My Blind Summer College Intern Does ‘Live’ Reports on Technology Helping Those with Disabilities

Kathleen Masciana is my summer college intern. She’s a sweet and smart college gal with an impressive list of credits.

She insists on calling me Miss Nigro. I keep telling her to call me Debbie.

Kathleen who is blind, aspires to be a radio and podcast talk show host. She posted her first attempt at hosting a talk show  on YouTube on ‘BTGS Radio’ on Stationhead.com. 'BTGS Radio' stands for Blind Techie Geek Speaks.

Kathleen’s a self-proclaimed technology geek. That’s what she loves reading about, thinking about, learning about.

So I gave Kathleen an important job to fulfill her internship. I told her to go do research and contribute each week live on my ‘Trending Tuesday’ show, a report on the trending technologies that are helping  make life easier and more interesting for those with disabilities. 

This way I help her get real time experience on the air and she helps me stay informed and educates my listeners.

Kathleen is also a beta tester for Apple, and she tests pre-release software to see if there are bugs or issues before a software debuts.

“So, what I do for Apple, I test pre-release software before it's out in the public. And I want to make sure all the bugs are out of it. So, the software's untested. And I have to check everything, like what new features are in it. Like, for example, in iOS 17, there was a feature called Personal Voice. There was a feature called Personal Voice that was released back with iOS 17. And now with iOS 18, there's a twist. This feature is now integrated with voiceover and spoken content. Really? Yes. Mainly, Personal Voice is designed for people that are at risk of losing their ability to speak.

For example, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. He had to use a synthesized voice from a computer program. But if this feature was released in his time, he could have created a voice that sounds like him with 15 minutes of training, and you have to read 150 phrases to complete the process. And it takes about one night for everything to process, all the voice recordings that you make.”

Fascinating!

Kathleen uses a Braille computer, an iPhone, an iPad and other devices with voiceover.

She and I communicate by texts which on her end are read out loud to her through a voice over screen reader.

As for her live debut, she did great, however I did tell her I wanted her to sound a little ‘peppier’ when she talks on the air because good energy attracts other good energy!

Her second report on my show was on the latest ‘apps for the deaf’. Because Kathleen videos our audio interviews on ‘her end’ you can hear her doing my show on her own You Tube station. 

Hope you feel the good energy of this collaboration in reading this post.

Here’s the podcast of Kathleen Masciana's first live segment reporting in on The Debbie Nigro Show.

 The Debbie Nigro Show Airs Weekdays 11-12 Noon EST in the NY/CT area on 1490 WGCH Radio. You can ‘Listen Live’ from anywhere in the world on WGCH.com