Published: July 9, 2018, 4:11 p.m.

Meet Kristen Steele: Advocate, Massage Therapist, Aira Explorer and Braille Enthusiast #NFB18

 

Kristen Steele is a Massage Therapist, an Aira Explorer and an advocate who believes in fighting for what she wants and making sure others benefit as well in the long run. Her experiences are readily available as she shares her journey through gaining employment, advocating for accommodations and giving us a glimpse into the accessible tools she employs on a daily basis.

 

Kristen is an Aira Explorer and has utilized the Aira service in the job application process and as a daily tool to gain instant access to information when she needs it.

She also fought the education system when she insisted on taking her test with Braille instead of the choice the school offered. She stuck it out and with the help of the NFB and encouragement from others, Kristen has opened the doors for others that will come behind her. She realizes that advocacy is not just for the self and that the time is well spent when the changes one is making will impact the future for others.

 

Join Kristen Steele as she talks about her journey, her job and the challenges she has overcome. From school to the workplace, from legal battles to success, Kristen hopes all of you can learn from her experiences and her successes.

 

If you have any questions for Kristen, you can contact her by email.

 

If you want to know more about Aira and the services they provide, check them out on the web and become an Aira Explorer today! www.Aira.io

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Using augmented reality, Aira connects people who are blind or low vision to a trained professional agent who is dedicated to further enhancing their everyday experience – completely hands-free assistance at the touch of a button.

 

You can learn more about the National Federation of the Blind on the web at www.NFB.org

 

Thank you for listening!
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Full Transcript:

Meet Kristen Steele: Advocate, Massage Therapist, Aira Explorer and Braille Enthusiast #NFB18

 

 

Christen Steele:
So, I had a resume that I had done a few months back, but it wasn't as up-to-date as I would like it and I wanted to find a way that I could have it formatted and centered with all the headings in bold. I decided to use Aira, which is a service that will be a visual interpreter.

Jeff Thompson:
Meet Christen Steele, massage therapist, Aira explorer, advocate for the blind.

 

Christen Steele:
And I talked to Mark Riccobono, who is the current president of the National Federation of the Blind. We were on the phone for about an hour one morning and he really turned me and told me to wait. He said, "It's not just for you, it's for other people." There's so many things that are best to look at in braille. Your bank statements. I just wouldn't have the peace of mind, the confidence, going around this hotel this week. The room numbers, it's accessible if you know braille.

Jeff Thompson:
Christen talks about the accessible tools that she used to succeed on the job.

 

Christen Steele:
There's pictures and I type it in to my Braille Note and then I disconnect with the agent and go grab the client.

Jeff Thompson:
And how she built relationships with her instructors to receive the best accommodations possible.

 

Christen Steele:
So, he was already thinking of ways to type up picture descriptions of the muscles or have me feel a skeleton hands-on.

Jeff Thompson:
You can find more podcasts with the blindness perspective on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com, on Twitter at Blind Abilities, and download the free Blind Abilities app from the App Store and the Google Play Store. That's two words, Bling Abilities. You can also follow Job Insights, where we talk about the challenges and the successes of transitioning from high school to college to the work place and you can find Job Insights on the Blind Abilities network, www.BlindAbilities.com and on Twitter at Job Insights VIP.

 

Christen Steele:
And he was asking me what format to convert his Power Points into and I left that day and I'm like, "He just got it."

Jeff Thompson:
And now let's meet Christen Steele.

Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I'm Jeff Thompson. Today with National Federation of the Blind Convention in Orlando, Florida 2018, and we are talking to Christen Steele. Christen, how are you doing?

 

Christen Steele:
Good. How are you?

Jeff Thompson:
I'm doing good. Christen, why don't you tell our listeners a little about yourself.

 

Christen Steele:
Okay. Thanks, Jeff, for the invitation to be on this podcast. My name is Christen Steele and I'm a licensed massage therapist. I currently work at Synergy Advanced Massage Therapy in Ralston, Nebraska. I started there in May of 2018. So, it took me a little while to find what I would consider more of a perfect job. The kind you are looking for that you intend to stay for a couple of years or maybe 10 years down the road and it adds a few extra barriers when you live with a visual impairment when you go through the application process, the interview, the decision of acceptance. So, I just wanted to share my story to maybe give other bling listeners an idea of how the process works and to connect with others who have been in the same circumstances.

Jeff Thompson:
So, Christen, when your job research start?

 

Christen Steele:
I was working at a couple of massage places, a physical therapy clinic was one in Council Bluffs, and it was okay, but I wasn't very happy with the hours they were giving me and the pay, so I kept looking on Indeed, which is a job sharing website. I was just glancing around for any openings in the area and one day when I wasn't looking, I was just scrolling through my Facebook feed in the morning, I saw a post on this group, Massage Professionals Omaha, it was someone from Synergy looking for another therapist to join their team.

Jeff Thompson:
And so you went on about that. How did you work your application?

 

Christen Steele:
Well, the interview ad for the job application requested a resume. So, I had a resume that I had done a few months back, but it wasn't as up-to-date as I would like it and I wanted to find a way that I could have it formatted and centered with all the headings in bold so that they wouldn't know I'm blind until I come in to the interview and I can be judged equally. I had decided to use Aira, which is a service that will be a visual interpreter for the blind. They call themselves the description of life and as a monthly plan, when you're an Aira explorer, you pay a straight fee once a month for the number of minutes you receive with an agent and they will do anything for you from navigating to reading mail to formatting documents.

 

Christen Steele:
So I sent an agent who picked up my resume by email and told them how I'd like to format it and it took her about 20 minutes and she was very thorough asking me everything from, "What would you like bolded?" or, "Would you like it on two pages?" "How do you want your references listed?" And by the time I was finished I was confident that I had a perfect resume. So I sent it off at about 11:00 a.m. in the morning and by 12:00, an hour later, I received a callback.

Jeff Thompson:
Congratulations.

 

Christen Steele:
Thank you. I was shocked. I looked at the number and it looked like the one that was on the bottom of their job ad. Like, "They can't have received it already." But I went ahead and took the call and they wanted to schedule an interview with me.

Jeff Thompson:
Was that by phone, by in person?

 

Christen Steele:
They scheduled the interview over the phone. They wanted to meet in person and they asked if I could come. The next available time slot was a couple of days later and they said they were in search of someone rather quickly because it was a busy clinic.

Jeff Thompson:
Disclosure, obviously, when you would go your guide dog spelled it out right to them when you arrived and all that. Were you apprehensive? Were you ... Any anxiety or anything? I suppose, it's a job interview too.

 

Christen Steele:
Yeah, anxiety comes anyway. But I had met the owner several months back. I took a CEU on hot and cold stone therapy, so she had met me a couple of days for a short class, but I didn't know if she remembered me and by the sound of that phone call I didn't think she did, so I figured I would just go in. And the day of the interview happened to be the day after my guide dog had surgery, so I was even more nervous because I had to take my cane, which I hadn't used in a few months, and find this suite number inside a building and then find a place to sit down and not be awkward about it so she wouldn't know I hadn't used it in a while. But I entered the suite, found it after asking a couple of people and she automatically said, "Oh, where's Corvette today?" So, she remembered and I think that just lessened it a little bit, making me feel like she knew me and it was okay because she was willing to consider me anyway.

 

Christen Steele:
But normally, disclosure's kind of a large issue for going into an interview blind because there's this whole debate. Do you disclose on the phone if it's a phone interview? Do you disclose in person when you meet them? I typically do it in person because I always think that if you have the chance to get an interview, why not let them judge you equally and consider your qualifications and then decide, once they meet you after you can, in a sense, prove yourself and demonstrate your skills and what technology we use to make it accessible.

Jeff Thompson:
Plus that gives you a great opportunity to put them at ease if they have any questions that come up at the time.

 

Christen Steele:
Exactly. And then you can show them how I do things in braille. And one of the things I showed her during the interview, she was asking, how will you take a client back and do the intake, and we're all independent contractors, so she said no one's going to be here all day every day. And I pulled out Aira, which has a phone and then a set of glasses that connects via Bluetooth to a hotspot and called an agent just to demonstrate during the interview process what that would be like. And at first she was very concerned about HIPPA and privacy. How will these clients not have their information placed all over on the internet? And she didn't realize the quality of the company.

 

Christen Steele:
I think in her mind she thought it was some volunteer driving down the road looking at this out the corner of their eye, but once I emailed Amy Bernal, the Vice President of Customer Experience at Aira, she's excellent and I've worked with her a lot in the past, she sent me a PDF of their confidentiality contract and the background checks that the agents go through and that really put the employer at ease.

Jeff Thompson:
Well, that's really great that Aira would do that to help support your initiative for working.

 

Christen Steele:
They're awesome about supporting and they even offered to get on a conference call with my employer to describe their agents and describe some of their qualifications, but after I sent that PDF it wasn't really necessary and I still use them for reading forms to this day.

Jeff Thompson:
Can you describe what it's like to put on the glasses and all of a sudden have instant access to information?

 

Christen Steele:
So, it's pretty quick and instant. What happens when I'm getting ready for a client, say I have a massage at 4:00 p.m., about five minutes til, I kind of wait til they walk in, grab the intake form and hand it to them and I go back in the room and just check to make sure everything's on and ready and then connect to an agent. So, you wear a pair of glasses and they're updating these right now, but the current version I have has a camera on the right side of your right lens and then that connects to a MiFi hotspot from Verizon and then you manage the app through your iPhone.

 

Christen Steele:
So, I call an agent from the glass and they can basically see, I would say, from 45 degrees to your left and 45 degrees to your right and then a straight on view. If you have something like a printed paper with handwriting where people write on the lines, think when you go to the doctor, you're filling out this form with your personal information, your medications, and all of your health records, they take a picture of that and then I flip it over, they take a picture of the other side and it's immediately, I would say, within about 30 seconds, they're reading off both those pictures and I type it into my Braille Note and they I disconnect with the agent and go grab the client.

 

Christen Steele:
And it's so freeing to think about in a profession where we have so many visual aspects such as knowing if the client is there, where are they sitting, and where were the intake forms placed by the last massage therapist and what they all say in handwriting. It's amazing to think that technology these days can make that all streamlined and accessible.

Jeff Thompson:
Well, that's great. Hey, are there any other accessibility tools or alternative techniques that you use on the job?

 

Christen Steele:
I use, there's an app called Seeing AI and there's another one that I also like called Envision AI, it's a little better, but it's paid. But Seeing AI will tell me things like if the table warmer is on or they can read a bottle of oil and it's really not a live person, it's artificial intelligence, so you can hold your phone over a piece of paper and as long as it's not handwritten, they're not the best with that, but if it's print or if it's a digital display like a table warmer, it will read off instantly what is on that display and give me access to anything such as currency for checking a tip before someone walks out the door and then it will read things like the microwave sometimes or if I have gel or lotion. So, it's just some simple things that make it worth it to have apps on hand and your phone in your pocket.

Jeff Thompson:
That's great. So, let's go back a little bit. Coming out of high school and transitioning into getting your certification, what was that process like for you?

 

Christen Steele:
I graduated high school mid-term, so I had enough credits and they decided with my AIP team that since my grade-point average was where I wanted it, 4.0, I graduated mid-term and then starting in the fall of 2015, I had plans to go to University of Nebraska at Omaha. I wanted to originally pursue education. I was thinking of becoming a middle school English teacher, and I did a semester of coursework there. One of my assignments for a public speaking class, which really turned my thought process and my career path, was a speech where you had to interview someone from the career field you're entering.

 

Christen Steele:
So I did a lot of research and I was determined to find a blind teacher, there aren't many, and I found a blind English teach in Indiana. She actually won teacher of the year. Her name is Kathy Nemmer and I interviewed her. She just talked about how it was accessible to a point, but she's in her 40s, I can't remember, somewhere like 48, and said that she spends most of her days on a computer whether it's lesson planning, grading, getting back to parents. She's not married. She doesn't have any real hobbies outside of work. And she estimated about 16 hours spent on the computer and in the classroom.

 

Christen Steele:
I just thought back a little bit. I wanted more of a lifestyle and a balance between my life and my work. There's a point where you can accommodate and you can spend extra time reading braille because it takes about double the time, but do you want to spend 16 hours a day fighting for something? So, after I shifted my career path from teaching, I was trying to decide what I would be interested in as well as I wanted to be right in the front lines with people, helping others to do some kind of service for anyone in need of any maybe attention, help, some kind of comforting. I didn't know at the time. I was thinking possibly nursing, something in the medical field. My dad and my uncle are both pharmacists, so any kind of medical jobs always interest me.

 

Christen Steele:
When I was little I would go back, even before I could walk, I would sit on the pharmacy counter and crawl over the back and be in the pharmacy and count pills. He had this little board that looked like a cutting board and you had a spatula, basically, that would move the pills off the board into this container on the side and then you would dump them in the pill bottle and my dad would put me to work. Even sometimes in the summers I'll still go there. But I just wanted something to where I would have a niche and possibly something that would be medically oriented or along the same field as some of my family members.

 

Christen Steele:
I had a blind friend who is a licensed massage therapist. I started calling her and talking to her a little more. I even came to her house for a massage once and then I was looking into school. She recommended a couple in Omaha, but one stood out to me. It was Midwest School of Massage. I did a lot of research and spent late nights on the computer and Midwest School of Massage looked to be the most accommodating in part because it was taught by two instructors. One was the anatomy, physiology, and pathology instructor and one did more of the outer modalities like reflexology and hot stone.

 

Christen Steele:
So I toured that school and it was just exceptional to walk in to a place where someone gets it. You go to some interviews and they ask questions where you can tell they're not understanding completely what it's like to be a braille reader or what it's like to not be able to look at the board during class. So, he was already thinking of ways to type up picture descriptions of the muscles or have me feel a skeleton hands-on and he was asking me what format to convert his Power Points into. And I left that day and I'm like, "He just got it."

 

Christen Steele:
So I applied to Midwest School of Massage. It's about a year program and it's 200 clinical hours in addition to that curriculum. And it was the best educational experience I've had to this day. The instructor was off on Fridays and he came in several times just to give me one-on-one instruction. He always gave me his cell phone number and said, "If you're not understanding a concept or if you want me to re-explain a technique, just give me a call and we'll meet here on Friday." I've never had an instructor in my life do that. You're always tracking them down and trying to find when can we meet.

 

Christen Steele:
But after I graduated with 4.0 in massage therapy, I took the Massage and Bodywork Licensing Examination called the MBLEx and that took a lot of advocacy. It had never been in braille before, so when I applied, the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards wanted me to take it with a human reader. I started thinking and stressing and getting all this anxiety about readers. I've had so many in college who cannot speak English well, do not know the terminology in the field. It's just not worth basing my score on other people's perceptions of the content or other people's human errors.

 

Christen Steele:
So we did litigation against the Federation of State Massage Therapy Board. I had Disability Rights Iowa and Brown, Goldstein, and Levy working for me funded by the NFB and after about seven or eight months, we passed a settlement agreement and I was the first person to advocate for the MBLEx in braille and still, several people are trying to achieve the same settlement and I think they will. It's now possible for the first time ever to pass the exam in braille. And I give them all the credit for my score. I don't think I would have passed it with a reader. It was so long, four hours, a hundred questions, all multiple choice, and the questions were so similar that it's one of those things you have to look at it.

Jeff Thompson:
And you were able to do that independently.

 

Christen Steele:
Yes. I took it on a Focus 40 with JAWS. I had a human reader there just in case something crashed or if it wasn't loading correctly, but it all worked out and I did request from the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards that the human reader be from a medical profession. She was an occupational therapist and she was very patient about double checking what I had clicked or telling me how many questions I had remaining and it honestly couldn't have gone any better if I tried.

Jeff Thompson:
That's awesome for you to use advocacy and to get what you wanted that you knew you could do best if you had it in braille format and what you're doing for everyone else that come into the field behind you.

 

Christen Steele:
Yeah. I really struggled with the decision on waiting because I'd finished my clinical hours in February 2017 and at that point the litigation was still underway and we were deciding whether we wanted a hearing so we were kind of in the middle, wavering out the options and I was working with Ty Tomasse from Iowa. I had several phone calls with her and I asked her if it was her exam for law school would she wait. And I talked to Mark Riccobono, who is the current president of the National Federation of the Blind. We were on the phone for about an hour one morning and he really turned me and told me to wait. He said, "It's not just for you, it's for other people," and it was courageous that I was taking the time to wait for braille literacy who, anyone could benefit, any massage therapist 20 years down the road. So, it was a huge change, but I'm glad we waited and made it possible.

Jeff Thompson:
What advice would you have for someone who is debating between using books on tape or learning braille, because some people aren't encouraged and it's not their fault they didn't decide to do it. Sometimes TBI, sometimes other people who are supposed to be influencing their success in some way may not say that braille is the best choice if you can kind of see or something. So, what would you suggest to them?

 

Christen Steele:
I've seen this question a lot. I'm in this Facebook group called Parents of Blind Children and so many parents who have these kids in their elementary or middle school years debate on this topic. But I would say it's definitely worth the time to learn braille and the best thing you can do to learn braille is continue reading it whether it's children's books or a novel or your favorite short story, just get something in front of you and the more you read it and practice and say the words after you've read it and just immerse yourself, the more you will increase your speed, increase your accuracy.

 

Christen Steele:
And the main thing, I remember I told my mom I was glad I learned braille when I did. I received an email a couple of months back. It was someone wanting an editor and I think it was spam, I don't know how they got my email, but I had edited for a creative writing publication in the past so I opened it on my phone and just listened with voiceover. I'm like, "Oh, this sounds interesting." And I got my Braille Note out to look at it further and they spelled writing R-I-G-H-T-I-N-G. I'm like, "This is a scam." Delete. Delete. T-O-O they had tried to write, it was T-O. I'm like, "Okay, a voiceover user wouldn't know that." And you could be scammed.

 

Christen Steele:
There's so many things that are best to look at in braille. Your bank statements. I just wouldn't have the peace of mind, the confidence. Going around this hotel this week, the room numbers, it's accessible if you know braille. Anything from labeling items around the house just at your fingertips. If you want to jot down a note, it's accuracy and it brings you a lot more independence.

Jeff Thompson:
Christen, what advice would you give to someone who is in high school and looking for their future in employment?

 

Christen Steele:
Be creative, but be realistic. I know a couple of people, one of them is blind and he wants to be a sportscaster. It's his dream job, but maybe he will do it someday, maybe he won't, but in my mind I'm just thinking, he can't see the game himself, how is he going to broadcast and there's so many places that are going to wonder that when you interview. So, think realistically. It doesn't have to be just a career for blind people, but something to the point where you can find your calling that you're interested in whether it's the medical field, English, any kind of degree that you would go on, associates, bachelors, even higher if you wish, but think of something that will bring you excitement and pride and be happy at the end of the day, but then be realistic that you can make this successful.

Jeff Thompson:
That's great advice. Now, being a fluent braille user, what kind of tools in braille do you use?

 

Christen Steele:
I mainly use a Braille Note Touch and that has a braille display and a keyboard, but it also has a screen that you can flip up, which is nice for some of the apps. But I loved having the apps in braille from Google Play, so I have my bank account on there, I have all my Word documents, which is equivalent to a sighted person with a spiral bound notebook. I even have Amazon Kindle, BARD, Braille Terminal. I can connect it to my iPhone. I do all my massage scheduling, I have my app for that on here. And I just try to read braille every day whether it's a recipe or reading a book for leisure. It's something I look forward to when I sit down and relax for the night.

Jeff Thompson:
And that's a Humanware product.

 

Christen Steele:
Yeah, that's by Humanware and sometimes I'll connect it to my iPhone just to have either Facebook or some website that's not very accessible at my fingertips.

Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that's really neat. Christen, you mentioned earlier that you're a JAWS user so obviously you're using a PC.

 

Christen Steele:
I have for certain exams. I don't really like screen readers to be honest and a lot of blind people swear by them, but I just like the accuracy and fluency of braille and it kind of drives me insane to listen to audio all day, so I do it if I have to and I know the basics of it, but if it was my choice I wouldn't do JAWS.

Jeff Thompson:
So, what kind of hobbies do you have?

 

Christen Steele:
So, in my free time I enjoy swimming, I do a lot of tandem biking. We have an organization in Omaha called Outlook Nebraska and they do various activities for people with any kind of vision loss from bowling to bike rides even golf tournaments. I haven't tried that yet but I still want to. I like to do baking, shopping, any kind of reading. I go for a daily walk in the morning, that always wakes me up. But, yeah, even hanging out with friends and family.

Jeff Thompson:
Christen, is there anything else you would to say to the listeners?

Christen Steele:
I'd like to say to anyone out there just a little piece of advice. If you're thinking of advocating for something and you have a career path that you want to do or some college exam that's not currently accessible and you would like it to be in braille or you would like it be screen reader accessible, whatever method you prefer, go for it. Don't hold back because you're not only helping your grades and your life in the future, but you're doing it for all these other blind people. And when something doesn't work for one person or the MBLEx, for example, that I was taking, there's other people who have tried to take it and there will be other people 10 years down the road. So, you're not just alone, you're never alone. Fight for it and keep advocating.

Jeff Thompson:
Christen, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy convention time you've scheduled at the convention here and thanks for all that you're doing for Aira and everybody else that ... You did volunteer time, you're down there doing popcorn, you're all over the place here and I think you're making a great impact. So, thank you very much.

 

Christen Steele:
Thank you for invite. It was my pleasure.

Jeff Thompson:
Coverage of the 2018 National Federation of the Blind Convention is sponsored by Aira. And you can find Aira on the web at A-I-R-A dot I-O. Follow them on Twitter at A-I-R-A I-O. And thank you Chee Chau for the beautiful music. Follow Chee Chau on Twitter at El Cheechau. I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye bye.

 

[Music]  [Transition noise]  -

 

When we share What we see through each other's eyes...

 

[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]

 

...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.

 

Jeff Thompson:

For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:

Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities

Download our app from the App store:
'Blind Abilities'; that's two words.

Or send us an e-mail at:

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Thanks for listening.