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. Hey, so good to see you, even though I can't see you. It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood and I'm so excited that you're here at Investing in Accessibility and I'm your host, Kelvin Crosby. And let me introduce you to my blonde redhead co-host Chris Maher. How you doing man?

Chris Maher: 0:47

Hey, Kelvin, how are you My friend? It's good to see you and be with you.

Kelvin Crosby: 0:50

So that's the million dollar question.

Kelvin Crosby: 0:52

Are you really blonde and kind of a redhead?

Chris Maher: 0:56

So that is a good question. I look more blonde today, but when I was a younger man I had a lot of red in my hair. So I was, as my mom used to call me, I was a strawberry blonde. But as I've aged the red has turned gray. So now I look more blonde than red, but I got a lot of gray going, but it's hidden by my little bit of blonde. I've got left.

Kelvin Crosby: 1:21

Okay, so you're starting to become ancient.

Chris Maher: 1:28

Yeah, I am.

Kelvin Crosby: 1:28

That's a sad news.

Chris Maher: 1:28

Yeah, and I can't let my beard grow in, because that used to be like Kris Kringle young Kris Kringle red, and now it. And now it's all gray and it makes me look even older.

Kelvin Crosby: 1:39

Well, I'm excited about today's guest and we're going to get into some captioning and stuff but other interpreting and stuff and kind of overall accessibility that really helps people in all areas of life and so why don't you introduce it to our guests?

Chris Maher: 1:59

Thank you. Yeah, I as well. I'm super excited about this conversation because our guest today has been in the accessibility space pretty much his entire life and his company has been around for 50 years, if you can believe it, and so this is going to be an awesome conversation. But let's welcome to the podcast, Chris Soukup, who is the CEO at CSD Communication Services for the Deaf. Chris, welcome to the show.

Chris Soukup: 2:27

Hello, it's a pleasure to be here and really looking forward to our conversation.

Chris Maher: 2:37

Likewise, and Chris and I, or I should say, I had the great pleasure of spending the better part of a day with Chris back in early July, because Chris and I are both on the advisory or associates board of a wonderful organization called TDI for Access. And Chris and I had a chance to spend some time during the board meeting and then there was an event after and we sat next to each other and it was just an absolutely fabulous day for me and by the end of that day I said to Chris, you know we should, Kelvin and I should have you on the podcast because we got to dig into your story more with our audience, because it's just fascinating and it's also appropriate because this summer has been kind of this multi-week, multi-month celebration of the 35th anniversary of the ADA and your family, and your company, has been around since pre-ADA and we're going to get into a lot of that today.

Chris Maher: 3:24

And so welcome to the show and thank you for spending some time with us. But, Chris, why don't we start off with your family story, your background personally, about you and your family and your dad, which I think will lead into the conversation about CSD?

Chris Soukup: 3:39

Sure. So my family is predominantly from South Dakota and that goes back several generations and we have extensive deafness. It's a genetic predisposition in my family that goes back several generations as well. And so I'd like to kind of begin. I think the genesis of CSD was really not with my father but with my grandfather, and my grandfather was a farmer and was a successful deaf farmer in the 1950s and 1960s and there was one summer a really horrific storm and the storm did incredible damage to the farm and even though the farm had been successfully run for many years, my grandfather encountered significant discrimination when he went to local banks to try to get a loan to rebuild the farm. And they ended up having to leave the farm and my grandfather passed away a short time later, literally of a broken heart. And my father was 12 years old when my grandfather passed away and I think that experience really lit a fire in him and carried him into his experiences later in life.

Chris Soukup: 5:27

And our company's story really came from the community and in the 1960s and 1970s it was really difficult for deaf people to get employment, and so in South Dakota a very popular place for deaf people to work was a meat processing plant called John Morrell, and incredibly dangerous work, but it paid well and allowed the deaf individuals at that time to be able to make a living and to provide for their families.

Chris Soukup: 6:08

And so there was a concentration of deaf people that worked at this particular meat processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and they were sitting around the lunchroom one day and the company had instituted a pay change, and nobody bothered to communicate that to the deaf employees. And so they were talking about the lack of access to communication and information and the oppression that they were experiencing as employees, being less than, and that was really, I think, the seed that really started to germinate the idea of the need for an organization that could push for change, that could create a better world for the deaf community and build better access to information and communication and to fight for equal rights. And so they huddled together as a community. And as a group they went to the state of South Dakota and presented a plan to the state of South Dakota and received a $15,000 grant, and with that $15,000 grant, CSD was born.

Chris Maher: 7:33

Oh, that's amazing. That is amazing. So I have got a slew. First of all, I have a slew of questions, but first of all, thank you so much for sharing that story about your grandfather and your father, and so much of this is about lived experience, and we talk about that all the time on the podcast with our guests, and so a lot of this was driven out of lived experience on the part of your family and family members and people in the local community, but it was also driven out of just the basic idea of equality and equity, r ight. And that's amazing. Did you have family members that were working at the meatpacking plant during that time? They were part of the group that went to the state?

Chris Soukup: 8:20

Yes, my father and my uncle and my grandfather.

Chris Maher: 8:24

Amazing. Kelvin, before we jump into to CSD and the founding of that and the arc of of that organization do you have any questions about for Chris, about his family and and the initial story here?

Kelvin Crosby: 8:41

One of the cool things is, as somebody that fought for a lot of deaf/ blind issues and kind of the same thing on the communication, is really being an advocate, really being able to find ways to be able to have our voices heard, and I think what's really cool about this story is it's sad that we had to go through these life situations. But one of the things look at the fruit and I'm excited to see, like, as we kind of look through this over the next couple minutes, the fruit of this and how Chris, your family and you, have continued to grow this and really give communication to so many people that are deaf, deaf/ blind, and now we're looking at other opportunities, what that might look like as well and, man, we've come a long ways, but we still have a long ways to go.

Chris Maher: 9:50

Yeah, but the kernel of this started with an individual or a small group being advocates for themselves. I just had a conversation, and advocacy is something else we talk about a lot on this show and, Kelvin, we've talked about doing an episode about it. But I think about my own lived experience with my two daughters, who both have disabilities. I'm not making this up. I literally talked to a gentleman yesterday that I got introduced to and as I was telling the story of my daughters, one of whom has a physical disability, she has a form of hemiplegia on her left side, and my younger daughter has pretty significant intellectual and developmental disabilities. But as I was describing my daughters, his mouth was like a gape and he's like you've just described my two children. He has twins. They are 10 years old, my daughters are 20, about to be 22, and 19. And his son is on the autism spectrum and has a significant neurodiversity, and his daughter has a form of hemiplegia. And as we were talking, he was like you know, do you have any advice for me and my wife? And one of the things I said is, I go, well first and foremost you have to be the biggest advocate for your child and your children going forward until they're of an age where they can be advocates for themselves, because if you're not, you can't rely on, or count on, other people doing that for them.

Chris Maher: 11:15

And I just think it's amazing, Chris, that that small community in South Dakota, in that town working at that meatpacking plant, fast forward 50, 60 years and you've got CSD, which is this incredible organization. It is involved in so many different areas of the market and doing so much good which we're going to get into. So I'm getting ahead of myself and I'm getting too excited, so let me calm down here. So, Chris, let's jump into it. So they go get this $15,000 from the state of South Dakota. And then, how did CSD actually start? What was the founding of it?

Chris Soukup: 12:15

So for many years it was community- driven. So literally the deaf community, individuals from the deaf community would show up with their hammer and saw to help to build office facilities and apartment buildings and volunteer their time. And I mean so we very much came from the community and grew with incredible support from the community. And so over those first 15 years CSD grew from being a local nonprofit to a regional nonprofit and diversified and did a range of different community-based programs and services, including independent living and job placement and adult basic education and immigrant services, drug and alcohol programs. We had seniors programs. We developed apartments and had accessible apartments for the deaf community in South Dakota and beyond, for the deaf.

Chris Soukup: 13:09

We purchased a camp facility and grew that camp facility and ran summer camp programs for a number of years out of that. And so that was, I think 1975 to 1990, kind of the arc of growth for CSD. And in that same period we started to get into the technology space a little bit more deeply and we started to tinker with the idea of making telecommunications more accessible and that really set the stage. That early experimentation allowed us to go back to the state of South Dakota to enact legislation to create funding, and buckets of funding, for piloting services statewide, and this is before the ADA. So South Dakota had a functioning telecommunication relay service in the 80s and it became a model for other states to follow in the years that came after the ADA and the mandate for relay services was implemented.

Chris Maher: 14:16

Yeah, that's amazing. So did your, did CSD, and your dad and family. You were pre-ADA developing these services. Did you work with Senator Harkin's office as the ADA was being developed? Was there any involvement there, or did they look to you guys as being kind of a blueprint of how it could work?

Chris Soukup: 14:39

You know it's interesting, during that period of time my dad was really extensively involved with the National Association for the Deaf and was president of the National Association for the Deaf around the time that the ADA was passed, and so CSD kind of worked side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with the NAD in supporting a lot of the efforts that were happening in DC during that period.

Chris Maher: 15:07

Wow, that's amazing. And was your dad effectively the CEO of the organization from the get-go? Or was it kind of a group that managed it in the early days and then eventually he moved into that role?

Chris Soukup: 15:22

Yeah, it was initially an executive director is what they called it, and he was 23 years old when CSD was founded. So, like I said, just very, very grassroots community-based effort, lots and lots of support and mentorship from luminaries in our community that showed up and gave CSD support in those early years and, I think, a huge testament to what is possible when you know, community comes together and self-actualizes.

Chris Maher: 16:03

So let's start talking about you, right? So your childhood of growing up with your dad running this amazing organization, you had your childhood, you went off to college and got your degrees and then ended up working for CSD and now you're the CEO. But can you talk about the arc of that and kind of what it was like growing up with your family being so involved in that organization and then you joining it and now you're running it today?

Chris Soukup: 16:30

Sure, and I actually started working for CSD in high school and did summer internships and directly from high school I started working with CSD and went to a local college initially and worked for CSD and was going to college part-time. And did that for a period of time. And then I went to Gallaudet University in Washington DC and I finished my school there and came back to CSD and it was really the perfect time. I mean, this was 2001, 2002, and we were just getting ready to launch the first nationwide video relay service. And it's really, You know, we can talk a little bit more about the generations of technology and the impact of that, but in the 80s and the 90s, and you guys may have some familiarity with TTYs and some of the early forms of accessible technology and the limitations.

Chris Maher: 17:40

And Chris do me a favor just for our audience. Can you just quickly describe TTY and those early forms of the technology that they may be less familiar with?

Chris Soukup: 17:49

Sure, I mean in the 60s and 70s you have to think of like these giant typewriters. I mean just these huge machines with a tiny screen and a keyboard. And they were very clunky, heavy machines that you'd connect to your phone and you'd be able to make a call to another TTY user. And the limitation, and these devices got smaller and smaller over time by the late 80s, early 90s. I mean they were kind of laptop-sized machines, but they were still limited in that you could only call another TTY user and usually the TTY user that you were calling was deaf. So you've got a deaf person trying to call another deaf person and so you both have to kind of be, you know, agree on a time. I'm going to call you at such and such time. So be by your phone when the light flashes, then you know it's me calling you. So it was very, very you know especially, you know, from our lens in 2025, incredibly primitive. But that was where we started.

Chris Soukup: 19:05

And the limitation of TTY for a lot of deaf people is it's very English driven, it's contingent on your typing speed. You have to be a good typist. And so if you don't have a strong command of English and you're not a good typist. It's a very clumsy and inefficient way to communicate. And so video changed all of that. And so in the 90s we started to experiment with early forms of video conferencing and the idea of being able to link, you know, signing individuals and non-signing individuals through video interpreting, which really kind of experimented with during that period of time, and we were able to engineer a solution that allowed us to do that at scale and to go nationwide in being able to deliver those services to the deaf community across the country. And that was implemented in the early 2000s and is kind of the gold standard today for how deaf people communicate with the world.

Chris Maher: 20:14

And Chris, was that the product or company under CSD called Purple?

Chris Soukup: 20:20

So it was originally CSD and it was branded CSD VRS. And then in 2006, it was spun off and it became a standalone company. It was rebranded as Z-VRS. Z-VRS then went on to acquire Purple and it became ZP Together. And so Z-VRS and Purple is now one company.

Chris Maher: 20:50

Gotcha, and it's one of the three kind of major vendors in the video relay services space.

Chris Soukup: 20:57

Right, yep

Kelvin Crosby: 20:59

And think one thing I would like to kind of explain for people that are never really understood American Sign Language or English Sign Language, or just why is it a struggle for a lot of people who are deaf, . And think that's something that I think for some, of listeners, american American Language is not normal English.

Kelvin Crosby: 21:26

It's English, but it's American Sign Language and it has it's own, and tell me if I'm wrong Chris, but it has it's own way of communicating the flow of the communication. It has it's own dialect, kinda like you got the southern accent, you got a northern accent, and it has its own kind of form of dialect. And that's where, when the TTY, that was always a challenge. You had to know regular English to be able to communicate. And so I think as we got to the VRS and looking at that, that what's really broke down, that, that challenge and that communication structure and be able to allow all forms of sign language that was used throughout the country, to be able to be accessible to all people with deaf and deaf/blindness.

Chris Soukup: 22:29

Yep. I think a way to explain it is ASL is a visual language. And the way that you, cognitively, you know you engage with ASL is very much picture-based, and so you're communicating from pictures in your mind.

Chris Soukup: 22:52

And so for a lot of deaf people, English is a second language. And they grow up in an environment where they're very fluent in ASL. They're brilliant communicators in ASL, but English is their second language, and so to compel them to communicate in a format that is using their second language is disadvantageous, and so that, I think, has been the struggle. We have parts of the community that are effectively bilingual and can balance between both ASL and English comfortably. And then we have a big part of the community that is predominantly ASL, and there's much less comfort and confidence in leaning on English when it becomes necessary. And so creating more spaces and creating more avenues for deaf people to engage in their native language in a way that allow them to express themselves fully, without you know any sort of limitations or having to fall back into, you know, another language and communicate from something that is not as comfortable is really really important, and it's something that we thought very, very hard to achieve as a community.

Kelvin Crosby: 24:27

mean, it's something that, as as we look it, is look,, the encompassing . Whether you want to be hard of hearing, whether you use asl, esl, you're ASL going ESL do a combination or just straight up ASL, like. That's . I think where, this is where, as we move forward, one of the coolest things is that we've been able to do that. We're able to take and provide that accommodation for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, and really deaf/blind them that access. And to me, that's the exciting part. And now we're at a point where we're starting to create this for more people besides just deaf-blindness and hard of deaf/blindness hearing. It's becoming more of a, I guess, a standard for all people, would you say. ?

Chris Soukup: 25:29

Absolutely. I always think it's important to tell people that within the deaf community, 50% of the deaf community has additional disabilities, and so there is incredible diversity within the deaf community. Different lived experiences, you know, and to your point, we have all these, I mean this rich mosaic of communication modalities, and we've got deaf people that sign as their primary means of communication. We have deaf people that don't sign. We have people with cochlear implants. We have people who become deaf later in life and lose their hearing as they're, you know, approaching their twilight years, and so there's this incredible diversity. And so coming into that and orienting yourself to you know, how do we advocate, how do we make life better for this community, has been our life's work.

Chris Maher: 26:32

Yeah, so that's a good segue, Chris.

Chris Maher: 26:35

Let's talk about CSD specifically now, in terms of the products and services and the different kind of business units you have. And you've got a lot of for-profit parts to your business. You've got nonprofit parts to your business. And I would imagine that over the arc of this past 50 years, which is just incredible to think of, you folks have not only survived but thrived over that time, my sense is from what you've been talking about it's been your products and services and the evolution of CSD have been driven by certainly lived experience of the community, right. That, first and foremost, that is where you folks have always started and is always a part of it. It's your own innovative thinking and driving the future of communication. I got to imagine that policies and regulations and laws that have been implemented, like the ADA and others, it's this kind of combination of all those things have really driven the vision of CSD. And can you just describe for our listeners the totality of what CSD does today in terms of the products and services that they offer to the community?

Chris Soukup: 27:38

Absolutely, you know, it's over 50 years. It's such a beautiful story because you move through generations of technology and how CSD has kind of moved through those iterations. And so there's things that were very, very important to the community and very central to CSD in our early years that were subsequently replaced by newer forms of technology, new innovation. And so we, you know, we kind of move with the community, we move with that innovation and we continue to center ourselves in what is most relevant and most impactful, and so it's really been a remarkable journey.

Chris Soukup: 28:30

Today we have a range of things that we do as an organization and we have parts of CSD that are continuing to be very focused on telecommunications and innovation in telecommunications and creating the best possible communications experience for deaf people and continuing to challenge convention. And one example of that, and this is novel in its simplicity, it's elegant in its simplicity, because the whole idea, the premise, is let's try to create more spaces where deaf people don't have to rely on a facilitator. So more spaces where I don't have to go through an interpreter or a relay agent, where I can call in and I can communicate directly with someone inside. I mean, it's really kind of a radical idea, but we've gone around to government agencies and federal and state, and we've gone to corporations and we're going into customer service environments. And we're saying why don't you have a way to support the deaf community directly, rather than requiring them to loop in through an interpreter to get to a live customer service representative? And so that's something that we're really working on now.

Chris Soukup: 29:56

And that does a few different things. First, it expands the jobs that are available for our community. And in our community, we have greater than a 50% unemployment rate. We've got, you know, when you start to look at underemployment, you're talking 75% of the community is either unemployed or underemployed, and so it's really an epidemic that needs to be overcome. And so creating more spaces, more opportunities for deaf people to be able to engage in, you know, corporate environments and government environments, and to be able to turn around and provide direct access, direct service to the community, is beautiful. So, on both ends, you know, creating jobs and creating better access is an area of focus for us.

Chris Soukup: 30:49

For many years, CSD has had the idea of getting into the entrepreneurial space. And the idea is, you know, building an ecosystem, building an economy of our own where we have successful deaf business owners who are hiring deaf people to work in their businesses, and just being able to build this network of opportunity within our own community.

Chris Soukup: 31:18

And we finally, in 2017, CSD created what we believe is the first social venture impact fund that is specifically focused on the deaf and broader disability community, and we've been, you know, I think, very, very fortunate in being able to support over a dozen businesses through that fund and, you know, just the job creation and just the you know proliferation of opportunity has been beautiful. We also have a charity that CSD founded in the middle of the pandemic and that charity is focused on supporting other nonprofit organizations that serve deaf and disabled communities and building their capacity. And we really want to pay it forward as an organization and create stronger organizations in our community because that elevates, you know, the availability of services and resources for the community very broadly. And so we're kind of we're in a lot of different spaces and continuing to evaluate where we can make the greatest impact as an organization and where there's a need that we tend to kind of gravitate our resources towards that.

Chris Maher: 32:40

Yeah, that's amazing. I mean the fact that you folks have done that over the course of 50 years. I mean you've been around longer than most companies, the big companies like the Cisco's and the Facebook's and the Google's. I mean I think Microsoft was even started what? Late 70s, early 80s? And so it is just a testament to, I think, your leadership and your dad's leadership before that. A lot of listeners are entrepreneurs and they're either first time entrepreneurs or early stage entrepreneurs. What were some of the lessons, either leadership lessons you learned from your dad or entrepreneurial lessons, you learned over the arc of CSD's lifespan that you would share with other entrepreneurs that you feel have been maybe keys to your folks' success and your longevity.

Chris Soukup: 33:35

I think what we are probably proudest of, and there's a lot of things to be proud of, but the number of people that have come through CSD over the years as employees, team members, I mean just huge, huge alumni network of people that, you know, have had their start with CSD or who have worked with CSD in some capacity, who've received investment from CSD or support from CSD, and so enough time passes and you think about this incredible network, this community of people that you had the privilege of supporting in some form or another, and that's a legacy. In the end, that's what people remember and that's what really counts. It's great to be financially successful, but that legacy isn't written in the things that you own, the buildings that you build. It's in the hearts and the minds of the people.

Chris Maher: 34:51

I think that is super insightful, and honestly, I think it's unique in that the CSD culture, and community, and leadership, whether that's you now as a CEO, your dad prior to you and other you know senior members of your team, it's all about that. It's serving others and lifting people up and they may work for CSD or be supported by CSD in your various different parts of your business for a short period of time, a long period of time, and some, like yourself, have kind of been there most of your career. Many times people move on and go on to do other things and you're excited about that and you're supportive of that, because at the end of the day, it's about lifting people up and hopefully the rising tide lifts all boats and not just some boats, and I think that's unique, especially in the purely for-profit world where there's no mission or social purpose.

Chris Maher: 35:54

I think many, many business leaders do not have that mentality. They're like, oh, you want to go on and do something else. Well then, forget it, you're gone, you're no longer part of the family. And the fact that you encourage that and you're all about supporting people and serving people and helping them with their development and going on to support the community and beyond, outside of the CSD walls, I think is just, it's fantastic, I love it, I love it. And I think it's pretty special. And I'm not surprised that you folks have had this longevity now hearing that that's been part of the DNA in CSD, it sounds like from the beginning, which is really special.

Kelvin Crosby: 36:30

I mean, I think what's cool is just kind of where we're going and then where we're going now, Like where is this all going?

Chris Maher: 36:39

Yeah, I agree, Chris, are you able to share, like, are there some things on the horizon for CSD that you folks are working on that you can share? Is it around AI? Is it around new types of technologies that you folks are seeing coming down the pike that you think can be transformational for the community? Is there anything there you can share?

Chris Soukup: 36:58

There's a couple of things that I think are important, and the first is, you know, as we think about the journey of the community and as we move from one generation of technology to the next, there are some challenges, some risk, you know, of people being left behind. We have people that are still really dependent on an earlier form of communication, that are being pressured to move into the next generation of solutions and maybe they don't want to, they're not comfortable. And so making sure that nothing is lost and we're able to continue to deliver services and support those earlier forms of services and earlier iterations of technology.

Chris Soukup: 37:50

As the world spins forward very, very rapidly and we see new innovation and new change happening all the time, and so how we transition and the way that we support the community as we move through iterations of technology is a big part of what we do, and that's going to continue to be very, very super important as we move into the future and as we look to the future and we look at AI and we look at the really exciting projects that are happening.

Chris Soukup: 38:22

You know we have avatar technology, we have gesture recognition, we have all of these emerging technologies that are going to come together and create some beautiful opportunities for deaf people to be able to move about the world freely, with complete autonomy, and to be able to engage with the world completely independently. And so we're so excited about that and we're moving towards that very, very rapidly and for the next three, five years, we're going to see some huge leaps in that direction where you'll have an AI interpreter and a human interpreter, kind of working in tandem to support the communication needs of a deaf person, and that's an incredibly exciting time to be in.

Chris Soukup: 39:15

But you know, also kind of along the way is, you know, making sure that we're not forcing new technology on consumers before they're ready and that we maintain the ability to support the differing communication preferences of the community. And so there's a lot to think about as we try to generate the future.

Chris Maher: 39:39

Yeah, that's such a thoughtful and insightful comment you made about the transition of technology, and there has to be a thoughtful transition and overlapping, for lack of a better term, or people will get left behind. I don't think people think about that enough and it's wonderful, that again sounds like something that you folks have always thought about and you've always done a good job of for the community and representing the community. And so I think for all of us, and not just for technologies and service for the deaf community, I think just for society as a whole we need to think about that more.

Chris Soukup: 40:13

Absolutel y, absolutely.

Chris Maher: 40:13

Yeah, Because people, I think, are getting left behind every day as new technologies are rolling out. So that's super thoughtful.

Chris Soukup: 40:22

I think there's a collision between. I mean, the market seems to always drive towards the most cost-effective solution. And so whatever is cheapest, whatever is going to meet our legal obligation, whatever is going to, you know, that's the form that is going to be put into the forefront, whether or not that is the most effective communication, whether or not that supports the needs of all the diversity that you have within deaf and disability communities. And that's the challenge. That's where, you know, meeting the market where that pressure point is.

Chris Maher: 41:00

Yeah, cheap and fast isn't necessarily effective and good, right?

Chris Soukup: 41:05

Exactly, exactly.

Chris Maher: 41:07

And I can tell, just as you were talking about the future around AI and avatars and just how positively impactful it's going to be for the community going forward. I can tell how excited you are. Like our listeners are only going to hear this on audio, like I can see it in your face and your body language how excited you are about it. So it's my sense is there'll be a part two to this conversation where we'll bring you back to talk about some of that future stuff. But, as we wrap up here, before we let you go, Chris, how can people and our listeners learn more about you and the work you folks are doing at CSD? And we'll make sure we post this in the show notes.

Chris Soukup: 41:53

I always encourage people to visit our website and our social channels, and we do quite a bit in terms of advocacy and creating awareness of broader issues that affect deaf and disability communities, as well as the specific things that CSD is doing to to support that.

Chris Maher: 42:04

You got it, and if people want to connect with you is LinkedIn the best place?

Chris Soukup: 42:10

LinkedIn. I'm all over LinkedIn and and welcome the opportunity to commit to connect with people there.

Chris Maher: 42:16

Terrific. All right, Chris Soukup, CEO at CSD, you are the best, my friend. This was such a special treat and thank you for for spending the time with us and telling us not only about CSD, but also the story of your family and it was a super special conversation and we thank you.

Chris Soukup: 42:33

Thank you so much.

Kelvin Crosby: 42:35

Well, that wraps up investing in accessibility. As I always say, go live and be on your challenges and I will see you next month.

Kelvin Crosby: 42:47

If you would like to know how we did this interview, there's a bonus round at the end of the outro.

Kelvin Crosby: 42:53

Thank you for listening to Investing Investing in Accessibility a Samaritan Partners where 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 chris at chris@samaritanpartners. com samaritanpartnerscom. If you'd like to learn more about us, go to www. samaritanpartners. com wwwsamaritanpartnerscom. 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 investing in Accessibility accessibility.

Kelvin Crosby: 43:34

So the way I was able to make this interview work is I used Google Meet and I ran it through my mixer and we were able to record both on Google Meet and through my mixer, but we used the AI captioning. If you want to help deaf individuals do podcasting or other things like that, just use some Google Meet, Zoom zoom or that That has an AI real-time captioning. That is your strategy to overcome this challenge.