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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams

By: Dr. Kirk Adams PhD
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Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams is a compelling podcast series that brings listeners into the world of accessibility, leadership, and social change through the lens of one of the most influential voices in blindness advocacy. Dr. Kirk Adams, former President and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind and a lifelong champion for the rights of people with visual impairments, hosts this insightful and inspiring program.2024 Economics Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Lauren DeVillier, CEO, Exceptional Minds

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Lauren DeVillier, CEO, Exceptional Minds
    Jun 24 2026
    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Lauren DeVillier, CEO, Exceptional Minds https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-06-24-2026/ In this warm and practical episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, Kirk welcomes Lauren DeVillier, Chief Executive Officer of Exceptional Minds, the Los Angeles nonprofit academy and working studios that train young adults on the autism spectrum for careers in animation, visual effects, and a newly launching game-arts program. DeVillier traces her path from property manager on Bill Nye the Science Guy through Microsoft, Yahoo, and Disney to her first year leading Exceptional Minds, and lays out how the organization works: a three-to-four-year vocational academy (mirrored online nationwide), two revenue-generating studios doing VFX and animation for major studios like Marvel, Sony, Disney, and Blumhouse, and a blended funding model of tuition, California self-determination/regional-center funds, earned studio income, and $1.5–2M a year in fundraising. The conversation's through-line is DeVillier's strategic pivot from developing talent to developing workplaces, employer training and a new career-and-student-services center to place graduates into neuro-inclusive jobs, framed by her conviction that accommodations are "low-hanging fruit" that benefit everyone, not a "nice-to-have." She shares the PATH Water Autism Acceptance Month bottle designed by Exceptional Minds artist Benny, reflects on how the work has deepened her relationship with her own neurodivergent daughter, and points listeners to https://exceptional-minds.org. Kirk closes by half-jokingly recruiting Starbucks for a design partnership and promising to "break bread" with DeVillier in Southern California soon. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. I am that Dr. Kirk Adams, speaking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And today my special, wonderful guest is Lauren DeVillier. Lauren is the Chief Executive Officer of Exceptional Minds. Say hey, Lauren. Lauren DeVillier: Hey there. Hello. So happy to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Good. Well, we'll be back to you momentarily. So for those of you who don't know me, just super briefly: I am Dr. Kirk Adams, immediate past president and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller's organization. I had the honor of serving in those same leadership roles at the Lighthouse for the Blind here in Seattle. I am a blind person. My retina is detached. When I was in kindergarten, I went to a wonderful school, the Oregon State School for the Blind, for first, second, and third grade. Thank you, Mrs. Summers, for teaching me how to read Braille. And thank you, Mr. Pearson, for teaching me how to use the long white cane. And off into public school after that. College, career in banking and finance, moved into the nonprofit sector. First nonprofit job was development officer for the Seattle Public Library Foundation, raising money for the statewide Talking Book and Braille Library. Later pursued and earned a master's degree in nonprofit leadership, and later on a PhD in Leadership and Change from Antioch. So I guess I go back to school every 15 years or so. And I met Lauren because a classmate of mine from Whitman College, who was also an econ major, named Vivian Ho, and I reconnected. Vivian lives in the Bay Area. She is a trustee of the University of Washington Board of Regents. And she reached out to me, said, 'I met this really interesting person named Lauren, and she's working on a fantastic project that involves young artists with disabilities, and I think you two should know one another.' So Lauren and I talked about the project she was working on with the Kennedy Center, and we touched base every once in a while. And then, fast forward — I don't know, six, nine months since we connected — and lo and behold, she is the executive director of a nonprofit called Exceptional Minds, doing some fabulous things. I know it started in Southern California, but it's really a national and growing scope. And rather than try to tell you about Exceptional Minds myself, I will let Lauren do that. We'd love to have you talk to us, Lauren, about some of your background, some of your experiences, what led you to be involved with Exceptional Minds, the history of the organization, and where are you now and where are you taking things? Lauren DeVillier: Sounds fantastic. I would love to. So thank you so much again for having me on your podcast. I'm so excited to be...
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    34 mins
  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jerred Mace, Founder and CEO, OneCourt

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jerred Mace, Founder and CEO, OneCourt
    Jun 23 2026
    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Jerred Mace, Founder and CEO, OneCourt https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-06-23-2026/ In this energized episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, his first-ever return guest, Kirk reunites with Jerred Mace, founder and CEO of Seattle assistive-tech startup OneCourt, fresh off attending a FIFA US–Australia match in Seattle where he used OneCourt's tactile broadcast at a live sold-out stadium for the first time. Kirk narrates the experience in vivid detail: feeling the ball travel across the pitch under his hands, sensing shots go wide, and syncing to the crowd's roar while seated beside a blind high-school student also using the device. Mace recaps OneCourt's origin story, inspired as a UW industrial-design junior by videos of blind fans following matches through a companion's tactile signing, and explains how the tablet-sized device translates official league tracking data into trackable vibrations on interchangeable silicone overlays, about a half-second behind live play. The conversation covers how the technology works (a shift from in-ball sensors toward optical, computer-vision tracking with millimeter accuracy), OneCourt's growing in-venue footprint (ten NBA teams last season, the Arizona Diamondbacks in MLB, plus soccer activations), and the new at-home preorder that lets fans stream NBA, NFL, and MLB games to their own OneCourt tablet. Mace looks ahead to OneCourt becoming a "need-to-have" accommodation at every venue, plus future use cases in gaming and blind-athlete training, and points listeners to onecourt.io/preorder. Kirk, now formally a OneCourt advisor, even pitches a strap so standing soccer fans can hold the device vertically. TRANSCRIPT: Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. This is that Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I think this is my first return-guest podcast. So today we welcome again Jerred Mace, founder and CEO of OneCourt. Hey, Jerred. Jerred Mace: Hey, Dr. Kirk. Thanks again for having me back. Super excited to be here. Dr. Kirk Adams: Absolutely. And I am on fire about OneCourt. Because last week, on Wednesday, I got a text from Jerred that said, 'Hey, did you see the invitation to the World Cup match?' And I had not seen that, but I quickly searched my email, and there it was — an opportunity from FIFA to go see the US play Australia here in Seattle, and to experience OneCourt firsthand at a live sporting event. Now, I first met Jerred at an event at Microsoft — oh gosh, almost two years ago — called Seattle Disability Connect. And I had an opportunity to put my hands on OneCourt and experience tactilely a baseball game on the radio, the Mariners and Tampa. But I had not attended a live sporting event before. So I grabbed my wife, and I grabbed the Uber down to the Pioneer Square area of Seattle, and enjoyed walking through the very jovial, excited, enthusiastic crowd — quite a few Australian accents. And then we went to the guest services desk, where I encountered a blind friend named Jacob who works for both the sports stadiums here. And we checked out a OneCourt device. We were seated next to a blind high school student named Ethan. He was there with his mother, and Ethan and I sat shoulder to shoulder, both with our hands on the OneCourt devices. Of course, being several generations separated, I did have to ask Ethan for a little technical support — he showed me where the volume button was for the audio. But it was truly amazing to sit there and be so synced up with the energy of the crowd, in particular as my hands were on the device and I could feel the ball travel from one end of the pitch to the other. And as it neared the Australian goal, as the US was attempting to score — the increasing volume and excitement of the crowd as they cheered and yelled, and then the shot, and the collective groan as I could feel the ball go wide of the goal. In one particularly rousing scene, there was a shot on goal that went right over the net. The crowd moaned in despair, and I could feel the ball skip right over the goal and out of bounds. And then, of course, when the US scored our two goals, the excitement of that — the change in tone and tempo of the chanting of the crowd as the ball would change hands, as Australia might be driving toward a scoring opportunity, and then the ball would turn over and the US would be moving down the field the opposite way. And just to feel that ebb and...
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    27 mins
  • Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Robert Annis, Co-Founder, NEURO

    Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Robert Annis, Co-Founder, NEURO
    Jun 16 2026
    🎙️ Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams: Interview with Robert Annis, Co-Founder, NEURO https://drkirkadams.com/podcasts-by-dr-kirk-adams-06-16-2026/ In this candid episode of Podcasts By Dr. Kirk Adams, Dr. Adams welcomes Robert Annis, a London-based coach and organizational psychologist, and founder of NEURO, an inclusive charity built to make neuroinclusion a competitive advantage rather than a matter of ethics alone. Annis speaks openly about his own "late diagnosis" at 45 (he's now 47) as profoundly autistic, with co-occurring ADHD, prosopagnosia (face blindness), aphantasia, alexithymia, an absence of interoception, and severely deficient autobiographical memory, a lifetime of "masking" that finally had names. He explains why he founded NEURO after growing frustrated with charities focused on awareness alone: he wanted real social change, so he deliberately built NEURO to look and operate like a business consultancy, meeting leaders in the language of innovation, adaptability, and talent rather than moral obligation. It's a thesis Dr. Adams shares in his forthcoming book, The Disability Dividend: Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion, that the resilience and cognitive diversity forged by overcoming barriers are exactly what organizations need to thrive. The conversation then turns to how NEURO actually drives change: the NEURO Standard, an accreditation spanning five organizational pillars and three tiers that lets employers and universities prove they are continuously investing in inclusion, and, in turn, attract the roughly one in six people who are neurodivergent, plus everyone who loves them. Annis shares early wins, a Great Britain Olympic rugby player who rebuilt her youth-coaching approach for neurodivergent kids, and final-year students in London and Manchester who used the NEURO Standard to audit their own universities as their capstone project, alongside fast traction for a charity registered only about two months earlier: three university partners (two UK, one Australian), local-council ties reaching some 26 high schools, a charity-of-the-year award, volunteers across three continents, and a first major client in a large energy provider. He closes with a borderless five-year vision, licensing the model to "commercial delivery partners" worldwide, growing a free NEURO Library of practical resources, and recruiting volunteers in a way that deliberately advances each volunteer's own career. TRANSCRIPT: Announcer: Welcome to Podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, Doctor Kirk Adams. Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams. I am that Doctor Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington — one of the sites for the World Cup. We had Egypt and Belgium yesterday, down the street from me, and on Friday it's the US and Australia, so football has taken over our city. And, coincidentally, I'm speaking today with someone from the United Kingdom: Robert Annis, who's based in London. Robert is the founder of NEURO, an inclusive charity seeking to make inclusion a competitive benefit to society — which aligns very closely with the work I do. Good morning to me, and good afternoon to you, Robert. Robert Annis: Thank you, Kirk — it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. Dr. Kirk Adams: I'm glad you're here. I met Robert fairly recently through my good friend LinkedIn. As I said, Robert is the founder of NEURO, really focusing on working with organizations — companies, NGOs, governmental agencies — to help them understand that being inclusive of people with neurodiversity is a competitive advantage. I have a forthcoming business book that should be out soon; it's going into formatting right now, and it's called The Disability Dividend: Supercharge Your Bottom Line Through Disability Inclusion. So Robert and I have very similar views on the impacts of being truly inclusive of people with impairments — whether sight, hearing, neurological, or physical — and I'm really pleased to have Robert here today. We'll turn the microphone over to you; I'd love to hear the story. What's the journey that's brought you to where you are today with NEURO, and where are you going to take things? Robert Annis: Well, thank you, Kirk — that's a lovely introduction; I really appreciate it. It's really nice to be here. Getting to do something like a podcast is always a real pleasure, and it's always fascinating — you never know who's going to reach out afterwards and where it might lead, so I'm excited to see where this takes us. I think it's a really interesting topic you ...
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    36 mins
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