(bright music)
Welcome to "Hadley Presents."
I'm your host, Ricky Enger, inviting you to sit back, relax,
and enjoy a conversation with the experts.
In this episode, we discuss technology
and navigating life with low vision,
and our guest is YouTube personality, Sam Seavey.
Welcome to the show, Sam.
Hey, Ricky, thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely. It's awesome to have you here.
Now, of course, I introduced you as a YouTube personality,
as if that were the sum total of your existence,
and it's not, so before we jump into things,
why don't you just tell us a bit about yourself
and how you came to do what you do,
both in terms of YouTube and kind of
what you do outside of that?
Well, first, I actually prefer YouTube Superstar,
if you don't mind.
You should have gotten an email before the show
letting you know that's what I prefer to be called,
but, no, (laughs) well, yeah, so,
it's a very long story how I got to this point.
People always like to kind of hear my vision story,
I guess you could say.
I was diagnosed at age 11 with Stargardt's disease.
It's kind of an early onset form of macular degeneration,
kind of, except that it's a inherited retinal disease.
So, myself and my sister both got it.
We're the only two kids in the family,
and we both drew the genetic short straw
and (chuckles) got Stargardt's.
Actually I was just at up in Philadelphia
doing a presentation this past weekend,
and I told the crowd that
and I got a lot of, "Oh, oh, that's too bad," you know?
And I said, "You know what?
"Yeah, maybe at first you might think that,
"but it was actually a good thing
"because at least I had somebody there
"to kind of go through all of this with,
"to grow up and we were both going through it
"and experiencing it together,
"and we had each other's backs."
So, it actually made it much easier, I think.
Fast forwarding, skipping all the drama of,
you know, going through the public school system
and all of that with (chuckles) low vision,
maybe that'd be the next podcast.
I started making videos on YouTube back in
right around 2010, I guess.
I started making videos for another YouTube channel,
some guy down in Texas who made videos
about mobile technology, namely Android systems,
and he needed help making the videos.
And I needed a job,
and I specifically needed a job that
I could kind of tailor-fit to my own needs.
And I thought, "Well, this might be it."
You know, I could set up a camera rig in my house.
I actually had a camera strapped
to my CCTV pointing down at the table.
So, as I was seeing the phone,
'cause I was reviewing apps and phone software and stuff,
as I was looking at the phone on the screen of the CCTV,
the camera was also recording the phone screen
for my YouTube video.
So, it worked out perfectly.
And I did that for several years, making videos.
Those videos are still out there,
people can go check them out.
The channel was called "Mobile Tech Videos 2," numeral two.
They are super old now,
none of them really are relevant anymore,
but you can go check 'em out. (laughs)
And then shortly after that I started my own channel
because there was a real lack
of information on YouTube at the time
about people living with low vision.
And I especially was looking
for information about Stargardt's,
and I couldn't really find anything.
So I thought, "Well, you know,
"maybe I'll start documenting my life
"and just see what happens."
Yeah. If there's not content out there
that you're hoping to see, why not create it yourself?
And it looks like that's really been a success.
So, your YouTube channel is called "The Blind Life."
There are lots of great videos there,
really spanning a whole range
of technology and devices and things.
So what kinds of things can people find on your channel?
My main focus is assistive technology
because in my day job,
I'm an assistive technology specialist.
I work with clients every day,
teaching them how to use technology
and software and all of that.
I've used technology since I was a kid,
assistive technology, so it's what I love.
So that's the main thing you can find on there.
Product reviews, technology reviews, tutorials.
But I also like to focus on the life side of the blind life
and the everyday life,
and helping people navigate those waters.
My videos are really helpful for people
who are new to vision loss.
You know, maybe they're seniors losing vision later in life,
AMD, Age-related Macular Degeneration,
diabetic retinopathy, those types of things.
And they don't know how to be visually impaired.
It's not something we're born with knowing
unless you're born blind, obviously,
but, you know, it's something you have to be taught.
And, so, I have tons of tutorial videos,
even little things like, you know,
how to scramble some eggs,
how to crack open an egg without getting shells everywhere,
you know, and because if you get shells in your eggs,
you're not gonna be able to tell (laughs)
until you bite down into it.
So, and, I show accessible products,
even everyday household products.
I have a whole series called "My Accessible House"
where I feature things that I've done in my house
to make my life easier, extra lighting,
bright lights in cabinets,
motion-activated lights in certain areas
where as when I just walk in,
the light automatically turns on.
So, just things like that.
That's fantastic.
And I think it's incredibly useful for people,
as you say, who are new to vision loss
or even people who may have been at this for a while,
but not everyone can buy or review everything.
And, so, having a place to go
where someone has taken a look at various things
or used even standard things, I suppose,
in a unique way to help with vision loss,
I think it's really helpful for people.
Are there things that you have learned along the way?
I mean, you've been at this for a little while,
given that you were diagnosed at 11.
So, just along your own vision loss journey,
are there things that you didn't initially know
that you've learned along the way
that have really helped you to be maybe more efficient
or get things done in a different way
than you did as a child?
Yeah, so, as I said, I diagnosed at age 11.
I was legally blind by my early teens.
And much like a lot of people who are
in a similar situation where I'm not totally blind,
I do still have partial sight
and I still have some usable sight.
So, unless I'm walking around with my cane,
you know, people might not instantly recognize
that I'm visually impaired, or I have a vision impairment.
I always say we're kind of riding the fence
between the sighted world and the blind world
in that situation.
It can be difficult, especially in my twenties.
I really didn't want to be vision impaired.
I wanted to be just like everybody else.
I wanted to be, you know, I didn't wanna be different.
I didn't wanna stand out.
I struggled with that like many,
many people do in that situation.
It's exhausting.
And I was probably in my thirties
before I finally just said, "I'm done.
"I'm done pretending, this is who I am.
"There's nothing wrong with who I am."
It can't be fixed, my condition is incorrectable.
There's no treatments, you know,
why am I wasting my time trying to be something I'm not?
I just need to embrace it and live my best life.
And, so, when I finally did that,
it was like a weight off my shoulders
and I could just start enjoying my life
and living for the day.
And so that's probably the biggest thing
I have learned is to not sweat the little things every day.
And, don't get me wrong, I'm not, (laughs)
you know, completely well-adjusted.
I still have my bad days, well, like we all do,
where I'm just like, "Oh, I hate being blind."
Oh, you know, anytime I want to make a meal
and I have to go find my magnifier in order to read the box,
it's, like, I have to go searching through the house now
to find a magnifier just so I can make this real quickly.
(Sam laughs)
It's like, "Oh, come on."
But at the end of the day,
I don't let things like that get me down too often.
Or if I'm walking around outside with my cane
and I see somebody's kind of giving me a weird look.
It doesn't bother me because it's just, I know who I am.
I know my own worth.
I know what I'm capable of.
And that's more important to me than
what some stranger might think or say
or, you know, so, own your own truth and be yourself
and go out and reach for your goals and live your life.
That's kind of what I've learned.
And is that something you wish
someone had told you as a child?
Or maybe you wouldn't have (chuckles) been ready
to listen to it at that point?
It's something that you had to learn along the way.
Is there anything beyond that
that you would say to somebody
who's brand new to vision Loss
and they're just in that period of figuring out
what life is going to be like,
and figuring out all of the challenges
that do come with vision loss?
Is there one thing that you could say to them
that might make things just that little bit easier?
You're right.
I don't know if I would've listened to (laughs)
someone at that time in my twenties.
It really, it was, I credit it to my wife,
and her tough love telling me I was being ridiculous.
And to knock it off. (both laugh)
We all need someone like that in our lives, right?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
But, what I tell people is,
and I get these comments usually on Facebook,
and it's usually from parents of children
who have recently been diagnosed
and they're really struggling
because they can't imagine
what their child's life is gonna be like.
They can't see it.
And all they can see is all the things
their child won't do.
All the dreams they had for their child
that they think won't happen now because of the diagnosis.
And I've actually made a whole video, "What Comes Next?"
And the very first thing I say in that video,
and it's the very first thing I tell people all the time is,
"It's gonna be okay, it's gonna (chuckles) be all right.
"I know it's scary, I know it's terrifying,
"but it's gonna be okay.
"Your child, or yourself, or you're gonna be all right.
"You're gonna get through this."
Vision loss is just learning a new way to do things.
And once you learn those new ways,
you can do whatever you want to.
Now, don't get me wrong,
it's not easy and it's gonna take some time.
You know, it's a marathon, not a sprint.
And you're gonna have those bad days
and you're gonna have those emotional days,
and that's totally fine.
Like I said, I work a lot with people
who are losing vision later in life,
and I tell them, "You're going through a grieving process
"because you've lost something.
"You've had this your whole life
"and now it's starting to go away."
And so there's that feeling of loss,
and you gotta go through all
those different stages of grief,
and that's perfectly normal.
And you have to do that,
in order to come out on the other side.
And you don't have to rush it.
You can take as much time as you want,
but the goal is to keep moving forward
and to come out on the other side.
I was just actually at this conference
that I was just mentioned over the weekend,
one of the other speakers, Kristin Smedley,
who is amazing, Thriving Blind Academy,
she's done a TED Talk.
She's fantastic.
She has two boys that were born with LCA,
and so they were two blind sons.
One thing she talked about is, "You're coming to your grief
"and you've got your bags,
"and are you just staying for a short time?
"Or are you gonna unpack and you're gonna live there?"
And then she says she lived there for a long time
before she finally came through it.
And that's what I tell people.
I was like, "You can stay there as long as you need to,
"but you have to get through it at some point.
"You can't live there because
"that's not doing anybody good.
"That's definitely not doing you any good."
Thank you for that.
And it's such an important thing
to acknowledge that not everybody's
adjustment period is the same.
There's this feeling, I suppose, that,
"Okay, there's this timeline
"and if you haven't made it through your adjustment period
"in that timeline, you're totally doing it wrong."
But, no, it is such an individual thing
and the thing to keep in mind is just
to keep moving forward.
In the end, you'll get there and you can do things.
It's mostly about determination
and having that drive to do that.
And I tell people all the time,
it's just a matter of learning the new way to do it,
the new normal.
But once you do, you can achieve amazing things.
So, the last question I have is
probably no surprise
to anybody who has listened to this show before.
And I want to talk about gadgets,
'cause I really love them and I'm into technology. (laughs)
You've had the opportunity to review a number
of things on your channel,
sort of the premise of the channel
is navigating the blind life.
So, theoretically, at least,
some of these devices have made their way
into your everyday rotation.
They're things that you pick up and use on the daily.
So, are there a couple of gadgets or devices
or whatever that you really love and, you know,
what are they and what makes you love them?
Yes, I have been very fortunate
to try just about everything out there.
I'm to the point where companies send me new things
and prototypes, and so I get to see 'em
even before they're out there for the rest of the public,
which is really cool.
But, yeah, I've got a couple, a couple tools in my tool belt
that I use every single day.
I still, like I said before,
I still rely heavily on magnification.
So, I have an Eschenbach pocket magnifier,
I think the name brand or the name is Mobilent,
or something weird like that, I don't know. (laughs)
But it's just this little,
I think it's a 12X pocket magnifier.
The lens is about the size of
a silver dollar or half dollar,
which is actually the largest size lens
at that strength that I've ever been able to find.
And Eschenbach just makes really high quality magnifiers,
this guy is with me in my pocket at all times.
I just picked it up off my desk audio description.
Sam just removed the magnifier from his desk. (laughs)
Even when I'm sleeping, it's on the nightstand next to me.
If I take a shower, it's on a counter, bathroom counter.
So this is always within reach.
But for those things that I can't see with the magnifier,
I actually really like the OrCam.
I use the Orca Read,
and it's the handheld version of the OrCam.
It kind of looks like a large magic marker
and has physical buttons,
which makes it easier for a lot of people to use.
That thing is great.
I think OrCam is really leading the way
in OCR technology in the market,
as far as speed and accuracy.
And it's all offline OCR,
which means there's no issues with security.
You know, I can scan my bank statement
and nobody else is getting that information.
It's just me, so it's great.
Right? I mean (chuckles) for me,
OCR is probably the best thing since sliced bread.
You know, we're tech people,
so, we just start throwing these acronyms
around like they're nothing.
And people are probably like, "What is OCR?"
So it stands for Optical Character Recognition.
But what it does is it will take the print,
like on your product boxes or brochures or birthday cards,
or books or whatever,
it will convert that print into text
that you can then have read aloud by your device,
or it can be a document that you save.
So, yeah, it's really powerful stuff.
And OrCam is great at this.
You probably have other devices that do this too, right?
Obviously I've got a smartphone.
I actually have two smartphones I carry around (laughs),
an iPhone and a Samsung phone.
Since I'm an AT trainer,
I have to know how both systems work, Android and iOS,
so, I carry both phones,
and I see the benefit in both if anybody's curious,
my opinion on Android versus Apple.
I do have videos on those (laughs)
that debate that's raged for eons.
And, then, I guess I don't use,
actually I don't use too much
technology in my everyday life.
I'm a cane user.
I mainly use my cane for identification.
I have night blindness, so if it's low-light situations,
I use my cane for detecting changes
in the ground terrain and elevation and all that,
steps and curves and stuff.
But, I use the Omni-Sense cane tip,
which is my favorite cane tip.
It's a rolling cane tip,
it has wheels that can roll in any direction.
It's really allowed me to do some pretty cool stuff.
I actually have videos of me skating
around a skate park going up and down the ramps
using the Omni-Sense tip,
which is something I've never been able to do
because I can't see the ramp, I can't tell where it is.
But the Omni-Sense, because it rolls so smoothly,
it lets me know when the ramp's going up before I get there.
It works great.
That's awesome.
And we'll have links to all of the products mentioned
here in our show notes,
as well as to your website and YouTube channel.
So, "The Blind Life" YouTube channel, theblindlife.net,
I believe, is your website.
Yeah, lots of stuff clearly
that people can find videos on technology
and, of course, videos (chuckles) of you skating around
and all kinds of just amazing, fun stuff.
Any final thoughts that you wanna leave listeners with
as we wrap up here, Sam?
Learning anything new is all about
getting in the information and sticking with it.
Practice, practice makes perfect,
that's no different from learning some new technology
or learning how to use a cane, anything.
The more you do it, the easier it gets.
So just stick with it.
It will be frustrating at first,
just like everything is learning something new,
but even slowly it gets easier and easier.
And definitely check out my channel.
I have over 700 videos on my channel,
all about this, blindness and low vision.
And I love "Hadley," big fan of "Hadley." (laughs)
We love to hear that for sure, thank you. (laughs)
And thank you for spending a little time with us
and certainly those videos will keep our listeners busy
for a good little while.
Thanks again, Sam, for stopping by and chatting
and sharing your story.
Yeah, it was my pleasure, Ricky, thank you so much.
Anytime. (gentle music)
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