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The Blind Life Podcast
Blind-Led Innovation in Action: How NFB and InnoSearch Are Changing the Game! Episode 45
00:22:14
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- [00:07]
A
Hey, guys, it's Sam and Rachel, and you're listening to the Blind Life podcast.
- [00:15]
B
This is the companion podcast to the popular YouTube channel the Blind Life.
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A
Here I share tips and tricks, how.
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C
To'S, interviews with amazing VIPs in the.
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B
Community, and loads of assistive technology reviews.
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A
The goal of the Blind Life is to help you live your best blind life. Hey, guys, it's Sam with the Blind Life. Welcome back to the channel where I help you learn how to live your best blind life. So I am here with Patrick Long, co founder, one of the co founders and CEO of InnoSearch AI and also with Mark Riccobono, the president of the National Federation of the Blind. Thank you both, gentlemen for joining me today. I really appreciate it.
- [01:04]
B
My pleasure.
- [01:05]
C
Yeah, it's our pleasure, Sam. Happy to be here and chat with you.
- [01:08]
A
Yeah, yeah. Well, we've got big news. We'll get to that here in a second, but why don't we do brief introductions? You guys can tell me a little bit about yourselves and your respective organizations and then we'll jump into the exciting. The exciting news. So, Patrick, why don't you go ahead and start us off?
- [01:24]
C
Yeah, absolutely. Hi, everybody. You guys might have saw me on Sam's channel in the past, but I'm one of the co founders of innosearch AI. We created innosearch with a very simple goal. To make the digital world more usable. And not just technically compliant, but usable and simple for blind and low vision users. You know, let's face it, today a lot of websites and apps are not built with accessibility in mind. They may pass a checklist, but they're filled with clutter. There's tons of unlabeled buttons, very complicated menus, and a lot of images are missing alt text. That's incredibly frustrating and challenging for blind and low vision users. And that's the innovation that InnoSearch has created. We've shared it with this channel so many times, and today we're so happy to be here alongside Mark to share more about what we're working on.
- [02:23]
A
Yeah. Before we get to that, though, Mark, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your organization.
- [02:29]
B
Well, thank you, Sam. I think I needed to hang out with someone cool like Patrick to get invited here. So my first time. I appreciate it. My name is Mark Riccobono and I have the honor and privilege of serving as president of the National Federation of the Blind, America's civil rights membership organization of blind people. Our organization has its headquarters in Baltimore. Maryland. But we're comprised of blind people all over the country from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. And as an organization of blind people led by blind people, we serve as the voice of for the nation's blind. And it's our role really to bring blind centered perspectives to, well, any and all discussions that are happening in this nation related to full participation of the blind into society. And we also do that on the international stage by being part of the World Blind Union. We've been involved in international affairs starting actually in the 1940s. But in 1964, we helped to found an international organization working to bring blind people around the globe to collaborate. So although we work primarily in the United States, we're very interested in the worldwide collaboration of the organized blind movement.
- [04:09]
A
Yes, yeah. And very well known. Obviously, everybody's probably heard of the National Federation of the Blind dedicating many, many years to making our lives better. And that's kind of what we're here to talk about, because we're here to announce a partnership between InnoSearch and the NFB. So, Patrick, can you tell us a little bit about that?
- [04:28]
C
Yeah. So, I mean, this partnership with nfb, the National Federation of the Blind, is incredibly meaningful to us. I mean, the NFB is really a powerhouse right in the nation today when it comes to advocacy, education, and advocating for civil rights and systemic change, and making sure the blind and low vision live independent and make their lives better. So through this collaboration, we're working together to identify and understand the different pain points that blind and low vision users experience today when facing and using digital spaces. Right. Whether it's something like a checkout process that doesn't work well with the screen reader, or a complicated website that just isn't usable, no matter how quote, unquote, compliant it claims to be. So we're taking what the NFB has learned over the decades in the courtroom and classrooms and in their communities and trying to translate that knowledge into practical, actionable, and productized digital experiences. And we're also working together to help the NFB increase its awareness and support in the mission at innosearch. Today at checkout, we have implemented a way for users to round up their total purchase to the nearest dollar to support the NFP's mission. And you can donate directly to the organization. Right. There's also a way to toggle this to make it automatic, so every purchase you make on innosearch goes directly to the NFB to support their mission and move this entire space forward.
- [06:19]
A
That's fantastic. That's fantastic. So, Mark, what do you think? How does the NFB feel about this partnership? I mean, partnering up with InnoSearch, which is arguably in my opinion, the most accessible way to shop anywhere. So what is this going to mean for the Federation?
- [06:36]
B
Well, it's a good question. So first of all, let me say that the National Federation of the Blind does not use the term partnership lightly. You know, a lot of times it gets thrown around as a nice collaborative term. But, you know, for us as an organization of blind people, it really has to mean something that there's a win, win opportunity for blind people. Secondly, the Federation has a long history of being really at the leading edge of technology development for blind people. Most notably with the establishment of the International Braille and Technology center in 1990, we really put the organized blind movement at the center of being, you know, the Consumer Reports for blind related technology, where we buy and evaluate really all of the speech and braille related devices out there so that we can give our honest, open opinion about do they work, do they not work? And over the last 35 years, one of the things that has really shifted in the blindness space is that a lot of the startups now come to us before they develop products or early in that development and really try to go deep on, well, what do blind people really want? And look, sometimes that means we have very hard conversations with them about the fact that nobody actually wants what they are offering because it's based on low expectations. InnoSearch is an interesting contrast because InnoSearch is bringing an innovative approach toward access to information, which we know is one of the biggest problems that blind people face is getting equal, fast access to information so that we can make decisions for ourselves. And InnoSearch is bringing that innovative approach to the space. Now some people have said, well, oh great, so now the Federation doesn't care about mainstream retailers not being accessible on the web. Not true, I can tell you. Still huge priority for us. The flip side of that though, is that we want to find ways to push the edge of what technology can do, what AI can do, and how we can actually do things, not just at an equal level. How can we do things faster than people who are not blind? Right. I actually think that we should not tell too many people who aren't blind about InnoSearch, because it can be our little secret. But of course we want InnoSearch to be successful, not just for blind people, but for everybody. So I was saying to someone this morning, I Think once people who aren't blind find out about InnoSearch, they're going to figure out this is a really powerful way to source information and get to what they want, rather than just sorting through the buzz that, you know, a lot of mainstream retailers put on their websites to distract you to go to some product which is not the one you're looking for. So that's our interest. But the other thing that makes us move to the level of partnership with InnoSearch is the leadership there has clearly articulated to us an interest in helping to build the community. And that's what we do in the National Federation of the Blind is we're trying to build community. And so we're at the beginning of this handshake, this relationship, and we're looking forward to ways that we can use this partnership to connect blind people to other blind people, which is really what gives us power and strength in the work that we need to do collectively to raise expectations in society.
- [10:47]
A
Patrick, talking about InnoSearch and its innovations, that's one thing, and I've told you this many times, and I've mentioned it many times in my videos, that it's one thing I love about InnoSearch is that you guys are open to feedback and you are open to wanting to improve your service and make it the best possible for the community. The very first time I reviewed it, almost a year ago now, I. There were a couple of things that I saw that I was like, oh, this isn't great, guys. We might want to think about changing this. And you guys jumped right on it, and you took everything I said seriously and fixed everything, and it was fantastic. And I know you guys have the feedback channel that people can reach out to, and I commend you on that. Would you mind just talking about some of the new things coming to InnoSearch, some of the things that have already been released and maybe we might be seeing in the future?
- [11:36]
C
Yeah, absolutely. So first, I just wanted to comment a bit like what Mark was saying, and also you, Sam, you said about how we very much involve the community. And I think, to be honest, that has been the defining thing that has made innosearch so well loved by the community is we take our feedback to heart. And we always actually host a lot of user testing sessions. We allow our users to call us, you know, have screen sharing opportunities to share what they see that works really well or things that maybe could be improved. Right? And through these sessions, we're able to get a good pulse on what the user is thinking, right, how, what challenges they're facing today with their different technological experiences and then we can look into how we can optimize for that. Right? And actually a lot of the features you see today on innosearch, right, that experience was built through countless emails and user testing sessions with our users so that we've really built something that the community has loved. And we also have three blind and low vision people on our team. So it's day in, day out. They're building something that they really, truly would use and is solving their problem that they couldn't find any other solution out there for in the past. So yeah, that's been really exciting for us. And in terms of things that are in the pipeline, right. Again, these are also, as a result of a lot of testing and feedback from our users, we're working on voice activated shopping. So today, right now you can use our phone line 1855 shop GPT to call in, chat with our voice powered AI. And you know, users can hands free, screen free, way to access the Internet, right? And they can browse from billions of products, go through the entire checkout process, learn about different products. The AI acts like a shopping agent, so somebody that might assist you at a store, you can chat with that AI and they can help you through the shopping process. We're also working on grocery and restaurant delivery, right? This will be a way to order from all your local shops in all 50 states in the United States and will be delivered in under an hour. So this will be a way for users to get access right, to their local stores that they might have a challenge getting to. Now they can use our AI service, right, to get grocery and restaurant delivery straight to their door. There's a lot of other things that we're obviously experimenting with. AI is a space that's moving so quickly. There's a lot of things that we're prototyping, but some of those are still in the works. Things like maybe helping individuals refill prescriptions or check delivery status or book recurring orders. Those are all things that customers have talked to us about and we're working diligently and we'll share more once we have something more concrete.
- [14:51]
A
That's fantastic. I'm looking forward to testing out the grocery shopping experience because there are several pain points with that whole process as we have it now through other apps. And as Mark kind of alluded to, there's so much clutter on these things. Oftentimes ads popping up or trying to redirect you or you know, hey, for $3 more you can get this. That's, it's like that' all that noise just makes it really difficult. So I am looking forward to trying that out. And incidentally, if anybody watching or listening to this on the podcast, if you'd like to see all of these things in use, I have, I have tested out all of them. I've, I've made videos on the online shopping process, the booking flights, as well as shopping over the phone. So check those out on my YouTube channel, the blind Life. You can also find, find it in the InnoSearch playlist. So I'd love for you guys both to kind of mention how users will be able to access InnoSearch through NFB and vice versa.
- [15:53]
B
Yeah, so it's a great question. So first of all, members of the National Federation of the Blind will have access to special InnoSearch credit offer which can be found in the member profile on the NFB website for current NFB members. So if you thought you were a member but haven't paid your dues this year and that's why you don't find the offer, that's why so current on your yearly dues and log on to NFB.org and find that offer there. And we'll also be promoting other special engagements with InnoSearch through our affiliates and chapters. We're going to be building out some training opportunities to engage with the community. And then finally we're also now discussing with InnoSearch ways to bring this technology into aspects of our work. Don't want to speculate publicly just yet about those, but we are looking into that and I think based on the demands of the community, some cool things will come in the future.
- [17:07]
A
Nice.
- [17:08]
C
Yeah, absolutely. So you can access InnoSearch right now at InnoSearch. AI right. And as you make your purchases on InnoSearch and go through the checkout process, there'll be a way to round up to donate to the nfb. We've created a toggle button for you to either round up all your purchases or just make a one time donation. We'll also make a link to link out and learn about NFB so you can visit their website, learn about their mission and sort of understand where your donation is going and how you're helping empower those who are blind and low vision.
- [17:49]
A
That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Well, I think this is great. This sounds like a kind of a no brainer partnership. I think it's going to do a lot of good for the community. So before we wrap it up, guys, I'd love to hear some final thoughts, final thoughts on the partnership.
- [18:04]
B
Sure.
- [18:04]
C
Yeah. So we would love to close this out by just saying we really thank Mark for giving us a chance to work with nfb. I really resonate with the mission that you guys are doing, and I think there's a very strong intersection with what you guys are doing and what we're trying to build at innosearch. Right? We actually are building the experiences of the web from the ground up. Right? We're not using those widgets or overlays. We're really building something from the ground up with the community, with not just compliance, but most importantly, usability in mind. Right. Because the end goal is to help the blind and low vision have independence, power and choice in their daily lives. Right. The world today is becoming more and more digital. Right? And getting access to digital services is just essential. Right. To live a fulfilling daily life. So we're very passionate about this. We're working around the clock to make that experience even better. And just so happy and thankful that we can work together. It's just really exciting for our team, Mark.
- [19:15]
B
So I appreciate the opportunity to be here and to talk about this partnership. You know, the National Federation of the Blind as America's civil rights membership organization of blind people. You know, our role in the world is to build this big blind centered community. And so one of the things that I want to really amplify about innosearch is like so many companies looking to sell or to engage the blind community and commerce. InnoSearch came with that same idea. And we spent time talking with Patrick about how what we're trying to do is build a community of blind people working together to improve society. We're going to sit on the fence about helping to sell products or services because the products that sell in our community have to sell because blind people want them. And a lot of companies say, thanks, we'll go talk to someone else who's going to help us sell. To InnoSearch's credit, they said, okay, we get it. Let's work together. And if we're offering a good product, the blind customers will come and they'll use it. And this is a wonderful partnership because we're not involved in the sales part of it. We're just involved in helping to boost the technology to be even better for blind people, build the community of blind people around our advocacy work. That needs to happen so many other things. And so it's a great win win. And so I want to urge people to try out the product, see what you think. If you think it's horrible, do something else. But if you think it's got promise and should be better, I would say tell us, tell innosearch how it should be better. Because it is far too rare that people who are developing technologies which claim to be to the benefit of blind people just turn their head when we give them suggestions about what it should be. InnoSearch has proven a real commitment to listening and implementing what the blind community wants.
- [21:37]
A
Well, this is awesome, guys. As a member of the community, I thank you guys for. For sitting down and. And forming this little partnership. I think it's going to be fantastic. And those of you out there, if you want more information, I will have important links down below. Both the Inner AI and the National Federation of the Blind. Thank you guys both for being here with me. I really appreciate it.
- [21:59]
B
Thank you very much.
- [22:01]
C
Absolutely. Thanks a lot, Sam.
- [22:03]
A
And thank you guys for watching. This is Sam with the Blind Life. I will see you next time.