My guests today were Erin and Bob Willman from Warren, Pennsylvania. Erin is the CEO of White Cane Coffee and her dad, Bob, is her business partner and collaborator. It was the very first time I had a father-daughter combo on the show and I honestly wondered why I haven’t done something like this before. 

White Cane Coffee serves coffee with a conscience. It was Erin’s brainchild, after repeated interview experiences where employers only saw Erin’s cane and glasses. Coffee brings all of us together and Erin tapped into this universal market to carve out a niche for people with disabilities. 

I left the interview buzzing. Nisreen, Technical Producer for The Pulse likewise found their vision compelling and their company fascinating. I was just elated myself that people with disabilities, like Erin, were blazing a path forward for the community as a whole.  

Although they have yet to expand to Canada, you can check out their website at: 

https://whitecanecoffee.com/ 

I’ve felt that with few exceptions, the voices of Canada’s youth have been largely absent from discussions about the impacts of COVID-19. That’s not to say that we haven’t talked about kids and youth: there have been lengthy public discussions about school closures and return-to school protocols, and parental concerns, but very little from actual kids themselves.

We attempt to rectify this on The Pulse by speaking to Shawn Marsolais, Executive Director of Blind Beginnings, and program participant Nolan Morris, both of whom shed light on the unique challenges faced by blind youth at this time. We also discussed some of the programs offered by Blind Beginnings, virtually of course, and how they are attempting to keep their participants (youth and parents alike) informed and engaged.

I spoke today to Dr. Nicholas Giudice from the University of Main who is the co-founder at the Virtual Environmental Multi-Modal Interaction Labs (VEMI LABS) about his experience with navigation as a congenitally blind person during COVID-19. I first encountered an article written by Dr. Giudice for The Medium where he argued that the demonization of touch, along with a concern for the virus, was putting blind and partially sighted individuals at a distinct disadvantage.

Of course, all of us can and should follow public health directives such as frequent hand washing and practicing social distancing. With that said, for blind people, who experience the world through touch and derive  much of the same information through touch (that sighted people get from looking), directives not to touch surfaces or their own faces as well as having to keep 2 meters apart is proving a little challenging.

Here’s the article I first read which got me interested in speaking to Dr. Giudice:

https://medium.com/@nicholas.giudice/covid-19-and-blindness-why-the-new-touchless-physically-distant-world-sucks-for-people-with-2c8dbd21de63