Aaron’s Opinion

Hello! My name is Robert, and I'm a moderator for the Blind Buddies group on Discord. Our community is dedicated to creating fun, inclusive, and accessible experiences for visually impaired and blind individuals. We host various events, from virtual escape rooms and game nights to discussion groups and social gatherings. Some of these events include a jeoperdy challenge, audio book discussions, and more!

In the Blind Buddies group, I particularly enjoy designing and running escape room events. I put a lot of effort into ensuring that these events are engaging and accessible, utilizing audio descriptions and puzzles that can be enjoyed by everyone. It also includes audio such as music, sound, and voiced characters. Some of our recent themes have included a ghostly train ride, a deep sea treasure hunt, and an upcoming spooky carnival.

As a moderator, I help maintain a thriving and vibrant drama-free community, creating a space where everyone feels welcome and can enjoy participating in our activities.

Our goal is to foster a supportive and fun environment where everyone feels welcome and can enjoy participating in our activities.

I'm also an avid gamer and love to stream games and other content for folks during our voice chats. It's a great way to connect with others and share our love for gaming.

If you're interested in joining us or learning more, feel free to check out our Discord and Facebook. We would love to see you there!

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/k9c...

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/group...

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Hi Aaron,

Thank you so much for the interview. I thought it was a great experience and I hope you learnt a lot from me. You’re a great person and podcaster.

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Hi Aaron
My apologies for not sending this sooner.
Also see picture attached.
 
 
Short profile on Jeremy Opperman   
 
[email protected]
www.disabilitydesk.co.za
 
 
Jeremy was born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a deteriorating eye condition which results in total blindness. After graduating from the University of Cape Town in 1987, Jeremy worked in marketing and sales of training and development services.
 
Since starting his own consultancy in 1999, Jeremy started focusing increasingly on diversity and disability issues and is particularly passionate about the “unhesitant and natural” integration of people with disabilities into mainstream society.
 
He is very involved with several disability institutions, and speaks, writes and consults widely on such topics as:
The business case and disability inclusion
Making a case for a centralized disability desk approach
Audio description 
Practical universal access
 
Jeremy is a keen Rotarian  and serves on the Rotary International Diversity Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council.
 
He lives in Cape Town with his wife  Jackie.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Warm REGARDS
 
Jeremy Opperman
 
Disability Desk
Phone     +27 83 302 9111
Email     [email protected]
Website   WWW.DISABILITYDESK.CO.ZA
Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/je...
 
 

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Hi Aaron
My apologies for not sending this sooner.
Also see picture attached.
 
 
Short profile on Jeremy Opperman   
 
[email protected]
www.disabilitydesk.co.za
 
 
Jeremy was born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a deteriorating eye condition which results in total blindness. After graduating from the University of Cape Town in 1987, Jeremy worked in marketing and sales of training and development services.
 
Since starting his own consultancy in 1999, Jeremy started focusing increasingly on diversity and disability issues and is particularly passionate about the “unhesitant and natural” integration of people with disabilities into mainstream society.
 
He is very involved with several disability institutions, and speaks, writes and consults widely on such topics as:
The business case and disability inclusion
Making a case for a centralized disability desk approach
Audio description 
Practical universal access
 
Jeremy is a keen Rotarian  and serves on the Rotary International Diversity Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council.
 
He lives in Cape Town with his wife  Jackie.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Warm REGARDS
 
Jeremy Opperman
 
Disability Desk
Phone     +27 83 302 9111
Email     [email protected]
Website   WWW.DISABILITYDESK.CO.ZA
Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/je...

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion--5920599/support.

Philip
I was born and raised in south Texas and except for 3 years living in New Mexico, I have lived here all my life.
I was adopted and raised by my adoptive mother, who was a single parent to me and my two sisters.
 
I had a 17-year career in law enforcement where I worked my way up to a Patrol Sergeant position.
In 1997, I was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, which eventually resulted in night blindness and loss of peripheral vision.
Eventually, I was forced to retire in 2005.
 
My disability resulted in a broken marriage, loss of career and a huge financial blow. I raised my two kids on my own which I will never regret.
 
I experienced some of the same emotions that others in my situation experienced when they began experiencing vision loss.
I decided to get ahead of the game and learn about available resources or the blind and never looked back.
 
Mary
Mary was born in Dallas and at age 8, began living in south Texas.
 
Mary is widowed and has a 27-year old daughter who is studying in Washington.
 
Mary lost her vision in 2015 as the result of an allergic reaction to medication.
Unfortunately, nog long after she began experiencing vision loss, she lost her husband due to complications from diabetes.
 
Mary’s vision loss resulted her being forced to retire from a 20-year nursing career.
 
How We Met
We were both attending the same church. One day, I heard someone asking for prayer for a member of the church who had recently experienced vision loss. I immediately wanted to help her and after three weeks we were able to connect.
Mary had much difficulty in adjusting to her vision loss and rarely was able to have independence. This gave me the opportunity to talk to her about the available resources.
Today, Mary is very independent both at home and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center school for the blind in Austin and she is the complete opposite of who she used to be.
 
As a result, we have set off on some endeavours dedicated to making life a little easier by providing information on available resources for the visually-impaired.
 
We run a local group called The Rio Grande Valley Coalition of the Blind, which is designed to bring awareness to the need of accessibility for the local visually-impaired community.
 
Together with other volunteers, We work on our non-profit charity, The White Cane Project, which works to provide free navigation canes to those who are unable to afford them.
This came as a result of having a conversation with a friend who told us that there is a school for the blind in Mexico, which is not government-funded, that has students use makeshift canes to help them navigate. They either use tree limbs or glue cans or bottles end-to-end.
We were immediately driven to change that and to date, have provided almost 100 canes to that particular scool. That has driven to make The White Cane Project an international charity and are working to connect with non-government funded organizations to provide canes for their clients.
 
We also host the livestream The Two Blind Mice Show, which works to bring blindness awareness at a local and international level. We often invite technology developers or organization leaders to discuss available resources or projects for the visually-impaired.
 
We recently began a new project, which we are calling Blind-Sighted Adventure Camp.
This came about after learning that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department had begun initiative to make all state parks accessible to anyone with a disability.
The goal of the project is to invite visually-impaired persons to a week of camping. This also includes sighted volunteers who will help as sighted guides.
The goal is to have it fully funded by sponsors so that it can be at no cost to the sighted and non-sighted attendees.
If successful, we hope to make it an annual event and possibly expand it nationally.
 
One of our most monumental goals is trying to create a school for the blind in our area.
The reason being that the nearest school for the blind is 5 hours away.
Additionally, it is our hope that this will also bring awareness to the sighted community where we live so that the stigma of how to interact with the visually-impaired resultsi in a positive outcomes.
 
We both know that the both of us have been given a servant’s heart and with our projects and our proud membership as Lions Club members, we plan to continue serving our community for a long time.

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Louis Scarantino is a distinguished autism advocate, a certified motivational speaker, and a celebrated author within the autism community. His journey towards becoming a motivational speaker took a significant leap when he earned his certification from IAP Career College. He began his speaking career by honing his skills at Toastmasters, where his hard work resulted in the Toastmasters Competent Communicator Certificate.
As an accomplished author, Louis has penned two influential books, "Finding Love on the Spectrum: An ASD Guide to Dating" and "Autism: The Unstoppable Achiever."

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Mate, if people want to listen to my shows all they need to do is to go to the following radio link for my regular week

www.2yyyradio.com

If people wants to know more, they can search my name on Facebook Tony telfer

https://www.facebook.com/Budda...

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Hi Aaron
My apologies for not sending this sooner.
Also see picture attached.
 
 
Short profile on Jeremy Opperman   
 
[email protected]
www.disabilitydesk.co.za
 
 
Jeremy was born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a deteriorating eye condition which results in total blindness. After graduating from the University of Cape Town in 1987, Jeremy worked in marketing and sales of training and development services.
 
Since starting his own consultancy in 1999, Jeremy started focusing increasingly on diversity and disability issues and is particularly passionate about the “unhesitant and natural” integration of people with disabilities into mainstream society.
 
He is very involved with several disability institutions, and speaks, writes and consults widely on such topics as:
The business case and disability inclusion
Making a case for a centralized disability desk approach
Audio description 
Practical universal access
 
Jeremy is a keen Rotarian  and serves on the Rotary International Diversity Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council.
 
He lives in Cape Town with his wife  Jackie.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Warm REGARDS
 
Jeremy Opperman
 
Disability Desk
Phone     +27 83 302 9111
Email     [email protected]
Website   WWW.DISABILITYDESK.CO.ZA
Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/je...

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion--5920599/support.

Eden would like to talk to us about an important dream in his life.

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Hello. My name is Thomas Leonard, a.k.a. Raptor. I am a musician with a number of passions. Particularly flying and racing. And if you’re wondering, I’m totally blind, and you wouldn’t want to put me behind the controls of a plane or the wheel of a car unless you’d like both of them to be totaled. Anyway, I don’t have music out there for people to hear at the moment, but thankfully my friend Denny, a.k.a. H-Streets has the resources and know-how to give me the opportunity to kick open the doors of the music industry. This episode will hopefully give you a glimpse of what’s yet to come when i do get my upcoming EP onto all major streaming platforms. You can find me on my podcast “Food for the soul with Thomas Leonard”, which I must return to, and you can find some of my contributions as I joined my friends H-Streets, Denise Barajas, and EJ The Phoenix as a member of our group named Deep Soulfulness, and a duo with EJ called Elusive Flames. Other than that, I’ll be putting out music whenever True Source (God) gives me the green light.

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