Cast Member Spotlight: Kathy Martinez

On this episode, we’re kicking off a new series of spotlight episodes featuring the incredible cast of The Dot Experience. The Dot Experience is a new inclusive museum opening in October. It features more than 20 individuals who are blind or have low vision, each sharing authentic stories. The cast includes advocates, artists, professionals, athletes, students, parents, and workers, all highlighting the many roles blind individuals hold in society and showcasing vibrant, diverse lives.

This month's Cast Member Spotlight highlights Kathy Martinez. After the interview with Kathy, you’ll hear from Jennifer Wenzel and Michael Dennis with this month’s Tech Takeaway. They’ll share information about the recent patch update for the Monarch.

On this episode (In order of appearance)

• Narrator
• Sara Brown, APH Public Relations Manager
• Kathy Martinez, The Dot Experience Cast Member, Senior Advisor for Inclusively
• Jennifer Wenzel, Technology Product Specialist
• Michael Dennis, Technology Product Specialist

Additional Links

• Email Change Makers

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 on today's episode, we're kicking off a new series of spotlight episodes featuring the incredible cast of The Dot Experience. The Dot Experience is a new inclusive museum that opens in October, and it features more than 20 individuals who are blind or have low vision, each sharing their authentic stories. And the cast includes advocates, artists, professionals, athletes, students, parents, and workers, highlighting the many roles that individuals who are blind or low-vision hold in society in showcasing vibrant, diverse lives. And today we're kicking off this series with Kathy Martinez. And after we talk to Kathy, you'll hear from Jennifer Wenzel and Michael Dennis with this month's Tech Takeaway. They'll share information about the recent patch update for the monarch and an exciting new feature in key math that was also included in that update. Now let's talk to cast member and senior advisor for Inclusively, Kathy Martinez. Hello, Kathy, and welcome to Change Makers. Hey Sara, thank you so much for having me on. This is a real honor, and I'm very happy to talk to you. Of course, and I'm excited to talk to you too. And you know, we're getting into this episode about you being a cast member for the Dot experience. But before we get into that aspect, let's take it all the way back and just have you introduce yourself and let our listeners know a little bit more about you. Wow.

Kathy Martinez 1:51

Well, um, as I said earlier, I'm Kathy Martinez. I live in the Bay, San Francisco Bay Area right now. Um, what can I say? I grew up in, I was one of six siblings. Um I had, you know, I I'm very grateful for my parents. Um, and you know, having grown up in a very large Latino family um really helped make me who I am. I also should say that I have a blind sister who is uh younger than me. Uh so we are the two middle children of six. And that made a big difference for me because I we were both mainstreamed. And um, while there were other blind people in the school, now this was a long time ago. I'm old, um, and this was in the 60s. So um, you know, I I people I wanted to see uh blind people succeed, and we were sort of test cases, but this but back to my sister, the thing that I think was so helpful for me and hopefully for her, is that you know, we were raised basically in a a world of sighted people, and she was, I I kind of, you know, we we used each other as a touchstone to kind of compare notes. You know, did you how did that, you know, we would talk about how we would do things and we would share, we would use the braille code to tell each other secret messages so that our other siblings wouldn't understand what we were saying. And you know, we were both uh avid braille users, and we are to this day, but just having that person to you know compare notes with as uh a blind person was uh I think really kept me from a lonely life. Um I as I said, we were mainstreamed, um, Peggy and I. And so we started mainstreaming, we started being mainstreamed in kindergarten. And for me, that was kind of the first time that I realized that I was different. I knew I was different, but I also I also came from a very big family, you know, who didn't treat me as somebody who was different. So when I got to kindergarten and I tried to cross the playground, I would crash into bikes, the toys, and other kids. So I had to figure out like, wow, how am I gonna get around you know, without my family being there to help? So, you know, I think we we learn how to survive very quickly as people with disabilities and how to kind of how to get what we need. And so I was very good at making friends and having, you know, hanging on to kids. Um, but I I really I think that was a turning point for me when I was in a group of non-disabled kids, and I was the only person in the class of about 20. I had to figure out how to get along in in the sighted world. Uh after that, I went through high school, uh and that was kind of a you know, all that just elementary school, junior high, high school, you know, went through the things that kids do. Um uh and again, braille was, I think, a saving grace because I was being in touch with what I was reading, and so I became an avid reader and I learned how to spell somewhat correctly. Now I'm not so good at it, but you know, um I for me, braille was just critical, and I think I I can speak for my sister and say for her too, and we're both avid braille users today. Um well I I don't know what to say. As a kid, I was very interested in um in what was going on around me, and so I we lived near strawberry fields, and I I became very interested in the plight of these farm workers. So I learned as a teenager, I was in middle school, and I, you know, I just was so interested in what they were going through. So when I was in the I think eighth grade, a student teacher read a book for me on sheep on cassette called Sweatshops in the Sun. And that was a real change point for me again. You know, she read this this book about kids were picking crops in the sun. And so I became very interested. That was kind of my interest in, you know, other things that were happening around me that didn't deal directly with me. Um then of course, you know, it was the the 70s and early 80s I became involved in the in the women's movement, uh, and of and the LGBTQ movement. And then finally I found the disability rights movement. Um and I liked that because I came to the I moved to the Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, primarily because there was better transportation. It was easier to get around, things were closer together. But I found the disability rights movement, and uh, you know, I've been uh active ever since. My my passion has been employment for people with disabilities, um, because I saw as a kid that money made a difference, and uh I've just been really passionate about you know helping to pave the way through working on different types of legislation and executive orders in my work uh for people with disabilities to get to be able to work and also working with corporations, nonprofits, government to be able to create a welcoming place for for people with disabilities and blind people.

Sara Brown 8:15

Do you mind sharing when vision loss first became a part of your life and what that experience was like? Because it sounds like it was fairly early,

Kathy Martinez 8:23

I was born blind, um, as was my sister. Um, so yeah, it vision loss has always been a part of my life. That you know, it it isn't for me, it's normal to be blind. I know that sounds weird, but I've never I've never been sighted. You were in school in the 60s. Honey, I'm old.

Sara Brown 8:45

Well, it's not that, but I would like to hear you talk about some of the resources that were available to you at that time.

Kathy Martinez 8:54

That's a really good question. I was very lucky. Um, you know, I think that um, so where I I was in school in Orange County, California. Um, and in that time and you know, just that snippet of time, I think that there were people who really wanted to, you know, it was the beginning of the mainstream stream movement. And I feel like we were kind of test cases. Um they I think there was a lot of people that wanted to see you know blind people uh integrated um because it makes a difference when you have age-appropriate experiences. So in my in my experience, I was I started learning braille at five. I had um, there was a we there was a special room that they called the VH room, which meant visually handicapped. There were other blind people in the school. I think there was about four or six of us. We were all in different classrooms. So there would be one of us, you know, in a classroom. Two would have been too much. I'm just joking, but you know. Um, and there was, at like I said, at this snippet in time, we had support. We had a very um smart and I would say forward-thinking visionary woman in the in the quote VH room who kind of kicked our butts and she did not let us get away with anything. Um, you know, she taught us braille. Uh she we had, you know, there it's at that in those days that braille was transcribed either by the American printing house, which most of I think all of our books were, or um by hand. So we would have to do math, like long division problems on the brailler, which was very cumbersome. But, you know, it taught us, it at least taught me. I'm not gonna speak for anybody else. It taught me how to stick with the problem. I mean, because it was very kind of I mean, long division on a braille writer was long. You know, sometimes the problem took two pages. Um and I was very lucky to have teachers that wanted me to succeed and and kind of made things not easy for me. Um, and sometimes I think they made things difficult on purpose so I would, you know, grow thick skin, but they made it possible. Um, you know, we were integrated with all the kids. They did not supervise us during recess, which meant that we had to kind of, you know, figure out how to handle ourselves during recess, um in unstructured time. And uh yeah, that that period was before the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which I think was passed in 74. I'm not positive. But um yeah, we were lucky. We were very lucky. It was, you know, like I said, a snippet of time in history where things came together. And um we did have to take a bus. So we did not go to our neighborhood school, but it was close enough that when we were in high school, when people could drive, you know, they would pick us up and take Peggy and I wherever. I mean, so we in other words, we had friends both in our neighborhood and in the schools that we that we went to that were not the neighborhood school.

Sara Brown 12:41

Talk about your time learning, learning, you know, learning braille, learning how to navigate, learning those OM skills. Was there somebody at at your school that taught you that?

Kathy Martinez 12:53

When when we were in high school, you know, the interesting thing is that in in that time, I did not start officially using a cane till like till I was in college. There was this feeling that we that they, I mean, there was some, you know, some very interesting ideas too. It wasn't all perfect. There was a sense that we don't want you, you don't want to look blind. And frankly, we looked more blind by not using canes as kids. Um, but uh, you know, we got through it. Um so in high school, I started learning how to use a cane and learning how to use the bus. Um, and um once I started using a cane, it was it was freedom, you know. I felt I could go anywhere. And at least people knew that I was blind and not high or, you know, um or whatever, whatever they thought of me with seeing me without a cane. Um and then I went to the Orientation Center for the Blind in Albany, California, which taught me more skills, uh, cooking and OM and you know, various, I don't know, just social, just I don't know, I had never been in an all-blind environment. So that was really interesting too. Um but so that was very helpful with OM. And it taught me, you know, I kind of learned the the Bay Area, uh and and I moved up here immediately because it was just much more, I don't know, disability-friendly, I guess, especially Berkeley, because the independent living movement for people with physical disabilities was, you know, in full swing. And uh that's when I really discovered the disability rights movement. Um, and I liked the fact that it was, you know, there were so many people with different disabilities. It wasn't just all one disability, you know. So I really liked the coalition effect or impact. Um and learning about other people's situations, you know, because I'd mostly been around other blind people, but I like the fact that there were people, you know, who were wheelchair users and deaf people. And uh in those days, the the wheelchair users, when I worked for the Center for Independent Living in the mid-80s, and uh the wheelchair users would read for the blind people, and the blind people would push or help the wheelchair users. So we were kind of each other's accommodations. Um, and I just like that feeling that you know there was all different types of people helping each other. I mean, I I I know it's I'm glorifying it now, but um, but I really felt like that had a huge impact on me in terms of how people really can work together to make something happen.

Sara Brown 15:49

I think that's absolutely true. People come together and when they do, that stuff gets done. You're right. Plain and simple. Talk about your life today and what does that look like?

Kathy Martinez 16:01

Well, my life today is, you know, I'm I'm in my late 60s, so um I'm still working and I will always work as long as I can. I I really love, you know, helping to be a part of opening up opportunities for other people. So from the from the early in the early 90s, I started working for the World Institute on Disability, um, which was a disability rights and advocacy organization, and I eventually became the executive director in 2005. Um, and I was able to have amazing experiences, you know, working on international projects. Uh I was I was part of the team that worked on the the UN Convention, the United Nations Convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities. I did a lot of work outside the country. Um, I also lived in Mexico in the early 80s, and um my partner and I adopted our son. So, you know, I'm a parent. I think we have to remember that you know, disability is not our whole identity, right? So I'm definitely a parent of somebody who's old too. And I feel very, you know, very grateful for that experience, just being living in another country, seeing how, you know, first thing you notice is how spoiled Americans are. Um, but just you know, how how disability is everywhere, and the culture uh that you find yourself in has a lot to do with how people with disabilities are treated and how we're perceived. So in 2009, I after uh when I was the executive director of the World Institute on Disability, um, I was tapped to lead the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the Department of Labor under Barack Obama. So I did that from 2009 to 2015. Then I decided that it I was telling Pope folks, I was encouraging people to, you know, to get to try to work in corporations so that so that we just don't only work in disability-focused environments. So I did take a job with Wells Fargo, although it was kind of a disability-focused job, but it allowed me to see, you know, how corporations work. It kind of allowed me to see the other side of the coin because, you know, my whole life I had been on the employee side or the advocate side. And all of a sudden I saw how, you know, how corporations work, how they manage their budgets, you know, all the regulations they have to comply with. Um so it gave me another point of view. Then I very briefly for a year um managed a disability rights legal firm, disability rights advocates. Um, and then after that, I went to Expedia Group uh to lead their disability inclusion strategy. And then I uh was laid off. So since then I've been uh senior advisor at Inclusively, which uh develops uh an HR platform, and that's where I am today. I'm very happy uh, you know, working as a consultant. And um yeah, I'm I'm just learning so much. You know, everybody in this company is at least 30 years younger than me, which is a gift because I have to keep learning. And that's really one of my favorite things to do is to learn.

Sara Brown 19:52

Kathy, I hear all the passion when you were talking about all the places and all the things that you've done and have worked for and worked at and led. Which goes into my questions of what are you passionate about right now and what accomplishment or milestone are you especially proud of? You got quite the list.

Kathy Martinez 20:10

Uh well, I'm proud of a lot of things. I would say, you know, raising a son that has turned out to be a good person is is one. Um I would say improving employment for people with disabilities. Everything I've done has been a team effort. And nobody, I don't think we we do much on our own, but I've been very lucky to have mentors, people who believed in me. And I feel like I've been able to pass, you know, to share that. I've been able to, you know, work with younger people. And and I think one of my proudest accomplishments is see where they end have ended up and how well they're doing and see the change that they're making. Um, but I also like I I like, I don't know, I I just like I said, I love learning. I love um I love making change. I think, you know, that's being part of a team that makes that has been able to make some change. You know, I think we're seeing a little uh we're taking two steps back right now, but it's important to to not lose hope and to not, you know, to to assume that this is not going to last forever. I think it's really it's it's important to understand that, you know, as people with disabilities, we have a lot to contribute. And as technology advances, you know, um it has allowed us to do, at least at least allowed me, to do so much more than I ever could have done as a young person. Um, I mean, we have to make sure that AI is inclusive of us and doesn't uh you know leave us out. Um, and that's something that I'm very concerned about. But uh I think yeah, I I I just um I I feel like I'm in a good place and you know the more I can help other people um the prouder I'll be of my accomplishments because that's really where it's at. You know, it's about giving helping peop other people move forward. You know, I think what they say is women we're learning, earning, and returning. And hopefully right now I'm in my returning phase.

Sara Brown 22:33

Well, I would say you are. Everything that you've said and everything that you've done, I think it's I think you're in that phase, Kathy. And it's a well let's hope thank you. Let's hope I am. Now we're getting to The Dot Experience. How did you first find out or hear about the dot experience?

Kathy Martinez 22:51

So somebody from APH contacted me to see if I would be interested in being a part of it, and of course I said yes.

Sara Brown 22:59

And what does being a cast member for The Dot Experience mean to you?

Kathy Martinez 23:04

Well, it means that um you know, that people are taking experiences of blind people seriously, and that this you know that that we have the opportunity to share our experience and hopefully it will resonate with somebody who could use, you know, some encouragement, or maybe we'll give somebody a new idea, or give them the you know, the capacity to apply for a job that they wouldn't otherwise uh have applied for. And I think it also will uh give people who are blind a another place to go to ask, you know, to have questions answered. I mean, APH has been around for a long time. You know, we're all uh familiar with the amazing work that they've done over the last 100 years. Um I've certainly benefited from the their existence and the work that they've done over the years, over the many years. Um, and I hope that by being a cast member, you know, this is a way for me to give back just to somebody who might be younger or somebody who might be losing their vision or a family member who you know might want to help somebody along the path. So I am very proud and happy to be a part of this effort.

Sara Brown 24:31

And what do you hope visitors take away from that experience?

Kathy Martinez 24:35

Well, I I hope that that visitors see that we are more alike than we are different. I hope that they see that there's more than one way to do things. I one of the problems that I had uh as a you know, as somebody looking for work is that because I couldn't do a job exactly how things have always been done, you know, people did not want to hire me. So I think it's important for the public to realize that there's many ways to get a job done. And as we know, so many things that were invented for people with disabilities are now being used by the general public. And I think when people understand that, you know, their their fear is reduced. I think there's still a lot of fear around disability in general. And I think that when people see people with disabilities doing lots of different things and being successful, that that fear gets reduced. And yeah, I think just getting to know people who are blind or who have a disability makes a big difference because you again you realize that we're more alike than different. There's an expression we fear less what we know best, and uh and so getting to know people who are different than ourselves, I think really does reduce the stigma, the fears, and uh and we can carry on, you know, in a much more positive way.

Sara Brown 26:08

And my final question to you is there anything else you would like to share or say, whether it's about your life and your journey or being a cast member or about The Dot Experience? Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?

Kathy Martinez 26:20

Well, I I'm really looking forward to meeting everybody. I've been on the phone with quite a few of the people who are making The Dot Experience happen. And I'm really looking forward to the opening events and meeting people and and having the opportunity to let them know how grateful I am that they've that they A came up with this amazing idea and B, are able to create something that's gonna last a very long time and help lots of people who are visually impaired or blind.

Sara Brown 26:53

Okay, Kathy. Thank you so much for coming on Change Makers and taking time out of your day to talk to me. You bet. Thank you so much, and you have a lovely day. Be sure to check back for our next cast member Spotlight. Now it's time for our tech takeaway. Jennifer Wenzel and Michael Dennis are here to talk about that recent patch update for the monarch and share how you can update your apps and what new feature was included in that update.

Michael Dennis 27:23

Hello everyone and welcome to our newest episode of the Tech Takeaways. My name is Michael Dennis.

Jennifer Wenzel 27:30

And I'm Jennifer Wenzel, and we have two exciting things to talk about today regarding the monarch. So I'm going to start by talking about the patch update, which came out on March 31st. Many of you may have already worked with this, but in case you haven't, we wanted to mention some important things. So, first of all, there is a little quirk with this update. When you are updating, if you have already installed the Flipover Concepts Lines, Flip Over Concepts Textures, and Wordstock apps, you will notice that the update will tell you that the package installation has failed. This is because these apps needed an extra security step, but in order to have that complete, they need to be uninstalled first and then reinstalled after the update works. So I'm going to tell you how to uninstall those apps. We'll use Flip Over Concepts Lines as an example. So I would start at the main menu. I would use F, the letter F, to go to Flip Over Concepts Lines, and I have to do it twice because files is the first thing that comes up. And actually, you would probably need to go to all applications first and then do the F and then another F. Now you are focused, your focus symbol, which is the all eight dots, needs to be next to Flip Over Concepts Lines, and you're going to use your recence button, that square button on the front of the monarch, and hold it for a few seconds. And this will bring up the context menu. You can also do this by using space with M. And you will be focused on open app info. And you want to use enter to select that. And then you have some different choices. And the you have it says navigate up. Well, it'll say app info at the top, and that's where your focus is. And then it has navigate up, flip over concept lines, open, and then uninstall. So you want to go to that uninstall button. You can use you to go to uninstall. That's the quickest way, or you can use your arrows, however, you'd like to get there. And then you would hit enter on that uninstall. And it's going to ask you to confirm that you want to do that. Do you want to uninstall this app? And you can hit OK. I'm going to hit cancel because I don't want to uninstall this app at the moment. But that is as simple as it is. You can do that for any of those that you have installed. Then you can run your update as normal. Now it may tell you if you have tried it and it has failed, it may tell you that all your apps are up to date. It's because that act of uninstalling the apps makes it so that that update can complete. If it does that, you can check your version by using space with I. That gives you your information about your tablet. And you can do that from your main menu. And when you do that, you can go to the very bottom using 456 with space, and that should give you your build number. And your build number should be Monarch V1.04.0050. And if it is, then you know your update has been completed successfully, and then you can reinstall your apps. And to do that, you go to the to all apps or all applications, go to key updater, and you go to install other apps. And then you can pick the ones that you want to install. And when you pick it, you you focus on the app, you hit enter, and then the very first choice is to download the app and you can install it. This does not take very long. This is not as long as like a full update, but for the whole process, I would uh I would make sure you have at least 45 minutes of time. It should not take you nearly that long, but you want to make sure you have a nice chunk of time just in case. So now I will pass it to Michael, who will tell you about an exciting new feature in Key Math that happened in this update.

Michael Dennis 31:37

Thanks, Jennifer. And the exciting new feature is actually something Jennifer and I were just talking about at a conference we had presented at. And it was the fact that the when you're in key math and you forgot a symbol, you had to look through the whole list of symbols. So you could use backspace 3.5 for the uh contraction I IN for insert symbol, or you you go to um space and h and then also navigate to insert symbol. And then you just got that whole list. And sometimes you were not sure which subcategory is actually the symbol under I was looking for. There was no search bar, how you may know it from the TGIL, where when you open it, you can just type in what you're looking for. Uh called the map of Europe, map of the US, map of South America. Whatever you want, you could just type in there, and it brought you right away to the right result. And Jennifer was just mentioning in our presentation that that would be a great feature, actually, also in key math, with all the symbols out there. And it's there now. That is the great new feature in key math. That when you hit now backspace um 3.5 or backspace and h and go to insert symbol, you have right on the top also that search bar. What do you need to think about? Or it only works when you're actually entering a new expression. So you open key math and you hit space and n for new new expression. And then you write something like five plus five and you forgot the equal sign. Then you can hit backspace revive and then type in the to the search bar equal and it will give you the sign. And the also cool thing is that uh it will do it in the language setting you have it in. So since the monarch supports UEB and Nemeth, depending on your uh setting, it will give you that symbol in UEB or Nemeth. You can choose it then, it will insert it for you, and you can continue your equation um as you needed it. So that is the very cool new feature in Key Math. Really helpful. I think Jennifer is super excited about it because she jinxed it actually to happen.

Jennifer Wenzel 34:06

I am. I don't think I had the power, but it was kind of fun to see it there. And it was not mentioned in the release notes. So I discovered it by accident recently, and I was surprised and excited to find that that was there. Some teachers had asked me about this long ago, I think in Michigan when I was doing a presentation. Like, why isn't there a search bar there? And I thought, you know, that'd be a great idea. And I'd passed it on and now it has appeared. So I'm pretty excited.

Michael Dennis 34:31

I actually also thought that multiple times as I was uh refreshing my braille math skills, and I didn't know really which subcategory do I find that now. So it's it's very helpful.

Jennifer Wenzel 34:44

It helps me if I need to do UEB math because I know my Nemeth pretty well, but I am not good at UEB math, so it's really helpful now that I can quickly search so I can more quickly do a UEB math equation.

Michael Dennis 34:56

And that is for us very important since we need to handle both.

Jennifer Wenzel 35:00

Exactly.

Michael Dennis 35:02

And that is actually the two new updates we have for you guys on the monarch for this episode. So go on your monarch and download the patch update and make sure that you uninstall the apps first, and then you can enjoy also that search bar in uh Key Math. And for today, my name is Michael Dennis.

Jennifer Wenzel 35:26

And my name is Jennifer Wenzel. And if you have requests for our tech takeaways, remember that you can email changemakers@aph.org. Have a great day.

Michael Dennis 35:37

Bye.

Sara Brown 35:39

Jennifer and Michael always have such cool information to share, and they'll be back next month for that Tech Takeaway. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Change Makers. I have put a link in the show note for anyone who wants to suggest a podcast topic or a Tech Takeaway idea. Just send that email to changemakers@ph.org. And thank you again for listening to this episode of Change Makers. As always, be sure to look for ways you can be a change maker this week.