Everyone wants to find a place in the world but for the deaf and hard of hearing - accessibility can be a challenge. Now Comcast is the first telecommunications retailer in the country to offer live, on-demand, remote ASL interpreting services in stores to better serve customers. I speak to Comcast VP of Accessibility Tom Wlodkowski who explains the service and also his personal connection to the issue of accessibility.
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/asl-help-videos
Comcast Launches Live ALS Interpreting Services in the Greater Philadephia Xfinity Store Locations
Library of Congress Veterans History Project’s mission to collect, preserve and make accessible the first-person remembrances of United States military veterans for future generations. VHP is actively seeking Korean War veterans ’recorded oral history interviews, original photographs, letters and other correspondence to be archived and made accessible for future generations. I speak to Monica Mohindra, Director of the Veterans History Project (VHP) of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
How to Participate
First I speak to Lois Bower-Bjornson about A new poll released by EDF Action, Earthworks Action Fund, Sierra Club, and CATF Action finds that a strong majority voters in Pennsylvania, a political battleground and oil and gas producing state, support the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) efforts to take swift action to limit methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/asl-help-videos
Comcast Launches Live ALS Interpreting Services in the Greater Philadephia Xfinity Store Locations
Library of Congress Veterans History Project’s mission to collect, preserve and make accessible the first-person remembrances of United States military veterans for future generations. VHP is actively seeking Korean War veterans ’recorded oral history interviews, original photographs, letters and other correspondence to be archived and made accessible for future generations. I speak to Monica Mohindra, Director of the Veterans History Project (VHP) of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
How to Participate
First I speak to Lois Bower-Bjornson about A new poll released by EDF Action, Earthworks Action Fund, Sierra Club, and CATF Action finds that a strong majority voters in Pennsylvania, a political battleground and oil and gas producing state, support the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) efforts to take swift action to limit methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Good morning, Welcome to What's goingon? A show about making a difference
in our lives and our communities.I'm Lorraine ballotmorl. Everyone wants to find
a place in the world, butfor the death and heart of hearing,
accessibility can be a challenge. NowComcast is the first telecommunication retailer in the
country to offer live on demand remoteASL interpreting services in stores to better serve
(00:28):
customers. As we approach Veterans Day, we re air an interview about the
Veterans History Project, which is activelyseeking Korean War veterans recorded oral history interviews,
original photographs, letters, and othercorrespondents to be archived and made accessible
for future generations. But first,when it comes to the climate, there
(00:50):
is a lot of urgency these daysabout making sure that we are more aware
of what our role is in impactingclimate change. Joining us right now now
is Lois Bauer Bjornsen. She isSouthwest Pennsylvania field organizer with the Clean Air
Council. She's here to tell usabout findings that have to do with people's
attitude towards methane gas and what doesthis mean for all of us. Thank
(01:14):
you so much for joining us heretoday, and before we get into what
people think about methane gas, let'stalk about the impact of methane gas on
our environment. Tell us more methanegas. To answer your question, is
climate changing gas. It is carbondioxide on steroids. It's eighty times more
potent than carbon dioxide, so thereforeit exacerbates climate change at a much higher
(01:38):
rate. And what does that meanexactly? Most of us are familiar with
climate change, and most of usdo not want to stop existing on our
climate. So an order are existingon the Earth zone order to combat climate
change. It is really best tocat methane from the oil and gas industry
and to keep those emissions out ofour atmosphere. What happens is the methane
(02:00):
does have an impact on our climate. It making our summers hotter and in
some cases the weather forecasts more severe. We're seeing greater levels of hurricanes and
storms and challenges like drought and allof those sorts of things. So methane
(02:20):
gas is something we should be payingattention to. Now you talk about one
of the main purveyors of methane gas, which is the oil and gas industry.
Tell us about what the impact isin Pennsylvania of oil and gas.
So I live in Washington County,Pennsylvania, forty minutes south of the city
of Pittsburgh, and I live inthe most heavily fragged county in our state.
(02:42):
Pennsylvania is the second largest producer ofoil and gas in the country,
and we are actually on the wayto being the first, next to Texas.
So what methane does with larger admittingsources such as oil and gas infrastructure,
whether it's a well paid compressor station, pipeline, these things constantly admit
and sometimes they're just as simple asyou know, capping something on a well
(03:05):
pad or taking a look at acompressor station and you know, something that's
being vented shouldn't be vented. Theway that this is done that we notice
these invisible emissions are through a Flearcamera, And I work with the company
Earthworks who makes really the invisible pollutionvisible. So what you cannot see with
the naked eye, you can seethis through a Flear camera. Now,
(03:27):
the oil and gas industry also havethese cameras that they can use on their
sites to test, to see orto take a look to see if anything
is leaking. And some of thecompanies do that and others don't. But
what's unfortunate is that a lot ofthe companies do not do this, so
a lot of emissions are left topeak endlessly into the air, and that's
you know, a lot of theirproducts and their money just simply going out
the window. And also where theoil and gas industry is concerned, a
(03:51):
lot of things are vented deliberately onpurpose so that there's no explosion issues,
and methane is one of them.So in Pennsylvania, as you mentioned,
which actually I didn't realize we wereso far up there in terms of being
an oil and gas producer, butwe are. And so there was a
poll that was recently taken about methanegas and its impact in Pennsylvania. Tell
(04:12):
us what the results of those thatpoll was, Well, those results are
overwhelming that the majority of Pennsylvanians,over fifty percent of Pennsylvanians want to have
methane captured and capped and regulated bythe oil and gas industry. Not that
the oil and gas industry would regulatethem, but that they need to have
stronger regulations and safeguards put in placeto protect Pennsylvanians and our climate. And
(04:33):
that way that it ensures that wehave a planet to live on and exists.
And what specifically are you looking tosee happen regarding methane gas and its
regulation in Pennsylvania. So what we'relooking to see it's called ELDAR, it's
leak Detection and Recovery. So thisis basically what we would like to see
(04:53):
put in place, is that theindustry is no longer allowed to stofp report
and say, oh, everything's fine, we fix our everything and there's no
leaks, because that's what we runinto an awful lot. And then we
go take our cameras out and takea look at things, we see that
that is not the case. Sowhat we would like to have happen on
a state level is that these rulesare put into place to keep the industry
(05:15):
from self reporting and to keep thesemethane levels down and that also the methane
is captured and the leaks are repaired. And what can we as individual voters
do in order to support this kindof regulation? So what you can do
is you need to start with yourlocal community, whether it's your borough,
your council, whichever, and youneed to first of all make them aware
(05:36):
of what is going on if youlive next to oil and gas facilities or
near them, or really just inthe state of Pennsylvania. Because air does
not live in a bubble, andthis affects every one of us. It
actually impacts the entire United States andthe planet. So the ozone layers very
thin, and the more and morethat that is taken away by this release
of methane, then that's what exasperatesour climate change. But what you can
(06:00):
you on a local level is contactor local politicians, your local council members,
your local borough members, and letthem know that you are concerned of
this and that you would like thisto be addressed both at a local and
state and then possibly a federal level. The Clean Air Council is very much
dedicated to advocating for cleaner air.If people would like more information on what
we talked about today and all ofthe other efforts that the Clean Air Council
(06:25):
is engaged in to make sure thatwe have cleaner air, how do we
find out more? They can goto clean Aircouncil dot org or just cleanair
dot org and I can be reachedat LBB at cleanair dot org. If
you'd like to contact me directly.Lois Bauer Jornsen. She is south Western
Pennsylvania field organizer with the Clean AirCouncil. Thank you so much for joining
(06:46):
us today. Thank you, Iappreciate you having me. I belong to
a board called PHL Diversity, andat a recent meeting, I learned about
two additional letters to add to theletter's DEI diversity, equity and inclusion.
(07:08):
And those letters are A for accessand B for belonging. How do you
further the goals of access and belongingfor individuals with disabilities? To this end
for the deaf and heart of hearingcommunity, Comcast is launched American Sign Language
interpreting services at six Greater Philadelphia Exfinitystore locations. Joining us right now is
(07:30):
Tom Woodlowski. He is Comcast Vicepresident of Accessibility. Thank you so much
for joining us. Tom Hylerine,how are you doing? I am good.
Tom. Tell us about launching thelive American Sign Language interpreting services at
six Philadelphia Exfinity store locations. Whatis it and how does it work?
We call it Video Remote Interpreting.The goal is to deliver a world class
(07:55):
experience for deaf customers. So weknow that you know. Community cation between
the customer who is deaf and ourretail associate is often not in the native
language of the deaf customer right.Oftentimes it may be through lip reading,
or maybe the associate and the customerare passing a pencil and paper back and
(08:16):
forth to provision a mobile service orwhatever it might be. The video remote
interpreting service allows the customer and theretail associate to communicate in their native languages
English for the retail associate most likely, and in our case for the deaf
customer the American Sign language. Andin the middle is an interpreter on an
(08:39):
iPad voicing the customer's questioner query orresponse that they are signing into the iPad
camera, So the interpreter's voicing thatto the retail associate and then signing to
the customer the retail associate's response orquestion. What's nice about this is everybody's
in there environment, right. Thenative language for the deaf individual in this
(09:03):
case is likely sign American Sign language, and of course the retail associate is
in their environment on their workstation,not having to try and worry about how
to make the communication piece of theinteraction accessible. All they do is tap
us an icon on the screen ofthis dedicated iPad and a lot like magic,
the video and interpreter shows up.Tom, I wonder if you can
(09:26):
tell us a little bit more aboutwhat you do, because you're the vice
president of accessibility and as I indicatedearly on in this interview, DEI and
diversity, equity and inclusion really ismore than that. It has to be
a accessibility and B belonging. Howdoes this program help to underscore and to
(09:48):
support that? Absolutely? And Ilove the two additional letters that you bring
forward here A and B. I'vebeen with the company now for eleven and
a half years, and accessibility reallyabout making sure we're focused on inclusive design
and focused on making sure that ourcustomers can get the experiences that they need
(10:11):
if they have a disability, andthat our employees have an inclusive environment in
which to work, because maybe theemployee tools are now focused on accessibility.
Meetings, videos and things have closedcaptioning those types of things. So my
team works with various business units withinthe company, whether they be customer facing
(10:31):
or employee facing. It really helpsthat business unit define the roadmap that they
need to follow to essentially deliver inclusiveexperiences for their particular audience. So I'm
very, very interested in hearing yourpoint of view because as someone who is
blind and has managed to become VPof Accessibility at a very large corporation,
(10:54):
I think it's kind of wonderful tohear about your journey and how your life
has informed your commitment to accessibility.Clearly, there's a lot that you can
identify with and feel for and empathizewith, and it's wonderful to see that
you've been able to navigate the corporateworld even with outside and I wonder if
(11:18):
you can share with us a littlebit about your personal journey and your commitment
to accessibility that's informed by your life. Sure, so, being the youngest
of four brothers, four boys,the youngest of four boys the rest of
whom can see, you learn howto become accessible pretty quick, especially when
the parents are away at work.I learned how to think on your feet.
(11:39):
But I was born blind, soI'm a minority within a minority,
and this was, you know,late sixties and into the early seventies,
so I was mainstreamed through public schools. Grew up in Southington, Connecticut,
which is essentially a suburb or ofthe Hartford State capital of Connecticut. There
so mainstreamed, and you know,my parents and family just expected that I
(12:01):
would do whatever they were doing.I tried to play the blindness card to
not take out the trash. Thatdidn't go over too well. Tried it
again that I doing the dishes.That didn't do well. They had me
delivering papers in our neighborhood when they'rewhen kids were delivering papers. Back in
the day, I was in themarching band, played drums, still played
drums. I went to college atBoston College, majored in broadcast communications.
(12:24):
Ended up realizing the independence. Soin Connecticut, I had relied on the
ability to drive a car to getaround from place to place. This is
obviously prior to Uber and ride shareand all of that, and so when
I went to Boston, I realizedthe independence that I could have through public
transportation. So wanted to get backto Boston after I graduated and went to
(12:46):
the WGBH Media Access Group, whichis an R and D organization of the
WGBH public television station in Boston,and was able to work and really fell
in and discovered accessibility as a career. From there went to AOL and ran
accessibility at AOL for ten years.Unfortunately, I didn't come up with the
(13:09):
discs that we all used to getin the middle. That person's somewhere lounging
on a beach right now. Ihad so many discs, so many And
then, luckily for me, againworking through the network of folks that I've
developed over years, the twenty firstCentury Communications and Video Accessibility Act had just
(13:31):
been signed in twenty ten, andby the time I was ready to be
implemented in twenty twelve, Comcast wasassessing what they would need to help them
with that, and that network thatI had let me know about it,
and so I went from Boston downto northern Virginia where AOL was headquartered,
and then made our way up ninetyfive to Philadelphia, and so far I've
(13:54):
been here for eleven and a halfyears, and thankfully Comcast wanted to go
above and beyond the complet clients obligations, and so we treat accessibility as innovation.
Along the way, got married,had a son he's twenty five working
as a software engineer. Had greatadvocates as parents, strong advocates as parents.
I would not want to be sittingon the other side of the table
during those i EP meetings. Yeah, for sure, that is fair.
(14:20):
What a wonderful story that is.And so here you are as VP of
Accessibility for Comcast, which is providingand is the first telecommunications retailer in the
country to offer live on demand remoteASL interpreting services in stores to better serve
customers. There are about five storesright now. How do people in the
Greater Philly area? Yeah, howdo people find out where they're located?
(14:43):
You would go to exfinity dot comand you can search on zip codes.
You can go to ASL now,so Exfinity dot com slash ASL and we'll
have a listing of the stores thereas well that have this service. You
go in and typically there's a greeterinside the entrance. They'll make sure that
(15:03):
the customer is in the queue,and when it's the customer's time to work
with our retail associate, the retailassociate will have the tablet that is needed
to facilitate the interpreted conversation. Theythe retail associate and the customer will move
to a workstation the associate uses tosupport customers. Associate taps an icon on
(15:26):
the screen, the interpreter comes intoview and the retail associate in the customer
are often running with the ASL interpreterin the middle on the tablet. There's
a text messaging piece of this toothat if you show up at the greeter
and you prefer to communicate in textmessaging to provision the ASL interpreter to request
(15:48):
it, there's a way you cando that as well. Tom Wookowski,
who is Comcast VP of Accessibility,thank you so much for joining us here
today. Appreciate all the work thatyou're doing to put the B in the
A into DEI. Thank you somuch. Thank you. This November,
here's some mustaches in all their glory. To the first peach fuzz ones,
(16:11):
the lopsided ones, the unexpectedly sexyones, to the black, brown and
red ones, to the stately saltand pepper ones. To the ones grown
by the men we love, theones grown for the men we love,
those with us today and those neverforgotten. A mustache in November is a
powerful thing. It helps raise fundsand awareness for men's mental health and suicide
(16:34):
prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer. So rally crew, friends, family,
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us change the face of men's health. Go to November dot com and let's
get this Harry party started. That'sNovember with an m as in Mustache dot
(16:59):
com. November as a Register fiveoh one C three organization. Do you
know someone in need of an organtransplant you want to help but don't want
to be a living organ donor,We ask you to consider becoming a designated
deceased organ donor. A federal lawcalled the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act allows you
to leave your organ to someone youknow when you pass on. To find
(17:19):
out more, contact Living on InOthers whose mission is to help those in
need of an organ transplant and raiseawareness about this option. Visit www dotio
dot org to find out more.My father fought in the Korean War.
(17:42):
We just marked the seventeenth anniversary ofthe Korean War. Many of the stories
of our veterans are being lost asour veterans are passing on, but there
is a project which is through theLibrary of Congress Veterans History Project which is
collecting for serving and making accessible firstperson remembrances of United States military veterans for
(18:04):
future generations, and is actively seekingKorean War veterans and joining us right now
is Monica Mahindra, director of theVeterans History Project of the American Folk Life
Center at the Library of Congress.Thank you so much for joining us today.
The Korean War is often thought ofas the forgotten War, and I
wonder if you can tell us alittle more about why you think that is.
I think there are actually a fewthings that are important in our culture
(18:27):
to understand about that, which isthat it was bookended by these two massive,
monolithic conflicts. You have World WarTwo on one end and the Vietnam
War on the other end. Andthere's also this synergy between when the Korean
War happened and what we call culturallythe Silent generation. So I think that
has quite a bit to do withit. However, there is so much
(18:49):
that is so relevant to the experienceof Korean War veterans, to our experience
today, people like yourself whose parentsserved men and women. It was also
the conflict that was really informed bythe desagregation of the United States military.
In addition to the seventieth anniversary ofthe Korean War. This year we're also
(19:12):
marking the seventy fifth anniversary of desagregation, so so many relevant reasons to not
let it remain the forgotten war.I think that is so important, as
my dad did serve in the KoreanWar and won a Bronze Star. He
was one of the African American soldierswho served there and had many things to
(19:32):
say about his experience. Sadly,he passed away in nineteen eighty nine,
but there are many veterans out therewho are still around and have stories to
tell. Tell us more about theimportance of sharing these stories for future generations.
Well, not only do we havethe opportunity at the Veteran's History Project
in your home, in your communityright now with the Library of Congress,
(19:52):
to ensure that these stories are notlost, but it's not just for future
generations. We are so fortunate thatwe are able to present our already existing
one hundred and sixteen thousand plus individualcollections of US veterans experience to share those
points of relevancy in our everyday lives. So not only can people work within
(20:18):
their communities the people that they loveto capture the stories of those veterans who
are still with us. They canshare also collections of original photographs, journals,
memoirs, diaries, two dimensional documentationof that first person experience, but
also see and hear and experience thecollections we already have at the Library of
(20:40):
Congress. Well, I have beento various museums that have marked the contributions
of our veterans. I was atthe Pearl Harbor Memorial in Hawaii, and
I can't even tell you how whatan impression that made on me to hear
these stories, to hear the experiencesof these men, most of whom have
passed on, but their stories stillresonate with us as well. Now,
(21:03):
I wonder if you can tell usmore about how we can participate in this
project. Absolutely, it's really assimple as just going to our website loc
for Library Ofcongress dot gov forward slashvets that's the plural for veterans shortened vets,
and there you'll find a seven minutevideo that helps you understand how to
(21:26):
participate in what happens to the collection. And it really is as straightforward as
sitting down with the seriousness of purposewith the veteran in your life. To
help gather their oral history through therecorder in your pocket, the mobile phone,
or the tablet you have available toyou. It doesn't have to be
Lorrain the studio expertise that you have. We're just looking for that seriousness of
(21:48):
purpose. Fill out the forms tomake it archivedly acceptable for the Library of
Congress, and then really that simplestraightforward act between a couple of people to
sit down and ensure that this isn'tlost becomes part of our national collective archive
at the Library of Congress. IAnd if you can share with us some
of the individuals who have shared theirstories. Oh it's so hard, you
(22:12):
know, with so many collections topick a favorite. And of course,
so many veterans served in particularly thosewho served in the Korean where many of
them served also in World War Twoor in Vietnam. But there are a
few that come to mind. Oneis army veteran James Allen, who joined
(22:32):
the military as a means of escapefrom the difficult life in racially segregated Florida
in the nineteen fifties. Growing up, he had been taught and the ideas
had been fully ingrained in him thathe was a second class citizen in our
country that whites should go first.In his own words, that's how he
(22:52):
describes it. But then in thearmy, he served in a variety of
administrative capacities, both in Korea andthen later in Vietnam, and he was
always ready to take on a newchallenge, even you know, he talks
about assignments that he wasn't necessarily trainedfor. He went on to win like
(23:15):
your father, but his was inthe Vietnam conflict. He won a Bronze
Star for his work as well.But the thing that really strikes me about
his collection, because he served duringthe Korean Conflict, is that he then
went back afterwards to Florida to takeall the expanse of his experience with him
(23:36):
and to continue to serve his community, particularly veterans and African American veterans.
And I just that story always reallystands out to me. But we have
wonderful stories of women who served,and I think it's really important to point
out the women who served during theKorean War had particular experiences because of the
(23:59):
d S greation of the military thathave been of particular interest to researchers utilizing
the Veterans History Project which has beenaround for twenty years, and almost from
the very beginning, those women's storieswere of deep interest to researchers. No,
for sure, I think that thewomen participated in the military, both
(24:19):
in World War Two, the KoreanWar, and the Vietnam War. They're
often forgotten stories. They have storiesto tell that are truly remarkable. I
think I remember a show called ChinaBeach back in I think the eighties,
and it's about a woman's experience asa nurse in the Vietnam War. But
one of the things that I thinkI remember I took away from that show
(24:41):
was seeing the interviews with the nurseswho actually did serve and what their experiences
were like. And I think thatit's wonderful that you're actually capturing these stories
throughout the many veterans who are stillaround to share those stories. But also
we have stories that perhaps can betold for those who have passed on,
(25:03):
and I wonder if you can tellus more about that. Thank you,
Lorraine for that really thoughtful question,And that is often top of mind for
folks who are having veterans in theirfamilies who are at the end of life
stages or have recently passed and it'simportant to know that the Veterans History Project
has always for twenty years accepted thefirst person documentation of those veterans who have
(25:27):
passed through collections of original photographs,letters, diaries, and journals, and
so gathering those together from those whoserve from World War One through the more
recent conflicts is a great way tobegin a legacy and memorialized first person experience.
But in twenty sixteen, the VeteransHistory Project legislation was amended to also
(25:48):
include specific designations around gold Star familiesto ensure that those collections are also part
of the larger conversation and collective understandingof veteran and service experience. It's always
wonderful to be able to sit downwith loved ones to share their stories,
and I think this is such animportant contribution that we can have. But
(26:11):
also I think for those family memberswho are able to participate in this project,
it can be so very meaningful tothem. I'm sure that some of
the information that comes out of theseinteractions are stories and information that family members
may not even have known prior tobeing involved in this project. So certainly
(26:32):
I had the opportunity to interview mydad not so much about his Korean War
experience, but just about his experiencein general, as having lived through two
wars and the civil rights movement andall those things, and how much that
really meant to me. And Ihad this little cassette of my dad,
and I treasure it so deeply.Now once again people want to not only
(26:55):
participate in the project, but alsowould like to hear and see some of
these stories. Remind us once againhow they can do that. Our website
at the Library of Congress Veterans HistoryProject is loc dot gov forward slash vets
ANDC stands for Library Ofcongress dot govfor government and forward slash vets plural for
(27:15):
the short form of veterans vets.And there you can sit even with a
loved one who is a living veterantoday, to help connect with them over
the stories of individuals who may haveserved in the same time or place,
the same unit or occasion that theydid, whether it was a battle or
perhaps they were somebody who worked inadministration or was a chaplain. We have
(27:40):
ways to parse and splice and dicethose stories so that you can find where
your connection is. And maybe thatwould be a way to also share a
meaningful moment this summer with a familymember. Fantastic, Well, thank you
so much for sharing this information withus. Hopefully there are a lot of
folks out there who will be ableto take advantage of this opportunity to tell
they're very important and very significant storiesof being a veteran, both in the
(28:04):
Korean War and all wars since then. Certainly, I'm sure you're also collecting
information from all the armed conflicts thatwe have been participating in. Monica Mahindra,
director of the Veterans History Project ofthe American Folk Life Center at the
Library of Congress, thank you somuch for joining us here today. I
really appreciate you shedding light on this. Have a great day. You can
(28:26):
listen to all of today's interviews bygoing to our station website and typing in
keyword Community. You can also listenon the iHeartRadio app key Words Philadelphia Community
Podcast. Follow me on Twitter andInstagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm Lorraine Ballard
MOREL and I stand for service toour community and media that empowers. What
will you stand for? You've beenlistening to what's going on, and thank
(28:49):
you. I don't have to stud
Good morning, Welcome to What's goingon? A show about making a difference
in our lives and our communities.I'm Lorraine ballotmorl. Everyone wants to find
a place in the world, butfor the death and heart of hearing,
accessibility can be a challenge. NowComcast is the first telecommunication retailer in the
country to offer live on demand remoteASL interpreting services in stores to better serve
(00:28):
customers. As we approach Veterans Day, we re air an interview about the
Veterans History Project, which is activelyseeking Korean War veterans recorded oral history interviews,
original photographs, letters, and othercorrespondents to be archived and made accessible
for future generations. But first,when it comes to the climate, there
(00:50):
is a lot of urgency these daysabout making sure that we are more aware
of what our role is in impactingclimate change. Joining us right now now
is Lois Bauer Bjornsen. She isSouthwest Pennsylvania field organizer with the Clean Air
Council. She's here to tell usabout findings that have to do with people's
attitude towards methane gas and what doesthis mean for all of us. Thank
(01:14):
you so much for joining us heretoday, and before we get into what
people think about methane gas, let'stalk about the impact of methane gas on
our environment. Tell us more methanegas. To answer your question, is
climate changing gas. It is carbondioxide on steroids. It's eighty times more
potent than carbon dioxide, so thereforeit exacerbates climate change at a much higher
(01:38):
rate. And what does that meanexactly? Most of us are familiar with
climate change, and most of usdo not want to stop existing on our
climate. So an order are existingon the Earth zone order to combat climate
change. It is really best tocat methane from the oil and gas industry
and to keep those emissions out ofour atmosphere. What happens is the methane
(02:00):
does have an impact on our climate. It making our summers hotter and in
some cases the weather forecasts more severe. We're seeing greater levels of hurricanes and
storms and challenges like drought and allof those sorts of things. So methane
(02:20):
gas is something we should be payingattention to. Now you talk about one
of the main purveyors of methane gas, which is the oil and gas industry.
Tell us about what the impact isin Pennsylvania of oil and gas.
So I live in Washington County,Pennsylvania, forty minutes south of the city
of Pittsburgh, and I live inthe most heavily fragged county in our state.
(02:42):
Pennsylvania is the second largest producer ofoil and gas in the country,
and we are actually on the wayto being the first, next to Texas.
So what methane does with larger admittingsources such as oil and gas infrastructure,
whether it's a well paid compressor station, pipeline, these things constantly admit
and sometimes they're just as simple asyou know, capping something on a well
(03:05):
pad or taking a look at acompressor station and you know, something that's
being vented shouldn't be vented. Theway that this is done that we notice
these invisible emissions are through a Flearcamera, And I work with the company
Earthworks who makes really the invisible pollutionvisible. So what you cannot see with
the naked eye, you can seethis through a Flear camera. Now,
(03:27):
the oil and gas industry also havethese cameras that they can use on their
sites to test, to see orto take a look to see if anything
is leaking. And some of thecompanies do that and others don't. But
what's unfortunate is that a lot ofthe companies do not do this, so
a lot of emissions are left topeak endlessly into the air, and that's
you know, a lot of theirproducts and their money just simply going out
the window. And also where theoil and gas industry is concerned, a
(03:51):
lot of things are vented deliberately onpurpose so that there's no explosion issues,
and methane is one of them.So in Pennsylvania, as you mentioned,
which actually I didn't realize we wereso far up there in terms of being
an oil and gas producer, butwe are. And so there was a
poll that was recently taken about methanegas and its impact in Pennsylvania. Tell
(04:12):
us what the results of those thatpoll was, Well, those results are
overwhelming that the majority of Pennsylvanians,over fifty percent of Pennsylvanians want to have
methane captured and capped and regulated bythe oil and gas industry. Not that
the oil and gas industry would regulatethem, but that they need to have
stronger regulations and safeguards put in placeto protect Pennsylvanians and our climate. And
(04:33):
that way that it ensures that wehave a planet to live on and exists.
And what specifically are you looking tosee happen regarding methane gas and its
regulation in Pennsylvania. So what we'relooking to see it's called ELDAR, it's
leak Detection and Recovery. So thisis basically what we would like to see
(04:53):
put in place, is that theindustry is no longer allowed to stofp report
and say, oh, everything's fine, we fix our everything and there's no
leaks, because that's what we runinto an awful lot. And then we
go take our cameras out and takea look at things, we see that
that is not the case. Sowhat we would like to have happen on
a state level is that these rulesare put into place to keep the industry
(05:15):
from self reporting and to keep thesemethane levels down and that also the methane
is captured and the leaks are repaired. And what can we as individual voters
do in order to support this kindof regulation? So what you can do
is you need to start with yourlocal community, whether it's your borough,
your council, whichever, and youneed to first of all make them aware
(05:36):
of what is going on if youlive next to oil and gas facilities or
near them, or really just inthe state of Pennsylvania. Because air does
not live in a bubble, andthis affects every one of us. It
actually impacts the entire United States andthe planet. So the ozone layers very
thin, and the more and morethat that is taken away by this release
of methane, then that's what exasperatesour climate change. But what you can
(06:00):
you on a local level is contactor local politicians, your local council members,
your local borough members, and letthem know that you are concerned of
this and that you would like thisto be addressed both at a local and
state and then possibly a federal level. The Clean Air Council is very much
dedicated to advocating for cleaner air.If people would like more information on what
we talked about today and all ofthe other efforts that the Clean Air Council
(06:25):
is engaged in to make sure thatwe have cleaner air, how do we
find out more? They can goto clean Aircouncil dot org or just cleanair
dot org and I can be reachedat LBB at cleanair dot org. If
you'd like to contact me directly.Lois Bauer Jornsen. She is south Western
Pennsylvania field organizer with the Clean AirCouncil. Thank you so much for joining
(06:46):
us today. Thank you, Iappreciate you having me. I belong to
a board called PHL Diversity, andat a recent meeting, I learned about
two additional letters to add to theletter's DEI diversity, equity and inclusion.
(07:08):
And those letters are A for accessand B for belonging. How do you
further the goals of access and belongingfor individuals with disabilities? To this end
for the deaf and heart of hearingcommunity, Comcast is launched American Sign Language
interpreting services at six Greater Philadelphia Exfinitystore locations. Joining us right now is
(07:30):
Tom Woodlowski. He is Comcast Vicepresident of Accessibility. Thank you so much
for joining us. Tom Hylerine,how are you doing? I am good.
Tom. Tell us about launching thelive American Sign Language interpreting services at
six Philadelphia Exfinity store locations. Whatis it and how does it work?
We call it Video Remote Interpreting.The goal is to deliver a world class
(07:55):
experience for deaf customers. So weknow that you know. Community cation between
the customer who is deaf and ourretail associate is often not in the native
language of the deaf customer right.Oftentimes it may be through lip reading,
or maybe the associate and the customerare passing a pencil and paper back and
(08:16):
forth to provision a mobile service orwhatever it might be. The video remote
interpreting service allows the customer and theretail associate to communicate in their native languages
English for the retail associate most likely, and in our case for the deaf
customer the American Sign language. Andin the middle is an interpreter on an
(08:39):
iPad voicing the customer's questioner query orresponse that they are signing into the iPad
camera, So the interpreter's voicing thatto the retail associate and then signing to
the customer the retail associate's response orquestion. What's nice about this is everybody's
in there environment, right. Thenative language for the deaf individual in this
(09:03):
case is likely sign American Sign language, and of course the retail associate is
in their environment on their workstation,not having to try and worry about how
to make the communication piece of theinteraction accessible. All they do is tap
us an icon on the screen ofthis dedicated iPad and a lot like magic,
the video and interpreter shows up.Tom, I wonder if you can
(09:26):
tell us a little bit more aboutwhat you do, because you're the vice
president of accessibility and as I indicatedearly on in this interview, DEI and
diversity, equity and inclusion really ismore than that. It has to be
a accessibility and B belonging. Howdoes this program help to underscore and to
(09:48):
support that? Absolutely? And Ilove the two additional letters that you bring
forward here A and B. I'vebeen with the company now for eleven and
a half years, and accessibility reallyabout making sure we're focused on inclusive design
and focused on making sure that ourcustomers can get the experiences that they need
(10:11):
if they have a disability, andthat our employees have an inclusive environment in
which to work, because maybe theemployee tools are now focused on accessibility.
Meetings, videos and things have closedcaptioning those types of things. So my
team works with various business units withinthe company, whether they be customer facing
(10:31):
or employee facing. It really helpsthat business unit define the roadmap that they
need to follow to essentially deliver inclusiveexperiences for their particular audience. So I'm
very, very interested in hearing yourpoint of view because as someone who is
blind and has managed to become VPof Accessibility at a very large corporation,
(10:54):
I think it's kind of wonderful tohear about your journey and how your life
has informed your commitment to accessibility.Clearly, there's a lot that you can
identify with and feel for and empathizewith, and it's wonderful to see that
you've been able to navigate the corporateworld even with outside and I wonder if
(11:18):
you can share with us a littlebit about your personal journey and your commitment
to accessibility that's informed by your life. Sure, so, being the youngest
of four brothers, four boys,the youngest of four boys the rest of
whom can see, you learn howto become accessible pretty quick, especially when
the parents are away at work.I learned how to think on your feet.
(11:39):
But I was born blind, soI'm a minority within a minority,
and this was, you know,late sixties and into the early seventies,
so I was mainstreamed through public schools. Grew up in Southington, Connecticut,
which is essentially a suburb or ofthe Hartford State capital of Connecticut. There
so mainstreamed, and you know,my parents and family just expected that I
(12:01):
would do whatever they were doing.I tried to play the blindness card to
not take out the trash. Thatdidn't go over too well. Tried it
again that I doing the dishes.That didn't do well. They had me
delivering papers in our neighborhood when they'rewhen kids were delivering papers. Back in
the day, I was in themarching band, played drums, still played
drums. I went to college atBoston College, majored in broadcast communications.
(12:24):
Ended up realizing the independence. Soin Connecticut, I had relied on the
ability to drive a car to getaround from place to place. This is
obviously prior to Uber and ride shareand all of that, and so when
I went to Boston, I realizedthe independence that I could have through public
transportation. So wanted to get backto Boston after I graduated and went to
(12:46):
the WGBH Media Access Group, whichis an R and D organization of the
WGBH public television station in Boston,and was able to work and really fell
in and discovered accessibility as a career. From there went to AOL and ran
accessibility at AOL for ten years.Unfortunately, I didn't come up with the
(13:09):
discs that we all used to getin the middle. That person's somewhere lounging
on a beach right now. Ihad so many discs, so many And
then, luckily for me, againworking through the network of folks that I've
developed over years, the twenty firstCentury Communications and Video Accessibility Act had just
(13:31):
been signed in twenty ten, andby the time I was ready to be
implemented in twenty twelve, Comcast wasassessing what they would need to help them
with that, and that network thatI had let me know about it,
and so I went from Boston downto northern Virginia where AOL was headquartered,
and then made our way up ninetyfive to Philadelphia, and so far I've
(13:54):
been here for eleven and a halfyears, and thankfully Comcast wanted to go
above and beyond the complet clients obligations, and so we treat accessibility as innovation.
Along the way, got married,had a son he's twenty five working
as a software engineer. Had greatadvocates as parents, strong advocates as parents.
I would not want to be sittingon the other side of the table
during those i EP meetings. Yeah, for sure, that is fair.
(14:20):
What a wonderful story that is.And so here you are as VP of
Accessibility for Comcast, which is providingand is the first telecommunications retailer in the
country to offer live on demand remoteASL interpreting services in stores to better serve
customers. There are about five storesright now. How do people in the
Greater Philly area? Yeah, howdo people find out where they're located?
(14:43):
You would go to exfinity dot comand you can search on zip codes.
You can go to ASL now,so Exfinity dot com slash ASL and we'll
have a listing of the stores thereas well that have this service. You
go in and typically there's a greeterinside the entrance. They'll make sure that
(15:03):
the customer is in the queue,and when it's the customer's time to work
with our retail associate, the retailassociate will have the tablet that is needed
to facilitate the interpreted conversation. Theythe retail associate and the customer will move
to a workstation the associate uses tosupport customers. Associate taps an icon on
(15:26):
the screen, the interpreter comes intoview and the retail associate in the customer
are often running with the ASL interpreterin the middle on the tablet. There's
a text messaging piece of this toothat if you show up at the greeter
and you prefer to communicate in textmessaging to provision the ASL interpreter to request
(15:48):
it, there's a way you cando that as well. Tom Wookowski,
who is Comcast VP of Accessibility,thank you so much for joining us here
today. Appreciate all the work thatyou're doing to put the B in the
A into DEI. Thank you somuch. Thank you. This November,
here's some mustaches in all their glory. To the first peach fuzz ones,
(16:11):
the lopsided ones, the unexpectedly sexyones, to the black, brown and
red ones, to the stately saltand pepper ones. To the ones grown
by the men we love, theones grown for the men we love,
those with us today and those neverforgotten. A mustache in November is a
powerful thing. It helps raise fundsand awareness for men's mental health and suicide
(16:34):
prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer. So rally crew, friends, family,
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us change the face of men's health. Go to November dot com and let's
get this Harry party started. That'sNovember with an m as in Mustache dot
(16:59):
com. November as a Register fiveoh one C three organization. Do you
know someone in need of an organtransplant you want to help but don't want
to be a living organ donor,We ask you to consider becoming a designated
deceased organ donor. A federal lawcalled the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act allows you
to leave your organ to someone youknow when you pass on. To find
(17:19):
out more, contact Living on InOthers whose mission is to help those in
need of an organ transplant and raiseawareness about this option. Visit www dotio
dot org to find out more.My father fought in the Korean War.
(17:42):
We just marked the seventeenth anniversary ofthe Korean War. Many of the stories
of our veterans are being lost asour veterans are passing on, but there
is a project which is through theLibrary of Congress Veterans History Project which is
collecting for serving and making accessible firstperson remembrances of United States military veterans for
(18:04):
future generations, and is actively seekingKorean War veterans and joining us right now
is Monica Mahindra, director of theVeterans History Project of the American Folk Life
Center at the Library of Congress.Thank you so much for joining us today.
The Korean War is often thought ofas the forgotten War, and I
wonder if you can tell us alittle more about why you think that is.
I think there are actually a fewthings that are important in our culture
(18:27):
to understand about that, which isthat it was bookended by these two massive,
monolithic conflicts. You have World WarTwo on one end and the Vietnam
War on the other end. Andthere's also this synergy between when the Korean
War happened and what we call culturallythe Silent generation. So I think that
has quite a bit to do withit. However, there is so much
(18:49):
that is so relevant to the experienceof Korean War veterans, to our experience
today, people like yourself whose parentsserved men and women. It was also
the conflict that was really informed bythe desagregation of the United States military.
In addition to the seventieth anniversary ofthe Korean War. This year we're also
(19:12):
marking the seventy fifth anniversary of desagregation, so so many relevant reasons to not
let it remain the forgotten war.I think that is so important, as
my dad did serve in the KoreanWar and won a Bronze Star. He
was one of the African American soldierswho served there and had many things to
(19:32):
say about his experience. Sadly,he passed away in nineteen eighty nine,
but there are many veterans out therewho are still around and have stories to
tell. Tell us more about theimportance of sharing these stories for future generations.
Well, not only do we havethe opportunity at the Veteran's History Project
in your home, in your communityright now with the Library of Congress,
(19:52):
to ensure that these stories are notlost, but it's not just for future
generations. We are so fortunate thatwe are able to present our already existing
one hundred and sixteen thousand plus individualcollections of US veterans experience to share those
points of relevancy in our everyday lives. So not only can people work within
(20:18):
their communities the people that they loveto capture the stories of those veterans who
are still with us. They canshare also collections of original photographs, journals,
memoirs, diaries, two dimensional documentationof that first person experience, but
also see and hear and experience thecollections we already have at the Library of
(20:40):
Congress. Well, I have beento various museums that have marked the contributions
of our veterans. I was atthe Pearl Harbor Memorial in Hawaii, and
I can't even tell you how whatan impression that made on me to hear
these stories, to hear the experiencesof these men, most of whom have
passed on, but their stories stillresonate with us as well. Now,
(21:03):
I wonder if you can tell usmore about how we can participate in this
project. Absolutely, it's really assimple as just going to our website loc
for Library Ofcongress dot gov forward slashvets that's the plural for veterans shortened vets,
and there you'll find a seven minutevideo that helps you understand how to
(21:26):
participate in what happens to the collection. And it really is as straightforward as
sitting down with the seriousness of purposewith the veteran in your life. To
help gather their oral history through therecorder in your pocket, the mobile phone,
or the tablet you have available toyou. It doesn't have to be
Lorrain the studio expertise that you have. We're just looking for that seriousness of
(21:48):
purpose. Fill out the forms tomake it archivedly acceptable for the Library of
Congress, and then really that simplestraightforward act between a couple of people to
sit down and ensure that this isn'tlost becomes part of our national collective archive
at the Library of Congress. IAnd if you can share with us some
of the individuals who have shared theirstories. Oh it's so hard, you
(22:12):
know, with so many collections topick a favorite. And of course,
so many veterans served in particularly thosewho served in the Korean where many of
them served also in World War Twoor in Vietnam. But there are a
few that come to mind. Oneis army veteran James Allen, who joined
(22:32):
the military as a means of escapefrom the difficult life in racially segregated Florida
in the nineteen fifties. Growing up, he had been taught and the ideas
had been fully ingrained in him thathe was a second class citizen in our
country that whites should go first.In his own words, that's how he
(22:52):
describes it. But then in thearmy, he served in a variety of
administrative capacities, both in Korea andthen later in Vietnam, and he was
always ready to take on a newchallenge, even you know, he talks
about assignments that he wasn't necessarily trainedfor. He went on to win like
(23:15):
your father, but his was inthe Vietnam conflict. He won a Bronze
Star for his work as well.But the thing that really strikes me about
his collection, because he served duringthe Korean Conflict, is that he then
went back afterwards to Florida to takeall the expanse of his experience with him
(23:36):
and to continue to serve his community, particularly veterans and African American veterans.
And I just that story always reallystands out to me. But we have
wonderful stories of women who served,and I think it's really important to point
out the women who served during theKorean War had particular experiences because of the
(23:59):
d S greation of the military thathave been of particular interest to researchers utilizing
the Veterans History Project which has beenaround for twenty years, and almost from
the very beginning, those women's storieswere of deep interest to researchers. No,
for sure, I think that thewomen participated in the military, both
(24:19):
in World War Two, the KoreanWar, and the Vietnam War. They're
often forgotten stories. They have storiesto tell that are truly remarkable. I
think I remember a show called ChinaBeach back in I think the eighties,
and it's about a woman's experience asa nurse in the Vietnam War. But
one of the things that I thinkI remember I took away from that show
(24:41):
was seeing the interviews with the nurseswho actually did serve and what their experiences
were like. And I think thatit's wonderful that you're actually capturing these stories
throughout the many veterans who are stillaround to share those stories. But also
we have stories that perhaps can betold for those who have passed on,
(25:03):
and I wonder if you can tellus more about that. Thank you,
Lorraine for that really thoughtful question,And that is often top of mind for
folks who are having veterans in theirfamilies who are at the end of life
stages or have recently passed and it'simportant to know that the Veterans History Project
has always for twenty years accepted thefirst person documentation of those veterans who have
(25:27):
passed through collections of original photographs,letters, diaries, and journals, and
so gathering those together from those whoserve from World War One through the more
recent conflicts is a great way tobegin a legacy and memorialized first person experience.
But in twenty sixteen, the VeteransHistory Project legislation was amended to also
(25:48):
include specific designations around gold Star familiesto ensure that those collections are also part
of the larger conversation and collective understandingof veteran and service experience. It's always
wonderful to be able to sit downwith loved ones to share their stories,
and I think this is such animportant contribution that we can have. But
(26:11):
also I think for those family memberswho are able to participate in this project,
it can be so very meaningful tothem. I'm sure that some of
the information that comes out of theseinteractions are stories and information that family members
may not even have known prior tobeing involved in this project. So certainly
(26:32):
I had the opportunity to interview mydad not so much about his Korean War
experience, but just about his experiencein general, as having lived through two
wars and the civil rights movement andall those things, and how much that
really meant to me. And Ihad this little cassette of my dad,
and I treasure it so deeply.Now once again people want to not only
(26:55):
participate in the project, but alsowould like to hear and see some of
these stories. Remind us once againhow they can do that. Our website
at the Library of Congress Veterans HistoryProject is loc dot gov forward slash vets
ANDC stands for Library Ofcongress dot govfor government and forward slash vets plural for
(27:15):
the short form of veterans vets.And there you can sit even with a
loved one who is a living veterantoday, to help connect with them over
the stories of individuals who may haveserved in the same time or place,
the same unit or occasion that theydid, whether it was a battle or
perhaps they were somebody who worked inadministration or was a chaplain. We have
(27:40):
ways to parse and splice and dicethose stories so that you can find where
your connection is. And maybe thatwould be a way to also share a
meaningful moment this summer with a familymember. Fantastic, Well, thank you
so much for sharing this information withus. Hopefully there are a lot of
folks out there who will be ableto take advantage of this opportunity to tell
they're very important and very significant storiesof being a veteran, both in the
(28:04):
Korean War and all wars since then. Certainly, I'm sure you're also collecting
information from all the armed conflicts thatwe have been participating in. Monica Mahindra,
director of the Veterans History Project ofthe American Folk Life Center at the
Library of Congress, thank you somuch for joining us here today. I
really appreciate you shedding light on this. Have a great day. You can
(28:26):
listen to all of today's interviews bygoing to our station website and typing in
keyword Community. You can also listenon the iHeartRadio app key Words Philadelphia Community
Podcast. Follow me on Twitter andInstagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm Lorraine Ballard
MOREL and I stand for service toour community and media that empowers. What
will you stand for? You've beenlistening to what's going on, and thank
(28:49):
you. I don't have to stud
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