Latest / Blind Guys Chat / #141: Meet the brother

Transcript

#141: Meet the brother · Blind Guys Chat

• 0:00
  Foreign.
• 0:13
  Welcome to blind guys chat, where oren emile.
• 0:17
  Hello.
• 0:17
  Jan bloom. Hello. And mohammed lashear.
• 0:21
  Hi there.
• 0:22
  Talk about the a to z of life.
• 0:30
  Hello, ladies and gentlemen. And you are very welcome to episode 141 of Blind Guys Chat. Thank you very much for listening in.
• 0:39
  Yo.
• 0:40
  Now, a bit of nepotism going on here today.
• 0:43
  Light.
• 0:43
  Light nepotism.
• 0:46
  Yeah.
• 0:46
  Well, your definition of light and our definition of light are, you know, two different.
• 0:52
  My definition is what counts, not yours.
• 0:56
  Now, come on.
• 0:58
  Well, we. We'll be talking to your brother later on and he might. A few little secrets about yourself. But the good. The good news is since we had Professor John Sweeney on the last time, while it has been raining, it has eased a bit and we haven't had any major flooding since, except for the huge flood Trumpy. My Trumpy pants. Who has basically thrown all emissions out the window.
• 1:24
  Yeah.
• 1:25
  Can you imagine? Yeah, he throw. You're back in 71. That is really the same.
• 1:31
  Yeah. Buy as much oil as you can and get as much coal for the fire as you want. Yeah. And don't worry about emissions. That's basically what he said.
• 1:40
  And did you hear this Rubio talk in Munich? You know that he was a little
• 1:45
  bit, you know, he was a little bit more diplomatic.
• 1:47
  Yeah, the same. Same story. Yeah. Because you, you, you, you. You know, we like to do it together, but if you don't follow our rules, then we do it on our own. Yeah. Can you imagine what is. Wow.
• 2:03
  And.
• 2:04
  And you know those.
• 2:05
  Those stupid European politics, politicians, they say.
• 2:09
  Oh, really?
• 2:10
  They changed.
• 2:11
  Oh, really? Oh, they are so good.
• 2:14
  They are not good at all. Come on, what is it for?
• 2:17
  It's all theater. It's theater.
• 2:19
  Yeah, it's really. We need your brother. We need your brother.
• 2:22
  All right, well, I have decided to take over this podcast now. And I brought in a guest.
• 2:27
  Haven't done this already?
• 2:29
  Oh, come on.
• 2:30
  Don't take.
• 2:32
  Go there. Don't go there. I've decided to take over this podcast because I've got a great, great guest. Some light nepotism, I thought wouldn't hurt anyone, so. Hello, Iheb, my little brother. Welcome to the Blind Guys Chat.
• 2:47
  Welcome.
• 2:47
  Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Nepotism.
• 2:50
  Yeah, Normal trouble. Hey, you can see.
• 2:53
  Exactly. It's not so bad.
• 2:55
  Yeah. But we might be replacing a member of the team on the. On the show.
• 2:59
  Yeah.
• 3:01
  Sooner or later.
• 3:03
  Presenting gig.
• 3:05
  Oren, why did you say that where Jan could hear you?
• 3:12
  Chef, they are treating me badly. Come on. Yeah, no, that's all right.
• 3:20
  You're very welcome to the show.
• 3:23
  Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
• 3:25
  Thanks for having me.
• 3:26
  Where are you? Are you. Do you have such a big house already or what?
• 3:31
  Yeah, my house is the entire Reuters island campus. No, I'm. Right now I'm at the. Yeah, no, I shouldn't say that out loud because then they think I'm going to occupy the building and then they're going to completely lose their shit.
• 3:45
  Oh, yeah.
• 3:46
  I'm currently in the university campus, the University of Amsterdam, where I am studying. So that's why you might hear some background noise. Yeah, had a lot of things to do, so I stayed a bit longer than I was originally planning to.
• 4:01
  But yeah, that's how I'm studying.
• 4:04
  Yeah.
• 4:05
  Are you studying or are you just going to college?
• 4:07
  No, I'm studying. Yeah. Well. Ouch. Damn college people. I study political science right now. I finished. Yeah, I finished a degree in economics and business, but it didn't really suit my personality. So then I did graduate it, but I decided to do a second one in politics because it fits my personality a lot better.
• 4:30
  Okay.
• 4:31
  Yeah. So in the family, we're making a joke that he first learned about money and now he's learning about stealing.
• 4:37
  Ah.
• 4:38
  Why are.
• 4:38
  That's a matching thing.
• 4:39
  Before you know it, he's good. Exactly. He's going to be rich.
• 4:42
  And then we have one programming guy and he learns about hacking. And then we've got a complete team.
• 4:49
  Exactly.
• 4:50
  Okay, that's good. So how many years to go? Yep. For this latest. The last study.
• 4:56
  Hopefully one, if things go according to plan. I only have my thesis left and a few courses, and I hope to graduate them all next year. And then I have two degrees, if everything works out.
• 5:08
  Yeah, and your ambition is then to go also to visit Munich, you know, next time. Where all the world leaders, politicians, etc. Come together. Yeah, exactly.
• 5:19
  And then I'll swing my cane around and hit them all upside the head until they have some sense left. Yes, that's the plan. That's the plan.
• 5:27
  Okay, so with two degrees, that must mean that higher ed is very accessible, right?
• 5:33
  Yeah, higher education. I don't know if you guys saw it, but there was an item by casa, a few, like maybe it's a
• 5:40
  TV program for those who are not Dutch.
• 5:43
  For those who are not aware, CASA is a TV program and they made an item about the accessibility, or lack thereof, of higher education people. For people with a visual disability, specifically. And I'm talking about digital accessibility, because apparently it's a shit show for Example exam facilities, they can be all over the place. Sometimes you get PDFs, but PDFs that have been scanned so well, you guys all know what happens then. You have to kind of try to OCR it, but you don't have Internet, which means that you're basically screwed. Sometimes you don't get the exam at all. And the word documents just plain missing. I had this one time where someone in administration decided, oh, you know what, you have to make your exam in onsdelf now. Because normally I always make it in Word, but they decided, oh, now you have to make it in this online environment that every other student uses. Unfortunately, they kind of forgot to test the accessibility of said environment. And I didn't have access to any of my documents, not the exams, not the additional materials. So they kind of had to scrape together my exam on the spur of the moment. And I had to sit in the exam room for an hour waiting for my exam to be done, which was really, really bad.
• 7:02
  This is why everybody else is doing their exam.
• 7:06
  Yeah. Yes, I guess at that moment. Exactly. Everyone else was doing their exam.
• 7:10
  Yeah. And I was waiting for my exam to be made on the spot because they decided that they wanted me to use a different environment that they hadn't tested.
• 7:19
  Had they never heard of you? Did they. Did they not know you would be taking this exam at some point?
• 7:24
  Yeah, listen, at that point, I've been in uni since 2017, like, at least seven years. If they didn't know I existed at that point, I don't know what else I could have done.
• 7:35
  And what was their response to that then? Yep.
• 7:38
  Well, they never asked me to use my exam to do my exam in Ans Delft again, that's for sure. They basically just went back to Word as if nothing else happened.
• 7:46
  I'm just thinking about you sitting in an exam hall and you're waiting for people to make the exam accessible to you. You're already stressed out, I would imagine, with the exam itself. And now you have to wait longer because the university hasn't taken accessibility into consideration. How did that make you feel like when that was happening?
• 8:14
  Mostly annoyed, to be honest. I am thankfully not someone who stresses fast. I just got annoyed by it because I knew exactly what went on there. As Mo said, there's probably some person in middle management who was like, you know what? Everybody has to be equal and everybody has to be equal. Everybody has to make the same thing in the same systems in the same. The same environment. And they just didn't think their policy through and they just, you know, forced everybody else to go along with their idea. So I knew exactly. I've been walking around here long enough that I know exactly what went on there. And I was. When I was sitting there, I was mostly just kind of resigned to it and waiting, well, for things to unfold. If they made my exam, great, I would just make it. And if they didn't make my exam, I would make a complaint or do something else to address the issue.
• 9:09
  But it makes you already preparing for a good politician in a way, you know, because you need to handle with those situations in that way.
• 9:17
  Yeah, you need to stay calm. Like you need to be ready to. Yeah. To go with the flow and to go with whatever situation you're in. But at the same time you also need to make sure that people don't walk all over you. So if they make bad decision, they also need to take responsibility for that decision. And if they don't, well, then you need to hold them accountable, whatever means possible.
• 9:38
  I think it's really indicative also of the attitude that is pervasive, I think, all throughout education. But it's probably even slightly worse in higher ed, especially university in some places where, you know, most people would rather you just don't show up because they think it's easier on them. Yeah. And I think you've. I think you've dealt with that quite a bit. So have I, by the way. But I think almost anyone who's blind or has some other disability has dealt with this, this kind of situation. Tell me about the, the time or tell us about the time when you were part of the student council and this came up with directors. Yeah.
• 10:23
  Yes. So I was, to give some context, some background information, I was a member of the Central student council in 2023, 24, which is kind of an elected body and it represents student interests and it's supposed to be a counterweight to the executive board of the university. Democratically elected. And you have some tools which I'm not going to go into now because it's complicated, but as part of that, I was a member of a committee that advises the rector of the university on education related matters. At some point. Yeah, at some point we were talking about accessibility for people with disabilities. And you have to imagine it's this room full of people in leadership positions, so educational directors, deans and director kind of heading it. So it's a room full of people with responsibility. And yeah, we were talking about accessibility and specifically online education. And I was making the point that there's a difference between people who don't want to come to campus and people who can't come to campus because of medical reasons. So it was specifically about mandatory attendance. And I was making a point that, you know, if someone can't come to campus, like physically can't at this moment because they're in the hospital or because they have other extenuating circumstances, that just makes it really hard to go, then obviously that's a completely different story than someone who just, you know, doesn't want to come because they drank too much last night or whatever other reason. There should be a big difference between those two. And one person didn't really want to hear it. And he got more and more frustrated. It was the Dean of pple, which is like a program here at the University of Amsterdam. It's like politics, psychology, law and economics. You know, one of those like fancy programs where they pay double tuition, where the princess studies and they have a sparkling water tap for whatever reason in
• 12:16
  their own little water tap.
• 12:18
  Yes, if there's ever a waste of money, that's a great example. But yeah, they have their own little building behind the card reader. And yeah, it's very exclusive. Yes, very exclusive. And at some point, like I was talking to this guy, well, basically the discussion was between me and him at that point and his true feelings started coming out. And at some point he basically said, oh yeah, if people have trouble coming to campus or they can't come to campus because of their disability, they don't belong at my program. Which is. Yes, which is plain old discrimination. It's basically against Article 1 of the Constitution. And I was the only person who said something about it. I told him, listen, you know, like, if you want to facilitate something but you don't know how or you don't have the means, you don't have the expertise, we are always more than willing to help from like a central level, from either the student council or the workers council. But if you want to say that, oh, people aren't welcome at my program or don't belong with my program, that's basically against Article 1 of the Constitution and we're simply not going to stand for it. And then he shut up for the rest of the meeting. But the fact that I had to point this out like it's a very simple thing. The fact that I had to point it out as like a 26 year old student in a room full of other people who are supposed to be in leadership and who are supposed to know better, who are supposed to take the Lead when things go out of hand.
• 13:39
  It's really shameful and it really does show how far we have to go. Yet, like, there's so much that we achieved already with all the laws going into effect. Like we talked about the ea, there's the ada, there's all sorts of things that help us in this regard. There's, of course, the equality clause in the constitution and I suppose, or there's something similar in Ireland. But it's very difficult to fight these kinds of fights where you have to deal with someone who just does not. Does not want to hear it or does not care. And I'm pretty sure he would never have said it if there was a TV camera there, but when he felt safe enough, he was willing to say it. Even to someone who is blind themselves. It's interesting and I think it's sometimes good also to get a bit of a reality check. And of course, we all know. We all know the difficulties. We all run into it. But yeah, this. This stuff is still going on even now.
• 14:40
  Sure.
• 14:40
  Okay.
• 14:41
  Oh, yeah. Room for. For improvement, I would say. Yep. So.
• 14:45
  Yeah, most definitely.
• 14:47
  Yeah. Okay.
• 14:48
  Most definitely.
• 14:49
  How many. How many disabled people are at university in Amsterdam?
• 14:53
  Oh, I don't know. Like, it's also how broadly you want to interpret it because it's.
• 14:57
  Yeah.
• 14:58
  People with physical disabilities, of course. And you have people.
• 15:01
  Okay, yeah, that's true. Yeah.
• 15:02
  Yeah.
• 15:02
  So depending on visually impaired.
• 15:04
  How many officially impaired people are dead
• 15:07
  that I know of? Like, three, four others, but there's probably more that I simply don't know.
• 15:14
  And, and is the university responsible for. For the. AT related assistance, for example, do they provide. Yeah. Is there a. Are the computers connected with. With assisted technology, JAWS or Fusion or.
• 15:30
  Nope. No, no, no.
• 15:33
  Nope.
• 15:33
  You have to make your. You have to bring your own laptop. You have to bring your own.
• 15:37
  Okay.
• 15:37
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. None of the university laptops or computers, none of them have tts, which is weird because at Goldsmiths they did. Like, I went on exchange to London from September to December and all the. They basically had an assistant assistive technology center, like, with. Where all the computers had assistive technology. Now I never used it because I have my own laptop with it.
• 15:58
  Yeah.
• 15:58
  But I could. Which is kind of the point.
• 16:01
  And here.
• 16:02
  Yeah. Well, not so much in some of the colleges here they provide. Can provide people to take notes and lectures on your behalf and that. That doesn't exist either.
• 16:13
  Nope, doesn't exist.
• 16:14
  Okay.
• 16:18
  Hey, Mo, how was it in your days? Was it also. Did you study at the same university or Another one?
• 16:24
  No, no, I studied in Delft.
• 16:26
  What did you do there?
• 16:28
  Clown school? Well, I learned. I learned to, you know, I learned to impersonate this guy called Oren. I got very good at it, but since that time I've not done it as often, so I forgot most of it anyway. School that was in Delft, it wasn't much better. Essentially what you have to be is you have to be a politician and basically build relationships with the teacher. If you manage to do that and the teacher likes you, you can get quite a lot done. If you don't be prepared for bureaucratic hell because then you have to go through the student advisor and that can take a while. You have to go there and they check on your progress and you have to be there every week and it's all sorts of nonsense just to get some accommodations. That totally makes sense. So I tried to avoid the student advisor as much as possible and just build great relationship with teachers. Didn't always work, but usually it did and that made my life a lot easier. But yeah, basically you have to know how to deal with people and how to just approach people and ask for things that you needed. I think at some point they were classing something. You were asking for a reasonable accommodation as extra stuttering. Yeah, right.
• 17:51
  So as I told you, I used to do economics and business before I switched to politics. And well, EBE has a lot of graphs, a lot of diagrams, T3 diagrams and all of that nonsense. And in the exercises they can be replaced quite easily with tables or other methods. But in a lecture it's a bit different. So if you're sitting in the room and the teacher's being like, oh yeah, as you can see here, you have the green and the red line. Well, you can't see it there. So yeah, it's kind of useless. So at some point I was like, well, you know, can you like I went to study. Yeah, yeah, well, I, I tried asking the teachers that, but they of course forget after the first time, you know, like you tell them and then maybe they do it once and they forget again. That's always how it goes because it's just not in their system. It's not like they do that on purpose, but it's not in their system. And at some point I went to the study advisor and I was like, hey, I have this issue, you know, I'm following these lectures, but they're really, really visual and the explanation, explanations just don't make sense to me because I don't see the screen. So is it possible for someone to come to me after the lecture. I don't care if it's a teacher or student assistant, to explain to me what was happening on the screen, you know, so I could actually follow the explanations that were being made.
• 19:10
  Yeah.
• 19:10
  And they were like, oh, no, that's considered tutoring. You don't get it. Normal students don't get it. So you don't get it either. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of.
• 19:19
  It's ridiculous.
• 19:20
  And it took me, like, three years, and I had to go all the way to the dean of the faculty to get this addressed.
• 19:25
  It is really annoying, I would say. Or more than annoying in that way, I think.
• 19:30
  I think it made me an activist, though. I used to be someone who, like, really docilely follows the rules, you know, like, oh, yeah, I'm only supposed to talk to this person. Or like, you know, I'm only supposed to do it that way. But then at some point, I walked into a wall so many times that, you know, my head just got really thick and I was like, you know what? The system, if it doesn't work well, I'll find my own way.
• 19:51
  Yeah, exactly. But it's really not. Yeah, they. They create you in a way to be very.
• 19:59
  Yeah, you have to. Yeah, you become your own. You become your own blunt instrument, essentially, just knocking down walls because you have to. So it's interesting, right? The activist in you woke up, which is pretty cool. And it made you, I think, also build up this rapport with sighted people. There's two kinds of blind folks, I think, especially, that are socially active. There's those that primarily focus on other blind people and talking to other blind people and helping other blind people. And then there are those that are focused mostly on the sighted world. And I think Ehab is one of those that is mostly focused on the sighted world, communicating to the sighted world, showing up in the sighted world, and trying to change people's minds. And I wonder, what are the strategies you're using to do that? Yeah, well.
• 20:56
  Well, I think that the biggest issue when it comes to. Personally, what I think is the biggest issue when it comes to the lack of accessibility is awareness and a very weird way of thinking when it comes to people with disabilities.
• 21:10
  Right.
• 21:10
  They think of you as, oh, this poor blind person. Oh, you can't do anything. You know, so. And that leads to a lot of issues like the. The unwear. Like the lack of awareness leads to. To problems with physical accessibility and stuff like that. But the other side of it, like the really. Oh, this poor blind person leads to the social side, like being excluded, being treated as well as if you're not there, or as if you're like an object that needs help. Not like a person, but an object. So to tackle that, what you need to do is first create awareness. So be there, be in the space and claim the space. Like, hey, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Which means that you have to create accommodation so that systems function and the other side of things. So to show that life can be found, that life can be any way you want, it is to just do everything and show that you're doing everything. So that can be running, bouldering. I've started bouldering, skiing, skydiving. Lambert the Bow also did that. Skydiving. And going out, going, like, into clubs, going into cafes, like traveling on your own to different cities. And then not only doing those things, but showcasing that you're doing it right. Like, creating content about it, showing it to the outside world. And like, basically in a don't talk but, like, don't tell, but show way, like, create awareness amongst people. So that's how. That's my strategy. That's my strategy.
• 22:46
  How do you expose yourself?
• 22:48
  Well, I hope he doesn't expose himself.
• 22:51
  Sorry.
• 22:55
  Yes.
• 22:55
  Or that's exactly what I do. I undress myself and I just. Yes, yes. And then I just. Exactly. And then I just swing the cane everywhere and just destroy everything. Yeah, no, yes. Joking aside, I do have TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, my own Patreon blog, YouTube, all that. And then I just make content and basically post it everywhere. And then slowly but surely kind of build community.
• 23:26
  Yeah.
• 23:26
  And do you have a lot of followers or response to it?
• 23:29
  I think it's getting started. Like, people really like it. I mean, the people who have seen it so far, my following count is not that big. I think on Instagram it's 1300. Facebook, it's about 3000. On Patreon, it's 600. And on YouTube, it's also about 600. Okay, so like, let's say on average a thousand. It may be cross platform, like. Like unique individual. Maybe 2000, 3000 if I count all the platforms together. But then again, I also have. Haven't been doing it for very long. I've started, like in May of last year, so not even a year.
• 24:06
  So what kind of things do you put up on the. On the YouTube? Because the thing about Instagram for me is I've always kept away from it because it's video.
• 24:16
  It is video.
• 24:17
  So how do you get around that.
• 24:20
  So what I always do is I bought a 360 camera, which I just strapped to my body, and that thing just films everything around me so that I don't have to bother pointing it at something. We're trying to get the filming correct. I just. Yeah, I just have it and it does this thing and I don't have to bother with it. And then I either ask someone to do the editing for me or use AI to do it, but I prefer to ask someone because they do a better job of it.
• 24:44
  The thing I find remarkable about Ehab is the way he responded to it, which is basically to take what he found, take what happened to him, and starting to do something about it, however small it seems in the beginning. But these things are always snowballs.
• 25:01
  What has been the reaction so far from the followers on YouTube and Instagram, particularly those who are visually impaired or completely blind?
• 25:09
  I think the young people and especially the activists really like it. You know, like, the people who are kind of out there and, like, active, I don't know, like, have an active life, they like what I'm doing. The rest, I think, kind of doesn't care. Like, the one time I tried sharing it, you know, like, you know, we have WhatsApp groups for different things. People are mostly active on Facebook and WhatsApp. People are either indifferent or they're like, yeah, why are you sharing this? And like, okay, whatever. So for me, I don't know, like, sometimes it feels like some part of our community just doesn't want to wake up. And I only. And I decided to focus on those who want to wake up because those are the people who I can work with and do something with. And the people who don't want to wake up, well, I can't force them to. So I can. I can, yeah, I can only share what I'm doing and hope that they follow, and otherwise I'll leave them alone and they can do whatever they want.
• 26:08
  Because you've. You're doing this and. And you're studying political science at the moment. Are you thinking about a career in politics?
• 26:18
  Yeah, I'm thinking about it. Like, I'm thinking about being a candidate, like, being on one of the lists, either local or national. But I've also decided that I. If I do this, I want to do it properly. So I would only accept the offer if it was like, some. A position that's possible to be elected. So if someone puts me in on a position in the list that's basically guaranteed to not be elected, I Won't accept it. And that's because we have a lot of like, tokens, especially on the left side of our political spectrum, which is to say they want people with disabilities on their list so they can show, oh, look at us being inclusive.
• 26:58
  Yeah.
• 26:59
  Without actually following through. And I, I always, I've always had a lot of critique on that topic and being like, hey, that's not okay. You know, like, if you want, if you're talking about inclusivity, you should really create like inclusive representation. And then I don't want to be part of the problem by, you know, by kind of giving it a mandate. So I've decided that I did try for the municipality elections, but I got a position offered to me that was basically guaranteed to not.
• 27:26
  Yeah.
• 27:27
  Be anywhere. Yeah. Be anywhere actually, in the council, in the municipality council. So I declined it. And basically that's going to be my strategy. It's going to be building my own community, like on Instagram, YouTube, as I just explain everything everywhere. And at the same time, whenever there's elections, try to get on a list so I can actually start representing. But at the same time on my own terms, like, I'm not going to rush it. I'm not going to accept something I'm not comfortable with or I don't think would be morally acceptable.
• 27:59
  One person I know of there was
• 28:01
  also
• 28:03
  a blind guy, Sonder Terapuis. Do you know him? Have you heard his name? Oh, he is. He. He lives now in Utrecht and he was a candidate for the trade Kammer here in Netherlands for the pay video. And he was. But he was not elected, I think. But, but he has a funny story because he is a refugee out of Iran. He stated after the Paralympics in 90 something in Assan.
• 28:28
  Oh, him. Yeah, I. I've heard about him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:32
  So it's, it's a funny thing that
• 28:35
  in Iran they call their people Sunder.
• 28:38
  Yeah. He transformed. He married to a nice lady out of Friesland. So,
• 28:47
  yeah, I mean, to be fair, to be fair, like you do have unfortunately a bigger chance, like with the Dutch sounding name in the job market and everything. Yeah. Systematic.
• 28:59
  Well, hopefully we will hear you, Ehab. Then in the future, you know. Yeah. That you're standing up, you know. Yeah. Being an activist or whatever or a politician would be good.
• 29:09
  Well, when you're prime minister, you should come back.
• 29:11
  Oh yeah, yeah, of course. Yes.
• 29:14
  Yeah.
• 29:16
  Then it's a blind politician's chat. I'll get you guys to be my ministers.
• 29:24
  Oh, yeah.
• 29:25
  Yes, yes.
• 29:27
  Because then it's Already one. One European Community, you know.
• 29:30
  Exactly, exactly.
• 29:32
  Yeah.
• 29:32
  Then. Then we have dealt with all the troubles internally.
• 29:35
  Yes.
• 29:36
  We have solved every problem. Yeah, that's true.
• 29:39
  Yeah.
• 29:39
  It will be a luxury job, then.
• 29:41
  Yes.
• 29:42
  Yes.
• 29:42
  We could just sit on our asses and chill.
• 29:44
  We're all. We're all men, though, so I think Clauda should also get a position just.
• 29:49
  Oh, yeah, she's definitely sitting up at the top.
• 29:53
  Yeah, for sure.
• 29:56
  Yeah.
• 29:56
  I think we had once also an interview, Oren, with. With an Irish politician.
• 30:01
  We did. We. A couple years ago. We interviewed the minister at the time for disabilities, Rodrigo, and, yeah, we had a lovely interview with him. He was. That was. That was. Yeah.
• 30:18
  Is he still in service now or is he.
• 30:20
  Because we had an election last year, towards the end of last year. Last year, unfortunately, he was elected, but he wasn't. He isn't in government, but he's in the. In the doll. In the. In the Parliament. But the Green. He's. He was from the Green Party, and the Green Party did pretty. They got a hammering, really, in. In last year's election, so. But I'm sure they'll be. They'll be back. But Roderick was the only Green Party member to be elected back into the parliament.
• 30:52
  Who knows? We have spoken now with the first Minister of Disability in the Netherlands.
• 30:56
  You know, we could.
• 30:57
  Yeah. Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?
• 30:59
  Who knows?
• 31:00
  Who knows?
• 31:00
  If this. If this is this. If this government ever gets off its ass and actually starts implementing the UN Convention, then maybe.
• 31:07
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:09
  Are you then not. I know you're not involved in the eaa, but. But do you get. Do you. Are you jumping up and down when you see the European Accessibility act not functioning in the way it should, or have you delved into that yet?
• 31:30
  So I used to be. I used to work at government and specifically on the implementation of the European Accessibility act. And then. Handheld. Guys, how do I translate that?
• 31:43
  I. Enforcement.
• 31:45
  Enforcement. Yeah. Yes, regulation. And then specifically on the aviation sector. And then we were talking about the implementation actually of the EAA and what strategy to use. And the thing that frustrated me the most is that when you look at the strategy that a lot of these enforcement agencies are using, government agencies, it's basically, they don't want to give out any fines for now to companies for the coming one or two years until the companies have gotten used to this law's existence and only then maybe kind of starting to enforce it. When really this law was announced in 2019, they should have had plenty of time to prepare for it. The fact that they didn't do their homework and the fact that the government didn't do its homework shouldn't come at the expense of, you know, people with disabilities. But it does, which is really, really annoying.
• 32:39
  I think what would hurt the most is probably bad pr.
• 32:42
  Yeah.
• 32:43
  So not. So it's not like the public cares that much about disability. Of course they. They want us to have a good life. Fine. But really they don't care that much. The problem is companies getting away with not following the law. I think it's a much worse PR problem for most companies. So yes, monetarily they can get away with it probably and pay the fines and be fine. I don't think they can do that forever with public opinion because if they flaunt the law like that, the penalties will get higher and the. And the regulatory environment will get much more hostile. So I think there is where our opportunity lies.
• 33:24
  We need more activists to call them out on it and to do some naming and shaming.
• 33:29
  I'd like to name in shame right now a particular airline, Ryanair. And I recently heard somebody speaking to Mr. Michael O' Leary and was asking about the lack of accessibility on Ryanair and particularly with the website and bookings and what have you. And the response from Mr. O' Leary was, We don't really want disabled people on our planes.
• 33:53
  Mr. O' Leary is one of the worst human beings in business. I. I have heard about in a while. There are some people that are worse than him and mainly people that, you know, sexually assault their employees. Like Bobby Kotick, for example. He probably is worse. But Mr. O' Leary is an a hole first class, so that does not surprise me at all.
• 34:20
  Yeah, well, you have. We support you in your political endeavors fully and we shall. Even though I don't have a vote in the Netherlands, I'll.
• 34:29
  You have a zip line. You can always vote.
• 34:31
  You can always vote on your behalf. Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:36
  It's true.
• 34:37
  Thank you guys so much.
• 34:43
  What's this?
• 34:48
  What?
• 34:50
  Country western.
• 34:55
  Come.
• 35:05
  Jolly jumper. Come on.
• 35:08
  It's quite weird. I feel. I feel like I should be wearing American flag shorts and cowboy hat and.
• 35:16
  You really paid a lot of money, Oren, to organize this event.
• 35:25
  Say no more.
• 35:26
  Say no more.
• 35:27
  Yeah. Johnny Cat, how much time do we have for you?
• 35:29
  He's not getting any. Any Easter egg. This, this Easter.
• 35:33
  Spent it all.
• 35:35
  Budget's blown.
• 35:37
  Yeah. By the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 35:41
  Come on.
• 35:41
  Sorry. You're going to say something.
• 35:43
  No, yeah, we. We were out of the. Out of the house of My dad. We got the long player, you know. You know, with those final player.
• 35:51
  Like a record player.
• 35:51
  Yeah, record player.
• 35:52
  Yeah. And there was also. My dad had an album. Yeah.
• 35:58
  Lp.
• 35:59
  You know, that's. That's how they call it.
• 36:02
  But.
• 36:02
  But we found an album of Johnny Cash. So go. Please continue.
• 36:10
  Yeah.
• 36:11
  And then taste.
• 36:14
  Absolutely.
• 36:14
  Oh, my God.
• 36:15
  Yeah.
• 36:17
  Anyway, go on, Claudia. Give us email there.
• 36:20
  Okay. We've got a few, so you can tell me when. We're running out of time. They're fairly short, so that's good. We got an email from a woman called Chloe from the UK somewhere, I'm not sure where exactly, and she says, hi, team. You've got to do another episode on Funniest Blind Bloopers. The one about the guide dog leading you into the wrong meeting room had me crying with laughter. Can each of you share your most recent oops moments? I think it's good for sighted excited folk to hear that we can laugh at ourselves, too.
• 36:48
  The oops moment.
• 36:49
  Best, Chloe.
• 36:52
  Oops moments. Well, I mean, Mo is great at the oops moments because he's basically. He's going around beating the crap out of people and train stations with his cane and,
• 37:03
  oh, I have somebody beaten. Actually, Mo, you. You have a very long cane, don't you? Because when Oren was training, he has
• 37:10
  got long tones as well.
• 37:13
  Oh, yeah. We were told it should come up to your kind of sternum, you know, your.
• 37:17
  Yeah, yeah. Basically mine comes up to, I think, the bottom of my. The bottom of my head, basically my chin.
• 37:25
  Wow.
• 37:26
  So it's fairly long. And I mean, I need it because I walk fast, so if it was shorter, that would be kind of dangerous. There's one oops moment I had, and it was weird because it was at home. There was nothing going on. I basically. I had some. He bumped into himself. Well, almost in a minute. He was walking into the mirror. I had these. I had these cartons that I had to throw away because, you know, I got some. I got some packages and I had to throw the packaging away, but they were quite big, so I had to make them smaller first. So I was stamping all over them and all that good stuff. And I was done. And I was kind of tired and I was. I wanted to walk to the. To the tap to get myself some water, but I sort of angled myself wrong and I walked pretty fast. And I'm like, boom. What's this wall doing here? It was so painful, but luckily no blood, so that helped.
• 38:35
  Okay. No broken nose.
• 38:37
  No broken nose. No. The wall is still crying, but it's okay.
• 38:42
  Do you want another one, guys?
• 38:43
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, go on.
• 38:44
  We have one for Meiling in Singapore and Mei Ling is in Singapore. Yeah.
• 38:52
  Oh, no, that's a different song. Sorry.
• 38:56
  I had a colleague called Meiling. She's a doctor mailing Yap in Trinity College. But this isn't. This is a different mailing.
• 39:02
  Oh, I hope so.
• 39:03
  Anyway, she's saying audio Description on Asian streaming services. She says, hi, everyone. I adore your podcast and wish we had more ad content here in Asia. Have you heard if Netflix or Disney plus are expanding audio description in Asian languages? And how can we advocate for better coverage in countries where ad is almost unheard of? Thank you for your positivity and humor, Meiling.
• 39:25
  Thank you.
• 39:26
  Good question.
• 39:29
  This is a very good question, and I've not heard anything in specific. I know that sometimes Netflix or one of those other services, when a movie comes out of this area, out of the Asia area, they will have Audio Description in, for example, Korean or Japanese, if the movies are from there. But of course, in Singapore, that doesn't help you. What I think actually might help is regulation, honestly. I mean, you could call Netflix and complain and they might try to do something about it, but mostly audio Description, to be honest, comes out of. Because they're regulated and they have to. And so maybe that's. That's a way to do it. I.
• 40:12
  So get onto your local politicians.
• 40:14
  Get onto your local politicians and ask them to do that. I don't know how hard that will be culturally. I mean, Singapore, I believe, is democratic.
• 40:23
  Well, the other thing I would suggest to her is think about joining the Audio Description association, which. We'll give you the show. We'll give you the link to that in the show notes, but I'm a trustee of it.
• 40:39
  Oh, we have a vip.
• 40:41
  I wouldn't say that, but we are very keen to talk to people and help advocate for. For audio Description around the world.
• 40:51
  You want to have a trip to
• 40:52
  Singapore, I think I was thinking about that. Particularly around. What is it?
• 40:57
  September has never won that.
• 41:01
  No, that's true. So, yeah, September around. Yeah, September would be good.
• 41:06
  September, yeah.
• 41:07
  Yeah. The audience.
• 41:08
  It probably would take like six months to organize a trip like that. Yeah. So an ADA do. While they're based in England, in the uk, they.
• 41:17
  International organization.
• 41:19
  They are an international organization.
• 41:21
  Yeah.
• 41:21
  So, yeah, we. We'll put their email and their website and I think they have Facebook as well. Please post it LinkedIn.
• 41:30
  Definitely.
• 41:31
  I will have news of an upcoming Audio Description association event. On 31st of March. But I'll have news on that coming perhaps in the next podcast. Right. Next.
• 41:44
  Next.
• 41:44
  Get the ADA to send us an email. Okay, so I love this one. This one is from. It's Jacob, but I'm not sure if it's pronounced Jacob or Jakob in Norway. I don't know how they pronounce.
• 41:58
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 42:00
  They're from all over the place.
• 42:02
  We have listeners. Guys, that's really amazing.
• 42:04
  Hey, I know there was a big lot of them lately. Sorry, that's not a good. That's not a good word.
• 42:10
  Just like.
• 42:11
  You know what I meant.
• 42:12
  25 million followers.
• 42:13
  My God.
• 42:15
  Anyway, I love this one because Jakob's subject line says, the token cited reader deserves a raise. Yes, I do.
• 42:23
  Can you please repeat that again? Token what?
• 42:26
  The token cited reader deserves a raise because I always call myself the token Sighty, you know? Oh, yeah, because the rest of you guys have a vision impairment and I don't know. Anyway, Jakob says. Just wanted to say your token cited one deserves a medal. Or at least a nice cup of coffee. I agree.
• 42:46
  A cup of tea, I think.
• 42:47
  Yeah, don't drink tea.
• 42:49
  Take zipline. Clauda. I have. I have coffee for you right here.
• 42:54
  Oh, thank you. The email readings are hilarious. Yes, well, that's more to do with the people writing in than me, but
• 43:01
  the jingles are even more hilarious.
• 43:05
  True. That's very true. Does the.
• 43:08
  You can start it again or.
• 43:11
  No, don't. No, no, no.
• 43:13
  We've had enough of that one, I think. Does the site. Well, let us know what you think. I don't know what you. It's not up to me. It's up to you guys. Listeners, that is not you, of course. Anyway, does the sighted person ever get to contribute their own opinions? All the time, Jakob. Or are they restricted as the designated reader, you should let them host an episode. Takeover. No, thanks.
• 43:34
  She's already taken over an episode where she was talking to Blind Gordon's wife.
• 43:38
  Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 43:40
  But that was one episode out of 141. Orange.
• 43:43
  Oh, yeah, that's a one. And you know, I'm just saying.
• 43:47
  But anyway, maybe two. Two episodes. Anyway, that's fine. Jakob says tack for a brilliant show. Tack being. Thank you. I'm guessing similar to Sweden, isn't it? Sweden?
• 44:02
  That's Nordic Norwegian.
• 44:03
  Okay. Yeah.
• 44:04
  I mean, it's close enough to Tank.
• 44:08
  And he would, I hope, be enjoying lots of snow over there, I'm sure.
• 44:12
  Oh, yes.
• 44:13
  I don't know where in Norway.
• 44:14
  Divine providence, as we say here in Ireland if I hear another word about snow.
• 44:19
  But I love snow, and I want. We had a tiny bit of snow the other day. Tiny, tiny. But it was only up in the mountains. And I wanted to drive up in the mountains to get my feet in the snow and orange. He wouldn't let me.
• 44:33
  I said, you could do the next day.
• 44:35
  Yeah, but they were gone. The snow was gone. Regard saying, the rain arrived.
• 44:42
  You can do it in the summer. That's when you could.
• 44:45
  Yeah, do it.
• 44:47
  Mo, don't give him ideas.
• 44:48
  Don't go to the indoor skiing slope, you know.
• 44:51
  All right, folks, next time, don't forget, blind guys, chat at gmail dot com. And thank you very much for listening. Bye.
• 45:00
  Okay, bye. Bye, guys.
• 45:01
  Bye.