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Leader Dogs for the Blind empowers people who are blind or visually impaired with the tools for safe and independent daily travel. Our goal is to educate, advocate, and share real life experiences of those with blindness. Come learn, laugh, and grow with us.
Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Taking the Lead podcast where we empower people to be unstoppable. I'm Christina Hoeppner with my co-host, Leslie Hoskins and Timothy Kyo. So it sounds like you both have some traveling coming up, which I'm very jealous of because here I am again just gonna be holding down the floor.
Hello, Christina.
Timothy: Well, somebody's gotta do it.
Leslie: You know our travel well. Okay. My travel is work related. Your travel when you do travel is fun. Timothy, you're a little mixture of both. Where are you headed next?
Timothy: Uh, I'm headed to Maryland to do the, uh, lions MD 22, uh, leader Dog rallies for a week. So yeah, it's a great opportunity to meet a lot of Lions who raise a lot of money for clients at Leader Dog and so we all can get our dogs and o and m training.
Uh, it's always a pleasure to visit with them and, and, uh, just to talk about Leader Dog and my story and. It's, it's, it's just a fun time.
Christina: Yeah. And for anyone who doesn't know, so Lions Club International, um. [00:01:00] Leader Dog was founded by three Detroit area Lions. Mm-Hmm. So, um, they are huge supporters of ours.
So when we speak of Lions clubs, that's what we're talking about.
Leslie: I always find it interesting too, the Lions support us obviously as donors in that capacity too, but they help us in so many other ways. So many times we'll ask. Client like, oh, why Leader Dog? How'd you hear about us? And they're like, oh, actually a lion approached me.
Uh, I was sitting at dinner and they just came up and asked if I knew about Leader Dog. Um, so they really help with that. They also will help clients. So if an applicant has maybe trouble, I. Recording a video, doesn't have anybody to do it or needs a ride to the airport. Uh, those types of things. A lot of times we'll say reach out to your local alliance because they're so philanthropic, um, focused and they help out in so many different capacities.
So whenever we get an opportunity like this to send Timothy to go share his personal story, uh, it's wonderful. So thank you for doing that, Timothy.
Timothy: Yeah. And the food's amazing during week, by the
Leslie: way. And what is a rally? What does that, what's a rally? Well.
Timothy: Uh, we, we e [00:02:00] every night I'll be at a different, uh, lions Center.
Oh, so it's your own personal You're on the rally.
Leslie: Yeah, I'm,
Timothy: yeah. So I show up. You are the rally. I am the rally at for that night. It's a focus on Leader Dog. Okay. And, uh, it's all the little clubs. They, we come to one central area and everybody donates for Leader Dog and I do the speech and we have a great meal and have good, uh, good time with them.
It's a, it's, it's a great occasion.
Leslie: That's awesome. I love that. Well, I'm heading to. Bethesda Maryland soon for the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind conference, which we go to almost twice a year. And that's where we really try to partner with state agencies and let them know how we want to collaborate and work together.
Um, and that our services are free. And sometimes if they have to turn somebody away 'cause they don't qualify for their services, a lot of times we can be that person, uh, or that organization to kinda step in and help. Because we don't have as many restrictions or barriers. So I love [00:03:00] going to this conference.
I always talk to some wonderful people, and it's so great to get to share. All of the services that we have. I mean, honestly, people are blown away. They don't believe me half the time, but I promise it's real.
Timothy: Well, maybe I'll run into you in Maryland.
Christina: Yeah, yeah. Oh gosh. That would be fun. Well, you know what, I'll be here, Michigan traveling from my home to the Leader Dog campus and back.
Those are my travels.
Timothy: I'm sure Starbucks is in there somewhere noting,
Christina: yeah, coffee shops.
Leslie: Yeah. You know what? We actually just had, we went to coffee this morning before recording this podcast and uh, well she went iced coffee and I went hot coffee, so I know that's, the debate continues. It
Timothy: does. It's too early in the year to have
Christina: iced coffee.
So I debated if I was gonna get something hot or ice this morning. 'cause I was like, it's cold, but it's supposed to be warmer later on today. And so I was like, you know what, let's try an iced coffee. Are you happy with the choice? I'm cold. Oh my gosh. See,
Timothy: see, you gotta chill your body down.
Leslie: Some of the other conferences that people will be at from [00:04:00] our team, uh, coming up here this month are gonna be the Michigan a ER conference, the Texas a ER Conference.
The where else? Oh, Pendell, a ER. So a lot of professional conferences where our certified orientation mobility specialists are heading out to not only attend, but they also are all presenting on various topics and exhibiting. So, uh, if anybody's gonna be at those conferences, please stop by, check us out and say hi.
So good things coming. Sorry, Christina, you're here, but uh, I know we're, don't worry. I'll be right here. Mission focused. We're on the move. Yes. All right. Well, today we're excited because our guest is very active in the blindness and low vision field and has so many years in influential roles.
Christina: Yes, Eric Bridges is the current president and CEO at the American Foundation for the Blind.
With over two decades of experience leading causes on the national stage that impact people who are blind or have low vision, he is [00:05:00] the past executive director for the American Council for the Blind, and he currently resides in Arlington, Virginia with his wife Rebecca, two children and his guide dog trench.
Timothy: Eric, welcome to the podcast. It's exciting to have you here this morning. Do you mind telling us a little bit more about yourself?
ERic: Sure. So as was stated in my bio, I'm married to my wife Rebecca. She's also blind and has a guide dog, and I've got two sons who are nine and four. So our house is like a circus.
It's, it's loud, it's usually very happy, but it's just. Loud. Um, but yeah, I've, I've lived out in the DC area for about 23 years, um, right outta college. Um, I moved out to this area. I'm from Iowa. Mm-Hmm. Uh, originally and I, I grew up in Iowa, went to school at the University of Iowa, and, uh, moved out here for a job as most people do that live out here in this [00:06:00] area.
It. Not a lot of natives out here, a lot of people that are from somewhere else. And, uh, but I've, I've been out here in, in different roles in the blindness field for essentially my entire career. So, um, you know, it's been, it's been a good wild ride.
Leslie: Absolutely. And you're still on the ride, which is fantastic.
Do you mind telling us a little bit more about what is a FB and kind of how you got involved with a FB?
ERic: Sure. Well, I, I became involved with a FB early in my career, um, going, uh, you know, when, when I was working for National Industries for the Blind. Um, I got a scholarship to go to an A FB Leadership Conference.
Mm-Hmm. Which A FB holds annually and we'll be holding it in September 23rd to 25th this year. Yes. Uh, in Minneapolis. So come one Kamal. Uh, feel free to go to afb.org to learn more. [00:07:00] Um, but it, the, the a FB Leadership Conference was a great way for me to be able to network, uh, early in my career with other.
Leaders, uh, young leaders in the field from around the country. And it was a great way to learn a lot of very informative presentations. So, uh, you know, both from the, like the o and m side as well as the, the research and policy side, which is what a FB is still known for today. So a lot of, lot of great things.
What is a FB? Well, we are. A nonprofit organization that's been around for 102 years. Oh my God. Wow. Crazy. I did
Leslie: not know that.
ERic: Yeah. We are the organization of Helen Keller. So Helen Keller came to work for a FB in 1924 and literally right up before until she, she passed, uh, in 1968. So, [00:08:00] um, she did. Wonderful work representing a FB, representing the blind and deaf-blind community, uh, to, to this nation and frankly, around the world.
I mean, she traveled to dozens of countries during her life to represent a FB as well as the United States. And so pretty, pretty neat and a, a wonderful opportunity for, for me to be able to lead this organization. We are, uh. You know, I, I like to think of us as a thought leader and a convener in the field.
We don't have a membership, right? So we're uniquely positioned with the, the public policy and advocacy work we do on Capitol Hill, and a lot of that deals with, uh, employment, education, transportation, healthcare, but the umbrella that is over all of that these days [00:09:00] is technology. And a FB has a very proud tradition of working on, uh, technology policy as well as working actively with, with corporations to ensure that their products and services are accessible to our community.
So we've had a consulting arm for the organization for over 20 years as well. We have our research institute, which is staffed by. Uh, individuals who are PhDs and who all are blind. Um, and we, the research that we do ranges, uh, from, uh, work that we've done with Guide Dog Schools to help them answer questions that they have about the universe of guide dog training, but not just training.
Individuals, potential clients coming to their schools to get [00:10:00] dogs to the barriers that people still face today in accessing technology. So there's a barriers to digital inclusion study that you can see on our site that we released last year.
Leslie: Yes. We
ERic: just finished phase two and we're looking at phase three.
So there's a lot of stuff that we work on.
Christina: Yes, it all sounds. One super important how, you know, as the leader of this, how, my question for you is, you know, how do you manage all of that,
ERic: you know, at once? It's a lot.
Leslie: Yeah.
ERic: So I don't just manage, I'm responsible for it, but I've got a lot of great people that, that, uh, work with me on a day-to-day basis that help to.
To manage the work and, and in fact, um, I've been at, at a FB for nearly a year now, and one of the things that, that I noticed when we came, when I got here is that the organization [00:11:00] needed a, a roadmap for what we were gonna prioritize for, for projects for the next few years. So la late last summer through the fall, we undertook a strategic planning exercise to really.
Um, build a, a firm foundation for, for the employees and as well as our board of trustees and for our stakeholders, right? Stakeholders being, uh, representatives of the blind community, uh, quite possibly individuals, um, you know, going to guide dog schools, but also, uh, organizations of and for the blind and.
Because there was, I think, some, some confusion potentially about what we were up to. And so we, we undertook that and we kind of came up with five areas, focus areas to, to, to really look at. And, and that is sort of [00:12:00] how we're managing the, the organization these days. So the first one is really generating knowledge.
That drives change, which is a lot of what I just spoke of, right? It's our, it's our policy work, it's our research work. And then being able to, to have that research work translate into, uh, greater understanding of, of the needs that our community has, not just to the academic world or to the government, but to, let's say the mom of a blind.
Student. So being able to, to put that, the, the resulting research in more consumable understandable terms, which is something that I think we all benefit from as a community. Um, absolutely. The second area is dealing with our programs. We've got programs, we've got a, an internship program. We've got a bunch of different things, um, that where we're engaging with the blind [00:13:00] community.
Okay. Dealing with that. Um, the third is changing the, the wines narrative. We've got a documentary that we can talk about in a minute that, that we've, um, applied for, uh, to, to many film festivals, uh, around the country. And it, it's already premiered, um, out in California at a film festival. So, and then the other two are really, uh, inward focused, right?
Looking at, uh, the organization itself, having a, a, you know, a. A high performing workplace. And then, uh, the, the last one is achieving financial sustainability. And they're all, they're all interrelated. You can't really have one without the other.
Timothy: So, Eric, being the CEO for a FB, what is your favorite part about it?
ERic: One of the coolest things that I got to do last year is I got to go to the Helen Keller Archives, um, which we have a, an agreement with the American Printing House for the blind in Louisville. Um. So we, [00:14:00] we have the archives and I went there for a meeting and I got to go into her archives. That's incredible.
And look at her stuff. Wow. So I got to look at, I got to, to, uh, look at her. Oscar. I got to look at her 1935 Braille writer. I got to look at her Bible. I got the, uh, the archivist actually took out some correspondence and was reading it to me. The correspondence was between her and Mark Twain. Um. They were apparently great friends that one of the neatest things, Helen lived in a crazy period in our history where she grew up post Civil War and lived all the way to the civil rights movement, right?
So it, it's, it's truly amazing, um, that know the, the events, the international events, she got to witness the people that she got to meet. And influence, you know, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Charlie Chaplin to [00:15:00] you name. Pretty cool.
Leslie: That is in That is incredible. I'm very jealous of that. I would love to do that.
Mm-Hmm. But it sounds like, Eric, in your short time that you've been at a fb, you've already had such a huge impact. I love the strategic planning. I know that that's probably really helpful for your entire team to kind have those goals set up. And have a, um, a clear path to success or what you would consider success.
I know at Leader Dog here we do our strategic plan and it is always so nice to know what the goal is, like what are we all striving for? Um, so I think that is absolutely fantastic. So previously you worked at the American Council of the Blind. What kind of helped you in that role kind of prepare for your current role?
ERic: I was immersed in the blindness community, so for, for literally 15 years in different roles. So I, I got to really know the issues that blind people were and are facing on a day-to-day basis. Mm-Hmm. Um, [00:16:00] being blind myself, you know, I, I have a, a sensitivity towards that, uh, naturally. Um. As a community of, of blindness organizations, we are more powerful when we work together.
Mm-Hmm. And so, a CB and a FB have a pretty long history of collaborating on legislation and, uh, other, other policy as well as, uh, technology initiatives. So I, I knew fairly well what a FB. I had been working on because I'd been working in, in, um, collaboration with them as a representative of a CB. But I mean, working for a membership organization, you, uh, you hear it all, um, from, from the members, you know, the, anything from not being able to independently check in at, uh.
At a LabCorp or Quest [00:17:00] Diagnostics to get your blood drawn to being denied access, uh, to an Uber or Lyft because you have a guide dog, right? Absolutely. Um, and, and on and on, right? Some days working a membership organization can be really, really, um, challenging from a, from a psychological standpoint because you get, you hear.
Most of the time about all the bad stuff. Sure. Right. So it, it, that part is, is interesting, but it also is what drives you. Absolutely. Um, 'cause you wanna, you wanna help people, you wanna help make change. And at a FB we can do that. We're just doing it through a slightly different lens, um, where we're using.
You know, our, our public policy and research arms as well as our, our consulting arm to make that change.
Leslie: Yeah. You guys are doing so much work at a FB and the resources you guys provide and I know, um, many of our team members have attended the A FB Leadership [00:18:00] conference and have just walked away with.
Immense knowledge, and they, of course, we have representatives who are planning to join in September again this year. And you guys also, um, or you have a connection with our president and CEO, Melissa Wise, she, I believe it sits on your board.
ERic: She does. And it's wonderful to have her. Um, yeah, so Melissa, uh, has been on our board for a little over a year, so she predates me by a few months.
Um, but yeah, it, it's been wonderful to have her. Perspective. Mm-Hmm. Uh, you know, representing a a, a Guide Dog school, um, with, you know, hundreds and, uh, of, of clients around the country, um, and, and the needs that, that they have, uh, but, you know, guide Dog Schools. Uh, have pretty sophisticated philanthropic arms, and it's been really nice to be able to pick Melissa's brain regarding resource [00:19:00] development.
And, uh, she, you know, has agreed to chair our resource development committee of our board of trustees. And, uh, you know, she's just, she's a, she's a powerhouse and just, just wonderful to work with.
Leslie: Yeah, we are very fortunate to have her, but I also just love that she recognizes how important it is to be involved in the industry and in the field, and to sit on your board and you know, all the connections that she has professionally with people in the industry.
And, um, we're very fortunate, but we are also fortunate because she introduced us to you so that you could join us today on the podcast. Uh, so it pays to have connections, right? Because we know you're very busy. So we certainly appreciate your time. So you've had quite the career and continuing to have, what are some of, you know, your proudest accomplishments thus far?
ERic: Well, uh, one of the, one of the big things is being, uh, appointed as president and CEO of a FP. Yeah. Um, this is a [00:20:00] really, uh, it's a big role in our field. It's one that, uh, I don't know, 10 years ago, I never would've thought that I'd have the opportunity to, to do this. So I'm very fortunate. Um, it's something that I, you know, I, I look at as, uh, a wonderful opportunity for, for us as an organization to, uh, to help the blind community, uh, solve for some of the big problems that.
That we still face Mm-Hmm. And doing that through, through the convening of, of meetings and dialogue and our research and other stuff. But, you know, looking back on my, on my career, um, there, there've been a couple of noteworthy areas. One, in, in 2010, uh, there was this bill. That had been moving around [00:21:00] Congress.
It's got a really long title and I'll abbreviate it when I'm done, but it's the 20, it has been anything in Washington,
Leslie: right?
ERic: Convoluted, but whatever. Uh, the, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, it's known as the CVAA today. Um, back in those days, like 2007 to 2010, there were a lot of challenges.
Um. That, that our community had and gaining equal access to commercially available technologies. So, uh, at that point in time, you'll recall, you know, the iPhone first generation was introduced in oh seven. Uh, it had no buttons. The blind community freaked out, right, because it had no buttons on it.
Meanwhile, we were going and paying for a phone like a Nokia or a, a Motorola. S phone and then having to [00:22:00] pay that same amount just to load some software onto that phone. So that $250 phone now costs $500. Just for rudimentary accessibility. And so the CVAA sought to equal the playing field and require smartphones to have built in accessibility.
Um,
Leslie: that's incredible. Apple.
ERic: Yeah. Apple really led the way with that. Mm-Hmm. Eventually then there was the, the TV and cable realm where. So much of what we were, were paying for as cable customers was not even accessible to us. The onscreen menus, the user interfaces were not accessible, nor was any of the menus or any of the menus on, on television.
And so that law sought to, to require that U user interface to be made accessible, uh, and [00:23:00] then. There's this thing called audio description, which is huge now. Um, there were no requirements for audio description and the CVAA required upon its passage for a certain amount of hours each week on network and cable TV channels, uh, to.
To have that programming be audio described now. Okay, it's 14 years ago. Why do we care about it today? Well, if you look, if you spin it forward, um, that law provided the foundation for us in, in the blindness community to collaborate with corporations, um, the entertainment industry. Yeah. To. To gain access to all that content that, that we had either been paying for and not being able to access or, [00:24:00] um, you know, accessing TV shows and movies for the very first time with audio descriptions so that we didn't have to go to, uh, you know, uh, harass our, our wife or loved one to tell us every little thing that was going on.
Leslie: Yeah, that's. I mean, that's huge in a movie on the couch. It's so many things that so many of us take for granted and never really have to think about. You know, and it's, I mean, that's a huge, huge movement and it absolutely has set us up for success now in so many different ways. That's incredible. To be a part of that.
ERic: Yeah. One, one of the really interesting aspects of the proliferation of audio description is that that law then got us. Into Netflix and other streaming services. In 2015, uh, the American Council of the Blind was successful in negotiating with Netflix to [00:25:00] have them agree to audio describe all their original series.
So there's that law. The CVAA did not require streaming services to do any. Audio description, it was just cable TV and network television. But it, it provided this foundation and the ability for us to go in, um, and with our friends from the deaf and heart of hearing community, um, supporting us to say, Hey, look, you, you really should be doing this.
So. That, that, that summary, you began to see shows like House of Cards, um, orange is the new black Narcos and others get audio described. Yeah. And then in 2019 you see a company like Apple and a company like Disney launch their streaming apps with audio description, audio described content at launch.[00:26:00]
With an accessible user interface, again, not required, but because of what we've been doing. Um, they believed that it was just a good practice to, to do that. So, yeah. Pretty interesting stuff.
Leslie: That is, it's incredibly interesting and such an impact, you know, to the future and it's so promising, right? Like you're saying, connecting with these corporations, it's beneficial for.
Everyone, like nobody's being hindered by adding in these accessibility features. And the more we can just educate people on that and let 'em know that they're missing a whole audience base when they're not doing that, um, that's, that's phenomenal work. So thank you for all that you have done and continue to do, uh, in the community and in the field.
It's, it's just incredible and so important.
ERic: Yeah. And the other thing I'll just just mention is, you know these companies that have these streaming services with audio description, they're doing it in like eight or 10 different languages. So it's not just English.
Leslie: Yeah.
ERic: Uh, it's pretty [00:27:00] cool.
Leslie: That is fantastic.
Well, unfortunately, we are getting towards the end, but I do wanna ask one quick question. Uh, what advice would you give anybody who's kind of starting out, you know, in that advocacy role or wanting leadership opportunities? Um, any, any sort of advice that you would provide?
ERic: I would honestly say be willing to do anything.
Leslie: I love that.
ERic: And, and, uh. In order to get into to this area, you don't need to be the smartest, but you do need to be curious. You do need to have a passion for this. Um, you know, this arena is not something that's gonna make you a billionaire, but you know, there is a lot of satisfaction that can come through.
This kinda work. So figure out the area or two or three or maybe five that you wanna, that you wanna look at, and then get after it and look at, look at the organizations here in the, you know, [00:28:00] in the blindness space that, that are, that are working on these issues. Uh, get involved even if it's as a, as a volunteer initially, um, to me.
Um, there's a lot of value in doing internships, especially, uh, if you're a college student or even if, even if you're no longer a college student, but, but gaining the experience, that's the challenge for our field in so many different, um, different ways. It's just gaining, gaining the experience. Um, sometimes that comes with a paycheck, sometimes it doesn't.
But if, if you really want to do this. You gotta jump in with both feet.
Leslie: That's fantastic. Thank you so much for being here today and taking time out of your I know. Very busy schedule. We are so appreciative.
ERic: Oh, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Leslie: And thank you so much to our listeners for listening to the Taking the Lead podcast.
I'm Leslie Hoskins with host Timothy Kno and Christina Hepner. We hope you enjoyed learning about Eric and all the [00:29:00] incredible work he's doing at the American Foundation for the Blind and of course, elsewhere. Please join us next time as we continue to dive into the world of blindness.
Christina: Yes, and if you'd like to learn more about applying to our free services at Leader Dog, you can head to leader dog.org or call us at (888) 777-5332.
Don't forget you can reach us at taking the lead@leaderdog.org with any questions or ideas. If you like today's podcast, make sure to hit subscribe and check us out wherever Podcast Stream.