Accessiversity Featured On ePIFany Now!

A screenshot of Chris and Bob during the interview.

I had the incredible opportunity of speaking with Bob Hoffman from ePIFany Now! about how Accessiversity Labs is changing the way individuals with disabilities interact with technology.

ePIFany Now! is all about sharing good news stories, which I absolutely love! Kudos to Bob and ePIFany Now! for continuing to be a source of positivity and inspiration. He’s like our very own mid-Michigan version of John Krasinski.

Here is a link to the video, and below I have included a full transcript of the interview.

Bob Hoffman: Joining us is Chris Knapp who is the founder of Accessiversity. Chris, thanks so much for being here today. What is Accessiversity?

Chris Knapp: Accessiversity is an innovative accessibility and usability testing and learning lab. We offer organizations a safe, proactive way to dip their toes in the water to see how well they’re doing when it comes to accessibility.

BH: So, when you say organizations, are you talking websites, mobile platforms, what exactly is that?

CK: So it includes everything from web sites, to software products, to mobile applications, even business processes.

BH: And how did you come up with this, and why did you come up with this?    

CK: So, we are unique in that we actually utilize individuals with disabilities to perform the assessments. I myself am an individual with a disability, I’ve used assistive technology my entire adult life. And I realized that there’s really a need for this, for, you know, organizations to be able to get an authentic accessibility experience in terms of how individuals with disabilities are interacting with their systems, because, you know, it’s different in the way that individuals with disabilities have to utilize assistive technology to consume their digital content.

BH: Talk about maybe your personal experience.

CK: Sure, I mean, I’m statutorily blind so I use a screen reader on my computer. So, I’ve had to really adapt, in terms of doing just about everything I do with a computer, in terms of locating information, effectively communicating with people, like we’re doing today on this Zoom call, you know, essentially, just compete on the same level as, if not, outperform my non-disabled, sighted peers. So, for me, it’s something that, you know, I’ve utilized for my entire adult life, like I said, and it wasn’t until recently that I realized that I could actually make a living as an accessibility consultant, as an accessibility tester by doing this sort of work.

BH: How can people get involved? Can people get involved?

CK: Sure, so obviously we’re always looking for other organizations to contract with us to do assessments, so folks can email me, Chris@knappstrategic.com and, yeah, our goal is to actually grow the lab, actually, eventually establish some sort of permanent lab setting where we will actually bring other individuals with disabilities through the lab as testers and, you know, develop them into entry-level Quality Assurance analysts to actually get placed with some of the local technology companies.

The final way people can get involved with Accessiversity is to follow my blog, “Tales of the Reluctant Blind” which there is a link to on my Knapp Strategic website.

BH: Tell me a little bit about your blog.

CK: So, “Tales of the Reluctant Blind” started as kind of me telling my story to introduce folks to, kind of, the challenges that I have encountered over my life with my disability, but I really wanted it to be bigger than that, so I’m really using it as a platform to help advance the important conversation about accessibility and disability-related topics. And so, we use it as an opportunity to showcase other service providers and organizations that are doing great things for the disability community, and I try to keep it, you know, light hearted and inject some of my humor into some of the articles and stories that I share.

BH: Chris, real quick, tell us your story.

CK: So, I suffered late onset blindness in my early twenties as a result of an auto-immune disorder which attacked the retinas in my eyes. So, the recurrent vasculitis, the retinal detachments, multiple surgeries and procedures, left me with a prosthetic left eye and 8/200 vision in the lower periphery of my right eye, which resulted in me being statutorily blind. And so, yeah, I have a little bit of usable vision, so I’m fortunate there, but it’s definitely been one of those things that was life altering at the time and something that I continue to adapt and deal with on a daily basis.

BH: So Accessiversity is helping people that are in your situation, who may be blind, but what other handicaps would other people with disabilities, how could it help?

CK: Sure, I mean, if you think about the web, or just any sort of digital content, there’s a whole array of disabilities that that potentially impacts, whether it’s visual in nature, folks who are blind or have low vision, or are folks who maybe have color blindness, if you think about the color contrast between colors presenting challenges for certain folks. Deaf and hard of hearing, in terms of captioning of video and other sorts of media, all the way to, just things, certain effects like flashing and strobing, which there are folks that have certain types of neurological disorders that can actually create different seizures. And of course, just a whole host of different learning disabilities and things that you have to be thinking about when you are developing or redesigning a website, thinking about the various different ways that these people need to access that information.

BH: Well I always end every interview by asking the same question, and that is, Chris Knapp, can you tell me something good?

CK: Well sure, the fact that I’m able to do what I’m doing through Accessiversity, something that I’m very passionate about, is a good thing. The fact that there’s organizations and individuals that believe in our mission , and are willing to contract with us to do these sorts of assessments. We have a tag line that we use for Accessiversity, and that’s “leave your print on a more accessible world” so, the fact that there are these organizations out there that are doing just that, they’re working with us to leave their print on a more accessible world, which is great.

BH: Well, thank you Chris so much for what you do and thank you for joining us today.

CK: Thank you so much Bob, I really appreciate it.