Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #36: Interview with Aaron Di Blasi, Sr. PMP, Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd., Publisher, Top Tech Tidbits, Access Information News, AI-Weekly and Title II Today

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Remarkable World Commentary Episode #36: Interview with Aaron Di Blasi, Sr. PMP, Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd., Publisher, Top Tech Tidbits, Access Information News, AI-Weekly and Title II Today · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

0:12
Podcast Commentator: Greetings. Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, and MBA,
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invites you to listen to her biweekly podcast,
0:22
Remarkable World Commentary.
0:24
Here Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts,
0:27
insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners.
0:31
Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids,
0:35
especially kids with disabilities.
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Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach,
0:42
dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur,
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law graduate, and podcast commentator.
0:50
She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge,
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skills, and expertise in access technology and information.
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As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles,
1:02
she just wants to make things better than possible.
1:07
Donna J. Jodhan: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Remarkable World Commentary.
1:14
I'm Donna Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate and one who sees the world mainly
1:23
through sound, touch and stubborn optimism.
1:28
I am a law graduate, accessibility consultant,
1:33
author, and lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind.
1:39
You may know me from a few headline moments.
1:43
In November of 2010, I won the landmark charter case that forced the Canadian
1:51
government to make its websites accessible to every Canadian,
1:58
not just sighted ones.
2:01
In July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen
2:09
disability groups to turn equal access into federal law.
2:15
And most recently, on June 3, 2022, I was humbled by Her Late Majesty's
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Platinum Jubilee Award, for tireless commitment to removing barriers.
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When I'm not in a courtroom or in a committee room or pottery studio,
2:40
you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss,
2:44
producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies make their gadgets
2:51
talk back in plain language.
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Everything I do circles one goal.
2:59
To turn accessibility from an afterthought into everyday practice.
3:06
I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench,
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where policy meets lived experience and lived experience sparks fresh ideas.
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Now, before we jump into today's conversation,
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let me shine a quick spotlight on today's guest,
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a changemaker, whose work is every bit as remarkable as the world we're trying to
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build. Aaron Di Blasi, I'd like to welcome you to the Remarkable
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World Commentary podcast.
3:49
Aaron Di Blasi: Hello Miss Donna. Thank you for having me.
3:52
It's great to be here.
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Donna J. Jodhan: And how are you doing today?
3:55
Aaron Di Blasi: I am doing fantastic. It's great to be on a podcast with you after so long together.
4:00
Donna J. Jodhan: Oh, yes. We've been. We've been associated for a very long time,
4:04
and we're going to think.
4:05
Aaron Di Blasi: We're going on 13 years as of this conversation.
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Yeah, I would say so.
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Donna J. Jodhan: That's right. So, Aaron, in addition to Running Mind Vault,
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you are the Publisher for the Top Tech Tidbits Access Information News,
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the AI Weekly and Title II Today newsletters.
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Aaron Di Blasi: I know it's a lot, sorry, yeah, it's a lot.
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Donna J. Jodhan: And and the PR Director for the AT-Newswire News Distribution Service.
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Aaron Di Blasi: People might think I have a thing for titles,
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huh? No, no. Not at all the case, I assure you.
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Yeah.
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Donna J. Jodhan: Let's open with the question that many listeners want to understand.
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Uh oh. As the Publisher of several leading disability focused news outlets,
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do you, yourself, live with the disability?
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Aaron Di Blasi: What a fantastic question.
5:14
No I do not. And no, I have never lived with a certified disability in my life.
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But I have brought a story that I would like to share with everyone today,
5:25
yourself included. Though I think you might know most of this story,
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though I think you'll learn a little bit from the details.
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I've decided to share this story.
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Not because I want people to think that I understand disability.
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I want to share this story because a very good friend of mine recently explained to me
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that it's not about me, that it has nothing to do with me,
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or whether people believe I have a disability.
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It has to do with sharing knowledge about disability and helping other people who might
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have the same disability that you do.
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Okay, so here's my story.
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At seven years old, I had a very difficult condition that I did not understand.
6:04
I went into the hospital.
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And over the course of about a week, they diagnosed me with chronic
6:09
nephrolithiasis at seven years old.
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Now, for anyone who doesn't know, that's, in plain speak.
6:15
That's kidney stones. In Latin, nephro is kidney and lithiasis is stone.
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And that's what they used to call it. Back in the day. Stone of the kidney. The kidney
6:23
would calcify, as they called it.
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They didn't understand what was going on.
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So I grew up with this condition which means that I had a kidney stone as a child from
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about seven years old until I was about 23 years old every 3 to 6 months.
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So if you do a quick ChatGPT look up of the most painful experiences in the world,
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at the top of the list you will see childbirth.
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And directly under that you'll see kidney stones.
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They're an incredibly painful condition.
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You know, some people even have committed suicide because the pain is so bad.
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Oh, no. So. So we do. Yeah.
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A lot of people in the. I know a lot of people with kidney stones, and I'm not
7:00
special in any way. A lot of people have this as children.
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Doctors are especially interested in pediatric cases,
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because we generally tend to think of kidney stones as an older person's disease.
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Right. It's not. So here's what I went through at seven years old.
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My mother, being the scientific minded person that she was,
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I knew that what the doctors were telling her, which is that he's not drinking enough
7:20
water, was B.S., you know, it's like sticking a boot in a toilet and
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thinking that if you put more water in the toilet, you'll get the boot out eventually,
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but you keep putting more boots in the toilet,
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you know, so it's not really going to work. And we knew this, and we went through several
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nephrologists kidney doctors and specialists,
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and they all said the same thing.
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We want to put you on a regiment of drinking two gallons of water a day.
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Da da da da da. Which I did, but it did not obviously change my condition.
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So fast forward to 23 years old.
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I decide to begin my martial arts training, and as part of that endeavor,
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I wanted to change my diet.
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I wanted to eat better.
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I wanted to perform better.
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So I moved from a primarily meat diet to a primarily plant diet,
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not knowing that oxalate kidney stones are caused by plants.
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Donna J. Jodhan: Oh, no.
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Aaron Di Blasi: I did not know this. Well, neither did my doctors, apparently. Okay, so
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Aaron now went from every 3 to 6 months to having a kidney stone roughly every 12 to 14
8:19
days. Oh yeah. And it takes about a week or so to recover after an episode like that.
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I even got so bad, I was vomiting so much that I perforated my ulcer and had to go in
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and have my ulcer stitched back together, basically because I was throwing up so much.
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So the only thing that they told me was drink more water,
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and they gave me suppositories for nausea.
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That's all I've been given in the entire 20 years of treatment that I have had with
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nephrologists. So at 23 years old, obviously I,
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after being in the ICU for five days and having three different surgeries to remove
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kidney stones, in which they removed approximately 130,
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in three different operations.
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Oh. So after that time, I decided that I was no longer going to
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listen to the two gallons of water a day advice,
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and I was going to go off and try to find a solution myself.
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And that is when I came across what I want readers and listeners to know about today.
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Her name is doctor Sally K Norton.
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And doctor Sally Norton had the very same problem that I did.
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She went into the hospital at 12 years old for oxalate poisoning.
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And that is exactly what I have.
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It's oxalate poisoning.
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And it was coming from her diet.
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It was coming from the plants and the spinach and the shard and the heavy vegetables that
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she was eating. Some people process oxalate just fine,
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and some people, like myself do not.
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So we accumulate that oxalate because we're not processing it like a normal individual
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does. So if you don't know this, you're just simply drinking more water while
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at the same time taking in tons more oxalates.
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Donna J. Jodhan: Oh my.
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Aaron Di Blasi: Lord. Yeah. Exactly right.
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And I'm literally I we're talking spinach smoothies every morning. Kale smoothies every
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night. Yeah. And I had no idea what I was doing to my body.
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My doctors are going, you know, I told my doctors,
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I gave them my diet. I told them what I'm doing,
10:00
but that seems fine. You're drinking lots of water, right?
10:03
Yes, I'm drinking lots of water.
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So in any case, just just to give people a quick.
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You can go to Sally Norton.
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I have never met this woman, but she is an incredible inspiration.
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She has written a book called Toxic Superfoods.
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And a lot of pregnant mothers are very into this topic right now because it affects your
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baby as well. So you want to know about the oxalates that you are taking in.
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She has a Bachelor of science and nutrition from Cornell.
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She's also a master of public health degree from the University of North Carolina.
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And she managed a five year National Institute of Health funded program at the
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uncW Medical School. So this is someone who's very well known in the community for her
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views, and she's trying very hard to change the narrative around kidney stones from Drink
10:46
a Lot of Water to here's how you can get them out of your diet.
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Donna J. Jodhan: Wow, what a wealth of information, I never know.
10:54
Aaron Di Blasi: Oh, yeah. Right. So having taken all this, I just want people to know that I now have a
10:58
kidney stone approximately once every 9 to 10 months.
11:02
Donna J. Jodhan: Oh my God.
11:03
Aaron Di Blasi: Oh, no. That's wonderful actually, for me.
11:05
You know what I mean? That's wonderful. I know some people will only experience maybe 1
11:08
or 2 in their life, but if you do, if you need information,
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please reach out to me.
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I have a wealth of information about kidney stones.
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I can help you. I can talk to you about potassium citrate.
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I can talk to you about magnesium citrate.
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All the things that you can do to wean yourself off of oxalate.
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So you just whatever you do, you don't want to immediately start doing
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these things because you will bring all of the oxalates out at once and that will put
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you in the hospital.
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Donna J. Jodhan: I've been going to send my sister in law to you.
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She recently developed kidney stones.
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Aaron Di Blasi: Did she really? Yeah, a lot of people.
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I've been dealing with this since I was seven years old, I said. I sit in the hospital
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literally, and I talk to people that are 60. 65 and they have kidney stones and I'm
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sitting right next to them. And he's like, you know, young man, why are you in here?
11:46
What are you doing? You know, I just I've had these since I was seven years
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old. He's like, get out of here.
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No way. You know, but yeah, it's it's true.
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It can happen to anyone. It's not an old person's disease.
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I think just as people get older, your body does not process oxalate as
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efficiently. So you begin to develop stones.
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And on the size of stones, just so that people understand the range is
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generally from 0 to 10mm, five millimeters will put you in the
12:11
hospital, guaranteed. I have past stones that are nine millimetres.
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Oh, myself personally, and they go from 0 to 10.
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No one has ever reported a stone larger than ten.
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Unless you're getting it surgically removed. But I am able,
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as a human being, to pass nine millimeter stones.
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My doctors are amazed by that and still tell me to drink water.
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Donna J. Jodhan: I will send my sister in law to you.
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Aaron Di Blasi: Please do so. So I hope that everyone understands that.
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That had a lot to do with my decision.
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Upon taking on Top Tech Tidbits and becoming friends with Larry Lewis,
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which we'll talk about later in the podcast. And I understand a lot of what the people
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that I've been speaking to for the last 20 years go through with a lack of
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accommodation, a lack of understanding, even where chronic illness is concerned.
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Donna J. Jodhan: And I can attest to that.
12:59
All right. Can you take us back to the first moment that you first meet your love of
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technology?
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Aaron Di Blasi: I first met my love of technology in the Euclid Square Mall in Cleveland,
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Ohio, when I was seven years old.
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It may have been the same year I think I was diagnosed.
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I went into a RadioShack and I saw a Tandy computer,
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and I don't know why or what research I was doing at the time,
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but I wanted it. I begged my mother and father for it.
13:27
They bought it for me.
13:28
I brought it home, hooked it up to a television set and was greeted with a
13:31
blinking cursor. I didn't know what a cursor was at the time.
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It just blinked. You know, I thought there should be something more on
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the screen to tell me what was going on, but instead it came with a book called Basic
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Code, and I learned the basic coding language.
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And that's when my My Love started.
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And I have learned probably 16 or 17 more programming languages since that time,
13:50
since getting my engineering degree. And not a lot of that makes an awful lot of
13:53
difference today with AI, because they're kind of all mushed together,
13:56
you know? But it's still helpful, and it helps you to build in ways that people
13:59
that don't understand those languages still can't know.
14:02
Donna J. Jodhan: What early challenges or breakthroughs pushed you towards computer engineering,
14:09
and eventually journalism and entrepreneurship.
14:18
Aaron Di Blasi: Are great questions. I began my involved in 2004.
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I graduated Case Western with my engineering degree in 98.
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I got a job in downtown Cleveland working for a publishing company who published the
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American Machinist and Machine Design magazines.
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And that is the reason that I did not segue immediately into an engineering job,
14:38
which I had waiting for me.
14:40
But I loved media. I loved moving people.
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I love hearts and minds.
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I love helping people, you know?
14:45
And marketing is kind of the language with which you speak to people's hearts and minds.
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So I went with journalism.
14:53
You know, it was obviously related to engineering with the American machinist and
14:55
machines and magazines. But I had a lot to learn because I was an engineer and I was not
14:59
a journalist at that time, you know.
15:01
But these people took me in.
15:02
They put their arms around me and they taught me an awful lot. I mean, so much to the point
15:06
that before I left Penton Media, which has since been acquired,
15:11
I had a list of clients who needed the same services.
15:14
You know, that Penton Media was providing to people. It was a very exciting time. Digital
15:17
marketing had just emerged.
15:19
You know, people didn't know what digital marketing was or what an online ad was.
15:22
And so everyone was trying to set up some type of infrastructure to help their
15:26
business, you know, grow with this new digital marketing.
15:29
So in 2004, I decided to create a company that did digital marketing for people.
15:34
I called it my Vault Solutions, and I left my beautiful job in downtown
15:38
Cleveland overlooking the Galleria. Everyone told me I was out of my mind. I felt rather
15:42
out of my mind at the time, to be honest with you.
15:44
But I saw promise. You know, I saw possibility,
15:47
and it was scary, as all entrepreneurship is.
15:50
It often gets scary, but it's the best decision I think I've ever made,
15:54
honestly.
15:56
Donna J. Jodhan: Let's rewind to August 2012, when Larry Lewis first introduced us.
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What drew you to my work at that time, and how has our professional partnership and
16:14
our friendship grown over these 12 plus years?
16:19
Aaron Di Blasi: Oh, God. Well, for now, let's start with the beginning question,
16:22
which was what did I see in you?
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I saw the same budding person that I was when I left Penton Media in 2004.
16:29
You were looking for digital marketing at the time? You may not have known it. I'm sure you
16:33
know that now after conversations, yes, I do,
16:35
but at the time you didn't.
16:36
You knew you needed some services. You needed some things done.
16:39
You thought that you being blind, had something to do with that which it did
16:43
not. Because digital marketing is digital marketing. You know, we deal with
16:46
accessibility. Secondarily, as you've learned.
16:50
But what we did is we took that digital marketing done,
16:53
and you took your ideas and your wealth of lived experience and accessibility and
16:57
applied it to those digital marketing principles and have grown yourself literally
17:02
to where we are today.
17:03
You know, I wanted more people to hear what you had to say.
17:06
I wanted more people to know what you had done.
17:09
And that is what drew me to you.
17:11
That is what I look for in clients, you know?
17:14
That's why I recently partnered with Doctor Adams.
17:16
Doctor Kirk Adams, same thing.
17:17
You know, he has an incredible message. I want more people to hear it. I think more
17:20
people need to hear it.
17:22
So that is what made me partner with you.
17:24
And then I had no idea that you and I would become fantastic friends.
17:28
You know, I love your goals.
17:29
I love the way you see accessibility.
17:31
I love the way you see helping people.
17:33
And I think that is what has allowed us to continue doing business together and be
17:37
friends for over 13 years now.
17:40
Donna J. Jodhan: It's been a long and very interesting and exciting association.
17:45
Yeah, I don't regret any moment of it.
17:48
We've had our ups and downs, but we've learned.
17:50
Aaron Di Blasi: Yes. Yes. All good business partners must.
17:53
Sure. Yeah, sure. Yeah, absolutely.
17:55
Okay.
17:56
Donna J. Jodhan: Mindful solutions runs on the mantra that quote,
18:02
it is better to serve the few perfectly than to serve the many ordinary.
18:11
What does this philosophy look like in practice for your team and your clients?
18:21
Aaron Di Blasi: It is our attempt at providing our clients with perfection,
18:25
or at least as close to.
18:27
Perfection as humanly possible.
18:29
So many things today are about scale.
18:32
We get an idea that people want and that we scale,
18:34
scale, scale, scale until the product or the service is almost unrecognizable from what we
18:39
started with. You know, people loved it when there was ten clients,
18:42
but when there was 100, it was a completely different product or
18:45
service. And that is what we have always wanted to fight at mind.
18:48
We want you to come to mind vault and go, this is this is home.
18:51
This is where I'm at. This is where I'm going to park my business for the next 20 or 30
18:54
years and where I'm going to grow. And that is precisely what our clients do.
18:58
I think you yourself included, so that that perfectionist type of attitude,
19:03
which is not that we don't want to do perfect for everyone because we do,
19:06
but we just can't. There's not enough of us.
19:09
So we're okay with saying no.
19:10
You know, I say no probably twice a day now to clients.
19:13
I just we don't have the room anymore, you know?
19:15
But people still want these skills. They still want these advantages in their
19:18
business. So I think that's where the core of that mantra comes from.
19:22
Donna J. Jodhan: How do you manage this, Aaron?
19:24
Aaron Di Blasi: Well there's myself I work out of my home office in Cleveland,
19:28
Ohio. I have since 2004, so we have no physical locations.
19:32
This was really weird back in 2004.
19:34
Everybody thought that was really crazy.
19:36
But now with remote work, it's not a big deal. I have seven other
19:39
certified project management professionals. They all carry their PMP,
19:44
and we serve clients all over the world.
19:45
And I manage those seven people.
19:47
And those seven people, in turn, manage clients of their own.
19:50
And we all trade work with each other as needed because we have different specialties.
19:55
You know, we have a lawyer on the team. We have an advocate on the team.
19:59
You know, even yourself, we've contacted you on occasion for,
20:01
you know, advice with accessibility and from a blind person's perspective, etc.,
20:05
you know, so that's how we how we all kind of work together.
20:08
Donna J. Jodhan: What's a PMP?
20:10
Aaron Di Blasi: Project management professional certification?
20:13
It's given by the PMP Institute here in the United States.
20:17
I'm not sure if it's the same in Canada or not or how it's recognized.
20:20
But there's two components to it.
20:22
One is obviously a test that you have to pass with a lot of knowledge about project
20:26
management, best practices and agile philosophy,
20:29
etc. but the second part, and the harder part for people to get often
20:33
is the 60 to 85 hours of certified project management professional experience,
20:38
which has to be provided generally by a corporation or company or organization.
20:43
And then once they certify that you have put in those hours of actual project management,
20:47
then they will give you your PMP certification,
20:49
and you can keep that certification alive every year by renewing it and taking the test
20:53
like I do.
20:54
Donna J. Jodhan: Oh my Lord, do you ever sleep.
20:58
Aaron Di Blasi: Eight hours a day? Yes I do.
21:01
Yes I do. But yeah, it's a lot.
21:04
I don't have a big family, you know, so it's just my business,
21:08
and I take my time and I run it, and I love to help people.
21:10
That's my passion. Not just blind people.
21:14
Not just deaf people. Not just disabled people. Not just people with kidney stones.
21:17
Everyone. Everyone. I love to help everybody.
21:19
Everyone needs the same help.
21:21
You know, they think they don't. They think their health needs to be disability specific.
21:25
And I understand that today because of what's going on.
21:28
I really do, especially here in the United States. But it's just not true.
21:31
If you have a business, if you are blind, if you are deaf,
21:34
if you are disabled in any way, contact us, partner with us.
21:37
We will help you.
21:40
Donna J. Jodhan: It's funny, my technician the other day, he just said,
21:43
Aaron has a big heart, doesn't he?
21:45
And he never says no to you.
21:46
I said he May 1st day.
21:49
Aaron Di Blasi: I never want to say no to you.
21:51
Not ever. That's. That's part of that philosophy,
21:53
you know, it's just just bring people your best and,
21:55
you know, give them the services they need and help them to grow. And I think that's
21:59
mutual prosperity and it's heart.
22:01
Donna J. Jodhan: Yeah. So you baked Ada, WCA and section 508 compliance into
22:11
Mindful Solutions services Long before accessibility was trendy.
22:19
What inspired that early commitment?
22:24
Aaron Di Blasi: I think honestly, it was our foundational relationship with Dean Martin and Larry Lewis
22:30
and Top Tech Tidbits. Prior to 2004 I guess I should probably just give this background at
22:37
this point. Sure. When I started training in martial arts at 23 years old,
22:42
I got my black belt in approximately five years.
22:44
Five years after that, I come into the dojo one day and my
22:47
grandmaster says to me, we have a new student today. Please go meet
22:50
them at the bus stop. And I said, okay.
22:52
So I ran outside in my bare feet, and I ran across the street to the bus stop,
22:56
and the RTA bus pulled up and a man got off the bus with a white cane.
23:01
Click, click, click on the ground and he says, hi, I'm Larry Lewis. He says,
23:05
I'm here today to learn martial arts.
23:07
This is Master Kim. He never tells you anything. Okay? You know, I didn't know how
23:10
to walk with a blind person.
23:11
I didn't know how to hold.
23:13
They hold your arm that you don't hold them.
23:16
So these are all things I didn't know. I know a lot of sighted people don't know these
23:18
things. Unless you actually have encountered a blind person in your life, you know? So I
23:22
had a lot to learn, you know, and he had to direct me immediately and say,
23:25
turn around, give me your elbow.
23:27
And he puts his, you know, his index finger and his thumb on my elbow.
23:31
Yeah. Okay. I know, you know, but I'm just saying this for the benefit of
23:34
listeners. Yeah. And he says, okay, now walk.
23:37
You know, it just was weird to me.
23:39
I didn't want to hurt him.
23:40
I didn't I didn't feel like I had the information that I needed.
23:44
Right. And I think a lot of sighted people feel like I felt that day in that bus stop.
23:48
They don't want to say the wrong thing, they don't want to do the wrong thing, but
23:51
they don't know what to do.
23:52
Thankfully, Larry was very helpful and was, you know,
23:55
come here, sighted person, let me teach you, you know? And I quickly
23:58
picked it up. So I became kind of Larry's go to.
24:01
And Larry and I became friends very fast both inside and outside of the dojo.
24:05
And I spent his entire three and a half years with him to get his black belt,
24:09
which he eventually did, and then went on to get a black belt in jiu
24:12
jitsu as well, I believe.
24:13
And he absolutely loved and adored it, which you can understand because you put your
24:16
hands on, you know, you don't need to see necessarily.
24:19
I mean, sure, it helps when people are trying to hit you, but you could put your hands on
24:22
people and do things. And he absolutely loved and excelled at that.
24:26
So having him as a friend for the I don't know,
24:29
what was it, 13 years?
24:30
I think that we trained together taught me an awful lot about blindness,
24:35
specifically about how someone his house was completely different.
24:37
I had never been to a blind person's house. You know, he had assistive technology in
24:41
place that announced people at the door.
24:43
Right, right. You know, there were it was amazing to me.
24:45
It was like I just learned and learned and learned and learned.
24:48
And then eventually he contacted me and said,
24:50
hey, I got a friend of mine, his name is Dean Martino,
24:53
and he does this little newsletter called Top Tech Tidbits. You know, he puts it out. It's
24:57
yeah, it's just some technical tips for blind people. No big deal, you know? But it's
24:59
really grown. And he doesn't know how to take it international.
25:03
Can you help with your digital marketing stuff?
25:05
And I said, sure, Larry, I can definitely help with that. So we went
25:08
ahead and took it on from Dean.
25:09
Dean remained the editor.
25:10
Larry became the publisher, and Larry used my vault in the background for
25:14
his digital marketing services.
25:15
So it was really us working.
25:17
Top Tech Tidbits newsletter with Larry as the publisher, which was fantastic.
25:21
That put me in the position, beginning in 2004,
25:23
to begin talking with blind persons daily, literally daily.
25:27
I still to this day get emails.
25:28
I answer probably 5 or 6 emails a day, you know,
25:31
from people of all types of disabilities, chronic illnesses amputees,
25:35
you know, you name it. But in the beginning it was very much just blind people. I think
25:38
they are the kind of the ones that started the whole Top Tech Tidbits thing. You know,
25:41
it's much more diverse now.
25:45
Donna J. Jodhan: Today.
25:46
Aaron Di Blasi: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
25:46
Donna J. Jodhan: Where is Dean today?
25:48
Aaron Di Blasi: I do not know, though I do still hear his name mentioned.
25:51
I do still see him in various giving webinars,
25:54
etc. I'd love to hear from Dean if he's out there.
25:57
Grandfather of Top Tech Tidbits.
25:58
We thank you for everything that you have done.
26:00
Yeah, yeah, he stuck around for a little while and then he went and he did his thing.
26:04
Dean's a great guy. He sticks to himself.
26:06
He helps the community a great deal.
26:08
We will never, ever, ever forget him.
26:12
Donna J. Jodhan: Now, Top Tech Tidbits turned 20 last year.
26:17
What did you inherit when you acquired it in 2020?
26:23
And what new ideas have kept it indispensable for access tech professionals?
26:33
Aaron Di Blasi: I think we inherited an awful lot of problems.
26:37
I know that it was a lot of problems is what we inherited starting with the number one
26:42
problem, which was okay, Larry got to the point where,
26:46
again, we're going to thank Larry here for financing that newsletter for,
26:50
you know, 12 years to the tune of probably $2,000 a month.
26:54
He got to a point where he couldn't do that anymore. It was certainly understandable. And
26:57
he began shopping the list, or it was about 7500 people at the time.
27:01
So he began shopping on the computer and people didn't really know what to do with it.
27:06
So you got to a point where he was just frustrated and said,
27:09
Aaron, you know, I think I'm just going to give it up. Nobody knows what to do with it.
27:12
I said, well, let me go to my board and see if we can keep this alive in some way.
27:16
You know, maybe I can convince you, excuse me of my involvement, to look at this
27:20
from a marketing perspective and see what we would be doing for persons with disabilities,
27:23
and maybe they'd be willing to let us donate the time,
27:26
if not money, which is now, both to keep the newsletters running at least
27:30
until we can get them funded.
27:32
So my dad said to me, well, Aaron, I'll tell you what, we'll give
27:34
you two years. We're not going to go past two years.
27:36
If you can't get it funded in two years, we're going to let it die.
27:39
Donna J. Jodhan: Oh, no.
27:40
Aaron Di Blasi: Well, yeah. It's fair. You know, you can't keep donating.
27:42
They would have become Larry to the tune of $2,000 a month.
27:45
And they didn't want that, you know. So I said, okay, let me see what I
27:47
can do. So I came up with the idea that sponsors or,
27:51
you know, the businesses and organizations basically that make their money from persons
27:55
with disabilities should be the people to support said publication.
27:59
And that was just my idea at the time. It was a crazy idea.
28:02
It's not so crazy today with everything that has happened with DEA and I think people are
28:07
very happy that Top Tech Tidbits are supported by the industry because it's not
28:11
going anywhere. It's not supported by the sighted people at Mind Bulk.
28:14
I mean, we still kick in the dollars required because it doesn't carry a sponsor limit yet.
28:18
And same with access information news. I think we still donate about 10,000 a year to
28:22
Top Tech Tidbits to keep it running, and more like 20,000 a year to access
28:26
information just to keep it running because it's still low on sponsors.
28:29
But our idea is that one day we will get enough businesses and organizations to
28:33
understand the value of supporting this themselves,
28:36
so that one day when my vault walks away in 20 years,
28:39
or whatever the case is, if newsletters are still a thing,
28:42
we will have something that we can hand off to someone else that actually makes money and
28:46
continues working and is not just volunteer, because we kind of see how that went with
28:52
Apple his and you know, you guys did a wonderful job.
28:55
They really did. But you know the community has said it's changed. It's not the same. And
28:59
it can't be the same when you have that many volunteers working.
29:01
And, you know, we saw what he went through and how it stressed him out. You know, before
29:05
he left Apple, it was rough.
29:07
You know, so we want to avoid that with Top Tech Tidbits.
29:09
Access information is whenever we step away, we want to someone else to be able to step in
29:14
purchase that property and keep it running.
29:17
Donna J. Jodhan: We hope you stick around for a long time.
29:20
Aaron Di Blasi: So do we. We have no plans on going anywhere.
29:22
We know everyone has to go at some point, so we want to set it up for success.
29:27
Donna J. Jodhan: Now, all four of your current newsletters rely on both artificial intelligence and
29:36
human editors. How do you manage that dance?
29:42
To deliver a concise briefing from thousands of disability related headlines each week?
29:52
How do you do that? Aaron.
29:55
Aaron Di Blasi: Well, there's a process that we use.
29:58
It's quite a process. We we have a very famous folder online called the Bits Bin.
30:03
It's been called the bits bin since 2004.
30:06
And basically what we do is we drop articles in there,
30:09
well, not just we anymore. It used to be just we. And when I say we,
30:12
there's myself, there's John Hanlin, there's Jenna Lang, and these are the three
30:15
people at Mind Vault who make all of the decisions on all of the articles that appear
30:19
in every one of our publications.
30:21
But we now receive news from across the spectrum.
30:24
You know, Viscardi can send us news.
30:26
Hadley can send us news.
30:27
So we get, everything drops in the bits bin.
30:30
And what we ask John and Jenna and myself to do every single day is spend some amount of
30:33
time upvoting or downvoting these articles.
30:37
So we're not writing them.
30:39
We're not, you know, providing any of these information. I think that's what a lot of
30:42
people don't understand is they say, how can you guide blind people when you're
30:45
not blind? Or how can you help deaf people when you're not deaf?
30:48
Or, because we are specialists in information and that is what we do well.
30:53
So we take the bits mean everyone votes these up and down And then the day before we give.
30:59
Generally me, I'm the one that does Top Tech Tidbits. We give myself 12 hours and I take
31:03
12 hours, and we code every one of those approved tidbits.
31:07
And we have a specific process that we use to code them so that blind people can use the
31:12
heading function on any one of their screen readers to quickly navigate the newsletter.
31:16
This is something that a lot of people don't know, and I hope they pick up from this
31:19
podcast we've written about it.
31:21
I know it takes a little bit of tech savviness on the part of the screen reader
31:25
user, but once you get that single heading button,
31:27
the newsletter becomes phenomenally easier to read because every single tidbit has its own
31:33
heading. So you can, just through H, H, H, H,
31:36
H through the whole newsletter, and you never have to stop for an ad or
31:39
listen to an ad that you don't want to hear. You know, people complain that there's ads in
31:42
the newsletter. You know, there wouldn't be a newsletter without them,
31:45
unfortunately, but you can skip them. But unfortunately,
31:47
a lot of blind people still read the newsletter as text,
31:50
and that is very yeah, it's a very messy experience.
31:53
I wouldn't even, with sight, want to read the newsletter by text.
31:56
because there's a lot you have to read that you don't want to. I want to skip to the
32:00
parts that I want. You know, I'm interested in Apple or I'm not.
32:03
And if I'm not interested in Apple, I wanna skip that whole section. I can easily
32:07
do that because it's a heading.
32:08
So I can go from H3 to the next H3, and all those H4s underneath.
32:12
I'll never even see them.
32:14
Donna J. Jodhan: Yeah, I think beautiful.
32:15
Aaron Di Blasi: I know, but and I speak with people every day and say,
32:18
Aaron, I would really like to do that. I just don't know how.
32:20
Right. You know, and I've taught some people how to do it too, but they may need to move
32:24
often. A lot of people are using VoiceOver on iPhone because it's easy.
32:28
Voiceover is the most terrible screen reader of the three.
32:31
I know, I know. I know you know, it has known issues with HTML validation,
32:36
which we write all of our code in HTML.
32:37
We make sure it's perfect and we validate it, and then VoiceOver does not adhere to it,
32:41
which is very upsetting.
32:42
You know, so we've written to people about this, but to get someone to move from
32:45
Voiceover to JAWS or to NVDA is kind of a big jump.
32:50
You know, there's there's even for one button, you still have to get them set up.
32:53
There's licensing involved, at least with JAWS anyway,
32:56
you know, so it can be a big ask.
32:58
A lot of people would rather just stay with Voiceover and listen to it in kind of a
33:01
broken fashion, which is sad.
33:02
I sincerely hope that Apple upgrades both Siri and and their code factor soon.
33:08
Donna J. Jodhan: I hope so too. I hope so too.
33:11
Aaron Di Blasi: I really do.
33:11
Donna J. Jodhan: Do, yeah. Now AI-Weekly moves beyond disability into mainstream AI.
33:20
Why did you feel a disability focused publisher needed to step into that space,
33:30
and what gaps are you trying to fill?
33:36
Aaron Di Blasi: Oh, what gaps are we trying to fill? Okay, gotcha.
33:40
Okay. To answer your question directly, I did not consider myself a disability
33:44
focused publisher. I considered myself a publisher.
33:48
So that's why I just so happened to have stumbled onto the disability media scene,
33:54
and we've been helping people there for a very long time.
33:57
Access Information News wasn't meant. It was spun off from Top Tech Tidbits. AI weekly was
34:01
not intended. It was spun off from Top Tech Tidbits.
34:04
Yes. You know, so both of these news, we just ended up with more information from
34:07
people literally than we knew what to do with.
34:10
So we decided to spin them out into new newsletters and see if we could get them to
34:14
pay for themselves to substantiate themselves.
34:17
You know? And if they can't, then they're going to go away. But they're
34:20
still. So it's a great kind of a great model. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
34:23
Donna J. Jodhan: They're still here. Tell us.
34:24
Aaron Di Blasi: Well, that is true. AI-Weekly, big thanks to Mind Vault,
34:29
because AI-Weekly really wouldn't be here if it weren't for Mind Vault. Mind Vault has a
34:32
lot of belief in the future success of that newsletter,
34:35
because we have the least sponsors there currently.
34:38
I just think it's simply because we need the big boys.
34:41
We need the Google(s), we need the Apple(s), we need the OpenAI(s),
34:43
you know, and a lot of the people that are building the smaller products don't have the
34:46
budget to support a newsletter like that, you know?
34:50
But they just we just took the split where it happened,
34:53
you know, where basically we let readers guide us. And as the information was coming
34:56
in, they were saying, Aaron, you know, we like Top Tech Tidbits for
34:59
assistive technology, but you got this legal stuff in there. You
35:01
got this medical stuff in there. Could you get that out of there, please? And we went,
35:05
okay, Access Information News, here we come.
35:07
So now access information news is legal.
35:09
Great medical breakthroughs.
35:10
You know, opinion editorials, you know, so they can get that other side.
35:14
You know, that's not just here's how you access a file in Dropbox using JAWS,
35:18
you know, kind of thing. And that's where top Tech Tidbits stays and does its thing.
35:22
Now AI-Weekly started to do the same thing there.
35:24
There is a fair amount of assistive technology specific AI news each week,
35:29
and I think it's wonderful. And I think we cover it better than anyone else in the world
35:33
today, frankly. But there's a lot of other AI news that is not assistive technology.
35:38
I, in a way, see AI as being completely assistive technology related no matter what,
35:44
because I just see it as doing so much for both blind people,
35:47
deaf people, neurodivergent people. It's amazing what it can do.
35:51
So I kind of see it as the be all, end all, of accessibility,
35:55
personally. So that's why I was very excited to start AI-Weekly.
35:58
I mean, obviously I'm an engineer.
36:00
I have been doing AI since it was called statistical inference.
36:04
If anyone out there knows what that means, that was AI before people called it AI.
36:08
So yeah, very exciting stuff.
36:11
I love AI weekly and I hope to see it grow.
36:13
I hope we get some of the big boys on there eventually.
36:15
Donna J. Jodhan: I think it will grow and I'm I'm hoping for that.
36:19
Aaron Di Blasi: I get very good feedback on it every day.
36:21
We just, you know, sponsors are what we need. Feedback is wonderful. But sponsors are what
36:25
keep the doors open.
36:27
Donna J. Jodhan: So AT-Newswire is a press release news distribution service built just for
36:36
access technology. What specific pain point does it serve for companies
36:46
and journalists?
36:49
Aaron Di Blasi: Wow, that's a great question as well. AT-Newswire came about because we began
36:54
receiving a lot of press releases from different agencies,
36:57
different organizations, different companies. And even though they
37:00
were definitely AT and access related, there was no specific place on the internet
37:06
to put out a press release that would be guaranteed to reach an audience that was
37:11
access specific. That kind of troubled us a little bit.
37:15
Yeah, we were like, you know, that's well, I'm gonna go hit a million
37:17
people, but how many of them actually have disabilities? And they would say, we don't
37:20
know.
37:20
Donna J. Jodhan: Yeah.
37:20
Aaron Di Blasi: Yeah. Well that's not helpful.
37:22
So I said, let's build something to address that. I mean, we have 142,000 people.
37:26
I believe currently that you and I reach with our partners and our networks.
37:30
And I said, let's, you know, let's give people a piece of that.
37:33
And so we did.
37:35
Donna J. Jodhan: I think it's just terrific.
37:36
I you know, I really think it gives.
37:38
You know, people like me, the opportunity to go out there from time to
37:41
time and, and promote my my, my projects and my initiatives with these
37:46
projects.
37:46
Aaron Di Blasi: I thank you for that. What I think is important for people to know, I know you know
37:49
this, but I'm going to say this for the benefit of listeners. Putting your a press
37:53
release out, you say, well, I put my press releases up on our
37:55
website. Everyone does that. Everyone says that it's great to do.
37:58
By all means, continue doing so.
37:59
But what that does not do is deliver your message to a specific audience.
38:03
And that's what AT-Newswire will do, is, in addition to it living elsewhere on the
38:08
web, which is great for your SEO.
38:09
It'll also be sent to 142,000 people who almost certainly have a disability of some
38:14
sort. So if that is important to you, then that can be far more valuable than any
38:19
EIN Presswire or, you know, $1,000 press release.
38:22
And that's the other thing is they charge a phenomenal amount for their press releases.
38:25
Donna J. Jodhan: Oh yeah.
38:25
Aaron Di Blasi: Yeah they do. And ours, I think are like 50 bucks a piece, something
38:28
like that, you know. So they're much smaller. You reach a smaller audience but a much more
38:31
targeted audience. So I think it's a much better spend personally.
38:34
Donna J. Jodhan: How is it working? Tell us.
38:36
Aaron Di Blasi: Fantastically. I think it's wonderful.
38:38
It's not a business in itself.
38:40
It's. But it. And we didn't intend for it to be really.
38:43
It's a very it has very low overhead.
38:46
So it just does for the community what it needs to do,
38:48
which is basically boost the SEO of all accessibility related press releases,
38:52
at least for those that use it.
38:55
And it's doing a wonderful job at that.
38:57
We have the numbers to prove it.
38:58
Yeah.
38:59
Donna J. Jodhan: And I'm going to be talking to you about some press releases. I want to.
39:02
Aaron Di Blasi: Go. That sounds great.
39:04
You do really well with them Donna, you really do.
39:05
Donna J. Jodhan: Oh, gosh. So you recently partnered with Pneuma Solutions on Title II Today
39:15
to cover upcoming US accessibility regulations.
39:21
Where do you see state and local government most at risk of falling behind?
39:32
Aaron Di Blasi: I think the overwhelming consensus is on legacy documentation probably I think is the
39:39
biggest pain point for people.
39:42
And that is obviously one of the things that Pneuma Solutions provides.
39:46
So that is one of the reasons that they created the newsletter is they not they want
39:49
people to be aware of the deadlines which are approaching or have passed and when they have
39:54
passed, and what that means for you and how you can correct it.
39:57
And then they even go so far as to offer as a service the software that you need to correct
40:02
said problem. So here at Tidbits and Access Information News we very much believe in that
40:07
approach. You are marketing.
40:08
Sure. But you're offering a solution.
40:11
Okay, so here's a free newsletter and here's what you can do to solve these problems.
40:15
And we're going to keep you informed about the problems that you're going to be
40:18
encountering.
40:19
Donna J. Jodhan: Right.
40:20
Aaron Di Blasi: Yeah. So I thought it was a great fit. And I love Mike Calvo at Pneuma Solutions.
40:24
He has supported Top Tech Tidbits, Access Information News since day one.
40:29
He's been a fantastic partner.
40:31
And that's why I was really happy when he tapped me to to publish Title II Today.
40:39
Donna J. Jodhan: I'm not sure if I have anything else to ask you,
40:42
but I'd like you to tell us something that you are especially working on.
40:49
That you want to. Sure.
40:50
Tell us.
40:51
Aaron Di Blasi: Sure.
40:52
Donna J. Jodhan: Go for it.
40:53
Aaron Di Blasi: Oh, God. Do I want to say this on a podcast?
40:55
Okay. Yes I do. We have been tossing back and forth.
41:00
Well, Donna, you'll know about this, but the listeners may not.
41:03
We've been tossing back and forth for a very long time redoing the Top Tech Tidbits
41:06
website. Right. So I haven't wanted to say it on the air.
41:10
I've not said it on the air. So that means we're going to have to do it. Yeah. Which is
41:13
fine. We've been deciding how to do it.
41:16
Some people wanted to do a GoFundMe and get the community to pay for it and the whole.
41:19
And I just don't like asking the community for money.
41:22
I would prefer to ask the businesses and organizations that make their money directly
41:27
from the disability community to pay for it.
41:31
I think those are the people, frankly, that should be paying for it. And I
41:34
don't mean nonprofits.
41:35
I don't mean people like Hadley.
41:36
You know, I don't mean creators like Sam Seavey.
41:39
You know, The Blind Life. You know, these are people that we promote for free
41:41
because they are literally creating the content that disability people need.
41:46
Haben Girma is another one, yourself included.
41:49
Yeah. You know, so that we anything that helps the community for free.
41:52
We will publish for free.
41:54
But if you are secretly trying to sell something to the disability community,
41:59
then we would prefer that you sponsor or advertise.
42:02
You know that you show those people that you care about them enough to put $2,400 of your
42:07
budget forth a year to give them something that they need.
42:11
You know, especially in this time when no one else is really helping us.
42:14
In fact, they're doing quite the opposite. They're trying to tear down what we're
42:17
building. So I think it's especially important right now.
42:21
So as far as Top Tech Tidbits, we're going to do our best in the next I
42:25
would say six months, maybe by the end of the year to have Top Tech
42:27
Tidbits with a brand new website.
42:29
And the benefit of this is more for sponsors than I think it is for readers because the
42:34
current website is incredibly accessible. You know, it was built with blind people in mind
42:37
from the ground up. I coded it myself, so I know.
42:41
But this new website, obviously, we're going to begin building with
42:43
WordPress. It's still going to be remediated. It's still going to be accessible. There's
42:46
not going to be any issues, but it will be more visually appealing.
42:50
It will have greater SEO.
42:52
All of this will benefit sponsors a great deal who care more about reaching the
42:56
disability community. Whereas excuse me, readers just care more about getting their
43:00
news every week, which will not stop. That will really not change.
43:03
Donna J. Jodhan: Right? Right right right.
43:05
So you handle everything from editing to syndication,
43:11
my Remarkable World Commentary Podcast, and our wider podcast family.
43:20
Could you walk listeners through that workflow and the mounting touches that keep
43:30
audiences engaged?
43:33
Aaron Di Blasi: Sure. Let's let's give.
43:34
Let's give that a try.
43:35
Here we are recording a podcast.
43:37
Everyone. This is the Remarkable World Commentary Podcast,
43:40
as an example. So when Donna and I are finished with this podcast,
43:43
which we are currently recording over Zoom with video off so that we can increase our
43:48
audio bandwidth. Yeah, just tip for everybody there.
43:51
I will go into Zoom via her cloud account and I will pull that recording down.
43:56
That recording will present itself as an MP4 file generally.
44:01
We will take that into Adobe Audition and we'll clean it up, because sometimes there's
44:04
stuff in the beginning, like you and I were talking before the
44:06
podcast or stuff at the end.
44:07
Hi. Thank you. Go home.
44:09
And we chop those off, and then we put in your specific audio
44:12
because you have a podcast commentator who introduces you and says what you do and put
44:17
that at the beginning. We put that at the end and we fade those two portions into the
44:21
dialogue. We then clean it, take all of the noise as much as we can out
44:26
of the back that the software will let us to do, and we output a beautiful and pristine
44:29
MP3 file. Once we have that MP3 file, we then send it to a program called Sonix.ai,
44:36
which transcribes it. Now we had we used to use Otter.ai.
44:40
If you're using Otter out there, get away from them as fast as you can.
44:43
Use Sonix. They're amazing.
44:46
The issue with Otter was it did not identify speakers.
44:49
It did not capitalize.
44:50
It just gave you basically a bulk of text that does not look good for visual people.
44:55
So we want visual people to be able to read the transcript as well.
44:58
So Sonics gives speakers, it gives formatting,
45:01
it capitalizes sentences. It's very readable.
45:03
And that makes the SEO of the transcript even more important to places like Google etc.
45:09
So, transcripts are incredibly important. Yeah.
45:11
So so we do the transcript and then once the transcript comes out generally now today what
45:15
we'll do is we'll feed the transcript into ChatGPT and ask it to generate a summary for
45:19
us so that we can have a summary at the top of the,
45:21
you know, today. Donna interviews Aaron Di Blasi of Mind Vault Solutions.
45:25
And it starts that way, you know, but then the transcript is
45:27
underneath so that you can read it now. Generally in the accessibility community,
45:30
that transcript is incredibly important because of accessibility uses.
45:34
But what we have to remember is everything that's good for accessibility is also good
45:38
for SEO. So everything we're talking about today,
45:42
once we post this transcript will now become part of the internet.
45:45
And when people look up Donna or they look up Aaron,
45:48
they're going to come across everything that you and I have talked about today.
45:51
Donna J. Jodhan: But how long does this process take?
45:54
Like from the minute we're done with the podcast to when you post it,
45:58
how long?
45:59
Aaron Di Blasi: It all varies because obviously podcasts vary in length.
46:02
Okay. So it could be an hour long podcast, or it could be a half hour long podcast, so
46:06
that that obviously makes a big difference. Other things are how bad is the audio?
46:10
Is the person really, really, really low?
46:12
Is it like minus three?
46:14
And so now what I have to do is one person's minus three. One person is plus ten.
46:18
So there's no way with software to really normalize that.
46:21
Well so we have to go through and basically pick up your voice in every single section
46:25
individually, so that can take quite a long time.
46:28
Over an hour long podcast.
46:30
Or there's pops or snaps, or maybe there's some sound in the background
46:33
of people who are working outside.
46:35
You know, we try to get that. So it really depends on how much. Not often,
46:38
but sometimes we have to put that extra work in there.
46:41
An hour long. Let's see. I'm trying to give an idea of time.
46:43
Podcast Commentator: Maybe.
46:45
Aaron Di Blasi: 30 to 45 minutes to do an hour long podcast to get it to MP3.
46:49
Donna J. Jodhan: Wow, that's pretty fast.
46:52
Aaron Di Blasi: Hey, that's not bad, right?
46:53
But that's only one part of the process. Now you've got to go to transcript. And now
46:55
you've got to clean the transcript because the transcript doesn't come out perfect. You
46:59
know, you have to identify the speakers, put their names in, make sure of
47:02
capitalization, it keeps calling you Donna Jordan, and you're Donna Jodhan, so we keep
47:05
having to fix that. You know, so you fix up the transcript and you get a
47:08
great transcript out. You then feed the transcript in you get a summary of that
47:11
transcript that you can then use. But again, you're not done.
47:14
You've just prepared everything for posting.
47:17
Now it has to be posted. So now we have to take that MP3 and put it on Libsyn.
47:20
Libsyn is your platform of choice.
47:22
Once we put it on Libsyn, describe it, put the transcript in,
47:25
put the description in and press publish.
47:28
It then goes out to Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
47:30
Amazon, iHeart Radio all at once.
47:33
Yeah, it does all of that for us when we post it to Libsyn now.
47:36
We take that link that we got from Libsyn, and now we have to go ahead and schedule you
47:40
across all the social media networks, right?
47:42
Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon any of the other ones I'm not thinking of,
47:47
but we use a software called Hootsuite, which allows us to connect all of your social
47:51
media accounts at once, and it saves a little bit of time.
47:55
Not a lot, but a little bit of time in allowing us to do multiple scheduled posts
47:59
for whenever you want. Let's say you want it to go out on four different dates to 19
48:02
different channels. So we would set all that up,
48:05
set up all the dates, and then schedule it to all 19 channels.
48:08
And then the final step is to take all of that information,
48:10
put it into a media release notification, and send it to you,
48:13
the client, to let you know where all of your information has been posted.
48:18
Donna J. Jodhan: Oh my lord, just listening.
48:20
Aaron Di Blasi: To and then you just rinse and repeat.
48:22
Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.
48:26
Yeah. And that's that's the digital marketing world today at least.
48:29
Donna J. Jodhan: And I can tell from your voice that you truly enjoy everything that you do.
48:34
Aaron Di Blasi: I do, I absolutely do.
48:36
Yes. That's what made me leave Penton Media. And I loved what I did down there.
48:40
It just wasn't my way. And we all want our way.
48:43
You know, so I now have that.
48:44
And I couldn't be happier. And I think it allows me to help people when I'm happier.
48:50
Donna J. Jodhan: Now, you helped to sketch the business model for my new Access Park marketplace.
48:59
What strategic advice would you give to entrepreneurs who want to build inclusive
49:07
platforms from day one?
49:10
Aaron Di Blasi: Call us. That's what I would say.
49:13
No, no. Very seriously.
49:15
Access Park was an amazing idea.
49:17
I will also, in this same conversation mention Vision Tech Academy,
49:20
which I don't know if you're going to bring up or not. These two projects were passion
49:25
projects for you. I know basically Donna was frustrated at the state of e-commerce.
49:29
This was again about a year ago, long before Innosearch came into the picture,
49:34
which is the current leader, I would say in accessible shopping. Long
49:37
before AI came around, we kind of finished Access Park just as AI
49:40
was coming onto the scene.
49:42
Donna J. Jodhan: Right.
49:43
Aaron Di Blasi: Right. And at the time before AI the best way that you could provide accessibility was
49:48
through people who had known accessible Shopify templates that you would use,
49:53
and they would give you guaranteed level of compliance,
49:56
etc. and that was wonderful.
49:58
So we went ahead and we built this for Donna,
49:59
and we were getting ready to put products in it. And then well,
50:02
AI happened, and Innosearch happened.
50:05
And Innosearch does a wonderful job at what they do.
50:09
And I know that you're talking with them and they're talking with you. I just think it's
50:13
evolution. Donna, we were at the right place at the right time.
50:16
It just didn't move much faster than we expected.
50:18
You know, so today, I think Access Park looks a little antiquated just by current
50:23
standards. You know, it's not that we don't have plans to,
50:26
you know, upgrade that.
50:28
But that's how fast it happens.
50:29
And what was that six months a year.
50:31
Donna J. Jodhan: Yeah. I was caught off guard.
50:32
You know, like I was oh my God.
50:34
Aaron Di Blasi: So so.
50:35
Donna J. Jodhan: Was I.
50:35
Aaron Di Blasi: So was I, but you did it for the time. You did an absolute wonderful job. Vision Tech
50:39
Academy on the other hand I think will stand the test of time because that's a simple
50:42
connection tool to get people to find teachers of assistive technologies.
50:47
Donna J. Jodhan: And we did it all in memory of the late John Panarese.
50:50
We did indeed. Yes, we did.
50:52
Aaron Di Blasi: Rest in peace John.
50:54
Donna J. Jodhan: Rest in peace. Now, having served both startup and fortune 500 suppliers,
51:02
what persistent misconceptions about digital accessibility still frustrate you?
51:12
Aaron Di Blasi: Oh boy. Oh well, there's a lot of those.
51:14
Accessibility is the number one, I think for everyone.
51:16
Obviously we're frustrated by it as much as you because for us,
51:20
our clients want SEO, they want results.
51:23
And when we can't get what you call accessibility,
51:26
our clients can't get results. So it's the same thing for us.
51:29
And it frustrates us that people do not understand what accessibility means.
51:34
I think more deeply people don't care.
51:37
And I'm just going to be honest. And it's mostly people without a disability that don't
51:40
care. I have not yet met a person with a disability that doesn't care.
51:45
So we try to educate as much as we can.
51:48
It used to frustrate me.
51:49
It used to make me very angry.
51:50
But that does nothing to change the world.
51:52
Unfortunately, as you have learned and I have learned, so I now try to educate as much as I
51:57
can, you know, whether they want to hear it or they don't. I try to get on a podcast and
52:01
tell people about kidney stones and tell them how they can fix them.
52:04
And, you know, it's just about getting out there and sharing that information.
52:07
If more people did that, you know, if you have something,
52:10
you know, that you think would be really valuable to someone else, get on a podcast
52:13
and talk about it. Get that transcript out there so that AI can pick it up and maybe
52:18
help someone in Singapore who has a kidney stone.
52:22
Donna J. Jodhan: So where is the balance between, you know, like expectation and I wouldn't say
52:28
failure, but setback. Where is the balance?
52:32
If I may ask that question.
52:34
Aaron Di Blasi: For me, for me personally is in my mental state.
52:38
And my happiness when that starts to take a toll is when I start to get negative results.
52:44
And that goes right back to why I left, you know,
52:47
the big corporate scene in 2004.
52:49
I personally as an individual, as a neurodivergent individual,
52:53
which I know that I am, I process things better alone.
52:56
I still collaborate with other people. I love to, as you know.
52:59
You know, you and I collaborate quite often, but I work best on my creative side alone.
53:05
And that's just something that I've come to grips with even after, you know, people
53:08
telling me my entire life, Aaron, you've got to get out. You know, you
53:10
need to meet more people.
53:12
I'm perfectly satisfied.
53:13
And I think a lot of other people are, too. And I just want them to know that it's
53:16
okay. If you feel healthy, then you're doing fine.
53:21
Donna J. Jodhan: I think a lot of people don't quite understand that.
53:23
I think I do because I operate in the same way.
53:27
Yes. You know, I think it's very.
53:29
Aaron Di Blasi: I think the only way people can know is for someone else to say it,
53:32
someone else to tell them that it's okay, you know,
53:36
that it's okay to be in a state that makes you happy,
53:40
a state that makes you productive, and that if you are not happy and you are not
53:43
productive, you are not in the right place no matter what,
53:47
no matter how wonderful it is. And I loved my job downtown.
53:49
I loved those people. I love them to this day,
53:52
I miss them, but it was just not the place for me.
53:55
Donna J. Jodhan: Yeah. So we're starting to run out of time.
53:58
And I wanted to ask you this question.
54:01
Your project management professional toolkit seems like a superpower.
54:08
But how has PMP discipline helped you juggle simultaneous
54:17
newsletters, deadlines, client launches like mine,
54:24
and your own? I research a mouthful.
54:30
Aaron Di Blasi: I, I I'll be honest, I could not have done it without this framework,
54:35
without some of the frameworks they give you. And I will without getting overly technical.
54:39
A lot of people in PMP believe strongly in the agile framework.
54:42
I do love the agile framework, but I will say there are places I have found
54:46
where it breaks down. So I would say that you need the PMP framework as a beginning because
54:53
you really just can't.
54:54
There's no way to manage the complexity without the frameworks that they give you.
54:58
But once you start using those frameworks for any decent amount of time,
55:02
maybe a year or two, your business is going to begin to customize and find ways that are
55:07
more beneficial outside of those frameworks. So I would just say to people,
55:10
don't be afraid to leave the Bible, so to speak,
55:13
as people call it in PMP.
55:15
It's the Bible and it is.
55:16
But there's times when you should leave it. There's times when you've outgrown it. And I
55:19
think that is the greatest advancement that I have learned is that you at some point have
55:23
to create your own frameworks.
55:25
You have to create your own way of seeing your business,
55:28
because that's the only way you're going to get to the heart of it.
55:31
You know, PMP certification will get you there. The frameworks and the guidelines will
55:34
get you started. But if you really want to succeed,
55:37
you're going to have to come up with your own.
55:39
Donna J. Jodhan: You know, I agree with that. You know, sometimes you got to leave,
55:42
you know, the landscape that is most familiar or that you have been taught and you say,
55:47
you know what?
55:48
Aaron Di Blasi: It's painful. It's hard.
55:50
Donna J. Jodhan: It is hard.
55:51
Aaron Di Blasi: It's scary. Scary. More than anything, I was horrified when I left.
55:54
I was I think I was horrified for probably 2 or 3 years after I left,
55:57
frankly. Yeah. Until you get to the point where you know you're going to be able to
56:01
stand on your own two feet, pay your rent, you know,
56:04
I I don't think you're comfortable.
56:06
Donna J. Jodhan: And feed the dogs.
56:07
Aaron Di Blasi: And feed the dogs. Yes.
56:09
Shout out to Rebecca and Dolores Biscuit.
56:12
Donna J. Jodhan: I only learned their names a few days ago.
56:17
Aaron Di Blasi: Indeed, indeed.
56:19
Donna J. Jodhan: Well, you've answered all of my questions.
56:22
Aaron Di Blasi: I think we've gotten through quite a few.
56:24
Donna J. Jodhan: Yeah. We have. Oh, really?
56:26
Aaron Di Blasi: It's been fun.
56:28
Donna J. Jodhan: Well, this has been a very educational interview,
56:30
and I think our listeners are going to enjoy listening to this.
56:34
Aaron Di Blasi: I hope so. I love to give nuggets to people, and I would not want to get on your podcast
56:38
and leave without giving people something really special that might help them.
56:43
Donna J. Jodhan: I think it will. And I encourage people to listen to this.
56:46
Aaron Di Blasi: So thank.
56:47
Donna J. Jodhan: You. Aaron, thank you so much for not not just having this podcast interview with me,
56:54
but for your friendship.
56:56
You, you you know, your patience with me at times,
56:59
Miss Donna, he says.
57:01
Aaron Di Blasi: Oh my God. Likewise, Donna and I require patience as well.
57:04
I what I see as friendship is not anything.
57:07
Friendship is patience. Yes.
57:08
Donna J. Jodhan: Well, whenever I see a note that begins with Miss Donna,
57:11
I think, oh oh, here it comes.
57:14
Aaron Di Blasi: Well, we've got 13 years of that, so it's hard to shake.
57:17
You know, it's like. Yes, sir and no, sir. I still say it from martial
57:20
arts. I can't shake it.
57:21
Yeah.
57:22
Donna J. Jodhan: So thank you very much for this podcast.
57:26
Aaron Di Blasi: Wonderful.
57:27
Donna J. Jodhan: Thank you very much. And we will continue on.
57:31
Aaron Di Blasi: Sounds great. Thank you again, my friend.
57:33
Okay. Yeah. All right.
57:34
Donna J. Jodhan: Bye bye. Bye bye.
57:39
Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at donnajodhan@gmail.com.
57:45
Until next time.