Stevie Wonder: Technology, Music and Being Blind

                      iCan ONLINE - Q&A with Heidi
      
      
      Q&A with Heidi
      July 18, 2001


      This is one in a regular series of columns by iCan founder and CEO Heidi 
      Van Arnem, who will share her thoughts on current issues and her 
      interviews with leaders and others who influence the disability community. 
      We hope this column brings insight and thought-provoking discussion to 
      this corner of iCan.

      In this column, Heidi talks with singer Stevie Wonder. Following is an 
      edited transcript of their conversation at this year's CSUN conference on 
      assistive technology, which ran March 19-24.


      Stevie Wonder: Technology, music and being blind

      Heidi Van Arnem: You have been an inspiration to me. How do you see
      yourself? 
       
      Stevie Wonder: I don't know. I guess I see myself as just doing the best 
      that I can do. I hope to do what God would want me to do. ... As much as 
      it may be said that I am an inspiration to others, you know, others are an 
      inspiration to me (and) inspire me. So I think it is kind of a ying-yang 
      kind of thing. 
      HVA: My first impression, when I met you, as I met you, I was very 
      impressed of course. How do you get your first impression of people? 
      SW: Listening to their voice. Sometimes you can get a lot from what a 
      person doesn't say. But I think that for me, you know, hearing a person -- 
      what they say, how they say it -- gives you a good sense of their 
      attitude. Lots of times people will say because of who you are, how can we 
      really know the Stevie Wonder that you really are? How can we know how a 
      person really is? But there's so much that comes through the voice and 
      through sound, and so I get a lot just from listening to the person speak 
      -- how and what it is that they are projecting. 
      HVA: As a performer and as an entertainer -- and as a celebrity -- what 
      are the biggest obstacles you face with your disability? 
      SW: The most difficult one, probably is being who I am publicly. It's not 
      so easy that I can just say, you know, I have a leader dog, or I have a 
      cane, you know and just go out into any part of the city or country or 
      whatever and travel without someone. I'm okay with that. I do find ways of 
      having my independence, my freedom and my privacy. 
      HVA: We're at CSUN today, one of the most impressive assistive technology 
      conferences in the world. What are some of the technologies that you are 
      most impressed with here, and that you use on a daily basis? 
      SW: I use, you know, the two things that happen with me: No. 1, I'm a 
      gadget fool. 
      HVA: Me too! 
      SW: So I just like new things -- the way they sound, the way they feel. 
      Just the very smell of it. You know, it's like, you know, I like new 
      things. And just the things that are being discovered technologically, and 
      the things that are enabling blind people to do almost anything they want 
      to do -- that's very, very, exciting. Using various things of new 
      technologies, from most recently the Braille Note to the Alva to the 
      Kurzweil, you know, the reading Windows 2000, new speech, using JAWS for 
      Windows, using QuickTouch, using Outspoken. I'm using you know anything. 
      I'm looking for a combination for my music. 
       HVA: You're sounding like a junky. (Laugh) 
      SW: I'm using the Parrot, you know, the Voice Mate thing. I mean, various 
      things I'm using for various reasons. And very similarly to instruments 
      for me, that I will find the different modules that you may find at a NAM 
      or AS show, or whatever. The same is true for me here at CSUN. The things 
      you are seeing, and you can find places where they can be of use to you, 
      and if not necessarily of use to me, through the Wonder Foundation we go 
      and look at different things, and hopefully we're able to, as we have in 
      the past been able, to give various things away, through raising funds for 
      those who are not able to purchase these different things. 
      HVA: As an Internet company, the leading disability community, we face 
      many challenges, one being reaching out to the disability community and 
      finding those that have disabilities so they can find the right 
      information. What are some of the challenges that you face going online. 
      As we know it, many Web sites are not accessible today. Can you speak as 
      an Internet user? 
      SW: Not as well. Not as well as to say I have really been there, I'm 
      beginning to go online as a step. But I will say this much: I just hope 
      that the various companies and the various sites will enable those who are 
      blind, from my disability, to be able to do everything that they would 
      want to do on the various companies' sites. I am just beginning to get 
      into it, but I think it's very exciting, obviously. 
      HVA: Yeah it is. You've got to get on our site. 
      SW: I'm sorry? 
      HVA: You've got to get on our site and see it. iCan.com 
      SW: I will do that. 
      HVA: You'll have to do that. 
      SW: Definitely 
      HVA: OK. I'll get back to the fun stuff. Can you tell me what you do for 
      fun? You know, I know some of it. 
      SW: Oh really? 
      HVA: Yeah, yeah I might have some of it. 
      (Background laughter) 
      SW: Are you sure about that? 
      (More background laughter) 
      HVA: No, maybe not! 
      (More background laughter) 
      SW: Well, I'm a music lover. 
      HVA: I knew you were going to say that! 
      SW: I really am, and I think because it's a way of expressing, you know, 
      the various experiences that I've had, or the indirect experiences that I 
      have heard about or know that other's have experienced. They will talk 
      about it in dealing with various issues, whether they be social issues of 
      concern or issues of love and passion, or issues of fun, you know, of 
      music. And I just thank God that I have been able to have been blessed 
      with the ability to do it. As well, I want to use me, Steveland Morris 
      personally, I want to use Stevie Wonder as a vehicle, as God is using me 
      as a vehicle to, hopefully do a lot to spread and to encourage and to 
      inspire the many people with whatever disability they may have. And even 
      those who have all the abilities but they don't use them, because they're 
      allowing themselves to for whatever reason, be blinded by whatever that is 
      that has nothing to do with their disability -- whether it be prejudice, 
      or whether it be insecurity, or whether it be whatever. I just want to do 
      everything that I can to encourage and inspire. I thank God for allowing 
      me that opportunity. 
      HVA: To be a successful business owner, er, not business owner, but 
      entertainer, to be a successful person and to connect with people, you 
      have to develop certain skills and certain relationships that you've 
      developed. What tips would you give somebody who has a visual impairment 
      or that is blind? What kind of tips would you give that are just facing 
      these types of obstacles. 
      Wonder (shouts): Be blind, be blind (thumps chest). You know that's real. 
      Be blind. (thumps chest again.) 
      Heidi, startled: Oh boy. 
      SW: I'm just kidding you because your being so serious. 
      HVA: You scared me to death! 
      SW: You're just being so serious. 
      Heidi (laughing): All right. Boy! This is serious! 
      SW: You know, I would just say. (In mock formal voice) I would just say. 
      HVA: Wait. 
      Wonder (serious): I would just have to say, you know, that I think the 
      most important thing you have to do is just know that as much as one might 
      say you have a disability and that that is supposed to really impair you 
      and cause for you not to do, I look at this -- being blind -- as really 
      being a blessing. For I was so honored to be one that God chose to have a 
      situation, and through and against all odds be able to say, You know what? 
      This thing inside of me, this spirit inside of me says, you know what? We 
      can. So I think that that's so very important. You're doing what you're 
      doing because you had that spirit inside of you that said, you know what? 
      Against any or all odds, I can do this. We can do this. And so that's the 
      thing. And then you say, if in fact I can do it, then why is it that 
      someone who has every single ability in the world, why are they messing up 
      so much?” 
      HVA: Yeah. 
      SW: There's no excuse for that, and that's how I see it. That's what I 
      would encourage anyone with. 
      HVA: Well, I'll leave it there. Thank you so much for interviewing. 
      SW: Thank you so much; and if you need me, find me. 
      HVA: OK. 
      SW: God bless you. 
      HVA: Thank you so much. 


      Do you have a comment for Heidi, or a suggestion on someone she might 
      feature in an upcoming column?