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Episode 65: Chad Leaman, Neil Squire Society

Author
Drew Ogryzek
Published
Sun 26 Feb 2017
Episode Link
http://vancouvertechpodcast.com


Intro and Meetups


Alex and Drew open the show talking about the themes of their past weeks, including communication, interrupting programmers breaking their concentration, project management meetings and red-tape, design sessions, improving processes, when to outsource versus build in-house.


Alex is currently reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, and talks about a chapter in it where he interviews Marc Andreesen who says about retrospectives that he suggests never looking back, but rather always look forward.


As for the meetup picks of the week, Alex is planning on getting some R&R and Drew recommends checkout out the HackerNest Vancouver Tech Social and the OpenDataBC Vancouver Hackathon.


Special Guest Chad Leaman, Neilsquire.ca


Our special guest this week is Chad Leaman, of the Neil Squire Society. We talk about how technology helped Neil Squire back in the early 1980s, with a device that he could interface with using sip and puff gestures to produce morse code, and communicate. Sip-and-puff technology worked great on computers running MS-DOS, interfacing through morse code. With the introduction of graphical and mouse interfaces, a type of joystick also became relevant. The Joust retailing for about USD $1500.00 is one such device.


Over the last 10 or so years, touch screens, tablets, and smart-phones have become normal, and with that there are new accessibility barriers to overcome. In BC, The Neil Squire Society runs a program called Technology at Work which helps make and fund recommendations for better accommodating persons with disabilities in the workplace.


A lot of innovation, such as possibly text-messaging and TTY devices, originally began as technology for helping the disabled, but have become mainstream.


Google.org awared the Neil Squire Society an $800,000 grant to build a device called the LipSync that they are releasing as open-source. It can be built for about $250.00 for the parts. The shell is 3D printed.


Make sure to check out the Monday Makeathon at the BC Tech Summuit, which is a free event that gives an opportunity for teams to work toegeher to build a LypSync.


You can follow Chad on twitter at @chadleaman, and follow news and updates through MakersMakingChange.com


Drew's Pick of the Week



Monday, February 27th



Tuesday, February 28th



Wednesday, March 1st



Thursday, March 2st



Saturday, March 4th




Theme music by A Shell In The Pit from the game Parkitect


The Vancouver Tech Podcast is a weekly show focusing on the growing tech industry in the city of Vancouver. Get caught up on the events and meetups around town, startups, new businesses, developers, designers, community programs, and news. Each episode includes an interview with an outstanding member of our community.


Listen to the show here, email us, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

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