Podcasts

Podcast transcript

Corey Grandstaff:

Welcome to the Blind COVID podcast. Blind COVID’s mission is to empower blind and low vision people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Blind COVID aims to do this through increasing awareness of accessible resources, providing strategies and sharing your stories and personal experiences for blind and low vision Washingtonians.

I’m your host Corey Grandstaff, and I work here at the Washington State School for the Blind. I’m also a blind person.

The purpose of today’s podcast is to introduce you to the Blind COVID project and website, as well as hear from an individual who’s been talking with blind people across the state of Washington during focus groups to see what you need in relation to accessibility of information regarding COVID-19.

So what is Blind COVID? Blind COVID is a grant that was funded by the Washington State Department of Health that was given to the Washington State School for the Blind. The goal of this grant was to create accessible resources and to find accessible resources for people who are blind, specifically in Washington, but we hope we reach other individuals as well. These resources specifically deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

So we begin our journey by exploring some ways that we could provide those accessible resources related to COVID-19. As we know, as blind people there’s a lot of resources out there that are not accessible. I’m sure many of you have tried to look up the stats in your county and found some of the charts inaccessible. Well what I’m here to tell you is we have been able to find some of those resources that you’re looking for, and we want to share those resources with you through the Blind COVID project.

So I want to tell you about four components of our project. The first component is, well, you’re listening to it right now, these podcasts. I’m going to try to do one of these podcasts each week. Future episodes are going to include topics such as strategies that you’re going to use while traveling during COVID-19, whether you’re traveling by air, whether you’re using ride share services, public transportation, or whether you’re just walking.

We’re going to talk about strategies for social distancing as a blind and low vision person. We’re going to have some accessible shopping tricks and tips, because we all know that shopping has changed for people who are blind and low vision, whether it’s that you’re still going in person and you need some tips and tricks on how to make sure that you’re able to shop safely with a human guide or a courtesy clerk in the store, or whether it’s that you need to learn how to navigate some of the online shopping platforms. We’re going to talk about those things.

We’re also going to be talking about information regarding accessible testing sites, accessible vaccination sites, ways you can access a fulfilling social life during COVID-19, some different recreation opportunities. And of course, we want to hear your personal stories and your experiences as you’ve gone through COVID-19 as a blind person.

The second component of our project is the establishment of the website, blindcovid.com. That’s B-L-I-N-D-C-O-V-I-D.com. Again, that’s B as in boy, L-I-N as in Nancy, D as in dog, C-O-V as in very, I-D as in dog.com. This website is going to feature these podcasts. We’re going to have a compilation of all the different resources we’ve been able to gather, a video of strategies for social distancing, and there’s going to be lists of accessible testing and vaccination sites as well as places where you can find those accessible statistics regarding COVID-19.

A third component of this project is that we’ve established the Blind COVID access line, and I’m excited about this. This is a phone that you can call if you are having difficulty with accessibility-related issues in relation to COVID-19. The number for that line is (360) 947-3330. Again, that’s (360) 947-3330. Now you can ask us questions regarding finding accessible COVID information, accessible testing sites, where you can get vaccinated, those sorts of things.

Now I have to tell you if we can’t provide any medical advice. We also needed to find out what resources do you need, and this is something that I’m really excited about. We have been engaging people who are blind and low vision all across the state of Washington. We’ve been running focus groups, and I’m really excited because today with us on the podcast, we have the facilitator of our focus groups, Matthew Hines. Welcome Matt.

So Matt, you’ve been conducting focus groups and you’ve had some focus groups scheduled in the future. Can you tell us a bit about yourself in relation to this project, as well as the process you went through during these focus groups?

Matt Hines:

Absolutely Corey, and thank you for asking me on to discuss some of these important topics. I do a lot of instruction in the Residential Department for Independent Living Skills here at the School for the Blind, and quite often I get an opportunity to work on other projects that help support the blind, low vision and deaf-blind community. This opportunity came along to do a really important thing for not just our community, but for the whole state, for the blind, low vision and deaf-blind. It definitely goes in line with our mission here at the school.

As far as how I dove into that process, it really began about establishing a a web-based centralized location for information, resources and tools. To support the building of that resource we needed to know what was affecting people. What experiences were people having that would drive the generation of this tool?

We’ve conducted, I think we’re on to our fourth, we just finished our fourth focus group. We’ve surveyed over 50 people so far. We have another six planned in February. So hopefully we’ll have close to 100 to 150 responses by the time this is all done.

But we’ve made a concerted effort in these focus groups to reach out to different parts of the state to really get into what’s affecting people, not just as somebody within the blind community, but somebody who also might have geographical differences in how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all of us. So having this, this feedback to create this tool that can be accessible to everyone throughout our state is, I thought, a really important thing to do, and I’m really proud of the work we’ve done.

We’re taking this feedback and we’re putting it into plan and action. These things that people are sharing in these groups are going up on the website. We’re creating tools off the website based off of people’s feedback. So it’s really coming along so far.

Corey Grandstaff:

Yeah. So it sounds like you’ve done a few different ones and you have a few coming up. When you’re doing those focus groups, obviously they’re all based on people’s personal experiences. So what would you say were the things that you kept hearing over and over when it came to COVID testing, vaccines, accessibility during your focus group?

Matt Hines:

Yeah, well you just went over really the core pillars of what people are looking for right now, which is testing, vaccination, informative data and also the resources to combat what people are going through that isn’t directly related to COVID. For example, some of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve gotten when it comes to those pillars that we’re talking about that people are looking for information on is the lack of accessibility. We have a widespread report throughout these focus groups of people experiencing accessibility issues, locating information about testing, locating information about vaccinations, making appointments for both, not having a culture of service that serves people outside of web-based tools.

The response to this pandemic has been very much technically oriented and the people that we’re honestly trying to reach at this moment as we’re coming into gearing up with vaccinations, the people that we’re trying to reach are the people that aren’t necessarily the most technical savvy. Not only that, but not everyone can afford those tools. A lot of people report not having a robust response outside of the virtual space to tackle these issues.

Another thing that people also have a shared is the fatigue, the COVID fatigue as people refer to it. The isolation, the lack of touch, the lack of being able to socialize, the inability to gather has taken it out. Many participants in these focus groups have shared that they’re somewhat sedentary people to begin with and this has really caused a lot of harm for these people. There has been a yearning to get out and explore and be with people, but doing it reasonably. So a lot of people have felt that they’ve wanted to do that, but haven’t really been educated on how to do that. So people seeking strategies for interacting in public as a blind person has been something that people have really sought.

Then also talking about how that isolation has led to an increase in depression, an increase in overeating over reliance on quick food options. Instead of being able to have a robust variety of choices, a lot of people have found difficulty with shopping and accessing more food delivery options in their areas. Even though some of us are experiencing a boom in that, in that space, some people haven’t quite been able to access those services. So that’s also been weighing heavy on people, is just it feels like its beat people down in a lot of ways.

Then I would say lastly, a lot of these participants were very quick to relate to how different this a pandemic has been for them as someone with a disability compared to somebody who doesn’t. Now that’s not to say that this hasn’t impacted everyone, but I think the point that has been made is that it really has impacted those with disabilities. The consensus in this group is a blind, low vision and deaf-blind group is that it’s really impacted skills as far as independent living, being able to practice mobility in your area and neighborhood.

I had one participant share that she recently graduated with getting her guide dog and she hasn’t really been able to work the dog and train the dog in ways that was expected of her when she left and that’s weighing heavily on her. So I think that those are just a few things. But there’s a lot to unpack there and it’s a very widespread in how those feelings are shared.

Corey Grandstaff:

Yeah. So Matt, what would you say, when you’re going through this if you had to pick one statement that someone made that had the most profound impact on you, what would that statement be that you heard in the focus groups?

Matt Hines:

I think that it really weighed heavily on me hearing how alone people felt, and how just people were so upset with the position they were in. So many people have been yearning to get back to their work routine and get back to their pre-COVID routine as best as possible and they understand that’s a ways away and I think a lot of people have done their best to accept that. But just hearing people express how lonely they felt, how they’ve gone down to as far as they can go, as far as their depression, talking about how people, their poor self-image of their body because of not having healthy options during COVID. There’s so many things that I can pick out in these focus groups that really make me want to just do everything I can to fix all of these things.

But I think hearing about isolation. To be honest, a majority of these focus groups have leaned heavily senior oriented so far, and we will have more focus groups that touch on a lot of different other age groups. But this age group specifically who’s already isolated to begin with, who already has sedentary lifestyles in some cases, I think just seeing how that’s ravaged that community and beaten people down until the point where they don’t know when this is going to end or if there’s ever a light to them being able to get past some of what they’re feeling. People that literally just want to take a walk around their block but are afraid to because they don’t feel safe. I think that was hard for me to listen to as somebody who just has sit in on these sessions and heard what people had to say.

Corey Grandstaff:

Yeah, that sounds like that’d be really tough. You have additional focus groups coming up. Can you tell us when they are, where they are, how can someone get in contact with you if they want to be a part of those focus groups or they want another focus group run?

Matt Hines:

Yeah, absolutely. I’ll begin by just stating that we have six focus groups coming in February. We do not have the dates exactly filled in yet. We are waiting on the invitations to be accepted with the meeting details. But just to give a rundown, we’ll be meeting with representatives from the Tri-Cities, from Yakima, from Spokane.

We’ll be meeting with some representatives that also meet virtually throughout the state, some members of these different consumer groups and community stakeholder groups. So we’ll be able to get those focus group times narrowed down and we’ll get that information out on the blindcovid.com website, as well as through other list serves as well. If people would like to join those focus groups based off of what is best for their schedule, the best thing to do would just be to contact myself Matthew Hines, and I’ll go ahead and give my phone number. That’s (360) 980-2385. Again, that’s (360) 980-2385. You could also email me at matthew.hines@wssb.wa.gov. That’s M-A-T-T-H-E-W.H-I-N-E-S, and I can get that over to you guys to send out with this podcast as well so that people can see that posted up as well.

Corey Grandstaff:

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And Matt, thank you for meeting with us today or being a part of this podcast. Thank you for your work and reaching out to blind people across the state. We really appreciate what you’re doing as far as collecting this information, and I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing from you in another episode at some point.

Matt Hines:

Probably so, and I would also just encourage people to keep sending, even if you can’t make a meeting, we have opportunities to send in feedback as well. I know you’ll share that in your future episodes as well.

Corey Grandstaff:

Yep. Yep. So you can always access the blindcovid.com website. You can email Blind COVID at wssb.wa.gov, or we have our new Blind COVID access line, which is (360) 947-3330. All right.

Matt Hines:

Excellent.

Corey Grandstaff:

Well thank you, Matt.

Matt Hines:

Awesome. Thank you, Corey. Take care, and everyone have a great day.

Corey Grandstaff:

Wow. That is really exciting to be able to hear some of the great feedback that Matt has been able to gather around the state. Sounds like there’s some more opportunities coming up. I I’m really excited about the information that has been gathered. It’s just really exciting.

Before we close out today’s episode, I want to give you some tips and introduce you to blindcovid.com, and I want to do that using my screen reader here for you. I am going to move over to my computer now, and I actually am going to turn on the screen reading software. It’s currently going, and the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to open my browser. Now I’m using Chrome. You can choose to use whatever browser you want, and what I want to do is just give you some tips and tricks for navigating blindcovid.com and really introduce you to the website.

Now I’m on the Blind COVID website right now, and I got to tell you, we’re still working it. It’s still a work in progress. It’s not actually live yet, but I want to introduce you to what we got so far. So I’m going to slow my speech down here real quick for you

Computer:

Slow, slow, slow, slower.

Corey Grandstaff:

We’re on the homepage of the blindcovid.com website. So at the top of the page, here’s what you’re going to hear when you first log on.

Computer:

Blind COVID vertical are empowering blind and low vision individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, [inaudible 00:20:23].

Corey Grandstaff:

The first thing that I like to do when I go to a webpage, and this will work for this one as well, is I like to look at the different headings. On this webpage, we have a few different headings and we navigate with the headings by H. So I’m going to start by pressing H and we’re going to hear …

Computer:

Resources for navigating the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, heading level one.

Corey Grandstaff:

Resources for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, and then we’re going to navigate by H again, that was a heading level one. This next one is going to be …

Computer:

Our mission heading level two.

Corey Grandstaff:

Another heading level, but it’s going to be at a level two this time, and that’s going to be our mission. If we wanted to read that we could actually just use our down arrow here. But I’m going to go through and see what other headings we have.

Computer:

Mission heading level two. Next heading level two are actions.

Corey Grandstaff:

We have our actions next, and then …

Computer:

Low vision and blind resources heading level-

Corey Grandstaff:

We have low vision and blind resources. So those are the four or five different headings that we have here. Now I’m going to go back to the top of my page because there’s some links here that are going to be really important that we examine. I’m going to do that with my control home.

Computer:

Find COVID vertical, are empowering blind and low vision individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corey Grandstaff:

We heard that same title that we heard before, and we’re just going to down arrow from here.

Computer:

Save page links, skip the content, list of what items, visited link, follow on Twitter. List end.

Corey Grandstaff:

Oh, you can follow us on Twitter. We will definitely make sure we include that in our next podcast, our Twitter handle.

Computer:

Blind COVID-

Corey Grandstaff:

And we have-

Computer:

Visited link/blank search for colon, search, edit search.

Corey Grandstaff:

A search box.

Computer:

Search, navigate. List of five current. List of five items.

Corey Grandstaff:

Then it says we have a list of five different links here. We have the homepage.

Computer:

Visited current page link home.

Corey Grandstaff:

Which we’re on. Then we have …

Computer:

Visited link testing/vaccines.

Corey Grandstaff:

Testing and vaccines.

Computer:

Link COVID-19 stats.

Corey Grandstaff:

Stats.

Computer:

Visited link resources.

Corey Grandstaff:

Resources.

Computer:

Collapsed visited link media.

Corey Grandstaff:

Then we have, if you heard this one, it’s a link but it says media, but it says collapsed. We expand that with the space bar …

Computer:

Navigation region. Media three expanded link.

Corey Grandstaff:

And it says media three expanded …

Computer:

[inaudible 00:22:36] slower, slower, slower.

Corey Grandstaff:

Sorry about the speed there. And then it pops up with a list.

Computer:

Visited link video.

Corey Grandstaff:

And we have video.

Computer:

Visited link podcast.

Corey Grandstaff:

Podcast, so if you happen to miss one of our podcasts, you can go there. Now as we progress in our podcasts and in development of this website, we will definitely be showing you some of the other components. I’m really excited when we get the stats area all ready to go, to be able to show you that. This was just a brief introduction to the website, and so I hope this information has been really helpful for you.

Corey Grandstaff:

I hope you look forward to joining us for another episode of the Blind COVID podcast. If you have questions you want answered on future episodes or stories or personal experiences you’ve had as a blind person during COVID-19, or expertise you could offer, there’s two ways you can get ahold of us. You can send an email to blindcovid@wssb.wa.gov. That’s B-L-I-N-D-C-O-V-I-D@wssb.wa.gov, or you can call the Blind COVID access line at (360) 947-3330. Those are the two ways that you can get ahold of us. Until the next time, stay safe, wear your mask, wash your hands, and maintain your six feet of distance.