Welcome And Guest Introduction

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 a 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 I got my co-host Chris Maher. How you doing, man?

Chris Maher 0:39

I'm good, Kelvin. How you doing, buddy? It's good to uh be with you and see you, my friend.

Kelvin Crosby 0:44

Yes. By the time this comes out, I had just seen you at the empathy conference, being the keynote speaker there. And so I tell you, I'm looking forward to figuring out how you spell.

Chris Maher 0:57

Wait a minute. So, like that's confirmed. You're gonna be at the Empathy Tech Conference.

Kelvin Crosby 1:02

Yes, I'm the keynote speaker with my pottery wheel doing the technology um empowerment pottery throwing keynote speech. So I'm excited about it.

Chris Maher 1:13

Bud I can't wait to see that in person because I've I've as you know, I've seen a video of you doing that talk. Oh, I'm so glad that that worked out. We're gonna we're gonna have to do a like a separate show, seriously, about that.

Kelvin Crosby 1:27

Yep.

Chris Maher 1:27

Um, I'm super excited for that. That's awesome. So good stuff.

Kelvin Crosby 1:31

I'm excited about today. Yes, you introduced me to this guest, and he helped me with some things and we build a relationship. And I tell you, this guy he's visually impaired, but also he's overcoming challenges that honestly inspires me as a Deaf/Blind individual. And I'm excited to dive into all the things that he's doing and truly how he's really setting the way for people with visual impairments and other challenges to overcome the barrier of employment. So let's go ahead and find out who our guest is.

Chris Maher 2:08

You got it, my friend. Yeah, I'm I'm super excited about this as well because uh our next guest who um is doing amazing work, but also over the last several years has has someone I consider has become a good friend and who I love to hang with. But today's guest is Mike Hess, who is the founder and executive director at the Blind Institute of Technology. Mike, welcome to the show, pal.

Mike Hess 2:29

Hey, thanks so much for having me, Chris, Kelvin. Uh what a pleasure, an honor to be on your show. Love the vibe already.

Chris Maher 2:37

Well, it's good to have you here. And before we get into Mike's background and the work they're doing at BIT, and he's become a little bit of a movie star lately, which we'll get into that too. Um I want to tell a little story about um, it's not the first time Mike and I met, which was over Zoom, uh, because I met your colleague Lora Swatko at an event in New York City, and she and I hit it off, and then we got on the on a Zoom with you. But then you and I connected at CES in January of 25.

Mike & Chris at CES

Chris Maher 3:10

And that was an amazing experience, but it started off in a in a way that I want to I want to talk about how we ended up spending the better part of like a morning with each other in the expo hall. But so CES, those of you who've been there, it's insane. It's it's like 150,000 people, it's it's nuts. And I'm lingering outside the expo hall in this lobby area on the first morning, and I bump into Mike. And first time we'd see each other in person, we're hanging out. Of course, Mike's got the golden hoodie on, which we will talk about later, um, which is his trademark hoodie. And uh Mike is waiting by the accessibility table because he has booked himself a sighted guide to take him around the expo hall for that first morning. Uh, and so he's there at 8:45. He's supposed to meet his sighted guide at 9 a.m. Um, the person who's running that table shows up and Mike steps up and she's like, How can I help you? He's like, Oh, I'm here to meet my sighted guide that I booked uh in advance. And uh she looks at her computer and says, uh, yeah, I'm sorry, we don't have any. And I'm sitting there watching this whole thing. And then Mike handled it so incredibly well, much better than I would have, says, Oh, well, when do you think you might have one for me? And she says, I'm not really sure, you know, maybe sometime early mid-afternoon. So why don't you just give me your cell phone and I'll text you when we have one? And I think my jaw was on the ground. I was shocked at what was happening, and Mike handled it with such grace. Um and I jumped in and probably didn't say this, but was thinking like, screw that, Mike. I'm going into the expo hall anyway. Let's go. And you and I, and and you taught me how to be a sighted guy that day. And and as Kelvin knows, at times I'm not a very good one.

Kelvin Crosby 5:07

He leaves you behind all the time. Did he do that to you? I tell you, I got left behind a lot.

Chris Maher 5:14

Yeah, and and Mike and I think spent the better part of a few hours and then had lunch together, and it was awesome. And so, in one respect, I I hated to see you go through that experience, but I'm was kind of glad it happened because it allowed me to then spend half a day with you and get to know you better, and we just had the best time. And I'm guessing that is not a um an unusual experience for you.

Mike Hess 5:42

Uh absolutely not. And I remember that uh that was that was actually my first time to CES. And I I had worked out of Vegas um years before in my career, my private industry career. So, and I the organization I worked for, I uh teleworked, and this was way before it was cool and trendy with COVID. I I teleworked for this organization out of the uh Las Vegas because of the uh lack of sales taxes, right? There's a lot of startups in the uh in Clark County, that sort of thing. And so I uh I'm very familiar with the um uh Vegas and the strip and all that sort of thing, anyway. So, but um as a blind person, like it's it's hard. I mean, again, there's so much noise going on. There are many times that it's just it's disorienting, all of that sort of thing. So um, but as far as like, you know, you you show up to a place hoping for you know uh some sort of accommodation, and the accommodation is uh either lackluster or non-existent. Yeah, I mean, Kelvin can attest to this. Like that that's a mainstay in our community, unfortunately. And uh I know uh the good folks at CES have made strides uh to make it even better. I've been told they've uh uh the uh 26 experience was um uh you know very, very good. I'm I'm spoiled because like I go to um the Dreamforce, which is a Salesforce conference every every year. And even though like they've got you know 50k people there, downtown San Francisco, it is quite literally the most accessible conference there is, period. Uh and it just they they are intentional with everything. So it's not perfect, but they want to hear about it and they will absolutely work with you. So so um it is a mainstay, but my uh, you know, my experience is like, ah, you know, I can I can be the I could I could be the uh you know the a-hole, right, Chris? And but it you know, how far does that get you, right? And I I travel all the world all by myself all the time, and I come across angels like you everywhere I go. Like I I promise you, like I I just it's it's it's easier to get help if you're not an

Advocacy Without Burning Bridges

Mike Hess 7:53

a-hole.

Kelvin Crosby 7:53

Well, can can I bring bring something up on this? Because I think this is something that I would like to really emphasize. One of my biggest mentors, and God be with her, because she she was murdered, but I'm not gonna get in that conversation. But she taught me one thing you can go a lot farther in making change by education and keeping the environment positive, and that's where what you're talking about is so important, and I I think that as us individuals with disabilities, we sometimes get so stuck, like we're frustrated, like now I'm a disability again here. But what if we had the opportunity to say, can I help somebody else with this struggle that I'm dealing with, be able to help them in their environment and be able to make the make the environment more positive, but also educate. And I think uh Mike, you really hit the nail on the head. Don't be an a-hole.

Chris Maher 9:02

But also you both you both just take such a productive approach to it. Um, I mean, when that happens on a regular basis, I I would imagine it it gets pretty hard to continue to be honestly to be kind and generous. Um, but you both you both are incredible examples of that.

Mike Hess 9:25

Um, I I so I appreciate it. And there are times I've lost my shit, Chris. Like I've so um, you know, but I I try to be because I'm in the public eye, right? I try to just recognize, all right, this is a and when I, you know, honestly, when I suit up, right, when I put on the hoodie, when I'm out there shaking hands, kissing babies, like when I'm doing that thing, like I have to have this mindset of like, yeah, there's there's gonna be some shit. Like it just it's it is what it is. Like I'm going to have to go through uh some challenges um and just realize not and also not everybody's not everybody's like doing this personally either, right? Like, you know, part of um you know what BIT uh you know impacts is just kind of this awareness in and around, you know, people with disabilities. Like I I don't need I don't need catered to, right? Like I, you know, I'm a big boy, I'll I'll make things happen on on my own. Like, and I've got technology, I've got my cane, I've got um determination. Like with those three tools, like prom, I promise you, like I get through a lot of things. And so, and and part of my job, right? And I'm global, part of my job is just to bring awareness, like, no, no, people with disabilities, like we're out and about, and we can do uh you know whatever we put our minds to, right? And that's so part of this is like I I put that suit on and and just realize that I've got to grin and bear

From Y2K Hustle To BIT

Mike Hess 10:48

it too.

Chris Maher 10:48

Yeah, yeah, no, that it's very well said. And so my guess is that with BIT, the Blind Institute of Technology, which you folks and most people refer to as BIT, I'm assuming your lived experience led you to founding that organization. But before we get to what BIT does and is all about, can you just give us uh a little bit of a sense of of the arc of your career and and what led you to founding BIT, which is now what, 10 plus years ago?

Mike Hess 11:18

Uh we'll be uh 14 in February.

Chris Maher 11:20

Wow.

Mike Hess 11:20

So yeah. So we're you know, like almost uh a decade and a half. Like it's uh it's um it's been quite the when we start, and Chris, you and I can you know when we start talking about stuff in decades, um yeah, like you know, uh we're tenured, right? Like it is what it's all good. Um, but yeah, I started uh actually a meeting earlier today, and I was like, uh, you know, for those who haven't heard of Y2K, right? So for for your listeners who have not heard of Y2K, I was 13 years old. Okay, yeah. So all right, so you at least lived through it, right, Kelvin. So um, but you're gonna have some listeners that are like, What's Y2K? And I'll like just Google it, right? So um uh it was a thing, but in the mid-90s, like if you could spell Y2K and you had any kind of coding skills whatsoever, you're guaranteed a gig. And I I am not making that up. It is it's a thing. It was the first global tech bubble ever created. Um, and I went through a uh an immersive programming uh cohort, they didn't call it workforce development back in the day, but that's essentially what it was. Uh it was uh 13 straight months, and at the beginning you knew nothing about coding. At the end, poof, you're a programmer, bada bing. And then I just happened to land right at the time where it was you were gobbled up if you could spell Y2K and spent almost 20 years in private industry, all Fortune 5, Fortune 600 companies. I I managed uh a lot of certifications. So I have no college degree. That's what I love about tech. Uh, tech is uh a vertical, it's an industry that with certifications and just hustle, like you can absolutely carve out a six-figure career for sure. So as a as a as a blind professional, blind deaf, uh motor skills impairment doesn't matter your disability. You can carve out a career in tech. If you just if you search stack and you have some hustle, you can do it. So um, but I uh I went through that immersive uh program back in the uh uh early 90s, um, ended up getting uh gobbled up in the mid-90s, uh, worked for almost 20 years, Fortune 5, Fortune 6 00 brands, um, did well uh for myself managing seven, eight-figure projects. Uh uh I dipped my toe in a little bit of corporate management, but I just realized like I'm like, oh I um I'm too much of a macro thinker um for call it you know kind of mid-level management roles in corporate structures. Uh if you're too much of a macro thinker, you're not gonna like you have to, like you're you're you know, you're you're a bot at that point in time. You're very task oriented, and you know, uh corporations have, you know, they just want you to complete these tasks. And I just I'm too big of a thinker that way. So being an individual contributor, um working on projects, uh, and I I did a lot of skip levels to the C-suite over my career. So started learning how to actually, you know, create and cultivate um, you know, cost-benefit analysis uh type uh orientation when I would go to uh with project ideas to leadership, right? So speaking their language, and that that's what led me to, as I was getting older and getting into my 40s, I just realized like I was always the token blind person. Uh, but I never bumped into people with wheelchairs with my cane. I never heard of anybody using sign language as their primary means of communication. Neurodiversity, Chris Kelvin, wasn't even a topic. Right. But uh individuals that were on the spectrum were just considered eccentric, right? And so I just I just started doing some due diligence, some amazing organizations um all across the United States, but globally that's that support and serve the broader disability community, but I couldn't find any of them that were addressing the on or underemployment epidemic for my community, uh, which is the disability community. And so, foolish or courageous, somewhere in between, I left my six-figure income with the support of my best friend and better half to start BIT and uh blind institute of technology. So the name, like we serve the pan-disability community. So why blind institute of technology? And the uh so the nerd behind me, like I'm like, I still tech tech is the greatest equalizer for all of humanity, period. But I um until quantum computing is mainstream, so we still got a while for that. But um, even with today's AI crazed world, like everything still breaks down to machine language, and machine language are uh it's binary, it's a bit and a byte. And I took that binary bit zero and one off and on and created the acronym Blind Institute of Technology from the binary bit. So um, but that's the nerd of me.

Chris Maher 15:58

But I love that though. I love it.

Mike Hess 16:01

It's it's my claim to marketing fame, right? And so I uh uh and then BIT, which you know, the last 15 years ish with BIT is just we are all things workforce development. Like we have a like in the in the giant Olympic-sized pool for all things disability, we're a single swim lane, and all we do is work with workforce development. Like we're the good news is like we are Michael Phelps in that swim lane. We're really good at what we do, but yeah, I mean, that's been you know, first 20 years of my career was corporate, the last 15 have been uh nonprofit. So, and I still say I don't know anything about nonprofit, Chris.

Chris Maher 16:34

Yeah, because you run it like a for-profit for sure. Hey Mike, thank you for the background in that. So obviously, your your lived experience with blindness and your technical background, like you're you're marrying two things you know very well with BIT, right? Can I ask a quick question? That's it's a little bit of a of an aside or or taking a step

Early Vision Loss And Misdiagnosis

Chris Maher 16:55

back. Um so Kelvin was not born blind, he developed Usher syndrome 2 when he was a teenager and gradually lost his eyesight. Were you born blind?

Mike Hess 17:06

Uh so I was legally blind as far back as so my oldest adult memory. So I don't know memories of perfect sight. So uh, but they um so in kindergarten, again, I'm I'm that kind of old. So in the 70s, uh in the 70s, right? Now all you had to do like the pass kindergarten is the color the great big letter O or the great big letter M, that sort of thing. And I'm and and the the teachers were gonna hold me behind in kindergarten because I couldn't always color in the lines, right? Um, but they didn't do eye testing till I was in first grade. So in first grade, they send all the kids down to the nurse's office. And this is when, you know, schools actually had, you know, kind of some of their own equipment kind of thing. And um, and so they you'd stick your head in a helmet, and you know, the the whatever the nurse would say, What's the color of the closest balloon? And I'm like, what balloon? Right. And so they sent me over, but I grew up super, super small town in northeast Ohio. Um, they told my mom, take me to the uh, you know, uh the eye doctor there and the optometrist and went in there and it was again super small town. The I they did not have nearly the strong enough equipment. So the eye doctor first uh told my mom, like, hey, he's faking it. Um pair of glasses, yeah, can't make it up. Uh make sure he sits six feet from the TV, blah, blah, blah. And my mom knew literally within hours, days, like that was it was BS. And so next town over, next town over, ultimately ended up at the Cleveland Clinic. Uh, and I'm first grade. Uh, and they started doing some experimental uh procedures on me. They took my eyeballs out of all I remember at that time is pain, a lot of pain, looking into really bright lights, and you know, and I just remember coming out and I just

Kelvin Crosby 18:45

torture machine,

Mike Hess 18:46

yeah. Yeah, that's and it was just that's all it was, Kelvin. And you know, my mom would just be, you know, like, you know, we got this, honey. And uh, but uh, I remember going in, um, they they did all their diagnos diagnosis, and and they said your son's got the earliest onset of macular degeneration we've ever seen, and he'll be totally blind by the time he's 18. So I don't know, I don't have a memory of you know perfect vision. So I never had the central vision, and they they misdiagnosed me. I don't have macular degeneration, but I I I didn't have I had a total blind spot um in my central vision, which is where all your acuity is, and so so that's why I couldn't color in, but I could see my peripheral um just well enough to like you know somewhat do things, and so that's why my mom and others didn't really catch the fact that I and then my blind spot continued to grow and grow and grow. So instead of like the tunnel vision where it's outside in, mine was inside out that I lost my vision.

Chris Maher 19:45

Gotcha. Thank Mike. First of all, thank you for sharing that with us. Um amazing that the doctor said you were faking it.

Mike Hess 19:54

Yeah.

Chris Maher 19:55

Oh my god.

Mike Hess 19:57

Small town Ohio, dude. That's it's just small town Ohio. Well, I mean, call it small town anywhere, right? Like it just uh, you know, uh not all not all places are created equal when it comes to like, you know, your your diagnostic diagnostic uh uh equipment.

Chris Maher 20:12

Yeah. Um all right, so let's get back to thank you again for sharing that. Um so let's get

BIT Academy And Certification Tracks

Chris Maher 20:18

back to BIT. So can you give us a little bit more detail around what you're doing at BIT? Because there's there's I don't want to say two sides to it, but there's a couple of different ways you approach workforce development. Right. Can you just get into that a little bit for us?

Mike Hess 20:32

Yeah, so we like so for people with disabilities, right? And in individuals who are interested in in tech uh specifically, um, we have an academy. Uh we actually have an academy to apprenticeship model, but I'll talk about the academy first. Um, our academy is 100% virtual remote. So we've served uh people with disabilities in 18 countries on four continents across the globe. Um we level them up into industry recognized credentials. And uh Salesforce was our flagship program 10 years ago now, and we were the first entity in the country to put six blind low vision and one neurodiverse individual through the Salesforce admin cert. And we chose Salesforce. I chose Salesforce a decade ago, quite honestly, because A, Salesforce is ubiquitous, it's everywhere, right? Uh, but B, um one thing that most people don't really recognize that we're trying to, you know, get this best kept secret out there, it's quite literally the most digitally accessible business enterprise application on the planet. So for a screen reader user or barrel display user, Salesforce works out of the box, right? And so, but that on the B2B side, right, which is where all the workforce development happens, all the certifications. What we found internally, when we would find blockers, and we absolutely have found blockers, uh, still some challenges. But uh, what we find inside of Salesforce, which is completely unique to Salesforce, uh, they are a unicorn, they are one of one when it comes to this. Uh so they have an interested um community inside it because all the tech companies have an accessibility effort, right? And they got to make sure from a legal perspective, right? But that's all on the B2C side. Salesforce, they they are putting the same effort on the B2B side. That's what makes Salesforce so unique, and that's why I'm I'm proud to wear the golden hoodie. That's all of that. It's so because they they truly want to make sure that our community has the ability to get certified, right, and therefore employed.

Chris Maher 22:30

And so you also have a side of BIT where it doesn't necessarily have to be related to skills around the Salesforce CRM platform. Is it more kind of generally uh digital accessibility? Is that right?

Mike Hess 22:45

Yeah, so the other two disciplines that we have from an academy to apprenticeship perspective, uh one is the digital accessibility track. And we we level and you we everything leads into a possible apprenticeship program. So we have the only national registered apprenticeship program at this point in time uh for the pan disability community in the country with the U.S. Department of Labor. And for those of you in the audience that don't know, like the difference between internships and apprenticeships is that apprenticeships are always paid. So apprentice the apprenticeship model is four centuries old and it's been around tech for a couple of decades now. So you you cannot have an apprenticeship program without having industry recognized credential. So it's not some Google certificate that you got offline, right? This is an actual credential that is industry recognized. And so, so of course, Salesforce has all of that, but so does the digital accessibility. Of course, your partners, uh, you know the IAAP folks. So we we level them up, get them uh IAAP certified International Association of Accessibility Professionals is the acronym. And then um the uh other certification that's about to come online for those um actually this month, September of 2026, is our professional Scrum Master and a Professional Scrum Master AI certification uh program that is going to be coming online. So uh all the certifications that we do are completely accessible to all people with disabilities. 100% of our instructors identify with disabilities, so we eat our own cooking here. Um, and then ultimately once they get certified, they can go into this paid apprenticeship program. So that's that's kind of all of like our certification and discipline tracks um at this point in time. And we have amazing apprentices with like, you know, the Mighty Dell. We're we're now negotiating with UPS, we're uh Intermountain Health, uh Salesforce themselves are bringing in apprentices, uh, and it's apprentices both on the digital accessibility side and the Salesforce side. So there are a lot of organizations that want um all the talent, not just uh the Salesforce

Apprenticeships And Employment Outcomes

Mike Hess 24:43

side.

Chris Maher 24:43

Uh Mike, that's awesome. It's you know, so I one of my daughters and our listeners have heard me talk about my daughters a lot, but my youngest daughter, who's 20 and has uh intellectual and developmental disabilities, um, you know, she she's in her version of college, which is a transition program, which is very much about uh job skills, workforce development, uh executive functioning, people skills, et cetera. But for her, and I think this is what a people think usually comes to mind when you talk about people with disabilities and workforce development, hers are are lower level jobs. It's working in a cafeteria or in a in a store, in the mall, at the deli, at the grocery store. Um, you know, these are these are white collar and I'm assuming many six-figure jobs that your apprentices are then graduating into. So they go to the academy, then they get into the apprentice program. Can you give us a sense of the rate of those apprentices that are then securing full-time, full-time positions? Are you allowed to share any of that with us?

Mike Hess 25:48

Well, it's all so because we're a federal program, all the data is absolutely available to the public. And at this point in time, the data that we have, again, uh we're September of 2026, uh recording this right now. Like our percentages are like in the 80s.

Chris Maher 26:01

Wow.

Mike Hess 26:02

Yeah, no, it's it, and that's again, the the the federal government is spending taxpayer dollars on a program that within the disability space is is really one of a kind.

Chris Maher 26:13

Yeah. And so so let's talk about the um, you just said, you know, taxpayer

Funding BIT Without Charity Thinking

Chris Maher 26:18

dollars. So you're set up as a nonprofit, and we you and I have talked about this a little bit previously, but I if you can share details. So how do you how do you fund this, right? How do you fund these robust programs um uh being structured as a nonprofit?

Mike Hess 26:33

Yeah, so at the beginning, you know, it sounds biblical, but in the beginning, uh right, the one the one business model, like I I did not, I don't have an MBA, I didn't go to business school, Chris. Um, I uh like I said, all my education was was CERTs, right? But I uh the one business model that I knew in corporate was staffing agency, right? Contingency, staffing agency, contract to hire, like I knew that that space. And so BIT started as a nonprofit staffing agency, right? And so we would find organizations um here in the local Denver metro area, we would um uh you know, talk generally the my you know ICP, my you know, the the the buyer persona that I would look for, I didn't I didn't call it a buyer persona back then, I just knew I knew leadership. And so like I'd find, you know, CIO, CTO, you know, SVP of tech, VP of tech, right? And so when I talk to basically the chief nerd of an organization and explain to them how as a blind engineer, how I was very successful in an environment just like theirs, and how like again, our demographic, like we don't job hop because we don't get the same opportunities. Attrition is a very real business problem um for organizations. Um, and the fact that we we have skill, we have skills, we have talent. It's not it's not a talent or or skill gap, it's an opportunity gap. So when I talk to the uh, you know, uh the the businesses about like this this uh what I consider one of the greatest untapped human potentials on the planet, uh people would say, all right, I'm in. And so we would start placing people in these roles, it's billable resources, right? And so uh you it when when it comes to billable, like you know, so the the consultant, the contractor gets paid X, we get paid Y, right? And the rest of it is what you would call profit. Like, and you can as a nonprofit, you can you can have profit in your services, but the profit goes back to your programming, right? Right. So, and that's all that's all we would do. That's how, and that's literally how we funded the academy all the way up until we started, you know, like our program, you know, was no longer vaporware and it was it was a proven model. And all of a sudden now we started getting you know access to grants that we never got access before, but we we we our whole model is out there, organizations you know, paying for this amazing talent, not like, hey, you're disabled, so it should be free. Nope. I kick that model to the curb.

Chris Maher 28:53

Yeah, I love it. I mean, listen, this is where your for-profit background, I think, is playing a role, right? And um, you know, more more nonprofits need to be thinking about how do they generate revenue versus just relying on grants and and donors. So you're working with some really big corporations,

Mike Hess 29:12

right.

Chris Maher 29:12

And a term, and you were talking about this before we we started recording, and I've heard you say this many times as you know over the over the years. Um you're all about your ICP, right? Like, like and and for our listeners, if you don't know what an ICP is, it's your ideal customer profile. But at the corporate level, what makes a large corporate like a UPS or a Dell um a good partner with the programs that you offer?

Mike Hess 29:41

Yeah, first it's so it's uh it's a great question, right? So, because again, you talk about like let's say like because efforts like you know, Salesforce and digital accessibility and you know, project management, scrum, right? Like all those disciplines um are absolutely like ubiquitous across you know, Fortune 1000 companies, Fortune 10,000 companies. Um that's that's nothing new. Uh however, finding an organization then that um uh is also concerned about um having a broad pipeline of talent, right? Um organizations that have a demonstrated uh initiative around a broad pipeline of talent to include people with disabilities, period. Right. And that's and so when because the uh for us uh community or for our community, the disability community, as a protected class, we're the only protected class, and we're talking about you know gender, ethnicity, uh relationship orientation, like we're the we're the only protected class that has to ring a very legal nebulous bell called reasonable accommodations. And so you'd be like, oh, well, any organization that's interested in in digital accessibility or Salesforce shops, and 90% of the Fortune 500 are Salesforce workshops, so all those organizations must be in on what you're doing. Uh now, I wish, right? And I believe there's gonna be a tipping point at some point, but it's finding organizations that have demonstrated initiatives around uh, even if it's you know, like very call it niche, uh like you know, neurodiverse or whatever, that means they're they're curious on this broader pipeline, right? And so, so those are the organizations that we're looking for to say, like, yeah, um, you know, uh organizations, uh some other acronyms, ERGs, BRGs, so employee resource groups, business resource groups. So uh the vast majority of the 10 Fortune 10,000 have these kind of constructs because organizations have realized, like, if you're not like attrition is a real cost to organizations. And so organizations know, like if you want to keep your your uh um team members uh uh happier and more content, you need to have ERG, BRG constructs inside your organizations that you know cater to again, like and there's all sorts of them, you know, women in tech, and I mean, just you name it like there's so many different ERG, BRGs. And many organizations, not all of them, um, have them around call it ability status, right? So they call them different things, but it's basically the disability kind of resource group within the ERG BRG. So so we're really specific and strategic when we're out there looking for our uh our ICP because then it's we're not doing the call it the triple sell.

Chris Maher 32:26

Yeah, yeah. No, it makes it makes total sense. I love the fact that you're you're you know, you're picky about the the large corporates that you're working with. Um so that's half the business. The other half is like finding the people who want to go through academy and apprentice programs. So can you give us a sense of on on average over the last decade? Like how many apprentices are you placing uh into the market with large corporates? And and oh, by the way, like where are you finding these people?

Mike Hess 32:58

Yeah, so finding talent, not an issue. Okay,

Chris Maher 33:01

I didn't think so, but

Mike Hess 33:02

like not an issue. We've had um like it. I I so we we're we literally have had uh individuals in 18 countries now get certified through us, so more than 10% of the world's countries.

Chris Maher 33:13

Ah, that's awesome.

Mike Hess 33:14

Yeah, and I'll and it we're not talking the mainstream countries either. Like again, we're just we just had two more in July from Lithuania, like we so we've had you know, Estonia, like just uh, you know, the the the Balkan region, like the Baltic region, the Balkan region, um, Asia, Pakistan, like just you it like people would so the thing is that people and we don't spend a ton of money on marketing. Um, our marketing manager is on this call. She can she'll be like, Yeah, I know I need more budget, Mike. Um, so we would the thing is is like good news, be got good news. And when you when you've actually placed people with disabilities uh into significant, meaningful roles, that word gets out there, yeah. So finding talent, like I mean, this year, so we're again we're September of 2026. So year to date, I'll bet you we are we've had I'm gonna ballpark it, probably four to five hundred people reach out to us already is September of 2026, so year to date.

Chris Maher 34:11

Gotcha. And then how many, how many apprentices do you actually place on any given year? Yeah.

Mike Hess 34:17

So that's so our apprenticeship program has been around like officially since 2021, but with the federal government grant, the disability innovation fund grant that we received, uh, it started October of 24. So we are so at September 30th of this month of this year, 2026, we'll be two years into our five-year grant, okay, with the federal government. And so, and we so this is where our numbers and everything are really ramping up. So, you know, year one, so which was uh so October one of 24 to September 30th of 25, right? That was grant year one with the federal government. And now uh October one of 25 through uh September 30th of 26th, that's uh grant year two. So grant year one, we were at 25 apprentices for the year. Uh this one, I think we are at I think we either I think we doubled it or we're at like 40 or 45.

Chris Maher 35:12

Gotcha. And you have a multiple of of that number that go through the academy.

Mike Hess 35:17

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So in the way we work, right? Because it's because again, tech is hard, Chris. Right. And a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, I'm so into this. And we're like, hey, we bring it like we want to. Tech is for everybody, it really is. Like, you don't have to be a computer nerd to uh be good at tech. We've had individuals that are English language arts uh uh degree degrees, we've had individuals with no college degrees. We had the youngest totally blind person in the world here in the Denver metro area at 16 go through our certification. So again, if you have a logic orientation, like if you are like logically, you can work through things, you can be successful.

Chris Maher 35:53

Gotcha.

Mike Hess 35:54

Also realize tech is hard.

Chris Maher 35:55

Yeah.

Mike Hess 35:56

So like you know, again, we had four or five hundred people come through. That doesn't mean everybody makes it through. Like we have we have a vetting process and all that kind of stuff. Not everybody makes it through.

Chris Maher 36:06

Yeah, no, I get it. The so as we're getting close to wrapping up here, and there's a there's a a another topic we want to talk about about you becoming a movie star. But before we get to that, um is there are there any new initiatives? Like, what are you most excited about going forward with BIT? Or do you have any new initiatives that you want to mention or talk about?

AI As The New Accessibility Leap

Mike Hess 36:27

Well, we're, I mean, so like we you I don't know if you can have a podcast, you can't have a meeting without talking about AI. Yep. And so we're we've got some great relationships right now. Like we were actually with so we wear several different hats within the Salesforce ecosystem. Um, one of them is workforce development, right? Because that's what we do. We're a workforce development partner. And uh we were the first workforce development partner in uh North America last year, 2025, to actually put uh individuals through their agent force certification. And what's to me, AI is that topic where um this is the first technology revolution where the disability community can fully participate. And I think it's really important for your audience members to actually hear that. So, so not only are we putting individuals through, you know, like Salesforce's agentic uh force certification, but we're also we also have apprentices right now going through the anthropic certification process too. So uh AI is like it is quite literally the most advanced uh accessibility technology there is on the planet at this point in time. The most advanced accessibility technology on the planet at this time.

Chris Maher 37:37

Yeah, and it it's awesome that you guys are going down that path because I you you made a comment earlier, and I agree completely that I think if if we use AI, if we work together and we use AI the right way and other assistive technologies, technology and AI can be the great equalizer, right? For the for the community for sure. But it could it, you know, it could go the other way. Hopefully that's not gonna be the case. But I mean, I look at Kelvin and I do a lot of work together, and like uh Kelvin, you crank out more work and are more productive, um, certainly than I am, and most people are, and you're leveraged you're leveraging tech and AI left and right. I mean, do you want to speak to that a little bit?

Kelvin Crosby 38:14

Well, I mean, I think one of the bigger things is like I just built out my whole video editing team, all AI. I mean, it's still me making the pottery, doing the voiceovers, doing the talking head, but now I just throw that whole file in there and it makes my videos. And so um built that all from scratch. And so that that's where because how accessible it is, and then now I I I call it my eyeballs. Um, so I just finished building out uh this whole eyeball team where I'm able to pretty much go to any website and make it 100% accessible to me and be able to do the things I need to do on that website without having to deal with 95% of all websites are not accessible, and so that's where I'm able to just do it. And so I just finished building that system out, and so yes, AI is changing the lives for people with disabilities, especially those who are blind, and especially if you know how to build these systems and how to manage them, man, you're you're just gonna keep on going.

Chris Maher 39:22

Yeah, no, Kelvin, I I see it firsthand with you. Like it it's phenomenal how you're leveraging technology. Um, all right, we're gonna shift gears here before we wrap up. Um

The BBC Film And How To Connect

Chris Maher 39:34

so, Mike, over the last year or so, uh, you made a movie um in partnership with uh BBC Story Works Commercial Productions. But tell us about this, Mr. Movie Star.

Mike Hess 39:47

Yeah, far from Movie Star actually. Uh, but so I got I get an email from uh folks at the BBC, um, and I think it was the BBC um when I got the emails, like a week before Thanksgiving 2025. And I thought I was being punked, right? Because it's not every day you get an email from you know that kind of a um, you know, domain. And so I uh checked it out. I reached back out just to see if I was being punked. And uh sure enough, they had crunched their numbers. Uh, you know, they have a half billion viewers across all their platforms globally, and they were they were crunching their numbers, and they said that their uh viewers were looking for um uh organizations that that will dealt with the disability community globally, but specifically within employment. And again, we've been able to get individuals with disabilities uh certified employed on four continents now. So it's what we do, it's exactly what we do. So they reached they've uh they interviewed me. Uh they you know, they do you have a do you have a success story? I like a yeah, we'll get dozens of success stories, but I told them about one right there on the uh European continent uh in North Macedonia, so north of Greece, former Yugoslavia, former Soviet Union. Um, and it's it's important to kind of the broader story here. Um uh Ertai, Ertai Shashko leads our Salesforce practice as a totally blind individual there. Uh, but he is uh three weeks before he so he's of Turkish descent of Muslim culture, okay. And uh he was he overheard his dad talking to his mom three weeks before his dad passed away, that his dad was sorry to leave a burden of a son on her, right? And the thing is the reason so uh in the Muslim culture, the Holy Quran literally says if you're disabled, you know, you'll be rewarded in heaven, you know, by all of that sort of thing. So there are a lot of cultures around the world where again, disability is something it should be hidden. It should, you know, just don't make noise, just go out there and you know, again, you'll be rewarded, right? That so that's not, and it's not I'm not that's I'm not saying anything that's negative about the culture, nothing. I'm just saying disability globally, there are so many pockets on this planet where if you're disabled, right? Like he overheard overheard his own dad say a burden, right? And so, but he uh uh he heard about us through a Reddit post, um, went through our course seven years ago, and uh crushed it. Uh, we brought him on as quickly as we could, and now he leads our Salesforce practice um as a totally blind person. And so we filmed a couple of days over there in uh North Macedonia, and I I laughed because this was my uh you know, doing my international travel by myself. They don't have curb cuts. Uh they don't have this is a country that you know accessibility, physical, virtual, it doesn't matter, right? So it's it um it's yeah, and they have a wild dog, um, I guess you could say problem. There are wild dogs everywhere. And wild dogs will just lay wherever they lay. So you're out there bebopping with your cane, you're you're gonna tap into one of those dogs, and let's just hope they're not uh aggressive. Like it's so it's uh it's it's accessibility is really a unique conversation.

Chris Maher 42:52

So, Mike, how can people see this film?

Mike Hess 42:55

Yeah, it's uh we'll we'll make sure to uh put the uh the link in the um in the in the uh for for the podcast so that that way folks can click on it. It'll be available at the end of September 2026 um uh for the general public to be able to click on and and take a listen to the story. And uh kind of a really unique part of this story is yeah, we filmed a couple of days in North Macedonia, uh, you know, share showing the and sharing the story with ErTai, but we also filmed an entire day at the Salesforce Tower downtown San Francisco with C-suite from Salesforce, because that's what's unique about this. So this isn't one of those just inspirational evergreen stories um that are pervasive within the disability community, like, oh, that was so sweet. No, no, no. Um this is a story, this is a movie about business, and because the the the story about Er tai cannot exist in all the the dozens and dozens and dozens and now hundreds of people that we've impacted, and it's because of Salesforce's commitment, one of the top tech stacks in the world commitment to making sure that our community has a shot at employment, and it's through their workforce development initiatives and their accessibility commitment. So, so we had C-suite from Salesforce in the movie as well. So, this is a business movie that does have a little bit of an inspirational twist.

Chris Maher 44:16

Awesome. So, but yeah, by the time we drop this episode, it'll it'll be available for people to watch.

Kelvin Crosby 44:21

So, Mike, how can people learn more about you and BIT?

Mike Hess 44:25

Oh, love it. Thank you, Kelvin. Thank you. Well, thank you both for having me. What a great conversation. Uh, I mean, this these kind of podcasts are just fun because it's it's just friends just jamming. So so thank you for this. But Kev, Kelvin, like uh like we're we're all over social. So blind it.org is our website. BlindIT.org is our website, has all of our social handles on there. Um, I'm pretty active on uh on a couple of social um networks and not so much on a couple, but uh it's easy to get a hold of me personally. But uh everything through blind it.org, Kelvin.

Chris Maher 45:02

Awesome. Well, Mike, uh what a pleasure to have you here, my friend. And I'm looking forward to the next time when we can uh you can hang out in in real life. Um, but I know you're super busy, uh, but thank you for carving out some time to uh chat with uh Mr. Uh Mr. Kelvin and myself today. You're the best, pal. Thank you so much.

Mike Hess 45:21

Thank you both. Appreciate your time.

Kelvin Crosby 45:23

That wraps up Investing in Accessibility. As I always say, go live be yond your challenges, and I'll see you in two weeks. 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.