what I learned Kurt, which was really interesting, not too long ago, is that if you are a company, and you are 15 or more employees, you can get charged some hefty fines for not having an ADA compliant website. And that's going to be pretty soon, not today, not tomorrow. But I know that'll be coming in the next couple of years, you know, on the roadmap. But my last question I have for you, Kurt is this. So when we're talking about Ada today, and what we can do, what would you say the message is to everyone? Because we've talked about a lot? What would you like to leave our viewers with tonight, about ADA, if there was like one or two or three points that you really want to drive home because again, we've talked about an awful lot, and we encourage you to go back to our website, and not only watch the show again, but because we're ADA compliant, you can also read the entire transcript within a couple of weeks. So what do you have to say to that Kurt?
Kurt Roskopf: Well, I would say the thing that I have to share again, you know, I need a shift in my life I did in business I talked about pivots, or whatever. And I transform myself to run my life differently because of what I was shocked about and what I wanted to do about it in all areas of my life. So, you know, to me, it's that consideration that if you're out there as a person in the disability community to really think about the opportunity we have to reconsider, you know, in the year and years ahead, what are we doing to better be available to be the educators as self-advocates, and, you know, being somebody from the community to help awareness to people outside of the community. And then people like I said, where I came from, and [59:35 inaudible] still learning, you know, to think about what are we doing to attend to all these demographics to be available? And to just ask everything you do, you know, might there be something about this that is making it tougher for anyone with a disability to participate? You know, and is there a full opportunity for them? Because that's again, what I did with waterskiing? I said, does a person have the full opportunity like I do? You know, if they have a disability, can they do what I do? And that wasn't the case. So I went out there to change that we made huge strides in that. And I think everybody out there has that opportunity. And the question is, are you up to that initiative? You know, that's what I'm looking at.
John C. Morley: I think what you're saying makes a lot of sense. And what I tell people, if you cannot be compassionate, or you can't find a compassionate bone in your body, which hopefully there is one somewhere, then to just picture yourself with a disability for a moment. Okay, whether that's having a broken leg or not being able to see, and you can do this yourself, you can literally, you know, close your eyes, and you can take away the census for a moment. And even though let's pretend, imagine what it would be like, if you had to live the rest of your life like that. Now they do say, when you lose a sense, the other one does get a lot stronger. I recently learned that when someone is blind, there is a certain type of acoustic that bounces back on their tongue. And because of that, they're able to get projections. And that's something that I thought was amazing that you know, you have that type of gifts. So there are ways, but I would say just to be grateful for what you have, and understand that, you know, you have the ability of many of us to be able to walk, to see, to talk. And I go back to this last thing when I broke my leg. And I was on one of these buses, it was a dial ride because I couldn't drive with a broken leg. And what I learned was that I had to get a doctor's certificate to be able to get on that bus. And every 30 days, I had to get it re upped. And they said, Well, you know, you're a temporary, what you mean? Well, you are temporary, you know, once your leg heals, you're going to be off this and you're not able to use this anymore. You're just have a temporary ability to use this. So you're like on probation. Oh, so and I think that's good that, you know, we have those type of things in place. But more services like that need to be in place, just like we have for the handicap parking spaces, you know that there are things in place to help people understand that it's not something that we should abused. And it's something we should respect. And like I said, be grateful for what we have and try to help those that maybe don't have the senses that we have. Kurt, this has been a really educational time with you. If any of our viewers do want to reach out to you, what's the best way that they can get in contact with you?
Kurt Roskopf: Oh, well, I welcome people the call or text me My phone number is 262-3721-754. And people can email me Kurt@thedisabilitychannel.us. And you can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and you can google me. I'm open anyway.
John C. Morley: And when is your show for our viewers, the time and day.
Kurt Roskopf: The world of ability is every Saturday at 3pm. Eastern.
John C. Morley: Okay. And you can actually get to your show by going to the www.transformyoupodcast.com link, as we are part of the transform you media network. And you can look for that great icon, which is the world of ability. And if you don't know what that looks like, it's pretty easy to find. It basically is a world, and it has a world of ability. It's like blue and white. And then there's like a little device I guess with like a sonar kind of sending signals out for like a help, I guess if I'm reading that correctly, but you know, really educational, Kurt, this has been very interesting to learn. And I hope that we brought some perspective to many people that may be shy around from things like this, because a lot of times people don't want to get involved. It's not because they're discriminating. It's because they don't know how to react. And I think that's something that our culture needs to learn that it's okay to interact. And, you know, not to be afraid, but to you know, realize that everyone is a person. And that even though someone can't see you or can't talk to you, or maybe they don't have an arm, maybe they have a prosthetic arm that they can use signals. We didn't talk about that they can actually make the arm move or do things like that. They are still a person, they still have feelings, and they can still enjoy life. And there's a lot of things you can do, and you can still be their friend. So there are definitely a lot of things that I hope, you know the world of ability brings to you. And also today's guests, Kurt Roskopf, again, I want to thank you for being on the JMOR tech talk show. It was a pleasure having you. And we'll have more guests that will be talking about different types of disability devices, because I think this is really important to educate people on the technology that is out there. And that you really need to be paying attention to, especially if you're building a new home, or building a new office, or you have someone in your family that maybe gets a disability later on in life. I hope not. But it's important that you get educated. So now when something happens, you're ready to embrace it, because you have the knowledge and the education. Thank you again, Kurt.
Kurt Roskopf: You're welcome, John, thanks for being a pro in practicing inclusion.
John C. Morley: It is my pleasure. Have a great rest of the weekend.
John C. Morley: Well, I’ll tell you, Marcus, you know, that was interesting. You've talked to Kurt I know, lots of times because you're with him in the other show. But did you learn anything new tonight, from the interview that I had with him?
Marcus: You know, it's always eye opening. And you do such an excellent job of action, the right questions to get these guys to open up. And I did definitely learn some good things. And it definitely helped me to better appreciate just that community of people that goes underneath the radar. That's what I’ve gotten most out of the conversation.
John C. Morley: Yeah, it's that he has a lot of potential. And I think the desire right now for people to want to help others with disabilities, I think is something that is not a luxury, but a necessity. And I think we need to embrace that. And really, we always talk about, you know, whether it's racial discrimination, or whether it's sexual orientation discrimination, or whether it's jobs or whatever other type of discrimination we have. We really don't talk about equality when it comes to disabilities. It's like implied, but you know, we always say there's we don't discriminate for race, religion, orientation, sexualization, but we don't say disability. Why isn't that in that caveat, I'm missing something, Marcus, it should be in there.
Marcus: It really should. And it's something that's so universal, across the board, anybody can at any time in a life can be affected by this. And it's got to be a bigger conversation. So I gladly appreciate you bringing on Kurt. You definitely did your job today.
John C. Morley: Well, thank you. And I appreciate again, Kurt for taking his time to be on our show. But you know, speaking about things that are happening in the world and technology. And that brings us always back to our conversation. You know what I'm going to say? COVID.
Marcus: Hmm, yeah, something that's definitely universal.
John C. Morley: Yeah, that's very universal are five ways tech is being used to fight COVID. This is interesting. So number one, Amazon Web Services, or AWS is launching a new global initiative. They're committing 20 million for Amazon customers working on diagnostics solution, this is for COVID-19. The funding will be provided as AWS, in-kind credits, and technical support to help research teams use cloud technology to tackle this monumental new challenge. That's nice. I think that's a really good use of their money and their resources. So another way is people are using 3d printers Marcus to make needed products, whether that's masks or other types of things, other PP, equipment, and just things that we need every day to use 3d printers. So I think a PPE is really changing. Another thing that's happening is that manufacturing companies are stepping up to produce supplies. And I think we need to, you know, tip our hats off to all these companies that are normally making products, whether we're talking about beer, or we're talking about wine, or we're talking about other supplies, and they're retooling their assembly line to make things like the PPE and also to make things such as the disinfected lotions. So I think that's really great that we as a country are stepping up and there's so many these companies are doing this, and you know, something, they're not really making any money doing this. They're doing this just to help our country. You know, I know one particular company that actually was bringing so much solution and they were providing it for truckers, and not too long ago, I was on a national truck podcast. And I was so grateful to hear that this one company was just bringing in truckloads of this, so that the truckers could go and fill up a small bottle, a big bottle. Because there really wasn't a place for them to go get some what were they going to do? Stop in a quick check or convenience store? I don't think so. Then a lot of these trucking places, you know, they had it, but they were charging the truckers a lot of money for it. And so I think it was great that this company was able to bring in these truckloads of liquid so that they could fill up whatever containers they had, and not have to pay for I think that was just really paying it forward. Google, who we've mentioned once or twice before, is using deep mind to help fight COVID. Google's using technology to fight COVID in two major ways. First, the company is working with the United States government to develop an educational website to host resources on COVID-19. That's nice. And the idea they are saying is to create a central location, or I guess I’ll call it a repository where people can learn about the information and still be able to sift through the misinformation, because that's always the challenge, whether you're on a social m