In this episode of Volunteer Spotlight, Evan Starnes and Jennifer Neptune welcome longtime AfterSight reader Jeannie DeMarinis. Jeannie shares her experience reading The Colorado Sun, reflects on the value of local journalism, and explains why human-read audio still brings meaning, warmth, and connection in a world increasingly filled with AI voices. She also shares a powerful story about a donated Perkins Brailler that helped change the life of a young blind student named Christian.
- (00:02) - - Welcome to Volunteer Spotlight
- (02:02) - - Jeannie’s Volunteer History
- (04:11) - - Image Descriptions, Ads, and Listener Experience
- (06:03) - - Why The Colorado Sun Matters
- (10:36) - - Keeping Up with Continual News Updates
- (11:12) - - Expanding Colorado Sun Coverage
- (12:00) - - Articles That Inspire Real-World Discovery
- (13:13) - - Human Readers Versus AI Voices
- (16:14) - - Inflection, Emotion, and the Human Voice
- (17:53) - - The Perkins Brailler Story
- (19:47) - - Stories That Show AfterSight’s Impact
- (21:33) - - Volunteers, Technology, and Learning Together
- (23:25) - - A Shoutout to The Colorado Sun
- (26:11) - - Reading Aloud After Retirement
- (27:10) - - A Fresh Slate for Volunteer Spotlight
- (28:26) - - Closing
What is Volunteer Spotlight?
Since 1991, hundreds of volunteers have been bringing print to life through audio for those that are blind and low vision in Colorado. Each month, we select a particularly outstanding volunteer to be interviewed by Evan Starnes and Jennifer Neptune to talk about what it means to be a volunteer, how they got involved, and of course, there is always time for some fun questions to spice up the show!