July 25, 2024 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording

8:19PM Jul 25, 2024

Speakers:

Steve Peters

Mark Goldstein

Erin Lorandos

Paul Ross

Mala Muralidharan

John Kelly

Vaughn Croft

Milan Eaton

Judy Sulltrop

Anthony Constantini

Brenna Leasor

Kelly Mukherjee

Gordon Fuller

Camilla Roberts

Bak Redmon

Paul Morillo

Keywords:

disabilities

people

classes

community

work

today

gordon

older adults

fcc

broadband

arizona

years

program

digital

state

questions

week

library

technology

ntia

Let's go ahead and get get started. Glad to have you all here this morning. This has been an interesting challenge for me this week, Microsoft did an update and totally messed up my computer and I spent three days getting it back in place. So it's been a very stressful week. But anyway, enough of that. I tell Well, we have a couple of people I believe, who are new this morning. And if you'd like to introduce yourself, let me see who we got here. Camilla Camilla Roberts, would you like to introduce yourself, please?

So I'm Camilla Roberts. I'm

from the Arizona students recycling use technology. And I'm the Digital Equity manager over there. So I'm sorry, what is that group please?

Oh, Arizona

students recycling use

technology. AZ stripe.

Stripe. Got it. Sorry.

All right. Thank you. Sure.

You want to do this? So let's see. Who are we who else do we have? That's new this morning. Paul, we're gonna Well, you were here. You weren't here last time, but we're going to introduce you in just a little while. That's good.

Park Redman. A good morning. My name is Bak. I am working for NJ Northrop Grumman and program manager in that one of my programs.

Okay. Thank you. Welcome. Cameron.

Cameron, would you like to introduce yourself, please?

He put something in the chat. Steve. Cameron Papazis. Okay, thank you.

With the communication services for the deaf, where it works to ensure deaf and hard of hearing individuals have access to information and resources through equal access. Right.

Okay. Well, we'll be hearing about that from Dalmira Ladron Guevara.

And I get that correct. Dalmira. Okay. Anybody else who's new today? Okay, well, then let's go ahead and get into the agenda today. We have kind of an interesting agenda today. First of all, as always, I like to thank our sponsors CareFirst. healthcare plan, Karen Ziegler, consulting services, Valley Telecom Group Kajeet. And try it. And it looks like Kajeet is gonna come back. We haven't seen them in a while. So it's good to good to have them. And then let's see. So I just want to remind people, that if you haven't, please take the time to fill out our form. So that we have an idea, who's who and how we reach you and your contact information and so forth. So please take the time to do that. Next is are kibitzing with colleagues, those of you who have been around enough No, after our meeting, we have an informal gathering, we turn off the recording, and we have an informal discussion. And it may be one person, it may be five might be 10. It might be five minutes, it might be an hour, it just kind of depends, but it's strictly an informal opportunity for people to share, talk, and so forth. So that's will take place right after our formal meeting is over. Reminder just that it would meet next meetings or August 1 1815 fit. Oops. All right. August 1, the weakness. Well, anyway, I have to correct that. Okay. And next is that which I've announced previously, on August the 2019, our meeting is going to be different than that. We're going to do a public networks forum. We're going to be talking about what is public networks. What are the different models What are the challenges, what are the issues, and so forth. And we have a great lineup of people so far, who have committed to participate in that workshop. Also in August, we're going to be hearing from Wycombe. And then August 1, we're going to hear from Denise Atkinson Chauri, who is the president of E Lu luminosity, among their services, they provide community technology development, and comprehensive Broadband, Digital Equity and inclusion solutions for communities. They're doing some really fantastic work. And I think you're going to be very interested to hear what they have to say. So moving on. So we've got a couple of big things have happened with federal level today, this week, but I want to jump before I announced these other things, Judy Solterra was here with with some with senator's office today, and we haven't seen her in a while, and she has something that she wanted to announce and so forth. So Judy, she's Would you go ahead and introduce yourself, please. And give us a quick update. Sure.

Hi, everyone I duty sell trip with as Senator Kelly's office. I was telling, as Steve earlier that this group is so professional, and there's such great information all in one place. And because you know, the the issues are complex, it's so great to have this organization, keeping the details and we do review all the notes and share it with our staff. So just even if we're not there, we're definitely getting all your updates. And so just just wanted to say that off the top. So one of the one of the things that is happening this week, it's actually starting today is that consideration of the kids Online Safety Act. It's called cosa que Osa and it's a bipartisan bill, that the senator is co sponsored. It came out of Senator Blumenthal's office, it provides kids and parents with a as with some tools and transparency, to protect kids against threats to their, you know, health and well being online. It requires a social media platforms to default to strong privacy settings, letting minors disable certain features, and protect their information and opt out of algorithm recommendations. It also, let's see, it establishes a duty of care for social media companies to prevent and mitigate harm to minors. Like preventing sorry about this, I'm trying to read this and I've got a lot of sun coming in promoting harmful or unlawful products to minors, and and prevent promotion of suicide, any disorders or other dangerous behaviors. Our office, we've had a lot of parents come in that have talked to the senator about bullying and dangerous content that's being pushed to their kids. So I'm just just putting this out there that if if there's any concerns, or I'm going to send this in, and it'll get distributed by Steve later, but just want to make sure that you know if there's any input or any concerns that anyone has with the Safety Act, to let our office know, so that we can make sure that it gets it gets amended or whatever it needs to be done. That being said, Steve, you had some additional information about about a decision yesterday with the judgment. So I'm gonna let you take it from here.

Okay. Thank you, Judy. Thanks for being here. I know you're busy. And I just I don't know, if you want to make the other announcement. We are a non political organization. But it is interesting to know that our senator is being considered for the VP, do you want to say anything more about that duty?

Well,

you know, at this point, our office, you know, officially, there's really nothing to report. And so, right now, I mean, the Senator has come out with a statement that he supports. Harris as the president but other than that, there's really nothing official if if something becomes official, we will push it out immediately. But that's kind of our stance officially right now. But thank you so much.

Well, I'm sure we'll hear from multiple sources if anything becomes official Okay, thank you, God, thanks for being here. It's good to see you. Okay, moving on. So, as Judy alluded to, there were two kind of big things that happened that were announced this week. And I did send you the information. I sent you an announcement. But the feds have announced a competitive grant program, Notice of Funding Opportunity. Excuse me, your NOFO. That competitive grant program provides opportunities for municipalities, native entities, nonprofits, community anchor institutions, educational agencies, and workforce development organizations to apply for funding on a competitive basis. And that funding if correct me if I'm wrong, Mark, or anybody, that funding goes directly to the feds? It does not go through the state through the state through the Broadband office. Am I correct about that? Correct. So, so anyway, I have there's actually I meant to put the date in here. And I think there's a pretty short timeframe to submit those grants. So anyway, and then the next thing is, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on Wednesday, that an annual $8 billion FCC Broadband subsidy program was unconstitutional. That's the Universal Service Fund. The decision created a split with the sixth and 11th circuit's both of which upheld the legality of the FCCs Universal Service Fund. And so we expect that there's going to be obviously appeals and so forth, and we'll probably end up with the Supreme Court. Marghera online, do you have anything do you want to say? Let me just say one more thing, for those of you don't know about the universal Universal Service Fund, that funds a whole lot of programs, and I'll let Mala talk about that. But one of the most significant is the excuse me, is the funding for schools and libraries. And so, Mike, you want to you online? Oh, are you there?

I'm online, Steve.

I'm gonna so my when you want to just talk about that briefly.

USF funds, and category one and category two services for hearing aid for schools and libraries. That's your internet, and then your internal connections. You know, so fun is the Rural Health Care Program lifeline and high cost programs. For rural Americans, they've ruled that the program, Congress enacted the, you know, the, the program, the the right program, and 97 and handed off to the FCC. And it looks like reading the dissent and all the comments from the judges. The problem lies in the fact that FCC is setting the fees, and we call them fees. But they're also some people call them taxes. So there's a discussion about whether it's a fee or a tax, if it in the problem is it looks like a tax because of the way it's formulated. And if it is, if it is a tax, and Congress has to be able to set those taxes. So they've handed it back to the FCC to review it. FCC can solve the problem real easily by not allowing USAC to control the fees and hand and make those make so many of the decisions. If they don't, then they will probably end up at the Supreme Court. So we will wait and see I'm not making any announcements to any schools yet. Because if we do that, they'll panic because we're in Arizona, we use about 70,000,070 to $80 million a year in E Rate funds for schools and libraries. So if we start telling them that, you know, your aid may go away, they will panic. So we're going to we're going to wait and let it play out in the courts and with the FCC and let it let it work its way through the system before we start talking about it in public.

There is if I understand, actually, it was interesting that I had just to participate, attended a webinar about the modification, the USF and then and then this notice came out and if I understand correctly, my one that there is an actual I was asking God that I believe there's a bye artisan bicameral committee that is looking at the changes to the USF. So I thought that was kind of interesting timing.

It is interesting in right now, last year, the FCC approved Wi Fi on school buses, which was a stretch of their authority to the program on the hearing program was set up to provide connectivity in classrooms and libraries for students. Last year, they approved Wi Fi on school buses, which school buses not a classroom, but they stretch the definition of a classroom to include school buses. Last week, the FCC voted to allow hotspots to be checked out by students and also library patrons. So now they're taking stuff home. Now they've stretched the definition of a classroom to the home and library patients, which is also going to be challenged already being challenged in being taken to court to be challenged there. And after the chevron decision from the Supreme Court last week. I believe that they're they're just they keep reaching further and further outside their scope and their ability to make those decisions that they're just going to, they're damaging the program. And if they keep reaching outside what the program was established for,

they're going to kill it.

So let's hope that let's hope everyone gets together and decides, hey, let's stay within our guidelines. And let's service the students in the library and keep the program going.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions? Okay, moving on. So the Broadband office is looking for a budget and compliance manager. I will put the link to the job description and application in the newsletter that you'll get the next day or two. Count Kelly, do you want to do a quick announcement? You're here every week and you and I had a great conversation yesterday. You want to just do a quickie about easy one.

That's really fine. Thank

you, Steve. Hi, everyone. My name is Kelly Mukherjee from Arizona State University. We launched a web portal called as one spelled AZ dash one but pronounced as one, to try to welcome you all to help work with us as one, as no one entity can do this work alone for the digital divide. And so we welcome you to be partners and open for one on one conversation. So please feel free to reach out, I put my contact information in the chat. Thank you. Great,

thank you. And I'll be sending that out. And she and I also discussed yesterday with a will do some reciprocal work, I'm going to start adding the AC one link on our meeting notice page. And then we're going to send her the information to add our logo to that website. So we look forward to it. And thanks, Kelly, for being here and for participating. And then, let's see I don't think Mala was still not here, I don't believe. So I'm going to just jump right into our program, unless anybody has any important announcements.

Oh, okay. So actually a couple of quick things. The USDA Rural Utility Service Broadband Technical Assistance Program, we'll be holding workshops, one we've already missed on July 17. And the next one is coming up on July 31. So if you're interested in that program, again, that's in my newsletter, the link is there on how to join that that webinar. Okay, any other announcements that anybody has? John Kelly, I see you're here, you're going to be able to stay on? Are you going to have to run off?

I'm probably gonna have to run off

in a minute here, Steve. So thank you, but you have any updates anything that you want to update us? No

summer summer doldrums for the legislature here and I'm not talking politics. Okay.

All righty. Thank you. So, we're gonna jump into our program programs today, I should say, you know, every once in a while you meet somebody, or somebody's I should say, who just are just amazing people and doing really great and really amazing work. Well, I guess I should clarify that because we have all kinds of people who attend this meeting, who are doing incredible work. But we have the I have the Opportunity. Gordon fuller joined our meeting last week. And then afterwards, he and I had a great conversation, and one or two. And I just thought, wow, he, and he's looking for relationships and partnerships. And so I thought it was really important that we include him on the agenda today. So I'm going to introduce Gordon in just a second. And then I also had a conversation with Mario with a with a get set up, which is a program for preparing seniors for use of technology, and doing some really amazing work. And again, he's looking for relationships here in Arizona. So I thought it was the the, there was some real synergy there. So I'm going to start with Gordon, and Gordon, if you want to introduce yourself, and we're gonna He's gonna be talking about Digital Inclusion, and the needs technologies and opportunities for seniors and people with disabilities. So with that, Gordon, I'm going to stop talking and turn it over to you.

Thank you so much. Well, howdy. It's a joy to speak to such an August gathering people so much in the lane that I've been so interested in, for now, going on 45 years. I grew up in Sedona as a child, family, horse ranch, I was watercolor painter, had my first one man art show at the Phoenix Art Museum. When I was six, I was the youngest child, they took into Arizona State University and a gifted children's program in the art department where I learned how to be creative in ways that are quite to this very day unique to hear with your sense of taste, to smell with your eyes. It was it was the Bohemian era of the 60s child of the 60s. And I was encouraged to explore my senses and to question how my human conception of the world around me was delivered and what I might make of that. So that early experience really touched me and my great artists aspirations continued all the way through, I ended up going to art and design school in Europe and studying to be a commercial artist, animator. And when I came back to the states, it was 18, I learned I would be becoming blind, which was quite shocking. I think the only thing that came to mind at the moment, was a Shirley Temple movie, where there was a blind man on a sidewalk selling pencils. And I thought, Oh, my goodness, I've spent my life you know, to pursue an art career. And now I'll be good for selling pencils on a street corner. So I always like to tell people, I was not always the rocket scientist about disability issues myself. We'll just start right there. What did for people in our society have disabilities in Arizona, that number is undoubtedly higher. I think many of you know this already. And then when we throw in the aging population, we see what a large number of people that is. In the world, we also know that people with disabilities actually have family and friends that are involved with them in the disability challenge. So the number actually quite approaches nearly half the population. That's what Barclays Bank found over in England when they looked at people with disabilities as a market. I can tell you, I've had a weird dual career. When I learned I was going to go blind. I started thinking about what I could do that might engage other talents that I had, I hadn't really thought about it until that moment. And I was glad I was younger. I said to myself that I noticed older people aren't really keen on making changes in their life as they conceived of it. And now that you're young, you have your life ahead of you. And if you're open to it, you might learn something from the experience. At the time, I remember saying bullshit. And the reason I said that it was 19 Hey, you know, it was quite depressing to confront blindness. I didn't know what to do about it. But then I met other blind people. And I realized that their rich lives and their accomplishments could guide me that there was more to life than just staying in one lane and trying to be more engaging. I realized my creativity was undaunted, and I looked for a new media in which my artists creative expression could find flight. And this had happened computer graphics was in the very early days. And my brother, who was an astrophysicist at the University, was working with digital telescope, instrumentality designed radio telescopes, and our friends were all technologists. And I found that image manipulation using digital tools could be something that could be done. And because I'd worked in television, on and off over the years at school, I realized that computer graphics could be a way of fulfilling the blurry requirements of old time MTV. The old four by three TVs we used to have, they didn't see so good either. So I realized my career could be extended by using these tools. And I dove in. And I started also with my brother working on head mounted displays that might allow me to use micro cameras image processing computers to allow my eyesight to be extended using the best available tools today. And that was in 1978. At the same time here in Tucson, I served as Commissioner of arts and culture, and they announced cable television was going to come to our town and giving us 200 channels. And I remember thinking for our arts and culture workers here and our diverse and unique communities that we have, I don't see 200 channels bring anything but outside storytellers stories, reflecting values of other places, not necessarily embracing what I loved about Arizona and our cultures and our diverse peoples. So I got busy, I lobbied I created workshops, I organize the community and I wrote a position paper which I'll throw in the chat today, just for grins because it kind of nails even to this very day, what we've learned about television and how it goes. And in the light of the world that we live in today, it's pretty significant to think of how much we've given away of our unique aspects of our communities. And nowhere further could that be seen that the idea of the internet when it started, I had been elected to the Board of Directors of community on cable company in Palo Alto, Stanford University. I'm a venture capitalist, I'd set up over there after taking two companies public here in Arizona, doing desktop video systems. And the one before was go video, which became a top traded stock on NASDAQ, and someone mistook me for a business person and financial Wall Street type. And I was given the opportunity to help people look at how to move technology ahead. I ended up designing the US first cable television Broadband network in Palo Alto. I designed Smart Home applications for it. And that led to partnering with NTT of Japan to build the world's first digital twin

Metaverse using video conferencing tools they developed through an intranet serving only our community with Broadband. And I was also on the advisory board for Pacific Bell at that time. I also was one of the founders of the California Research Education Network. And the reason I got into those positions was because I also in 1977, got trained up in Phoenix to be a 504 specialists, that's the public long associated with any federal monies to be spent to be used to make inclusive and accessible opportunities for people with disabilities and learning. That was the beginning of my advocacy work for people with disabilities, which now goes on about 50 years. And I told myself, whatever I did in life, I realized that it would be an extreme disadvantage to have a disability like blindness in the culture, in which you know, when you're told you're gonna go blind, all you can think of, is I'll be good for selling pencils, you know, it started with my own self, you know, how I responded and thought about how other people respond, and had my own observations of that and experience right up until I had to start using a white cane all the time as my site diminished. But back in Palo Alto there, I built a virtual reality version of the town in the early days, low polygon 3d modeling, and we used some graphics accelerator cards that were new, like the GPU chips today. We gave people telephone headsets, we gave them my Broadband network service to homes and businesses. And we created models of Palo Alto and Stanford and the Bay lands when we even included artificial life forms with AI programming, which were butterflies, birds fish. We even had the trains running on time between Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Atherton and we just kind of showcased what you could do, where little people could see each other as video avatars, little robot town consoles rolling about with your face on it using the video cameras we gave to our people. And so it was the first demonstration trial of the technology. The head mounted display systems that I'd been working on, had evolved, I had consulted to a number of companies on this, I ended up publishing the International Journal of virtual reality which was an academic journal. And it gave me a great broad preview review of how artists and creative people were using digital technology to kind of create a new and important chapter in human evolution, how we extend ourselves from beyond our limitations using the tools we have available. And so jumping ahead to today, I wanted to say my greatest goal here with Ready to imbue with you all the time. That has in my own case, people can be adaptable and flexible, they can find new ways of embracing challenges. And it is the hallmark of our humanity. It is the good thing about us that most of us aren't aware of until it comes into our lives. And it does come into our lives. So many people, every one of us, we know people in our own families often did have disabilities, quite often, it's their own families so that the first place where we encountered prejudice and have a challenge to overcome, unlike other minorities were kind of isolated even within our own families and communities. And so being an advocate for people with disability means voicing sometimes for people who are voiceless, when you try to think of how many people in Arizona have a disability, if you ask us to hold up our hands, quite a lot of people are gonna say, Well, I just have a little trouble walking, you know, or my hearing isn't so good. People don't want to join this short bus. It is truly a social stigma. My own precious brother prefer to die than to be a person that had a disability. He was an astrophysicist. He was known for creating the systems they use today for making large telescope lenses. He invented video over the internet, my brother, and he was such a gift. But for him, he didn't want to adapt. He didn't want to be disabled, he could hide in his office and away from people. It was kind of a sad thing. And I have to tell you that it's one of the things I've had to overcome is the realization of just how difficult it can be for some people to overcome the challenge of disability. So now they wanted to jump to the thing I want to think of as the really good news. And that is by building out this infrastructure. We're looking at where every home is connected to Broadband. It's an interesting challenge. I always sort of because in the time that I've been alive, I've served on boards and foundations and nonprofits. And the outcomes are the thing that people really want to know, donors want to know, what are you going to do with this? What's going to happen from it. And what I found throughout now decades of watching the FCC and various programs to extend Broadband benefits to rural and isolated people and tribal communities and others, I've worked in this area extensively with people that are the leaders in those areas, we've run into the same problem, which is it's kind of a techie, geeky, kind of build it and they will come kind of an idea, which is unfortunate, because a lot of people have fear, they don't understand how this might change their community. As I had said, diversity and uniqueness, our gift, you know, it isn't that it's something we want to stamp out and make. Homogenous everything, certainly not. For that reason, embracing the truth of our situation as human beings. There's an oversight that we've made in building and designing the infrastructure we use today. And that is, it's up in the clouds, there is a centralized place where we go, we must have permissions we have to run through someone else's service. And to me, that's just such an affront. Given that right back here on the ground in my community, I have a hell of a time trying to find out which of my neighbors might have a drill, I don't need a drill, I need a hole. And it would be better if I didn't go and buy a $39 drill at Costco or Home Depot or whatever. Instead, it'd be better if I could just get the darn hole and connect consult with my neighbor's. Likewise, the isolation and

the way that we sometimes regard others in our community that maybe houseless you know, they don't have homes, they're not gonna get connected. And they are definitely on the other side of the digital divide. And they're also my people, people with mental health challenges, people that have sensory cognitive disconnects, the poverty that people find themselves in, when they are considered disabled. There's only a 22% unemployment rate for people that have disabilities, Social Security estimates, 68% of people who could work with a disability don't work. And the reason for that is, of course, the social Mayas, the stigma is very different in other countries and Japan and Europe. I've been accepted very quickly. When I've mentioned I work on technologies to help people with disabilities, they think that sounds like a really good market. Wow, what a difference. Here in Silicon Valley. People have said to me, Oh, those people have no money. And I'll say to them, Well, let me tell you what market research has revealed and you can share with me your knowledge, you know, not always total diplomat and you know, but here we are today, as we confront this new reality of this Universal Service Fund being held up all of this. One of the big concerns I've had and many have, is this isn't really enough money ever to fulfill the mission that we've taken on here. And then we will need philanthropy. And that's a rather interesting challenge. Because in our own communities, we have communities, foundations, we have nonprofit grantors, that could be given to understand a mission that could really fill in the blanks and make a difference. And from that side of the desk, I'd like to just give my own pitch now for the idea that I'd like to recommend, which was the idea of a commons, a commons, a Digital Commons. And because I'm interested in advanced technologies, and I see where the future is going and bringing us I think of how spatial computing in particular, as you've heard of Apple's device, that's just the beginning. That's just the beginning. The truth of things is that noodling around on a little black square in your pocket is a bit of fun, I guess. But wouldn't it be better if as you walk out your door, the world around you, depending on what your interests are, and what you want to engage with? is at your disposal, when you consider something you, you may ask, what is that or when was it built, or what was the history of this place, and you could engage with pleasant things that have been encoded into the spatial fabric around you. Things that are cultural events and historical events, things that are informative about public safety, hey, blind guy, if you're crossing the street here, they have construction on the other side as of March 31, you might want to consider going to the east side and, and we're update this if it's already completed no and stuff like that. A public comments essentially, not one controlled by gatekeepers up in the cloud, but by each individual having a peer to peer encrypted connection to a trusted source server. And that is their community. The idea of server lists, distributed networks in our communities, allowing us to put in nodes for information where we can have maps, see, ready to go, anyone arriving can get this map, they're not being tracked, there's no corporate creditor up in the clouds following every move we make and watching and observing what we do trying to guess at the patterns that they're perceiving. Instead, we can have people engage with trusted sources, things they want to know about. So I'm going to the shop and I'm looking for a fishing knife for my uncle. Why wouldn't I want to reveal that to a trusted source as I'm moving in that direction? Rather than having a guest who's leaving the house? Where's he going? So forgive me, I'm trying to be as brief as possible and cover a lot of ground. But I've worked on a lot of telecommunications policy. Over the years, I worked for France Telecom research and development labs in San Francisco, the people who created the wonderful AI chips now that have become the one of the world's top companies. And it was after I told the other young folks working in the laboratory with me, as long as you understand nothing will ever come from your work here, you'll be okay. Well, it was almost true. And so I have to say, I've considered carefully how technology has formed fit and function. And the world we live in today, let's consider it just a bit crude, yet. We're not at a place where it's a ubiquitous access to knowledge that manifests itself at our command in the form that we need it in for best use. And that is the world that I'm aiming for. It's not just about people with disabilities, it's about all of us. We all have our own personal ways that we would like to engage with the community around us. And then that's the final thing I want to say community. Wow, what a concept. What a wonderful idea. My work is in place based spatial computing, the idea of how you can make where you are a center of your data sphere. And so as you engage with that, that's where your relationships are, that's where you work. It's where you go to school, where you've shopped where your kids are, it's the world that you really want to be in touch with, and you don't need someone in between you and that world. That world is present and available. And when you strip away all the spyware and you strip away the latency that comes from having distance, storytellers, manufacturing things for you. It becomes a much more robust, light, simple technology embodiment, and indeed we could assemble it out of spare parts. But the best part is that people that that aren't going to have good use for a Broadband connection, 90 year old yaki grandmas, you know, how are they going to take advantage of a Broadband network will quite likely would be with telehealth telemedicine. telemonitoring, tele friend, neighborhood connectivity, you know, giving us a better wave of things. When you leave your house and you see a person that appears to be houseless, you know, wouldn't it be great if you had a little heads up display that said, you know, oh, that's Edie, you know, if you see him, Please tell him his sister would like to talk to him there, they can get a call for him over at the center, you know, something like this? Wouldn't it be a different world than just wandering? You know, who is that fellow? What's he doing here? Having that connection to community, is what I'd like to see us rekindle. I'd like to see education expanded from inside of a classroom and a school out into the world where the students begin to tell us the stories as they learned the skills involved in augmented reality spatial computing, and how you place information around the environment so that people encounter it. And then the last thing I'd say is environmental sensing and monitoring, the ability to use these tools and technologies as a collective lens on the world that we live in, to give us updates and understanding of where problems occur, and what can be done, could really engage better, our volunteerism. And I think that's the final word I'd like to say engagement, there's so much to be done to engage our citizenry, and the betterment of our world. You know, I, I've always believed we are unique and a great people. And the best is yet ahead. Thanks.

Gordon, thank you very much. You know, it was really interesting, when I had this conversation with Gordon, some of you know that my wife has some disabilities. And I gotta tell you, as I go, take her to hospitals and clinics. And so a number of people, disability, people with disabilities, is just blows me away. And and so, it was very interesting when I talked to Gordon, and I don't know that we've had much discussion about addressing the needs of the disabled, of disabled people. And Aaron, I don't know if you want to address that at all, in terms of what we're doing with Digital Equity. I can put you on the spot.

That's okay. Hi, Gordon, I know I owe you an email. This is Erin Lorandos, and the Digital Equity program manager with the Arizona Commerce Authority. Just briefly to to speak to what Steve just mentioned, in the states Digital Equity plan, people living with disabilities was one of the covered populations that NTIA and Congress, you know, asked us to, to identify barriers and possible solutions for and so we're definitely you know, thinking about that here in Arizona. But you know, it is obviously one of those situations very much. And I apologize, I missed about half of your presentation, Gordon, I was on another call. But you know, the nothing for us without us sort of situation. And it's very important to ensure that any ideas that come from the state level, or any possible solutions make sense to the actual user. And so, you know, any any any comment, you know, that folks have in that, of course, I'm happy to continue working on that plan throughout implementation. So thank you for that opportunity.

And so I want to say that, that Gordon is very interested in finding partners who want to collaborate with him, again, which he he sort of mentioned, but I don't think he made it quite as clear that he is a tireless advocate for people with disabilities and seniors. And so he is really looking for partnering with groups and organizations that would be of interest in collaborating with him. So I just wanted to make that

would be great if they were in my country, I spent, I had been working with the UN and UNESCO through the Smart Cities initiative that Dr. Victor Penedo, my colleague and friend and former co director of the inclusive lab at UC Berkeley, he and I worked together on that. We're in Amsterdam, we created something called AI for all so we're leaping to the next level now is how can we better serve our community by making the resources and tools of the 21st century available to us. And then here in my own town, and in my own country, that my own beautiful beloved Arizona, it would be great. If we could look ahead, you know, and see just how this could evolve. And again, back to the philanthropy part. This is you know, something where we're trying to think of how to best use the federal resource, while at the same time we have to have, I think, a little broader vision and think about how this in the wholeness of things and the fullness of time could change the world in the most positive way possible.

Paul, you have your hand up? Yes.

I've got a question I'd like to ask because in the in the realm of digital technology and all the use of AI and all the applications

for suitability You Can you introduce yourself real quickly. Yes,

yeah, sure, we'll pull Ross. I'm an IVP. CIO at Phoenix College. With all the emphasis around technology and AI and connectivity and applications for accessibility and disability services these days. And true, there's a tremendous amount out there now, what role is print? Where does Where does print appear? Is that still something that is desperately needed? Is that a quality that is being missed in the equation? Well,

I think from my side of the desk, I'll say it prints a great challenge. When I step out the door, I would like it if I had the same access to the world around me as other people, the addresses the grid of addresses, street names, landmarks, institutions, all of those things, including the signage are beyond my reach. And that is actually rather interesting point, because, indeed, the ADEA and the title two and three, provide for making accommodations to make things accessible, as well as federal government's Bible for. And with that in mind, the test we call the ADA, the lawyers Full Employment Act. The test is, is it reasonable and readily achievable? And so you tell me, you know, is it not possible for us to get overlays of the physical environment around us, even though it's quite crude now, information about where you are and what you're seeing around you. And so access to print and text is a very precious thing. And unfortunately, as you may have heard, there's been some rulings in the federal courts that took away some of the rights we had to access books that are out of print and unpublished documents, the internet archives is internet archive.org is an organization I've been working with and, and indeed, preserving print and, and the legacy of print is something that that we also need to be concerned with. And for people with disabilities, the ability to consume information in a variety of formats is it and so for me, it's a human right to access information that makes me want to call for a public commons, of the spatial environment of our communities. Because after all, the information is there. It's in the planning office, the curb dimensions and everything else about the community around us every building permit, and so on. And these things could be made more accessible, they were somebody who really needs it could get it

cycled, and I not just appreciate your passion, I appreciate your practicality of getting things done as well. So I wish more people would actually step up and realize that it is not necessarily an imposition, it is a necessity to be able to inspire, to be able to do these things.

I put it this way, it's a better way to serve your customers. You know, I've appealed to a lot of boards with big corporate O's. And what I say to them is, like, I've shown you how to make your products better, how to reach more customers, how to retain people as they age, you know, what's to be hated about what we're doing here. You know, it's just what I call it is the spec, the specification because tech people likes facts, you know, and it's the spec on human beings. It's just a little broader than your average testosterone filled young athlete.

Thank you. Cheers to you.

Thank you, brother.

So we're getting out of time, because we have a couple of other things to cover. But I guess I want to say one thing, maybe and maybe some of you know, that, I don't know, is there an entity in Arizona, addressing the needs of disabilities regarding Digital Equity.

There is the State Independent Living Council. I've served on two states, State Independent Living councils. They're a part of the Rehabilitation Act that created a peer based kind of Disability Council, appointed by the governor. And there is a representative there, who my disability contacts at the national level have told me or is very engaged in this and has been attending, and I haven't yet heard from that person. I've reached out and with any luck, we'll hear back from them. But yeah, there. There are people in our state that are very much engaged. I believe there's someone today joining us From the deaf community, and this is a group that has been traditionally very constrained to benefit as it is 65% of webpages are inaccessible. And with new ADA requirements under Section 504, I think it was, they now are required to make these things accessible, which means my healthcare provider and others who are so incompetent at this kind of thing, are gonna have to get a lot better. But for people who are deaf, it's even much more restrictive world. And today, we have the tools by which we can automatically caption everything. And I am hoping that we're being captioned today. So we're sharing with our good community of Deaf folks.

We do have the captions going. I don't know if everybody can see him or not. But Kelly, you have a question or comment? Yes,

Steve Adams. at Arizona State University, we do try to be very mindful and inclusive of people with disabilities. We also try our best to help on our websites with captioning and just proper ways of formatting so that people with disabilities can still access the information that we're producing at ASU and Gordon, I would love to get in touch with you if that's okay, what's the best way for us to reach you and possibly, you know, work together more,

we put his contact information in the chat. Perfect, I'll reach out to you. As you know, I send out the registration list and everything too. But you should be able to reach him and put his phone number and email.

Thank you for your presentation today. Gordon. Thank

right Manuel, you have your hand up? Yes,

yes, this is Mala Muralidharan, I'm, I work at the State Library and the state aid coordinator work with Broadband issues and things like that. So I wanted to let you know garden I think I enjoyed your presentation, although I joined it a little late had some challenges this morning. But I wanted to let you know that the State Library does have a branch, the Talking Book Library, where we provide the service ebooks and audio books to anyone with either a reading disability or who can who has a visual disability. Even kids that are dyslexic and have issues with text and print veterans who can't hold a book, you know, anyone who can produce a doctor's certificate or even just go to the library and and express the need to get get the service. We supply them with players at home, we send them recorded books either on a thumb drive or if they have enough help at home to download the the books on to the computer and it is read to them. And we also have a service, not the State Library, but an affiliate some sounds that reads newspapers out to people who are interested in having the news read to them. Of course now with the television and with Alexa and everything else, that becomes a redundant service. But there are still people who like it read to them. And we provide that service Gordon and a few if you are not a part of a member of the Talking Book Library, I urge you in Arizona to take a membership and we would be happy to provide you with that service.

Thank you so much. I so love Arizona State Library. I feasted voraciously on you when I was a child and continue to do so. Thank you.

Okay, Vaughn, you have your hand up. Yeah, I

had stepped away for a minute. So I may have missed some of your some of your presentation. Gordon, when I was there listening to all of those accomplishments that you got into doing from your early years up to the 18 and turning going blind. My grandfather was blind for much of his life. I guess my question really is, did you disclose really? How did you deal with the blindness and still all of those physical contact accomplishment things that you were doing? How did you were able to do all that? Well,

I had progressive vision loss. So I had some degree of vision. So I use the best available technology for image magnification. And as I mentioned in my talk, I developed head mounted displays and micro cameras so I could do it more conveniently, you know as I travel and things like that. So I've always just availed myself of what I could while I could. It was only in the last 12 years that my vision failed completely. So that I pretty well lights out. And that is a different world a bit more Have a punch, I have to admit. And I wish I'd started earlier to learn more like Braille and things like that. So it happens that way, often with people like me that we, you know, continue to rely on what we can do and what we have. And it's one of the real challenges is to try to help people jump ahead a little bit and be able to understand how that might impact them. So as I said, I'm not always the best rocket scientist about disability. It's one of those things. We're all we're all learning. It's a learning curve.

You come along way from the ranch and punch in cows, and whatever you're doing as a youngster growing up. fabulous story and fabulous accomplishments. We are we're, you're a treasure beyond treasure. Thank you for all of you what you've done.

Thank you, Vaughn. He is here in Tucson.

Yeah, I want to sound guy.

Okay, anybody else want to move on here? But anybody have anything? Any other questions or comments for Gordon? Thank you, Gordon, it's been great to meet you and look forward to your continued participation and for us to continue our discussion about how we can help support you and the work you're doing with people with disabilities. Thank you, Matt. Okay, so just quickly. Now, a couple of other quick little things. But Aaron, do you have anything else? We did talk briefly about the NOFO. That was released, didn't go into a lot of detail. But if you have anything that you'd like to add, I know you weren't here earlier.

Yeah, I do apologize for that. I don't have anything to add regarding the NOFO. You know, as we've discussed in this group, and other spaces before, ACA is not eligible to apply for that. And so this is really, you know, for entities across the state who, who are interested in applying directly to to NTIA for funding, definitely a couple of notes. I haven't had a chance to read it fully yet. I'll just preface this with that. But um, you know, a couple of big differences, of course, between that and the sub grants in the state is, you know, that, again, it's you know, to US versus to the federal government, it is competitive, you know, we're not anticipating more than a few applications per state to be approved. However, the dollar amounts are potentially significantly larger, just due to the pot of money, and, and all of that, and that exclusivity. You know, definitely take a look at the sections around what programs and projects are really meant to be considered for it. And definitely, also note that there is a 10% match that is required for the competitive grant, they do have information in there about the potential for a waiver. However, you know, I don't know what the the likelihood of receiving that waiver would be. It also looks like from my very cursory read that organizations who can provide more than a 10% match to to the application might get extra points in the scoring. So that's really the very high level stuff that I've noticed so far. Apologies. You know, I was I was traveling yesterday and didn't get a chance to read it fully yet. But you know, I think that Nicole from NTIA would be a great resource for For questions regarding the capacity NOFO or apprenti. David Cohen

will be here next week. She could not be here today. But she's planning to be here next week. Yeah, I

know. She's in a training today too. So yeah, sorry about that. But that's,

that's the most you may or may not know the answer to this. So Bryan Carter, I think he's gone. His left. But he asked a question about so it says that schools are not eligible. But he wanted to know if universities since anchor institutions are theoretically eligible. Are universities included as anchor institutions and eligible or not? You know,

I have not read it deep enough to be able to answer that at this point. I'm sorry. No

problem. Thank you, and we'll talk to Nicole. Next week about that. Perfect. Okay. Let's move on real quickly. We do have another sharp presentation. Dave, are you still here? Real There he is. I'm sorry, Paul. called Mario. So Paul, you want to introduce yourself? I know we don't have a lot of time. I kind of Yeah, with the last minute. But again, another awesome person. I had a great conversation with him and is working on Some programs for seniors. And so I thought he's looking for partners. He is not here in Arizona, but is looking for partnerships and relationships here in Arizona. So with that, Paul, I'm going to just turn it over to you. You

bet. Thanks. Thanks for allowing me to speak today. My name is Paul Morello. And I look after government partnerships for get set up, get set up is a online, digital literacy can Can y'all see my screen? Yes, it's an online digital literacy and health platform for older adults. We actually started get set up about four years ago. And when we started, it was a bit different than it was today. What we were doing back then is we're trying to help older adults stay in the workforce. So it was a little bit more C Sep focused, when we started get set up, we were looking at a lot of statistics that you know, in 40 years or older adult population is is going to double people are just working longer. I remember when I was young, my dad used to say he was gonna retire at 55. But by the time that happened, it was closer to like 62. And then, you know, we looked, we saw some statistics that came out that 2019 Before the pandemic that said older adults 65 and older, who owned a smartphone, only 18% of them installed an app, and then the pandemic came in, it basically changed everything for us. We learned a lot during the pandemic, the digital divide is not a divide. It's more like the Grand Canyon. Social isolation is real but exacerbated by but the one thing that we actually learned is if we can teach an older adult how to use a digital device, they'll actually use it in thrive. So what we did is we rebuilt our employee entire platform from the ground up. But before I get into the curriculum, let me tell you why this is special. First and foremost, it's only for older adults. Secondly, it's completely interactive. So questions are answered. Third. Halfway through our journey, we we started looking at our user feedback. And we found that when somebody under 50 years old was teaching the class, the feedback rating averaged four to five out of five stars. But when somebody who was over 50, was teaching the class, the feedback rating was four dots seven, five out of five. So we drew a line in the sand. And we said, our platform is older adults only. So all of our instructors are our teacher, retired teachers, professionals, technologists, we pay them $25 an hour to teach. They all go through get set up Academy in extensive backgrounds. Now, what we did is we rebuilt the platform. And we have five major categories of classes, digital divide connectability, physical health, nutrition, mental health, social health, and vocational health. We have found a way in three simple classes to help any older adult who is just getting started with learning technology. Get online and start exploring. So you know, we always recommend our first three classes or orientations. That is a just a nice big welcoming hug and a rah rah session for four new learners. Second, we always ask them to take an introduction to zoom 70% of communications digital today, and we're on zoom right now. But at the end of that class, they should be able to go to zoom.com Sign up for a free account, send out an invite see their friends and family. The third class we actually we recommend is an introduction, whatever device they're using. So iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, it doesn't matter. We've got an intro class to that. I actually have a lot of religion around this because when my dad was aging in place, I bought him a computer. And my dad was an 80 year old factory worker. And when I showed up with the computer, the first thing he said was would you do that for you just wasted a lot of money. But with a few slight modifications, I was able to go Hey, Dad, push this button stocks, push this button news, push this button, call anybody you want for free. That was the thing that got in my dad was a cheap guy. He puts on the headset calls his brother says I'm calling you that from the computer. His brother says So what he says it's not costing me anything. Now that's how we think about training older adults that get set up who are new to technology, creating digital confidence that was not there through curiosity. And when I went back a few days later to check on my dad and organize his pills. He had found YouTube and was fixing the Hunter Bay fans which in his bedroom so that I tell that story because that is really how we like to think about educating older adults is confidence through curiosity. After that tons of physical health classes. Tai Chi Chi Gong, our most popular class is is a line dancing class called learn how to do the Detroit hustle. We also have share yoga for people with mobility issues, healthy meals on a budget plant eating classes, simple snacks for grandchildren, we even launched a series on the blue zones for those of you who are familiar with the Blue Zones, then we have tons of mental health classes dementia, Ageless Grace dealing with dementia, negative thinking, again, more more classes for people with mobility issues, Chair medication, destress before bed. And then we have social classes when I say social classes. Think of them as more like topical interest groups and roundtables that get set up we have a mantra that if you're over 50 years old, there is something in your head that you could share with others that they would find beneficial. So that's what these are topical roundtables and interest groups for older adults can get together and talk about the things that they're interested in. After that, we have our vocational health classes. And we're being used as a CSET primer by Easterseals, a for TD and I CoA and a few others. And then every every once or twice a year, we bring in special guests, we kicked it off with a travel guide that was popular with older adults. His name was Rick Steves. He's great guy did a did a great series on on traveling for people with mobility issues. After that we had this guy right here, Pete Souza, former White House press photographer, and then finally John Starks, who runs the John Starks Foundation. We even had people like you know, we've had a few politicians, people like Lance Robertson, who's come in did talks for us before. So if there's anything that you can take away from get set up, it's one we help people learn how to use their digital device, we help them get healthy, and we help them get social. We're currently working with eight states. So we have eight partnerships around the United States and eight states where older adults can take get set up classes absolutely free, paid for by the Department of Health Human Services. Just a couple of quotes from our friend Greg Olson, and Dr. Electus, Travis and Michigan. And so just to give you a quick look at what this looks like, when we partner with, with government organizations, we build these learning centers for them. This is the one that we built for Easter Seals. And so as you can see featured classes, trending wellness technology, our popular classes, there's the series I told you about. So if you go there, you can see those blue zone classes that I mentioned earlier. So it's it's there's tons of classes, we have over 2000 classes in our catalog that that get rotated, or it can be customized. But you know, after the first time an older adult comes to get set up for the first time, they just go to the calendar, which shows what's going on right now. And today. So as you can see, we've got about eight classes that you could jump into at this very moment. So baking, saving money, indoor walk, workout, geotourism, buying a computer core stretching, fit ban. And as you can see these classes just go all the way to I'm guessing today, it's going to be at seven or eight o'clock. Yeah, so seven o'clock today. So we have classes going from 6am to 7pm. And what I'll do right there is I'll stop there, and I'll just see if they have any questions.

Great. Thanks, Paul. You bet. We only have a couple of minutes left. So any quick questions for Paul?

All right, I can put my email address in the chat. If anybody has any questions that way.

My chat, I will remind everybody that you can download the chat. While I do send out the chat. You can download the chat. If you go to chat. And you look at the top. There's an ellipse with three dots there. And we click on that you can save the chat to your computer. So just FYI, because sometimes there's a lot of stuff in the chat and it's like, Oh, I forgot that I don't have the links, and all of that sort of stuff. So just a reminder, right, Aaron, as I always do, reminding people to download the chat. So with that, Brian, are you gone now? Apparently you're still here. So I didn't realize you were on the call. Brenda, do you have anything that you want to add about what's happening with the feds these days?

Hey,

um, yep, this is Brenda Lee, sir, just for everyone. I haven't spoken to Mike Tech Policy Counsel with Common Sense Media. Just a quick update, since there's a lot of movement on the federal side. For those who have not seen, I don't know if it's relevant to many people in this group, but the kids Online Safety Act Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, known as cosa and COPPA are going to be coming to the floor on the Senate side next week. I think it's supposed to be on Tuesday morning. Schumer said that he's bringing them to the floor. And so those are two like pretty big bills that are getting a lot of attention on the tech side. ACP. The house is supposed to be introducing a companion bill to Senator Senator Liu, Hans bill. It'll be representatives. But sinskey and Carrie, and they think they have five co sponsors on for Republicans or Democrats for the house companion bill. And then I'm blanking on the last thing I was gonna say. And then Congress goes out on August recess shortly. So for the house, I think they're planning on starting it a little bit early. So they'll probably be this last week. And then Senate. I think we'll go out and have next week.

Okay, thank you, Brenna. Glad you made it. Sorry, didn't see you earlier.

Oh, no worries.

Any other announcements, questions, or resources that people want to share before we end the meeting for today? Only once, going twice. Again, just a reminder that most of the stuff with all the links and everything is included into my email that I do send out afterwards. Molly, are you still there? Yes, I am. So who put the our Erin? I think she's Erin, you're still there. You put the announcement about the meeting today the NTIA webinar. And then I saw that it might be polling people won't be able to join. Yeah,

I will say just from having been to them, they're not super interactive anyways. So the recording will probably get you all of the same information that being there live, would I they sent that out last week it before they posted the nofollow. So I'm sure it is full now that the NoVo came out, it's likely that they'll do a very high level overview of it, though. So if if you have you know, interested in the in the competitive NOFO you could sign up for that and get those slides.

And there's gonna be lots more out tomorrow. Oh, yeah.

But definitely, I'm sure.

There was another note that I guess there's a limitation of 1000. If you don't can't join that if you do register, and you will get a link to the webinar.

Yep. So, like I was saying they don't typically have time even to answer questions and things like that. It really is just here's the information. So the recording of it will be very much good enough. You know, I mean, you will get the same information. 100% You won't miss anything if you can't get in.

Okay, I'm gonna stop the recording. Anthony, is there anything in particular from the State Library that you'd like to share?

Hey, Steve can hear me? Yeah. Okay. Anthony with the State Library. I'm the Digital Inclusion consultant. Nothing major. You know, just in terms of Connect Arizona, we recently hired a new navigator. Had a little bit of shifting going on. So I'm kind of filling in as project manager for that program right now. But nothing major to report just on the lookout for the competitive grant. Kind of discussing that so.

Okay, thank you. Okay, I'm gonna stop the recording. Anybody wants to stay online. Again, just a reminder that you can download the chat