Endeavor to Connect

In this first episode of *Endeavor to Connect*, host Steve Baskis shares his personal story of navigating life after sudden blindness due to a combat injury in Iraq. Steve, a blind Army veteran and founder of the Blind Endeavors Foundation, uses Apple's built-in screen reader, VoiceOver, to independently guide himself through 16 thoughtful questions.

He speaks candidly about the emotional impact of vision loss, adapting to a new reality, the role of technology in gaining independence, and the power of connecting with others who've been through similar experiences.

VoiceOver is a screen reader that allows blind and low vision users to interact with Apple devices using audio feedback and keyboard commands. Learn more about VoiceOver here: https://www.apple.com/accessibility/vision/

To dive deeper into this episode, including additional insights and reflections from Steve's story, visit the following blog post written by Susanne Meyer. She expands on topics Steve touches on and offers more detail for those wanting to explore further: https://blindendeavors.org/beginning-the-journey-complementary-reflections-on-episode-1-of-endeavor-to-connect/

To learn more about the Blind Endeavors Foundation or to share your story, visit https://blindendeavors.org or email Steve directly at [email protected].

Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us for future episodes as we connect, share, and explore what's possible after vision loss.

Our mission is to initiate and foster meaningful connections between members of the blind/visually impaired community and society at large. We aim to connect people with resources, provide a platform to share experiences, and tell stories of resilience and courage. Visual impairment and blindness affect a large percentage of the population in one way or another, and we want to help people learn, adapt, and move forward with their lives.

In Endeavor to Connect, we engage in deep, honest conversations with people who have been touched by blindness in various ways. We will speak with people who have found themselves unexpectedly thrust into a new life, to those who work on breaking down the challenges that visual impairment and blindness bring with them, to caregivers with their own perspective on vision loss. We will take you inside the world of doctors, rehabilitation specialists, developers of adaptive technology, advocates for accessibility, and many more. By taking such a diverse approach, we aim to shed light on the many influences that help to create a more inclusive world.

Through these conversations, we aim to raise awareness of the challenges people face — but also of what is possible when we manage to break down these barriers. We want to change the public perception of what it means to have a visual impairment, and we want to encourage communities to prioritize accessibility and inclusion. We are convinced that the best way to show people that blindness is a different way of experiencing the world rather than the end of a meaningful life is to give people their own voices, and let them share their own stories and insights.