Investing in Accessibility With Steve Ewell

Kelvin Crosby 0:06

Welcome to Investing in Accessibility , a Samaritan Partners podcast . We're not waiting for change , we're investing in it . Join us as we speak with entrepreneurs and thought leaders that are focused on creating a more accessible world . It's so good to see you . Even though I can't see you , it's another beautiful day in the neighborhood . I'm Kelvin Crosby and I have my host , Chris Maher . How you doing , man ?

Chris Maher 0:39

Good Kelvin . How are you , buddy ?

Kelvin Crosby 0:41

I'm doing great and I tell you , you just got back from CES and you had a blast and you ran into somebody .

Chris Maher 0:50

I did , I did . I had the good fortune of attending CES and the better fortune of running into our guest today , mr Steve Ewell , who is the executive director of the CTA Foundation .

Kelvin Crosby 1:01

Before we dive into that , I want to tell you something about when I met him once . When I first met Steve , I was working for an assistive technology training program and as a reward I got to go to CES and check out the conference and that's when I learned about autonomous vehicles and how small the technology was . I'm like could I put it in a blind cane . And my boss introduced me to Steve while we were there and said CTA funds some of our programs at our company, and Steve and I got going on a conversation and I told him about myself and about this autonomous blind cane to allow visually impaired individuals to travel more independently and safely . He's like Kelvin, that's an interesting idea .

Kelvin Crosby 1:43

So I left CES , I went home and started building this idea . In 40 days I built my first prototype and I knew I was gonna see Steve at a conference in San Diego . And I presented to him first not really autonomous blind cane , but a cane that would help a blind individual navigate . It had wires everywhere and Steve was like Kelvin, this is a good proof of concept . And I was like , yeah , I got , I got an idea going . Now the question is can I really build this out . Well, if you haven't listened to the first episode, the answer is there . So, go check out the first episode and let's go on with today's show .

Chris Maher 2:32

So yeah , so , kelvin , today we're talking with Steve Ewell , and so Steve welcome .

Steve Ewell 2:37

Thanks for having me . I'm thrilled to be here and it's great to reconnect with both of you and Chris, yeah , it was amazing to see you at CES this year .

Chris Maher 2:45

Yeah , well , likewise , the feelings are mutual , my friend , and the work that you folks are doing , not only at the CTA Foundation , but what you're doing specifically at CES around accessibility and age tech and even like digital health , is just phenomenal , and we're going to get into that today , and so we're going to kick things off first , Steve , with we'd love for you to share with our audience, because maybe there's probably maybe a few people out there who aren't familiar with your work, but just kind of your background and your relationship with disability and kind of how you came to the CTA Foundation . What is it now ? 13 , 14 years ago ?

Steve Ewell 3:19

Yeah , so it just had my 13th anniversary at CTA and was brought on as we launched the CTA Foundation . So , yeah , it's hard to believe that . It's one of those things that I can't believe it's been that long and I can't believe it's only been that long . So , yeah , it's a great opportunity and great organization . I'll admit I did not come from an extreme background in the disability and accessibility space . I had spent my career before that kind of bouncing between the technology world and the nonprofit world . In fact , the last organization I ran before this was a public-private partnership with the FBI around critical infrastructure protection . So very , very different issues . But I had always been . I'm a geek , I love technology , I love being able to engage with new innovations and I had done some work at a previous organization working primarily with wounded soldiers and veterans and others along those lines . And then I've always I mean like most people in the world I've had friends and family and others that have had , you know , different disabilities . So it's always been around me . But I'll admit , when I was being hired you know the last interview . The board had actually just had a meeting and decided on our mission of focusing on two populations - the older adult population and people with disabilities . And I had to go in there and say "hat's great, I don't have any experience with either of those , but I'll learn and somehow I ended up in the position as we launched the foundation .

Steve Ewell 5:00

But yeah , and that goes into essentially what the CTA Foundation is is it's a charitable foundation that's tied to a trade association . So the Consumer Technology Association represents about 1,300 technology companies . Those are , you know , the big global brands that everyone recognizes , but actually about 80% of the members are small or medium-sized businesses . So that could be startups that could be, you know, the installers that come and you know we always think about the high-end audio system or home theater systems that people might put in their home , but nowadays there's a lot actually that they're doing around, you know, age-friendly housing and you know accessible housing and things along those lines .

Steve Ewell 5:44

So , as I said , when we were starting the foundation , we wanted to give back on behalf of the industry and they looked around and said , ok , what is the technology industry already doing in philanthropy ? There's a lot of great work with kids in STEM education . We highly encourage that . We think there needs to be more . There's a lot of great work in the environmental sustainability space Once again think there needs to be more . But we saw both the aging demographic and the disability community as two growing demographics that honestly , at especially that time 13 years ago , were not getting a lot of attention . But we really felt like technology could make a big difference in that space . So you know , I was brought in and we stood up the foundation and , yeah , we're a little bit of the still best kept secret around CTA , but we're trying to change that .

Kelvin Crosby 6:35

Really interesting is the growth of 14 years of this process and how we come from 14 years ago in the technology to where we are for people with disabilities and the elderly population , and I think for me it's one of those like wow , I really saw this as something like for me as a career . I'm like I'm gonna go in the AT world and really try to do be successful in this . It sounds like CTA had the same idea about the same time that I had my ideas , and so I'm like this is interesting that this all kind of came together . Can you kind of tell us a little bit like what was that learning process , that as you started getting into it , that you started realizing this is super important and that it's kind of an underserved population in regards to technology space ?

Steve Ewell 7:27

Yeah , absolutely , and you know that's one of the things I was very careful about when I started with the foundation is , I'll be honest , our industry , the technology industry , maybe had a little bit of a reputation of showing up and assuming we've got all the answers . And you know , what I wanted to do is make sure I learned what was already ongoing . You know what are some of the things that have been tried in the past and then really looked at, you know, how can we help advance this conversation ? So it was , you know , sometimes it felt like a very slow build that we were able to do over that course of many years , but we really focused in on kind of three core pillars of what we're able to do as a charitable foundation . One of which is convening, so whether it is things like CES where we can get together , you know , I think , kelvin , you may have actually attended an accessibility roundtable that we do at CES , where probably when you were there I'm guessing , there were probably 30 , 40 people or so in the room . We've since taken off the cap on the number of people we let in , and this year we had I had 120 people check in and there were a whole lot of people standing around the side , so we're still trying to get a better lot of people standing around the side , so we're still trying to get a better sense of exactly how many are there , but the importance there is, we had representatives from the disability community for many of the advocacy organizations that are working in this space , but we also had representatives from the industry , both people who are focused on accessibility , but also just people who wanted to learn more about this space , and we were able to have a really good conversation around both the impact that AI is having on the disability space , but also workforce accommodations and what types of technologies are making a difference in the workforce here . So we're seeing we're seeing a growing and growing , growing level of interest there .

Steve Ewell 9:25

You know , the second area that we've really focused on is kind of highlighting the innovators that are doing work in this space . Part of that is to recognize the companies that are doing great work . Part of it is also to be a little bit of that carrot to draw in the innovators that are trying to come up with what their idea is and when we can say , hey , we can give you a stage you know at you know , the world's best tech event to talk about your technology, If you're able to talk about how your product makes a difference in the lives of either older adults or people with disabilities . You know that gets a lot of people's attention . So we started by having a competition where every year , you know , north American startup companies can compete for five slots where we give away a booth to startups . We give them a little bit of funding because we know it costs money to be at CES for the week, and we give them a good amount of attention .

Steve Ewell 10:23

And you know that started as I wanted to make sure there were at least those five companies there talking about accessibility at CES . Now I don't have to worry about that . There's going to be a whole lot more than those five . Now we still do the competition because I just love seeing the companies that enter , but we're seeing more and more participants and we're seeing , you know , companies buying their own booths and being at CES and showcasing their technologies there . Then the last piece is our funding . So, we're a fairly small foundation . We give out about half a million dollars a year in grants , but we do support nonprofits all over the country that are using our industry's technology to make a direct impact on the lives of older adults or people with disabilities . So that's a way that we can really help use some of our industry's resources to make a difference in this space .

Chris Maher 11:14

The work you folks are doing at CTA and CTA Foundation is remarkable and I think something that you mentioned that I think is so critical that I've learned now being in the space for coming up on two years is the whole idea of inclusion .

Chris Maher 11:30

And you're right , this year's roundtable on that Monday you had over 120 people there . The growth of that from several years ago is just remarkable and I think a lot of that is a credit to you , Steve , and your team . And that whole approach of inclusion, that's what disability, assistive technologies, and disability tech is all about, is starting off with that inclusion and and also inclusive design . Let's talk specifically about CES , and I've experienced it the last two years , and last year was phenomenal and this year it seemed even bigger and better, and can you talk about that trajectory of where it started , where it's gotten today, and where you think it can go in the future in terms of the presence at CES around accessibility and Age Tech ? And this year it seemed like you're also pulling in some digital health , which touches both of those communities as well .

Steve Ewell 12:21

Yeah , absolutely . Well , digital health has actually been one of the fastest growing areas at CES for several years now . I mean particularly driven , I think , by the pandemic , but also just seeing the types of innovations that are , once again , not necessarily in that space , just focused on accessibility , but recognizing that these technologies can make a really positive impact on the disability community . So, that is, we are really looking at how we best engage with the digital health community with all the various both technology companies, but also , you know , the payers and others that have a role in the health system . Beyond that , yeah , it's been . You know something that every year , I you know, this is the time of year where I come out of it and say , wow , that was a great show . How am I possibly going to do more next year ? And I think my team's getting a little worried about that as well . But the good news is we are seeing it's not just what we're doing with the CTA Foundation anymore . Now what I love is you go into the central hall , which is where some of the big giant companies, so the Samsungs , LGs , Sonys and you walk into their booth now and they have an entire section that's dedicated to accessibility , and that was not there years ago , or it was just kind of a tiny little piece of the booth . So , seeing that these companies are highlighting it because they recognize that this is an incredible market for them . So , seeing those innovations we are absolutely working on how do we create more content, so you know whether it is . We did more panels this year that are focused on accessibility , and all those are live and freely available on the CES website . If anyone's interested , you can just search accessibility and actually I think it'll show you all of this year's , it'll also show you last year's and it may even go further back than that , but you're able to see some of the conversations that we're having , and that was everything from engaging the community and user design of products to we're seeing the trend in retail of self-service kiosks and talking about ways that some of these companies are working to make those kiosks more accessible . So we had companies like Vispero , but also Verizon , McDonald's , others like that engaged in that conversation

Innovative Solutions for Disability Tech

Steve Ewell 14:49

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Steve Ewell 14:49

So I'm a big believer of you take a lot of smart people and you throw them in a room with some problems and it's amazing what can come out of that . So, you know, the good thing is we've got some problems to solve and we haven't cracked this . I mean there's still a lot more to do , but I'm optimistic . I mean I'm seeing all the conversation around what technologies people have found at CES this year . One of the other things we do is we do bring out some of the leaders from different advocacy organizations and have them walk the show floor and we don't tell them where to go or what they need to see , but essentially what we ask is afterwards , let us know , create some piece of content talking about what technologies you found that would impact .

Steve Ewell 15:35

Whether you're focused on the blind , low vision community , whether you're focused on the deaf , the hard of hearing , mobility , you know on and on . You know what are the types of technologies that you found that you think would be of interest to your, you know, the population that you serve . So that's something that I'm always excited for , because that's not me saying this is an important technology . This is members of the community saying what's important for them , because , as you know , in this space it's nothing about us without us . So if we don't have the representatives from the disability community telling us what's important , we don't really know for sure .

Chris Maher 16:12

Yeah , for sure . So , Steve , let's dig into a couple of the companies . You gave some names around some of the large corporate presence , but another thing you do an amazing job of is supporting early stage startups who have really innovative approaches to solving problems around disability and age tech . Are there two or three companies from this year that really kind of stood out for you ? That got you excited ?

Steve Ewell 16:36

Yeah , so there's quite a few , but you know a couple things that stood out for me . One you know just a couple of our winners this year at CES . So one program that we had actually it was a brand new program we did this year where we had partnered with a couple organizations that are focused on the intellectual and developmental disability community . They had done focus groups throughout the year , really getting the impact or the feedback from the community on what are the challenges around health tech . And then actually at CES we partnered with Opportunity Village , which is a nonprofit in Las Vegas focused on the IDD community , so they brought a number of their members to the show . We then had a number of finalist companies that we had selected based on them listening to the feedback from those focus groups and basically coming to us with how they would adjust their product . We put them in a small room and had them talk with the community for a bit and then they had a chance to pitch . And the company that actually walked away winning that competition is a company called OnScreen that has a really interesting product using the TV as the interface . And it's everything from medication alerts and reminders and they really came out of the age tech side of our mission . But it was really interesting to see them engage with the members of the IDD community and really get very positive feedback , and you know we see that as now, okay , they're opening up a new marketplace for them . That's going to help them as a company , but ultimately as a charitable foundation, what I care about is that will make a difference in the lives of the people we're trying to serve .

Steve Ewell 18:24

One of the other ones I'll highlight is a company called SignSpeak , which is . We've had a couple different companies over the years that have done automated ASL translation . What I liked about this one is it was bi-directional , so both you could sign to the app and basically it would then turn that into English to talk to someone who can hear . But then if you talk to the app , it had an avatar that would then do sign language to the individual . So we were really excited to see the work that they were doing there and they were able to both get a free booth through our competition and they were also actually the runner-up for our pitch competition at CES . So I was excited to see what they were able to do at the show .

Chris Maher 19:14

So one disclaimer for our audience . I did not ask Steve to talk about SignSpeak , but Samaritan we're investors in SignSpeak, but just wanted to full transparency . I did not pay Steve money to talk about SignSpeak on our episode today .

Kelvin Crosby 19:29

I'll be sure about this .

Steve Ewell 19:30

I realized halfway through talking about them , that I'm not telling you anything new .

Chris Maher 19:35

Well , it's good for our audience to hear . You're right , they're technology . They and Onscreen are both doing things around technology that is helping to make people with disabilities and or in the aging population to live more independent and autonomous lives , which is wonderful

Investing in Disability Tech

Chris Maher 19:53

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Kelvin Crosby 19:53

So I want to ask you a question , Steve , as you have been in this space . I'm curious , as you got to know Chris and the firm , what do you think about Samaritan Partners and how do you see Samaritan Partners being an impact for entrepreneurs that are developing products and innovation for people with disabilities ?

Chris Maher 20:21

Thanks for the plug there , Kelvin .

Steve Ewell 20:25

Well , you assume I'm going to have a positive answer . No , of course .

Kelvin Crosby 20:28

I get the power of edit . That's the beauty .

Steve Ewell 20:32

Now , I think Samaritan Partners plays a really important role in this space because one of the challenges and , Kelvin , I know you've talked about this, one of the challenges that I hear from all of the startups we work with is who do they go to for capital ? Finding funding for a startup is not easy in general . Finding funding when you're focused on the disability community can be even you know on the disability community can be even, you know, a higher level of challenge . So being able to , you know, that's always the question I get is okay , who do I go to ? Who do I talk to ?

Steve Ewell 21:12

And , believe me , I don't want to throw everyone towards Chris that comes to me because you know , I know there's limited dollars , but you know , having someone who is showing that these investments matter and as you're able to showcase the returns on those investments and see those companies continue to grow that you all are investing in , that's going to build the market up and open other investors into saying , ok , I see that there's a positive return there , because , ultimately , the investors are focused on how do they return to their investors as much capital as they can , and they may very well be in alignment on mission of yeah , we want to make a difference in people's lives , but they also have to be on the hook to return what returns they can to their investors . So I think being a showcase of you can do good and do well at the same time is really important yeah .

Chris Maher 22:07

I think it's really well said , kind of as we wrap up here , Steve , this has been a great conversation . I know we could go on for a very long time , but , as we wrap up , what's on the horizon for the CTA Foundation in 2025 and beyond and anything that you'd like to share with us in the audience about some of the exciting stuff kind of coming down the pike .

Steve Ewell 22:25

Yeah , so 2025 , I think , is going to be a great year for the CTA Foundation , obviously kicking it off with CES . But we're in the middle of looking at our grants , so that's the programs that we're able to fund as far as nonprofits . So I immediately leave CES and I have a big pile of grants to start reading through , but I know there's some really interesting programs there that we're going to be able to support this year . We're also looking at taking some of the programs that we do at CES and figuring out how we can do those in other parts of the country . So this past two years , we've done a couple smaller events in the DC area , but what I want to do is start bringing that out to other parts of the country , having these conversations between the industry , between the disability community , because we really need to expand who's part of these conversations as much as possible . So I expect you'll see a lot more for us related to that throughout the year .

Kelvin Crosby 23:22

Steve , if people wanted to donate to the foundation , how would they do that ?

Steve Ewell 23:26

So they can go to ctafoundationtech . It's dot T-E-C-H and that will take them to our webpage . There's a big donate button right near the top of that . That should be fully accessible . But also , if people are interested in seeing the types of organizations that we support , the other programs that we run would absolutely encourage people to take a look at that . The other nice thing is , because we're tied to a trade association, people's donations they're actually not paying for me to be here . CTA pays for me to be here . It means we're able to take any donations and turn it around into more grants and more programs that we can do throughout the year . But yeah , I really appreciate you asking that question . As any nonprofit , we're always out there , you know , trying to drum up the dollars .

Kelvin Crosby 24:16

Yep .

Chris Maher 24:17

And we'll and Kelvin this is the first time I get to say this . We'll put that in the show notes , folks .

Kelvin Crosby 24:23

Yep , it'll be in the show notes . And also just know that we're doing some new things and you know what's interesting , as we talked about SignSpeak , you know who's going to be making our podcast accessible to people who are deaf and deafblind - SignSpeak . So if you want to find that , you're going to find that at YouTube , at Samaritan Partners or type in "investing in accessibility , and you will find it right there , with all of our shows, all in ASL . So you got anything . Last thing that you would like to say , chris .

Chris Maher 25:01

I would just like to thank Steve . You're the best my friend . Thank you for coming on and sharing with us and you've you've been a great friend and advisor and partner to me and Samaritan as we've gotten this fund off the ground . So just thank you so much for that and looking forward to working with you even more in the future .

Steve Ewell 25:18

Well , thank you for having me , it's great to connect with you , and thank you for calling attention to these important issues . Launching this podcast , I think , is a great way to move this conversation forward .

Kelvin Crosby 25:29

So that wraps up Investing in Accessibility and we'll see you guys in two weeks . Like I always say , go live beyond your challenges . Thank you for listening to Investing in Accessibility , a Samaritan Partners podcast where we invest in change , for accessibility , not wait for change . If you want to follow us , you can find us on YouTube or LinkedIn at Samaritan Partners . If you would like to invest in Samaritan Partners , email chris at samaritanpartners . com . If you'd like to learn more about us , go to www . samaritanpartners . com . You can take the first step in investing in change by giving us five stars and sharing this podcast with everybody that you know , so we can spread the word , so that we can give access to all , by Investing in Accessibility .