Blind Abilities

Latest Episodes:

The Best of Folk Through 88 Keys: Meet Marcus Roberts, the Jazz Master - Disciplines of Music in the Key of Life Jul 30, 2021

Show notes

Our guest today is Marthaniel Roberts, who goes by "Marcus: Roberts. Marcus is a Jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and Professor of Jazz music at Florida State University (FSU). Marcus was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. Showing an early interest in, and a strong aptitude for music, initially with the gospel music in his family's church and later in the popular R&B sounds of his era, he first ran across the chords of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and the captivating sounds of Jazz music while scanning the local FM radio dial at a very early age. He was given his first piano by his parents at the age of eight, and never looked back. Read more we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

iPhone101: Sharing a Contact and Eliminating the List of Recommended Recipients from the Share Sheet: Jul 22, 2021

Show notes

Blind Abilities adds to their iPhone101 Series with this short and sweet demo of how to quickly share your contact information or that of a friend or colleague with someone using the standard iOS share sheet. This feature is built into the individual Contact page and facilitates the simple sharing of a Contact Card for yourself, another individual, a business or organization. Pete Lane walks us through the process quickly and nimbly with concise and understandable guidance of each simple step along the way.

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

iPhone101: Linking Contacts in iOS Jul 17, 2021

Show notes

Blind Abilities adds to their iPhone101 Series demonstrations with this short and simple walk-through of linking multiple Contacts in your iOS Contacts app.

Have you ever ben frustrated to find you have created more than one contact page for the same individual, business or organization? This can be done inadvertently or as a result of creating a new contact from a new email you received, or other correspondence, but it can cause somewhat of an inconvenience when later searching for that Contact. Well there's a quick and simple way to consolidate those contacts, merge added information into a single new Contact page and remove any duplicate information.

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Tech Abilities: A Sticky Out Pressy Thing… Need We Say More? Welcome Jesse Anderson and Lisa Salinger Jul 14, 2021

Show notes

The Tech Abilities crew just expanded their reach and now cover the 4 time zones. Serina, Raqi and Jeff welcomes Jesse Anderson and Lisa salinger to the Tech Abilities team. We started out sticking to the show notes and soon enough, they tossed me aside like an Android tablet! Ok, maybe not that bad; however, this show went on and on through the tech world and the experiences that build our decisions on what we like and do not like. Most of all, we realize not one of us use our devices like the other and our opinions vary, so keep that in mind as we speak our minds and try to give an honest evaluation.

New Updated! iPhone101 - Sending Audio Messages: Personalizing Your Messages Through Settings and Voice Jul 08, 2021

Show notes

Blind Abilities adds to their iPhone 101 demonstration series library with this short but informative walk through sending audio messages using the Messages app and iOS. Pete Lane guides us through this simple, yet time-saving process which involves confirming your settings, summoning Siri, using the raise to talk and raise to listen features to enhance simplicity, and a step-by-step demonstration of each button and element within the messages app.

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Musicians Spotlight Series: Brian Snowman Powers: Sound Engineer, Teacher and Musician, It's All About the Sax! Jul 05, 2021

Show notes

As part of the Musician's Spotlight series, we are proud to bring you Brian Snowman Powers. Brian is a sound Engineer, Teacher and Professional Sax Musician. Here is our interview with Brian Snowman Powers from 2018:

Brian powers grew up with the challenges of bullying and being just a bit different. Brian has Albinism and is legally Blind. From his days in K-12 to his journey into the music industry, Brian shares his challenges, his resolve and his passion for music.

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

iPhone101: Hey Siri! What Can You Do? I'm Here to Help! Jul 02, 2021

Show notes

Blind Abilities gets back to its iPhone 101 series with a comprehensive review of a multitude of tasks aimed at helping us better understand what Apples much-maligned personal assistant, none other than Siri, can do for us, and what he or she cannot do for us.

Read more

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

General and Personal Life Tips for Home, Travel and Every Day from a BVI Perspective Jun 29, 2021

Show notes

As the times seem to be looking like we may be headed back to the office, meetings and possibly conventions, we find ourselves getting more opportunities to socialize and stretch our distance from home. This last 18 months has been a new experience for us all and with the "opening up" of travel, although limited, we put together some personal and social tips that may be of help to some of you and maybe to some of your friends newly on this journey of sight-loss.

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Musician Spotlight Series: The Complete Story of Johnny Hiland: Legendary Guitarist, , Legally Blind and a Chicken Pickin' Good Person, Too! Jun 23, 2021

Show notes

Blind Abilities presents another epic podcast featuring an in depth interview with an amazing guest. Johnny Hiland is a highly successful and well-respected musician, a fantastic country guitarist who is widely recognized as one of the fastest "chicken pickers" in the world. But his musical expertise is not limited to the country arena. No, Johnny has mastered rock, blues, swing, medal and almost any other genre into which he chooses to go, whether in the studio with the likes of Hargus (Pig) Robbins, or Phil Keaggy, or on stage with Sammy Hagar, the 392nd Army Rock Band on July 4th, or with his childhood hero, Ricky Skaggs.

Full Transcript

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Musicians Spotlight Series: John Kay: from Rock Star to Elephants, We Were All Born To Be Wild #Steppenwolf to #MaueKayFoundation Jun 22, 2021

Show notes

In the first part of our Musicians Spotlight Series, we bring you John Kay from Steppenwolf Fame which brought us such great hits as Born to be Wild, Magic Carpet Ride, The Pusher and 50 years of John Kay music and his work with NGOs helping Elephants survive as they, too, were Born to be Wild.

John Kay: from Rock Star to Elephants, We Were All Born To Be Wild #Steppenwolf to #MaueKayFoundation

Show Summary

(Full Transcript

John Kay reveals his journey from escaping the Iron Curtain, getting on with limited vision, his passion for music and his love and commitment for wildlife and especially elephants.

Ironically, I first learned about John Kay being legally blind from Dan Gausman, a librarian at State Services for the Blind of Minnesota. A client requested to have the Communications Center record an audio copy of John Kay's 1994 autobiography, Magic Carpet Ride. This is a service provided to people who are blind, visually impaired, dyslexic or have difficulty in reading the printed word. Dan mentioned that John was legally blind. This I did not know.

John Kay explains his vision and how it led him from behind the Iron Curtain to the freedoms of West Berlin, his adventures as a youth and his days at Sight Saving school in Toronto. Canada. Most importantly, John talks about feeding the fire, feeding his passion for music and for the protection of wildlife.

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