In this warm, wide-ranging episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk reconnects with longtime friend and colleague Anthony “Tony” Candela, a retired vocational rehabilitation professional, author of four books, and prolific essayist, for a far-reaching conversation that travels from the state of the VR system to the shape of a well-lived blind life. They trade notes on what’s changed (and stayed the same) over Tony’s 50-year career in the field, including today’s more holistic, whole-person approach to serving blind consumers, the near-universal acceptance of assistive technology on the job site, and the very real threats now facing the $4-billion federal vocational rehabilitation system as government shutdowns and efforts to dismantle the Department of Education loom. Tony shares his own journey with retinitis pigmentosa, the late-in-life lesson of learning Braille at 34 (and his emphatic advice that kids be taught Braille young), and the first step he recommends for anyone newly navigating blindness: reach out to the consumer organizations, the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, because they will welcome you unconditionally and teach you how to learn.
The conversation also turns personal and literary. Tony walks through his four published books, Vision Dreams: A Parable; the memoir Stand Up or Sit Out: Memories and Musings of a Blind Wrestler, Runner and All-Around Regular Guy; the essay collection What Should Not Remain Silent; and the new romance-adventure novel Fire on the Desert Sands, co-authored with his partner Juliana M. Kotis, and explains the roughly weekly essays (66 and counting since late 2024) he publishes on his Facebook page. Kirk connects Tony’s athletic background as a wrestler, runner, scuba diver, and skier to his own doctoral research on blind professionals in corporate America, where sports and other physical pursuits consistently surfaced as the crucible that built a strong internal locus of control. Tony pushes back gently on the “superhuman” framing of high-achieving blind people, offering instead the governing philosophy of his memoir: don’t shy away from the struggle, go through it, and get good at going through it. The two close with reflections on how far accessible technology has come since the slate-and-stylus, paid-reader days of the 1970s, a shared appreciation for the organized programs and support systems that still matter enormously, and a mutual call to keep defending the institutions that make blind employment and full participation possible.
TRANSCRIPT:
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Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you’re passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody to another episode of podcast by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in Seattle Washington, Washington. And today I have the pleasure of reconnecting with a longtime friend and colleague all the way across the country in the Bronx. But Tony Candela is here today. Tony is a retired vocational rehabilitation professional and a true leader in the disability community. A champion for disability inclusion, he is an author of both fiction and nonfiction, a prolific writer of essays, both of us share time spent at the venerable American Foundation for the blind AFB and Tony. Say, say hi.
Anthony Candela: Hello, everybody.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Great. Great to hear your voice, Tony. It’s been too long. You are always so good about texting me on special occasions. Holidays. I am a very poor correspondent. Back to you. But I do appreciate you so much getting in touch and so glad you reached out that we’re going to catch up in public here on on the podcast. But for those of you who don’t know me, I am Kirk Adams. I am a blind person, have been since age five when my retina is detached. I had the honor of serving as president and CEO of the American Foundation for the blind, and prior to that, those same leadership roles at the lighthouse for the blind here in Seattle. My PhD is in leadership and change. My doctoral dissertation was called Journeys Through Rough Country, an ethnographic study of blind adults employed in large American corporations. And I currently am managing director of my own consulting practice, Innovative Impact, LLC. And I’ve also started a new, a new adventure stepping into the role of executive executive director for a nonprofit based here in Seattle called the Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion. So really looking at inclusion from a 360 degree view and thinking about race and gender and disability, sexual orientation and economic status and immigrant status and veterans and intersectionality and really finding it very inspiring to be involved with some, some great inclusion, diversity and equity champions. So I think Tony, you, your journey has been one of inclusion and fighting, fighting hard and consistently for inclusion of people with disabilities and people who are blind in particular. So I would really just like to hand the talking stick to you. And I always say Tony, where have you been? Where are you now? Where are you? Where are you headed? What? What’s working for you? And what challenges are you? Are you facing these days? So the the floor is yours. And I’ll, I’ll reserve the right as a host to pop in with questions which may seem random at the time, but as they occur to me, I will ask. So Tony. Yours.
Anthony Candela: Thank you. Kirk. I appreciate it, and it sure is good to hear your voice again. We really are old friends and colleagues, and your your newest initiative is a quite gutsy adventure given the political atmosphere out there, especially at the federal level with regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion. So God knows we need all the help we can get to not only to obtain, but as your institute sounds like, to sustain. Yes, this kind of effort. And it’s it’s just a tough time. And, and I have
Dr. Kirk Adams: My, my dad, who was a high school basketball coach, would often say the times get tough, the tough get going. That’s right.
Anthony Candela: Yes. Which reminds me, my New York Knicks are fighting already for their lives. And it’s only the first round of the playoffs, but we’ll just keep that off to the side for now.
Dr. Kirk Adams: How about that? Cj McCollum of the Atlanta Hawks. Tony.
Anthony Candela: Yes.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Unfortunately he he took it to him last night.
Anthony Candela: He he. Yes. And that it’s a hard way to to lose when you’ve been leading the entire game. And then at the very, very end of the game, you lose the lead and you lose the game. So it’ll, it’ll test the mettle, I guess, of both teams. So we’ll just have to keep watching that.
Dr. Kirk Adams: There you go.
Anthony Candela: As for me, I’m in. I’m in right now. I’m in kind of a retirement. I don’t even want to say lol. It’s more like a waiting and watching game. I was a part time employee for the last few years with the Mississippi State University, the National Research and Training Training Center on Blindness and low vision out of Mississippi State University. And I ran a program where we trained existing new blindness professionals in how to do good rehabilitation with blind, visually impaired consumers. And we gave them four graduate courses and that the program did not get refunded. And so here I am in retirement just waiting to see what might happen next. I don’t have to really actively pursue anything. So if something comes up where it’s a natural fit for me where, where they, you know, they would value what I bring to the table, which is a, you know, semi-retired person who’s been around a long time, but I’m still semi-retired. So they, they, they’ll probably have to see something in me as we talk. And maybe then I’ll join, I’ll join whatever that effort happens to be. But right now I’m happily I’ll call myself in a retirement lull. Okay. I am pursuing my, my I guess my, my, my latest vocation is, is writing.
Anthony Candela: So I do a lot of writing and over, over the last seven years, I’ve published one, two, three, four books. And the most recent one is, is a romance adventure novel with, with a co-author who happens to be my, my significant other. Juliana. And so she and I have published a book called fire on the Desert Sands. So I’ll just get in my plug for that one book. Yeah, it’s out there. And at romance adventure all, all the, you know, the things that the formula requires and, and also a bunch of science that I think maybe would add to the demographic because it’s about a, a young woman archaeologist going to try to find going to a dig a dig site and to try to find some of the secrets of some ancient civilization. And and all of the intrigue as there are bad guys that don’t want them to find this information and there are good guys and there all sorts of things that go on in the book. So it’s, it’s good. It’s a fun read. At least I think it is. And I’ve only read the book about 150 times.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Say the title one more time.
Anthony Candela: Fire on the desert sands.
Dr. Kirk Adams: On the desert sands.
Anthony Candela: The desert sands. Got it. Yeah.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. So I, So I did have the question pop into mind when you talked about Mississippi State and National Research and Training Center on blindness and low vision. And I had the great experience of being on their advisory council for a time. And they they do great work. But you were teaching people who are new to blindness field professionals and rehabilitation. So you’ve been in the mix for a good long while. So I’m curious, what are, what are 2 or 3, however many things that come to mind that have changed in the space from when you first got your, your, your feet wet in vocational rehabilitation to the point where you’re newly, you’re teaching people new to the field. What, what are, what are some big takeaways as far as things that have changed?
Anthony Candela: I think things that things that you would, you would expect actually, you know, the, the, the system, the system is operating very similarly. Now to, I hate to say it 50 years ago when I entered the field, that the overall system is working about the same. But the you know, the, the, they’re much more liberal in terms of well, diversity, equity and inclusion. It includes, it includes how we, you know, how we work with the people who need our services much more of a well-rounded approach to the people. Not, not just that they have a vision impairment, but that they, they are a whole person. I think there’s much more awareness in these younger professionals to, to that more holistic approach. Okay. They, they get to use and help, help you know, to procure the technology. We don’t have, we don’t have to fight the battle of justifying the value of and the, and the, and the usefulness of spending money on technology because the technology is so obviously helpful, especially for the job site, especially for, you know, the world of work that you’re not justifying or they, they are not justifying nearly as much as we used to have to do back in the old days when people didn’t understand the technology. The heck, we hardly understood it ourselves back then. So, so there’s that.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay.
Anthony Candela: They, they now the people that take that, that took the course that, that I offered kind of are a selected group because they literally aggressively applied for and sought admission into this program, which was going to make them have to take four graduate courses distance education online format over a one year period, which really probably doubled their workload between what they do for their jobs and then what they had to do for the classes, etcetera. And so they were the dedicated smart people. I was very gratified in the dozens and dozens of students that I came across in the few years that I was there. Just really, really dedicated, smart people.
Dr. Kirk Adams: That’s great.
Anthony Candela: We’re still, we still have a predominance of females in the field. And but, but there’s enough males to, you know, make me remember that, you know the field does attract both genders. So that’s, that’s a good thing.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Yes.
Anthony Candela: And and yet, you know, sometimes they get bogged down in some of the bureaucracy that I remember from way back when. So they, they do have to, they do have to do the paperwork and they do have to follow the rule structure. Only thing I can think of that’s a little different today than back then is we didn’t have the federal government threatening our funding as much as, I mean, I, I had I had a couple of people who got furloughed right in the middle of our class, and they got furloughed for like an entire month because of some, some you know, flow of money problem or something that the feds were saying to that particular state. Right. And so we, we didn’t quite have as much of that back in the day as as we do today. And and then also, I never thought about worrying about whether the system would survive back in, in, you know, up until ten years ago, I didn’t think to worry too much about whether the system would survive. But now, now we even have to worry about the, you know, how the system survives and the shape that it will take and whether, whether we, we will get more restrictive in how we serve and who we serve. All those things that I say are the good things that happened over the years? We’re kind of sliding backwards a little bit, or at least I’m afraid we’re going to slide backwards a little bit.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, for for those of you who don’t know, most of you probably are. We’re talking about the vocational rehabilitation system, which is under the big umbrella of the Department of Education, which is under a sub sub umbrella of the Rehabilitation Services Administration. Federal dollars flow to the states, who then put resources to good use to support people with disabilities, blind and other significant disabilities in achieving or maintaining employment. And it’s about a $4 billion budget. So there’s lots of resources and lots of staff. And like many federally funded programs, the government shutdown has become a popular political strategy in recent years. So many various programs, including vocational rehabilitation, do get affected. And then there’s the, the, the efforts to either dismantle or greatly reduce the scope of the Department of Education. So of course, that’s worth a threat of a big change looms. So we we will here at, at podcast by Doctor Kirk Adams and at my website, doctor adams.com. We will certainly advocate for maintaining a national focus on rehabilitation services for people with disabilities, as only 35% of us or so are in the workforce, which is about half that of the general population. And I always say our our employment outcomes are either twice as bad or half as good as the general population, whatever, whatever metrics you’re using and not of course, not only detrimental to people with disabilities who aren’t engaged in the workforce and would like to be, and the resulting poverty and the stresses and strains and adverse life impacts that poverty have. But we’re also robbing our society of the contributions of really uniquely talented, motivated people that can really bring great resources to the community. So that’s my, that’s my little synopsis of the VR system. And Tony, I, I invite you to add on to that or you started to talk about your essays, your books before I interrupted you.
Anthony Candela: Well, first of all, very well put, very well summarized. And I have, I did notice one thing that I think has been the same for a long time when we were, I was working on some other projects with the National Research and Training Center, helping them out with some of their, their research projects because that’s their main job at the National Research and Training Centers. They, they run studies applied applied research studies to see like, what are the best methods to to provide good service, educate employers, etc.. They adapted a job skill, a job placement skills training program. And then I was helping them test run the adaptation. It was a mainstream program. And what, what I noticed in that was how alone a lot of a lot of us are if we, if the best thing that could happen to us and it’s just, it’s just you know, what, what happens to us in our lives, whether we have this or not, but the best thing that could happen to us is if we have a really good support system around us. And there are a lot of people who don’t have a whole lot of, of a support system around them or don’t have any support system around them. And and they’re out there and they’re alone and they’re blind and they don’t they don’t know. They don’t they don’t know how to bolster their skills until they get into organized programs. And I think, I think there’s still a tremendous need for organized programs, because it’s not the kind of thing you’re just going to absorb from the thin air.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Right? Right. So, you know, I mentioned at the top of the top of our conversation that I’ve been blind since I was five when my retinas detached. So I went from sighted kid to blind kid really quickly. So what, what’s your journey as far as your visual impairment goes?
Anthony Candela: Born legally blind, partially sighted due to retinitis pigmentosa, which is a deterioration of the retina over the years. And there’s different forms of it. The form I have is kind of your classic standard form of retinitis pigmentosa. So I had straight ahead vision only with eyeglasses. Best correction. I actually was improved to 2070 vision, which meant if I sat in the front of the classroom, I could see what the teacher was writing on the chalkboard. And for a long time I could read regular books. Not as fast as as a regular person could, but I could do that. So I was blessed with the with the fact that I could learn visually for a long time. And then as I got into late high school, early college, the eyesight was getting worse. And I started using alternative techniques back in my day when this was happening like around 1970 when this was happening, 1971, when I started college what we had were basically recorded books. Yeah. And an open reel tapes, which eventually became cassette tapes. And then, and then I think CDs for a while, and now everything is downloaded. Praise the Lord. So, so so that that and and faster, faster to obtain the materials you need to learn. So that that was what happened to me. And then then I just got less and less visual. And by the time I was in my late 30s I had given up my eyeglasses. I had given up really trying to do anything visual at all. I was pretty much totally you know, non visual. I learned Braille when I was 34 years old. Never got fast at it. Big, big regret. Rule of thumb, if you can get a kid to learn Braille when they’re young, even if you have to force them a little bit. This is my opinion. Make them learn Braille if they’re going to need it later. Because then they have a chance of getting fast. I never got fast, but.
Dr. Kirk Adams: It’s a brother.
Anthony Candela: Yes, sir. So that’s it. And then I was basically, I’ve been, like, totally blind you know and because it progressed so slowly, I don’t actually know when I became totally blind, but for the last 25 years, for sure.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Okay.
Anthony Candela: Yeah.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Thanks for that. So every, every, every journey is different. So. Yeah. It’s I’m, it’s interesting. Thanks for sharing that. So essays you mentioned before we started recording that you sounds like every week or so you’re generating an essay and I love, love to hear about that and what the, the depth and breadth of what you’re contemplating. And as you write where people can access that wisdom.
Anthony Candela: Sure. Right now I’m just posting to my Facebook account. So, so not not really out there yet, but I, I did start writing a collection which, which went from 2021 to 2024. And I actually published that in a, in a book, I self published a book called what should not remain silent, which is might not remain. What should not remain silent. Okay. Basically that’s my excuse for opening my big mouth whenever I want to.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay, I like it.
Anthony Candela: So, so that got published self published in 2024. And then I started writing again. I started writing more essays. So I just just took a look. As a matter of fact, I’ve got 66 essays written since late 2024. So almost, almost one a week. And the topics range from there’s a, there’s an awful lot of, of political topics mostly focused on our president and the people that he surrounds himself with and how they are functioning. And a lot of it has to do with how they’re functioning not necessarily what their politics are. Like. I, I just posted an essay the other day that that had to do more with the, like the emotional of our president and, and, and some of the people around him especially you see it when like right now he’s probably got gotten himself under more pressure than he probably ever believed he was going to going to be under. And he’s done it to himself. And, and so there, there’s, it’s not so much anybody who reads my essays know exactly where I stand politically and how I feel about everything. But I don’t, I don’t push that as much as I do, you know, what are some of the underlying things that are going on here and the people that he surrounds himself with, it’s like birds of a feather stick together. So, so if you, if you think about what those birds all look like, they, they do look a lot alike in, in terms of their kind of their, just their personality functioning and their, their character. I’ve also.
Dr. Kirk Adams: I just, I was just thinking about the book, I’ll get the title slightly wrong, but about Lincoln’s cabinet, a team of rivals or a. Yes, yes, a group of rivals. He intentionally brought in people who had very differing viewpoints.
Anthony Candela: Yes, I have read that book.
Dr. Kirk Adams: I guess it was. I guess he was a decent president, Abraham Lincoln, so. Yes.
Anthony Candela: Well, he was willing.
Dr. Kirk Adams: He was.
Anthony Candela: Yes. Because he was willing to do the hard thing. He was willing to have people, people who basically. Not only did they occasionally fight with each other, but they also. They also told him of, you know, their differing points of view. And if they disagree with him and they they made him hear the hard things. They they were not they were not sycophants at all. They they were they’re individuals who told him what they thought he needed to hear.
Dr. Kirk Adams: All right. Well, I just I just opened up Bookshare and I went to search and I went to author Search and I put in Anthony Candella. And I say, I see vision dreams, parable. I see stand up or sit out memories and musings of a blind wrestler, runner and all around regular guy. I see fire on the Desert Sands by Anthony Candela and Julianna M Kotis.
Anthony Candela: Yes.
Dr. Kirk Adams: And I see what should not Remain Silent by Anthony Candela. So those are your books. So you are. You’re a wrestler, as was I. So talk to me about that. Yeah. And running. I ran cross country. You know before I ask you to talk about that. My dissertation I mentioned earlier and I you know, talked to blind people who self-identified as successfully employed in large companies whose names we would all recognize. And first I asked them, you know, what, by what criteria did they self-identify as successful? And everyone in some form or fashion said money, income, a salary financial freedom, you know. Enough wherewithal to be able to make life decisions and, and make decisions on how to use their resources. But then I, I asked people you know, what were the, what were some of the factors or what were the factors that they felt led to their ability to succeed in corporate America? And almost everyone talked about the strong sense of agency or strong internal locus of control, that they felt that they were able to forge their own path, that they could overcome problems, that they could figure things out, you know, as opposed to a strong external locus of control where people think, you know, things happen to me and I can’t do much about it.
Dr. Kirk Adams: But then digging deeper, they almost all talked about some event or series of events that gave them that strong internal locus or sensitive agency. And they are almost all physical. Many times outdoors horseback riding, rock climbing, downhill skiing. One, one guy who’s totally blind and has a computer science degree and a law degree said, you grew up in a neighborhood where the boys, the 12, 13 year old boys would do these bicycle tricks, ride their bikes and jump off ramps and stand on the handlebars. And he said he he did that with the guys who ended up in the emergency room a number of times. But just curious about your reflections about that, your long career and vocational rehabilitation around that sense of agency or internal locus of control and perhaps reflecting on your own experiences with with, with sports and the other, the other corollary is another factor people talk about was being part of a team, whether it was a choir or a sports team or a debate team. So thoughts?
Anthony Candela: Yeah. Well my dissertation psychology dissertation, which I didn’t quite finish was, was on a, a different a different concept in the, in the same realm as as locus of control. It’s called self-efficacy. And, and it was, and, and the dissertation was on exercise behavior as a, as a correlate of self-efficacy among blind and visually impaired persons.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay.
Anthony Candela: And then what happened was I, I two, 2 or 3 things happened all at the same time. I, I had a second mortgage, I kept getting promoted and I didn’t have a caseload that was going to be able to easily reach into, to get my test subjects and, and a few other things that I could have easily overcome all of those, but I had been going to school part time for so long that I just. I needed to stop. But there therein lies kind of the, the, the genesis of, of the memoir stand up or sit out. Because it is about life lessons learned through being a blind athlete. And so all the, all the sports that I mentioned in the title wrestling and running. But there, there’s other sports in there too, like, like downhill skiing with a special, special you know, skiing organization cross country skiing, scuba diving, things like that. I was a certified scuba diver at one time. And, and all the adaptations. I even even published an article on that scuba diving way back in 1984 in the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. Okay. It’s it’s there somewhere. I just but, you know, you know, I mean, they didn’t I don’t know what I would do because the computerized diving watch was not really that powerful then. So given that there wasn’t that technology. Yeah. Diving watches and it told you some information, but it wasn’t so much that you couldn’t just make shift with hand signals, tactual hand signals and things like that.
Anthony Candela: You didn’t feel like you were missing anything. You didn’t, you didn’t do a lot of the calculations to see like, how long can you dive at a certain depth? You had to do those before the dive. You know, with, with pencil and paper, literally. Now, now the technology is so good that I, I, I could get lost trying to figure out how to adapt to technology, but that so, you know, as an example of sometimes when you didn’t have the technology and you were forced to do things the old fashioned way, you just went ahead and did them, you found a way to do them. And, you know, and it’s just an example of, you know, like you mentioned, teamwork, how to work with you know, on the wrestling team, you’re with your buddies. And when you’re running, even when you’re running, if you’re a blind person, you’re with a running partner and that team work. And et cetera. Et cetera. So all, all this was in, in that memoir, that memoir was an awful lot about the last, the last part of the title, by the way, is wrestler, runner and all around regular guy. And the most important thing there, my philosophy is that we, we must, we must be careful not to super humanize some of us high achieving blind people.
Anthony Candela: Because then we’re not, we’re not the best role models, though it does tell you what is possible. It does. And that’s a good thing. But a lot of people will feel that maybe that low self efficacy or that, that, that, that external locus of control. So to bring them along, we have to, we have to kind of make sure that we, we let them know that not every, you know, we’re not all perfect and we all struggle. And the key is to go through the struggle. Do not shy away from the struggle. Go through the struggle. That’s what you have to get good at. Get getting through the struggle. And then if you, if you pursue like that, then then the good things are probably going to happen to you. And I wanted that message to be out there that, you know, we’re just all regular guys in the end. And don’t, don’t super humanize us too much. Because then once you start doing that, you, you almost like dehumanize us. And I didn’t want I want to make sure that we stay very, very human. And it’s, it’s coming from me. It’s my personal, you know, way of looking at the world. And so that that’s been like an overriding philosophy is, is like go through the struggle all the time.
Dr. Kirk Adams: You talked earlier about people who are isolated, who don’t have support systems. It’s obviously much easier to go through a struggle if you have a support system. But you also talked about the fact that organized, structured, intentional programs can provide people with levels of support they wouldn’t otherwise have, which I imagining lends great greater, greater possibility of successfully making it through the struggle. Yes. So if people are listening who perhaps are trying to figure things out, maybe new to being visually impaired or have someone in their family who’s new to the situation, or like my parents had certainly never met a blind person before. My retinas detached and I became one. And we, we, we were not connected to communities or, or resource resources. I was fortunate, so fortunate to be that my family is directed to the Oregon State School for the blind, where I received so many gifts of high expectations and blindness skills and in that sense of agency. But the recommendations for, for people who are trying to figure this blind thing out.
Anthony Candela: Yes, yes. I mean, the easiest one, the one that will work and, and is reachable is not, is not necessarily, you know, go to the VOC rehab system. Not, not maybe not the first thing, the first thing I would recommend are the consumer organizations, National Federation of the Blind American Council of the blind, and they have the national chapter, the National Organization, and they have the local chapters. Because they will start piling information onto you. And you know, like with the organized programs one of the valuable things that you start learning how to learn, I mean, in the beginning, you may be in a vacuum, you may have no clue about anything at all, and all of a sudden you’re getting information and you’re also getting instruction formal or informal in, in how to start to problem solve and also how to start to learn how to function as a, as a blind person. And, and, and learning how to learn is a, like teach a man how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. Well, there you go. Learning how to learn is about teaching a person how to fish. So I first, first step, I would go to the consumer organizations because they will welcome you. They’ll welcome you. They’re not going to give you, you know, say, well, you’re not eligible for our services. Like.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Are you blind? Come on in.
Anthony Candela: Are you blind?
Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah.
Anthony Candela: Do you think do you think you’re blind? Well, we’ll take you.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, do you think you’ll become blind? Yeah. That’s right. So aacb.org for the American Council, nfb.org for the National Federation. And I think you’re spot on, Tony.
Anthony Candela: Now I want to tell you about my my favorite most recent essay. It’s on a lighter note. And it’s just, it’s a fun thing. I, I recently read a book which now they just made into a movie. It’s a science fiction movie. Because I love science fiction and it’s called project Hail Mary.
Dr. Kirk Adams: So I’ve been hearing the buzz.
Anthony Candela: Yeah, I’ll, I’ll email you a copy of the essay. Kirk because you’ll just have fun reading. But what what it’s what, what the essay is doing is essentially it’s a book review. It’s a, it’s a review of the book. And it mentions that they had made, and it’s the same guy that wrote project Hail Mary is the same guy that wrote The Martian, which was out a few years ago. It’s the same guy and Andy Weir WEIR and so my, my fun thing that I have done in the last couple of weeks is to write a book review on Project Hail Mary. And if you’re into science fiction and you are willing to stretch credulity a little bit you, you have to, you have to, you have to give a break to the author.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Suspension. Suspension of disbelief.
Anthony Candela: Yes, yes. Especially if you think about how they they travel at almost the speed of light to, to do some of the stuff that they’re going to do in the book. That’s you know, a long ways off in terms of our ability to do things. But you, if you, if you suspend the, you know, credibility just long enough, you will enjoy that book if you like really hefty science fiction.
Dr. Kirk Adams: All right.
Anthony Candela: Because this author does a lot with math and science and all that stuff, but I only bring that up not so much to promote the book and the movie and all that stuff. It’s more to say it’s just a fun thing that I will let myself do once in a while. Just just for the heck of it.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Cool. And people can find essays on your Facebook page. Is that under Tony or Anthony?
Anthony Candela: Anthony R Candela. Yeah.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Anthony R Candela. So people go to Facebook and follow you and they’ll get. Yeah, about every week they’ll see some of your writings. Yes. And again, I read the titles of your four books. I did not. I actually did not did not know about the writing side of your life. So this has been very enlightening for me. And I know I’ve, I’ve respected you greatly over the years. I was certainly not, not, not, not too many years, but some years behind you and really understanding the community the various organizations, how all the systems work. And I learned a lot from you. When I, when I first got engaged in the, in this work and I really appreciate that. And
Anthony Candela: I, I was working for the state of California and you were working at the Seattle Lighthouse, I think when we first made contact.
Dr. Kirk Adams: That’s right.
Anthony Candela: Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Kirk Adams: But there’s there’s a lot more work to be done. I will say you know, you’re reflecting on technology. When I, when I I started my undergraduate work in 1979, so a few years after you, but I took my notes every day in class with a slate and stylus. And in my dorm room in the evening, I would recopy them on a Perkins Brailler. And I sometimes could get my, I was at econ major. I could sometimes get my textbooks from recording for the Blind and dyslexic, usually read by a volunteer who was not an econ major. So the descriptions of the, the graphs were usually pretty, pretty interesting. And then you know, paying being fellow students who needed to read the same books, paying, paying them something like four, 25 an hour, whatever the minimum wage was so that they could read the books. So if you’re going to be blind, now’s a pretty good time as far as technology goes. And the promise of all the technologies that are emerging. So I.
Anthony Candela: Would, I would say what you could do today is you could record the lecture and then run it, run it through some software. Yeah, it’ll upload it, it’ll, it’ll give you, it’ll give you a Microsoft Word document. It’ll, it’ll give you something that’s Braille convertible. You’ll load it to your high speed Braille printer or just to your device.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Just read it on Refreshable Braille Refreshable Braille device.
Anthony Candela: Right, right, right. What am I saying? High speed rail. You don’t need that. You have a refreshable Braille device. And And there you go. And you could go off and just drink a lot of beer while all that’s going on.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Exactly. Okay. Hear that? Hear that? Kids? Advice from Uncle Tony. Use your technology and have fun.
Anthony Candela: There you.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Go. So let’s let’s have you back again. Tony. And just great catching up with you. The time flew by. So how can, how can people Facebook. Best way to connect other ways, ways people can get in touch.
Anthony Candela: Yeah, I don’t mind people email. I don’t mind giving out my email address. I do it it’s, it’s anthonycandela 66@gmail.com, so anthonycandela66@gmail.com, and the website is https://AnthonyRCandela.com. Anthony R Candela.com.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Perfect, and if people want to get in touch with me my website is https://DrKirkAdams.com, DrKirkAdams.com. I have a newsletter you can sign up for that, which I would appreciate. And you could also look at the Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion. The website there is I number four, SDI dot ORG. https://i4sdi.org. And I really appreciate everyone listening to another episode of podcast by Doctor Kirk Adams. Very glad to have my friend and colleague Tony Candela as my guest today. Tony, have a great rest of your day and a great week.
Anthony Candela: Thank you Kirk. It’s been so much fun. Look forward to the next time.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Me too.
Podcast Commentator: Thank you for listening to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. We hope you enjoyed today’s conversation. Don’t forget to subscribe, share or leave a review at https://www.DrKirkAdams.com. Together, we can amplify these voices and create positive change. Until next time, keep listening, keep learning, and keep making an impact.
” Inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a strategic advantage. “
Dr. Kirk Adams, Ph.D.
Advocate, Leader and Keynote Speaker on Disability Inclusion & Leadership
Leading the Way to Accessible Innovation
Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion (ISDI)
Executive Director
Strengthening individual and organizational capability for creating diverse, inclusive and equitable workplaces.
Innovative Impact, LLC Consulting
Managing Director
Impactful Workforce Inclusion Starts Here
American Foundation for the Blind
Immediate Past President & CEO
To create a world of no limits for people who are blind or visually impaired.
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