Interview With Radio/Podcast Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey

WG: Nancy and Peter, recently we were fortunate enough to have Wordgathering as the subject of an interview on your radio program Eyes on Success. I think it's a program that many of our readers would like to know a lot more about, so let me start out by asking you to briefly describe the show and talk about how it got started.

NPT: Eyes on Success is a half hour radio show/podcast that covers a wide variety of topics of interest to the visually impaired. Many episodes feature interviews with leaders and developers in the accessibility field to share information about new products, services, and resources that listeners may find helpful. Other episodes are drawn from interviews with people around the world who have overcome visual challenges to pursue their life dreams. Looking through our show archives one can find shows on hiking the Appalachian Trail alone without sight, why a blind person might be interested in using Google Glass, woodworking and using power tools without vision, life for the visually impaired in third world countries, and demos and descriptions of new screen readers, reading systems, smart phones, etc.

The show began when the program manager of our local radio reading service asked if we would consider hosting a weekly program to read and discuss articles focusing on access technologies and resources for the visually impaired. Now we've often been described as "over achievers" and, being retired, we had plenty of time on our hands. So it wasn't long before this idea morphed into a project that currently has us creating the content for, as well as hosting and producing the show from our own home studio and maintaining a web presence at www.EyesOnSuccess as well as on Facebook, Twitter and AudioBoo. Every week we post a description of the current episode along with a link to the audio file on all 4 sites. (Editor's note: All active links other than to specific shows have been placed are at the end of the interview.)

WG: How do you go about finding the people that you interview on your program?

NPT: First we select a topic for each week's episode of Eyes on Success, which we do in many ways. In addition to participating in several e-mail forums related to blindness, we regularly post to Twitter, Facebook, and AudioBoo and check out the public profiles of people and organizations that follow us. Listener suggestions also often spark the idea for a show or person to interview.

Once we've selected a topic, it's usually fairly easy to find an appropriate interviewee via either a company or organization's web-site or a Google search. We've been pleasantly surprised by how few people have declined to be interviewed by us. They all seem to understand that they can use the show to disseminate useful information to the low vision and blind community and they have been very generous with their time.

WG: You both have backgrounds in technology, so I'd like to ask you what through your interview experiences you find to be some of the most exciting technology for blind or visually impaired people who want access to the computer and Internet.

NPT: Topics on Eyes on Success runs the gamut from the details of updates to screen readers to individuals' involvement in extreme sports. Both being retired research physicists, we predictably get really excited about the shows about novel research into access technology such as usability of touch screens or wearable computers. On the other hand, people's stories of their interests or achievements are also very interesting. Sophisticated screen readers and magnification programs have nearly leveled the playing field in giving the visually impaired access to education and careers that use computers. For that we're forever grateful and look forward to learning what advancements are coming next.

WG: For blind listeners who want to start becoming involved with computers or the Internet, where would you suggest that they begin?

NPT: People can listen to Eyes on Success to learn about the latest access tools and technologies, often straight from the developers themselves. In addition there are many blindness forums, user groups, and podcasts related to specific technologies and how the visually impaired can make the most effective use of these technologies. As we often say on the show, "Let Google be your friend!" to find a wide variety of useful resources.

WG: Recently one of your shows featured the work Wordgathering is doing in disability literature and during the interview you played a portion of a poem by the poet Ana Garza. Since Wordgathering readers are always interested in what is happening in disabilities literature, can you name a few other writers that you have interviewed over the course of your show and, perhaps point them to the shows that contain the interview?

NPT: As we begin our fourth year of hosting and producing the show, our archives now contain over 150 episodes spanning a broad range of topics. The new "Search" tool on our web site makes it easy to find episodes by show number, topic, or keyword.

Searching for "author" one can find such diverse entries as 1315 Writing and Publishing Your Own Book (Apr. 10, 2013) where we talked with Donna Hill, an author, musician, and advocate for the blind who wrote a book whose protagonist is a blind teenage girl. Donna describes the process of writing and publishing the book and support networks she found useful.

Coming up in April 2014 we'll be talking with Anastasia Charalabakos, author of a memoir called "From Darkness To Triumph: Creating Success Amidst Barriers" about both the content of the book and the experience of writing it and getting it published.

In addition to people who write about the experience of being visually impaired, we've also talked with visually impaired people who have written practical guides to dealing with visual impairments. For example, on 1323 Sports and Recreation for the Blind (June 5, 2013) we spoke with Andrew Leibs, author of "The Encyclopedia of Sports and Recreation for People With Visual Impairments," about specific sports that someone with a visual impairment can do, as well as interviews he did with experts in adaptive sports and some useful resources.

Apple recently introduced a new version of the operating system used on its iPhones and iPads called iOS 7. In 1341 New Accessibility Features in iOS 7 (Oct. 9, 2013) we spoke about the changes in accessibility features with Jonathan Mosen, author of a book on the topic called "iOS 7 without the Eye."

In 1402 Journal of Disability Related Prose and Poetry (Jan. 8, 2014) we spoke with Michael Northen, editor of Wordgathering, an on-line journal of items written for and by people with disabilities, about how the journal got started, who it serves, and how you can submit material for publication. In a related show, 1247 Narrating Audio Books (Nov. 21, 2012), we interviewed Yolande Bavan, who has narrated over 500 books for the U. S. National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, about what goes into creating an audio book and what the experience of the narrator is like.

As we say on our web site, "There's something for everyone on Eyes on Success!"

WG: Can you explain to readers how an interview for Eyes on Success works? Once you know who you'd like to interview, what then? Do you record from a studio?

NPT: We record most interviews from our home studio. We prefer to use Skype for best audio quality, but sometimes we place a phone call from a computer using Google Voice. Our microphones are plugged into a mixer connected to Pete's computer and we digitally record ourselves and the interviewee directly onto the computer using Sonar. Some interviews are done off-site and for those we use the built in microphone in Pete's BookPort Plus and then transfer that file to the computer.

At that point the real work begins. First Pete imports the full interview into Studio Recorder with which he creates a series of excerpts. He then copies those to Nancy's computer where she edits them using Audacity and creates an outline of the episode. Then it's back to our home studio where we use all the same equipment to record the full episode, then transfer the recorded file back to Nancy's computer for another round of editing. Finally, Pete reviews the entire episode and identifies anything else that needs to be changed, which we fix of course.

WG: Your show was originally called ViewPoints. Recently you changed the name to Eyes on Success. What prompted the change?

NPT: Our show was originally intended for only the listeners to our local radio reading service, WXXI Reachout Radio, so there were very few constraints on a name for the show. As the show grew to being aired over numerous radio reading services across the US and Canada as well as three internet streaming services and being podcast to the rest of the world, it became important to avoid any naming conflicts.

After nearly two years of creating the show as ViewPoints, we learned that an unrelated half hour weekly podcast had trademarked the name so we needed to find a new one. The search took months to find a catchy name that reflects the spirit of the show without any conflict for prior use, trademark, web domain name, Facebook name, Twitter handle or AudioBoo feed. It was a challenge, but we're very happy with the name Eyes on Success.

WG: Nancy and Pete, I'd like to thank you for both the opportunity to talk about Wordgathering on Eyes on Success and for your doing this interview about your program. I hope that Wordgathering readers will take advantage of your website to check out some of the interesting shows that the two of you have done. Before closing, I'd like to ask if there is anything else that you'd like to say about on Eyes on Success that we may not have touched on?

NPT: Hosting Eyes on Success has been a tremendously rewarding experience for both of us. We've met many people from around the world with inspiring stories of success and overcoming challenges. We've been able to share these stories with listeners all over the world. We've learned a lot about new technologies and creative concepts that are changing the lives of members of the visually impaired community. After retiring from very gratifying careers as research scientists, it is nice to be able to "give back" to others using our experience and skills to, hopefully, make a difference.

Thanks for the opportunity to participate in this interview. We encourage people to check out Eyes on Success, subscribe to the podcast, join our listener forum, and peruse through our archives of over 150 episodes for topics of interest. If people have questions, comments, or suggestions about the show, they can contact us by sending an e-mail to: hosts@EyesOnSuccess.net.

The following links give additional ways you can connect with Eyes on Success: