With more than 400 videos over a 5 year period, The Blind Life podcast s Owner and Creator Sam Seavey has been one busy fellow. Sam talks with J.J. about how he creates his content and what inspires him to share with others. Assistive Technology reviews, interviews and daily living are just some of the subjects Sam covers on the channel. To learn more, visit The Blind Life YouTube page
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Transcript
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Hide transcriptTranscribed by Grecia Ramirez
Direct from St. Louis, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of ACB 2018, brought to you by Google
Our friends at Google are working hard to create great technology products for everyone. They’re inviting you to participate in Google user research studies, where you can help shape the future of accessible products and features and get rewarded for it. Check out our tweet for the sign-up link, at blind bargains, or head to google.com slash user research.
Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J. MEDDAUGH: Here at ACB 2018, I found Sam Seavey. You might have heard of The Blind Life YouTube channel. Well, he is the man behind the channel. And, of course, he created all sorts of videos on blindness and technology and much more. And here to talk about it, hey. Welcome to the podcast, Sam.
SAM SEAVEY: Hey, guys. Thank you very much for having me.
JM: So why don’t you fill people in if they haven’t heard of The Blind Life. What is The Blind Life?
SS: Awesome. Well, that is my YouTube channel. I’ve had it for about five years now. I – it’s all about living life with visual impairment, and I like to say, not only living, but thriving with vision loss. I’ve been doing it for about five years, and it’s – I’ve got well over 400 videos on there.
JM: Wow.
SS: Yeah. I know right? It surprises me sometimes how many I’ve got up there.
JM: Yeah. It adds up, doesn’t it?
SS: It does. Tips and tricks videos, how-tos, tutorials, I’ve got interviews with awesome blind people -- I might have to do one right here in a second -- but I’ve got a lot of assistive technology reviews, so all the big names you’ve heard of – Freedom Scientific, Hims, Humanware, Cyber Eyez, IrisVision, eSight, NuEyes. I’ve done reviews on all of those. So if you can’t get to a location to try out one of these devices, but you’re thinking about getting it, check out one of my videos. I’m a hundred percent honest. In fact, some companies are not happy with me because I am brutally honest with their products, so –
JM: I understand. Exactly. You know, and that’s really cool because, you know, we do some of this stuff with our podcast, of course, but sometimes, people want to see the product. Especially those who have a little bit of vision or whatever, and you know, kind of want to do the video with the audio; right?
SS: Yes. And I do my best. I understand that a lot of my viewers have no vision at all, so I do my best to describe everything as I go along. I can get better. We can always get better with our content --
JM: Right.
SS: -- but I do my best.
JM: So your blind yourself, or low-vision?
SS: I’m low-vision, visually impaired since age 11. I’ve got a juvenile form of macular degeneration called Stargardt’s Disease, and so my acuity right now is right about 20/400 in my good eye, 20/800 in my bad eye.
JM: So I’m going to go on a tangent for a minute, since you are low-vision and doing videos. What do you do to make that process accessible in how you create the video content?
SS: It’s hard, let me tell you. It takes me about four times as long to do everything. I think it takes all of us longer to do anything than normal, but I have – I use my accessibility, my assistive technology. I’ve got a 40-inch computer monitor that I zoom in with the magnification on – I use a PC, so I use just the built-in Windows magnifier, and I just take my time. Zoomed in a lot, and I use magnifier with my camera to see all the settings on my camera.
JM: Which camera?
SS: I use a Cannon Rebel T7i.
JM: Okay.
SS: It’s got a nice flip-out screen, and I have to edit a lot, because I oftentimes don’t get somebody perfectly in the frame, so I’ll have to zoom in when I’m editing to get them in the perfect center of the frame. So it takes a lot longer –
JM: Right.
SS: -- but I love it, and I love connecting with people on YouTube and helping out.
JM: Is this what you do full-time, or is this a hobby for you?
SS: No. Hobby, I work part-time as an assistive technology program coordinator at a non-profit in Lexington, Kentucky –
JM: Okay.
SS: -- called the Bluegrass Counsel of the Blind. So I do training on assistive technology. I do that three days a week, and the other two days is dedicated to The Blind Life.
JM: And what’s the video software that you use for that?
SS: My editing software, I use Sony Vegas pro--- 13, I believe it is. It’s not as full-featured as Premiere. Premiere is like, the go-to for a lot of –
JM: Right.
SS: -- content creators. But Premiere is not very low-vision friendly. Sony Vegas is much more low-vision friendly.
JM: That makes a lot of sense. 400 videos, wow. Over five years. That’s pretty amazing. Do you have a favorite that you’ve done over time?
SS: Well, it’s maybe not my most PC, but I have a whole series called Why it Sucks to be Blind.
JM: Right.
SS: And – because I like to focus on the positive side and also the humorous. It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom about living with low-vision. All right? There’s some really ridiculous stuff that goes on. I got one video, I call it the Low-vision Lottery, where I’m walking through my house, and I see something on the floor, and is it – I’ve got animals. I’ve got pets.
JM: Uh-oh.
SS: So it could be something nasty, or it could just be a dog toy. You don’t know, so I have to play the low-vision lottery and bend down and pick it up. Am I going to win, or am I going to lose? You never know.
JM: Right. Well, good luck on that. We hope you win. Hope you’re more a winner than not.
SS: Most of the time, you win, but there are lots of times, you lose.
JM: Yes. Yes. For sure. Especially if you’re just walking around and you step in something.
SS: Oh, yeah.
JM: Yeah. For sure. Well, if people want to locate your videos or try to check out some of the downloads, what’s the best way to track you down?
SS: Absolutely. You can just go to YouTube and search The Blind Life, three words. Or you can search on Google, really, The Blind Life, and you’ll find me. On YouTube, it’s The Blind Life. Everywhere else, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, it’s The Blind Life Sam.
JM: Awesome. Thank you so much, Sam, for sharing your story about that. It’s appreciated.
SS: Thank you, guys
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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.
