Bill Kilroy and Michael Wood join My Mac D Life to talk about Vispero's Topaz Ultra and the Clear View C. Vispero is the world's leading assistive technology provider for the visually impaired. 

My Mac D hosts take a peek into the mailbag to answer common questions surrounding Mac D that were sent in by listeners.

My Mac D is joined by Kira Baldonado. She is the Vice President for Prevent Blindness. She oversees the development and implementation of the organization’s public health and policy agenda, working closely with affiliate offices and partner organizations across the country.

Dr. Erin Kenny joins My Mac D life to discuss Low Vision and Vision Rehabilitation. 

She is Chief of the William Feinbloom Vision Rehabilitation Center

My Mac D is joined by Chris Caswell. He is a part of Low Vision International in Växjö, Sweden. LVI's mission is to make every day easier for people with visual impairments, LVI develops, produces and sells visual aids with high standards for reliability, simplicity and serviceability.

On This Episode

The episode opens with Dawn Prall and Audivita Studios founder, and MyMacDLife production partner, David Wolf. They discuss the relationship between Audivita Studios and MyMacDLife as well as exchange views on the rise and importance of audio production and consumption. David shares his journey in the creative field; his love of audio shines throughout, specifically creating visual experiences in the mind of the listener. They then introduce the speakers for the next segment.

Voiceover actors Kim Monti and Steve Corona join the conversation and explain audiobook narration. They begin by providing a brief background on their paths to voice acting and answer questions about the challenges, techniques, and physicality of their work. Kim then tells a story about the freedom and independence audiobooks offer to those with vision loss. Audiobooks allow you to listen on your own time, removing the need for someone to read to you. There is a vast range of audiobooks; you can explore almost any subject in the world. 

The conversation continues as Kim and Steve share their experiences with character development and how they keep multiple character personalities organized while recording. The interview transitions to David, Dawn, Kim, and Steve verbalizing the importance of stories and the innate nature of storytelling. This entertaining conversation concludes with lightening round questions for Kim and Steve.

The episode finishes with Bill Kilroy, Vispero’s Senior Sales Director for the Northeast and Mike Woods, Strategic Accounts Manager for Education, discussing the DaVinci Pro, a larger desktop unit by Enhanced Vision. This high-performance desktop video magnifier has a 3-in-1 high definition 1080p camera, ensuring a crisp, clean, high quality image on the 24-inch monitor. This device has two levels, the DaVinci HD and the DaVinci HD Pro. While both have OCR functions, the functional difference lies in the OCR capability. You can go online www.enchanedvision.com to see videos on the device and learn more about the product. 

What We Discuss in this Episode

This tenth episode covers the following featured topics:

We're freeing people from screens, pages, anything visual. We're giving them a choice in how they consume content, for the sighted population. But for those that are visually impaired, or can't read it all, audiobooks are amazing in that they're an inclusive medium. (10:59)

There needs to be vocal separation, you need to be able to tell the characters apart. So that's everything from gender to accent, pitch, pacing, tone, all of it. We spent a lot of time going through and developing the characters. There's also the more daunting part, for me anyway, is putting the list together of all the words that we need to make sure we're saying correctly. (18:50)

I just always try to make every story that I tell, every book that I voice, be so vividly expressed through my voice that you can see it anyway in your mind's eye, whether you have vision or not. You should be able to, if you have good vision, and you close your eyes, you should be able to see that picture just as vividly. I always aim to bring that mentally visual picture telling, with my narration. I go very deep in my in my visualization, Kim knows this. I'll do exercises where I close my eyes, and I become these characters. I can see and feel and smell and taste and hear everything that's going on in their world before I jump into it. Then I start narrating, and I'm there. So hopefully I can pull you in with me. That's always my goal. (35:40)

I don't know if people understand how deep storytelling goes. Storytelling, vocal storytelling, is the first media of communication. If you ever want a classic example, listen to a two-year-old tell you how they stub their toe or got their booboo. (36:58)

If you've got a page of text that you want to have this product scan in, the DaVinci Pro can scan that and then read it out loud to you in multiple voices. You can customize the voices, whether you want male or female, you can change the speed of that, really customizable. When you're magnifying, you've got a 24-inch monitor. It’s widescreen 24-inch magnification, which allows you to get up to 77 times magnification, that’s pretty high-powered. You can use that to do your magnification, change the color contrasts. You've got 28 different viewing colors, so if you want to use black on white, white on black, you know, yellow, one black, you name it, there's 28 different color combinations that you can use. (49:16)

Quotables

“There's also, and I've observed this as a producer, there's an intimacy about audio, it's a very primal thing to have stories read to you, it's the first thing your mother did, for example. It's a very primal kind of way to experience story and narrative.” – David Wolf

“The thing I like about audiobooks is, whoever you are, you can create what the character looks like. You get the basic description from the author, but you decide how tall the palm trees are. You decide how green the grass is, or if you live out in the southwest, not green the grass is. You paint these pictures.” – Kim Monti

“…you were talking about why audiobooks are becoming a huge thing. I think part of it too, is it's sort of harkening back to that golden age of radio…” – Steve Corona 

“…it's like the theater of the mind because you're visualizing everything that you can't see because it is only audio.” – Steve Corona 

“They said that it [audiobooks] is so freeing, and they don't feel like they are dumbed down. People sometimes feel, and I had a friend tell me this, that when her eyesight went away, and hers one way very abruptly, there was no gradual it was lights on lights off. She said she felt like she had to stop learning because she didn't know how else to get the information.” – Kim Monti

“This is storytelling at its finest, it is that innate. You have a two-year-old that will give you strong storytelling. It was only after storytelling that they start painting pictures on the cave walls. Storytelling came first. This is why it grabs people.” – Kim Monti

Recommended Resources

- https://audivita.com/

- http://www.supportsight.org/

- http://www.mymacdlife.org/

- https://vispero.com/

- https://www.freedomscientific.com/

- https://www.enhancedvision.com/

- https://www.enhancedvision.com/low-vision-product-line/davinci-pro.html

- https://us.optelec.com/

- https://www.healthyvisionassociation.com/

- https://www.novartis.com/

- https://www.centricbank.com/

- https://hinklestein.com/

The episode begins as Dawn Prall interviews Ilana Yellen from Evoke KYNE about their recent work on AMD Central. AMD Central is a brand-new resource website created to provide verified, trusted, educational information to those effected by MacD. AMD Central was created by the leading organizations in the macular degeneration field: The SupportSight Foundation, BrightFocus Foundation, MD Support, Prevent Blindness, and the American Macular Degeneration Foundation. With the primary goal of user ease and accessibility in mind, the site itself is designed to be functional; colors and font sizes can be tailored to those who have vision loss. Ilana then goes on to speak about her growing awareness of the AMD community through this collaboration and explains new projects at Evoke KYNE.

Co-hosts Dawn Prall and Shawn Doyle then share a quick tip for those with MacD. They suggest practicing using peripheral vision and ‘ears to eyes’ strategies, which can be useful for any stage of central vision loss.

The show continues as Dawn interviews fellow AMD Central founders, Matt Levine from the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, and Dan Roberts with MD Support. They highlight key features of the site, such as the Starter Packs to guide those new to the MacD community through basic information. They then share their experiences of coming together to form AMD Central and further converse about this exciting and revolutionary collaboration.

Next, Dawn Prall interviews The SupportSight Foundation board member, Dr. Robin Smart. Dr. Smart tells a personal story of the lasting influence of her grandfather and how MacD has affected her family through generations. As an advocate for education, Dr. Smart relates the importance of information sharing tools, such as The SupportSight Foundation and explains her commitment to the organization.

Finally, the episode concludes with Vispero’s Bill Killroy, Senior Sales Director for the Northeast, and Mike Woods, Strategic Accounts Manager for Education, discussing the benefits of the Compact 6 portable video magnifier. This durable, intuitive, high-tech device has OCR, and Bluetooth capability, meaning it can read text aloud or can mirror cast text to an even larger device, such as a TV. You can even customize the contrast colors via the easy-to-use touch screen for your personal needs.

What We Discuss in this Episode

This ninth episode covers the following featured topics:

This is a collaboration, which makes it really unique and exciting, of key macular degeneration organizations who provide patient education, who worked really hard on funding the research to find a cure, or new treatments for macular degeneration. We've never come together before, like we did with this amazing collaborative project. So, it's pioneering in that regard. (6:17)

AMD Central, it's a website. It's an online resource, and it curates trusted information and support tools from leading patient advocacy organizations, as Dawn mentioned, the five that we just went through in one convenient accessible spot that helps people with AMD really live their best lives. Everything's just all in one place to make it super easy for people to access. The site itself is designed with their needs in mind in terms of functionality, colors, font size, everything is really tailored to people who have vision loss issues. (9:02)

The Starter Pack is something that we develop for people who might be new to the AMD community. There are some key pieces of information that help you manage and understand the disease a little bit more and kind of cover a range of different things. (11:41)

The SupportSight Foundation is a founding partner to AMD Central. I'm very proud and humbled to be part of that and to be in this group with my esteemed colleagues. I can't say it enough. Thank you to all of them and their hard work. Thank you, Ilana to you and your team at Evoke KYNE. The call to action here is tell everyone you know, AMDCentral.org. Go to it, check it out. We've gotten a lot of social media on it, go to the website, and you'll see all the various organizations who are involved in it, check them out, click on them, learn more about them, because they are champions for you, and champions for the disease and champions for education and patient education. I can't say that loud enough from the mountaintop. (17:51)

This website, AMD Central, has a wide range of resources. That alone is what sets it apart. It's got clinical details about the condition, has got practical advice for living with it. It was developed with the accessibility needs of the community in mind, it's a very friendly site. And again, that's because of the creative ideas of all of the founders. The visitor can actually change the display settings to suit their vision and their needs. It's available both for desktop and mobile platforms. A lot of the resources are available in trance and audio. I just can't think of anything that we forgot about. We even have some materials in Spanish. (31:03)

I remember my grandfather referring to his vision loss as his eyes were going bad. One of the things that I think he regretted was the fact that he could not read independently, he was a voracious reader. In fact, when I was in college, I used to come home once a month. What I would do over that weekend is I would then read to my grandfather. (43:56)

I need to point out to folks that macular degeneration is genetic. It can be hereditary. It doesn't have to be, there's varying research, but I'm going to just say this out loud and publicly that there is data that shows that if one or both of your parents has or had it, you're three times more likely. What you just said, proves that it runs in families. (45:44)

It's like having a mini mini mini iPad in front of you. You press the screen, and you can raise or lower the magnification, you tap an icon for high contrast, and you can change your color combination so that you can view the information that's more tuned to your eye condition. If you need high contrast, white on black, black on white, yellow on blue, those types of things. It's all built in. And again, the versatility is great. Because when you're done with it, put it in your pocket, or put it in your purse, your backpack, and just on to the next place. (56:20)

Quotables

“One of the things we do on MyMacDLife is we want people to better understand that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes, there are all kinds of people out there who are working really hard to help them know more about their macular degeneration, to understand more, to learn more, you know, that's the purpose of MyMacDLife. That's the purpose of what AMD Central is.” – Dawn Prall

“I think that's the thing that I really want people to understand is that we're empowering people with accurate information.” – Dawn Prall

“Even though we're friendly and work together, in my mind I thought, ‘Wow, what a great idea.’ But I also simultaneously thought, ‘Wait a second, how is how are these organizations that we're going to each contribute to something that will, in its sum, maybe offer something better than each of them individually offers?’ But the reality of it is all of these organizations are there for patients. That's our focus. So, we set aside any bit of our competitive natures with what we're doing creatively, or however you want to measure our competitiveness. We're really all there for patients. That's I think why we all joined. We created this really incredibly powerful tool that will only grow I think.” – Matt Levine

“I thought to myself, ‘This disease is bigger than all of us.’ And quite frankly, I'm a little tired of not being able to work together in a way that really serves, as Matt said, the public the patient, education, the caregivers, but what can I do to lead by example?” – Dawn Prall

“I think another thing that ties all this together is the element of trust. Because each of these organizations came into being solely for the purpose of improving the lives of those affected by macular degeneration. Each one of them is a trusted source of information in and of themselves. When we all came together, we each vetted all the information that's on there. So, it's like double vetted trusted information. You're not going to a website, which at the end of the day is actually trying to sell you their nutraceutical. That's not what we're doing. We're just giving you unadulterated essential information.” – Matt Levine

“He didn't just lose his vision. We all lost something, you know, we all were affected by the impact of the disease.” – Dr. Robin Smart

“… we often talk about how important it is to have someone, a loved one, a family member, someone in your life who is your eyes and that's not an easy role to play.” – Dawn Prall

“MacD affects so many people, young and old, and as someone who believes in education as the great equalizer, who believes in research and the positive effects and outcomes that research can have on the lives of people, I am committed to working with you and the foundation because you have a commitment to changing the lives of people with MacD for the better.” – Dr. Robin Smart

Recommended Resources

- https://amdcentral.org/

- https://www.evokekyne.com/

- https://www.brightfocus.org/

- http://www.mdsupport.org/

- https://preventblindness.org/

- https://www.macular.org/

- http://www.supportsight.org/

- http://www.mymacdlife.org/

- https://vispero.com/md s

- https://www.freedomscientific.com/

- https://www.enhancedvision.com/

- https://us.optelec.com/

- https://us.optelec.com/products/compact-6-hd-speech.html

- https://www.healthyvisionassociation.com/

- https://www.novartis.com/

- https://www.centricbank.com/

- https://hinklestein.com/

- https://maculardegeneration.net/

- https://mymacularjournal.com/

On This Episode

Co-hosts Shawn Doyle and Dawn Prall begin the episode with the idea of creating a care plan for a macular degeneration diagnosis. This care plan can be used as a map to live with the disease and manage fear and adversity. They encourage not only those with MacD, but caregivers and loved ones, to find information centers, support systems, and strategies to navigate life with vision loss. If you’re not a planner, they discuss how to get started.  

In the next segment, Dawn interviews Mark Greget as the episode’s featured special guest. Mark Greget is an Assistive Technology pioneer and CEO and founder of NuEyes. He tells Dawn about his career journey, passion for helping others, and the empowering ability of Assistive Technology. Mark also brings forth the importance of relationship building, especially with doctors and retina specialists, in the distribution process. Through communication and trust, Mark successfully partners in the medical sphere to provide NuEyes Smartglasses to patients.  

NuEyes is a technology company that uses augmented reality Smartglasses
to change lives within a matter of minutes. Mark introduces their Smartglasses, the e2 and e2+, which have variable magnification, contrast, text to speech
capabilities, and digital accessibility, meaning you can stream television, movies, and check your email without having to change contrast or magnification.

The episode ends with the Shawn and Dawn exchanging views on the importance of using magnification products correctly, a process which involves practice and being patients with oneself. They conclude with an entertaining round of Eye Trivia and information sharing on additional resources.  

What We Discuss in this Episode

The seventh episode covers the following featured topics: 

Quotables

Recommended Resources

- https://www.nueyes.com

- https://www.nueyes.com/nueyes-e2 

- https://www.nueyes.com/nueyes-pro-3 

- https://amdcentral.org

- http://www.supportsight.org

- http://www.mymacdlife.org

- https://vispero.com

- https://www.healthyvisionassociation.com

- https://www.novartis.com

- https://www.centricbank.com

- https://hinklestein.com

On This Episode

Co-hosts Shawn Doyle and Dawn Prall begin the episode with a discussion on asking for help. Asking others for assistance can make you feel like a burden, but it’s an important skill to practice. Dawn brings forth the idea of people asking for help in all type of situations, such as customer service or dealing with a broken leg. We all need assistance at times and those who are helpers often get joy from giving aid. Shawn and Dawn then exchange views on gender roles and how they affect perceptions and vulnerability in needing help.  

In the next segment, Shawn interviews psychologist and writer, Sue Labar-Yohey. Sue shares a personal story of her macular degeneration diagnosis and how writing helped her process her diagnosis and led to her connecting with others through her blogs. With the assistance of Linda Moore, they created a popular Facebook group for those with MacD to connect and find educational resources. Sue goes on to share her views on why it’s the best time in history to go blind. She then explains Apellis-2 and advancing research on treatment for AMD. 

Shawn and Sue’s interview echoes the earlier conversation regarding asking for help. Sue’s top advice for those with MacD is to find acceptance and go ask for help. She reflects on acts of service as well as happiness created from supporting others. As an avid skier, cyclist, and dog-walker, Sue wants those with MacD to not be limited in their diagnosis, to find ways to be themselves, and to find gratitude in what they can do. 

Next in the episode, Dawn and Shawn provide tips for living with MacD. They describe how to practice using peripheral vision and ‘ears to eyes’ strategies. These suggestions are useful for any stage of vision loss. 

The episode concludes with information about the omniReader® from Vispero’s Bill Killroy and Mike Wood. The omniReader® is a lightweight, portable, scanning and reading device. The omniReader® has multilingual capability and you can customize the speed of the voice, the voice language, the size of the font, and the coloration of the font. The lightweight and durable product also has a handle for easy transportation.  

What We Discuss in this Episode

This eighth episode covers the following featured topics: 

“…a lot of people that I talked to say, ‘I would like to ask for help, but I don't want to be a burden to someone else.’ If I ask someone for help, let's ask you, Dawn, for help. If you help me, I'm not actually creating a burden for you. I'm actually creating joy for you because most people who are the helpers say, ‘It makes me feel good to help someone else.’ Even though you're helping me, Dawn, you're actually helping yourself, because you feel good about giving back to the world or to your community or to your neighborhood, or to your friend.” (2:58) 

“…I think it's hard for women to ask for help, because we're supposed to be able to do everything. But it's also difficult, and you tell me, I have lots of men in my life, happily, unhappily. But men don't like to ask for help, either because I believe that society sees it as a weakness.” (7:40) 

“I mean, when I met my optometrist, when she first told me I'd have to stop driving, and that, this is only going to get worse girl. I said, ‘Well, how am I going to get anywhere?’ She goes, ‘Ask.’ I said, ‘I don't want to be a burden.’ And she says, ‘Oh, god, no, you're not going to be a burden. One of the things that makes people happy is doing for others.’” (25:25) 

“It's Apellis-2…basically, they put a shot in your eye. Don't worry, you are very, very, very numbed, at least I don’t feel it. It is slow, it is taking a piece, a domino, out of the complimentary system. The more and more that they look, macular degeneration is an autoimmune problem. It's your body attacking yourself. That's part of what they call the compliment immune system. The compliment immune system is ancient. It is in all sorts of animals going all the way down to like lizards and everything. It is a chain reaction, a long series of dominoes. What they're doing is that knocking out a domino in the middle to slow down the chain reaction. Is that layman enough?” (32:18) 

“This is the best time in history to be going blind. You have more opportunities; you have more help. You have more research than they've ever had before.” (42:38) 

“Here's a practical tip for living with macular degeneration: learn to use your eyes more efficiently, learn to use a more peripheral part of your retina to see more clearly.” (44:49) 

“This product is basically a portable scanning and reading device. This will take any text that you have and convert it to audio output. If you're looking to read a newspaper, read your mail, easily just put that underneath this unit. This unit has a built-in screen; it's got a 10-inch screen on it. If you want to see the material that you're reading, you can enlarge it. You can change the font coloration if you need high contrast, and you can also plug in your headset.” (49:30) 

Quotables

“Asking for help actually is part of being humble. It says that you don't know everything, and you cannot do everything, because nobody can.” – Dawn Prall 

“Most people, 99.9999999% of people, if asked for help, will say, ‘Sure, what do you need?’ And it's amazing.” – Shawn Doyle 

“I still ride my bike. One of the farmers around here stopped me the other day and goes, ‘You know you can cross country ski over my fields if you want to.’ So I'll probably go skiing this afternoon. I walk my dogs every day, or every day the weathers decent. Life is not over.” – Sue Labar-Yohey 

“People think that they're giving up their lives, they're giving up their identity, but you're not, you just get it in a different way. You just work differently to try to get who you are.” – Sue Labar-Yohey 

“Don't cut yourself short. Try to still be yourself as much as you possibly can. You'll find people to help you, you will.” – Sue Labar-Yohey  

Recommended Resources

- http://www.supportsight.org/ 

- http://www.mymacdlife.org/ 

- https://vispero.com/ 

- https://www.freedomscientific.com/ 

- https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/lowvision/omnireader/ 

- https://www.enhancedvision.com/ 

- https://us.optelec.com/ 

- https://www.healthyvisionassociation.com/ 

- https://www.novartis.com/ 

- https://www.centricbank.com/ 

- https://hinklestein.com/ 

- https://maculardegeneration.net/ 

- https://mymacularjournal.com/ 

- https://www.facebook.com/groups/mymacularjournal/ 

- https://health-union.com/  

On This Episode

Co-hosts Dawn Prall and Shawn Doyle begin the episode with a conversation about being a doer, specifically, the importance of doing while losing your vision. Dawn and Shawn provide tips for modifying activities, such as exercise. They highlight the positive physical and psychological benefits of being active. The conversation shifts to experiences while running errands and the helpfulness of Assistive Technologies. The co-hosts then ask listeners to write in and share their tips and tricks for being a doer with MacD.

In the next segment, Dawn interviews co-host Shawn Doyle as the episode’s featured special guest. The conversation begins with Shawn sharing advice from his parents that shaped his career and outlook on life. Shawn’s passion for providing tools and techniques to help people succeed is featured throughout the interview. He goes on to discuss his career mentor, the blessings of Assistive Technologies, negative mindsets, and remedies for a bad day. 

Dawn and Shawn then exchange views on the book Grit by Angela Duckworth. They build off Duckworth’s definition of grit to include environmental factors – such as relationships. The hosts then provide a visual analogy of grit to gravel and the importance of getting back up after a fall.  

Actress, singer, voiceover artist and SiriusXM radio show host Christine Pedi recounts lessons learned from reading Even This I Get to Experience by Norman Lear. In this segment, we hear about the concept of “next” and viewing the “next” as an opportunity. We are encouraged to stay in our present moment and to stay open to lessons we may learn in unexpected places. 

The podcast moves on to the regular featured segment from Vispero’s Bill Kilroy, Senior Sales Director for the Northeast, and Mike Woods, Strategic Accounts Manager for Education. Vispero is the world's largest Assistive Technology for the visually impaired serving people who are blind or low vision. In this episode, Bill and Mike introduce the Transformer, a portable, three in one, high-definition camera. The Vispero duo highlight key features, such as a range of magnification and contrast settings and an OCR option that can convert print material into an audio book for the user.

Other episode highlights include a discussion about Tom Brady’s book The TB 12 Method, specifically touching on his commitment to excellence through training and nutrition. Dawn and Shawn relate commitment to health as an investment in a future self. The episode concludes with a fun trivia game played by co-hosts, Shawn and Dawn, and information sharing on additional resources.

What We Discuss in this Episode

This sixth episode covers the following featured topics:

• “Lots of people with macular degeneration - it depends on where they're at with it early, mid right in stage advance - can still do stuff. Let's talk about doing the stuff you need to keep doing, because you got to keep doing or you're going to give up.” (4:09)

• “I think stagnation is dangerous because it's not a natural human condition. When people stagnate, they lose their health, they get worse.” (4:26)

• “Exercise releases a lot of endorphins and lots of other chemicals that make you more optimistic. There's a physical benefit, but there's also a psychological benefit.” (5:14)

• “Don’t be afraid to ask someone, ‘Excuse me, could you help me grab that on the shelf?’ or, ‘What does this say?’ because I find that generally speaking, most people are nice, and are willing to help if you ask for help, which we've talked about before.” (8:16)

• “I was raised in a household where I was taught by two remarkable human beings that anything is possible. When we fast forward into my life as a trainer, speaker, executive coach, and author, I think I've just kind of continued that path, not only for me, but to teach other people that you can do anything in your life as long as you're willing to do the work. I provide people the tools and techniques to do that.” (12:42)

• “The single biggest asset that you have, and I'll add to that, it's not the trucks in the building and the products and all this other stuff. It's the underdeveloped potential of your people…if you can harness the underdeveloped potential of people, and they want to grow? It’s unbelievable what can happen.” (19:10)

• “…people say all the time, ‘how can you be motivated at a time like this?’ All of the turmoil that's going on in our world, all that bad news you see on the media, but we live in an amazing world, in terms of technology. Someone being able to turn on their computer, you control the computer without using a mouse, just purely using vocal commands, or be able to magnify something, or change the mean, it's just unbelievable, compared to say, Helen Keller's day, you know where there wasn't the technology available to her. Now there's so such great technology available. We're very blessed to have that.” (21:20)

• “Constantly consuming positive, as an antidote to the negative. I call it the Bad Day Prescription if you will.” (26:09)

• “…grit is a combination of passion, and perseverance.” (30:39)

• “You plan, God laughs. So, you can prepare for what you hope the future will bring. You know, pay your bills, walk your dog, take your vitamins, call your mother. But the minute you assume that things will work out in a certain way, then you are setting yourself up. You don't have any control over any of it. Especially if you have vision issues.” (37:45)

• “That's probably the key lesson that I pulled from that whole story was, no matter what your life is like, if you really commit to a healthy lifestyle of nutrition, it's going to fuel you to be better…” (45:49)

• “I think that we all make choices, yes, none of us are perfect. We're all blessed with the talents we have, with the strength we have, with the attitude, with the winning. Nutrition is a part of that, a big part of that. I think one of the things that we try to do with this show and on the website and the SupportSight Foundation is help people learn and educate them about how important all of that those pieces are, with or without MacD. You are what you eat.” (47:29)

• “The Transformer is a portable three in one high-definition camera, that actually can be a multi camera system, that you can connect to a standalone monitor, you can connect it to your laptop, MacBook, iPad, or Chromebook. It’s a three in one camera.” (58:13)

Quotables

• “Growing up as a child, my dad and mom always said, always, always, always said, you can do anything if you put your mind to it, as long as you're willing to do the work. I love that caveat, right? It wasn't just you could do anything, magically wishing it. It’s as long as you're willing to do the work.” – Shawn Doyle

• “If you're gritty, you can pull whatever you have to from places inside you that you never thought were there. And in things that you never thought existed. And you can pull them up when you need them. And you dig really deep down inside and then you use it.” – Dawn Prall

• “The fact that human beings learn so rapidly makes room for lots of amazing possibilities.” – Shawn Doyle

• “…you never know where you're going to find an answer or find an inspiration, so keep on looking. Keep on reading, keep on listening, keep on talking to people, it could be somebody that you're talking to at the bus stop. You don't know what kind of words of wisdom out there will suddenly just make you do a complete 180 on way of thinking.” – Christine Pedi

Recommended Resources

- https://shawndoyletraining.com/

- http://www.supportsight.org/

- http://www.mymacdlife.org/

- https://vispero.com/

- https://www.freedomscientific.com/

- https://www.enhancedvision.com/

- https://www.enhancedvision.com/low-vision-product-line/transformer-hd-portable-electronic- magnifier.html

- https://us.optelec.com/

- https://www.healthyvisionassociation.com/

- https://www.novartis.com/

- https://www.centricbank.com/

- https://www.steinandassociates.com/