Inside The Dot Experience

On this episode of Change Makers, step into The Dot Experience. We're live from construction site for a press conference celebrating a major milestone in the construction and a special announcement.

Speakers

• Jo Haas, APH Vice President, The Dot Experience
• Phoebe Wood, APH Board Chair
• Craig Meador, Ed. D., APH President
• Dwight Newton, Zoeller Water Pump, Corporate VP Human Resources - Chief People Officer

Additional Links

• The Dot Experience
• Zoeller Pump Company

Transcript

Narrator: 0:00

Welcome to Change Makers. A podcast from APH. We're talking to people from around the world who are creating positive change in the lives of people who are blind or have no vision. Here's your host.

Sara Brown: 0:16

Hello and welcome to Change Makers. I'm APH's public relations manager, Sara Brown, and on today's episode, we're on the scene celebrating a major milestone with the Dot Experience. One year until open. Also, there's a special significant multi-year contribution from a great local company. We're going live to the press conference, followed by the Hard Hat tour. Up first is APH's vice president of The Dot Experience, Jo Haas. She emceed the event.

Jo Haas: 0:44

We are honored to welcome you this morning for an exciting announcement and a chance to get through for the first time our new building. Still under construction, but we have a tour for you today, a hard hat tour. You know, um, I've been thinking a lot about that, about about this this week, that many attractions get labeled groundbreaking because they're bigger or they're flashier or they're more complex than something that has come before it. And this project, as I've thought about it, is groundbreaking in a unique way. Really in the way that it is simply more bold than many other projects. It's bold in its certainty that by elevating the lived experiences of individuals who are blind and low vision, we can demonstrate what human potential really looks like. And what biases and barriers still exist in the world, and what individuals with disabilities face on a day-to-day basis, and what the actions of individuals like ourselves can do to make the world a better place for all. Here, everyone is welcome. The Dot Experience, when we open our doors in October of 2026, will change perspectives about blindness and disability and empower individual action toward a world that welcomes everyone. We want you to come curious and leave with a commitment to make change happen in the world. To continue sharing the mission of The Dot Experience, and please join me in welcoming APH board chair Phoebe Wood to the program.

Phoebe Wood: 3:30

Thank you, Jo, and good morning, everyone. It's really nice to see you on this beautiful morning. Why are we here? We're here because of The Dot Experience, a place where sight is no longer the dominant sense, but your fingers can take the lead. Imagine the world where you can experience it through touch and sound and emotion as well as vision. The Dot Experience in this space is created to foster empathy, inclusion, and awareness. Visitors will learn not only about blindness, Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, but about the strengths, struggles, successes, and resilience of the blind and low-vision community. It will educate children and adults alike, break down stereotypes, and encourage accessibility in everyday life. Our work is attracting national attention. The Dot Experience was featured as the cover story in Museum magazine at the premier publication of the industry this summer. We had a guest from Disney the other day who's also looking at the kinds of things that we are doing here. API, the American Printing House, APH, excuse me, the American Printing House for the Blind has long been at the forefront of technologies and innovations. Ever hear of Audible? Technology came right out of recording for the blind. Ever hear of the Monarch? Well, it's an iPad for blind and low vision users where the screen is made of metallic dots or um pins that raise and lower to create images. So if you're a blind student and you're studying algebra, you can feel a parabola. If you're studying geography, you can feel the rivers of Kentucky. There are also ten lines of braille on the bottom of it. This is a game changer, and you're gonna continue to hear more about the Monarch. Oh have you ever heard um the fact that it came um from a joint venture with Canada and Korea and the American Printing House took a joint venture, an international joint venture to create that kind of a tremendous product? And finally, I'll ask have you ever heard of indoor wayfinding? That technology came right here out of the American Printing House for the Blind, and today is known as Good Maps. What's my message? We create change. So honored to welcome you today as we announce a major gift to The Dot Experience and offer our first peek inside the building that's been under construction since our groundbreaking effort in 2023. We are intending and planning to be the most accessible museum in the world. Welcome everyone.

Jo Haas: 6:53

And at this point, I would like to welcome to the stage uh Craig Meadder, APH president. Craig has been the president of American Printing House for the Blind since 2015.

Craig Meador: 7:10

So they have prepared remarks up here for me, but that is not me. So, but I will hit on that. You've heard a lot of things about The Dot Experience, and all of those are true and will become true, and that's exciting. And you're gonna hear the story of APH and the work we do and why it's so important and the impact it has. But the piece that we're really trying to finish, or the impact we want to have, is not so much on the people who are blind or low vision, it's on all of you. It's those who don't live with a disability. Because what we find in in the work we do is that the biggest barriers in society are not curb cuts or lack of braille, it's people's attitudes about what a person with a disability can accomplish. So it is our hope that as people come into The Dot Experience, we will challenge your mindsets, we will challenge myths, we will challenge all those stereotypes, and our hope is that by the time you exit out of The Dot Experience, you will be a changed person. Hopefully, that'll be a heart change where you will realize that you just need to change your perspective. And we would welcome you into the work that we do on a daily basis. So, welcome and again uh thank you all for being here.

Jo Haas: 8:36

Fantastic. And you know, I think that that really is uh the gist of what we are um working to accomplish, uh to change perspectives and also to spur action. So we don't want you just to have that changed perspective, we want you to do something then with that changed perspective. So adding that action piece uh into um into the mix as well. And now to um to bring us home with a very exciting announcement, um, one of our uh local collaborators and supporters, um I'd like to welcome to the podium Dwight Newton. Dwight is the uh Chief People Officer from Zoller Pump Company. Dwight, good morning.

Dwight Newton: 9:24

Good morning, thank you, Jo, and thanks everybody for being here. This is a great opportunity for APH and uh for this community as a whole. Uh when Phoebe said Audible, I remember my first experience with, and I've told Jo this story, Department of Library and Archives. Um, I read a Jesse Stewart book on tape for my grandmother because uh they had a program where you could where people could volunteer to read, and she really wanted this one book, and it hadn't been put on tape. So I read it, and uh I remember the first time I saw her reading that, listening to that book, and uh the look on her face, and uh realizing that uh I wasn't Jesse Stewart and realizing that it was an opportunity uh that I wasn't really familiar with at the time as a young man. So we're at Zoller are very excited to be part of this program. We believe that innovation is is uh something that has to happen. It continues to go on in uh the business world, in uh museums, in schools, it has to continue to happen. And we believe that innovation starts with access and inclusion and understanding of what's going on. We're a company focused on improving improving people's lives, and we have a deep commitment and respect for our employees and this community. We believe that given the right tools, anyone can thrive. So we're excited about The Dot Experience because it because, as has been said before, it isn't just about blindness, it's about the visibility and what we can showcase to show others about what's going on in this environment. It's about shining a light on the history and achievements and all the lived experiences of millions of people who navigate the world differently. We are very proud to help create a space where understanding leads to connection, where technology and human interest intersect, and where everyone, regardless of ability, has a seat at the table or a stance at the podium. That's why we're honored to contribute. We're very excited to support the Sadat experience, a space dedicated to educating, inspiring, and breaking down barriers that exist. This is more than a donation from us, it's a commitment. We've already talked about some different areas of commitment with education and coming alongside volunteers and those types of things, and we encourage the Louisville community to get involved because these are folks who will work at your places of business whose kids may have uh may come to school here or may be part of the programs and then also be part of The Dot Experience itself. We want to include everyone in the future of what's going on in Louisville and in this community. We want to thank APH and all of you for coming out today, and we want to say a special thank you to all the people in this project that have helped make a difference in improving people's lives. Thank you very much.

Jo Haas: 12:19

Thank you, Dwight, and uh you know, with with Zoller Pump Company and so many others who have committed to their time, talent, treasure uh to make this project happen, um, we are incredibly grateful. Uh we've moved since 2023 from just a shovel in a uh a faux dirt pile in the front of this uh this building to my right to today uh what you can see as uh a new front door for American Printing House and a new initiative that is poised to change the world in an incredibly positive way. Um soon those little wires uh uh above the portico will um uh shine with decorative braille that says the word, they will say the word welcome. Um and uh and at this point we would like to welcome you uh to follow me, put a hard hat on, and uh follow me through the building, and we'll see uh we'll see some of the exhibition areas and um and some renderings in place so that you can begin to get a feel for what the visitor experience uh will be like. So thank you.

Sara Brown: 13:38

After the speeches came the hard hat tour, and the media got to put on a hard hat and walk around the inside of the building. Now, this building is still being constructed. So think about that. There's lots of wiring, lots of metal, metal on the floor, metal on the walls, and large lifts, the bucket lifts are inside. This building is still roughed in. During the tour inside the building, Jo stopped and explained what would be installed in that precise location. And at one stop, she talked about the audio pods.

Jo Haas: 14:09

Uh this curve wall behind me is a media experience, largely audio, where it's a really sort of um uh level, the experience for all visitors. Um, and this this audio experience will talk about the theme of welcome everyone, and we'll begin to introduce you to um the people whose lived stories you will start hearing now throughout The Dot Experience.

Sara Brown: 14:37

After that, she talked about the main gallery and the AFB Helen Keller archive. In the main gallery, it would share stories of the lived experiences of individuals who are blind or low vision.

Jo Haas: 14:50

This is the first of the main categories of the movie. This defines authentic first-person stories of individuals who are blind and low vision. And they are speaking about their experiences, living, working, parenting, navigating, advocating, creating, exploring the world. They represent parents, teachers, scientists, architects, um, musicians, a wide variety of individuals. Some of them are local individuals, some of them have national profile, um, but they are all uh telling their own story. So we are working to not narrate someone else's tale and put our own overlay onto that, but really lifting up the human experience of these individuals and and really in a 360-degree kind of way. So it's not all candy coated, you know, it talks about the struggles, it talks about the realities of those individuals. There's a rendering over here of one of the areas that will address uh um navigating orientation and mobility, um, and it begins to look at also how we are um addressing the use of artifacts in terms of things that have to be behind glass, also being touched replicas. So this is uh also another area over here of the ways that we are taking some of the stories of our cast members. Um this is an exhibit that is being uh worked on in collaboration with a teacher and a textile artist who is from um uh New York, and it addresses the intersectionality and the interdependence of us in society and where we have commonalities, where we have differences, and how all of that plays itself out into a unique and diverse humanity. As we move through this gallery, um now we're into the Helen Keller space. Uh this is a great um uh rendering that shows uh a nine foot-high circular tactile graphic that will include uh Helen Keller's image, and um uh I'll pause just to tell you a little bit that APH is producing all of the braille and all of the signage and all of the tactile graphics for our own museum, which is kind of unique. Um many museums, all of the other museums that uh that Solid Light is working on are museums that um uh uh have signage produced by themselves or others, and so it's fun that we're doing our own our own signage. This is the big reveal of the uh the Helen Keller gallery. Central to this gallery, of course, is um, well, first of all, it's Helen telling her own story. So APH is the uh steward of the AFB Helen Keller Archives. Um that is uh all of her letters and manuscripts and um uh articles and personal belongings, and so we have a wealth of information that um uh is is Helen's own words and Helen's perspective on the world. And so we have the chance not to tell Helen's story, but for Helen to tell her own story. So that is one of the spectacular um things that that I think this this gallery provides. Um and also most people who know Halle Keller know her as a little girl in a water pump or an old lady traveling the world, and and very few people really know the sort of um pretty uh full story of Helen's life and and who she was as an individual uh you know, and all of her successes, but also her flaws and her and her struggles, you know, the things that she grappled with. So the the material in this gallery will show all of that. You'll meet her family, um, you know, she just didn't pop out of the world at that water pump, right? She has a family, she has a history. Um and then, of course, there is the pump. Um so this uh this set of images shows um a rendering of uh uh the pump interactive. Uh it is um, and to the right is a visual of one of our prototypers, um, who is uh we had we had our prototyping team in a few weeks ago to test the um the mock-up of the pump interactive, which has um haptics and lights and sounds and um a cool flow of air. I tried to get water up here on the second floor of the building and everybody said no. Um, but that's okay, because it has a really wonderful sense of uh uh sensory, full sensory experience. So um so for my solar friends back there, here's your uh and then um we have uh we actually have Helen's desk um as part of the collection, and so um it is a bit like visiting Mecca um for people who are really looking at their bands, and then Helen's desk will be full of um actual objects from the collection, replica objects, um papers that Helen might have been working on, a sculpture of Helen behind the desk, but you're you're not kept away from the desk. You can actually get up close to the desk and interact with that desk. And then there is also an opportunity for um um for global global travels maybe on display and a lot of um wonderful material uh like uh a Nakota um dress, a um a giant incense burner, um a uh an Indian scroll made of um silver. Uh all of those will have one-to-one replicas so that if you can't touch it because it's behind glass, you can get to it in its replica form. And then a um a media interactive station that takes you to more material, um a lot of uh uh moving uh images, letters, some of our 2D material that you can't put out will be um in a fully accessible media station that has a refreshable rail uh connection as well as uh audio and um and captioning as well. And then we move into um the final gallery, which is a compilation of many themes and storylines, but they're all brought together under this umbrella of innovations and breakthroughs. And this gallery opens with a media piece that will include um uh Stevie Wonder and talking a little bit about the importance of innovation in his life and in the world as he sees it, and also another one of those great uh large-scale tactal graphics of Stevie with with some of his words of wisdom. And then it also positions on this wall to uh to really bring together that arc of innovation, a blatant stylist, which was one of the earliest ways that students uh studied and learned and communicated with Braille, and a monarch, which is the 10-line refreshable braille and tactile image device that Phoebe was speaking about earlier today. So those two things position here as kind of that wonderful continuous arc of innovation. Um here you uh you meet Louis Braille, who was really only 14 uh years old when he created the Braille code that um persists today and um uh and on which you know all of the work at the printing house is built, and really the key to unlocking literacy for all individuals who are blind and low vision, braille readers are uh statistically happier, um, more successful in school, more successful in their careers. Um we really are a proponent of uh braille literacy here at the printing house because it is what you know the same with literacy in the sighted world. It unlocks pretty much everything for you. So there are historical books that will have uh open to replica pages. Um this is a rendering of a uh a bicycle lock kind of device that introduces you to moon type and to braille and to other uh uh tactile languages that were all part of the um the War of the Dots. Um then we move through a gallery that is um largely to your left, my right, um it's full of ducks right now, so we're not gonna walk through there, but um, in here we cover the stories of making braille, of optical innovations for low-vision individuals, of um uh the story of APH and of the School for the Blind, the story of um uh an accessible classroom, and all of the people who uh who it takes that that sort of mask of community who touch the lives of children who are um blind and low vision and help them be um all that they can be and and rise to their potential. Um the in innovative uh the inclusive classroom, and then um the final area in this space is um uh a uh home. Oh, there's our educators in action right here, um, and a product wall. So this is a story of the teachers of the visually impaired who are really rock stars in the world of educating blind and low vision individuals. They pack their trunks, um, they travel school to school, they're itinerant in many instances, and they take care of lots of kids and assess their needs and provide them with the supports that they need, many of them from APH. And then the final gallery at the far wall is part of a mock living space, which begins to talk about the journey, it's not a complete uh thing, but the journey that companies are making to make the world more accessible for all and more inclusive for all. Whether it's GE appliances who are talking about you know building their equipment so that they can be up higher off the ground, so easier for people to get in and out of, um, or Procter and Gamble, who's working on a whole series of tactile labeling for shampoos and creams and washing powders in the UK, um, etc. So that is all happening in uh in this area off to the right.

Sara Brown: 26:46

And at the end of the tour, Jo spoke about how The Dot Experience will be the first of its kind and how it will benefit Louisville.

Jo Haas: 26:53

It will be the first of its kind in terms of um both the content, so the elevating the lived experiences of individuals who are blind and low vision, really to showcase that uh that those individuals have the same kinds of potential and possibilities that that all of us have, um, and to really surface the idea that there are still barriers and biases that exist in the world, and that all of us, um visitors to The Dot Experience and people in our communities, have a responsibility to change that and to make changes in the world that welcome everyone. Also innovative and first of its kind in the world in terms of its comprehensive set of inclusive design standards. So we are taking into consideration all kinds of individuals and ensuring that everyone who walks through the door of the dot experience can have a autonomous, um, uh empowered uh individual experience without relying on someone else who they might be visiting with. Well Louisville has so many crown jewels, right? Um whether it's the Derby, Muhammad Ali, uh the um, you know, the bourbon trail. Uh I we think that that this Dot experience at APH is gonna you know take a seat um alongside of those uh really unique and spectacular things in Louisville. And so I think that it will bring people here. Um one of the things that uh uh we have as part of The Dot Experience is uh Helen Keller's personal archive. And so there are Helen Keller um uh fans and fanatics uh all over the world. So we think we're gonna be a destination for world travelers. Um and and you know the idea that we are um uh surfacing something about disability and inclusion and really humankindness and openness and humanity in a way that no one else has, I think puts us in a really unique place.

Sara Brown: 29:03

The Dot Experience will have a soft opening in July 2026, followed by its grand opening in October. And if you want to stay up to date on the Dot Experience, be sure to go to its website at the dotexperience.org. That link is in the show notes. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of ChangeMakers. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you have any questions about The Dot Experience or suggestions, be sure to send them my way by emailing at changemakers@aph.org. And as always, be sure to look for ways you can be a change maker this week.