I've been thinking about being more curious about what accessibility around curiosity really means and entails. I was delighted to sit down with accessibility advocate and Birdablity executive director, Cat Fribley to explore the curiosity lessons to be learned from the organization -- and from Birdability Week, a week full of events dedicated to making birding accessible and inclusive for everyone --- especially those with disabilities and other health concerns. 

Birdability: https://www.birdability.org 

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Wingspan” by Bayou Birds, via Blue Dot Sessions.

Ep. #301: Birdability & Making Curiosity Accessible, with Cat Fribley

Multisensora ekskursija Latvijas Nacionālajā mākslas muzejā – jauns piekļūstamības risinājums cilvēkiem ar redzes traucējumiem 

Teodors Zaļkalns. Cūka

Vilhelms Purvītis. Atkusnis

Romans Suta. Klusā daba ar trīsstūra lineālu

Janis Rozentāls. No pļavas

Explore the groundbreaking Canada Global South Ideas Forum 2026 and the UnityNet International plan for regenerative peace and foundational security. 
This episode unpacks how Indigenous, Afro-diaspora, and Western perspectives come together in the Declaration of Unadulterated Pluralism, blending wisdom across continents for concrete action.
Discover how twinned global events, real-world grassroots projects, and innovative data monitoring—anchored in the IDEAS framework—are reshaping the future of AI, universal basic services, and ecological regeneration. 
Dive into practical steps, diverse partnerships, and a year-round global movement aimed at measuring progress by real community wellbeing, not just economics.

Unpacking UnityNet Global Peace AI and Foundational Security 2025-10-11

Birdability Makes Birding Accessible

Meet Saamer Mansoor ( linkedin.com/in/saamer ) who from building a Deaf Aware App is now revolutionising the way meeting Transcription and Translation Apps can work without the Internet connectivity on device and nearly no latency. Conference Captioning (https://conferencecaptioning.com  ) is ADA-compliant live transcription and instant translations powered by On-Device AI — so your audience never misses a word.  PODcast hosts Roel Frissen and Ruud Janssen explore this development in this latest episode of the #DESIGNtoCHANGE PODcast ONstage and BACKstage more at https://designtochange.online  

The #DESIGNtoCHANGE podcast, hosted by Ruud Janssen and Roel Frissen, featured Saamer Mansoor, founder of BeAware Deaf Assistant, sharing his inspiring journey of innovation. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Texas, Saamer studied mechanical engineering at the University of Texas before transitioning to coding. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he developed the Deaf Assistant app to address communication barriers for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community caused by mask-wearing. The app transforms smartphones into alerting devices using LED flashes and smartwatch vibrations, gaining global recognition, including features on Y Combinator's Hacker News and Apple’s platform. It is widely used in the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States.

Saamer’s participation in IMEX America, a major event with 17,000 attendees, was transformative. During Smart Monday and the Event Design Certificate (EDC) Level 1 workshop at Marina Bay Sands, he engaged with event designers from over 15 countries, recognizing the need for inclusive event design. Inspired by feedback from George Washington University professors, he expanded the app’s capabilities to include conference captioning. This feature uses on-device AI for real-time captioning and translation in over 25 languages, ensuring ADA compliance with over 95% accuracy and contextual understanding. Unlike competitors, Saamer’s solution eliminates internet dependency, offering unmatched speed and reliability, even for silent seminars.

The session explored accessibility challenges in events, citing CES 2024’s accessibility competition, which lacked basic accommodations. Saamer also shared insights from the PCMA conference in Rotterdam, where the Sign Language Coffee Bar sparked conversations about communication barriers. He emphasized the importance of relationships in the events industry, noting competitors’ aggressive sales tactics, including exclusive multi-year deals.

Saamer’s open-source business model, with code available on GitHub, empowers the deaf community without ads or subscription fees. Revenue is generated through partnerships with organizations serving this community. Looking ahead, Saamer plans to expand his sales team, enhance networking features for classrooms and events, and continue innovating. The podcast concluded with an invitation for Saamer to return next year to reflect on his progress and share updates, while also highlighting the Event Canvas’s 30,000 users and its role in fostering inclusive event design worldwide.

Saamer Mansoor #DESIGNtoCHANGE ONstage with Ruud Janssen + Roel Frissen

Luke Searle, Learning Designer at University of Southampton talk with Carolina Barnes, Jisc community specialist about making math accessible. Luke was celebrated a community champion of 2025 for being co-chair of the Jisc accessible math working group. 

Luke shares how the community is helping provide tailored approaches to help make math more accessible and how this has been achieved through the support and passion of the community. 

You can connect with accessible math JiscMail list. 



Digifest community hub 2025: Making maths accessible with Luke Searle

Laura Hutton, Subject Specialist in Accessibility at Jisc, is joined by Vicki Penny from Hartpury University and Colin Smith from Cornwall College.

Vicki and Colin are part of a co-creation project at Jisc, led by Laura, called the FE Accessibility Training Matrix. The aim of the project is to create a shared resource for FE that curates training and resources relating to Accessibility and maps it to job roles and levels of knowledge required for all FE staff. This project is ongoing and more information can be found via the Jisc website: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/fe-accessibility-matrix#event-resources

This episode focuses on the motivations behind the project, reflections on the work so far and some general chat about the themes and sessions from Digifest.

Podcast transcript: https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/10029/1/accessibility-training-matrix-with-laura-hutton-vicki-penny-and-colin-smith-transcript.docx

Digifest community hub 2025: the FE Accessibility Training Matrix project

🏛 Latvijas Nacionālā mākslas muzeja galvenā ēka
🏛 Mākslas muzejs RĪGAS BIRŽA
🏛 Dekoratīvās mākslas un dizaina muzejs
🏛 Izstāžu zāle ARSENĀLS (šobrīd slēgta rekonstrukcijai)
🏛 Romana Sutas un Aleksandras Beļcovas muzejs
🏛 Ekspozīcija “Skulptūru mežs. Antīkās un renesanses tēlniecības nolējumi” Muzeju krātuvē.

Hear how communities across education and research are bringing people together to share and learn.

We cover learning and teaching, adapting to AI, accessibility, licensing and much more.

Choose to be Curious is a show all about curiosity. We talk about research and theory, but mostly it's conversations about how curiosity shows up in work and life.  

Now syndicated and available via Pacifica RadioNetwork.

Listener-sponsored, volunteer-powered, noncommercial community radio broadcasting to south-central Wisconsin at 89.9 FM and online at wortfm.org via our studios in Madison. 

We provide an outlet for communication, education, free expression, entertainment, training and access for the purpose of sharing music, information, news, and cultural experiences, and strive to give people underrepresented elsewhere in traditional media a voice. 

NOTE: Most of the content posted at this time are news stories or talk shows. 

MUSICIANS:  We NEVER look on our SoundCloud for music submissions, so it's not a very efficient way to contact us. Please go to www.wortfm.org and click on Music --> Music Submissions for our submission info and guidelines. Thanks and we look forward to hearing your music!

New tracks tagged #accessibility