Educating Others on Adaptive Technology | Sam Seavey

Welcome to My Hero 360! In this informative interview, Jillian Comstock sits down with Sam Seavey, creator of The Blind Life, the largest online resource dedicated to assistive technology. While grappling with his own vision impairment journey, Sam has created a digital community that connects those with vision loss with important technology and adaptive equipment and software.

Key Highlights:

• Hear how Sam Seavey built the largest online resource for assistive and adaptive technology.
• Learn how a school for the blind changed the trajectory of Sam’s experience with vision loss.
• Hear Sam’s inspiring message for people and families navigating a new health diagnosis.
• Be inspired by Sam’s decision to fill an important void by launching a community that educates and informs people on the capabilities of adaptive technology.

—

Transcript:

Jillian Comstock:

Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. My name is Jill, and welcome to My Hero 360. Here at My Hero 360, we honor, celebrate, and connect heroes worldwide. Their voices can serve as a catalyst for change, encouraging others to find their own strength and pursue their passions. Today, we are showcasing Sam Seavey’s story.

Sam, thank you for being here today and allowing our team at My Hero 360 to share your unique story. We’ve met before, and I’ve done a lot of research into your story, and you are truly so inspiring, and your story is so compelling, and I can’t wait for the folks out there to hear it, and I’m just so excited to be able to interview you today. Before we begin, I want to give you the opportunity to introduce yourself and provide a little background so our audience can get to know you a little better.

Sam Seavey:

Sure. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. My name is Sam. I am an assistive technology program manager at a non-profit where I help people affected by vision loss learn about technology and adaptive equipment and adaptive software, things like that. I have been visually impaired for 36 years now. I’ve kind of figured it out and I’m able to share that with my clients in person as well as viewers on my YouTube channel.

Jillian Comstock:

Awesome. Really quick, before we jump into the questions, I wanted to just tell you, I watched your most recent video on your YouTube channel where you reviewed the Be My AI feature in the Be My Eyes app, and I don’t know if people know this about you, but you cultivate extraordinary artistic talent.

At one point in the video, you have the feature describe one of your drawings, and wow, when I saw that drawing, I was thoroughly impressed. I didn’t know you were such a great drawer.

Sam Seavey:

Yeah, back when I was a kid, I really thought I was going to go into comic book illustrations, and if I can draw it really big on a whiteboard, I’m still not too bad.

Jillian Comstock:

Oh, my gosh, that’s awesome. That leads me into my first question, the research I’ve done, I figured out that, so you were diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease at the age of 11, and now you have this YouTube channel that provides tips and tricks on navigating life with low vision. Could you share how you started this YouTube channel and what led you to do it?

Sam Seavey:

Yeah, absolutely. I guess it really started in 2005. My daughter was born, and my wife has a fantastic job in the medical field, and we decided that I would stay home and be the stay-at-home dad, and it was great. I thoroughly enjoyed that. It was some wonderful years with my daughter, but as fantastic as she is, she wasn’t the most conversationalist as a toddler. I was always kind of like, “I need to talk to people all day long.” I’ve never been one to just sit at the house and not be social.

Once again, I’ve always been a creative person, so I was always looking for some kind of creative outlet along with wanting to be socialized with people. Around this time, this is probably about 2010, I started making videos on YouTube for a company based out of Texas who made content surrounding Android systems, so Android phones, Android tablets.

This gentleman, I was watching his channel and learning about my brand-new smartphone, and one day he put out on Facebook that he needed someone to take over making the videos because he had an actual physical store and it was doing really well, and he just didn’t have time for the videos anymore. I thought, you know what? This is something that I could adapt to my own personal needs with my vision loss. I could adapt this job here and make it work. I applied for the job and actually got it. I started making videos for his channel. That was my first introduction into YouTube.

I did that for about 3 years, and that entire time, nobody ever knew that I was visually impaired. It never came up, but I would always or oftentimes I would make a video about some type of adaptive app on my phone or some modification I had done to my phone to make it easier to use. I got a lot of positive responses from those videos, from people in the audience in the community. They were like, “Oh, I didn’t even know my phone could do that. That’s awesome. What else can my phone do? I’m low vision, and this is awesome.”

That kind of got me thinking that maybe there was a need on YouTube for information like that. Around 2013, I decided, just happened to decide to search on YouTube one night for Stargardt’s disease, my condition, and there wasn’t very much on there at the time. I found a couple videos of doctors talking about it, but very, very little information of people who actually had the condition and were living with it and how they were coping. That’s really what I was interested in. I kind of thought, “Well, once again, it seems like there’s a lack of information out there. There seems to be a need. If I’m searching for it, surely other people are searching for it as well.”

I had been on YouTube for about 3 years at this time making videos. I knew how to do it, I had all the equipment, so I thought, “I should just start my own channel?” I did that. December of 2013, I started my channel, and at the beginning it was just really something fun to do. It was just a hobby. I really had no direction, or there was no inclination that it could turn into something awesome in the future. That came much later, but I tell people that I’ve been making videos so long on YouTube, I have over 850 videos, but you guys can probably skip the first 2 years because they were pretty terrible.

Jillian Comstock:

It’s interesting, like you said, you were finding that many people with vision impairment didn’t even know about these assistive technologies. As someone that I can see and I have vision, and I didn’t even know about this either, so I’m learning a lot too, just doing research on your YouTube channel, and it’s very impactful. It’s also so empowering that you’ve created a resource for others when you yourself didn’t have that. That leads me to my next question: could you reflect on your experiences navigating middle school as a child with vision impairment?

Sam Seavey:

Yeah. I did public school up until high school years, and then I kind of dabbled in private schooling and inevitably went to a school for the blind. But I had the typical experience going through public school as a low-vision individual. It was tough. Obviously, I got bullied a lot. I felt very isolated. That’s the thing about vision loss is generally, especially profound vision loss, you’re usually the only one in your school, oftentimes city, that is like you, that sees as poorly as you do. It can be very isolating. There’s always that kind of thought in the back of your head that you’re not on equal terms as everybody else or equal level as everybody else. It was tough.

Now, I’ve always been a positive person and I’ve always been a glass-is-half-full kind of person and always a bit of a sarcastic person. I think that comes out in my videos. I tried not to let things bother me, but it was tough. It was tough.

It was also very segregating because I had to use large print books. I had to use a monocular. They would often put me in the front row of the classroom and sometimes even I was lucky enough to … They would push my desk up to the front board like the chalkboard so that I was as close as possible to what the teacher was doing on the board, and just further segregating me from the rest of the class. I should have prefaced by saying this was back in the 1980s. Things were much different back then. I think it’s much better now.

Jillian Comstock:

Yeah, times have changed a little bit. I hope so.

Sam Seavey:

Yeah, yeah. Attitudes and practices have changed things. We have amazing technology now. Now kids can sit in the back of the classroom with an awesome device that has a camera and it’s pointed up at the teacher at the front and it’s displaying on the screen and it’s a touch screen. Fantastic stuff going on right now.

Jillian Comstock:

That’s so wonderful to hear genuinely. You mentioned this before, but I’m just going to repeat myself. I discovered that upon entering your senior year of high school, you had the opportunity to attend a school for the blind. Could you provide some insights into your experience during this period and how it influenced where you are today?

Sam Seavey:

In between my junior and senior year, I had a chance to attend a camp for blind kids that was held at a school for the blind in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I’m originally from.

This was really my first time being around other blind kids. My sister has the same condition I do, and I grew up having somebody there, but other than her, I had never even met another blind kid, especially not another kid with Stargardt’s like us. At this camp was the first time I had met another Stargardtian as we’re called.

Once I got home, I begged my parents to let me go to that school for my senior year of high school. I had awesome parents. They were always very accommodating; whatever their kids needed regarding their vision they were happy to do. They said, “Yeah, yeah, if you want to go there, absolutely, we’ll make it happen.”

I did; I ended up going to that school for my senior year of high school, and it was awesome. It was eye-opening, no pun intended, because like I said, for the first time I was around my own peers. These were kids that were like me. I wasn’t the weird kid in the front row of the classroom with the large print books. We were all weird kids, and it was awesome. I loved it so much. It was also, I didn’t know it at the time, but it also kind of changed the trajectory of my life to where I would be very involved in the blind community from that point on.

Jillian Comstock:

Wow, that’s awesome. You spoke about your parents and how they were not hesitant at all to let you go to the school for the blind. That leads me to ask a question, do you have any advice for others who may be experiencing a similar situation or even parents for, as we know, are the most important advocates for their children, do you have any advice for them on how to navigate these decisions?

Sam Seavey:

Yeah. I see this all the time, usually in Facebook posts or I get emails and the parents always are the ones having the most difficult time with it. That’s what I try to tell them. I say, “It is difficult. It’s very hard right now because it’s all brand new.” Maybe they just got the diagnosis or what have you, but it’s very scary right now because you’re unsure. There’s that uncertainty about it. But I can tell you as somebody that went through it, the kids are going to be fine. The kids are actually going to handle it much, much better than you will as the parent, and they’re going to live wonderful, amazing, fulfilling lives. It’s just going to be slightly different than maybe the plan you had set prior.

What I tell people too is reach out for help, look for resources. There’s amazing national organizations, international organizations, if you’re in another country that can help with this. There are thousands, literally thousands, of groups on Facebook for the blind and visually impaired, and lots and lots of groups that are specifically geared toward parents of the blind and visually impaired. There is a lot of help out there, and don’t be afraid to reach out and search out these resources.

The one thing I try to tell people too, which is a big motto of my channel, is to be aware of possible treatments, clinical trials, things like that, but don’t chase the cure. That’s what we always say, don’t chase the cure. Don’t spend all of your time waiting for the cure or the treatment. Live your life; obviously be aware of it and be on the lookout for these types of things. Don’t miss out on living your life just because you’re waiting on this. There’s an amazing world out there that could be experienced by us without any issues.

Jillian Comstock:

Wow, that’s amazing advice, and I’m sure they’re going to take that and run with it. But My Hero, it’s all about recognizing those that have embraced life’s challenges and turned it into something powerful and hopeful for others. Can you share ways in which you have not let your own obstacles define you?

Sam Seavey:

For me, it’s all about being prepared and setting yourself up for success. A lot of that is by being informed and creating systems to alleviate the daily frustrations that we experience all the time.

I travel a ton. Next week I’m going down to Florida for a conference, and I travel by myself. I flew on 33 airplanes last year in 2023, and one of those, or I guess 2 of those, took me to Australia for a trip. All of this was independently; I’m not afraid to do it because I’ve figured out the systems that work for me, and I’ve learned the process. Once you learn that, once you have that knowledge, it kind of takes away the fear and the uncertainty.

All of that can all be applied to every aspect of your life, even down to little things in your household. If there’s some area of your house that’s annoying and frustrating for us with low vision, a lot of that might be like lighting in our kitchen, there’s terrible lighting. Let’s solve that problem. Let’s get some better lighting in there. Let’s get some lighting solutions, maybe some automatic lighting solutions that you don’t have to deal with. It’s just when you come in, they automatically turn on, and that alleviates that daily frustration. Learning these systems, setting up these systems, setting up these systems for success, and then learning the adaptive equipment that can help. That is tremendous.

Jillian Comstock:

I’m sure. Sam, you’ve transformed your experience with blindness into a successful career through your YouTube channel, The Blind Life. In your reviews of assistive technology on the channel, which piece of technology has had the most significant impact on enhancing your daily life, and why?

Sam Seavey:

It’s funny, people ask me all the time, what is my favorite piece of assistive technology? I’m very fortunate; I’ve had the opportunity to try pretty much everything on the market and test it out and give evaluations and things. People are kind of surprised that I actually don’t use a lot of assistive technology.

Jillian Comstock:

Really? That is shocking.

Sam Seavey:

Yeah. I have a lot of amazing gadgets, but in my everyday life, I have my magnifier that is always within reach. This is just a little pocket Eschenbach magnifier. This is literally always within reach. But probably the most helpful tool that I have in my arsenal and I think is the most useful piece of assistive technology for the blind community is got to be the smartphone. It kind of sounds like a cop-out because it’s an extremely helpful tool for everybody, but for us, it has literally been a game changer.

Jillian Comstock:

What type of smartphone do you have?

Sam Seavey:

I actually have both. I’m an iPhone and an Android user.

Jillian Comstock:

Do each of them serve a different purpose for you?

Sam Seavey:

They do, but I mainly have 2 because I’m an assistive technology trainer; I need to be proficient on all these systems. I need to stay up to date with it. I’ve got a PC right here and I’ve got a Mac right there. I’m lucky that I get to have all these amazing toys and fun toys to play with. But they do. If I need anything visual, I will get my Samsung because Samsung has a better screen. It’s leading the industry, leading the market in screen technology. Samsung actually makes the screens for iPhones. A lot of people don’t realize that.

Jillian Comstock:

I didn’t know that. This is really insightful for me too.

Sam Seavey:

Yeah. Samsung has better contrast, better colors, more richer blacks, and you can also customize the Samsung, or Android in general, you can customize it visually much more than you can iPhones.

Now, if I need anything audible, screen reader, anything read out loud to me, I will use my iPhone because they both have built-in screen readers, but iPhone iOS screen reader just works a little bit better. I always say it’s less frustrating than Android.

Jillian Comstock:

Thank you for sharing that. That was incredibly insightful. For my last question, what would you tell your younger self knowing what you know now?

Sam Seavey:

Knowing what I know now, I would say, hang in there. It’s going to be okay. I had a rough teenage, I guess you could say, teenage years, especially when everybody else starts to … All my friends are driving and I’ve never been able to drive legally. I’m actually a good driver, just nobody lets me drive.

Then getting into the dating age and all of that, it was tough; it was difficult. I would tell people, I would tell myself, to hang in there. It does get better. This thing that drives you crazy and is a daily annoyance and something that you feel strongly separates you from the rest of the world actually will end up being a very good thing in your life, and it’s going to end up bringing amazing opportunities to your life and in some small way, make you a little bit of a celebrity. It’s going to be awesome. Just hang in there.

Jillian Comstock:

Thank you. You are genuinely so inspiring and your story is so impactful, and I can’t wait for others to hear it. Thank you again for your authenticity and vulnerability today. It has been an absolute joy getting to share your story. You are truly a hero, and here at My Hero 360, we value and appreciate the impact you have made on the world. Thank you.

Sam Seavey:

Thank you.

—

Connect with Sam Seavey:

• Instagram: @theblindlifesam
• TikTok: @theblindlife
• YouTube: @theblindlife
• X/Twitter: @TheBlindLifesam
• Website: theblindlife.net

About My Hero 360:

At My Hero 360, we honor, celebrate, and connect heroes worldwide. By sharing their stories, we aim to inspire and provide hope for humanity. Follow us to hear more incredible stories of unsung heroes who make a difference in the world.

Follow Us:

• Instagram: @myhero.360
• TikTok: @myhero.360