The title of this Tech Doctor podcast episode is:
"iBUG Today: Empowering the Blind through Accessible Technology Training"

After greeting Allison, the co-host of the podcast, Robert explains that the topic of this podcast is the Houston based organization called iBUG Today. He then introduces Michael McCulloch, the founder and president of iBUG Today, and asks Michael to tell the Tech Doctor listeners about himself.

Michael shares his background as a retired NASA engineer who worked for 35 years at the Johnson Space Center, first on the Space Shuttle program and then the International Space Station program. He discusses his personal experience with glaucoma, which led to his legal blindness in 2006.

The group briefly discusses the recent Artemis mission launch. Michael describes a virtual launch watch party that took place in the iBUG Zoom meeting room.

Next, Robert asks Sandhya Rao, vice president of iBUG, to introduce herself.

Sandhya shares her personal background, including growing up in Houston with a rare brittle bone condition that required multiple surgeries and metal implants, resulting in a loss of vision and the need to learn Braille. She discusses her education at Rice University and Stanford Law School, followed by a 31-year career with the federal government working as a legal researcher and writer.

 The group then began discussing how to introduce the iBUG community to Tech Doctor listeners, with Robert suggesting it could be described as a vibrant online community focused on technology training and social events.

Before telling us about the creation of iBUG, Michael tells us that when he got his first accessible iPhone in 2010, he could not find anyone in Houston who could teach him to use VoiceOver. He started experimenting and taught himself. By 2011, Michael had learned to do much more with his iPhone using VoiceOver than could be done by a blind person using a flip phone.

Michael held a workshop at the University of Houston where he demonstrated what he could do with the iPhone. This was exciting enough for the workshop participants that they decided to create a blind iPhone users group which we now know as iBUG Today.

Sandhya recalls attending that initial workshop and being inspired by Michael's demonstrations, which led her to eventually get her own iPhone in 2011.

Michael describes how the group secured a meeting space in a state-of-the-art conference room at Houston's largest Apple store in 2012. Apple's conference room enabled both in-person and call-in participants to join the meetings. As Apple became aware of these meetings, it began to spread the word to its blind iPhone customers. Over time, call-in participants began to out number in-person attendees. With the creation of a website in the summer of 2012, iBUG continued to have more and more people calling in to participate in the meetings.

Sandhya and Michael emphasize how the initial meetings were focused on addressing basic questions from participants who were all learning together, creating a supportive environment for shared problem-solving.

iBUG transitioned completely to virtual meetings during the COVID pandemic. They adopted Zoom as their meeting platform and participation continued to increase.

Allison then explains that she has heard of iBUG but that she is not familiar with exactly what iBUG has to offer.

Michael and Sandhya next describe the various meetings that are held in the iBUG Zoom meeting room. The meetings that are discussed include the monthly flagship Apple Workshop, weekly Buzz calls for Q&A and help sessions, monthly iBUG Cafe for deep dives into specific apps, and Mac and Android support sessions. The organization also offers a one-on-one mentoring program to teach new iPhone owners how to use VoiceOver to operate their iPhone without vision. iBUG offers a virtual class for people who want to learn to use the Mac with VoiceOver. This is a 12 week class that is offered in the fall and again in the spring.

Sandhya emphasizes how the community fosters real-time problem-solving and peer learning, while Michael highlights the importance of volunteers in making the organization's services possible.

In addition to the technology training, iBUG offers a variety of social and educational activities each month. Some examples are the book club and movie night, and skill-building workshops on independent living. Sandhya and Michael highlight the organization's growth over 15 years, reaching approximately 6,500-7,000 people annually, and emphasize the importance of community engagement and volunteer involvement. The discussion concludes with information about accessing iBUG events through the ibugtoday.org website, which offers recordings of question and answer sessions, a complete calendar of events and many other helpful resources.