Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #87: Interview with Blake Steinecke, Product Marketer, Public Speaker, Inclusive AI, Blind Athlete

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Remarkable World Commentary Episode #87: Interview with Blake Steinecke, Product Marketer, Public Speaker, Inclusive AI, Blind Athlete · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

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Podcast Commentator: Greetings, Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP and MBA invites you to listen to
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her biweekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary.
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Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts,
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insights, perspectives, and more with her listeners.
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Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids,
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especially kids with disabilities.
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Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach,
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dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur,
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law graduate, and podcast commentator.
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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,
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she just wants to make things better than possible.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Remarkable World Commentary.
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I'm Donna J. Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate and one who sees the world mainly
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through sound touch and stubborn tech optimism.
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I am a law graduate, accessibility consultant,
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author, lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind.
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You may know me from a few headline moments, as in November 2010,
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I won the landmark charter case that forced the Canadian government to make its websites
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accessible to every Canadian, not just a site in ones.
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And in July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen
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disability groups to turn equal access into federal law,
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and most recently, in June of 2022, I was greatly 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 a committee room or in a pottery studio,
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you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss,
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producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their
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gadgets talk back in plain language.
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Everything I do circles one goal to turn accessibility from an afterthought into
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everyday practice. I invite you to think of this show as our work,
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our shared workbench where policy meets lived experience and lived experience,
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sparks fresh ideas. Now, before we jump into today's conversation,
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let me shine a spotlight on today's guest change maker whose work is every bit as
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remarkable as the world that we are trying to build.
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Blake Steinecke, welcome to my podcast, and I'm looking forward to the next hour with
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you.
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Blake Steinecke: Thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Great. So let's get started.
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Welcome to the show. And you grew up in San Marcos,
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California, with full vision.
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And then at age 16, right before your junior year of high school,
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everything changed. Please take us back to that moment when you first noticed the
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blurriness in your right eye.
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And please walk our listeners through what happened next.
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Blake Steinecke: Absolutely. So I grew up with perfect vision.
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And during the summer before my junior year of high school,
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I noticed a very slight vision loss in one eye.
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I thought nothing of it, but just in case.
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Wanted to go to the doctor.
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Right. And they noticed something was wrong and had to do more tests.
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And over the course of a few months with more doctor's appointments,
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all sorts of tests. My vision in one eye got worse,
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but they said it'll probably go away.
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So I thought, you know, it's probably fine until I did end up getting
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a diagnosis. It test did come back positive.
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Which is called leber's hereditary optic neuropathy or Lhon.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Yeah.
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Blake Steinecke: And in that moment, I knew I would become legally blind and lose my central vision.
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But as a 16 year old in high school.
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I had no idea what that meant.
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I was quickly flooded with lots of questions,
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of doubt, of how could I keep up in high school?
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How could I go to college as an athlete?
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How could I play sports?
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Could I be in a relationship?
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Could I get married, have a family? All these questions came flooding through my head.
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That I would then have to face as vision loss ended up happening in the other eye.
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A couple months later and progressed worse as I continued to navigate through those things.
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But it was definitely a emotional and journey and also very logistical,
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practical thing to, to navigate while simultaneously going through high school and
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into college.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: And I guess at age 16, my goodness, what a terrible year to pick
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for, for this to happen, right?
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Blake Steinecke: Yeah, it's, there's, there's never an ideal time.
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And I'm thankful for the childhood and life I had with horrific vision.
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And it's a crazy time to adjust to vision loss,
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but it also allowed me to evaluate and set up my adult life,
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knowing or knowing what I would be dealing with in adapting for it,
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which I think was very helpful in ways.
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Although it would have been nice to hit a pause button on certain areas of life.
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Take more time to adjust.
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It's. Sometimes you drink from the fire hose and figure it out as you go.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Oh gosh. Now, when the doctors confirmed your diagnosis of Leber's hereditary
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optic neuropathy. Well you know, my goodness,
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I hope I pronounced this right.
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Lou hon, and told you that there was no cure and that you were going to lose your central
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vision permanently. How did you process this as a teenager?
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What was going through your mind about your future?
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Blake Steinecke: Yeah, there's definitely a lot going through my mind and a lot of doubts and
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uncertainties. But I also think just a lot of shock too.
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You don't really have a framework for how to process these things,
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as you never expect something like that to happen,
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especially at a young age.
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Screen Reader: And notification from outlook.
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Blake Steinecke: I think there's definitely elements of getting the illusion of control that we think
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we have over our lives, taken away from us, and realizing that there
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is.
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Screen Reader: Notification from.
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Blake Steinecke: A very thin veil between ability and disability or even life and death.
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Not that this was a a deadly situation, but at all.
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It's more so felt like a death to my independence.
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As I, you know, I mentioned those questions a doubt before.
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Like I thought my independence was done.
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I thought that just a lot of this life would not be very fun,
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exciting at all, as there's a lot of subconscious stereotypes I had towards
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disability that I then had to put on my on my self.
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And I think it was really valuable and important to have friends,
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family and church community around me that could help me just process remind me of the
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hope that I do have in these hard times.
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Navigate knowing how to find joy amidst it.
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But it was definitely very challenging.
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And it takes years of processing, accepting.
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And it's also just, I'm, to this day, in ways processing that news as
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going through visual loss is something I, I, you,
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you never arrive. It's always a new area of life to navigate it.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: I can just imagine. I mean, I am legally blind,
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but to have this happen to you at that, you know,
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at such an age, age 16, I think, my goodness,
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I, I. Now you are to wrap it.
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Sorry you had to rapidly learn assistive technology.
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Screen readers keyboard shortcuts essentially to rebuild how you interacted with the world
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while still being a high school student.
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What was that learning curve like for you, and what do you wish that someone had told
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you at the start of that journey?
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Blake Steinecke: Yeah, I would definitely say it was a steep learning curve,
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but I don't even know if that does it justice.
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I started out just by, you know, I needed a new phone.
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And so I got an iPhone knowing that Apple products were more accessible and just
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messing around with the Magnification features Siri.
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Starting to use VoiceOver more, and I also got a Mac desktop for the similar
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reasons, but then when it came to school, I.
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During my senior year, I met for an hour every day with a teacher
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for the visually impaired while classmates of mine were getting out of school early with a
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free period, I was staying and learning.
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I did learn Braille. I don't use it much, but I was learning how to use jaws
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magnification tools. And a lot of it was really self-taught or having support in the
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self-taught process as my teachers for visually impaired were so tremendously
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helpful and supportive, but they didn't have other students using
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jaws in this context or it's also just if you don't use it yourself,
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it can be hard to, to teach as well as a lot of the websites or programs I needed to use,
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like weren't very accessible at all.
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And a, yeah, that's like a whole other conversation,
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but it would be a lot of just taking way longer on assignments,
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learning how to get my teachers to send me materials ahead of time.
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It was super vulnerable and nerve wracking to bring out my Refreshable Braille display,
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a different type of laptop.
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Probably the biggest thing was like my CCTV magnifier.
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Like all these things are very embarrassing, just vulnerable to bring out in class when no
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one else is using it. And you can just definitely be insecure about it.
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So there's definitely a social aspect to it.
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And also a homework takes longer late nights trying to just like look up and figure out
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better tools to use. So it was really hard.
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And But something I. I work hard at and I think something I wish I knew is
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I was told at the start is like technology is probably the most important skill to learn.
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I remember being told like learning to advocate is one of my biggest goals,
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which I think that is going to take the top of the list.
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But in terms of like just other tangible skills in what will take me the furthest will
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be technology. And also maybe even on top of that too is it's,
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it's a technical thing to learn, but it's probably even more an emotional
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journey of something to figure out.
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It's humbling when doing these incredibly rudimentary typing lessons where I'm like,
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what, what am I doing here?
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Learning this basic, like kids typing program.
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And then you're like, oh, because I'm so frustrated trying to
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memorize all these shortcut keys and so on.
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And you learn how there's accessibility barriers and it's all incredibly frustrating
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and can be very emotional.
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And so I think like having that heads up at the start would be super duper valuable.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You know, just listening to you, Blake.
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I, I, I'm sort of having visions of this teenager being hit with so many things from
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so many directions and having the will to do it and not give up.
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You know, I, I sure admire how far you've come and what you've done.
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I mean, like, I, I don't know what else to say,
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but, you know, I guess it's like for me, it's an analogy to swimming in the ocean and
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you have big waves coming at you, you know, that there are sharks out there,
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you know that they're not too many people around you.
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You can't swim very well.
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I mean, oh my gosh. Oh, Lordy.
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Blake Steinecke: Yeah. Living in San Diego by the beach.
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That's quite an analogy.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Yeah. Yeah.
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Blake Steinecke: But but I would add on to that too.
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I think what motivated me a lot at the start was trying to act like the sighted version of
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Blake while simultaneously trying to prove people wrong.
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And I think that got me far, but was really grounded in insecurity and
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fear as well. And I, it was like, it did get a good outcome of like having me
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quickly adapt. And yes, there was like lots of good motivators of
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like, I value working hard and I think of myself as a curious,
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adaptable person. But I think there were those motivators there,
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as well as I give such huge, tremendous credit to the people around me
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family, friends, teachers that when I thought I should lower the bar,
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they were like holding it where it should be.
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And that was like such a big influence and something I'll probably share more on later.
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But just wanted, wanted to give a little more context there.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Despite everything that you were dealing with,
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you graduated high school with a GPA of about above 4.0.
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Then you went on to earn your Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Cal
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State San Marcos with a 3.7 7GPA, which is a cum laude,
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I'm a first semester early.
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As someone who fought for accessible education through the courts.
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I have to ask you, Blake, what were the biggest barriers that you faced
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in the classroom and how did you push through them?
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Blake Steinecke: Totally. I could spend such a long time talking about this,
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but I would say digital accessibility barriers were were one of the biggest
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barriers. And I think that shows up tangibly in a software that I had to use that wasn't
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accessible with my screen reader.
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But at a higher level, just like the, the systems of navigating
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working with the disability support service office to get my accommodations and tests
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scheduled with them for having a longer time or a reader and working with the IT
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department to get my course materials converted and with my professors to make sure
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I got the materials I need from them.
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And there's probably all sorts of other people in that process.
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It's really hard as a student with a disability to have that part time job added
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on. I'll call it. And a story.
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I could give an example too, of some of these barriers I faced were there
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was one class that I submitted the first assignment and I got a 50% on it and
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realized, oh, like this requires a lot of formatting that I was missing and just
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accessing the textbook with jaws.
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And it was a hard class, very stringent grading.
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And then the first test comes around and I set the curve on the multiple choice.
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And there's this dilemma of I like know the content,
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but I couldn't access part of the assignment.
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So I got a bad grade. And then I learned, okay,
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I need to get my this textbook on a PDF.
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I need to go so I can zoom in and see the formatting better on my computer or,
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and I need to go to my professor's office hours.
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And then the next assignment, I got 77%.
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Last assignment, I got 100%.
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So it goes to show that it's not like my intelligence that's severe.
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It's the tools and accessing things that can be the barrier and those can be adapted to
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meet my intelligence. I'll call it extra work.
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And it's hard when there's things like that that could impact your performance.
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Or there was two classes I, I got season because I never could get the
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online homework in program to work with my screen reader.
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And this in more recent years, like they've there's more requirements to
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where you have to have like accessible software for all students.
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But if you don't have that in place, it'll have a big impact on grades,
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performance and all other things.
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So lots of work arounds, lots of again, late nights trying to figure
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out best tech setup that I could use for driving at school.
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And then another conversation is then navigating my disability,
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my technology when doing internships and jobs while in college.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You know, Blake, just listening to you here, I'm,
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I'm thinking, you know, you must have gotten a lot of motivation from
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having graduated one term early, right?
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You knew that you had the guts to keep on going.
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You knew that you had the intelligence and you did keep on going.
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You know, and a lot of what you're talking about here,
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I think still exists with with any blind or visually impaired student going through
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university. But it's it's amazing that you have managed to weather all of these storms
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and look at where you are today.
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Blake Steinecke: So yeah. Thank you.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You're very welcome. And I mean it, I mean, like,
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as someone myself who in my own way has had to go through a lot of hoops to get where
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I've wanted to go. I sure admire anyone like yourself who,
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you know, you came from something unexpected that happened to you.
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And my gosh, I don't know what else to say.
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Yeah. Occlusive. You went from a contract marketing consultant to an accessibility
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manager to growth manager, and you She achieved a 200% increase in
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marketing qualified leads.
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Exclusive is an E learning platform.
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That that is tackling the roughly 70% unemployment rate among working age blind
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individuals. Individuals.
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Tell us about that mission and how was that marketing work?
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Directly supported it.
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Blake Steinecke: Totally. So my background has been across marketing and accessibility roles,
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and I started after school doing a software sales role.
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I did a marketing role for a mountain biking gear company.
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I started a YouTube channel about assistive technology and did some accessibility testing
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contract roles, which was able to help me pivot to into this role that I had an
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exclusive, and it was a great experience where I got to bring together my marketing
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and accessibility background and get to work for a mission that I'm very passionate about,
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especially around education, as we have been discussing,
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is an area I feel strongly about for accessibility.
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And marketing was a very cool place that I was able to help further that mission.
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And we just reached the blind community through marketing.
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Marketing isn't always an area that you hear about in accessibility conversations outside
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of maybe content accessibility and make marketing things accessible.
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But when it comes to mission driven startups and organizations like inclusive,
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it's really at the core of how are you at the core of the success of the business of how
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are you reaching your customers, telling the story,
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growing the mission. And so I think it was neat to be in that role that is uniquely
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cross-functional. Especially when it comes to like communicating the product,
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being able to have lived experience and understanding of it is really valuable.
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As you have to be tactful of how do you speak to the community and just effectively go
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about your marketing there.
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So that's just like a little bit of how that role was.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: I will tell you, Blake, I am, I am not very good at marketing and
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thank God for Aaron, who we both know very well.
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I, I try to stay away from marketing, but marketing is a part of our daily lives,
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isn't it?
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Blake Steinecke: Totally. It's what you're doing on this podcast right now.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: That that's true. You know, when you think about it,
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every little thing you do is marketing, right?
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Blake Steinecke: Yes, absolutely. I think it's a helpful reframe,
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like looking at so much of your life experience.
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It's been about influencing, making change, telling stories,
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advocating. And that's like so much about like what marketing is about.
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But sometimes we can think marketing is just advertising or something,
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but it's, it's a lot more than that.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Absolutely. Now, one thing that stands out in your career is your unique experience,
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not just in your lived experience.
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You sit at the intersection of product marketing,
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communication, and accessibility in a way that very few people in this industry do do.
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How do you see that combination of skills making a difference for the companies and
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communities that you work with?
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Blake Steinecke: Yeah, it's been a unique combo that I've stumbled into,
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and I think something that really jumps out at the crossroads of a lot of that experience
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is the value of communication in this space.
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From one of some of my first roles in accessibility really emphasized that whether
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it was at fable, doing user interviews and usability testing was all about communicating
26:41
and explaining my experience or with doing testing with the Blind Institute of
26:47
Technology. Mike has always talked about bringing examples and it's all about how you
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can best communicate things.
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But if we zoom out more looking at marketing a lot.
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There's so many people in organizations that have these amazing missions.
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And they, these, the work that they're doing is,
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at the end of the day, it can only be good as the people they reach
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or are only as good as those who know about it.
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And so and it's also a field that can be difficult to communicate it,
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and it has to be made understandable to people.
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And that is all something that marketing can play a role in.
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We could also look at it at the angle of marketing is what can help drive leads and
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revenue and grow the business.
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And there's so many people that are in accessibility because of the,
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the value that they're passionate about it.
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And that it's also there's also this angle that businesses need to grow and to thrive
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and to make money. We're not, we're not just in it for the money.
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But you need to be able to drive business growth if we want to make a difference within
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all these organizations were involved in.
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Hopefully that that makes sense that I'm trying to communicate there. But it just,
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I guess it just goes back to like, how are you driving business value
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accessibility? This could be a conversation of a accessibility services company that's
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trying to get clients.
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It could be, how are you communicating the value of accessibility internally in a large
28:30
company? Lots of different angles to look at it.
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It also can be a very abstract or challenging area to figure out.
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And there are playbooks in ways, but there's also I would highly recommend
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having like a growth marketing or a like scientist mindset in terms of run the
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scientific method, test things, see what works it,
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evaluate the results and adjust accordingly.
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And that's just like one of the most valuable ways of looking at it.
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But accessibility, as so many people talk about,
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it's it's not one person's job, and it requires the effort across teams and
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all sorts of people and marketing and communications at a higher level.
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It's able to work cross-functionally to bring people together to make things
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understandable, more understandable to more audiences,
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which I feel like makes it such a powerful driver of success for accessibility and
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disability inclusion.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You know, a lot of people, and I am I am one of those,
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you know, we sometimes fail to really understand the science of marketing.
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There's a definite science to it, a different philosophy to it and a very,
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you know, a successful person is one who listens to what the market wants,
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not what you want to give to the market.
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Blake Steinecke: Right? Yeah, that's a super good point.
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And I think it's I'm trying to think I'd explain this like there's the,
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the problem and, or the solution that you can communicate to people,
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right? And sometimes in accessibility, we can communicate just a solution or just
30:28
the problem. And contextually those two things are very different depending on the
30:35
audience, the person. And I think we really have to get more obsessed with the problem
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to, to create better solutions.
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That's where we could maybe see issues if maybe an able bodied person or a sighted
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person is, is making a sighted solution for a blind person.
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If I, if I may use some of those terminologies,
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but I think truly understanding the problem, knowing how to speak to that problem And then
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allows you to, to more properly, like bring in a solution.
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Hopefully that makes sense. I can try to give more examples,
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but just kind of spoke to me with, with your response there.
31:14
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: I think my philosophy is for every problem, there is a solution.
31:20
And former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has always said,
31:25
you got to make it better than possible.
31:28
And for me, that philosophy continues to work.
31:32
Now, you have presented at the season Assessing Assistive Technology Conference.
31:41
Okay. The largest event of its kind in the world.
31:47
In 2024, you presented your session focused on how to reach the blind
31:57
community through marketing.
32:00
This something that I am very, very passionate about as well.
32:07
What do you think are the biggest mistakes companies make when trying to market to
32:13
people who are blind or visually impaired, and what should they be doing instead?
32:24
Blake Steinecke: Yeah, I'll split this between companies that specifically are trying to target the blind
32:31
community, like in assistive technology company,
32:33
for example, and then maybe just more broadly,
32:37
tech companies or any company that's not accessibility first.
32:42
I'll call it if we go more on the like assistive tech route.
32:51
I think that this, it just can be so challenging to figure out reaching the blind
32:57
community And there are so many different like marketing tactics you can do.
33:06
And I think that there's an opportunity for companies to be a bit scrappier with how they
33:12
go about their marketing to reach the blind community.
33:16
There's a big challenge of you can't just like run Facebook or YouTube,
33:24
Google ads that target screen reader users or people who are blind.
33:30
It's, it's not a thing.
33:33
You can do things such as place advertisements within a podcast email
33:40
newsletters, YouTube channels, collaborate on content PR to collaborate with
33:46
these audiences that are already curated and targeting the blind community is like one
33:52
angle of where you kind of have to be scrappy and also connects to the point of being very
33:58
community driven. Since it's hard to find these audiences,
34:02
you have to work hard to build and own your audience.
34:05
Yes, this is a lot harder and takes a longer term play.
34:09
But building your audience, building your email list,
34:11
creating community virtually or even in person is super duper valuable.
34:18
Those are like a couple marketing tactics I see.
34:22
But zooming out a little more, I think it's a,
34:28
a market research challenge or opportunity of,
34:33
you know, there, unfortunately, there's plenty of assistive technology
34:37
companies that we see come and go.
34:40
And sometimes, you know, we can get the pattern recognition and see,
34:45
I don't think this company will last.
34:48
And there could be various reasons for it.
34:51
But I think it goes back to the market research point of No,
34:54
there's there's a blind community want this, need this.
34:58
Can they afford it? Is there maybe another app or service that already does this well
35:03
enough? Like what? What is the value of it?
35:06
I think like asking those questions and understanding before going to market is super
35:11
valuable. And then also like continually having that like feedback looped back into
35:18
your product development. So you're continuously improving. And at the end of the
35:22
day, if you develop a good product, you're going to be able to leverage word of
35:27
mouth which as we know, is the biggest thing for getting word out in
35:32
the blind community. So those are a couple like challenges,
35:35
opportunities I see for assistive tech companies.
35:39
And looking at just bigger non accessibility first companies.
35:46
I think, yeah, there's one angle, there's various angles of this conversation.
35:53
One is recognizing, excuse me, people who are blind or have disabilities.
35:58
They're they're out there.
36:00
There's more than you think. And they want to buy your stuff,
36:03
but they won't buy your stuff if it's not accessible.
36:06
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Right.
36:07
Blake Steinecke: If you are doing this great work to make things accessible,
36:09
like please, please, please talk about it, people,
36:13
we want to know about it.
36:15
And then, you know, there's a right and a wrong way of going about it.
36:19
So if you are figuring this stuff out, like hire people with disabilities and
36:24
incorporate them into the process for how you're going about these things.
36:29
I think about like a big example, but Apple has done so much to improve the
36:35
accessibility of their products.
36:37
I, there's representation in some of the media they put out I think about the song
36:43
remarkable. They recently put out and, you know,
36:47
I've bought so much money, I, I bought some,
36:50
I bought so much Apple, so many Apple products,
36:53
spent a lot of money, and then I turned into an Apple Advocate to
36:56
my friends and family.
36:58
Because if a person who's blind finds something they like,
37:01
they want to tell people about it.
37:03
So there's like a, a referral effect that you have.
37:07
So I think if you are making things accessible.
37:11
Talk, talk about it, do storytelling around it create resources that will,
37:18
you know, whether it's like a screen reader guide tutorials,
37:21
I think is super valuable and speaks super strongly to people like me that want to know
37:28
how my technology may work with it.
37:31
And I would also look at getting involved with any of the blindness organizations in
37:37
your area just to start learning, partnering,
37:39
sponsoring, supporting just to get to support the work they're doing and see how you can
37:45
align your brand with theirs as Collaboration is key in this space.
37:52
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: I think a lot of companies could be guilty of not being patient enough when it comes to
38:00
understanding what accessibility means, why it is important,
38:04
and how to move forward with it.
38:07
And you have other companies who pretend to be maybe the word pretend is a very abrasive
38:14
word, but, you know, they come out here and say,
38:17
well, you know, we are experts in accessibility.
38:20
And at the end of the day, they're not really they're not really
38:23
experts. You know, we deal with all this.
38:27
Yeah.
38:28
Blake Steinecke: I totally it's hard. And I think that's where.
38:33
You know, I think some of what I was saying could be taken multiple ways.
38:39
When I say like talk and show what you're doing,
38:43
I think it's don't just like talk the talk like walk the walk.
38:48
And can you give us examples of where you're walking the walk?
38:51
Right. If your product isn't there and accessible,
38:54
like then don't worry about how you are marketing to the blind community and beyond.
39:01
It's, it's an internal conversation.
39:04
But please do like the market research part of like understanding the community's.
39:10
Screen Reader: Needs.
39:11
Blake Steinecke: When developing those products.
39:14
And that will always then be feeding into the communications later on and how you're then
39:19
reaching that community.
39:21
But we want to hear more clearly from the people that are actually walking the walk.
39:26
And people will flock towards that if you aren't,
39:30
it's not like a, a jab, but just know where you're at in the process
39:34
and areas to improve. And we're all here to celebrate the progress.
39:39
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Well said. Now the clock is starting to turn,
39:44
you know, wind down on me.
39:45
But here comes a very favorite question of mine,
39:49
because I think we're both very passionate about hockey.
39:52
I'll tell you a little bit about me.
39:55
I played on a mixed team of girls and boys or men and women,
40:00
but my career lasted just three games because on the third game,
40:05
I was belted right across the rink by a big guy,
40:10
and I when I got up, I said, you know what, Donna?
40:13
It's time to leave. So you are a forward on the United States blind hockey team,
40:23
and you have been representing your country for more than seven years.
40:31
I understand that you initially dismissed the idea of blind hockey when you first heard
40:39
about it. What changed your mind and what has the sport given you that you did not expect?
40:51
Blake Steinecke: So I grew up playing multiple sports.
40:54
Roller hockey was one of them.
40:56
And when I heard about blind hockey, I was skeptical.
41:01
I thought it was slow, boring, that people were probably weird,
41:05
and I didn't want to do it.
41:08
But there was an event that wasn't far for me to travel to.
41:13
And so I went to it. I checked it out.
41:16
And so I could more accurately assess it.
41:19
And I remember just going into the locker room and realizing,
41:23
wait a second, like these people are just like me.
41:26
This is like any other hockey, hockey locker room.
41:29
And playing the game, I realized these were the adjustments I
41:33
needed. But felt like the same game I was used to.
41:37
And just quickly fell in love.
41:39
And I joke with people that half the reason I play blind hockey is just for the community.
41:46
I would argue that that percentage is higher than that.
41:50
In all honesty, because really the biggest thing,
41:53
I think it gave me a community that raised the bar for what I thought I could do after
41:58
my vision loss in a time where I was trying to lower it.
42:02
And it also gave me an environment where I could learn how to adapt and overcome
42:09
adjusting to my vision in an area that was fun.
42:12
So that I could apply that mindset.
42:14
I was learning into areas that weren't as fun or more challenging,
42:18
or kind of going back to some of the more vulnerable challenges I was sharing earlier.
42:22
So I'm so thankful for that community.
42:26
It's brought me the mindset that it's shaped.
42:30
And yes, it's fun to, but those other things are so much more
42:33
important. And I have a lot of conversations like this that will revolve around hockey.
42:38
And I'm so glad to get to share on all the other things we covered.
42:42
Because hockey is what has fed into all those other areas that are so much bigger,
42:49
more important, more challenging.
42:51
In all honesty. So that's a bit of my journey with hockey.
42:56
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: And I think, you know, like getting into hockey has certainly,
42:59
you know, like enhanced and expanded your mind,
43:03
your experiences, your confidence, my goodness,
43:07
you know, and you received a formal proclamation from the San Diego County Board
43:15
of Supervisors recognizing your advocacy for inclusion and accessibility.
43:25
You have spoken at K through 12 schools at your alma mater business college
43:36
and accessibility training.
43:39
When you stand in front of a room full of students,
43:45
full of students or professionals and share your story,
43:50
what is the one thing that you most want them to walk away?
43:56
Understanding about? Blindness is all about.
44:00
And what is possible.
44:05
Blake Steinecke: One of the things that jumps out across a lot of presentations is to seek to understand.
44:12
I think that it's a high level philosophy of mine that has come from my lived experience,
44:19
where I have navigated a lot of being misunderstood and deeply desiring to be
44:25
understood. So I think on a personal level yeah,
44:30
seeking to understand upon, on top of that, like,
44:34
I think it's, it's being curious.
44:36
And asking good questions.
44:39
I think questions are the are, are the bridge that travels across
44:46
misunderstanding to understanding.
44:49
And when it comes to things professionally of how do you approach accessibility?
44:54
How do you make products that are accessible and inclusive?
44:58
I think it starts with seeking to understand the experiences,
45:02
the challenges, the life of people with disabilities.
45:05
And it's a never ending journey of seeking to understand the problems and trying to
45:12
understand affect effective solutions.
45:15
So I think this is something that is both personally practical professionally impact so
45:21
many areas of accessibility and really can just create a lot of strong connection and
45:29
just innovations and solutions in these areas.
45:34
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: And my final question, Blake, what's next for Blake?
45:39
Where are you going? What are your hopes and dreams?
45:44
Blake Steinecke: Totally. Yeah, it's, first of all, it's crazy to reflect on all that has
45:50
happened in my life. And, you know, I'm still young,
45:54
and I couldn't imagine what all that already has happened in spite of so many doubts.
46:00
To have the things that I have doubted is, is very powerful.
46:05
But what's next for me?
46:06
I just started a new role as a digital accessibility lead at ServiceNow,
46:12
and I'm excited to grow at my career professionally within a larger tech company
46:18
and experience what that's like and apply a lot of the experience that I've gained so
46:24
far. And in the future, we will see what all happens,
46:29
but excited to just continue to grow as a husband,
46:33
as a dad of a nine month old and figuring out life beyond that.
46:41
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You know, I think our future is brighter just listening to you.
46:47
You are one of our leaders for the future, for now and for the future.
46:51
I, I have a lot of hope in you.
46:54
I have high dreams for you.
46:55
I've never met you. And I hope that one day I do get to meet you.
47:00
Blake Steinecke: Absolutely.
47:01
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Well, congratulations, Blake, on all that you've done,
47:04
all that you've accomplished.
47:05
It's not been easy. And, you know, a husband,
47:09
a dad. Now you have the opportunity to help shape the future of your little one,
47:15
right?
47:17
Blake Steinecke: Totally.
47:18
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Yeah. So I want to thank you for having taken the time to be on our Remarkable World
47:24
Commentary podcast. And if you know you want to contact me offline,
47:29
please do not hesitate.
47:31
In the meantime, thank you again for having given us this interview.
47:37
I think it's an inspiration for anyone who may be sitting there saying,
47:42
well, I'm not sure. I don't know where to go or whatever.
47:47
You're it, you've done it and you're doing it.
47:49
So congratulations again and thank you again.
47:55
Blake Steinecke: Of course, I appreciate the opportunity, Donna.
47:57
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Okay. We will talk offline.
48:00
And you have a good rest of the day and good luck with your new job.
48:05
Blake Steinecke: Thanks. Have a great day, Donna.
48:07
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Okay. Thank you. Now, bye bye.
48:10
Blake Steinecke: Bye bye.
48:13
Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at donnajodhan@gmail.com.
48:20
Until next time.