S1E22 - Looking Different vs. Living Fully: Why the Right Tool Matters

Hosts Rachel Ramos and David Woodbridge head down under this month to welcome HumanWare’s newest team member, Damo McMorrow, regional account manager for Queensland, Australia. Damo shares how he came full circle in assistive technology. He started as a teenager running a computer repair business and selling the Eureka, then spent 20 years in IT in the university sector and about 12 years with Vision Australia, and he is now at HumanWare. He talks candidly about how struggling at school without the right tools, and later losing access to inaccessible systems at work, drove his passion for putting the right tools in people’s hands. The conversation covers the idea of a “technology toolbox” and the moments when simply showing someone what’s possible changes their perspective, including a newly blind farmer who went on to fix his own motor home. Damo also talks about life as a car enthusiast who camps in a caravan with his wife Marion, with a few creative accessibility modifications of their own, and about the growing Australian HumanWare team.

In the Hot Topic segment, Rachel, David, and Damo discuss why some students and parents resist braille, magnification, or other assistive tools for fear of looking different. They look at the long-term cost to literacy, education, and employment, and at how the right tool can become a conversation starter and an icebreaker. Damo then shares a tip for StellarTrek and Victor Reader Trek users who travel by bus: use the “open area lock” feature (hold the right arrow key) so the device gives only distance and heading to your chosen landmark instead of trying to route you along the street map. That makes it easier to know when to ring the bell for your stop. The episode closes with the upcoming shows segment: Connecting the Dots in Quebec City (French) on October 15 and in Toronto (English) on October 29, the NFB New Jersey State Convention in Atlantic City, the NFB Minnesota State Convention in Minneapolis, REHACARE in Düsseldorf, and the NFB South Carolina Low Vision Fair in Columbia.

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