[ Music ] >> This program was made possible from the support of VSA, Texas and Amerigroup. [ Music ] >> I'm Gene. >> And I'm Dave. >> We're the Gene and Dave show. >> Dave, did we have a good time at South by Southwest this year? Whoa! >> Oh my god, the energy increases every year. Have you ever put a piece of tin foil in the microwave? >> Not recently. No. >> Well, I don't recommend it. Don't try it at home. But when you do, sparks fly everywhere. And that's as close as I can think of to being at South by Southwest. >> And you know, this South by was a little different from previous years. This one, disability related vendors, presenters, demonstrations were all over the place. >> It was everywhere. I mean, I think we started a trend or something, because when used to go to South by Southwest, there was like maybe one or two things. You know, we could show up one day and see one thing, and we'd covered all over the accessibly, disability related stuff for the show. We'd go see one thing, walk around, roll around trade show, and we'd be done. But man, this time we actually had to split up. >> We did. >> And go to separate shows because there was so much to see, so much that we wanted to record that we would have to, you'd go one way, and I'd go the other. >> And let's start off with designing for disability or redesigning for disability. This has got to be one of my favorite events. I met this woman, Kim from California, who has no arms. I was talking to her before the event. I didn't even know she was involved with it, but I asked if she knew what was going to happen. She said, "oh yeah, it's about a make-a-thon." What they do is they get people with disabilities together and they get rehab specialists, engineers, wood workers, metal workers, they get them all together for 72 hours, and the person with the disability will say, "this is what I need," and the other people have 72 hours to make it. >> And what's so great about it is it's like anything. You know? >> Yeah. >> Anything that you can think of. I think of stuff all the time that would just make my life easier, like if I'm in bed, and I want to be able to open the blinds, or maybe even, if I want to open a window, sometimes, just little things like that are so hard to do if you're in a wheelchair. First of all, you got to make sure there is not stuff in front of your windows, so that you can get to it. >> Right. >> And then if you can, or you have enough strength to reach up, unlock the window, and push it open, which for me is really hard to do. Something as simple as opening a window, or opening a bag, or just anything that you can think of, these people get together and say, "what do you need?" and you just say, "I need this," and they sit around and conspire and figure out how to do it. >> They make it happen. >> This is awesome! >> And we've got a short clip here showing how this make-a-thon went. [ Music ] >>At home, I don't have anything to like, grab objects and move them. Right now I'm doing that with my teeth. So, when I heard about this weekend, I just thought, oh my god, this is what I have been like thinking about for years. Which is getting people like myself, [inaudible] and sitting down with professionals, putting our ideas together, and making things that will actually help people. Not just with the intent of helping people, but like really helping people. [ Cheering ] >> You know, Dave, I was so impressed with this event. That these people that I said, we've got to bring that to Austin. So, just you know, put me on the list, I'll do whatever it takes, we got to get people together, we've got to make something happen. >> Yeah, I mean, and it's doable, obviously because they're doing it in California. Why can't we do it here in Austin? And it really reminded me of, you know, the competitiveness, and the competitions that we had that started out as AIR Austin. And now, Knowbility's AIR, what they do for website accessibility, we could do for stuff. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Making stuff. So, I'm glad you're going to make it happen, Gene. [ Laughter ] >> Well, you can be with me there, buddy. Now, as we said earlier, this whole South by Southwest, this was really mainstreaming accessibility. We went to one event, talk about mainstreaming, and you know, you and I have friends who are blind or visually impaired, and they go to a movie, they can't see what's going on. But our friends over at Pixar, over at Disney Movies Anywhere, one of the producers had a child with a visual impairment and he wanted to make sure he was able to enjoy the movies, so from now on, all the Disney movies, Blue rays, the theaters, you press a button on a remote, and they will audio describe what's happening. They'll tell you who's in the room, what they look like, what the tables are like, it's phenomenal! And we've got a little clip of these producers talking. You might enjoy this. >> My names Jonas Rivera, I'm a producer here. >> And I'm Paul Cichocki post production here at Pixar. We are super exited to be part of this panel. Sorry that we couldn't be there, but we're thrilled that are here with us. >> It's a great group of folks. Champions of accessibility, we're proud to be among them and proud to be a part of this even if it's on camera. It means a lot to us. >> So, we at PIXAR all about quality. Quality, quality, quality. And honestly, it was, when you are I work together back on up that we sort of really started to focus on the audio description track that is released theatrically in films and have learned things about it and the fact that it wasn't on DVD back in the day that's what got us talking and want to do things differently. >> Yeah, it actually learned some things about it. I didn't even know. It was the first time I produced and Paul is the post supervisor on that film, and it was something that I learned about the early days of that picture because well, just to zoom back out, I became a father on that film, and my daughter Elsa, was born, and she was born with ocular albinism, and nystagmus. And the wife and I took shock into this world of potential of visual problem with our daughter, you know, sent us on this long emotional journey where we interfaced with many people that we adore, and we were trying to get used to the fact that we may have a daughter with low vision, or no vision. She's now 10, and she has vision, but still is impaired and this set me off on this little bit of a personal bend. We were right after the news, in fact, in this room, right after we got that news and we didn't know how severe our case was. We were sitting in this room, and a screening of one of our films, and I sat in these seats and everybody I work with, the directors, the art directors, the animators, you know, everybody when the screening is over, and the lights came up, we always sit as we do and talk about what we saw. And everybody, I never heard this before through this lenses of my life, did you see this, did you notice that, did you see the colors, and this? And that's how it [inaudible] had a break down a little bit because I thought, oh my gosh, I may have a daughter that doesn't see what I do. You know, you know what I contribute to here. And there was something really visceral problem that many of you know about that moment. When I heard about the audio description process is when Paul came, we dug in with great rigor of that. And we're all about quality. Everything here is about the story. So, we had this thought like well, that's part of our story telling, we should wrap our arms around that and own it, and make it as good as it can be, right? >> Right, and audio tracks important. >> It is. >> Can be better though. >> We committed to that. And we're proud of that. It was just something personal, but also made sense to the world when we started doing focus groups. Paul got the great idea to bring people up where we do our post-production at Skywalker ranch, and we brought members of blind community, low vision community from a lot of great groups around here. And we just told the room of people that could watch the films with the dialogue, and give us notes, give us notes on the way it was written. Was it too preachy, was it too over descriptive, is this what people that have no vision want to hear, how do they want to hear it? And we got a lot of those notes. [inaudible] how should it be mixed? Is there any different? We just tried to, do everything -- >> We could to make it exist as good as it can be. Like I said, it was never taking from the narrator's voice and the way that they were performing it to actual dialogue that you're squeezing in all the featured dialogue. >> There was that kid, there was one kid, picture her face, she's a 14 year old kid. And I think she was completely [inaudible] and had no vision. And we were screening WALL-E, to observe how that audience would react, so we could then inform what we brought up. And I'll never forget, she said, "oh, WALL-E! I've seen this movie twice, I love this movie," and I just fell in love with her like, oh my gosh, like our job, this isn't just some exercise, something we have to make great because these people see these movies. Make no mistake. So I brought that back, we brought that back to the executives, and Joe and so we want to champion this, and do it right. And hopefully, we've made progress because we really do pay attention and it's important to us. And that journey in starting out, at least for me, has lead us through a lot of experiments and ways and I thank this partnership with DMA. To the folks that really take it to the next step. >> Right, so what we're really here to talk to you a little bit about is a new feature on DMA, you see movies anywhere, partnering with the team at Disney, they created an app that will sync the narration track, if you're phone, you're IOS device showed a feature that's playing either in the movie theater or on your home television, whether it be a DVD, blu-ray, Netflix, Amazon, or off of the DMA app itself. >> And the point of it, we hope is that it's free, that it allows everybody in the world, no matter what level of vision you have to experience the films the way anyone with vision would. That's the hope and that you can do that anywhere. >> Accessibility anywhere is sort of our tag name for our feature. >> So, we're very proud that we are at least a small part of that and we hope that it makes an impact. And we really wish we were there, and not at Pixar, but we have a lot of work to do, a lot of movies going on. And we really want to thank you for this opportunity to speak about it and we hope we continue to have opportunities to work on this. >> Thanks for your time. >> Thank you. >> It's amazing, Gene, what they can do. And I know that audio description has been out for quite a while and you know, a lot of movies have it today. In fact, my friend that I met at the last AccessU, Tommy Edison, he's a movie critic. And he's a blind movie critic that >> Whoa! >> Critiques movies. Just based on what he listens to and he critiques them. He's on Youtube, he's definitely a friend of the Gene and Dave show, so check him out, look up Tommy Edison on Youtube, and see what it's like to be a blind person that critiques movies. >> Well, I'll definitely have to check him out, Dave. But you know, it didn't end there. They had a gentleman from an organization called Be My Eyes, and what they do, they have volunteers from all over the world. And if you have a visual impairment, you're blind, go on the internet, you access their program, and within 30 seconds they will connect you with someone. Now, what you do then is you take your smart phone and you point it -- let's say in your kitchen, you want to bake something. You point your phone at the ingredients you got in your kitchen. The person at the other end of the line will describe to you, well, the flours over on your left, the measuring spoons are on your right. So, this is way cool too, you want to go to your kids baseball game and your blind, they'll tell you well, it's two men on base, the batter's up, and it's a pop-fly, they'll describe everything! >> How did we exist without technology? >> I'm beginning to wonder! It was just so amazing, so, yeah, Be My Eyes was another group we enjoyed. But wait, there's more. >> No way? More? >> Yes. >> More still? >> Our good friend Ed Gray from Avid, I know you're a computer nerd so you used Avid before. Let's say you're blind and you want to edit music. You go to AVID.com. A-V-I-D. And from there you can download something called Pro tools, get it for free. Then you put that in your Apple, they have a voice option in the Apple, you put it in there, and it'll describe to you the software, so if you're totally blind you can edit your own music. >> Wow. >> I think we have a little clip telling us about that. >> He's going to tell us how to get it. >> Hello, this is Ed Gray from Avid technology, people that bring you Pro tools. My email address is ed.gray. G-R-A-Y at avid.com >> And Ed to get Pro tools, we go the Avid website >> Yes, you would procure Pro tools first, the free [inaudible]. You go to Avid.com and download it, and then you want to use it with mac voice over, that's something that comes with the mac OS. And so you go to system preferences, select the accessibility system preferences, and within that you enable voice over. and you should be cooking with gas. >> Dave, there was another presenter there that, actually I think we saw last year, but we really want to repeat this, because this was pretty amazing. There's a woman who runs an organization called VocaliD. Now, there's something augmentative communication devices. >> Yes, I think we have all heard them before. >> Exactly, and if you're a little kid you don't want to sound like that! >> You don't want your voice to be like this? I would like a cookie, please. >> Absolutely. So, this woman that started this organization VocaliD, what she does is, she'll get little kids to read all these words, put them in a database, and then she'll have the child with a disability, speak into a mic. Now, don't expect the child to be real fluent or easy to understand, but even if they're making grunting noise, it's their noise, it's their voice. So then, what she does is she matches the sound of the child with this database of children that have already recorded a bunch of sounds. And she creates a new voice with the augmentative communication device. >> Right. >> And I think we even got a clip of that. >> We do, we've got another one that we've stolen. [ Laughter ] So, anyway, thank you for letting us steal your clip and just, it's awesome. What we saw at the South by Southwest trade show, and talking to you was great with this clip. Oh man, it just really says it all. Everything that Gene just said. So, spoiler alert, but anyway, don't turn the T.V. yet, you've got to watch this clip, because this is an amazing story. >> Gene, maybe we need to get you an augmentative communication device and we can put my name on it, you we're just saying a little bit ago how you wish your voice was like mine, so, I could be the voice of Gene Rodgers. >> Well, you've got such a nice deep voice, Dave, and it's easy for people to understand, but I'm always mumbling and yeah, maybe I need voice lessons, I don't know. >> There we go. We'll see what we can do. Just amazing technology, very amazing. >> And if you want to see the video on Youtube, well, you can see it on our show, if you want to see it on Youtube, it's called What happens when you give your sister a voice. Now, we we're running all over the convention center, the Marriott, the Long Center, and we happen to find some folks from Michigan state, showing some, I guess you'd call it tactile feedback program. >> Yeah, yeah >> And you talked with that what, what were they saying? >> They have an amazing new tool that allows you to draw through this screen type feature. So, the harder you press, the more vibrant the color gets, you can change the colors just by pressing harder or softer, moving your hand around, an amazing tool. The inventor of it has a daughter with autism, he wanted to be able to help her color and draw through pressure and sensitivity. Had she pushed using regular crayons, just didn't really work for her, it didn't register. So, he created this tool that hooks into the computer with this mesh top, very similar to that you would find on a trampoline. That the harder that you pressed in on it, the deeper and richer the colors got. So, take a look at this clip, we apologize for the sound, it's not that great, but just being able to watch it and see this amazing new tool developed at Michigan State is really cool. >> Okay, so we're hanging out with Michigan State here at South by Southwest. And they have this awesome canvas stretched over with a back that [inaudible] and she's coloring. You want to tell us more about what this technology is and what it's used for? >> Sure. So this technology is designed for children with autism and it basically makes them experience of coloring into a more tactile experience. So, in particular, children with autism cannot connect [inaudible] with reading sensory stimuli, particularly tactile stimuli and fine motor control. The idea here is we essentially help them compensate for that. They experience textile, it's very tactile. It gives you responsiveness, it turns up the more you push, the more reaction you get on the textile. And then it gives you this visual update where depending on the amount of pressure that's revived to help your coloring with the different color. >> And it looks like the back dropped there; makes it so you can only color in the lines. >> Exactly, yeah. >> Great, I need that. >> You know, it's always about making everything a successful, positive experience. >> Yeah, it's great. >> I mean the graphics as opposed to a big blank page, just makes it more attractive. You can see [inaudible] another color is blue, depending on how much pressure she applies it goes from blue to purple. >> Okay. >> So, the idea is you know, they can ask the child to do a certain task, like trying to focus on having a little bit more control on the amount of pressure that they're using. Let's say just color it with that orange, which is only pushing a certain degree down. Color everything at the depth of yellow, which is pushing even harder. It's kind of the idea is generating from research, which is textiles, and the fact that I have a daughter that is 6 years old has autism. >> I bet she loves this, right? >> And she has all of these issues. >> Is she here today? >> No. >> Darn. Michigan, okay. >> So, she has all these issues and limited motor control, she's very clumsy, so she has kind of low muscle tone, so she talked about using the right pressure to do certain activities, like push things in, so the idea here is you know, hopefully we can give her a tool which helps her learn this [inaudible] of issue about her movement and operation of pressure. >> That's awesome. It looks like a lot of fun. >> That was a really cool tool and it was amazing. Once again, I apologize for the sound. But we had sound difficulties, didn't we, when we were at South by Southwest? On the trade room floor, we start to record Michigan state, and realize that the batteries are dead. >> Yeah, boy, what a bummer that is. One of us should have known better and brought extra batteries. >> Yes, and you know how hard it is just to find batteries at downtown by South by Southwest? First of all, just navigating is difficult because there's so many people. It is an amazing time, but a lot of times in a wheelchair, it's hard to get through some of the crowds. >> And you went looking for me. >> You went off to get batteries, and like an hour later, I was saying, where's Gene? Because I couldn't find you anywhere, I figured you'd be back, and as it is there's a lot of people and a lot of things going on, so, I couldn't find you, and I decided why not record me trying to find you? So, here we go, let's all go together and try to find Gene on the trade show floor at the convention center. >> Enjoy. [ Background Noise ] >> I just don't understand why at South by Southwest, I never can find Gene. I mean, I know he's got to be around here somewhere. [ Background Noise ] All these crowds of people. Have you seen Gene? >> I don't know Gene. >> Okay. [ Laughter ] Thanks. Well, he hasn't seen him either. Well, imagine that. Look who I found hanging out at the Knowbility booth. >> Okay. >> I'd knew I'd find you. >> You sure did. >> And it's always at Knowbility's both! >> Right, right you are, Dave. Every year we look forward to seeing the folks at Knowbility. What they do is they make the web accessible for people with disabilities. They make it so you can enhance your webpage, it's easier for people with low vision to see, they make it so that if a person's blind they can use the screen reader to read all the codes seamlessly. It's an amazing organization and we know if one of us gets lost, meet up at Knowbility. >> [ Laughter ] Because we'll both eventually be there at some point in time. And they had really cool -- they had new swag this year, I was so excited. >> Yeah, yeah they did. >> I got a pen that writes in four different colors, and a couple new masks, superhero masks. >> Yeah, those superheroes are access heroes, right? >> They are. They're the access heroes. >> Yeah. >> So, You too can be a hero if your website is accessible. >> Now, in addition to having booth at South by Southwest, every year Knowbility puts on the Dewey awards. Dewey was the founder of South by Southwest, and unfortunately passed away a few years ago, but every year Knowbility will present awards to people who use technology in a community service. So, Dave and I go to that every year, there's a picture of Sharon Rush, we're all looking at her, and of course, there's some other folks, Dennis Borel, and there's Jessica with her arm around me, and we had a great time, it's always good to see people who start something and they're just making lives easier. And so, we love to Dewey awards. >> That's right, congratulations to, not only the winners, but the nominees. It's all of us, all of you that are changing the world for the better. >> Now, it doesn't end there, Dave. >> More? >> There's more. We went to South by Create, over at the Long Center, that's where we met R2-D2, Annabelle, we met all sorts of folks that are building things, making many things, for people in general, but it's specifically >> Robots. >> Yeah, yeah, robots. In fact, you interviewed R2-D2. >> I did. I got a chance to [inaudible] honestly the highlight of South by Southwest for me, was being able to meet R2-D2. And I swear, it's like he came right off the movie screen, and landed here in Austin, Texas. Check out this R2-D2, he is awesome. So, here we are South by Southwest 2016, and I found a friend of mine. This is R2-D2 droid. Hello, R2. [ Droid beeping ] So, R2, can you tell me what you think about the accessibility here at South by Southwest. [ Droid beeping ] Okay, well if my R2-D2 droid speak is good. He said it's pretty good. He's been able to get around, lots of ramps on the sidewalk, so thanks for being on the Gene and Dave show, R2. >> What is your favorite T.V show? >> Oh yeah, we want to know. What is your favorite T.V. show? [ Droid beeping ] I heard him. He just said the Dave and Gene show, haha. I didn't even notice the little thumbs up thing he gave me when I was asking about accessibility and he gave the thumbs up, that was very very cool. >> Yeah, now R2-D2 seemed to do fine with the accessibility, but we found a few issues, for example, there was one program we went to, they had a nice ramp going up to this exhibition, but you get around the back there then there's a three inch lift to get inside. So, that wasn't working for us. We saw another presentation with Zach Anner who is a wheelchair user, and they didn't have a ramp for Zach, so somebody carried him up to sit him at the table there. [ Background Noise ] But these -- I mean they did better every year, every year though the access buttons to the convention center are covered up in tape and posters. >> Yeah, and you can't even find them. >> Right. >> I like to make a shout out to folks, you know, if you're putting up posters, leave the access buttons open, so the people can still use them, find them, be able to see that they're there. We know that they're there because we've been to the Austin convention center over and over again, and love that facility. It is every accessible. We'd love to be able to push those buttons. But if they're covered up with your poster, we can't find them. >> Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer, but other than that, the access was pretty good. >> Yeah, in contrary to popular belief, we were still able to use the sidewalks. >> Yeah. >> Even though there were signs that told us not to drive here. [ Laughter ] >> No motorized vehicles on the side walk. >> But you know what? We did it anyway. I don't recommend breaking the law, but in this case, we did it. [ Laughter ] >> I remember you and I went to get some free vodka, and I almost flipped over backwards. >> You did. We were trying to get into the tents, and we were following a line of people, where they were going, and it was up this huge hill. But the minute you almost flipped over, because you went back in your wheelie bar went into the grass, which was soft because it had been raining. It seemed to alert the attention of a few people. And before we knew it there was this nice nice lady coming around the corner saying, "please, let me show you in, let me show you to the front of the line, what would you like to drink?" >> Boy that was sweet. What service! >> It was. It was, it was great. You almost had to break your neck again, but we got up to the front of the line and got us some Deep Eddy V odka. Well, what do we have to do to get those guys to sponsor us? >> Right, hey, let's give them a call! [ Laughter ] I'll do that tomorrow! >> It was good stuff, thank you very much! >> You know, it's easier to get vodka, free vodka, free beer, and food than it is to get water. >> It is! There was not water anywhere around. >> But it was a good time! We had a great time. Let's see, we had -- there were other robots in addition to R2-D2, we mentioned Annabelle, and Annabelle had something to say about body form. Let's see what she says. >> Here's Annabelle. >> Hi, Annabelle, my name's Dave from the Gene and Dave show! >> Sorry, access robot parts cannot profit the inner arts organization. >> Yeah, that's awesome. I'm glad to hear it. >> With my hearing today, I'm somewhere [inaudible] here in Austin. Well, I'm here in Austin. [inaudible] but some are limited by their physical form. >> Yeah, story of our lives, right? >> Absolutely, thank you, Annabelle. >> Alright, so here's Annabelle. She's on the Gene and Dave show. Pretty dress, Annabelle, we'll see you next time. >> Okay. >> That's Annabelle. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. >> Not as cool as R2-D2. >> What was missed though in that clip, I wish the camera man that we had would have panned down, because the bottom portion of Annabelle, her legs, well, she didn't really have legs, it was actually a motorized wheelchair. The whole bottom portion, I don't know if you noticed that. >> I did not notice that. >> But the whole bottom was a Permobil wheelchair, with a mannequin torso, sitting on top of it. So, that's how Annabelle was getting around and I don't know who was controlling her, but she ran into me like six times, trying to talk to me. I guess she didn't see my wheelchair. Or she was just really friendly with my wheelchair. >> She was coming on to you, Dave. >> Maybe. >> I think that's what it was. >> Could be. Good old Annabelle. >> But I ran into -- found a huge robot down there and I had camera mounted to my wheelchair. There was a professional camera man, helped me raise my chair so I could get a better view with this camera. He gave me the thumbs up. [ Laughter ] So, we do a lot of our own filming. We have a good time. [ Music ] And you, I mean we were there for interactive week. >> Absolutely. >> And you were on a mat by LUMO interactive with the fish. And you're rolling around on all these fish. >> They were dodging my wheels, trying not to get run over. >> Yeah, I'm thinking a cat would go nuts for something like that. >> Yeah, and it was the closest thing I'd ever been to walking on water. >> So, there's all kinds of interactive stuff there, folks, and almost sensory overload. But we definitely had a good time. Now, speaking of overload, our buddy A.J, was telling us about something called EpiWatch. Now, for people who have seizures, you could wear this watch, and when you feel like you're going to start having a seizure, you press the button, it'll download all this information to the watch. >> It's actually an Apple watch. It's a simple Apple watch. With the EpiWatch application on it. it uses all the new health technologies that are embedded into the Apple watch. They're really taking on all the capabilities of the Apple watch that watches your blood pressure and your health, and everything about you, but they've really streamlined it for people that suffer from seizures and they built an app for those people. But you know what, Gene, let's just watch the clip. >> Let's do. >> So, what you have here is the seizure tracking, so you can see the history of the seizures. I have a few seizures that I've tracked already in my history, and one that just recently was tracked, you can see I have two of them today. And I just have to log what type of seizure it was, so I can do that. And it asks me information about the seizure itself. And then the other thing I will show is your medication tracking. So, here we can set up medications and follow the medications that you take every day, whether you take them or not. If you didn't take them it will be considered part of a [inaudible] that you know about your stuff. And then, I can show if you like the watch. So you kind of have to come out from the top because it'll time out, so here I have the custom [inaudible], track that, I can track a seizure. And then it does a countdown. It's assuming at this point you're acting having a seizure. And now I have a strong haptic vibration on my wrist. This is asking if I'm alert, and it will just repeat until I actually have returned from my seizure. And now it's accessing my cognitive skill to see how much I've returned from the seizure event, and I have to try to remember the pattern. And now it's gathering heart rate data for ten minutes. >> Cool stuff. >> You know, Dave, we had a lot of firsts on the Gene and Dave show. Now, we've got our first stalker. >> Yeah. >> Brittany. Brittany has a website called AbleThrive. Her father was spinal cord injured, they had to learn from scratch what they could do help him out, how to do things. And Brittany decided, hey why don't we share this information with other people around the world and so they set up a web page with videos from other folks that with spinal cord injuries, showing how they do stuff. >> Yeah, and she was in South by Southwest too, trying to find out anything that was disability related, so I think everything that we went to, she was there, it seemed like we were stalking her, she was stalking us, but Brittany's awesome. She's really really cool, and we appreciate her meeting with us. And every time we saw her she would talk about what she learned and compared it to what we learned. I wish we could have her on the show, but she's lives too far away. >> Yeah, she's in Pennsylvania. >> You can check out her website she created, AbleThrive. And please, tell them that you saw it on the Gene and Dave show, and enter in your own information, your own experiences, because it's definitely a community based thing for people with disabilities to share your story and get it out there. Great website. >> So, we're here at Medtech expo at the JW Marriott and Brittany tracked us down. Brittany, it's such a pleasure to see you. Tell us about AbleThrive. We understand you have a personal connection to that, you've got a great website. >> Thanks, so my dad was paralyzed in a car accident when I was 12. And it's tough, but we are extremely lucky because we were connected to a really great spinal cord injury hospital, which gave us access to support, mentors, and an idea very early that my dad was going to be able to live a happy and fulfilling life. And that was normal then, my dad went on, now lives independently, he's an engineer, he drives, does a lot of things that people don't realize that people can do with a disability. And I was not until I was in college that I realized that we were the minority of people in our situation, and that many people still aren't aware that that's possible. But I also realize that we weren't a special case, and that it should be easier for people to find that information and I didn't like the idea that my entire existence and the way I put my whole families' life would be determined by luck. So we wanted to remove the luck from the equation for living well with a disability, so started AbleThrive.com and we launched about seven months ago, and we cureate articles and videos about living well with a disability, from a network of blogs, organizations, companies, and hospitals, to make sure that the good work and information that they're sharing benefits everyone that could benefit from it, not just those already in their local network, or their you know, online network. >> And if people have videos they think would be helpful to the spinal cord injured population they can contact you to share a video, and you could possibly put that on your site? >> And then if it's just an individual who may be has a story that was impactful or wanted to share, or is willing to share, then we have a contact team that will take peoples experiences and videos, and then we can turn them into a post. >> Fantastic. Thank you so much, Brittany. Now as you said, there were times it seemed like we were stalking Brittany, Brittany was stalking us, well I caught up with Brittany when she was talking with a gentleman named Ian. Now Ian, broke his neck when he went diving into shallow water. He's now a high level quadriplegic, but he's working with some folks, they're trying to help him use what muscles he has. They put something in his head, connected to his brain, so he can just think about opening his hand, and he's got this device on his hand, it'll cause the muscles to open and close. >> Wow. >> Yeah, it's like Star Trek. So, we wanted to give a shout out to Ian. Thanks Ian for talking with us. And I asked him what his favorite show is. >> And what did he tell you? >> Well, let's take a look. What's your favorite T. V show? >> The Dave and Gene show. >> That's good. >> Mine too! >> Everyone has the same answer. >> Of course! >> Yeah, like the Gene and Dave show. Then we went to yet another program. >> Still another. What a packed South by Southwest this year. >> It's called Tech Inclusion. And they were talking about getting people with disabilities included in the work force. And one of the gentleman there, Steve Guengerich is the cofounder of Knowbility and the first board chairman. Now, Steve was chatting with us about including more people with disabilities in the work force. >> So, we have a program called Access works, that allows companies, large and small to put their software or websites to tests, so that they can be made better, simply by being more universally designed. And it's also a marker place for to apply if they have some form of disability that want to employed and be testers. And so, you can apply and become a tester and get paid doing that work making corporate websites better, so it's among the things we're trying to do for the benefit of all of us. >> But we also talked to him about helping us out with a marker-thon. And Steve was pretty enthusiastic about it. >> He was, which sounds great. >> Yeah, so we'll get him involved and you can look for our make-a-thon, I don't know when, you really want to get people involved in this and right now we're waiting for Tikkun Olam Makers or TOM for short, in Israel to give us the green light on getting started on this, but it's going to be such an exciting program. >> And a special big thanks to the people at South by Southwest who graciously welcome us every year on this press so that we can come in and film and bring to you this show. It definitely wouldn't be possible without them letting us in and letting us come with our cameras, we have to get through and do a lot of credentials, and things to be able to film. We really appreciate the support of all the South b Southwest media staff who help us get started, get in the door, and be able to film things that we can bring to you if you can't attend South by Southwest. >> Yeah, Dave, this is for people all over the world. Austin is the epicenter for interactive and digital new media and devices and such. So, where's it used to be we'd have to look for something that would be helpful for people to spill these, it's all over the place now. >> Yeah, and amazing event for everyone involved. Everything from when mostly we've just talked about what we saw and interactive, but there is a whole other piece. The film, the music, simply amazing, that we didn't even get to touch on because we were so busy with their interactive. But there were even films that featured people with disabilities, there's music that have disability, disabled artists within. >> I seem to recall you were in the movie last year. >> That's right. I was. And this year, another buddy of mine that uses a chair is in a show that's coming on HBO soon, and it premiered at South by Southwest, so just fantastic stuff going on. I definitely recommend if you have never been to a South by Southwest, that you get here, that you go, if you're in Austin, get yourself some tickets, or even volunteer. You can volunteer to help out and be able to earn badges if you ca afford them. So, definitely South by Southwest people work with you. It's a great program. >> So, people can come up to the volunteers and say, "where's Gene?" >> Yeah, just like I did. >> Just like you did. >> Like you, I get the same answer I did. Oh, I don't know Gene. [ Laughter ] >> You know, Dave, whenever you go to South by Southwest you can get plenty of swag, that's stuff we all get. Well, this year they were giving out these 3D glasses. >> Is this what you brought for me? These sitting in front of me here? >> This is for you, buddy! >> Okay, let's see. >> So, what you do is you open up these glasses, and you stick your phone in it, you connect to this website, and you can see all this 3D stuff. Now, if you folks have ever used an Oculus, or other 3D type hardware, you know it's really awesome. But they're giving out free 3D glasses. So, it'll really blow your mind. And there's some people with certain types of disabilities that can appreciate that. Being able to travel with this thing. >> Whoa! Gene. >> Pretty cool, huh? >> I didn't know there was pictures of you out there like this. >> We're going to have to edit that one, Dave. >> I got to put that down. I don't want to look at that anymore. Man, that is something in 3D. >> It really is. >> Oh my gosh! >> So, we'll see you next year at South by Southwest and this year on the Gene and Dave show at www.thegeneanddaveshow.com, and Austin public, channel 16. >> That's right, special shout out and thank you to Austin public. >> To Doug and all the crew. >> Yeah, the media of Austin is definitely here. We really appreciate all their help in being able to film and come work in a studio. >> That's right. If people want to send donations to the Gene and Dave show, so we can keep filming, go to our webpage and you'll find a little thing to click on there in the corner. >> Keep us rolling, in the upper right hand corner. Definitely keep us rolling, and we love to hear from you too. Whether it's out on the street, I've bumped into several people that asked me, are you Gene? And I usually say no. >> That's me, Are you Dave? >> That's right, but it's still really awesome to be able to meet people out on the street that have seen the show. We love to hear your feedback, love to hear what you like, we even love to hear what you didn't like, so that we can make this show better. >> Exactly. >> It's after all, it's for you because you're watching it right now. We want to make this show the best that we can and keep you entertained. So, if you have anything, any ideas, please feel free to email Gene at the geneanddaveshow.com or Dave at the geneordaveshow.com. We do read our emails and quite often we respond and reply. And if you got a great idea and even want to come on the show, we've had people on the show before. >> That's right. >> So please, email us and let us know what you think. >> Until next show, folks, so long! >> Bye now. [ Music ]