February 2, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode of Investing in Accessibility, co-hosts Kelvin Crosby and Chris Maher speak with Steve Ewell, Executive Director of the CTA Foundation, about the evolution of technology in relation to accessibility and age tech. They explore Steve's background, the foundation's mission, the growth of accessibility at CES, and the importance of innovative startups in the disability space. The discussion also highlights the role of Samaritan Partners in supporting entrepreneurs serving the disability community, and the future plans for the CTA Foundation.
If you are looking for more information on the CTA Foundation:
CTA Foundation homepage: http://www.CTAFoundation.tech
- On this page there are links to some of their CES activities like:
- Eureka Park Accessibility Contest https://www.cta.tech/Who-We-Are/CTA-Foundation/Eureka-Park-Accessibility-Contest
- Health Innovation Challenge https://www.cta.tech/Who-We-Are/CTA-Foundation/Pitch-Competition/CTA-Innovation-Challenge-Digital-Health
- Pitch Competition https://www.cta.tech/Who-We-Are/CTA-Foundation/Pitch-Competition
- Shalam Award https://www.cta.tech/Who-We-Are/CTA-Foundation/Shalam-Award
CES homepage: https://www.ces.tech/
- Link to CES 2025 Accessibility Content:
COMING SOON!
American Sign Language (ASL) and Captioning for each episode will be provided on our YouTube channel. Go to handle @SamaritanPartners.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kelvin Crosby (00:06):
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 withentrepreneurs and thought
leaders that are focused oncreating a more accessible world
.
It's so good to see you.
(00:31):
Even though I can't see you,it's another beautiful day in
the neighborhood.
I'm Kelvin Crosby and I have myhost, Chris Maher.
How you doing, man?
Chris Maher (00:39):
Good Kelvin.
How are you, buddy?
Kelvin Crosby (00:41):
I'm doing great and I tell you, you just got
back from CES and you had ablast and you ran into somebody.
Chris Maher (00:50):
I did, I did.
I had the good fortune ofattending CES and the better
fortune of running into ourguest today, mr Steve Ewell, who
is the executive director ofthe CTA Foundation.
Kelvin Crosby (01:01):
Before we dive into that, I want to tell you
something about when I met himonce.
When I first met Steve, I wasworking for an assistive
technology training program andas a reward I got to go to CES
and check out the conference andthat's when I learned about
autonomous vehicles and howsmall the technology was.
I'm like could I put it in ablind cane.
(01:23):
And my boss introduced me toSteve while we were there and
said CTA funds some of ourprograms at our company, and
Steve and I got going on aconversation and I told him
about myself and about thisautonomous blind cane to allow
visually impaired individuals totravel more independently and
safely.
He's like Kelvin, that's aninteresting idea.
(01:43):
So I left CES, I went home andstarted building this idea.
In 40 days I built my firstprototype and I knew I was gonna
see Steve at a conference inSan Diego.
And I presented to him firstnot really autonomous blind cane
, but a cane that would help ablind individual navigate.
(02:07):
It had wires everywhere andSteve was like Kelvin, this is a
good proof of concept.
And I was like, yeah, I got, Igot an idea going.
Now the question is can Ireally build this out.
Well, if you haven't listenedto the first episode, the answer
is there.
So, go check out the firstepisode and let's go on with
(02:31):
today's show.
Chris Maher (02:32):
So yeah, so, kelvin , today we're talking with Steve
Ewell, and so Steve welcome.
Steve Ewell (02:37):
Thanks for having me.
I'm thrilled to be here andit's great to reconnect with
both of you and Chris, yeah, itwas amazing to see you at CES
this year.
Chris Maher (02:45):
Yeah, well, likewise, the feelings are
mutual, my friend, and the workthat you folks are doing, not
only at the CTA Foundation, butwhat you're doing specifically
at CES around accessibility andage tech and even like digital
health, is just phenomenal, andwe're going to get into that
today, and so we're going tokick things off first, Steve,
with we'd love for you to sharewith our audience, because maybe
(03:06):
there's probably maybe a fewpeople out there who aren't
familiar with your work, butjust kind of your background and
your relationship withdisability and kind of how you
came to the CTA Foundation.
What is it now?
13, 14 years ago?
Steve Ewell (03:19):
Yeah, so it just had my 13th anniversary at CTA
and was brought on as welaunched the CTA Foundation.
So, yeah, it's hard to believethat.
It's one of those things that Ican't believe it's been that
long and I can't believe it'sonly been that long.
So, yeah, it's a greatopportunity and great
organization.
I'll admit I did not come froman extreme background in the
(03:43):
disability and accessibilityspace.
I had spent my career beforethat kind of bouncing between
the technology world and thenonprofit world.
In fact, the last organizationI ran before this was a
public-private partnership withthe FBI around critical
infrastructure protection.
So very, very different issues.
But I had always been.
(04:06):
I'm a geek, I love technology,I love being able to engage with
new innovations and I had donesome work at a previous
organization working primarilywith wounded soldiers and
veterans and others along thoselines.
And then I've always I meanlike most people in the world
I've had friends and family andothers that have had, you know,
(04:30):
different disabilities.
So it's always been around me.
But I'll admit, when I wasbeing hired you know the last
interview.
The board had actually just hada meeting and decided on our
mission of focusing on twopopulations - the older adult
population and people withdisabilities.
And I had to go in there andsay "hat's great, I don't have
(04:52):
any experience with either ofthose, but I'll learn and
somehow I ended up in theposition as we launched the
foundation.
But yeah, and that goes intoessentially what the CTA
Foundation is is it's acharitable foundation that's
tied to a trade association.
So the Consumer TechnologyAssociation represents about
1,300 technology companies.
(05:15):
Those are, you know, the bigglobal brands that everyone
recognizes, but actually about80% of the members are small or
medium-sized businesses.
So that could be startups thatcould be, you know, the
installers that come and youknow we always think about the
high-end audio system or hometheater systems that people
might put in their home, butnowadays there's a lot actually
(05:37):
that they're doing around, youknow, age-friendly housing and
you know accessible housing andthings along those lines.
So, as I said, when we werestarting the foundation, we
wanted to give back on behalf ofthe industry and they looked
around and said, ok, what is thetechnology industry already
doing in philanthropy?
There's a lot of great workwith kids in STEM education.
(05:59):
We highly encourage that.
We think there needs to be more.
There's a lot of great work inthe environmental sustainability
space Once again think thereneeds to be more.
But we saw both the agingdemographic and the disability
community as two growingdemographics that honestly, at
especially that time 13 yearsago, were not getting a lot of
(06:21):
attention.
But we really felt liketechnology could make a big
difference in that space.
So you know, I was brought inand we stood up the foundation
and, yeah, we're a little bit ofthe still best kept secret
around CTA, but we're trying tochange that.
Kelvin Crosby (06:35):
Really interesting is the growth of 14
years of this process and how wecome from 14 years ago in the
technology to where we are forpeople with disabilities and the
elderly population, and I thinkfor me it's one of those like
wow, I really saw this assomething like for me as a
(06:57):
career.
I'm like I'm gonna go in the ATworld and really try to do be
successful in this.
It sounds like CTA had the sameidea about the same time that I
had my ideas, and so I'm likethis is interesting that this
all kind of came together.
Can you kind of tell us alittle bit like what was that
learning process, that as youstarted getting into it, that
(07:17):
you started realizing this issuper important and that it's
kind of an underservedpopulation in regards to
technology space?
Steve Ewell (07:27):
Yeah, absolutely, and you know that's one of the
things I was very careful aboutwhen I started with the
foundation is, I'll be honest,our industry, the technology
industry, maybe had a little bitof a reputation of showing up
and assuming we've got all theanswers.
And you know, what I wanted todo is make sure I learned what
was already ongoing.
(07:48):
You know what are some of thethings that have been tried in
the past and then really lookedat, you know, how can we help
advance this conversation?
So it was, you know, sometimesit felt like a very slow build
that we were able to do overthat course of many years, but
we really focused in on kind ofthree core pillars of what we're
(08:10):
able to do as a charitablefoundation.
One of which is convening, sowhether it is things like CES
where we can get together, youknow, I think, kelvin, you may
have actually attended anaccessibility roundtable that we
do at CES, where probably whenyou were there I'm guessing,
there were probably 30, 40people or so in the room.
(08:33):
We've since taken off the capon the number of people we let
in, and this year we had I had120 people check in and there
were a whole lot of peoplestanding around the side, so
we're still trying to get abetter lot of people standing
around the side, so we're stilltrying to get a better sense of
exactly how many are there, butthe importance there is, we had
representatives from thedisability community for many of
(08:53):
the advocacy organizations thatare working in this space, but
we also had representatives fromthe industry, both people who
are focused on accessibility,but also just people who wanted
to learn more about this space,and we were able to have a
really good conversation aroundboth the impact that AI is
having on the disability space,but also workforce
(09:15):
accommodations and what types oftechnologies are making a
difference in the workforce here.
So we're seeing we're seeing agrowing and growing, growing
level of interest there.
You know, the second area thatwe've really focused on is kind
of highlighting the innovatorsthat are doing work in this
space.
Part of that is to recognizethe companies that are doing
(09:37):
great work.
Part of it is also to be alittle bit of that carrot to
draw in the innovators that aretrying to come up with what
their idea is and when we cansay, hey, we can give you a
stage you know at you know, theworld's best tech event to talk
about your technology, If you'reable to talk about how your
(09:57):
product makes a difference inthe lives of either older adults
or people with disabilities.
You know that gets a lot ofpeople's attention.
So we started by having acompetition where every year,
you know, north American startupcompanies can compete for five
slots where we give away a boothto startups.
We give them a little bit offunding because we know it costs
(10:18):
money to be at CES for theweek, and we give them a good
amount of attention.
And you know that started as Iwanted to make sure there were
at least those five companiesthere talking about
accessibility at CES.
Now I don't have to worry aboutthat.
There's going to be a whole lotmore than those five.
Now we still do the competitionbecause I just love seeing the
companies that enter, but we'reseeing more and more
(10:42):
participants and we're seeing,you know, companies buying their
own booths and being at CES andshowcasing their technologies
there.
Then the last piece is ourfunding.
So, we're a fairly smallfoundation.
We give out about half amillion dollars a year in grants
, but we do support nonprofitsall over the country that are
using our industry's technologyto make a direct impact on the
(11:03):
lives of older adults or peoplewith disabilities.
So that's a way that we canreally help use some of our
industry's resources to make adifference in this space.
Chris Maher (11:14):
The work you folks are doing at CTA and CTA
Foundation is remarkable and Ithink something that you
mentioned that I think is socritical that I've learned now
being in the space for coming upon two years is the whole idea
of inclusion.
And you're right, this year'sroundtable on that Monday you
had over 120 people there.
(11:35):
The growth of that from severalyears ago is just remarkable
and I think a lot of that is acredit to you, Steve, and your
team.
And that whole approach ofinclusion, that's what
disability, assistivetechnologies, and disability
tech is all about, is startingoff with that inclusion and and
also inclusive design.
Let's talk specifically aboutCES, and I've experienced it the
(11:59):
last two years, and last yearwas phenomenal and this year it
seemed even bigger and better,and can you talk about that
trajectory of where it started,where it's gotten today, and
where you think it can go in thefuture in terms of the presence
at CES around accessibility andAge Tech?
And this year it seemed likeyou're also pulling in some
digital health, which touchesboth of those communities as
(12:20):
well.
Steve Ewell (12:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, digital health hasactually been one of the fastest
growing areas at CES forseveral years now.
I mean particularly driven, Ithink, by the pandemic, but also
just seeing the types ofinnovations that are, once again
, not necessarily in that space,just focused on accessibility,
(12:42):
but recognizing that thesetechnologies can make a really
positive impact on thedisability community.
So, that is, we are reallylooking at how we best engage
with the digital healthcommunity with all the various
both technology companies, butalso, you know, the payers and
(13:02):
others that have a role in thehealth system.
Beyond that, yeah, it's been.
You know something that everyyear, I you know, this is the
time of year where I come out ofit and say, wow, that was a
great show.
How am I possibly going to domore next year?
And I think my team's getting alittle worried about that as
well.
But the good news is we areseeing it's not just what we're
(13:24):
doing with the CTA Foundationanymore.
Now what I love is you go intothe central hall, which is where
some of the big giantcompanies, so the Samsungs, LGs,
Sonys and you walk into theirbooth now and they have an
entire section that's dedicatedto accessibility, and that was
not there years ago, or it wasjust kind of a tiny little piece
(13:47):
of the booth.
So, seeing that these companiesare highlighting it because
they recognize that this is anincredible market for them.
So, seeing those innovations weare absolutely working on how
do we create more content, soyou know whether it is.
We did more panels this yearthat are focused on
(14:07):
accessibility, and all those arelive and freely available on
the CES website.
If anyone's interested, you canjust search accessibility and
actually I think it'll show youall of this year's, it'll also
show you last year's and it mayeven go further back than that,
but you're able to see some ofthe conversations that we're
having, and that was everythingfrom engaging the community and
(14:29):
user design of products to we'reseeing the trend in retail of
self-service kiosks and talkingabout ways that some of these
companies are working to makethose kiosks more accessible.
So we had companies likeVispero, but also Verizon,
McDonald's, others like thatengaged in that conversation.
(14:49):
So I'm a big believer of youtake a lot of smart people and
you throw them in a room withsome problems and it's amazing
what can come out of that.
So, you know, the good thing iswe've got some problems to
solve and we haven't crackedthis.
I mean there's still a lot moreto do, but I'm optimistic.
I mean I'm seeing all theconversation around what
(15:11):
technologies people have foundat CES this year.
One of the other things we dois we do bring out some of the
leaders from different advocacyorganizations and have them walk
the show floor and we don'ttell them where to go or what
they need to see, butessentially what we ask is
afterwards, let us know, createsome piece of content talking
(15:31):
about what technologies youfound that would impact.
Whether you're focused on theblind, low vision community,
whether you're focused on thedeaf, the hard of hearing,
mobility, you know on and on.
You know what are the types oftechnologies that you found that
you think would be of interestto your, you know, the
population that you serve.
So that's something that I'malways excited for, because
(15:54):
that's not me saying this is animportant technology.
This is members of thecommunity saying what's
important for them, because, asyou know, in this space it's
nothing about us without us.
So if we don't have therepresentatives from the
disability community telling uswhat's important, we don't
really know for sure.
Chris Maher (16:12):
Yeah, for sure.
So, Steve, let's dig into acouple of the companies.
You gave some names around someof the large corporate presence
, but another thing you do anamazing job of is supporting
early stage startups who havereally innovative approaches to
solving problems arounddisability and age tech.
Are there two or threecompanies from this year that
really kind of stood out for you?
(16:34):
That got you excited?
Steve Ewell (16:36):
Yeah, so there's quite a few, but you know a
couple things that stood out forme.
One you know just a couple ofour winners this year at CES.
So one program that we hadactually it was a brand new
program we did this year wherewe had partnered with a couple
organizations that are focusedon the intellectual and
developmental disabilitycommunity.
They had done focus groupsthroughout the year, really
(17:00):
getting the impact or thefeedback from the community on
what are the challenges aroundhealth tech.
And then actually at CES wepartnered with Opportunity
Village, which is a nonprofit inLas Vegas focused on the IDD
community, so they brought anumber of their members to the
show.
(17:20):
We then had a number offinalist companies that we had
selected based on them listeningto the feedback from those
focus groups and basicallycoming to us with how they would
adjust their product.
We put them in a small room andhad them talk with the
community for a bit and thenthey had a chance to pitch.
And the company that actuallywalked away winning that
(17:43):
competition is a company calledOnScreen that has a really
interesting product using the TVas the interface.
And it's everything frommedication alerts and reminders
and they really came out of theage tech side of our mission.
But it was really interestingto see them engage with the
(18:04):
members of the IDD community andreally get very positive
feedback, and you know we seethat as now, okay, they're
opening up a new marketplace forthem.
That's going to help them as acompany, but ultimately as a
charitable foundation, what Icare about is that will make a
difference in the lives of thepeople we're trying to serve.
(18:24):
One of the other ones I'llhighlight is a company called
SignSpeak, which is.
We've had a couple differentcompanies over the years that
have done automated ASLtranslation.
What I liked about this one isit was bi-directional, so both
you could sign to the app andbasically it would then turn
(18:46):
that into English to talk tosomeone who can hear.
But then if you talk to the app, it had an avatar that would
then do sign language to theindividual.
So we were really excited tosee the work that they were
doing there and they were ableto both get a free booth through
our competition and they werealso actually the runner-up for
(19:09):
our pitch competition at CES.
So I was excited to see whatthey were able to do at the show
.
Chris Maher (19:14):
So one disclaimer for our audience.
I did not ask Steve to talkabout SignSpeak, but Samaritan
we're investors in SignSpeak,but just wanted to full
transparency.
I did not pay Steve money totalk about SignSpeak on our
episode today.
Kelvin Crosby (19:29):
I'll be sure about this.
Steve Ewell (19:30):
I realized halfway through talking about them, that
I'm not telling you anythingnew.
Chris Maher (19:35):
Well, it's good for our audience to hear.
You're right, they'retechnology.
They and Onscreen are bothdoing things around technology
that is helping to make peoplewith disabilities and or in the
aging population to live moreindependent and autonomous lives
, which is wonderful.
Kelvin Crosby (19:53):
So I want to ask you a question, Steve, as you
have been in this space.
I'm curious, as you got to knowChris and the firm, what do you
think about Samaritan Partnersand how do you see Samaritan
Partners being an impact forentrepreneurs that are
(20:15):
developing products andinnovation for people with
disabilities?
Chris Maher (20:21):
Thanks for the plug there, Kelvin.
Steve Ewell (20:25):
Well, you assume I'm going to have a positive
answer.
No, of course.
Kelvin Crosby (20:28):
I get the power of edit.
That's the beauty.
Steve Ewell (20:32):
Now, I think Samaritan Partners plays a
really important role in thisspace because one of the
challenges and, Kelvin, I knowyou've talked about this, one of
the challenges that I hear fromall of the startups we work
with is who do they go to forcapital?
Finding funding for a startupis not easy in general.
Finding funding when you'refocused on the disability
(20:55):
community can be even you knowon the disability community can
be even, you know, a higherlevel of challenge.
So being able to, you know,that's always the question I get
is okay, who do I go to?
Who do I talk to?
And, believe me, I don't want tothrow everyone towards Chris
that comes to me because youknow, I know there's limited
(21:16):
dollars, but you know, havingsomeone who is showing that
these investments matter and asyou're able to showcase the
returns on those investments andsee those companies continue to
grow that you all are investingin, that's going to build the
market up and open otherinvestors into saying, ok, I see
(21:37):
that there's a positive returnthere, because, ultimately, the
investors are focused on how dothey return to their investors
as much capital as they can, andthey may very well be in
alignment on mission of yeah, wewant to make a difference in
people's lives, but they alsohave to be on the hook to return
what returns they can to theirinvestors.
(22:00):
So I think being a showcase ofyou can do good and do well at
the same time is reallyimportant yeah.
Chris Maher (22:07):
I think it's really well said, kind of as we wrap
up here, Steve, this has been agreat conversation.
I know we could go on for avery long time, but, as we wrap
up, what's on the horizon forthe CTA Foundation in 2025 and
beyond and anything that you'dlike to share with us in the
audience about some of theexciting stuff kind of coming
down the pike.
Steve Ewell (22:25):
Yeah, so 2025, I think, is going to be a great
year for the CTA Foundation,obviously kicking it off with
CES.
But we're in the middle oflooking at our grants, so that's
the programs that we're able tofund as far as nonprofits.
So I immediately leave CES andI have a big pile of grants to
start reading through, but Iknow there's some really
(22:46):
interesting programs there thatwe're going to be able to
support this year.
We're also looking at takingsome of the programs that we do
at CES and figuring out how wecan do those in other parts of
the country.
So this past two years, we'vedone a couple smaller events in
the DC area, but what I want todo is start bringing that out to
other parts of the country,having these conversations
(23:07):
between the industry, betweenthe disability community,
because we really need to expandwho's part of these
conversations as much aspossible.
So I expect you'll see a lotmore for us related to that
throughout the year.
Kelvin Crosby (23:22):
Steve, if people wanted to donate to the
foundation, how would they dothat?
Steve Ewell (23:26):
So they can go to ctafoundationtech.
It's dot T-E-C-H and that willtake them to our webpage.
There's a big donate buttonright near the top of that.
That should be fully accessible.
But also, if people areinterested in seeing the types
of organizations that we support, the other programs that we run
(23:48):
would absolutely encouragepeople to take a look at that.
The other nice thing is,because we're tied to a trade
association, people's donationsthey're actually not paying for
me to be here.
CTA pays for me to be here.
It means we're able to take anydonations and turn it around
into more grants and moreprograms that we can do
throughout the year.
But yeah, I really appreciateyou asking that question.
(24:11):
As any nonprofit, we're alwaysout there, you know, trying to
drum up the dollars.
Kelvin Crosby (24:16):
Yep.
Chris Maher (24:17):
And we'll and Kelvin this is the first time I
get to say this.
We'll put that in the shownotes, folks.
Kelvin Crosby (24:23):
Yep, it'll be in the show notes.
And also just know that we'redoing some new things and you
know what's interesting, as wetalked about SignSpeak, you know
who's going to be making ourpodcast accessible to people who
are deaf and deafblind -SignSpeak.
So if you want to find that,you're going to find that at
(24:45):
YouTube, at Samaritan Partnersor type in "investing in
accessibility, and you will findit right there, with all of our
shows, all in ASL.
So you got anything.
Last thing that you would liketo say, chris.
Chris Maher (25:01):
I would just like to thank Steve.
You're the best my friend.
Thank you for coming on andsharing with us and you've
you've been a great friend andadvisor and partner to me and
Samaritan as we've gotten thisfund off the ground.
So just thank you so much forthat and looking forward to
working with you even more inthe future.
Steve Ewell (25:18):
Well, thank you for having me, it's great to
connect with you, and thank youfor calling attention to these
important issues.
Launching this podcast, I think, is a great way to move this
conversation forward.
Kelvin Crosby (25:29):
So that wraps up Investing in Accessibility and
we'll see you guys in two weeks.
Like I always say, go livebeyond your challenges.
Thank you for listening toInvesting in Accessibility, a
Samaritan Partners podcast wherewe invest in change, for
accessibility, not wait forchange.
(25:50):
If you want to follow us, youcan find us on YouTube or
LinkedIn at Samaritan Partners.
If you would like to invest inSamaritan Partners, email chris
at samaritanpartners.
com.
If you'd like to learn moreabout us, go to www.
samaritanpartners.
com.
You can take the first step ininvesting in change by giving us
(26:11):
five stars and sharing thispodcast with everybody that you
know, so we can spread the word,so that we can give access to
all, by Investing inAccessibility.
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 withentrepreneurs and thought
leaders that are focused oncreating a more accessible world
.
It's so good to see you.
(00:31):
Even though I can't see you,it's another beautiful day in
the neighborhood.
I'm Kelvin Crosby and I have myhost, Chris Maher.
How you doing, man?
Chris Maher (00:39):
Good Kelvin.
How are you, buddy?
Kelvin Crosby (00:41):
I'm doing great and I tell you, you just got
back from CES and you had ablast and you ran into somebody.
Chris Maher (00:50):
I did, I did.
I had the good fortune ofattending CES and the better
fortune of running into ourguest today, mr Steve Ewell, who
is the executive director ofthe CTA Foundation.
Kelvin Crosby (01:01):
Before we dive into that, I want to tell you
something about when I met himonce.
When I first met Steve, I wasworking for an assistive
technology training program andas a reward I got to go to CES
and check out the conference andthat's when I learned about
autonomous vehicles and howsmall the technology was.
I'm like could I put it in ablind cane.
(01:23):
And my boss introduced me toSteve while we were there and
said CTA funds some of ourprograms at our company, and
Steve and I got going on aconversation and I told him
about myself and about thisautonomous blind cane to allow
visually impaired individuals totravel more independently and
safely.
He's like Kelvin, that's aninteresting idea.
(01:43):
So I left CES, I went home andstarted building this idea.
In 40 days I built my firstprototype and I knew I was gonna
see Steve at a conference inSan Diego.
And I presented to him firstnot really autonomous blind cane
, but a cane that would help ablind individual navigate.
(02:07):
It had wires everywhere andSteve was like Kelvin, this is a
good proof of concept.
And I was like, yeah, I got, Igot an idea going.
Now the question is can Ireally build this out.
Well, if you haven't listenedto the first episode, the answer
is there.
So, go check out the firstepisode and let's go on with
(02:31):
today's show.
Chris Maher (02:32):
So yeah, so, kelvin , today we're talking with Steve
Ewell, and so Steve welcome.
Steve Ewell (02:37):
Thanks for having me.
I'm thrilled to be here andit's great to reconnect with
both of you and Chris, yeah, itwas amazing to see you at CES
this year.
Chris Maher (02:45):
Yeah, well, likewise, the feelings are
mutual, my friend, and the workthat you folks are doing, not
only at the CTA Foundation, butwhat you're doing specifically
at CES around accessibility andage tech and even like digital
health, is just phenomenal, andwe're going to get into that
today, and so we're going tokick things off first, Steve,
with we'd love for you to sharewith our audience, because maybe
(03:06):
there's probably maybe a fewpeople out there who aren't
familiar with your work, butjust kind of your background and
your relationship withdisability and kind of how you
came to the CTA Foundation.
What is it now?
13, 14 years ago?
Steve Ewell (03:19):
Yeah, so it just had my 13th anniversary at CTA
and was brought on as welaunched the CTA Foundation.
So, yeah, it's hard to believethat.
It's one of those things that Ican't believe it's been that
long and I can't believe it'sonly been that long.
So, yeah, it's a greatopportunity and great
organization.
I'll admit I did not come froman extreme background in the
(03:43):
disability and accessibilityspace.
I had spent my career beforethat kind of bouncing between
the technology world and thenonprofit world.
In fact, the last organizationI ran before this was a
public-private partnership withthe FBI around critical
infrastructure protection.
So very, very different issues.
But I had always been.
(04:06):
I'm a geek, I love technology,I love being able to engage with
new innovations and I had donesome work at a previous
organization working primarilywith wounded soldiers and
veterans and others along thoselines.
And then I've always I meanlike most people in the world
I've had friends and family andothers that have had, you know,
(04:30):
different disabilities.
So it's always been around me.
But I'll admit, when I wasbeing hired you know the last
interview.
The board had actually just hada meeting and decided on our
mission of focusing on twopopulations - the older adult
population and people withdisabilities.
And I had to go in there andsay "hat's great, I don't have
(04:52):
any experience with either ofthose, but I'll learn and
somehow I ended up in theposition as we launched the
foundation.
But yeah, and that goes intoessentially what the CTA
Foundation is is it's acharitable foundation that's
tied to a trade association.
So the Consumer TechnologyAssociation represents about
1,300 technology companies.
(05:15):
Those are, you know, the bigglobal brands that everyone
recognizes, but actually about80% of the members are small or
medium-sized businesses.
So that could be startups thatcould be, you know, the
installers that come and youknow we always think about the
high-end audio system or hometheater systems that people
might put in their home, butnowadays there's a lot actually
(05:37):
that they're doing around, youknow, age-friendly housing and
you know accessible housing andthings along those lines.
So, as I said, when we werestarting the foundation, we
wanted to give back on behalf ofthe industry and they looked
around and said, ok, what is thetechnology industry already
doing in philanthropy?
There's a lot of great workwith kids in STEM education.
(05:59):
We highly encourage that.
We think there needs to be more.
There's a lot of great work inthe environmental sustainability
space Once again think thereneeds to be more.
But we saw both the agingdemographic and the disability
community as two growingdemographics that honestly, at
especially that time 13 yearsago, were not getting a lot of
(06:21):
attention.
But we really felt liketechnology could make a big
difference in that space.
So you know, I was brought inand we stood up the foundation
and, yeah, we're a little bit ofthe still best kept secret
around CTA, but we're trying tochange that.
Kelvin Crosby (06:35):
Really interesting is the growth of 14
years of this process and how wecome from 14 years ago in the
technology to where we are forpeople with disabilities and the
elderly population, and I thinkfor me it's one of those like
wow, I really saw this assomething like for me as a
(06:57):
career.
I'm like I'm gonna go in the ATworld and really try to do be
successful in this.
It sounds like CTA had the sameidea about the same time that I
had my ideas, and so I'm likethis is interesting that this
all kind of came together.
Can you kind of tell us alittle bit like what was that
learning process, that as youstarted getting into it, that
(07:17):
you started realizing this issuper important and that it's
kind of an underservedpopulation in regards to
technology space?
Steve Ewell (07:27):
Yeah, absolutely, and you know that's one of the
things I was very careful aboutwhen I started with the
foundation is, I'll be honest,our industry, the technology
industry, maybe had a little bitof a reputation of showing up
and assuming we've got all theanswers.
And you know, what I wanted todo is make sure I learned what
was already ongoing.
(07:48):
You know what are some of thethings that have been tried in
the past and then really lookedat, you know, how can we help
advance this conversation?
So it was, you know, sometimesit felt like a very slow build
that we were able to do overthat course of many years, but
we really focused in on kind ofthree core pillars of what we're
(08:10):
able to do as a charitablefoundation.
One of which is convening, sowhether it is things like CES
where we can get together, youknow, I think, kelvin, you may
have actually attended anaccessibility roundtable that we
do at CES, where probably whenyou were there I'm guessing,
there were probably 30, 40people or so in the room.
(08:33):
We've since taken off the capon the number of people we let
in, and this year we had I had120 people check in and there
were a whole lot of peoplestanding around the side, so
we're still trying to get abetter lot of people standing
around the side, so we're stilltrying to get a better sense of
exactly how many are there, butthe importance there is, we had
representatives from thedisability community for many of
(08:53):
the advocacy organizations thatare working in this space, but
we also had representatives fromthe industry, both people who
are focused on accessibility,but also just people who wanted
to learn more about this space,and we were able to have a
really good conversation aroundboth the impact that AI is
having on the disability space,but also workforce
(09:15):
accommodations and what types oftechnologies are making a
difference in the workforce here.
So we're seeing we're seeing agrowing and growing, growing
level of interest there.
You know, the second area thatwe've really focused on is kind
of highlighting the innovatorsthat are doing work in this
space.
Part of that is to recognizethe companies that are doing
(09:37):
great work.
Part of it is also to be alittle bit of that carrot to
draw in the innovators that aretrying to come up with what
their idea is and when we cansay, hey, we can give you a
stage you know at you know, theworld's best tech event to talk
about your technology, If you'reable to talk about how your
(09:57):
product makes a difference inthe lives of either older adults
or people with disabilities.
You know that gets a lot ofpeople's attention.
So we started by having acompetition where every year,
you know, north American startupcompanies can compete for five
slots where we give away a boothto startups.
We give them a little bit offunding because we know it costs
(10:18):
money to be at CES for theweek, and we give them a good
amount of attention.
And you know that started as Iwanted to make sure there were
at least those five companiesthere talking about
accessibility at CES.
Now I don't have to worry aboutthat.
There's going to be a whole lotmore than those five.
Now we still do the competitionbecause I just love seeing the
companies that enter, but we'reseeing more and more
(10:42):
participants and we're seeing,you know, companies buying their
own booths and being at CES andshowcasing their technologies
there.
Then the last piece is ourfunding.
So, we're a fairly smallfoundation.
We give out about half amillion dollars a year in grants
, but we do support nonprofitsall over the country that are
using our industry's technologyto make a direct impact on the
(11:03):
lives of older adults or peoplewith disabilities.
So that's a way that we canreally help use some of our
industry's resources to make adifference in this space.
Chris Maher (11:14):
The work you folks are doing at CTA and CTA
Foundation is remarkable and Ithink something that you
mentioned that I think is socritical that I've learned now
being in the space for coming upon two years is the whole idea
of inclusion.
And you're right, this year'sroundtable on that Monday you
had over 120 people there.
(11:35):
The growth of that from severalyears ago is just remarkable
and I think a lot of that is acredit to you, Steve, and your
team.
And that whole approach ofinclusion, that's what
disability, assistivetechnologies, and disability
tech is all about, is startingoff with that inclusion and and
also inclusive design.
Let's talk specifically aboutCES, and I've experienced it the
(11:59):
last two years, and last yearwas phenomenal and this year it
seemed even bigger and better,and can you talk about that
trajectory of where it started,where it's gotten today, and
where you think it can go in thefuture in terms of the presence
at CES around accessibility andAge Tech?
And this year it seemed likeyou're also pulling in some
digital health, which touchesboth of those communities as
(12:20):
well.
Steve Ewell (12:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, digital health hasactually been one of the fastest
growing areas at CES forseveral years now.
I mean particularly driven, Ithink, by the pandemic, but also
just seeing the types ofinnovations that are, once again
, not necessarily in that space,just focused on accessibility,
(12:42):
but recognizing that thesetechnologies can make a really
positive impact on thedisability community.
So, that is, we are reallylooking at how we best engage
with the digital healthcommunity with all the various
both technology companies, butalso, you know, the payers and
(13:02):
others that have a role in thehealth system.
Beyond that, yeah, it's been.
You know something that everyyear, I you know, this is the
time of year where I come out ofit and say, wow, that was a
great show.
How am I possibly going to domore next year?
And I think my team's getting alittle worried about that as
well.
But the good news is we areseeing it's not just what we're
(13:24):
doing with the CTA Foundationanymore.
Now what I love is you go intothe central hall, which is where
some of the big giantcompanies, so the Samsungs, LGs,
Sonys and you walk into theirbooth now and they have an
entire section that's dedicatedto accessibility, and that was
not there years ago, or it wasjust kind of a tiny little piece
(13:47):
of the booth.
So, seeing that these companiesare highlighting it because
they recognize that this is anincredible market for them.
So, seeing those innovations weare absolutely working on how
do we create more content, soyou know whether it is.
We did more panels this yearthat are focused on
(14:07):
accessibility, and all those arelive and freely available on
the CES website.
If anyone's interested, you canjust search accessibility and
actually I think it'll show youall of this year's, it'll also
show you last year's and it mayeven go further back than that,
but you're able to see some ofthe conversations that we're
having, and that was everythingfrom engaging the community and
(14:29):
user design of products to we'reseeing the trend in retail of
self-service kiosks and talkingabout ways that some of these
companies are working to makethose kiosks more accessible.
So we had companies likeVispero, but also Verizon,
McDonald's, others like thatengaged in that conversation.
(14:49):
So I'm a big believer of youtake a lot of smart people and
you throw them in a room withsome problems and it's amazing
what can come out of that.
So, you know, the good thing iswe've got some problems to
solve and we haven't crackedthis.
I mean there's still a lot moreto do, but I'm optimistic.
I mean I'm seeing all theconversation around what
(15:11):
technologies people have foundat CES this year.
One of the other things we dois we do bring out some of the
leaders from different advocacyorganizations and have them walk
the show floor and we don'ttell them where to go or what
they need to see, butessentially what we ask is
afterwards, let us know, createsome piece of content talking
(15:31):
about what technologies youfound that would impact.
Whether you're focused on theblind, low vision community,
whether you're focused on thedeaf, the hard of hearing,
mobility, you know on and on.
You know what are the types oftechnologies that you found that
you think would be of interestto your, you know, the
population that you serve.
So that's something that I'malways excited for, because
(15:54):
that's not me saying this is animportant technology.
This is members of thecommunity saying what's
important for them, because, asyou know, in this space it's
nothing about us without us.
So if we don't have therepresentatives from the
disability community telling uswhat's important, we don't
really know for sure.
Chris Maher (16:12):
Yeah, for sure.
So, Steve, let's dig into acouple of the companies.
You gave some names around someof the large corporate presence
, but another thing you do anamazing job of is supporting
early stage startups who havereally innovative approaches to
solving problems arounddisability and age tech.
Are there two or threecompanies from this year that
really kind of stood out for you?
(16:34):
That got you excited?
Steve Ewell (16:36):
Yeah, so there's quite a few, but you know a
couple things that stood out forme.
One you know just a couple ofour winners this year at CES.
So one program that we hadactually it was a brand new
program we did this year wherewe had partnered with a couple
organizations that are focusedon the intellectual and
developmental disabilitycommunity.
They had done focus groupsthroughout the year, really
(17:00):
getting the impact or thefeedback from the community on
what are the challenges aroundhealth tech.
And then actually at CES wepartnered with Opportunity
Village, which is a nonprofit inLas Vegas focused on the IDD
community, so they brought anumber of their members to the
show.
(17:20):
We then had a number offinalist companies that we had
selected based on them listeningto the feedback from those
focus groups and basicallycoming to us with how they would
adjust their product.
We put them in a small room andhad them talk with the
community for a bit and thenthey had a chance to pitch.
And the company that actuallywalked away winning that
(17:43):
competition is a company calledOnScreen that has a really
interesting product using the TVas the interface.
And it's everything frommedication alerts and reminders
and they really came out of theage tech side of our mission.
But it was really interestingto see them engage with the
(18:04):
members of the IDD community andreally get very positive
feedback, and you know we seethat as now, okay, they're
opening up a new marketplace forthem.
That's going to help them as acompany, but ultimately as a
charitable foundation, what Icare about is that will make a
difference in the lives of thepeople we're trying to serve.
(18:24):
One of the other ones I'llhighlight is a company called
SignSpeak, which is.
We've had a couple differentcompanies over the years that
have done automated ASLtranslation.
What I liked about this one isit was bi-directional, so both
you could sign to the app andbasically it would then turn
(18:46):
that into English to talk tosomeone who can hear.
But then if you talk to the app, it had an avatar that would
then do sign language to theindividual.
So we were really excited tosee the work that they were
doing there and they were ableto both get a free booth through
our competition and they werealso actually the runner-up for
(19:09):
our pitch competition at CES.
So I was excited to see whatthey were able to do at the show
.
Chris Maher (19:14):
So one disclaimer for our audience.
I did not ask Steve to talkabout SignSpeak, but Samaritan
we're investors in SignSpeak,but just wanted to full
transparency.
I did not pay Steve money totalk about SignSpeak on our
episode today.
Kelvin Crosby (19:29):
I'll be sure about this.
Steve Ewell (19:30):
I realized halfway through talking about them, that
I'm not telling you anythingnew.
Chris Maher (19:35):
Well, it's good for our audience to hear.
You're right, they'retechnology.
They and Onscreen are bothdoing things around technology
that is helping to make peoplewith disabilities and or in the
aging population to live moreindependent and autonomous lives
, which is wonderful.
Kelvin Crosby (19:53):
So I want to ask you a question, Steve, as you
have been in this space.
I'm curious, as you got to knowChris and the firm, what do you
think about Samaritan Partnersand how do you see Samaritan
Partners being an impact forentrepreneurs that are
(20:15):
developing products andinnovation for people with
disabilities?
Chris Maher (20:21):
Thanks for the plug there, Kelvin.
Steve Ewell (20:25):
Well, you assume I'm going to have a positive
answer.
No, of course.
Kelvin Crosby (20:28):
I get the power of edit.
That's the beauty.
Steve Ewell (20:32):
Now, I think Samaritan Partners plays a
really important role in thisspace because one of the
challenges and, Kelvin, I knowyou've talked about this, one of
the challenges that I hear fromall of the startups we work
with is who do they go to forcapital?
Finding funding for a startupis not easy in general.
Finding funding when you'refocused on the disability
(20:55):
community can be even you knowon the disability community can
be even, you know, a higherlevel of challenge.
So being able to, you know,that's always the question I get
is okay, who do I go to?
Who do I talk to?
And, believe me, I don't want tothrow everyone towards Chris
that comes to me because youknow, I know there's limited
(21:16):
dollars, but you know, havingsomeone who is showing that
these investments matter and asyou're able to showcase the
returns on those investments andsee those companies continue to
grow that you all are investingin, that's going to build the
market up and open otherinvestors into saying, ok, I see
(21:37):
that there's a positive returnthere, because, ultimately, the
investors are focused on how dothey return to their investors
as much capital as they can, andthey may very well be in
alignment on mission of yeah, wewant to make a difference in
people's lives, but they alsohave to be on the hook to return
what returns they can to theirinvestors.
(22:00):
So I think being a showcase ofyou can do good and do well at
the same time is reallyimportant yeah.
Chris Maher (22:07):
I think it's really well said, kind of as we wrap
up here, Steve, this has been agreat conversation.
I know we could go on for avery long time, but, as we wrap
up, what's on the horizon forthe CTA Foundation in 2025 and
beyond and anything that you'dlike to share with us in the
audience about some of theexciting stuff kind of coming
down the pike.
Steve Ewell (22:25):
Yeah, so 2025, I think, is going to be a great
year for the CTA Foundation,obviously kicking it off with
CES.
But we're in the middle oflooking at our grants, so that's
the programs that we're able tofund as far as nonprofits.
So I immediately leave CES andI have a big pile of grants to
start reading through, but Iknow there's some really
(22:46):
interesting programs there thatwe're going to be able to
support this year.
We're also looking at takingsome of the programs that we do
at CES and figuring out how wecan do those in other parts of
the country.
So this past two years, we'vedone a couple smaller events in
the DC area, but what I want todo is start bringing that out to
other parts of the country,having these conversations
(23:07):
between the industry, betweenthe disability community,
because we really need to expandwho's part of these
conversations as much aspossible.
So I expect you'll see a lotmore for us related to that
throughout the year.
Kelvin Crosby (23:22):
Steve, if people wanted to donate to the
foundation, how would they dothat?
Steve Ewell (23:26):
So they can go to ctafoundationtech.
It's dot T-E-C-H and that willtake them to our webpage.
There's a big donate buttonright near the top of that.
That should be fully accessible.
But also, if people areinterested in seeing the types
of organizations that we support, the other programs that we run
(23:48):
would absolutely encouragepeople to take a look at that.
The other nice thing is,because we're tied to a trade
association, people's donationsthey're actually not paying for
me to be here.
CTA pays for me to be here.
It means we're able to take anydonations and turn it around
into more grants and moreprograms that we can do
throughout the year.
But yeah, I really appreciateyou asking that question.
(24:11):
As any nonprofit, we're alwaysout there, you know, trying to
drum up the dollars.
Kelvin Crosby (24:16):
Yep.
Chris Maher (24:17):
And we'll and Kelvin this is the first time I
get to say this.
We'll put that in the shownotes, folks.
Kelvin Crosby (24:23):
Yep, it'll be in the show notes.
And also just know that we'redoing some new things and you
know what's interesting, as wetalked about SignSpeak, you know
who's going to be making ourpodcast accessible to people who
are deaf and deafblind -SignSpeak.
So if you want to find that,you're going to find that at
(24:45):
YouTube, at Samaritan Partnersor type in "investing in
accessibility, and you will findit right there, with all of our
shows, all in ASL.
So you got anything.
Last thing that you would liketo say, chris.
Chris Maher (25:01):
I would just like to thank Steve.
You're the best my friend.
Thank you for coming on andsharing with us and you've
you've been a great friend andadvisor and partner to me and
Samaritan as we've gotten thisfund off the ground.
So just thank you so much forthat and looking forward to
working with you even more inthe future.
Steve Ewell (25:18):
Well, thank you for having me, it's great to
connect with you, and thank youfor calling attention to these
important issues.
Launching this podcast, I think, is a great way to move this
conversation forward.
Kelvin Crosby (25:29):
So that wraps up Investing in Accessibility and
we'll see you guys in two weeks.
Like I always say, go livebeyond your challenges.
Thank you for listening toInvesting in Accessibility, a
Samaritan Partners podcast wherewe invest in change, for
accessibility, not wait forchange.
(25:50):
If you want to follow us, youcan find us on YouTube or
LinkedIn at Samaritan Partners.
If you would like to invest inSamaritan Partners, email chris
at samaritanpartners.
com.
If you'd like to learn moreabout us, go to www.
samaritanpartners.
com.
You can take the first step ininvesting in change by giving us
(26:11):
five stars and sharing thispodcast with everybody that you
know, so we can spread the word,so that we can give access to
all, by Investing inAccessibility.
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