2026 CES Review Part 1

On this episode of Change Makers, we’re heading to Las Vegas for the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, where the future of technology is on full display. We’re talking cutting-edge, innovative, and game-changing tech, with a special focus on what’s being developed for people who are blind or have low vision.

After that, we'll turn our attention to the Abacus Bee. Held the first weekend of March, this exciting competition brought nearly 30 students from 10 different states together to put their mental math skills to the ultimate test. The focus? Speed. Precision. And serious number power. Before the competition began, I caught up with a few of the students to hear how they were feeling, and what it took to prepare for this big moment.

On this episode (in order of appearance)

• Sara Brown, APH Public Relations Manager
• Mike May, APH Consultant
• Gena Harper, Professional Athlete, Executive Business Woman
• Jennifer Brooks, Braille Challenge Organizer, APH Outreach Regional Specialist
  
  
  

Additional Links

• Email Change Makers
• Gena Harper Instagram - genablindwomanofaction

Transcript

Narrator 0:00

Welcome to Change Makers, a podcast from APH. We're talking to people from around the world who are creating positive change in the lives of people who are blind or have low vision. Here's your host.

Sara Brown 0:15

Hello and welcome to Change Makers. I'm APH's public relations manager, Sara Brown, and today we're heading to Las Vegas for the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES. This is where the future of technology is on full display. We're talking cutting-edge, innovative, game-changing tech with a special focus on what's being developed for people who are blind or low vision. Hear what's new, what's groundbreaking, and what could truly change lives. To learn all of that, I'm handing the mic over to Mike May and Gena Harper. They were on the ground at CES exploring the newest accessible technology and the coolest innovations the tech world has to offer. From smart devices to next level accessibility tools, they've got the inside scoop. Mike and Gena, take it away.

Mike May 1:06

Thanks, sir. This is Mike May. I am the navigation technology advisor at APH. And my scope goes far beyond just navigation into all sorts of things. Accessibility. I have a particular love for orientation and uh mobility type things. I've been going to CES Consumer Electronics Show since 1984 most years. And it has evolved a lot, but the fact that it's chaotic and there's lots of people remains the same. I first started doing reports like this for Playback Magazine in the 90s with Ed Potter. And then have continued that in podcast format since the guides at CS are free, so any blind person can attend and sign up for a guide. And you can get a full-time guide for the four days of the show. Uh no charge. And that's an amazing experience. Because you're over two million square feet of space. There are 4100 exhibitors this year. Uh 1200 startups. And so it's it's quite a massive thing to try to even get a sampling of Gena has been coming with me for what now? Five years, Gena.

Gena Harper 2:39

Yeah. What I really like about attending CES is seeing the latest and greatest technology, meeting people, and also using my platform of Gena Blind Woman of Action. It's a wonderful way to educate others on how it works regarding accessibility or blindness in the products. And we try to share with the say president of the company about how important accessibility is and what that might look like, and we ask them questions. So I've learned a lot and it's always fun and exciting and really busy.

Mike May 3:16

Really busy. And the the interesting thing is that you go up to a booth, and these days almost every product has an app and you say, Hey, I'm just checking out to see if your product is accessible, and they say, Oh no. Uh that's something we're gonna look into. Um that's uh it's a high priority for us, but uh it's not something we've dealt with yet. And you say, Okay, let me try it. And pretty soon you get them to turn on voiceover on their phone, you use their products and you find out, hey, guess what? It's accessible, it's eighty percent accessible. They didn't even know it. And then the vice president of marketing and the president are surrounding you and they're finding out, hey, there's a whole new market for their products they hadn't even thought of. So that is part of what excites me when I go to CES and growing up and within a couple of minutes getting introduced to these new products. So what Gena and I are gonna do is give you a little sampling of what we experience as we run around. Sometimes together, sometimes separately. But these uh seventeen products we're gonna present to you today are some of the ones that we experienced and some are exclusively for blind people accessibility. There didn't usually be any of CES. But I'd say this year there might have been twenty, thirty just for blind people. But there's lots of other products that are kind of curious, interesting, some of them are wacky, and you want them to be accessible too. Everybody's got different tastes, different interests. So we try to give you a sampling of not just the accessible products. We don't go to all of them. But we have um in the past followed up with some of these companies. I'm just thinking one, for example, a company called the Bird Buddy, and it's a motion camera in a bird house. And when the bird comes, they trigger the camera, takes a picture in a video, sends it to your phone, tells you what kind of bird it is, you can hear the bird, people can see it, you can find out what kind it is, and so guess what? Somebody finds that blind people can bird wipes too. And I know there's lots of blind people who do that, and it's not a hundred percent accessible now, but it is usable. And that's been a fun thing about not only being able to experience these things ourselves, but improve the product for future use of uh other blind people. So here we go, starting out with one of the most popular product categories this day, thanks to the Ray Band Meta glasses. Here is a competitive product that's got a lot of traction and it's pretty exciting in the market from a giga.

Gena Harper 6:13

Mike and I are super interested in smart glasses, and Mike befriended Sharon and the company Agiga, and they have some really cool smart glasses called Echo Vision. And one of the features I love is the live AI. You can just carry on a conversation with it instead of just asking it a question and then waiting for the answer. So I'm gonna have Sharon, who is the co-founder and the CEO, give us more information. Three key features people love.

Interview and Audio from CES 6:40

One is the single press of the button to gather the scene description. The second is the one you just mentioned, like live AMI. And there's a third feature, which is still in play on the called reading mode. The comes through the text from books, letters, menus.

Gena Harper 6:55

The one feature you mentioned about the live AI, because I was born with an eye disease, but I was able to see colors and things till 2018. So I know what things look like, and I have a great memory in my mind. So it's just describing things, it is just like seeing again for me. It's a really incredible feature. There are lots of features while working on.

Interview and Audio from CES 7:15

Another one feature I'm more excited for the community is uh we want to support around display. You want ways to be able to get access to information with other people's hearing, yeah.

Gena Harper 7:27

And also for knowing how to spell things, right? Another amazing feature is that the glasses support IRA, which is the service with the virtual visual interpreters and Be My Eyes. When you do a one-button premise, and after this premise, you can just say come IRM. Say we're in an airport and we want the agent to have access to the camera to guide us. I think that the feature of having access to IRA and Be My Eyes really increases independence, but the live AI can also do that really well. But at least you can have options, or say you're looking for a restroom or a water fountain, because I'm always looking for a water fountain. Thank you so much and thanks for a cool invention.

Mike May 8:07

Yeah, one of the more exciting booths there. The next product is kind of interesting. You'd certainly like to know with smart glasses what expression does somebody have on their face that you're talking to. And there's been different attempts at that, but here's one using the Metaglasses that can help with that challenge.

Interview and Audio from CES 8:30

Okay, we found another really cool wearable ally is a wearable technology for people who are blind or neurodiverse, and we communicate all the different nonverbal and social cues like body language, gestures, facial expressions. What you're wearing is the Ally wristband, and we have multiple colors, and the one that you have on is a rose gold with a light undertone, but we wanted to make it look fashionable. It fits really well. It connects to your glasses, you can customize it with the app to choose the cues you want. When someone makes a different nonverbal cue, it will send that signal to the wristband and convert to the sense of touch or haptics. This is like a demo of the haptic feedback. We have all these different options, expressions, gestures, over 20 different cues and counting. The smile kind of feels like an upward U sensation. I'll do a wave now. It's like a side-to-side motion. The point of the haptic feedback is to make it feel like the cue that someone may be showing you. You can create presets and select and deselect different cues depending on what you want. Every single month, we're committed to adding a new cue.

Gena Harper 9:28

This is Brian, the co-founder and CTO. He is totally blind.

Interview and Audio from CES 9:33

I ended up going forward and getting my PhD in computer science. It was on trying to provide spatial awareness in 360 degrees. Our founding value in Halfware is to deliver positive value to people's lives who need it the most. What is the biggest way you can make an impact in somebody's life? Give them more access and independence to communication and interaction.

Gena Harper 9:54

By wearing it, I get information that I just don't have access to. Like, are they trying to shake my hands? Or are they waving?

Speaker 10 10:01

Are they still standing there?

Gena Harper 10:03

I did put in a request for there's a thing called a Delta Gamma wave. Yeah. You gotta get that in.

Interview and Audio from CES 10:08

I'm gonna do it. Let's you gotta explain it to me so that I can build it in.

Gena Harper 10:11

You curve your arm and your head goes in your arm like this. It is like a wave.

Interview and Audio from CES 10:16

Well, here's what I can tell you. I will build that in if you promise to wear ally and feel the pattern. Absolutely.

Mike May 10:25

A lot of haptics being used in addition to audio and different products. The challenge is that it can be difficult to understand complicated patterns. Simple patterns are easy, but things like smiles and frowns are gonna take a little bit of training and getting used to. We're using them in the Indigo app, which we will tell you about later for navigation purposes as well. We've heard a lot in the media and on the different podcasts and demos and if the show's about Glide. So here's the latest from them.

Gena Harper 11:05

Hey, we're with one of my favorite technology called Glide, and this is the developer and owner Amos. Glide is a mobility device, and it's just one of the things in our toolbox, like a cane or a dog or a glide.

Interview and Audio from CES 11:19

It's a lot more sturdy than what you will have experienced before. You can pull that and the wheel come off. If you want to replace the wheels, bigger wheels, smaller wheels, there's two telescopic joints, which allows us to fold it quite small, then it can extend all the way enough for tall people as well. Oh nice! We have the cameras embedded in the handle, the sensor at the back that detects where you are standing relative to the device and we know it's telling you.

Gena Harper 11:41

Oh, that is wonderful. When I used it last time, I thought it was very free and it really was very fluid.

Interview and Audio from CES 11:47

The other feature that we are adding very, very soon is pre-recorded routes where you can map a route and then repeat that route.

Gena Harper 11:54

I don't even like it on routes I'm familiar with because then I have to pay less attention. When will it be available to the public?

Interview and Audio from CES 12:00

We'll do a full rollout rule of the year over 2026. We're gonna test out the glide. You're going to lean back like this. Did you feel the button? Uh-huh. That means it's working right now. Okay, just push forward and it will do the rest. It's impossible to speed it up. Yes, it is. Because it goes at your own pace. When you press that middle button, that just means that it's going to go in the direction that the camera was facing. When you press the left button or the right button, it'll say going right, going left. It's going to be automatic when the device actually comes out. One of the buttons, if you hold it down for long enough, it'll say outdoor mode on. Or I'm gonna push it one more time just to see what it's like.

Gena Harper 12:42

Oh, there we go. Yay! Have a device like this that just navigates, and I'm not doing anything except walking and my metallic. Don't have any fear.

Interview and Audio from CES 12:52

Press the left button. So it said turning left. It has already turned left now, so you can just press the moment straight button. Okay. Um someone just walked in front, so it paused really quick, and now you can keep going.

Gena Harper 13:07

I love that we're just going along very smoothly. Can't wait for the whole thing to come out and I can use it in real life.

Interview and Audio from CES 13:14

So there's a huge amount of people here, which is a good thing because it's showing you that it's breaking and it's going around them. I love it. The people have passed. Okay, great. And it knows we're gonna go from here. There we go. It just went around a group of people who was just who were just standing in the at a booth.

Gena Harper 13:28

I love that. When it starts to run over them, they move. It's a wonderful people detector and getting them out of the way. I think Axel, it needs an excuse me button. Yeah, it does. So, my assessment of this is it's come such a long way since the first prototype. I love it, it's very comfortable. Thank you, Amos, and your team, for offering up a new tool that is really high tech. Love it.

Mike May 13:53

Yeah, it has come a long way. And uh you will be able to check it out for yourself at an upcoming conference, I'm sure. Lots of people have the meta glasses. So here's an update from them. They had a whole meta lab with all of their different models. So I have the Ray Bam, and Gena does as well. But uh the first version, and they have a second version, and then they have one with the display, and I really was curious thinking well how bulky is that one with the display. And it was on just one lens, the right lens, and it was like a thick lens. It wasn't really both. The glasses were still um quite light and wearable. So here's Gena's interview with them.

Interview and Audio from CES 14:40

Here at CES at our favorite Meta Labs. Yes, so we have the meta Ray Ban display generation two, we have the Oakley line as well as the meta ray-band display. And this one in my hand is the Ray-Ban Gen 2. You can take hands-free calls, listen to your messages, and you can also do a one-way video call where the person will see out of your camera.

Gena Harper 15:01

That's wonderful, and also for blind people, they have an access to IRA and also be my eyes.

Interview and Audio from CES 15:07

They do last a little bit longer on the battery life, up to eight hours, compared to the gen 1s, which was four hours. A lot of choices these days. Yeah, these are nice. How do I look? Fabulous. This is the Oakley Houston, and then the Vanguard is more like a shield. This one has that camera in the middle. It's it's meant more for sports, more running. You're able to get different nose pads too if you want like a tighter grip or closer to your face.

Gena Harper 15:34

They feel very nice, like secure, not too tight. Where's the one that has the display?

Speaker 20 15:39

This is a dummy pair. They're a little bit more on the bulkier side because of all that technology that's gonna be embedded. And it comes with a narrow band, it reads the gestures you're making, the muscles movement and all that to control and navigate through the display. It's kind of like a wristband. Ah, and then you learn gestures. Like, give me an example. If you use your index finger and thumb to do a quick pinch, that would be select.

Gena Harper 16:01

So there's a whole little language of hand gestures.

Interview and Audio from CES 16:03

Yeah, middle finger to thumb. It'll be to go back. If you hold on the middle finger to thumb, so it'll pop up on your display with a little home, four dots for the apps or the settings. You're able to slide with your fingers to select which option you want to do.

Gena Harper 16:17

Wow, that was an amazing update. Yeah, it's really cool how it works. If I knew the hand gestures, I mean it doesn't know if I'm using my eyes or not. I probably wouldn't get audio feedback, but I might if I was using voiceover on my iPad.

Interview and Audio from CES 16:31

You can put audio only on the glasses too.

Gena Harper 16:34

Wow, that is awesome. Well, thank you, and ciao.

Interview and Audio from CES 16:37

One of the things I love about the Meta Ray Ban glasses is the ability to be hands-free while talking to AI. And I think specifically asking for rich detail about what's around you when you want it is really powerful. More recently, we released Live AI, which lets you have a more natural conversation with your AI. So the Live AI feature set is on the current glasses that you own, the Meta Ray Vans, and it's also available on all of our new lines.

Gena Harper 16:58

I was intrigued by the hand gestures, like if you want to go to home or you want to get to apps.

Interview and Audio from CES 17:02

The technology itself is a generic input device, right? So I think that really what the future entails is a future where you have an interface like you described, just like you could use a refreshable rail display or a touchpad and navigate whatever device you want to. That was I think that's the future. We have recently released what we call the developer access toolkit. That means that third-party developers can build stuff on our device. HalfWare's a great example. Yeah. They've been a great partner to work with. I think it's not just limited to what we can build as first party. Right. There's gonna be a lot of really cool third parties.

Gena Harper 17:34

Yeah, that's really neat. They got past that hurdle.

Interview and Audio from CES 17:36

With Live AI right now, you can talk to the device naturally. You don't have to say, hey, meta, hey meta, each time. The next item down here is called detailed responses.

Gena Harper 17:43

So does that mean like if I just wanted to say, do you see my medicine bottle that I just dropped on the floor?

Interview and Audio from CES 17:48

I think what you're hinting at is proactively saying, let me know when you see my medicine bottle. That's something you can do today.

Gena Harper 17:53

Right, okay, nice. Can I also just show it like what does this say? Or, you know, what are the looks great.

Interview and Audio from CES 17:59

If you turn on detailed descriptions, it will by default give you more detail on things. And you can always tell it on off. Or you can say summarize it.

Gena Harper 18:05

Oh, that's a good idea. What's around me?

Interview and Audio from CES 18:07

You're in a room on a table with folks, and a few people using their devices. There's a name tag as well. Alessia Partinex.

Gena Harper 18:14

Wow, it told me Alessa's name tag.

Speaker 18 18:17

Yep.

Gena Harper 18:17

What else do you see?

Interview and Audio from CES 18:19

I see a spacious event area with blue pillars, people mingling, coloring. The ceiling has a pattern design, shadow air. Thank you, Gus. Thank you. Please keep the feedback coming.

Gena Harper 18:30

One one of the things of these Meta Ray-Ban glasses is that was the best description, scene description that I've seen from smart glasses. And the audio was poor because we were in a big ballroom with a lot of people, but it was giving me detailed description of the ceiling, and there were purple pillars, and it was really, really neat. I also like that they have a lot of options in the design of the smart glasses between the Oakley and the Ray-Ban, so you can get multiple colors, you can totally customize to your own personal style and what fits best. For me, these are my favorite of the smart glasses, just from a visual, like what I look like, and do they look goofy or anything? So they're really neat in that category.

Mike May 19:21

Yeah, it's great to have the scene description from the meta, from the Echo Vision, the LI, envisioned glasses, uh solos. They they all provide that feature and it's really invaluable. Here is a different kind of navigation device from the the UK.

Gena Harper 19:42

Tell us what's new and improved, Rob, from Makesen.

Interview and Audio from CES 19:45

That what I'm showing you now is a similar kind of form factor to what you had last year.

Gena Harper 19:49

Yes.

Speaker 13 19:49

Except it's a lot more stable than it was last year. This pairs with an iPhone landers for which will clip to a chest like this. Okay. The iPhone itself, we're using the cameras from that.

Gena Harper 19:57

Oh right.

Interview and Audio from CES 19:57

And we're combining that with a very accurate GPS inside the hand for this.

Gena Harper 20:00

Oh nice.

Interview and Audio from CES 20:01

And this will essentially lead you through an environment by just manipulating the thumb. One of the biggest problems we have for trying to create this product is it takes up a hand when you're using it. Nice. We've got a cane in one hand, a device in the other. We're in the process of developing ways of not needing to use a hand at all. We've got what we call a micro vector. So we're going to put something around your neck. Is that okay? Uh-huh. This new lanyard system clips on. It's a mag safety. Phone holder. On the front of this is this machine. If you pull this upwards, it will come off of the clip.

Gena Harper 20:27

Ah! So if you ultimately are busy for the second or are gonna put it away because you know you're going straight or something. Yeah, exactly.

Interview and Audio from CES 20:33

Then you can just basically dock it again.

Gena Harper 20:35

Congratulations on the new update.

Interview and Audio from CES 20:37

And we're hoping to launch it internationally in May of 2027.

Gena Harper 20:41

Great.

Mike May 20:43

Yeah, the um product is something I've been talking to them about for two or three years now, and it's gone through various iterations, and I think it'll be another interesting option for people. Over the years, people have been trying to make braille cells smaller and more efficient and less expensive. And you can can you believe now that there's not just one but multiple products of people trying to put braille cells on the back of an iPhone. Tell us adding a backup battery to your phone using the mag shape capability.

Gena Harper 21:20

We just discovered another cool product called the Pocket Dot. Here's the phone, here's the device. It just magnetically snaps on, and it has a keypad, and at the bottom it has a small braille display.

Speaker 12 21:32

We understood that people need a tiny braille display that can be accessible with your phone. It's eight cells. You can actually access some shortcuts and we'll start reading some messages. It will pop up on the braille display.

Gena Harper 21:43

Nice.

Interview and Audio from CES 21:44

And uh then you can just type and uh send messages. You should like a turn on the voiceover system, but you can mute it. So it's get the whole words from voiceover, convert it to text, and uh show it on the braille display.

Gena Harper 21:55

With my regular phone, it doesn't have a braille display attached, so I either have to use Voiceover where everybody can hear, or I can wear an AirPod. And so I love that this is quick and easy. You can get a lot of privacy, and other people are not in your business, and there is no sound coming out of it. So that is a wonderful feature. What a cool invention. I think this is very needed in the marketplace. Bye-bye.

Mike May 22:18

I will say that it didn't work well for me. I liked the form factor. It actually was on the back of my phone, and that is it is logable, but it uh it didn't work at the time I tested it. Part of it was I was using my left hand to read Braille, and they had it set up for right hand.

Interview and Audio from CES 22:38

Another cool product from Shops. Behind us is our latest product called OpenFitz Pro. It's our first open ear headphone with noise reduction function. We can capture the environmental noise and in-ear noise, and using our special shock super boost, we can reduce the sound. It has more superior sound detail and more super base. A lot of customers want to hear the environment when blocking some unwanted sounds. At the same time, you can stay aware of the environment.

Gena Harper 23:20

For blind people and everybody, that is super important. We use the sounds around us to navigate. So that is the amazing thing about shocks in general. Like a number of the products, you know, not have your ears blocked. Thank you, Shocks. Thank you. Last year at CES, Shocks introduced another product called Open Meet, which I currently have on my head, and it goes over your head, the headband, and it sits a little bit on your ears. It has a microphone independent with a mute button. It's very comfortable, and it's really used specifically with computers and in a Zoom conference hall, for example, or just while you're using your computer. So I really do like that they constantly keep innovating their products to try to meet what everybody's looking for.

Mike May 24:35

So we really appreciate their support. Now switching into the robot category, and this is just one of hundreds of robots that were around the exhibit floor.

Gena Harper 24:48

One of my favorite things are robots!

Speaker 14 24:51

What you're touching here is the bring of the robot. It contains different sensors, including LIDAP and Canberra. We try to give the flexibility for users that they can mix and match different types of robots, whatever they need, and form it as a group. For different people, we actually have to work together, even though we're from different races in different countries, right? Same for robots. Different manufacturers speak different languages. So right now we have a problem that all robots that only speak their own languages that only work with their own kind. Project Adam is actually a search and rescue project that usualizes drones to do a quick scouting. And with our technology, with our system, the quick scouting drums actually share and broadcast the information to the ground robot. You have a drone scouting in the sky, right? Picking up thermal imaging of a missing person. And once they find it, they can broadcast the information to a group of robots and they can start looking for the person. And that's actually what we have done in Asia.

Gena Harper 25:41

Supply person, I can hear about things, but it's not to say this is so unique. It's not like I go touch robots all the time, right?

Speaker 14 25:48

Two years ago, we actually built the same system and we specifically built it for visual impair person. The visual impaired person can actually have a dog as a guiding robot.

Gena Harper 25:56

Wow, so where is that being used?

Speaker 14 25:58

Uh that was used in Asia, also in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was a trial because like robots still having their own issue, especially battery life. This small size of robot issues only have two hours of battery life. So once we have feather battery technology, yeah. I kind of feel like these guiding literal robot dogs can be more uh popular among people.

Gena Harper 26:16

What's on his feet?

Speaker 14 26:17

It's a rubber feet. We do have another robot that actually comes with a rubber wheel to help the robot editor navigate in the different terrains.

Gena Harper 26:24

If it was like snow or mountains.

Speaker 14 26:26

Our main focus of application is actually in railway inspections, facility management, factory work as well. Right before CS, we deploy our first humanoid robot. Ooh size 1.3 meters tall, a humanoid robot equipped with our same robot, the brain, and we can make them work with different dogs and drones.

Gena Harper 26:43

That is amazing. What's the name of your company?

Speaker 14 26:45

We call ourselves inspired by Star Wars. See for a collaboration.

Gena Harper 26:49

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for your time. That was amazing. Thank you.

Mike May 26:53

Yeah, really fun. All sorts of really cool robots.

Sara Brown 26:58

And don't miss the next episode of Change Makers, where we have part two of that CES interview. Now let's shift gears from high-tech innovation to high-speed calculation. Let's head to downtown Louisville for the Abacus Bee. Held the first weekend of March. This exciting competition brought nearly 30 students from 10 different states together to put their mental math skills to the ultimate test. The focus? Speed, precision, and serious number power. Before the competition began, I caught up with a few students to hear how they were feeling and what it took to prepare for this big moment. But first, let's hear from event organizer Jennifer Brooks, who kicked things off with a few out-of-this world space themed jokes, as only Jennifer can do. Okay, I am here with Jennifer Brooks. It's time for another APH Abacus Bee. Jennifer, this is the day before the big challenge. Talk about what's going on today, the day before.

Jennifer Brooks 27:59

The day before. Well, we are officially cleared for launch into a weekend where numbers orbit around creativity and confidence. And we are absolutely over the moon to have everyone here at this event that is sure to be astronomically awesome. As you might be able to tell, at the Abacus Bee station, we are uh space themed this year. And we are here to crunch numbers, calculate some cosmically amazing equations. And um, yeah, so this today we have what is called the APH Expo. It is all things APH, but also all things space. And so we have APH product managers, APH projects, all here to share with families, the s the contestants themselves, the families of the contestants. We have some families, they have both parents, siblings, we have some grandparents that are coming in from out of state just to support their mathronauts in action. "Mathronauts," have you copyrighted written that word yet? I have not. That is just from Jen's brain.

Sara Brown 29:25

Now, talk about tomorrow, talk about what the Abacus Bee is and why an event like this is so important.

Jennifer Brooks 29:30

STEM. How do you get into STEM? Math is the keystone. It is the foundation, and that is where we're working with the Abacus Bee. We are working on the foundational skills of arithmetic and getting these kids confident in those skills so that they can launch and shoot for the stars beyond into the realm of STEM. Math is essential for any area of STEM. And so the Abacus Bee really supports and encourages kids in those mathematics and eventually STEM skills as well.

Sara Brown 30:06

Now, for people out there listening, they might hear the word abacus and think that old thing from when I was in preschool? Because that's when I remember seeing something like that. How is an abacus such an important tool for mathematics? Because we all remember sliding the beads over, but talk about how the abacus is actually used for math and how it can take a person pretty much anywhere they want to go in STEM.

Jennifer Brooks 30:28

Absolutely. So dust off that abacus, because we can calculate to the stars and beyond. The abacus, especially the APH abacus, which has a felt backing and the beads actually stay in place once you place them, is essential for our students, but it's really a calculating tool that, yes, has worked for centuries and it still works today. So it is essential for those found again, the foundational skills of concrete numbers, taking the abstract math and number sense as a very abstract concept. And so when we can get it literally under our students' fingertips, it becomes concrete. We have that what's called one-to-one correspondence, but we also were calculating at the same time as placing numbers. And so it's a quick, efficient uh method for our students to learn mathematics. It's a great instructional tool for our students. Now, how many students are here today or competing in this advocacy? Yes, we invited 31 contestants. We have 29 joining us for this challenge this weekend. Um, and we have over 75 uh extended family members and friends joining us as well. And from all over the country? We have we're representing 10 different states. Um our contestants are coming from 10 different states uh from all corners of the U.S.

Sara Brown 31:51

And to be considered to be, I guess, to be eligible to participate in the Abacus Bee, what does a student have to do? Use an abacus, do some math.

Jennifer Brooks 32:01

There's no like prelims or semifinals. We have regional events in each state. So we have 15 states that participated in the regional events, and we select the top scoring students in each group of contestants' levels of competition, and those students are invited to the finals event.

Sara Brown 32:23

So the top students in the abacus world. Okay. Now, is there anything else you would like to share that I might not have touched on today?

Jennifer Brooks 32:30

Thank you to Simons Foundation, who funds this event every year. They have been amazing uh partners and funders for us, and we are so thankful and grateful that we're able to pull off this event for these students and just again launch them into the stars uh to success. And uh we really appreciate that support. Absolutely.

Sara Brown 32:53

Okay, Jennifer, thank you so much. I'm gonna let you finish running around. Thank you. Thank you. I am Alizea Aguilar. Hi, Alizeia. So talk about the this this Abacus Bee. What are you most excited about today?

Abacus Bee Participant #1 33:10

I mean, all of the activities are very, very fun and they're all wonderful. But I'm here for the challenge. Okay, and then talk about that challenge. What are you gonna do?

Sara Brown 33:24

How are you gonna succeed on that challenge?

Abacus Bee Participant #1 33:26

It's probably a bunch of multiplication and division. I'm not that good at division, but multiplication is easy. It's easy. Now, is this your first challenge?

Sara Brown 33:36

Is this your first Abacus Bee?

Abacus Bee Participant #1 33:38

No, I had the one last year, I think. And then uh that's why I'm here. Okay. And what do you like about this Abacus Bee? Why do you keep coming back? It's fun. I love it. I I'm not here to win. I'm here to have the literal best time of my life.

Sara Brown 33:56

You're not here to win, but to have a good time. Now, what would you say to somebody trying to learn the abacus? Do you remember when you first learned how to work the abacus?

Abacus Bee Participant #1 34:04

Um, I don't know, I don't think I had an abacus. It was just like math questions that I had to solve before everyone else. Uh-huh.

Sara Brown 34:12

Now, what would you say to anybody that's interested in participating in the Abacus Bee next year? What would you say to them that might be a little afraid?

Abacus Bee Participant #1 34:21

Don't worry. Everyone's very nice. You'll get through it. And if you don't win, that's okay, because we all get medals. Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to share? This was a wonderful, wonderful, fantastic day. And I am so glad to share it with everyone out there.

Sara Brown 34:43

Alicia, thank you. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk to me. You are very much welcome. Good luck to you tomorrow, okay? Thank you. Hi, Xiaoh Shung, and you're at the Abacus Bee. Tell me, what are you most excited for for tomorrow's competition?

Abacus Bee Participant #2 35:02

Um I'm excited for just a lot of general stuff. I really like the competition itself, uh, getting a chance to meet and agree with people that who are similar to me when it comes to vision and other attributes. Uh it's just a great place to unite and a great place to explore some math.

Sara Brown 35:24

So now, is this your first time here at the Abacus Bee?

Abacus Bee Participant #2 35:28

Uh no, it is my third time, actually. I I I've kept g coming back to this place because it's just so awesome.

Sara Brown 35:35

And what would you say to anybody that's apprehensive about coming to the Abacus Bee? You you're a veteran now. What would you what would you tell them?

Abacus Bee Participant #2 35:42

Uh I would just tell them to take it take a dip. It's really quite fun. You'll enjoy it once you start getting into it, and you'll meet a lot of people that you might have not gotten in contact with. And so uh just give it a shot. It's quite fun, um, it's not too hard, and there's varying skill levels, and there's all sorts of ways you can definitely uh communicate and f and uh c collaborate and compete.

Sara Brown 36:09

All right, now what what got you into this? Is this was were you already interested in math and then it sort of transpired over to the abacus? What got you into this?

Abacus Bee Participant #2 36:19

Uh I was already really into math and science, I quite like academics. Uh but after I got a hint about this from uh my uh vision teacher and other members of the visually impaired community, and I was like, why don't we just give this a shot?

Sara Brown 36:37

Awesome. So then that's how you got here where you are today. Yes. Alright, one last question. Is there anything else you'd like to say before I let you go?

Speaker 9 36:45

Uh not really, but except just have fun. It's uh and definitely try out the Abacus Bee.

Sara Brown 36:52

Alright, Xiaoh Sheng. Thank you so much for taking time. I'm gonna let you go back and go into the exhibition.

Abacus Bee Participant #2 36:58

Yeah. Thank you.

Sara Brown 37:01

Alright, so I am live from the Abacus Bee tent. Yes, a tent inside one of the exhibition hall rooms with with I'm gonna let you both introduce yourself. What's your first name?

Abacus Bee Participant #3 and #4 37:11

McKinsey and Juliana.

Sara Brown 37:13

McKinsey and Juliana. What are you both looking forward to for this year's Abacus Be?

Abacus Bee Participant #3 37:19

Uh honestly just meeting new people.

Sara Brown 37:22

How about you?

Abacus Bee Participant #4 37:23

Um, hopefully tying with her because like we keep going against each other and swapping places between first and second. Like, we need a tie.

Sara Brown 37:33

And what do you have to say about that?

Abacus Bee Participant #3 37:35

Yeah, let's tie.

Sara Brown 37:37

Tie for first or tie for second?

Abacus Bee Participant #4 37:39

Tie for first, yeah.

Sara Brown 37:40

Now, what are you both looking most forward to with the Abacus Bee? So it's you all want to tie. What are you looking forward to? You know, this is a this is a a pretty intense, fun competition, but what are you looking forward to the most?

Abacus Bee Participant #4 37:52

Um you answer first.

Abacus Bee Participant #3 37:55

I guess honestly, just sharpening like my math skills specifically, like with division on the abacus.

Abacus Bee Participant #4 38:03

What about you? Um, like being better with the abacus, because I'm better with mental math than the actual abacus.

Sara Brown 38:10

And you two are you two from the same school? Uh no. Okay, so you do you all meet here? Did you all meet at the Abacus Bee? Yeah. Okay. So talk about what it's like to have friends that you've made at the Abacus Bee. What's that like?

Abacus Bee Participant #3 38:27

It's like really fun because it's just like these people are like me. Yeah, it's like it's really fun, but it's also like it gives me something to look forward to because I get to see that my friend for like three days, so and now you all enjoy the math, you all enjoy the friendships.

Sara Brown 38:45

What would you say to anybody that's a little afraid to come to this advocacy? They might not because they might not know anybody, it's their first time. What would you say to them?

Abacus Bee Participant #4 38:54

Um, you're like you're gonna actually meet someone because how me and her met after the math was finished and we were just hanging out in the room, we started playing Uno, and that's how we became friends over Uno.

Abacus Bee Participant #3 39:05

Yeah, I mean, I've I've been in that position before. I was scared to talk to people, and I met her. She's a social butterfly, so you you'll meet people that will want to be friends with you.

Sara Brown 39:16

Alright, and before I let you two go, is there anything else you'd like to say?

Abacus Bee Participant #4 39:21

No, except for I love y'all.

Abacus Bee Participant #3 39:23

Yeah, I don't have anything.

Sara Brown 39:25

Alright, thank you both so much, and good luck tomorrow.

Abacus Bee Participant #3 and #4 39:28

Thank you. Thank you.

Sara Brown 39:30

Alright, so I am here with Joseph. Hi, Joseph.

Abacus Bee Participant #5 39:34

Hello.

Sara Brown 39:35

Tell me, what are you looking forward to with the abacus speed?

Abacus Bee Participant #5 39:40

Just how fast people work with, say, either manipulatives or in my case mental math. And like just how long they take to maybe process a problem um with certain equations are very long.

Sara Brown 39:54

Okay, and is this your first Abacus bee?

Abacus Bee Participant #5 39:57

No, I did one last year, but it was only the regional.

Sara Brown 40:01

Okay. So what are you looking what how does it feel to be sort of at the finals, at the at the final competition for Abacus Bee?

Abacus Bee Participant #5 40:07

Shocked.

Sara Brown 40:10

And um are you looking to m meeting up with any of your friends during your time here?

Abacus Bee Participant #5 40:14

I mean, I don't really know anyone here. There may be somebody from the competition that recognizes me, but I highly doubt it. So, but I don't because the two friends that I entered Abacus Bee with um last year um aren't here to my knowledge.

Sara Brown 40:32

And before I let you go, is there anything else you would like to share before I let you go?

Abacus Bee Participant #5 40:38

Everybody try looking into more um accessible technology like the Monarch or Hable One or with a Braille Note. It's very it's very it'll pique your interest, maybe just like how it did mine.

Sara Brown 40:52

Joseph, thank you so much, and good luck on the Abacus Bee tomorrow. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Change Makers. If you would like to learn more about the Abacus Bee, you'll find a link in our show notes. And remember, next week we're back with part two of our CES conversation. Do you have a podcast topic suggestion? I would love to hear it. Send it to changemakers at aph.org. And as always, be sure to look for ways you can be a change maker this week.