Career Trek: The CNIB Years

Something from Nothing… All Over Again

After sitting down with the CEO of CNIB in the fall of 2017, I explained my decision to wind down TellMe TV. Instead of being disappointed, he got excited as he laid out the opportunity for me to join Canada’s largest blindness charity as the program manager for entrepreneurship and innovation.

There was just one problem. There was no entrepreneurship program to speak of. I’d have to create it from scratch—a task I was all too familiar with after building the production department at CHRY  and starting TellMe TV.

CNIB is hyper focused on getting Canadians with sight loss into the work force. The employment rate among those with sight loss hovers around 28% in Canada. Blind people are extremely capable of holding jobs of all kinds and many have chosen to work for themselves as entrepreneurs. 

The Venture Zone

I went to work right away on developing what was dubbed “the Venture Zone”. It was an online portal featuring tips, tricks, hacks and other useful information for 

  entrepreneurs with sight loss. Articles on the portal included everything from how to network with sight loss, to useful and accessible apps for the iPhone that could help you run your business more efficiently. We even began highlighting local entrepreneurs with sight loss who were paving the way for a new generation of trailblazers. 

In my first year, I logged nearly 40,000 kilometres in flights traveling across Canada, meeting entrepreneurs from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. All of the entrepreneurs were bright, enthusiastic and loved to talk about their journeys. We began featuring many of these stories on our portal as well. 

Shane Cashin

Shane is a DJ in St. John’s, Newfoundland. My team put together a video feature on Shane that highlighted his skill as a DJ and his motivational storytelling.

The Entrepreneurs

In my travels across Canada, I met entrepreneurs doing the most impressive and amazing things from building sophisticated software for the military, to running massage clinics, to making greeting cards. Here are just some of the amazing people I met. 

• Denise Justin is a Toronto-based entrepreneur who runs a fashion line called Say Hello 2 Blindness. Her clothing features the words “Say Hello” in both print and braille. Denise was featured in season 1 of Mind Your Own Business. Click here to watch Denise’s episode.
• Hillary Scanlon found herself unable to differentiate which waste receptacle was garbage, recycling and organics. She invented WasteFinders—a tactile floor mat that lets anyone know which container is which. 
• Jenna White is the founder of Jenna’s Nut-Free Dessertery—one of the only 2  certified nut-free bakeries in all of Atlantic Canada.
• Kim Holdbrook is the founder of Hands That See—a massage clinic run entirely by massage therapists with sight loss in Montreal.

In addition to coaching, motivating and developing a shared set of resources for our entrepreneurs, we also began sponsoring students who wanted to learn what it took to run a business. 

Venture Zone Game

With articles, videos, podcasts and virtual courses, along with in-person meet-ups at CNIB hubs and offices across Canada, we thought we could do a better job of engaging potential entrepreneurs. While some people like the setting of a virtual class with lectures and quizzes, some people learn best by trial and error. What better way to do that than with a game? Games could be fun and be vehicles for learning.

We connected with a company that specialized in learning games out of the UK called Totem Learning. Working with Totem over the course of nine months, we conceptualized and built a fully accessible iPhone game that taught players how to run a production-based company.

Players chose a product, a price point and received some startup cash to get going. In the life of the game, players had to produce their product, market it, brand their company, hire staff and make sales all while keeping an eye on their brand strength, their profit and their spending.

During testing, we noticed players were getting stuck in the early stages of the game. Some players didn’t know where to begin and swiping around the screen was causing players to close the game out of frustration. What we needed were a set of training wheels so the player could get comfortable with the layout of the screen. Then, they could be left on their own to play and replay the game.

I developed the concept of two characters, Jack and Liz, who would be coaches in the game. Jack would be part of a trial mode that got players up and running, while Liz hung around in the game and explained all of the screens and business terms. I found myself wearing my producer’s hat again as I directed our two stellar voice talents to get the right delivery for the game. 

After months of hard work, we launched the game on Global accessibility awareness Day, 2019 in Canada and around the world. We not only reached our download goals for the game, we exceeded them with high praise from the sight loss community and a nomination for a Golden Apple from AppleVis—a website for blind users of Apple products.

CNIB Market

At all of my meet-ups across Canada, one or two entrepreneurs would stand up and tell the group  that they were an artist, a painter, a sculptor, a crafter or someone who made hand-made goods. They all wanted to sell their products online, but feared getting lost on sites like Etsy. 

I saw an opportunity to create a philanthropic shopping destination where CNIB donors could support our entrepreneurs with sight loss by purchasing high-quality hand-made goods with the proceeds being divided up between CNIB and the entrepreneur. CNIB would handle the marketing side while the entrepreneur would focus on crafting.

With a  modest budget, we built an accessible and  fully featured e-commerce platform on Shopify in less than 3 months. CNIB Market had a soft launch in 2020, but the COVID19 pandemic forced the site to be placed on pause. There is still incredible potential for CNIB to fully flesh out this idea and see it through to completion.

My Exit

2020 was also the year I was laid off from one of the most enjoyable  and fulfilling jobs I ever had. I met amazing people from across the country and I got to bring accessible digital products to life. Given more time and with the winds blowing in my favour, I would have transitioned to being a full time developer of digital products. In addition to working with a great team, my favourite memories from CNIB will be working with one of the greatest assistants I’ll ever have. The program, the game and the market wouldn’t have been as great without her help and support.

Over the next year, I’d develop and refine the software for my current startup, begin consulting on accessible design for an education tech company and start a new position with one of Canada’s most forward-thinking banks.